We here at WingDamage consider ourselves pretty serious gamers. We play and discuss games on a regular basis; in reviews, opinion pieces, and the occasional anecdote. Everyone here has their own tastes, opinions, and feelings on what makes a quality game.

I believe everyone has a game that they have a special connection with. A game that you can point to, and confidently call it your favorite.

For me, that game is Cave Story. When Cave Story was first released, indie games were essentially quirky mini games you found on the internet. Cave Story’s independent status had no right to be as fun, thoughtful, and intelligent as it’s commercial cousins, Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of The Night.

Yet, Cave Story got it all right: great pacing coupled with tactile shooting and tight platforming. It seemed to come from a completely different universe as other independent games of the time. It is a game blessed with a unique hindsight that its contemporaries don’t seem to share, mixing and matching small elements of various classics games like Gunstar Heroes and the afore mentioned Metroid series.

Daisuke Amaya, nicknamed Pixel, imbues his world with its own feel. Some stages are light and fluffy, others are haunting and brooding, but they all share a distinct vibe. Pixel is a saint in my eyes, reportedly spending five years of his life dedicated to  programming and designing Cave Story from the under ground up (see what I did there?). Cave Story holds a unique honor of being one of the few games designed under a single man’s uncompromised vision. He never once had to worry about deadlines, budgets, or executive overheads messing with the game he made.

The game’s story wouldn’t have escaped the fist of a corporate identity. Entering a new game, you’re introduced to a voiceless amnesiac (known to the fans as Quote), who just so finds himself trapped in a lonely cave. After stealing a gun from the local, slothenly gunsmith, he escapes his prison only to find his self mixed up in the cause of the Mimiga’s, the local bunny-rabbity thing’s.

The Mimiga’s dwindling population are in constant fear of raids by the tyrannical villain simply known as “the Doctor”. Quote befriends the kindly young Toroko, a villager who has been mistaken by the Doctor’s hounds as a mysterious Mimiga named Sue. Toroko is kidnapped shortly after your discussion with her, a battle with the local witless henchman Balrog ensues, and then you’re off to rescue Toroko and discover the secret of the mysterious Sue. Fairly kiddy stuff, right?

Cave Story is a bleak, bleak game. Possibly the bleakest I have ever played. How Pixel was able to infuse his cutesy retro-graphics and music with such a sense of dread and melancholy befuddles me. He conveys more emotion in a single five minute action set piece than any over-produced cutscene could ever dream of.

Pixel evolves his game into a living, breathing universe. You can almost feel the weight of history in the world’s scenery, the dialogue shared between characters, and the events that carry you through the world. I don’t know where Pixel mastered the art of pacing, but I only wanted to explore this world more and more. It’s a game that demands you keep moving, and you’ll find yourself totally willing to comply.

Cave Story ends with an epic gauntlet of boss battles, where your skills are put to the ultimate test. Struggling through to the very depths of hell, Quote earns his happy ending. In a medium nearly devoid of soul, where good graphics and a few gimmicks can get you rave reviews, Cave Story has an ending with actual heart. I’m always glad to come home to Cave Story, and remind myself of a time when you could feel the care put into a game.

The WiiWare version of Cave Story delivers what is hands down, the definitive version of the game. This new version features widescreen support, brand new art from Pixel, and a slew of bonus features.

The one discrepancy I had was with the revised soundtrack. I had a hard time listening to it, seeing as they completely misinterpreted the tone of the soundtrack. I can count on one hand the tracks that capture the spirit of the game. Worst of all, there are little flaws in the transitions keeping them from steaming continuously between scenes as they do in the original PC game.

Play Cave Story. Play it now. It isn’t a long game, but it’s just long enough. You owe it to yourself to at least try the completely free PC version (Here, I even provided a link http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/downloads_1.php) and savor it. You’re playing a lone man’s vision of game design in tangible form, and my favorite game of all time.

Games can grip you for many reasons; good stories and characters, interesting gameplay, or a fun setting to name just a few. With their independent title, Machinarium, Amanita Design has combined a point and click adventure game with traditional puzzles and an entertaining story of lost love and robots.

Machinarium uses a very unique visual style of very detailed hand-drawn,  sprites and backgrounds. They have created an interesting world made of robots and mechanical devices that is bursting with personality.

I first saw Machinarium in action at PAX. At a quick glance, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I thought it was some kind of still screen or digital storybook page. I was intrigued when I finally saw the characters in motion. In some adventure games, the characters and backgrounds stand out from each other. They end up looking like they are from two different artists whose styles don’t mesh. This is definitely not the case here. It is obvious that a lot of time was put into the creation of all the game’s assets to make sure everything fit in.

Machinarium has no dialogue. The story is conveyed through character action and occasionally through talk bubbles that contain animated sequences. You play as a small robot who finds himself in a junkyard. He has been taken away from the house where he happily works alongside his girl robot counterpart. There is a gang of three ruffian-bots that have been causing trouble throughout the city, and it’s up to you to stop them and rescue your friend.

The basic gameplay is a point and click adventure. The twist is that you can only interact with objects within your reach. Fortunately, the robot’s mid-section can be stretched out to make him twice as tall, or scrunched down to get to hard to reach places.

In most instances, everything you need to solve the puzzle is either on the same screen or nearby. It’s really just a matter of using your wits to put the pieces together. There are also several traditional puzzles and brain teasers that must be solved to progress. One sequence even has you playing through parodies of some retro games like Space Invaders and Adventure to progress.

There is a built-in hint system in case you get stuck, which has two parts. The first part is a thought bubble at the top of the screen. Once per area, you can click on it to show you what needs to be accomplished to progress, but not how to accomplish it.

If you are still stuck, part two is a sealed book, which requires you to play through a very basic Shoot ‘em up (shmup) mini-game to unlock. If you make it to the end, it shows you step-by-step how to solve the room you are currently in. Take notes, because you have to play the mini-game each time you want to look at it.

Machinarium is a game I can highly recommend. The puzzles are fun and challenging, but have enough logic to keep you from banging your head on the keyboard in frustration. The world and the characters are very charming. The high level of detail in the game’s artwork really adds a lot to the experience. When I think of games that have stories and characters that will stick with me, Machinarium rises high on my list.

Small Worlds is a browser based casual platformer that was created for the Jay is Games “Casual Gameplay Design Competition #6″. While it can be finished in just a few minutes, it is one that has stuck with me for days.

You are alone on what appears to be some sort of science fiction base. The base appears to have sustained heavy damage and it’s up to you to restore power to one escape pod. You do so by traveling into different worlds where missing pieces of the station have been lost.

The game focuses on exploration in a very interesting way. When you first begin, you can see your character and a few steps in either direction. As you explore more of each level, the screen zooms out to show more and more of the map. This allows you to see what you have explored of each world in it’s entirety.

This is a unique take on level design. It forces the game designer to stick to very small levels (hence the game’s title) or else you would soon be unable to see your character well enough to progress.

Since there are no enemies to fight, the fact that your character is continually getting smaller on the screen is not a detriment to controlling him. The visuals, while simple on the surface, are quite detailed and intricate once you have zoomed out an entire level.

The soundtrack is mesmerizing. This is one of those situations where the music fits perfectly with each game world and adds an ambiance that really shows what can be accomplished when working in multimedia entertainment.

There are only five worlds to visit, which is a shame because it really got its hooks into me. I would love to see a more fleshed out version of this concept. Maybe someday we will see a full version of the concept emerge on a download service like Steam or Xbox Live.

You can play Small Worlds on the Jay is Games’ website for free.

Wii gets a lot of smack talk against it for being a kiddie baby system for little baby kids. Attempts at making Mature titles have been met with mixed results.

Bloober Team hopes to change all that with Last Flight, an episodic WiiWare title that mixes fast paced action-adventure combat, old-school beat-em-up flavor, horror, and a dark sense of humor.

Click below the break for more info and screens. Warning: The screenshots do feature blood, though they are of the cell-shaded, over-the-top, cartoon-ish variety.

The Story

You take the roll of Larry Adelman, a bald, fat, American culinary critic traveling around Europe to research his new book. Another passenger,  Anna (filling the role of sexy female protagonist), is transporting a body. As it turns out, it is the body of a vampire.

When the vampire inevitably breaks free and starts infecting people, it is up to Larry and his kitchen knives to save the day.

Gameplay

According to Bloober Team’s Executive Producer, Marcin Kawa, the gameplay is inspired by old-school beat-em-ups like Golden Axe and other classics. Their goal is to make a game that is easy to pick up and play for newer gamers, but has enough depth to keep even those of the core crowd interested.

Platform

Last Flight will be exclusive to Wii and will be released in four episodes as WiiWare titles. The team explained this decision was to make the game as accessible and affordable as possible. While a consumer may be willing to drop a few dollars to try the first episode of a WiiWare game (and hopefully get hooked), they are less likely to buy a full retail title from a lesser-known third party company.

Release on the Wii also means use of the unique Wii remote & nunchuck control scheme, something the team was very interested in pursuing. The combat revolves around a combo system where movement of each hand’s respective controller can combine in a wide variety of attacks and final blows. This variety leads to a combat system that will be easy to pick up, but still have a lot of depth.

While the Wii isn’t known for it’s mature titles selling huge numbers, the team believes in the console and that what consumers are looking for are good games.

Our Thoughts

From the screenshots we’ve seen of Last Flight, it is using the cell shaded look to it’s advantage. With Wii games, making them look great is all about style. The stills do a great job of this, but we’ve yet to see it in motion. We’ll be curious to see the gameplay in action once they release it.

If they can nail the in-depth control scheme they are going for, this could be the mature action-adventure fix people are looking for on the platform.

For further updates, check out the team’s main site BlooberTeam.com and follow Marty on twitter.

“Blueberry Garden” was developed by Erik Svedang with music by Daduk. The game was the winner of the Independent Games Festival 2009 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. This places it in such lofty company as “Crayon Physics Deluxe,” “Aquaria,” and “Darwinia.” So what is Blueberry Garden and what makes it so unique and fun?

To start, this is definitely one strange little game. It is a platforming game at its heart but one that plays differently than anything else. The protagonist is a rather odd looking fellow with a beak, who has the ability to float across the level with an almost dreamlike quality. He can eat fruit which affects the level layout in various ways. These changes are left to the player to figure out.

While there are little question marks scattered about that offer hints about what to do, the general feeling is that it is up to you to figure everything out. There is no story per se, but it becomes clear that someone or something has left a water spigot turned on full blast and it is your job to turn it off. As you go about gathering an odd assortment of objects to build a tower to reach the spigot, the water level slowly rises. On one play-through I missed the spigot by an inch and watched as the Blueberry Garden was flooded.

The music is truly remarkable. Daduk has crafted a truly memorable score that adds to the experience immeasurably. The soothing piano music and art style blend together beautifully to make you forget that drowning is imminent. The relaxing vibe is magnified by the art style which looks like a children’s book come to life. The music and art blend together and leave the player with a feeling of wonder. It is not often that a game is able to tap into that feeling of childlike innocence. I don’t think a direct sequel is necessary, but I for one want to know more about this strange little world and its odd little inhabitants. Hopefully, Mr. Svedang has another adventure in store for us.

While the game can be finished in about 30 minutes, it oozes so much personality and heart that anyone with an appreciation for originality has to give it a try.

For a measly $5 on Steam, I heartily recommend this weird and wonderful game.

“Today I Die” is one of those games that could not exist anywhere but the Internet. To describe it as simply a “game” is to do it a disservice. I think it would be more accurate to call it an interactive poem. It is short form gaming at it’s best. Something you can pick up and play with little to no instructions, that tells a powerful story in a very brief time frame.

You start with your character bound, underwater, drowning. While you don’t have a time restraint that she needs to be saved within, it’s still a bad spot to leave her.

By manipulating different objects on the screen with your cursor, you are able to change key words in the poem. By doing so, you change the enemies on screen, the backdrop, and even your character’s situation.

The game is very short, but I personally found the mix of the visuals with the poem very moving. There is not much I can say that would not give away key components of the game, so I recommend you go play through it now. It should only take you a few minutes.

You can play “Today I Die”, as well as Daniel Benmergui’s other projects at Ludomancy.com.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

"Not Shy About Their Love"

“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 – Jonah “spambot” Gregory

One of the bigger disappointments in gaming over the last several years, for me, has been the lack of new and creative adventure games. They are finally starting to get a small comeback through the efforts of companies like Telltale Games, but for some of us, they never really went anywhere.

The independent gaming scene has seen adventure games flourish. Many fan projects have been started, and many have died, never to be finished. I find it even more exciting when an original IP comes along that can give you not only an entertaining game, but a big dose of nostalgia to boot. Enter Zombie-Cow Studios, home of “Ben There, Dan That“.

“Ben There, Dan That” stars, and was written and created by, Ben Ward and Dan Marshall. As the picture at the top of this article shows, Ben and Dan are not shy about their love of Lucasarts adventure games from yesteryear. After a short intro sequence, you are treated with the characters’ living room, which is plastered with posters of Sam and Max, “Day of the Tentacle” and “Full Throttle”.

The game uses the traditional single button interface, which can be cycled through to make your character walk, look, use, and talk. As is usual, you collect items through the game to use in solving puzzles. Unlike a lot of earlier adventure games, especially independently created ones, the puzzles are relatively straightforward and use at least some logic, even if it is in a humorous, “making fun of old adventure games” sort of way. If you do get stuck, there is a spoiler-free hint guide found on the site.

The humor of the game mostly comes through in the dialog between Ben and Dan. The two banter back and forth about their current predicament, other characters you have encountered, and even the items you have been collecting. This is where the game really shines. The writing is very tight and the banter really works. You get a real sense that these characters have already been through adventures in the past together and that, by this point, nothing really shocks them. I assume that is because it was written by two real life friends, which transferred well to their in-game counterparts. Also, it is legitimately funny. This is not as easy to pull off as some people might think, especially in the context of a video game.

The Plot is a little thin and is really just an excuse to get the two from point A to point B while making the player laugh in-between.  Ben and Dan find themselves aboard an alien spaceship and have to find objects that they can use as keys to open the doors on the ship, all of which lead to various wacky dimensions from a world overrun by zombies (though you barely see any) to one where the entire population has been turned into super-heroes. While the scenarios are fun, they are a little short. Several of them are only one room.

Overall, I had a blast playing through the game and recommend it to fellow adventure game enthusiasts. It stands above many others in the indie adventure game scene.

Player 2 – Colin “MrColinP” Panetta

Before I ever even played “Ben There, Dan That”, I was coming up with ways for this review to leverage the game’s status as being independently produced, against what I predicted to be an underwhelming experience. “How do you review an independent game?” I thought, “Do you hold it to the same standard as a game that had years of development and millions of dollars put into it? Or do you lower your standards and placate to it as if it’s lesser?” The other thing working against “Ben There, Dan That” right out of the gate, for me, is that it boldly sets itself up as following in the tradition of the LucasArts era of adventure games. Big posters of Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and Full Throttle adorn the protagonists’ living room and it borrows Day of the Tentacle’s “jagged spiral” motif in many of it’s backgrounds and even it’s desktop icon. I’m sure the game-makers meant this as a tribute, but it also sets their game up to be compared to those works. As it turns out, both of these concerns were moot.

“Ben There, Dan That” has a lot of really great stuff going for it, placing it above the vast majority of other independently produced adventure games that I’ve played. Mostly, it’s that it has extremely high production values and they pay off in play value. The visuals are very slick. I’ve never seen anything made with Adventure Game Studio look this good. From a technical standpoint, the title sequence really blew me away. Now, I haven’t played an AGS game in years and the program could very well have advanced considerably in that time, but regardless, this game looks good in a way that shows that its creators have a real eye for making things… look good. For example, sometimes the character sprites subtly change color to match the palette of that particular area’s background color scheme. And the attention to detail doesn’t end there. There’s a lot of incidental character animation in the game; characters using objects, background characters moving about, and so on.

Humor is very hard to pull off in video games and I think I’m an especially harsh judge of it, but a lot of the jokes in this game really work. The designers have cast themselves in the lead roles and the humor is largely of the somewhat tired “snarky British dude” variety, but they have enough personality and wit to make it enjoyable. A lot of the jokes are also adventure game based, in a kind of meta way that’s genuinely cleaver, but I imagine it goes over most people’s heads. My favorite of these being when Dan remarks on Ben’s flawless ability to determine which objects he should pick up, and which to merely leave, with a sly remark.

The game’s two biggest weak points are the backgrounds and the story. The backgrounds are very sparse and hastily drawn. Doors are proportionally too small for the characters. Making them larger would have filled up some of the glaringly empty walls above. Elsewhere, three visitable locations are strewn about randomly. Arranging them in a more composed manner would have looked, and played, more fluidly. The story is essentially one extended sequence of “use key on door” and, without any real narrative driving the events, all we have left is the gameplay and humor to entertain us. They’re pretty good, as I said, but not necessarily good enough to completely sustain the entire play time of the game. Also, the sound design is really good, but a little sparse in some places where the silence was noticeable. But these criticisms are of a type usually reserved for games with loftier origins. That you can make these criticisms of this game is a testament of how far the designers made it with so little.

A part of why I enjoyed this game so much is that my bar was set to its low “independent adventure game” setting and yours should be too. But, if you’re looking for a classic adventure-styled, independent game you can get behind, you’re not going to do much better than Ben There, Dan That.

“Ben There, Dan That” is a free adventure game available for PC at Zombie-Cow.com