How to play
GETAWAY FLOP is a heist race in the style of a 1930s rubber-hose cartoon, with bendy arms and legs, ink hatching, film grain, flicker and scratches. Four crooks, Spud, Dot, Lefty and Mugsy, race across the city rooftops to the getaway car. The first crook to reach it scores a getaway, and the first to three getaways wins the match. A strip at the top of the screen shows how far each crook is from the car.
Player 1 hops left and right with A and D. Tap again in mid-air for a second hop. W, S or Space fires whatever you are holding. Player 2 hops with Left and Right and fires with Up or Down. On a phone there are on-screen hop buttons and a BANG button. Esc opens the menu.
Your crook is wobbly. The way your body tilts steers each hop and points your gun, and if you land tilted too far you flop flat on the roof for a moment. Fall off the rooftops and you come back on the last roof you stood on, a second or so later.
Tips and strategy
- Hop small. Every hop gives your body a swing in the direction you hop, plus a little random wobble. Short, steady hops with a pause to settle keep you upright. A string of fast hops tips you over and ends in a flop.
- Getting up is slow. A hop made while you are lying flat only has about two thirds of its usual power, so a flop costs more than the time on the floor.
- Use the double hop for gaps. You get one hop in the air, and it comes back each time you land. Save it for wide gaps or to rescue a hop that is falling short.
- Bounce on the awnings. The striped awnings down in some gaps throw you high with a BOING, and give you back your air hop.
- Time the scaffolds. Window-washer planks swing back and forth across the widest gaps. Wait until one comes towards you.
- Arm up. Run into a crate on a roof to pick up a random weapon. Knocking the leader off a roof just before the car can swing a whole round.
- Aim with your tilt. Your gun points the way you face, tipped by how you lean, so line yourself up before you fire.
What's in it
Three weapons, one at random from each crate:
- The POPGUN has six quick, straight shots that knock a crook back and stun them briefly.
- The BLUNDERBUSS has three blasts, each a spread of five shots at short range. Its kick is strong enough to throw you off your feet, so brace for it.
- The CREAM PIE is thrown in an arc, three to a crate. A hit splats the crook in the face and stuns them for over a second.
An empty crate fills up again a few seconds later.
The single-player campaign of heists pits you against three bots. Each heist you pull off moves you on to the next, where the rooftop run is longer, the gaps are wider, the swinging scaffolds come more often and swing further, and the bots are sharper. Rooftops are built fresh for each round, with chimneys to hop over and water towers in the background. Lose a match and you try the same heist again.
Winning heists unlocks hats for your crook: the Bowler at heist 2, the Stovepipe at 3, the Prop Beanie at 5, the Fez at 7 and the Tin Crown at 10. Pick one from the menu.
The two-player mode puts two people on one keyboard with two bots joining in, on mid-difficulty rooftops.
Behind the game
Each crook is a body on a spring. On the ground, a strong spring pulls it upright; in the air the pull is much weaker, so a crook can tip over mid-hop. Every hop pushes the body round, and if it lands leaning more than about three quarters of the way to the floor, it flops. The same lean that tips you over also bends the path of your hop, which is why a wobbly crook goes the wrong way.
The bots play by the same rules. They hop towards the car, and the better ones wait for their wobble to settle before the next hop, save their air hop for when they are about to fall short, and fire when someone is in front of them at the right range. Their skill rises with every heist you win.
The art is drawn like an old cartoon: three-tone shading with ink hatching in the shadows, thick ink outlines, a two-colour film grade, grain, flicker, scratches and an iris wipe between rounds. The arms and legs are rebuilt every frame as bendy rubber hoses.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Your campaign progress, best heist and hat are saved in your browser.
How do I unlock hats?
Win heists in the campaign. A new hat opens at heists 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10, and the end card tells you when one arrives.
Can two people play?
Yes, on one keyboard, against two bots.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes, in the single-player campaign, using the on-screen hop buttons and the BANG button.
Is it violent?
It is old-cartoon slapstick. Crooks are knocked off roofs with popguns and pies; there is no blood.
Does it flash?
The picture has a constant gentle old-film flicker, and there is a brief brightening when a crook reaches the car, but no strobing.