Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Guitar Fretter’ and ‘Flashover MegaSector’
Small games continue to reign
Guitar Fretter is a rhythm game created by Rob Stenzinger, solo indie dev and UX designer based in the United States. Players will be practicing their shredding skills with Pick the penguin guitarist as their friend Crunchy the guitar guides them through some exercises. Pick will need the practice when a strange portal opens and only Pick’s skills can send them back.
As a rhythm game, the goal is to keep playing the notes that appear on screen before they disappear under the bottom of the guitar neck. Depending on the interface the player uses — an actual guitar, their finger on mobile, a controller, a mouse, etc — the player will need to navigate their chosen gamepad to find the correct notes and play them. To give an example, I used a mouse and had to click on the notes on the neck manually to have them play. The original intent is to have a bass guitar, but that should not stop anyone from learning some basics.
Regardless of the game mode, the monsters will all have their own notes on them with the possibility of extra items if the player gets the note right. These hearts will help keep the player alive in tricky situations, where monsters may get past and cause a loss of health. The main differences that the game modes bring is in their choice of assistance for the player and the customization that they may want.
Ninja Mode removes all hints, challenging those confident with their skills or those that appreciate being thrown in to the deep end immediately. Lefty Flip gives those that need the orientation the other way round, and there’s even custom tuning and guitars for all kinds of styles. There is even a Practice mode with no stress or worry about those darn monsters running around.
Guitar Fretter is a fantastic tool for anyone that has been unable to get lessens for that bass guitar that has been collecting dust in the corner of their room — perhaps due to a lockdown. (Who knows. Not me.) It helps gamify the learning process so that practice never truly feels like that dreaded ‘practicing’.
As a word of warning, the picture at the top is from the original Guitar Fretter. The new version, dubbed 2.0, contains most of the same but with an updated system and UI. The lefty mode is in the 2.0 only, and is generally a more robust experience so I’d recommend sticking with it.
Flashover MegaSector is a bullet-hell shoot-em-up by Happy Frog Games, the indie developer that brought us Infiniboss. This time we return to the land of the Flash games as a vector-shaped ship ready to take on all opposing shapes.
Harkening back to simpler times, Flashover MegaSector only requires the arrow keys to move and the Z key to shoot — like a true shoot-em-up. Players will dodge away from the shapes as they fly across the screen, occasionally firing projectiles to take out other shapes.
Clever players will notice that the purple triangle is not in fact the ship’s hit box. Upon closer inspection, there is a tiny dot in the centre to represent the pilot. This is the player’s weakness, and it allows them to maneuver through extremely tight corridors that would otherwise destroy the ship. It can be a bit tricky at first to get the hang of, but soon players will be dodging things by the skin of their teeth in no time.
Flashover MegaSector is a simple, tight experience. You will never have to worry about power ups, status effects or any of that; just shooting what is in front of you, and dodging all the stuff around you. The music is funky, the levels will alter based on how you play them, and the sheer amount of things to shoot will keep you entertained. RIP FLASH, you’ve inspired many successors. If you loved that era, give this game a shot.
