Game Alert: Lazy Brain Games

As this post will be covering over a dozen games, you can think of this as a series of mini-reviews/recommendations. For those unfamiliar with Lazy Brain Games, it is an indie developer specializing in created, short, fast games. It is rare for a game to last more than 10-15 minutes and many of them are shorter even than this, but they have plenty of polish, charm, and replay value. No two games are quite the same, though they all have a retro aesthetic and nods to other games (both previous games made by Lazy Brain Games and more famous games), and can range anywhere from multi-stage platformers to endless single-screen shoot-em-ups. As this post is already going to be quite lengthy, let's get started:

Crystal Wave: The first game by Lazy Brain Games and it definitely shows. While not terrible, Crystal Wave is far too simplistic for its own good. This is a single-screen endless shooter where players only have one life and, like all of the games on this list, can compete for an online high score. There are only four enemy types and large crystals which the player can collect for points; enemies and crystals speed up over time, but the game otherwise remains the same throughout. Despite its shortcomings, Crystal Wave is rather important as just about everything in this game shows up in at least one later game. To name a few examples, the entirely score-based crystals here are used to generate mana in Necro Gaia, the bomb gauge in the bottom right shows up again in a modified form in Omnicron, and the invincible giant C-shaped enemy appears in both Cyborg Virus in a killable form and in Techno-Drone in another invincible form.

Sky Scream: This is a noticeable improvement over Crystal Wave in just about every way. Sky Scream consists of one brief level and feels like a shoot-em-up boss rush, but is very satisfying. Although the aesthetics in Crystal Wave aren't bad, Sky Scream is much more colorful and has a fantastic sense of unique style along with a (much) catchier song and even a brief plot. It may have also started the trend of referencing other games, something which many of the later games by Lazy Brain Games do, as the boss in the screenshot to the left looks nearly identical to the powerup-carrying ships from R-Type. Since this is a vertical shooter where the protagonist is literally falling, Sky Scream includes the subtle, yet very nice, touch of making the player move faster when moving downwards compared to when moving in other directions. Sky Scream is still probably one of the weaker games here, but it's a good game in its own right and is a massive step forward from Crystal Wave.

Factorium: Of all the games on this list, Factorium may be the most important as it solidified the combination of innovative and familiar gameplay which nearly all later games by Lazy Brain Games rely upon. In this case, Factorium may initially seem like a compliment to Sky Scream as it is a single-level horizontal shooter. However, while Sky Scream largely stuck to the familiar aside from the direction of movement, Factorium features a combat system which is both unique and intuitive. Players can't spam attacks and instead must wait for each attack's gauge to fill up before clicking and dragging it onto the screen; abilities unlock one at a time so players are never overwhelmed and there is no need for any tutorial other than a single screen showing basic controls at the start. Factorium is not a particularly challenging game and is about on par with Sky Scream in terms of fun, but players will need to learn which abilities are best used against which enemies and when in order to achieve a high score, so it does have some replay value.

Cyborg Virus: Another single-screen game, but this one has an actual boss and an ending. Cyborg Virus features the gimmick of being able to use a grappling hook which can both freeze enemies and (usually) pull them towards you. However, the only way to actually kill most enemy types is to hit them with a close-range shock attack. The two abilities compliment each other nicely and there's plenty of enemy variety so it's easily the most fun game discussed so far in my opinion, though it does lack the sense of energy present in Sky Scream and Factorium. There is also a gimmick where if players step outside of giant bubbles for too long a gauge will gradually fill up and kill them, but the gauge fills up so slowly that this rarely feels like a threat. The music in this one is far more laid-back than usual, but Lazy Brain Games's trademark creative and frantic gameplay combined with nostalgic retro aesthetics are in full bloom in Cyborg Virus. 

Runner Gunner: While not a particularly innovative game, Runner Gunner is different from other existing games by Lazy Brain Games in a number of ways. Most notably, it takes place from a top-down perspective and, though it still only consists of a single level, the player manually walks through the level instead of automatically scrolling through it. Players also need to go backwards through the level on a time limit once they hit a self-destruct button at the end and the initial lack of a time limit paired with infinitely-spawning enemies is a noticeable flaw as it makes the online high score list rather arbitrary. Despite the score-related oversight, Runner Gunner is a very solid, short game, but the gameplay is very standard compared to many of the other creations by Lazy Brain Games, so there isn't much else which can be said about it.

Space Fish: This is, without a doubt, the game which deviates the most from the formula. While other games here are all fairly short, Space Fish features a massive 42 levels so it feels the most like a 'full' game, though each level rarely lasts more than a few seconds. Players need to hop between water tiles in order to collect all the olives on a level and making use of the camera to pan around a level in advance is often a necessity. Unfortunately, this may be an example of quantity over quality as I do not think Space Fish is one of the better games by this developer. Part of it has to do with the sheer amount of content in the game; new gimmicks and enemies stop appearing less than halfway through and the rather catchy background song wears thin after 42 levels. The other issue is the physics-based controls when it comes to using the 'jackknifing' technique, which involves clicking the edge of a water tile to go soaring through the sky. Games but Lazy Brain Games generally all feature very tight controls and Space Fish starts out as no exception to this rule, but jackknifing, which gets introduced about a third of the way through, is far too unwieldy and is likely to be far more frustrating than fun for anyone other than those who really enjoy physics for the sake of physics.

Bug Hunt: Bug Hunt is the first endless arcade-style game since Crystal Wave and is even more simplistic, but is very addicting. Players control a lizard who remains at the bottom of the screen while various bugs fly around overhead; players need to move the protagonist's tongue up and down to catch flies and dragonflies while avoiding bees. The game is over after taking a single hit, but Bug Hunt moves at such a rapid pace that this hardly matters. Although the lower levels are almost painfully slow, players can choose to start from any level up to 7. Bugs both move notably faster and are worth more points each level, but players advance every 5000 points so points and levels fly by faster the farther in players go. It's a fun, fast-paced game of risk vs. reward and is definitely worth checking out.

Mecha Spider Isle: The final game of 'Season 1' and a pretty nice way to round out the season at that. Mecha Spider Isle is a vertical platformer which frequently switches between hopping around between platforms with the giraffe-frog protagonist and riding in a mecha spider cart around somewhat maze-like spiderweb segments. It consists of four stages, a boss, and four optional 'bonus areas', but still takes less than twenty minutes to finish. The weapon in this game is a gun which starts out pathetically weak, but gets all sorts of fun additions as it upgrades and it can easily shred through everything at max power. One touch which I'm particularly fond of is the score screen which pops up after reaching the flag at the end of each segment as this screen shows a neat vertical map of the entire game, which is reminiscent of maps for other nostalgic vertical platformers like Kid Icarus and Ice Climbers. There is some unexplainable slowdown at certain parts of the game, but it is otherwise a very fun, lively vertical platformer filled with references, nostalgic callbacks, and secrets.

Omnicron: The first game of Season 2 and a massive leap up in quality over the already-polished games of Season 1, Omnicron is the first shoot-em-up since Factorium and may remind players of Ikaruga. While players can't shift between absorbing the two different types of attacks, any blue-colored projectiles can be clicked on to absorb them, which helps to give a boost to the bomb gauge. Unlike most shooters, Omnicron does not have a limited number of bombs and instead has a bomb gauge which fills up over time. The normal weapon is strong, but bombs are significantly stronger and a single hit completely downgrades the normal attack, so getting good at clicking blue projectiles in order to fuel the bomb gauge is essential. Although Omnicron has a fun stage, players will spend the majority of their time with the game fighting the many varied phases and forms of the Omnicron itself. Overall, this is a great boss-focused shoot-em-up and an excellent way to open a new season of games.

 Infernal Edge: This seems to be the favorite game by Lazy Brain Games for many people and I probably have to agree. Though it only features one stage as usual, Infernal Edge has a rather lengthy stage complete with three boss fights and plenty of hazard. Players cannot jump and instead constantly climb up and down and switch between walls by using a grappling hook; it's sort of like Contra meets Bionic Commando in space. There are all sorts of hazards ranging from turrets to crushers to razorblades along with many other dangers which frequently get paired together in the latter half of the game. Perspective also plays a big role as the angle at which the protagonist is climbing frequently shifts and the controls shift at various points from W and S to A and D in order to match the camera angle. The first two bosses are mainly just 'puzzle bosses' where players need to figure out how to damage them and how to avoid their attacks, but the final boss has quite a few tricks up its sleeve and combines gimmicks from the first two battles with various attacks of its own. Needless to say, Infernal Edge is definitely worth checking out.

Techno-Drone: Another presumably endless single-screen arcade game, but this one has a ton of variety and is my favorite of the endless high score-driven games. Players control a 'base' and an extendable arm attachment used to attack enemies. If enemies touch the base it loses health, but avoiding enemies is quite the challenge as the base swings around as you move the attached arm in order to attack, so players must achieve a careful balance between offense and defense. Furthermore, attacking drains energy, so simply holding down the attack button or spamming attacks won't last long and will leave players defenseless. Enemies come in waves and the game noticeably 'loops' after only a handful of these waves, but the second loop features entirely different gimmicks, such as the screen going dark periodically during the first wave of this loop, strong winds blowing the player around during the second wave, giant enemies in the third wave, and so on. There are also plenty of powerups, such as a damage shield and temporary infinite energy, which are all fun to use, but it can feel at times like how successful a playthrough is depends on how often and when the health-restoring powerup appears. Techno-Drone is a game which feels truly unique and has an upbeat and energetic style to it which always ensures that it is a fun game to go back to.

Necro Gaia: Despite being made in a mere 24 hours for a Ludum Dare contest, Necro Gaia maintains the high level of quality, polish, and creativity found in the other Season 2 games. Players control the planet Terra and the only direct form of movement available is to speed up Terra's orbit around its sun. The combat system works a bit like that of Factorium as players click and drag planets onto the screen which serve various functions, not all of which are attacks. However, instead of the gauge-filling system of Factorium, Necro Gaia has players collect mana crystals and players can place as many planets on the screen as they desire as long as they have the mana to do so, though planets only last for a few seconds. Terra itself also can aid in combat as it casts a shadow and any enemies caught within this shadow become much slower. Lastly, Necro Gaia has a neat final boss battle which serves as a sort of puzzle where players need to put together all the knowledge of the game's mechanics they've acquired through play in order to emerge victorious.  

 Selectra: The newest game by Lazy Brain Games is yet another Ludum Dare entry and is certainly one of the weirdest games on this list, though it is unfortunately what I consider the weakest of the Season 2 games so far. Selectra is yet another sidescrolling shoot-em-up, but with the twist of playing as an alien fertility goddess with a 'mating' system which, despite sounding like 'mature content', is very silly and about as family-friendly as such a concept can be. There are various enemies which can belong to any of three different elements and players must charge up their attack, a giant energy ball, before firing it. Though players can rapidly click to change the direction the energy ball is heading in and therefore hit enemies multiple times, Selectra starts off far too weak to kill anything. Thankfully, Selectra can solve this issue by rescuing men who float around the screen periodically trapped inside of giant bubbles. Freeing a man from a bubble will make him latch onto Selectra and attacking will become impossible until players select to go into a mating screen, which will show the potential child which Selectra will be reborn as if players accept the mate in question. Being reborn usually grants a significant power increase to Selectra's attacks, but switching Selectra's element usually results in a power decrease which can still be useful as enemies tend to come in waves of one element type or another. In addition, Selectra's movement speed and the time it takes to actually charge up an attack become slower with higher power levels to the point that a power level over 600 or so does far more harm than good, so players need to constantly balance element, power, and speed. While this sounds like a neat way to introduce RPG mechanics to a shoot-em-up, constantly needing to access the mating screen in order to accept or reject potential mates really kills the flow of the game and once a player learns to keep Selectra's power levels around the 400-600 range enemies become completely nonthreatening to the point that even the element-shifting final boss can go down in a handful of hits. Overall, Selectra is innovative and silly, and it's a testament to Lazy Brain Games's craftsmanship that a game with such a seemingly complex system can be understood via play with very little in the way of tutorials, but the 24-hour deadline shows as it simply lacks the polish present in many of the other creations of Lazy Brain Games.


These are all the games by Lazy Brain Games for now. They frequently combine fast-paced and familiar gameplay with gimmicks which are both innovative and intuitive and they are always wrapped in an aesthetically-pleasing package with catchy music and vibrant colors. There will likely be at least three more games in Season 2 and I plan to give each of these lengthier individual reviews as well as video playthroughs as they come out. For now, here are some useful links:

All of these games can be downloaded from the official Lazy Brain Games homepage: http://lazybraingames.com/
Full playthrough videos for all of these games can be found on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Seeric

Video Game Death Penalties Part 2

It's been a while and a certain hurricane certainly didn't help matters, but here is, at last, the second part of Video Game Death Penalties. In this part, we'll be looking at common death penalties found in MMORPG's and how they differ in function from the penalties common to single player games.

Durability Loss: This is almost certainly the most common one. In such cases, equipment has a durability value which slowly goes down over time, but which decreases by a significant amount, usually 10%, upon death. Although this usually only results in needing to pay a small fee to a blacksmith NPC, sometimes the repair costs are significant and in rare cases the maximum durability on an item can even go down either through death or through repair. Like many other penalties in this section, this penalty is simply annoying and is designed as a timesink; even low repair fees can add up quickly over the course of a game and dying one too many times in the middle of a dungeon or simply when out questing means a player will need to make the long trip all the way back to town to repair just to then head back to where he or she was, assuming said player doesn't die yet again and incur even more durability loss during the trip.

Corpse Run: Before Durability Loss really took off as the most popular penalty, we had corpse running. In this case, you respawn in town, but all your gear is still on your corpse/tombstone where you died. So, unless you have a backup set of gear (unlikely), you are not going to be doing much in the way of combat until you sneak by all the enemies along the way to your corpse in order to recover your gear. This can of course take well over an hour if your corpse is far away from a town or if there are simply many aggressive enemies near it and chances are high that you'll die again even if you do get your corpse since, after all, something nearby killed you in the first place. It's a long, tedious process and was the perfect way to keep players occupied with a game which thrived off of monthly fees.

Ghost Run: This is a less severe, yet only slightly less annoying, equivalent of Corpse Running which was made popular by World of Warcraft. In this case, you still need to get back to your corpse, but you do so as a ghost which can't be attacked. This sounds better, but it also means you can't use a mount or anything else which grants a speed boost in the process of running back (unless the ghost form itself gives a small boost) and you can't do any non-combat activities along the way either, such as crafting in town or stopping to mine some rare ore along the way. You also usually revive with a low amount of health and mana with this penalty, so the chance of dying and needing to make the run again mere seconds after revival is even higher than with a Corpse Run penalty.

Wait to Revive: This is perhaps the most boring of all penalties, though developers generally try to 'validate' it by making it a progressive thing. In this case, a player can't revive right away and can't do anything at all until a timer ticks down to allow resurrection. The timer usually doesn't even appear unless the player has died multiple times within a few minutes, but once it starts racking up the timer can quickly rise to 2, 5, or even 10 minutes. This penalty is rarely found on its own and is most frequently paired up with Ghost Run and/or Durability Loss. When it's paired with Ghost Run the timer usually doesn't even start until the player is near his or her corpse and when all three penalties are present it can result in a nearly endless cycle of reviving with broken gear and low health only to die from one or two attacks a moment later and ever-so-slowly inching your way back to town as the amount of time you need to spend simply standing next to your corpse progressively rises.

Gear Loss: This is arguably the worst of the lot, though it's extremely rare at the current time. With this penalty, death has a chance to result in the permanent loss of a piece of worn equipment regardless of the item in question. Thus, a valuable weapon or piece of armor which may have taken months to either craft or to finally see drop from a boss can be instantly, permanently washed away by one careless death or even by something which the player cannot control, such as a disconnect or a large lag spike while in the middle of a fight. This penalty is likely one of the rarer ones because it's too harsh and a bit too obvious of a timesink and games which include it sometimes still grant a way to regain a lost item or to prevent a specific item from being lost in the first place, but it's never fun to deal with.

Corpse Looting: This is a favorite of PvP-based games, though it's not as common as it once was. Unlike Gear Loss where a piece of equipment can be forever lost, Corpse Looting allows any nearby players to loot your corpse upon death; in most games which include this penalty other players are limited to being able to take all of the gear worn by the dead player, but some games don't necessarily stop there and allow full inventory looting as well. This penalty can really be hit or miss since it can result in a single death leading to the loss of multiple items which took a significant amount of time to acquire, but it's just as easy to in turn loot valuable items from the corpse of someone else.

Experience Loss: One of the most obvious timesink penalties is Experience Loss. It pretty much does what it says; if a player dies, he or she looses a set percentage of experience points. In some games players can even delevel from this, which can be particularly bad if most of the equipment worn by a person was only usable at their former level, or go into 'negative experience', but usually the loss can only put players down to 0% experience into their current level. Oddly enough, this actually tends to be one of the lesser penalties since games which include it also usually have a way of mitigating loss or outright recovering lost experience and the penalty is virtually nonexistent if a player is only near the start of an existing level or is already at the level cap (assuming deleveling and negative experience do not apply of course). This penalty can, however, be particularly nasty if it's in a game which revolves around quest-based grind (i.e. simply killing normal enemies gives next to no experience compared to completing quests), though it is usually only found in games which rely upon more standard grinding methods.

Resurrection Sickness: A favorite of games which consist mostly or entirely of a town hub and instanced dungeons, though it can be found in others as well. Resurrection sickness allows a player to revive in town, or sometimes even at his or her corpse, with severely reduced stats. This means a player may be able to run around and gather materials, craft, or do other non-combat activities, but combat against worthwhile opponents is almost certainly out of the question, especially if playing solo. In games which rely upon a town hub system, Resurrection Sickness usually always occurs upon death for about 1-5 minutes, but more open games usually offer revival in town with Resurrection Sickness as an alternative to Ghost Running; it is usually possible to pay a high level-dependent fee to 'cure' resurrection sickness early, so players can choose between a timesink and a moneysink. Regardless of how it's implemented, Resurrection Sickness is decidedly one of the most notably boring penalties.

Money Loss: While this penalty is somewhat rare in MMORPG's, it's far from unheard of. Although this penalty is also frequently found in single-player RPG's, banks and jewels which buy and sell for the same price often mitigate the loss significantly. On the other hand, money loss in MMORPG's tends to be of a smaller percentage than in single-player games, but ways of mitigating the loss also tend to be limited (ex: a bank with a maximum gold storage) or outright nonexistent. Money also is usually far more valuable in MMORPG's than in RPG's due to not only buying gear and consumables, but also crafting materials, repairs, and various other often-expensive items such as mounts.

Back to Town: This is the final common penalty and on its own it is almost certainly the least severe. The player is simply sent back to town, either the nearest town or wherever they set as a return point and the only loss is one of travel time, not dissimilar to a checkpoint system in single-player games. Unfortunately, this is almost never the sole penalty applied to a player and Durability Loss at the very least almost always accompanies it.

In the end, the main difference between most single-player penalties and most MMORPG penalties seems to be one of just how they affect progress. Single player death penalties usually take away a certain amount of progress, either a small amount such as with a checkpoint system or a large amount such as with permanent death, while MMORPG death penalties tend to temporarily impede future progress, such as with respawn timers, resurrection sickness, or corpse and ghost running. Furthermore, MMORPG penalties have a much higher chance of being combined with each other, such as with resurrection sickness paired up with durability loss, or corpse running with money and durability loss, or other combinations of 'small' penalties designed to add up in order to hinder players both in terms of time and money.In short, single player penalties are at times frustrating, but motivating, while MMORPG penalties are almost consistently tedious and boring.

While it would perhaps seem ideal to not have any penalties at all, the fact of the matter is they serve a useful purpose in any game. In single player games, they give us an incentive to play well and raise the tension without usually having much in the way of actual consequence; the experience is a more potent one due to the risk of a penalty. For multiplayer games, they are designed more as deliberate timesinks, ways to help keep players attached to the same game for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours over a significant span of time, yet without such timesinks it is highly unlikely that any MMORPG developer could generate quality content at a fast enough rate to satisfy the majority of their audience; our death literally help contribute to keeping their games alive.