Not only will you discover echoes of games long gone in both of Freeverse’s titles, but you may also find a burning monkey or two hidden somewhere in them, a reference to the characters who populated such early classics as Burning Monkey Solitaire. “Monkeys love Easter eggs,” notes president and founder Ian Lynch Smith.

Airburst Extreme. A multi-ball frenzy breaks out.

32 Ways to Pop a Balloon

Aaron Fothergill, of developer Strange Flavour, admits Airburst drew much inspiration from the classic Atari 2600 game Warlords. Like Warlords, which featured 23 variations on a theme, its successor Airburst Extreme serves up 32 different ways to play. The basic game places you on a large balloon surrounded by one or more rings of smaller ones. The goal is to use a string of balloons, called a bat, to deflect a spinning ball, known as the burster, toward your opponents and deflate their balloons. If you pop their center balloon, their fall from the sky signals elimination from the contest. Basic power-ups, as well as Extreme Power-Ups that are unique to each character, add unpredictability and ensure the possibility of victory even when you lose your protective ring.

“Monkeys love Easter eggs.”

- Ian Lynch Smith, president, Freeverse

“The first design concept for Airburst involved floating cities, so it was like Warlords’ castles flying in the air,” Fothergill explains. “[My brother] Adam had the bright idea of changing that to balloons, which allowed us to go for more cute characters and more arcade-like graphics.”

Airburst Extreme. That popping sound you hear is your main balloon exploding, dropping you out of the game.

As you’ll see in “There’s More Than One Way to Pop a Balloon”, the Fothergills came up with game types that run the gamut from soccer to racing. They even created a variant that offers a new twist on the play-by-mail games of old. And if you’re in the mood for more than a five-minute match, you can enter Story mode and travel the solar system as each of the four original Airburst characters, trying to thwart the plans of the diabolical Mars Media Mega Corporation. Story mode allows you to unlock the characters and game types that are inaccessible when you first start playing.

Of the characters available in the game, Fothergill points to BCM, with his Damage Extreme ability, as his favorite. “Hang in there without using the thrust control until your power builds up and the meter flashes,” he advises. “When you get a ball in your control, trigger Damage Extreme and watch all the balls do double damage on your opponents and sail through their bats. You’ll probably be able to decimate all of them by the time the power runs out.”

All in the Schtopwatch Family

Like the Fothergills, Ian Lynch Smith and his brother Colin dug deep into video game history when they developed WingNuts 2: Raina’s Revenge. Smith points to “not just Time Pilot, but also 1942 and a host of other games” as their inspiration and says that “Wingnuts comes out of a proud tradition from the dawn of video games.” Like its predecessors, Wingnuts places the emphasis on aerial combat as you take on a wide variety of air-bound and ground-based enemies, earning much-needed power-ups along the way as you prepare to battle the boss character who inevitably shows up at the end of each level.

WingNuts 2: Raina’s Revenge. Take on a dreaded zeppelin. Offer it no quarter or it will do the same.

“Maddeningly, Baron Von Schtopwatch’s posterior couldn’t fit into that evil genius suit he used to wear in college.”

- Ian Lynch Smith

Why a sequel to Wingnuts? Smith answers: “The arch enemy of Wingnuts, Baron Von Schtopwatch, needed a sequel as his master plan couldn’t fit comfortably in one game. And, more maddeningly, his posterior couldn’t fit into that evil genius suit he used to wear in college.”

The sequel adds several new features, including the ability to land on the aircraft carrier and trade in your damaged plane for a fresh one, new aerial maneuvers to help keep you out of danger and more. Unlike the first Wingnuts game, Raina’s Revenge also includes a story told through cutscenes that play after each level. Smith won’t let us divulge too much of the plot, but we can relate that Raina, granddaughter of the now-imprisoned Baron, takes over the bad guys’ air fleet and causes new trouble for the Wingnuts Majestic Air Force.

WingNuts 2: Raina’s Revenge. “I’ll get you, Baron!” Smith advises shouting this every time your plane gets hit. We're not sure how much it will help.

Airburst Extreme and WingNuts 2, like every game Freeverse releases, require nothing more from you than the desire to simply have a good time. And that’s simply classic.

If you liked these games, check out:

• Active Lancer
• Deimos Rising