FunEffect.com

[This is a guest review by Guert.]

What if you could jump off a skyscraper, plummet down toward the ground at incredible speed, caress the buildings, and live to tell the tale? What if, while diving, you could give thumbs up to fans and flip off protestors? AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, the latest title from Dejobaan, is a skydiving stunt game staged in a futuristic universe. You step off the ledge of a skyscraper and, as you plunge through the floating buildings, you try to earn points by falling close to the structures, earning “kiss” and “hugs” bonuses. For extra points, you can crash through bonus plates, give thumbs up to your fans watching you jump and flip off those who don’t like the show.

The experience is fun and it’s quite satisfying to avoid the buildings and occasionally crash head first into them for a nice excruciating death. The game controls are difficult to get into but once you do, you can start performing some high-paying stunts. The game has a good dose of humor and doesn’t take itself too seriously. For example, the “grab” screen, where you can purchase the full version, has a funny narration that explains the role of pixies in the development of the game. However, some jokes seem funnier on paper. For instance, the game features a meditation video that allows you to meditate in front of your screen. It sounds funny when it’s said out loud but when you experience it in game, it just feels out of place. The visuals are good but sometimes feel amateurish, mostly because it features generic fonts and a few simple “photoshopped” pictures. The audio is also good and fits the game very well. The ergonomics, most notably the menu flow, could have been a bit more polished, but it’s not troublesome.

Aaaaa!!! is a fun game that would benefit of an extra layer of polish. The concept is fun and the experience is entertaining. You can grab the demo, as well as the full game, on Dejobaan’s official website. The demo features 9 levels, the meditation video, and a bunch of hint boxes that tell you fun facts about the game and skydiving. And for those wondering where they may have seen this game before, it’s one of this year’s IGF contestants.

TIGdb: Entry for Aaaaa!!!

Recently I've been in a sort of bear hibernation, for those who like my reviews I owed a debt that I am now repaying, but especially for those who hate my writing, this dual review is for you.

Played Fatale and just played Runman: Race Around The World. Both of these titles are sick, in the best and most divergent ways possible. One is 2D, the ultimate boy's game, cartoonish and banging out a sitar like some hillbilly delighted to meet you. The other is 3D, a game about the emotions of a woman, magically hyper-realistic, with some kind of Persian sitar thing going on. Do I know what a citar sounds like?

Runman is just the funnest thing ever and I literally cheered as I blazed through the first several worlds while blazed. Playing Fatale was not as "fun" per se, but it was extremely good at being the "mind fuck" per se, that it wanted to be. Runman made me shout out loud, but it was even more interesting on a second playthrough of Fatale to role-play a man about to die. I read out loud to myself with a panicked anxiety the writings on the walls, "I... have heard... in the palace... the beatings... of the wings... of the angel of DEATH, ahahaa, I'm gonna die!!!!! I'm gonna die! Oh my fucking god, I'm going to dieeeeeee!"

And then the funniest thing happened.

While Runman makes 2D navigation into a bouncy pacing challenge, Fatale similarly padded the 3D experience with its floating and phasing, spiritual take on first-person navigation. While Runman only dies much on the boss levels - even the pits that kill most platform heroes are just heart-sprouting bean bags of love - Fatale obviates the question of death early on.

You can't die in Fatale because, I mean, you do realize you're dead right? Its the same rationale behind pregnant sex, and if you think that is inappropriately off-topic, consider that the link between sex and death is the underlying topic in both of these games. Yes, that's right, Runman is also a meditation on sex and death, but in another context. Runman, a star, represents the fundamental libido carrying its genetic messenge to the next generation, the world he's racing through is, in its linearity, a metaphor for a sperm's path through the vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes, and all the enemies represent immune system cells. Its so obvious. How frail is life, that not only can we die at any time, but our very being born is subject to extreme adversity and low likelihood. These are profound subjects that both games are addressing in their text, Fatale does it the elaborate way with snippets from Oscar Wilde but Runman does it in the loading screen, with its time-wasting homily about making the most of your time. But its true dammit! We're alive, and we should be living our life to the fullest. Living a full life involves purchasing Fatale and donating to the makers of Runman. Full disclosure: I have done neither of these things but I do have an Argentine girl coming over in half an hour and that's pretty good too.

Here's the spoiler:

When Runman completes his "race around the world" and impregnates a single egg, that baby grows up to be John the Baptist who is beheaded at the request of Salome, because he spurned her affections.

Play these games, give money to people, don't spurn the advances of any woman, ever.