Armed with Wings 2

Even though it suffers from several glitches, Armed with Wings 2 is still a little gem with stunning presentation and creative storyline. Some gamers might be frustrated by a less than optimal gameplay, but others will stay immersed by an adventure in a genuinely stylish world.

Story
The storyline is an important element of this game, with a real continuity, inventive background, and unexpected twists. It is told during cut scenes and by in game dialogs. Even the game ending is not as straightforward as you would expect.

You are Vandheer Lorde, the powerful warrior who defeated the rebellion army years ago. The rebel leader has somehow find a way to control resurrection powers and he brought back to life your ancient enemies. The attack takes you by surprise and your are forced to escape before you can find a way to reclaim the throne.

Design
The game is proposing a survival and a story mode with 3 difficulty levels. Survival is a simple extra mini game with not that much appeal. The main adventure kicks in right away with fast rhythm and in game instructions. You will have to reach the end of each linear level to defeat rebel generals raised from the dead.

You start each level from your home with access to a weapon inventory, and possibility to save your game progress, which is clearly recommended.

Each weapon has also got its own special power, with various effects.

Gameplay
You control the main character with the keyboard and you can use several attacks such as sword, kicks, grabbing and magical bolts. With such an arsenal you could expect some fantastic action, but average combat with soldiers is quite repetitive with little challenge.
Boss battles are more interesting with varied attack patterns and switching from periods during which you are forced to dodge and defend, followed by periods where they are vulnerable.
Character control is the main issue, even though the controls are quite responsive and fluid, glitches can cause problems to trigger the right action when you would like to. There is a weird inertia when the character is moving which can cause you to fall over a edge if you are not careful. Finally the game includes a fair amount of platforming, but jumping is poorly implemented and missing a platform because of this can be pretty frustrating.

A bug can also cause you to move off the limits of the landscape, in a situation where there is no way to recover except reloading the game.

Presentation
The presentation is clearly what sets this game apart. It starts with a beautiful introduction and game menu, backed with inspired music. Graphics are some sort of Chinese shades with background and landscape using a very creative style. Design is mostly based on black, and levels of gray, weird shaped elements. Some use of differential scrolling also provide a feeling of deepness.

Amazing animations are used for character motions, and beautiful move sequences during combat are coupled with gorgeous visual effects. Your magical powers, and those of bosses also generate great visual effects and are the only colored elements in the graphics increasing the feeling they are really exceptional.

Beautiful animated cut scenes tell you the story and some elements of background history, characters all have a distinct look and some strangely attractive design.

The music is also well above average, with different soundtracks for levels, background ambient sounds and appropriate sound effects for all actions.

Play Armed with Wings 2 on Armorgames

Amorphous+

Amorphous+ is one of the most inventive, well designed, and plain fun games I have played in a while. The game put you in the role of a Gloople hunter, raiding the creatures nest to face endless waves of the original and incredibly varied cell like organisms.

The entire game is played on a single screen playground with a top view showing your character and hordes of enemies to hunt... or to escape one of them hunting you down...

Design
You can tell right away that an unusual amount of care has been put into the game design. The main menu provides a direct access to instructions, games modes, awards, rewards and other extra content.
Two game modes are available. Single Nest give you a fixed number of Gloople to kill before the nest is fully cleared, while the Bounty Run mode place you in front of an infinite flow of enemies. Difficulty setting in this mode let you choose how fast the nest resistance will increase.
The difficulty curve balance in this game is just amazing. The nest will start with a stream of brainless and harmless green Gloople, but as you kill them one after the other, advanced and much more dangerous Gloople species are generated. It starts with aggressive but relatively predictable and brainless colored Gloople, but soon you will face rare, extremely dangerous creatures, using complex attack patterns and usually very tough to kill.
Not only are the enemies varied, but all the Gloople's abilities interact with you and other Glooples in a coherent and realistic way. This creates endless possible combinations and is an essential part of the gameplay.

A large number of awards and rewards can be unlocked by completing some in game challenges, such a scoring enough points or performing a particularly impressive move while hunting Glooples. The rewards give you extra abilities that will prove to be incredibly useful to reach the game's most difficult achievements.

Story
Amorphous+ is also different from the average flash game as, even if there is no storyline strictly speaking, the combination of detailed creatures description, varied tips, and inventive awards provide a feeling of a coherent world. You will find yourself going further in the game not only to score more points and awards but also to learn about the weird Gloople race and the possible interactions between the different varieties.

Gameplay
Amorphous+ is using a not so intuitive way to control the main character, which is continuously attracted by the mouse pointer. Maneuvering between a large number of Gloople is quite challenging at the beginning but once you get used to the controls it proves to be very effective.
The basic action in the game is swinging your huge sword, trying to kill as many Gloople as possible. There is an interesting scoring mechanism that rewards you for taking more risks. But most of the gameplay comes from interactions between you and the different types of Gloople.
Discovering these interactions is a large part of the fun, so I will not say much about them, but basically if something is bad for you, it can be assumed it will have a similar effect on other Gloople, and you can use this to your advantage. Choosing the right option for the current situation while facing a pack of several different types of Gloople is critical to survive through the nest. The great thing about Amorphous+ is that there is almost always a method to escape a dangerous phase by correctly using interactions between Gloople abilities.

Presentation
The game graphics are quite simple and basic, but they perfectly fit with the Gloople universe. Each Gloople type is using his own look, animation and sound effects contributing to build a coherent experience.
The game engine is pretty sharp managing motions of a large number of enemies and consistently detecting collisions between them, as well as the effects of your swings. Some nice effects are also generated by explosions, fire and other elements. I experienced regular game slow down when a large number of Gloople are on screen, but it always stayed playable.
The music soundtracks are pretty amazing in this game, several hypnotic tunes contribute to the weird atmosphere.

While the basic concept seems pretty limited, the Amorphous+ manage to create a rich and coherent ecosystem, combined with an addictive gameplay and great replayability.

Play Amorphous+ on Kongregate.