Nitrome Wasn't Built In A Day.

Nitrome. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you should be familiar with the name. They make flash games of a superior standard, many of which have featured here. In fact, my second post on this blog featured a Nitrome game, all the way back in March 2008!

So anyway, they have just released their 100th game(!) and to mark the occasion, they've called it Nitrome Must Die!

The game involves one or two players taking up arms and blowing characters from loads of different Nitrome games into smithereens. It's good fun and it seems like it would be wrong not to feature it here.

NITROME MUST DIE!

Scantastic.

I'm just going to say it; today's plink is about barcodes. Yeah... barcodes. Don't leave though, I am going somewhere with this. Also, you know I'm good for it. I've turned something dull into an interesting post before. Remember the post about Forklift Truck Safety? Exactly.

Anyway, I wouldn't be the first to try and jazz up the humble barcode. Remember Barcode Battlers?

But I digress. So barcodes are everywhere, yes? And they're pretty dull, yes? Just a dull arrangement of vertical black bars, some wider than others. Totally tedious, but then they're only there to fulfill a function. Nothing we can do to make them more interesting, right?

Wrong! They could look like this:

MUCH better. This seems to be mainly a Japanese phenomenon, mostly the work of a company called D-Barcode. Hooray for them!

More info and plenty more examples HERE, check 'em out.

Blowing A Load.

I bloody love fireworks. We went to an excellent display this year which was a nice mix of impressive and dangerous. The sense that at any moment we could all be incinerated really added to the experience.

Lots of cities have official displays which cost thousands of pounds and tend to go on for half an hour or so. All this really ensures is that your whole audience will have a crick in their neck when they're done 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing.

Perhaps we can learn something from a mishap in the Scottish town of Oban, then. After cueing up all the pretty explosives, a technical hitch caused them all to go off within 50 seconds. It makes for spectacular viewing. See?



Ooh and indeed, aah.

Out On A Limb.

GAMES.
Yeah, I haven't posted in a while. Sorry. Here's something to play with to keep you distracted. 2 things, even.

First of all, a game where success will cost you an arm and a leg, literally. It's called Pursuit Of Hat and your protagonist is a cheerful looking blobby fella with detachable limbs. He desperately wants his fetching purple bowler hat back and you'll need to rip off and reattach bits of yourself in order to do it. For such a stomach-churning sounding concept, it's all very sweet. Give it a shot:

Pursuit Of Hat.

Secondly, an old internet stalwart; Ninjas. They're everywhere on the world wide web, the stealthy blighters. Where are they all coming from? Where do they learn their skills? Well, I'll tell you! Sticky Ninja Academy, that's where. This is a physics-y game involving flinging a ninja about, making him stick to walls, knock out other, presumably evil ninjas and nab some precious gold before making it to the exit. This is good, solid fun and the way your li'l assassin goes into a flying kick pose whenever thrown is just adorable.

Sticky Ninja Academy.

There you go, fill your virtual boots. See you next time.