While it wasn't quite on the level of New Coke or the Arch Deluxe, it's safe to say that a lot of people are happy to see the old Link Dump Friday return. In LDF's honor, this week in the Vault, we're featuring classic titles from our archives that made their debut by gettin' posted on Friday, Friday!
- The Visitor - One of Zeebarf's most underrated talents as a developer is his skill in franchise building. Each of his games has so many ideas just waiting to be expanded upon, that it would take more sequels than any one person could make before the well ran dry. You can see this particularly in 2007's The Visitor, a point-and-click adventure game. The concept of an puny worm of an alien who assimilates abilities by consuming creatures around him is equal parts comedic and horrific, like Kirby re-invented as a cannibalistic demon. Even though your control the alien, the sense of dread grows as the choice of victims slowly goes up the food chain. Good thing there's a guy like Reemus out there, or else there'd be no hope for us puny humans.
- Colour My Heart - Some games are just made to be comfort food, and Colour My Heart, a 2009 point-and-click platformer by Silver Stitch, is one of them. Though its control scheme is a little uneven, the tale of a lonely person looking for a little color in their work of gray, black and white, still has emotional punch. Accusations that Colour My Heart is a little syrupy cannot be denied. However, that just means it's sweet enough for everyone, and, of course, there is the rest of the Colour My series for one's daily dose of sturm und drang.
- I Wish I Were The Moon - I Wish I Were The Moon, by Daniel Benmergui, was the winner of the 2008 Best of Casual Gameplay award in the Interactive Art/Webtoy category, quite rare for an LDF entry. However, its victory was well-earned, as this small story of boy, a girl, and a moon is a piece of beauty. The work packs a truly impressive amount of emotion into its minimalist graphics and gameplay, and its iconic simplicity is nothing less than elegance of game design. After this, and his similarly excellent Today I Die, Benmergui dedicated himself to the development of Storyteller, a work that promises to be his masterpiece and had better not end up being vaporware or else I'm going to hunt him down and kick over his sandcastle.
While we welcome any comments about this weekly feature here, we do ask that if you need any help with the individual games, please post your questions on that game's review page. Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there and rediscover some awesome!
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