Hydorah is an original side-scrolling shooter with authentic 80's arcade-style gameplay. The high-res text is about the only hint that you aren't playing an arcade ROM. Locomalito did a superb job capturing the look and feel of the arcade, right down to the boot-up ROM check and cheesy dialogue.
Ships are customizable and can be outfitted with parts that you earn in play. If you explore areas that are hard to reach, you may find hidden bonuses.
Unfortunately, like an arcade game, Hydorah has only one difficulty setting -- extra hard. Unless you have played lots of shmups, you will have hard time passing the first level. Furthermore there's no mercy for the hapless. For instance, twin lasers are earned on the way to a boss battle. If, in the boss battle, you blow up and then restart it, you lose your twin lasers, making it even harder to beat the boss. Limited save points make Hydorah more difficult, and potentially tediously repetitive.
Overall Hydorah is a high-quality, polished shooter that is designed for one audience: hardcore shmup fans.
The link.
It is not in working order.
Filefront Fucked
Well, the link to the game's site is working. But for some reason the FileFront link to the actual game download is not working. Hopefully they will solve this. Not much we can do about it.
Accolades for slavish
Accolades for slavish graphical emulation of something already done before. Admonishment for being difficult rather than a walk through a themepark.
Is there a community website sort of place out there where people are enthusiastic about programming hard games? Every web community I run into that say they are into games, are actually into a specific sub category of 'beatiful graphics and the ability to stroll through them so as to admire them'.
BTW, in another exact opposite, the downloads working for me, but not the homepage.
Alright.
'Tis working now.
Gradius worship <3
Gradius worship <3
Having played for awhile,
Having played for awhile, the save system in this game is sublime! It deserves to be put in it's own little gilt frame, as it's a wonderfully crafted gem (the rest of the game is well made, but basically repeating the past. I've not encountered the save system before).
Basically it pits your own strategic choice against your own sense of being able to beat multiple stages. One of the most explicit and evocatively presented gamist choices I've seen. It's like when in a soap opera (or even burn notice) someone has to make a hard choice morally? Here a gamist play to win hard to make choice is presented in it's pure brutal glory! *Salute!*
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Philosopher Gamer Blog
My latest short game - Bullet Prose: Have No Part
Outstanding
The risk vs reward balance is blatantly obvious throughout this title. Save now, at the risk of not being able to save later, or go ahead with the next mission, at the risk of losing everything that you've gained? (The game allows three save points between the beginning and end of the campaign.) Try to squeak down that narrow tunnel for the extra life? (Hitting any wall in the game results in a death and the loss of your carefully developed uber-powerful arsenal.) Dodge the bullet hell to reach that last green power capsule you need in order to upgrade your weapon to fire behind you, knowing that if you fail you'll lose 1/3 of your forward firepower and two of your wingmen? If you can't answer any of these instinctually, the game will quickly resolve your internal debate for you...
A consideration - During the space battle between your fleet and the enemies' there are several fighter craft identical to your own. A crucial factor for anyone besides the most talented bullet hell survivors is picking the weapons to bring into battle before each confrontation... with no intel on what lies ahead. Of course, if you've played the level before you have a rough idea what to expect. Your previous attempts, your avatar's previous incarnations, have bought you some foreknowledge of what lies ahead, and with that foreknowledge, a logical selection of weapons/perks. When I first encountered those identical ships, launching themselves ignorantly against the enemy legions, it became clear - I had already made that sacrifice, dozens of times over by this point. Smashing my keyboard in frustration, the computer mockingly squealing "retreat!" in response to my return to the title screen to reload the level.
What higher praise can I offer than that I felt a kinship with the background art?
Is it difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. Should you Play This Thing? If you have a gamers’ heart, certainly.
Cheating... kind of
Additionally, here's a little trick I picked up that is, situationally dependant, somehwhat useful.
If you recalibrate the movement keys the default keys continue to work. Once you have the Scort secondary system (which provides your ship with escorts) you can place them at a 45 degree angle in front of you by pressing the left arrow key and your redefined rightward movement key. This blocks many of the attacks you'd take from enemies in front of you, but at the cost of not being able to move horizontally. It's a little tricky switching between this defensive posture and a more mobile one, but if you can get it down it significantly reduces the number of hits you take from enemies that don't fire at 90 degree angles.
You don't play this if you
You don't play this if you only face risk because you want the reward. You play it if risk is the reward in itself, and other stuff is just even more reward piled on top.
It's worth saying because there are things treated as games, like wow, where many players don't like risk/difficult play itself, they only face it for the reward afterward.
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Philosopher Gamer Blog
My WIP browser game