Pause Ahead: The Superlative Flash Game

Developer: Askiisoft

Publisher: Askiisoft

Format: PC (Browser/Adobe Flash)

Askiisoft is one of my favorite developers, always putting out good games. Pause Ahead is easily my favorite out of all their games so far. It's a simple yet unique 2D platformer with retro aesthetics, and good aesthetics at that. Reasonably enough, this game does have it's own unique mechanic. This unique mechanic is one that I couldn't even wrap my head around at first. In order to traverse the levels ahead, you must first pause the game.

Now you can do simple things like run and jump, but the real flavor of the game comes from the pause-mechanic it has. When you use the pause mechanic (not the full-game pause) you essentially "fly" with the momentum you had prior to pausing the game, also allowing you to slide through anything that can kill you. You need you use this to fly upwards, downwards, and nearly every other direction as well as through a lot of obstacles. The level design is spot-on, utilizing this mechanic to it's fullest potential. While most levels give you enough time to complete it without time running out becoming an issue, some only give you one second, requiring you to pause the timer and collect hourglasses to remain alive. It's very fun and satisfying, not to mention very challenging.

Each level can be extremely hard, requiring many, many tries for you to figure it out and perfect it. No stages have any checkpoints, but each stage is short enough where it doesn't matter. That doesn't stop it from being hard. It's one of those games kinda like League of Evil, in where you can finish a level in a short amount of time, but beating a stage can take a while. Even though the main mechanic alongside running and jumping is pausing the game, it requires a great deal of reflexes, skill, and timing. There is a lot of thinking involved in beat each stage.

Lets move on to aesthetics. I'm gonna say it up front: This game is magnificent in it's aesthetic choices, and executes said choices perfectly. It's retro, using smaller but noticeable pixels with a consistent color pallet to match. The entire game has this sort of faint overlay that is reminiscent of old TV static. When you use the pause mechanic the screen turns darker, kinda like older games. Some of the best moments this game has is durring the pause-time. When the game is paused it'll say things like ", "Too Slow", "Time's Up", or even things like "I Killed You" and "No Pauses Left". It can be very unnerving and unexpected at times. There is always a little bit of dialogue at first said by you, but then by someone else, who you meet at the end of the game. It's very interesting, to say the least.

This game's music is the bomb-diggity, being done by both amazing composers Bill Kiley and FlashyGoodness. I've gone over most of it in my VGMC listings, because I love these songs a lot. Using a very unique style, this game's soundtrack is one of my all-time favorites. It's quite chaotic in some pieces, while others are beautiful. All of them are filled to the brim with emotion and soul that just immerses you further into what is such a well done game.

Pause Ahead was actually a game that I didn't like at first, simply because I didn't understand it. I later looked back at it and, now understanding it, was blown away at the entire thing. The music, the art, the gameplay, the narrative, the pause mechanic as well as the pause time. It's all really neat, especially the little things like how it does the replays of all your previous run through a level. It doesn't include the pause times, jumping from one point to another, as if it's not from your view(as a replay wouldn't be). It all adds up to a great game. One of the best I've ever played.

Play Pause Ahead HERE