Airdoo (2.2Mb)
Spread the Love; use your (smiling!) friendship beam to spread happiness all around! -
No I haven’t put on a hippy outfit and pretended I’m back in the mid-sixties, nor is the game the least bit naff as some of you might very well be thinking at this point in time!
I can’t do much better than quoting from the game’s author. “In AirDoo, you play as a chubby blue spacecraft with stubby little wings. This serves as the "missionary of friendship", bringing happiness to spherical, rolling emoticon-like creatures called an "AirDoo", with the ship’s "friendship beam". "AirDoo" are troubled little creatures, floating through the abstract dimension called the "nonspace", without any apparent reason for existing. With your ship, you give happiness and make friends with these creatures. You then release them towards their friends, spreading happiness throughout their kind. The more happiness you spread, the longer you and your ship can stay in this "nonspace" ".
So put simply you use your happy beam to spread light and friendship amongst the Airdoos (not weirdoes!). Your happy beam sucks them in the same manner moths are attracted to a light. You can then eject them towards similarly colored Airdoos to give out happiness and friendship in turn themselves. They then pass on this friendship and happiness to other Airdoos by set rules depending on their color. By now you either think I’m cracking up, or you’re set to crack up in stitches and split your sides laughing so much! But seriously, each type of Airdoo has its own manner of acting when you shine a happy beam in its direction! You might sometimes though have to release your new found Airdoo friend very quickly to avoid being suffocated by their friendship in return!
When you set out to make chain reactions of happiness amongst the Airdoos, this is only limited by the fact . . . that each Airdoo has a limited ‘magnetic’ appeal in attracting other Airdoos. This makes the game far more unpredictable and more interesting as a result. You don’t know the exact effect your happy beam will have amongst the Airdoos.
There are many different sorts of "AirDoos". As an example, yellow "AirDoos" often change direction and tend to attach themselves to other Airdoos. The brown "AirDoos" are initially docile but quite aggressive in seeking other Airdoos once they see the ‘light of all happiness’. Each kind of "AirDoo" has to be dealt with differently. The more potentially ‘dangerous’ ones, such as the yellow "AirDoos", should be taken care off before the other colors in later levels.
The main problem you have to face is when Airdoos in their all-out effort to give out more and more happiness and love attach themselves to your ship, thence causing a possibly severe hindrance to your moving freely around! Once in a while, some of the Airdoos may orbit around each other. The large purple "AirDoos" have a fearsome habit of swinging their tiny counterpart at incredibly high speeds! Long chains of Airdoos might sometimes all too easily collide with your ship as well. You might even get surrounded by Airdoos trying to give back the love to you in their over-eager friendly zealousness.
There are abstract backgrounds for each level, and these can add to the difficulty level if some color Airdoos become difficult to spot against a similarly colored background. The game starts off easy enough ang gradually increases in difficulty through the levels.
So there are some things to watch out for and some basic strategy needed if you are going to be able to continue to give out the love and constantly keep on making new friends of the Airdoos with your beam of greatest happiness and awesome friendshipness. (Not over-fried hipness!).
Well that’s about it trying to describe this zany, even dreamlike, but totally (well almost) totally relaxing, clean and smelling of fresh air (or is that air freshener!) wonderful and wistful, almost surreal experience. It’s an interesting twist on Asteroids and Bubble Bobble type games. There’s even an element of Billiards when you shoot out Airdoos at their compatriots.
The music adds to the dreamlike quality of the game. You get points and extra time for knocking multiple 'Airdoos' of the same colour, and lose points and time when Airdoos collide with your ship. There’s a time limit just to keep you on your toes for each level. You score more points for making longer chains of ‘like’ Airdoos. (sorry more puns!) I know it rhymes with hairdo too! (well hairdressers are mostly very friendly folks!). I’d get some very strange looks if I shouted out “I’ve got a new Airdoo!” while playing the game at home as we don’t pronounce our ‘h’s here in S Wales! And yes, the game is very - as in most likeable!
'Spacebar' to start the game. Use the ‘Arrow’ keys pilot your ship. Press the ‘Ctrl’ key to activate your friendship beam. Release the ‘Ctrl’ key after making friends with an Airdoo to send it off into another Airdoo. Cor Blimey, all these Airdoos!
I won’t say it might lull you off to sleep as you do need to keep your wits about you and keep out a weather-eye for situations where you need to move quickly out of the way or change or adjust your strategy. Full marks for originality and inventiveness!
Give this a try, you might even like it more than you’d care to admit. Just the job for whiling away a bit of time after work and relaxing without getting over-tense and wound up again! No telling how far a little cheer will spread - and an extra new Airdoo!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upDoxKzWUrk
Download HERE or HERE - - (See important note below)
Again as a Game Maker 6 game (other than with XP where it should run without any problems), you can play it online using the second download link at Yo-Yo games if the download version crashes out in Vista or Win 7.
