Something strange is afoot in Miami.  

The shadows outside seem darker, appliances aren't acting quite right, and, like a guillotine, hanging in the dark of the night sky is a pale and certain dread, a bleak promise spoken in the language of fear, a voice, lost in the wind, whispering a single thing: the end is near.

Mal would much rather stay inside and ignore all this depressing nonsense, but her boss annoyingly wants her to do something about it.  What a hassle!  At least she can take out her frustration on the way; the worlds beyond the veil of Reality are full of ill-tempered weirdos looking to pick a fight: ghosts and gods, myths and monsters, the occasional small child; Mal is going to have her hands full, but in the face of this pseudo-apocalyptic threat, she'll need to overcome it all if she wants to get paid.

Or, y'know, save the world.  That too.

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Hello!  Nice to meet you.

This is Fanterra: Alternative Oblivion, a browser PICO-8 shooting game.  It's currently only a demo, so please wait patiently for the full release, whenever it may happen.  In the meantime, you can play this demo over and over again.  Perhaps, if you play nothing but this demo, the game will come out faster... (it won't)

The inspirations behind this game are pretty obvious, so I'm sure many of you already know what to expect, but in case you don't, this is a game about girls shooting each other with beautiful, horrible, very hard to dodge bullets.  If you shoot the other girls better than they shoot you, then you win.  It's blisteringly difficult, and you may throw your keyboard a few times, but it's a fun time if you're the right kind of crazy.  If you're more sound of mind on the other hand, you should still find a good time in the kinder difficulties, or the few accessibility options in the Settings menu.

Shooting is a simple thing:

Controls:

Arrow Keys: Move

Z: Shoot/Select
Shooting shoots.  Girls love shooting.  It's like enrichment for us.  Nature is fascinating.
Shooting slows your character down, so stop to move quickly.

X: Bomb/Cancel
Clears all bullets on screen, and deals lots of damage to enemies.  It's a panic button through and through.
Bombs cost one Option (or 1.00 POW) to use.

Enter: Pause the game.
The pause menu has some helpful options to know about:

  • Return to Menu: Returns to the title screen.  'Reset Cart' will also do this.
  • Retry from Start: Restarts the current run with the same Arms and settings.

The in-game Manual should fill you on most of the other important information you'll need.  ...What, you thought I'd write all that stuff here, too?  That'd be like writing two manuals, which really is just an excessive number of manuals to have.  Sorry, but I'm a busy girl.

It's a derivative work, obviously, but I still hope this game can prove itself to you on its own merits.  I think there's something special here.  I want to show it to people.

Do your best!

~Pastel

Updated 5 hours ago
Published 5 days ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsHTML5
Release date 5 days ago
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
AuthorPastel
GenreShooter
Made withPICO-8
TagsBullet Hell, Music, PICO-8, Shoot 'Em Up
Asset licenseCreative Commons Attribution_NonCommercial v4.0 International
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Gamepad (any)

Comments

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this was so fun to play even as someone who isn't good at bullet hells!!! the music is SO good too

This is so cool!