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Portabliss: Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack (iOS/Android)
Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in, with our Portabliss column. In each installment, we'll tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack. I've never played any of the Serious Sam games, so I approached Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack without the benefit of context. So, to me, this iPhone game is about a heroic, headless man in boxing gloves who runs and kicks missiles until he can tackle a guy in a white t-shirt, at which point he explodes. I'm having a hard time believing that this makes sense to other people. Despite the total insanity of the premise ... OK, because of it ... I'm really enjoying this game. As a Headless Kamikaze enemy, you auto-run through short levels, jumping over and kicking obstacles like cacti, frogs, missiles, and bouncing bombs. As you progress through the level, you run with increasing speed, unless you pick up a slow-down item. The goal is to tackle and blow up Sam at the end of the level, who is running away from you. However, that goal isn't really the goal. Each stage has a "bonus objective" usually involving destroying a specified number of a certain obstacle -- "kick 15 frogs" -- before you reach Sam. In these cases, you may actually want to delay reaching the end of the stage. It's kind of neat to break what feels like a "run forever" Canabalt-style game into discrete, short levels. Well, it's either neat or entirely missing the point, but I happen to like the change of pace. I also like the cold shock of being dropped into this world. Are all the Serious Sam games this weird?%Gallery-134562% Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack is available from the iOS App Store as a universal app for $.99, and from the Android Market for the same price. We're always looking for new distractions. Want to submit your game for Portabliss consideration? You can reach us at portabliss aat joystiq dawt com.
Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack hurls a new trailer our way
It's not often in life that the downtrodden get to savor the sweet taste of justice, but in Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack that's the entire game. The only problem is the downtrodden die at the end!
Serious Sam gets serious indie cred with new Indie Series
Normally, when a developer farms out one of its franchises to a smaller team, the groans are justified. But this time, the outsourcing is seriously appealing. Croteam and publisher Devolver Digital have announced the Serious Sam Indie Series, in which known indie developers remake Croteam's famous shooter in their own styles. The first three devs to take on this Serious task are Mommy's Best Games, Vlambeer, and Be-Rad Entertainment. Mommy's Best is doing what it does best, a "frantic side-scrolling shooter" for PC and consoles called Serious Sam: Double-D. Super Crate Box creator Vlambeer mashes up genres to create the turn-based RPG Serious Sam: The Random Encounter for unspecified platforms, and Lame Castle's Be-Rad Entertainment interprets the series as an auto-running game about guiding Headless Kamikazes out of the path of Sam, called Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! Platform specifics about Random Encounter and Kamikaze Attack have yet to be revealed, though Kamikaze Attack sounds like a candidate for a mobile release. If you're at PAX East this weekend, you can find out for yourself -- Double D and Kamikaze Attack will be playable at booth I-16. If there's one flaw to this plan, it's that these indie games sound way more interesting than the actual Serious Sam sequel they're intended to promote.%Gallery-118687%
Lame Castle mobile game inspired by Sony's anti-mobile ad campaign
Marcus Rivers may not be as well-known as Kevin Butler when it comes to televised Sony spokespeople, but he's already getting credit as inspiration for a video game. Lame Castle appears in an ad that shoots down mobile games, with Marcus noting that phones "ain't built for big boy games." Apparently, the ad was a throwdown for Bradley Johnson, who left Crystal Dynamics after working on the downloadable game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. As a newly independent developer, the ad encouraged Johnson to buy the domain name and work on a prototype -- a process that took only a few weeks. "It's been a very quick development cycle, but it's been quite smooth," Johnson told Gamasutra. Johnson and his newly founded development team, Be-Rad Entertainment, have since released Lame Castle on Android, with an iPhone version also in the works. His hope is to eventually work on downloadable games on all platforms. May we suggest an ironic PSP Minis port?
