Alternative Games

Plasma Pong is a completely tripped-out version of regular Pong that incorporates fluid dynamics. In addition to deflecting the ball with your paddle, you can now use jets and vortices of fluid pressure to help guide the ball. And all of this is rendered in a super-colorful “plasma” style. If you love the visual style of games like Geometry Wars, Mutant Storm, and Darwinia, then you need to check this one out. Click here to download Plasma Pong, free for Windows PCs.

Millions of Games is just that: A web database cataloging as many browser-based games as the collective Internet can spew forth. What a lovely thing! It’s kind of like New Grounds meets Digg with a little Shadows thrown in for taggy-meta goodness. Right now there are not quite 7000 games listed, which is more than enough to kill a few afternoons at work. A lot of these are sex games, and plenty of them are so amateur they’ll make your Stupid Internet Crap Meter go *ding*, but there’s plenty of gold to mine from this here database. Click here to visit Millions of Games.

Arcadia is not a new game, but it’s one that is worth returning to, and if you’ve never played it, then you absolutely must. Created by indy game dev house Gamelab, Arcadia asks players to manage four old-school games at the same time. At first the slow-motion pace of all four is manageable, but soon Arcadium becomes a manic multitasking challenge. In the words of its creators “Arcadia may be the first postmodern arcade classic.” And these are creators worth noting: Founders Peter Lee and Eric Zimmerman should be well-known to game scholars for their critical writings. Plus, these are the folks who made Diner Dash! ‘Nuff said. Click here to play Arcadia (for free, of course).

Maple Story is a completely insane MMO-Platformer. You read that right: For an idea of the level of chaos involved, check out the screen at the top of this post. What the heck is going on there? In Maple Story you become a protector of Maple World, playing with others in minigames and platform-style games. It’s free to play (users pay in small transactions for upgrades and extras for your character), although the website requires Internet Explorer, which is a total bummer. Expect more on Maple Story soon.

Wired News has a good round-up of the details surrounding the strange case of James Bragg, who has just filed suit against Linden Labs for shutting down his Second Life account. Bragg was shut down for exploiting a flaw in the Second Life land auctions system and purchasing large amounts of land far under normal cost. The issue at hand stems from the fact that Second Life is one of the few games that allows users to retain ownership over anything they purchase or create within the game, and these in-game items have real-world values. According to Wired News’ estimate, Bragg’s in-game cash holdings alone value approximately $3200 in US currency. Bragg, however, is suing for $8000, factoring his in-game land holdings into the lawsuit. Read the full story on Wired News.

GamaSutra has posted an interview with representatives of Tose, a game development house that handles outsource work from larger companies, promises to never publish a game themselves, and generally accepts no credit for their ultra-secret portfolio. Tose has 1000 employees and nine development studios in Japan and China. So why haven’t you ever heard of them before? Says Koichi Sawada, director of China sales for Tose US: “Well we’re based in Kyoto, right? So we’re ninja. You can’t find us! But in the past 26 years we’ve worked on 1,100 games.” Read the full interview here. via slashdot

We’ve downloaded and are playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG, just to see for ourselves. There is a lot out there about this game already. Kotaku has an interesting interview with a Columbine survivor who has played the game and Water Cooler Games has their usual insightful take. Check out these pieces and download the game to see for yourself.

Darwinia, the totally trippy RTS-type thing, has won the 2006 Independent Games Festival at GDC. And right after that achievement, the game secured a retail box version as a part of the Cinemaware Marquee line. Download the Darwinia demo if you haven’t already (or get it on Steam).