Category Archives: What We’re Playing

“Rayman Origins sometimes feels like playing a half-watercolor, half-oil painted version of LocoRoco” -Eric

There have been a lot of Lums at lunchtime here at Fire Hose becuase we’re playing Rayman Origins. It is a bright and colorful platformer that offers fun environmental puzzles and Super Mario Wii-esque four player gameplay (with slightly less griefing).

“It’s awesome!” wrote Jeff, Fire Hose programmer, “Collection performers are totally my thing, in 2D or 3D.  I loved the first Jak and Daxter, I loved Ratchet and Clank, and …Rayman is just really, really polished fun.”

“I agree with Jeff,” said Eric, another Fire Hose dude that was kind enough to bring the game in for everyone to play, “I’ve been playing Rayman Origins and loving the hell out of it.”

We have found that playing with four players can be a bit busy, with onlookers only being able to keep up with Globox, the largest and bluest character.

He kind of stands out.

Everyone else seems to blend into the scene, with cameo appearances made when they make sweeping jumps or fall behind enough to stick out from the crowd.  Not that that doesn’t add a certain level of fun, like Super Mario Wii each player can interact with the others, pushing, prodding, or helping. (Usually just pushing and prodding when we play.)

The game design itself is kind of awesome; there is a rhythm to the game that the player can discover by uncovering “Lums”, which are sleepy personifications of musical energy. A player can go through a level and free the pink and rather fab “Electoons”. You can get one Electoon for making it through he level, but uncovering more Lums and discovering the tempo of the level will earn you more.  Not only that, but as you traverse the stages you may run into a super spiffy King Lum whom will give you further hints which will allow you to uncover the inner rhythm of the level and allow you to save every Electoon. And you totally want to save every Electoon, just check out that pony-tail! Plus Each world contains a “tooth” level. In these levels you have to chase a living treasure chest through a dynamically changing, thematically interesting environment.  They are super challenging but the restart is quick and you frequently get that “just one more try” feeling.

Check out the game for yourself on the official website over here.

There are some terrific games coming out this holiday season; but today we want to take a look at some of the greatest holiday themed games to grace a console or computer. We even put them in order for you based on fun and overall ridiculous-ness.

10. XMAS Lemmings

9. Christmas Nights Into Dreams 

Released as part of a Christmas console/game package in 1996, Christmas Nights Into Dreams almost made up for the fact that you got a Sega Saturn when you had asked for an N64. Christmas Nights is a two level version of the cult favorite Nights Into Dreams from Sega. Fly through wreaths, collect pretty baubles, and weave your way along a path filled with goodies to achieve a high score. Also, for some reason, there are birthday cakes scattered about.

8. Popples Christmas Adventure

Created as a 1986 give-away item from American Greetings, this gem features the adorably weird Popples. Playable on the Commodore 64, this “game” offers little in the way of interactivity, instead you sit and watch as the Popples bounce around on screen. Sometimes they play instruments.

7.  Die Hard Trilogy

You may think that the top Christmas action movie would translate into one of the greatest action Christmas games, and you would be right! This game was a fun run through the first three films. Available on the Playstation, PC, and Sega Saturn John McClane runs around barefoot kicking butt and taking names. Maybe not taking names.  Pretty sure he just calls everyone ‘jerkweed’.

6. Elf Squad Seven

An indie game from Stardock Entertainment, Elf Squad 7 offers single and multi-player elf squad action.  Lead your elf team through puzzles to save Santa before it is too late!

5. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Help Kevin find his family in this game based off of the sequel of the same name.  You’ve got baddies on your tail as you adventure through strange environments towards the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center where your rather neglectful family is waiting for you. Plagued by wonky controls and an incoherent plot, the game released for the NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Super NES system does not hold up well to scrutiny. There is a portion of the game though in which you are charged with avoiding bird droppings as a flock of pigeons flies above you… so there’s that.

4.  Elf Bowling

Santa has the bowling ball. The elves are the pins.  Let the festivities begin! This game released in 1999 by NStorm is not only ridiculous but also has a fair bit of obscenity thrown in for good measure. The elves taunt St. Nick when his bowling ball misses by calling out, “Is that all the balls you got, Santa?” If that were not enough (and no, it is not enough) the Elves moon Santa, smack their butts in his general direction, and dance in between frames to ‘Elf, Elf. Baby’ (a play on a famous Vanilla Ice tune that is not in any way similar to a David Bowie song)

3. Santa Saves The World

This Playstation One game pits Santa against the menacing Nilam. Collect candy canes, climb ladders, and drink soda in a strange new land. Nilam hates the holidays with a  serious passion and attacks Santa with cavemen, flying elephant creatures, and tigers. Clearly one of the most realistic holiday titles to come out of 1992.

 2. Daze Before Christmas

In this 1993 game for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, Santa is minding his own business being jolly and wonderful when, for the purposes of plot development, he drinks a magical elixir that turns him into the feared ANTI-CLAUS! Anti-Claus, overflowing with newfound jumping powers, attacks each mouse that dare stir in his workshop as he collects the presents strewn about the levels. The presents have been refilled by baddies and now contain enemies for the Anti-Claus to beat including snowmen that decapitate themselves and then use their heads as weapons by flinging them at Santa.

1. Duke Nuclear Winter

Hail to the King, Santa. One of three expansion packs to 3D Realm’s Duke Nukem, Simply Silly’ s Duke Nuclear Winter (aka Duke Nukem’s Nuclear Winter) has everyone’s favorite misogynistic dude saving Christmas.  Santa has been brainwashed and Duke has to shoot and wisecrack his way through legions of holiday themed baddies.  The star on top of the tree: bodaciously evil female elves that dual wield sub-machine guns.

Honorable Mentions

The Christmas Story Room in Borderlands

I am not going to tell you how to get there. (You can look here if you don’t want to find it on your own) But yes, there is a secret room in Borderlands and it is A Christmas Story Themed. Ralphie would have loved to play with half of the weapons in Borderlands and you can sneak down to this secret room and find a make shift tree, spiffy presents, and a rather macabre leg lamp.

Christmas is Here Mission in Bully

This mission is a pretty straight forward one.  Jimmy wakes up in his dorm and hears over the loud speaker that a present is waiting for him in the office. What makes this little side mission ripe for the list though is that by not completing this mission you can make Christmas last forever.  Sure in this mode Jimmy cannot attend class or partake in missions, but who wants to go to school on the holidays anyway?

Did we miss one of your favorite in-game holiday moments? Talk at us about it on our Facebook page or Twitter.

Got an XBox 360, and want a fun old school platform puzzler for $3? Then go onto the indies channel (XBLIG) and download Escape Goat, the latest offering by Magical Time Bean.

In escape goat you star as an inexplicably purple colored goat who has been imprisoned for witchcraft. Teaming up with a small mouse with a taste for magic hats you have to navigate and escape from 64 puzzle rooms using a relatively simple rule set of jump, dash, push button, avoid fireball. The game shines because the level design is fairly tight and most of the levels are fun and interesting to play, and the few bits of dialog you encounter are relatively amusing.

My gripes with the game are few; the graphics aren’t very impressive, some of the critical elements blend into the background too much, and the game elements all have a similar look and feel (for instance, keys and magic hats look almost identical). However none of these points are damning, and we found ourselves coming back to this for more on a regular basis until we beat the game. The title even comes with a level editor that is surprisingly easy to use and fun to make your own levels.

If you are an indie fan and want a puzzler then this is certainly one to get. And for $3 it’s pretty damn cheap. Go on XBLIG and grab it now!

Oh yeah, and if you like the game’s music (composed by the dev, mixed by Chainsaw of Twisted Pixel fame) then you can grab it for whatever you want here.

Let me introduce myself, my name is Kate and I am the new Community Manager and resident Gal Friday at Fire Hose Games. What does that mean for you? That means that you will be seeing more updates, more exclusive Fire Hose games information, and more interaction between Fire Hose and their fans than ever before.

The party has started and it is here.

There is so much that I want to talk about– Slam Bolt Scrappers is more than likely the best tower strategy meets brawling match up I have ever played and there will be lots of news about that title coming up soon. (Speaking of which if you haven’t played SBS yet why not go ahead and fix that over at the PSN store? ^_^ ) Go Home Dinosaurs is ridiculously fun and educational. (Did you know that dinosaurs were, in fact, made of bacon? True story.)

For my first post though I just want to say hello and tell you a bit about myself… By which I mean I will provide a quick rundown of the games I am playing that were not created by Fire Hose. ^_~

I am currently playing RE4 on the XBOX 360.I am also dabbling with Atlus’ Catherine and am looking forward to both 2K Games’ XCOM and BioShock Infinite from Irrational. I am also a big fan of Twisted Pixel’s Mr. and Ms. Splosion Man. I am especially fond of Ms. Splosion Man singing bits of Spice Girls songs. ^_^

Everybody loves to splode.

I enjoy several different types of games from platformers and RPGs to puzzle and FPS style gameplay– if there is a controller or a computer screen involved I will more than likely play for hours on end ignoring all basic human needs for nutrition until I have gotten all endings, achievements, trophies, or other spiffies.

I am also relying on video games to get back into shape and am currently moving and grooving my way to a better me using Harmonix’s Dance Central as a key piece in my exercise strategy. (Hey, did you know that Dance Central is actually part of the Fire Hose portfolio? It’s true!  …. maybe I can get someone here to fix it so that Poker Face shows me loosing 6,000 calories per round…. ^_^ )

There may or may not be footage of me on Youtube dancing around to Maneater with a blindfold on.

So, that is a bit about me. I look forward to getting to know all of the Fire Hose fans out there and providing you with heaps of news, exclusives, pictures, videos, the works! If you have a question or comment drop me a line or find me on the Fire Hose Facebook Page or the Fire Hose Twitter. ^_^

Ah, prepackaged Windows games. Solitare, Minesweeper, Freecell, Pinball; how many hours have these games wasted? They’re certainly some of the most popular games out there if you go by how many people play them, and for how long.

Minesweeper in particular is one of my favorites – it’s a great time waster that everyone spends a few minutes on here and there. That’s why I was particularly excited by Mamono Sweeper, a terrific Japanese game that puts a neat spin on the old standby. It treats the game as a dungeon crawl where you are trying to clear the board of all enemies. You can kill enemies of your level or lower (enemies are all level 1-5), and as you do you get experience and can level up, allowing you to fight tougher enemies. When you click on a tile it shows you the sum of all the adjacent enemies, so a “7″ might be surrounded by a 3 and a 4, a 3 and a 2 and a 2, etc. The logic takes a game or so to get used to but once you get in the groove it really starts feeling good.

Mamono Sweeper does a great job of showing how introducing one small (and simple!) new mechanic can make an old game feel fresh again. Go give it a shot, or if you have an iOS device you can grab it from the app store.