Hell, Yeah
Biological and metaphysical issues aside, let's imagine for just one moment that it was possible for a mad scientist to create a hybrid of Okamiden and Jack Black. Hell, Yeah would most likely be the demented, over-the-top product of that experiment. Irrepressibly tongue-in-cheek, Hell Yeah is a gesture-based defense game in which you'll defend the wonders of the world against the armies of the Devil, who wants to overtake them all for his wife. Armed with your magic paintbrush and some divine assistance, you'll have to paint your weapons and defenses into reality against oncoming enemies.
You'll be using your mouse (or whatever other pointing device you own) to draw the sigils that correspond to the current weapons available. Although your arsenal comes with a time limit, you'll be able to craft multiple copies and have them stored away for a short interval. Initially, the only weapon in your arsenal is a giant magnifying glass that will literally allow you to roast your foes alive with a little patience. Creating weapons (which don't last forever) costs mana, which replenishes slowly over time, or is gained whenever you kill an enemy.
Speaking of enemies, you'll find that they march in from the left side of the screen towards whatever wonder it is you're trying to protect. Your goal, naturally, is to keep them at bay so they can't destroy your wall and capture the wonder du jour. If you find the magnifying glass is too slow, you'll want to take full advantage of the upgrade system, which lets you spend the souls you accumulate on both improving old weapons or powers, and buying new ones once they've been unlocked. Destroy your enemies Looney Toons style by dropping an anvil on their head, or summon the Flying Spaghetti Monster to bring about their noodle-y doom. But don't neglect your defenses; damage to your wall doesn't repair itself, so you'll also have to spend souls for that.
Analysis: Hell, Yeah is fun. Hell, Yeah is really, really fun. It is also reasonably impressive from a technical perspective. Its gesture recognition implementation is surprisingly receptive, something I wasn't expecting from a Flash production. However, I do have a minor quibble. Due to how some of the weapons are constructed, it can become a surprising chore to get to the enemies pressed up against the side of the screen. Of course, I'm also extremely impatient and would rather be done with the enemies sooner rather than later. Adding in hot keys that let you instantly switch between your available weapons would also have made things a lot simpler and gotten rid of some frustrating clicking.
While not much skill is required to do away with the regular troop, the bosses are actually reasonably tricky for a Flash game, and usually require some cunning or technique to beat. You'll find yourself taking full advantage of your stable of weapons, your sense of timing and occasional ingenuity to survive both the bosses and the never-ending waves. Fortunately, however, there's an abundant amount of upgrades and items to unlock to help you in your one-man battle against the Devil. Pop culture references abound in Tiger Tail Studio's latest production; the Flying Spaghetti Monster is an unlockable ally here, for crying out loud! The humor in Hell, Yeah is relentless. Enemy design is relatively inspired, albeit far too cute for words, at times. With tiny, fast-moving feet and overtly large heads, they look like a legion of dolls come to bop you into submission.
There is a respectable amount of variety in terms of the arsenal available. From mana capacity right down to unlockable allies, there's a lot to think about and a lot to invest in. While the game might seem frivolous at first glance, there's actually a significant amount of strategy involved. For some players the idea of their favourite deities duking it out may be a bit much, and as such some of the humour is a little subjective and might want to be something you investigate yourself before letting your kids play. There's nothing blatant in the game but there's a lot of insinuations to be found. However, if you've already reached an appropriate age and have a broad mind, you have nothing to worry about and a lot to look forward to.
Christians take notice in case the point wasn't made strongly enough in the review- the game is full of blasphemy. It is DEFINITELY not something you want your impressionable children playing.
Not a game for thin-skinned people. But what game IS for thin-skinned people? I'm enjoying it well enough. Gesture-based games are usually a bit touchy, but this one isn't terrible at it.
Tip: After retrying the Darwin level several times, I found that the magnet needs to TOUCH the object to pick it up; the wavy lines underneath are where the objects will DROP. Bit frustrating until I figured that bit out.
A comment about the game itself: I found that the game play a bit frustrating in later levels because my "magnifying glass" spells were often confused for a "magnet" spell. Uh, OK. The game would also be better if there were game settings for slower computers.
As for the Christian above who said the game was blasphemous: huh? If there is scripture condemning Flash games from portraying Jesus on a pogo stick, it's something we should all know about. Aside from that, even Christians can't agree on how to read the Bible: just compare Roman Catholics with the United Church of Christ.
I can't seem to get past the Darwin boss. The magnet won't pick up the darn oil barrels. It seems to try to pick up people all over the place (even the opposite edge of the screen) by displaying the 'NO' icon over the enemies heads, but it just won't pick up the oil! Grr.
Hi,
We're the developers of the game. Thanks for the feedback :), especially about the use of the magnet. Right now, the magnet does pick up objects close to it, but it takes a second for the objects to stick to it. We'll fix this to make it more intuitive. Thanks!
I'm having trouble on the Ozzie level. I already used the hints. Does anything else work on him besides what they tell you?
Also, I just got murdered by kamikazi Potters--I mean boys-on-brooms on that level.
Tips, besides upgrade everything to the max?
Fun game, I'd love to see more like this! I can't get past the Great Wall boss level, alas. The gesture recognition is a little wonky. I often get a magnet when I draw a "9" for magnifying glass, which is terribly frustrating, and I often end up with tornados when drawing other things. If I were to make one major improvement to the game, though, I would make it so that tools that have multiple uses stay out on the battlefield until the player returns them to the... um, box area. Going back to the top of the screen constantly is a drag. (Is that a pun? Maybe... don't beat me!) But again, lots of fun!
Hint for the Ozzie level:
Ozzy, like some of the other Gods needs to be "stunned" before you can cause him damage. He's immune to most weapons, but the bats he sends flying at you will chase after the paintbrush (cursor) when you're trying to draw weapons. Have the bats chase after you and lure the bats right back at Ozzie. They'll stun him and you can then cause him damage with regular weapons.
For the "Boy on broom" :
They're immune to some weapons, but are particularly susceptible to damage from the magnifier and the tornado (also the holy water). Try using them in combination.
Hope these help :).
Oh hi devs! :D
Thanks so much for helping. I'll have to try the level again , because I hadn't been noticing an effect on Ozzy from the other weapons I tried. I was worried I'd need to kill him with his own bats...:O
No offense to Potter fans, but thank you devs for that particular enemy. They're really annoying, but there is some catharsis value for me in siccing tornadoes on him and setting him on fire. :)
Fun game! And I'd (Christian) think that defeating Osbourne and Darwin as bosses would be pretty awesome, personally. Just don't take it too seriously either way. *steps off soapbox* Thank you.
@ Everyone:
Ozzy 0, Anvil 1
The magnifier doesn't ever work on him. That's what I did wrong.
Thanks!
For the Darwin boss
Use the magnifying glass to burn the oil. The catapults don't have any effect on the oil.
Very frustrating boss, given the difficulty in creating a magnifying glass once the magnet was available.
@Ultio
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed those characters :).
@Barbara, @Guest
Sorry about the difficulties with the gestures getting confused with each other. This was one aspect we found the most painful - we tried a lot of different shapes for the different gestures, but we invariably ended up with some getting confused for others, especially in the later levels when you're drawing gestures really fast. This is accentuated by the different ways different people draw a shape.
That said, we'll tweak those 2 gestures to try and make it easier to play. Thanks for pointing it out!
How do you beat Satan?
best game ever. Help with the fat yellow guys, please?
@ganondorfchampion
Satan appears in the last 2 levels of the game. He steals your ability to call on the Gods when he's on screen. The first time he appears, he sends a whole bunch of waves that you need to defeat (without using God powers).
In the last level, you may notice that he starts imitating your gestures with his tail (but he draws them in reverse). Draw the regular God power gesture in reverse and you'll "trick" Satan into calling the Gods for you. Once he does that, choose any of the Gods and they will attack Satan, causing him damage.
@douglasadamsreborn
Glad you're enjoying the game :)
The fat yellow guy who throws burgers at the wall ;) is immune to the tornado because of his weight, but takes damage from most other weapons like the anvil, catapult and the holy water. He has a lot of hit-points though, and you may need to use multiple weapons on him. He's a bit on the slow side, so using a bunch of catapults on him just as he enters is usually very effective. The anvil once upgraded to the max also deals a lot of damage.
Help!!! There is no way in hell (yeah) to defeat Mao. Any ideas? Thanks
@JIGuest : Hope this helps :)
We tried to design the bosses such that you use the most recently introduced power to beat that boss. In this case, that's the glue.
Unlike the other bosses, Mao is susceptible to damage from most weapons. The twist is that when you do destroy him, the Mao-carriers run back to the left of the screen and then bring back another Mao (people power!). You need to kill all 6 of them before they reach the end. If you're really quick, you can use the anvil and bonk 2 or 3 of them at a time as they're running off. You can also use catapults as they cause area damage. Alternately, you can use the glue to get them stuck as they escape and then kill them off.
with the mao guy, i just used the magnifying glass because it stuns them while burning them.
great game, i just beat it and got second place(for now) on my score :)
Finally I finished it. It needs a sequel, with egyptian gods.
@douglasadamsreborn
Glad you enjoyed the game :). Egyptian gods is a great idea - we'll keep that in mind if we do a sequel.
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