Suck my exhaust, "Happy Feet"!

June 20, 2009 6:35 PM

Saturday Flash Hangover: Help a penguin Learn to Fly and scratch "flighless bird" from that stupid wikipedia article.

The comments thread has spoilers, so I'll add [via RockPaperShotgun] below the fold. One of the commentors at RPS linked to the bittersweet animated short Kiwi! [previously] [previouslier], which is an extra helping of *sniffle* on an extra-blue day on the Blue, so you may want to skip that.

posted by Decimask (11 comments total)

"We just haven't been flapping them hard enough!"
posted by Flashman at 7:04 PM on June 20

Similar: Hedgehog Launch and Hedgehog Launch 2
posted by juv3nal at 7:08 PM on June 20 [1 favorite]

Pretty easy, but fun.
posted by knapah at 7:15 PM on June 20

Argh, why can't I go to the fourth level? I did all the achievements!
posted by jewzilla at 7:22 PM on June 20

23 days
posted by leotrotsky at 7:45 PM on June 20

Wow. The Kiwi video was great. It reminds me of an animation, possibly by a polish artist, of a man sitting under a tree, when a penguin walks up to him. The penguin looks at him, then jumps, trying to fly. He keeps doing this untill he injures himself, and looks back at the man, sad and defeated. The it cuts to the penguin flying, with a huge smile. The view pans back, and he's lying on a picnic table, and the man has converted a bicycle to power a rotating screen painted with clouds, and the penguin is able to imagine he's flying. Touching animation, and a bit melancholy, in the good sense.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:47 PM on June 20

That was fun. I thought it was going to be really easy, given that you can use power ups to knock off the achievements without necessarily building skill in the dynamics of actually controlling the penguin. So I spent about twenty turns on level 5 figuring out how to actually fly. Just barely got to 6,000. Don't know what the best way to get there is.
posted by Mister Cheese at 9:08 PM on June 20

How to get 6000: keep resistance at 4% and use short bursts to keep speed between 125 and 150. When your fuel runs out, change resistance to 0% (barely) and glide down. After the bounce, change resistance to about 3%.
posted by aliasless at 10:07 PM on June 20

Ghidorah, that animation is here. It's a good one.
posted by boeing82 at 11:56 PM on June 20 [1 favorite]

Easy but engaging.
posted by kalessin at 5:01 AM on June 21

got to 7203 after game completion....no bounce, just get to 7-15 feet and stay there, pulsing the rocket with the beat
posted by dibblda at 2:52 PM on June 21