Balances of power are delicate things. When you introduce a small and somewhat cute little green blob that has the power to take over people's bodies into your planetary conflict, expect things to get a little... squishy. That's the premise of Infestor, a sneaky puzzle platformer where you can crawl into a guard's brain and shoot his buddy in the back before bursting out of his body while jumping through deadly lasers. Only in cute, pixelated fashion, as is typical of WoblyWare, makers of the similarly adorable Insidia.
[Arrow] keys move your little infestor around, with either [up] or [Z] to jump. When you're standing near a potential victim, [X] will take them over, and you can use [C] to jump out of them when you're through. That's a quite literal jump, by the way. Several levels require you to use a hapless human as a sort of trampoline, forcing them to jump and then exploding out of them to a higher surface. It's quite a macabre premise, but the game is never gory or too explicit. Infestor excels with tight, responsive controls and clever, bite-sized levels, so crawl in the skull of someone with a computer and give it a play.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. While it didn't come across as overly-taxing, it also didn't descend into frustrating either. I can see lots of potential for future levels/sequels, and the premise/mechanic is rock-solid, as were the controls. Nicely done: 5 out of 5!
This game is -very- similar to Nitrome's "Parasite", right down to the jumping-extra-high-when-you-exit-a-host-and-using-that-to-get-to-high-ledges. Apart from that, it seem a pretty good little game. Typing this while I'm on level 14, but I don't think I'll need any help.
I agree that the game had a distinct Nitrome feel and look to it. Also, while the game play it was nice, it never really got especially challenging, nor did it do anything to progress what little story there was tacked on. I felt like it could have just as easily been just the levels without the little story bits at the beginning and end and it wouldn't have been any different. It was fun, and I played it through to completion, but it wasn't awesome by any means. Some secrets or something to spice up the levels might have made it a little better.
Yeah... incredibly similar to Nitrome's "Parasite" and kind of easy, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. I enjoyed having a similar game premise without all of the incredible frustration factor that all of Nitrome's games seem to have.
This was surprisingly easy and straightforward for a game about controlling a lot of different characters with different abilities. I felt like the level design could have been much, much more dynamic or clever without becoming frustrating.
It's cute and fun enough, but there's a lot of potential here that wasn't realized.
It's not much of a "puzzle" game considering you have to use each human you encounter, with the possible exception of leaping over a couple guards for no particular reason, and that's the only barrier to your progress. It's immediately "I can't jump this high? I know there's a standard dude around. There's a locked door? I know the only other tunnel will lead me to an overseer."
It was entertaining and cute, but as mentioned above, very easy. I guess I'd like to see way more level variation, but also more types of human to use (how about Grappling Hook Guy, or Seductive Scientist?)
i think it's insulting to parasite to say this game was exactly like it. infestor is quite successful in terms of what it is: a puzzle platformer with a particular gimmick. it was a fun half hour, and i'll never need to play it again. parasite is in a completely different league. the level of detail and number of ideas that went into that game set it apart. also, it's like three million times more frustrating than infestor.
While the game mechanics is really interesting I've managed to breeze through 20 something boring levels without breaking a sweat. I kept playing, hoping the levels would become more interesting, but instead they just became more and more reflex based and straight forward. Nothing wrong with that, but it does feel like the game mechanics is not being fully explored.
With a little more love to the level design this can be a great game :)
Does anyone think that when you latch onto a
jetpack man
you look like a ninja turtle?
This was a cute little game, but it felt far too easy.
League of Evil had more replay value, to earn the briefcases and timed stars, and it was more difficult.
Gravity Duck didn't have those little bonuses, but it was hard.
WoblyWare makes some very nice retro-feel games. The music is great, the controls are solid, and the games are challenging enough to be fun without being ragequit hard.
Not a lot left to add I guess: apart from the complete absence of challenge, it's been very nicely done. Full marks for graphics, sound and controls, but none at all for excitement value. In the end it was just a matter of "I've gotten this far, might as well see it through".
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