The Black Heart – free, blood-soaked 2D fighter

Download The Black Heart here.

Schlick!

It’s a simple fighter game with over-the-top combos. I used to like fighter games, when they were this simple. There was a brief period in the nineties where there was something of a blood splatter arms race between fighting games. I miss those times, because I am old, and because they were good times.

"Winners Don't Use Drugs"

The fighters look like they were drawn in MSPaint, but they animate quite well. The style is a weird mix of Asian and American horror, heavy on the Asian, but not too derivative. Then again, what do I know?

It’s well past midnight, the heater’s been on too long, and this game is kind of making me feel weird. I have to say, though, I really like Animus. He just seems like he’s having such a good time.

Looks like someone found the LeMarchand configuration.

The game supports your typical fight-the-ladder Story Mode and VS., but also an intriguing co-op survival mode, in which you and a friend try to last as long as possible against constant fighting. I haven’t tried it yet, but it should keep my interest a bit longer.

Random blades shooting out of the floor is a fairly common occurrence.

Top-Secret Photos from Last Night’s IL-2 Game

Listen up, nuggets. Some good… well, some very nice men risked their lives just this last night for your freedom. You’re sittin’ there, eating your corn chips, drinking your sody pop, when it was that thin blue line on the Pacific holdin’ back the four winds of Evil. Just remember, if it weren’t for these guys, you’d be eating sushi and watching generic anime on TV. *shudder*

Looks like Spelunky hit 1.0… and the big time

Click to download Spelunky!

I was just writing about Spelunky for my blog, wondering when it would hit 1.0, when BAM, front page of IndieGames:

Spelunky Coming to XBLA in 2010

No foolin’. And it’s got a real website, too:

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/original.html

Though it came out shortly before year’s end, I’ve pretty much thought of this action roguelike as my personal Game of the Year ‘09. It’s not immediately obvious, especially if you’re one to quit games the split second they get difficult (and this is one unforgiving game), but the acrobatic stunts and the unexpected interactions of simple mechanics really add up to a charming and deeply fun game.

It kind of irks me that, like Cave Story, Spelunky will be getting the special treatment (better graphics, some unspecified extras) for its console debut, but fortunately, Derek Yu is a man with his feet on the ground, and the Windows version will continue to be free. XBLA exposure isn’t exactly a bad thing, and it’ll put a few dollars in his pocket. Good for him, I say. Plus, the interest may well spawn new variations on the action roguelike.

(Personally, I don’t own and have no interest in owning an XBox, but if the improved version of this game hit the Nintendo DS I’d be all over it.)

Seriously, if you haven’t tried out this little gem, do so, immediately.

Game of the Moment: DoomRL

I guess I’m on a roguelike tear this week, because I can’t rip myself from DoomRL today.

Like Doom, it’s good, dumb fun… but not that dumb. The plot is still pencil thin, the demons are mostly the same as in the original. There is quite a bit of killing, and only slightly less dying.

However, unlike the groundbreaking 3-D shooter, DoomRL is rendered completely in text. Like any good roguelike, this means randomly generated levels, lots of weapon drops, and buckets of blood.

Probably the best thing about DoomRL, what makes it compelling at all, is its departure from the roguelike trend of growing complication. In ADOM, you have dozens of race and class combinations, an overmap, quests, a whole world to keep you busy. Dwarf Fortress is so complicated that it’s arguably not even a roguelike. In Nethack, you have ascension kits to build, endless spoilers to search, and enemies that you can cut into little pieces and store in tin cans for later consumption.

You don’t eat anything in DoomRL, unless you count the consumption of lightning and the defecation of thunder shortly thereafter. See a demon, kill a demon. Run. Do more of the thing you just did a few seconds ago.

In DoomRL, you run, you gun. All upgrades you make to your character have either to do with how you shoot, or how you run. (Okay, there are a few that have something to do with health.) There are two classes in DoomRL: Marine and demon, and you’re never a demon. Unless you pick up a berserk pack.

To most persons interested in roguelikes, DoomRL is old news. The latest build is about a year old. Hell, even I’ve known about it for at least a year.

DoomRL is simple enough for a beginner roguelike – let’s say streamlined instead – but its randomly generated levels, upgradeable weapons, bonus levels, and an overall novel approach (this roguelike has sound!) make it worth playing for those of us who walked away from other roguelikes out of a fear of lifetime commitment.

Download DoomRL.

A Brief Introduction to Decker, Part 3: Radio Shack Attack

Part 1 of this series introduces Decker and how it relates to the roguelike game genre.

Part 2 considers the part of the game the supports the action: character development, examining the cyberdeck, and obtaining or building new hardware and software.

In this post, we’ll carry out a typical cyberhit against a future version of Radio Shack, and snatch a little bit of something for ourselves in the process. First, however, let’s review our mission.

The Mission

We’ll rejoin our fledgling hacker at the hub. Click on “View Contracts” to review the mission.

When we’re looking for a mission, this shows a list of available missions. If we accept a mission (which we have), it shows the details for the current mission. Our contract states that all we have to do is break into the Radio Shack computer system, and disable the alarm systems. We’re probably facilitating a robbery or corporate espionage. Contracts can have more complex requirements, such as not setting off alarms, or even completely trashing a system. For now, we’ll be satisfied with something this simple, and the lousy payment of 105 credits.

Note that the deadline is in one day. If we disconnect for any reason, that’s a day’s work done. Reconnecting can only be done on the following day, so we better be done by the deadline, or our reputation will suffer.

Well, what are we waiting for, let’s indirectly hurt some people!

A Brief Introduction to Decker, Part 2 (cyberpunk hacking roguelike)

In my previous post, I introduced the graphical roguelike Decker, and how to obtain it and soften the harsh graphics a bit. Here, we’ll get into Decker’s actual gameplay.

Next to the graphics, the toughest part about getting into Decker is figuring out how to make a living as a hacker in the cyberpunk world of the future. Fortunately, the game itself has a decent helpfile, though you’ll be using the search function quite a bit at first. As this introduction continues, we’ll familiarize ourselves with the interface, and go on a quick mission. Then, you’ll be on your own!

Getting Help

Decker’s author has helpfully provided a familiar way to access documentation. To access the helpfile, hit F1 at any time. You’ll be provided with  context-sensitive help right away. However, I find that it’s rare that you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for, so you’ll be searching the whole help file pretty often. The good news is that most features are already pretty well documented.

Here’s an example: You’re new to the game, and you’re in the Matrix, fulfilling a contract for a client. You look to the left panel, and you see your software list, but you have no idea what anything does. What’s this “Silence” thing?

Hell, what are any of these things???

Hitting F1 will get you general help on the Matrix screen, but not the specific item you’re looking for, so you’ll have to search for it. To do this, click Index, then Find in the popup (see the image below). Type in the search term you’re looking for, and double-click the topic of interest, in this case, the “Programs” topic.

Unfortunately, you'll be searching the help file a lot.

“Silence” is highlighted in the helpfile, and we soon find out that the program, if successfully run, prevents ICE (enemies) within a node from calling  for reinforcements, allowing you to kill them with impunity. Nice. (Except, you will later find that they will come back, unless you deactivate the node responsible for their regeneration.)

Again, you’ll be doing this quite a few times as you play. Speaking of playing, let’s start a new game, and start committing some felonies!