RFLEX is a game developed by Wesley LaFerriere. Its neo-arcade reflex gameplay involves a 3x3 grid navigated by a pentagon (whose position instead of motion is determined by the arrow keys) that dodges quick-moving rectangles (briefly telegraphed with thin black lasers) for as long as possible. Each of the five levels takes one minute to beat, and has an additional "drunk mode" that messes with the seemingly simple controls.
You can get the game
and its "Awesome Soundtrack" (the latter consisting of music by ForeverBound, Valiant, and RollingFacade) for free on Steam.
See also Super Hexagon for simplistic yet difficult and reflex-oriented gameplay.
RFLEX provides examples of:
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: All of the last level's patterns are borrowed from the previous levels.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The player dodges rectangles amongst a bright and somewhat trippy screen.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Every time the controls are flipped while "drunk", all onscreen rectangles become intangible.
- Blue Is Calm: The first (and fittingly easiest) level uses such a color scheme.
- Color Contrast:
- All of the level's colors are inverted once the player lasts at least 60 seconds.
- The background's color fluctuates more as the level progresses (but the last level does this the most wildly!), though this can be disabled to protect those with epilepsy.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Players who get used to rectangle patterns of certain levels and then play less familiar levels can get the movements they developed into second nature turned from strengths into undoings.
- Difficulty by Acceleration: The rectangle patterns gradually speed up to further test the player's reflexes.
- Endless Game: Even after the 60-second threshold of beating a level, it can theoretically go on indefinitely.
- Gameplay Grading: An F is given for lasting less than 10 seconds, and the previous letter is given for surviving every 10 seconds.
- Interface Screw:
- The grid tilts around axially in a seesaw fashion, especially quickly in later levels, though it's always easy to tell which direction is up.
- The game's "drunk mode" causes the movement controls to repeatedly reverse (not to mention making the screen slightly wobbling around in more unusual ways).
- Two more minor cases exist in later levels: certain rectangles spinning as they move, and the background grid occasionally rotating 90 degrees.
-
Nintendo Hard: Not even the first level, "Amusement", will go easy on players. Rectangles spawn and move across the grid quickly, and their aversion of Hitbox Dissonance makes them even tougher to avoid. - One-Hit-Point Wonder: Getting hit once will end the current run.
- Rainbow Speak:
- The player's rank and score distance from 60 seconds for each level is colored.
- More uniquely, the last level's title: "Death-Wish".
- Randomly Generated Levels: A series of rectangle patterns fly through the grid as the sole form of attack on the pentagon that the player controls.
- Rank Inflation: An S is given for beating the level (lasting at least 60 seconds).
- Red Is Violent: The last level (including the title's text above) is red-colored (though it fades into flashing between yellow, magenta, red, and black while played).
- Screen Shake: Small bouts of this occur at numerous times throughout the game.
