Intake

Despite being 10 years old (Happy belated birthday, Intake! Yaaay), this game holds up. Its minimalistic premise and fun gameplay holds up well. I love this game. Not only it reminds me of simpler days back then, but its soundtrack is extremely addic- BE AGGRESSIVE, BE AGGRESSIVE B E A G G R E S S I V E. Truly one of the games you hold dear through the years.

Intake – Extreme happiness. That pretty much sums up this game: it’s an awesome Shoot 'Em Up gem with an arcade feel. Basically, you use your mouse to fire at pills that are falling down from the screen. They can have two different colors, and you can only shoot at one color at a time, using the right click to swap color. The game starts simple and quickly gets harder, but there is a progression system that unlocks various upgrades that will really help you push further away. Levels are short, and the max you can reach is 100, with optional starting points at 25, 50 and 75. Every few levels there is a challenge with 4 variations. Gameplay is chaotic with visual effects that are a treat and great music, even if it only has 5 tracks. But I really enjoyed the second one, Side Effects. Never got tired of that one. Search it up, it’s just amazing. And I’m not a dubstep fan. Besides the main mode, there’re some challenges, with 25 levels of the specific main mode challenge levels. All of them have leaderboards. The game also has 77 achievements, ranging from stuff you get without trying, miscellaneous tasks and really, really hardcore accomplishments. Gameplay is repetitive, but so addictive. Side effects in Intake are common, and include: feeling awesome, getting a high score, and dropping the bass.

The difficulty cliff of the game ruins it for me. I cruise through 9 levels hit the 10th and bam, virtually impossible... Over and over again, level 10 hits and it goes from easy to completely outside my ability. I could grind the first 9 levels a hundred times over to see if the unlocks help but thats not exactly fun. To be clear, Im fine with not being great at the game, I dont expect to ever be even a reasonably good player, but that has nothing to do with what should be a curve. Im reminded of other simple games like Super Hexagon, another game I know I doubt Ill ever come close to finishing, but it always felt like a gradually growing difficulty. You dont get past the first few levels and suddenly have to go from a move or two a second to a dozen. Its a shame, because there is a lot to like about the game even in its opening, but not nearly enough to make this worthwhile.

If you get tired of osu! for a while, I would recommend this to dubstep fans. It also has great achievements, that force you to get invested in the game though, so completionists watch out.

As a man with four heads, six hands that cane flawlessly control six mice independently of each other, the ability to predict the future, and the reflexes of a common housecat with a generalized anxiety disorder, I can recommend this game as an easy, relaxing time-killer.

This game is....something else...and I LOVE IT! It plays like a psychedelic arcade cabinet we never had. It's one of those games that's easy to pick up but hard to master. The controls are dead simple and playable with only one hand. However, I sue my right hand to "fire" and my left to his spacebar for "switch color". otherwise it is way too easy to misclick and mess up a combo, and I LOVE THAT. It's challenging and a bit punishing at times (looking at you challenge modes that weren't there before -_-) but overall its an AWESOME way to kill time if your waiting for your younger siblings to get out of the damn shower but know you don't have time to commit to a mission or multiplayer match. $10 imo is a little steep but if I can't find it on sale on humble bundle, or right here on steam, i'd probably still drop the cash for it, I can justify that it's worth it.