hippochippies

Tag: Free

  • Baba Is You Is 2017’s Best Puzzle Game

    Baba Is You Is 2017’s Best Puzzle Game

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    Remember that feeling we had when everybody played the first SUPERHOT demo? Baba Is You reminds me a lot of that.

    It’s a simple idea that’s so creative I don’t know how we haven’t seen something like it before. You’re asked to move a small creature named Baba around a space, and spell out your own game rules and win conditions using words in the environment. You might see “Rock is Stop” and “Flag is Win” but the flag is blocked by a wall of rocks that ‘Stop’ you. How do you get around them? Push the word “Stop” away, and “Rock Is” will be left behind, not activating any game rules, and the rocks no longer block your way. I promise it sounds way more complicated than it is.

    If you enjoy the feeling of solving a brilliant puzzle and feeling equally as brilliant as a result, Baba Is You will be right up your alley. Even solving the easiest puzzles in Baba gives an intense feeling of accomplishment simply because you’ve never, ever solved a puzzle quite like it before. About halfway through there’s an extremely satisfying moment where you realize the rules can be bent even more than you expected, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve discovered in a puzzle game this year.

    If you’re ready to bend your brain and make your own rules, give Baba Is You a shot on Hempuli’s itch.io page.

  • Banana Boy, Isaac, and Aesthetics

    Banana Boy, Isaac, and Aesthetics

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    This is another in a long line of tiny posts about arcadey high-score chasers. I like ’em, okay!

    You play as a flying head who slams into the ground violently while eating bananas with wings (Batnanas, of course) and maggots. Uh, gross. You control the velocity in which your head slams into the ground, aiming for bananas when you’re in the sky while angling yourself to land on the nearest pile of maggots to chomp. Avoid the chainsaws on the ground, though, or you’re in for a one-hit kill. It’s pretty fun and I’ve played more than a few rounds of destroying this poor man’s skull with misplaced slams.

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  • Talos Descent – Get Low, Score High

    Talos Descent – Get Low, Score High

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    This is gonna be a quick one, but it’s worth it.

    Remember that helicopter game we all played in middle school? The one where you keep tapping to keep the helicopter going to see how long you can keep it from touching the edges or any obstacles? This is like that, but vertical.

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  • Comedy + Tension = Bomb Squad Academy

    Comedy + Tension = Bomb Squad Academy

    You have one minute to defuse this bomb. You’ve already cut a few wires that you know were correct, but the system still hasn’t shut down. There’s 10 seconds left and you notice a big red button in the corner that says “DISARM” and you push it. You nearly throw your laptop across the room because the explosion sound effect is so terrifying.

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  • Suffer Through Bounce.wav With Me, Please

    Suffer Through Bounce.wav With Me, Please

    bouncyI just spent the last four minutes or so playing Bounce.wav, a game made by @Klewachu and @nightkenny for this month’s GBJam. I spent those four minutes dying roughly 30 times and making it through the first level. I’m about to go back and play more.

    This thing reminds me one of those “impossible challenge” games that flood your phone’s app marketplace. Incredibly simple, very few buttons to learn, but takes forever to make any progress whatsoever. The time between Start-Death-Restart-Death is, for me, around eight seconds. Bounce.wav is soooooo easy to start and figure out if it’s for you, I had to come back right away and inflict this punishment on others so I wasn’t struggling alone.

    You control a forever-bouncing square and you can move it up and down. It maintains momentum, so when you choose to move it determines whether or not you send the thing to its immediate demise. Make a mistake, and a fraction of a second later you’re back at the beginning of the stage, already ready to go again. Maneuver carefully, though, and you’ll be rewarded with a new level to bang your head against.

    It’s super simple, but I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. I played Flappy Bird for much too long, and Circle Spike for even longer. Get this on a phone and I’ll probably have killed a couple afternoons only to find myself on level five.

    If you’re ready to spend more time than you care to admit on a tiny time-waster, check out Bounce.wav on its itch.io page. Good luck!

  • Black Gold is a Tiny Taste of Kentucky Route Zero

    Black Gold is a Tiny Taste of Kentucky Route Zero

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    Can I please have some more?

    I love Kentucky Route Zero. The series so far is one of my favorite things to happen to video games in the past decade, and the wait between episodes is excruciating. There’s just not much else that captures the tone of KRZ, a tone that series somehow seems to maintain effortlessly. There isn’t anything like it… but Black Gold comes pretty close. (more…)