It's halloween time! And that means Wicked Basement will be releasing games that reflect an even more spooky kind of sensibility. First on the list is side-scrolling shoot-em-up gross out game, Abadox: The Deadly Inner War, where players star as a lil' cosmonaut fighting his way through the disgusting innards of an alien species.
The game starts you off with the worst weapon possible, but then after a few kills a few power-ups are available. Shields, sprayers, machine guns, all a part of the later portions, all of which you will desperately need to beat this game. The term "Nintendo Hard" has been used to describe this sinister sick-out-fest, but I would rank this 7/10 for overall hardness. Granted some of the restarts are bogus, only three lives are granted to you, and enemies fly at you in an almost unfair fashion, Abadox still maintains a fun learning curb that takes on an heir of NES supremacy. Sort of like how you felt after beating Dragon Quest before all of your friends. You had made it. Pro level shit.
So get ready for an epic battle from the disgustingly classical cannon (or the classically disgusting…?). Warm up the thumbs, order some take-out, be ready to throw your controller across the room. It's Abadox!
So I was a little dubious of Lakeview Cabin, given that every review site on the web gave it rave reviews and said things like "BLENDS HORROR AND COMEDY PERFECTLY". I thought, could this little flash game really deliver such a claim? The answer is, Yeah I guess so.
Finnish indie developer Roope Tamminen, who brought us games like Barbarium (which I love), Hallucivian, and Quantum Corps has created a fun little puzzle game for the demented, Room 237 fans in all of us. You start out as a red-headed vacationer, locked on an island with a few items at your disposal. The object of the game is to use these items to summon the physical form of a ghost who is creepily haunting your lake-view get away, then chop her into bits and destroy the curse.
Along the way are funny little functions like drinking beer, getting naked, or being caught in a bees nest. I'm not sure this qualifies as blending comedy and horror "PERFECTLY" but it was pretty funny. After your first random encounter with the freaky ghost lady, you should be able to summon her on command with the key "O". This will start up her ghoulish music and you better have a plan in line because she will kill you. Before getting too into the objective though, look around the island, smash boxes and check out some of the sights (binocular view of the left side of the island is a good one ;] ) for some funny easter eggs along the way. All in all this game is a cute, fun time waster. One can't help but laugh and then feel empowered when you figure out a new item or finally kill that bitch in the lake.
One thing that kept me on a consistent groan though, was the key issue. Let me just spoiler alert here a bit: You don't need the key in the bathroom but it unlocks some useful stuff in the shed. Take a log, throw it into the outhouse, chop it in the outhouse, the key will fall down. Okay that's all we're giving you. Play it below!
[The way sweeter Japanese game box to the original]
That's right kiddies, legendary RPG/Beat-em-up plat former "River City Ransom" is getting an OFFICIAL supercharged makeover thanks to the neoclassic pioneers, Conatus Creative.
Conatus's lead designer, Bannon Rudis teams up with gaming OG Yoshihisa Kishimoto to bring this epic NES classic back to life via Kickstarter. Rudis promises modern controls and smoother gameplay as well as new playable characters, a more interactive map and some very interesting, specialized combos/attributes for his new army of Techno-street-warriors. Alex and Ryan aren't the only ones charged with beating the snot out of everyone in River City anymore.
Currently the team is wrapping on pre-production so get over to their website and donate what you can to help them release this game as soon as possible. Also, check out the [PLAY HERE] link below for the original RCR and kick some asses in the meantime.
A nightmarish, futuristic, magnificently artistic, completely immersive dungeon crawl RPG/Platformer has made it through it's KickStarter phase and destroyed it's fund raising goal of $27,000 with a whopping $645,158.00. Fuck Yes.
Hyper Light Drifter is coming soon for PC/Mac/PS4/PS Vita/Wii U/Ouya and I am totally shitting my pants about it. Just watch this KickStarter trailer, WATCH IT:
"Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost technologies and broken histories. Our Drifter is haunted by an insatiable illness, traveling further into the lands of Buried Time, steeped in blood and treasure hoping to discover a way to quiet the vicious disease. Echoes of a dark and violent past from the dead eras resonate throughout and he can't help but listen."
I am aghast.
From what I can surmise, HLD will be a pretty serious game changer. The gameplay promises to be something like Diablo and A link to the past combined, featuring super quick combat, massive worlds to explore, frightening bosses, and highly intelligent enemies and NPC's.
The setting is superbly eerie, as creator and Lead Designer Alex Preston puts it,
"Visions for this game have been fluttering in my skull for ages; something dark and fantastic, with giant forests to navigate, huge floating structures to explore, deep crumbling ruins to loot, massive throngs of enemies to rend, and behemoths both flesh and mechanical to overcome. I want it all to be as beautiful as possible, forging color with the dark and eerie wastes and intimidating landscapes."
Preston works alongside Lead Programer, Beau Blyth aka "TeknoPants"(the genius behind Samurai Gunn) and Chiptune mastermind, Disasterpeace to create his dark and fantastic vision.
This is going to be such a wonderful melding of genres, a huge step forward for indie gaming. We anxiously await pressing play (and then B, many many times) <3
Yes, finally we got a fb and it is up and running for readers of the blog to post stuff too. Keeping it as more of a social project than the blog, most of WB's content will still be here but we wanted friends and fans to share their favorite Basement items along with us.
Lifeformed, which is the musical project of Terrance Lee, is a very interesting take on chip. Ambient filters create a chip+ type of sound that landed Lifeformed a deal with the creators of Dustforce (Steam), who asked him to score the game. Check out the score here, preorder Dustforce before it is out fully this January. Cheers!
Staying out of the spotlight has been RushJet's Modus Operandi for the most part but we hope to talk to him soon about his years watching chip explode. In the meantime, enjoy some of his great music.
What can be said about Cave Story that hasn't been said before? In 2004, a freeware game was released after 5 years of production by Studio Pixel (Daisuke Amaya) that would forever raise the bar for the retro indie game scene. Considered a masterpiece amongst gaming aficionados, Cave Story is a completely wonderful, immersive experience that tugs at your heartstrings and gives you that "new gameboy game on Xmas morning" feel. The. Whole. Way. Through.
A genius combination of games like Pokemon (Red and Blue), Zelda II, Contra, Megaman, and a touch of Castlevania, this game will hook you from the start. Filled with cute yet dangerous enemies, puzzle-like maps, and challenging bosses, Cave Story seems to take on that delightful middle ground between a casual everyman game and a Megaman style, "throw the controller across the room because the boss kicked your ass 3 times in a row" game. Luckily, save spots are frequent though, so if you ARE throwing a fit, deep down you know it's because YOU fucked up. This game is extremely fair to the player.
[Both versions of "Quote" the robo-boy]
In the game, you play the character, "Quote"(above), who is a robot boy from the "surface world", flung into an underground cave-like world, filled with rabbits (called Mimigas) and more robots who have been either damaged, powered down, or just kinda depressed.
Seriously.
[The mighty "Balrog"]
It becomes apparent over time that something called the Demon Crown was used along with hallucinogenic Red Flowers to take over the "above world" years before, that the Mimigas can be transformed into giant beasts with the flowers, and "Quote" has no recollection of this. Players uncover mysteries about Quote's past, make friends with various characters for item upgrades and attempt to stop the current antagonist from acquiring the Demon Crown again, taking over the world, etc. I am being a bit of a reductionist here but the story is actually very dense and interwoven with the NPC's that players meet along the way, good and bad. One of my favorite characters, Balrog (photo above) is that classic "Bad dude before, but has a heart of gold and ends up helping the ol' team o' good guys" character, who provides some fun learning-type boss battles and some comic relief throughout the game. A quick tip: Remember to talk to EVERYONE during your adventure. Certain bosses, stage changes and progressions are really contingent on having dialogue with the locals. Even if it is something as mundane as "Yeah, I'm sick so I can't help you out."
Doukutsu Monogatari, Cave story, Awesome game I cannot put down, whatever you would like to call it has since come out for WiiWare and the 3DS with positive reception. However, the original game itself is STILL free and STILL available with an English Plug in. How kick ass can it get, right? Realizing Wicked Basement is a litttttle bit late on the fandom, we still wanted to throw a review and a download up on the site because this game is WORTH the hate mail we will get for having JUST played it ourselves. This game is like a wonderful dream created by someone who truly understands WHY the golden age of gaming was so golden. The character design, the music, the story, all of it works perfectly together to create a really fun game that ends WAY too soon.
I would say play this game YOUR way, then maybe the second time check out a walkthrough. The only time I needed any assistance is for those god damn puppies, which the one I was looking for was literally right in front of me. Enjoy the game!
If chiptunes was pop music, trying to write an introduction for NULLSLEEP would be like trying to write an introduction for Michael Jackson. Impossible, everything that could be said about the King of Chip has been, but i'll try. Nullsleep is probably the reason chip carrys any relevance today in circles outside of only the most depraved basement dwelling geek maladroits. Basically us lol. Anyway, Nullsleep's near endless volumes of auditory accomplishment, Blipfest championing, evolutionary progress cannot be constrained to one tiny blogpost. So i'll trickle it to you guys like a slow drip from an intravenous needle.
Here is some of his earlier work that got me in the habit. Enjoy!
under their now disassembled moniker Starscream. Despite it's name change, the band continues to deliver top shelf goods. I cannot get enough of this galaxy traversing, cosmos unfolding. fractal entity revealing sound. They have managed a kind of digital springboard into an auditory unknown. Enjoy the show.
Kill mercilessly, plot maniacally, rewind, switch characters, team up, DESTROY.
Super Time Force is (supposedly) coming to Xbox Arcade before the new year and has gotten some serious bumps from reviewers world wide. Keep your eyes peeled.
So in 2004, a home-brewer/programmer/ITT-Tech student going by the name DahrkDiaz created a hack that would later go on to become what many know as the greatest Mario hack of all time: Mario Adventure.
This wasn't your average "changed up the levels and added some new colors, also some dicks" hack, DD added a whole new playing experience to the SMB3 engine with new power ups, bosses at each level's end, a fucking key system for unlocking worlds, and finally a REASON to collect all those god damn coins. It is ingenious, it is hard as nails.
Mario Adventure takes players back to the frustration level of their 7 year old selves. Rife with surprises, new enemy functions and maps that hardly qualify as fair; this game picks up where the "beat SMB3 a bazillion times" veteran left off.
But check your red hot irritation at the door. Mario Adventure has an unlimited life policy, so you can play and learn and laugh and let each stupidstupidstupid level grow on you over time. Plus, if you get truly desperate, there are cheats which one would think the game's developer WANTED you to use in order to find and unlock secret parts of certain levels(available at the bottom of the post).
There are 8 Worlds in Mario Adventure, each one conquerable through typical means of wand gathering and boss whooping. However, in each world lies a key which players may use to unlock the "warp zone paths" and eventually beat the game in world 8 (don't worry, there is a cheat for that too...).
A specific love of mine for this game were the ever-changing weather patterns of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sometimes you start a game and it's night, or raining, or snowing, maybe sunny... The attributes of the level change, certain secrets become apparent, and suddenly you have found something in your run that was completely hidden before. Also, the coins aspect. Collecting coins used to be for points junkies, whereas Mario Adventure makes players use these coins in the "Mushroom Huts" to gain hidden power-ups like Magic Mario, Fire Mario, Das Boot, a Mushroom, and more... This is a brilliant step in the right direction for Mario games on this platform, honestly this could have been SMB4.
That said, some bugs/glitches are hard to ignore. Enemies getting stuck in "dead zones" is an occasional occurrence and power ups (like mushrooms) can sometimes drift away if you let them out of your sight. At crucial points in a boss battle, a player's golden mushroom(which completes the stage) can sometimes fall through the floor, sending you into a complete rage. This is rare, but it happens.
Overall though, the bugs in this game are HARDLY present compared to the majority of hacks.
I went into this game thinking it would be another crappy Mario hack, but I was very impressed by the smoothness, the innovation and the absolute re-playability of this game. Play it below and check out some of the cheats available. I honestly believe they are enhancements to the playing experience, not just an easy way out. Oh and did I mention the ROM auto-saves???
News: Mario Adventure 3 (After the sequel which was meh) should be coming out January 2014. Wicked Basement WILL have the new game up as soon as DahrkDiaz releases it.
Throwing this little gem down to the basement for peer review.
Played it a bit and so far it has been pretty fun. Sort of a side-scrolling Arkistas ring, mixed with the many other platformers it aims to emulate. Play as Tyrion, Jon Snow, Daavos, or Daenerys; all with different movement and attack features. The game is totally retro/revisited classic and brought to us solely by Spanish comix artist Abel Alves. Enjoy and download for FREE right here in the Basement.
Before they became the chiptune band now known as Infinity Shred, they were Starscream.
A duo whose mix of live percussion and gameboy riffs would launch me into an invisible light saber
swinging frenzy in the solitude of my bedroom. My two favorite tracks titled "Years One-four" and the followup "Years Five-Eight" say something to me about immensity and eternity I can barely describe without crumpling at it's grandeur, and I would tho this isn't a Bawwww thread so I digress. Starscream's music is becoming increasingly hard to find now that they have moved on with their current moniker.
Check out Starscream's "Future and it doesn't work", "Years 5-8*", and "Gravity in terms of time and space". Just WICKED.
A SmashBrosesque, arrow fueled battle royal which has been getting rave reviews since it's debut. Play as one of four main characters, collect power ups, and kill-kill-KILL. One of the coolest parts of this game, as I have seen, is the changing, warping stage structures. Like bomberman, explosives are available and work with the stage's already wild, seemingly random conversions. So sweet. UNFORTUNATELY TowerFall is only available for the ever-so-annoying OUYA console (I know, shoot me...) for now, but quite a few developers (including TF's) are getting it prepped for Mac/PC. Check out the Trailer!
