Saving a princess from that pesky Joker is no longer just a walk in the park; it’s A Day at the Lake!
This quirky little platformer has caught the attention of indie gamers the world over, and for good reason. A Day at the Lake is not your typical platformer, it’s more like if your dog ate acid and you had to guide him through a screwball 8-bit world to safety. With it’s amusing story line, easy game play and bright, entertaining graphics, this game is bound to continue to gather new fans every day.
A Day at the Lake puts you in the shoes, or should I say paws, of a Pit Bull pup that must save his princess from the evil joker (played by another dog, possibly the same dog). All of these characters are represented by photographs of dogs wearing costumes, instantly making this game a hit for anyone who enjoys the internet for its excess of cute animal content. In order to rescue your lady love, you must jump on and over well spaced enemies taking the forms of everything from Abraham Lincoln to some sort of weird, little hunched over things that resemble small, 16-bit necromorphs (if you haven’t seen them, necromorphs are the enemies featured Dead Space). By jumping on their heads, in proper Mario fashion, you can destroy the baddies and become a super-brutal dog hero.
The control scheme for A Day at the Lake is fairly elementary. You use the directional keys to move about the world, left and right to go across the screen and the up key to jump. As easy as it is to control your K9 hero, timing your jumps plays a huge part (perhaps the biggest part) in completing your mission. For more casual gamers, this can become a bit of a challenge since failing to properly jump directly on top of your enemies will result in INSTANT DEATH and a trip back to the beginning of the stage. However, lives are unlimited, giving you plenty of time to figure out when to jump and when to run.
Much of the soundtrack and graphics are borrowed from other games but they are combined in a way that will charm you instantly. Every section features highly pixilated, brightly colored scenery, with cheesy (and at times undeniably familiar) gifs posted everywhere. At times, these vague memories become obstacles in your path. The backgrounds are taken from remotely recognizable games of the past (such as everyone’s favorite after school distraction, The Oregon Trail), which are then spruced up with a few additional graphics. Possibly the best and most entertaining example is when you “walk” through the woods and suddenly notice that all of the trees are actually inserted photographs of someone dressed as a tree. The soundtrack adds another element of kitsch by using classic 8-bit music, including a rendition of the Star Wars theme that plays during the opening and a number of other stages. All of these elements come together to form the batty electronic collage that is the world of A Day at the Lake.
Despite the obvious influence from NES platforming side-scrollers, A Day at the Lake will take you right back to the text based games of the past. Just like the first time one of your friends transferred a home made hack of Pac-Man to your TI83 calculator, this game will remind you that creating your own video games is possible. If a group of people can come together to produce the wacked out world of A Day at the Lake, then who’s stopping you from doing the same?
To download A Day at the Lake for free visit http://www.gamefront.com/files/21148933/The_Lake.rar and if you can’t get enough, check out the newer but different experience of A Day at the Lake – Part 2 at http://www.gamefront.com/files/21144688/The_Lake_-_Part_2.rar.