Category Archives: Gaming

When Pigs Fly

When Pigs Fly is an awesome new auntie pixelante by dessgeega posted on newgrounds. I suppose you could call the game a platformer. The player controls a pig with wings, navigating the pig through tight corridors and past deadly spikes. Pressing the space bar flaps the wings and causes the pig to fly up a bit. The pig will fall due to gravity, so to keep the pig flying, the space bar must be pressed repeatedly. Because of this, the pig’s vertical position will fluctuate, causing much of the difficulty in the game. The pig will die if it comes into contact with spikes or if the wings touch anything at all. The pig does have a large hitbox, although the the hitbox is actually slightly smaller the sprite itself, allowing the edges of the wings to just barely pass over obstacles sometimes. To complete the game, the player must have precise control over the pig.

 
I took 26 minutes to complete the game, but I did chat online a bit while playing, not realizing that the game tracked completion time. I died 219 times. The game is challenging, but the deaths were fair. The game is broken into multiple rooms, and I could see an entire room at a time. The biggest design flaw in my opinion in platformers is the inability for the player to see dangers ahead of time, and When Pigs Fly definitely does not suffer that at all. In addition, after dying the pig is respawned at the beginning of the current room. You never have to repeat a room.
The sprite art is nice and simple with mellow, muted colors. The music is nice, and the sound effects are cute although repeat often. I can understand the sound becoming annoying to some people, and they can be turned off, but I enjoyed them. The sounds were created by Daphny, and a soundtest is available.

Bastet

mint at SelectButton recently posted about a free PC game called Bastet, short for Bastard Tetris. Rather than giving the player a random piece like normal, Bastet calculates the worst possible piece and gives that to the player. It’s an interesting game. I’ve played a handful of matches, somewhere between 10 and 20, and have only cleared seven lines in my best game. Give the game a try!

GameFAQs rethinks Space Deadbeef

Back in January I made a post titled “Space Deadbeef Not Worthy of GameFAQs” about GameFAQs not allowing me to submit game data about Space Deadbeef. GameFAQs claimed that they “normally [list] only commercially released games, with a few exceptions for very popular non-commercial titles” and that Space Deadbeef didn’t meet those requirements. Today I noticed that Space Deadbeef is now listed on their site. I’m not sure what changed that made GameFAQs change their position on Space Deadbeef. Maybe the game actually became very popular! That would definitely please me. Regardless, I’m happy that GameFAQs has added it, and I’ll submit my review of the game soon!

Uno Horror Stories

Here’s an disturbingly interesting story from NeoGAF about a guy who tried to play Uno online on Xbox 360. Uno uses a the Xbox camera, supposedly to show your face while you play. It was late at night when this guy, SpacLock, went on Uno and found mostly genitals on the cameras. I’ve heard about this before, but it’s a pretty anecdote!

Dokapon Journey, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, and more

This week I played quite a bit of Valve games. I played through the rest of the Left 4 Dead campaigns, which were all very cool. Next I’ll try versus and survival. I’m pretty behind, I guess. I’ve also been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2. I actually played with Linh-Nam, Collin, Andy, and gem. It’s pretty rare that I actually play with people!
I also played a fantastic little jewel called played Dokapon Journey with gem and William. What a fun game! It’s basically a multiplayer board game in which landing on most spaces leads to a JRPG style battle! It’s made by Atlus, and the sprite art is pretty nice too. It’s a really fun game.

 
Of course, I’ve also played World of Warcraft some more, but I haven’t really done anything. I’ve been playing more Ninja Gaiden 2, but I’m kind of stuck. It’s a tough game! (Or I just suck.) I’ve been neglecting BlazBlue, but I’ll get back to it soon. I also haven’t been playing Bit.Trip Beat or Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. There’s so much to play!
I finished adventure mode in Peggle World of Warcraft Edition and Peggle for iPhone. Fun stuff! I tried out The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. It seems pretty well done! I’m sure it’s easier to control on the PC, but I went with the iPhone version so I could play it on the go! I haven’t played it too much though because I’m leaving it for my vacation next week to Vegas. I also just started Space Invaders Infinity Gene for the iPhone. Space Invaders has been really awesome lately! Taito’s pretty awesome. I wonder if it has to do with being owned by Square-Enix.
I’ve been pushing more into Rhythm Heaven this past week too. It gets really hard sometimes though! I can’t complain though because it sure is fun. I’m also stuck in Wolfenstein 3D Classic for the iPhone. I got to the boss of the first episode, but I died. Now I just respawn with a pistol and 16 ammo. What am I supposed to do?
Oh, I almost forgot a game! I played dess’s new game, When Pigs Fly, on Newsground. I’ll edit this post later on my computer to provide a link. You control a flying pig through multiple caverns avoiding ceilings, walls, and spikes. It’s simple and fun, with appealing, low resolution sprites, which is a look I like.

Game Journal!

I used to make weekly Game Journal entries, but I haven’t written one in a long, long time. I guess I’ll just talk about what I’ve been playing this summer. First of all, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft all the time. I’m trying to get the PVP achievements. A lot of them will occur on their own eventually (win 100 times), but others are more difficult. I’m trying to get the difficult ones before moving into the last bracket. The achievement for getting twenty killing blows without dying is really the last one I’m worried about, although I’d like to wait for Mooglegem to get Alterac Valley All-Star too. Other than that, I’m still working on tower defences in AV, killing enemies in the Hall of the Frostwolf in AV, winning AB 2000 to 1990, killing the enemy fc in their fr while they control their own flag in WSG, and the 100 wins and reputation achievements.

 
I also beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game on Xbox Live Arcade with gem, Corey, and Corey’s cousin Dylan. Then I beat Mirror’s Edge for PS3, Ghostbusters The Video Game for 360, and Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? for PSP. After Michael Jackson’s passing, I played through Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker on a Genesis emulator. Next I played through Space Invaders Extreme 2 and Arkanoid DS, both for DS, to finish all the DS paddle controller games. I’ve also been playing Everyday Shooter, but I still haven’t been able to finish it.
At Anime Expo I picked up Guilty Gear XX ^ Core Plus for Wii and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Limited Edition for PS3. I started playing BlazBlue pretty heavily when I got home. I’ve finished the story mode with Noel, Ragna, Jin, Rachel, and Taokaka, getting 100% in each of their stories. I have seven characters left to do, plus a “final” story.
I tried Half-Life Source again and got pretty bored. It just isn’t good. I don’t know what people were thinking. I guess I should just skip to Half-Life 2. I’ve been playing through Trine on PC as well. I’m not sure how far I am, but I’ve really enjoyed it.
I went back LocoRoco 2 for PSP, thinking it’d be good to finish it up. Turns out, I was on the last level, and it wasn’t very difficult. Then I finished all the remaining puzzles in Professor Layton and the Curious Village for DS in preperation for Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box!
I beat Call of Duty: World at War for 360 after borrowing it from Corey. As for some more casual games, I beat all levels in Peggle, the World of Warcraft Addon. I also beat adventure mode of Peggle World of Warcraft Edition, the stand-alone Peggle based on World of Warcraft.
Right now I’m still working on BlazBlue. I’m also playing through Ninja Gaiden II. I had mentioned earlier in the day that I started NG2 that I wanted another Devil May Cry to come out so I could play it; I sort of got my wish in Ninja Gaiden II. I’m still trying to 100% clear all levels in the Peggle World of Warcraft Addon, and I’m fooling around in Peggle World of Warcraft Edition also. I’m about half way through Bit.Trip Beat for WiiWare, which is fantastic but difficult. I also completed the second campaign in Left 4 Dead last night. Only two more to go!
I played The Sims 3 pretty heavily early on in the summer, maxing one characters life long dream and getting that character and another character to max their careers. I had that second character get married, so I’m still working on getting him his life long dream as well as his wife’s and getting her to the top of her career. After that, I’d like to successfully raise a kid. There’s more to do in the game of course, but I would be pretty fulfilled if I could do those things.
As for handhelds, I’ve been playing Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Hopefully I’ll finish up soon. I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars a bit but not so much lately. I’ve also been playing Call of Duty: Roads to Victory on PSP. It’s… fun but not that great. You use the stick to move and the face buttons to aim. Those should be switched.
Basically the only two big games I’m playing are Ninja Gaiden II and BlazBlue. After I finish NG2, I plan on playing inFamous because I’m borrowing it from Edward. After BlazBlue I’m going to go through Guilty Gear XX ^ Core Plus.
I’m not sure what I’m going to play after I get through NG2 and inFamous. I recently picked up God Hand, killer7, and Odin Sphere so I’d like to give those a go. Other games of high interest to me are God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, Psychonauts, XIII, Half-Life 2, Blue Dragon, and Bioshock. Some less important or handheld games that I’d like to get through are Space Channel 5, We

Ninja Gaiden II (360)

Ninja Gaiden II is basically Devil May Cry without that special flare or spark that made Devil May Cry such an awesome series. NG2 is fun, it’s just feels a bit generic and recycled. It feels tremendously like DMC. Like all 3D hack and slash games, you run around slashing at enemies. When you kill enemies, glowing orbs called Essence appear. Picking them up plays a small audio clip that sounds almost identical to picking up orbs in DMC. Finding various objects, such as a key card that is used to unlock a door no more than ten seconds away from the card itself, causes a screen to pop up just like in DMC showing the object and giving a brief description. The sound effect even sounds like DMC! There are things that look like altars that act as save points, and statues that act as shops, selling regen items, powerups for weapons, and Life of the Gods pieces. You can also Life of the God pieces in the levels. Collecting nine of them will permanently increase your health – just like blue orbs in Devil May Cry! You’re also forced to use items immediately after finding them. Yes, this is done quite often in games, but that’s really not an excuse; this game makes you use it within ten seconds of finding them! I’m not just talking about the key card I mentioned earlier either. The game is fun, and I’m sure fans of Devil May Cry would enjoy it (besides possibly being angry if they’re not just fans but are fanboys). However, if someone is interested in playing Ninja Gaiden II and hasn’t played the Devil May Cry, I would recommend playing DMC instead.