Viral

The human body can take a fair amount of punishment over the years, especially if you keep feeding it nutrients and maybe work out every once in awhile. Diseases come and go, at least the ones that can be repelled with a strong immune system, but that doesn’t make them any easier to stand when they take over your body and cause all sorts of nasty reactions.

Viral is an arcade game with a very simple idea at its core: you play the role of a virus trying to spread from one cell to the other. Even the gameplay is very simple and straightforward, but it takes a bit of getting used to before you are able to master the art of cell jumping. Good reflexes are a must, but you must also be able to anticipate a few moves ahead if you are to survive.

As it happens, the cells you target are never unprotected, since there are the usual white cells trying to neutralize anything that might endanger healthy tissue. Granted, they do not actually attack you, but you have to make sure that you don’t touch them at all during your journey. Since the gameplay employs a lot of trial and error, this can be quite frustrating at first, at least until you learn the basics.

The virus rotates around the cell it is currently attached to, and in order to move, you have to let go at the right time. This depends on the direction you want to move to, but it takes good reflexes to know exactly when to let go. On the other hand, you can slow down time and make the whole thing easier, at least as long as you have enough energy.

It is also possible to reverse your direction in mid-flight, which is useful if you happen to miscalculate the trajectory and wake up with an enemy in front of you. Speaking of which, the energy is recharged by staying on an infected cell for long enough. The graphics are pretty simple as well, yet they are not as annoying as the fact that the level design is very repetitive and disappointing most of the time.

Altogether, Viral could certainly use a few boosts in regards to level design and gameplay, but for a jam game, it is quite intriguing. Hence, as long as the core concepts are refined and maybe improved a bit, this could certainly become a much more popular game.