Recommended by a fellow BAGD student for my research for my 'Top 10' brief (Top 10 things...you didn't know about penguins), I decided to take a look at 'Yetisports'- an online gaming programme. Information and facts about the game(s) and it's conception written below the source link:
Yetisports (also known as Pingu Throw) is a web-based Flash game that originally appeared on the Internet
in January 2004. The goal of the original game is to have a yeti smack a
penguin with a club and try to get it fly as far as possible. The
original Yetisports game features no name other than the words "1978 Reinhold + Yeti", a reference to Reinhold Messner's claim to have found Yetis.
The game is humorous and addictive at the same time and therefore
very popular on the Internet. Very soon after release, there was a quick
succession of many variants created by multiple people on the internet.
None of these are officially sponsored by Chris Hilgert, even though
many copy the original almost exactly save certain small changes. One of
the more violent variants was made by someone known as 'Pawel',
featuring decapitation, spikes, a big spiky club and mines. Since the
original was released at the Yetisports homepage, the website has
released nine further adventures of the Yeti as well as a re-release of
the original that allows movement of the penguin in flight.
Game 1 (Deluxe version of original)
Location: Antarctic
Launched: 19.01.2004
Tag Line: "It all started with a club"
In this game, the players hit the penguin with good timing and he goes
flying. Using the arrow keys, the player controls the angle of the
penguin as he flies, and catches air currents (the closer to an ideal
angle, the better the currents) to stay in the air. The videos of
records all show the flight starting on a low trajectory, with little
manipulation of arrow keys to get better angle, meaning an ideal angle
is kept throughout the flight.
Game 2 (Orca slap)
Location: Antarctic
Launched: 12.02.2004
Tag Line: "Hit the bulls eye"
In this game, the goal is to hit
penguins into a dartboard with a snowball. An orca hits the penguins into the air, which the yeti
then hits with a snowball. The point on the dartboard the penguin hits
is determined by the angle it faces in the air (the penguin rotates) and
the height it is in its fall. The theoretical maximum score is 1000
(each of 10 shots scores a bull's eye for 100 points). In the more
violent variant, the yeti throws icicles instead of snowballs, impaling the penguins if they hit one.
Game 3 (Seal bounce)
Location: Antarctic
Launched: 18.03.2004
Tag Line: "Up the iceberg"
In this game, you play with 2 clicks of the mouse. The first click
starts the yeti windmilling his arms (which hold a penguin), the second
makes him release the penguin, between two
glaciers with seals
sticking out at regular intervals. The seals hit the penguin higher,
which is useful as the penguin will not go higher than 300 if thrown
straight up, whereas with bounces it is possible to go substantially
past 400.
There is a more violent variant, featuring a sea of blood, dead penguins and the throwable penguin is thrown with the bottom half of his torso ripped off, bleeding. The game physics have also been adjusted to allow for much higher scoring, even with no bounces.
Game 4 (Albatross overload)
Location: Australia
Launched: 29.04.2004
Tag Line: "Gone with the wind"
This game is set in
Australia. The penguin stands on one side of a see-saw
while the yeti stomps on the other end. If the stomp is executed with
good timing, the penguin lands on an albatross flying overhead. The
player then has control over when the albatross flaps its wings. The
closer to the ground the bird flaps, the more efficient it is. When the
albatross' energy bar (which slowly recharges when the bird is not
flapping) reaches 0, the bird will soon crash.
Game 5 (Flamingo drive)
Location: Africa
Launched: 17.06.2004
Tag Line: "May the vulture get him?"
This game, set in
Africa,
involves using a flamingo as a golf club to hit a penguin. The angle is
set by clicking while an arrow points at various angles, and power is
set by clicking while a bar moves up and down. You have five shots per
game. There are many game elements that will affect the final score,
such as giraffes, which will catch the penguin in their mouths and throw it further if the penguin flies near their heads; Elephants and acacias that block low shots; Vultures that catch the penguin, bring it lower and drop it, if it flies too high; and pythons
that bounce the penguin higher if it hits them. There is always the
same pattern of animals and trees: A giraffe at 0, an acacia at 1000,
and a giraffe at 2000, for example. The pattern can be used to help
determine the best angle of the first shot. It is definitely a lower
angle, but the exact best angle is hard to achieve. A tiny difference
can mean a score on the first shot of 350 or 1000.
Game 6 (Big wave)
Location: Hawaii
Launched: 02.09.2004
Tag Line: "The perfect wave"
This game, controlled by the arrow keys, is the first of a series of
games focusing more on the yeti, instead of the penguin and his attempts
at flight. The yeti surfs up and down a big wave, trying to pull off
tricks and hit penguins out of the air. The wave gradually shrinks until
the end of the game. If you press the Y ("
motivation") key, when playing the game, an unseen penguin loudly yodels, which then echoes in the background.
Game 7 (Snowboard free ride)
Location: Austria
Launched: 14.10.2004
Tag Line: "Back to the Snow"
In this game, the yeti snowboards down a long slope, racing 10 penguins. The slope has many jumps and
ibexes
that send the yeti into the air, where he can do tricks for points. The
point is not to win the race, but to get the most points, though you
get bonus points for doing well in the race. Hitting a penguin slows it
down for a few seconds, but then the penguin gets angry and moves
faster. The top score is 12141.
Game 8 (Jungle Swing)
Location: South_America
Launched: 4.4.2005
Tag Line: "Cry of the rain forest"
This game involves swinging up a series of branches in a tree, jumping
with a mouseclick. It requires precise timing, as the angle of the jump
changes based on when the click is. When the yeti jumps off a green
branch, the branch turns gold. When the yeti jumps off a gold branch,
the branch turns red. When the yeti jumps off a red branch, the branch
falls off and 3 green branches grow on the 3 next branchless spaces.
There are only 25 branches at the start, all of which are green, so to
get to the top yeti must swing off of 9 different branches 3 times each
to get to the top, as well as the 50 branches that must be climbed to
get to the top at all.
Game 9 (Final spit)
Location: Himalaya
Launched: 07.07.2005
Tag Line: "Game Over"
In this game, the yeti has kidnapped a
llama
and makes it spit at penguins. The other animals don't like being spat
at and spitting them costs points. Missing 10 penguins or running out of
time (Hitting the ox
gives a time bonus) ends the game. The secondary title of the violent
variant is altered to "The End" and is the final violent Yetisports
game. In it, the llama gives the yeti a machine gun. Unlike the penguins, the other animals (with the exception of eagles and tortoises) don't get decapitated,
but they do bleed. This also has in-game music, something that its
official counterpart doesn't. Also, penguins die if they get caught in
the wheel the ox is pulling, whilst moving.
Game 10 (Icicle climb)
In this game, the yeti has 12 icicles to throw into the side of a
cliff. There is a penguin next to this cliff, and he jumps up the
icicles. The only limitation is the fact that the penguin only jumps 1.2
meters up.
Special Stage (Stage Dive)
Location: Concert Halls
Launched: 15.09.2004
Tag Line: "Let it Rock"
Influenced by the new media on his travels the Yeti gets into
rock,
and to prove his "popstar" credentials, dives headfirst into the
mosh-pit where the penguins are headbanging. They struggle to the task
of getting the Yeti around the room. The Yetis movements are controlled
with the left mouse button: you have ten clicks to get the Yeti as far
as possible.
Glitches
In the deluxe version of the first game, the penguin throws up on
impact when the player hits him high in the air and holds down the left
or right arrow key. The animation lasts longer than the time it takes
for the sign saying the score, "replay", "highscores" and "OK" to pop
up. If you click the OK button before the vomiting animation is
complete, the penguin will vomit on impact next time no matter what.
Then if you play the replay, the penguin will not vomit on impact with
the ground and keep flying unguided.
In Game 4, Albatross Overload, your score is the average of three
flights. If you have a bad flight you can press 'q' to quit and start
over, but your score will not be submitted to the High Score chart on
the Yetisports web site.
In Yeti Sports 5: Flamingo Drive, if you hit the penguin hard enough
and it hits a snake just before getting to a giraffe, then sometimes on
certain giraffes (not to be mentioned here) it will go straight through
the neck and continue, sometimes at an increased speed.
Parodies
The original Pingu Throw inspired the popular flash game Penguin Extreme,
where a yeti uses a spiked mace as the baseball bat, decapitating the
penguin and leaving a bleeding head flying into the distance, to land
for distance. On the ground are added landmines that can cause further
distance to accrue. The game is a hack of the original Yetisports.
***
Wonderful, simple depiction of penguin characters with Antarctic scenery and backdrops is a great source of inspiration in my own designs- trying to ensure they are kept visually communicative in the message and motion being put across in the designs, but the bold, geometric shapes of the illustrative vector design still being suited for my younger target audience of 5-11 year olds.
(DVD).jpeg)
