Even before the dreaded September - Christmas AAA Video Game Rush, my gaming has picked up to a steady clip. Here’s where I’m at:

In:

Snatcher (Sega CD) - Big Tip of The Hat to Chris at The Artful Gamer for steering me towards this one. In this post-apocalyptic adventure game, you’re an investigator trying to root out Snatchers — a group of robots, origin unknown, who murder people and take over their host bodies. Added Bonus: early indications of Hideo Kojima as an auteur, in a game that isn’t Metal Gear. I’ll have more on this later.

Contra 4 (Nintendo DS) - My girlfriend recently bought me a Nintendo DS for my birthday (which fell in January), and I’ve been making decent use of it. Contra 4 is unashamedly derivative, right down to near zen-like timing and patience required to surmount even the first level. That the instruction manual and menu play up and celebrate the retro, balls-to-the-wall action, apparently in service of Contra’s 20-year anniversary, only adds to the giddy fun of slaughtering wave after wave of aliens.

Out:

Cave Story (PC, free download) - It’s been called a “work of art” by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, but really it’s just a solid, fun platform game delicately woven into a nice plot. There’s no advancing of the medium here, just a faithful take on a time-honored genre, truly pleasurable from start to finish.

Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360) - I may add some more complete thoughts now that I’ve (finally) felled the final boss, but for now I’m just happy it’s over. Life is hard on the lonely island of “20-Hour Games Are Too Damn Long.”

On The Way:

Two empty slots on my Gamefly account and three games in my queue. Tempting the fates with Eternal Sonata, Elebits and Dead Rising. Which lucky ones will arrive in my mailbox? We report, you decide. Rock the Vote. Save the Whales. See you tomorrow.

Gamefly, Games as Art, Playlists, Free games | No Comments »

Instead of going to bed on time, I just finished playing through Karoshi 2.0, the title derived from the Japanese for “death by overwork.”

Each level of this game contains one way to commit suicide, and the player must find it to advance. At its simplest, you jump on some spikes, explode, and respawn elsewhere. After a few stages, though, Karoshi takes a diabolical turn and repeatedly tries new ways to mess with you. There aren’t many examples I can divulge without spoiling everything, but at one point the game feigns exiting to Windows before popping back on and reminding you it was just kidding.

Indies, Free games, Violence | No Comments »

The Internet (or at least the quadrants I run in) is abuzz with news that Target, the major retailer, is carrying a line of T-shirts with logos from experimental video games. What’s more, each shirt comes with a copy of the game.

Kevin Allen Jr. (who I linked up there) points out that the shirts are made by EGPApparel, which seems related to the Experimental Gameplay Project. I was vaguely aware of titles like “Tower of Goo” and “Gravity Head” before, but this should prove the catalyst for me to check them out while supporting the cause. To Target!

UPDATE 4/26/08: I went to Target on 225th Street in the Bronx the day I posted this. There were no shirts and the few employees I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about. Figures.

Indies, Games as Art, Free games | No Comments »

I had the distinct pleasure this week of playing Knytt Stories, a free game by Swedish developer Nifflas. The best description I read (can’t recall where) classified it as a non-violent Metroid, and the game hits a soft spot with me because it was created with Clickteam software, with which I tinkered during many of my teenage years.

This inspired me to research the author a little bit, leading me to an interview with Nifflas at Planet Freeplay that I found interesting. In one query, the interviewer laments the popularity of eye candy in commercial video games, and Nifflas responds:

Yeah, unfortunately. On the other hand, to me games are not that much about the gameplay though but more about the ambiance and atmosphere. Commercial games don’t often have much of that either (at least not an atmosphere that’s particularly unique for the game). To me, the atmosphere is all about the sound, graphics, and music but it doesn’t have to do with the actual sound quality or detailed high-resolution textures.

Conventional wisdom on this subject often splits into two camps: those that favor gameplay above all, and those that marvel over how much dynamic lighting you can fit on the screen. Nifflas appears to eschew both in favor of aesthetic. Granted, I think the gameplay in Knytt Stories is superb and the graphics aren’t so special, but the atmosphere really makes the game sing. Little snippets of music highlight new surroundings, and the minimalist nature of the scenery and sound give Knytt Stories a subdued but relaxed feel.

Indies, Free games | No Comments »