Few online games have reached the same level of legendary infamy as the infuriating QWOP. It's frustrating. It's bewildering. And, unfortunately, it's addicting. Meanwhile, the Equestria Gaming R&D department developed the Pony Proliferation Postulate: one minus the reciprocal of the Faust Constant to the power of internet notoriety times time since the premier of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is equal to the probability of content ponification, or P(p) = 1 - (1/F)tN. The brilliant Donitz applied one to the other and discovered it was high time we controlled a jelly-legged Twilight Sparkle attempting to cross her own floor.
C'mon, guys, QWOP with ponies. Read on after the break! [WARNING: SOME SPOILERS]
Playing this game would be a completely different experience if one controlled two different pony muscles per leg, as in QWOP. While Twilight vs. Walking is markedly easier than QWOP (Twilight's four relatively stable legs, along with checkpoints between rooms, allow you to take breaks) and shortens the play time. However, the resulting control scheme is infinitely preferable to QWASOPL:.
Your epic odyssey begins in Twilight's upstairs bedroom, and, over the course of three levels, almost to the front door. You'll stride gallantly over mighty book forts - if you can make it there. Twilight vs. Walking has replaced QWOP's insolent hurdle with a much scarier flight of stairs. It's not as great an obstacle as it appears, but expect to bobsled down at least your first couple of times.
"Spike, take a note. My foreleg seems to have melded with my flank."
In an unforeseen twist (this is the spoiler, if you haven't figured that out already,) just as you're about to cross the final room, a chasm opens in the floor and Twilight seems to plummet into an infernal pit. Red light glows from somewhere below as your body fades to black and breaks apart, adding an air of darkness to an otherwise cheerful game. An alarm clock rings, explaining your failure to walk and your lack of a horn away as elements of a dream.
Twilight Sparkle vs. Walking fully serves it's purpose as a QWOP clone. It's tough to complain about the responsiveness and ease of the controls in a game where that's intentionally the problem. If you liked QWOP, this is a pretty great game. If QWOP isn't your type of game, well... you're probably not reading this. Twilight Sparkle vs. Walking snags a peachy Spike Grade.
Usually over at Equestria Gaming we post fangames, not make them. However Xtux was rather bored a couple nights back so he created a cheap fangame starring PurpleTinker, founder of BroNYCon, as she goes around chasing ducks. Why does the woman like ducks so much? Apparently some stupid people over at Memegenerator tried making a forced Purple Tinker meme but it was hijacked by somepony who turned the PT-hating into jokes about ducks. So there's a lesson for future generations: never make a forced meme unless you want it hijacked by trolls.
Anyway, the game can be played exclusively over at our Arcade. Hope you find it at least somewhat amusing. Night!
It's a cold, dark, stormy afternoon (at least, it is where I live) and that puts me in the mood for pony horror games! Trilight is probably better described as "puzzle-horror" - the game puts more emphasis on creatively interacting with the environment than creepiness - but it fills the void all the same.
Flipping between Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the Great and Powerful Trixie, the player must make their way through a darkened landscape full of traps and mysterious shadow ponies. Each of the three playable characters has their own powers - bucking, flying, and conjuring shadowy blocks - to help overcome obstacles along the way. The demo's only a few short levels long, and never gets very technical along the way, but it's enough to hint at the puzzles and thrills to come in the game's full version.
My only complaints are a couple of hit box bugs that occur when you run or jump into an immovable object - sometimes, you'll end up sliding backwards or stuck when trying to jump upwards. Still, that shouldn't slow you down much. Have at it!
Edit: The team's looking for a writer and artists - check the comments for more information.
A short while back I was browsing the "Other Friendship is Magic Fangames" over at TvTropes when I found a relatively unknown RPG sitting on the page. Curious, I followed the link to the game's website and I discovered that it was actually quite impressive and (surprisingly enough) is still under active development! What's more is that the game's demo is in a complete state other then the music, so we can probably expect it fairly soon. Apparently they're also porting it to Mac OS X/Linux, which is a really nice change for those of us non-Windows users who feel left out whenever another great fangame is released and can't run under wine.
Anyhow more details can be found over at the game's blog over at http://thebeansehreport.tumblr.com/, which I highly recommend reading since they've posted some really cool stuff over there. Good day!
One thing we don't have nearly enough of these days is roguelikes, and not just in the Brony fandom either. Then again, it's probably because everybody has been too busy playing NetHack (which, in all seriousness, can take years to beat) and The Binding of Isaac to make their own contributions to the genre, but some Russian guy has decided to finally give the pony fandom what it deserves: a My Little Pony roguelike. Don't be fooled by the ASCII graphics; PonyRL is very easy to pick up and play, especially since it can be played in the browser instead of the traditional Unix terminal.
Mind you, the game is still in beta and incomplete, so the creator would really like some feedback (preferably on the PonyRL My Little Game Dev thread). He also doesn't speak English natively, so the game may contain its fair share of typos.
I wanted to give a few shout outs and thanks yous before I go over the details.
First off, I wanted to thank the one brony who made the entire Saturday Raffle 20% cooler. This man donated at LEAST $100 worth of pony merchandise for the raffle, including the last $60 Pinkie Pie hat. Without him, the Raffle wouldn't have been NEARLY as amazing.
Thanks to the guy who donated the Applejack spoons for the smaller Friday Raffle! (Shoot me an email so I know who to put you down as)
Thank you to Plaster of derpyhooves.com, Aoshi Stark (who was dressed as Big Mac), and Shadow Blast (the guy with the Brony Shirt) for keeping everyone in order, telling EVERYPONY about the Saturday meet, and shouting with me! I lost my voice at the end of Saturday, so I don't know what I would have done without you guys!
Thanks to the guy dressed as Scootaloo for organizing the Singing after the meetup!
Thank you to the one Otakon Employee who was redirecting noticeable bronies to the meetup!
Thank you to the http://geeksnextcomic.com/ stand for giving us a discount on the shirts for the raffle! (Go check out their site!)
And lastly, but certainly not least, Thank you to the Gentleman dressed in the Gentleman Creeper outfit! He donated $30 to use for the brony community! I will not let him down, and it will go to a good cause!
And I think that's all of the big thank yous I have to put out there! Just shoot me an email at strawberryspice@ymail.com if I missed you, or listed you wrong, or anything! Now, onto business:
DAY 1 FRIDAY
The Friday meetup went really well, I think somewhere around 40-60 people showed up to this one. Everypony who showed got one sticker (That I cut out by hand), and after all the stickers were given out, everypony entered their name in the raffle, and we gave out three different prizes. The first prize was the remaining stickers (like 10-15), the second and third prizes were two Applejack Spoons.
Afterwards, we took a big group photo, and shouted 'Otakon Bronies Rock!'
The Saturday meetup went way better than anyone thought it would. We already had more people there than Friday's a half hour before it was even supposed to start! I think the total head count was somewhere over 150 by the end. As soon as we could, we started the Raffle, everypony put their names on a piece of paper and we started handing out prizes. Thanks to a VERY generous Brony, we had over 50 different prizes (He donated like 25 badges, the hat, and a bunch of pouches.). I used my personal Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie figures as prizes, as well as custom stickers, pins, an image donated by the Big Mac, and FOUR Shirts! Also, I drew a picture of Rainbow Dash, signed it, and gave it away as well. It was INSANE, and we had OVER $200 WORTH OF PONY STUFF GIVEN AWAY. After the raffle, my voice was shot, so we went straight to photos (Post your photos here). Once again we all shouted 'Otakon Bronies Rock!'
OTAKON BRONIES ROCK!!!
After this, we had a HUGE Photoshoot, with ALL the awesome pony cosplayers there, and then the remainder of us headed down to the water fountain where Scootaloo led us all in a giant song-filled time. it kind of just dispersed after that, but the entire meetup lasted an hour and a half, almost two hours total!
Day three was MUCH less crowded, we didn't have a raffle or anything, and most ponies were busy with last minute things, other meetups, or had to leave already, but we still had a small meetup! We chilled for like, 30 mins, and drew a bunch of ponies, talked about the show, sung some songs, and had a fun time! Once again we all shouted 'Otakon Bronies Rock!'
OTAKON BRONIES ROCK!!!
We all chilled, and I had a discussion with Plaster about organizing a pony panel for next year's Otakon. I'm going to do it. I WILL be making one, so don't worry! You will hear more about that in the near future, I need to plan, organize, etc. It's a lot of work :P
Anyway, thanks to everypony who showed up! It was absolutely amazing!
PS: If the person who wanted to interview me reads this, I'm sorry for not calling you back. I lost your card, and couldn't find you the next day. I'll be more than happy to do one over the web though! Just shoot me an email.
Last year I reviewed Doomsday Ascending, a 2D RPG adapted from a mediocre fanfic by the same name. The game's creator, Bhaalspawn, has made a point of telling his followers not to submit his various works to Equestria Daily or other fansites, so until today I was not aware that he had later created another My Little Pony RPG under the name "The Gates of Tartarus". The game seemed to be in a decent enough state (although still in an unfinished state), so I downloaded it in hopes that it would be better than its predecessor...
Does Gates of Tartarus manage to overcome its predecessor's flaws and become a decent game in its own right? Find out in our review after the break.
After opening the game and sitting through an unskippable cutscene, it becomes fairly clear that Gates of Tartarus is a different kind of game from Peet's last project. Gone was the story-centric design, and in its place one can find a heavier emphasis on combat and more traditional dungeon crawling. This is somewhat of a relief at first, until the player realizes that the game lacks quests of any sort, leading one My Little Game Dev member on their Cloudsdale group to (rather unkindly) remark that Gates of Tartarus shouldn't even qualify as an RPG. In fact, there is very little plot in the first place, aside from "Go to Hell and kill stuff" and some dialogue between Twilight Sparkle and a character who may or may not have appeared in Doomsday Ascending.
These are scorpions, of course.
Since Tartarus is where all the bad ponies and monsters go after they die, it's no surprise that GoT features plenty of combat. Problem is, it contains "more grinding than a highschool homecoming" (as put by Fearless Pie, another fangame developer from the MLGD community). The first dungeon is especially bad for this, as it contains hoards of identical slimes that are easily defeated, and thankfully easily avoided if you don't mind being a bit weaker for the boss, who is just another damage sponge. If you don't get bored and quit after that, the incomplete second dungeon is much better for variety, although the third regresses in that area a bit. The entire level is filled with ghosts that can instantly kill any one of your characters, and this is before you have any items or skills capable of reviving, which pretty much forces the player to either hope for impossibly good luck or participate in some save-scumming.
Shortly after beginning the first dungeon and murdering a few slimes, Fluttershy gains a game-breaking skill titled "Bandage" that heals a relatively small amount of HP for free. Problem is, she can use it multiple times per turn, which leads to GoT becoming one massive FREE HEALING PARTY™. With this skill, combat with anything but an instakill ghost is risk-free (and therefore rather boring), as Fluttershy can heal away any damage her friends have received for free. It can also be used outside of combat, making all other healing skills and items completely pointless unless she is killed.
Apparently this was supposed to be funny. Also, Bhaal keeps getting Equestria Daily and Equestria Gaming mixed up, perhaps because he secretly wishes that his games really were featured on such a big fansite.
The strangest part of this game, however, is that the current build supposedly features two new dungeons with a Chrysalis and Fluttershed boss, but they are inaccessible because Peet spawns the player inside of a swimming pool which they are unable to escape from after completing the third dungeon. If his word is to be believed, it's because he somehow forgot that noclip isn't a part of normal gameplay and thought that players would just be able to, ya know, walk through the walls. Just...let that sink in for a bit. Yeah.
There are many more things I could complain about in detail, such as the fancy lighting in the bonus dungeon leaking out into the regular levels, the quirk about players not being able to backtrack and a couple instances where escaping the map is surprisingly easy, but you probably get the general idea already. Gates of Tartarus could make a decent game with a little work, but there isn't much point in playing the game at the moment unless you really like the non-sexual variety of grinding and staring at yet another game using RPG Maker's default tilesets and monsters. Even if the game is ever fixed up, you'll probably be much better off playing Super Lesbian Horse RPG or Curse of the Lost Kingdom unless Bhaal manages to pull off some kind of miracle.
No, this game does not feature pony porn. Also, Led Zeppelin would be insulted to find their music being used in GoT.
In light of the encroaching parasprite swarms, a desperate Princess Celestia grants Twilight Sparkle a new spell. Now, anything that stands in her way will be "obliterated into tiny bits of dust." Made by the notorious InfinityDash, this game features cute bunnies, bloodthirsty pests, and one trigger-happy purple unicorn.
Spine-manglingly stoked yet? Read on after the break!
Twilight Sparkle: Pest Exterminator is a simple shooter with relatively straightforward gameplay. Dodge and weave your way around the screen, blasting away at parasprites to clear each level. Although incinerating the occasional bunny is fun, saving them instead refills the blue bar at the top of the screen, allowing you to temporarily transform into gatling pony mode. The bunnies' vulnerability is cheekily irritating: seemingly without fail, your current rapidfire attack will accidentally destroy the bunny needed to charge your next.
One thing the game has going for it is a well-crafted difficulty ramp. Parasprites quickly get tougher and faster as the levels progress, and beating the game's 10 levels is challenging, but not impossible. When you're engulfed by a wave of demonic parasprites and your health bar is emptied, the screen flashes red, indicating that Twilight has given up and invited the parasprites over for cherry kool-aid.
No! Not the bees!
Ponies and blowing up things both have a certain undeniable allure, which they pass along to this game. While short and simple, it's fun due to it's solid mechanics. Twilight Sparkle: Pest Exterminator is surely worth a play, and thus earns a sturdy 6/10. Happy blasting!
Over the past few months we've been posting videos of Nightfall, a sidescrolling platformer/tower defense/whatever game by Silly Mare Games. Development went along smoothly, and now they've already released a beta build of their game (which was quickly followed by another with various balance improvements). The demo even features several bosses: a rarity for a pony fangame, which almost guarantees an appearance by our favorite swiss cheese-legged queen. Still, I am curious to see what other bosses they have in store...
Given that the game is a beta and still in active development it's unfortunately more than a bit too early for us to review it, but you folks can still play it and perhaps give Silly Mare Games some feedback.
That's right! I'll be attending this year's Otakon! And even better, I'm organizing a Brony Meetup there! Now I already announced this a few months back, but Otakon is in a few weeks, so here are all the details!
LOCATION CHANGE as of 7/19/11 (Meeting on the Third (floor 400) Floor)
When and Where? Okay, so I've decided that I'm going to have a meetup onboth Friday and Saturday BOTH Days I will be there, but I suggest you come Friday, that's when I'll be giving some stuff out. The time is 1:00 PM though I will probably be there around 12:30ish, and stay there until possibly 2:00 PM. You might want to come early! We will be meeting On The Third(Floor 400)Floor. Just go up the escalator that goes there, and you'll see me (If you dont know where it is, ask people, PLEASE. I believe it's called the Ball Room). If you have trouble finding me on the third floor, just walk around, it's not that big up there. I WILL BE WEARING THE AMAZING LUIGI COSTUME (Yes I enjoy cosplaying, it's fun) And I will probably be with a girl wearing a Daisy Costume (My sister). So that's how you'll know it's me.
. The second place is the Main Lobby Water Fountain, though check the third floor first. Though that area is a popular spot for photoshoots, so if there is a photoshoot going on, I will be gathering everypony on the Left side of the escalator (when you get off, turn left) and look on the side. If there is too many people there, our last and final place will be back up the escalators and directly to the right where the two couches are. This last one is a last resort, and will probably NOT be the place, so check the other two first. THE LOCATION COULD CHANCE BETWEEN NOW AND THEN SO PLEASE CHECK BACK
These times and places will be the same both days.
ALSO, I suggest you come at, or by 1:00 PM BECAUSE I will be Giving out pony stickers to everypony there. It will be on a first come first serve basis, so if I run out, I run out.
I'm so excited and I can't wait to meet you all!
IF SOMETHING COMES UP, THIS IS WHERE I WILL BE POSTING UPDATES. SO CHECK THIS POST THE DAY BEFORE OTAKON, AND PREFERABLY EVERY DAY YOU GO TOO.
If I have a bad time chosen for you both days, contact me! I'm going Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday! So We can still hang out pretty much any time you want, and Sunday will be super slow anyway. (I might add a Sunday meet in the near future, maybe.)
Q&A: (Or just A)
No I will not be signing autographs. (lol)
Yes I will give you a hug, just don't be creepy.
Yes there will be Fluttershy Stickers.
No there are no Rule 34 Stickers (Why would you even want that, the internet works fine)
Each sticker is hand cut out, and printed on my home printer. They are not water proof. AT ALL I am not taking sticker requests. BUT If you show up and request one from an image that you drew, I'll (try to) go home and make it to give you the next day.
If you have any suggestions, Questions, or problems, please tell me. You can email me at strawberryspice@ymail.com
Seems Sun and Moon inspired a little more interest in pony board gaming! I'll bite. This game was actually sent in a while back, but I've got quite the backlog to get through.
In the style of its predecessor, Randleshackle is a chess-like game played between two players marshaling the forces of Celestia and Luna. The goal of the game is to amass points by capturing the opponents mules, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, and ends when the opponent's alicorn is captured. A 3-player mode is in development, but it looks like it has a way to go at the moment.
On their turns, players can empower their ponies to use special racial powers: resilience for earth ponies, flight for pegasi, and magic for earth ponies. The powers function as a roshambo mechanic - unicorns have the advantage against pegasi, who trump earth ponies, who in turn stymie unicorns.
The best thing about the game? It's still in play-testing, so your feedback determines how the final project comes out! Enjoy.
As the title suggests, this game is heavily influenced by the Touhou series: A long-running “bullet hell” shmup franchise with a cult following. However, the title has a bit of an identity crisis- the in-game title is actually My Little Pony vs. Starcraft II, as the enemies seem to be inspired by that game. Personally, I think putting the two titles together with a colon in between would have made more sense. Odd title aside, does the game live up to its legendary inspiration? Hit the jump to find out.
The story is rather simple: Aliens from the Starcraft universe are invading Equestria, and it’s up to the Mane 6 to stop them. You can play as any of the Mane 6, each with their own unique weapons and abilities. For example, Pinkie Pie fires cupcakes that act as a weak spreader gun, while Applejack launches large apples that shoot out one at a time but are more powerful. They also each have a magic meter that builds up as the player collects power ups, which allows them to either use a focus move or super technique. The former is a faster, more powerful version of their original weapon that does not require much magic to use. The latter is where things get interesting- super moves vary from Rarity’s barrier made out of dresses to Twilight Sparkle’s burst of magic that attacks every onscreen enemy. While this wide variety of attacks sounds like an awesome arsenal, your enemies still have quite the upper hand. Be warned: This game is HARD! The alien starships attack you en masse. Flurries of tiny bullets literally cover the screen, forcing you to squint at enemy fire in order to dodge it. And the bosses? They’re even more ridiculous, with exorbitantly long health bars and giant lasers. Makes the Parasprite swarm look like an ant colony. To be fair, this is typical of the Touhou series, so the game does live up to its name. However, the thing that irritates me most about the gameplay isn’t found in Touhou: You’re only given one life, and no continues! With such a punishing difficulty, you’d think developer huod umop apisdn would at least be generous enough to give the player extra tries. That said, the game does show some mercy in the form of difficulty settings, though even on the easiest setting it’s no walk in the park.
Yeah, you’ll be seeing this screen a lot.
The game’s presentation is a mixed bag. The music is great, remixing MLP songs in a frantic, electronic style that fits the chaotic gameplay to a tee. The sound effects are also well-done, including voice clips straight from the show. The visuals are simplistic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; Touhou’s graphics aren’t exactly elaborate themselves. The ponies look exactly as they should, and weapons are animated well. I’ve never played Starcraft, so I can’t say how accurate the enemies are to those in the game. The backgrounds feel really out of place, though. They’re just pictures of realistic environments that don’t fit in well at all with the motif of either franchise (okay, outside of the final level). Pony Touhou is on the short side, with a mere three stages to venture through. The high difficulty does add a lot of (arguably cheap) length to this, though, and there’s some good replay value in the form of different characters and difficulty levels. Overall, Pony Touhou is a decent game that’s very faithful to its tough-as-nails inspiration. It falls flat in some areas, but with extra lives and other touches, it could be a winner. If you’re a fan of the Touhou series, it’s certainly worth checking out. For everypony else, though, I’d say it’s only worth a try if you’re looking for a challenge. Rating: 6/10
For those of you who would like to improve your skills in the arts of game making, here is a good chance to do so. My Little Game Dev is hosting an event about creating Pony mini-games based on themes. If you want to make a game but lack the motivation or the base to do so, this is a good start. And for those who don't actually want to make games, you will still be able to play the entries, so why not take a look around?
The basic structure of the event is this: Every 4 days, at midnight GMT+8 (Philippines, Manila), the MLGD page will put up the theme for the mini-games, and those who want to take part must make a game that includes that theme. This is very flexible; you can interpret the themes however you want, and if you'd prefer, you can skip a theme and make a game with both that theme and the next one.
The game doesn't have to be complete; incomplete games are accepted too - just be sure to state if it's complete or not. The deadline for each theme is 4 days, so try to submit before the next theme starts.
The first day of the event has already started(and I blame myself for not finding this yesterday), and you can find this round's theme here: Pony Build Up Day 1!
I want to give a warm welcome to Sapphire Feather! I met him at BroNYCon, and he said he was interested in being a reporter for EqG, so I asked him to send me a review.
And well, he did! And it was absolutely brilliant! So congratulations to him, you'll be seeing some of his posts around now!
I don't really have much more to say about it, other than look forward to his reviews! Good Luck!
August 10th we head over to long time FLGS Hugin & Munin for a night of cards and caffeine. The event will run from 5pm until 11pm. Through the entirety of the event all Tassimo coffee will be half off.
This event has proved to be very popular so you may want to show up a bit early as the place gets packed and we run out of chairs quickly.
Now I know the event is called Cards & Coffee but you don't have to stick to card games. Feel free to bring and play what you want. This is an all ages event so feel free to bring some young gamers out as well.
Hugin & Munin is located at 1664 Tecumseh RD. E. in Windsor Ontario. Parking in back or on side roads and free out front after 6pm.
Ahh, it's good to be back! A couple of days ago, we received this little treat for the nimble-fingered Super Hexagon fans among you. The Super Hexagon MLP Pack changes the game's music to songs from Balloon Party, its typeface to Celestia Medium, and its mechanical sound effects to tidbits from the show.
To install, just extract the downloaded files and copy them into Super Hexagon's data folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Super Hexagon\data is the Windows default.) Installing the pack will overwrite files, so back up the data folder beforehand for safety. Enjoy!
I probably rolled a little too low on my initiative roll for this review. I'm guessing most people who read this blog have already heard of Star Realms and have been trying to find a copy for the last month since White Wizard Games can't keep up with demand.
Well this review is for the rest of you, so that you can also become one of the many gamers trying to get your hands on a copy of Star Realms, because it is that good.
Star Realms was my first purchase of Origins. My wife and I did one demo game and I had bought a copy of this excellent deck builder before we finished our first game. I had no idea at the time that I was buying one of a very limited second printing that had just been released that day.
If I had known it was going to be so hard to find I would have brought multiple copies back with me.
So what's the big deal?
Star Realms is a deck builder that has a lot in common with Ascension. Actually, if you know how to play one game it only takes minutes to explain the other one, they are that similar. The biggest difference between the two is that in Star Realms you attack the other players directly, where as in Ascension you are killing off monsters on the board for Honour (points). Personally I think Ascension meets Magic the Gathering is a pretty apt description of Star Realms.
You've heard the whole peanut butter and chocolate thing; well Ascension is the peanut butter, Magic is the chocolate and Star Realms is the amazing thing you get when you combine them.
Okay, how do you play?
Like most deck builders players get a starting deck of crappy cards that they use to buy better cards that are then used to buy even better cards and build an even better deck. In this particular game you get eight Scouts which provide 1 Trade each and two Vipers that provide 2 Combat. You use Trade to buy things and Combat to attack the other player. You win by removing all of the opponents Authority.
In the center of the play area (or on your snazzy official Star Realms play mat, available at an extra cost, if you can find them), you lay out five cards which becomes the Trade row. These are the cards you can buy with your Trade points. There are also Explorers, which are ships that are always available to buy (much like the Mystics and Heavy Infantry in Ascension). Each player starts with 50 Authority. The game comes with cards to track these.
Each turn you will draw five cards and play them in the order of your choosing. The cards with Trade you use to buy new cards by paying the cost in the top right and then putting the bought card into your discard pile. The cards with Combat you use to attack your opponent. The cards you can buy are a mix of ships and bases that come from four different factions. Ships are just like the basic cards and give you Trade, Combat or sometimes both. Some even give you Authority letting you heal. Bases are interesting: they stay in play after used and provide an ongoing bonus. In addition a player can choose to attack another player's Base instead of attacking the player directly. Lastly there are Outposts, these are special bases that must be attacked before attacking another base or a player directly.
The most interesting thing about this system is the way the different cards work together. Each card has a faction ability. This can only be used when you play a second card with that faction symbol on it (or have a Base in play of that faction). What this means is that the game really rewards players for sticking to a low number of factions. While a deck with each faction is playable, I've yet to see one win vs. a deck that is more specialized.
Each faction has it's own specialty and style of play. The Trade Federation has the most healing abilities. The Biotics are about hand management and drawing extra cards. The Star Empire is all about Combat. The Machine Cult has a ton of Bases and has lots of deck management cards.
Speaking of deck management. One of the card abilities is the Trash ability. This lets you toss the card with the Trash ability out of the game to get a one time benefit. Use of these abilities at the right time is a big part of the strategy of Star Realms. For example the Explorer cards mentioned above, give you 2 Trade, so they are much better than your Scouts but they aren't really all that great compared to the ships from the deck. They have a Trash ability though that provides 2 Combat. This can be extremely useful when you just need a couple more points to take out that Outpost your opponent played last turn.
One last note on number of players: the base game only includes enough cards to play 2 players. That said, there are rules included for playing with up to 6 players. The thing is that you will need a deck for each pair of players.
Why do I like it so much (more than Ascension)?
I think that the direct confrontation makes a big difference here. I think it's one of the things that makes Marvel Dice Masters more fun than Quarriors! for me. I just enjoy beating the snot out of my opponent over earning a bunch of 'honour.'
The way the cards combo together and the fact the game rewards limiting yourself to a reduced number of factions adds a very different feel to the game. It's no longer: buy the most expensive card out there. It feels more like you are building an engine, and I dig engine building games.
I can't not mention the price: Ascension = $40, Star Realms = $15
I just really dig this game. It's cheap, it's fun, it's easy to teach and it scratches an itch for me that Ascension just doesn't. If you enjoy deck builders at all I have to recommend this one. It's one of the best out there. There is one problem though: It's not currently out there. I hear they are working on a third printing though, so just keep your pants on. It's good, but it's not $60 on Amazon good.
A final note about Ascension,
I don't want this post to come off as overly harsh on Ascension. I still love me some Ascension. It's truly a great game. If I have four players I would actually rather play Ascension than Star Reams. Star Realms hasn't "Jones Theoried" Ascension for me or anything like that. I still strongly recommend the game. Just right now I like Star Realms more. :D
A while back some guy over at the My Little Game Dev forums thought it would be funny to make an Equestria Girls game with dubstep, lousy textures, and annoying audio. The resulting project took a mere two days to make, and along the way somehow turned into A World You Should Not Know: a horror game starring Twilight Sparkle as she tries to retrieve the magical crown from...whatever. Sunset Shimmer isn't involved at all: the story is basically just an excuse for the game.
The review continues after the break, as usual.
According to AWYSNK, the alternate universe explored in Equestria Girls is actually just another one of your typical, not-so-abandoned facilities you find lying about everywhere in video games, and the aforementioned crown is locked behind some sort of cruddy door that requires six keys to open. For no reason in particular these keys are guarded by warped version of the mane six, who evidently have been just sitting in there, waiting around for some idiot to wander in without a shotgun so they could chase them down and make pony hamburger.
Regardless of the weird premise, the game actually manages to be surprisingly scary due to its heavy use of claustrophobic spaces and creepy breathing made by your foes. Being stalked by anthro ponies may sound and look silly from the screencaps, but trust me; it is anything but ridiculous. Their messed-up textures and truly bizarre animation is quite disturbing to behold as they take massive strides towards you with their freakishly long legs, following you through the rusty corridors.
Neither words or pictures can convey how terrifying these things are in motion.
Speaking of rust, the textures in this game are of a rather low resolution when compared to most of its modern contemporaries, although you probably won't be paying too much attention to them while peeking around the corners, carefully listening to see if you can hear any nearby footsteps or breathing. The darkness tends to make it difficult to see any stalkers until they're really close, so it's advisable to play the game with headphones. A map is also included in the game folder, which the player may consult if they're feeling too lost.
I really don't know what else to say about A World You Should Not Know, or if there is anything else. The game wasn't bad or anything, but for various reason I've never really found this genre very interesting, although those of you who are into horror games might enjoy this. I'd still say that Derp Till Dawn was a much better game overall (and that it deserved a higher score than I gave it), so I'll just slap a 5 on this and be done with this review so I can get on to adding Twilight Wing to the Arcade.
Futzi01, pony flash game maker nonpareil, just released his newest game - Twilight Wing. Play it now while it's still hot off the presses (seriously - this game is only a few minutes old at the time of writing)! It's a bullet hell style game where you must retrieve Elements of Harmony by blasting enemies with Twilight's magic. This game will definitely be getting a full review in the near future - but for now, simply play and enjoy!
Looks like there is another Rise of the Lunarbolts update video for y'all to enjoy. Hope you find it interesting!
Oh, and sorry for the lack of updates lately. We've just been so busy adding tons of games to the Arcade lately that we've kind of fallen behind, although hopefully that should soon change. And in case any of you fellers are PonySquare users you'll be happy to know that we have a PonySquare page up at http://ponysquare.com/equestriagaming/.
After a hiatus of decent length, Filly Gamez has proclaimed that they are "rising from the ashes" and are releasing a brand-new game at BronyCon, titled A Foal's Errand. Unsurprisingly, it is a visual novel, and from what little I've seen I must say that it doesn't look half-bad. Hopefully the team will have learned from the mistakes they made in Welcome to Ponyville, although I'm still a little worried that it'll still end up being an unnecessarily massive download like the original. They also mentioned that it'll feature "a little horror", which should be at least somewhat interesting (as long as they handle it better than they did in WtP).
Anyhow, below the break you can find a screenshot of the game, a vector of Sethisto throwing up, and a sneak peak for a very special surprise...
A screenshot of Applebloom talking, obviously.
There's something wrong with that tail...
You can probably guess as to what this is. We'll probably post about it in a few days, don't worry ;)
The team behind MLP:Online, now Starlight Studios, game have been working hard since December on Project Cygnus. The game itself, and its development, has been kept secret and shrouded in mystery, but not anymore! We are pleased to announce that at BronyCon 2013, you'll be able to play the demo at their table in the games room. Find out the secret behind the lemons between Aug 2nd - Aug 4th or lose your chance, for it will not be released online.
Be sure to follow @NebularFusion on Twitter for announcements regarding Project Cygnus. Also, you should totally check out their awesome new website at http://www.starlightstudios.org/.
A new platformer featuring everypony's favorite baby dragon, Spike, has recently popped up. At the moment, the game is still in it's very early stages, but already looks very promising. The creator wants to follow a story line where the mane 6 are captured by the Diamond Dogs, and it's up to our heroic little dragon to save them!
The game is designed like a Metroid/Castlevania/Cave Story type game. You walk around through different levels, find items that will help you on your quest to save your friends, and when you do save your friends, you're rewarded with different powers!
You can find they ponychan thready where the creator has been discussing the game HERE
You can find the creator's new blog where he will post updates and demos HERE
And you can download the current demo (as of 7/24/11) HERE
I entered BroNYCon with a poker face I left singing winter wrap up with three pony necklaces and four commissions in hand.
I love you guys so much. Pics and more stuff after the break.
Okay, so I spent a bunch of money on stuff there, and this is what I got:
SO MUCH ART
I'll probably end up posting more pictures and info here later. Along with better pictures of the pics I commissioned as well as links to their artist's DAs
Alright, a few of you may know this, but I will be attending this July BroNYCon (tomorrow).
This means I won't be updating any more until this Sunday. But honestly, I still feel like I'm missing a lot of gaming news. With all the things I'm doing IRL, I haven't had much time to search for stuff, and you guys really need to tell me when things happen. Even if it's a post on EqD, email me about it. PLEASE.
Anyway, If you ARE going to BroNYCon, you get to see this handsome fellow (me):
But this will be the first time anyone will see me unmasked IRL, and when the photos are up, here as well.
ANYWAY TO THE POINT.
I've got some pony stickers I'll be bringing with me, and possibly giving out to people (My hand cut ones). So if you are going, and see me (I'll be wearing my 20% cooler shirt), say hi! I'm also curious to see if there are any Equestria Gaming readers going as well, so say hi to me o3o (I'll give you an extra sticker if you say you read Equestria Gaming).
Anyway, looking forward to meeting you guys! And don't forget about the Otakon Brony Meetup either!
We don't seem to have an official policy on board game clients, so I figured that I might as well post this Reversi implimentation. It doesn't have way too much pony aside from the game icon and background, but why not? The Brony fandom could use some more presence on the Windows Store anyways. Spread the love!
I was going to blab about news being slow, but maybe I should shut up and get back to work on my visual novel. Wonder how much production will cost in paper and crayons consumed...
Based on the success of our July event at the Green Bean's new Downtown location we are heading back in August. This new venue is seriously cool. Besides a couple huge tables, great food and still offering bottomless coffee, the new venue has a great pair of balconies overlooking Ouelette.
A heads up for anyone who hasn't been there before. The new Green Bean is located at 300 Ouellette on the 3rd floor. You go in where you used to go to get to the Palace Cinema or take the elevator to the third floor. The new cafe is part of the Windsor Star.
There's no theme for this all ages event. It runs from 6pm until 11pm. This is a great venue for longer more in depth games with lots of bits. Lots of lighting too.
The Windsor Gaming resource returns to Brimstone Games on Saturday August 16th as part of their twice monthly boardgame night which hits on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month. These events run from 5pm to 10pm and are open to all ages.
Brimstone is working to become Windsor's premier board game shop. They've got a great selection of the hottest games and tons of gaming space to play them. Not only that but all board games are currently 30% off!
Win a Board Game!
Every Board Game Night at 8pm the store will draw 1 ticket and the winner will receive a free board game!
Players earn 1 ticket for playing games, limit of 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for purchasing a snack or drink, limit 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for bringing 1 or more board games for people to play. Earn 5 tickets for each board game purchased. First time players will receive 5 additional tickets.
You can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back. Note that Brimstone used to be located in McGregor. This is no longer the case, they moved into Windsor just over a year ago.
Ticket to Ride is hugely popular and has pretty much replaced Settlers of Catan as the gateway game of choice for many gamers. It's quick to teach and easy to learn and has a very accessible theme.
In addition to the core game there have been a wide variety of new versions released each adding something new to the game. Europe ads tunnels, Marklin ads passengers and more.
We will be trying to feature as many different version of Ticket to Ride as possible at the event.
We are also very pleased to announce that the game you can win at this event is a copy of the amazing looking Ticket To Ride 10th Anniversary Edition!
Much progress has been made on Super Lesbian Horse RPG since we last posted about their demo, even if the game missed its planned release date in June. At least good old Bobby was nice enough to release a trailer showing off the latest additions to his upcoming fangame, mainly showing off his fancy tilesets and the fairly impressive original soundtrack, along with another small sampling of the game's bizarre trademark humour. It also reveals several of the game's enemies for the first time, and for some reason they feel a tad underwhelming. I'm not entirely sure why though...maybe it has something to do with the fact that the art styles used for the foes are somewhat inconsistent with the rest of the game.
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, DriveThruRPG.com is where the discounts are at!
That's right, Christmas in July is here! Get 25% off of thousands of products by dozens of great publishers! Put the jingle bells on, and keep some jingle in your pocket, too!
There are so many Brony-centered social networks out there that it's getting hard to keep track of 'em all. RainbowDash Network, Cloudsdale, PonySquare (I don't recommend PonySquare for various reasons), and BronyNet are some of the more popular MLP social networks, and on most of those sites we have a profile that you can follow in case you're interested.
For all of our readers that also use BronyNet: today is your lucky day! We have just added an Equestria Gaming profile to the site, where we will post news, new Arcade games and more stuff like that. We can be found under the "RP" profiles page, or in case you want a direct link to our profile you can visit http://bronynet.com/main.php#!/profile-3175.
During these weeks, roleplaying enthusiasts are encouraged to take their favorite RPG rulebooks out with them and read them in public - on the bus, in the coffee shop, at lunch, at the park, or anywhere (as long as it isn't disruptive to work, school, church, or any other functions). What's the point? The point is to make the roleplaying hobby more visible, to get it "out of the basement" and into public areas where more people can see it. This will make others more aware of the hobby - some may ask you what your book is about, giving you the opportunity to explain the hobby to them. A few of those may be interested enough to try it themselves. Former gamers may see what you're reading and think about the great times they used to have with roleplaying, and possibly even try it again.
Personally my wife and I have already made some plans to head down to our favourite local coffee shop so I can catch up on some of the games I've bought in the last year that I haven't had a chance to touch yet.
