It’s Sunday again, and to those that were expecting a post the last two days, I’m very sorry. I had work and was extremely sore after the shifts, having to do some heavy lifting that I wasn’t used to. However, I am hoping to have some informative posts in the upcoming week, as well as some surprises and you’ll have to tune in all next week to see. But for now, it’s Sunday, the day to relax and lay back. Today’s theme is a kind of ‘odds and ends’ sort of mix.. stuff I couldn’t put in other posts because it was too offbeat or too odd for most genres and couldn’t just fit in one like the others could. At the same time, they are unusual ones and surely ones that will upset and anger… due to the complexity of them, not because they’re horrible games. Now onto these very unusual games…

2H4U (2.8 mb)

Screenshot of a higher level…
2H4U is short for ‘Too Hard For You‘ which is the most suiting name I have ever seen for a video game. It is named this because it is a mix between a Tetris-like game and a wall breaker like Breakout. Did I forget the catch? If you loose either game, it’s game over. It requires good reflexes, coordination, and people that can use both hands should have some advantages. But even if you can use both hands… it’s insanely difficult once you start. I offered this game to one of my buddies who is ambidextrous but even he had one heck of a hard time. It works with Linux and Windows but don’t expect to win. At least it’s more fair then Bastet…

Frets on Fire (34 mb)

The project’s official mascot
Where to start with Frets on Fire? Well, if you like Guitar Hero and you’re stuck with a PC, you can’t play, and you can’t practice as there’s no official Guitar Hero released for PC. There’s a DS version, there’s a PS2/3 version, an Xbox 360 version… every console has it but the PC is left high and dry. Frets on Fire aims to resolve this by being a Guitar Hero clone like no other. It works with Macintosh, Linux, and Windows, and there are a lot of fan-made frets for you to play if you so choose. It’s fun so long as you’re not playing on a laptop, in which case you’d be better playing flash based clones of it.

ASTEROIDS 3D (5.3 mb)

Asteriods 3D is exactly what it sounds like. A remake of the old Asteroids game in 3D. It is only for Windows, and I suppose it would be a very boring game to some, but to me, I didn’t think it was that shabby. I thought it was rather different to finally have a different way of playing the classic game, however, the controls I found a bit jittery at times. It is precompiled only for Windows, and only works with Windows, but hopefully someone could fork it or set up the classic under Linux.

I’m afraid that I’m starting to run out of games I could recommend, so I was wondering if this should continue or if I should offer a weekly post of USB Toolkit related stuff. Not as fun, I know, but I suppose a bit more suiting for the blog. Comment below and let me know: do you want the Sunday games to continue or not. Thanks.

Links to older Open Source Gaming articles
Week One – First Person Shooters
Week Two – Simulation
Week Three – Remakes of Classics
Week Four – Strategy Games
Week Five – Emulation
Week Six – Racing Games
Week Seven – Puzzle Games