Smashing Super Twins

Game: Smashing Super Twins

Developer: Mark Swindoll

Platform: PC

Download link: https://marksw.itch.io/smashing-super-twins-fight

I liked playing Super Smash Bros. Melee from 2012 until around 2018. I got into the game by watching a match between old school Captain Falcon player Jeff "SilentSpectre" Leung face off against Ice Climber player Robert "Wobbles" Wright in game 2 of their loser's semis match at a tournament called "Mango Juice." I was really into playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl at the time and seeing people playing Melee so quickly and optimally really intrigued me. Video in question below (coarse language in the video, so fair warning):

Long story short, I ground out the game, found out I wasn't quite good enough, had a bad experience at a tournament one year, so I stopped playing. Then Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out and I haven't really looked back.

So why bring this up? This seems like some needless information, yeah? Well, I guess context is important when explaining my experience with this franchise. So coming into Smashing Super Twins, I thought it would be important to share such experience. Needless to say, Smashing Super Twins is like a bootlegged version of Melee where you can only play as one character, have one move, and can guard. It's ironically the fairest version of any Smash Bros. game I've played in all my years of playing these games.

Smashing Super Twins is very straightforward: knock your opponent off the stage more times than them and you win. No advanced tech, no character selection, no wavedashing, no l-canceling, no tripping, no rage mechanic, just you against the opponent in a one-on-one duel to the death. This is strictly a multiplayer game and has no AI to it, so find a buddy, or a willing person, and challenge them.

The game has quite a similarity to Divekick, wherein you can only attack in midair. While in that game you had essentially only two buttons to work with, Smashing Super Twins gives you more options in movement, like in the main Smash Bros. installments.

Is the game silly? Yeah, considering that the music of the game is a reversed version of one of the tracks from Melee, that being the Final Destination theme. It was made for Duplicade 2015 after all, where the goal was to make a 2-player arcade experience that lasts about 30 seconds and is essentially supposed to be designed as a bootleg. Overall, it pretty much succeeds.

Throughout my years of playing Super Smash Bros., this is one of the strangest fan games I've encountered. It's not super complex, but it doesn't need to be. It's a harmless bootleg that's pretty funny. I'm surprised the Smash fandom doesn't really know about this thing or even talk about it. I can see it being played at Smash Summit as like a silly side-tournament or something. I'm sure twitch chat would get a kick out of it.

Hell

Game: Hell

Developer: ahintoflime

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://ahintoflime.itch.io/hell

We all have our own vision of what Hell looks like. We imagine it as fire and brimstone, gnashing of teeth, or perhaps as just a state of mind. Our personal concepts are often based upon religious principles or off of the Divine Comedy, which, ironically, got accepted into religious canon in some sects of Christianity, but I digress. Hell is an interesting concept that has often been tackled in video games. Games such as Doom and Dante's Inferno have you battling in the depths of Hell itself, while games such as Agony have you stealthily exploring the place. So yeah, we often get depictions of Hell widely accepted in the likes of being a terrible place to be, but what about emphasizing the "state of mind" aspect of it? Well, you're probably not going to find an easily accessible game to play. The closest you'll probably get to Hell being a state of mind is in ahintoflime's effort known as Hell.

Hell is a game that was made for A Game By Its Cover 2017, a game jam where you create a game based off the cover art of a Famicom cartridge created by Famicase. Setting some self parameters for himself, such as creating a game in a genre you don't like, ahintoflime developed a point & click game for the jam that explores Hell. The game has some items you can pick up that can affect your playthrough interactions. The game is a short point & click adventure that lasts roughly around 5 minutes of play time.

It's interesting how Hell presents itself. You're not entirely sure where you are in this world. The only clear thing is that you are dead and you feel mopey. The graphics are presented in a black and white, grainy aesthetic, that is very reminiscent of grainy black and white stills you'd find in a history textbook. It's a very moody world that is being depicted here. I'm not entirely sure if it's Hell, but I guess we can assume it is Hell. After all, you are dead and you aren't exactly in a chipper mood.

The world does feel rather interesting though. It feels like a nightmare that plays more off of the fear of the unknown and surrealism. Hell also likes to play off of other types of fears too, like the fear of giant bugs and clowns and the like. It just feels like a very strange nightmare that you can't wake up from, even though your short play session will say differently. If there was any complaint to be had from my end it would that I wish there was more to explore and the path wasn't so linear, despite the branching of paths.

Hell is an interesting game that I kind of wish had slightly more depth to it but considering it's a small project, I feel like that'd be asking too much from it. For what you get, Hell is an interesting experience that is neat to look at and interact with. For a genre he doesn't like, there is quite a bit of potential to be had from ahintoflime's game. I wonder if he might try expanding upon this concept in the future, though I'm not sure if he would entirely want to. But who am I to judge?

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK

Game: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK

Developer: Nathalie Lawhead

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://alienmelon.itch.io/everything-is-going-to-be-ok

I'm the "weird one" when it comes to my group of friends that I have in real life. When I'm in the mood to, I will often show some stuff to my friends that I find entertaining and see their reactions to said stuff. Some are adventurous and end up laughing worriedly at the stuff I share while others are completely averse to the idea. Perhaps it's to keep their sanity intact, or perhaps they just aren't very adventurous. I don't know. It is a great mystery. I guess I can call myself adventurous when it comes to media in general. I'm always looking to try out something new or something that I haven't experienced before. Will this get me in trouble in the future? I don't think so, but I do find it weird that a lot of people aren't willing to step outside of their comfort zones. Then again, I come from a flock of people that, wording this carefully, tend to be closed minded. They aren't really looking to try something that is way outside of their comfort zone, which on the one hand I get, but on the other hand, it is slightly frustrating in terms of sharing interests.

So why am I bringing this up? Because I'm about to share is pretty weird, even by my standards. That is Nathalie Lawhead's EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK, easily one of the weirdest pieces of media I've come across since discovering YouTube Poops back in 2007 (which I still enjoy to this day). EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a collection of small games and interactive pieces of media bundled together into a single package. Every single one of these vignettes is like a strange fever dream: it's weird, it's horrifying, but at the same time intriguing.

What has stuck out to me about Lawhead's projects, like Electric Love Potato and ARMAGAD (which I still need to play), is the presentation of her projects. Nearly everything is presented in a way that is hard to describe. I can't call it zany just for the sake of it, because that would more than likely come off as callous. It seems more like reveling in one's own weirdness to the point of just owning it, but at the same time, it feels grounded in a way where it comes off as a natural personality. Maybe it's because she's able to present her weirdness through her coding skills. Her presentation reminds me a lot of something that Adult Swim would spotlight or ask a commission for.

Such presentation is well expressed in EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK. Much of the vignettes talk of suffering and pain in a very nihilistic way. It's like the message it's getting across is that life's pain and suffering can't be solved by surges of forced optimism and "ignorance is bliss." This is especially exemplified in "PAGE 2" where when you ask the cute cartoon character if they are okay, they say that "everything is perfect" or "nothing is wrong" when they are clearly suffering from being impaled. When you ask for some words of wisdom from the character, they spout a motivational poster with random phrases that are just as meaningless as advice given on perseverance and finding meaning. As if needing "more of 'X'" is just not gonna cut it. I even got a randomly generated poster that said: "Optimism is never enough." Needless to say, that is very much true.

It's not just physical suffering. There is also social suffering! Like on in "PAGE 18" where your goal is to try to socialize in a conversation without making it awkward. This is difficult because ultimately you're in a conversation that you don't care about and when the conversation gets around to you, you are struggling to answer with a topic that is related to the conversation. If you go off topic, you increase your awkwardness level. It's an introvert's worst nightmare come to life!

With much of these vignettes, there is also some social media actions you can utilize in-game if you connect your Twitter account. For instance, "PAGE 6" has you creating your own nihilistic cult after finding out your wife is pregnant with someone else's child. When you reach the end of the vignette, you can name your cult and tweet about the members that committed suicide with you off the edge of a cliff. Yeah, this game is dark.

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a surreal fever dream of a game that is super intriguing to look at and play. Its nihilistic commentary on hardship and suffering is something to behold and is very relatable for those who have struggles in life, which is pretty much everyone. While I'm not one to think nihilistically, or at least not yet, I do appreciate some of the heavy realities that Nathalie Lawhead brings to the table with this game. For some of us, life is misery, and no amount of optimistic perseverance can save us from it. Sometimes, we just have to live through it and there isn't much we can do about it. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a game that I had the utmost pleasure of playing. It's quirky, dark, and at times pretty funny. Its presentation is stellar and its commentary on life is profound as well, even if I end up not entirely agreeing with it. Maybe I'm not supposed to though? I don't know. I'm not sure if I know anything anymore.

and i made sure to hold your head sideways

Game: and i made sure to hold your head sideways

Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson

Platform: Browser

Play here: https://q_dork.itch.io/and-i-made-sure-to-hold-your-head-sideways

I've stated before in my post about Kill Baby Hitler that I'm not too crazy about visual novels. I'm not one to immediately write them off as hot garbage without playing them myself, but I will say they aren't my cup of tea, mainly because of how drab the presentation can be. Interactive fiction can be done well if given the right application of its tools. One of those games that I have come across in my recommended feed on itch.io was and i made sure to hold your head sideways. 

And i made sure to hold your head sideways is an interactive fiction game made by Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson for FLATGAME Annual Jam 2016. The main idea was to create a game or visual novel utilizing the basic fundamentals of the Unity game engine; essentially using the game engine at its most basic of functions. The interactive fiction piece, without giving too much away, tells the story from the first-person perspective of our main character recounting the events of a party they and a friend went to while attempting to help the latter sober up before things got out of hand.

Normally, as I've stated before, interactive fiction isn't necessarily my forte. What I will say though is that this piece did manage to keep my attention because of its presentation. Its story is told very much like in a pop-up book format, from my perspective at least, and using the arrow keys to form the illustrations to continue the story I found to be incredibly charming. It also helped to keep me engaged while reading the story as opposed to just clicking away through heaps of text. Coupled with the black and white color scheme, it maintains a simple and intimate aesthetic, like the coupling of memories piecing themselves together when thinking back on an event that happened.

I also liked the way the story zigzags along as you progress through the story, like literally zigzags. As in the camera jumps from one picture to the next in a zany way. It helps give the game some personality. The music itself has this ambient vibe to it as if recalling a memory from the past. I found it charming, to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised by and i made sure to hold your head sideways as far as interactive fiction goes. I enjoyed the personality this little game had, how you pulled the pieces together like a puzzle. While this hasn't fully changed my opinion on interactive fiction as a whole, it does help take the idea of giving some more in the future a chance. Perhaps I'll cover another interactive fiction piece on this Frankenstein monster of a blog.

Planetarium

Game: Planetarium

Developer: Daniel Linssen

Platform: PC

Download Link: https://managore.itch.io/planetarium

I love space! Space is super cool. Realizing you live in a universe where you are as insignificant as a speck of dust is both saddening yet intriguing to think about. Teams are always on the search for exoplanets, especially ones that could potentially be teeming with life. Now, I could always boot up Space Engine and explore the far reaches of a procedurally generated universe, or boot up Elite Dangerous and live life as a space trader or explorer in the Milky Way galaxy. However, sometimes, I just want to look at cool looking planets that could potentially host life on them. I could search for them in Space Engine, but that can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. Sometimes I don't wanna put in the work and just have planets be generated for me in a piece of software. That's where Daniel Linssen's Planetarium comes in.

Planetarium is a software which generates planets. It generates planets based on the lettered characters that are typed in, essentially acting as a seed for what planet gets generated. There are millions of combinations of letters you can put into the system to the point where it's futile to figure out just how many exactly you can generate. All planets that are generated are Earth-like planets that have the potential for life. You can also rotate the planets left and right, along with looking at their moon system when applicable. You can also take screenshots of planets you think are cool and save them in a folder.

If your goal is searching for Earth in Planetarium, you're going to be spending a lot of time with this software. It's not so easy as to type in "Earth" and you get a planet accurate to the proportions and geography of Earth. You're going to have to sort through a lot of planets before you find one that closely resembles Earth. It more than likely is one of 150 secret planets that you can discover in this software, which is one of the reasons to keep searching for planets to generate. They are elusive, so it'll take some creativity to find them.

I haven't fully uncovered Planetarium's secrets, but my love for astronomy does bring me back to software such as this. Planets are cool to look at, and if we ever get technology powerful enough to get a visible look at exoplanets, perhaps our fundamental understanding of how the universe works will continue to change. Until then, we can always imagine what Earth-like planets look like way out in the cosmos, with Planetarium giving us an albeit pixelated start. 

Rain

Game: Rain

Developers: DDRKirby and Kat Jia (Cocoa Moss)

Platform: Browser

Play here: https://ddrkirbyisq.itch.io/rain

Got another weather-based game to speak about. Previously, I took a look at the game Wisper, a game where you control the wind to help an island's inhabitants. This time I'm taking a look at something a little bit different. Instead of wind being our weather pattern of the day, this time we'll be accompanied by rain. The rain has this sort of vibe of to it, like somberness, sadness, and sometimes intimacy. There seems to be this feel to rain where you just want to stay indoors and cuddle with someone or something and just hang out and stay dry as you listen to the rain pelt the roof of your home and the thunder rumble in the distance. The collaborative work of DDRKirby and Kat Jia have a somewhat different approach to rain though, with Kat Jia commenting how they and their programming partner love the feeling of walking in the rain. These two try to invoke this sort of wonder through their collaborative project called Rain.

Rain is an atmospheric flash game where you control a child walking through the rain. No enemies, no time limit, no end goal. You simply just walk in the rain and soak in the atmosphere. The atmosphere of this game is great. The graphics have this intimate, childlike drawing to them, and having you play as a kid sort helps with this feeling of innocence as you walk through the rain. The sound design is also rich, with the pelting rain and the booming thunder in the distance. All of this, coupled with the soundtrack, give this game quite a bit of personality.

It's kind of hard for me to put into words the kind of feeling Rain is looking to invoke, to me at least. The mood I get from this game is a sense of childlike wonder of playing in the rain, without the baggage of getting sick from being in it for too long. All of the elements of this game combined give this sort of intimate feel to it, like a passion project from somebody, even though it is small in scale.

Rain is a short, but sweet little game. If you're looking for a small game with a good sense of mood to it, I recommend playing this game. It's not exactly grandiose in scale, but it doesn't need to be. Sometimes some great mood setters come in a small package.

Wisper

Game: Wisper

Developer: Sunshore Studios

Platform: PC

Download link: https://sunshore-studios.itch.io/wisper

Where the wind blows, no one knows! The weather is known for its unpredictability. Chaos in its most natural form here on planet Earth. But what if we were able to tap into that kind of power and harness it for good? Well, for one, you get windmills, which we have already accomplished. But what if we were to harness it for good? Well, you still get windmills. ...okay. Then how about harnessing the power of the wind to help those in need? Okay, technically you still get windmills. Look, I'm trying to segway into talking about the game Wisper.

So, what is Wisper? It is a game where you control the wind to help those in need on the island of Sunshore. You must rid the island of the troubles that plague the inhabitants, and bring good fortune back to it by using the power of the wind. Solving the problems of Sunshore's inhabitants has you collecting tokens that represent the curse on the island and return them to the shrine so that good fortune may return to the island.

When I first saw Wisper, I found the game bearing a resemblance to Flower, a game that saw its initial release on the PS3, and a game I played briefly when it was showcased at my city's art museum for its special exhibit about art and video games. While it bears such resemblance, Wisper has a different approach than Flower. The latter was looking to get an emotional experience out of the player. I'm not going to act like I should be comparing Wisper to Flower on a fundamental level, as I don't think that would be fair, considering that Wisper is a senior project made by a small team at a university as opposed to a full-fledged game released on the PSN storefront. That means we've gotta be more laxed in attitude when looking at this game.

Overall, this game is pretty laid back in attitude. Even in the troubles that the island's inhabitants are going through, the game is really upbeat and relaxed in tone. The problems you have to solve range from helping a child swing on a swingset to help rebuild a sandcastle to getting a gust of wind for a child's kite. Yeah, not exactly superheroic duties to be had here, but help you provide nonetheless. Anything will do for your friendly neighborhood gust of wind.

I think my only major issue with this game was getting used to controlling the wind. The controls feel slightly alien at first, but over time I got used to them. Something else I should probably address is that you may want to complete this game in one sitting, as I have had issues reloading my save file. I'm not sure if this is a widespread issue, but I thought I might as well address it.

Overall though, I enjoyed my time with Wisper. There's a lot to explore and the island is quite large, with plenty of space to move about. It's pretty impressive for a senior project, and I do wish Sunshore Studios the best of luck out there when it comes to making games. Maybe I'll look at something totally new from them in the future. Who knows? Wherever the wind takes us!