Dec 22, 2008

Cthulhu Remakes Commonplace Retro Books And Asks For Nothing

While I was slaving away in the dungeons of Notblogging, the excellent Retro Remakes team brought mankind the aptly named Retro Remakes Competition 2008, whereas the sinister lot behind TIG Source unleashed the Lovecraft inspired entries to the Commonplace Book Competition. Now, I obviously lacked the time to play through all those lovely and quite freeware games, but I can at least comment on a few. Here goes:

This Cursed Rock is a beautifully pixel-art illustrated arcade-adventure-platfromer with an interesting story and a distinctly Lovecraftian mood. Haven't quite finished it yet, but I'm pretty sure this is a loose adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu short story trilogy and -at the same time- an obvious labour of love. Highly polished and playable too.

Deathchase, obviously a remake of ZX Spectrum classic 3D Deathchase, is simply brilliant. Potentialy better than the original too, what with it sporting an intuitive and extremely well-thought of control method and a sense of speed the Speccy just couldn't manage. All it needs are a few touches and Deathchase will be the ultimate tree-avoiding simulator.

Herbert West, that well-known fictional character we'd all love to employ as an animateur, is also starring in the visually stunning, definitely innovative and quite tough Carrion Re-animating. The game has been put together in an obviously very professional way, has a few great touches of humour and -I'm afraid- could use slightly better controls. Then again, I never managed to shine at Night Shift either.

Insomnia is another tough one, but you can be assured that controls wont be your problem. This is a highly atmospheric, yet heavily action oriented, offering that will remind you of the hardest days of the 8-bit era and show you just how difficult and frantic a platformer can be. Brilliant and well-written too.

The Empire Strikes Back. Yes, a remake of the original arcade obviously and one of the best Star Wars games to hit the PC during the last decade. You have to try it. Really have to. Highly playable and ridiculously addictive. Could use an online leaderboard, mind.

Death Lights Dancing. Interesting, quirky, heavy on atmosphere, not quite playable. If anyone cares for a mouse-driven row-simulator in a dark setting, well, be my guest. Surely a great idea is hidden in this still unpolished effort.

Ultimate Bruce Lee. Simply the ultimate version of the ultimate platform-fighter that was Bruce Lee on the 8-bits. Two new jaw-dropping graphical re-interpretations, an almost faithful remake of the original, fantastic music, a ton of unlockable new modes and excellent controls turn this into a truly brilliant remake. Which I love. Apparently.

16 comments:

  1. Nice. I'm not even registered on the tigsauseges forum, but i'm banned there!

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  2. Now, that's an impressive feat indeed!

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  3. I'll need to give that "Deathchase" remake a try. There's been a couple in the past but none have managed to play quite as well as the Spectrum original. Be interesting to see if this breaks that mould.

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  4. I liked KaiserPC's Lords of Conquest from the Retro Remakes Compo 2008 :)

    Tried Utimate Bruce Lee but it's too hard for me. My reflexes must really suck.

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  5. Matty, you really should. Just don't expect it to be exactly like the original. You'll soon find the core mechanics (and, yes, scoring) have been improved upon.

    One Bruce Lee coming up Deitrix. Uhm, what will you drink with that?

    Haven't tried it yet dear Roys, though judging by the screenies it seems more than intriguing. Oh, and even I managed to cope with Bruce Lee and I have the hand-eye coordination of a dead turtle.

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  6. Nice call Gnome. I still haven't found the time to really play many of these games, even though I was a beta-tester for some of the IF ones...

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  7. And I on the other hand my friend haven't tried any of the i.f. ones yet. Still, there's -almost- enough time to enjoy a couple. Any suggestions?

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  8. I'm stuck at This Cursed Rock. There's that door that won't open.

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  9. Surely not the first one, eh? Oh, and cheers dear chentzilla!

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  10. Nah, the stone one at the isle.

    (And - Happy New Year, glad you're back!)

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  11. Ashamed to say I haven't made it thus far yet... Too much Spore really... Oh, and thanks very much and cheers my friend. Happy New Year to you too!

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  12. @Chentzilla:

    You have to kill all the enemies (there's about 20 or so in the level) ;)

    I originally planned to have a mini adventure-style quest where you had to hunt down a key, but the time restraints of the competition forced me to cut a lot of corners.

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  13. Nice of you to drop by deadeye. Great work by the way.

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  14. Deathchase and Herbert West links are down. :(

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  15. Aye, thanks. I'll try and remedy that asap...

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