Escape The Red Giant
July 14, 2012 2:36 PM   Subscribe

Escape The Red Giant is a Flash game that is both incredibly relaxing and incredibly addictive.

The sun has become a red giant and, as any fule fizzisist wud kno, is therefore expanding at a rapid rate. You are a small child who must escape immolation by jumping from asteroid to asteroid in the general direction of away. There are tricks and combos and magical floating Kaboom bars to collect. And stats. And, after some hours, figuring out how to try and stop playing. Oh and the music is good also.

Rarely have I played a game which has a stronger just-one-more-go nature.

(This counts as Friday Flash Fun because I fully intended to post it on Friday; I just haven't been able to stop playing long enough to post until now.)
posted by motty (18 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Games for the lonely"

...

Thanks oopixel... :(
posted by Strass at 2:49 PM on July 14, 2012


Oh man, this game again. First time I've heard it described as "relaxing" though, I find it bloody terrifying.

Sun, Sun, Sun, here he come, come, come...
posted by lucidium at 2:55 PM on July 14, 2012


Oh and the music is good also.

Do they use this song anywhere along the way?
posted by benito.strauss at 3:00 PM on July 14, 2012


So what I'm getting after a couple of plays....IS THE CUTE LITTLE BOY DIES EVERY TIME.

Can you win?
posted by hot_monster at 3:04 PM on July 14, 2012


Run from the Sun is very similar, but I liked it more.
posted by egor83 at 3:06 PM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]


So what I'm getting after a couple of plays....IS THE CUTE LITTLE BOY DIES EVERY TIME.

So, basically, the human condition.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:07 PM on July 14, 2012 [3 favorites]


I like it but I wouldn't describe it as relaxing.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 3:09 PM on July 14, 2012


First time I played it the whole company spent the next week trying to beat each others high scores; maybe back in 07 or 08
posted by mulligan at 3:18 PM on July 14, 2012


wait, 09!
posted by mulligan at 3:21 PM on July 14, 2012


Meh. Try orisinal.com for Flash games that are a little like this but with a hundred times more thought, effort and charm put into them.
posted by oulipian at 3:27 PM on July 14, 2012 [3 favorites]


rather annoying and difficult. and you just seem to die everytime
posted by mary8nne at 4:20 PM on July 14, 2012


I actually like this (and missed out on it the first time). By the way, the instructions say when the Red Giant catches you, not if. Sorry, but there is only one winner in this game.

Pro-Tip: You'll need to hold left or right (as appropriate) when landing in order to build or maintain speed. If you plan on surviving, you're going to have to crush smaller "asteroids" or use them as a speed boost.
posted by Johann Georg Faust at 4:37 PM on July 14, 2012


Oulipian - I'm sorry you didn't like this one - there's over fifty games on the orisinal page you link to - which ones would you recommend?

As for this one, there's plenty of hints on gameplay if you scroll down the page: apparently, there's such a thing as a 'Dolphin Jump' where - if you can do it - you end up going so fast you destroy everything in your path - it may even look briefly like the game has crashed, though it hasn't - and you end up with a gazillion points. Haven't managed it myself yet though.

Yeah, you're going to die every time. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the text above. I have added a 'youwilldiealot' tag, if that helps.

Also - is it just me or does jumping with the up key not behave in the same way as jumping with the space bar? Seems like jumping with the space bar makes it much more likely that you destroy an asteroid rather than landing on it.
posted by motty at 7:02 PM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]


I like this game. I like endless games where you don't win, you just keep going until you die. To me, thats relaxing. I find it stressful if there's some level I have to beat and then I dont beat it.

But, it kind of bothers me that when you swirl around an android and then jump, you don't go off at a tangent, you go directly out.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:49 PM on July 14, 2012


RELAXING??!?!!

Anyway, I like this. I'm having trouble because of perspective -- I can't reverse my left and right properly when upside down. I should reverse my screen to see if I can do better if i think I'm falling.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:25 PM on July 14, 2012


Because I love you all, I subjected myself to perceptual torture in the name of SCIENCE!

When I was playing normally, I was scoring around 80-150k, on average, over maybe 10 games. Way low on the leaderboard. Then I reversed my screen. The first time I played that way, I more than tripled the current high score.

No, just kidding. I did do a bit better than before, scoring in the mid-200ks. I did that about 5-10 times, then switched back to normal. Which was... jarring. I'm still a little seasick as I type this. Anyway, the first couple of times I played it after un-reversing the screen image, I did pretty bad -- 20-30k. And strangely, I kept ending in these slow, long meanderings into nothingness at a 45 degree angle downward, where I'd float listlessly for 7 seconds or so, somehow missing every single item that crossed my path. Then I did a couple of rounds paying very close attention, and I scored my highest (but still pretty meager) score yet: 300k. Then everything started to get a little "Scooby Snaks" and I had to stop playing.

If you want to study my brain or something, just memail me.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:52 PM on July 14, 2012


If you want a recommendation from orsinal, its Winterbells all the way.

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm

Talk about peaceful, beguiling, and 'just one more'. :)
posted by blackfly at 10:24 PM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]


Another vote for "Relaxing? Are you kidding me?" My pulse rate is through the roof here.
posted by Decani at 4:24 AM on July 15, 2012


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