Pinkie's Hyperactive Chat is Shutting Down

 Due to a lot of its moderators losing interest and real life getting in the way of development, the current owner of Pinkie's Hyperactive Chat has decided to pull the plug on his web-based MMO by the end of the week, much to the chagrin of its active playerbase. It's quite a shame, I know, but at least Lordcerii has the decency to wait until sometime around Friday evening to shut it down, giving players a chance to exchange contact information so they can keep in touch after the end if they so desire.

The original announcement can be found here.


 To the best of my knowledge this will leave Ponyplace as the fandom's only active MMO, although opinions on its overall quality are mixed. Not sure if >CLOP counts as a MMO either...

Canterlot Siege Comes to Android

Canterlot Siege (Android)

 There seems to be a decent portion of the fandom that is addicted to playing Canterlot Siege, and Nitrouspony has decided to feed their addiction with an Android port of the game. Now I don't play Canterlot Siege myself that much, but for those that do (and aren't iOS users, who'll have to wait a bit longer for a port) this must be a godsend. Interested in giving the port a shot? You can download the .apk file over at http://sta.sh/0k8abuu6ijo. Have fun!

Elemental Reaction

Elemental Reaction

 Puzzle games centred around chain reactions can be rather fun and Elemental Reaction is fun when you first start it, but after a while this one gets kinda dull. Then again, it could just be that this cold/headache is adversely affecting my enjoyment of this game, so maybe I'll have to give it a shot later when I'm not coughing up mucus every so often. Can't really think of much more to write about it, so...yeah.

Enjoy your day.

Gravity Pony

Gravity Pony (Download)
(Arcade)

Happy U.S. Thanksgiving, everypony! Regardless of where you live, November's as good a time as any to eat good food and play pony video games. Because that's what this holiday is for... right?

Anyhow, Zilven Sparkle's whipped up a gravity-based pony minigame to keep you occupied. Help Twilight master gravity spells, and try to avoid falling to your doom for as long as possible. The game appears to use the same animation as the upcoming Super Smash Ponies, and looks great in practice. If you've got .exe download problems, the HTML5 version can be found here, although lag and graphical issues are to be expected.

Story of the Blanks Level Editor

Editor Tutorial

 While we wait around for that Story of the Blanks reimagining (which is apparently still under development, if we take their word for it), some anon on /mlp/ suggested that we post about the game's built-in level editor, which has been around since its release during the Creepypasta contest. To access it, the player has to open the game's SFW file, make the browser window much larger vertically than horizontally, click Play and then press Home+End. If you read the guide and figure out the editor, more power to you I guess. Still, it's not like this is really an appropriate tool for creating an entirely new game unless you're really crazy.

 Also, the comments for our Creepypasta contest reveal that apparently there were two entries, but Story of the Blanks was the only one that was posted. I wonder what happened to that other one...

So little to post these days...I'm only really putting this article up because there isn't much else, if anything at all. Also, upgrading to Windows 8.1 broke my dual-boot setup, so there's that as well.

Lunar Defense Force

Lunar Defense Force

Man, what's up with you guys and best princess blasting aliens recently? It seems the Shroobs do have a use beyond comprising the low point in Nintendo's excellent series of Mario RPGs, anyway. FearlessPie over on DeviantArt's come out with another flash, this one dedicated to purging mycological aliens from the surface of Woona's moon. It's not very complex, but it has a nice degree of challenge, and it's a nice way to cap off a Saturday evening.

Speaking of Woona, I'm off to go mash f5 on the Moonstuck homepage - good night!

My Little Pump It Up Project

My Little Pump It Up

As far as I know, My Little Pump it Up is the only fan-made project dedicated to ponifying StepMania 5 - which, to be honest, sounds pretty cool. Maybe this could be the next convention gaming staple.

The team is creating the interface more or less from scratch, but they need money to purchase a machine in order to show off the beta at BronyMexiCON. Head over to their site to check out the project or donate!

Review: Rainbow Dash Shooter Project

Rainbow Dash Shooter Project

Ever since their release the Desktop Ponies sprites have been used in almost everything. Yes, they are good-looking retraux pony sprites but at times one likes to see developers do their own sprite work for a change. I can say from experience that the main problem seems to be that four-legged characters are rather hard to animate properly and simply using a standard set of sprites saves much time and lets the developer work on things other then character animation. The creator of the dully-titled Rainbow Dash Shooter Project claims that his game's graphical resources were created entirely by himself, and this may be either a good or bad thing depending on his artistic talents.

Of course, it is not the graphics that matter most as the gameplay, so how has this project turned out? Find out after the break.

Of all the sidescrolling shooters that I've seen come out of this fandom this one has to be the most ambitious. The player starts off controlling either Rainbow Dash or an OC created within the game itself (more on that later), and can eventually unlock Fluttershy and Derpy, the latter of which must be obtained by finding a special code either ingame or in the game's comments. Each character has their own special abilities but they can all fly, shoot magic fireballs and enter "overdose mode", which basically speeds up gameplay and enables the player to fire at an absurdly fast rate.

At times one almost wishes that the entire game could be played in Overdose mode.

Unfortunately things get worse fast. Unlike other titles such as the splendidly-made Dash the Rainbow Dash Shooter Project lacks a sense of speed and the sluggish controls make you feel like you're not flying, but swimming in a pool of mud. There is also a very small variety of enemies, and until the first boss is complete the player is stuck fighting large swarms of parasprites. Thankfully once the player reaches Cloudsdale a couple new foes are added to the lineup, although you'll still be mostly fighting parasprites throughout the entire game. To be honest it gets boring quite fast, although the addition of a couple bosses helps considerably.

The game's first boss is Trixie, who is apparently too lazy to perform a levitation spell like unicorn OCs can and is being pulled in a flying cart by Fluttershy. She starts off extremely boring, just slowly firing bullets at the player, but it's once you start to damage her that things get hectic. The game practically switches genres from a plain old shooter to a fully-fledged bullet hell game, although the execution is rather sloppy. In the final stages there is no logic as to where the bullets appear from, and the sluggish controls make dodging the high-speed magical projectiles nigh impossible. As almost everypony realizes it is far more fun to skillfully dodge bullets at high speed, not soaking up damage as possible without dying and with the grace of an overfed seal that can barely swim in it's aquarium pool without sinking.

Thankfully Cloudsdale isn't quite as dull as the stages before it.

As for the graphics...I'll just say that the Rainbow Dash Shooter Project looks quite dull. The occasional passing cloud makes things slightly more interesting, but in general the scenery which you will be flying by is completely bare. It also seems that like many people the artist has a difficult time drawing ponies, and it shows. It's nice that he made the effort of designing his own puppets in Flash, but I really wish that he had just used either the My Little Pony Flash Resource Kit or the Double Rainboom puppets instead of his own work, as it would have improved the game's look immensely. Letting the player use  OCs in the game was a nice touch, although it seems that cutie marks do not import properly  after uploading them and they come out as a garbled mess. There also seems to be a distinct lack of manes and accessories to choose from although thankfully it seems that more shall be added to the game fairly soon.


Let me get this straight: the Rainbow Dash Shooter Project could have been a great game, but poor execution ruined it. Put simply, this game was boring. The game looked dull, the controls were sluggish, and fighting endless swarms of parasprites grew tedious quickly. I had high hopes for this project, but they were shot down as soon as I began to play and were so heavily damaged that they were unable to fly again. To make this game better one would have to loosen up the controls, entirely revamp the graphics, tweak a couple bosses and BAM! We'd have a must play on our hands. Thankfully the game is still under development so hope is not lost yet, so why don't you play the game for yourself and give the creator some feedback, eh?

Review: Derpy's Story

Derpy's Story

Unlike many other fandoms My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a very large and dedicated game developer community centered around it, and they have poured out an absurd amount of fan games. One of the things that it has not seen much of in its relatively short existence are good, complete story-centered games. Video games as a storytelling medium are on the rise, although nowhere near the level of films and books, and certain games (such as Limbo and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP) have  been called art by many individuals.

Today we have come across a recently completed fangame titled Derpy's Story, and it promises to be a short but sweet tale told through the form of a video game: a rare thing in this fandom. Does it live up to expectations? Find out in our review after the break.

In Derpy's Story the titular protagonist is lost within the depths of the Everfree Forest when she becomes aware some bubbles floating through the air and decides to follow them. The player controls the bubble cluster with their mouse and guides Derpy through the forest, helping her avoid dangerous obstacles and timber wolves along the way. The reason behind the bubble's behaviour is never explained in-game, although this is probably for the better as it adds to the game's mysterious atmosphere.

Amosphere is probably the most important aspect of Derpy's Story, and for that it succeeds immensely in feeling like a real forest after dark. Screenshots alone cannot convey how beautiful this game looks; it must be seen in motion for the game's gorgeous art direction to become apparent. The bubbles slowly orbit each other, casting a circle of comforting light and subtly illuminating the dark environment around it. Each area of the forest is lovingly crafted and has a hand-painted look that is highly unlike anything I have ever seen before in a Flash game. The cutscenes, while not quite up to the rest of the game, are still quite impressive and feel quite adorable. Not entirely necessary, but still a nice addition to the product.

Even with the game's visual beauty it is the audio that really makes it truly great. With the music off the forest feels almost lifeless and cold, but when it is turned on the game becomes alive. Owls hoot in the distance, the trickle of streams can be heard when you near them, and crickets chirp. The atmospheric soundtrack enhances the feeling of being lost within the depths of a forest after nightfall, but gives off a glimmer of hope that inspires you to keep moving and follow the light. I really cannot stress enough how important it is to the overall game, but it is highly recommended that you play this game with headphones to take full advantage of the game's wonderful soundtrack.

From what has been said so far it seems like this is a perfect game, right? Not so fast. Thankfully the game has been patched to remove many of the bugs in the initial release, although these fixes are exclusive to the version on our Arcade. Unfortunately there are still a couple issues that hold this game back, one of them being the game's damage system. Upon coming into contact with something nasty such as a timber wolf Derpy will panic and begin to fly around randomly in fright, ignoring the bubble's light for a brief period of time. This can cause Derpy to run into other dangerous obstacles while the player's control is taken away and cause even more lives to be lost then is really necessary. Upon loosing all lives the player is not taken back a level, but forces the player to start all over again, which is tedious and might convince some frustrated players to quit prematurely. The game itself is also quite short, and while for the sake of the story this is probably for the better it still feels like the game could have been much, much more if only a couple more levels were added to the final product.

As you could probably tell I liked Derpy's Story very much. The atmosphere was fantastic, the gameplay was fun, and the minimalistic story made this game into what I think is one of the best fangames that I have ever come across. Sadly it was held back by some frustrating control issues and its rather short length, so as much as I would love to give it a higher score I'll have to rate this game at 8/10.

Hope you enjoy the game!

Game: Ponysweeper

Play Ponysweeper

I could marvel at the ever-expanding list of ponified games, but to be honest, I'm not even surprised any more. Minesweeper. Ponies. Ponified Minesweeper. What took you guys so long?

Ponysweeper is exactly what it says on the tin. Playing as Twilight, excavate a garden full of handily numbered cabbages/eggs/watermelons while avoiding the buried changelings. Board size and number of changelings can be modified in settings, and I can't complain about the execution. Have at it!

Fanmade MLP Arcade Cabinet

Down in the magical land of Seattle some folks decided to create their very own pony-themed arcade Cabinet, and unlike many awesome ideas that never come to fruition (such as my beer cannon that uses beer cans as ammo) they actually went out and created it. Given the games that they showed running on the machine Given the fact that it runs Galaga '88 some might assume that the machine uses a Namco System 1 board, although I suspect that it is really powered by a PC with an emulator program installed. Some of you folks should try making your own Arcade machine sometime; it's actually quite easy if you are familiar with carpentry and have the technical know-how.

After the break you can find three embedded galleries of the cabinet during the production stages. Enjoy!

Review: Rainbow Wake: the Game

Download it Here!

Man, I find out about two top-down pony shooters in a week? I must be dreaming.
DeftFunk's relatively new game is based off of the thestoicmachine's unusual comic Rainbow's Wake. Rainbow Dash has stolen Twilight's horn, and the resulting insanity lends itself perfectly to bullets and explosions. 

Does the game live up to the oddball humor of the comic? Yadda yadda yadda and more, after the break.

While Rainbow Wake lacks the trademark flood of bullets emanating from it's bosses, it still has several elements similar to a bullet hell shooter, and it's tagged for being 'close enough'. It does contain a number of complex attack patterns that the player must exploit in order to beat each boss.

This is as cluttered as the screen gets, besides a couple of Celestia's more linear attacks.

Rainbow Wake: the Game consists of a series of escalating bosses, following the comic's storyline. After overcoming Pinkie Pie's killer robot and Fluttershy's army of wildlife, the player must defeat Rarity's fashionable, yet deadly airship and finally Princess Celestia herself. The game contains some excellent original voice acting, and, true to the comic, it's a little difficult to tell who's really the villain here. While Fluttershy pleads with you throughout your battle to just return the horn and apologize, Rarity seems to relish hurling mines at you and Celestia appears positively tyrannical, screaming "Die!" as she bombards you with high-powered princess lasers.

These two are just screaming because Ponyville's getting cratered. Nothing else is going on here.

Unlike some top-down shooter games, as you weave your way through enemy attacks, you can aim your own fire using the mouse. This gives you the option of moving to the top and sides of the screen to dodge as you attack, giving you an advantage if you move more vertically than you might otherwise be inclined to. From time to time, the errant Derpy Hooves will drop power-ups which allow you to improve your fire or unleash a powerful, stage-wiping sonic rainboom upon your enemy.

A lot of work clearly went into the development of this game. Besides the voice acting, the cutscenes (panels taken from the comic) are cleverly woven into the storyline and animated. Although the game is brief, bosses are detailed and have a wide variety of attacks. Kudos to those who manage to beat Celestia - she's pretty hard.

I could just post screenshots of this all day.

Occasionally, this game seemed rough around the edges. Depending on your personal sense of humor, you might not find the comic's screwball comedy, and therefore the game's cutscenes, very tasteful. The hit boxes of several enemy attacks were a little too large and bulky at times. Some obstacles knock you off course, sending you pinballing frustratingly between them and dealing a disproportionate amount of damage. In a couple of places, such as the pause menu, the graphics seemed neglected.

However, I have to applaud the amount of work put into this game and the way it made me laugh. It's engaging, difficult, and fun to play, which is what counts. Although tricky to quantify,  Rainbow Wake: the Game is a unique experience, and rates a nifty 7/10.

Review: Bullet Hell Ponies (My Little Pony vs. Starcraft II) v1.6

Download it Here!

I promised myself I'd beat this game on Pony Mode like a man before I reviewed it. Two days later, I've emerged bloody but victorious, and I'd call myself qualified. For over a year, huod umop apisdn (get it?) has been developing this classic Touhou-style game, which we posted way back in the day. The download link above goes to the games' development blog, which also contains download links for the XNA and Microsoft .NET frameworks required to play the game. If you want to see the game before committing to downloading all this stuff, the team released a trailer here.

Bullets! Ponies! Bullets! Starcraft! Friendship! Bullets! That stuff, as well as some (hopefully useful) advice, after the break!

Man, pony games this hard are unusual. Bullet Hell Ponies has four modes: Derpy, Filly, Pony, and Trollestia. If you're new to the Bullet Hell genre, get ready for a finger workout. Dodging waves of bullets may seem a little overwhelming at first, but you'll get better quickly after a little practice on Derpy Mode.

All of the mane 6 are playable characters, each with their own abilities and styles of play. You're allowed to choose which pony you start the game with, and you can switch between them in-game by grabbing power-ups that bounce about at the top of the screen. Said power-ups take the form of balls with cutie mark icons indicating which pony they will transform you into, and give you a health boost. Small packets dropped from defeated monsters refill your magic bar.

Getting screenshots of this game was a trying experience.

Of the mane six, I found Twilight to be the most useful. Her twin magic bolts are powerful, especially when focused into a single pulse of energy, and they fire rapidly. Her special launches a magic bomb that explodes into smaller bolts. Pinkie Pie was also useful - as her magic increases, the amount of cherries that she fires increases from two to four. Rainbow Dash fires a rainbow-colored beam that penetrates all enemies, and is therefore useful for clearing the back of the screen. Applejack's giant apples (what?) are also powerful stage-clearers, but their firing rate is slow. Her special attack (the only one besides Twilight's to focus on offense) launches even larger apples. Fluttershy's cloud of butterflies lacks the density of the other ponies' fire and is tricky to aim but effective if your aim is lacking. Rarity's gem shower is very hard-hitting but it's short range made it the least effective in most situations.

Each pony has a standard shooting attack, as well as a focused version used by holding the shift key. For some reason, when focusing your attacks, your pony can move only to the right. However, if you can spare an unmoving second, the focused attacks are more efficient at dispatching bosses. Additionally, each pony has a third most powerful attack that consumes your magic. You'll want to hold these attacks back for emergencies, as most of the ponies' standard attacks are more powerful when their magic bars are full. 

I took this AND THEN survived to beat the game. Stick that in your juice box.

The game takes you from Equestria into space and back again before the ominous "To be Continued" flashes on the screen. After beating down Terran, Zerg, and Protoss alike, you face down corrupted Derpy, Zecora, and Trixie bosses. The controls are snappy and responsive, and the size, music, and number of attack styles are all laudable. 

Bullet Hell Ponies is an impressive member of it's genre, with engaging patterns and too many bullets to count. It's difficulty (and the ability to change it) was just the icing on the cake, and thus it receives an impressive 9/10.

PurpleTinker's Quack Quest

Play it exclusively on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

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!

Pinkie's Hyperactive Chat

Pinkie's Hyperactive Chat

Or on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

Fan MMOs are sort of a rarity, especially when they are released in quick succession. It wasn't too long ago that MLP:Online was released, and even then it was just the single player mode. And all of a sudden out of the blue pops a brand spanking-new pony MMO that nopony has ever heard of and takes the crown for the first playable MLP MMO (and one of the first ever HTML5 MMO games). Mind you it's still in an early alpha state and doesn't have all the features of the final product (it lacks different hairstyles and races), but it's still quite worth playing already.

Why not give it a try, eh?

Game: Quickspell

Download it Here!
Note: You'll need 7zip or similar extraction software to play on Windows, plus additional software to play on Mac or Linux. 

If you were at Everfree NW this past weekend (it was an absolute blast, by the way), you may have noticed this game being played extensively in the Gaming Room. It's called Quickspell, and it was created in 48 hours by Sind and Amadiro for the Crystal Games Challenge. It was programmed using the LÖVE Framework, and features sprites from Urimas and music from RoccoW.

The game is a simple two-player game where the object is to knock your opponent off their pillar using magic. During each players' offensive turn, they cast up to four different spells using either the arrow keys or WASD. The other player must cast defensive spells that correspond to the color of the spell being cast. If the defensive spells are correct and are timed well, very little damage will be taken.

Quickspell is a very fun and quick multiplayer game, and it's still in development. I'll definitely be watching for the revamped version of this game. Edit: Download link updated to newer version.

The Adventures of Pinkie Pie

The Adventures of Pinkie Pie 

(Source)

Most of the web games that we receive on Equestria Gaming are Adobe Flash, and although we do get the occasional Unity game I have noticed that HTML5 games are relatively rare. This is probably because of the somewhat steeper learning curve, the lack of full-featured engines (libraries, on the other hand, are in no short suppy), and the fact that usually you need your own web host to make it publicly available. So far this is only the second HTML5 game we have came across on our website, with the first being Pony Wings, and only the former was in a complete state. For indeed, The Adventures of Pinkie Pie is still in alpha and only contains a couple unfinished stages, but it seems rather promising and every game deserves a chance, right?

In case you're interested in following the game's development they have a website over at http://pinkamena.tripod.com/, and our arcade recently added the game if you want to check it out every once in a while and see if there's any new content.

Review: Canterlot Defender

Play it Here!
Or on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

After the Season 2 finale, it's hard to imagine anyone who hasn't dreamed of defending Canterlot against an incoming swarm of Changelings, preferably using this technique, pioneered by Twilight Sparkle. Well, thanks to Futzi01 on Deviantart, you can do just that. This point and click style game is already on the Equestria Gaming Arcade, but I felt it deserved a proper review. You can read it after the break...

The gameplay here is simple enough. You aim and fire magic bursts with your mouse, shooting down changelings in the process. It is your duty to prevent any changelings from making their way to the side of the screen. You have 10 lives. The longer you live and the more changelings you blast, the higher your score.

There are two more elements to consider, however. The first is your magic bar. You mustn't let it drop down to zero, otherwise you'll experience a long cooldown period which is guaranteed to let at least a few changelings by. As long as you don't click too wildly, you should be fine.

They're no match for my Twilight Sparkle Gatling Gun!

Last but not least, by pressing the numbers 1-5, you can call upon the other elements of harmony to help clear the screen for you with unique animations. If you time it correctly, you should have at least 1 of your friends available at all times.

There exists an easter egg in Canterlot Defender, accessible via the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter). You have to enter this quickly to avoid losing too many lives, but from that point on, you can call upon Derpy in addition by pressing 6.

The atmosphere of this game is greatly enhanced by its music selection - Final Day Area by the wonderful Interrobang Pie. It's an upbeat 8-bit track inspired by This Day Aria, and I must say that it fits in perfectly with this game. All in all, simple as it is, Canterlot Defender is an enjoyable gaming experience.

Presenting Equestria Gaming's Online Arcade!

At Equestria Gaming we pride ourselves on being the #1 source for My Little Pony fangames (at least, we hope so!). But as you might have noticed, lately we've slowed down somewhat (not in speed, we're highly optimized when it comes to speed and SEO). Was the current generation of authors going the way of Strawberry Spice? Nope! We've just been preparing something really awesome that we hope you all enjoy.

Introducting the Equestria Gaming Arcade, a place where you can access all of your favourite online MLP fangames in one easy website, with even more on the way! We have classics such as Story of the Blanks, Super Filly Adventure, along with enjoyable minigames like Catch the Scootaloos, Derpy Hooves sweet dreams, and the ultimate cure for boredom, Waiting is Magic! Pretty much any browser-based game is supported, so if you have any Adobe Flash, HTML5, Javascript or Unity3D games then feel free to submit them to us.

Anyhow, the arcade is located at http://arcade.equestriagaming.com/, and currently features 8 games (more are in the pipeline!). The features are not completely final yet either, we plan on adding a ratings system in the near future and maybe some extra eyecandy for those with modren browsers. Enjoy!

Minuette vs Tardiness Gets a Level Editor

Minuette vs Tardiness

 Poor Minuette. As if her traumatic experience in Minuette vs Tardiness wasn't long enough, people wanted a level editor to extend her nightmare for their own personal enjoyment. Can't you guys give the poor gal a break? If you keep this up, she's never going to wake up in time for work.

 The above image is from a poster Mark posted on his deviantART. If you want to see the whole thing, it can be found via this link: http://marcusmaximus.deviantart.com/art/Minuette-vs-Tardiness-367190929