Valve's Potato Pack and the Golden Potato: Part 2.

This time I'll tackle Audiosurf, The Ball, and Bit Trip Beat.

Audiosurf

Developed:  Dylan Fitterer
 Published:  Dylan Fitterer 


Dynamically generated levels, based on a song that you select, with multiple modes of play. Each mode has different criteria, but it tends to be hit as many of type a block, and avoid type b block, with a variety of special rules and abilities based on the the character you're playing.


Potato 1/2: Beat the song Icy_Murderous_I.mp3 from Killing Floor with any character and difficulty, and get a gold medal.


See, originally I was under the impression I had to complete this under ninja mono. That doesn't really mean a lot, but it does mean that I had to do the song without hitting ANY greys (block type b) in order to get a nice 30% or something boost of points at the end. Ah well, ultimately this took a good few attempts. The most irritating thing was the horrible quality of the song in question. I am not a metal fan.
password was "railrider"


Potato 2/2: Get a gold medal (on any difficulty) on the new song, "The Device Has Been Modified" (labeled in Audiosurf Radio as "TEST -- For Science"). (Here is a guide to getting an easy gold.)


Probably the coolest thing about this song is that it replaces the standard audiosurf image with Chell on a hoverboard.

Seriously, how cool is that?

Otherwise I just did it, grab the companion cubes, make sure they hit the bottom and you get a nice point boost. Make sure you get a clean finish or else you're losing out on points. did take me a fair few attempts, but then again that was the nature of the golden potato hunt!


Overall: Everyone needs to own audiosurf. It's a brilliant idea, better executed than 123, as you have multiple modes, and therefore multiple different ways to play a level. It's also mostly dirt cheap and it's always fun to put in your favourite track and see what comes out. You'd be surprised what might be incredibly easy compared to incredibly hard. Also, I personally prefer the aesthetic of being on a track with blocks coming towards me, it's very Guitar Hero in that way.


Play again: I occasionally bust out audiosurf when I want to see how a track looks or mellow out on some tracks I already know of. It's very much got that "zen gamer" appeal where you zone out for about 20 minutes completely focusing on the task at hand. Genuinely a great game, both conceptually and in execution.

The Ball

Developer: Teotl Studios 
Publisher: Tripwire Interactive

The ball can pretty much be summarised as this. Imagine if you had the gravity gun from half life, but it only worked on this one object (the ball). You have to manipulate both the ball and your environment (using the ball) in order to solve puzzles in areas similar in style to portal, only set in an ancient Aztec ruin as opposed to apple-esque aperture science.


Potato 1/2: All at once get: 89 health, 233 distance from the ball, 26:37 minutes, 3 monkeys killed, 2 deaths, 13 monsters killed and 5 secrets. Save file located here.


Yeah, I used the save file. In my instance I found that I still had 100HP, so had to drown for a second and then quickly jump in fire. Overall it was a bizarre potato to get. But then again that's the nature of the whole args...
password: weighted companion


Potato 2/2: Finish the Portal level that can be found under survival mode. Then use "flood" as a password when prompted for one. Video solution located here.


Probably the best level in the Ball. Thoroughly intelligent, though didn't require too much exhaustion. I loved ever second of this, and it was great to be running around aperture with my big scary ball friend. If I've got any criticism: Using the hammer to knock weighted cubes around was a pain, wish they'd added a "grab" ability just for this level. Otherwise perfect.


Overall: The ball is fun. Sure, it lacks the finesse or the general intelligence of Valve's puzzle games, and I probably won't touch it again for some time now that I've got portal 2 to replay until I'm genuinely try to propel myself though the air with hula-hoops, but still, it's a nice little concept and benefits from something that some of the other games don't have: Monkeys Enemies. Sure, portal has turrets, but they're static. The stuff in The Ball actually runs after you, making the squishing/falling/burning all the more satisfying.


Play again: Yeah, I'll give it a run through. It's a cute mechanic that isn't quite as deep as portal, but probably a good game for like-minded physics-loving gamers.

Bit. Trip. Beat

Developer: Gaijin Games 
Publisher: Gaijin Games

A bizarre love letter to pong and other games that revolved around paddles and bouncing (that sounded kinkier than I intended...). 

You're a paddle, music plays and pixels fly at you. Reflect them and it plays notes beeps that correspond with the music. Much harder than this simple premise. Oh, also, your points and misses each affect the environment. Get a complete point bar and things get spiffier with the tune made more complex (a bit like star power in Guitar Hero). Get a complete miss bar (the two are separate) and you'll drop down a level. The bottom level is rather awesomely just like pong, complete with beeps and black and white only.

Potato 1/3: Get to the boss in Descent and enter MEGA mode (MEGA Mode is when your background says MEGA not when the top right corner says MEGA) as soon as you can. Stay in MEGA mode throughout the battle and you'll get the login screen. Works on easy.

Now, all the smart kids knew to let themselves die (go below mega) just before this boss, as that refreshes the bottom bar. Then just don't screw it up and you should be able to beat the boss on mega while still occasionally dropping pixels, which doesn't matter as you have a complete health bar.

Password; chipschallenge itself a reference to a very cool old school game, that's akin to toki tori now that I think about it...

Potato 2/3: Complete the <TEST> level.

Glados's level was fun. All I can really say.

Potato 3/3: Complete the <TEST> level, again, until you get a different page.

I actually think the wiki is wrong on this one. When I completed in a different "mode" as in a different area based on the points bar I got a different screen. This could have been purely circumstantial and a complete coincidence, but sadly we'll never know... Oh, I got to a different point bracket by letting myself drop one, BEFORE a big scary bit, that way I would go back up during scariness, rather than risk myself going back down, which is what had happened previously.

Overall: Yeah, fun little game, brilliant little concept. My main criticism is that the extra "test" level essentially increased the number of playable levels by a third. Now I feel there's something kinda wrong when the game is increased 30-something% when the ARGS roles around. Considering it's at a comparable price with audiosurf, I'd rather get audiosurf. That's something that could have made it better, dynamically generated levels.

Play Again: Nah, it's cute but it's not a full game, I have no urge to continue playing it.

I'll continue all this in part 3...