POLERIDERS: NEW BROWSER GAME - VERY HARD!

[soloist]

If you've just finished Dark Souls and are looking for an entirely new method of torturing yourself through video games, this new project from QWOP developer Bennet Foddy should suit your needs quite well. It's called Poleriders, and it's a competitive, two-player pole vaulting game. Only, instead of trying to use a pole to clear a raised bar, you're trying to either kick a ball through your opponent's goal, or kick your opponent's head, which is also tantalizingly ball-shaped.

Truth be told, we didn't find it nearly as difficult as QWOP -- though, we suppose difficulty will change based on the relative pole vaulting skill of your adversary. Vaulting against your roommate? No problem. Vaulting against four-time US Nation Outdoor Champion vaulter Jeff Hartwig? Well then, buster, you're in for a world of hurt.

-JSQ-



click here...

[Frong]

Hmm... nope. The controls in this game are pretty much crap, which is where most of the difficulty comes from. I like my game challenges to be thanks to clever level design, not a general inability to make my guy go in the right direction.

[soloist]

I'll see if I can
try it out a-
t some p-
oint to-
morr-
ow.



(are the controls THAT bad...)

[Frong]

I think the developer was trying to give it realistic physics, but mostly, it just results in controlling the pole being unnecessarily difficult. I can't even get the thing to face the right direction without running back and forth in place for a second to try and make it flip over the other way. I shouldn't have to do that. Controls fail.

[Nakor]

I think up flips it or something.

But you're right, the controls are just blarg. QWOP was even worse of course; it was pretty much a meme for a while because of its controls. Any game whose difficulties come from the controls is not a good game.

[Frong]

Any game whose difficulties come from the controls is not a good game.

Mmmyep. Couldn't have put it more succinctly than that.