Max Vs. The Internet

After watching the trailer, the twelve-year-old part of my brain overloaded and started punching the other parts of my brain into submission. There is nothing redeeming about this game. There are no lessons, you play through no story, and its main innovation seems to be that physics are awesome (which is awesome, not novel). But I just spent the better part of my lunch break revving the engine of a little jeep and plowing into raptors. On my second try, I got the 10th highest score of the day, and I was pumped. The trailer pretty much explains it all, but if you prefer words to totally clutch (I'm going to have to break out most cash-monies of all slang to describe this) moving pictures, here is a brief checklist:

• Raptors? Check!
• A Sweet, Destructable Jeep? Check!
• Copious Stunt Ramps? Check!
• Unlimited Speed Boosts? Check!
• Informative raptor facts to begin each play session? Check!
• A pterodactyl that I am determined to kill via a sweet jump? Double Check!
• A DEPLOYABLE MORNING-STAR TO SLAUGHTER AND DRAG RAPTORS INTO TELEPORTERS WITH? CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECK!!!!

• ORVS runs in your web browser, and the plugin needed to play it is a fast 13.5 MB download and a quick install. It just worked with Firefox and my Mac without any hassle. Plus, the game streams its (admittedly) limited content quickly from its server without any lag or hiccups. I noticed maybe one or two instances of objects "popping" on the screen in seven games.
• The developers, Flashbang Studios set out to make this game in 8 weeks. Just because they wanted to. Their team consisted of seven people, and while I have no idea how many hours per day they worked on this, it's quite a little accomplishment for that short timespan.
• This game is a triumph of scope. There's one main feature, and that's the physics. All of the gameplay is derived from those physics. There are maybe a half dozen kinds of dynamic entities you can interact with (raptors, trees, orbs, teleporters, ramps, crates), and that's it.
• The game limits your play to five minutes, but has an extensive, Xbox LIVE style achievements and leaderboard system. Five minutes means the game always leaves you wanting more (the "just one more turn" factor) while the built in, long term stuff, implies they've got plans for its stickiness.
• The game bombards you with points for doing mundane things. Given the short, but satisfying amount of time you're playing for, it's easy to get super-pumped up about what you're doing when messages like "EPIC ROADKILL, 2,000 PTS" keep flashing across the screen. The combo system encourages you to keep those point messages coming, and you even get points for thrashing your jeep. Hah-mazing.
• I felt a little bit guilty about the wholesale and insensate slaughter I was predicating upon the raptor populace. It is remarkable that I can count vehicular raptor-slaughter as a guilty pleasure now.
• Painless install of the plugin, no install of the game. I love games on the web because I hate cluttering up my hard drive with games I will play all of 3 times and then forget about when another paper comes due.