Have You Played... Hypnospace Enforcer?
Made by the Dropsy chap
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Hypnospace Enforcer [official site] is a game I always meant to post about when it came out, but never did for reasons I don't know. I somehow even managed to talk about it on a podcast, and I try to avoid podcasts and everything. Baffling. Anyway! Made by Dropsy chap Jay Tholen, it's a short and pleasingly colourful game about policing the highways of Hypnospace - a future cyberzone people go to when sleeping - by chasing perps down the lanes of the information superhighway.
It's very simple: you're a Hypnospace Enforcer, and each level conceals a perp like KEWLKITTYGURRRL, who's caused trouble for others and been asleep for more than the legal daily limit. You'll chase down her and her ilk down, swapping between three lanes of cybertraffic to dodge people, then need to stay near to bring them in. All the while, cheery music plays, perps shout Internet nonsense, and you accidentally plough through a whole lot of innocent traffic. It's pretty fun, with more obstacles ramping up the difficulty as you progress and more silly cybercriminals to chase.
And then... it takes an unexpected turn. The game's pay-what-you-want, so have a look.
