PICOHOT is a first person shooter game released for the PICO-8 in 2020. The game is an official demake of Superhot, developed by three members of its team. As such, it inherits the same base structure and mechanics of the original. The game is a first person shooter with an unique twist: the game will move as fast as the player does. Actions considerably slow down or stop altogether with no input. The game focuses on heavy action and as such has a limited color palette for clarity and readability.

This movie aims at beating each level of the game, all of them requiring us to defeat every enemy to proceed. This movie was produced using the official Linux build executable of the game, downloadable from its page on itch.io.

Being a PICO-8 game, we’re limited to the arrows keys and two buttons. One button can grab and throw objects (such as jars, flasks, bottles, and guns) while the other either uses the object or punches nearby enemies if we’re unarmed. Enemies die in 3 punches, and punching can be done every 4 frames. Despite this efficiency, it is usually not our preferred option to kill enemies. Shooting an enemy with a gun of any kind is usually much faster, with all of them requiring only one shot to die.

Interestingly, if an enemy currently holding a weapon is punched, they will drop the weapon they’re holding. As such, we can kill any armored enemy in just 4 frames by punching them, grabbing their dropped gun two frames after, and shooting it two frames after.

Guns usually go through some cooldown animation after they are shot. As such, it is usually faster to throw them after shooting them, especially if doing so would allow us to grab another one in less time. This is showcased in both the first and last level. Interestingly tho, the window to do so is extremely small, which I have yet to decide is intended or not.

Throwing objects at enemies damages them and stuns them just like punching them does. This grants us a safer way to approach enemies and also sets us up to steal their weapons.

feos: Claiming for judging.

feos: Replacing with an improvement and accepting.

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