In a combination of moreishness and nostalgia, I followed up SteamWorld Dig 2 by immediately firing up SteamWorld Dig for the first time in years. I knew that the new game was an improvement over the same ideas that drove the original—such is the way with sequels, generally—but I didn’t …
Rabi-Ribi cleverly combines the Metroidvania and bullet hell genres, using a silly but heartfelt story and adorable pixel art to seal the deal. Two of the very finest game genres are Metroidvanias and bullet hell shoot ‘em ups. (This is a fact. Don’t @ me.) When you take two of …
A fifteen-minute pre-alpha demo of Black Hive’s upcoming side-scrolling action RPG Kova is enough to make me very excited about the full game. The first thing that hit me was the beauty of the world, as my character woke up from a crash landing on deserted, icy planet. With it’s …
Alwa’s Awakening isn’t just a “retro-inspired” game, but one that combines a modern design sense with the technical limitations (and creativity) of the NES. In a sea of increasingly wearisome “retro-inspired” indie platformers, it’s refreshing to play a game like Alwa’s Awakening. At a glance, it looks much like any …
Double Fine has a way of breathing new life into old genres. They weave weird, wonderful stories through familiar mechanics to create experiences unlike anything else. Psychonauts twisted the 3D platformer by having you quite literally exploring people’s psyches. Costume Quest drew a story of childhood adventure around a Japanese-style …
I went into Valley expecting a beautiful game of exploration and interactive fiction—a “walking simulator”, if you like. There are certainly elements of that, but at its heart, Valley is a first-person platformer, and a great one at that. It brings together jumping puzzles, free-running, Metroid-like upgrades, light combat, and …
Ninja Smasher! is a game I bought on a whim, tempted by the $5 price tag, its cute pixel art, and a screenshot showing a very Metroid-like map. I expected a fun little retro-styled Metroidvania, and I certainly got that, but what I didn’t see coming was an insightful deconstruction …
The Kickstarter demo for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night couldn’t have come at a better time. The crowdfunding model has been brought into doubt this week with the critical panning of Mighty No. 9, another Kickstarter darling that promised a spiritual successor to Mega Man but, by almost all accounts, fell far short – not to mention the …
We haven’t had a new IGAvania in six and a half years, but finally, Koji “IGA” Igarashi has come out of the shadows with a new project: a “A gothic, exploration-focused action platformer” called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. His is probably not a household name, but as the person …
