Solar Plexus (11.8Mb)
This is a great (. . ‘nearly’ finished) 2D side scrolling puzzle platform game by Konjak, the author of Noitu Love and other game classics. It has 9 playable levels but it got to the point where Konjak found the meticulous detail work and time necessary onerous with this sort of platform game. It is very playable as it is. It’s certainly of interest as to speculate how great and tremendous a game it would be if Konjak ever finds time to add an extra level or levels, though at present this seems (sadly - sigh!) unlikely.
A female bounty hunter is sent to investigate an isolated space station where communication has been long since lost. She arrives not knowing what to expect, except that she is supposed to investigate as part of her job, survive and report back.
As you might expect, if you’ve played other games by Konjak, graphically and artistically it’s spectacular! As well as absolutely gorgeous graphics, the gameplay is excellent. There are plenty of demanding or very demanding jumps, hoards of creatures to avoid or shoot, electric barriers and various types of movable blocks that will need moving/re-arranging to advance in the game. You can move standard small purple blocks (very nicely you can move these as many times as you need to), launcher blocks can launch you in one or several directions, gravity blocks will help you float, bullet blocks will themselves shoot at enemies and replenish your ammo and attractor blocks will attract you and encase you in a bubble briefly.
Stars for each stage are achieved by a combination of block use and timing, so you’ll need to move fast and accurately and solve puzzles quickly to gain 5 stars. You quickly need to learn how to cling onto ledges with your hands and climb up onto ledges using a combination of ‘L/R + Up keys’. Various purple sign boards ingame act as tutorials. The difficulty level is nicely graded, to get you started at least without too many troubles! There’s pleasant music to play along to, which varies for some levels and boss levels.
Controls are ‘Arrow’ keys or ‘W,A,S,D’ keys to move, and you use your mouse for puzzle solving. Left mouse button interacts with blocks or shoots, hold right mouse button to move blocks. ‘Alt + F4’ to quit. The game plays windowed or full-screen in XP, for Vista and Win 7 right click on the game file and select the compatibility tab and set to XP SP3 . With Vista check the ‘run as administrator’ checkbox too.
Use the config.exe game file to set window size/properties or set to full-screen. You can also adjust the mouse sensitivity ingame with the config file. Click on start when the game has loaded, then the level number, initially ‘1’, and on ‘Go!’ to start playing. Progress is saved for each completed level.
In effect it amounts to one full level in 6 stages with 2 boss levels and 1 bonus stage unlocked by acquiring 3 or 4 stars in the fourth stage. An accomplished (and very skilled!) platformer might take just half an hour to complete it, but for the rest of us, even as it is, it’ll give hours upon hours of pure and very enjoyable platforming pleasure! Had Konjak added extra levels and a level editor, it would be well up among the very, very best of free platformers. Even as is, it’s a refined and most excellent puzzle game! It is even brilliant at times and just oozes quality!
This is one to download and savor! Do check out the video if you are unsure about whether to give this a go!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_CbIxkUiig (You can find walkthroughs for the first 3 levels on YouTube)
Download HERE
