Fatcat

Fatcat is an original shooter with a very inventive gameplay style, that can become very addictive.

Design
The game is designed as a classical vertical scrolling shooter, it lets you control the Fatcat and the Owl facing hordes of alien enemies.
The main menu provides a short help, credits and score boards. Levels can be accessed through a level selection screen. There is not much to say about the design except that levels are well crafted, with nice puzzle like challenges to solve, and it becomes very challenging with later levels.

Gameplay
Fatcat let you control two characters a the same time to create an unique gameplay style. The owl shoots and blocks bullets, being immune to all damage. It is controlled with the mouse pointer and left button. The Fatcat is controlled with the keyboard, and is quite passive but must be protected as it can only receive three hits before dying and it must navigate through the levels.

The cat can collect cookies to fill up his special attack gauge. The cat attack is pretty powerful and is also able to destroy special rocks blocking the way in some levels. The owl is also able to fetch food for Fatcat as it moves much faster.

This mechanism alone would make the game original but the owl can additionally move blocks to clear a path, push buttons to activate special powers, and must be synchronized with the cat to provide a mobile shield.

Each world ends with a classic boss battle using massive attack patterns to test your dodging skills, but with the additional twist that you still need to control the second character to cause damage.



Presentation
Based on great anime style pixel art, the game is using colorful graphics and varied enemy design. The animations and visual effects are also very appealing and graphically consistent.
Background music is well designed using a couple of uplifting electronic loop soundtracks.

Play Fatcat on Miniclip

Bowmaster Prelude

Bowmaster is clearly standing apart from all the archery inspired game available, providing the right mix of skill testing, strategy and customization to create a very addictive experience.

Design
The game design is pretty rich, packing a nice amount of features. You can start by creating a custom profile, choosing a name, a flag and a control scheme. Game progress will then be saved for each profile, with your current rank, experience points, acquired gold and unlocked skills.

At each level you will face attacking waves of the evil Trev'Gahr army. The enemy soldiers will try to reach your side of the battlefield and either capture your flag or destroy your castle. Your primary defense is a legendary magical bow you will use to target the invading troops or to destroy their own castle. You win the battle if you kill all the enemy army or if your own troops manage to capture the enemy flag.

As you win battles, you are also awarded with experience points and gold, that can be spent on upgrades and is required to generate troops. Different type of soldiers with various abilities can be summoned, and they are quite critical to face the enemy wave as your bow alone may not be enough to stop enemy soldiers from reaching your flag. It is much more efficient to manage troop creation manually and to switch off automatic mode.

The real edge is however given by correctly using the different types of arrow that can be purchased. Some of them have big impacts on the game, an others are required to target enemies with specific vulnerability.

Over the levels, you will face many different type of enemies with various attacks and resistances. It is important to carefully choose the most dangerous targets first, and to choose the right arrow for a given enemy. For instance, a trebuchet can cause great damage to the castle, and it should be silenced quickly if your fortress is threaten.

All the upgrades, troops and enemy types are essential to transform a potentially repetitive shooter in an addictive quest.


Gameplay
The shooting requires great accuracy and the engine does a very nice job to produce precise arrow trajectory and hit detection to reward good shooting. A small but significant detail is that your previous shot direction and strength is displayed as you aim, and it allows to adjust your shots one after the other. This is greatly increasing the gameplay appeal.

While aiming your bow, you also need to manage an army and generate troops at the right time. Gold and population will limit the number of soldiers you can produce within a battle forcing you to be careful with your death count. As soldiers cost gold, a balance is necessary between overproducing them and save cash for savvy upgrades.

You should also be careful to avoid shooting at your own soldiers, as they will often be mixed with enemies on the battlefield, and this feature actually implies more thinking to chose the right target. Landscape will change with each level and is an important element of the game. The different compositions can be more or less tricky, and create variations in the shooting possibilities.

Presentation
Graphic design is nice an consistent, soldiers are clearly drawn with pretty animation details. The battlefield background is pleasant with night and day settings. Arrows with special power generate good visual effects such as explosions or ice waves. Background music is a bit repetitive but appropriately chosen.

On the cons side, some gamers may find the game pace a bit slow, but it also creates a more strategic and less action oriented experience. And finally, it is obvious this game needs player versus player so badly...

Play Bowmaster Prelude on Kongregate

Army Of The Dead

Army of the dead is a mouse aiming shooter, where you will face countless undeads and collect weapons, in a modern humorous setting. The game is not that original but with a few gameplay twists that makes it quite addictive.

Story
A fair amount of work has been put into the story and character design. It is presented with cut scenes and dialogs between levels, that you can fortunately skip after the first time. You are a member of some elite unit, sent to a mission somewhere in Ukraine. Things are going badly while you are separated from the team, and you will have to rescue them on your own. Even if it is relatively classic, the storyline still gives you a sense of purpose.

Design
You can access a training session before going after your missing team, that provides a quick and necessary tutorial. When you start the real fight, enemies will flow from the right hand side, while your character stands on the left. If one of the nasty creatures reaches the left of the screen, it will tear you down to pieces and you have only got three replays to reach the end.

There is only one game mode, and the game is separated in levels with increasing difficulty, different graphics, and some new enemies.

Medals can be awarded by achieving special tasks and you are also rewarded with a score bonus for better accuracy percentage, which is not that easy to keep high.

Gameplay
Basically the gameplay is standard mouse pointing and shooting. Each weapon ammunition supply is limited and it must be reloaded by pressing the spacebar. You can switch from one gun to another at any time.

The first twist is created by using weak points on monsters, a couple of specific points must be targeted to kill one, and shooting anywhere else is useless. As targets are continuously moving toward your character, it puts you on a clock to shot all their weak points in a very limited time. Enemies will become quicker and more difficult to aim with each level, increasing the pressure.

You will face several different types of enemies with specific characteristics, and it forces you to think before you shot, as choosing the right target can be critical. Each weapon have different effects, amo supply and reload times so that you also need to select the right one for each circumstance.
Weapon reloading is particularly well managed. As more powerful guns will take longer to reload, it might be necessary to wait for a moment of calm before you can safely resupply.

These gameplay twists are the core of this game challenge, as split second decision will make all the difference in tough situations.

Presentation
The game graphics are great, with a cartoony look mixed with bloody animation and horror inspired design. The levels backgrounds and cut scenes are well finished with occasional animations. The characters and monsters are also looking good, with an original style, and nice additions such as visual effects of the shots or various animations when you are killed.
Sounds effects are appropriate, with some environment sounds setting the atmosphere but without background music.

Play Army of The Dead on Pictogame

Castle Smasher

Castle Smasher is one of those well designed, nice looking games that can become very addictive thanks to a simple but well polished gameplay. The game is pretty challenging to beat and it requires quite a bit of practice to master the art of castle smashing.

Design
Castle Smasher design is minimal but efficient, it provides a nice online high score boards, with a simple tool to create your own group challenge with friends. Options are limited to a sound mute button and nothing more is needed.
A short instruction page could be useful to give a description of upgrades available between levels and some of the game details. The purpose of castle soldiers and guards is not immediately clear, until you lose a game because of them.
The game provides only five levels, with increasing difficulty. If the firsts do not require much thinking, counting the stones left in your arsenal and choosing the right upgrades can become critical for the last levels.

Gameplay
The gameplay is dead simple. Choose an angle for the catapult, then press and hold the mouse button to set the power, and release it to shot. Nothing new but the implementation is good.
It is a handful small details that makes the game interesting. First of all the way the stones are bouncing on the different parts of the castle can make a good, well aimed, shot much more efficient than a direct one. You are also running on a very limited supply of stones, that force you to think before you shot, and to target the stone supply bonus if you can first.
Soldiers and guards also provide a nice little twist to the game, putting a bit more pressure on the player to get rid of the soldiers attacking the catapult or to invest in one or two extra guards to protect it.
The castle design is inventive and each level provides a distinct challenge.

Presentation
Castle Smasher use good old school 2D sprites, with an excellent overall result. Graphics are clear, colorful and nice looking. Music and sound effects are kept to a minimum but appropriate, a background music theme could be a nice addition even though I am not a big fan of repetitive background music.

Play Castle Smasher on Kongregate.