P.S. Sorry for the long post!!!
Hot Air 2
Hot Air was the first Nitrome game ever released, and it had a very classic concept you’ve probably heard of a hundred times before: your cursor becomes a fan and you must use gusts of wind to push a balloon around each stage, collecting stars, flipping switches, grabbing keys and so on until you reach the goal. Anything you bump into will pop the balloon (except certain safe points that let you rest), keeping you on your toes and always moving the fan around. Hot Air 2 has a much more involved adventure-oriented layout than the arcade-style original. There's still plenty of action to be had, but level structure has been greatly improved with scrolling stages and keys/switches that must be triggered in order to progress.
I should probably mention that ANOTHER sequel was released a few months ago, but it isn’t as good as this one. The graphics and coding may be much better, but the levels have rather annoying unoriginal enemies that simply don't compare with Hot Air 2.
Sky Serpents
Ah, the majestic sky serpent. Such a splendorous mystery! No one can fathom why these lighter-than-air, graceful creatures patrol the skies in their hypnotic, serpentine way. Does a young hotshot sky-serpent-slayer like you care for the peculiarities of mythological ecology? You've got a couple of swords, a swashbuckling, magenta cape and cowl, and the need to prove yourself the aerial master of slaying these beautiful creatures. You control the little Viking Warrior with the arrow keys. Slash your foe with the spacebar. Latch into the serpent’s scaly skin with the down key. A combination of strength, agility, and quick thinking will help you avoid getting thrown off the serpent's twisting body and bring the beast down to Earth in a ball of burning stone.
Sounds pretty impressive, eh?
Enemy 585
If the princess is rescued, then the game must be over, right? Not if you're Enemy 585, the "hero" of Nitrome's latest arcade platformer with a twist. Enemy 585 is just a low level baddie like hundreds of others who happens to get passed over by a familiar looking hero who goes on to stomp on Enemy 585's boss. Seven years down the road and Enemy 585 is still hanging around; turns out that he's a fairly simple creature, and with nobody to tell him what to do, he... well, hasn't done anything.
Fortunately, you've come along to help, and you just happen to be a mobile platform that takes pity on him. After all, he may not be the brightest bulb around, but it's hard not to feel sorry for someone who's spent the better part of a decade walking back and forth in a space the size of a coffin. In each level, the goal is to protect Enemy 585, who keeps moving in a straight line until he meets and obstacle and turns around. That's where you come in, since being a platform means you can plug or bridge gaps, or provide a helpful step up. You’ll only ever have seconds to react to the terrain coming up, and you'll often have to use logic thinking to get Enemy 585 through the obstacles ahead. It may be a bit unforgiving for some, but it's one of my favorite Nitrome games.
Canary
Set in space, Nitrome's avoidance shooter-type game puts players in the role of a canary in the employment of the Canary Mining Colony (go figure). Shortly after receiving his first instructions from Foreman White, our hero discovers a rockfall with something… pink… on the other side.
Canary is one of Nitromes only games that actually freaked me out a bit. Spanning 24 levels, Canary's presentation is rather typical of Nitrome. The music tracks are borderline epic; the graphics are charmingly pixelated and the controls simple as key lime pie. The canary follows your mouse, and you click to fire your laser, which can slice through rock. Hold down the mouse button to fire a concentrated beam that will shear through big chunks of the landscape that will drop out of the way so you can pass. Your canary can also push things out of the way if they're not immovable, like mine carts or even blocks of stone that you've cut apart from the larger mass.
Back to the freakiness: As the levels progress, the mysterious pink growth starts infecting mining machines, lasers, even laser-gun-wielding miners themselves! It’s a really creepy experience that reminds a bit of Enemy 585, but with the complete opposite atmosphere.
Test Subject Blue
Start with a platformer, set it in a laboratory, and add some momentum-conserving portals. I bet that's never been done before! Actually, the portals are stationary in this one and you get a real blaster that shoots stuff. Originality aside, the game has the same standard of quality as you'd expect from Nitrome. Great visuals, cool music, and the gameplay would be perfect if not for that one nagging detail. So what's the "one thing" with this Nitrome game? Accuracy. The jumps are unforgiving and sometimes require you stand on the edge of a portal, the blaster sometimes delays a second before shooting and it's hard to predict the timing in mid-air shots, and I still don't know how to tell how close I can safely get to those landmines before they explode.
If you're willing to try, try again to work out the trial-and-error of unforgiving jumps, you'll find 25 well-designed levels that gradually introduce all manner of additional puzzle mechanics, like enemies that must be shot through portals or switches that allow you to turn off the portals for a second and jump past them.
Nitrome's been nice enough not to take the "bodiless computer voice" route for a story in this one, and you'll notice that the title "Test Subject Blue" clearly implies the potential for a sequel, which has been released as “Test Subject Green”, and includes harder puzzles and a better storyline. You probably wouldn't play this game for the story, but if you're like me and can't get enough new ways to think with portals, you'll probably get a kick out of Test Subject Blue.
