The Indies, February 2009
From the Center of the Earth to the Majesty of Space
2/17/2009 9:41 PM | 2 Comments | Page 2 of 3
But the most beautiful thing you'll see in the game is the clear blue sky, your meager accommodations and a small, sweet stretch of grass on the surface. The six-figure profits, with all those zeros, will also bring a tear to your eye.
Walkie Tonky
Throwing objects and kicking like a sissy are your only means of defense.
is the William Foster of videogames; like the down-on-his-luck defense worker in "Falling Down," Walkie commits acts of wanton violence against society for no apparent reason -- but in the end, you feel kind of bad for the guy.
In the simple, side-scrolling
Walkie Tonky, you use the environment and the objects around you as weapons. Walkie can raise or lower his legs to change his height (to walk over objects), grab and throw objects (mostly at other objects that are attacking him, like helicopters, police cars and tanks), and kick the clutter at his feet so that he doesn't get stuck or trip.
Sent to invade the Earth, Walkie kicks and throws his way through the streets of some bleak, unnamed metropolis, destroying anything he can. Naturally, the human race is having none of this, and Walkie figures this silly little romp is probably going to end badly for him.
Walkie can catch these red-hot bullets if he's quick enough.
Walkie's a killer robot, but much like Foster, he is so sad and so flawed. He's a big clumsy oaf who can't handle the clutter of buildings and vehicles under his awkward footing, who gets his skull split by red red-hot bullets lifted from
Super Mario Bros., and whose only saving grace is an occasional heart he holds up to his broken metal skull.
You feel like it is the humans that are the bad guys here. But like Foster, Walkie is a monster, a destructive son of a bitch just trying to destroy the world -- he's just not very good at it.
Lost Labyrinth
A dragon, three Krakens and a mage walk into a bar...
is the everyman version of
NetHack or
Angband, for those too spoiled to try a game that doesn't involve sprites, animation and mouse-driven movement. With those requirements in mind, this little gem of an open-sourced RPG game looks beautiful and is very easy to play.
It's described as a coffee break role-playing game that can be played in 10 to 45 minutes. The goal is to go as deep into the dungeon as you can, collecting treasure, disarming traps, leveling up, and killing monsters until you succumb to whatever vile hazard puts you down for a big, fat dirt nap. In the spirit of
NetHack, everything in the game is randomly generated --- from treasure to monsters, non-player characters and exits -- which means that you'll never play the same dungeon twice. One other interesting fact is the way that you level up in this game: Experience points and skill distribution are awarded only to those that find the exit; meaning that you aren't awarded experience points for killing things.
Final Fantasy called...
The game is enhanced even further by some deep customization options that let you choose whatever kind of hero you want to create. You can play straight classes like Thief, Mage or Fighter, or mix and match skills, spells and proficiencies to make your own type of character. You can even give your character a series of weaknesses to gain additional points, though choosing the wrong thing will make you more of a martyr than a hero.
