Get to Know About Thing Thing 4
If you’ve ever sunk a good chunk of time into a side-scrolling shooter, you’ll feel right at home with Thing Thing 4. You jump into it as a lone mercenary armed to the teeth, but pretty quickly you’ll wish your trigger finger was as quick as your wits. The game throws a steady barrage of enemies—gunmen, mutants, and the occasional hulking brute—at you from both sides of the screen, and you learn fast that keeping on the move is your best defense. Even though it’s a Flash-era title, the controls are snappy enough that pulling off a mid-air dodge feels satisfyingly slick.
Between levels you get to tinker with your load-out, swapping pistols for shotguns or grenade launchers, and picking upgrades that boost your firepower or give you a few extra seconds of invincibility when things go south. It never feels like you’re just grinding for better gear, though; there’s a real sense of strategy in deciding whether to bring along armor-piercing rounds or a battery of Molotov cocktails for a fiery surprise. Plus, the pixel-art style—rough around the edges but packed with personality—keeps the action from ever feeling stale.
One of my favorite surprises was the two-player co-op mode. Dragging a friend into the fray instantly turns every corridor into a dynamic gauntlet. You cover each other’s backs, trade weapons on the fly, and occasionally provoke each other into watching the other get swarmed by spider-like freaks. It’s chaotic and ridiculous, and in the best way possible. The boss fights ramp up that chaos, too—be it a hulking robot with a minigun arm or a knife-wielding psychopath who telegraphs every swing just enough for you to squeak out a last-second dodge.
By the time you hit the final mission, Thing Thing 4 has shown off its wry sense of humor, relentless pacing, and hidden depth beneath the surface mayhem. It’s the sort of game you can pick up for five minutes or an hour and come away feeling giddy from the non-stop action. Even years later, when most folks have abandoned browser-based shooters, Thing Thing 4 still holds up as a primetime example of “just one more round” done right.