WHILE WE'RE ON THE TOPIC OF ADDICTIVE INTERNET FLASH GAMES...

Following up on the Tutorial today where Kevin showed us a demo of the mind-fuckingly intense looking game "Hexagon".

http://distractionware.com/games/flash/hexagon/ (Try it, I dare you, my record is about 6 seconds)

The gameplay demo alone had me all tensed up, watching as this poor little triangle attempts to make a desperate bid for freedom while in constant danger of being squashed by giant hexagons. These aren't your regular giant, triangle crushing hexagons however, oh no, these hexagons hate the player, these hexagons change colour in sporadic flashes, their size changes, and their shape seldom remains the same.

If that all seems like a walk on the beach for you, just wait until you hear the music! Whack on a pair of your favourite Beats by Dre and tell me you're diegtically immersed then... The background music is like something reminiscent of a 1990's warehouse party in the back streets of Bristol; ab-so-lute-ly excruciating.

However, as soon as we were subject to this visual and aural atrocity I had to fight back the urge to yell out "ZOMG WHAT ABOUT SQUARES 2"!!!

This, my friends, is a cleaner, friendlier, more enjoyable 21st century version of Hexagon...


INTRODUCING....

SQUARES 2

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/squares2

SQUARES: Hexagons sexier, trendier, smarter, all-round GC little brother. And lets be honest, what kind of God-send/game allows you the pleasure of listening to Daft Punk - Revolution 909 ON REPEAT. 

To conclude - I personally was unable to be diegtically immersed with Hexagon as I was immediately put off by it's music, graphic quality, and how hard the game was itself. I feel like Squares 2 is everything that this style of game aspires to be - FUN; almost to the point where you could make it a social event (/drinking game), pinning your mates up against each other trying to get catch more squares than your annoying friend who's yelling too loudly. CHALLENGING; without being depressingly hard, granted you will never 'win' (or at least I won't), but you will always strive to beat your previous score thus being the best you can be. DIEGETICALLY ENGROSSING; I have lost count of times in my youth where I would spend literally countless hours saying 'oh I'll just try one more time to beat my high score', so engrossed in the game my parents would think I've gone to bed, next thing I knew my eyes were stinging from lack of blinking and it was 2am. This was my go-to game on my gutless windows '98 computer whom would frequently stall trying to load up "SkiFree". (Just on a small tangent - when Kevin was talking about how you physically freak out and move, being "situationally" immersed - I would literally lose my shit every time that yeti appeared on the screen, it was bloody stressful! Anyway, I digress...)

SkiFree (how's that for nostalgia)

A perfect balance of paideia and ludus, I score Squares 2 a 9.4/10




FTVMS - what do you think?