Tony Hawk Meets 'The Twilight Zone' in This Ridiculously Hard Game
The latest game from Nidhogg creator Mark Essen will make you cry with frustration—thankfully, Daedalus did the soundtrack, so you'll have something to cry to..
To succeed at Flywrench, players must become part-chameleon, part-galactic skateboarder, and part-Flappy Bird. You whip through mazes blockaded by red, white, and green, barriers which you must swiftly color-change in order to pass through.That's it; that's the game. These simple ingredients, however, plus a banger-worthy soundtrack curated by Daedelus, add up to over 170 levels of sweat, tears, and potentially blood (depending on how many times you're willing to bash your head against a level before you either get lucky or give up). "It's relentlessly intense and failure does not stop the action for a second. You will forget to blink. Your mind will only perceive three colors. If you are prone to it, this game will probably give you a seizure headache," creator Mark Essen, founder of indie game developer Messhoff and creator of award-winning 8-bit adventure Nidhogg, describes the game to The Creators Project. "But it's fun!"
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Images courtesy the artist
The original Flywrench has actually been around since 2007, but with the 2011 addition of project manager Kristy Norindr to Essen's process ("She specializes in making awesome things awesomer, and helping projects move smoothly to the finish line," reads her bio), the game's new polished look acts as a consolation for the feeling of getting ripped in half over and over again throughout the game.With the rhythm of masocore games like Super Meat Boy and N++ married to the mechanics of Flappy Bird and the aesthetics of 80s classics like Missile Command or Tempest, Flywrench bears the same signature Essen touch of compelling retro visuals and scary intuitive controls that earned Nidhogg awards at Indiecade, IDF, GDC, Eurogamer Expo, and more.See Nidhogg, the original Flywrench, and more in our exclusive interview with Mark Essen.
No matter how many times you die, the controls make the game addictive and the level design is easy on the eyes—so what are you doing? Go download it on Steam already.Check out some moments from the game below:
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