WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME? ONE POINT IS RUBBISH EDITION
For this weekend’s Would You Like To Play A Game, my whole hearted suggestion goes to London indie dev Beatnik Games’ Plain Sight, which has just entered into public beta for PC users and, unfortunately, seems to be getting not enough love to maintain a healthy list of open and available public servers (consider this a half-selfish request, then).
As the Beatnik team puts it:
Plain Sight is a 3D multiplayer arcade game with robots; robots who bounce around cityscapes on mini planetoids and wield swords which are used to destroy one another.
That says about all you should need to hear, but, in fuller detail: the game takes Mario Galaxy‘s up-ended flirtatious approach to gravity and world design, and brings it into a modern robot arena setting with fantastic aerial acrobatics. Most uniquely, its multi-faceted score-by-suicide approach sees you more vulnerable the more points you rack up, as you’re only able to bank those points by killing yourself, keeping each individual’s tension high throughout.
Beatnik plan on keeping the beta running until February 8th, and releasing the full version shortly thereafter for PC, with an Xbox 360 version in the works after that. Check their website for more info on the ongoing beta updates, and the poster and T-shirt wares in the store, which I covet already.
Plain Sight [Beatnik Games]
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POLYTRON AFFIRM ESSENTIAL AWESOMENESS
Normally the simple opening of a website wouldn’t be much in the way of newsworthy, but Fez creator Polytron’s new site offers too much to not mention.
Apart from the new Fez images — looking fantastically more intricate than its last IGF-winning showing — and a link to a more conceptual look behind the making of the Offworld-debuted super HYPERCUBE, the site earns my new latest What’re They Building In There Award for the cropped shot of their upcoming iPhone game (abbreviated ‘PP,’ it seems), and the super hyper lens-flared project ‘Z’.
All in due time, I suppose: it seems focus #1 is pushing Fez into our hot hands in 2009, and I’m equally excited to see what sort of futurist design ephemera might come out of its currently greyed-out store.
Previously:
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
Bringing Gamma home to you – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
REQUIEM FOR A REPUBLIC: WIPEOUT DESIGN GROUP FOLDS
Sad news via design blogs this morning, as Creative Review confirms earlier speculation that Sheffield, UK design group The Designers Republic has officially folded as of this past Tuesday. The group is, of course, most recognized in the games sphere as the visual identity group behind Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool’s Wipeout series.
Its bold, flat fields of color and laser-cut sharp lines helped define not only the future-feel of the racing franchise but to an extent the PlayStation ‘experience’ itself, as it would do again — in spirit — at the launch of the PlayStation Portable, and its influence could be felt elsewhere in places like the early output of Harmonix, particularly Frequency‘s thick-vector ‘FreQs’.
The original Wipeout is available for download on the PlayStation Network (as well as the PSP’s Pure and the PSN exclusive HD remake), and, of course, as revealed earlier this week, cutout costumes will be available in February for LittleBigPlanet for your own Republic memorial levels.
The Designers Republic Is Dead; Long Live The Designers Republic [Creative Review, mitDR home, pho-ku archive, wip3out home]
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SPACE INVADERS GETTING EVEN MORE EXTREME?
I’m not usually one to get taken in by retail conjecture, but Siliconera updates this morning with speculation that Taito might be returning to the DS with more Space Invader Extreme via a listing from import house Play-Asia.
The site gives credence to the rumor based on Play-Asia’s past record, but it’s not just the importer that’s listing the game: amazon.jp and the Eastern wing of HMV also have entries for the game, all with the same inexplicably imminent March 26th release date (which may indeed even pre-date its Xbox Live Arcade release).
It’s not too much of a stretch: Taito clearly has its sights set on continuing to evolve the franchise, and as one of the best games of last year, we would certainly not be complaining.
Space Invaders Extreme [via Siliconera]
Previously:
Space Invaders evolve on Japan's mobiles – Offworld
Space Invaders Extreme for XBLA comes with retro extra – Offworld
PlayStation Network getting besieged by Space Invaders Extreme …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
THE GAME-CAKE CHAMPION MIGHT BE SETTLED
Say what you will about the game-cake meme, but it’s not often that the cakes themselves are playable, as with quintanaroo’s Cupcakes of Catan. Plus, it’s not often that you discover that they’re not the only edible versions of the game, competing against the Pizza of Catan and the Gingerbread of Catan.
Initial Set-up for Cupcakes of Catan [Flickr, via Wonderland]
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SCEENE-AGE KICKS: NES INSPIRED FOOTWEAR
Nike’s NES-schemed shoes a bit too subtle for your tastes? Consider Etsy seller SceeneShoes’ wares, which are custom printed canvas slipons made to order. The site lists Zelda, Mario, and Mega Man examples, but none better than these bejeweled Tetris kicks.
Sceene Shoes [via GamOvr]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
TOUMA SHARPENS ANIMAL CROSSING’S CLAWS
It’s been since Christmas since I’ve properly flushed out my vinyl toy feeds, and parsing through it today, I came across more fantastic razor-sharp Touma crossovers. As first mentioned in early December, the Japan based designer has been working almost exclusively with Capcom and reshaping the game’s Felynes into these more malevolent counterparts.
In the meantime, Touma’s both shrunk the originals down into cellphone straps and is preparing a second round of the full-size beasts, this time all more properly armed.
Even more wonderfully, on display in an undisclosed location in Japan, a series of customs including not only a fantastically stylized Mario, but two one-off models of the black sheep of the Animal Crossing world.
[all via the delightfully named ‘luciferjackass’s Taiwanese blog]
Previously:
A Felyne of your very own – Offworld
Reactor-88's Dig Dug Dunnys – Offworld
The Munny shot: Earthworm Jim edition – Offworld
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IMPERIAL JUNKIE & KISER: PIXEL FASHIONISTAS
Found via a trip through online fashion outlet Karma Loop, this set of games-brut Ts and hoodies from Imperial Junkie and Kiser doing Space Invaders and Galaga chic.
From L to R: The Spaced Invaders Tee, The Galaga Junkie Tee, The Space Junkie Hoodie, The Space Invaders Tee.
Karma Loop [Thanks, Aaron!]
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CATCH SOMETHING: CHANNEL 4’S PROJECT ROUTES
Another development I’ve been keeping an eye on (as it’s being produced with the help of Boing Boing/Offworld friends Alice Taylor and Margaret Robertson) but haven’t yet mentioned is Routes, from UK TV network Channel 4. Ostensibly a half-interactive/half-educational look at the science of DNA and disease, the 8-week project launched smartly with Breeder, a viral campaign to cross-breed and mutate — quasi-Spore style — a creature with other Facebook and MySpace users.
But now it’s gone even more literally viral with Sneeze, a game designed to hammer home the exponential rippling effect that airborne contagious diseases can take. Here it’s played out with something wonderfully akin to Q Entertainment’s Every Extend Extra or k2xl’s Boomshine: you’ve got one sneeze to try and infect a maximum amount of wandering passers-by, whose delayed sneezes then, hopefully, continue to infect everyone across the board.
There’s six more games to go, and they’re just a part of what Routes is offering: the film side is currently following the ongoing story of comedian Katharine Ryan and her battles with lupus, and, underneath it all, alternate reality gaming fanatics unFiction quickly discovered that there may, in fact, be “ARG in these here waters,” and have promptly commenced sniffing out clues where they can find them.
Routes [Channel 4/Wellcome Trust]
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PUZZLE QUEST: GALACTRIX PC DEMO SUCKER-PUNCHES PRODUCTIVITY
Showing no signs of letting schedules return to normal, publisher D3 and Infinite Interactive have followed directly on the heels of their initial online Flash demo of sci-fi puzzler and Real Ultimate Timesink Puzzle Quest: Galactrix with an even more extensive PC demo, available via Big Download.
Unlike the Flash version’s battle-mode only limitations, the PC demo lets you play the first good hour or two (by my watch) of the game, and get a feel for its overworld, mission structure, and ancillary activities like asteroid mining, warpgate hacking and item crafting.
The verdict? Everything feels comfortably as if it was in the same spot as you last left it despite the galactic overhaul, from the frantic time-based challenges of its hacking minigame (here scoring matches in a set sequence rather than against an opponent) and familiarity of crafting and mining — it certainly earns the Puzzle Quest in its title.
But it also hints at much greater complexity to unfold: shuttling mined ore to the outposts that pay the highest price, your eventual bank of three ships with configurable weaponry (Galactrix‘s versions of PQ‘s spells) and crew that can be recruited throughout the quest.
And that’s just the overworld window dressing. As I noted in the last look, Galactrix‘s battles (particularly its shield and mine mechanics) push it well beyond simple tile-swaps, and both its shape and its omni-direction lack of gravity light up an entirely different part of your brain. It’s as fresh and initially baffling as it was to move from Tetris to Lumines — the language is the same, but the syntax is incompatible.
D3 also announced today that the game will be coming to the DS on February 24th, with a still-nebulous “early 2009” for its PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network release, good news for a wait that’s already felt too long.
Download Puzzle Quest: Galactrix [Big Download, game site]
Previously:
You’re my obsession: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix demo goes live – Offworld
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 1: PuzzleQuest hit the iPhone …
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
