Here’s a popular flash game: QWOP. It’s a game about controlling the leg muscles of a track runner on a 100 meter track. The ‘Q’ key rotates the thighs in a clockwise rotation, while ‘W’ rotates it counter-clockwise. Similarly, ‘O’ rotates the calves clockwise; and the ‘P’, counter-clockwise. This deliberately unwieldy controls, and the floppy rag-doll physics makes QWOP one of the most difficult games.
Despite the difficulty, QWOP is strangely addicting. There’s a certain satisfaction when you learn to crawl to the first 5 meters, then learn the timing to hop to 10 meters. The simple music that plays as you start moving towards the finish line adds the gratification of moving forward. As the commenter below explains, slow and steady wins the race.
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Ever wondered what a JRPG would be like if a bunch of basketball fans made it? Look no further than Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa (shortened to Barkley from here on out). This game has everything you love from JRPGs, including our brooding hero, Charles Barkley; the camp villain, Micheal Jordan; an evil company, Square Enix Goya; and even a cameo appearance, Master Chief. With strong inspiration from Super Mario RPG and Earthbound, this is one free game no RPG lovers (and haters!) should miss!
The year is 2053; location, Neo New York. The famed basketball player, Charles Barkley, is struggling to support his son, Hoopz, in a post-apocalypse world. While secretly teaching his son the outlawed basketball dribbles, Charles is falsely accused by the head of B-Ball Removal Department, Michael Jordan, for killing 15 million people with a Chaos Dunk. Clearly innocent, Charles escapes from Michael’s grasps, and hunts for the real culprit that used his signature (and destructive) slam dunk.
Barkley takes many elements from multiple RPG game sources. Like Earthbound, enemies appear readily on the map. Approaching behind them gives you one extra turn during the battle phases, while getting hit by enemies behind your back causes you to lose one turn. The turn-based battle, like Super Mario RPG series, uses a quick-time-like mechanic to enhance your attacks. The puzzles may remind some people of the Golden Sun series as well.
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If we’re talking about strange games, we’ve got to go into the flash game category. This is the Only Level – Adventures in Singularity is a game where, exactly as the title implies, there’s only one level. Despite its seeming simplicity, the game makes fun of you as you’re forced to think out of the box.
Playing as a forgetful elephant, you learn that your controls or level physics changes every time you visit the same level. Various changes in physics and controls include using the arrow keys to control the character, using the mouse, refreshing the browser, floaty jumps, and the inability to move backwards. The game keep tracks of how many times you die, so your goal is to complete all the iterations while suffering the least number of casualities.
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Well, we’ve had enough games with sophisticated stories. Let’s talk about a game with minimal story: ROM CHECK FAIL is a game that mashes together well-known game icons, then puts them into a blender. Well, not literally, but when you see the gameplay video below, you’ll get the idea.
ROM CHECK FAIL starts innocent enough: your super-old system checks to see if your game (ROM) is OK. Well, it isn’t, and now you have to play Mario, Asteroids, Pacman, etc. in a completely corrupted package. Hilarity ensues.
The goal of the game, of course, is to kill every enemy on the course. Problematically, your controls and physics periodically changes as your character glitches to the next sprite. Similarly, your enemy’s sprites, AI and physics also changes at the same time. The changes are completely random, so you have to be careful and plan for the worst at every level.
Quick, simple, and fun, ROM CHECK FAIL should provide a good afternoon challenge. Give it a shot!
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Last time, I introduced a game that provided an innovative narrative by allowing you to freely decide which way the story should go. Here’s a game that does just the opposite: The Stanley Parable tells you what you should do, then sees if you’ll comply or not.
The Stanley Parable is a Half Life 2 mod, which means it requires the Source engine pre-installed. For Windows, downloading Steam and the free game, Team Fortress 2 will take care of it. Unfortunately for the Mac, both Steam and a copy of Half Life 2 (or any of its episodes) are required.
Instructions for installation are in the download’s zip file, as README.txt.
The Stanley Parable is best played without any previous knowledge, but I’ll reveal the introduction anyways. As the title implies, you play as Stanley, an employee whose job involves reading what’s on the screen, and pushing the respective buttons. One day, Stanley stops receiving any commands from the said screen. Confused, he ventures out of his office, to see what’s going on.
Funny and scary at the same time, The Stanley Parable is a satire that criticizes the linear story structure of many games. Clearly inspired by Bioshock, the game’s multiple endings all makes fun of the role Stanley — and by extension, you — take in the story. Without spoiling much further, the narrator (Kevan Brighting) is as sexy as he is dangerous.
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Here’s an old but extremely unique free game. Façade is a game created back in 2005, with ugly graphics, terrible animation, and shoddy cell-shading all intact. Despite these problems, though, Façade‘s terrifyingly original game concepts is often used as a pinnacle of Video Game narrative, where you, the player, ultimately guide the story. Façade is available for Mac and Windows XP. Windows Vista and 7 users may have problems running it.
Façade is an interactive story where you have to mediate the couple Trip and Grace from letting their marriage collapse in front of your eyes. Narrated in first-person, you type your sentence to the character you’re facing towards, and he or she will interpret that sentence. Like a choose-your-own-adventure book, the story will dynamically change based on what your responses and inquiries where, and decided on whether you save Trip and Grace’s marriage, or let the two fall apart.
Despite the terrible artwork, the tiny details the game contains is quite amazing. The characters’ facial expressions changes quickly and within context. You can interact with the characters and your surroundings to indicate your interest, or the lack thereof. And it goes without saying that the game’s voice-acting is top-notch and excellent.
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