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The Curious Appeal of Effing Hail

Much like digital distribution on the current generation of consoles and handhelds has brought us charming, unique, and thrilling game experiences that would absolutely not survive in a retail environment, digital distribution of independant computer games allows us to become audience to gaming concepts that would likely never survive in committee. A majority of the most interesting games hitting the 'net these days are little more than proofs of concept, but of really freakin' neat concepts, and that makes all the difference. I would rather play a game in my web browser for five minutes and be left thinking about about it for hours than sink days into yet another epic console slugfest and have no idea what the point of it all is.

Case in point, I played Intuition Games' "Effing Hail" about twelve times this weekend.

"Effing Hail" is not a complex game. Presented as an isometric cross-section graphic similar to those seen in ecology text books (or the artwork to a certain rock album that helped some of us survive freshman orientation), the player controls wind gusts in order to hold the incoming hail stones in the atmosphere, accumulating greater moisture, mass, and volume, forming larger hail stones which are then flung into the unsuspecting people and constructs of the world in a vengeful God simulation.

4bidden Fruit - The Methadone For Your Eden Addiction

Pixeljunk Eden was the first game to make me happy I'd "invested" in a Playstation 3. Unfortunately, I wound up investing a lot back into it. First there was the HDMI cable so the game –specifically designed for HDTVs – wouldn't be blurry and vague. Then there was the lack of sleep as Eden hypnotically pulled me through its lush gardens full of vibrant lights and sounds. Finally, there was the lost sense of reality, as I started to imagine myself as a grimp and looked up at the towering buildings in Manhattan, estimating how far I could fling myself from the top of each one in fruitless efforts to collect pollen.

Dear reader, if you're like me, you need a gardening experience to wean you off of Eden safely and comfortably before you find yourself on a fire escape eyeing the opposite rooftop. Might I recommend 4bidden Fruit.

Watcha Playing: Fantastic Contraption

For the last few weeks I've tried different browser-based games, and this is one of my favorites. Fantastic Contraption presents a simple challenge: Get the object from here to there - except that the execution is never very simple. I'm thirteen levels in and I haven't yet resorted to a walkthrough or Youtube cheat, but I don't think I'm going to last much longer without at least checking youtube for some help with strategy. I've been playing a little bit on my lunch breaks every day. It's easy to pick up and play in short bursts. Built by this dude, Fantastic Contraption is uncompromising in its difficulty, yet you'll gladly spend a half hour or more trying to think of various ways to get aound obstacles like slippery steps, wide gaps, and imposing walls. Build simple two-wheeled "cars", massive treaded "tanks" or even catapults.

Your tools are wheels and connecting rods. That's it! The challenge is determining the length of the rods, and where to connect them to the wheels, which can turn clockwise or counterclockwise. This brilliant economy makes for a perfect little game. It's excellent flash titles like this that make me want to sell my Wii.

Posted Sep 03 2008, 04:05 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: cole stryker, puzzle, fantastic contraption, browser, flash

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.