Alpha Beta Gamer

Tiny Wizard is a fast paced 2D top-down procedurally generated roguelike with a focus on combat and a variety of fun and powerful spells to unleash upon the different creatures that want to kill and devour you.

Each time you defeat a boss you’ll receive a new item for you to test on the creatures, and by test we mean kill them in a cool new way. The game is challenging, with beautiful pixelated art style, great audio and snazzy graphical effects. Also, let’s not forget about perma death – even wizards are mortal!

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Sky Arena is a fun single player/multiplayer 3D shoot em up where you take control of a handful of pilots with different types of ships, and battle it out across some wonderful low-poly planetoids.

You can play single player trench runs or play with your friends locally, against online players, or with your friends locally against online players. Sky Arena features an awesome 90s style soundtrack, different types of planets to manoeuvre and shoot enemies on and an assortment of cool power-ups.

It’s a fast-paced and fun 3D shooter with a cool retro vibe, agile ships and responsive controls. Low-poly, high fun blasting action.

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GunWorld is a fun retro homage to classic 8-bit action games and 80′s action movies that features challenging gameplay, non-linear progression, huge bosses and guns that literally grow on trees!

As in Megaman, players are able complete a series of levels in any order they choose, unlocking weird and wonderful weaponry as they do. It features old school precision platforming with a satisfyingly challenging difficulty level. There’s also co-op play, big bosses with attack patterns to master and a ridiculous plot involving the president asking you to save the world from aliens who are killing your GunMothers (magical plants which grow guns).

Needless to say GunWorld is a charmingly silly game, full of OTT weaponry and tough as nails gameplay. A great love letter to classic 8-bit action games such as Megaman and Contra, and steeped in the excesses of the 80′s. Gr8-Bit.

Check out the Kickstarter & Download the Alpha Demo

Vagante is a pixel art platforming adventure with RPG elements, permanent death and procedurally generated levels with gameplay inspired by Spelunky, Castlevania, Metroid, Dark Souls, andDungeon Crawl: Stone Soup.

It’s a seriously tough game, with a steep learning curve and Dark Souls levels of difficulty, so you’ll die quite a lot. But as in Spelunky, every play through is unique, thanks to the procedurally generated levels and the vast amounts of loot and equipment which you’ll find or purchase. This equipment can be equipped through an RPG style menu system, binding items to various body parts and unlocking special abilities which will aid your progress.

Each play through in Vagante is a venture into the unknown, packed with deadly monsters, traps, cool surprises and lots of lovely loot to make it all worth while. It draws comparisons to Spelunky, Magicite and Chasm, but it really is shaping up to be a wonderful cavernous adventure in it’s own right.

Download the Vagante Alpha, Free

Ronin is a stealthy ninja action platformer with turn based combat, wall-climbing, and a cool grappling hook. It’s still very early in development, even it’s name is just a placeholder, but already the innovative movement, stealth and combat mechanics are tons of fun.

You have some pretty nifty moves at your disposal, including wall climbing, rolls, swinging from a grappling hook, hanging from roofs and brutal sword attacks. If you move your mouse while holding LMB you will enter “jump mode”, stopping time and allowing you to plot your trajectory. The game also pauses whenever an enemy spots you, switching to a turn based combat mode, allowing you to dodge bullets and plan your attacks, and go in for an epic kill.

It’s worth noting that even the excellent pixel art graphics are just a placeholder, for an indication of the massively different (and still very cool) final graphical style go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Ronin is set to go through plenty of changes before release, but as long as that satisfying core gameplay remains, it’ll be a blast.

Download the Prototype, Free

Airships: Conquer The Skies is a cool steampunk real time strategy game that allows you to custom build your own airship and take to the skies for destructive and chaotic fights

Building an Airship is an easy and fun experience, allowing you to build all manner of weird ad wonderful flying contraptions. You can build anything you like, very easilly, but a bit of thought and strategic thinking is needed to create a true flying fortress of maximum destruction.

Once you’ve built your ship, the single player campaign allows you to fly from town to town on the world map battling airships and ground defences. There’s also an excellent multiplayer which allows players to pit their creations against each other, with the last ship standing crowned the victor.

The combat is a satisfying experience, with destructable terrain and airships crumbiling under barrages of artillery. Battles are little like FTL, but with a little more chaos and a lot more destruction. The wonderful balance of creative building and sweet pixelated destruction makes Airships a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

We’ve got some Airships Alpha keys to give away! More info here

Europa 9 is a simple, but highly addictivemining game, inspired by Motherload & Utopian Miner where you’ll mine various ores, purchase upgrades, complete missions and travel to new worlds.

You play as Minora, a miner who is caught up working for the mega corporation Min-R-Mart. You’ll dig for minerals and complete objectives, gaining cash and unlocking new upgrades, shops and planets for you to explore, all rendered in a charming pixel art visual style.

The feedback loop in Europa 9 remarkably satisfying, you dig to mine ore, then sell the ore to unlock upgrades which allow you to mine more ore. Starting out with basic equipment which won’t allow you to go very deep or break through rock very fast, you’ll always be hankering for the next upgrade which will allow you to mine that much better. The various pickaxes are especially satisfying once they’re unlocked - purchase the laser pickaxe and you’ll be gliding through rock like a hot knife through butter.

There’s no denying that Eoropa 9 is a fairly simple game, but it’s also very addictive and it’s a hugely satisfying experience burrowing through layers of sedimentary rock. How deep can you go? Very deep indeed.

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Souvenirs is a wonderful pixel art puzzle platformer that sees you exploring an intricate cave system in the dark, where you use sounds to visualise your environment.

You are lost. Alone. Searching for yourself. You don’t see far. In fact, you see nothing at all. But you hear things… drops; water flowing; rocks falling, rolling… and a bell. These environmental sounds, as well as the ability to throw rocks and other unlockable powers, help you visualise your surroundings, highlighting unseen ledges and allowing you to solve puzzles and progress through the labyrinthine underground tunnels. There are also interesting picture puzzles, solved by moving the camera, which join together to create a storyboard, providing a welcome break from the darkness.

Souvenirs is a wonderful, solitary and slightly claustrophobic experience, with the all encompasing darkness capable of hiding many an instant-death fall, you’ll always be foraging forward with trepidation. The darkness really does draw you in, making you focus on any glimpses of light. An excellentspelunking experience.

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Snot is a quirky and funny arcade action-adventure game where you play a reluctant little snail that seeks to learn the mysteries of the universe and his existence.

It’s a fun arcade-style romp with metroidvania leanings, charming character design, tricky level design, secrets and some interesting special abilities unlocked by combining various shells with elements. The dev also plans to add multiplayer, a world editor, new game modes, 9 huge worlds and 30 different bosses to the final game.

Snot’s shaping up to be a great piece of retro gaming with a great sense of humor. We’d certainly love to see more of this charming little mollusc. It’s snot bad, snot bad at all!

Check out the Kickstarter & Download the Alpha Demo

The Iconoclasts is a beautifully crafted action adventure game with metroidvania-style level exploration, fast paced arcade action, RPG-Style towns and quests, puzzles, upgrades, crafting and huge boss battles.

You play as Robin, a mechanic, in a world where her hobbies are considered illegal. Find out why as you traverse the world with the friends you meet, and through encounters with a nefarious duo called Black and White. It’s an interesting and deep story, more reminiscent of an RPG than your average arcade action game.

Combat in The Iconoclasts feels very responsive, providing old school arcade thrills reminiscent of Gunstar Heroes, but with a well implemented auto-aim system which locks on to enemies when they’re in range. The combat has plenty of variety too, with the inventive selection of enemies all requiring different tactics to dispatch them, as well as big bosses, all with their own attack patterns for you to learn and exploit.

The Iconoclasts is a wonderful adventure, full of retro arcade action, RPG-Style character progression, an interesting story, boss fights and fantastic Pixel Art. Highly Recommended.

Download the Alpha, Free

Posts tagged retro game