Free for All #004 — The Lazy, Half-assed Edition

Due to general laziness and time constraints there are only two games this time: one for SHMUP fans and one for Puzzle fans.

Warning Forever

Skipping all of the top-down scrolling fluff that leads to a boss battle in the typical SHMUP, Warning Forever simply presents you with a series of nothing but boss encounters. By default you start off with 180 seconds and after you defeat a boss time is added to the counter. Rather than giving you a set number of lives the game simply subtracts from your timer each time, meaning multiple deaths will either make you unable to finish the boss in time or simply end your game if it hits zero. The bosses aren’t procedurally generated but there are nine “growing patterns” and four final shapes which adds some variety to the combat. Ultimately, not a game you’d spend hours on but it’s good for killing some time on occasion.

Kiki the Nanobot

In this game you take control of a two-wheeled robot and progress through a series of puzzles. The gameplay mostly involves you pushing or shooting blocks and other objects into the correct position to enable you to grab a sphere. The official website calls it a mix between the games Soko-Ban and Kula World.

This will probably be the last multi-game “Free for All.” In the future I will only write about one indie title at a time so I can avoid indie game fatigue and exhausting my supply of filler article material…¬_¬

Braid Review

At its heart Braid is a puzzle game with light platforming elements in which the flow of time is the primary game mechanic. However, it’s also driven by its narrative which tells the tale of a man named Tim who is desperately seeking out a Princess that seems to always slip from his grasp.

The games title screen and the start of Tim's journey.

The game doesn’t waste any time by making you navigate a traditional title screen. As soon as you start you will find yourself in control of the main character on a dark street. You move to the right to find a house which you must enter. Inside you will see five doors with large canvases next to them, with a sixth door in the currently out of reach attic. During Tim’s journey you will find yourself traversing these six worlds, all of which contain a series of puzzles that must be solved in order to collect – fittingly enough – puzzle pieces. After collecting all of the puzzle pieces on a world you can then assemble them into the completed painting that accompanies the world the pieces were found in.