MadCap's Game Reviews - "I Wanna Be The Guy"

Ah, the joys of the early 2000's. Back in the time when sites like Newgrounds or Kongregate ruled the internet with a wide variety of movies and games created in that long remembered and beloved program Adobe Flash animation. I actually got the chance to play around with Flash in high school. My hat goes off to those men and women who used this thing to create some fantastic animation and games. . .but I took an entire course on that in school and I still could not tell you how to work that thing.

MadCap Reviews - "Fancy Pants Adventures"

Oh, goodie, more Flash Games! This time a bit of an older title comes to my attention, Fancy Pants Adventures available on Armor Games, and more recently (by the game's own admission) on the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. Developed by one Brad Borne and a Ts7, this game is now pushing seven years old.  Does it still hold up? Is it worth it to even give it a shot? Will I ever get back to reviewing actual game releases?

 Well, if you have to ask, then you don't know.  Thankfully I'm going to answer those questions...most of them, anyway.

In this world, the player is given control of a stick man with wicked hair and a pair of brightly colored - one might argue fancy - pants, who traverses the world to...well, there is no real plot to this one. There's a bit with a penguin near the end, but that's not so much a plot as a final boss fight.  The controls for moving around Fancy Pants Man are pretty much what you'd expect for a platformer like this, the arrow keys move you, the 'S' Key allows you to jump and that's really all you need.  Like Mario if he had awesome pants and some killer hair, F.P. Man can leap on the heads of his enemies, sending them into a daze before punting them off into the air with a strong running kick.

There's also collectables available that are Easter eggs, little nods to other Newgrounders and various others who aided in the development of the game, as well as the ability to change the color of your Fancy Pants from orange into a variety of other colors.

And that, so far as it goes, is pretty much it for Fancy Pants Adventures...well, the first one at least. I'd recommend it, just don't be looking for anything of real substance.  It's a platformer, and it's fun, but there's really not that much to it.  Luckily, I've played the second one, which has far more complexity, and I've heard that 3 increases the complexity of it even further. Who knows? There are plenty of Fridays left in the world.

Fancy Pants Adventures is now available on the internet.  Seriously, the link is above.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Give Up"

Title Screen. Abandon all hope ye who click "Start".

 Give Up is a Flash game about failure and regret.  It even says so on the title screen. How lovely for us all, right? It's a wonderful platform that is definitely something that lives up to that tagline and more.  Available on Armor Games, this is a platformer where you learn quite a bit about failure.  Not regret so much because you don't really even find the time.  You might have regret that you've thrown your computer through a window, though I expect if you're so hell bent on trying to beat this game you have plenty to spare. Computers, that is, not patience.  If you have the patience to play through this game without completely blowing your stack then I owe you a drink and you owe me several bottles of headache medication.

I was first introduced to Give Up through a video from RoosterTeeth by one Michael "Rage Quit" Jones.  Watching his playthrough of the game for the segment that he gets his nickname from, I remember thinking "Oh, this can't possibly be that hard."  Now if I were able to go back in time and backhand my previous self of a few days ago for sheer stupidity, I'd do so with an honest to God smile on my face. Then again, I might get the person who created this game in much the same matter, so hush my mouth I guess.

You run and jump from left to right in this 2D platform with a very Portal-esque feel to it (complete with an AI giving you sarcastic comments as you go on).  But instead of the silent Chell, you're a little blue man who has a bizarre preoccupation with dying, repeatedly. But luckily, the game doesn't punish you for dying and you immediately start at the starting door of the level with all the levels various traps and platforms reset with only a healthy portion of Ragu smeared across a nearby wall to mark that you were ever there to begin with.  

The physics are a little messed up, too.  One of my friends playing the game mentioned that he didn't seem to be able to move forward and jump simultaneously at points and, upon testing this out for myself, I discovered that he was quite right. Or both of our reflexes are complete crap.  Either way, this is a major problem when facing down an entire room of traps

"Oh, dear...you're getting blood all over the walls..."

The game starts out simply enough with cannons that shoot square bullets at you but eventually add such delightful things as laser beams, razor blades, and even invisible platforms that quickly begin to pile up to a point where I can perfectly understand why someone would want to rage quit from this game.  On my first attempt, I managed to get all the way to sixty percent completion before I wanted to put my computer through someone's face.  After calming down an coming back to it, I did slightly better on my second and third attempts at it, getting to seventy-two percent before I finally gave up on the venture completely.  As of writing I've attempted it for a fourth time and have fared no better than the previous three.

Another "quirky" feature of the game is the large, blue "Give Up" button, and while I was expecting a screamer video to pop up, I was actually treated to what I could only assume was a slideshow made by the turrets from Portal. It told me to not to feel discouraged and that it would be there if I wanted to try again.  I almost felt insulted. But not nearly enough to take this game up on its offer of a replay.  If you're able to get through it with your sanity intact, then by all means take a shot at it. As for me? I'll be recovering from my recent injury of the soul and hoping for something to review next week that is more helpful in my recovery.

Rage Quit is available here.  Start praying to the deity of your choice if you try it.