Hyper Princess Pitch

New game from Daniel Remar. Discuss

...I'd need a little more info to have anything to discuss. A link maybe?

Watching the trailer makes me feel like this game doesn't even know what it wants to be.

It looks like Zelda, but it looks like a shooter, or maybe an arcadey action game, or maybe a bullet hell, but it's also sorandumxd.

Nah, I'll give it a pass.

Well it's a remake of Operation: Carnage, so the idea technically isn't original, but it's a pretty fun game. It's only four levels so it doesn't take too much time to beat. It has a pretty good replay value as well.

edited 2nd Dec '11 5:46:57 PM by JayTheHelmetGuy

^^ It's a top down walking/free motion shooter (don't know the exact genre name). It's not exactly a non-genre, games of this kind have been made for decades.

That said, it's because of that that I'm not really interested in this. I've played games of this kind that look nearly as good as this (and in some cases, a bit more) on Newgrounds, and that kind of filled my interest in the genre.

And oh, hey. The main character is a shameless rip-off parody of Princess Peach. How... witty...

edited 2nd Dec '11 5:55:29 PM by KnownUnknown

I was originally under the impression that it was a twin-stick shooter, but it doesn't really look like it upon closer inspection.

That's blatantly obvious by her sprite design.

And the name.

I don't want to sound too harsh [um, no, let's be honest: I'll be harsh now] to the OP but, bothering to be more informative? I hate when someone just drops a link (and, in this case, not even that) and doesn't say anything more, like he even hasn't tried the game in question. You also drop that info from the game's page that it's "a remake of Operation Carnage" - a game many people may not know, since it's a quite obscure DOS shareware (unless you confuse it with Total Carnage).

Sorry, must be my habit with the freewares thread but I'd really like people to spend at least a few minutes writing some text - if you want people to discuss the game, start the discussion yourself. At least edit the OP to include a link to the website.

Isn't that actually a rule now?

That you can't just have "Topic Title. One sentence OP. Discuss."

^^Yeah sorry about that, I have a bad habit of doing that. I might as well start a discussion with a little evaluation of that game. It's only four levels, so thats a nice feature. The game altogether took about 30-45 to beat. So it's not very time consuming. Although it is annoying when you get far, and then you die having to start the whole game over again. I don't it would've hurt to just put you back at the beginning of the boss battle/level when you die. Pause menu controls were something of a disappointment for me since I wish I was able to tweak the sound, controls, and other things from the pause menu. There are also times where gigantic throngs of enemies (namely elves) cover up most of the level and you can't even see the character. For a different type of game, this would be fine with me, but the layout of the levels and the inability to turn and shoot at the same time, this was rather annoying. This game has a moderately high replay value because while it can get boring with continuously playing it, if you play it for short spans at a time (2 hours at most) it can be fun and entertaining.

The Developer's Website: http://remar.se/daniel The Game Page: http://remar.se/daniel/pitch.php

edited 3rd Dec '11 12:42:34 AM by JayTheHelmetGuy

To better understand this game, it's better to know the original first:

http://www.midnightsynergy.com/ancient.htm

The game has been made freeware and is just three megabytes to download. Run with Dos Box. Once you get used to the graphics (decent, but the coloring is often questionable), it's quite fun. Here's a video:

As you can see, HPP is a Christmas reskin of it (not that it's necessarily a bad thing), with some addition. The mechanical enemies look still similar to the ones in OC, many of their shots too, and even the level layout seems to be the same. New to this game instead is the Piledriver attack.

Since I've finished only a run of HPP so far, I'd better reserve further impressions for later. I'm now tempted to play it and OC side-by-side in Windows...

I actually played this game before. For a mindless shooter, it has a ton of Backstory.

Whats the problem with mindless shooter??? ):I

I never said it was a bad thing. =p I'm saying it is somewhat unusual to have to read a Wall of Text, when all you're about to do is Shoot Everything That Moves anyway.

@Gendo Ikari I'm surprised that the gigatic hordes of enemies don't cover up the whole map, unlike HPP

edited 5th Dec '11 7:40:02 PM by JayTheHelmetGuy

To say Princess Pitch is a parody of Peach is quite imprecise. Rather, Pitch is a full-fledged Action Girl — essentially the antithesis/inverse of Peach. To the extent Pitch serves as a commentary on Peach is that Peach is generally a boring/passive character, but it avoids using ridicule; rather, it shows you that her opposite is entertaining/wild/awesome.

The style of the game is similar to Operation Carnage, but the particulars (the bosses, the monster behavior, the weapon behavior, and especially the maps) are generally different.

Regarding not wanting to have to start the game from scratch after losing, it is sort of mitigated by the game being short and giving you extra lives, and the game would likely have been made harder if you could continue from checkpoints. Also, it'd probably be problematic from a "score" perspective, since there's a high score table and all. Arcade-style games tend to be that way. Of course, if you do get tripped up and don't want to have to repeatedly start from the beginning to progress, you can always choose an easier difficulty setting — if you're not ready to be a War Queen or even a Battle Princess, that's fine. Or you can just use a level-skip cheat code (and yes, there is one).

Regarding the pause menu... yeah, that could use some work.

There are many homages scattered about. Obviously there are Mario (Princess Peach) and Sonic references, but you can also see the id software-style cheat codes (and even the infamous Konami code). There are also some nods to Dan Remar's own games ("Sector X" from Iji, and the "Elite" Elf mini-boss that is reminiscent of the Elites from Hero Core). There is probably more, but these are all I recognize (and remember of the top of my head).

I hated Garden Gnome Carnage, but I enjoyed HPP pretty well (despite having some concerns going in). If you're thinking about trashing this game, at least *try* it first.

I just wrote a TV Tropes page about the game. (Its description could be a bit longer though, and I haven't done the crosswicking yet. Well, Work Pages Are A Free Launch.)

I'm a bit uncertain on how to classify it. Action Game? Shoot 'Em Up?

edited 10th Dec '11 9:44:14 AM by Octagon8

I guess it's an Arcade Game.
I fiddled with the page a bit (I actually wanted to make it myself, but I am naturally lazy).

I was thinking Run N Gun?

In both executables, I never hear any of the music. In the GM 7 version (regardless of compatibility mode) the sound is garbled in a rather ugly way, making every single sound effect sound like a mini helicopter with issues.

Also, I found a small glitch (Hyper Princess Glitch?). While holding right in the difficulty selector (which I tried to do for reasons obvious to anyone with a comprehensive knowledge fo Remar eastereggs), you can move your cursor below the normal menu options. My guess is that I didn't fulfill the requirements to unlock said certain ...thing yet, but in that case you shouldn't be able to move your cursor below the menu. Additionally, I occasionally can move my cursor even further below the normal menu than that.

edited 13th Dec '11 9:30:51 AM by Octagon8

I'll fix the menu bug for the next version, nothing I can do about the compatibility issues though, sorry.

Oh lookie, I found a picture of the Good Mecha Santa on twitter. [1]

I just found out that Notch plays this game. Awesome.