2 articles Tag java

Metagun

Metagun by Notch

Gah – I’m just off to bed and the really awesome Ludum Dare 18 competition entries are starting to arrive. Curse the rotation of the Earth causing the staggered arrival of sunrise and sunset around the globe!

Anyway, didn’t want to go to sleep without highlighting Notch‘s superb Metagun. Seems pretty cute when you stumble across pint-size enemies firing their adorable little guns at you. Becomes fairly amazing when you pick up a ‘grenade’ launcher where the ‘grenades’ are actually those same enemies. Suddenly you’re looking an action-puzzler where you fire your own adversaries out of a gun, then position yourself so that those angry little basts destroy the very blocks that are blocking your escape path.

Also: you get your fedora knocked off if you’re shot. You will mystify both yourself and students of human psychology and motivation by actually caring about your missing hat, and always going back to fetch it.*

This is all exactly the kind of madness you’d expect from a man who’s been live-streaming a video of the actual creation of the game. And it is 100% guaranteed to make you smile as you sprinkle a room with scores of pistol-toting pixel-men. They might want you dead, but they really are quite cute. Play Metagun (Java)

*Update: ‘Course, turns out the fedora works like Ghosts ‘n Goblins’ armour – lose it, and you’re vulnerable. Neat.

Pixels from the past: R.C. Pro-Am

R.C. Pro-Am

What to do about the relative lack of decent browser-based racing games? Either sit and shake your head ruefully until it falls off. Or play R.C. Pro-Am — the 1988 NES game from Banjo-Tooie boys Rare that’s still one of the best racers in racertown. Race surprisingly fast for 20-year-old technology! Skid around with satisfying just-rightness! Aim rockets at dastardly cheat-happy rival racers! And realise that with that happy little between-circuit screen of medals and cups, Rare invented Achievements about 2 decades before the fates intended. Play R.C. Pro-Am (in-browser, Java)