By John Walker on January 12th, 2011 at 6:02 pm.
Defy Gravity is not an instruction. It’s the title of a game. I don’t want anyone thinking Rock, Paper, Shotgun has told them to fling themselves out of an upstairs window. But do set fire to your head.
Rather this is a classic-style scrolling platformer, inspired by Metroid, Mega Max X and Braid. It involves firing either gravity wells or anti-gravity wells – orbs that either draw you in or repel you away – in order to negotiate the terrain. More onward.
It very quickly starts introducing clever concepts. Other objects in the world can also be affected by your gravity wells, and as such you can start to manipulate things to your advantage with canny thinking.
It seems to fit a lot more comfortably onto a 360 pad if you have one, and fully supports such controls. Or there’s a keyboard and mouse for you, granddad.
However, there do seem to be some issues of finesse. Firing the wells isn’t particularly accurate, and getting through the narrower, more enemy-ridden tunnels can sometimes be more luck than skill. The presentation is also very primitive. It certainly doesn’t match by design with the decades-old games it mentions as inspirations.
But it’s a fresh idea, and certainly a challenge. And it’s only £3.30 to get the full game. The demo is here. And there’s a trailer below:
Setting fire to one’s hair and head is a lot more difficult than cartoons and movies would have us believe.
Also: Micheal Jackson’s Hair on Fire
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Looks pretty great.
OT: Share buttons?! :(
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It’s the man. They sold out to him.
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If you don’t learn to share, we won’t buy you any new toys.
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Those buttons have been around for a while, except they weren’t quite so pompous before.
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I thought the same thing. It doesn’t look right but I guess I’ll get used to it…
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Defying gravity… Recklessly disregarding gravity… Gravity’s not getting a lot of respect lately, is it?
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It’s a bit short on gravitas.
(Very little gravitas indeed, ho ho)
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Everything after “AaaaAaAAAAaAhHHhhhHh!!!!!” seems slightly less fun, title-wise.
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Demo’s pretty cool, I was grenade hopping all over it.
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The backgrounds are way too plain and don’t look very good. I’m not taking about the space backdrop, but the actual area you run around on. It’s basically just one gray rectangle. Needs a bit more detail and variety instead of just being so plain and dull.
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That trailer just looks like it’s a game of nothing but double jump. Is that why you’re recommending it to us, Mister Walker?
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You understand that the gravity is what is moving the guy. Also its not a double jump really. Its a recharging jump.
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Man, for a minute there I thought it said inspired by Megaman X, and I was all excited. Then I realized it actually said Mega Max X, and I have no idea what that is. :(
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I’m usually not one to be negative, but I was really under-impressed by this one. A lot of the sound effects are ripped seemingly straight from Metroid. The presentation is, as noted, sub-par, and honestly doesn’t do a thing to reinforce the game or build a sense of atmosphere. The gameplay/level design was decent.
Really the only exceedingly interesting thing here was the namesake of the game, the gravity mechanic. Next to the bare visual elements and re-appropriated sound effects, it makes the entire thing seem a bit more like an early prototype than a marketable title.
Not that it wasn’t enjoyable. It was! I just don’t feel it lives up to the curiosity of the central mechanic and its price point.
Also I know it’s sort of got a big Metroid thing going on, but was the end-of-demo cleavage necessary?
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so you liked the game, but started off with “i’m not negative, here’s a bunch of negative stuff” and then bury that you like it into the story, then put more negative things after that? you, sir, should be a games journalist. and seriously, who the hell doesn’t like cleavage?
anyway, I played the demo and it was pretty fun. I like the music, space backgrounds are pretty cool, but the textures on the foreground are incredibly tedious and need to have color.
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Well at least my terrible games journalism may have some of the letters capitalized properly.
A good day to you!
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It doesn’t live up to its £3.30 price?!
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Set fire to my head? Yawn.
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Love the headline, John.
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back in the day I made an Unreal Tournament mod that basically added this gun. You would invariably end up with all of the bots frantically trying to kill each other while orbiting a grav-well up in the sky.
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