Winners of the PDRoms Coding Competition #3.667 have been announced. There are seven entries, and all were created for the GameBoy Advance as per competition requirements. For the winners, and download links for each game, visit the official PDRC #3.667 forum thread.
You might remember a few months ago a game called Qui’Ifon (developer: ultim8p00) was posted about, which had some similarities to Cave Story. Since then, the engine has been reworked, its name has changed to The Undertaking and a new demo has been released, although apparently it was a rushed release so expect some bugs.
Author’s description: “It’s basically Cave Story meets swords meets Knytt (or Seiklus).” However, he also goes on to say that he wants to distance it from Cave Story.
Swedish developer Bits & Pieces Interactive brings us an innovative new twist on the paltformer genre with Fret Nice. The game can only be played with a guitar controller, requiring either a USB-to-PS2 adapter or a USB Xbox 360 guitar controller. Naturally, this will limit how many of you will be able to try it. If you have the ability to play this, however, you will be pleasantly surprised. Fret Nice is a recipient of the Best Game Concept Award at Swedish Game Awards 2007. It’s reviewer states that it is “a game with an innovative use of control, which impresses in many areas.”
The game will find you jumping to perform “air combos” that allow you to defeat the various enemies, as well as climbing, swinging, and slinging your character onto and off of various objects in the levels. In all cases gameplay feels fresh and is a lot of fun, while the nontraditional control method makes Fret Nice an innovative newcomer to the indie scene.
Name: Fret Nice
Developer: Bits & Pieces Interactive
Category: Platformer/Unconventional
Type: Freeware
Size: 28MB
Pekka Kana 2 is a charmingly old-school platformer where you must help Pekka the rooster save his friends after they were abducted by an evil crow. The author cites other platform classics such as Super Mario and Jazz Jackrabbit as his inspiration for the game.
As you journey across each of the 24 levels looking for the exit, a healthy array of bonuses, secrets and pickups are scattered across the landscape for you to make use of.
Name: Pekka Kana 2
Developer: Janne Kivilahti / Piste Gamez
Category: Platform
Type: Freeware
Size: 7MB
Linx is a simple yet challenging puzzle game created using Game Maker. Your objective is to link all of the similarly coloured nodes together. However, as you progress, the number of link pieces you are allowed to use is lessened, and nodes start to get in each other’s way forcing you to think carefully how to connect them.
Click a node with the mouse to select a link colour, then drag across the play area to drop link pieces.
Once you’ve completed the included levels, you can make your own with Linx’s in-built editor. A number of user-created levels are also available from the Linx homepage.
Name: Linx
Developer: MZ Games
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Enigma is a brain-stretching puzzle game similar to Oxyd and Rock ‘n Roll. The aim is to use your marble (controlled through the mouse) to open all matching pairs of the Oxyd stones scattered across each landscape, solving various puzzles and avoiding traps as you go.
Occasionally you will also encounter “meditation” levels where you must control two or more marbles at once, your task being to manoeuvre each one into small pits on the floor.
The game has a large (1000+) library of levels split across various styles so there’s sure to be something for everyone. The download page has links to versions for Windows, MacOS and some flavours of Linux.
Name: Enigma
Developer: Daniel Heck and Co.
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 15MB
Download page: http://www.nongnu.org/enigma/download.html
Blazing Wings is a remake of the classic Atari shooter Wings of Death, and has been updated by Aligarion to version 0.6.1. The new version features a sixth playable level.
Aligarion reminds us to download the level six remixed music, by Nils Schneider, as well.
Name: Blazing Wings
Developer: Aligarion
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 5.6 MB (+ 40 MB for Music)
Hurrican is essentially a modernised, graphically-updated, feature packed version of Turrican. As with the original, the levels are large (and beg to be explored), the enemies come thick and fast from all angles and the game is far from a pushover. Due to the sheer number of features included, the controls tend to feel a little over complicated at times (there are so many combinations to remember) but the end result is still very rewarding.
Name: Hurrican
Developer: Poke53280
Category: Platform Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 40MB
Initially the screenshot itself caught my eye, especially because of my interest in art games. After reading a little more about the concept I was eager to try Blumenmacht (German for “flower power”). What I found is an intriguing twist on the top down shooter model.
The twist is in fact rather substantial in that the game has become largely non-violent. You’re no longer actually shooting down enemies, but engaging in a dance which fills the respective “ballerinas” with happiness. Some will undoubtedly be put off by this motif, while I was glad to see a game with such a unique artistic vision.
I found the game to be a little frustrating at first. The amount of visual stimuli can certainly be overwhelming, and it took me many tries to actually figure out what I was doing, despite an in-game tutorial. In a way, this is to be expected with a new or revised game concept. After some time, however, I realized that it was not quite as difficult as I thought it to be initially.
If you bear with it, and learn the ropes, you’ll find a very unique, stimulating, and enjoyable experience in Blumenmacht. Granted the game can see some improvements, and many have been suggestion in the forum thread. Yet there is something very good and appealing in its cacophony of colors and additional challenges will continue to present themselves in later levels.
You can also view a gameplay video here, via YouTube.
Name: Blumenmacht
Developer: Urs
Category: Shooter, Unconventional
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB
