GAME > Mailure (Ahmed Hassan)

Mailure is a fun arcade experience, where you take the role of a naughty schoolboy who wishes to prevent letters written by his principal reaching his mother. The concept sounds simple, but Ahmed has made it anything but that. The main aim is to knock out passing postmen before stealing the letters and throwing these in the sole waste bin, all with an unnecessarily complex control system. And it doesn’t help that the ‘How to Play?’ explanation is quite awfully written. The three platform levels, which are accessible by using the tiresomely positioned ladder, make this more challenging than need be. However, the pretty pixel graphics are pleasant to the eye and the light choice of colour reflects the mood of the game very well. The letter animations are well designed, but after a while become tedious and overused; an option to toggle the speed of said animations would be nice. The music doesn’t really fit with the graphical style, but it’s a catchy tune and monotony is surprisingly minimal. Overall, it’s an entertaining arcade platformer with cute visual feedback.

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GAME > Bactoriam (Ahmed Hassan)

In Bactoriam, you play as… well, Bactoriam – ‘king of all bacterias’ (yeah). Bactoriam seems to be enraged that bacteria is considered to be a minimum bare organism. Using the Goo substance surrounding Bactoriam, you must fire bubbles of the matter, killing the viruses (while using up precious Goo), as you bounce helplessly around the arena, hoping to avoid as much harm as possible. There are two game modes (‘Time’ and ‘Score’), where you move onto the next level by reaching the required value relevant to the mode name. The enemy viruses come in a variety of forms, offering a more diverse challenge, as the game gets harder. The graphics are similar to that of Ahmed’s previous game, CrytorYan, only green instead of red. Once again, the colours are well chosen and are nice and consistent. Also, there’s an interesting bubbling effect that crops up throughout; it dramatically improves the visual aspect of Bactoriam. The music is suitable for the genre and the sound effects aren’t too loud, creating a sort of calm air, even if it is a game with explosions. From this game, I think we can conclude that Ahmed Hassan likes chemistry (or just science in general).

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GAME > CrytorYan (Ahmed Hassan)

CrytorYan is an insanely difficult arena shooter based around the story of Dr Zack. The game arena plays the part as the container for the material he has discovered – CrytorYan. The gameplay follows a set of initially indigestible rules concerning the two atoms in the material – ‘Bluy’ and ‘Whity’ (yes, they’re very creatively named). The fundamental aim is to control and fire germs from the ‘Whity’ atoms at the ‘Bluy’ atoms, while avoiding actually making contact with the ‘Bluy’ atoms, racking up points. The graphics are very red and pixelized – this style is held consistently and, although very simple, the colours work together nicely to give a tidy display. A cool effect that mixes up the visuals a bit is the beating vibration of the screen. This compliments the background music to build up a rhythmic environment that lets the game flow impressively.

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