Robotron

danman says:
While I enjoy PTT's arty take on videogame culture, I also enjoy playing games where I get to blow shit up. Or, indeed, shoot monsters in the face.

Never let it be said that we don't aim to please.

Day Traders of the Dead is a Robotron-esque game (or perhaps more closely, a Smash TV-like game -- both Eugene Jarvis designs, of course). WASD to move, mouse to aim, hold the left mouse button down for continuous fire, kill zombies galore.

Frobot is an Experimental Gameplay Project game, meaning it's done in seven days or less, on the current month's theme ("unexperimental shooter"). Its theme is also one I've thought about before: a game in which you have to get a room full of people dancing. It would never have occurred to me to make it a Robotron-esque shooter, however.

Consumer CULTure is a Robotron-esque game in which your job is not to blast robots, but instead to avoid the blandishments of marketdroids, advertisements, and other aspects of consumer culture as long as possible. When you lose, as you inevitably will, you are told that your "indoctrination is complete." Around the periphery of the board are suggestions like "buy more useless crap" and "consume!".

In theme, and to a degree in gameplay, Choke On My Groundhog, You Bastard Robots (um, COMGYBR?) is an homage to Robotron. Robots have taken over the world, and you're going to take them on single-handed; there's no "last human family" to save, and shots aren't constrained to the four cardinal directions (thankfully -- WASD to move, aim with the mouse). Instead, there's time travel -- another recent indie game playing with that particular motif.

The Last Sorceror combines frenetic Robotron-esque combat with frequent pauses after battles, and a series of RPG quests--making for a nice change of pace from both Diablo-esque click-fests and the turn-based combat of Final Fantasy-style RPGs. (By Robotron-esque, we mean that one set of keys controls movement in cardinal directions, while another controls the direction in which you shoot--so that movement and fire can occur at the same time in different directions.)