Gesundheit! is a lovely little arcade/puzzle game where you play a cute little pig pitting his wits against a horde of (equally cute) invading monsters that have overrun his village.
This is a wonderfully illustrated game that looks like art and is almost more pleasurable to look at than to play; the reason it isn’t is because the gameplay aspect of the game is also done extremely well.
Oh, and while I’m at it I might as well also mention the game’s wonderful soundtrack (which I am assuming is the author’s original music, as the downloadable soundtrack lists ’Gesundheit Orchestra’ as the artist).
But is it freeware? although this is labeled a ’demo’ version containing 12 playable levels, there are no other versions of the game at the time of this writing; I emailed the author and he indicated that he is slowly working on a bigger version, but does not know if he will eventually release it commercially. Here are some notes on this game.
- Aside from being a cute green pig, you also suffer from allergies that ’enable’ you to launch massive snot projectiles at will. These don’t hurt anybody but the monsters love to eat them. They deflect of walls, travel through teleporters, and can be used to press various buttons that you may encounter.
- The objective is to lure the monsters into traps that are strewn about the game environment while avoiding being captured and eaten by the monsters or stepping into te traps yourself.
- You can lure the monsters into the traps a number of ways: you can appear in their line of vision, which will compel them to immediately chase you, or you can launch a ball of snot into a place where they are able to see it, at which point they will immediately rush to grab it.
- The monsters seem to be faster than you in a chase; the question therefore is how to use your wits (and boogers) to get them to do what you want them to do, which will require some thinking and quick reflexes (and is very fun).
- Bonus hints: standing in a field of flowers enables you to launch massive, turbo-charged boogers that can travel long distances; boogers that enter teleporters continue their journey on the other side in the same trajectory.
I highly recommend that you check out this game. The audio-visuals alone make it a wonderfully satisfying experience, but you will love the gameplay as well!
Version tested: 1.1.1 demo
Compatibility: WinAll.
Go to the game page to get the latest version (approx 30 megs).
