Fugdale’s Funhouse

Object: Move your frog across the traffic and floating logs to the goal. Rinse and Repeat

Review: Everyone from my generation will remember the arcade classic Frogger. This game reached the peak of popularity in the 80’s when all the kids used to pump their allowances into the video arcade machines instead of towards the latest Xbox release. The object seemed simple enough. Move your frog from the bottom of the screen, through 4 rows of traffic and across 4 rows of floating logs into one of the 5 lily pads at the top of the screen. If you managed to get all 5 lily pads filled, you would progress to a more challenging level.

However, if you played at all like I did at that age, you rarely, if ever made it past level 2 or 3, because the game packed quite a challenge. So, now that we have reached the age where these classic arcade games have become quaint and antiquated, along comes an all new take on Frogger. In this version you don’t get the bird’s eye view of the traffic, but you must still use the same controls to accomplish the same task from quite a different perspective.

You start in front of several rows of moving obstacles and must move through them in a 3D environment. As you pass a row of traffic or floating logs the row in the foreground becomes opaque so you can still see what lies ahead, but now you can’t always see what objects will come moving in from the sides of the screen as easily as the original game. As you move side to side, the screen scrolls with you giving you different vantage points. Although you might assume the new version would provide you with more sophisticated controls along with the updated visual effects, you would assume wrong. Your frog still jumps quickly in one of four directions and you will have just as much of a challenge getting him across without him splatting or drowning as before…if not more so.

Despite the modern feel, the game still has all the charm of the classic version and having it in 3D now allows new players to experience the challenge for the first time.

Object: Plant bombs and destroy robot enemies to make it to the end of each level.

Review: Green toxic sludge flows underneath this labyrinthian power plant. All suited up in a yellow bio-hazard suit, your little person must work his way through a series of levels breaking through weak areas in the walls and floors, blowing up robots with an aresenal of different kinds of bombs. This game from the folks at Nitrome is fueled by high-energy techno music and smooth graphics.

You move using the arrow keys. Jump by pressing up, duck by pressing down and you can do a sticky wall jump by pressing up and either right or left at the same time. This will allow you to climb up into high areas to retrieve items. Along the way you collect green fluid canisters which give you 25 points each. The fun comes with a variety of different bombs you can use along the way. These include your regular unlimited supply of small bombs. You will also discover large bombs, sticky bombs (which float in mid air and attach themselves to robots), drill bombs (which tunnel down into the ground) and cluster bombs (which cover larger areas at once). The robot enemies you’ll face come in a variety of flavors as well, including rolling, hovering, spewing, laser-mounted, cannon-blasting, and crawling types.

The concept for the game comes from similar predecessors like Bomberman and the 2-D side-scrolling levels have the feel of many old arcade games. This game however, takes quite a bit of practice to get the hang of. Although sticking to walls isn’t as difficult as in some games, the use of the arrow keys gets a little frustrating at times. But I guess that’s the challenge of it all. The game includes 20 challenging levels and a fun tutorial on the first 3 levels, where once you’ve read the tips on the signs you can blow them up or climb all over them.

Even during the tutorial levels I found game play quite challenging. There doesn’t seem to be any way to replenish your life force if you get hit by bombs or enemies, so you must be careful. It gets very frustrating to have to start a level over from the beginning when you’ve almost made it to the end. And because of that, the game has a high stress factor at points. But once you’ve picked up the basics and mastered the controls, you should be able to dig in and enjoy the game. Luckily the game will save your progress automatically so you can come back after you’ve cooled your jets.

Object: Destroy all human ships with your asteroids.

Review: Fans of the popular arcade classic Asteroids are in for a little reversal of fortune with this game. This time the asteroids are striking back. Tired of being picked on by laser armed triangular ships, Mr. Blue Asteroid gathers his rocky buddies together and strikes back.

You play as a large blue asteroid floating in space minding your own business. When a human-inhabited ship comes along and starts to shoot his puny bullets at you, you just crash into the ship and destroy it. Soon multiple ships, various mines and other enemies arrive shooting at you from all directions. After each level you are given a choice of power-ups: make yourself larger or faster, armor yourself, add more asteroids to your gang or spin your enemies out of control. Along the way you will learn new tactics and tricks to combat the enemies.

You can play with the arrow keys or the mouse to move your asteroid around, use the ‘z’ and ‘x’ keys to move your allied asteroids closer or further from you and the ‘c’ button or left mouse button to move away from your allies.

The sheer inventiveness of this game makes it a pleasure to play. Each level you get new goodies. And most of the early levels are pretty easy to complete, so new players won’t feel too stupid off the bat. The techno music is repetetive, but not distracting and you will have a lot of fun mowing down all the puny humans as you careen through the universe.