Demon Blue
released on Dec 31, 1992
In the game you are a small shaggy blue demon found himself in the dungeon full of fallen angels, gargoyles, wasps, etc. Walking through them you lose your energy, which is your life. So you have to run and jump avoiding them, collecting gems, blood drops, energy vials, and some sort of your friend-demons such as eyes and tongues. On each level you have to find the keys to open door to magical cauldron guarded by beautiful elf. Levels are decorated with statues of beautiful women, old men, dragons, swords, or eye walls.
Reviews View More
Demon Blue drops the player in to a world which they cannot and will never understand, and which does not care about them. The world is its own ecosystem that operates on its own ruleset, seemingly arbitrary and wholly unknown to the player. It's denizens and architecture are utterly alien to you, but your comprehension of them does not matter. It's one of the most disconnected and alienating feeling games I've played.
The first and most obvious aspect of this is the visual design. This is not something I feel I have to say much on, as taking a look at even screenshots of the game gives you a good idea. While many things are recognizable, they are either twisted or arranged in ways to make them seem incredibly strange, out-of-place or uncanny.
Most enemies don't react to the player's presence whatsoever, the few that do in the simplest of ways. Damage is taken not by the enemies attacking the player, but the passively by brushing past them. It's not something the player can avoid, but something the player must endure through (many if not most obstacles are unavoidable). This feeling might be even stronger on the DOS version (which I played instead of the Amiga version), as your only means of attack, a passively spinning star, has been taken away from you. You cannot fight back; you just have to endure the pain.
The controls help in delivering the feeling of disconnect between the game and the player. Most of the time you feel like you're not so much "controlling" your character as you are gently guiding them to a general direction. The static camera helps in this regard as well.
This game is hostile but not actively. Most games I find hostile are humanly so, they feel like the developer is actively attacking you as a player. But Demon Blue is different, it does not attack you, it is simply a place in which you do not belong and cannot exist in. You are intruding upon a world in which you are not wanted.
The first and most obvious aspect of this is the visual design. This is not something I feel I have to say much on, as taking a look at even screenshots of the game gives you a good idea. While many things are recognizable, they are either twisted or arranged in ways to make them seem incredibly strange, out-of-place or uncanny.
Most enemies don't react to the player's presence whatsoever, the few that do in the simplest of ways. Damage is taken not by the enemies attacking the player, but the passively by brushing past them. It's not something the player can avoid, but something the player must endure through (many if not most obstacles are unavoidable). This feeling might be even stronger on the DOS version (which I played instead of the Amiga version), as your only means of attack, a passively spinning star, has been taken away from you. You cannot fight back; you just have to endure the pain.
The controls help in delivering the feeling of disconnect between the game and the player. Most of the time you feel like you're not so much "controlling" your character as you are gently guiding them to a general direction. The static camera helps in this regard as well.
This game is hostile but not actively. Most games I find hostile are humanly so, they feel like the developer is actively attacking you as a player. But Demon Blue is different, it does not attack you, it is simply a place in which you do not belong and cannot exist in. You are intruding upon a world in which you are not wanted.