Space Giraffe is available for download on XBLA.

Side note, Blazing Angels 2 Demo is also available for download.

I played the trial version. Uh, yeah.

Maybe it's because I've never done acid, or any heavy drugs, but I just don't get it. It is f'ed up.

I played the trial version. Uh, yeah.

Maybe it's because I've never done acid, or any heavy drugs, but I just don't get it. It is f'ed up.

Ditto

You also forgot the new car combat XBLA game trace wars I think. Yeah played teh trial of space giraffe and enjoye dit. It should get insane in the later levels. I'll pick it up when I have teh spare 5 bucks.

I'll say right up-front that this is definitely the kind of game that won't be everyone's cup of tea, but personally I love it! Absolute no-brainer on the 400 points from this end. :D I still haven't really figured out how to really fully read what's going on once it starts getting hectic (I'd say somewhere in the level 13-14 range) but at least as of this post I'm currently in the top 100 (if just barely) on the leaderboard. :p You definitely can't play (very well anyway) this one with the sound muted though, since the audio cues are frequently the best indication you have of something that needs your attention (dumb flowers :p). ;)

As a fan of Tempest 2000 (I'll admit it, I owned the Atari Jaguar) I had been looking forward to this. After playing the trial, not so much. It just seemed too busy and not very fun.

I'm a huge Tempest fan so I was really looking forward to this. That said - it's ok - as the pp said - a bit too busy for me - but I still can get my Tempest fix on the Xbox 360 so it's all good.

Btw...what's up with the stereotypical spelling / wording of some of the things after you complete a level - like "Congraturations!"? Kind of surprising to me to see junk like that in this day and age.

anyone remember that arcade joystick you can buy with the spinner on it? Would be nice for this game and I bet for pacman ce

this is the ideal tool for this game:
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/8/23411454778.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6396371)

It got good reviews on teamxbox (an 8 out of 10). I saw it for 30 bucks the other day. Maybe I'll get it for pac man and this game

I'm a huge Tempest fan so I was really looking forward to this. That said - it's ok - as the pp said - a bit too busy for me - but I still can get my Tempest fix on the Xbox 360 so it's all good.

Btw...what's up with the stereotypical spelling / wording of some of the things after you complete a level - like "Congraturations!"? Kind of surprising to me to see junk like that in this day and age.

all those words and compliments are supposed to weird and oddball. COngratruations is the stereotype engrish. I mean it even says "TOP HOLE!" after you beat a level.

Yea just seemed odd to me to have that type of stuff in our politically correct society is all. :)

I think it could have been a really good game for me, but I could not deal with the busy loud colors. It almost put me in flashback tripout mode.

It's a shame, I think the game has depth to be had and was easy to pick up and play. I just can't deal with those colors.

Didn't like it. It's far too difficult to actually figure out what's going on. It would be a lot better if they'd just get rid of the score numbers flying at you. That's just excessive and covers up the action.

As a fan of Tempest 2000 (I'll admit it, I owned the Atari Jaguar) I had been looking forward to this. After playing the trial, not so much. It just seemed too busy and not very fun.

My thoughts exactly (and I owned a Jag and Tempest 2000 as well). Giraffe's graphics are just too trippy, even by Minter's standards. There is too much stuff cluttering the screen and it's just too hard to follow the action. Also, the game's art style and color palette makes it look as though it's running at a very low resolution, even though I'm running my 360 at 1920x1080.

Playing it again a bit more tonight, it was clicking a bit more and I must say that the trippy visuals don't get in the way at all once you start to get in the zone, and man the gameplay is incredible once you 'get it'. :D What currently is tripping me up is my own unfamiliarity with the new enemies that are being introduced as you start progressing. ;) I unlocked a bunch more achievements, including the tricky-to-get (by Minter's own admission) flower cultivation one ("Ewige Blumenkraft"). Current best score (starting from level 1 of course ;)): ~47.5M dying out in level 23. :D

ok, well since i started this thread the other day i finally was able to play the game. played for 2 minutes and turned it off. lets just leave it at that. lol.

I said in my first post here that I didn't think this would be everyone's cup of tea, but at the same time I do feel that too many people aren't giving it enough of a chance before writing it off. It definitely needs more than 2 minutes of playthrough to even remotely begin to understand it. :p This probably isn't the best property for a Live Arcade game to have, but then again it's also priced right to encourage any fence-sitters. :)

I seem to be having more a-ha moments with it everytime I play and I make sense out of this very warped world that Minter has created. It's definitely a ton of fun now that I know what's going on and how to properly react to it. ;) Personally even if I didn't like what I saw from playing the demo, at 400 points I probably would have bought it anyway as I want to encourage new, original IP's over yet-another lame emulation release... :rolleyes:

worst game I've ever played!

can't even tell what is going on. The colors around the ship make everything kind of melt together. It is just plain weird from the strange sayings around the playing field and between levels to the stupid animal effects that randomly play. Ok so let me get this straight... I'm flying some strange space ship in trippy land and a random ox yell just bellows forth from space. Jesus, you must be on serious shrooms to enjoy this one and even then you would have a hard time even remotely understanding what is going on. I had high hopes; I even was going to buy that controller up above. Wow, just wow. Just goes to show you that there is plenty of garbage in space. I would rather fall down every well in the Atari version of ET than subject myself to another minute of this crap.

worst game I've ever played!
I would rather fall down every well in the Atari version of ET than subject myself to another minute of this crap.

Rofl - that's a good one! :)

Seriously though - I think you really need to be a Tempest addict to fully appreciate SG. It's definately a trip - but being addicted to Tempest back in the 80's really helps with appreciating SG.

worst game I've ever played!

can't even tell what is going on. The colors around the ship make everything kind of melt together. It is just plain weird from the strange sayings around the playing field and between levels to the stupid animal effects that randomly play. Ok so let me get this straight... I'm flying some strange space ship in trippy land and a random ox yell just bellows forth from space. Jesus, you must be on serious shrooms to enjoy this one and even then you would have a hard time even remotely understanding what is going on. I had high hopes; I even was going to buy that controller up above. Wow, just wow. Just goes to show you that there is plenty of garbage in space. I would rather fall down every well in the Atari version of ET than subject myself to another minute of this crap.

That "ox" sound means you got a multiplier. The game indeed is trippy but you frankly judged completly on the first minute of gameplay then gave up rather than follow the very self explanitory tutorial. This game is 100% a remake of tempest 2000. Old shcool in nature with a new visual style(the original was a vectrex game). You didn't like It I get it but honestly you obviously never gave it much of a chance.

honestly you obviously never gave it much of a chance.

that statement dosent make much sense when talking about a game like this. everything that people hate about this game is not going to go away. it is obvious immediately what the game is, either you like it right away or you do not. games are supposed to be fun, to me that game is not fun. i can play it for 5 minutes or i can play it for an hour, either way, i hate it.

That "ox" sound means you got a multiplier. The game indeed is trippy but you frankly judged completly on the first minute of gameplay then gave up rather than follow the very self explanitory tutorial. This game is 100% a remake of tempest 2000. Old shcool in nature with a new visual style(the original was a vectrex game). You didn't like It I get it but honestly you obviously never gave it much of a chance.

As you can read from my old post up above, I was more than willing to love this game. I thought it would be just like tempest and that would be enough for me to buy it. It turned out to be a towering pile of steamy dog poop and that's pretty much it. If the game gets better beyond the demo then I sure won't be around to experience it. It will bring me great pleasure later on to press the delete button on Space Giraffe and send it to the black hole where it belongs. I would rather play a game based on Rosie O'Donnell eating donuts or a Michael Vick dog fighting game than endure more than one more minute with this game. And believe me... this is NOT a remake of tempest 2000. Even the developer makes a point in an interview I read yesterday before playing this crap that it is NOT tempest. When I can't even see my ship in a game, there's a problem. Maybe if they toned down the trippy colors around the ship it would be a different story, but for right now Space Giraffe is more of a broken down Space Donkey named Cooter.

worst game I've ever played!

can't even tell what is going on. The colors around the ship make everything kind of melt together. It is just plain weird from the strange sayings around the playing field and between levels to the stupid animal effects that randomly play. Ok so let me get this straight... I'm flying some strange space ship in trippy land and a random ox yell just bellows forth from space. Jesus, you must be on serious shrooms to enjoy this one and even then you would have a hard time even remotely understanding what is going on. I had high hopes; I even was going to buy that controller up above. Wow, just wow. Just goes to show you that there is plenty of garbage in space. I would rather fall down every well in the Atari version of ET than subject myself to another minute of this crap.This post is priceless, though it definitely shows you're thinking too much about what everything supposedly is and not just accepting it as an abstract world that has no connections at all with the real world. ;) I tend to agree with others that have said it's pretty much 'bizarro Tempest', since at a glance it looks and feels a lot like Tempest but almost everything you know about how to play well at that is wrong here. ;) As I acclimate myself to the very different ruleset and figure out how one is supposed to be playing it, I'm realizing that this is indeed Minter's best game yet (yes better than T2K even), but I do somewhat feel that he may have gone a bit too far with the visuals this time - not because you can't learn to see through them, because you can (pretty easily in fact) - but because they're causing a huge number of people to just instantly say 'this game is garbage because I can't see a thing' and never try it again. :p

I think it could have been a really good game for me, but I could not deal with the busy loud colors. It almost put me in flashback tripout mode.

It's a shame, I think the game has depth to be had and was easy to pick up and play. I just can't deal with those colors.

yeah, a little too much. If there was just an option to turn of the background "effects" i would probably get this game as it was fun, I just didn't' like the headache I got after playing for 10 minutes...

That "ox" sound means you got a multiplier. The game indeed is trippy but you frankly judged completly on the first minute of gameplay then gave up rather than follow the very self explanitory tutorial. This game is 100% a remake of tempest 2000. Old shcool in nature with a new visual style(the original was a vectrex game). You didn't like It I get it but honestly you obviously never gave it much of a chance.

If you play this game like Tempest 2000, you won't be very successful. It's very different in how you must play.

Tempest was never on the Vectrex console, perhaps you were talking about vector monitors like the original Tempest used in arcades 25 years ago?

Guys -

Honestly, what were you expecting? This game was made by the guy who a. developed the 360's music visualizer, and b. was pretty much the forefather of all modern day music visualizers for players on your computers.

Alright, here's my short disclaimer: I had been waiting on SG to release for a long time, occasionally obsessing over the YouTube dev videos for brief periods. So I recognized going in what I was getting in to. Also, I do NOT have experience with Tempest 2000.

That said, I fired up SG for the first time yesterday before diving back in to a marathon Bioshock session. After doing that and going online today and reading on different forums about the gameplay and even watching that hour long video on Google of Minter (seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHJMf_jY8A) explaining the history behind his career, I thought I might offer the doubters some bits of info to consider before they pan the game.

1. It's been said before, but this is a game that you NEED to play and figure out more than a few minutes to really get into.

2. A common complaint is that the tutorial kinda sucks in the way of explaining exactly what is what. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what the hell the "power zone" was that was SO important. I would say this is accurate in that it leaves much to be desired, but for his part, Minter's philosophy is such that people should figure out the intricacies of the gameplay for themselves versus being hand held through every single detail.

3. Minter has openly recognized that the trippy psychedelic visuals are not everyone's bag, so if that's not your thing, then you shouldn't force yourself to like it. He merely suggests that you give a good attempt at exploring the nuances to the game for their own sake; you might be pleasantly surprised with it, and you might be surprised that the visuals aren't as big a deal as you guys are making them out to be.

4. It is NOT, as stated, a 100% remake of Tempest 2000, rather a "spiritual successor" much like Bioshock. Despite not having played T2000, I've seen what the gameplay looks like, and in a way, the way that Tempest plays seems like the intuitive way to play SG. It isn't though. That's what "bulling" is for.

So in sum, keep plugging away at it, do some research on your own, watch some gameplay videos, and then try your hand at it. In agreement with Googer, here. Also, whiskey > work, lighten up will ya? You're taking this thing waaaaay too seriously. I myself find the animal noises hilarious, and honestly, who doesn't think "congraturation!" is funny?? Yes, substance use probably enhances the game, but if you listen to Minter's arguments about what he looks for in games, and where his core interests lie (audio-visualized interactive experience), it makes a little more sense and although he may look hippy-ish, I'm reasonably certain he wasn't on drugs when he was making the game up. ;-) I'm not trying to purposely jump on the guy's johnson, but I respect the fact that he is one of exactly TWO people who made the game and put his time and effort into it as an indie developer. I think we as game consumers should take what the developer's intent was and keep that in mind when we play any game that we find initially off-putting. Sure, some games at their core suck, but I think this one may be a real gem for the XBLA. At least it wasn't a bad port or some lame-ass arcade game you won't play again after you realize how insanely CHEAP they are (Ninja Turtles, I'm looking at you).

If anything, you guys should read the development process for the game, which I find fascinating in it of itself, because Minter doesn't exactly mince words about what he thinks of the Microsoft cert process for XBLA. You can find his blog here: http://stinkygoat.livejournal.com/

I think I'll stick to the free better-than-T2k/T3k Typhoon 2001. It's beautiful, hi-res, blazing fast... and the gameplay is great...

http://typhoon.kuto.de

He tweaked the Tempest 2000 gameplay a bit and I think it makes the game even better. Minter has gone downhill since T2K. Defender 2000 was terrible. Tempest 3000 was not as fun as Tempest 2000.

And yes... I was an Atarian... Atari 2600, 1200XL, Lynx, 1040ST, and Jaguar. and the Atari spiritual connection, Nuon... Samsung N501, RCA DRC300N...

Yeah Typhoon 2001 is good stuff, though I'm not necessarily of the opinion that the changes make it better (or worse) than Tempest 2000, just different. Also, had another couple goes @ SG tonight and now have a best game / score of somewhere around 78M dying out in (IIRC) level 27. :D It really is too bad that the trippy visuals turn so many people off because I strongly believe just about everyone here would absolutely fall in love with the underlying game if they could see past them. :p

You don't have to be on drugs to appreciate a Minter game. You play a game like Space Giraffe so you don't have to do drugs.

Well I just moved up to #13 (as of ~1 1/2 hours ago anyway ;)) on the hardcore boards with a game that ended with a touch over 150M through level 48. This game just gets better and better as you make sense of it with its ingenious and clever level design, and the progression with new enemy types every few levels is tremendous in terms of insuring it never get tedious in any shape, way, or form. :D Oh how those that have written this game off are missing out. :p This game would have been worth it as a retail release, except that I probably would have been one of around 3 people that would have bought it at that kind of price. ;)

Also, those of you that thought the psychedelic effects were just too much in the early levels available in the demo will probably get a kick out of hearing this - now that I've started getting to some of the later levels, I can now say with some authority that most of those early levels in fact are rather toned-down compared to some of the crazy effects that are thrown at you later on. And amazingly, despite it all, seeing what's going on is basically never an issue! The few times you really are essentially blind, you have plenty of audio cues to know if you're in any danger or not, and if so, what you need to do to get out of it. :D

Big Tempest fan here also, and I agree the game is a little to acidic for long term playing. But the music rocks, well it does if your into house like me.

Also, whiskey > work, lighten up will ya? You're taking this thing waaaaay too seriously. I myself find the animal noises hilarious, and honestly, who doesn't think "congraturation!" is funny?? Yes, substance use probably enhances the game, but if you listen to Minter's arguments about what he looks for in games, and where his core interests lie (audio-visualized interactive experience), it makes a little more sense and although he may look hippy-ish, I'm reasonably certain he wasn't on drugs when he was making the game up. [/url]


I applaud your indepth look at this game. For sure you have the patience of an old oak tree. Me, on the other hand, am looking for something with more of a point rather than just a visual trip-romp. This may have sufficed when I was in college (ahem yes we partied our nuts off) and were out of our minds sitting in my dungeon like dorm room, but now that I am a sophisticated professional I look for more of a refined game to pass the time. It is a natural evolution - much like when I moved from Natural Light to Budweiser. I look at this game and it just isn't amusing. The blaster sounds are kind of cool and I didn't not like the music, but that yak yell from the depths of space is just too nutty for even my tastes. I tried hard to like this game. If you scroll back, I was prepared to pick up that Mad Cats controller specifically for Space Giraffe. Sadly, I was so let down that I have spent the money I allocated for both purchases on a massive block of Limberger cheese. I hope you enjoy your new game and remember: if any space yaks yakitty yak at you, don't talk back

See, from the perspective of someone that's figured out SG, that's where I'd say you're wrong, because it is extremely highly refined, much moreso than any of Minter's previous games. The trippiness is essentially surface flash and glitz that honestly isn't even all that hard to see past, at least not until deep into the game. ;) Minter has made the analogy that SG is to Tempest 2000 what Llamatron is to Robotron, and that's dead-on, except that SG's gameplay and level design are spit-polished to near perfection, something that I wouldn't quite say about Llamatron (which is still a blast and a nice variation on the Robotron gameplay in its own right). You're obviously entitled to your opinion of not liking the art and sound design, but the gameplay itself is pure genious for anyone that decides to make sense of it all, and no, I didn't need the patience of an old oak tree to figure that out. :D

See, from the perspective of someone that's figured out SG, that's where I'd say you're wrong, because it is extremely highly refined, much moreso than any of Minter's previous games. The trippiness is essentially surface flash and glitz that honestly isn't even all that hard to see past, at least not until deep into the game. ;) Minter has made the analogy that SG is to Tempest 2000 what Llamatron is to Robotron, and that's dead-on, except that SG's gameplay and level design are spit-polished to near perfection, something that I wouldn't quite say about Llamatron (which is still a blast and a nice variation on the Robotron gameplay in its own right). You're obviously entitled to your opinion of not liking the art and sound design, but the gameplay itself is pure genious for anyone that decides to make sense of it all, and no, I didn't need the patience of an old oak tree to figure that out. :D

ok! Enjoy your game

Oh believe me, I am. :D The shame is that I feel there are a lot more people out there that also would be if they gave it more of a chance before nuking it. ;)