Retro (2005)
by Cactus . (Download)
Retro is an Asteroids-clone where you control your spaceship via mouse. Like Insect Invade 2 this is something to play in between, when you’ll have two or three minutes free time. As far as Asteroid-clones go it doesn’t offer much more than just the basic concept, but the bare bones graphics, which still exhibit their very own style, and the fast action makes this one fun to play. And the music is excellent. That tune really enhances the gameplay experience.
Rating: 4/5
Insect Invade 2 (2005)
by Cactus . (Download)
The simplest things can sometimes be a source of great joy. Which is odd when you’ll talk about a game sporting a random naked guy shooting at strange creatures falling out of the sky. Sometimes they leave (after you killed them) more powerful weapons or other items behind, which allow you to kill the falling creatures even better. This is not a very complex or deep game, but as I said, it’s surprisingly entertaining for those few minutes when you need something to occupy your time.
Rating: 4/5
Flywrench (2007)
by Messhof . (Download, Trailer)
You play (or rather control) a short line (a rather abstract identifier for some spaceship thingy) that can change color by executing a certain action (fly up, fall down, spin around). This is needed to get past color coded barriers. Only if you have the same color as the barrier you can pass, otherwise you’ll die. There are eight levels, each is increasingly harder to beat, each introducing new gameplay elements.
Flywrench can easily become frustrating, especially because the gameplay is so addictive that you’ll play the level where you are stuck presently again and again until you’ve beaten it. Reminds me a bit of the Jumper series, not the gameplay, but the difficulty. The game is never unfair, everything you need to beat a level is right before your eyes, you just have to control your flywrench perfectly (which is not very easy to do, the controls are extremely sensitive, the only counterpoint to a well done game).
Despite having rather minimalistic graphics, everything looks very well done and very stylish. I even like the atonal soundscape. Overall, neat game.
Rating: 4/5
Warning Forever (2004)
by Hikware . (Download, YouTube)
Take a basic shoot’em up, take away any form of stages and only leave the bosses. Then add an element of adaption. Meaning, how you fight and kill a boss will determine how the next boss will evolve. The first boss is a little thing, easily defeated, but soon the bosses will grow to enormous size and deploy an extensive weapon arsenal. So, you can’t just defeat the bosses, you have to think how to defeat them, if you want to have any chance of beating the next one. Because if you fight every time the same way, the bosses will adapt to your tactic, and if you don’t change and adapt yourself, it’s over pretty soon. Very addictive and fun to play.
Rating: 5/5
Nomltest FS (2005)
by Keim . (Download)
Addictive is the best word to describe Nomltest. It’s an arcade shoot’em up that uses sprites from the ancient Space Invaders and combines it with some neat effects and voila, you get one of the most addictive games I’ve ever played. I’m not sure I can even explain why it’s so addictive, I just love to weave my way through the bullet patterns of the enemies and in return extinguish them. There’s two fire modi and you also can eat enemy bullets, but I never got the hang of it. Still, this is a game that has gameplay nailed down perfectly.
Rating: 5/5
Hurdler (2003)
by KNPMaster / MasterRaichu . (Download)
Some games are just maddening. In Hurdler you have to jump over obstacles, and while that doesn’t sound like much, it’s extremely addictive. I don’t know how often I died, but it’s far too often (hurdles kill, and seeing your game avatar, a white stick figure bleeding is quite hilarious, especially if he slipped on a rubber duck). And yet I’m always coming back, trying to reach and beat the final level.
What’s maddening is that this game could be a classic if it implemented just a few features from a game like, for example, N. Instead of grinding through every level again and again, it would be cool to access every level you’ve beaten instantly. Sure, that means people would beat the game very fast, but adding a level editor (and Hurdler just screams for user created content) would create enough levels to suffice for a long time.
Still, even as it is now, it’s quite fun.
Rating: 4/5
Death Worm (2007)
Death Worm simply rocks. You play a worm who swims through sand and occasionally emerges on the surface to munch everything organic (people, animals, aliens) or destroy everything non-organic (tanks, UFOs, planes). The more you eat, the more you grow, which influences your speed and mobility. Overall, despite the simple gameplay, it’s extremely addictive, and the violent and gory nature of the game makes it ideal to work off any kind of anger and frustration. I wish there was more variety toward the later moments of the game, after the aliens arrive it gets a bit repetitive, but the early parts are always fun, when you’re still small and the surface less crowded.
Rating: 5/5
