Saturday Casual Gaming 242: They Took Our Candy!

They Took Our Candy
by Rachid1984

I'm not usually one for the arcade-style games, since I'm just plain garbage at them, but once in a while, I find one that's pretty fun, and this week, I played They Took Our Candy, a game by Rachid1984. I played over on Kongregate, but it's available elsewhere, too.

Because who doesn't want to fight aliens and get candy?

They Took Our Candy is a simple game with a simple premise: You and your pals have to rescue the Halloween candy from voracious, murderous aliens. You have a party of 4 kids, each with their own abilities and weapons, and you march in formation down the street. You use your arrow keys to move around the road and your space bar to activate whatever Special Ability you have. There's no attack button because you're constantly firing projectiles (who gave that kid actual ninja stars, and why is no one freaked out that an 8 year old dressed as a fairy suddenly has access to legit magic?).

It's a pretty little game, too!

With a great 8-bit style that reminds me more of Atari than Nintendo, and fun chiptune music, this is a fun game to listen to and look at as well as play. Yes, at first, you're moving very sluggishly, but that's kinda believable, isn't it? That a bunch of kids would have a very hard time staying in formation and throwing things all at once as they started out?

Of all the things I could've expected, a robust party system was not one of them!

When you start a run, you can select your party. Initially, you have only these four to choose from, but as you go, you unlock new characters, like the Cat (a kid in a cat costume) or other costumes. Each one has their own stats and their own Special.

Enemies come at you from both sides, and as you progress, some begin to use weapons with projectiles against you. I'm pretty trash at these kinds of games, so that's about when I start to die, but hey, I tried!

Overall, this game, which is over seven years old now, is absolutely a charming masterpiece and one of the best times I've ever had playing an arcade-style side-scrolling shooter. I've never made it to the end, but maybe one of you will and you can tell me how it went in the comments?

Definitely check it out if you've got the time!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC