Swarm
(Ignition; PS3, Xbox 360; rated teen)

The start screen for Swarm, developed in Vancouver by Hothead Games, features one of the blue swarmites. It’s just standing there, looking around with a dopey grin on its face.

Among the standard options you expect to find in the menu – start, extras, achievements, and trophies – is one labelled “do not press”. So, of course, you do. Your reward is witnessing the swarmite being killed off in the craziest and most comic methods you can imagine – electrocution, meteor strike, axe. In one scene, a bear trap snaps around the creature and springs open again. The creature sits there, blinking at the terrible device for a moment, until the trap snaps shut again, and for good this time.

At the top of the start screen is a counter tallying up the “global swarmite death total”. When I started playing the game on the PlayStation Network, just a couple of days after release, the number was well over four million.

It’s the kind of humour we’ve come to expect from Hothead, the developers of the Penny Arcade and DeathSpank action adventures: a touch of the ridiculous mixed with a smattering of absurdity and a healthy dose of silliness.

The swarmites are vaguely like Homer Simpson with pot bellies and bulging eyeballs. They may be cute, but they’re dim bulbs. It’s a good thing, too, because you will be killing them en masse while you play.

The objective is to get the swarmites to the end of the levels. You get points for collecting glowing orbs scattered throughout the level, and you can get point multipliers by killing swarmites. You start with 50 of the blue creatures. Lose all 50 and you start over at the most recent checkpoint, but you can boost your numbers at occasional spawn points.

It’s a fairly simple concept, and it’s a fun game to play, but the difficulty ramps up very quickly here.

You can make your pack of swarmites spread out or huddle together. You can boost their speed, make them jump, and make them form a tower. The swarmites can interact with objects in the levels, like bombs, in order to get past obstacles, and in later levels they can even ride air currents. If it sounds a bit complex that’s because it is.

Swarm is an amusing and challenging game, but casual players may find they get frustrated before they have fun.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight