The scores have been tabulated and the results are in: the overall winner of the minimalism-themed Ludum Dare 26 72-hour Game Jam is Leaf Me Alone, a retro Metroidvania-style platformer by Mark Foster and David Fenn. Now, "minimalism" and "Metroidvania" aren't two words that usually go together, but Foster and Fenn has put together a wonderful little world for a pixelated-blob-type-thing to explore, if one that could use a little more direction from time to time.

The year is 1978. A child has found a video game they've never heard of before. but he doesn't realize that things on the other side of the screen lie waiting for him to play it. Misadventure is an action-adventure horror game by Mike Houser, done in the retro style of a 4-bit Atari game gone horribly wrong, and its atmospheric creepiness more than makdes up for a little directionessless in its gameplay.

8-bit-lovers worldwide having been searching for the next lost retro work, and Watergate: The Video Game, could very well be that. Now some may claim that this point-and-click adventure game, was only recently developed by Samuel Kim, which is why things get so hilariously surreal. A wry combination of video game parody, pop culture riffing, and political satire, Watergate tries to be a lot of things, and it generally succeeds.

You are a little white ghost – check. You want to be a big, important demon – check. You must defeat other demons to succeed – check. You can only reach them by beating levels where lots of pixels fly around and try to kill you – che... Wait, what? Ghostly Me is a tricky platformer in which you jump over, under and across moving obstacles on your way to fiendish fame.

In the platformer created by Ludum Dare veteran, Jussi Simpanen, for their 26th competition, the theme of minimalism was embraced in both graphics and gameplay. But don't let that fool you into thinking the story runs the same way. Having committed a horrible act, you must platform your way through dangerous levels to beg forgiveness and prove your worth of it. The fine melding of story and level design will have you invested in the character by the mysterious ending.

Welcome about your starship, commander. It may not have much going for it right now, but it's yours. With time, training, and diligence, you could turn it into a credit to Star Command's fleet... provided, of course, you don't get caught up in a deadly web of conspiracy and intrigue that could spell your demise. A challenging and addictive sci-fi simulation strategy game packed with gorgeous pixel art.

Quantum Corps is a fast-and-furious run-and-gun retro shooter by HypnoHustler where players manipulate time and gravity to take out Neo-Detroit drug scourge in the futuristic year of 2002. Definitely a game for those who with their gravity-platformers had more exploding vats, Quantum Corps may have simple mechanics, but will keep fans of the genre gleefully speed-and-slow-running.

Magnetized, by Rocky Hong, is a simple one-button HTML5 physics game of pushing, pulling, and sling-shotting a little blip around a screen. Featuring intuitive gameplay, and an atmospheric abstract presentation, Magnetized may require a bit too much precision for some, but has charms that many will be drawn to.

No one has to die is an HTML5 visual novel by Stuart Madafiglio where sacrifice is the only way to get closer to solving the full mystery at hand. The turn-based puzzles that drive the plot feel a little perfunctory when compared to the twisty story, but fans of cerebral, complex stories should definitely give it several playthroughs.

Barbarium, created by Hypnohustler, is a retro action platformer set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With your sword and lasergun combo (really, the best combo there is) you set off to rescue babes, drink beer and restore a little order to this crazy world.

You are a cute kitty, trapped in a not-so-cute dungeon. You can escape, but there are rules you'll need to follow in Niliter Game's puzzle platformer, Cat Walk Once. Though the Japanese text is untranslated, Cat Walk Once has the retro charm and clever level design of the most classic Gameboy puzzlers, and it's something that will definitely be played much more than once.

Melodisle, a puzzle platformer by Andrew Gleeson, is a pixelated game of music and melodies, using your character's singing to affect the world around him. A unique experimental work and though the puzzles can get a little esoteric, it's has a lot of creativity for its short length.

An experimental text-based adventure game from ScriptWelder that has you waking up disoriented in an unknown place, trying to get information from a source that not too eager to give anything away. A short but intelligent sci-fi yarn, with an up-to-the-task conversational parser that the author is dedicated to improving through community feedback.

Inner Vision, a flixel visual novel, from debuting developer Sunil Rao, tackles one of the most important subjects, and one of the most difficult to do justice: suicide. Based on the author's own experiences with depression, Inner Vision presents you with three individuals contemplating killing themselves, and asks you to talk with them. It's a game that's not at all subtle about its message, but it's one many deserve to hear: "You are not alone."

Help Gray get back to his UFO and keep him safe from monstrous farm animals, aggressive wildlife, and an itchy trigger finger redneck in this retro point-and-click adventure by Fitz. Guide him through a surprisingly rich, 4-color world as it changes from day to night, and solve all the tricky inventory-based puzzles that block your path. Gray has as much encyclopedic knowledge as he has snark (and he's more than happy to share both with you), but will it be enough to get him back home?

Sterile laboratory setting. Series of dangerous test chambers. Generic Omnipresent Voice running the show. Oh, and a syrup that can bring you back to life. With clever level design and overseer dialogue that captures just the right mix of humor and menace, Revive, a puzzle platformer by JonBro, is perfect for players looking for that sweet spot of simple concept and challenging gameplay.

Underneath that rainbow of squares lies demons galore! Cool demons, though! Mamano Digger is a simple idea puzzler by Hojokama Games that makes the SameGame formula feel a little different. A minimalist gaming experience that probably won't have much replay value once you've beaten it, but you probably won't be able to stop playing until you do.

This sub mission was a fiasco from the start, but if you could have said no to your Nazi commanders you wouldn't be spending December 1941 in the depths of the Atlantic. And there are... things out there. Subbania is a metroidvania-style action-adventure by ektomarch, where cosmic horrors lurk in the depths. Quite unsettling and atmospheric, if a little stingy on save points.

Stupid heroes! Always looting your randomly scattered GPs, knocking down your doors and whacking that stupid sword of theirs against your orbs of true evilness. Well, this one picked the wrong dungeon to vandalize, because you're the Atomic Creep Spawner and you've got a whole mess of atomic creeps just waiting to be spawned.

'Tis the season for pixels in this holly jolly twisted simple hidden-object game starring roughly every character ever from all of pop culture. From video game heroes to 80s cartoon stars, they're all here participating in some winter wonderland carnage, and it's up to you to track them down in the chaotic scene... all 173 of them.

A platform game that presents a world where the Yeti spends his days outrunning an angry anthropomorphic snowball. One of the few platform games where action and puzzle elements are split right down the middle, Oh Snow can be occasionally frustrating, but always fun.

An HTML5 retro puzzle game in which golf plays in reverse as you put together the friendliest fairways possible. With puzzles that effectively mix programming and physics, FLOG captures the feel of an 8-bit classic that never was, and its high-but-not-frustrating challenge level is just par for the course.

It's been a rough day for CP6, the pixelly titular star of Gametron Studios' new platform game. His game has been deleted, so he needs to travel through the innards of the computer to the land of back-up, and, worse yet, he has no knees for jumping! A tough but fair retro game with interesting art, and gobs of addictiveness to balance out its frustrations.

A Man's Quest is an HTML5 action platformer by The Drunk Devs that hearkens to yesteryear, both in terms of its retro graphics and the bouncy spirit of childhood. Help Ty show up his rival Kevin by swiping his place as Chosen One and being the first to make it to the top of Ominous Power. A compressed burst of fun, if one with somewhat loose jump physics.

How could Roman Squall and Yuriy Kurenkov possibly top the shameless clonage of Shame Clone, their awesome melting pot of bullet-hell and internet culture? Why, by making a sequel of course! In retrospect, the answer seems obvious. It's Shameless Clone 2, the arcade space shooter that rips off ALL the things! More a remake or expansion, Shameless Clone 2 is undeniably a quality work, though may leave fans of the original wanting more.

Magical Time Bean delivers a tower-defense game with a twist, as you play a wizard with the ability to summon the souls of warriors while searching a massive, ancient ruin full of danger. Summon and recall heroes to defend you while making use of their strengths and weaknesses against increasingly more powerful and varied monsters, visiting the Merchant to purchase upgrades. Challenging and surprisingly strategic, this is a clever, lengthy game that can keep you occupied for quite some time.

A murder has happened. Yours. who would want to kill you? No one is going to tell a ghost... but your sure your guests won't mind if you borrow their bodies to gather a little information. After all, you'll be happy to move on when you're finished. Why Am I Dead? is a retro-style mystery adventure game where intricate plotting and characters more than make up for unpolished programming.

It's Halloween but your scheduled trick-or-treating has been interrupted by an alien invasion! Only your group of hyperactive, sugar-addicted trick-or-treaters can stop them and get the candy back. They Took Our Candy is a sweet treat for anyone who just can't wait to go out trick-or-treating themselves.

Strap into your ship and prepare to Escape From The Very Bad Planet in Fried Pixel Games' new action avoidance side-scroller. It looks like a shoot-em-up, but approaching it with the goal of flying as far as you can in mind, rather than blasting everything in sight, players will find quite the fast-paced and challenging bit of arcade fun.

Save the world in this retro-fashioned Zelda-like adventure game with tons of enemies, weapons, quests, level up system, and a huge world to explore! Customize the keyboard commands as well as your character's stats to suit your playing style and hack-and-slash your way through the nostalgically detailed, 16-bit environment.

The latest in Toge Production's popular series of zombie action-strategy games, Infectonator 2 thrives on frenetic chain-reaction based gameplay, its awesome sprite art, and the pure adrenaline rush one gets by infecting the world, continent by continent. It may be a bit taxing on the CPU for such mindless fun, but that just means you'll keep going even after someone has taken a chomp from your brain

Your evil twin has hidden your lance somewhere in the castle, all because yours was bigger than his. Seek it out through 40 levels in this retro styled puzzle platform game - the king has promised the crown to whoever's lance is longest.

Call it base sentimentality, but sometime what we need is a pinata racing through a magical candy kingdom, collecting gummi bears and dodging sugar-hungry bat-wielding toddlers. Gameshot apparently has recognized this Jungian urge and delivers with Pina Pony, a retro jump and run platformer. Like a bag of Skittles, Pina Pony may not fill you up, but it's fun and colorful, and definitely a sweet snack.

Trapped inside a classic Gameboy, help an anonymous little 8-bit character to escape his world in this retro platform game from Folmer Kelly. Or don't, and take him through an endless gauntlet of spikes and platforms. It's short but worth the 5 minutes it takes to beat.

The star of Kyle Rodgers' Bread Duck is a duck that's a loaf of bread. Who rescues kitties. Do you really need anything else, internet? Well, if you do, it's a fun little retro puzzle platformer, whose chirpy chiptune soundtrack and off-kilter humor will keep you playing.

It's high octane snake as you slither around 73 levels, trying to keep ahead of the explosions caused by your own combustible body. A help as much as a hindrance, blast through bricks and push blocks with literally explosive force to make your way through progressively more difficult mazes.

Stable Boy is a charming little retro throwback to the good old days of adventure gaming, featuring some great pixel art and humor that's more Monty Python than King's Quest. The controls are simple, as is the premise: get out there and explore, try out different endings, and try to help out villagers, and don't forget to chuckle at all the Ren Faire tropes.

WWII was a serious historical event. Relic of War by TogeProductions, on the other hand, is a fun alternative-history strategy game with paranormal elements, isometric Wolf 3D aesthetics, and Nazis in miniskirts. Beneath the questionable storyline, however, is a solid strategy game that will have even the most snooty of history buffs cheering for more ectoplasm and mutants!

In the year 20XX, Dr. Wily has been defeated by Mega Man (again). He escaped capture and life returned to normal, his eight robot masters returning to storage until the day their circuits may be modified to aid society. As it turns out, that day is today! Dr. Wily wasted no time attacking once again, unleashing a super virus that has disrupted Mega Man's systems and turned computers across the globe into enemies of humanity. With no other options at his disposal, Dr. Light releases the eight robot masters, hoping their virus-free circuits can defeat Wily once and for all. So begins Mega Man: Day in the Limelight 2 by Fusion Team, a retro platforming action adventure that's sure to bring a twinkle to the eye of any child of the 8-bit generation.

We all love metroidvanias! But would we still love them if, instead of controlling a scifi bounty hunter, or a badass vampire slayer, we played as the alphabet? Answer: Yes! And ASCIIvania, an exploration platformer by Gharding3, is the proof! ASCIIvania is clearer documentation, a map screen and a mute button away from excellence, but its still a fun time.

Taking its cues from Portal 1 and 2, as well as Portal: The Flash Version, Portal Quest puts you back in the testing lab with a portal gun and little else to aid your escape. There's no GLaDOS, but there is a fun puzzle game set at just the right difficulty. And plenty of science.

Brent Silby's latest DHTML creation is Robot, a cool little retro shooter where Robot must fly and Robot must blast untold hordes of Alien Invaders. What's more, Robot must protect his pack of adorable Baby Robots. And since, as everyone knows, Baby Robots are Alien Invaders' favorite food, Robot is not going to have an easy time. A retro shooter with elements both familiar and unique, Robot is classic arcade fun.

Created in 72 hours for a recent game jam, Disillusion by True Valhalla is a short, somewhat abstract platform adventure that focuses heavily on atmosphere and exploration. You begin with a sword and a vague goal in the back of your mind: go to the end of the world and find the Holy Artifact. If you don't, your people won't survive. Sounds like motivation to us! You quickly head out into the hazy world, ready to tread down branching non-linear paths, defeat enemies both small and gargantuan, and pull off some tricky jumps with the greatest of ease.

You don't remember your master getting so old But today is a special day, and you have special plans together. Like she's always said: to achieve the impossible, all you need is a change of Perspective. An artistic puzzle platformer by NFyre, Perspective has an undercurrent of sweet melancholy in its text that helps to make up for slippery controls.

Chunkadelic, developed by Noel Berry and Chevy Ray Johnson for the Full-Indie 48-hour Game Jam is one third Atari, one third WarioWare, and one third discotheque. That adds up to a work that's 100% a love letter to arcade retro-gaming. Ephemeral, and a little heavy on the strobe-lighting, but overall an amazing spectacle.

Nitrome seriously overhauls their balloon-centric action avoidance adventure series with this latest installment! When the family pooch is stolen by a malicious spiky baddie, it's up to the son of a hero to venture out into the hostile wild blue yonder and explore stages packed with wild hazards and enemies. With a complete engine revamp, checkpoints, and more responsive controls, it's still a challenge, but not an impossible one!

Scientists have spent years and millions of dollars to turn a regular cat into The Magnetic Cat. His frizzy ferromagnetic fur allows him to stick to all sorts of surfaces, and, as the scientists unfortunately discovered, to easily escape from secret government labs. Now, he wants nothing more than to settle down with a family, but there's still 30 levels of obstacles in his way. A puzzle platformer developed by GrimToyz, The Magnetic Cat's well-conceived central mechanic and multiple-solution level design make up for the minor problems of implementation.

Grab your Photonic Laser Blaster, and get ready to bring a little light to the creatures of the dark in Photon Baby, a genre-busting platformer by Jeremias Babini. Drawing inspiration from all manner of genres, Photon Baby is a unique little creation, with influences as far ranging as Laser Physics puzzles and the 16-bit classic "Zombies Ate My Neighbors". Some of the later levels get a little busy with competing inspirations, but overall Photon Baby is perfect for arcade gamers who wish Halloween lasted all year.

Filed directly under the "yes I'm old enough to remember the games this game was inspired by" category, The Sky is Falling from Ovine by Design is a retro arcade game that would have to revert to lines scratched in the sand to be any more old school. It's built around a simple mechanic that gradually gets more difficult as you play, offering up a crazy premise and a lot of gameplay mastery that only comes with practice, practice, and probably some more practice!

Tiny world, tiny problems, right? More like "not right". Er, yeah. Anyway, Mini Quests is a pint-sized adventure/puzzle game by dishmoth available for Android devices and as a Java Applet for browsers. The chunky-pixeled isometric game puts you in control of a little guy out on an adventure, trudging through the fantasy lands as he hunts for treasure and fights/puzzles his way out of various scrapes, like you do!

As the forlorn leader of scattered tribe with the power to utilize the elements, scour the pixel islands in search of your magic totem powers in this retro real time strategy game. An innovative strategy game that makes manipulation of earth your main priority if you hope to crush your enemies as swiftly as possible. The ability to rain fire from the sky or electrocute your foes is just a nice side benefit of elemental dominion. Do you have the fortitude to reclaim a tribe's history from ashes and bring them to new heights? Prove your worth.

He's a ninja with a mission: to complete the report on time... it's Temp Ninja! In Games Northwest's high difficulty platformer, fly through the air avoiding spikes and trying your darndest to land on tiny platforms or plummet into the unknown. Grab the nearest cup of coffee and spiral your way through 20 levels of an experience you're not likely to find in your own office!

You might not be ready for this Jelly Escape, a puzzle-platformer by Taw Studio. Games about anthropomorphic blobs making their way through dangerous obstacle-laden settings are nothing new, and this one is hit by a bit of CPU lag. With a fluid progression of 50+ levels, a comprehensive checkpoint system that allows the game to be challenging without ever feeling too tough, and a hilariously whimsical sense of humor, though, it's worth checking out.

It is up to a green cosmic wanderer with a chain grapple arm to rescue some grounded birds from certain destruction in this retro adventure grapple game. Ladd Spencer (think classic grapple game...) may have had it rough, but the Chain Champ here has to swing over boiling lava pits, dodge pitfalls, and focus on collapsing grapple surfaces. A quick casual game packed with loads of gameplay, chiptune sound effects, and helpless birds to keep you swinging during a lazy afternoon.

Ever since Pac-Man first escaped off the right side of the screen to magically appear on the left, players have had a certain thing for games that skew traditional notions of spatiality. The Village Blacksmith offers another wonderful take on this kind of teleportation in Recursion, a cool little retro puzzle platformer. The series of single screen levels progresses nicely, even if the jumps require a bit too much precision. Still, Recursion worth playing over and over again.

Jonathan Whiting is here with another wonderfully vague Ludum Dare entry, arcade puzzler, Niña Nueve. Taking place in a nine-by-nine room (or does it?), Niña Nueve leaves it to the player to determine its mechanics, even as they grow ever more complex. Niña Nueve is a short game that will be run through pretty quickly. Still, it is a heck of a ride.

Be afraid. Be very afraid of his scary love. In Bear of Love, a tongue-and-cheek action game from LeBrancher and rzafael, you play a bear who needs to hug people in order to breath, creating a form of photo-hug-synthesis that will have scientists baffled for decades. But there's a catch: you tend to come on too strong and end up killing those you hug when you don't pull away in time. Bear of Love features some great 8-bit pixel art and the funny upgrades and animations will have you chortling to yourself long after the five or ten minutes it takes to finish this game, making it a perfect antidote for the Monday morning blues.

The best games are ones that make you believe you are a part of one story, while another story plays out quietly behind the scenes. In The Ultimate Celebration, a poignant indie platformer from Brian Soulliard, you play a jolly little Party Dude who's only desire is to throw a party for all 20 of his friends. In the real world, you would just call them up on their cell phones and invite them, but where's the fun in that?!

Predicament by Orangepascal is a back to basics escape-the-room game with lovely pixelart and features a story with an unexpected ending. You are a lone survivor who has fallen into a cave and must find their way out if they want to live. But, why are there objects already in this cave? For anyone with a need for a quick escape-the-room fix and a love for stories with ambiguous endings, there is no predicament... just play and enjoy.

The internet loves nostalgia! The internet loves zombies! What do you get when you take these two great tastes that taste great together? The Organ Trail, a parody of a certain edutainment adventure, developed by The Men Who Wear Many Hats, tasks you with the familiar goal of safely leading a party across the US to the west coast. However, this time your Conestoga is replaced by a station wagon, there are no buffalo, and, oh yeah, there are legions of the undead just waiting for a good ol' fashioned brain chomping. The Organ Trail sticks a little too close to its inspiration in the repetitive mid-game, but overall it is an enjoyable mix of shout outs and classic gameplay.

With gameplay inspired by the classic Rampage series, take control of a huge, angry dinosaur and smash your way through a fully destructive city. Punch through buildings and swat missiles out of the air as the army tries to stop you reuniting with your lost son in this epic 8bit arcade game.

Explore the Tiny Worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom in Johan Peitz's Ludum Dare entry, A Super Mario Summary. A distillation of the original 32 levels of Super Mario Brothers in single screen puzzle-platform format, A Super Mario Summary is a loving tribute, but more than that, a great game.

Created for the Ludum Dare 23 Jam, this charming puzzle platformer puts you in the role of Soldier Hinds as he attempts to escape the clutches of the evil Zordak on the small prison of Planet 161. It isn't just a great game for something created in under 48 hours. It's a great game full stop. Using three very different types of guns that allow you to manipulate your environment in different ways, Planet 161 dishes out cramped levels that unfold in complexity, offering up a few pretty compelling exercises for the gray matter while not suffering from being overly difficult.

Space... the final frontier. You never would have thought it was so pixelated out there though. Kairosoft takes a crack at a sci-fi simulation with its latest installment to the "Story" series of games. As some of the first intrepid humans to blast off and colonize a new planet, the actions you take help to expand your influence throughout the galaxy. The best way to influence these extraterrestrials is to attract them to your planet like its a tax-free shopping mall. Those aliens literally buy anything you can give them, especially chocolate cake and fine jewels. The aliens' spending habits, the exploration of your planet, and missions of peace to others are the best ways to help your colony prosper. You can't start a colony all by your lonesome so make sure your treat those octopians real well.

Developed by Jonathan Whiting for Ludum Dare 22, Craequ throws players into a puzzling pixelated world of corridors, pushable blocks and crystal balls. It's up to the player to discover the logic behind it, but if you do, you'll feel really smart.

Anaksha, the butt-kicking heroine from the sniping simulation adventure Dark Angel, goes a different route in this collection of quirky old-school style adventures with a sense of humour. Solve problems for people, come up with creative solutions to obstacles, and a lot more in Arif Majothi's trio of games set in Anaksha's world. Originally conceived as a simple experiment with a new game engine, they show the evolution of talent and determination all the way up to "A New Threat", which boasts a ton of replay value for one very odd but entertaining adventure.

Dys4ia is a retro arcade-y piece of interactive art by transsexual author Anna Anthropy about her six-month experience with hormonal therapy. Raw and emotional, but surprisingly humorous, for good or for bad, this is the kind of game that will get people thinking and talking.

Playing a secret agent is always fun, even when it's pared down to a simple one-button game, like in Agent Turnright by Pencilkids. 16 levels of mini-games await you and your right pointer finger as you help Turnright work his way to defeating the boss and winning the girl. In how many clicks can you complete this adventure?

In the year 2049, all the water on Earth has been depleted. The nearest source of the good stuff is our friendly neighborhood Mars. So... let's go get it, shall we? Mars Commando is a defense game that emphasizes unit placement and strategy over swarms of soldiers, allowing you to earn the satisfaction of eradicating thousands of aliens with half a dozen of your own troops.

In Tiny Airships, you'll use your airship to defend your home against the vile Tyrian Empire and hopefully you'll manage it without plummeting to the earth. The various combinations of upgrades add a nice level of depth, since you can customize your craft to suit your play style.

Ms. Particle-Man! Ms. Particle-Man! Showing off things that Silverlight can! What's it like? Pretty good! Ms. Particle-Man! A fun little work from Picobots where the quest for the Higgs Boson particle takes on the guise of a 1980s arcade hit, Ms. Particle-Man is so aggressively science-geeky and displays such love for the games it emulates, that a nostalgia trip is almost inevitable.

Captain Commander: Defender of the Galaxy! Crash landed on an alien planet, it's up to him and the trusty blaster at his side, to run, jump, shoot, drive and fly across the landscape, decimating the population and rescuing his comrades from their probe-happy captors. A fine retro run-and-gun action game from PixelJAM and Adult Swim, there's be much havoc to wreak, and many green things to insult before the mission is over.

Hot Tub Heist is a gloriously silly action arcade game from Beef Jack Studios. It stars a speedo-clad body-builder who must abandon his daily GTL routine, so that he may battle through a collapsing high rise, to reach the safety of the alien-proof subway below. Hot Tub Heist is goofy, but its constant race to the bottom is a compelling premise.

Sometimes, it seems like we could all use an extra pairs of hands. There's just so much to do around the house: taking out the garbage, washing the dishes, pushing around the giant crate collection, flinging yourself across that inconvenient electrified spike-filled pit in the backyard, defeating the neighborhood evil overlord. Wouldn't having a clone on-hand just be great? Keybol apparently thought so, and the result is Splitman, and it's good ol' puzzle platforming fun.

In 1993, a new star appeared on the NES horizon. A big man with big dreams, big muscles, a big mustache and no shirt, Abobo had nowhere to go but up. Recently however, he was lured back to spotlight by a team of developers, including ThePoxBox, Pesto Force, JackSmack, and the guys at I-Mockery, hoping to make the ultimate love letter to the Nintendo Entertainment System. The result it Abobo's Big Adventure, a retro arcade action-adventure game years in the making. It's a bold, brassy, over-the-top labor of love that pushes 8-bit nostalgia to its very limit.

Raise your hand if you've heard this one before: The evil Dr. Mad has corrupted the programming of six thematic robots and has sent them out to do his bidding, each utilizing a weapon that would be suspiciously effectively against exactly of their evil kin. The only thing possibly standing in Mad's way is the new creation of the good Dr. Thane: the high-jumping, fast-dashing, laser-blasting, ability-stealing Rokko Chan! Okay, Japanese developer King admittedly isn't exactly trying to hide the inspirations for his retro platformer. But if Rokko Chan may look and play like a ROM hack, then it is a very lovingly crafted one of high quality.

Interactive art has a reputation for being light on the challenge, but These Robotic Hearts of Mine, a puzzle game by Alan Hazelden definitely shows that it doesn't have to be. It's a simple game of gears and direction... one that I would love to see re-created in the physical space of a gallery. However, each solution presents another line in a story of technology, hearts and heartbreak. The puzzles alone would be fine, and the elegy is affecting. However, the combination fits like one hand into another.

It's hard to figure out what just happened. You took a walk in the park, like you do every night. This time though, there was a man... there was a gun. Now you find yourself a dark industrial world of shadowy figures and shifting backgrounds. You'll have to rearrange every single room to have even a chance of escaping... and you just know that time's running out. Five is a puzzle platformer from Z3LF where changing reality comes with the click of the mouse.

You've got to appreciate those evil overlords who go out of their way to spend that extra buck for solid dungeon construction. Now, if only they didn't leave their door keys lying around, their treasure would be safe from the local green-hooded retro hero contingents. Oh well. Dangerous Dungeons, an arcade platformer developed by Adventure Islands for a month-long game jam, has an old-school style and old-school difficulty to match.

After Star Wars: Episode II and that whole Spider-man fiasco, one cannot help but be a little wary of clones. However, leave it to Roman Gecerov and Yuriy Kurenkov to show us that just because something's a little familiar doesn't mean it has to be bad. Shameless Clone doesn't rip off anything... it rips off everything! A pitch-perfect recreation of every mid-90s arcade space shooter ever, filled to the brim with skewered references and memes, Shameless Clone is a bullet hell whose authors have nothing to be ashamed of.

We've all been there... Friday night, just hanging out at your house at R'lyeh waiting, dreaming, for your cult leader servant to finally complete the ritual that will grant you unlimited power. But then, all these lame-o cops, Miskatonic professors, mystics, and asylum escapees just had to show up and try to ruin your fun. Good thing your very tentacley touch brings the corrupted servitude of madness. Still, you'd think they'd just learn to Leave Cthulhu Alone! In this flashpunk tower defense game from Loserville Express, messing with the old ones has never been so much fun!

Those darn emo kids have accidentally summoned a horde of alien-zombies to destroy the city! Who should we call? The police? A dashing bandit? A Victorian-era, impressively side-burned gentleman thief? A redneck in a trucker's hat? Jason Vorhees? Well, all are options in Random Heroes, the new platformer from Woblyware. Random Heroes is a solid run-jump-and-shoot action game with a very cool aesthetic design that goes very well with its parallax scrolling effects.

Pixels! Love 'em or hate 'em? You might have no choice but to do the latter in this action-packed arcade shooter. Soak in the retro vibe as you blow apart incoming pixel enemies, raining laser fire down on the field to blast chunks off of them, and nabbing power-ups that drop to increase your strength.

Pixel Quest is a retro-themed platform adventure starring Rex, an adventurer who wears a spiffy little hat. Finding treasure is his favorite activity, and today he's on the hunt for the Golden Frog idols. It's your job to keep Rex alive as you dash through several dozen levels, each well-stocked with falling spikes, lava pits, and traps that come out of nowhere. You know, standard treasure-hunting stuff!

Bicicletas Hoy isn't the first interactive music video on the web, but it's definitely one of the most charming. Developed by Argentinian design team Videogamo, this pixelated piece of interactive art features the musical stylings of rock band Bicicletas and their infectious song Hoy. It's short and not much for challenging, but makes for an engaging two minute romp.

It's a popular misconception that cats have nine lives. In reality they've actually got infinite lives and are forced to restart at checkpoints every time they lose one. Katwalk is a short, fairly easy platforming metroidvania game, so aside from one tricky section involving swimming you won't need catlike reflexes to succeed.

The title of Melee Man, a flixel action platformer by The Village Blacksmith and David Vs. Goliath, seems like it was decided on before the game was developed. After all, the guy has a gun and sucks at melee. Onomastic incongruity aside though, it's a really nice game. It's designed to the 160x144 specifications of the Gameboy Color, and, along with the kicking chiptune soundtrack, truly feels like an unreleased prototype for what would have been a really cool cartridge.

After a long night of haunting and spooking, there's nothing that your average vampire/mummy/witch likes more than going home to the comfort of their own coffin/sarcophagus/cauldron. In Halloween Shooter, a physics puzzler by GameShot, it's your job to blast them all home for a good day's sleep. Very polished in presentation, with some excellently designed set pieces, Halloween Shooter has a cool retro aesthetic and bouncy sound effects.

In the beginning, there was the void, and unless you put your puzzling skills to work in this little experimental game, that's all there will ever be. Use a series of powers, unlocked as you play and experiment, to shape the world around you and turn it from an empty void into a space teeming with life and drama.

In this puzzle platformer by Arctic Arcade, control both heroes Sir Valiant and... err... Steve on their heroic quest to save the princess before they wind up killing each other. The 8-bit graphics, spot on music by Rayne Leafe, and the homage paid to classic console games are sure to please retro fans, while the snarky humor and challenging gameplay can make it a fun experience for any gamer

Even with the promise of super-abilities, volunteering to undergo tests performed by mysterious organizations is the kind of thing that seems like it could go either way. That said, it's already too late for the mild-mannered and slightly-jerkish Melex Archer: he's signed his name on the dotted line and, with the influence of radioactive Thelemite, he's been given a ton of power and no particular sense of responsibility. Sure, he'll spring into action and brawl his way through waves of mutants, but it's sure as heck not because mission control is telling him to. No sir. In this fun little retro fighting game from Sos, the hero is as much a danger to the town as the monsters he faces.

Werewolves, dragons, and mermaids, oh my! LittleGiantWorld puts you in control of every monster ever, but the goal is less world domination and more sweet moolah. Gather new creature DNA to create and manage a zoo/expo hall/what could possibly go wrong facility for the customers to visit and bring in more money. Despite some repetition, it's a cartoony, appealing little time management simulation worth a look.

Marcy and Justine just want to do a good deed, handing out free personal safety alarms on campus. How dare those stupid students feel so safe that they refuse this offer? Clearly they don't understand the danger they're in. It's time to teach them, brawler style, in this former Ludum Dare action satire entry.

Pedro and the Pearls of Peril is the kind of game that's likely to have appeal to multiple demographics. First of all, there will be those in the mood for a good action-shooter, with some shades of Metroidvania and a masochistic edge of difficulty. Then there will be those who'll be convinced once they see the name of Robot Wants retro-maven Hamumu on the title screen. There will be those Cub Scouts who just happened to stumble over the game on the Boys Life website, and are intrigued by what wacky new adventures Pedro the Mail Burro has gotten himself into this time. And last, but not least, there is the not insignificant group of gamers who have a thing for alliteration. Never count them out.

Flee Buster is a retro arcade game about a little human escaping abduction from an alien tractor beam. No wait, it's about a spaceship on the run from Pac-Man's violent quadrilateral cousins. No wait, actually it's about a frog trying to jump as far up as he can from some evil looking spike-water. A bit schizophrenic? Perhaps. But this action-arcade release from Chevy Ray that took first place overall in Ludlum Dare 21 makes one think of Neapolitan ice cream: it has three great tastes that taste great together

The hermit's son has been kidnapped by demons! Are you a good enough king to rescue him? And, while you're at it, could you do something about that advancing purple wall of doom? And, also, could you tell the peasants to knock it off with all the portentous statements concerning the upcoming apocalypse? Sigh... It seems that a monarch's work is never done. Though by the end of KingStory, the new adventure platformer from KintoGames, you'll at least have a pretty sweet crown on your head. That makes it all worthwhile.

MercX is a retro action adventure sidescroller where you control a pixelated hero on an epic mission to rescue a biologist's daughter and save the world. Take out numerous enemies and strong bosses across six missions in different environments. With its 1980s-style graphics, music, and controls, MercX is simple old-school shooting fun.

Developed for Something Awful's GameDev VI Challenge, the retro metroidvania platformer Psychopomps puts you in the shoes of Anubis, who has overslept. In his absence, his fellow soul ushers have gone missing and evil spirits have grown powerful. Explore your environment and shoot down your enemies as you rescue your friends and right the matter of directing souls.

In 1899 Steam & Spirit, you play a young Winston Churchill on a secret mission while traveling on a steamship in the Mediterranean. This episodic, old-school point-and-click adventure will have you solving puzzles and interacting with pixelated characters as you try to accomplish your mission. The game is written in DHTML (HTML + Javascript), so it may be played on some mobile devices.

You may have always wanted your own set of wings, and TwofoldSecret is going to grant them to you as you help their protagonist take to the sky in his crumbling, surreal dreamworld. In this explorative platformer, search the ruins of a dreamland for items of significance and discover the significance between his surroundings and what lies within them.