Okay, so I wrote this little paean on Canabalt, because the game sucked me in and I really, really liked it. Adam Atomic noticed it, saying it's his favourite review - then discarded it a bit later. Woe is mine. But that's not what I wanted to write about today.
If you read my previous note, you know that I think that the good part of what makes Canabalt so memorable is its atmosphere and that the good part of that atmosphere is the sense of impeding doom from which there is no escape. It doesn't matter how far or how fast you run - in the end you'll die anyway. You simply cannot win and your poor nameless character is bound to end up dead with no chance of ever escaping from his private own running hell. Doesn't it strike you as unfair? Don't you wish this little guy could finally rest somewhere?
It did bother me a bit, but I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Turns out, it did struck a chord with some other folks as well:
wrote MRW in his review (science-fiction double feature, he also examines Vox Populi in the same post), triggered by my review. Our common buddy Radkowiecki then left a lengthy comment in which he both expressed his liking of the game and refused to admit that there is no ending:
To which MRW replied with a new post, stating that "of course it has to":
It looks that we all pretend to be die-hard cynics, but there are things that really do touch our inner emo kid (to think that it's a bunch of gray pixels that did this). I myself went all "awww" when I saw it. Nameless runner can now rest in peace - good job, MRW!
I just hope that Adam Atomic sees this and adds it to his new iPhone port of Canabalt.
If you read my previous note, you know that I think that the good part of what makes Canabalt so memorable is its atmosphere and that the good part of that atmosphere is the sense of impeding doom from which there is no escape. It doesn't matter how far or how fast you run - in the end you'll die anyway. You simply cannot win and your poor nameless character is bound to end up dead with no chance of ever escaping from his private own running hell. Doesn't it strike you as unfair? Don't you wish this little guy could finally rest somewhere?
It did bother me a bit, but I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Turns out, it did struck a chord with some other folks as well:
Canabalt is a beautiful tale about nonsense, road to nowhere, the farther you run, the longer you'll live (...), but in the end the world will end in weeping anyways.
wrote MRW in his review (science-fiction double feature, he also examines Vox Populi in the same post), triggered by my review. Our common buddy Radkowiecki then left a lengthy comment in which he both expressed his liking of the game and refused to admit that there is no ending:
Canabalt scares me a little. I know this game does not have an ending, but after three days of playing and cashing all points on Congo [Kongregate] I am still playin'. Because I hope that after running some distance this guy will find a quiet place in which he will wait out the assault of alien robots / robotic Aliens. It is devoid of any sense, but I am still running and I have found out that there is no bonus after 8 kilos. We'll see what is waiting for me on the tenth kilometre of the road.
Damn - one button, looped tune, simple graphics, but replayability is such that games costing a carriage of paper could envy it. Forgive me, but I'm back to pounding x, c or space (it's the only choice in this game), because I am convinced that there must be some ending line out there. Because there has to be, right?
To which MRW replied with a new post, stating that "of course it has to":
It looks that we all pretend to be die-hard cynics, but there are things that really do touch our inner emo kid (to think that it's a bunch of gray pixels that did this). I myself went all "awww" when I saw it. Nameless runner can now rest in peace - good job, MRW!
I just hope that Adam Atomic sees this and adds it to his new iPhone port of Canabalt.
