pixelatron

Something Awful have been running a game development competition, but many of the entrants must have wept tears of pure wasted effort when Radial Plus was submitted. Sticking to the challenge’s theme – ‘You can’t…’ – developer Spatial (aka LSnK) has created a puzzle-shooter where you’re unable to hurt enemies with direct fire. Only wall-bounced shots are effective.

It’s a lovely little idea, but in Spatial’s hands it isn’t just that – it’s also hypnotizingly gorgeous for your eyes, and a rare treat for your ears. Listen to what happens when you emerge from an airlock into open space. Mmmm.

Unless you’re a master of angles – a pool-playing professional maybe, or a robot, or a professional pool-playing robot – things get quite hard surprisingly quickly. Keep ploughing on: there’s One Hell Of An Explosion™ waiting for you near the end.

An end which comes way too soon, by the way. Spatial, if you’re reading this: make more. Make more now. Play Radial Plus (Windows, download)

(All the other games – and having played them all so you don’t have to, I recommend Barrier, Huggy Raptor and You Can’t Eat Your Cake And Have It Too – are available from a single page on the Something Awful GameDev Challenge Wiki. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite.)