The Gaming Grid

I won’t lie, I’m a little drunk this week. I know St. Paddie’s isn’t ’till Tuesday, but we’re in the middle of midterms here and it’s important to start celebrating early. In the interests of keeping things light, pretty and browser-based I’d like to draw your attention to the recently release Death vs. Monstars on Kongregate. Death vs. Monstars is apparently what the cool kids might call a 2D arena shooter, similar to XBLA titles like Geometry Wars or Everyday Shooter on PSN. Having never played either, this was my first chance to hop behind the sticks since 1943: The Battle of Midway, which is why I was doubly surprised to find there’s no second stick involved thanks to DvM’s innovative (and slightly loose) control system.

It’s difficult to describe (so I really recommend you hop in and give the game a shot,) but essentially you move little Death around the field with your mouse and control your weapon with the left mouse button, occasionally triggering a special bullet time or rage effect (you gain money to improve your character’s abilities and weapons) by tapping keys on the keyboard. Rather than determining your firing direction with a second input source independent of movement Death fires continuously in a direction determined by how you move him, and you hold the left mouse button to lock in your firing direction and keep it constant.

See what I mean? What that means for you the player is that after a few minutes of practice on the first level you’ll find yourself at the helm of a quirky and thoroughly enjoyable sh’mup with great music, plenty of colorful explosions (the game displays 40-50 enemies on-screen in a Flash player with no slowdown, an impressive feat) and the freedom to play with one hand. What you do with the other one is up to you.

Oh hey, if anyone’s interested I’m Seraph621 on Quake Live. Let’s get together and eat some buckshot, suck down some plasma, ride some rockets and generally try to couch a deathmatch in the most homoerotic terms possible.