I don’t know if I like the idea of worlds of snakes. They just can’t leave those slithery snakes alone. There’s like a bazillion snake-based games out there, and still people make more. And yet the games are fun. Take Atomic Worm for instance. It was a new twist on an old favorite. It was also abstracted enough that it didn’t exactly resemble traditional snake. In any case that didn’t stop Patrick Kooman from making his Snake Worlds. What else can you do with a snake type game. Eat stuff, grow, try not to run into yourself. Well he managed to take it into 3 dimensions. I don’t mean some other 3d ones that are still essentially 2d versions, but actual 6 degrees of freedom. Okay well not really. It takes place on a sphere so technically it could be said that’ it’s also essentially 2D. But at least he does it in a cool an unusual way. In the game you play the role of Snakey, the wonderful devourer of worlds intent on destroying earth! Watch as he grows when he starts eating people. Laugh as he gets ridiculously huge and looks like a giant sock with multiple legs. Cry when you realize that all of earth is gone because one little snake got too big for his britches. Naaaaaahhhhh…. Just kidding. There’s no story and no eating people, although that would be pretty cool. In actuality you’re eating “food” and I use that term loosely, as they look like dog bones or something. It’s pretty much like other snake games, except a globe instead of a flat plane, and you eat and as you eat you get longer.
Archive for May, 2009
Snake worlds – Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?!?
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009(ags) Ben Jordan Case 2 – I don’t think Lost Galleon’s are paranormal, do you?
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
Certainly strange to find a ship in a desert, but paranormal? Hardly. Even the Skunk-Ape wasn’t really paranormal, just weird, and legendary. Just like the Legend of Boggy Creek II hilariously lampooned by Mystery Science Theatre 3000. In any case. A lost ship in a desert is an intriguing idea. Is the legend true? How did it get in the desert? Is there’s still treasure in it? All these questions and more are answered in Ben Jordan’s second case, entitled The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea. Actually Ben’s investigating a disappearance of a local man from Dunesburg, California, who was after the Spanish treasure ship. So I guess mysterious disappearances are within the purview of paranormal investigator, who knows. In any case this promises to be most interesting as did the first case. I did manage to finish the first case by the way. Now I, too, have seen the Skunk-Ape in person and lived to tell the tale. Of course I also had help. Good ol’ internet is to the rescue! Anyways, whereas there’s something artistic about Ben Chandler’s games and less about the game play (not that these are bad, you can see my Shifter and Annie Android reviews to see what I think about them), and Wadjet Eye Games (Dave Gilbert who happens to actually have done testing for this and some voice work, who is superb by the way) eye toward professionalism but keeping with only New York. Ben Jordan is characterized by strong umm, characters, and story. So far both cases have been immediately engaging to me, more so than the others I have reviewed (no offense guys). So here is Ben Jordan, Paranormal Investigator, Case 2: The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea by Grundislav Games (aka Francisco Gonzalez).
Mind wall by Seth Robinson aka mrfun
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
My second mini-review is for a game called Mind Wall from the 14th Ludum Dare 48 hour compo. Okay so the goal of the mind wall is to remove one block of an advancing, floating “wall” so that the piece in the lower left corner of the screen fits through it. You know that game show where the beautiful women contort themselves into odd positions in order to fill through a human sized hole in a wall being pulled down a line towards them, usually with a pool of water at one end when they happen to fail to fit through? Yep it’s like that, except no beautiful women. Which is rather sad. But the game is rather good. As some have said it’s a bit too short. I have a feeling that if Mr. Robinson added more levels and changed it up a little he could probably sell that thing. Fun to play. You should try it!
Name: Mind Wall
Developer: Seth Robinson