Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Rob ‘Oddbob/RetroRemakes‘ Fearon’s games have been on RPS a fair few times, and he’s known for consistently spreading cheer and ingenuity amongst the UK indie community. Genuinely, he’s one of those chaps that videogames are just a little bit more delightful for.

Which is why it’s just awful to hear that he’s been hospitalised from pneumonia. The costs inherent in his family travelling back and forth to visit and care for him are apparently monstrous – so they’re super-grateful to anyone who fancies throwing a little or a lot their way for his Bundle Of Wrong collection. Which you should totally do anyway, on its own singular colour-carnage merits.
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Yes. There are days when all is right with the internet. The fact that it coughed up the exploding neon bit-tune psychedelia of Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!: Squid Harder, via Indiegames, onto my monitor when I should be writing a review, can only be portentous of one such day. The sun is shining, the squid are firing continuous laser-blasts into their enemy, and my tea is warm. It is a good day to be alive, and a good day to blog about ludicrously-named, rather brilliant arena shooters. Video below, but frankly you should just go and play it.

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Many wonder whether there’s a secret to getting your game posted on RPS. There is. Firstly, if you’ve done something we’ve liked, we’d normally link it. Secondly, if your game features an enormous head of a childrens’ TV presenter, that works too. OddBob has done both, creating a semi-sequel (Spiritual Sequel, if you will) to his 2008 pico-Epic War Twat which also features the head of famous revealing-aller Johnny Ball. It’s called SYNSO or “Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!” for long and is a one-life one-screen blaster where you have to score nine points. It is available from the internet. Here. Press tab to call up the menu and amp up the visual effects though. War Twat veterans will be attracted to the “Are You mental?” option, clearly.

Simple folks us, and we don’t get any simpler than we are on Monday morning. Hence: War Twat. OddBob dropped us a line to note that my favourite retro-remake site (er) Retro Remakes has posted his Jeff-Minter-influenced shooter (i.e. English provincial surrealism involving juxtaposing swearing, fluffy ungulates and the sort of strobe effects that’ll induce an epileptic fit, even if viewed through a brick wall). Except this is a Minter shooter with the finese removed and the volume turned to Bruce Forsyth screaming with the force of a nuclear explosion. Almost literally unplayable, but don’t let that stop you. I can just about top a minute, at best, before submitting to the wall of pulsing death. Hint: If you see a cloud, shoot it, as quickly as you can.