Space Giraffe is not Tempest! That’s what the first sentence in the instructions for Jeff ‘Llamasoft’ Minter’s new work says. And he’s right: Although the intense shooting game looks very similar to the quirky coder’s most successful game (Tempest 2000) at first glance, the basic elements are actually different. In order to get high scores, you can’t just shoot the enemies rushing towards you from the tube structures: Instead, it pays to wait until a horde has gathered at the top of the grate and then push them down with momentum – but this only works if you maintain the ‘power zone’ with targeted shots…
What sounds rather confusing is quickly understood in its basics thanks to a good tutorial, so that you are well prepared for the next 100 levels. But to really get to grips with Space Giraffe, you need more than just an understanding of the rules: The screen is pulsating and psychedelic, as if your Xbox 360 was high on drugs – thanks to the implemented ‘neon’ visualization by Minter. Not only does it look brightly colored and wild, but it is also unfortunately the cause of a few flaws: It happens again and again that you don’t notice shots and enemies in the colorful chaos and therefore lose lives, and the collision detection is not always perfect. But if you want to get involved, you’ll get over it, because ultimately Space Giraffe is a typical Minter game: you either love it or you hate it.
Psychedelic nonstop shooting with neat twists that fluctuates between genius and chaos.
Single player
70MultiplayerChartSound
