Go on a stunning retro action-adventure to uncover the identity of a murderer in this old-school styled Western tale. Do odd jobs and favours to learn clues to the identity of the villain, and travel all over the sun-soaked land. Though the controls and the lack of a save feature make this one a specific, and an acquired taste, Westerado is one of the most beautiful browser games to come down the line in a long time.

A lovingly detailed homage to classic platforming adventures, this retro-styled Metroidvania game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where your only reason for living is suddenly abducted from you by a mysterious stranger. While it could use some more to do, it's a beautifully made title fans of classic gaming will enjoy.

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.

Available in action-RPG or classic turn-based flavour, this moody roguelike from Aaron Steed and music maestro Nathan Gallardo is deliberately mysterious. Descend into a dungeon searching for an amulet with your undead minion, figuring everything from the backstory to the deeper gameplay mechanics as you go. Oh, and tearing off the faces of your enemies and wearing them for bonuses and enchantments. Hooray!

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.

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.

Would you like to learn numbers? Of course you would, and Frog Fractions is just the game to teach you. With upgrades, maths, and some major hidden surprises, this is the best retro edutainment game you'll play all day. AND NOTHING MORE. Certainly not a parody game you don't want the kids to play. Nope.

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.

Love roguelikes but wish all that permadeath would lighten up a little? This fabulously retro and witty game might just be for you. Venture deep into dungeons and other areas populated by bizarre monsters and strange people as you quest towards one of four different endings and unlock a total of 20 classes. Offering a surprising amount of depth, laughs, and addictiveness, it's a great casual introduction to the roguelike genre, and a lot of fun for fans.

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 friend deserved a better end than this. Not at the end of the bottle of the tainted poison that the syndicate is trying to pass off as hooch. You may be just one man, but one man with a gun in his hand is often all you need to find some answers. Rot Gut is a action platform shooter by test84, set in a pixelated depiction of 1920's big city gangland. Gameplay is a little generic as shooters go, but it's solidly enjoyable and, more importantly, has atmosphere to spare.

KintoGames serves up some challenging roguelike retro action in this squishy, slashy dungeon crawler. Battle your way through hordes of enemies, gain powerful weapons and armor, find power-ups, and try to stay alive... all with the click of a mouse. Some awkward controls keep it from really feeling as sleek as you'd like, but with a great sense of style and tons of baddies and bosses, it delivers a solid dose of arcade-style hack-and-slash action.

A topdown arena shooter by Daniel Twomey, Commit.5 is a game that's going to make it hard to stay in one place. As the little blue thingy in a world of other-colored thingies, you must survive as long as you can. By giving players an incentive to stand their ground for bonus points, Commit.5 has an arcadey-defense feel to it, which setting it apart from others of the genre.

You've got a few minutes before you have to be at work. That means it's time for a game! But what to play, Pac-Man or a tower defense game? How about both? From Tametick, the creator of Cardinal Quest, comes Pakkuman's Defense, a surprisingly superb melding of the classic arcade game Pac-Man and a modern tower defense game. There are ghosts. There are dots to eat. There are towers to place. And yes, you're going to have a blast with this unusual hybrid!

They say big things come in small packages, and you're one of the smallest around! But just because you start out on the bottom of the food chain doesn't mean you'll stay there, if you're fast on your feet, and with your teeth! A short, simple, and colourful action avoidance platformer themed around evolution and made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare.

A simple errand takes a turn for the surreal when our hero, forced away from the video game console and out of the house, stumbles down a hole into the middle of the earth where he is, of course, tasked with tracking down magical gems. The same thing happened to me the other day. A little bit retro, mixed with a healthy dose of metroidvania and high-difficulty platforming, and Kodachrome is a weird but appealing little challenge.

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.

In the sequel to the original high-difficulty platformer, you've squandered your second chance at life, and your miserly existence has earned you yet another boot back down below. But the Reaper's not quite ready to give up on you, and if you can escort an innocent soul safely out of the infernal depths, you'll earn your place in heaven. Provided, of course, you have the reflexes to survive.

No one respects the rights of ghosts these days. Wether it's a bunch of drunken teenagers with a Quija board or wannabe "ghost hunters" from no-name basic cable channels, no self-respecting ghost can find a moment's peace. Well, for the undead and their sympathisers, the moment of catharsis has finally come, with Kelly Weaver and Jimmy Hinson's action-packed little real-time strategy game, The Haunting of Magnolia Manor. It may have a simple premise, but it manages to do what all the best realtime strategy games can: provide a fast-paced, action-packed, knucklebiting good time...at least, if you still have knuckles to bite.

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.

The end of the world is nigh, and it wants your brains! In this quirky, darkly humorous mobile edition of the zombie simulation based on the classic game Oregon Trail, saddle up with fellow survivors and strike out across the country with the promise of safety hanging in the distance. Manage your supplies, trade with people you meet along the way, deal with boss battles, and above all else hope Lady Luck decides to smile on you. That is, if you don't want to come down with dysentery while someone else has a broken leg and the others have all been bitten by zombies.

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.

If video games are any indication, the world we live in is filled with dungeons stocked with progressively more difficult enemies and convenient puzzles designed to help us descend further into darkness. Tequibo's Fog and Thunder doesn't try to hide the fact that it's built around the feeling of being lost in a roguelike RPG, but the action-oriented gameplay is different than what you might expect, as it employs light-based mechanics that affect everything from enemies to exits to your own special abilities. Where's a good pair of night vision goggles when you need them?

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.

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.

Connor Ullmann fires up the Wayback Machine for those gorgeous little retro action adventure inspired by classic 2D games like Zelda. As a little boy who was apparently born from a breath of wind, your quest for self-discovery and the wishes of your maker will take you across a huge world teeming with enemies, secrets, treasure, puzzles, and more. A beautiful little gem with classic gameplay and a satisfying adventure that is well worth checking out even if you weren't born when games like this were in their heyday.

You are a pariah of the Gentlemen's Council, who became jealous of the length of your gun, which doubles as a sort of jetpack, immediately after giving you said weapon. Make your way through their headquarters, past lava, spikes, and enemies with much smaller guns in this physics based platform shooter game.

It seems that an ANSI face has gotten a second shot at the big time in Ozzie Mercados Jump Face, a one button puzzle platformer.Jump Face is a delightful skewing of common platform game mechanics, and indeed, it's certain that its unusual character gravity and momentum will frustrate some at first. Those who survive the initial rage-quitting impulse, though, will find a charming little game with some interesting puzzles.

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.

Beethro Budkin has had to face all sorts of challenges crawling through the first eight floors of Dugan's dungeon. Now though, he stands on the precipice of levels nine through twelve, and they're filled with Deadly Rooms of Death of all kinds! Caravel Games' series of turn-based puzzle-strategy games gets just a bit more hair-pulling in DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon Lite - Episode 3.

Forests aren't born evil, you know. Their dislike of heroes can usually be traced back to one traumatic event. In this case, it was the arrival of an evil necromancer, who brought the forest with him courtesy of a magic crystal. Naturally, it's up to you to stop both necromancer and forest in Evil Forest, a 50 stage action RPG with roguelike mechanics.

Oh, Deadly Rooms of Death! Never has a redundant name heralded such awesomeness! The easy part of Beethro Budkin's quest to rid King Dugan's dungeon of terrorizing baddies is over, as he descends to floors 5 through 8. But even an expert smitemaster like Beethro may be stymied without a little guidance from you. So ready your Really Big Sword and enter DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon Lite - Episode 2, another great installment in Caravel Games' series of turn-based puzzle-strategy games.

A classic turn-based strategy dungeon crawler, Deadly Rooms of Death finally comes to to the browser in King Dugan's Dungeon, from Caravel Games. Join Beethro Budkin, exterminator extraordinaire as he seeks to slay all the underground creatures in King Dugan's Dungeon. With its emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving, Flash DROD is a perfect gateway for those intimidated by turn-based strategy, while still fun to hardcore genre fans looking for the challenge of finding optimal solutions. It's a bit slow to start, but stick around and you'll fall in love with the game's cunning design and impish sense of humor.

A series of five point-and-click mystery adventure games from Norm and Company, Stickman Murder Mysteries are oldies but goodies. As a homocide detective in Stickville, you must investigate each of the five crimes, and bring the culprits to justice. Those who can stand the MS Paint graphics and crude HTML programming will find a set of involving cases with serious crimes and twisty plotting that every lover of mystery games will enjoy.

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.

Retro shmup? More like Bullet Candy! An avalanche of colour and sound assaults you like a continuous rain of fireworks, but there's no time to stop and watch as 8 bosses, plus minions, are out to destroy your little spaceship. Or maybe you're out to destroy them. Score Rush requires registration before you can play, but shooter fans will find that behind the dazzling spectacle of the graphics there's a smooth, solid, and very playable game as well.

Fans of Metroidvania style games, rejoice, and put on your virtual sneakers! SubMu entertainment's latest release, Blockstachio, incorporates quirky, blocky graphics, and a soundtrack that solidly consolidates retro bleeps and bangs over the top of the heroic theme music that will drive you towards your goal, while also packing enough platform action to keep you happily satisfied, while running and jumping your way through each level, in your pursuit to save the world. The world needs saving, and it is up to you and your cubic hero to do it. Are you up to the challenge?

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.

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.

In the mood for some good, old-fashioned, retro arcade fun, without the need of a roll of quarters? Brandon Williamson's Forget-Me-Not, which was originally a popular mobile game, is now ported over to your browser! It takes the classic concept of Pac-Man, and adds a shooter to it. Quickly addictive, and perfectly frustrating, Forget-Me-Not is old-school fun at its finest.

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.

The classic first-person shooter credited with jump-starting the genre on PC gets a re-release in HTML5! As Captain B.J., blast your way through three different missions and all the original levels of over-the-top retro action. It's cheesy, it's violent, and back in its day it was more than a little controversial, but Id Software's iconic title is responsible for siring many of the games you play today and is still as fun as ever.

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.

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.

Want a solid retro arcade shooter? ASCII and you'll receive Battle for Asciion, by Relevo Video Games. Designed with a lot of love for its textual aesthetic, Battle for Asciion is a solid and challenging shoot-em-up, though hampered by its required button-mashing.

Theo's been working in the slave mines for years, and has finally saved up enough to buy a cruiser. Now, if he can just shoot his way through this orbiting traffic, he'll be ready to start his new life. Originally conceived by Christopher T. Rock, with later additional development by Bryson Whiteman, Rush Hour Plus is a short but solid arcade game. It's bifurcated development is apparent in the differing styles of cut-scenes and game action, but it has a nice dose of humor and is the perfect length for a coffee break.

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.

It's not every day you get to see a nearly-forgotten ten year old puzzle game return from the dusty video game archives! The puzzle game Denki Blocks was originally released on Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance back in 2001. Other ports followed soon after, but it wasn't until the digital download ecosystems of the mobile scene really got going that it resurfaced to stay. Now, with both regular and HD versions on most of the major app stores, Denki Blocks is here to stay, complete with over 100 levels of delightfully difficult puzzles to solve!

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.

Dodge bombs, grab balloons and keep the city safe in this multifaceted arcade shooter. Any of this game's three phases wouldn't be all that great individually. Putting them together, though, makes for a fantastic mix. You're not stuck doing one thing for long enough that it becomes stale. Variety is the spice of life, and Bomb Diver just might be your paprika, so all you daredevils out there owe it to yourselves to give it a shot!

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.

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.

Nitrome's Rainbogeddon is a retro-riffic, Pacman-esque quarter-grabber updated for the twenty-first century. The addition of power-ups, destructible level, and more varied enemies makes for a surprisingly strategic twist on a familiar classic. Add a very '80s presentation and Nitrome's trademark charm, and you've got a fine modern take on vintage arcade gaming without ever having to go to the arcade.

Muu's quiet little cave-dwelling life is about to be turned upside down when he sets out to find the source of an explosion that rocks the land. Though short and somewhat challenging, this platformer packs a lot of appealing retro charm into a small package and is worth checking out for the fifteen minutes or so it'll take you.

The time has come for adventure!... well, a little one, anyway! This simplified roguelike from Ido Yeheili offers three different heroes ready to delve into a dangerous dungeon in search of an evil Minotaur what needs slayin'. While definitely not quite as complex as other titles in the genre, Cardinal Quest offers an ease of use and engaging gameplay that's hard to beat and harder to put down.

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.

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.

Swift Stitch, from Sophie Houlden, author of some fan-favorite browser games like Linear RPG and BOXGAME, is a one button (almost) arcade game that's all about speed, direction, and crashing into walls because you got confused as to which way your ship was going to go when you pressed the "switch" button. Smart decisions and quick reflexes get you through this game, and if the 20 odd levels in the free browser demo get you excited, there's more than twice that content awaiting you in the full version!

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!

Minute Hardcore is an arcade shooter with shades of the classic bullet-hell Ikaruga. The sparseness of instructions is the game's biggest flaw, but generally, you direct your ship with the mouse, automatically shooting at the spacey invaders. Your bullets come in red, green and blue varieties, and you switch between them by clicking. However, since your bullets do not affect enemies of the same color, it soon becomes a game of constant chromatic changes as you try to keep one step ahead of the clock. If you can spare 60 seconds, it'll be well worth your time.

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 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

Sure everyone's played a fighter, mage or thief, but few have had experience with the bard. Sapient Games has created a whole world revolving around this character in their text-based RPG, The Bard's Journey. Using your mouse, choose the options below the text to either take an action in that area or to move on to the next area (which can also be done with the compass). You can compose your own music to play in battle, but balance is the key in order to get the set of bonuses you desire. Even without the music writing, this RPG is fun and the story is interesting, so feel free to pack up your lute and use the default songs for a quick dive into a melodic, mystical world.

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.

In Revenge of the Zombees, you control an undead swarm of killer bees with the goal of causing as much damage and destruction as possible across five retro-looking levels. Do more damage to get your zombees to catch on fire, causing even more mayhem. It's silly and simple fun, with excessive pixel gore.

The hottest graphics of 1982 are back in Vector Stunt, a sequel to 2007's hit Vector Runner from DigYourOwnGrave. Pull off some tricks to get a high score while listening to a thumping electronic soundtrack in this arcade action driving game, or provide the MP3 of your choice.

You're in a cave full of monsters, which is bad. But you have a sentient gun to help you, which is good! But you seem to have run afoul of a mad scientist, which is bad. But Arkeus' newest action platform shooter is a ton of fun, which is good! Gather diamonds to upgrade yourself and your weapons, unlock new play modes, drink in the fantastic retro aesthetic, and discover the truth in this impressive reboot of a Ludum Dare 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.

Sometimes, it's not that bad to be a little fish in a big pond. Or at least it isn't when Neutronized is the one at the helm of a new action-arcade game. Little Fins stars a goldfish who wants nothing more than to explore the ocean and clean up some of the soda cans laying about. Unfortunately, there's sharks and rays and groupers afoot... err, a-fin. So with heaven above and the sea below, it's up to you to help a little fishy on the go!

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

Trapped in a cave! Gotta get out of there fast. There are flying jellyfish monsters, falling rocks, spikes, and other lovely bits of danger, but if you're fast enough, you can escape without harm. Connor Ullmann's Hollow is a platform game that's high on the challenge with a healthy injection of creative design on almost every level. You'll meet an untimely end dozens of times in this game, but you'll keep plugging away at it all the same. Practice leads to perfection!

As Dr. Wesley MacGregor, you've developed a poison that will kill an alien menace which you must deliver in Dustin Auxier's side-scrolling shooter, Parasite Strike. Your defeated enemies burst into different colored orbs which go toward the purchase of a staggering amount of options in the choice of your plane, weapons and gadgets. At a length of just six missions, Parasite Strike may feel short, but six additional secret missions, four ranks to achieve in each mission and four difficulty settings keep this game interesting enough to kill all the aliens again and again.

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.

Once upon a time, there was a lonely little boy who lived deep in the woods with his parents... and that's about all we can tell you when it comes to Terry Cavanagh's very short but very odd retro RPG. It'll only take you about five minutes to play, but the heebie-jeebies may stay with you a bit longer than that.