AbleGamers' Web Game of the Week: Appy 1000mg

AbleGamers’ web game of the week comes from the indie game competition named "Ludum Dare." For those that don't know, Ludum Dare is a 48 hour contest in which many indie developers create many games with one central theme. Ludum Dare 20 took place from April 29th until May 2nd this year, with the theme "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!" which is a phrase I'm sure many of you will recognize from The Legend of Zelda. Appy 1000mg was this year's winner and it's pretty clear to see why.

The game is primarily a platformer that uses the arrow keys to move around and jump. The Spacebar is used for advancing the text and if you happen to find the optional terrain-destroying gun it will use that as well. Your jumps need to be fairly accurate in order to prevent yourself from falling into hazards like water, though you do get a jetpack fairly early on which makes jumps much easier.

The game's accessibility is strong. One-handed gamers will only encounter issues if they want to use the terrain gun, since it requires pressing both a direction and the Spacebar at the same time. However using this gun is completely optional and is only included in the enhanced version of the game (the version that was made better after the 48 hour period). There is no music or sounds in the game, so hearing-impaired gamers will be at absolutely no disadvantage. The game is very colorful and sometimes the ground will blend in with the background for colorblind gamers, but at most it can be considered a minor annoyance. All of the text and characters are easy to see for low-vision gamers as well. The game also sports a great checkpoint system which ensures you never have to repeat too much of the game after a death.

The following paragraph contains minor spoilers for the story of Appy 1000mg. The game isn't very long so if you've decided you want to give it a shot I'd recommend playing the game now before reading on. Appy is a small little robot who wakes up after what was probably a long, rough night and isn't quite sure where he is. As you move around and encounter more robots, including Pixelle who seems to be a love interest, and you'll start to uncover exactly what is going on. As you encounter your first robot, he gives you a cup of what looks like coffee which wakes you up and turns the whole area into a much grimmer scenario. The harmless "bloobies" you met earlier are now exploding zombies and they stay this way until you get the powerup that looks like a standard pill. This is when it becomes pretty clear that you're playing a drug addict on a constant search for more and more pills. By doing so he is ignoring his troubles, represented by the zombies. I felt very strange once I knew all of this, because despite knowing the pitfalls of drug abuse I still wanted to find the next pill as quick as possible (as the player) in order to escape all of the dangerous enemies. This all gets even more depressing during the ending, which I won't spoil here.