I've finally finished the game! Take that 5 to 9 year old age!

bowling balls can go die in a hole

After 15 years of very VERY on-and-off playing, I finally beat it. In a world post-Flash, small projects like this acquire more respect. What was once just jank is now lovably so and crudeness of art and design are forgiven in the name of nostalgia and the learned appreciation for the wild west that was mid 00's internet. Shotgun Orc is stiff, janky, simple, and completely charming. Everything from the character design to the sound effects reeks of the time and it has only gotten better with age. This is all the charm of a fake video game little Bobby is playing in a TV show to demonstrate how stupid video game violence has gotten to the audience. I personally love how the game squeezes so much out of so little. The beastiary is full of character and varied enough for the 20 minute footprint this game has, the use of the pump animation twice in a row as a reload is nonsensical yet works perfectly, and even the boss battle twists the normal level progression in a way that's just fun enough for 5 extra minutes of gameplay. The "gunplay" is stupidly satisfying for what it is and the pairing of the totally royalty free sfx and the canned death animations feels better than it has any right to.

For a weird little thing from 2005, Shotgun Orc always pops back in my mind every few months as something I want to blast through real fast and I have a great time doing it. As time goes on, little passion projects like this will only take on more symbolic meaning and I'm here for it.

FU**IN* GANDALF!

I thought this game was pretty good. I think its biggest fault was that it was too hard for me. Yeah, I don't want to sound whiney, that's just how I feel about it. The artwork was good, if a little distorted. It was at least unique in that sense. You had to know how to time the shotgun blasts. There were always obstacles like the cannon balls on the ground.

I just associate orcs with LOTR. Did they originally start there? I think now they're just mythical creatures anyone can use. I thought it was funny how killing the horse didn't kill the driver. They had pretty big heads too.