psy·cho·pomp

a person who conducts spirits or souls to the other world, as Hermes or Charon.

This rather obscure word is the focus of Psychopomps, an entry into the Something Awful “Death and Taxes” game development challenge. And while not many are likely to know the origin of the word psychopomp, there are a lot of familiar faces here.

The story is rather simple. Anubis has, for some reason, been out cold. In his absence, the ferrying of souls from the living to the afterlife has become severely dysfunctional, and his fellow psychopomps – Charon and Valkyrie – have been warped and disturbed in his absence. With the assistance of Death’s Messenger, he must make his way through his pyramid, defeat lost souls who have been driven made by neglect, and reunite with the other psychopomps.

In practice, it’s very similar to Cave Story. You run around, killing enemies and collecting their souls (life) and coins (weapon level). There are three different characters, each with their own attacks and special abilities. Anubis can turn into a dog to fit in corridors only one square tall and fires normal shots. Charon can jump normally in water and shooters a weak spread shot that travels through objects. Valkyrie jumps higher than the rest and shoots an explosive shot which breaks into tons of smaller pieces. It’s most likely you’ll stick with Anubis through most of the game, though, as his shot is quite powerful at max level.

While Psychopomps is definitely inspired by Cave Story, it stands on its own as a fun game, and it’s worth the thirty minutes or so it takes to finish. It also helps that the main characters have excellent art and animations. You can play it online, as it is a Flash game, or you can download it to your hard drive and play locally. Both are available on the project’s SADev wiki page. The developer is also promising to keep updating it with new levels.