Game 152 - GoNNER - Week X - August 24

oNNER is a minimalist adorable side-scrolling rogue-lite shooter. You play a water droplet where you must help your best friend Sally the Whale, by descending into a world to find the holy grail and heal her. As the blob you can select a skull which sets various perks, health or melee abilities. You can select a number of weapons from pistol, shotgun, rail rifle and scythe as well as a backpack that gives you an active ability like explosion, jetpack or my favourite a shark fin which gives you a rapid fire that costs no ammo. On the last or no bullet, your next kill will drop ammo. 

If you get hit you drop everything and must collect it, if you get hit without head you have no health and will die. You can also drop items off ledges entirely, which will make even the most seasoned players heart sink. Finally you can jump on enemies heads. All this adds for a very strategic and in-depth gameplay loop. Each level has its own layout and set of enemies. The first has porcupines, guys that run at your or fish that swim to you. The second has clouds that fire other clouds at you. The third has explosive enemies and the fourth and fifith I don't know because I didn't get that far. After finishing each level you have a randomized shop where you can change your weapons, this is important as some loadouts are better for certain levels, which you also figure out as you go. After this you also fight a boss. The first are floating heads that dash you, the design of which reminds me of Kids See Ghosts. Simple in premise, but can deteriorate very quickly. I was actually dreading the second boss but to my surprise it was more of a unique platforming section with wall hugger shooting enemies. The art and soundtrack is very lo-fi and the vibe offsets how intense the gameplay can be at times. My one major issue with the game is it does get stale, as you tend to find a a favoured loadout and stick to it and the game doesn't throw enough at you through your attempts to justify experimentation. It'd be cool if through grinding the game allowed you to unlock other items. So a skilled player could unlock it quicker, but a more casual player could also get them eventually (perhaps an increasing change to see new items in the shops after each level). As I mentioned earlier I wasn't sure what the final boss was and after more attempts at the third level than I cared for I decided to look it up on YouTube. Third boss, a giant blob thing with armour, destroy all the armour, pretty simple compared to the others. There are other explodey tree things shooting at you. The fourth level basically turns into down well with the boss requiring you to escape tendrils (that look like the ones you use to transport between stages) as they come for you. The last stage seems to be some kind of graveyard, basic platforming section kind of like the second boss, however you start at the top and it has death pits from stage 3. All enemies seem to be on display here. Final boss is a giant skull that has a poison cloud power. 

The story is pretty cool. Ikk the droplet is friends with Death, who is helping you by keeping you alive to help save Sally. You realise this quest is futile, somewhat analogues for the rougelite gameplay and in the end Ikk turns on Death and kills him. After realising both his friends are gone he returns to the Tree of Life and finds Death's mask, donning it and seemingly becoming the new Death. The cycle continues. Perhaps Death had been on a similar path and allowed it to happen, sympathizing and also knowing how it would end one way or another. An unexpected tale for an seemingly simple arcade experience that's very much open to interpretation. Even though I gave up this was a fantastic roguelite I could see myself coming back to, putting it in the same camp as Down well with a fantastic level of replayability.