Here’s one I’m so anxious to share that I’m fumbling over my fingers here at the keyboard. Brandon Williamson over at Nyarlu Labs just sent me the heads-up on some major updates to one of the very best games I have ever played in my entire life, on any platform. The game in question is the modern retro title Forget-Me-Not [App Store] that easily got a five-star rating in my March review (which I urge the unacquainted to read, to get an idea of what the game is all about).
Brandon, yesterday, made a post to his blog announcing the release of a Mac OS X and Windows version of Forget-Me-Not that can be downloaded from his website. And it’s freeware! It’s not just some dumbed-down, redheaded stepchild build of the game, either — no, no. The free Mac and PC versions of the game are, in fact, the latest, most full-featured versions of the game, bringing many enhancements over the current iOS version.
Some of the new features found in these new versions:
New enemy: “Thief" guys (pink and green monster) who usually hunt down the key, and when they get it, try to run away from the player. They don’t attack anyone and no one attacks them (except for when they get exploded or whatever).- New enemy: White ceramic square guys who sit there charging up power, then “dash" in a random direction until they hit a wall, instakilling everything in their path. They’re indestructible while dashing, and have really high health. The only way to really kill them is squishing them while they’re sitting still. A later variant charges much quicker so is almost constantly dashing.
- New enemy: Some kind of diamond thing that reminds me of diamonds in Boulderdash. If anything hits it, it multiplies. That’s all they do, apart from making annoying loud noises. If you’re not careful they can quickly fill up all available space. Basically they just hinder you. If you’re charged up, you can bash through them and also grind off them at the same time, so you can keep up a steady level of charge.
- New enemy: A stone variant of the spotted “pudding" enemy (the ones which clone when you shoot them). After a certain number of generations, a stone pudding is born. They’re indestructible and don’t attack, they just plod around slowly blocking the way.
- New enemy: The “floppy disk" enemies now have two kinds: the normal kind which just start moving towards anything that goes past their line of sight, and the new kind which moves around in unpredictable patterns, and sometimes homes in on the player.
- Tweak: Extra lives are increasingly difficult to get
- Tweak: Health potions are more predictable
- Tweak: You now start speeding up as soon as you start wall-grinding, making the whole game play a lot faster
- Tweak: Once the hurry-up ghost appears after a certain amount of time, when the time limit for a level runs out, the lights go off and you can only see a small area around yourself, in pseudo-roguelike style
New enemy: “Thief" guys (pink and green monster) who usually hunt down the key, and when they get it, try to run away from the player. They don’t attack anyone and no one attacks them (except for when they get exploded or whatever).Fans of the iOS game need not feel left out, however. All of these changes are headed to iOS in a coming update, along with full iCade support! Brandon tells me that the controls have been rewritten for eight-directional joysticks (which the PC version supports, but not yet the Mac) and he feels the game will work quite nicely on the iCade. Touchscreen controls will, of course, be maintained in the iOS version, but with a few speed tweaks to prevent things from getting too fast to play.
Have a look at the iOS game in action:
If you happen to own either a Mac or a PC, there is no excuse for not grabbing this free game, immediately.
