You’ll be able to’t do lots with one button. Activate a light-weight swap, sure. Make some toast, debatably. Use an elevator? Most likely not. One button doesn’t provide you with loads of wiggle room. You would possibly be capable to get some performance out of holding it, reasonably than simply urgent it, however one button is most positively a limitation.
Now think about making not one, however 5 video games with that limitation. And take a look at making these video games good. It’s a gauntlet that ABA Video games and Xitilon have taken up (one button-hold to select up, launch to placed on). Are they as much as it?
Full credit score to the event group, because the 5 video games in One Button Video games 5-in-1 are very totally different. There’s been no dishonest, making the identical Flappy Chook clone however with 5 totally different skins. What we’ve are 5 totally different video games from totally different genres, all unified by a single button enter and obscure emotions of retro familiarity.
We’ll work from greatest to worst. Thunder is our favorite, with a sort of reverse Missile Command really feel to it. You’re a tiny dude on the underside of the display, transferring side-to-side with a contact of the A button (the button-press is to vary course, as little thunder-guy strikes robotically). Arcs of lightning transfer down the display, and so they might focus in anybody space. It’d look like the lightning is arcing extra to the best, however a department would possibly create a cluster of bolts over to the left. You must maintain in your ft and react, transferring the place the lightning bolt isn’t. That’s once you get the massive bucks, because the lightning explodes into pixels that you would be able to accumulate. Surviving and accumulating these will generate the perfect scores.
We’ve not performed something fairly prefer it. It calls for forethought in addition to reactions. It’s additionally bought some beautiful touches, because the pixels disappear rapidly, so there’s each likelihood that they’ll disappear by the point you get to them. That implies that near-misses are rewarded: you’ll want to be near the lightning strike to get most moolah, however that leaves you open to dying. It’s finely balanced, as all issues must be. In the end shallow, however reasonably neat. 3.5 out of 5.
Subsequent up is UD Cave (no concept what the UD stands for). It’s harking back to Flappy Chook, however is sensible sufficient to tighten issues up and herald some concepts. You’re a spaceship, transferring by means of a slim sequence of tunnels. A single graze of the perimeters and also you’re doomed, so that you wish to maintain away. That’s achieved with the Flappy Chook-technique, as you maintain or faucet the A button to ‘flap’ to the best, and launch the button to glide to the left.
The neatness comes from a second ship on the right-hand facet of the display. This, because it occurs, is you too. It’s a mirror of your left-hand ship, and every little thing you do on the left is mirrored on the best. The form of the tunnels on each side is identical, too. So, what’s the purpose? Properly, collectible greenback indicators are in several placements on each the left and proper, so you must maintain a watch out to gather all of them. That requires intelligent cognitive switching, as you’re transferring from side-to-side with the subtly mirrored controls. It’s the lightest of sunshine touches, nevertheless it’s simply sufficient from sending UD Cave into Flappy Chook hell. 3 out of 5.
Now we’re into dregs, and we’ve solely coated two of the 5. B Cannon is a riff on Asteroids, however with the kink that you just’re a spaceman strolling on the body of the sport display. Like Thunder, you might be urgent A to modify from transferring left to proper or vice versa, however B Cannon additionally makes use of the ‘maintain’ of the A button. Maintain and you’ll fireplace on the nearest asteroid, splintering it into two halves or destroying it if it’s sufficiently small.
The problems are baked into that hold-to-fire mechanic. You don’t have any management over what’s being aimed toward, so you must press and hope that the goal is on the asteroid you need, not one which’s hurtling distant from you. Usually, and inexplicably, your space-warrior will miss. If the asteroid is transferring in direction of you or away from you, it’s extra more likely to hit, whereas a laterally transferring rock shall be a crapshoot. We perceive the pondering behind it, nevertheless it’s unsatisfying and robbed us of much more management. Whenever you add that to the shortage of suggestions over which approach our player-character is going through (would it not have been exhausting so as to add a ‘this manner up’ arrow?), B Cannon may be extra irritating than fascinating. 2.5 out of 5.
Ooh, let’s choose S Lanes subsequent. It is a horizontal Area Invaders with the enemy ships mapped to 5 totally different lanes. Your ship robotically cycles by means of the lanes, and also you press and maintain A to cease and fireplace. The longer you fireplace, the additional you journey alongside the lane, bringing you dangerously near the enemies that you just’re blowing up. The duty is to maintain up with encroaching ships, killing them in order that they by no means attain your secure space on the left-hand facet of the display.
It’s largely ruined by the introduction of speed-up arrows. Sure lanes at sure occasions have their pace elevated, so you must prioritise them. Nevertheless it largely simply feels arbitrary and unfair. 5 ships abruptly ramped as much as x5 pace are exhausting sufficient to maintain up with, however you might be then on the whims of the sluggish pace of lane-changing. You’ll be able to’t swap rapidly to a different lane, you must wait to cycle spherical to it. The result’s a punitive, unfair sport the place you fail abruptly as a result of the sport decides it’s time. 2.5 out of 5.
Final of all is Cate P which is – in our view – borderline unplayable. It’s Snake with a splash of Robotron blended in. You play a Pac-Man-looking doofus who auto-moves across the display till you press A to maneuver him ninety levels in a clockwise course. With each flip, Pac-Man fires a bullet, and that bullet completely carves by means of the enemies. If there’s a sequence of ten enemies transferring in direction of you, you’ll be able to flip all of them into spacedust with a single volley. The one different factor to bear in mind is that you’re eminently killable. A single contact from an opponent will ship you into spacedust too.
It’s the sport the place the one-button limitation really hurts it. Tying motion to firing by no means feels intuitive. If I’m transferring, I’m seeking to get away; if I’m firing, I’m seeking to have interaction. These are very totally different, and a few would say opposing, intentions. The result’s a slipshod sport the place we had been stumbling over the dissonance between the 2, all whereas looking for sufficient room to four-point-turn again to the place the enemies had been. Add to this that the bullets don’t at all times fireplace (in the event you faucet rapidly, they typically received’t launch, which is more likely to keep away from exploits), and you’ve got an enormous befuddling mess of a sport. 1.5 out of 5.
The result’s One Button Video games 5-in-1: one thing of a blended bag that averages out within the 2.5 out of 5 vary. As an experiment – one thing that scratches the itch of whether or not video games can work with one button – One Button Video games 5-in-1 could be price £4.19 to search out out for your self. As an train in accessibility, it’s noble and that price ticket could have enchantment.
However as video games, the 5 on supply listed below are at greatest disposable (we felt achieved inside an hour, achievement-chasing however) and at worst unwieldy. There are actually higher issues that you are able to do with one button, like flip on the kettle.
