Leave Cthulhu Alone

I've never quite understood why, but Cthulhu, ancient lord of the deep, swallower of all life, is an Internet sensation. He's in comics, movies, TV shows... he even has his own Munchkin expansion pack and stuffed doll. Is there anything Cthulhu can't do?

Well, there is one: he can't get people to leave him alone. Cthulhu's a popular extraplanar entity, and in this case for all the wrong reasons - and his devoted follower is having a hell of a time of bringing the creature onto this mortal plane, because people just won't leave him alone.

Concept

Leave Cthulhu Alone is a tower defense game. Playing as Cthulhu you need to protect your worshiper from an unending stream of disruptive people: cops, detectives, mystics, professors, madmen, even other cultists who want to summon Cthulhu first. To do this you need to mutate the oncoming enemies using Cthulhu's black magic, turning them into (usually stationary) defensive posts that will attack other enemies. Cthulhu can only mutate an enemy once his power bar is filled up, either through time or violence between your defenses and the baddies, so strategic thinking is needed to protect the follower in the rear of the house.

The concept is more or less pulled from popular depictions of Cthulhu and his followers. What makes the game enjoyable is that it lampoons these stories, turning Cthulhu into an impatient, slightly sarcastic deity and his follower a whiny little do-nothing. Those personalities, combined with tons of silly references and funny writing, make Leave Cthulhu Alone truly ridiculous - which, needless to say, is perfect for a Flash game on the subject.

Controls

The controls on Leave Cthulhu Alone are nice and basic. You're represented by an arcane symbol on the ground which you can move back and forth under enemies and through the four rooms of the house. Hit space below an enemy and you'll mutate them into your own crony. Use 1, 2, 3 or 4 to instantly warp from one room to the next to keep track of all the enemies who are tromping towards your follower. Very easy to learn, and never problematic.

Graphics

I'll be perfectly frank. The colour scheme on Leave Cthulhu Alone is ugly, what with the combination of bright green and purple. That said, it's exactly the kind of weird, ugly alien that you'd expect from such a quirky title, so this isn't a complaint.

Beyond that? It looks okay. The sprites aren't terribly detailed, but the animations are slick and the house looks creepily pretty. I found myself thinking of old Lucasarts games like Maniac Mansion while playing Leave Cthulhu Alone, especially when the little professors got all bloated.

Yep. Best units in the game.

Sound

The music, if you can call it music, is the weakest element in Leave Cthulhu Alone. Don't get me wrong, it's appropriate, but the spooky walking-down-an-empty-hall-in-a-horror-film tone that plays consistently gets old real fast. I've no doubt the programmer knew that, as well, since there's a handy mute button in plain sight.

Challenge Rating

Leave Cthulhu Alone is tricky, but not impossible. Unlike a lot of other tower defense games you don't play until you die; you just get through successive levels that become harder and harder. The side-scrolling nature of the game makes this much easier than normal, though, and the enemies always act in the same fashion, so puzzling out solutions becomes fairly easy. A bit less repetition probably would've helped jack up both the challenge rating and the interest factor in Leave Cthulhu Alone.

Conclusion?

Overall? Not bad. Leave Cthulhu Alone is not a revolutionary blockbuster. I don't think it was meant to be, either - it's just a joke wrapped in a solid, fun game. Performing the same duties in the same rooms over and over gets boring, true, but it's a funny enough game to warrant trying to beat the whole thing. Recommended.

PLAY LEAVE CTHULHU ALONE

Depict1

Lies. People tell us lies all the time. We tell OURSELVES lies. Hell, I lie to myself daily about the number of calories in a cookie. (Can't be that much, right? May as well have three more.) So why not base a video game around lying?

Concept

Depict1 is a game about a free woman. She's not at all trapped in a maze, and there's a perfectly nice, innocent person giving her accurate instructions from above. Everything is, in this world, as it should be.

Or that was all a lie. Which encapsulates the experience that is Depict1.

This is you:

And this is the strange person who talks to you throughout the game, your only company and guide:

That's a smile you can trust. I sure think so, anyway.

The events surrounding Depict1 are a mystery, and they probably don't matter anyway. Point is, your little hooded dude is trapped in a topsy-turvy world of shining beams and weird monsters, and you need to steer your way out while avoiding hazards, using the aforementioned beams to move from one level to the next.

The problem? It's the guy. The guy lies to you. Over, and over, and over. You must learn, in a hurry, that not all is as it seems in your prison... to the point that you even need to question the game's controls. Yeesh. It's a neat idea, and calls into question, constantly, the sincerity of those in our own lives. How can we tell when somebody is lying and when they're telling the truth? Especially when they sound perfectly reasonable?

Controls

Depict1 is a teensy weensy bit more complex on the controls front than your average game, as you not only have to figure them out via clues given in the game, but you don't use up to jump. This was doubtless a conscious decision on the programmer's part, but this coupled with the ability to toss projectiles can prove a little confusing without some practice. The levels are small enough that a control-based flub isn't the end of the world, but guiding your guy around is occasionally irksome because of the layout. On the plus side, though, his landings are absolutely perfect, which is a necessity on precision courses.

Graphics

Depict1 is a bit weird in that it has a fairly basic aesthetic that's nevertheless really cool to see in action. The levels all look more or less the same, and after an hour or two they'd probably get downright boring, but given the scope of the game... everything works. The sprites are clean, the animations crisp and, most important, the shadowy figure you're forced to face is appropriately sinister despite hiding in the shadows most of the time. Well done.

Sound

Depict1's sound is probably its weakest area. The music isn't BAD, but it's understated. Barely there. A lot of levels are completely quiet, and when they aren't, you'll probably pay little attention to the sound. No complaints, just nothing special.

Challenge Rating

Depict1 is not a tough game. It's merely a trial and error: most levels shouldn't take more than a minute to complete, and though there are a few posers amid the puzzles they're far from the majority. The average player will require a solid hour to complete Depict1, and once you know how to beat it you can probably blow through the game in ten minutes flat. (If that.)

This does not, however, take away from the game. I have no trouble playing through Depict1, mainly because I enjoy the lying "compatriot", and there's some satisfaction in getting away from him in the end.

Or... do you...?

Conclusion?

Depict1 is a neat, semi-disturbing game that'll get most players thinking about the nature of deceit. And, hell, it's still a fun platformer even if you don't get too philosophical about games.

PLAY DEPICT1

One Sheep Wonders

I have a terrible memory. I'm always forgetting things. I've even woken up in the morning and forgotten how to speak English. Consequently, I do not look kindly on memorization games, because I SUCK at them.

One Sheep Wonders is no exception. I'm bad at this game. But I still enjoy it, and anybody who can appreciate a more casual form of gaming entertainment should, too.

Concept

One Sheep Wonders is a game populated almost entirely by sheep. (There are a few cows and pigs thrown in as well.) Each level has one or more sheep posed in a parody of a classic movie, TV or gaming scene, and after studying the picture for a few seconds you need to arrange the selected elements on the screen so they more or less line up with where they're supposed to be. For example:

After studying this Steamboat Mickey parody, you'd have to place elements of the scene like so:

You get points for rotation and placement, and if you're too far off on too many items, you'll have to try the level over again with a new set of items. Each stage is timed, too, so you have to hurry. Simple? Simple.

Controls

Drag and drop. Very little to say - it was nicely polished.

Graphics

The visuals are, for me, the deal maker in One Sheep Wonders. These games normally frustrate and bore me to tears 'cause the scenes provided are straight, dull photographs. Bleh.

One Sheep Wonders, though? Nope. The visuals are wonderful in this game, providing a lot of funny, goofy references to a variety of popular media. The artist must have had a lot of fun dreaming up ways to insert sheep into Street Fighter, Casablanca, Braveheart and plenty of other scenes. Much appreciated.

Sound

The music in One Sheep Wonders is understated, the kind of stuff you'd expect of a casual game: inoffensive and a touch wacky. There are only a couple tracks, but they don't get stale because you won't have to play the game for a really long time. In short, musically, One Sheep Wonders is like riding on an elevator.

Challenge Rating

This game's difficulty level relies almost solely on your memory. If you can memorize scenes visually, this game will be a piece of cake. If you can't, like ME, you'll have to replay levels numerous times in order to learn where everything goes.

I WILL, that said, give the programmer kudos for not concocting a vicious scoring system that harshly penalizes players. You only need to be in the ballpark to get from one level to the next, which is perfect for those players who just want to see all of the pretty pictures and then stop. There's a medal system if you're good enough at memorizing, but, well, I suck, so I scraped along the bottom to the very end.

Conclusion?

One Sheep Wonders is nifty. Not ground-breaking, not highly innovative or exciting or out of this world, just nifty. I applaud the artist for breathing life into these silly sheep, even while I curse them for forcing me to play by memory.

PLAY ONE SHEEP WONDERS