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You may have heard of Robot Unicorn Attack by now. You probably gave it a quick play-through in which you were thoroughly disgusted by the art and music. You probably even tried to like it ironically. You may have even gotten frustrated with it after falling short of one too many ledges. But here's something you may not have noticed: you had fun playing it. There's a very simple reason for this. Rainbow Unicorn Attack is a great example of a well-designed game.

Even as it loads, the game is designed to throw you off. It's like a 11 year old girl's wildest fantasy as illustrated by Lisa Frank. There are butterflies, brilliant sparkles, rainbows, and a silhouette of the titular unicorn. A simple synthy tune plays. It's seven shades of highly saturated vomit-inducing gaiety.

The game starts off with minimal instruction. Press Z for double jump, X for dash, and the more spiritual instruction "Press Z to make your wishes come true." When you press Z, you are presented with a silver unicorn with a flowing rainbow mane and tail galloping across a grassy platform. "Always" by Erasure plays. But don't bail out now, this is where it gets good.

The game is definetly a twitch game — that is, it relies solely on reflexes — but it gently eases you in to things. The first jump is really a drop that needs no input, and you are set to collide with the first floating fairy bonus. In this first five seconds, the game demonstrates two game mechanics. And in another five seconds, you've already cleared some easy jumps and collected a few fairies. Just like that, you're playing the game. No tutorial or boring demonstration.

Soon, the game throws in another obstacle, the star. The star must be dashed through in a blaze of rainbow glory. It gets your attention by sparkling as it enters the playfield, and the game displays in large letters "DASH (X)!!!" thus acquainting you with the third and final game mechanic. You dash through the star, and it explodes in a gratuitous pixelated fireball. That's it. Jump, dash, enjoy.

Another sign of good game design is that the controls feel natural. When it's fun just to jump, you've done it right. The exploding stars are also immensely satisfying, and it's even fun to die. Upon impact with a wall or the unseen chasms below, the robot unicorn explodes in a cascade of pixelated fireballs, and the severed head flies toward the screen. The retry screen shows the decapitated unicorn crying as the timer counts down to try again.

It's so brilliantly simple and fun. It really shows what a bunch of master trolls the Adult Swim folks are, creating a game with such schlocky pretense but such satisfying gameplay. Keep it up, guys. :)