Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: 2D flight simulator and Dual Pong
How am I still sick? Oh yeah, uh, 2D THINGS
2d flight simulator is a… well, 2d flight simulator by phrssoftware, an indie studio in Spain. Players will select two locations and get ready to take their flight between them in the hopes of landing their megaplane safely.
Simulators are always a bit trickier to delve in to here, for their goal is to be as realistic/simulation-specific as possible, which makes my overviews sound even more drab than normal.
Once a flight plan is selected — only one plane is available in the lite version — players will attempt to fly to the next airport. This requires all the little things from raising the landing gear, to lowering the flaps, to controlling the pace and angle of the plane. Once the destination gets close, players will need to slow the plane’s acceleration down and land it to gain as many points as possible, graded against their performance.
I don’t really have much else to say here as the game is still technically in a beta state — the version I played on was 0.4.1 implying that there may be more versions in the future. Currently there are 4 different airports to fly between, and players can submit their scores online if they desire. There is also a mobile version of the game for anyone wanting to fly from their phone/tablet.
Whatever you want, if you like 2D flight simulators then this might be a game worth checking out.
Dual Pong is a twist on the classic arcade game by ‘randomess_dj_p’, the indie name for Paul Fullard of the USA. Players will join the Dual Pong Championship to play numerous variations on the game ‘Pong’ with either a story or a need to beat other players.
Dual Pong is not necessarily ‘Pong with a twist’ but is more like ‘many versions of Pong with many twists’. In the story, players will experience each version of Pong while trying to take home the Grand Slam of Dual Pong Championships.
The changes to the game start with the simple addition of a second ball, and that each hit by a specific player will change the ball to the colour of their paddle — this is so that scores can be easily understood once things start to scale.
There is also more control over the ball introduced, as players can alter the direction of the ball if they hit a specific button at the time of impact, such as reversing the angle that the ball ‘should’ go at or making it automatically go straight. This means that predictions are off the table, and instinct and reaction time are key.
Once this has been mastered, players are introduced to the other modes — namely Team and Battle. Team pits the player against two opponents with a partner, but halves their paddle size and disallows them from going through each other. Communication suddenly becomes mandatory to ensure success, on top of the quick reactions necessary.
Finally is the penultimate mode; Battle. This mode has up to 4 players command one of the four quadrants, and suddenly the game becomes an all out brawl of protection against multiple angles. This is by far the most chaotic as the walls no longer exist and are replaced by players, meaning that they can not be trusted. This is also where the coloured balls become crucial to understand if the player is going to gain a point, or give up a point to a specific player.
The farther you delve in to Dual Pong the more mystery and wonder there is. Like how the AI will actually adapt to your skill level, such as how it dumbed itself down for me when it realized I was horrible. Or how the balls can collide with each other for strange interactions, even coupling up if things go completely awry.
It’s such a strangely interesting take on the classic formula that I cannot help but recommend it to anyone that enjoys altering existing games to make something new. Hopefully you can win that Grand Slam and get that unique ending, unlike myself.
