Download of the week: Guxt (PC)

Guxt is a top-down shooter from Pixel. As the name of the developer suggests, it's entirely minimalistic in design. It is fast paced and elegant, with small bursts of color interrupting its otherwise chromatic palette. Although beautiful to look at, with nice pixel sprites in the same constrained color scheme, it doesn't allow for much sight-seeing: as with many other modern shooters, Guxt is very difficult. Still, challenging as it may be, it's nothing but a delight to play. Guxt is not yet complete, but there's a five stage demo available for Windows.

Click here to download Guxt (270 KB).

Internet game of the week: Rick Dangerous (Flash)

A true classic, Rick Dangerous (by Core Design) made a splash on the scene in 1989 as one of the most frustrating games on the Amiga. One might even call it the ultimate game of trial and error. And traps.

I used to play it with at least two friends at the time, so each could memorize different parts of the levels and keep track of the numerous traps. Did I mention Rick Dangerous is all about traps? Poisonous darts and wooden spikes, everywhere. This Flash version of the game even has a built-in cheat to help players suffering from short term memory like myself: all you need to remember is to press home every now and then to revive and replenish your ammo. Although the first game is dear to me, Rick Dangerous II is obviously the better game. I figured it'd be boring to put it as Download of the week, so I decided to include it in this post. Enjoy.

To play the Flash remake of Rick Dangerous, follow this link.
Click here to download Rick Dangerous II for Windows (2 MB).

Download of the week: Eternal Daughter (PC)

Eternal Daughter is an epic side-scrolling adventure game that took some two years to complete. According to the creators, it's an homage to their favorite games from their early years, like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but there's also a good deal of Zelda-esque elements in there. Eternal Daughter is very demanding and difficult, but is so in a good way - there are no sluggish controls or bastard platform jumps to ruin the whole experience.

Download Eternal Daughter here (9 MB).

Retro game of the week: Outcast (PC)

I remember installing the demo of Outcast when it was released way back in 1999.
I had seen screenshots of it in magazines and it looked gorgeous. I had my hopes up. Did it look good? Yes. Did it look better than anything my eighteen year old mind could ever imagine? No. But it really fascinated me. As with Trespasser, I never got a chance to play the whole game, and that kept me wondering how it would be like. I wondered for a long time. Eight years, actually.

I tried Outcast yesterday, and I have to say I'm impressed. It certainly shows its age, but still has a graphical flair and special feel about it. The game is an even split of action and adventure (viewed from a first or third person perspective) and it's completely nonlinear in its structure - you can pretty much go anywhere at any point, and there are plenty of optional quests you may not even encounter unless you talk to every character you come across.

Outcast used voxels, a pixel technology developed and employed in games at the time. There's a more technical explanation of how that works here, but the short version is that voxels are efficient when it comes to rendering large outdoor landscapes without the use of polygons, allowing spectacular draw distance.

Unfortunately, Outcast isn't freeware, but it's available at your favorite Torrent search. There's also a demo, if that's more convenient (130 MB).

Internet game of the week: Gateway II (Flash)

Another indie-developed game from Sweden? Well, why not? Gateway II, developed by Anders Gustafsson, is simple but stylish and delivers an excellent narrative, thick with emotion and dark humor. Guide the avatar through a series of rooms, solve the puzzles within each room to advance to the next. Give it a try.

Visit this page to play Gateway II.