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Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

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Indie at the Expo

Highlights from the Eurogamer Expo's Indie Games Arcade.

Will Porter avatar
Review by Will Porter Contributor
Updated on
11 comments

Swimming Under Clouds

  • Developer: Piece of Pie Studios
  • Website

Swimming Under Clouds is essentially a pastel-shaded platformer in which you control a goldfish in a fishbowl, albeit without the bowl. You move your fish around levels in a globule of water, jumping from platform to platform and trying to keep enough momentum to make the trickier jumps. It's got the mentality of an old-school 16-bit platformer, filled with pick-ups and Sonic-style alternate routes through the level, yet it blends in a very modern approach to its physics.

Swimming under Clouds plays like a floaty and freed-up Gish; you're bouncing your water glob off ledges, building momentum up ramps and even jetting up into the sky by firing trails of water behind you. Your wobbling liquid outer layer comes with its own set of risks, however, with nasty collisions and bumps into anything vaguely spiky generally leaving your asphyxiating, flapping body exposed to the elements.

In their current form these airborne fish adventures are undeniably hypnotic to play, although whether the full game (currently tentatively aimed for PSN) can maintain its attraction for long is unknown. The format also seems to beg for some top-notch water-bearing puzzles to spice up the platforming. But with a clever mix of both left-field and old-school sensibilities it's altogether unique – and also rather lovely.

Nidhogg

Sadly, you can't swing from the chandelier. No matter how hard you try.

A game of lo-fi Errol Flynn swashbuckling, Nidhogg is a tremendous two-player flurry of sword-waving and skewering. It's like someone auto-filled the model of the first Prince of Persia with quinoline yellow, added another player and ran the program on a computer several times too powerful – such is the fast-pace of the action and the beauty of the animation.

A welcome return to the sweaty-fingered joy of two players crowded around the same keyboard, in Nidhogg death is frequent and messy. You can hold your sword at three different heights as you slash and parry, and even hurl your sword at your enemy if you're confident of impaling him – leaving you with only fists to wave as you dash for your thrown sword if you miss the target. It's a game of slides, jumps and insta-death, with your character reappearing a vital second later, post violent demise, as you battle your way from left to right, or right to left.

It's fast, stupid fun that prompts adrenaline-flow as much as it does laughter, and it quite rightfully left with the EG Expo plaudits from our good buddies at Rock Paper Shotgun. As and when you get the opportunity, you owe it to yourself to get around a keyboard, immersed in the body odour of one of your better friends, and revel in Nidhogg's true-blood insanity. Strongly recommended.

B.U.T.T.O.N.

  • Developer: Copenhagen Game Collective
  • Website
We can't quite put our finger on it.

We'll end on an oddball. Well, an odder ball. B.U.T.T.O.N. stands for Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally Okay Now, and it's best described as Mario Party directed by Werner Herzog. It's not the most refined experience, nor is it the cleverest, but it did make me take five steps back from my controller, pretend to be a monkey, take off items of clothing and then get embroiled in some manly playfighting with my competitor. We drew quite a crowd.

It's wildly silly and entirely revolves around the eventual tapping of the A button and variations on that, such as 'not tapping the A button'. According to your success or failure the various cartoon animal avatars who represent you will then either look ecstatically happy or terminally depressed. It's not rocket science, in fact it occupies terrain very far away from rocket science, and in all probability its lasting appeal will be minimal. It is, however, quite bonkers - and should be praised as such.

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