Star Guard — an Old-School Platformer Done Right 107
An anonymous reader writes "Rock, Paper, Shotgun points out a new game called Star Guard, a Flash-based platformer for Mac and PC that's a throwback to the early days of computer gaming, yet still entertaining. They describe it thus: 'Its greatest strength, to my mind, is throwing out the old-school traditions of difficulty. It does certainly get tricky, requiring the platformer standbys of carefully timed jumps and learning enemy patterns — there's something of a Metroid vibe to it. But you don't get punished for failing to meet one of its challenges — you're just plunged a few feet back to most recent checkpoint, and carry on. Lives are not finite, but the small mound of green pixels that mark your corpses are a maudlin testament to your ineptitude. However, death is useful — I ritually found myself sending in a suicide spaceman, taking out an enemy or a mine so that the path was clear for my next go. ... However, it doesn't leave people who pride themselves on their gaming skill, and demand their games to be hard, out in the cold. At the end of each level, your score alters dramatically depending on how many times you died.'"
The old games are the best (Score:0, Insightful)
Nice job assholes (Score:0, Insightful)
They have "PC" and "Mac" even though there is only "PC" and Windows/Mac/Linux.
And they forgot the Linux version.
Once again, nice job assholes, let me know when a Linux version is available.
Re:Runs on Linux just fine! (Score:4, Insightful)
If it's really a Flash game then why embed a stupid video on the webpage instead of the game itself?
How shocking (Score:5, Insightful)
yet still entertaining
Shockingly, we played games in the 8-bit era just as obsessively as the current generation plays games in the present day. Still more shockingly, we enjoyed the hell out of them without spending a lot of time thinking about how much better the graphics would be in twenty or thirty years.
This isn't a getoffmylawn post, though I'm sure someone will react that way. The graphics in the current games are pretty impressive; I'm often amazed at how good each new round of games looks. But as a great many gamers who weren't born until well after that 8-bit (or, for that matter, 16-bit) era will readily complain, there are still a lot of genuinely awful but visually impressive games out there. As with software generally, presentation can enhance functionality, but cannot replace it. And, of course, when it comes to games, functionality is enjoyability.
Good games are good games. Better technology can sometimes add to them and sometimes not, if the various attempts to "upgrade" Pac-Man with 3D graphics are any indication. Play the games that are fun, and leave the marketroids to bloviate about their benchmarks.
Re:Just watched the video... (Score:5, Insightful)
IMHO Star Guard wasn't worthy of a Slashdot article and smells more like an ad, even if the game is free.
There's also the fact that if it's a Flash game, why not embed it in the webpage directly? I'm not running random programs from the 'net, and that includes games.
Is a retarded flash game news now ? (Score:1, Insightful)
And yet he kept on playing... (Score:4, Insightful)
Fine. I beat the damn game. Not because I was enjoying it, but because I'd be GOD DAMNED if I didn't beat this damnable game! The first part of the boss fight was BULLSHIT. It took me 60 lives to beat Level 9 on my second try. Fuck that. ARRGH! At least now I can delete it from my hard drive.