As I type this up on Thursday afternoon, looking longingly at the clock, I can't help but wonder what the weekend has in store for me. Pizza and margarita shooters? Staying up late and playing video games all night long? Pajamas as accepted daily wear? The answer is ALL OF IT, because I'm an adult and I do what I want! Haha, take your youth and your energy and your limitless potential and suck it, kids! But it's not all bad even if you can't have ice cream for dinner, because Link Dump Friday is here! This week; infamous gaming critic Yahtzee tests your reflexes and your feelings, a chat session late at night between two friends turns terrifying, a way to make a high score that breaks your keyboard, and a young man awakens deep in the woods with only a ring and no memory.
Hatfall - Everyone's favourite foul-mouthed gaming journalist serves up split-second arcade action in this silly, profane game from Yahtzee where your job is to catch hats falling from the sky upon your tender noggin. It's not as easy as it sounds, especially when other characters and items get into the mix, and missing just one is the end of it... but is that all there is to it? Hmmm! Hatfall is also on iOS and Android, and it goes without saying that you may want to avoid this one if you don't like crude or mean-spirited content, whatever your definition of that entails.
Arrow Hero - I can't help but think you haven't tried to snap your keyboard in half lately, so here's an arcade game from Jérémy Graziani where you need to hit the appropriate arrow key when it swings around and hits the icon at the top of the screen. Keep it up for as long as you can to earn a high score, though you can actually miss a few arrows before you're knighted with an unsightly game over. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not by half. Look, I dunno, people used to roll hoops with sticks, and other people juggle geese!
Annie96 is Typing - Enough with high scores and twitch gaming! Check out this creepy pasta-esque interactive story from Pascal Chatterjee. Though not actually a game since all you do is click to advance the text, it's an appealingly freaky spin on one of those "I heard it from a friend of a friend of mine" style tales, as you read an increasingly disturbing chat session between two friends that goes from innocuous to terrifying when someone or something pays a visit to them late one night.
Goblin Song - Pamela Kotila weaves a mysterious and fantastical Twine text adventure in this story about a young man named Simha who, bruised and bloodied, regains consciousness deep in the forest next to two strange creatures with a ring bearing a name he doesn't recognize. It's weird, it's intriguing, it's got a surprising amount of depth and branching paths, and it's a solid read for anyone looking to hunker down with a tale that knows the value of a good cadence.
I finished Annie96 is Typing. Loved the length. Loved the concept. Want more creepy stories in this format and would actually love more by this person. But...
It seemed a little contrived at the beginning, the cheesy feelings confession detracted from the creep factor, and then the "how do I know it's really you?" at the end seemed a transparent attempt to leave the story on a creepy note.
The only place I was freaked out was "WHY IS HE SMILING?" and "No person could look like that." And when the screen started shaking I half-expected a creepy picture I didn't want to see to pop up.
Also, my sister and I both played it and her interpretation of what was happening made much more sense than mine :).
She thought the thing was a Vampire Diaries-esque doppelgänger of David, and since it wanted revenge on him it went after Annie. It killed her quickly and took the phone, hence the "how do I know it's really you?".
I thought it was a random supernatural that took different forms, it actually went away because David was "thinking" it away, and...yeah. I couldn't explain much of it.
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