Crazy Pony

Crazy Pony (Download)

Some people just want to watch the world burn, and they have various ways of accomplishing that goal. Since they don't have the resources necessary to actually set the earth on fire they usually resort to various other pastimes to pacify this desire, ranging from being a jerk when nearby certain people to attempting to take over the world (and inevitably failing for various reasons). On the other hand Verycrazypony has taken a somewhat more subtle approach that involves a video game of his own creation that he titled Crazy Pony and has been deviously created to be as difficult as possible. The plan involves angry outbursts at the game which if unchecked will eventually transform the Brony populace into an army of rage-fuelled monsters to destroy the globe.

Exactly what do we think of his efforts so far? Well for that you must continue after the break.

I started up the game with a feeling of dread after reading the creator's statements about his project having a very difficult slant and was surprised to be greeted with a fairly standard platformer. There were just a couple quick hops across chasms of lava, and while I wondered if Verycrazypony really was out of his rocker I confidently went forward, laughing at how easy this was. But as it all turned out  I was being set up. All it took was a deceptively simple jump between a pillar sliced in half, and the game suddenly turned into a nightmare. For Verycrazypony was not lying, and Crazy Pony really was an extremely difficult game.

Not that high difficulty is a bad thing, of course. Many modern games are too easy on the player, and it is a rare jewel that makes the player really earn their ending. But does Crazy Pony go too far? I think not; I'm probably just too used to mind-numbingly easy games that take no effort whatsoever to complete. Crazy Pony is probably the sort of game this generation needs more of, and not just for its difficulty.

Enough of the introduction! Besides the fact that it's very tricky Crazy Pony has a number of other interesting features. The game is heavily centered around completing each level (note: the demo currently contains one stage) as quickly as possibly and with a minimal amount of deaths. Since I didn't manage to reach the end I have no idea if Crazy Pony has any sort of online highscores system, but I'm pretty sure that would be the best possible thing for this game. Levels for the game can be easily created by using the open source Inkscape vector graphics program and an apparently scripting system that can be embedded directly into the file. Now I haven't tested this bit out but for those of you who like designing levels this should be a huge plus. The author has also said that multiplayer support is under active development and will let up to 16 players race through a level, the results of which should be very interesting to see.


If I want to be honest with you I really don't know what to think of Crazy Pony just yet. It's still a demo and the eventual outcome could go either way. Verycrazypony could either continue on the current path and create a unique and challenging multiplayer experience or he could forget everything else, madly ramping up the difficulty so much that only true masters could possibly hope to survive the first 5% of a level.

Note: The game runs decently through PlayOnLinux/Mac if you make sure to have the wine version set to "Wine 1.5.4-xliveless3-rawinput3", albiet with some missing audio.