Hurray for freeware games

For years I only ever considered using a computer for non-gaming activities. Chatting using IM systems, browsing the internets, collecting and listening to music, ect. I did play video games, but they were few and far between. For the longest time it was only Blizzard games, like Diablo and Starcraft, but as the months go by I've started to use my computer for gaming more.

I download games and I play them from the disc, but I only own a few of the latter. So with few options available to me, the internet has provided sites like the excellent Home of the Underdogs.

This site's goal is to host and provide both freeware and abandonware games for the PC, with some of the oldest games being from 1982 to games up to 2005. Unfortunately, they apparently haven't updated in a couple of years but the site is still running and all of the games are still available.

After I got into a small funk over deciding which game I should play (since I was tired of both FFIVDS and FFVA at that moment), I decided to hop onto the computer and see what games I had downloaded. I have several roms available to me but none of them peaked my interest aside from Captain Commando, a game I recommend for SNES owners, and after I beat that I went to the internet on a whim.

The result? Delicious stockpiles of free games of every genre I can think of. Thanks to HOTU and other sites I now have several more PC games added to the repetoir, including a couple I think deserve a mention.

The first is Duel Toys. It is a freeware game released in '05 that takes a fun twist on fighting games. Instead of playing as the actual characters, you're a kid who owns "Duel Toys". These Duel Toys are the characters you use to fight with, so it's a tad like Pokemon in the "collect your fighters" theme. The nifty thing is it takes games from several major fighting game series. Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Darkstalkers, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat and even Star Gladiator; it's got fighters from them all.

To top it off the sprites are done in a cutesy "chibi" fashion to give it a fun and happy-go-lucky feel. My only gripe with it was near the end of the Story-themed mode they provide. After you collect six badges and accumulate 50 wins you're allowed to enter the DT Tournament. This Tourney is a bunch of endurance battles one after another. Lose, and you're automatically sent back to your house. This forces you to start the whole thing over again.

Problem with that is, you have to reset the program or Quit the Story mode without saving, because the DT Tournament glitches up. If you lose once and try to go back all you can do is wander around the area while all of the assembled fighters - including a sprite of your character - stand there and look at nothing. Save your file at that point and you're permanently (as far as I know). Overall still a good little fighting game.

The next game comes from Bombergames. These guys have spent the last five years or so making the best Streets of Rage games I've ever played. The entire game engine was coded from scratch, all of the sprites from the games have been graphically edited and made better, and the game's series of stages is an original run with multiple paths to give the player a buttload of stages to get through. If you ever liked the Streets of Rage series or enjoyed a good beat-em-up, this game will do both of those justice. It's definitely a download (and for free too).

Now for the third and last game of my mentions. Released two years ago by Pixeljams, Gamma Bros is an awesome neo-retro game that goes back to the heyday of oldschool shmups. The concept is kinda like Space Invaders but with movement on both x-axis and y-axis, with enemies coming from all four sides of the screen. There are only a few stages to the game but these are long and make the playthrough last, especially if you die.

Unlike other shmups where you get extra lives or have multiple continues, Gamma Bros only gives you two chances before you get a Game Over. This comes from the story of the game - a tale of two friends trying to get home from work through an alien-infested area of space. Each of the two guys has a ship with a lifebar that you can collect heal restores for. When the ship is gone, however, the guy is left to hover around in space with a jetpack. If he dies it switches you to the other man and if he dies, game over.

Fortunately you can buy new ships and even resurrect your fallen comrade with the proper currency you pick up through the game. But luck and skill go a lot father then purchasing new chances in my opinion.

That's all for now, so until the next save point Sobou's going back to healing his fractured back.