• Weekly Game Music: Redial (Bomberman Hero)

    New week, new music. Let’s go old-school, this time, with the spectacular music fromย Bomberman Hero.ย Redial, by Jun Chikuma, is a simple techno-like melody with an addicting beat. It’s oddly calming for an epic adventure of an old mascot.

    Bomberman Heroย has a simplistic, if familiar, story of an intergalactic evil organization emerging from the shadows. In an attempt to foil their plan, a princess manages to steal their plans, but gets caught in the process. Instead, she sends her loyal robot to take the disks, and inform Bomberman the trouble that’s brewing. Hence begins our hero’s journey through 5 different planets.

    Bomberman Heroย is a 3D platformer, where the camera doesn’t turn. As Bomberman, your method of attacking is — you guessed — throwing bombs. He has a few different maneuvers for this, useful for solving a few puzzles: he can drop a bomb, roll it, or throw it. In his travels, Bomberman will also don different gadgets, including a snowboard, jetpack, and submarine. Each level has a point system, where perfecting it unlocks the real ending.

    Bomberman Heroย was released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998. It’s now available on the Wii on the Virtual Console.


    Extra!

    Title:ย Milky
    Game:ย Bomberman Hero
    Composer:ย Jun Chikuma


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  • Strange Free Games: Dys4ia

    New week, new game. What would an auto-biographic game would be like? An interesting question to consider, and this short flash game might have an answer.ย Dys4iaย is a recount of a transsexual game designer, describing her experience in becoming a woman.

    Dys4iaย can be played at NewGrounds.com.

    Dys4iaย is described as a simulation, a recount of how the designer came to her decision. It begins with how the designer came to her decision, and the lack of comfort felt at the current state. As the game progresses, the designer — and by extension, the player — faces numerous roadblocks, including the search for a physician, dealing with pre-conditions, and getting used to the transformation.

    Dys4iaย is, I admit, a very simple game. Despite this, though, the gameplay deliberately makes you feel confused and uncomfortable. Added with the disturbing music and flashy graphics, the game has an uncertain and momentous feel to yet. By the end, the final quote feels significant: “It’s a small thing, but I feel like I’ve taken the first steps towards something tremendous.”
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  • Weekly Game Music: Organ Smash (Iji)

    New week (at least, in the US), new music. Here’s a music fromย Iji:ย Organ Smashย by Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne-McCullough. I’ve mentionedย Ijiย in theย Strange Free Gamesย series, and I do recommend playing this very fun game!

    Ijiย was released in 2010 for the PC. It can be played on Daniel Rumar’s website.

    Iji, a simple and brave girl, and her family ventures her brother’s science laboratory. Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a story unless a bunch of aliens invaded earth, right? During the invasion, Iji is knocked unconscious, and throughout this state, Dan reconstructs her body as a super-soldier from the invader’s technology. When she wakes up, Iji is ordered by Dan to negotiate with the invaders for peace.

    Ijiย plays likeย Gears of Warย RPG in 2D. Iji can duck under cover to avoid enemy fire, while shooting, jumping, kicking and even hacking enemies to submission. Various stats can be upgraded on your character, including hacking, kicking, shooting, and armor skills. In addition, you can collect a healthy number of guns that you can fuse together to make a more powerful beast. Finally,ย Ijiย has multiple endings, encouraging a lot of replay.
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  • Weekly Game Music: Fluffy Sweet (Cloud)

    Oh, jolly. I completely forgot about posting a music for this week. How about some soothing music, for a change? Here’sย Fluffy Sweet, composed by Vincent Diamante for the student game,ย Cloud. It was a catapult to ThisGameCompany’s inception and proceeding game creations with similar themes.

    Cloudย is a freely downloadable PC game released in 2005. You can download it here.

    Cloudย describes a bed-ridden boy who’s “brought back to life” as a flying spirit that collects clouds. With it, the games leads you through several different missions, including creating cloud formations, calming storms, and raining on necessary patches of land. It’s a simple story about the joy of flight.

    From a gameplay perspective,ย Cloudย controls like an extremely relaxed free-roaming star-fighter game. As the spirit, you fly towards a patch of cloud to collect it, and have it follow you as you gather more. Since the clouds will lag a little bit, you’re forced to proceed in a slower manner. The said clouds can be stored and released, however, whenever you feel like it.


    Extra!

    Title: First Flight
    Game: Cloud
    Composer: Vincent Diamante

    Title: Cycling
    Game: Cloud
    Composer: Vincent Diamante


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  • Strange Free Games: Small Worlds

    Whoops, a little late today. Here’s another flash game that’s all about exploration. Created as an entry for Casual Gameplay Design Competition,ย Small Worldsย is a pixelated platformer that involves exploring a seemingly small world. Small, until the fog moves away to reveal the larger, shocking premises, that is.

    Small Worldsย can be played in your browser at the site below:
    http://jayisgames.com/cgdc6/?gameID=9

    “There is too much noise.” A strange and surreal way to start a story. As a 3-pixel high character, you traverse through each world that slowly reveals a scene: an after-math of a certain event. Since the story lacks any other narrative, however, the player must come up with their own conclusion in what the game meant, and what each landscape stood for.

    Despite this ambiguity, it’s atmospheric gameplay is intriguing. Nothing can kill the 3-pixel character, so you can explore at your own pace. The character can merely move and jump, but by doing so, your width of vision increases. As a consequence, the game begs for exploration, even to dead-ends, as more and more of the stage is revealed.

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  • Strange Free Games: Mega Mash: 7-in-1 Game Cart

    Do you guys rememberย ROM CHECK FAIL? Had fun with it? Then you’re definitely going to enjoy this quirky flash game:ย Mega Mash: 7-in-1 Game Cartย (shortened toย Mega Mash)!

    Mega Mashย can be played on your browser at Nitrome’s website

    Likeย ROM CHECK FAIL,ย Mega Mashย starts with the poor player attempting to play the game, but the cart ends up all glitchy. As a consequence, you’ll play as a bipedal-rabbit hopping for carrots, then shift to a spaceship firing aliens, then into a treasure hunter dropping bombs, and so forth. Unlikeย ROM CHECK FAIL, the game plays it safe: all the game references are covered by the developer’s own artwork, instead of using the old-school graphics.

    Mega Mashย combines the gameplay of different games via “zones.” That is, when a character jumps into the space zone, it turns into a spaceship. Likewise, if you jump into a Tetris zone, you’ll start playing Tetris within that limited area. As such,ย Mega Mashย plays like a 2D platforming puzzle game. Different gameplay to assist your puzzle solving includes:ย Super Mario Bros.,ย Gradius,ย Bomberman,ย Tetris,ย Bionic Commando,ย Balloon Fight, andย Breakout.
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