Gunbrick

See the above icon?

Well, that's the game window!

Nitrome is trying an experiment here: Because their front page features 50x50 icons of their games, they tried to make a 50x50 resolution game, so you don't have to switch pages when you select the game, just play it on the spot! Of course it can get really cumbersome to play, so they gracefully have an option to switch to a zoomed playfield, like so:

Before I describe the game itself, I simply have to mention that this is not a new idea: The awesome p01 of Ribbon has done something even more hardcore 4 years back in 2008: Defender of the Favicon is literally a Defender clone running in the favicon (you know, the little icon of each tab in your browser? That thing!) and it's actually playable, so mad props to Mathieu!

Now, for this game. The actual sprite you're controlling has 2 main features: In one end there's a blaster which because of its power can also be used as a thruster, and in the other end there's a shield that can protect it from pretty much everything, as long as the shield is facing the side the threat is coming from. The sprite can only move left or right and in addition it can thrust. Moving left/right though causes the sprite to rotate by 90 degrees (anticlockwise or clockwise) and this becomes an interesting mechanic, as you frequently have to position yourself facing the right direction before doing something: for example, to "jump" you have to have the blaster face downward and then fire, or if you want to blast some boxes to clear the way again you have to position the gun to face them. There are also flames to avoid (and especially those coming from the ground might seem tricky or impossible at first, but you get the point fast enough) and switches to press in order for tiles to move out of the way or create a platform for you to step on. Reaching the end of a level moves you into the next.

As you expect from Nitrome, the graphics are as detailed as possible (granted, there's not much you can do with such small sprites but it's alright) . I tried to play the game on a 50x50 window but found that I couldn't; had this been a shoot'em'up like Defender of the favicon I could have been able to. But with such a game that requires absolute precision it's nearly impossible. Or is it just me getting old and my eyesight bad? :D

The sound consists of a looped sample, which gets tiresome after a few minutes of playing. The sound effects are really loud and simple.

Not much more to add - puzzle fans try it out, the rest just have a look out of curiosity and then close the browser window!

(P.S.  I always like to see experimental stuff from more "serious"/established software houses!)