A shoot-em-up game without guns is like a library without books, or an office chair without wheels. Sure they might have some other purpose, but what fun are they without these essential little elements? Fortunately, Super Crate Box is a retro-styled platform shooter that has more guns than you can shake a stick at in the time it takes to play. (Or a katana.)
Super Treadmill is yet another prime example of interesting Nitrome fare. It takes a not-so-simple run-and-jump game and gives it an added twist: it's an allegedly old game emulated on modern technology, bad connection and all. If you're willing to see the game through to the end, then go ahead and hop on the Super Treadmill!
When evil robots strike and steal all your lighthouse bulbs, it's GIL to the rescue!... easily killed Gil, with no defenses and a soft, pink body, but GIL nonetheless! This simple looking but tricky platformer from Animals Play Games is guaranteed to test your skills as you run, leap, and flying-machine your way through increasingly difficult worlds filled with spikes, robots, switches, lava, missiles, mines, and much more.
Hostage Crisis is a retro-looking shooter where you storm an office complex in an attempt to rescue numerous hostages from bad guys. Destructive environments make things more interesting as you can place explosive satchel charges and throw grenades at walls, helping you to get to the hostages while taking out the enemy.
For those of you thinking your prayers for a fantasy-themed game based on the classic novel and movie "Logan's Run" have been answered, you'll have to keep waiting. Wizard's Run is, however, based on the concept of wizards combined with the concept of movement towards things and with an overall killing things theme.
The Nokkians 2 is a new vertical shooter by Awoker Games. Using the term "vertical" is a bit of a lie, as one of the key features of this casual shmup is its game-altering screen effects which twist, turn, rotate and scale the entire game world as you play, making dodging bullets only half of the challenge. Add in a load of achievements, a great soundtrack, and gameplay that won't frighten the casual gamer, and you've got a great shooter that can actually draw you back for multiple playthroughs.
It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, kid! The corporate world takes no prisoners and even you won't escape in a new platformer from Adult Swim Games. You begin as a lowly poop-shoveler and eventually work your way up to becoming CEO of your company...meaning you're shoveling an entirely different kind of poop but making more money while doing it.
Super Mind Dungeon is a retro-styled arcade game that isn't afraid to make you walk the slow, trial-and-error-stocked walk from luck to skill. You play a chunky pixel character who happens to have a nifty psi-power that allows you to fling him through the air. This ability can only be used once, though, until you recharge it by bouncing off a non-metallic surface. Luckily this dungeon is filled with things to bump into. Uunluckily, many of those things are sharp and spiky in nature.
Warp back to 1977 for some root beer and pizza with extra cheese in this retro themed point-and-click puzzle game from Nickelodeon. Colourful, photo-realistic art and some pretty groovy music combine to create a truly fabulous retro experience. But you'll have some unusual puzzle-solving to do before accessing that mmm...melt in the mouth cheesy goodness. If you're a post-70's child, then you're about to experience a taste of life at a time when technology was only just making appearances in the home.
Tia's birthday means a time for her to play with the other children in her struggling, isolated village... but it may also mark the end of her childhood. Of course, that all depends on you, and whether you do as you're told. Gregory Weir's experimental narrative might be too experimental to be a hit with everyone, but it's a clever game that deserves a play for the few minutes it'll take you.
Quantum warping might seem like a simple mechanic after you've done some experimenting with it, but My First Quantum Translocator pulls out all the stops and sets up some brain-bending puzzles. You'll have to make seemingly impossible leaps, dodge murderous moving walls and avoid being smashed in any number of ways. Thankfully, you've got unlimited lives, but it almost makes you think that there's some sort of sinister undercurrent to these lab tests...
After kitties, puppies, and fishies, Robot has finally figured out what he truly wants... ICE CREAM. But when he and his trusty Puppy arrive on a planet in search of some, he finds the situation a bit more explosive than he anticipated. Battle bosses, collect power ups, and explore in this wonderful finale to the hit platforming series from Hamumu Software!
Play Knight or Princess in this third installment of the Knightfall series. Destroy groups of like colored blocks to help our heroes slay monsters, collect keys, and get safely to the exit. Survive long enough and you may find out what happened to your stolen loot, and what's behind this mysterious "Taxman".
When an expedition goes wrong, stranding a young boy deep inside a series of caverns lit only by strange crystals, he thinks he's alone in the dark. He's wrong. This retro pixel adventure mixes light puzzling with a creepy narrative and atmosphere that combines for a slow-moving but unique experience that's definitely worth a look.
In Garden Gnome Carnage you control the Christmas hating gnome who is doing his best to stop an army of Santas, elves and presents from spreading cheer. Your gnome achieves this by putting a brick apartment building on wheels, attaching a rope to the chimney and whirling yourself around like a...like a gnome attached to a chimney.
The first thing I noticed when playing Bits and Pieces, David Lorentz's new platform game, was what a crazy good jumper its pixelated protagonist is. I mean, yeah, most platform heroes wouldn't make it through screen one if they couldn't jump five times their own height, but this dude easily launches himself off like a bottle rocket at the slightest provocation. Good thing though, as making it to the artistically confusing finish will require quite a bit of hopping and/or bopping. And it's a load of fun.
Give Up Robot 2 is a solid platformer with enough neat tricks and visual appeal to set itself apart from the crowd (and its predecessor). You'll guide Robot through 60 stages spread throughout three worlds, each of which is filled with a variety of deadly traps. Your only saving grace is Robot's built-in grappling hook, and you'll need to master its use quickly. It's worth a look for anyone who won't throw their computer through the nearest window after hammering away at a tough level.
Ready for some spelunking? Descend into the depths of this fiendishly difficult little isometric puzzler, where the goal is just to get to the exit... which only opens once all the floor tiles have fallen... and is usually behind some traps, switches, and unbreakable green crystals. All in a day's work!
The fictional land of Pixela-RT witnessed years of prosperity. Now, a dark portal spews forth endless waves of Space Invaders inspired monsters intent on destroying all that is good and pixely. Luckily, volunteers from across the land take to the sky in small white spaceships to fend off the menace. Endless waves of enemies face down your small white ship on an apocalyptic top-down battlefield in this arena shooter from Epic Shadow.
What's not to love about this fantastic sequel? The kicking retro graphics, the astonishingly nostalgic music and sound effects, everything adds up to tons of fabulous casual gameplay. Enjoy the new challenge, the new enemies, and the same fantastic warm feeling as you help your lonely robot find yet another friend. And not to spoil the ending, but it turns out that Kitty really wants Fishy too. Maybe the honeymoon isn't over after all.
"Sort of." When used properly, these are two of the most doubt-inducing words in the English language. "That was a good game... sort of." "You look great today... sort of." "I love you... sort of." These are also the two words I think of when it comes to Liferaft: Zero from Mikengreg, just another one of those precision platforming games... sort of.
A bunch of evil scientists have joined forces and are building a weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately for the world, you're one of the good guys, and you're going to stop them! In League of Evil, you play a tough little soldier dude who can run, punch, and wall jump with surprising agility. Work your way through 40 stages as you avoid touching anything pointy or dangerous and die more than once per second!
Have you thrown yourself onto a bed of spikes today? No? Well, why not rectify that in this follow-up to the original retro platformer, which is bigger, harder, and, yes, wrathier than the first. Track down treasure chests to open new doors, but don't get greedy. After all, is it really worth taking an arrow to the face and a sawblade to the butt just for a high score?
Today, Carrion is struggling to hold off an enemy attack long enough to allow civilians to escape while his country burns around him. But how did he get there? As a respected soldier, Carrion has lived in his father's shadow his entire life, and keeps butting heads with the new regent. When he and his adopted brother Maric are assigned a task by the prince, Carrion has no idea it will start him on a long path that will threaten the fate of the realm and cause him to question not only those closest to him, but himself. Will he make it out alive? Find out in this high quality retro RPG that will keep you adventuring for a long time.
Put your platform skills to the test and wrap your mind around the increasingly difficult laws as you climb the Tower of Heaven in this tricky retro platformer. Beyond the extremely nostalgic qualities of Tower of Heaven, the most striking aspect of this game is that it's hard, very hard, but in a unique and extremely interesting way.
Color theory, sayeth Wikipedia, is "a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations." Color Theory is a puzzle platformer where you play a color-shifting pixel-man whose hue lets him pass through similarly colored obstacles. Both teach similar lessons: You know that red and green make yellow, green and blue make cyan, and blue and red make magenta, don't you? You should, if you want to master Color Theory.
Journey into the darkest dungeons in search of monsters, bosses, treasure, and.. clinky tinkly sound effects? Yes, this is Pinball Adventure, a pinball game with an RPG theme that wins today's prize for unlikeliest genre crossover. The game pits your tiny white ball and flipper manipulation skills against the pixel monstrosities of Hades itself. Better bring some extra quarters.
Borrowing heavily off of MoneySeize, Towards the Light is a skill testing, spike hopping, bullet dodging platform game. What sets this platform jumper apart from the rest is the nicely implemented ghost mode that, combined with nice level design, allows the player to explore conventional platforming in new and unique ways.
Defying your Elders, you and a small group of like-minded people dare to brave what lies outside the safety of Sanctuary 17. Why are you in hiding? Why do the Elder oppose your efforts? And why do robots roam the halls, striking down anything that crosses their path? Find out in this tricky almost-roguelike from Twofold Secret.
Bungluwa, a word of obscure origins, can be loosely translated as meaning: "to make a robot jump rapidly towards the exit point while collecting light bulbs and avoiding things that make it blow up". Coincidentally enough, this also happens to be the basic premise of the game with the same name. Bungluwa tasks the player with controlling a robot called BGW 10k in a retro vertical platformer with various mechanics hindering the robot's main goal of reaching the exit.
As Fishbane your main task is to seek out the coveted golden harpoons that are tucked precariously away throughout the murky undersea terrain. Along the way you'll want to snatch up all the swimming goldfish you can while at the same time avoiding the other lethal denizens of the deep.
How are your fingers this morning? Think they're limber enough to help Orton rescue his princess in this little retro platformer? With a surprising level of challenge and a bouncy soundtrack, this is one game you should make time for if you've ever complained that other platformers were too easy, or if you haven't been berated by a text box lately.
A call in the middle of the night drags you out to an abandoned hotel out in the middle of the English countryside. Find yourself thrust into a night time ghost hunt in this enthralling point-and-click adventure from the past.
Want to play a hero? How about dozens? Great Dungeon in the Sky is a sort-of roguelike platformer where the foes you vanquish become playable characters. Be a yeti marksman or a drow mage, or slash it up old-school as a knight. Destroy four dragons to reach the boss of the mysterious floating dungeon in this cute, fast-paced retro title.
Check out this port of the arcade classic Asteroids by Doug McInnes. If you've never played Asteroids, or an Asteroids-like game, the goal is to pilot your deltoid spacecraft around the void of space, blasting large lumbering asteroids into smaller, faster, projectile-like asteroids, then blasting those into dust before they breach your hull and destroy you. Destroy or be destroyed is the only law against the impersonal Astroids.
Robot's at it again; armed with a kitty perched atop his boxlike head, he's off to get himself a new friend in this follow up to the surprise smash-hit original retro platformer. Gather keys and unlock the mighty (mighty weird) abilities of your feline companion to eventually win the day and the puppy.
Even though it inherited the title from the original Tron, Space Paranoids is very aptly named. Because your advantage lies in speed, not firepower, the game encourages a lot of running away and waiting for enemies to come to you. Space Paranoids is not just a good advergame or a nice taste of nostalgia; It's also a fine game in its own right, and a great example of what the Unity engine can do when done well.
Give Up, Robot is designed to punish you in as many different ways as possible. And that is what makes it great. Players control a unicycling, pixelated robot with a grappling hook and a stoic tenacity, who must traverse elaborate gauntlets at the behest of a fractured, highly vocal, passive-aggressive computer overseer.
In Sorcerer's Maze, by David Frankel, play as Clyde Michaels, intrepid explorer, who must explore a mysterious mansion that stands alone in apocalyptic desert where he lives. It plays similar to Bomberman combined with one of the NES Metal Gears: you guide Clyde through the labyrinth of the house, avoiding or destroying skulls, ghosts, mermen and other creepy-crawlies on the way.
Rid the pixel kingdom from the evil hordes while getting the highest score possible in this action/platform game. For a true knight, a challenge always needs one more thing, doesn't it? In the sequel you'll probably be running on a barrel...
Ready for a blast from the past? Pixel Basher is a Breakout clone with a slick new look, new upgrades, and new backgrounds. At only nine levels, it won't keep you busy for long, but it's fast, addictive fun for those of us who remember when an arcade was an actual thing you went to rather than just "That thing old uncle Bob keeps talking about whenever I fire up the console".
Ever wanted to play Super Mario Bros. with different characters? Super Mario Bros. Crossover is just that! The original NES game is here with a handful of playable NES characters. Charge through stages with Mega Man, play as Samus from Metroid, Simon from Castlevania, or even Link from the original Legend of Zelda game. It's a simple idea that's remarkably well-executed and worth playing for the nostalgia alone!
Dodge those pesky man-eating earthworms in the homage game that took two decades to appear! The town of Perfection is under siege from underground worms rearing out of their Hades abyss and chomping down on the surface dwellers! If not for the actions of two local repairmen, everyone could be mauled in this fitting homage.
Enough Plumbers is fantastic, nostalgic, pulse-pounding casual gameplay that is fun for those who remember the good old days and those who were born long after. Requiring logical thinking, forethought, planning, and lightning fast reflexes, Enough Plumbers is, just on its own, a fantastic platformer even without all the trappings of the days of yore.
Hark, prithee, and other generic fantasy salutations! Dare you enter the dragon's lair?!... oh, don't worry, Questy will do all the dangerous stuff, like getting shot with arrows, falling down pits, and being clubbed by trolls. All you have to do is lay out a path that guides him to the exit in this brain-bending retro puzzler.
After dancing the hemp fandango you are greeted by the Grim Reaper and offered an interesting proposition: run the gauntlet of Hell and be resurrected with a happier life. Run, jump, and dodge a host of deadly enemies and traps for a second chance in this challenging platformer.
Think you've got what it takes to be a traditional RPG hero? In this series of minigame-like puzzles aping the genre, it's your knowledge of typical RPG stereotypes, not your sword skill, that will see you through to victory. It's a bite-sized bit of retro charm to fit into your day that requires thinking outside the box.
Return to the underworld of Avernum one last time in the conclusion to Spiderweb Software's iconic RPG series. When a blight brings famine down upon the people of Avernum during a war, four soldiers are called to become heroes from unlikely beginnings. Create your party and set out into a dark world full of adventure, betrayal, and, most importantly, hidden treasure!
Tired of being the little guy? Then leap behind the controls of one of the massive boss battleships that used to steal all your quarters in classic arcade space shooters. Complete missions to prove your mastery of the skies, unlock new modes, and prove that it's not the size of the ship that counts... wait, no, it is. It totally is.
Stinkoman 20X6, an old Videlectrix classic, follows the saga of the titular Stinkoman, an egocentric super-boxer who lives on Planet K and can never seem to keep his priorities straight. Even when his old friend, the rotund panda Pan Pan, is kidnapped, all he cares about is playing video games, eating chicken broth, and the occasional challenge.
If you ever felt that making breakfast should employ at least a ball, some strong and a winding mechanism, The Incredible Machine is the most brilliant game ever made. It uses the idea of a Rube-Goldberg machine, an overly elaborate setup to achieve a simple task. The Incredible Machine has spawned its own share of sequels, nearly all of which are present in this mega-pack. The idea is simple: each puzzle presents you with a different challenge to construct an elaborate chain-reaction towards a goal.
Think you know games? Think you know games when their only representation is obscure and abstract imagery? Across decades and platforms, The Challenging Stage is a single screen test of puzzles and trivia where you have to guess the titles of 56 games, new and classic, from the weird images used on screen.
Another World, or, as it's known in North America, Out of This World, is a stunning example of storytelling in a video game originally released in 1991 (and re-released with better visuals in 2006) by Eric Chahi. Built as a cinematic platform adventure, you take on the role of Lester Knight Chaykin, a young physicist who is teleported to a barren alien planet while running an experiment using a particle accelerator. You soon make friends with one of the humanoid aliens and together work your way through the subterranean environments trying to escape with your lives!
Ever have one of those days where everyone thinks you're crazy, and you start to believe them? Waking up in an asylum isn't a good start, and it gets worse when you start to suffer increasingly vivid hallucinations about strange places and monstrous creatures. Is there a reason for it all? Or are you simply as crazy as everyone says? Sanitarium is the cult classic point-and-click horror adventure that shouldn't be missed by any fan of the genre.
What's in a dream? April Ryan, a struggling art student, doesn't think there's much to the strange nightmares she's having. But she's wrong. A classic point-and-click adventure of epic proportions, The Longest Journey is the story of two worlds thrown out of balance. Featuring stellar dialogue, memorable characters, a haunting soundtrack and rich environments, this is a fantastic adventure that shows other titles in the genre how to do it right.
Sure, he may look like a footlocker and have unsettling pink bags under his eyes, but if your dog or cat or other pet should ever fall down a mine shaft leading to a subterranean geothermic engineering project of dubious provenance, Amil is your go-to fellow. Created by Robert Stone, Amil is a gravity-switching platformer with retro stylings and just a scintilla of RPG flavor.
In a world where people can't seem to see eye to eye on even the most simplest of things, it's comforting to know that we can all at least agree on the fact that hamburgers are the world's most perfect food. In the undeniably charming platformer, I Was Hungry But There Were Cannons, you will find no shortage of this most awesome of culinary delights, it's just that getting them all won't be easy.
It's bigger, badder, and, yes, REDDER than other platformers. A retro-styled adventure of space exploration set in your browser, REDDER offers a big map to explore chock full of challenges. Collect the gems you need to escape and make your way back home... or settle in to stay with the scenic vistas, strange environments, and hostile red robots. We won't judge you.
When does science go too far? How advanced can an artificial intelligence get before it is too advanced? And at what point does an homage cease to be an homage? The answers to these questions and more can be found in Condition, a sci-fi platform shooter by abielins and Lycheesoup that's just a little reminiscent of Cave Story.
Where oh where has my kitty cat gone? Only robot can find out, and it's up to you to help him get there by guiding him past hazards and to power ups, keys, and ultimately kitty-cat-havin'-glory in this retro-themed, pixel platform adventure.
A java demake of Terry Cavanagh's retro spacefaring platformer, VVVV is a challenging little gem sure to bring delight to your day as you set about rescuing six of your fellow crew mates across a dangerous map. And by "delight", we of course mean "difficulty designed to make your fingers snap like ineffectual little twigs". Yaaaaaay!
Take a handful of classic Sierra On-line graphical adventure games, throw in a community chatroom designed around the same concept, and suddenly you have the equivalent of a retro adventure MMO. Well, sort of. Sarien.net keeps the golden age of adventure games alive, right in your browser window!
Terry Cavanagh's ambitious and charming little game of platformer-esque exploration contains a lot of fun, but may demand too much from your reflexes for some players. Seek out your missing crew across a sprawling map packed with secrets, symbolism, and a whole lot of challenge that will put all your skills to the test. Buckle up, Captain.
In space, nobody can hear you scream. But that doesn't stop you from tearing around, blowing up other ships, and slapping their debris onto your rig before running away from some angry bogeys flying in on your six. When a sleep-deprived pilot puts you in charge of his ship, you have to navigate the depths of Captain Forever, fighting other pilots for pieces of their ships to build the meanest spacecraft on the galactic block. Engage in your ultimate build-a-space-ship-from-stealing-other-people's-rubbish fantasy.
It's a blast from the past in this remake of and tribute to the original M.U.L.E., one of the great pioneers of multiplayer gaming. Stake your claim on an alien world with three friends and make the best of your time and resources to come out on top at the end of the game. Just remember to keep an eye out for the wampus.
Fantasy of the Sord is a classically styled adventure game and a finalist in our 6th Casual Gameplay Design Competition. In answer to the call of the competition, Klint Honeychurch has taken the theme of "exploration" and given us a sweet little nugget that harkens back to the early days of console gaming; a time when a flurry of pixels was as well-designed as the high-polygon count, 3D models of today.
Come, take my hand, and frolic down the brightly lit path of retro arcade gaming in this 2D side-scrolling shooter featuring a flying fox! No, not THAT one! Despite only having three levels, three bosses, and four weapons, Merubyiusu is a fun and frantic tip of the hat to your favourite console games of yesteryear, with just enough difficulty to make it worth your while. Just remember not to cry when kids these days ask you what a "Gradius" is.
Take control of your weapon, and start defending the planet from invaders in Vector Conflict: The Siege. The game takes you back to the early days of arcade games, back when games like Tempest and Omega Race were the new guys on the block. With its glorious vector graphics, Vector Conflict looks like the brother of the classic tank combat game Battlezone, and plays like a cross between that and a turret defense game.
Man-eating plants! Skeletons! Giant spiders! Falling boulders! What do these things have in common? They're all very, very deadly. And they, along with a host of other unpleasantness hungry for your demise, are waiting for you in Spelunky, an incredibly addictive roguelike platformer from Derek Yu. Explore, descend, discover... just remember to watch your back and keep one hand on your whip!
Zamby and the Mystical Crystals is a top-down puzzle adventure game with a lot of retro charm. Similar to the Wonderland Adventures and Professor Fizzwizzle series in concept, its simple visuals hide a box-pushing puzzle game with a surprising amount of challenge and content. It also takes itself serious as a casual game, offering a full, move-by-move undo option along with hints and full solutions for every level. It's old-school gaming without the old-school headaches!
Bleep, bloop, assimilate! The life of a robot is hard. When you're slated for that big old junk heap in the sky, do you go quietly into that long good night? If you're playing Mechanaughts, a quirky little action platformer, you fight your way to your oppressors and take your mechanical revenge. Since robots tend to have cold, unfeeling metal pincers for hands, that revenge is unlikely to consist of hugs and a heartfelt discussion on your feelings.
Your journey as Arkus Rei, space pirate, continues in this series of extremely challenging platform adventures. Follow the instructions given by your new found human companion to uncover treasure beyond your imagination. But first you must travel to several different dangerous locales and, well, survive.
Frantic 2 is as calming as a warm, lilac scented bubble-bath on a late summer night. Assuming your idea of calming is a screen filled with dozens and dozens of enemies, projectiles, power-ups, and laser fire. With three big levels, five modes of difficulty, upgrades, and more, Frantic 2 is prime scrolling shooter action for the twitch gamer in all of us.
The first Flash game from Anna Anthropy, When Pigs Fly is an extra-challenging offbeat platformer about a pig who has to escape from a cavern using her newly-grown wings, which are unfortunately the most fragile creation in the history of the universe. Even negotiating a simple floating block takes some skill, and an innocent staircase becomes a jagged nightmare.
Cheerio, my good man, pip pip! The name is Sir Reginald MoneySeize II, Esq. I'm out to construct the world's largest tower, and I'll need 1000 golden coins to do it. Are you up to the platform-jumping challenge, my well-buttered scone? I sincerely hope so, for I'm simply too well bred and important to fall to my death on a bed of spikes.
Deadly Sin doesn't try to reinvent the role playing game. Instead, it chooses the path of flattering imitation. With great art direction, a superb soundtrack, a deep skill tree to explore and, most notably, the ability to turn off random battles, Deadly Sin hits that soft spot deep inside that's longing for a good RPG to enjoy.
Time Gentlemen, Please!, a direct sequel to Zombie Cow's Ben There, Dan That, is a playground for just about every type of humor that is likely to get you ousted from civil society. It's old-school adventuring at its best and manages to both parody and canonize classic Lucasarts games while providing a stiff set of puzzles to solve.
Hack and slash your way across the ancient land alone or with a friend in this gorgeously quirky side-scroller from Nitrome. When your sword fails you, don't despair — a nearby boar will do just as well. Or a chicken. Rendered in Nitrome's familiar pixel-perfect art style, Double Edged not only looks great, it plays great too.
When you load up Raider: Episode 1 in your browser you can expect solid controls, a good story, and magnificent level design that will put your platforming skills to the test. This first in a series of five episodes sets a high standard for the four episodes to follow.
"Avernum" is the name of an underground domain that's home to the Avernites, a group at war with the surface-dwellers, collectively called the Empire. This time around, a group of adventurers is sent back to Avernum to hunt down an assassin who tried to kill the Empress. The story and its development is actually pretty thick for a closed-in dungeon crawler, unfolding constantly a simplified "choose-your-own-adventure"-styled dialogue.
Adventure, monsters, and betrayal in 16 bits! Eternal Eden is a surprisingly hefty RPG following three young men who set out to save the world . . . after accidentally setting its destruction in motion themselves.
Action, adventure, and painful, spiky death can all be yours in Chup, a new platformer from Tomas Pettersson. With a retro vibe and an intensely charismatic star, Chup offers a tricky jumping adventure that would make Mario proud.
Tower of Greed is a game about the banker's favorite deadly sin, in the form of an aggressively retro, fast-moving platformer. Will you exit the tower with untold riches? Or will you be betrayed by your own avarice? If your fingers are nimble enough, let's find out!
What if Mario, instead of instantly reappearing at the beginning of the level after he died, had to earn his reincarnation by traveling the realms of Diyu, being judged by the kings of Yama? This is a game about that from Yoshio Ishii of Nekogames.
Coated in pixelated graphics and pipingly sharp music, Mars Tower Defense, by Japanese developer Taro, will appeal to those with a flair for retro and a penchant for strategy. Defense your mars colony from walking octopi and disembodied bouncing dogs heads!
The Tales of Bingwood Chapter 1: To Save a Princess is a 2D point-and-click adventure that is a throwback to every Sierra and LucasArts game ever made. Maybe not every single one, but most of them. The ones that were made in the '80s in which the main character went on some sort of quest and had to click on everything and try to combine all the items in the inventory with all of the other items and where do they even get pants with pockets that big?
Building upon the classic franchise released over two decades ago, Defender of the Crown: Heroes Live Forever is an excellent successor to the original game. It keeps intact many of the important things from the original game, including the minigames, much of the strategy of the main game, and the beautiful graphics, while giving the game an update that helps to bring it into the modern realm of casual gaming.
The Malstrums Mansion is a retro point-and-click game with a surprisingly tense atmosphere, in the style of old Apple Macintosh adventures like Shadowgate. The heavily pixilated black and white graphics are chunky but lovingly crafted. If you love games that give you the creeps, or if you just like to relive the early years of gaming, this is a title you simply can't afford to pass up.
Double Fine president Tim Schafer is hosting at this years Game Developers Conference, and he's totally unprepared. Help him out by scouring the backstage area for jokes, scribbled on scraps of paper hidden in all sorts of unlikely locations. If you have even the slightest nostalgia for early graphic adventure games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, then this sharp, clever point-and-click adventure is made for you.
Don't Look Back is a modern retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, although there are subtle differences. For one, the mythical greek poet favored a harp over a handgun, and for another, he didn't need your platforming skills to guide him on his journey.
A new addition to the Wonderland series, retro-themed isometric puzzle/adventure games that are of the best around. They retain the spirit of what makes the genre so enjoyable while adding new, more modern twists to the experience. Wonderland is threatened once again, only this time the quest to save the world goes terribly wrong. Shipwrecked and marooned on the shores of Fire Island, its your job to maneuver through sets of puzzle challenges and make your way to freedom.
Laxius Force is your latest old-school fix. Inspired by classic 16-bit role playing games, Laxius Force boasts 17 playable characters, multiple storylines that gradually weave together an intriguing plot, and original artwork and music. All while battling countless foes, earning experience, and equipping your party with powerful weapons and armor.
A rhythm-based Wario Ware type of game from Nitrome, in which you play colorful mini-game levels with a musical timing element. Destroy attacking fighters and tanks as Godzilla! Stake vampires as they rise in their coffins! Um...eat...stuff. It's all here, with three difficulty levels across four distinct stages, a different song in each level, and a final "mix-tape" stage that surreally switches context between the stages over the course of the song.
Andrew the Droid is a retro-looking title that utilizes the familiar level rotation concept found in a number of games. Work your way through over two dozen levels, avoiding hazards as you unlock exits, collect chips to grant you new abilities, and rotate the stage to let gravity pull you where you need to go.
Yoshio Ishii, of Nekogames, succeeds in the ambitious endeavor to redesign Breakout. And while the game is still about destroying bricks to clear the board, what's gone is the boredom the game usually suffers from when trying to get that last brick or two. Instead, what we have is more of a twitch game where reflexes rule the landscape of a simulated (and antiquated) vector graphics display.
Lyle in Cube Sector is a relatively old Metroidesque platformer in traditional NES style. You play as Lyle, who adventures through Cube Sector, using cubes for everything from attacking enemies to playing basketball to feeding a dog, with the ultimate goal of retrieving his cat Keddums.
A short and sweet old-fashioned adventure game from Videlectrix, the faux video game company of the animated Homestar Runner universe. For the Homestar un-hip, "Dangeresque" is the hard-boiled detective alter-ego of Strong Bad, who is the lead narrator and practical jokester at homestarrunner.com. Strong Bad/Dangeresque must solve a murder case from the confines of his office, because the chief thinks the case was solved months ago.
Out of Order is a humor-oriented, mouse-driven adventure game in the style of the old Lucas Arts and Sierra titles. You play as Hurford Schlitzting, an ordinary human being in a green bathrobe and bunny slippers. Late one night he's awakened by a storm and goes to get a midnight snack. And then the game ends... wait, no, it doesn't, or we wouldn't have much of a game.
Ben There, Dan That! is an old-school adventure game in the classic sense. You know how this works. Right click to access the interactive menu. Interact with objects. Pick them up. Use them with other objects. In this game, you default to playing as Ben, but you can switch to being Dan when the occasion calls for it. It features some fairly witty writing with that rather unique British self-deprecating sense of humour.
Dirty Split is an old-school-style adventure game where you investigate a murder shrouded in a mysterious broken engagement. The game manages to dodge familiar detective cliches as well as the high tech gadget riddled whodunits of the present to provide what is a truly unique experience in the genre.
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