Werewolf rampage game “Moon Waltz” is the most fun you can have with a spacebar

Get ready to have the rest of your day murdered in the name of a cigarette and the moon. Werewolf News reader Sam (and a few other folks) have pointed me at the hilarious and gleefully gory Flash game Moon Waltz by Major Bueno. The game’s only control is your spacebar, and pressing it accomplishes just one thing: the clouds part, revealing a full moon that instantly changes your character, who’s on a late night stroll through town, into a ravening werewolf. Releasing the spacebar hides the moon, and just as quickly your character resumes his innocuous appearance. Virtually every object (and person) you pass while wolfed out gets destroyed in an amusing fashion, but the real fun comes from finding out how to mix the two modes in a pattern that will keep you from being robbed, shot or arrested. Try it out, and if you can get to the end in fewer than five tries, you’re better than I at containing your laughter.

Moon Waltz

Major Bueno is the game-makin’ name for interactive media students Benedikt Hummel and Marius Fietzek. The duo are Interactive Media students at Filmacademy Baden-Württenberg, and Moon Waltz is the May entry for the One Game a Month (#1GAM) challenge they’ve taken up for 2013. May’s optional #1GAM theme word was “grow“, and you have to respect the kind of warped creativity that would turn a word like that into a game about turning into a werewolf and killing bikers, tourists and priests. The limited amount of development time is probably the main reason the game is such a terrific little nugget of gold – the gameplay is simple but rewarding, and the art, animation and sound design are all perfectly crafted in a faux-16-bit style that would loose its goofy energy if it was polished for too long. I’d buy it in an instant if it was available in the iOS App Store or on Steam, but considering these guys are students and committed to creating seven more games this year, I’m content to bash away at my spacebar in a browser window.