Space Giraffe - NOT worse than Frogger

stinkin' thinkin':

"not seeing a lot of reason to continue even trying to make games, at this point, when a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games, can outsell Space Giraffe that we put so much love and effort into, by more than ten to one, in one week.

OK, we get the message. All you want on that channel is remakes of old, shite arcade games and crap you vaguely remember playing on your Amiga."

I feel for Jeff here. Yes, he's ranting a bit trollishly, but I have to say I think I'd have the same reaction if I produced something amazing and got outraced by Frogger.

I haven't had nearly the time I want to sit down with Space Giraffe. The flood of ridiculously cool disc games for 360 has kept my XBLA gaming to a minimum. I haven't even tried to spiffy-looking Guitar / Dance pad update to Boom Boom Rocket. But when I did have the chance to play Space Giraffe on my friend's 1080p HD projector, and it was one of the most trippy, synasthetic experiences I've had. I was expecting to get a shooter (since I love blast-em-ups like Ikaruga and Giga Wing), but instead I found the gameplay much more nuanced, with a focus on combos and "bulling" to really rack up the scores. I don't feel like I fully understand it yet, but the depth that's there is pretty amazing for an arcade game.

Anyway, my best encouragement to Jeff (who says in his next post that he will continue to make games, just perhaps cut back on blogging about them). I hope to see more from Llamasoft on XBLA... and if it's any consolation, I haven't bought any game remakes since that awful port of Gauntlet, with infinite lives a button-push away.