Displaying items by tag: Retro

Yet another rogue-lite glorifying the genocide of the pirate race, Flinthook’s clever controls and mechanics bring challenging gameplay that requires practice to make perfect. Procedurally-generated levels and progression through death ensure a unique experience, reinforced by pleasing visuals and an equally accomplished soundtrack. All will find themselves motivated to keep playing, and lovers of the genre will surely appreciate the twists that successfully make Flinthook a unique experience in a saturated market.

Lil Tanks is a solid title, providing four distinct game modes, twenty unique types of enemies, four tank variants, and multiple power-ups and weapon upgrades. The gameplay is uncomplicated and offers an enjoyable experience. However, it lacks any form of customization, and it might become repetitive after a few hours. Lil Tanks succeeds as a side-scrolling shooter, but there is a scarcity of originality in the game. That said, genre enthusiasts should certainly be entertained, especially at its current price point.

The Disney Afternoon Collection is well polished, and a solid collection piece. Each title is ported over well, with tight controls and fluid responsiveness, but there’s also plenty of extra features to enhance gameplay. For those who have been interested in playing any of the titles included or want to replay them on a newer system, this is a strong choice for you.

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Yooka-Laylee is a wacky 3D-platformer and the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, after nineteen long years. Ultimately, nostalgia alone should never be the reason behind a purchase; nor should it ever overshadow gameplay and mechanics so much that care about how the release actually plays falls by the wayside. It definitely brings the 1990s era to the modern day, but some things just should be left in the past.

In all, Beat Cop is a sharp, retro-centric look at 80s Brooklyn, with all its exciting cocaine, prostitution, gang wars, and overly synthesized tunes, but Beat Cop doesn't rely on nostalgia to succeed. It's a title that stands on its own, and casual racism and sexisms aside, it handily competes with similar time-management titles that have been released in the last few years.

River City Ransom: Underground is fantastic in how it truly captures the feel of retro games, and it’s clear from the experience that Conatus Creative provides the desire and requisite talent. On top of the original beat-em-up feel, additional features round out the title quite nicely, such as RPG leveling aspects and a fighting engine that packs a punch.

With a few tweaks to make it a little more palatable to the modern gamer, Alwa’s Awakening captures the joy that can come from conquering a difficult experience. It doesn’t do anything new, but in bringing back the old, it shows how fun finding your own way can be.

With an intricately crafted world, innovative and engaging battle system, and delightful array of scenery and music, this game is a splendid and true tribute to the SNES JRPG.  The bugs one might encounter in beta versions are overshadowed by pure awe and captivation—a relentless desire to play more and more.

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Warlock's Tower is overall well developed, and it definitely shows; the gameplay is smooth, and the puzzles are carefully crafted.  What you get is a challenging but fair experience layered under a bundle of silly and retro enjoyment. Retro is a common and almost diluted theme in many indie titles nowadays, but in this case, it's pulled off extremely well and looks beautifully authentic.  While the price point is a little steep for what seems like a simple old-school puzzler, there is a lot of depth and mechanics to make it worth it for those who can appreciate good design.

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Use your magic staff and progress through a large interconnected world where you'll solve puzzles, fight enemies and defeat bosses in order to help free the land of Alwa. Explore and uncover the secrets by using your platforming skills in this challenging and charming 8-bit adventure game.

As much as I wanted to recommend Don't Chat With Strangers, your time and money are better spent elsewhere. Accumulating Steam Achievements which are, essentially, a scrapbook of the many ways in which Lucy killed you, is undeniably fun. Sadly, these aren't enough to make the title shine: Don't Chat With Strangers is another retro, point-and-click adventure with much novelty and a great premise to begin with, yet it ultimately fails as a puzzle horror game.

Super Rad Raygun has many things and is a great reminder of the old days, for those old enough to have had a Nintendo Gameboy during the 90’s. Slick retro style. Easy mechanics. Great references, if you're capable of picking them up, and a nice soundtrack. Expect mix ups with downloads, which would probably be fixed in a future update. Yet even with the nostalgia, it's hard to decide if I like it - or not.

Creepy Castle feels like it’s complete and was handled with love.  It hit all the right notes with me:  quirky but meaningful plot and characters, elegant retro art and sound, and simple but engaging exploration and combat. 

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There’s certainly a lot of work that could be done to spruce The Garden up further, like a graphics overall and some more compelling sound effects, but it’s not a bad little game to tinker around with when you want something fairly low-key and casual. I only had one incident where the program crashed, but I that indicates there could be a risk for ongoing bugs and glitches, so please consider this a cautionary recommendation heavy on the quantifiers.

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I absolutely cannot recommend the Lucius Demake highly enough, for anyone who enjoys macabre storylines, a riveting, intriguing Point-&-Click adventure, or even just for fans of the original two Lucius titles.

Rescue exotic space animals from a corrupt AI in Dr. Spacezoo, a chaotic twin-stick precision shoot-em-up for 1-4 players. Or reduce them to gibs. Your call, monster.

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