It's that time of year again. The deadline for submissions to this year's IGF main competition has come and gone and the Pirate Kart is one entry that stands proudly clear of the standard crowd of sensible, innovative and artistically viable pieces of entertainment software.
Put simply, the Pirate Kart is a selection of over 300 games by over 100 separate indie devlopers. Each title was either unsuitable for an independent submission or lacked the polish to go it alone, so here they are, available for all to take a chance and dive into a swathe of nutty half-ideas and creative abominations.
There's a lot of shit there - naturally. This is to be expected of a collection open to submissions from any Tom, Dick or Harry with something to prove. There's also a lot of toilet humour, which is lovely, but very NSFW. I advise you wait until you get home to sample delights such as Hoody Attack, or Space Phallus, or Wee - which has you playing God's own Eve as she attempts to remonstrate Adam for pissing on her every morning.
Aside from this sort of stuff you'll see the standard clones (of which Snake and Asteroids feature heavily) and a few odd non-games that don't quite fulfill the standard expectations of interactive entertainment.
Regardless of the quality of each individual game, as a collection it's an exciting thing to be able to explore. The list is set out concisely in the main program window and you can sort as you please; by title, by author or entirely at random. There's even a 'Play Random Game' button which performs as expected and lends the sense of mystery to proceedings as you shuffle through the productions at your leisure, usually only spending two or three minutes with each one.
Of course, every now and again there's an idea or a look that sticks and it's hard not to become involved. For my money, here are a few that I would recommend you try out if you fancy a bit of direction prior to getting your hands/brain dirty with the rest of it:-
FuhFuhFire by Robert Yang
"Fire! Fire! We're all going to die!"
The inimitable Robert Yang gives us a game which draws equal measure of mirth and terror as players are tasked with rescuing seven elipsoid victims from a raging fire in a building of some sorts.
Twankility - Forced Meditation by Andrew Gray
"You are a fluffy cloud. You slowly fly through the sky."
It's an experience that will last approximately two minutes and, after that, you won't want to play it again, but it did make me laugh at least twice when so many other games in this collection try so hard and fail. If you like inanity, you might like this.
Operation Lodestone by Leon Arnott
"To think - we have reached a point in military history where our weapons must become dumber to penetrate our enemy's defenses."
It's not the most original concept, but it kept me playing long enough to be worth recommending. There's a story, but I paid little attention. A super missile powerful enough to obliterate entire cities is at your disposal. To guide it, you'll need to place some magnetic towers along its route. It's a puzzle game and I got some kicks from it. That is all.
IGF Pirate Kart 2012 is a whopping 1.5GB but downloads speedily enough via BitTorrent. Find a link, here.
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