OMG what did you do to my brain?

March 10, 2008 8:02 PM

M.C. Escher + Line Rider = Echochrome

previously

posted by ryoshu (19 comments total)

...meets Spacestation Pheta.
posted by thejoshu at 8:09 PM on March 10, 2008

Did you just call out your own double?
posted by gwint at 8:10 PM on March 10, 2008

So looking forward to this game, I'm so tempted to buy a PSP for this game and Disgaea.
posted by Del Far at 8:10 PM on March 10, 2008

Wouldn't the parts where an overhanging bar would cover the hole require the character to walk OVER the overhanging bar?
posted by divabat at 8:35 PM on March 10, 2008

Yeah. That's pretty much the platform game of my nightmares.
posted by loquacious at 9:12 PM on March 10, 2008

divabat, the central conceit of the game is that if you can't see it, it isn't there. With the exception of the player dummy itself, because that would make it impossible.
posted by LogicalDash at 9:23 PM on March 10, 2008

Super Paper Mario has a little touch of this.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:50 PM on March 10, 2008

Reminds me of the c64-era game Realm of Impossibility (a.k.a. Zombies), which also featured Escherian architecture, although in a more primitive manner. Too bad I can't find any representative screenshots. Here's one with just plain, sensible, geometry.
posted by Anything at 10:43 PM on March 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

spatial fuck you, indeed. especially the launchpad/hole thing that catapulted the lil' guy in the air. what was that?
posted by chara at 10:43 PM on March 10, 2008

Dongs are Everywhere.
posted by Loser at 10:56 PM on March 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well, I just had to fire up the emulator and take some pictures from the Realm of Impossibility.
posted by Anything at 11:36 PM on March 10, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'm waiting of Will Wright to make Godel, Escher, Bach: the videogame. I imagine it would be on the Wii, with aspects of guitar hero and that paper mario game, and you'd climb through fugues only to meta out of them every time they returned to their tonics. Once out you could explore an escherian landscape looking for the numbers that you save up to compose a Godelian proof about how the videogame is fundamentally limited. Then you kind of win, but not before becoming really confused and depressed.
posted by farishta at 2:01 AM on March 11, 2008 [6 favorites]

I'll buy it if it's downloadable; I've forsworn UMDs. N.B. flOw is much better on the PSP than the PS3 or PC if only because you can "play" anywhere.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:52 AM on March 11, 2008

Penny Arcade comic (NSFW if you're boss is perv)
posted by booticon at 6:23 AM on March 11, 2008

(NSFW if *your* boss is *a* perv. I need coffee, stat)
posted by booticon at 6:26 AM on March 11, 2008

This game looks awesome. I particularly love the spare aesthetic, black line on white paper and simple classical music. I hope they keep it that way and this wasn't just a texture-free demo.
posted by Nelson at 8:13 AM on March 11, 2008

You teach a five year old to play this and you get a really strange five year old.
posted by Free word order! at 10:44 AM on March 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

This game is gonna do for the PSP what Wario Ware did for the GBA: make me finally download an emulator.
posted by straight at 11:14 AM on March 11, 2008

ryoshu, thanks for bringing this to my attention. Fortunately there's a demo for your PSP (which I had to update to 3.90 M33 first), and I can say without hyperbole that this game blew me away. The PSP has been needing games like this one for a while now. And as a fan of Escher and Reutersvärd this really tickles my mathgeekbone!

Sadly, the demo is infuriatingly, maddeningly short. Can't wait till this hits America.
posted by papafrita at 5:15 PM on March 12, 2008