INDIE GAME OF THE WEEK: SUPER CRATE BOX

Download Super Crate Box

Super Crate Box is a frantic retro-style action game that skips over any pretense of story or context. Which is great because laser guns are more fun than character motivation anyway.

In Super Crate Box, you, your enemies, the crates, and everything else is square.

The only object is to pick up as many crates as possible with your little, err… super crate guy. Each crate has a different weapon, which could be anything from a katana to a rocket launcher. If you get the disc gun, you will probably shoot yourself in half.

However, most of the time, weapons are used to fight the, umm… super crate enemies, who pour out of the ceiling faster and faster until one of them touches you and you die.

I think of them as crate terrorists, which makes Super Crate Box patriotic.

If an enemie reaches the flaming pit at the bottom of the screen, it’ll come back as a red enemy, which is — of course — presumably hot, understandably angry, and very much faster. So it’s in your best interest to kill any bad guys as quickly as possible.

You’ll be lucky to last more than a couple minutes, but it’s tough to put down. Don’t blame yourself. Every so often your crate accumulation will unlock a new weapon, level, or super crate guy — perhaps one wearing a spacesuit or sporting a fashionable mullet, and how could anyone say no to a small square thing dual-wielding pistols, jumping fire pits, and slaying green square guys by the dozens?

WHO MADE IT?

Vlambeer is a Dutch independent game studio. It’s just two guys. Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) is in charge of business and development, and Jan Willem Nijman (@jwaaaap) did the game design. For their next big project they company has been hired to work on the next Serious Sam game, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. Good for them!