Freeverse has announced that Wingnuts 2, a top-down aerial arcade shooter game, is now available for online purchase and download. The title benefits from being an original and exclusive Mac game, developed and playable exclusively on the Mac. Freeverse co-founder Colin Lynch Smith mentions the advantages of developing games solely for the Mac over on Inside Mac Games:"This is the biggest game to be written specifically for the Mac in years. Targeting just the Mac means no performance compromises (and lower system requirements)-- and we can design in cool OS X specific technologies like CoreImage and iSight integration."
It's about time that game developers woke up to the benefits of creating games specifically for the Mac platform. Hopefully this will be the first title of many in a resurgence of big name Mac-exclusive titles.
You can grab a demo of the game at this link and a video of the game (complete with an example of the fancy CoreImage effects) is available here. A DVD boxset of the game will ship in early July, but if you can't wait that long the game is available as a whopping 550MB download for $29.95 over on the Wingnuts 2 site.
[Via Joystiq]













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-15-2006 @ 5:55PM
Jarques said...
I actually played the demo yesterday, and it's actually extremely fun. I might actually buy it before I go away this weekened.
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6-15-2006 @ 7:20PM
Adam Betts said...
I enjoyed the demo a lot and bought it right away. High quality mac game *thumbs up*
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6-15-2006 @ 7:22PM
andy said...
im sorry but itll take more than 10 year old neo geo style shooters to get the mac recognized as a real gaming computer, even if it is fun
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6-15-2006 @ 7:55PM
Logan Williams said...
The demo is not working on my PowerBook G4, just sits there not responding at 100% CPU. Any ideas?
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6-15-2006 @ 8:02PM
Colin P said...
I've got the same problem Logan. Not sure what it is but it is rather frustrating.
People were posting similar problems on the macworld news post yesterday. Not just Pbook G4's either =/
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6-15-2006 @ 10:26PM
Brandon said...
So essentially this game uses coreImage instead of pixel shaders?
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6-16-2006 @ 12:56AM
Bootes said...
Works fine on my Powerbook, it won't let me drag the game out of the disc image though. :/
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6-16-2006 @ 4:02AM
Hard said...
Just played through the demo, and I have to say that this game rocks. I'm usually not a fan of top down shooters, but this one is very entertaining. I usually get bored with these types of games but this one kept me interested all throughout, I will consider buying it.
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6-16-2006 @ 5:35AM
Matt Grover said...
It looks ok, I'll probably downlaod the demo, but saying that because it's written especially for OS X means it can have lower spec reqs, is a bit lame.
The reason it requires lower specs is because it's just a SWIV copy, if it were a FPS like Half Life 2 et al, it would still require beefy specs.
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6-16-2006 @ 7:47AM
Jamie said...
Actually Matt, it's generally true about system requirements. Destineer claimed that Close Combat: First To Fight (a first person shooter with nice graphics) had lower Mac system requirements as it was developed to be cross platform from the start, and optimised for the Mac, again, from the start.
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6-16-2006 @ 9:29AM
Multi said...
I wish I still had a Mac so I could try this out. Wingnuts was pretty fun, and this one looks really nice.
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6-16-2006 @ 11:49AM
FV Bruce said...
Hi guys,
I'm one of the developers. To those of you who can't get the game to start. Would you mind emailing me? bruce@freeverse.com
I'm sure this is something simple, just nothing we've seen in 2 years of development.
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6-16-2006 @ 4:32PM
sleepcountry said...
Neat looking game! I've always loved this genre.
But oh man, that's BRUTAL music (from what I gather from the video). A shot at Top Gun, I'm guessing? Yikes.
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