A few thoughts on Space Dave! now that I've put nearly 10 hours into it

I've got to be honest: my initial impressions of Space Dave weren't great.

You see, one of the things I liked most about this game's predecessor, Woah Dave, was its simplicity--and I mean that in terms of its graphics as well as its gameplay.

That's not how I would've described Space Dave's graphics and gameplay after booting it up for the first time a few weeks back. Actually, I'm not sure I'd describe them that way now.

After all, this Switch eShop game's visuals are a strange, and often kind of off-putting, mix of really blocky and somewhat less blocky backdrops and sprites. (Think Atari 2600 on the one end, and NES on the other.) Also, there's a lot more going on with Space Dave's gameplay than what was offered up in the relatively straightforward Woah Dave. (This is despite the fact you can boil Space Dave's premise down to "use whatever means necessary to clear each screen of enemies.")



Although it took me a while to develop an appreciation for Space Dave's looks, I came around to its deeper-and-more-strategic-than-it-first-appears alien-shooting action pretty darn quickly. In fact, just a handful of 15- or 20-minute stints was all I needed to realize it's not only a worthy successor to Woah Dave, but to the games--like Space Invaders and Galaga--that inspired it as well.

Here are a few reasons why I've since become so smitten with Space Dave that I've dumped just under 10 hours into it:

It's the perfect Switch game for when you've only got five or 10 minutes of free time--Sure, there have been times when I've spent 30 minutes or even an hour with Space Dave. Usually, though, I play it for 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. If that doesn't sound like much, consider that you can make a good number--five? maybe 10?--of high-score runs in those scant few minutes. Or you can if you're like me and you abort a run if you die or stupidly allow a descending alien (à la Galaga) to crash into the ground and create a lava pit before you reach a certain point.



Space Dave also is a great game if you want to forget about time completely--That's because it's one of those "just one more level" kind of games. Or maybe I should say "just one more run" kind of games--as in, just one more run at a high score. I don't know how other people are playing Space Dave, but for me, every time I hit "start" I do so either to move up one of its online leaderboards or to top my previous best effort. It's possible to "beat" or finish the game--at least I think it is; I've yet to conquer it myself--but seeing its credit roll isn't my main goal. And yet I continue to plug away at it, day after day. In other words, prepare to become blissfully addicted if you decide to plunk down some of your hard-earned cash on Space Dave.

Its soundtrack is sublime--And not only that, but it perfectly complements the game's frenetic on-screen action. Admittedly, Space Dave's soundtrack is so similar to Woah Dave's that I had to ask creator Jason Cirillo if the two were one and the same when I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago (related aside: they're different), but don't take that to be a criticism. For me, Space Dave's music is one of its many highlights. It (and its accompanying audio) makes me feel like I'm playing the game in a packed arcade during the 1980s--and that's only ever a good thing.



I've had a blast trying to discover all of its secrets--At first, Space Dave's gameplay can seem pretty basic. (Not as basic as Woah Dave, mind you, but still basic enough.) You can move Dave left and right, you can make him jump and even hover, and you can shoot at the aliens that flit and twirl overhead. Give it a bit of time, though, or "cheat" and do a little Internet sleuthing, and you're sure to discover some of the secrets that make playing Space Dave even more thrilling--and strategic--than it was initially. One example: if you leap into the wave that erupts from one of the game's POW-like "SPACE" blocks, it'll temporarily make you invincible as well as boost the power of your weapon.

If you'd like to know about more of Space Dave's secrets, tricks, tips, and advice, by the way, stay tuned. I'm prepping a blog post that'll cover all four.

In the meantime, I'd highly recommend buying Space Dave if you've got the dough ($9.99) and if you've got room on your Switch. It's a wonderful evolution of single-screen arcade shoot 'em ups like Galaga and Space Invaders. Plus, if you're like me, you'll probably still be playing it this time next year. How many games can that be said about these days?

Note: both Woah Dave's and Space Dave's names actually end in an exclamation point, like this--Space Dave! That can make writing about either game a bit of a nightmare, though, so in an attempt to make my life (and yours) a little easier, I axed the exclamation point throughout this post.

Ten questions with Space Dave! (and Woah Dave!) creator Jason Cirillo

So many amazing indie games are hitting the Switch eShop these days that it's getting hard to keep up with all of them.

A relevant case in point: although I adored Woah Dave!--a frantic, Mario Bros.-esque platformer released for 3DS, PC, PS4, Vita, and Wii U back in 2014 and 2015--I totally blanked on its spiritual successor, Space Dave!, until right before it hit the Switch eShop late last week.

Oh, well, all that matters now is it pinged my radar just in time. And, boy, am I glad it did, as I've become thoroughly smitten with Space Dave! in the four-plus hours I've spent with it thus far.

Don't worry, I'll share some impressions of the game in the next week or so. Today, though, I'm sharing the contents of a little tête-à-tête I recently had with its creator, Jason Cirillo.

Before we get to that, I need to make something clear: although proper references to both Woah Dave! and Space Dave! end in exclamation points, I'm going to remove them from here on out in an attempt to make this post as readable as possible.



The Gay Gamer: After the success of Woah Dave, I’m sure a lot of people felt, as I did, that you’d follow it up with a direct sequel. What made you go off in a different direction and make a game inspired by the fixed-shooter genre instead?

Jason Cirillo: The initial idea was that these games would all be arcade homages brought into the modern era. Woah Dave, for example, pulls systems from some of my favorites like Mario Bros., Bubble Bobble, and Space Panic. I wanted to do another homage-style game that pulled from an entirely different set of games. That's kind of how Space Dave was born. Some of the inspirations, like Galaga and Space Invaders, are fairly obvious, while some others, like Gaplus and Missile Command, might not be. There might be more games in this series that are totally different genres as well, who knows. There might also be a direct sequel to Woah Dave yet to come. It would have Woah Dave in the title.

The Gay Gamer: Did any more modern games serve as Space Dave’s inspiration?

Jason Cirillo: I'm not sure there's a specific title, though the more modern tower defense genre has crept in there quite a bit. Japanese bullet-hell shooters also were inspiring, though I don't do much of the fancy bullet patterns like they do.



The Gay Gamer: Do you think someone has to be a fan of old, fixed-shooter games like Space Invaders to enjoy Space Dave? Or, what are the aspects of Space Dave that you feel will or could appeal to people who maybe have never even heard of Space Invaders?

Jason Cirillo: I think it helps to be a fan, though I don't think it's necessary. I playtested the game with lots of people who aren't necessarily big retro game players, and they enjoyed it a lot. Lots of them like Space Dave better than Woah Dave. I don't think you'd have had to have heard of Space Invaders to enjoy it. Not to be cheeky, but in 1975, the entire world hadn't heard of Space Invaders. That proved to not be a problem for its eventual release!

The Gay Gamer: Which aspects of Space Dave did you create, and which aspects did other people create?

Jason Cirillo: I am the creator and director of the game, and I coded the original prototype of the game. I also did the music, sound, and graphics. When we went to console, we brought in a programmer familiar with the environment necessary to port it to work on Nintendo Switch. Our programmer, Garrett Varrin, is known for his work on Shütshimi as well, and he not only coded the Switch version, but he also lent a lot of great ideas to the game itself and really added a lot to the fun factor. The game definitely would not exist without his fantastic work on it.



The Gay Gamer: Did you encounter any particular challenges while planning, designing, or developing Space Dave? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?

Jason Cirillo: The big problem was just trying to not be a straight-up Space Invaders or Galaga clone. I wanted it to clearly and unapologetically be inspired, like Woah Dave was, but I wanted it to be new. Making it feel new was the challenge. But I enjoyed that challenge a lot. I tried to overcome it by going back to what made Woah Dave work. I looked for opportunities where strategies could be developed and implemented. Putting in new gameplay elements that players could learn to use to their advantage was one way, like having the ground you walk on be a volatile element was a big part of that. Making stronger enemies that can more easily kill you become stronger allies to work for you was interesting, too. There's a fair amount of risk and reward in the game that makes it feel fresh.

The Gay Gamer: What are you proudest of when you look at and play the finished product?

Jason Cirillo: I'm proud that I made a game that I liked and that I wanted to play and stuck by that as my mission. Really, that's the only way I know how to make games. I'm always proud of finishing a project and seeing it in the hands of people who are having fun with it. That's always a really good feeling.



The Gay Gamer: I know Space Dave just came out, but how is it selling so far? Is it matching your expectations, exceeding them, not meeting them--or maybe something else entirely?

Jason Cirillo: It's doing way better than we expected, to be honest. Woah Dave also did really well--frankly, also better than we expected--so I think I expected there would be a little cultish following for Space Dave. Still, I'm blown away with how well it's actually done so far.

The Gay Gamer: Do you have any plans to port Space Dave to other systems at this point, such as PS4 or 3DS?

Jason Cirillo: No solid plans for other consoles at the moment, but I am very open to it. We're probably bringing it to Steam.



The Gay Gamer: How about Woah Dave? Is there any chance it’ll follow Space Dave onto Switch sometime soon?

Jason Cirillo: When we get a lot of demand, we listen. And we have gotten a lot of requests for Woah Dave on Switch. So, there's a really good chance.

The Gay Gamer: You recently asked people on Twitter which other genres they’d like you to explore in future Dave games. Did that help you at all? And did you already have an idea as to which other genres you’d like to tackle before you sent out that tweet?

Jason Cirillo: Yes, the responses I got from that question on Twitter did help. Some really fun ideas there for sure. I have a few old arcade games I'd like to pull from in another Dave game, though I'm not sure I am ready to spill the beans just yet on that. I'd love to just go berzerk in the third installment and have a lot of fun with it.

See also: previous 'ten questions with...' posts featuring auntie pixelante, Peter Bartholow (of Indivisible fame), the guy chiefly responsible for the English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love, the guys who created Wizorb, and the makers of THE 'DENPA' MEN 2

Let's talk about three Taito-made PlayStation titles: Pop'n Pop, Puzzle Bubble 2 + Puzzle Bobble 3DX

As much as I've long loved Taito's earliest console efforts--such as the titles the company made and released for the Famicom, PC Engine and even Mega Drive--I haven't been able to say the same about the titles that flowed from their offices during the 32-bit era (and after) until recently.

That's mostly because I lacked a general awareness of this portion of Taito's output, I have to admit, but it's also because the few releases I was aware of from this period--like 1991's PuLiRuLa, 1995's Psychic Force and 1996's RayStorm--failed to impress me the way predecessors like Bubble Bobble, Don Doko Don, Elevator Action and Insector X did.

A couple of months ago, you could have thrown the company's many Puzzle Bobble sequels onto the same pile as the one that contained PuLiRuLa, Psychic Force et al. What's changed in the interim? Well, I bought and played a few of them, for starters.



Specifically, I bought and played Taito's (Japanese) PlayStation ports of Puzzle Bubble 2 and Puzzle Bobble 3DX, both of which can be seen in the photo above.

I'm still not the biggest fan of the way Taito's artists decided to alter Bub's and Bob's designs around this time, but at least the gameplay of this pair of Puzzle Bubble titles makes up for these artistic miscues.



The other Taito-published PlayStation title included in the aforementioned photo (as well as the one above), by the way, is 1998's Pop'n Pop.

Wikipedia describes this colorful arcade port as "a hybrid of Puzzle Bobble and Space Invaders," and that's a pretty spot-on assessment based on my enjoyable experience with it so far.



Of course, I probably would've picked up a copy of Pop'n Pop even if its disc contained nothing more than high-quality scans of its beautiful cover art and manual illustrations.

Speaking of which, I love the adorable pieces of art that accompany this game's character bios. (The characters highlighted on the page above are Hipopo and Tamasun from Mizubaku Daibouken, as well as Chack'n and the missus--she's literally "Miss Chack'n"--from Chack'n Pop.)



A few more of Pop'n Pop's cast of playable characters can be seen in the photo above, including Kiki Kaikai's Sayo-chan, Phee Phee from The New Zealand Story, one of Don Doko Don's dwarves and Bubby (or is it Bobby?) from Rainbow Islands.



Moving on from Pop'n Pop, here's a better look at Puzzle Bobble 2's cover art. I don't know if you can make it out in this photo, but the colorful bubbles look to be actual marbles--an effect that's surprisingly pleasing in person.



Puzzle Bobble 3DX's disc is surprisingly pleasing, too--or at least I think so. Sure, it's a bit barren, but I've rarely been one to complain about minimalist approaches to such things.

Have any of you played any of the games mentioned in this post? If so, please share your own thoughts on them in the comments section below. (Oh, and feel free to share your thoughts on some of the other Taito-published titles discussed here, such as PuLiRuLa, Psychic Force and RayStorm, too.)

See also: 'Recommend me some Taito-made Famicom, PC Engine and GameBoy titles'

Precious game-related thing I desperately want but do not need: Space Invaders x Hello Kitty pouch

No joke: if the "square pouch" below--which features a Space Invaders x Hello Kitty mash-up that could only come from Japan--were large enough to fit a Nintendo DS or 3DS, I'd hand over my hard-earned money to the folks at NCSX right now.

The problem is, I have no idea of knowing how large or small these Gotochi-made pouches are at the moment--which means for the time being, at least, my cash is staying put in the confines of my wallet.



Should I hear from someone at NCSX that they're large enough to accommodate, say, my "misty pink" Japanese 3DS--well, I may have to reconsider.

Thankfully, the pouches--which currently carry a price tag of $25.90--aren't expected to ship until October, so all of us Space Invaders and/or Hello Kitty fans have plenty of time to suss out what's what when it comes to their length and girth.

Pre-order: Space Invaders x Hello Kitty square pouch

'A Fashionable Invasion'

Remember this recent post, which featured the rather cheeky (in my opinion, at least) headline of "Swank Invaders"?

Well, the Space Invaders-inspired t-shirt design (below) that served as its focus is now up for a vote at threadless.com.



Should you like it, would you please give it a positive rating (here) sometime within the next four days so dorks like myself can buy a t-shirt bearing it and then wear it around town feeling a bit more dapper than we normally do?

See also: Previous posts related to the artist (Terry Fan) responsible for this awesome design

Swank Invaders

What do you get when you put bowler hats and mustaches on the iconic creatures that inhabit Taito's classic arcade game, Space Invaders? Why, you get "Swank Invaders." Duh!

That's not the official title of the awesome t-shirt design seen below--which was created by Toronto-based illustrator Terry Fan (aka igo2cairo)--by the way. As of this morning, Fan was still calling it "untitled," so I thought I'd help him out a bit.



Unfortunately, "Swank Invaders," or whatever Fan winds up calling this design, isn't being sold anywhere (such as through Society6 or threadless) at the moment, although I'm hopeful it will be soon.

In the meantime, check out more examples of Fan's work by clicking on the links above and by paying a visit to his Flickr photostream, his website or these previous blog posts.

Speaking of Tomohiro Nishikado ...

I didn't know until last night, when I wrote my review of Taito Legends 2 (read it here), that more than a decade after Tomohiro Nishikado designed Space Invaders he designed one of my all-time favorite PC Engine games, Parasol Stars.

That was a mind-blowing discovery to yours truly. After all, few, if any, of Nishikado's other noteworthy titles--like Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation, Darius II and Darius Twin--could be described as bright or cheerful (two words that are practically plastered across the front of Parasol Stars' manual, below).



Of course, Nishikado also had a hand in creating the SNES RPG, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (known as Estopolis Denki to Super Famicomers), so clearly the man wasn't against creating a colorful game or two.

See also: Other posts about Parasol Stars

Space Invaders + Star Wars

Who would have thought that combining Space Invaders and Star Wars would be like combining peanut butter and jelly?

Who knows, maybe the t-shirt design above, created by threadless.com user who calls herself visualela, will prompt people to start saying, "Hey, that goes together like Space Invaders and Star Wars" instead of, "Hey, that goes together like peanut butter and jelly." Or maybe not.

Anyway, if you like visualela's design and if you'd like to see it plastered across your chest (and stomach) at some point in the future, give it a thumbs up here within the next 24 hours.

8-bit invasion

What would happen if the creatures from our favorite 8-bit video games came to life and invaded New York City? That's the question artist Patrick Jean (and his colleagues at the French visual effects studio, OneMoreProd) attempted to answer in the following short film, Pixels:



In related news: The word on the street is that Adam Sandler's production company, Happy Madison Productions, has partnered with Jean to develop a feature film based on Pixels.