You may not know the name Askiisoft, but if you’ve dabbled in flash games over the past few years, you likely know of the studio’s fledgling flash title Tower of Heaven. If you haven’t played it and you’re looking for one of the best experiences a flash game can give, you should go play it right now.
Pause Ahead follows very much in Tower of Heaven‘s footsteps from a design perspective. The games are cryptic, and bizarrely beautiful, downright difficult. There is something at the heart of both of these games that make them stand out. Despite being free and developed in flash, these are some of the best modern 2D platformers you can dip your feet into.
No spoilers here
As much as I want to gush over Pause Ahead and how it is nearly perfect in every way, I can’t. I don’t want to spoil anything about this game for you. I do want you to strap on your battle armor and get ready for a painful journey that will puzzle, confuse, and infuriate you — until you come to the end and wonder why there can’t be more of this.
To me, as someone who has been playing video games since 1989, it feels like such a shame that something so carefully created is put out on flash and ignored. Both Tower of Heaven and Pause Ahead have been what I feel to be absolutely stellar experiences. I may hit my desk a few times, but I walk away feeling accomplished and touched by what the game creators have put together.
These games are not difficult for difficulty’s sake, they are to be paired with the narrative. You are supposed to be confused and frustrated, you are supposed to die a hundred times over. This is the type of experience the 2D platformers of generations past aimed to acheive, and Askiisoft have done a fantastic job of pulling it off just right.
Go play Pause Ahead. Get mad, get upset, curse the developers for torturing you so — and love the hell out of it. May Heaven grant you fortune.
(If you dig Pause Ahead‘s music, be sure to give a listen to Side A and Side B of the OST on Bandcamp.)
