Games

Space is Key by MaximumFish
2011-04-07 12:54 GMT

I often get bored of a work lunchtime, being so far on the edge of Oxford it's hard to actually get out and do something productive, so my attention regularly turns to the brilliant Armor Games website and its large collection of Flash games. Yesterday was just such a day and there, in the new games section, was what turned out to be an absolute gem in the form of Space is Key.

The controls are simple, in fact, it's right there in the title: space. You press space in order to jump a little box over some obstacles in 15 levels of pure punishment. What keeps you coming back is the stylish graphical presentation style (although some say it hurts their eyes. Awww.), It's really not!the fantastically retro 8 bit music loop, and the fact that when you die - and you will die a lot - the game doesn't skip a beat, throwing you right back into the action even as your previous attempt is still exploding.

Each level is split into three sections, so death only results in being returned to start of the current section, rather than the entire level, and each section has a few words of encouragement to keep you going. Two "upgrades" are awarded during the game in the form of a speed boost and a higher jump, but they only serve to make it harder! Finally your score is measured in deaths, meaning the fewer deaths you have at the end of the game, the better you've done. If you can beat my score of 367 on your first run then well done, you're better than I am!

There's really no more to say about this game. It's a great little time waster that'll take at most 10-20 minutes to complete - the perfect length, as any longer and you'd be hunting down the author, spacebar in hand, ready to stick it somewhere unmentionable! In a nutshell, I highly recommend clicking the linky above and giving it a go yourself!

9/10

- Max

Skels says ...
2011-04-07 13:19 GMT

I'm sorry to say that Max's comment about how if this game were longer than 10-20 minutes you would be hunting down the author ready to stick your spacebar somewhere unmentionable is a complete falsification. I played the game for 3 minutes, and I'm just about to go to expedia.com to book my flight to good old Blighty, where apparently developer Chris Jeff resides, so that I can help him get intimately familiar with an Australian layout keyboard.