Game: Patapony

Patapony

Patapony is a rhythm-based game inspired by the game Patapon. Here you control an entire army of Pinkie Pies and lead them through a few different stages, using your drums to create three different combinations that tell the Pinkies what to do, namely March, Attack and Defend.

While there aren't many levels, they certainly were enough to game over me once or twice, and it's really fun to play. It starts off a little hard due to unfamiliarity, but once you get the hang of it everything goes a lot smoother.

Now, get out there and start drummin' so your Pinkies can follow.

Corruption

Corruption

You guys never cease to amaze me. Complete with custom animation, creepy musical styling, and some slightly mind-bending visuals, The Oddwarg's Corruption is certainly one of the most colorful games to come out of My Little Game Jam. It's a little shorter than what I'd normally review, and borders on creepypasta, so I held off from grading it. Find the rundown after the break!

To be honest, the level styling of Corruption reminds me a lot of the Luna Games, which I'm a huge fan of. Using keyboard controls to move while controlling a magically levitated lantern with the mouse, the player attempts to guide Twilight through a shadowy underground maze. 

The unique art style and enveloping nature of the game mask the fact that there's not a lot of discernible story. There are a few clues - Discord smirks at you before the game launches, and Celestia greets you with Smarty Pants after the game's conclusion, but overall, the plot is indecipherable. 

However, I can't really fault a chaos-themed game for confusing me. I won't spoil the penultimate scene with a screenshot - rather, I'll leave you with the knowledge that I found it awesome and that it borders on creepypasta. 

Lots of insanity, and then... this. Well, that was anti-climactic - perhaps there's a secret ending?

The game might have begun to bore me had it dragged on longer - however, it was short enough that the mechanics remained fun. Aside from using your lantern to prevent Twilight from falling into numerous pits, variety was found in moving glowing balls and platforms to solve puzzles within the cave.

Overall, I think this game could go far if expanded - there's certainly a lot of unique potential here. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for creepypasta. Either way, it's quick and certainly worth playing!

Xtux's note: despite the author's claims you can run this game on Mac OS X by downloading the latest version of Java from http://java.com/en/download/mac_download.jsp and not through the Software Update utility.

Sunset Defender

Sunset Defender

Man, four whole days without a post? This needs to be remedied, stat! Fortunately, Amethyst Air has just the thing. This little game was created for My Little Game Jam, but missed the deadline by a couple of hours. Help Cadence and Shining Armor defend Equestria from changeling missiles, chain reaction-style! 

Letting a couple of locations be destroyed at the beginning proves to be the most effective strategy, as you can then focus your fire on the last remaining area. Waiting to click until the missiles are close to impact is a quick way to clear the board, but a little risky - if you miss, you're doomed. I couldn't get past level 13... if you beat me, feel free to disparage my skills in the comments!

Daring Do vs. the Everfree Forest

Daring Do vs. the Everfree Forest

If any of you remember remember Pitfall! or know what it is, you deserve a medal. The very first platformer ever created, Pitfall was a major hit back when it was released, selling over 4 million copies and was the second best-selling game on the Atari 2600. One thing that the game has always lacked, however, was ponies. Sure the game had an awesome little man, snappy crocodiles and horrible scorpions but not a single equine was included in any of the game's releases until the release of this mod. Daring Do vs. the Everfree Forest is a brand-new ponified mod of Pitfall that replaces Pitfall Harry with Daring Do and the various monsters with pony-related ones. Unlike some more recent projects this game stays true to the original system's technical limitations which is a huge plus for those of us that remember playing the original.

Daring Do vs. the Everfree Forest can be found at http://daring.do/, where you can either play the game online via a java emulator or download it to play on your emulator of choice. Have fun!

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!

Pony On the Moon/Parasprite Invaders

Pony On the Moon/Parasprite Invaders

Pony On the Moon and Parasprite Invaders are two unfinished Java games. The first one is a gravity-based platformer starring Luna, who has been trapped on the moon yet again. In order to survive she must eat, and somepony has conveniently left some muffins drifting around. You'd think that she would also need an oxygen supply if she requires food, but then again this is just a fun platformer that could really use a dedicated artist.

The second game is a simple asteroids clone, except instead of a spaceship you control Twilight's horn, and in place of asteroids you get parasprites. Again, it's in an early state and once again shows that programmers in general are terrible artists, but if you somehow managed to get bored of Waiting is Magic (which we reviewed earlier) then this might be a fun little time waster.

If you want to play these two games you can find Pony On the Moon at http://ponies-in-space.appspot.com/ while Parasprite Invaders is located at http://ponies-in-space.appspot.com/paraspriteinvaders.html. Have fun!

My Little Investigations Trailer + Demo Release Date!

My Little Investigations

Well, it looks like the Equestrian Dreamers team has released another My Little Investigations gameplay trailer, along with the information that the demo of their game is coming out on May 5th. Mark down your calendars folks, you'll definitely want to try this out!

(April Fools) Review: Lennyage of Harmoney

Lennyage of Harmoney

This article was written for April Fools 2013 and is not meant to be taken seriously.

 Legal issues have sent many fangame developers into hiding after the demise of MLP:Online and Fighting is Magic, but a courageous few have gone onward with their projects, pouring their hearts and souls into their projects. In light of this, Equestria Gaming has decided to take a new approach to reviewing in which we will not criticize developers for the few mistakes that they make, but focus mainly on praising them for what they do wrong. Having good self-esteem is good after all, and we're going to be at the forefront of this bold new esteem-raising movement with our review of Lennyage of Harmoney, which you can find more about after the break.

 Opening Lennyage of Harmoney in Linux was a refreshingly retro experience. No clicking on gaudy icons, no configuring of unnecessary settings: just the basics. A simple java -jar "Lennyage of Harmoney.jar" was all it took, and the game started after only a couple seconds of loading. The game's main programmer must be a highly experienced individual to make a fully-featured RPG load in a couple seconds without being bound by the conventional restraints of loading screens. Unlike most of the other fangames we have the privilege of posting on Equestria Gaming, this one supports Mac OS X and Linux but nobody really cares because we all know Macs are for hipsters and Linux is for fat neckbeards like Richard Stallman and his hippie buddies (such as myself, ;~;).

The cutscenes are one of the game's main highlights and contain much of its emotional depth.

 Some RPGs throw the player right into the action, but not this one. The creators took the time to craft a detailed and touching story about everyman Twilight Sparkle being evicted from the library by the sexist top 1% (who obviously did this because of her gender), and in response she bands together with her friends, overthrows the rich witch and lives happily ever after in a utopian socialist environment. We could all learn something from this simple, endearing tale that makes no attempt to hide its political implications, you know?

 Even though some people would complain about the lengthy cutscenes being unskippable, I myself do not mind. I wouldn't even consider this a flaw, considering their overall quality. Since most Bronies are autistic and have problems reading facial expressions the developers decided to repeatedly zoom into the character's faces, forcing us to take notice of their emotional states and speculate as to what goes on within their vastly superior pony minds. This may feel somewhat uncomfortable at first, but after a short while the typical player gets used to it, and even begins to enjoy the wonderful sensation of being close to another's face. If only the game featured better integration with Google Nose, the experience would be complete.

Lennyage of Harmoney doesn't beat around the bush here; controls are clearly explained from the get-go.

 The game isn't all cutscenes and politics though. It has actual gameplay too, although the controls felt somewhat floaty. Given that Twilight has wings now and can float around wherever she darn well pleases, this makes perfect sense. There aren't any annoying fetch quests to get in the player's way either, and grinding is an issue either. If the game were especially long and dragged out the story would lose its emotional impact (really now, who goes for ice cream before confronting the greedy republican who kicked them out of their house?), but Lennyage of Harmoney has our heroine head to the treehouse right away to kick the antagonist's ass: no distractions!

 Heartless console gamers might cry out against the game's simple artistic style, but we at Equestria Gaming know that graphics do not matter in the slightest. Gameplay is the only thing developers should focus on, and sprites should be an afterthought. Contrary to popular opinion games like Limbo would be exactly the same if their artistic styles were changed, and because of this we are not going to comment on the game's art or let it affect our final score.

 Effort is what truly counts, and it's quite clear that much work was put into the production of Lennyage of Harmoney. We mustn't let the quality of a game affect our opinion on it

Sometimes minimalistic art styles are better.

 Good RPGs not only have gameplay and long cutscenes, but combat (yes, the two are distinct from one another), and this game is no exception. Upon entering one of the game's many combat encounters the game switches to a very retro art style reminiscent of NES games like Earthbound, and it feels nice and trippy. It was also properly balanced too because I kept winning. This shows that the 1% is no match for the combined might of the American people, even though they may pour their armies and tear gas on us. We shall not be stopped!

 All games except for the stupid ones have music. This is a universal rule, and breaking it probably earns the creator a C&D or something so the fabulous progressive folks behind Lennyage of Harmoney made sure to give the game its own, entirely original soundtrack. It did sound somewhat familiar though, but that's probably because this game is a homage to all the great RPGs before it, albiet one that outshines them all.

 Maybe it's not perfect (the distinct lack of parallax scrolling is the only fault I can really think of), but since Lennyage of Harmoney is fanmade we can't really criticize it without being unfair; it's not like the fandom can do better. Besides, nopony minds a 148.5MB download for a short game, right?

 Else, you can always look at the first letter of each paragraph. Have a happy monday, and make sure you take everything you read today seriously. If you don't...you might miss out on some great fun.

Trailer: Rotor

 We don't see too many 3D pony fangames, but Oddwarg (the man behind Corruption, overall winner of the 2012 My Little Game Jam) has decided to release the trailer for a game he's been working on a week before he sets off to sail the sea in his yellow submarine, which is apparently his idea of a vacation. Aside from Rainbow Dash's nice animations the game looks pretty bland, but since the code is apparently lying around somewhere on the internet somebody could probably fix it up while Oddwarg mucks about in the sea of green.

 As to what platforms the game runs on...I have no idea. Oddwarg didn't specify where on the internet he keeps the source code (although I suspect that it's probably on GitHub), but he did say that it was released under the MIT license which means that you're free to modify the game yourself and port it without asking him. In my humble opinion fangames would be much safer from Cease & Desist notifications if they were all open source, but apparently some folks really don't like it when others can read their messy code...

Review: Island of Falling Stars

Island of Falling Stars

 As far as 3D creepypastas go, newcomer Goerge's marathon entry is pretty standard fare: it stars a defenceless Lyra recolour who wanders about her dreamscape and collects glowing rocks, only for things to get progressively worse as she does so. We've seen this before, of course, but does Island of Falling Stars live up to its comrades?

You know the drill.

 In this kind of game, atmosphere is everything, and Island of Falling Stars is a bit of a mixed bag there. The first couple minutes are silent aside from the sound of your hoofsteps, and as you collect stars the world will grow increasingly hostile until you are left alone to wander in the blowing debris with only the light of the fallen star to guide you. Problem is, none of them are very scary, since the game is fairly predictable and survival is more a matter of routine; once you figure it out the game is an absolute cakewalk.

 There was going to be an entire paragraph here dedicated to the hilariously cringeworthy ending, but I just couldn't do it justice (hint: it's exactly what you'd expect, except even more ridiculous).

That archway leads nowhere, unfortunately, and since it's somewhat out of the way many players won't even notice it.

 Even for a dream world, this one has a rather odd environment: it's littered with unusually interesting objects and setpieces, most of which serve no purpose whatsoever (aside from the simplistic maze, in which the second star lies). I'd say it's almost cruel to put a cave on the map and not allow the player to enter it: even with the magic barrier in place I kept instinctively checking back to see if it was possible to unlock it somehow, only to eventually wish that he had never included it in the first place. It's not bad for a dream, most of which tend to not make sense anyways, but if Goerge does move on to create other fangames then it'd probably be for the better if he not design their levels quite like this one.


 To be honest, Island of Falling Stars feels like a practice effort in which Goerge the enterprise Java developer tried out various things and slapped a game on top afterwards, and according to the development log that's exactly what he did. From that perspective it succeeds, but as a game it kind of falls flat and thus there's not really much of a reason to play it again afterwards, so for now I'm not really going to put a grade on it.

Note: if you're having trouble playing the game on Linux, try playing around with the file permissions.

Battle Royale: Forward to the Past

Battle Royale: Forward to the Past

 Xinef's main entry into the marathon also proves to be one of Silly Mare Games' first forays into multiplatform development; no longer will users of Unix-like operating systems have to run their games at abysmally low framerates. Even those of you who don't care about such things should still enjoy this fun little deathmatch game, especially since Xinef is planning on adding online multiplayer in a future update (whereas for now you'll have to either find someone to play with or exploit the AI's shortcomings).

 I'll probably review this once they add online multiplayer, but if you can find a friend to play it with I'd highly recommend giving Forward to the Past a shot.