S W O R D F I S H
An aquatic action game. Swim sword first into the deep to destroy the evil at the heart of the ocean.
Featuring:
- fast, dynamic old school gameplay inspired by Ecco the Dolphin
- Multiple enemy types each with their own attack patterns and weaknesses
- 25 levels of aquatic action
- A plucky swordfish with a charge attack and nothing to lose.
I hope you all enjoy the game! Post your final scores below :)
Let me know your feedback here or @danhowardgames
The difficulty is really nice. The level design gets tricky but never unfair. And the graphics are fantastic. Great game!
Clearly well done - fits very well the Pico-8 medium.
note: I was not expecting the 'boss rooms' - good use of existing mechanics in a tiny space!
Great visuals, movement, controls and game feel!
Would be cool if it had music beyond occasional short jingles though.
This was great! Ecco the dolphin would be proud.
Good difficulty. Gameplay elements introduced nice and slowly, then mixed. Solid game.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the game and the level design/difficulty curve. How long did it take you to beat? I'm curious to see your final scores?
@freds72 the boss is quite different but I'm glad you managed to get there well done!
@Jusiv yes I agree about the music. I am planning on adding some for the next update.
I don't remember what my score was. I remember seeing 2/3 stars on something and I only died once.
Only dying once, that's impressive :) Its a tough game in places.
I noticed that the browser versions seems a bit sluggish compared to splore. Does anyone else have this issue?
It was one of my best 13 minutes (not a really good score) pass on pico 8 !
I really like this, it's short and sweet and has a good message. It reminds me of the swordfish from the Donkey Kong Country games, and the setting kinda reminds me of Ecco the Dolphin. I'm favoriting this for sure.
This is awesome - great difficulty curve, solid map design, and a great little story told without words.
Something is really fishy here and I love it ! As you mentioned, it really does remind me of ECCO. Gold star for you.
Hey there! This game just got accepted on speedrun.com, so anyone interested can submit their runs here:
https://www.speedrun.com/swordfish
Passed it in 13 minutes, and every level is awesome: not too hard, not very forgiving also. Thank you, I liked it.
Nice and well balanced, really looking forward for the update, music will make it perfect.
@hahhah42 wow i've just seen your speedrun. 4 minutes! thats insane! Amazing wall clipping that i didn't even know was possible. Clearly I need to improve my collision detection.
@chowyunbrent Ah, but that run had such a terrible boss fight choke when I knew the sub 4 was there for the taking... The 4:14 glitchless run is much more satisfying.
No, no, the collision detection is fine! No need to change anything! Actually, I still don't have a good handle on how to clip through most of the walls—it's effectively rng for me. The only exception is the last clip where I just swam into the wall. That one always works if you get lined up properly, and it works anywhere that formation is used (but the other spots aren't useful for saving time).
That said, if anyone were to figure out how to get a high success rate on the general wall clips, it'd open up a few more useful spots. As far as I can tell, just about all the walls are permeable, as you can see in this demo.
Discovered this because Willo is one of my favorite games on the platform and I decided to go back and see your other work. So awesome! It's like a more linear Ecco the Dolphin, which is great because that was a game you could easily get lost/confused in. Love this!
Great game! Really enjoyed it, the visuals are awesome and all the sounds are perfect.
On the topic of collisions, it looks like you can consistently clip through floors if you dash into a clam at close range - did it by accident on my first run, then again on my second. Looking at the current wr that might not be useful in speedruns but you never know.
@tinysorcerer Yeah, the clam wall clips are why there's a provision stating "accidental wall clipping" is allowed in the no major glitches category. Don't want people who accidentally go into a wall during the clam battle to have to reset if they're doing NMG runs.
There's no level where the clams provide an optimal wall-clipping spot, but they are an option for people struggling to do the clips in my runs.
Any chance you'll be submitting a run or two?
Wow this is brilliant! I love Ecco the Dolphin and this is a great homage to it. Straight to favourites :)
This is awesome. Really love the look and the motion. Definite Ecco vibes. All it needs is a little underwater music and it's a complete package!
Holy carp!
I was just thinking about a PICO-8 version of Ecco the Dolphin today, and I even started making a rendition of the Tubes of Medusa theme!
Well done ^^
When I thought this was just a regular arcade game, I was just gonna comment something normal like "super smooth movement, awesome job!"
But now that I've finished it, it seems to be a bit more than that. For some reason, at least for me, subverting the expectation that this was just gonna be some super chipper, upbeat arcade game really hit hard. The later levels felt dark and disconcerting, and they also kind of made me realize why the game has no BGM.
This game gave me chills, well done.
great graphics and concept, nice difficulty level, only one thing: make the swordfish's turning smoothly animated. For example if you go forwards and then left, it should turn left smoothly
Good game! Love the sea creatures.
@ChocolateCow : 1 star if the total time is over 15 minutes, 3 stars for sub 10 minute
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