Cave Story

I've noticed, since starting Browser Rousers, that I'm slowly moving away from JUST browser-only games. Please indulge me in this.

Today's example? Cave Story! Yes, everyone and their mother has probably played it now - it's on the Wii and the DSi, for pete's sake - but I just had to review it after finally sitting down and committing to the thing. Turns out I couldn't put it down 'til I'd beaten it.

... twice.

Concept

Cave Story is a plot-intensive game, despite its status as a platforming shooter. The details get complex, but I'll try to sum up in a paragraph:

You are a robot. You wake up inside a floating island, your brain scrambled and memories gone, and discover that the indigenous population - fluffy white creatures called Mimigas - are being terrorized by a man known only as 'The Doctor', who forces them into servitude. Being a naturally heroic sort of robot you agree to help the Mimigas oust the Doctor and restore peace to their home.

Is it really that simple? Of course not. Cave Story LOOKS cutesy, but its plot is surprisingly adult, involving a lot of murder and evil plots and generally bad stuff. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of humour, but it's not a kiddy game.

Beyond that, Cave Story is a platformer. You have a gun, you run around killing stuff with that gun. You get more guns, along with items that will help you progress. It's all good.

Controls

Cave Story ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES precision controls. I do not jest. It doesn't start off terribly difficult, but about halfway through the game you'll start taking a lot of damage if you don't plant your landings properly.

And, uh, Cave Story is... not bad. I guess. The controls are designed in such a way that your little robot has a tendency to drift a little on landings, and he doesn't move terribly fast. I wouldn't mind these two facts so much if he ALWAYS went the way you want him to, but in some cases - particularly when using the Booster - he doesn't always respond as needed. You get a fair amount of health so this isn't so bad, but you'll probably curse the robot for not heeding commands on many occasions.

That said, there is one REALLY nice thing in your favour: hit detection. I've noticed that enemy fire has to hit the core of your robot's body to really stick. In most cases projectiles can soar right through your head without doing damage. Take advantage of this generosity whenever possible.

Graphics

Considering it was created half a decade ago, Cave Story holds up nicely. The sprites are cutely basic, true, but that's only true of the small guys - the bosses in Cave Story generally look quite cool. There are also numerous zones for you to explore, providing unique tile sets each time. Much appreciated. I have no complaints about Cave Story's visuals.

Sound

Dynamic and loud. Cave Story does suit its music to the surrounding atmosphere, yes, but in general this game goes for blaring and bombastic in its tunes. There's lots of variation, that said, and it all works. I especially enjoyed Balrog's music, because that meant Balrog was in the room, and he's always amusing. (You'll learn who he is if you play the game. Look for the soap bar with legs.)

Challenge Rating

Cave Story is one of those awesome games with multiple ways to play, though you probably won't realize as such on your first go. The easy path through the game is obvious, and appropriately easy(ish)... but it won't net you all of the content. You need to answer questions differently to play through the whole game, including two secret areas that are INCREDIBLY difficult.

The fact that you determine your difficulty through playing is both good and bad. It's good in that players are rewarded for curiosity and replay - but it's bad in that a single decision will completely change your destiny near the end. In short, if you miss something just once, you'll muck up your ending and not have a chance to go back. You have to do everything EXACTLY RIGHT to see everything Cave Story has to offer, and often that EXACTLY RIGHT is time sensitive. More chances for redeeming your play through would be ideal.

Or? Even better? Multiple save files. The one, and only one, kinda sucks.

Conclusion?

Cave Story is a lot of fun. The game play and story are both worthy of a full-fledged, pay-for-me game (and you can do that now), and there's enough content to warrant multiple play-throughs. Just one tip for the unwary: if you wanna save your pal Curly, prepare for a hell of a game. You've been warned.

PLAY CAVE STORY

Sota

If you live, and you're not me, you probably have a cell phone. (I have one, but it doesn't work anymore. I hate the things.) Consequently, you rely on wireless signals to make your cell phone work - and Sota is all about those signals.

Concept

Sota's a pure puzzler. At the beginning of each map, which consists of a roughly rectangular area covered in geometric shapes both big and small, you're given a series of radio towers that send out signals. When you drop one of these towers, like so:

The signal radiates outward in all directions until it hits something. Then it stops. You need to make the signals hit as much of each map as possible by correctly positioning the towers. Simple concept, simple execution... simple game. Perhaps a little too simple.

My primary difficulty with Sota stemmed from the language. This game was made by somebody for whom English must be a second language, and though I hardly insist that everybody on the planet speak English, if you're going to offer instructions on how to play the game, you need a proper translator - or to use universal symbols to get your point across. (Not that Sota's tough to figure out on your own, but still.)

Controls

Point, click. Almost nothing to it. If you don't want a tower in a certain spot anymore, click it again and reposition it. The fact that the towers don't always disappear when you click seems a rather trifling thing to point out, but there you go.

Graphics

Sota looks okay. Everything appears to be drawn by pencil, which gives it a nice, soft aesthetic... one that gets a bit boring after a while. Inoffensive, but not as creative as it could be.

Sound

The music in Sota is fairly inoffensive, and I don't mind the tracks in isolation. What annoyed me is the fact that each map cycled between a handful of songs, each fairly different from the last - and since each level may only last a couple seconds, that means your ears are having to make acoustical leaps all the time. Jarring and annoying. The programmer would have been better off allowing the player to change tracks if and when they wanted, and not forcing a change.


Challenge Rating

Sota is woefully easy, despite having 40 levels. Even the higher levels are quite easy to beat. There's not nearly enough variation, and an interesting concept goes largely wasted. And while it's true that getting 100 percent on every level is a bit tricky, you don't NEED to do that, and as far as I can tell there's no big prize for doing so. Not interesting enough to be bothered.

The end result? You'll see this sign all the time:

No challenge. Sigh.

Conclusion?

Sota boasts a neat idea wrapped in a whole lot of meh. A more exciting and challenge sequel might prove a worthy Flash competitor; otherwise, there are a whole lot of other, better browser games to play.

But in case you wanna try anyway...

PLAY SOTA

Melee Man

Remember the good old days of video gaming when you didn't need a clear-cut story to enjoy yourself? Where everything that wasn't you needed to die? Yeah, I miss those days.

That said, programmers keep on dragging us back, so it's hard to miss 'em too much. Say hello to Melee Man!

Concept

Melee Man has about as simplistic a concept as you can imagine in a game. You're a little dude with a gun. You shoot stuff with that gun while avoiding traps and pits and other dangers... usually more traps and more pits. You find a key, you run to an opened door, you go to the next level.

And... again. And again, and again, and again!

Melee Man is the ultimate in distillation. It gets rid of everything you don't need to enjoy a side-scroller and provides you with pure, simple, frustrating action.

Controls

Since Melee Man is all about not dying, the controls are pretty damn important. Fortunately, this game is smoothly responsive in every way, and if you die it's usually because you messed up and jumped too far, not because the controls are glitchy. They're also extremely easy to learn, making the small tutorial in the beginning of the game almost superfluous... but such things can't really hurt if they take up almost no time anyway.


Graphics

According to Newgrounds, Melee Man was designed at the Gameboy Colour's graphical resolution. I don't personally remember my Gameboy Colour ever looking so good, but the point stands: this game is retro as hell. You'll zip back to the days of sprite-heavy games the moment Melee Man starts, and in my mind, that's a very good thing.

That said, I do have one problem with Melee Man: the backgrounds sometimes blend in with the foreground. This can make navigation, ah, tricky... and given the sheer number of pitfalls in the game, you really want to know where you're going.

I should also point out that, though this game is retro to the extreme, it's still firmly rooted in the Internet age when it comes to easter eggs:

Yes, you find a 'mushroom' sign further down the path. And the game's boss?

You get the idea. (I do wish they'd included other bosses, though the smiley is aggravating enough to prove a formidable adversary.)

Sound

For the first five minutes, Melee Man's sound is awesome. The background music is superb, on par with the best midi tunes straight out of Capcom's extensive vault of tunes. Unfortunately there are only a couple songs in the game, and hearing them over and over gets a teensy bit bland after a while. Still great, but a little more variety might have been nice.

Challenge Rating

Melee Man is not a long game, as its levels are on the short side and there aren't a ton of them. That said, they get damn difficult near the end, and you'll probably see this screen a lot:

I have no doubt at all that some players simply won't be able to beat Melee Man. (Don't be offended, y'all. I'm one of them. I had to give up on the second boss battle - was getting close to beating the bastard, but, uh, had to get back to working eventually.) Because the levels are so short getting beaten and starting over isn't a huge pain, however, and Melee Man shouldn't cause too many computer-related 'accidents'.

Conclusion?

Melee Man is fun. A lot of fun. It won't last long, and it could use a little more variety in the graphics, but the average gamer should still love it to bits. If you enjoy old NES, SNES, Gameboy, Sega, etc. titles, try this one.

(One niggling point, though - you don't really, ah, 'melee' in this game. Getting close to enemies is bad, unless you count jumping on their heads. DOES that count? I seldom see Mario-style fisticuffs in real life.)


PLAY MELEE MAN

One Chance

What would you do if you discovered that there were only a few days left to your life... not to mention that lives of everyone you know, and everyone you don't?

That's the idea behind One Chance, an odd little art game where the world is about to succumb to a deadly virus. You're one of the scientists responsible for accidentally creating the virus, and now you need to decide how you'll spend your final days on Earth.

Concept

Surely just about every grown person has considered the idea that the planet might end one day, through a giant asteroid or a plague or alien invasion or something, and having the chance to act it out is pretty neat. What makes One Chance really nifty, though, is that you really do only get one shot at success - after you 'beat' the game once, you can't go back and start over. (Unless, you know, you empty your browser cache. But that's not the point!)

What makes this game's concept so neat, though, is that it blends your character's personal life with his professional. If you decide to pursue a cure to the virus, you may well succeed - but your family will pay the price for your negligence. You need to balance your priorities to keep them going... but then the world will suffer.

Oh, and you have a cute little daughter.

But you can betray your family!

See the problem? It's not an easy game to stomach.

Controls

Very, very simple. Move left and right, occasionally stop to interact with people or objects. This aspect of One Chance can get frustrating, as it takes your character a long time to move from one screen to the other, and you'll often have to move through multiple screens to get where you're going. Though the pace does add a sense of impending doom, as you're forced to watch society crumble around you, going from this...

To this...

Aaaaaand eventually to this.

Harsh.

Graphics

Decent. The visuals on One Chance are relatively basic, appearing as though they've been constructed from construction paper. They serve their purpose nicely.

Sound

There's only one song in this game, and it plays constantly. It's a fitting tune, given the theme of the game, but it gets a little aggravating after a while... and once the world goes kaput, silence works just as well, so don't feel too bad if you turn off your speakers.

(Oh, and there is one part with a song by Tautou, but that doesn't count.)

Challenge Rating

You don't really win or lose in this game, you just decide. Each of your decisions has a good and bad side. (Though, uh, admittedly, letting the world die kinda sucks, which usually happens!) That said, getting the ending you want can sometimes be trickier than you'd think, so you might be refreshing that cache more than once.

Conclusion?

One Chance is a cool experience, if rather depressing and clunky. You probably won't play it more than once or twice... but those play-throughs should prove thought-provoking nevertheless. And for those of you more interested in the subject, yes, the multiple endings make it a fairly replayable game, which does defeat the PURPOSE, but, oh well.

PLAY ONE CHANCE

Kit and the Octopod

Y'know, it just ain't right when somebody tries to separate a pair of loving octopods. (Octopids?) So when mean ol' Bad Mood Bear tries to ruin the fun, Kit comes to the rescue and aids Octopod in saving his girlfriend.

Yep. That's Kit and the Octopod. Beat the crap out of a douchebag polar bear. Doesn't get much better than that.

Kit and the Octopod is your standard side-scrolling, running-jumping-hitting-stuff kinda game. The polar bear somehow has an army of flunkies, and Kit and the Octopod need to plow through them on their way to the bear's lair. To do so you must employ Kit's crazy ninja skills (whether or not he's actually a ninja is up in the air) and the sticky might of Octopod, both of whom are clearly very serious about their mission.

Anyway.

Concept

Clean-cut brainless fun. There's no story grander than what you'd find in a Super Mario Bros. game: the bear's a jerk, you take him out with ninja moves. That said, the game's ability to tell a story with no dialogue whatsoever is surprisingly brilliant, and combining cheery fun with lots of bloodshed (the enemies fly into chunks when you kill 'em) works nicely.

There's also the side missions of gathering coins, freeing inexplicably trapped old men and knocking chickens around with your wrench, but, eh, they're not as fun as assaulting legions of soldiers with a tiny invertebrate.

Meh.


Controls

A side-scroller is only so good as its control scheme, and Kit and the Octopod is smooth sailing on this front... after some practice anyway. The default button layout is A-S-D for attacking, jumping and tossing Octopod, which can cramp your fingers a bit and cause some confusion - but only at first. Once the game picks up the pace, after the tutorial section (which is much appreciated, especially given my occasional confusion between jumping and wall-climbing), you shouldn't have much trouble getting around.

It should also be noted that you can fling Octopod at enemies,

which never gets old.

Graphics

Bright, bold, beautiful. Kit and the Octopod looks great. The animations are smooth and engaging, and the character designs, while simple, are a lot of fun to watch in action. There's personality to be had in this game. Of particular note is the layered effect of the levels, where you can see other areas in the background - very neat.

Sound

Though the soundtrack on Kit and the Octopod isn't incredibly robust, it's solid enough to keep you grooving throughout the game. A little techno for my tastes, but most players should go unoffended.

Challenge Rating

Kit and the Octopod is not TERRIBLY difficult. There are multiple difficulty levels, true, but it's hardly impossible at any of them. It's also a little short, though for a free browser game it's robust enough to waste an hour or two of your time. Fortunately, this makes it a more accessible experience overall, rather than one that hands victory to you on a silver platter.

Just, y'know, avoid the worms.


Conclusion?

If you like side-scrollers and you can appreciate cartoony graphics, Kit and the Octopod is a great game. It's got enough polish that it could, with enough expansion (kinda short as it is), make a decent download on a console system.

Oh, and did I mention that you can access a pirate mode if you beat the game? Yeah. You even get a parrot.

PLAY KIT AND THE OCTOPOD

A Mother in Festerwood

Perhaps even more so than console games, indie games come in all shapes and sizes. The average game is still geared towards an obvious objective, true, and the player usually has complete control over the proceedings... but not always.

Enter A Mother in Festerwood. Created by Austin Breed, Festerwood is one among many 'artistic' games with a purpose above and beyond sheer domination. In this case, you're playing the role of a mother, living in the woods, who is obsessed (or not) with keeping her newborn son safe from the dangers of the world.

No place like home. Your house is in the middle of a tiny clearing, and surrounded, if it's not obvious from the screenshot, by hordes of vicious monsters who want to kill your kiddy - but they can't as long as he stays within the circle around your house. And at first it's easy to keep him there, but as time passes and he ages it gets harder and harder to restrain the tyke, and eventually he'll run out into the forest and get into all kinds of mischief.

Fortunately... your little boy can level! He starts as a baby...

Turns into a teen...

And, if you're lucky, you'll see him transform into a full-fledged adult.

Or, uh, if you're not, he'll wind up here:

Which means Game Over, please try again. (Unfortunately, this is the way most sessions of A Mother in Festerwood go.)

The trick? Your boy will level as long as he's allowed to wander around on his own, which means he might get in trouble. You can push him back towards home as the mother, but if you do, he loses experience. Get it? Over-protective mother robs child of life experience? You get it.

Concept

The concept of A Mother in Festerwood is where the game's real value lies. It's a thinking game, and not in the puzzler sense: you're meant to sit in a mother's shoes as her child takes his first steps into the world, fretting over the fact that, as he gets older, you can't control his actions. Not incredibly deep, but profound enough to make most players consider their own families, their own mothers. Well done.

Controls

What can I say? You move the mother around with your mouse. If you're not fast enough - and mama doesn't level, so don't expect any speed boosts - the kid will get away, likely running off into the forest. The mother does tend to get stuck from time to time, so be cautious.

And, yes, you never get to control the kid. Weep as he wanders into a flock of monsters he can't kill.

Graphics

Simplistic, but sweet. You can't expect a hell of a lot from a game like Festerwood, and trying to pump up the artistic direction would probably take away from the message. Thumbs up on this front, even if your little boy is nothing more than a tiny dot when he's first born.


Sound

Not as sweet. The two songs played in Festerwood are nice and calming, but the constant repetition of the second song gets pretty grating. Though it sets the mood of your forest dwelling, if you plan on playing this game a couple times, you'll probably turn your speakers off.

Challenge Rating

Uh... hard to say. Once your boy grows up enough, he'll do what he wants, and you'll have a tough time stopping him. You need to balance between penning him off from the forest until his teens with not pushing him back to the house too vigorously. Once your son gets into the forest, it's a crapshoot...

... though, yes, he CAN survive. Don't give up!

Conclusion?

A Mother in Festerwood is fun, thought-provoking and, uh, a little frustrating. It gets its message across rather nicely, though, because you really do start to worry for your kid after a while - which is exactly the point.


PLAY A MOTHER IN FESTERWOOD

EDIT - Because the Internet can't just appreciate a game without some form of control, there's now a hacked version of A Mother in Festerwood where you can artificially raise some of your son's attributes. Oi.

PLAY THE HACKED A MOTHER IN FESTERWOOD HERE

Layout... blues...

I've been fiddling with the background and the title image and iehidlheliwhwdkneksqijblargh for hours, and the end result is so... so... bleh. I'll have to screw around with it more.

Anyway. First post. Welcome to Browser Rousers, the one-stop-shop for browser-based games, mostly run in Flash. From Monday to Friday (hopefully each of those days, anyway) I'll play and review one browser-based game I find online, or otherwise provide some tidbit of gaming news.

Why?

Because I like browser games. Why else? Indie developers do some good work.

The reviews will begin shortly with a sweet little art game called A Mother in Festerwood. Keep your eyes peeled!