My motivation to play Headlander was pretty low. I"ve got a lot more time for games that support Linux than I do for those that don"t, but I found myself travelling late in 2016 with my Mac laptop and a bit of spare time, so figured I"d give it a go and see how well it ran.

The game itself is a light metroidvania style platformer, where you play as a disembodied head, perhaps the last non-digitised human consciousness in existence, who has been revived to challenge a nefarious AI named Methuselah. Placed inside a rocket propelled helmet, equipped with the power to suck the heads off robots and land on their bodies to control them.

Gameplay primary revolves hunting for the right body type to overcome the obstacles immediately before you. Locked doors are opened by shooting particular coloured laser bolts at them, which are only emitted by a security robot of that colour. Certain coloured security bots are rare and more difficult to yoink/shoot the head off, requiring you to work your way up to them.

Beyond doors, many other body types offer unique abilities. Similar to project lead Lee Petty"s previous game Stacking, environments are filled with a vast range of potential hosts, and a lot of the enjoyment comes from exploring the possibility space that they represent between them. Scattered across the game are side quests and puzzles beyond door unlocking make almost all of the different body types useful in some way.

Aesthetically, the game has a 70s soft neon feel going for it which I dig, and is chocked full of subtle (and not so subtle) innuendo and silliness.

I"m sad that Headlander isn"t available on my platform of choice, but it was a fun game to spend a couple of days with.

This was originally written as part of a retrospective[cheesetalks.net] on games I finished in 2016.

My motivation to play Headlander was pretty low. I"ve got a lot more time for games that support Linux than I do for those that don"t, but I found myself travelling late in 2016 with my Mac laptop and a bit of spare time, so figured I"d give it a go and see how well it ran. The game itself is a light metroidvania style platformer, where you play as a disembodied head, perhaps the last non-digitised human consciousness in existence, who has been revived to challenge a nefarious AI named Methuselah. Placed inside a rocket propelled helmet, equipped with the power to suck the heads off robots and land on their bodies to control them. Gameplay primary revolves hunting for the right body type to overcome the obstacles immediately before you. Locked doors are opened by shooting particular coloured laser bolts at them, which are only emitted by a security robot of that colour. Certain coloured security bots are rare and more difficult to yoink/shoot the head off, requiring you to work your way up to them. Beyond doors, many other body types offer unique abilities. Similar to project lead Lee Petty"s previous game Stacking, environments are filled with a vast range of potential hosts, and a lot of the enjoyment comes from exploring the possibility space that they represent between them. Scattered across the game are side quests and puzzles beyond door unlocking make almost all of the different body types useful in some way. Aesthetically, the game has a 70s soft neon feel going for it which I dig, and is chocked full of subtle (and not so subtle) innuendo and silliness. I"m sad that Headlander isn"t available on my platform of choice, but it was a fun game to spend a couple of days with. [i]This was originally written as part of a [url=http://cheesetalks.net/gamesRoundup2016.php]retrospective[/url] on games I finished in 2016.[/i]