If Super Smash Bros. Melee were a single-player game, it would look like WaveLand.
A Kickstarter has launched for WaveLand, a game built entirely on the mechanic of directional air dodging.
In competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee, players have learned advanced techniques to move faster and more precisely. One of these techniques is referred to as wavedashing. To pull it off, you short hop while holding either the down-right or down-left button and air dodge into the ground. What occurs is a type of slide. When doing these in succession, you can slide across the entire stage.
Reddit user Lex_slayerpride uploaded a video demonstrating how it works.
http://gfycat.com/AthleticDisfiguredCrossbill
WaveLand’s creator, Logan Foster, has built an entire game around wavedashing. It’s a technical game that requires a good amount of skill, and it’s all about reaching each level in the shortest time possible.
Digital Trends reached out to Foster to get some insight on what he hopes to achieve with WaveLand.
“I would often find myself trying to wavedash in other games” said Foster. “I love the movement in Smash and always wanted to see how it could work in a single-player game.” A demo is available to download. For those with some Smash knowledge, it’s pretty easy to pull off wavedashes. Foster has also added some other interesting mechanics, like being able to wavedash up walls, and is hoping to make it ideal for speedrunning. As of now, the game doesn’t support native GameCube controller support, but it’s definitely something Foster will have in the final product.
“As far as art and atmosphere goes, the influence from Dustforce and Hyper Light Drifter is clearly there” said Foster.
Playing the demo, we noticed that a good amount of attention was also given to music and sound design. “Sound is the easiest way to convey emotion” said Foster. “The sound effects in WaveLand make your actions feel really responsive.” Sound will play a major factor when speedrunners are dissecting the game to get the best times possible.
While the game is looking promising at the moment, there might be a technical barrier too high for new players to overcome. “That’s definitely an issue” said Foster. “I think that the mechanics have been tuned down enough to be doable by most people interested in going fast” but “I created the current demo with Smash players in mind.”
Foster is hoping to have a more robust tutorial mode that intuitively showcases all that’s possible with WaveLand’s mechanics.
WaveLand currently has a Kickstarter goal of $8,100. If successfully funded, it will be released on PC in March 2017. A demo is available to download on the game’s Kickstarter page.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.