The Friday Fiver: Five Games For Under £5 Each!

Sometimes I feel I do not play enough games. Other times I play lots and don’t bother to write anything about them. To resolve this issue, I vowed to produce this feature for you this Friday for alliteration’s sake. The goal was to review five games that cost under £5. I would like to think that if any of these games gets a shining review then you would be inclined to have some weekend gaming fun with them. If that is achieved, then at least this has a further, more grandiose point to it.

Now, because I am one of those writers who pains over every word he writes usually, I am writing this in the most raw form I can muster. That is, to play the game and then write any thoughts immediately after in a form that would normally be restricted to my loud mouth, rather than the elegance of the written word. So be warned. Each game will be given a score out of five with 5/5 being the best score, and 0/5 (shudders) being the absolute rim of Satan’s fiery anus. Get the picture? Good. On we go then!

8-Bit Night – 4/5
PC
£3.46
BUY HERE!!

While the indie world awaits Phil Fish’s Fez, there seems to be no better time to loosen the stranglehold of anticipation by playing 8-Bit Night. It’s world-turning mechanic may seem like a more basic realisation of what we have seen in Fez, but at least you can play it right now and not have to wait for over four years! Ahem. I think it is the strong presentation that immediately lets itself known that stops 8-Bit Night from being a mere clone of an unreleased game (is that even possible?). Neon pixels are climbing my ‘Favourite Shiny Things’ list at an incredible rate, and 8-Bit Night only shoves it up even further. But it is the soundtrack appeasing my need for jeery chiptune melodies and funky bass lines that had me and my on-screen protégé bopping along with glee. The sound of him jumping is like a pepped-up version of the one that 2D Mario makes, and I kept jumping over and over again just to let it grace my eardrums for another second. Can a sound be addictive?

The core concept of flipping the world around to solve platforming puzzles is just as fun as I thought it would be. I especially liked having the phantom version of yourself acting as a marker to where your world flip would take you. Even better that the little squares that had to be collected to complete the level, also had phantom counterparts that, obviously, only your phantom self could collect. It would be a disservice to the efforts of the developer to glance at 8-Bit Night and scoff at it for its copycat concept. For one, Fez itself could arguably be called a copycat concept; deriving from the genius Super Paper Mario. If you need another reason, then if you take a step back and look at 8-Bit Night, it actually flips a 2D world, whereas Fez is a 3D world as seen through the eyes of a 2D character. Yeah, now you feel like an idiot, don’t you!

There are some neat little ideas packaged in a presentation that makes it very easy to play. The simple level-based structure also makes it ideal for playing during a quick coffee break; whereas Fez seems more fluid from level-to-level due to having a story to keep you running through. This is quickfire puzzle platforming that plays on a clever idea, and better yet, you can play it right now. To be fair, I cannot see anything wrong with the game, other than that its one background gets a little old after a while. I see enough rainy scenes of gloom as it is, living in England and all. If I was being more critical, I would have to point out that the world-flipping did not sustain much of an impact. It was a case of being amazed the first and second time, and then it getting old rather quickly. Whether this was the fault of the developers or just that I expected too much of it, well, I cannot tell you until I am shown otherwise. Hint hint, Mr. Fish!

TIC Part 1 – 5/5
XBLIG
240 MSP/£2.04
BUY HERE!!

I fell in love with TIC even before the main menu popped up. Flaunting its gorgeous saccharine background caught a glint in my eye; golden sunflowers, floating autumn leaves, sparkly blue skies and fluffy grass is a vision of paradise. The game itself, like so many others, has the preservation of this picturesque beauty as its hinge point. The aptly-named alien race known as Evil Corp are drilling for oil in the Pinehill Meadow, driving the race of molepeople underground and starving the nearby robot mining town of its oil. Mostly I did not absorb this outlined plot due to eagerly jumping up and down in my seat waiting for those stunning visuals to come back on-screen. When they did my mouth was wide open once again. I probably looked like an overjoyed anime character as I bathed in the warm glow emanating from my screen. Now with an added and equally joyous soundtrack and wonderfully smooth parallax scrolling, I was in heaven. God this sounds so cheesy, but I cannot otherwise think how else to describe my joy to you as this game opened up.

Then it got even better. As soon as I started I fell down a hole and found myself talking to Thorne, a robot living underground. He then told me to collect some acorns to power my drill. Using my Inspector Gadget-like hat-copter, I flew out of the hole and continued dodging the small drills trying to hurt me as I hunted for the acorns. Everything was so smooth, so fun, and so gloriously fresh feeling. Red Candy Games have really polished the presentation, and unusually the gameplay reflects this effort. Another mouth-opener awaited me as I charged my robot with energy using the red acorns and flew into space! In one level I have gone underground, through a beautiful meadow and jumped around space. Incredible! Upon being able to use my drill, the mission of each level then made itself clear – collect acorns, get a more powerful drill and dig underground to destroy the big evil drill on the surface. Simple.

After the first level I could not fault the game in any way. Put simply, I was loving it. But, as always, there was a catch. The second level was pretty much the same, except there was another drill to take out, thus upping the difficulty. The third followed suit but featured a little more time in space. Now, when I say “pretty much the same”, I mean that the backgrounds, enemies, characters, and so on, were exactly the same with just a few tweaks here and there. As much as that first level was seemingly perfect, it was disappointing that the developers failed to replicate the fresh feeling by ironically, replicating the level exactly. Twice. It was still very, very enjoyable but I cannot help but think that with just a new environment or level layout, that I could have had my mouth open in joy across all three levels. I find it odd that I come to that conclusion when a game like Sonic the Hedgehog, which does exactly the same thing (Green Hill Zone 1, 2 and 3), does not get faulted for it by me or anyone else. So, maybe I am just being fussy and unfair. Or perhaps this is the problem with releasing a game in parts. Regardless of my slight disappointment, I actually cannot wait until we see Part 2 released in the next area. I hope it incites the same feeling in me as this first part did. The developers are clearly very talented and I wish them the best of luck in the future, though I fear the Xbox Live Indie Games platform is far beneath them. They deserve a lot more attention.

Astralia – 5/5
PC
£1.49
BUY HERE!!
BUY HERE (Xbox 360)

Astralia – is that not how actual Australians pronounce their country of origin with their accent? But anyway, this game has absolutely nothing to do with our friends down under, it is actually a space shooter; but as it makes clear, this is NOT a twin-stick shooter. The game’s description of what it actually is, seems a little unsure and it certainly does not convince the player entirely about what to expect. But I can tell you that it is a shooter that requires the use of some basic tactics, rather than sheer firepower to conquer its levels. The plot is that basically there are some alien beings bombing around and destroying everything in their wake by manipulating a new technology, but as you are an old ship with old parts, this is not affecting you. Understandably, it is the up to you to sort out the problem. I am going to skip over the fine details but suffice to say, the narrative is quite easy to go along with and certainly adds to the overall experience.

When you first start playing you are going to feel overwhelmed because the controls on the keyboard are just ugly – you will see what I mean. But give yourself a few minutes to adjust and you will soon find yourself too immersed in the gameplay to care. There are two major differences with Astralia’s gameplay when compared to others in the genre: 1. There is no collision detection so that you just fly under and above alien craft, and 2. the use of drones to assist you in battle. The former allows the screen to be full of enemies, the latter contributes to the basic tactics I mentioned. These drones have to be constructed using Materia – the vital energy you must collect – and will then follow you around as a squadron. Balancing your use of Materia is a vital component of the game as its default use is to regenerate your ship after taking damage, which means when creating drones you are left very vulnerable. Materia is also used to fire your more powerful weapons, and this is essential. Although initially unsure about how such a delicate energy resource would transfer into the game, I soon got used to retreating to regenerate, and being careful to create drones and not go too heavy on the firepower. I came to appreciate the challenge of this mechanic very much.

As your own firepower is relatively weak and is so costly with it, the drones do become the saving grace and the outstanding highlight of Astralia. These mini ships can be flicked through four different formations. I found two of them were redundant but looked quite good if nothing else. The other two I soon found were best used as offensive and defensive. When retreating I would use the drones to circle my ship and act as a shield – very handy. But most of the time I was attacking so that meant whacking the A button (for attack obviously) to transform my little helpers and I into a horizontal line of rocket launching badasses! Those aliens stood no chance, that is, until I got to a particular escort mission and promptly had my ass handed to me. But anyway, there are other light RTS elements when you meet up with the construction yards who can create static turrets and the like to help you out. But it is those little drones that I soon learned to love that make me ecstatic about Astralia.

Fotonica – 2/5
PC
£3.19
BUY HERE!!

Fotonica may appear to be slightly pretentious just because it is one of those games that seems too preoccupied with being a ‘spiritual experience’. But that is just you making assumptions. Of course, its minimalist approach to design is something that will divide a population. The presentation is mainly wireframe, that is black with white lines forming shapes. Its gameplay is realised through one button. Any button. Your choice. By holding down this button you run in a straight line through the landscape. You are met with multiple paths though, obviously only up and down, and there are a series of pitfalls to cross. Letting go of your button will cause you to jump, and holding it down again in mid air will cause you to descend more rapidly. That is the game pretty much summed up.

There are probably plenty of people out there that are going to reference Mirror’s Edge when describing Fotonica, but those people are fools. Apart from the first person platforming, this is a million miles away. In fact, Fotonica more closely resembles Bit.Trip Runner and T.E.C. 3001 in its gameplay, although it is not as challenging and does move more towards that ‘spiritual experience’ in terms of its overall effect. At least to begin with. The first level is quite easy as expected and is a very delightful experience due to the relaxing harmonies akin to Prefuse 73′s finest work, and the accompanying graphical sereneness (yes that is a word). Each level has you building up momentum as you run along, providing you do not collide with anything solid. When you reach a certain speed the screen turns a hazy gold and the sounds are muffled as if underwater – its a pleasant experience and rather relaxing. This somewhat contrasts to the last couple of levels that are surprisingly and annoyingly difficult. I do not know how a game like this can even be difficult, but if I was to guess I would say that it is because it is hard to judge the end of a platform when travelling at such speeds. That, and being too ambitious as you collect the pink circles to add to your final score. They knew I would fall for something so brightly coloured.

Fotonica is rather short though and although presented well, did not enthral me to play the game again either to relax or for a challenge. By trying to do both of these things, it seems to cancel both efforts out. I am not a fan of its grunting male sound effect, or the way that your view is so obscured when landing on a pink sphere either. One thing I did enjoy though was playing its two player…against myself. It is actually quite possible considering that you only need to press two buttons to control both players. Although, it proved not so easy to concentrate on both at once – odd considering you can easily follow four narratives at once in Mike Figgis’ Timecode. Back to the matter at hand, Fotonica did not wash so well with me, but its certainly not a bad game per se.

Sequence – 4/5
PC
£3.59
BUY HERE!!

It was a good sign that I had already started getting my rhythm on in the main menu of Sequence; tapping out the beat of the soundtrack with the odd scrolling noises. I have to admit though, I was rather sceptical about its idea – an RPG that incorporates battle mechanics from the likes of rhythm games. The long-winded tutorial did not do much to help ease my worries either, nor the slow start. Fortunately the voice overs and script were delivered well so that should hopefully entice you to carry on playing through the trudge. The game seems to think that it is quite complicated when it isn’t really. Let me try to break it down for you – you have to fight your way up seven floors of the Tower. Each floor needs a key that is constructed from items dropped by monsters. Get the key, open the door, defeat the guardian and climb on up (Game of Death, anyone?). Simple. Of course, there is a lot of background organising; the intricacies of synthesizing items together, learning spells and sorting your range of cast-able spells before battle constitutes a lot of the playing time. Which, in consideration is a good thing, with a decent amount of depth provided in the game’s RPG components; stats, levelling up system and item management. Getting absorbed in all of these text-heavy screens would be inevitable despite its generally non-alluring presentation.

The mainstay of the game is the battle system though. Mostly, it is very well done despite seeming too complicated at first. Once accustomed, it actually turns out to be a very viable way to manage RPG style, turn-based combat – despite most of the work being performed by your fingers rather than your head. Well, that’s not true actually. This is typical spellcasting battles, but managed over three panels that correspond to mana, defense and offense. Arrows cascade down these panels, with hitting them in time having a different effect in each one. Plain and simply, the mana panel restores you mana. The defense panel will only have arrows when the enemy attacks meaning that every one that you miss will take some HP away. Similarly, when you press one of the numbered keys for a spell, arrows will travel down the offense panel, with any one being missed resulting in a failed spell. The best part about this system is that you have to manage all three of these panels at the same time, and when the game moves from too easy to its harder stages, it actually proves quite adrenaline pumping stuff. I was frantically trying not to take damage but would have to sacrifice this in order to get my offensive spell cast as failure meant waiting for the cooldown to expire again. This struck me as a quite genius take on turn-based combat, as previously indicated.

It didn’t take long for me to get stuck right into some button-tapping, head-bopping monster slaying, it was pretty fun. The backstage RPG management system was also realised to good effect. My problem is that the game is very static and the backgrounds are both repetitive and uninspiring. This made the game feel a little like a chore and may eventually prove to turn me away, which is a real shame because I think the battle system is both unique and worth my time. Still, it’s worth picking up for RPG fans. Don’t worry, the rhythm-based gameplay won’t make you feel like a girl, I promise.

If you want your game to be part of next week’s Friday Fiver, either follow me on Twitter: @CPriestman and send me a link. Or send me an email about your game at [email protected]
The first five entrants will constitute the article, but recently released or games still in development are preferred.