Battleduty Modernfield 3. It’s a game, sort of, that you can play. Barely. It’s also pretty damn great.

Taking the whole “trolling of copyright” thing on the iPhone to a hilarious new extreme, this parody title takes static screenshots of both Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, overlays a crummy gun and adds some “pew pew” effects. There’s even some added art slipped into the extremities of the screen.

It’s priced at $0.99. Totally not worth it as a game, but if you’ve paid that price or more for other joke apps, this is probably better.

Since the dawn of touchscreen mobile devices players have been gleefully flinging destruction from one side of the screen to the other in an effort to destroy group A in the name of group B. Is there room for innovation in the flinging stuff genre? Not really. So how is Snappy Dragons so entertaining?

Snappy Dragons pits dragons against wizards in a baby-saving battle to the death. You’ve got one of a handful of dragons on the left side of the screen tossing fireballs at malicious spell casters on the right. It’s pretty simple, certainly simple enough that upon first glance someone might write it off as another Angry Birds clone.

But it’s not. It’s better than that. You aren’t simply trying to knock stuff down here, you’re obliterating massive chunks of land, Scorched Earth style. Then suddenly you’re given these dragon babies to protect, so it’s a little less wanton destruction and more measured, focused destruction.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have no complaints when developers add a couple of snowmen, a Father Christmas costume or a giant rolling snowball to their games at this time of year, but it’s rare for a seasonal update to impress as much as the level added in Polynomial’s latest update. I’ll admit, I’ve only ever played the demo of the “musical space shooter” but you’d have to be a fool to argue that its dancing fractals aren’t a wonderful sight to behold. Are you a fool? I hope not, because then you might not be overjoyed by the abstract made merry in the video below. Perhaps try the demo (Windows, Linux, Mac)? The full game is currently on sale for £1.49 over on Steam.

A visual journey through 2011 through the eyes of a gamer.

Trine 2 is the sequel to the 2009 downloadable PlayStation 3 and PC action platformer.

With the wholesome appeal of a fairy tale, Trine 2 is unapologetically packed with comfortable tropes. Like the first game, it stars a trio of classic fantasy heroes: a merry knight, a sly thief, and a nervy wizard. Their adventure bustles them through ye olde tale of rescue the princess–via enchanted forest and murky cavern, wherein they thrash goblins and giant spiders. But out of that conventional premise, the game conjures a gorgeous and gratifying platform puzzler.

You remember Happy Wheels? Free flash game, dangerously fun/funny. Well, this being Christmas and all, its creator Jim Bonacci added a Christmas theme to it. Where you control Santa and some Elves. Then kill them, repeatedly and without mercy.

Just head to Happy Wheels’ site, pick a level and at the character select screen, choose Santa.

A few people have nudged and winked us in the direction of Rockin’ Android’s (and there’s a name they must sort of regret, given they specialise in PC and PSN titles) Westernified J-indie bullet hell series Gundemonium Collection, which recently released on Steam. I quietly sneered my way through the big -eyed, Renaissance-frock loading screens and menus, and was rewarded by something delightfully ridiculous on the other side of it. Its base look might clearly declare which nation it orginates from, but it wastes no time in becoming absolutely batshit crazy, both in terms of the enemies it throws at you and in the powers it’s granting your floating gunwoman.

You’re up against a wall of death, but fortunately you can provide similar. Some by choice like the spinning cartwheel of doom which takes the place of the standard shmup bomb, and some automagically, like the giant laser cannon that pops up behind you when you suffer a wound and launches fury upon the other side of the screen. With the right character and the right weapon, a bloody great dragon flies on and biffs all and sundry.

Here’s a trailer showing off the stuff they’ve added for the Steam version:

Accurately-Named: Gundemonium
By Alec Meer on October 3rd, 2011 at 3:10 pm.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/03/accurately-named-gundemonium/

This is one for the young people, perhaps – as part of another trailer for the upcoming Syndicate enshooterising, we get a potted history of Bullfrog’s original game. “A cyberpunk wonderland,” apparently. Then it segues into a pic’n’mix of previous and new Syndishoot footage, and I guess we’re supposed to think “gosh, the reticule-based adventures of MILES KILO sure are highly thematically similar to an isometric tactical game.” Still, it’s nice to see the original Syndicate (“quite a unique experience”, claims robo-lady in the video) given a proper nod – never thought we’d see that as part of a bombastic, noisy trailer like this.

Battlefield 3 has finally figured out that the key to making a successful television ad is not to pick a theme song whose essential lyrics must be bleeped, and just put it all in the hands of filmmaker Freddie Wong.

Using Back to Karkand’s forklift and “online battle tactics that many of you should know and love,” Wong, with Sam and Niko from Corridor Digital, with this 60-second spot in just 10 days. It will begin airing soon. Freddie’s excited, and he’s also excited that he got to use real explosions and a tank. And we’re excited for him.

Here, superplayer MON tears through the PS2 version of the notoriously tricky shmup DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou.

In a recently released video, MON plays the game’s “Death Level Mode”. Shit gets pretty crazy pretty quick.

DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou’s “Watch out” warnings are about as understated as they come.

DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou was first released in Japanese arcades in 2002, then later ported to the PS2.