In JOUST, our mighty knights ride mighty ostriches into battle. The game, put as simply as it is, is about jousting. The point of each stage being to 'de-horse' all of your opponents, over several platforms, which allow for a kind of teleporting entry/exit, similar to that of Pac-man (ie. you exit left side, you re-appear right side). Ostriches have a distinct advantage of horses in this kind of platform warfare... they can fly! (of a sort). Often enough, this is the key to victory; attack your opponents with elevation on your side.
Picking up chassis-twisting amounts of speed is fun, but is it the best way to win? I think not...
After defeating your opponent, an egg will appear. You should charge this too; failure to do so will result in another knight appearing. Furthermore, if you take too long defeating all of your contenders, a Pterosaur (note to self; a Pterosaur is a flying reptile which existed alongside the dinosaurs... think Petri from a Land Before Time!) will enter the fray and poop your party. You don't want the enemies that you worked so hard to destroy to respawn, so grab those eggs before they hatch.
Two player is a possibility, although many of us will have a hard time finding a second person
who is willing to play Joust. It's the sad truth; in our modern society, full of 3D graphics and flash soundtracks, very few people take the time to give the ancestors (think: Joust) of modern gaming a second thought. This is a game from the eighties, with a refreshing amount of simplicity, sufficient graphics, not enough colours (who wants to mount a multi-coloured, Elton John looking Ostrich anyway?), and no solid storyline but heaps of replayability. The levels get tougher, the opponents get faster, and it seems like the waves get longer as you progress from level to level. The platforms also change, and the ledges that the ostriches can safely navigate will change into smaller ledges. Likewise, the solid ground below will begin to shrink, replaced by flowing pits of lava that you don't want to land in. Sometimes enemy eggs will also vanish into this abyss and cannot be retrieved. Boo.
I am still optimistic that a phone game company will release this classic for mobile phones in the not too distant future! (I hope someone will let me know if it has been done already!). Now that's a phone game I'd love to have handy for boring uni classes/days at work.)
