About Flamingo Rush:
A definite curiosity, given that every unconventional decision the devs have made (e.g. graphics, music) is “balanced” by another decision stubbornly steeped in tradition (e.g. gameplay, sound effects). First up, and most notably, the graphics. Equal parts beautiful and bizarre, both the aircraft and scenery were hand-crafted with models; and while this doesn’t necessarily make for the most aesthetically flawless game in shoot-’em-up history, it does make for one of the more unique-looking ones. There’s even roads with moving cars and tracks with moving trains on the ground far below you, and explosions created with the aid of firecrackers! It’s all quite charmingly “Thomas the Tank Engine”-ish, really (albiet from a bird’s-eye point of view, and with a slightly older audience in mind). Then there’s the soundtrack, which is comprised entirely of swing-y jazz numbers with a twist of country. In an era full of gamer guys and gals whose idea of musical”entertainment” consists primarily of electronic bloops and bleeps, it’s a bold decision to say the least. And one which, I’m pleased to report, works alarmingly well (even if the two tracks on offer do get old kinda quickly). But if you think that all sounds a bit “quaint”, like a video game from the 1930s which of course never quite existed, rest assured that the GAMEPLAY is straight out of an 80s arcade machine. You know the type of top-down shooters where you move up, down, left, right, and just shoot, shoot, shoot (and unleash the occasional screen-decimating bomb, for good measure)? Yup. It’s one of those. No twists, no innovations…exactly like the one you used to play in the corner store near your high school during lunch hours (yeah, I’m that old). And I wouldn’t even say it’s one of the BETTER ones of its type, given how repetitive the vertically-scrolling scenery and recycled level design quickly becomes. Oh, and to make things extra-hard, you only get one “man” (granted one with quite a bit of health, but once you crash it’s GAME OVER, chum
