You’ll be able to’t do loads with one button. Activate a lightweight swap, sure. Make some toast, debatably. Use an elevator? In all probability not. One button doesn’t offer you a variety of wiggle room. You may have the ability to get some performance out of holding it, moderately 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 check out 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 crew, because the 5 video games in One Button Video games 5-in-1 are very completely different. There’s been no dishonest, making the identical Flappy Hen clone however with 5 completely different skins. What we’ve got are 5 completely different video games from completely different genres, all unified by a single button enter and imprecise emotions of retro familiarity.
We’ll work from finest to worst. Thunder is our favorite, with a form of reverse Missile Command really feel to it. You’re a tiny dude on the underside of the display screen, shifting side-to-side with a contact of the A button (the button-press is to vary route, as little thunder-guy strikes mechanically). Arcs of lightning transfer down the display screen, they usually may focus in anybody space. It would seem to be the lightning is arcing extra to the precise, however a department may create a cluster of bolts over to the left. It’s a must to hold in your toes and react, shifting the place the lightning bolt isn’t. That’s while you get the massive bucks, because the lightning explodes into pixels you could acquire. Surviving and accumulating these will generate the very best scores.
We’ve not performed something fairly prefer it. It calls for forethought in addition to reactions. It’s additionally received some pretty touches, because the pixels disappear shortly, so there’s each probability that they may disappear by the point you get to them. That implies that near-misses are rewarded: you have to be near the lightning strike to get most moolah, however that leaves you open to loss of life. It’s finely balanced, as all issues needs to be. Finally shallow, however moderately neat. 3.5 out of 5.
Subsequent up is UD Cave (no concept what the UD stands for). It’s paying homage to Flappy Hen, however is smart sufficient to tighten issues up and herald some concepts. You’re a spaceship, shifting via a slender sequence of tunnels. A single graze of the perimeters and also you’re doomed, so that you need to hold away. That’s accomplished with the Flappy Hen-technique, as you maintain or faucet the A button to ‘flap’ to the precise, and launch the button to glide to the left.
The neatness comes from a second ship on the right-hand facet of the display screen. This, because it occurs, is you too. It’s a mirror of your left-hand ship, and the whole lot you do on the left is mirrored on the precise. 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 hold a watch out to gather all of them. That requires intelligent cognitive switching, as you’re shifting from side-to-side with the subtly mirrored controls. It’s the lightest of sunshine touches, but it surely’s simply sufficient from sending UD Cave into Flappy Hen hell. 3 out of 5.
Now we’re into dregs, and we’ve solely lined 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 screen. Like Thunder, you’re urgent A to modify from shifting 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 geared toward, so you must press and hope that the goal is on the asteroid you need, not one which’s hurtling far-off from you. Typically, and inexplicably, your space-warrior will miss. If the asteroid is shifting in direction of you or away from you, it’s extra prone to hit, whereas a laterally shifting rock will probably be a crapshoot. We perceive the pondering behind it, but it surely’s unsatisfying and robbed us of much more management. If you add that to the dearth of suggestions over which method our player-character is dealing with (would it not have been arduous so as to add a ‘this fashion up’ arrow?), B Cannon could 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 completely different lanes. Your ship mechanically cycles via 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 screen.
It’s principally ruined by the introduction of speed-up arrows. Sure lanes at sure instances have their pace elevated, so you must prioritise them. However it principally simply feels arbitrary and unfair. 5 ships all of a sudden ramped as much as x5 pace are arduous sufficient to maintain up with, however you’re then on the whims of the sluggish pace of lane-changing. You’ll be able to’t swap shortly to a different lane, you must wait to cycle spherical to it. The result’s a punitive, unfair recreation the place you fail all of a sudden 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 touch of Robotron combined in. You play a Pac-Man-looking doofus who auto-moves across the display screen till you press A to maneuver him ninety levels in a clockwise route. With each flip, Pac-Man fires a bullet, and that bullet completely carves via the enemies. If there’s a sequence of ten enemies shifting in direction of you, you possibly can flip all of them into spacedust with a single volley. The one different factor to remember 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 shifting, I’m seeking to get away; if I’m firing, I’m seeking to interact. These are very completely different, and a few would say opposing, intentions. The result’s a slipshod recreation the place we have been stumbling over the dissonance between the 2, all whereas looking for sufficient room to four-point-turn again to the place the enemies have been. Add to this that the bullets don’t at all times fireplace (should you faucet shortly, they usually gained’t launch, which is prone to keep away from exploits), and you’ve got a giant befuddling mess of a recreation. 1.5 out of 5.
The result’s One Button Video games 5-in-1: one thing of a combined 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 may be value £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 finest disposable (we felt accomplished inside an hour, achievement-chasing however) and at worst unwieldy. There are definitely higher issues that you are able to do with one button, like flip on the kettle.
