Alphaman is a
roguelike RPG, which successfully injects a rather oddball sense of humor into the genre. The premise is that the world has been mostly decimated by World War III, and the remaining world population is
mutants. Your mission, however, is to take down some
evil doctor in his fortress who intends to
enslave what's left of mankind...
or something. It's been a long time since I actually looked at the
plot. It's
superfluous anyways - the entire point of the game is to do silly things. Like
using a laser gun to kill flies.
The items you can pick up are widely varied - usually you have to study them for a few turns before you can figure out what they are.
Tape players, blasters, energy shields,
can openers, each one with its own
unique properties. Some are quite
useless. Others are
invaluable. The
berries you find are just as varied, essentially taking the place of potions in other roguelikes. Some will
heal, some will poison, some will give you increased strength, some will
explode when thrown.
The characters are far
simpler than most
RPGs give you - this is, after all, more a game to pick up, play for a bit, then
put down again, instead of being a
proper RPG. Each new character has two
random mutant powers, like toughened skin, claws, radiation beams, etc., which is part of what makes the game so
entertaining - you never know what you're going to wind up with when you start.
And I shall never forget
examining a
small tech device only to discover it was a
cheese grater that, when used, would reduce my hit points by one and give me the message, "
Ouch! You scraped your knuckles!"