Pocket God! Everybody knows that name. The title of an extremely popular game, about Pygmies who live on an island and are under the full control of you. When the game was first released it was simple, and for $0,99 it seemed a bit expensive for what you got. But with the weekly updates the game quickly became one of the most popular and addictive apps in the App Store. Although the game will stay popular, maybe a new game turns out to be a huge hit. It’s created by Mountain Sheep and released by Chillingo ltd. and goes by the name ‘Minigore, episode 1′.
The first thing that stands out is the art style. You play as the block-headed John Gore, who fights off equally block-shaped enemies called the Furry. Everything is rendered in a grassy 2D environment, full of 3D objects such as rocks, brush and trees. These don’t act as obstacles in the sense that you can walk through them, but they do cover up your vision, making for hairy encounters with Furries.
The game includes three distinct weapons. You start off using a machine gun with unlimited ammo. Furries can drop crates that hold either exploding booby traps or shotguns, which give you a little extra kick but have limited ammo.
There’s another way to kill those Furries. If you find three of the four-leaf clovers, you turn into a bull that squishes all Furries like flies. But be aware, it only lasts for 15 seconds or so, until you return to normal.
You can listen to your own music via the iPod library. There’s also an expert mode in which you can fight the Furries in a higher rate. For example, in one of the games I played, the biggest Furry came almost as the first one. In expert mode you can score more points quicker, to boost your highscore.
Instead of using the classic health bar to show how much life Mr. Gore has left, this is shown instead through his physical state. For example, at the start of the game he is fully intact with his hat on, but as the Furries get to him, he gradually gets bloodier until he dies.
Right now, there’s only one world, but then again, this is just episode 1. Timo Vihola, create director of the project, promises that in episode 2, several new funny and amazing things will be added to the game. Mr. Gore (who speaks every now and then) will speak more, health will be shown in three stages (instead of two right know) with the additional stage being Mr. Gore with a headband on, and levels will include a fence to show the boundaries. Vihola also hinted to something mysterious: “The mysterious transforming mushroom makes its appearance in the second episode…”
Beyond this second update, which is already in the works, there will be a wide range of other features. First and foremost, there will be co-op where one player is John Gore and another is his 9-year-old daughter. New snow and desert areas are scheduled, each with a special costume for Gore such as a fur cap and cowboy hat.
As far as enemies go, there a whole slew of them. These include King Furry, Wormwolf, Old Man Tackle, Lumberjacks, Cossacks and Green Grunts. Vihola said each enemy will be unique in the way they play, and we are curious to see how they come out. As expected, you will need new ways of crushing these enemies, so there will be new weapons, including the sheep cannon, dual-wielding machine guns and an assault helicopter.
There will also be a Tower Defense type game with Mr. Gore as the main character. It will be a sequel to Minigore and will be named Hardgore. There will be a larger background story, and the game will also be much larger which will be reflected in the price. About Hardgore, Vihola said that “the genre is not literally ‘Tower defense’ and I think ‘Village defense’ might be a more fitting description. Oh, and it has Santa and penguins!” Sounds very interesting to me.
Below is a picture that shows some of the upcoming stuff for episode 2 and beyond. Click on the picture for a bigger version.
The video below shows the gameplay of this beautifully crafted game.
The game can be downloaded through the App Store for only $0,99: Minigore.
Related posts
Discuss this topic in the forum
I have to admit it looks pretty fun and funny with some of the comments the guy with the gun makes. Gameplay is familiar though. Reminds me of iDracula.