Fantasy Strike Characters

Here are the ten Fantasy Strike characters that appear in all my card games. Sirlin.net fan Beikoku Taichou (BT) made the 8-bit versions just for the hell of it. Awesome!

Site Speed Upgrade!

In the last week, sirlin.net has gotten slower and slower loading pages. It took me over SEVENTY SECONDS to load pages. I discovered (thanks to a tip from sirlin.net poster Rufus) that this was because of a stray script from the now-defunct tipjoy. Script removed, and site is way faster now!

Now it's even easier to click the button on the right to become a fan of Sirlin Games on Facebook or to click the top banner to buy Flash Duel. Thanks for your support, enjoy the lack of insane slowness.

Specter Spelunker Shrinks

Here's a new indie game.

My review, first the negatives. Please don't make a game with right-handed movement only, or even as a default. Please don't make a game with music that doesn't have a mute button.

The positives: I guess this is the best game of 2010, even though it's only 10 minutes long. I'm not sure what would be better, but certainly not an FPS with an RPG ladder. With Specter Spelunker Shrinks, we get a glimpse at an experimental mechanic that really does work, so that's a rare thing. Anyway, I had the shrink/grow mechanic in mind as well for a platform game, but the difference between Ken Grafals and me is that he actually executed the idea. This game is basically a prototype that's a proof of concept of the idea that vastly shrinking and growing on-the-fly makes for fun gameplay. Verdict: concept proven.

I actually think this mechanic itself is, ironically, part of a larger possible idea. Dear Ken: would you like to make the next Portal / Braid together? Not a joke.

--Sirlin

Flash Duel is Released! (in the US)

Both the regular and deluxe versions of Flash Duel are now available. US-only for now, more countries later.

The regular version is cards-only (plus the rulesheet of course). The "board" is actually 5 cards that you lay end-to-end. Keep track of your position with a penny or token or whatever is nearby. The regular version is small and portable, and is only $16.

The deluxe version has a wooden box with awesome laser engraving on the sides. The board is a wooden two-piece board with vibrantly colorful graphics. You get two wooden pawns, five wooden win tokens (also laser engraved), and the rules and cards. It's fancy and just more fun to play with if you ask me (especially because of the board), but you can be the judge. The deluxe version is $45.

You can read a bit more about the game in my previous post. If you own the game, you might help out by submitting a review (or even discussion, play report, rating, whatever) of the game on boardgamegeek.com or Amazon.

Thanks for supporting the first Sirlin Games product!

The Return of the Donkey Kong Country 2 Article

Backed by popular demand, I resurrected my 10-year-old article about hiding secrets in platform games. It's updated and spiffy now. Enjoy!

The Secrets of Donkey Kong Country 2