This week's roundup is dedicated to the hybrid, the mash-up, the unholy amalgamation: games that fuse two or more genres together to startling and often brilliant effect. Fishing meets Rhythm Game in the appropriately named FISHJN', while SimCity collides (no really) with Scrabble in VerboCity. There's also a surreal apartment block, a game about punching, and yet another browser game featuring werewolves. Enjoy!
Moon Waltz by Major Bueno
At this point I may as well hand over the keys to this column (yes, there are keys) to Major Bueno, whose consistently excellent flash games are the highlight of every week they appear in. The team's latest, Moon Waltz, is another example in the burgeoning Thoughtful Walk Simulator genre, but with one major difference: lycanthropy.
Yep, you're a werewolf. Well, more accurately you're a couple of clouds – by holding Spacebar you part to reveal the full moon that turns Thoughtful Walking Guy into a Taz-style whirlwind of destruction. This is a game of possible and hilarious interactions, of scaring priests, confirming the supernatural, starting barfights, befriending cats, and only occasionally rending people limb from limb. (Via IndieGames )
FISHJN' by KO-OP Mode
Kung-Fu Volleyball developers KO-OP Mode are back with FISHJN', a fun rhythm fishing game created for Fishing Jam. Just like real fishing maybe I've never actually been fishing, FISHJN' has you pulling the rod – I tried and failed to find a non-suggestive way of saying that – in time to a number of catchy electronic tunes. Jerk the rod – again, sorry – in the direction the fish is facing to succeed, and earn yourself a tasty piscine treat.
Fishing is an enjoyably silly reason to press a series of buttons in time to a beat, and I admire the game for that. The music's great too, something that obviously makes a difference in a rhythm title.
Fist Puncher Streets of Outrage by Team2Bit
Remember when all game problems could be solved by punching and kicking people, rather than blowing them away? Fist Puncher Streets of Outrage evokes such a time (the early 90s), parodying Double Dragon and Streets of Rage to pretty good effect.
apartment building by lilith
Technically this is several minigames “themed around apartments/isolation/mania”, feelings that manifest themselves as a series of garishly coloured domiciles. There's an unexplained sinister, surreal air to the game/s that will set your imagination racing – I particularly liked the fishing minigame, which sees you retrieving submerged trinkets for the building's other bizarre residents. (Via Free Indie Games )
VerboCity by Pat Littell
This conceptually fantastic title mixes SimCity with Scrabble, with a touch of the wordsearch thrown in too. You're building a city by placing buildings on a big grid of letters, the twist being that you have to collect the letters first – then type the name of each structure you want to place. It might take a good deal of searching the grid (or, alternatively, restarting) before you can begin the game in earnest, but there's clearly something brilliant at the heart of VerboCity. (Via IndieGames )
