Weekly Game Music: mrs mushroom likes LCD soundsystem (Botanicula)

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. To celebrate Amanita Design again, here’s a playfully named music, mrs mushroom likes LCD soundsystem by DVA. It’s a nature-inspired, if a little trippy, collection of sounds and composition from the beautiful game, Botanicula.

Botanicula narrates a light-hearted adventure of 5 small friends, Mr. Lantern, Mrs. Mushroom, Mr. Poppy Head, Mr. Feather, and Mr. Twig. Mr. Lantern find himself taking on the duty of planting the last seed from the great tree that he and his friend inhabit. The seed, which gives Mr. Lantern a vision, describes how the mysterious black parasites had started infesting the tree. Quickly realizing the significance of this task, he gathers his loyal friends to help him trek down the large and complex home of theirs.

Botanicula is an unorthodox point-and-click adventure that involves directing the direction the group should go. The game has no inventory system, and most of the actions require assistance from the player rather than the in-game characters themselves. As an example, catapulting things off a twig is done through the player’s mouse instead of the character taking that action. Similar to their previous games, Botanicula is narrated entirely without text. Lastly, the game has numerous hidden secrets, which becomes a fun meta-game in-and-of-itself.

Botanicula was released on the PC, Mac, and Linux in 2012.

Extra!

Title: zatoichi
Game: Botanicula
Composers: DVA

Title: juchu
Game: Botanicula
Composers: DVA

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Strange Free Games: Dear Esther

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new game. Since indie game Dear Esther is all the rage these days, it’ll be great to look back at what started it all, Dear Esther prototype version. So, without further ado, lets get started with the intro

Dear Esther is a first-person narrative that adds vocal interjections as you travel and observe the island. Each narration is supposed to be relevant to the view at hand, including writings on walls, landscapes, etc. Frequently, the narrative will contradict itself, leading to a surreal and disjointed experience.

The free, Half-Life mode can be downloaded at Mod DB.com.
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Strange Free Games: Katawa Shoujo

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Warning! I am about to introduce a Japanese-style erotic visual novel, better known as eroge. While this game does offer an option to turn off the adult portions, be well aware that this is made for a far more mature audience. And by “mature,” I mean emotionally.

New week, new game. This week is about Katawa Shoujo, a visual novel from the members of 4chan, no less. As a love simulator, this game has one simple twist: every girl you can date is handicapped. While I’m sure many of you will find the origins of this game uneasy, I can affirm that the subject matter is handled very delicately. By the end of it, it’ll make you realize the truth behind a frequently told but rarely understood point: the difference between a normal person and a disabled one is only skin deep.

Katawa Shoujo is playable at their own website.

You play as Hisao Naoki, who one day collapses from a sudden heart attack. Upon recovery, he learns he has a fatal condition called arrhythmia: a disorder that causes the heart to react erratically. Forced to stay in the dreadful hospital for months, he’s finally given a decision one day to move to the Yamaku boarding high school, an educational school specialized in tending students with medical conditions. In an attempt to start life anew again, Hisao agrees, and ventures into the high school for disabled students. Little does he expect a huge emotional roller-coaster when trying to make friends in this initially-peculiar high school.

As the genre “visual novel” implies, Katawa Shoujo reads a lot like a choose-your-own-adventure novels. The majority of the game is devoted to characterizations and observations, but occasionally the game gives you a few branching choices that determines how the story progresses. While that seems like a chore at first, several features in the game helps alleviate the hours-long text. First there’s an auto-mode that automatically clicks through the text for you at an adjustable pace. For the really impatient, there’s the skip-mode that fast-forwards to the next multiple-choice question.
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Weekly Game Music: Gameboy Tune (Machinarium)

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. This week’s music is Gameboy Tune by Tomas Dvorak. Despite it’s overly-optimistic beeps and bloops, it’s a surprisingly mellow tune. It best accents the neon game arcade room in an otherwise old-and-rusty game, Machinarium.

Machinarium is a no-text, all visual point-and-click adventure of a weak but determined robot to get his kidnapped girlfriend back. During his travels, he learns the kidnappers has caused a ton of mayhem to the townsfolk, and even hung a time-bomb on a tall tower for a good measure. Frantically working to find a way to diffuse the bomb, our hero must…slowly help remedy each denizen’s misfortunes. Point-and-click at its finest.

Sarcasm aside, Machinarium is a rare game that successfully tells a story without a single use of text or voice acting. It’s puzzles — which ranges from distracting the guard to slip by him, to unlocking a door using a Rubik’s cube — can sometimes veer towards nonsensical and frustrating. Fortunately, there’s a consistent and easy way to find the solution of every puzzle in-game. The minor usability improvements helps guarantee that anyone can play this game.

Machinarium was originally released on the PC, Mac, and Linux in 2009. It has also been ported to iPad and Android as well.

Extra!

Title: The End [Prague Radio]
Game: Machinarium
Composer: Vojtech Zelinsky

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Strange Free Games: Souvenir

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new game. Here’s an incomplete student game that still feels polished and playable. Souvenir is a meta-physical recount of a girl’s experience at college. It’s M.C. Escher-isque visuals best conveys the confusion one experiences when living away from familiar, and traveling into the new.

The game begins on a stage, portraying an unnamed girl starting to pack. Not after long, you end up in a greatly distorted world, bleak and twisting. As you choose the 8 “things to pack,” you start recalling various different memories, some mundane, some happy, and some depressing.

Souvenir plays like first-person puzzle game. Clicking on a surface causes you to fall to that location. Due to the twisting nature of the game, you frequently end up upside-down or sideways on various different surfaces. Collecting different items provides a fade-in text telling a recount of the character we’re playing. This slowly fleshes out our character’s personality, problems, and resolves.

Souvenir is playable at it’s own website.
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Weekly Game Music: Tetrobot (Blocks That Matter)

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Here’s a soothing chiptune-like music from the puzzle game, Blocks That Matter. Tetrobot is the title character’s name, who’s theme is composed by Yann Van Der Cruyssen — the same composer as Cave Story+. It’s relatively non-serious tone sets stage for a hilarious indie game about two kidnapped game designers, and their robot to save them.

Blocks That Matter has a self-referencing story: in the magical land of Sweden, renowned game developers Alexey Pajitnov (of Tetris fame) and Markus Persson (of Minecraft fame) were working on a project that, decidedly, was not game related. Lo and behold when a bunch of darkly hooded men with guns kidnap them to an unknown location, and it’s the role of Tetrobot, their secret project, to go save them.

Blocks That Matter is a 2D puzzle game that borrows ideas from Minecraft, i.e. digging blocks to move them to a different location. Unlike Minecraft, however, our robot can only place the blocks it carries in a Tetris-block formation. You know, the usual stuff. The game levels, of course, progresses in a predictable manner: go through a pre-set level, and reach to the black-hole-like portal.

Blocks That Matter was released on the PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox 360 in 2011. It’s available for download on Steam and Xbox Live.
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