Candystand.com is a site who's primary purpose is to give students something to do while the teacher isn't looking. The games are generally simple, Flash-based, and branded to hell and back. Seriously, a game where you play as a piece of Extra brand gum with a jet-pack and score points by touching packs of said gum brand? It's like playing a commercial! But it's free, and for some reason, my school's content filter doesn't block it, despite blocking every other site that so much as says the word "game", including our dearly-beloved Destructoid.



i'll finally be rid of the place in only a few weeks. good riddance.

The best game Candystand has to offer, in my opinion, is Blastrix. Think Asteroids meets Geometry Wars. I'll be judging this game, and any others if I ever feel like doing this again, on 5 main features: Graphics, Gameplay, Sound, Copycattism, and Advertisation. So here we go...



Graphics
Almost everthing in this category also falls under "Copycattism". The visuals are basically just Asteroids with Geometry Wars colors and explosions. I like the style, and it's well implemented for a Flash game. The movement of the stars in the background could keep me entertained for...minutes.

Gameplay
The movement is straight up Asteroids. You move around in the same drifty fashion, shooting at asteroids and enemies. Autofire is automatically on, but can be switched off at the title screen. The enemies are simple but distinct, even though that blue three-pointed one is rather unfair. It can hit you from any point on the field; there is no way to avoid it other than killing it ASAP. Extra health and extra lives are a little too few and far between.

Sound
The music is mediocre techno. Nothing fancy, but listenable. I recommend turning off the sound effects though.

Copycattism
Very little in this game didn't come from Asteroids or Geometry Wars. It's a nice amalgamation, though. Two great tastes that taste great together.

Advertisation
There's a commercial before you play the game, just like every other game on Candystand, and the title screen has a big Orbit logo at the top. But while I was playing, I didn't see the logo in the bottom left corner until I thought to look for it. It's pretty easy to ignore, and it's the reason the game is free. Not that I'd pay money for this.



Blastrix a slightly-better-than-mediocre game, and a fun alternative to, you know, actually working on schoolwork.


to play old-skool Asteroids, go here
to play Geometry Wars, buy it on Xbox Live Arcade, Wii, or DS
to play Blastrix, click on the word Blastrix