Dejobaan’s free falling indie blast returns with the improved semi-sequel  AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – For the Awesome!

The first game,  A Reckless Disregard for Gravity took the popular Missile flash game of maneuvering around obstacles while building up speed and took it to a commercial level. Its sequel doesn’t do much radically different. But perhaps that’s a good thing.

AaaaaAAaaaAA’s simple objective of racking up scores through small stages makes it the perfect candidate for quick burst gameplay and a cheap price tag to boot. Set across a collection of odd little boxes, the game’s stages are unlocked by purchasing those adjacent to the last effectively allowing you to buy straight into the more tricky stages or concentrate on perfected the easier ones as you get used to the feeling of rubbing up against a building and shaving your skin off in the process.

Ever felt like hurtling toward the sun? Well now you can!

In AaaaaAAaaaAA!!! you control yourself in a first person view, starting off on a platform, you pull up the courage to walk off the edge and free-fall through the stage as building, platforms and bladed fans whiz by you. Paying close attention to each of the games dozens of stages, you should determine the most valuable route before you plunge down. Getting close to the buildings earns you “kisses” while staying close to them as you try not to drag your ass against them earns you a steady stream of  “hugs”. Hit as many buildings as you can and risk your survival by drifting toward the point signs littered around the fall and, assuming you don’t faceplant into the ground, you’ll get a nice score and hefty collection of knee caps (yes, that is the currency) to unlock more stages.

The odd little humour of the game comes from the sly comments and descriptions accompanying the stages and the brief radio style newsflashes piped through as you browse the stage select screen. Sometimes they poke fun at you, and sometimes they just blurt out silly headlines. Either way we like thoughtfulness of the developers to record them, and while we think the dull/slow voice was intentional, it actually sounds as if the voice-actor was yawning through the entire recording. Never the less, the comments did a good job and make us chuckle a little between stages.

This is just a glimpse of the game's many stages

The games stage selection system makes sure you gain a reasonable amount of experience with the game’s few in-flight features, introducing you to the art of hugging and kissing, flipping off on-lookers and eventual inclusion of bonus targets makes sure are not thrown into the deep end straight away. Though players of the last game can opt to skip the tutorials by integrating their old save within the new one, those who have played the demo of either will need to crawl through the initial training stages again before any real challenges arrive.

Dejobaan have done a fantastic job of dishing out stages for the game. Our screenshot only shows a portion of the stage selection screen with another, just as big waiting just above it. The stages are well crafted and offer a lot of potential routes open for you should you be brave enough. If you manage to horde the point targets and buildings available by straying from your comfortable path, you’ll easily reap the rewards. The more extreme stages will all leave you slamming into blades and platforms so your precise camera control and non-jerky actions are all key to your successful…downfall.

Those guys? They hate you. Show em' some love!

Looking at the surroundings as you make your decent, you’ll probably come to realize AaaaaAAaaaAA is something a little different. It has character. Once you ponder the reason why there are buildings suspended in, what can only be assumed as space, with cars driving vertically and coloured blobs ready to hurl abuse at you, you’ll start to wonder what exactly the guys at Dejobaan were doing when they created the stages. The visuals may look a little dated, but you won’t really have time to focus on them. Flipping off protesters and encouraging your fans, collecting teeth and knee caps, landing safely in the middle of nowhere and sitting through the hypnotic little “relaxation” bonus stages will defiantly give you that “What the…” vibe but ultimately leave you with an odd little grin on your face.

AaaaaAAaaaAA!!! is defiantly not short of content. Unlocking all of the stages will take some time to accomplish assuming you play it in the burst sessions to seems designed for, even then you’ll find yourself reattempting earlier levels to better your score or just to collect a few extra knee caps. It never fails to induce that fear of dying horribly should you take your eyes off the screen at any moment and feels incredibly satisfying to flip off the angry protesters as you plummet. If you ever have a free moment, load up AaAaaaAa and throw yourself off of a cliff. You won’t regret the decision.

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome is available now on PC and Mac via Steam – A demo is also available!

Final Score: 3.5/5