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.

Vine Slicer

Vine Slicer

 Oh, looks like futzi01 made another quickie game, this one being a clone of Fruit Ninja. You drag your mouse cursor around to chop up vines, all the while avoiding ponies and wishing Fighting is Magic wasn't cancelled so you could play it instead. Pretty basic, I know, but still fun for the most part.

As to why this isn't on the Arcade...let's just say that futzi01 has grown really fond of exporting his Flash games at rather high resolutions.


And on a somewhat fangame-related note, Donitz released some odd "Neuropony" experiment which happens to be worth taking a look at and can be found here.

Cadance Toss

Cadance Toss

This has been on the posting roster for a few days, but our tactical posting bot dropped the ball. For those unaware, the notorious futzi01 has created the first game to feature the much-lauded sport of wife tossing! Hurl Cadance as far as possible, collecting crystal hearts to stay airborne. Go! For the Crystal Empire!

Twilight's Epic Hill Ride

Twilight's Epic Hill Ride

Good morning, ponydom!

This little flash game has been passed around a lot lately, and rightly so! In case you've been out of the loop, I'll give you the upshot. In the latest game from futzi01, you play as an anthropomorphic purple unicorn attempting to snowboard down an endless rock-strewn mountain. Dodge rocks and changeling beams, and accidentally smash into floating logs. Awesome, right? See for yourself. 

Review: Canterlot Siege

Play it on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

or on DeviantArt

Good (late) evening, mares and gentlecolts! For all of you teaching and learning this fall - myself included - who are regretting the end of another fantastic summer, I have just the thing. As for the rest of you, you'll probably enjoy this too. 

Yes, the fabulous futzi01 has once again landed a game upon my reviewing table. And it's a tower defense title, no less - something which we can never have enough of. Can the mane 6 blast their way through parasprites, griffons, and diamond dogs to become a fandom classic, or do they fall a little short? All this, and a secret code, after the break!

In Canterlot Siege, one places ponies around a the map in order to defeat waves of enemies - pretty standard tower defense fare. All of the mane six are available, and each one has it's own strengths and weaknesses. Each can be upgraded five times, becoming immensely powerful by the final upgrade. The game includes a pleasant amount of strategy, forcing you to optimize your tower layout for each enemy type while not becoming overwhelming. Additionally, it includes targeting options: you can set each pony to target the weakest, strongest, or farthest forward enemy within it's range.

I found the game playable, polished, and balanced - meaning that it definitely met my expectations for a tower defense title. In addition, the difficulty increases to the point where even more serious fans of the genre should find an enjoyable level of challenge. My only qualm was that occasionally, when the option to target the farthest forward enemy was selected, your ponies would fire on enemies further back along the path.

Strategy-wise, figuring out pony placement and how quickly to upgrade was key. Earlier upgrades buffed your ponies' attacks only slightly, but were cheap enough that they were well worth buying. Keep in mind that while one pony, depending on it's placement, might not need a range upgrade, it might be essential for another. Augment your bits by calling waves just far enough apart so that no tower has to fire upon multiple waves at once (unless your infrastructure can handle it.)

[MILD SPOILER ALERT] I told you I'd give you a secret code, right? As in a few of his other games (I'll leave it up to you to discover which ones) futzi has included a secret unlock related to the Konami Code. By keying in the particular sequence (up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a) on any level, you unlock Twist Mode, which turns all enemy types into the unlucky filly.

There's not a lot to fault in this game. It's charming and very polished, and, thanks to it's rare qualification as a tower defense game, I'd give it a high spot on my list of pony flash. While perhaps not a massive undertaking, it stays within it's limits and solidly lives up to it's billing. 

Game: Twilight Wing

Play it Here!

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!

Review: Sweetie Bot's Pixel Trip

Sweetie Bot's Pixel Trip

Well, I'll be lucky if I ever get Teithepony's Pixel Buster remix out of my head after this. Sweetie Bot has a vendetta against the pixels of the universe, and it's up to you to wreak her vengeance upon them!

Perhaps the pixels are on the offensive. Who knows? Who cares? Regardless, prepare to give your reflexes a run for their money! Review below the break.

From beginning to end, Sweetie Bot's Pixel trip is pulled off with the trademark polish we've come to expect from futzi01. On the sparse title page, the game introduces a new feature - background animations can be turned off to reduce lag.

However, once you start the game, you might want to keep all the lag you can get. Gameplay is vexingly simple: use the up and down arrow keys to guide Sweetie Belle forward, jumping from pixel to pixel. Each key pressed moves her to the closest pixel in that vertical direction. If there's none, prepare to explode against the side of the screen.

Not even the ones that swerve can escape this orgy of destruction.

For a short while, oncoming pixels are slow and survival is a cinch - but they soon speed up. At a certain point (generally beyond a score of 75), pixels appear which slither up and down, making your key-pressing decisions much harder. At time of writing, my best is a combo of 107.

Using the Konami Code while pixel tripping grants you a confusing super power: by holding space, you can simultaneously slow the game down and reverse the direction in which Sweetie Bot moves when you press keys. Be warned: this ability doesn't make your life much easier.

I had no qualms with the execution this game: snappy, simple gameplay, fitting music, and adorable Sweetie Bot sprites combined to make it a treat. What I'd like to see is simply more: power-ups, multiple gameplay modes and perhaps a campaign could really make this game a classic. Final score (with plenty of room to grow:) 6/10.

Celestia's Cake Golf Adventure in Space

Celestia's Cake Golf Adventure in Space

 I was pleasantly surprised to hear that futzi01 would be participating in the MLGD marathon; this odd little game of interplanetary golf is probably one of his better recent creations (most of which were unfortunately a tad dull). It starts off well enough and introduces some interesting gameplay mechanics as it goes along, but suffers from a massive difficulty spike partway through the game that would make bring the chosen undead to his knees. This probably has something to do with the game's being created within several days and there not being too much time for playtesting, so it's still pretty impressive: just don't expect a superbly polished experience.

 Also, I thought I might as well use this spot to apologize to Wishdream for how harsh the "compilation" post turned out. There's more I'd say, but it's probably best that things be worked out in private conversation than on here.