By Jim Rossignol on January 12th, 2010 at 5:31 pm.
It’s not easy being a swan, as this webgame, Endless Migration, is quick to point out. If it’s not the swooping jumbo jets that get you, it’s the Zeppellins. This is a kind of reverse shoot ‘em up, where you must gather a migrating flock and stay alive as storms, aircraft and other hazards batter your numbers. On my first run my flock survived a mere 23.4 seconds. Hmm.
12/01/2010 at 17:46 Lambchops says:
45.3 seconds first go.
Best before I got bored 63.3 seconds, 67,317 points.
12/01/2010 at 17:47 Alexander Norris says:
I read the “how to play” instructions and got an achievement for that.
Which is exactly the sort of thing that makes me not want to play that game, Grinch that I am.
Edit: also, 74.6 on my first try.
12/01/2010 at 17:50 Andy says:
Er my first go was about 5 seconds. But i got the hang of it next time, pretty lovely game, one of those games that just has a nice “atmosphere”, even tho the actual mechanics arent particularly special. I like how you can get really far and almost die, left with only one bird left, but you still have the chance to build up your flock again.
12/01/2010 at 17:57 keppu says:
66.6 on my first try :P. Thirth time got 97.5, then my eyes started to hurt.
12/01/2010 at 17:59 viper34j says:
That picture made me lol
12/01/2010 at 18:13 Guy says:
83.6 before a Jumbo wing topped the whole flock.
Quick quibble- the thing that kills more birds than anything else is…umm, windfarms.
12/01/2010 at 18:27 cliffski says:
methinks it’s cats.
12/01/2010 at 18:21 Tubbs says:
It’s no Miami Shark…
12/01/2010 at 18:22 Brumisator says:
Heh, it’s like a mix of Nibbles/snake and a top down shoot-em-up. I like it!
Not much lasting appeal though.
EDIT: actually, a surprisingly long staying power through the achievment/upgrade system.
12/01/2010 at 18:33 Dean says:
Ooh lovely, 100%ed it. I know people moan about achievements and unlocks, but you can max out the whole thing in about 45 minutes, which is just perfect – takes it from silly little flash game you play for two minutes then forget about to something you stick with slightly longer. But there’s no stupid achievements that will take hours and hours to play. Like anyone would want to play a tiny flash game for 6 hours straight. Perfectly implemented. Have to admit, would probably have played Canabalt more if it had an achievement/upgrade mechanism…
12/01/2010 at 18:35 Nero says:
Yup, got everything in it as well. Nice little distraction this.
Record:
289.5 seconds
2044296 points
12/01/2010 at 21:47 DrazharLn says:
Damn, I thought I was doing well.
Highscore: 939001 pts, 138.6 sec.
Scratch that, new best: 1071581, 223.9
I grabbed all the upgrades after 17 plays and I’ve got 24/29 achievements.
Fun little game. The achievements in it added to the gameplay in the same way as the loot-carrot in Diablo or Torchlight does.
12/01/2010 at 18:43 CMaster says:
Played it at some point before christmas I think.
Really neat game, if a bit manic once you get beyond a minute or so.
12/01/2010 at 18:44 Buemba says:
Huh, never knew helicopters hated birds so much.
12/01/2010 at 19:16 Mad Doc MacRae says:
The bloody cessna’s are the real problem. Golden Goose seems to summon more of them than real birds. Still fun distraction
12/01/2010 at 19:17 Ian says:
Played this a week or so ago. Only thing is it’s one of them games where it gets to a point you’d have to try really hard to get a crap score once you’ve got some decent upgrades.
12/01/2010 at 19:18 James G says:
23.5 on first go, but not entirely sure what cause wipeout.
12/01/2010 at 19:57 MikeBiggs says:
Not a bad little game. I managed to complete it within around 20 minutes, and being somewhat anal decided to get my 5 mil career points and 25 games on my final run. I did :D
12/01/2010 at 20:23 Astrak says:
This is the winner for STRIDE game on Kongregate, that guy won 10k I think.
12/01/2010 at 21:08 PleasingFungus says:
That was pretty okay! Ended up getting mostly killed by Zeps, though, especially at first. They move so slowly you can hardly see them! Like the cows of the sky.
12/01/2010 at 21:46 Shakermaker says:
Swans? Geese surely!
12/01/2010 at 21:53 Big X says:
That game has truly captured the sound of death
13/01/2010 at 00:21 Starky says:
Thing I hate about these kind of flash games (as in almost anything that uses the mouse) is it can’t lock your mouse to the window, so your mouse moves off and the game just stops taking input from it. You can’t fullscreen, or resize the window.
It’s bloody frustrating.
And why after 7 goes (156.2 secs), I’m done with it trying to move my mouse within a relatively small box (22inch 1080p) on my screen gets old fast.
13/01/2010 at 02:05 Bret says:
Got the Sky Captain (AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW) achievement.
I’m good.
13/01/2010 at 02:36 Hmm-Hmm. says:
The few annoyances I have underline the fact that I liked it up to a point. Once you go beyond a certain point in time it just stops being fun. At that point it becomes too much mindless scramming, geese-running and such. It’d be nicer if enemies crash when they run into you or when they run into other enemies. Or if you add elevation (low, mid and high).
Also, trying to get the bourgeoisie achievement is waaaay too annoying. You only have a chance in the first 30 seconds or so. I get the feeling it could’ve been far less frustrating than it is.
13/01/2010 at 03:17 Jigahaganaga says:
Third try, 129.5 seconds and I disagree zepplins arent the killer its not noticing a stealth bomber.
Poor,Poor geese.
13/01/2010 at 03:52 Bret says:
You just got the worst pop up ever showing up on this page.
It forces itself onto the page, has a hidden close button, and talks. Just felt the need to mention.
13/01/2010 at 04:00 Vinraith says:
@Bret
The RPS guys don’t have direct control over their advertising, but if you provide a screen shot and the links for the ad and the target they can try to get the more obnoxious ones pulled.
13/01/2010 at 04:38 Jason Moyer says:
Those Chegg ads need to go.
13/01/2010 at 06:59 Bret says:
Ah, thanks.
If I see the thing again, I’ll get the URL and do that.
13/01/2010 at 05:55 jackbnimble says:
Firefox ftw? I almost never get popups anymore.
13/01/2010 at 06:05 Vinraith says:
@jackbnimble
No, I’ve seen the ones they’re talking about in Firefox. They’re not real “pop ups” in the sense of opening a new window, they’re those obnoxious “overlay half the page” things that FF doesn’t seem to block by default. Adblock will get rid of them, of course, but I try not to run that on RPS because the site needs the ad revenue.
13/01/2010 at 06:39 Bret says:
And it makes noises constantly and it’s popping up every damned page.
I thought this kind of thing was (very) slowly passing into extinction.
And now, tisn’t. It’s like having your face slammed into a bowl of boiling suet. Over and over.
Grabbed a picture, but thinking of what an RPS link, even in the comments, does to bandwidth, I’m wary.
13/01/2010 at 06:54 Vinraith says:
@Bret
Drop it in the forums, there’s a thread for the purpose:
http://rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum/topic.php?id=60
13/01/2010 at 09:02 Jeremy says:
The worst are the airliners that come up from behind. Those wiped me out twice, then I panicked and veered my last goose right into another plane. 47s :(
13/01/2010 at 09:50 DrugCrazed says:
Very nearly survived for 3 minutes, keep on geting about 10 seconds away. Golden Goose is a massive points scorer, especially once you start getting 20000, and keep it going for 30 seconds or more. I thought it was just a bonus it added on at the end, but it adds it each time you pick one up. Then I got the million achievement.
13/01/2010 at 11:04 TooNu says:
Hey this is a pretty nice fun game :)
13/01/2010 at 12:22 Mythar says:
175.4 seconds
Never again.
…
Maybe just one more try?
13/01/2010 at 12:24 Mythar says:
That was after upgrades btw.
I will be sky captain one day!
14/01/2010 at 09:35 joseph says:
Your post has inspired me to try one more time too. Just after I closed the page. All I need is sky captain. Need.
14/01/2010 at 09:40 joseph says:
Woohoo! 185.2 seconds on that try.
I died about 5 times from 170-180… flying over water =)
13/01/2010 at 13:33 El_MUERkO says:
First game: 16.1, xxx
Second game: 71.1, 148836
Quit
06/06/2010 at 05:36 Bryan says:
I was happy with myself after getting all of the achievements, minus Consolation Prize and Bourgeoisie. But after trying Bourgeoisie for about 10 minutes, I decided that getting Bona-fide Millionaire, and reading the description as Hellish and “woah, that’s hard to do.” I felt better about myself.