Flash Game Friday: Death, Sass, and Srs Business
Welcome, boners, to a new weekly segment where I’ll be highlighting some of the best and brightest browser games on the Internets. We’re at a point where independently developed Flash games can rival or even surpass those that are downloadable and/or purchasable, and I’m here to make sure you all know that.
For the inaugural edition, we have something morbidly wacky, something just plain wacky, and something that’s just the absolute opposite of both of those combined.
The End
The End‘s a game that’s meant to teach kids and teens about life, death, and everything inbetween. Commissioned by Channel 4 Education and developed by Preloaded, the game has you playing as a kid that’s freshly dead, thanks to a rogue meteor. As your custom-created character, your goal is to meander around something similar to purgatory and reflect on life, and subsequently deal with death.
It’s a platformer at heart, but The End also provides “boss” sections at the end of every level, at which point it turns into a strategic card game called Death Cards. It’s quite simple, but still engrossing; I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get hooked on those from the get-go. Additionally, for a Flash game, The End is surprisingly expansive, and provides a vast wealth of content not seen in many indie games period. More importantly though, it manages to succeed in its original goal, and educate the player on certain ways of life, and philosophies to abide by, while still maintaining a lighthearted atmosphere. Check the trailer out below.
Lee-Lee’s Quest
Lee-Lee’s Quest is another winner in the Adult Swim library of games. It’s not quite as out-there as some of the favorites, but it’s still wacky, raunchy, and just in-your-face in all the wrong ways. Another platformer, this one has you rescuing someone or something; it’s not too clear what’s going on.
It doesn’t matter, because the highlight of this one is the endless snappy dialogue that occurs between the main character and all the enemies onscreen. The discourse here isn’t exactly witty, but it’s so sarcastic and douchey, I can’t help but chuckle. Lee-Lee’s Quest is basically a game where everyone’s a scumbag, and you absolutely love them all for it. Hell, even the power-ups are absolute boners to the main character; some of them aren’t even “power-ups”, per se.
If you have ten minutes to spare, check it out here.
Trauma
To call Trauma a game would discredit the meaning behind it, but it’s fitting. Developed by Krystian Majewski, it’s a gesture-based adventure game based on real-life photographs centered around the memories of a woman fresh out of a terrible car accident. There isn’t really any goal per se, except to uncover the memories of said woman, and figure out who and what she really is. Check the trailer below for more deets:
I haven’t delved too deep into this one, but it’s by far one of the more compelling “art games” I’ve played. It’s firmly rooted in the real world, which is a welcome touch, and the gestures are intuitive and work well with the mouse. There’s been a lot of buzz on the Interwebs over this one, and after completing the first couple chapters, it’s clear to see why. Check out the Flash version here, and if you really like it, don’t hesitate to purchase the downloadable version on the same page.
