A Wonderful Mess: Tag
Tag is what would have happened had Mirror’s Edge had a baby with Mario Sunshine. That’s the sort of byline this game deserves, but ultimately it’s not anything like either of those games. You’re given a paint gun, three colours of paint, and a series of levels to traverse along (frustratingly, for the most part) linear paths. The interest comes from the fact that each colour of paint does something different when you step over it. Red gives you alarming speed, green send you rocketting into the air, and blue has you stick to it like it’s rhyme-sake, glue. The levels are then arrayed depending on the paint you’ve been given (you collect the cans throughout the level), and, in a stylistically wise choice, said levels are monochrome, allowing all colour to have effect, despite what you lay down yourself.
There are wiffs of games here. There is a lot of Mirror’s Edge, although I’m not sure whether that’s because you’re mostly traversing stark rooftops or because there is a good deal of flinging yourself through the air, and similarly, there is a good deal of Portal’s tongue-in cheek in-game tutorials in the form of signposts and billboards. One of my favourite was, when faced with a seemingly insurmountable gap, a far off billboard reading ‘You can make it!’ and a big thumbs up. It certainly drew a chuckle.
There are a few issues with the game, such as the inaccuracy of the blue paint, and the limitless amount of paint given to you when you get a cannister. It would be interesting to see what the game would be like if such supplies were in short supply, making you careful in your use of paint. Similarly, the structure of the game lends itself well to being entirely open form, but the multitude of cage walls stops you from doing anything the developers don’t want you to. Regardless, the game is a lot of fun, and the look of it works well on a clearly limited budget.
You can Download it Here.
2 thoughts on “A Wonderful Mess: Tag”
I was just reading about the videogame in DigiPen when I saw your impressions about the game in “The Talk about Tag: The Press” :) Seems like a very interesting one, so let
I am a mess! I mean, I was reading about Igneous, Dreamside Maroon
(IGF