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# Thief of Bagdad meets zoological lithographs in this bizarre shoot ’em up
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/thief-bagdad-meets-zoological-lithographs-bizarre-shoot/
- Published: 2015-09-15T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T17:06:04.000Z
- Description: Arabian flights.
- Author: Chloi Rad
- Tags: News, rostok, shoot em up, Surreal, Thief of Bagdad, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

*TOBAFCASS*, or *Thief of Bagdad – A Flying Carpet Arabian Side Shooter*, may be one of the few games that can accurately hold that title. Inspired by the Douglas Fairbanks silent film of the same name (well the *Thief of Bagdad* part), [*TOBAFCASS*](http://rostok.itch.io/tobafcass?ref=killscreen.com) has you controlling three adventurers on order from a Sultan to save a Princess.

Braving a sandstorm, the trio hop on their magic carpet and are on their way. It’s the typical, simplified tale one would expect from a ‘20s-era silent movie about “The Middle East,” but rendered here in the form of a side-scrolling shooter, it takes on a new, slightly surreal charm.

Rostok’s games tend to be unforgiving

It’s only made more odd for its use of real, live-action characters aboard the magic carpet you control; the game’s enemies made up of lithographic prints of various sea creatures taken from the German biologist Ernst Haeckel’s book *Kunstformen der Natur*.

Let’s not forget its soundtrack either: an electronic take on traditional Arabic music, lo-fi oud punctuating a backdrop of breakbeat drums.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/previously/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rostok2.png)

According to Rostok, the game *TOBAFCASS* borrows from most is *Agony*, the bizarre and hellishly challenging Amiga shoot ‘em up from 1992, where you control an owl through a series of hostile worlds, blasting monsters with waves of echolocation.

Based on the two I’ve played, Rostok’s games tend to be unforgiving themselves. One-hit kills and few health points make getting far in *TOBAFCASS* pretty tough, and some of the puzzles in [*The Bear, the Cat, and the Rabbit*](http://rostok.itch.io/the-bear-the-cat-and-the-rabbit?ref=killscreen.com) (one of my favorite games this year) were as hard to penetrate as some of the isometric games of decades past it was made to resemble.

*If you like a challenge and value some interesting visuals alongside, check out Rostok’s [itch.io](http://rostok.itch.io/?ref=killscreen.com).*