Displaying items by tag: Pixel Graphics
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.
Without a doubt, few things are more appealing than a good excuse to log online and murder random opponents with my friends – and, typically, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) variety is preferable to salty, overly-competitive strangers. Streets of Rogue is a refreshing, action-RPG-adventure-stealth-shooter conglomeration developed by Matt Dabrowski, and it's a title that promises to be an excellent addition to the line-up of hits from tinyBuild Games. Released on March 10th, 2017, this Early Access title stresses that it is all about choices – but will gamers choose it, when there are so many other chaotic, anarchic alternatives?
With bursts of pressure, ethereal atmosphere, and engaging soundtrack, Blink brings style and originality to your standard design in puzzle-platforming. If you’re a fan of the genre and are equipped with a controller, its cheaper price point makes it worth a buy.
Kronos uses uninspired or recycled art style, storyline, and dialogue, but that's just that start of what's wrong with this title. Beyond the aesthetic issues, the bugs in Kronos are too much to ignore. Maybe with more work on bugs and glitches, Kronos could be playable enough to enjoy; for now, Kronos doesn’t come close to standing out in an already competitive genre.
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.
XenonValkyrie is a project that held many promising ideals. It sought to be the synchronized combination of a platforming shooter, rogue-like, and Metroidvania game, but couldn't quite live up to its potential. It had too much on its plate, and the result was a disjointed and buggy mash of disconnected aspects of many genres. Pile that on top of balance, design, and control issues and you get a game that is unfairly difficult and lacks truly elaborate content. Nevertheless, the game is still somewhat enjoyable, if you have a knack for the brutally challenging and are willing to invest a lot of time and tolerance to unravel what it does have to offer.
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.
Milkmaid of the Milky Way makes its impression as a passion project that had solid foundations but leaves a little more to desire. It hits all the right notes in every way, but leaves room for expansion. Much has untapped potential that, I suspect, isn't matched with the developer’s funds and assets. Even though the game is short, you feel engaged and immersed the entire way. It’s also a title that could appeal to anyone, even gamers who aren't accustomed to classic point-and-click games. Overall, the inexpensive Milkmaid of the Milky Way is worth checking out. Appreciate the heart and personalization that went into making it so concisely wonderful.
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.
BUTCHER is a polished, extremely well-built 2D shooter that wears its difficulty on its sleeve. It's an absolute blast to play, but players may find difficulty adjusting to the incredible challenges that await them. If you have the patience to withstand this level of gameplay, you’ll be prepared to feel the rush of adrenaline when completing one of BUTCHER’s insanely hard levels. It isn't Dark Soulism, or Hotline Miamian excellence, but it comes darn close. The game looks great and plays great, and I most def recommend it to anyone looking for some brutal, arcade action.
Madrobot X fails to mix up the genre in any meaningful way, but it doesn’t have to. It’s a cheap game that plays well and is worth checking out for anyone who is a fan of old arcade shoot ‘em ups. If you’ve got a buck and a few minutes to kill, you might as well go for it.
The gameplay isn’t deep, the content isn’t even slightly politically-correct, and there aren’t enough levels. That said, Intensive Exposure is a stupidly-fun game that delivers exactly what it promises, with a few great surprise laughs along the way. Definitely worth it.
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.
I had no little expectations when I first started playing Dreambreak. The screenshots looked interesting and I’m a sucker for point and click based titles, especially ones that seem to have new takes on the genre, so I just had to try it out. What I got was a pleasant little surprise of a gem.
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.
In a gaming word where top-down shooters are quite overplayed and almost flooding the market, Enter The Gungeon has done an excellent job setting itself aside from the rest. Not many top-down shooters have such well-done mechanics and fun dungeon crawling aspects. Currently available now on Steam, priced at $14.99, this game is definitely worth picking up and giving it a run through. I think you’ll enjoy it just as much as I have.
Bunker Punks is a roguelike first-person shooter set in a dystopian future. You control a group of revolutionaries, raiding corporate strongholds for supplies, weapons and armor. Customize your bunker, strengthen your gang and overthrow the corporate government.