Tim Schafer is a gaming legend. With such classic hits under his belt as the Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, and even recent hits as Psychonauts, there’s no denying the man is a comic genius, fusing simple gameplay with memorable characters and witty jokes. So, in light of the Game Developers’ Conference, he and his team at Double Fine Productions put together a little game in classic Schafer style, depicting his prep-work for hosting the event. It’s got a great classic sound, old school graphics, and the humor you’d expect. I highly recommend it, if only for a bit of nostalgia, but also for the wisest thing I’ve heard in a game in a long time: “The great thing about urinals is that, no matter how drunk you are, at least you stumbled into the right bathroom.”
Truer words, my friends.
Host Master and the Conquest of Humor
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Maybe I’m a little behind the times on this one, but Cleod 9 over at McLeodGaming.com has a cool Flash version of Super Smash Bros called “Super Smash Flash.”
It’s a neat workup of Melee, complete with local multiplayer and adventure mode. And before anyone points it out, I realize the game was released in 2006, but I still play Punch-Out, so back off.
Super Smash Flash
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The rage in games these days is achivement unlocking (or getting trophies if you’re a Sony guy), the micro reward for doing something in-game, like winning a race or shooting 200 pigeons (GTA players know what I’m talking about here). It’s an added reward for playing the game and gives you some added replayability after the main game is over.
Armor Games has done the equivalent of taking out the cereal pieces in Lucky Charms and left behind the sweet, sweet marshmallows. “Achievement Unlocked” has you play as an elephant (don’t ask) in a room of spikes (stop asking) and your only goal is to earn achievements, and you get them for everything. It’s pretty sweet feeling like you’ve accomplished something by “Finding the main menu” or “Preloading the game.”
Achievement Unlocked
With games like this, I like to create my own story in my head. For this one, I kinda envision this being an elephantine version of Saw, with some puppet master putting Dumbo here through the ringer, just to make him appreciate things like “Walking to the Left.”
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Sorry for the semi-gross headline…
I just got done screwing around with flOw for a little bit. It’s a perfect example of a mental distraction from the real world. Not too complicated to grasp, visually stimulating, and the best way to kill some time when you really should be working on something more important. For the 3 of you out there who haven’t given it a try yet, here’s the link. You really should click it.
flOw
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