Space Giraffe looks a lot like Tempest, but it plays a good bit differently. The strategy for scoring is completely different, as you actually want to let the standard enemies get to the rim of the pipe so you can "Bull" them off to "Rinse" the pipe. It changes the strategy completely, and I think really makes for something more than another Tempest sequel. I can kind of see how some people might think the visuals are too much, but all I can say is that those complaining about it being "too difficult" obviously haven't spent too many quarters in the old-school arcades of the world. This game is bliss for those of us who have.

Karyyk

Yes he writes for both Total Film and Edge.

axel000

Anyway, I can't wait to play it.

ZombieAlmeida

I will also say that, after watching other videos and keeping at it, I am dieing alot less, and am leaning to play the game better now.

If what Stinky Goat says about the OXM reviewer is true (and Im sure it is), all I can say is that is fucking pathetic. This does not reflect well on gaming journalists as a whole to test something so poorly, and so ignorantly, that you can't even look beyond the very first layer of the surface.

Space Girrafe (and VLM) is one of the main reasons I picked up a 360, and T2000 is one of my all time favorite games. I'll be picking it up come launch. I hope I enjoy it as much as I hope I will once I peel back the layers.

theALLseeingEYE

axel000

Actually I think "Scrapple" is a writer for Edge magazine that assisted with testing, not a Llamasoftie.

axel000

I dont see why you have to be so insecure about one review, come on it's just one guys opinion. If your game is good then: a) the overall balance of reviews will bear this out, and b) people are easily able to demo the game before they buy, so reviews are not as important in this market as for full price games. Also, it is only 400 points so not really a game to make agonising purchasing decisions over.

If your game is as good as you obviously think then chill and let the game speak for itself. I certainly will be checking it out when it is released.

ZombieAlmeida

SOLD! Post of the week. And it's only Sunday night!

terminaljeremy

supercrap

I want a game where I'm a giraffe in a spacesuit flying to Mars and zapping aliens. Then, in the end, I find out that the alien race is what created existence on Earth in the first place so I go with them to their home planet to find out more about my existence while Jerry O'Connell and Don Cheadle have to fly back to earth alone.

My Space Giraffe would be loosely based on the 2000 film Mission to Mars. Except more alien zapping.

EmTeeZ

If so, then welcome. :)

Doshu

Pixelantes Anonymous

EphNE

Redface

Level 64 is gonna make some people swear though. :)

If you like a challenge, it's awesome. If you prefer the modern style of games where you're just taken on a ride without having to master anything, then it's probably not for you.

tentaclesex

(sulks in corner playing Llamatron:2112 on dilapidated Atari ST)

xot

Bloo

I mean, fuck me twice, it's good.

Really, really good.

I did enjoy the frolics with Gamecube VLM, but was always gagging for Jeff to take the environment and build a playable game around it.

And that's exactly what he's done. It's as mentalist-psychedelic and pyrotechnic as you'd expect, but also beautifully refined in terms of difficulty balance/risk & reward.

The visual and technical audacity is breathtaking. It just feels beamed in from another planet. I've absolutely no idea where to start having an idea about how it's done, but if it looks like magic and feels like magic…

It's like a bench-test workout for yer high-def telly. After all those nice, placid, colourful games displayed very calmly and correctly, Space Giraffe is like a big fat can of spinach to a Plasma's Popeye.

Think of Geometry Wars as a 9.99 Standard Family Box sensibly rationed in the back garden, with the Firework Code rigidly observed, watched through the windows just in case the kiddies get scared. Space Giraffe is like strapping on a jet-pack and soaring and swooping around the Sydney New Year display while ripped to the living tits on mescalin.

Knee-jerkers might twitch about it being 'another Tempest'… And it sorta-kinda is. But more like Tempest 2000 Ultra-Deluxe with all the faintly annoying stuff taken out and some really, really ace progressive game mechanics weaved in.

Instead of just constantly trying to keep everything away from the edge of the web and always being rammed into a defensive, siege-mentality corner (my gripe with Tempest all along) you're now rewarded for playing in a much more free, open, strategic and (best) aggressive way - harvesting points, boosting a bonus multiplyer, always always pushing the line between pure survival instinct and score maximisation.

In short, my idea of gaming heaven - pretty on the outside, wild at heart.

All the usual obsessions are there - but in a funny, light, lovable way. The character of text announcements is cute enough ("Top hole!") but the sound design is laugh-out-loud astonishing: a spasming cacophony of bleats, yelps, barks, shrieks, Jarvis game steals, music and film samples…

And the pacing is perfect. Not just in terms of gameplay/difficulty curve; there's a constant slideshow of spooky, mind-warping background images and textures and zapping, synapse-like white flares. It's fucking cinematic - like a hallucinogenic, inner-space odyssey into the designers' minds and pop-culture cues.

But the really great thing about Space Giraffe is that it feels like Jeff loosening up and getting back to all the things that made us love his stuff in the first place - an unadulterated love of old-school arcadey gaming filtered through his unique, idiosyncratic goggles.

I give it six-and-three-quarter stars. Out of five.

Red, shiny ones, with a sort of fucked-up, glowing, pulsing, transcluscent, reptilian, mind-clearing quality about 'em.

Scrapple

acm2k

Oyn

-Attack of the Mutant Camels
-Mama Lama
-Ancipital
-ColorSpace
-Psychedelia
-Hovver Bovver
-Iridis Alpha

And of course the crossover favorite, Tempest 2000.

Jeffs games may be unique, but they are always lovingly crafted and very solid. Personally I can't wait to get my hands on Space Giraffe. Its done so hopefully MS puts it on XBLA this coming Wednesday or next...

BTW for those interested in playing SG as its meant to be played (i.e. not at all like Tempest) I'd suggest reading this....

[en.wikipedia.org]

:)

axel000

Tempest 2000 > Tempest 3000.

But the best gameplay was in a T2K clone called Typhoon 2001. It's a free download to boot! They tweaked the T2K gameplay a bit and it works better. Jumping is far more strategic and useful than Minter designed it.

the videos for space giraffe don't look so good, but T2k and T3k didn't look that great either until you play. and then you just sink into the action... like entering another plane... :)

onlysublime

The "uh i can't see what's going on" argument is facile and blatantly untrue when you actually play the game. I've seen complete novices beat his best score on their first go.

stinky_ox

I think the problem is that the visualization aspect of the background blurs too heavily with the actual game area. Unlike in visually comparable games like FreQuency and Amplitude, where there is an obvious contrast between the two, Space Giraffe blurs them all together.

I'll reserve final judgment for the released product, but the game I played is a victim of its own eccentricities.

Kyouryuu

And the fact that any game could look like Rez on drugs scares me.

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

I found myself enjoying these games when I realized I needed to start looking "through" the game, rather than "at" the game. You know what I mean?

Best game here nobody has played: Tempest 3000 for Nuon.

MooYork

=O

AwShucks

But I imagine with some practice you can overcome the confusion and it would be really fun. I'll be buying it just to see if it's as crazy as OXM made it out to be, maybe other people will have better luck.

BGSS

I'll try the trial out anyway, but I doubt it'll be a buyer.

Kuraudo

DigitalHero

"You'll frequently die because you couldn't pick out the pulsating assassin from the warped playfield floating over the throbbing LSD nightmare that is the background, which makes this game uniquely aggravating."

Perhaps they just didn't 'get' it.

Irish.Exile

Ah I love my Jeff. Bought my xbox almost solely for this title. So glad to see it is finally on its way to release. Went gold a week or so ago.

LeFishy