The Ancient Art of Staying Alive
Dave Seaman · 2022 · Action, Arcade, 2D, Retro, Minimalist
PC
4 user reviews100% · 4
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About The Ancient Art of Staying Alive
The Ancient Art of Staying Alive is a highly customisable tea-break arcade game in which you play Hubert McCubert, a small blue cube looking for a quiet life who for some reason (*bonus feature* - make up your own reason!) attracts the attention of the evil Crimson Cube Posse. Using his wits, cunning, agility and perhaps the odd teleporter or bomb, Hubert must stay alive while facing wave after wave of enemies all homing in on him at once...
Based on the old "Daleks" game, TAAOSA turns the concept into an arcade game. Unashamedly retro in every aspect, if you want amazing visuals then look elsewhere, but if you want a simple, challenging game that's randomised every time you play it, you might just find this to be your cup of tea.
**NOW ALSO INCLUDES TURN-BASED MODE**
Features:
- 20 levels
- 5 game speeds
- (Challenge Mode (play through all levels in a single session)
- Boss levels (every 5th level in Challenge Mode)
- Player can be set to always moving to massively increased challenge!
- High score table
- Change your background colour to mimic the awful colour schemes of ancient consoles!
- Make the game easier with Teleports, Bombs and Obstacles - but be aware that these will affect your score...
Based on the old "Daleks" game, TAAOSA turns the concept into an arcade game. Unashamedly retro in every aspect, if you want amazing visuals then look elsewhere, but if you want a simple, challenging game that's randomised every time you play it, you might just find this to be your cup of tea.
**NOW ALSO INCLUDES TURN-BASED MODE**
Features:
- 20 levels
- 5 game speeds
- (Challenge Mode (play through all levels in a single session)
- Boss levels (every 5th level in Challenge Mode)
- Player can be set to always moving to massively increased challenge!
- High score table
- Change your background colour to mimic the awful colour schemes of ancient consoles!
- Make the game easier with Teleports, Bombs and Obstacles - but be aware that these will affect your score...
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
✦ AI summary
The Ancient Art of Staying Alive is praised for its simple but engaging arcade gameplay with good replayability, offering multiple difficulty modifiers and level selection options that keep players coming back despite frequent deaths. Players appreciate the classic retro aesthetic and challenging-but-fair design, though some note the visuals could be clearer regarding what you're avoiding and playing as, and wish for more varied gameplay mechanics beyond the core dodge-and-survive formula.
The Ancient Art of Staying Alive is a cool little arcade game with an innovative game design for a quick pastime. It's a game with a simple game mechanic that encourages players to replay. As a blue little man, you have to run away from a horde of red enemies and mustn't come into contact with any of them. In the menu you can choose whether you want to play with teleportation or bombs. Levels can also be played individually, instead of the challenge, where 20 consecutive levels are played. I would be very pleased if there would be a successor with new possibilities and challenges. Well done, Dave!1 found this helpful
[h2]Title: The Ancient Art of STAYING ALIVE[/h2] [b]Studio[/b] [u]Dave Seaman[/u] [h3]Verdict: Worth the Buy (On Sale)[/h3] [b]~Gameplay~[/b] + Simple but surprisingly fun game + Multiple features to make the game easier or harder as you play + Died a lot, but kept trying to beat the level + Challenging, but not annoying - Except for making it harder on yourself, not a wide variety of play styles to beat this game. +/- Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge. [b]~Sound~[/b] + Classic retro-style blips and beeps + The boss had his own music, which was pleasantly surprising [b]~Graphics~[/b] - I had no idea what I was running from until I saw the boss. Still don't know what my character looks like - The boss level had a border to let you know where you could run, but the regular levels didn't. It would've made things better if every level had an obvious border [b]~Plot~[/b] +/- Like any retro game, the developer leaves a lot to the player's imagination. No real rhyme or reason for a storyline or plot. [b]~Misc~[/b] - Make a border for all the levels and not just the boss levels. - Maybe it's on my end, but while loading the game, I ran into several pauses and crashes. [b]Overview…1 found this helpful
Surprisingly satisfying. Feels a bit like herding sheep, if sheep died when they bumped into each other (which they presumably do, if they bump hard enough) and wanted to eat you (which they hopefully don't).
No one will ever beat my high score in this game. Think I'm wrong? Prove it.
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