This is the greatest game that Jeff Minter ever made. And hardly anyone realises this because they don't know how to play it, because they try to play it like some other game.

Let me tell you how to play Space Giraffe, and let that explain why this game is so good.

You need to relax, and pay attention to the game. Give it your full focus. What you do in this game is you don't shoot the basic enemies much, just enough to keep the power zone going, and then ram into the side of them as they reach the rim of the grid. That's the basic idea.

When you ram into enemies like this, it's called "bulling". Try to ram through as many as you can at once. It builds up your score, the multiplier, gives you extra lives... it's the main thing you want to try to do.

The power bar is the horizontal line that keeps coming towards you. You want to keep it away from you, otherwise you can't ram into enemies side-on and they kill you instead. The space between the power bar and you is called the power zone. You can also briefly make the power zone get big by collecting a "pod" power-up and jumping.

You can use the right stick of your joypad to aim your bullets through the power zone - just wiggle it a little and you'll probably hit a few enemies, enough to keep the power bar going. In later levels, you'll be specifically trying to aim for flowers, or spheres, or the other annoying enemies.

Now, this game throws a lot at you. So much that you can hardly see. But the thing is - that is what makes this game so amazing and different. This is a shooter that you don't play by shooting, and this is a game with visuals so intense that you need to play it by ear. Turn the volume up if you need to! Wear headphones if it helps!

Each enemy, each bullet, each power up, each collision has a different and distinct audio sound. Pay attention, listen to the game. Record the sound of each one in your brain.

Turn down the music and turn up the SFX if the music's getting in the way. You can't play this game without sound effects.

For levels where there's too much distortion on screen, you're going to feel your way through the level by sound. Listen for the announcement of each enemy, each bullet. You are endlessly auto-shooting, so you can hear when you've hit a flower, how far away it is, and when it "pings" off its stalk to come towards you.

The overall effect of playing this game with heightened sonic awareness, semi-blinded by the lights, racking up high scores, is that you end up with a feeling that is the nearest thing to "using the Force" you have ever, and possibly will ever feel. At least, that's how it is for me.

This is why this game is so good, so important. It is completely different, but it totally works. You just need to be receptive to the game and let it teach you how to play it, how to improve.

And good luck when you get to level 64. It's going to really mess your brain up and you're going to love it for that. :)

A novel and innovative sequel of sorts to the legendary Tempest 2000 (T2K) that was a system seller on the Atari Jaguar and returned on the original PSX as Tempest X.

In Space Giraffe players are rewarded for getting into the zone and using not just visual cues but also the rich audio to survive.

Recommended.

Space Giraffe is a game I've spent six years both loving and hating the hell out of.

On one hand, its iterative take on Tempest 2000/3000 is super engaging and satisfying. While it may invoke those older games on the surface, the bulling and Power Zone mechanics really make Space Giraffe feel like more of it's own game than the rehash it's often accused of being. The shooting and dodging are tight and satisfying and the risk vs reward elements make for some crazy intense shooty action. When all that comes together with the visuals and audio in the way that it's supposed to, Space Giraffe is simply astoudning to play and you can almost feel like you're in a trance when you're on a roll.

When it doesn't work however, the game just feels plain unfair and frustrating. Far too often, the emphasis on eye-searing visuals over gameplay can and will cause many unnecessary deaths due to how obscured the playfield can get. A large chunk of stages also to alter the game's rules subtly without telling the player, which just seems like a cheap and sloppy way to prohibit progress.

There will inevitably be frustration with this game, but I highly suggest at least trying the demo. It's something I've stuck with since its release and if you can manage to get over its initial quirks and don't mind some frustration later, Space Giraffe feels about as satisfying as Portal can be once you finally "get it."

This game deserves to be remembered for the incredible classic it is.

Its old school shooter ramped up to the ridiculous by one of the greats of the genre.

The only problem with this game, and probably the reason for the mixed scores, is that the game doesn't do a great job of explaining how to play it well. Sure you can blitz through the levels and enjoy the insanity, but you need to master 'bulling' (ramming enemies) if you want to be top of your leaderboard.

This is a game I so desperately want to see re-discovered and become the success it deserves.

If you know what Tempest 2000 is, if you played Centipede and enjoyed it. Heck if you ever wanted a more psychedelic space invaders or Galaga then buy this game. You will love it.

Atari missed their chance to be mad at the TxK developer in 2009 with this, nearly identical, release.

Does it have some differences to Tempest? Sure. Significant ones? No, it is a psychedlic nightmare, sounds and all, just like the old days. Do not take drugs before playing this. Or take a lot. No middle ground.

It's Tempest 2000 on LSD. What's not to like?

11 ⅓ / 10

I do like Tempest. And it has to be weird when the first thing I read opening this is THIS IS NOT TEMPEST.

Darn right, cuz in Tempest you could actually see what you were doing.

Too much neon too much particules, too much EVERYTHING. But the game area takes a relatively small part of the screen, increasing the problem or not seeing crap.

Pass.

A masterpiece, criminally overlooked. It widens your perception. It teaches you to see things, things you people wouldn't believe...

If you say "Space Giraffe is bad, you can't see what you're doing, you just die for no reason!" then you are bad at the game and don't understand how it works. It's really as simple as that. Everyone who takes the time to learn how to properly play this game ends up loving it, because it's a beautiful, satisfying, addictive game and there's nothing else in the world like it.

That being said the PC port, at least on Windows 10, is inferior to the XBLA original. There's a bug I've noticed where after a while of play, certain important sound effects start dropping out, making later levels in the game more difficult than they would normally be. It also lacks the vibration feature of the XBLA version which was extremely useful (your controller would vibrate every time your multiplier went up, so you'd easily know if you've bulled enough enemies off at once) so I would recommend you grab the original if you have access to a 360 or Xbox One.

I clocked a zillion hours into this one on Xbox, and it's still a winner in my book.

Jeff Minter's "unique" imagination brings us another game with surprising depth, rewarding for anyone who wants to dive in deeper. Like Geometry Wars, with practice, you'll learn to look one place, shoot another and move all in different directions, all the same time. A psychedelic, synasthetic rush that brings you a cerebral game:player connection unlike any other that never quite takes itself seriously. This is what gaming is really all about. Are you giraffe enough? ★★★

Strongly reccommend having your own music handy, tho...