[PC]['95-'04] tile-based puzzle+shooter game, like a darker Chip's challenge

[indigesta]

It's that time of the year again. I've been looking for this game for about...15 years, posted about it everywhere, and still nothing. Crossing my fingers someone knows what I'm talking about!

Platform: PC

Genre: tile-based puzzle+shooter?

Estimated year of release: between 1995 and 2004 (I guess)

Graphics/art style: top-down, tile based, dark maps, sort of had a cyber/industrial feeling to it though the graphics pretty simple. Black/dark background, gray or maybe blue maze walls. On the right hand side of the screen there was a panel with ammo and other stuff and at the bottom right a tiny map of the whole level with moving enemies (tiny dots).

Notable characters: you play a white square with a face. You have to kill enemies who are also squares of various colours depending on the type (I remember blue and green squares...and possibly white ninjas?).
There also was a special bad guy, that may have been called lava worm or blood worm. Made up of 4 or 5 bright red balls and running around like a train. I hated it.

Notable gameplay mechanics:

- It had a lot of things in common with Chip's challenge, e.g. the coloured keys/locks and the slides, though it looked more modern than Chip's challenge

- You could fight the bad guys by shooting them (limited ammo) or with dynamite

- To clear a level, you had to kill all enemies (and collect all keys?)

See my beautiful rendition of the characters of this game.

[MrFlibble]

It does not ring a bell, so I can only suggest looking through MobyGames lists with various filters.

For example, here are DOS and Windows top-down action games, sorted by year:
https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/ ... ist-games/
https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/ ... ist-games/

The problem is that MobyGames' Perspective criteria have been changed throughout the years, and contributors have used them rather liberally, so although your game apparently uses top-down perspective, it might not be listed as such even if it is documented in the MobyGames database.

[indigesta]

It does not ring a bell, so I can only suggest looking through MobyGames lists with various filters.

For example, here are DOS and Windows top-down action games, sorted by year:

The problem is that MobyGames' Perspective criteria have been changed throughout the years, and contributors have used them rather liberally, so although your game apparently uses top-down perspective, it might not be listed as such even if it is documented in the MobyGames database.

Thank you! I'll give it a try. I've looked through at least 100 different databases and lists and this game seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. I only recently found someone else who has played, so at least I know my brain didn't make it up, but it seems impossible to find

[MrFlibble]

Do you have any clues what country that game could have originated from? Was it in English?

Perhaps it was created with a game creation system like Game-Maker? Such games often have distinct features like a similar menu structure/fonts or animations, or certain gameplay idiosyncrasies -- at least, if you can remember that kind of detail it could help, possibly.

[indigesta]

Yes, it was in English, though it didn't have a lot of text overall and unfortunately I can't remember what the menu looked like. I'm 95% sure it came from a videogame collection - the ones they sold with pc magazines in the 90s/00s.

I'm not familiar with Game-Maker, but after looking at the video I'd say the graphics of the game I'm looking for were not quite that simple, if that makes sense. Neophyte - Koplio's story may have been another title in the same collection, or at least I used to play it around the same time, so this was probaly around 1998-2000 or even a bit later.