Rock leaves Scissors

Intro

"Rock leaves Scissors" is an arcade game with a rather silly premise that was developed by Zorga using RPG Maker VX Ace. As for why he chose to make such a silly game. Well the answer to that question is rather simple. This game was an entry in the Seasons of RMN III event held back in January of 2020 and was set to theme of autumn. And I suppose while silly this game is on theme considering the nature of our impossible objective.

Story

You play as a pair of scissors trying to defend your girlfriend from falling leaves. If too many of them land on her she will die. Though I'm not exactly sure what she'll die from, but I should probably keep that in mind next fall if I leave my beloved pet rock out in the yard.

Gameplay

In the only version of this game that is currently available everything takes place on a tile based system where you can move left, right, up, and down in order to position yourself to cut the falling leaves. You can also use the shift key to move faster, but that's as helpful as it's detrimental in my opinion since it becomes a lot easier to over shoot or under shoot target. Though, I imagine anyone trying to go for a high score will have to master that mechanic. And in order to make things more difficult the leaves fall in L shaped patterns, but the trick in my opinion is still position yourself under a falling leaf and snipe it on it's downward movement.




Though even this strategy will eventually fail as the number of leaves starts to increase. Eventually you'll be pushed back and your girlfriend will succumb to the deadly leaves.



Though, I'm not sure if the amount of damage the leaves inflicts increases over time or not. I've never lasted long enough to really test that in my opinion. As it stands the two types of leaves I've encountered only remove half a heart when they hit your girlfriend. So it can take up to six hits to destroy her, but some leaves may reduce the number of hits you can allow significantly.

Graphics

The game uses entirely custom graphics, but I'll admit to finding the leaves a bit disappointing.



This is because all of the leaves are the byproduct of palette swapping. A practice this is sometimes necessary, but feels rather lazy in a game with only three enemies.

Sound

Sound wise the game has a few sound effects and a single background song. A background song that only begins once you've started the game proper. A song that mildly annoys me. As for the title screen it merely features the sounds of blowing wind which is appropriate considering the deadly leaves are being blown towards our girlfriend, but I can't help but think of "Stepsister from Planet Weird" (2000) when playing this game because of it. After all, if there is one thing to fear in this game it isn't the leaves but the winds that send them.

Conclusion

It's a weird mini-game where you try to defend your girlfriend from a never ending horde of falling leaves. About the only reason to play this game is for a high score, but I can't imagine there are a lot of bragging rights for even achieving a high score in this game, but I suppose if your curious it might be worth a quick look. Just don't expect a lot out of it.