This is fun! More XBLI!
I'm a sucker for 2D space-flight games with gravity, but aside from Solar Jetman I can't say that I've played many of these. Does this genre have a name? Doing a search gave me the gravity genre. That sounds about right.
Check it out! Gravitron!
It's even harder than it looks, but the controls feel great. A lot of genres play better now that there's analog controls, but gravity games are thousand times improved since instead of rotating you just point in whichever direction you want to and the ship immediately responds.
The best part of Gravitron happens right after you destroy all of the generators in the level. Everything begins to shake and this really intense music starts up and you only have 60 seconds to shoot into orbit and achieve escape velocity. Really, really intense.
Gravity genre tropes:
- Limited fuel.
- Save stranded people by collecting them in your tiny ship.
- Drag heavy objects around.
- Inaccessibly hard.
(I should probably try this out, shouldn't I?)
Europeans call this genre "cave flyers". If you do a search for that, you might find screenshots for some really obscure yet surprisingly deep game that a kid made for his Amiga back in 1989. (If you find the one I'm thinking of, let me know 'cause I don't have a link to it.) Doing a search for "Thrust" or "Graviwhatever" will work too, but you're less likely to find a game where you can get out of your ship, which tends to sound more interesting.
ReplyDeleteSorry I don't know more than that. I've been ignoring this genre since it fell pretty low on my "marketability" chart.