By Kieron Gillen on June 27th, 2008 at 10:39 am.
Being the webgame adventures of a tiny, hypercute bear flying through the air like a limited Mary Poppins while listening to the most splendid music in a videogame since Portal. Simon Parkin passed it to me, and I passed it to Alec, who uttered LET’S MEME THIS FUCKER UP. And so we do. Talking about its charms a little beneath the cut, but – really – just get playing.
My favourite thing about the game – if you put aside the music, whose cheery loop has the period retro-charm of a Bioshock without trying to undercut it. Oh – and the graphics, whose pastel loveliness is cleansing and pure, and kind of helps sell the careful simplicity of game. Oh – and that I’m better than Walker at it.
Well, my favourite thing is despite being a game with two controls – open umbrella, close umbrella – no-one works out how to play it immediately. Goz describes me revealing how you actually get an enormous score multiplier, so the student becoming the Sensei. The realisation: By closing and re-opening your umbrella you can catch another gust of wind and take to the sky, turning the game from one primarily about timing jumps into timing your rise and fall to avoid the swans and pick up the bonuses.
And you have to play together for win. Clearly, the comments thread should be devoted to people going “Ah!” and listing their high scores.
27/06/2008 at 10:49 gulag says:
Ahh, that was nice. I really like Orisinal games, they’re the sort of thing you can send your girlfriend at work, instead of having to find a picture of a Downs Syndrome puppy to satisfy her demands for something cute.
Highscore: 48710
Cars passed: 231
27/06/2008 at 10:50 Kieron Gillen says:
Oh – my highscore at the moment is just over 200k.
KG
27/06/2008 at 10:56 Wildbluesun says:
Orisinal?
Been a fan since I discovered the wonderful world of interwebs.
A new game is just heaven.
Also, they’re mallards.
/pedant
27/06/2008 at 10:57 MisterBritish says:
The music really makes this! Brilliant!
27/06/2008 at 10:59 gulag says:
KG – Some of us have to work for a living you know. Plus you have Internet Games Jurno Powers. Obv.
27/06/2008 at 11:00 Kieron Gillen says:
And I really am abusing the combo multiplier. That 200k was from just two landings.
KG
27/06/2008 at 11:04 Down Rodeo says:
Ouch, I’m sitting on 20750. No, 32060. I foresee a wasted morning… 106930, I stop there. For now.
27/06/2008 at 11:05 gulag says:
Right, I accept your challange. Prepare for umbrella war!
27/06/2008 at 11:06 Jim Rossignol says:
There’s something about bears.
27/06/2008 at 11:07 AaronJer says:
I’m up to 417520 and still going…
Scratch that! They finally got me at 516340! Gets really hard with like 4 birds on the screen at once…
27/06/2008 at 11:10 Kieron Gillen says:
I suspect people are going to be able to get enormous ones on this baby.
Must… go… work.
KG
27/06/2008 at 11:21 Jonas says:
I hate to be that anal guy, but I believe sensei actually means master. Maybe “padawan” is the word you were looking for? :)
27/06/2008 at 11:38 rei says:
Mallards sure are jerks.
27/06/2008 at 11:42 The Hammer says:
Hurray! This game is lovely. And the presentation is spot on.
I’m going to trawl through the rest of Orisnal’s games later.
27/06/2008 at 11:44 Kieron Gillen says:
Jonas: Slip of the type, man.
KG
27/06/2008 at 11:53 Flint says:
Orisinal is so, so wonderful.
Long Way Home is the best game <3, it’s got the best music too. This is wonderful as well though. My current top score with this one is 59 610.
Oh and must not forget Winter Bells! Another favourite.
27/06/2008 at 12:39 nakke says:
Who needs Far Cry 2 anymore?
27/06/2008 at 12:44 Donald Duck says:
370.000 and then some idiot comes along and wants me to actually WORK. How rude.
27/06/2008 at 12:46 Ian says:
By gum! I’ve finally understood it!
It makes me happy.
27/06/2008 at 12:51 rei says:
778k! I feel compelled to keep trying until I get 1m ;(
EDIT: 1.380.940 on the next try :D All with one landing… got knocked down the second I tried to take off again.
27/06/2008 at 12:59 Five says:
Where can I get the music from this?
27/06/2008 at 13:01 randomnine says:
Ah!
3212000.
You too can be a master! The best way to get a high score is to simply restart and fly for as long as you dare. That precise score above is what happens when you reach 800 cars in one jump – I wanted to go for 1000 but around 750 (four mallards on screen at once) the fear took hold and this particular innocent bear fled the skies.
Double click regularly to stay at the top of the screen – you can fall quicker than you can climb, so this helps you grab bonuses. If a mallard comes along the top, perfect the timing for a slow double-click to drop underneath it and immediately rise back behind it. Success!
hmm… I’m going to pop in again and see how far I can get on the second jump.
Edit: 3232920. Total: 939 cars. Single jump is totally the way to go, just retry until you get further than whoever else. I grabbed a screenshot, though. Gentlemen, I present to you the face of fear itself:
sunny.png
And now I believe you owe me an hour of my life back? ._.
27/06/2008 at 13:28 Jachap says:
This is amazing.
27/06/2008 at 13:46 Andrew says:
Genuinely amazing.
The realisation that you can open and close the brolly in mid-air is wonderful.
27/06/2008 at 13:52 matt says:
I love it, it’s brilliant and so very well done !
High score above 3000, but i can’t really play too much at work.
27/06/2008 at 13:56 The Hammer says:
This guy is a genius.
I mean, look at how brilliant, utterly brilliant, this game is:
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/crossing.htm
It’s so simple, but presented so beautifully… I mean, the whole “move platform to be progressively stepped on” idea could be in any context, but the setting he’s found for it is just beautiful.
Make sure you check as many of them as you can out.
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/
Lovely find.
27/06/2008 at 14:02 Ian says:
There’s a point in this game when it goes from being fun to compelling. It’s the moment when you go from “Ooh, I’ve jumped a few cars in a row” to “Wait… I’ve gone quite far without adding to my score… I could keep racking it up by what if the ducks hit me….”
27/06/2008 at 14:51 Feet says:
The best thing is the music though. Just fits perfectly with the rest of the game design.
*plays*
27/06/2008 at 16:29 Hugh says:
I really can’t justify playing this right this moment – quite a bit on this afternoon! But I do have it loaded into another tab purely for the music. I’m sitting here working with a big grin on my face – my colleagues must wonder what I’m on!
27/06/2008 at 16:56 Cargo Cult says:
I believe I may have the lowest score possible.
Ten points!
Beat that…
27/06/2008 at 21:37 JohnG says:
0 points… if you double click very fast, when the first vehicle is a tall red bus, you can get nothing :)
28/06/2008 at 00:02 El Stevo says:
This game requires nerves of steel. The temptation to cash in mounts and mounts until it becomes unbearable.
28/06/2008 at 00:32 Lh'owon says:
Oh my, the music is glorious. I swear it is of a higher quality (in the bitrate/filetype sense) than other webgames. I am utterly incapable of being unhappy while it plays.
Ah!
28/06/2008 at 00:33 Jochen Scheisse says:
If you keep flying for the first 500-600 cars, you already get around 1.5 million points.
28/06/2008 at 01:45 Valarauka says:
Another thing to note for those going for high scores: If you land on a car without closing your umbrella, you get a “Smooth Landing” bonus which doubles the points for that jump.
My best so far is just over 2 million points, from a single jump of 451 cars followed by a smooth landing.
28/06/2008 at 01:49 El Stevo says:
I got to the 600th car from my first jump and then hit a duck…
And somehow landed on a car!
Then on my second jump I managed to click outside the app (look out for that) and watched dumbfounded as the bear floated downwards heedless of my clicks. Figured it out just in time, and somehow didn’t hit a duck, but I had to land again as I’d missed a couple of powerups.
1911290 total
808 cars
28/06/2008 at 04:31 MeestaNob! says:
That music basically makes it game of the year.
It’s wonderful.
28/06/2008 at 04:37 MeestaNob! says:
PS – I hate geese.
28/06/2008 at 10:43 Hugh says:
Looks like their site might just be down…. getting a page load error this morning…
28/06/2008 at 11:09 AaronJer says:
I don’t worry too much about trying to get a huge streak, I go at least a hundred every time, but I drop and land as soon as I think I can’t avoid a bird or miss a bonus. You’re in no danger when you’re on a car so you can go to the bathroom or whatever and not worry about it. Remember that HOW you land can cause a 2x bonus… makes a pretty big difference when you’re going hundreds of cars…
Also, I’m planning on killing myself… the site is down.
28/06/2008 at 18:59 Fat Zombie says:
This is so cute. Although I am worried for my immortal gaming soul after expecting the cute little bear to be smeared across the road by the oncoming traffic instead of just landing and walking off smartish. I fear for me.
Anyway. 176,540.
EDIT: New challenge! See how many points you can get by single-jumping; i.e. not clicking repeatedly, but clicking once and seeing how far the adorable bear gets in one umbrella. Then repeating, seeing how many points you get until he misses a car and lands.
My first: 11040.
28/06/2008 at 20:51 tackle says:
I love his overall design, but it always bugs me a bit how things have that look of being overexponated (not sure if that’s the english word).
For example, go to the orisinal store:
http://www.cafepress.com/orisinal
And tell me you DON’T have to squint to be able to read that text above the “View all mugs” button.
Edit: No wait, gloom is the right word. This has gloom all over it.
Also make sure you check out his game with the snow, rabbit & bells:
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm
Kind of similar, but cuter IMO. Music wasn’t as tight though, literally.
28/06/2008 at 22:49 RichPowers says:
Between this background music and “Baba Yetu,” the brilliant menu song from Civilization IV I rediscovered today, I’m in serene music heaven.
28/06/2008 at 23:35 richardginn says:
hmmm looks like we will not be able to score a 100 million plus points like in the crossing game with the deer.
29/06/2008 at 03:27 Phil White says:
Lovely little thing, but it screws my eyes up after a short while. Past 500 cars I’m a twitching wreck.
The motion problem is helped a lot by placing your free hand over the cars. Exposure to the parallax scrolling kills my perception. First ever game to affect me in this way.
We need some more virtual gliders, don’t we?
03/07/2008 at 19:00 Namagem says:
Aha- 391,950; 340 total cars. No way I could do over 500, let alone 2000.
Note: that is total score, and my highest combo was approaching 300.
10/07/2008 at 23:38 Edamame says:
This game is really great. The music complements this game perfectly and the artistry is remarkable.
Highscore: 416030
The trick is just keep getting those apples and pass about 200+ cars and land smoothly for an incredible score multiplier.
05/09/2008 at 13:34 BenBerkovic says:
heh… i’ve been looking for some kind of high scores page to see how good I am at Orisinals Sunny Day. I don’t think I have the best score ever or anything like that, but if anyone of you has more than
1074 cars passed, total score = 6.720.480 :D
please let me know, so i can turn off my egocentric pride this score has woken in me :)
05/09/2008 at 13:45 BenBerkovic says:
actually… i just did 8.336.440 with a single jump over 921 cars :D + another 67 cars… 988 cars…
next goal… a perfect landing after a single jump over 1000 cars :)
13/11/2008 at 23:52 David Hohusen says:
Nice work, Ben!
I just nailed 3.807.970 after perfect landing just after 600 cars. Thanks for raising the bar. ^_^
Score.
_david
26/09/2009 at 04:13 Deedee says:
:) my high score is 1,799,306
and I got over 400 cars in one go