Sunday, April 29, 2007

It’s Like Sumo Wrestling...With Clumsy Stupid People


Went over to a friend’s place today with the intention of doing some “research” using an indie game we’d picked up for cheap at a local bookstore. The game turned out to be worth the 9 bucks we’d paid for it--and not much more. This particular friend happens to be a procedurally generated graphics and physics geek, and so we ended up looking at some of his favourite freeware games. One riotous selection was Sumotori, a game where the objective is to knock the other player out of the ring sumo-style. Except that since the animations are all procedurally generated, in large part based on the surrounding objects, the wrestlers lose their balance, and trip over each other and every other surface and edge in the game.The result is one part sumo, five parts Three Stooges. The little block men fall in compromising and awkward positions, and struggle to get up, only to trip over another object while stepping backwards. There’s even a hidden level where you can just throw things at the characters and see how they respond. Good sadistic fun for the whole family.
Sorry, Mac People. This one’s only for PC. I’ll find you some games later.

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