Hatman is, put simply, a great game. Unlike other titles, riding an endless wave of nostalgia fuelled by idiotic man children with no desire to grow up, Hatman feels like your first love, but it doesn’t make you feel awkward because it’s not 13 years old. Though clearly inspired by several other games, Hatman’s secret recipe has just enough proprietary noxious chemicals to differentiate it from the stampeding herd of NES games made in the Space Year 200X.

Using the ever popular Z and X keys, you guide Hatman through – as of now – 3 levels, each culminating in a boss fight. This is of course standard fare, and barely worth writing about. Hatman’s meat and potatoes comes from its central play mechanic, you attack enemies (crudely drawn, though they be) by throwing your hat at them, which you can control mid-flight. Hatman is, without question, no triumph of art. However, it is engineered with a calculated efficiency, a core beauty that is solely the result of programming.

You’ll not be moved to tears by its message, you’ll not be awed by its visage, and you’ll certainly not lose yourself in its rich sound. You will, however, be impressed by “it”. Its inner workings on display, a wondrous mechanical feat amongst the art on display in Indie Gaming’s Great Hall, clashing with its surroundings, mayhaps even ruining the aesthetic. Yet still deserving of its pedestal.

There’s no grand scheme in sight, not the slightest ethereal whiff of meaning, nor microscopic clue of message. Hatman stands bare in front of all who witness it, intellectually barren, yet intriguing and respectable on another level. Hatman attempts only to be engaging, fun, and solidly built, forsaking all other tenets of great culture, and yet, is that not a bold artistic statement in and of itself?

Hatman is a study in contradictions. The noble savage. The great intellectual slaving away at menial tasks, sweat pouring profusely from his forehead, tremendous effort exerted, not in the name of something he loves, but for the sake of remembering that feeling. What it is to be human.

Hatman (Direct Link) by Bibin, 2.66 MB
(Be sure to install the font that’s included in the zip!)

(Note: This review was written for the first demo of the game. All the links in the post have been updated to a more recent version)

Ninjas. The last refuge of the truly untalented, the jazz music of video games. Did you ever wonder why Arnold Schwarzenegger was always wildly firing guns, and not delivering complex soliloquies? Consequently, his talents never led him to the ultimate prize. No, not a big shiny statue, but anonymous people on the Internet lauding his artistic merit.

Such is the fate of the ninja game.

To be sure, there is not the faintest whisper of an artistic message, nor the dullest glint of an inner, obfuscated yet exquisite beauty to be found in JW‘s Super Ninja Hunter, and it has fallen into the filthy pit that commercial games writhe in until they embrace death.

Using your, it pains me to say, grappling hook (sigh, let me bust out my accented e) you maneuver the game’s protagonist about the levels, shooting your enemies – I’ll not stoop to typing the n-word again in this article – until they are dead, and you can progress to the next level, culminating in a boss battle. I just checked my shelves, and rest assured, the molds are still there and intact.

Sure, there’s a visceral thrill, fun, if you will, about the mechanics of it all, but this is the year 2008, is this really what we are playing games for? We may be lagging on the technology for flying cars, and monogrammed silver jumpsuits, but I would have hoped for a level of intellectual development amongst the game-consuming public.

If you’re an uncultured savage, by all means, download this game, I’m sure you’ll have a “blast”. However, if you’ve ever spoken a word of Nihongo, ever thematically analysed a French silent film, cried at an art game, or picketed a Gamestop, halt thy clicking finger, lest thy eyes roll so hard they eject from their very sockets. This isn’t buried treasure, it’s a shiny penny atop the sands, lying in wait until it is spirited away by a pea-brained magpie.

Super Ninja Hunter Ancient Civ Edition by JW, 1.82 MB

(Click the ”Download Now” button under “Play Offline” on bottom right.)

Let’s go…

Nothing lends art a false sense of credibility like black and white, and Zoglu Production’s Scrolling Survivor is without doubt indie gaming’s very own student photograph run through a filter in a cracked copy of photoshop. And to supplant the opening artistic salvo with some beefy ordinance, it’s French. Many games of our current period feature scrolling, it’s a rather passé technology, however few feature surviving, none quite so prominently as Scrolling Survivor.

Depending upon how European you are you may or may not remember the auto-scrolling stages of the little-known underground Japanese piece Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System (though it takes aesthetic elements from the Mario series, a great irony), the main difference, and the overt basis of the game, is that the borders of the screen are permeable, and should you find yourself out of their confines for more than a few mere moments, your crudely drawn potato man meets an untimely end.

Reflecting a current hot-button political conern, the environment is your enemy — and its inhabitants, cannons, other bipedal beings, et. al, can do little but merely bump you off the screen. You are quite literally impervious to all other attack, with only your mobility and wits to triumph over the trials and tribulations you will encounter.

Now, given that your enemies can not hurt you directly, and that the environment is your only enemy, and that completing the levels more quickly and efficiently will grant you distinctions in the form of “ranks,” it is not hard to see a connection between “surviving the scrolling” and “advancing up the socio-economic ladder.”

Thusly, the future direction of our society ultimately rests in your hands, specifically your fingers that rest on the arrow keys and control, the worst key. Take control, assume social responsibility, defy the odds, survive, scroll, and Vote Republican.

Thanks…

Scrolling Survivor Demo (Direct Link) by Zoglu Productions, 1.4 MB