Games on a plane

On my flight home from Austin yesterday, I had finished my book, and still had a bunch of time to kill.  So I turned to gaming, but I didn't have anything in my Steam account, as I had recently had to reformat my hard drive due to a little incident with some malware.  However, one thing I did have was a bunch of little freeware games I had downloaded years ago, which I kept with my backup files.  Turns out these smaller-scope games were very well suited for a plane ride.  Some of these games go back to my earliest blog posts.  I think there is a special charm in really low-production indie games.  Have a look at some of these: 

Wibble Wobble
Wibble Wobble is a strikingly appropriate title for this simple platformer.  You play as some kind of upright matchstick-thing, and the goal is to jump and collect stars while avoiding red stuff that I decided was hot lava.  The ground moves up and down in wave patterns, and if it dips below a certain height, deadly lava appears.  You are given little awards for distance covered.  It's a very simple game, and pretty fun.  Worth a look, if just to watch the ground move.  

Rescue the Beagles
I played this game long ago at the cooperative gaming co-op in San Jose.  It is a very cute, fast-paced arcade style game about rescuing Beagles from the sinister lab techs who want to experiment on them.  The main music is really cool, and the fast-pace kept me playing again and again.  The visuals are nicely designed and I love that hte mountains move at different rates.  That said, this game is tough, and can be frustrating to a new player.  I recommend playing with a controller, but I made it work with the keyboard.    

Knytt
I've also talked about Knytt before, long ago.   This game is a wall jumping exploration platformer.  It is basically a maze through many different environments.  The music is ambient, and the graphics are minimal, but with some very nice flourishes.  When I showed the game to Jane, she said it was very cute, which is something I can agree with.  Once again, this game is easier with a controller, but do-able with keyboard.  Knytt is very generous with save points, so that helps mitigate some of the tougher platforming challenges.  I think the best approach is to just relax and explore.  I picked up my previous play from a couple years ago, and was able to get to the end.  Satisfying.  

-D