From Park Byung Sun of South Korea comes this stylized side-scrolling shooter that features over-the-top action and two (2) playable characters: Happy & Smile, a bunny and a cat. But don't let their cartoonish good looks fool you: these cute and adorable animals pack a mean punch, carry lethal weapons, and have fearsome special attacks that will fry any enemy to a crisp.
Jump right into gogo Happy & Smile by selecting to play as either Happy or Smile. There is very little difference that I observed between the two characters' abilities; each has its own unique special attacks, and yet both seem equal in overall strength and effect.
Two hands are required to play this game on your keyboard: the right hand on the arrow keys for movement, and the left hand on the [A], [S], and [D] keys for attack, jump, and special attack, respectively.
Actions are context sensitive, meaning the resulting action is dependent on the proximity of the character to its target, and on the combination of keys pressed. For example: to fire your weapon up in the air, press the [up] arrow while pressing attack [A] while far enough away from the enemy target. In closer proximity, your character will choose hand combat or a leg kick depending on the modifying arrow key used in conjunction with the attack.
Once familiar with the controls, hold onto your seat because you're in for a wild ride. The game play is very challenging and presents a rather steep learning curve at first. Those who persevere will be rewarded with one of the best Flash shooters to come along since Alien Hominid.
Yes, the comparisons are inevitable. gogo Happy & Smile will remind many of Alien Hominid at first glance with even a little Viewtiful Joe thrown in for good measure. Fortunately for this game, the gameplay stands on its own and dishes out the action by the barrels full all the while playing in your browser, looking beautiful and sounding just as sweet.
The choice of music in this game was brilliant. All of the fighting and heavy munitions are starkly contrasted by a pleasant violin concerto playing in the background. The resulting effect is reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange and works perfectly with this game.
There is far more to discover here than I have disclosed. If you find shooters any fun at all, my guess is you will thoroughly enjoy the excellent design and gameplay of this well-crafted and beautiful game created by Park Byung Sun. One of the Best of 2006, I'm sure of it.
Cheers to Shang for the link. =)
To bad i get such a big screen full of runtime errors when i use the special attack that after the attack when i clicked away all the popups i get killed..
Excellent and thoroughly challenging shooter. If anyone can beat the helicopter, you're a better gamer than I!
First time posting on your great site which I have been visiting for a long time. This game has forced me to comment however. Considering I'm supposed to be writing an essay on my day off today...you couldn't have picked a worse time to post such a superb game. The animation and music are great. The dynamics are really well put together, avoiding leaving you with the feeling of being cheated out of lives as Alien Hominid does quite often.
My main complaint with this professional quality game are to do with the browser sizing in both IE and Firefox. When you get to the
helicopter boss halfway through the and the robot boss
the screen does not accomodate your character, only the enemy, making it all but luck to defeat them.
All in all a great game which is slowing down my day..
Keep up the high standards as always Jay
Really fun and entertaining game, once you get used to it. A health bar would have been a welcome addition, but the lack of health add's to the alien hominid feel.. Didnt really like alien hominid that much.. THE DAMN BUGGER KEPT DYING!!
It plays very smoothly.
Unfortunately the doubletall screen that's supposed to be used in some places doesn't work at all in Firefox. Play this one in IE.
--GF
The double height screen might work better if I link to the game start page instead of directly to the game's html.
I've changed the links to back up one level in the document hierarchy. Two windows will now pop-up, unless clicking the text link above. Not ideal, but it may be what the game developer intended to happen.
I hope that helps.
Fantastic Jay! I completed it now the link doesn't go straight to the html. Don't load it in firefox and enable pop ups for the game experience as it was intended to be.
If you're finding it difficult, the following might be helpful...
The shotgun is very useful because you can kill more than one enemy at once. The trick is to lure a few together by jumping and avoding so that you can jump and take out quite a few by firing downwards(great for the barrage of enemies that comes at you before the final boss).
Save the specials for the big baddies (the car, the bear, the walled grenade guy, helicopter and final robot boss).
If you're finding the helicopter very difficult make sure you don't deploy the special until the fourth type of attack - that way you'll get the small baddies and the helicopter.
Make sure you stay reasonably towards the centre of the screen - this means you will have as much time as possible to get the bad lads.
This game is immense. I must say, the whole expansion of the screen mechanic is both highly original and highly effective. (As long as your screen is big enough to accommodate the whole window).
Hang on. "two hand are required to play this game on your keyboard"?
Sounds like fller material to me.
Otherwise, I challenge you, sir, to show me a platform shooter that only requires one hand.
Nice game though. This close to beating the helicopter first time round...
crab - fair enough, though this being a predominantly casual games blog that features games with usually simple controls; that was my way of saying this game is not the usual fare. ;)
Umm....I can't get the game to work. Tried both Firefox and *shudder* IE, but the game won't load at all in either browser. Any ideas anyone?
This game's simply brilliant. The fluid animation and detail, the gameplay, the music, and the very clever window-resizing...this is a darned fine work. Even good enough to justify using IE! (And you'll need to.)
To clear up a potential point of confusion, you can't pick up the regular brown guns the baddies drop. I lost a few lives myself trying that...
I haven't managed to clear the game yet, but a few tips for the stuck:
-You are invincible when performing your special--except if the car hits you. You should have a super by that point, so jump over it when it makes its first pass, then use the super on it.
-It's possible to avoid the big bear's attacks, if you've got a lot of skill and a bit of luck. If you can't dodge, use a special. A super and two specials should do him in.
-The grenadier can be handily defeated with a downward special at the base of the pole.
-As pinkerton hinted above, the helicopter has four attack phases. Run to the left side of the screen to dodge the bombs, stay to the left to escape Shadow's electricity, then run to the right when Shadow passes by again. On the fourth phase, it'll drop enemies: here's where you super. (Once you're familiar with how the helicopter attacks, you'll be able to shoot it enough for a super every four phases, although you may not need a second one.)
-After the helicopter, you'll be accosted by many angry armed bears, with up to 4 on the screen at a time. Use a special (but not a super--why waste two bars for the same effect?) to clear the area when you need to.
If the game doesn't appear to be loading, WAIT A BIT. Then a bit more.
There you go.
Anyone beat it yet? =)
This game doesn't work for me at all. I tried with firefox and internet explorer and it just sits there. Bummer.
I was able to beat it, but not necessarily with finesse.
For the last boss, I kept using the special (not the super) as a way of avoiding hits. It just took timing to do it. I don't know if this is the "correct" way of beating it though.
"Not if anything to say about it, I have" haha thats funny. I like bad translations. Anyways, great game
err hi...first time posting, but the game doesnt seem to work for me. i click on the link, but all it does is show up a blank gray screen. Does neone know how to fix this?
I just finished the game. Wonderful gameplay with the same appeal as the classic Metal Slug -- for some reason, the industry doesn't make side-scrollers like this anymore. The mechanics were extremely fluid; the author's dynamic use of the browser size throughout the game is really a brilliant use of the medium. And as Jay wrote, the art here was lovely -- for some reason, the army of well-dressed thugs was reminiscent of Stephen Chow's movie Kung Fu Hustle.
I noticed playing quite a bit better as the cat; his melee attacks seemed to execute somewhat faster than the mouse's. If you're having trouble, try the following:
Melee attacks are much slower at taking down opponents than gunshots. When facing waves of opponents, try staying in center screen and firing left and right repeatedly to eliminate enemies as they appear, before they get into melee range.
In groups of enemies, focus on attacking frequently rather than jumping. If you're in the middle of taking down an opponent in hand-to-hand, enemy bullets will often fly past you. If you can avoid it, eliminate enemies before they get into melee range.
Duck!
and for the bosses, the patterns to follow to dodge:
Truck: Power to full before you reach there, jump over it, then eliminate with a single special.
Bear: Special each time he charges you, and rebuild special when he blasts you.
Lamppost: A single special or even a two-bar attack will remove it. Rush in and fire once.
Helicopter:
1) As the missiles emerge, jump center to left over the first missile, then stay left. Alternately, use your special.
2) Stay at screen left as the helicopter passes once.
3) Stay at screen right as it passes a second time.
4) Taking down the cats should be easy, and this is a good time to build or expend your special meter.
Giant robot:
Jump in the air when the fists swoop towards the ground -- it will kill on contact or if you're on the ground when it lands. When the robot charges energy, stand immediately under the ball and fire upwards as quickly as possible to destroy the energy ball. If you're unable to destroy it before it launches, you cannot escape the resulting attack without a special. But use specials judiciously or not at all when possible - they'll throw off your timing.
The mouse:
Stay at the far right initially, to dodge his cheap shot before he jumps down. The secret to defeating him is to keep him at a distance, fire at him to build your special meter to level 1 or so, and when he gets close, use the special attacks or a melee to knock him down. Then jump away and repeat. As long as you keep using the special attack as frequently as possible to remain invulnerable, and stay crouched to avoid his laser, it should be a breeze.
By the way, your site is excellent, Jay.
Cheers, Anand. =)
And thanks for the excellent analysis and tips.
For anyone getting nothing except a grey window with the hit counter - that window needs to pop-up the actual game window. So, if you may need to set your pop-up blocker to allow pop-ups from gogohappy.co.kr.
Great game Jay, but it kinda feels like Alien Hominid with cats. The graphics when a bomb blows up resemble Dan Paladins very closely. I did like how the super special changed the dimensions of the screen.
I also didn't get anything but a grey screen and a hit counter. I let the window sit there for quite awhile, and nothing changed.
Lhyzz - that grey window must be allowed to pop-up the game window using Javascript. If you have Javascript or pop-ups disabled, you will have to allow them both for this game to work for you.
What OS and browser version are you using?
I really liked the character design, music, and animations (seeing the super-special attack in action for the first time made my jaw drop open), but I didn't like a lot of the gameplay mechanics used. I don't regularly play games of this genre, though. :)
For those of you who get big grey nothing and have Norton Internet Security, turn it off temporarily while loading the page.
Just a quick note about the shotgun. The game uses collision detection to figure out what your bullets hit, and the shotgun "fires" the slow-developing cloud of powder that comes out of its barrel.
So you can't hit anything on the opposite side of the screen, but you can do a lot of damage if you trap something in the cloud.
--GF
RE: Hang on. "two hand are required to play this game on your keyboard"?
rather than a one-hand clicky mouse game or a keyboard-and-mouse combo (that shooting down helicopters game that I can't remember the name of). I think "Walker" on the Amiga waaaaaay back in the day was the first game to use that mechanic. Although all you did with the keyboard there was move left and right. And mow down all the leedle people with your machine guns. mwahahahahahaaa.
I found a way to play the game from the comfort of the firefox browser. But it is not the link that is provided by Jay. Rather, you would need to go to newgrounds.com to access it but you do get to play it on firefox and that's more than enough incentive to check it out at newgrounds. It's the same thing, only better.
Thanks, EverShadow. I'll update the entry with the Newgrounds link.
One thing I did notice when playing using the Newgrounds link, the game ran slower than it does playing from the author's site. So, for me, it was not better. I'll stick with IE for this one.
:O
great game, until the heli.... the screen doesnt get bigger, and i cant see myself. real great.
Thanks, Jay. That was a "duhhh" moment.
As for the gameplay, the animation is excellent, and so is the feel of the game. The controls are a little counter-intuitive for me -- I wish the "jump" button wasn't lumped into the middle of the two attack buttons. It makes it confusing and hard for me to remember to jump. I'd have put the attacks on A/S and made the jump button the spacebar.
Very addictive, well made game. Although, I've yet to beat that huge robot thing after the helicopter. I cant find a way to dodge when he blasts you with that energy ball. Well, thats IF it's avoidable...
Argh! The high score save doesn't work!
whooohooo finally finished it... so satisfying
Yes! finally beat it!
Tips on beating the boss:
As mentioned many o' times before stay to the right at the beginning to avoid his initial lasers. After that use a special to knock him down. Now when he's down, squat right in front of him, and hold down the trigger. You can hit'em when he's down. (ha) everytime he gets up, just footsweep him again. Use ur' specials everytime it fills up. Repeat the footsweep, shooting him while he's down technique and u'll beat'em easily. werd.
FIGURED OUT THE MUSIC IN THE GAME: It is a violin piece by Paganini. The title, as stated by Windows Media Player, is "Violin Concerto No. 2 In B Minor, Op. 7: Rondo". There you go.
Does anyone know the music from it, i love it so much, but i don't know what it is, i know the fellow created his own music, but i want it... anyone??? GREAT GAME
Great music, great game, great characters. Yeah!
i beat your other game "Happy and Smile". It was hard. Make a whole game like that!
I know It's been a while since you've reviewed this game, but I thought I should put in that it really reminds me of a Slyfox game... but not for enough reasons...
Ummm... When I try to go to the game, the link supplied takes me to a japanese web-hosting site. I don't think the average casual gamer speaks fluent japanese, so is there any way for you to update the link?
Updated.
I really like this game... but I dont like how easy it is to die (1 hit and thats it!) the controls are totally wrong as well... I mean whats wrong with using the up arrow key to jump... dont get me wrong I think this is my favorite platform game but these points eat away at me... and I dont think that would change.
Well tell me how to use up for a cool up attack AND jump.
Specials for smile:
No button: as the instructions say, laser beam.
up: elecric shockz! bzzt!
down: jump up, all down.
Smile super move:
Super/Black electric shock.
This took me a while to get. if anyone could get the Happy supers and specials, then thanks.
Hit the enemy with the shotgun weapon. it's 'hot'!
Update