NJIT's Student Newspaper

The Vector

NJIT's Student Newspaper

The Vector

NJIT's Student Newspaper

The Vector

Indie Game Freebies: Weird Games

Matthew Maravilla

Last week I wrote about sexy and romantic games, and I want to continue Indie Game Freebies with some weird games I found on the Internet! While these games are great for a laugh or two and provide some serious fun, they are definitely not for the whole family.

Pickle

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a pickle? Better yet, have you ever wanted to be a super intelligent pickle trying to get back to your alien home world? If yes, Pickle might be the game for you!

Pickle is more than about just being a pickle. Pickle is about trying to navigate strange worlds while facing perilous dangers, and finding your way in world where you will always be lost. Trying to understand how to move the pickle is a challenge, as a pickle would only have two general directions of movement, forward and backward. However, the pickle isn’t any regular cucumber (thankfully); it has a slight bump in the middle giving the pickle the ability to move in multiple directions.

Can you bring this pickle back to its home? You can play this gem at svblm.itch.io/pickle.

Intimate Infinite

Let’s get a little artistic with these choices, shall we? Coming from the crazy mind of Robert Yang, Intimate Infinite is a simple game of perilous adventure and poetry.

The game puts you through numerous situations, some of which send feelings of helplessness while giving you glimpses at power. In a sense, I felt a little bit like a spy, trying to steal technologies for the home country while being chased by unseen Nazis.

Intimate Infinite is weird because it is very artistic. Even with the mouse, movement is very restricted, the camera barely moves. In a way, choosing the way you absorb the experience, like reading a book while standing idly, is an important choice that can turn the pages to a different story altogether.

Do you think you can handle all of that power with just one button? You can download Intimate Infinite at radiatoryang.itch.io/intimate-infinite.

JET/LAG

When I started this week’s Indie Freebies, I knew I wanted to add a game that was extremely fun but had a style that isn’t for everyone. Thankfully, I found such a game from the makers of Pickle, JET/LAG. With its heavy use of unorthodox angles, glitchy visuals, and colorful effects, JET/LAG can cause nausea. JET/LAG also comes complete with fast, fun, and frenetic gameplay.

Think of any rogue-like games you might have played in the past 3 years, and you probably get games like Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, and The Binding of Isaac. However, how long are those games? On average, a regular game of The Binding of Isaac is roughly 20 minutes, one run of Rogue Legacy is around 10 to 30 minutes, and Spelunky can go on for more than half an hour if you are awesome at the game.

That is not how long a game of JET/LAG would take. Getting to levels 5 and higher could take close to 3 minutes if you’re good enough.

Using the mouse to move around the screen, your little rotating square has to dash into every enemy in the level to advance. Complete with an item system and quotes about the meaning of life, this is definitely a game you can sink time into.

JET/LAG is available to play on svblm.itch.io/jet-lag.

All games shown are free to play and free to download.

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