Alpha Beta Gamer

S.W.A.G (Super Wreckless Awesome Gangsta) is a rhythmic first person shooter set in the 90’s where you roam dangerous streets and knock-out your enemy rappers with a finely timed sound blast from your golden boombox.

Gameplay is pretty basic at the moment, but it is still very early in development. It’s a fun (and tough) game for what it is though, with different enemy types that approach you in different ways and a cool retro visual style. As the game is developed, we’d love to see other music to blast enemies from and some more gameplay element features.

Like Harmonix’s Chroma, S.W.A.G. looks set to offer up some fun rhythm-based FPS action, only one of the games features a golden boombox gun though!

Play the Prototype, Free

SEGA Brawlers Megamix is an awesome fan made retro side-scrolling beat-em-up that features a roster of about 74 characters from SEGA classics like Sonic, Toejam & Earl, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Guardian Heroes, Comix Zone, Shinobi, Vector Man, Ristar, and other multiplatform games like Earthworm Jim, Battletoads and Splatterhouse.

It’s a wonderful love letter to SEGA’s 16-Bit heyday and a remarkably fun 4 player beat-em-up. The amount of work that’s gone into the game is incredible, all the characters have their own move sets and special moves, the soundtrack is fantastic and all the levels and enemies are based on classics, such as Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Sonic. There’s even a Vs Battle mode, as well as various unlockable gameplay modes and characters unlocked by completing the main adventure.

The game’s still in development, and could do with a little more variety in the main adventure mode and some bigger bosses, but the massive character roster certainly makes up for these minor shortfalls. It’s a fantastic homage to SEGA, 16-bit gaming and classic side-scrolling arcade beat-em-ups. Remarkably, the dev (DJGameFreakTheIguana) is still planning to add even more characters to the game. There really can’t be many more 16-bit SEGA characters out there - Ecco the Dolphin maybe?

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Titan Souls is one of the indie games in development that were unveiled during Sonys E3 conference, now known to be coming to PS4, Vita, PC and Mac. It’s a very tough, pixel art action adventure game that tasks you with taking down a variety of large Shadow Of the Colossus-style titans, armed only with a single arrow.

Needless to say it’s a very tough game, you’ll need to learn the titans attack patterns and use perfect timing to make your arrow hit the mark. The pixel art graphical style is excellent, with the game playing like a super hard, one-hit-kill 2D Shadow of the Colossus. Combat is a pretty tense affair, leaving you extremely vulnerable during the time it takes firing and retrieving your arrow.

The new gameplay footage revealed at E3 looks excellent, promising lots more Titans and building on the original Prototype that was created for Ludlum Dare #28, with the combat retaining it’s simple yet extremely tough nature (with a major change being that you can fire in more than 4 directions). The Prototype is well worth checking out, it can be completed in under 20 minutes, but due to the amount of times you’ll die it’s likely to take much longer!

Play the Prototype, Free

Basement is a pixel art management sim in a similar vein to Tiny Tower, but instead of building a pristine shopping mall, you build an underground drug empire, full of grow boxes, crack kitchens and cocaine refineries.

In the course of the game you need to process raw materials into drugs and distribute them among the customers who line up at the door. Your factory is covered by another facility which constantly attracts municipal workers with inspections. Deal with them, or you will attract unnecessary attention to your enterprise, and get under the FBI’s radar.

You’ll quickly realise that storage is the most vital part of the operation, as customers won’t leave until their increasingly large orders are completed (or their timer expires and they go away). This can create an un-passable bottleneck if you don’t have enough space to store the order in. But get your storage solutions sorted out and you’ll be making millions in no time.

The prototype was made for Ludlum#29, with a full version now in the works. It’s an addictive game, with a great pixel art graphical style and fun gameplay - Tiny Tower with drugs and no micro-payments - Tiny Drug Dealer.

Play the Prototype, Free

Gunplay is a Sci-Fi action platformer that draws comparisons to Mega man, but with 360° aiming and lots of guns - LOTS of very large, very powerful guns.

There’s a large focus on customisation in Gunplay, the sheer volume of choice can be a little overwhelming when you first start out and the system for selecting your weaponry is can be a little confusing (when in the armoury, click on ‘primary’, 'secondary’ or 'back-up’ with the mouse pointer). But once you figure it out it’s great fun experimenting with the wide variety of unique and inventive weaponry.

While graphically it’s reminiscent of Mega Man, the level design feels more like Castlevania/Metroid, with large open levels which you are free to explore and kill things in. Gunplay is shaping up to be a great game, and there’s a lot of fun to be had from experimenting with the weaponry and gadgets. It’s due to start a Steam Greenlight campaign soon so be sure to keep keep an eye out and throw it a vote!

Download the Beta, Free

The Simpsons: Treehouse Of Horror is an impressive fan made homage to the classic Simpsons Arcade game.

It’s a fun side scrolling arcade brawler that revolves around Homer, Bart and Krusty thwarting an alien invasion orchestrated by everyones favourite green tentacled extra terrestrials – Kang and Kodos. It features an extensive story mode full of in-jokes, sidekicks, mini-games, boss battles, fun special moves and lots of cameos (no only from the Simpsons, but Futurama and Family Guy too).

If that’s not enough, there are also two bonus campaigns, one allowing you to help Mr Burns defend his manor, and the other allowing you to play as Peter Griffin, battling his way through Quahog and Springfield (and yes he does fight the chicken). The game works perfectly with a 360 control pad (just map the buttons in the settings menu), allowing you to input the Street Fighter style button combos for special moves with ease (down, forward, attack. etc.)

Development is pretty much completed on Treehouse of Horror, but the dev is very keen to hear any feedback. The nature of the game (side scrolling beat-em-up) means that gameplay can be a little shallow, but it easily surpasses the original Simpsons Arcade game on all fronts – gameplay, variety and fun. You’re never sure who or what is going to turn up next, and is full of more sugary goodness than a Lard Lad Donut. mmmm donuts….

Download the Full Game, Free

Reprisal Universe is a wonderful pixel art God sim, created as a homage to Populous and the nostalgia of 16 bit games. It’s a major upgrade to the popular browser game Reprisal, which you can still get through Desura.

The isometric pixel art style is fantastic, it can make things a little confusing when you’re altering the terrain, but it’s worth it to see your subjects scampering around the map in all their pixelated glory. You’re tasked with guiding our tribe, building land and invading other colonies to help them grow in number. As well as terraforming tools, you also have powerful totem powers that you can use on enemies, laying waste to their cities. Your most useful tool is ’kindle’ which kicks your inhabitants out of their houses and gets them working - many hands make light work (and obliterate the enemy).

In this pixelised Populous it’s fun being a God, Reprisal Universe looks set to give us everything that Godus failed to deliver. The Beta covers the first 15 missions of the story mode, the finished version will feature lots more levels as well as other improvements. The dev is looking for feedback concerning difficulty levels (too easy or too hard) and any bugs or other improvement suggestions.

Download the Beta, Free

The Breakout is a stylish point-and-click adventure that pays homage to the captivating storytelling and characterization of the classic Point n Click games of the 1990s combined with the tense film-making style of classic movies like The Great Escape.

You play as Guy Kassel, an ex-thief whose life who joined the Air Force and rose to the ranks of Captain—only to be shot down and captured during a mission. The game begins as you arrive at a maximum security POW camp, met by a ruthless Colonel who promptly executes the last POW who tried to escape. It’s an adventure game for adults, with real life and death consequences where your stealth, preparation and adequate supplies are vital to your chances of success.

The Alpha Demo is a short flashback sequence from the full game, in which you’ve just crashed in enemy territory and have to find a way to escape. It does a good job of showing off the point and click gameplay and the modern animated filmic style of the game. It’s shaping up to be a great point and click adventure, with an adult storyline, A-team style team-work and a wonderful graphical style.

Play the Alpha Demo, Free

Level 2: The Virus Master is a fever dream retro shoot-em-up that assaults your senses from start to finish with a spectacular display of Giger-esqe pixel art, huge bosses and a rawkus metal soundtrack.

This is a promotional game for a band called ‘Last Chance to Reason‘ based on the tracks ‘Coded to fail‘ and ‘Taking Control‘ from their album titled ‘Level 2‘. This is an SHMUP with a twist: most of the actions are in sync with the music. The game will also feature lip sync animations on most of the boss characters. The animations for the lip syncs aren’t fully implemented, but you can press F10 if you’d like to see the placeholder animation.

Gameplay is inspired by classics such as R-Type, Contra, and Super Metroid, can be played on controller or mouse & Keyboard,and lasts for the length of 2 songs. There’s no fail state, but you’ll have to work hard to get those ‘S’ Rankings. Gameplay syncs wonderfully to the music, elevating it into a fantastic (if slightly disturbing) audio/visual experience.

The game’s developer – John Bell – is very keen to hear any feedback, so feel free to leave comments on the ABG site, or on the TIG forums.

Download the Alpha, Free

Freedom Planet is a fast paced retro platformer inspired by Megaman, Gunstar Heroes and (most notably) Sonic. Run, smash and fight your way through huge levels battling a variety of enemies, mini bosses and Bosses, as well as taking part in some action-packed set pieces.

Gameplay is very similar to the classic Sonic games, in-fact if one of the 3 female characters was swapped out with the blue spikey rodent, this could easily be a return to form. The Alpha Demo gives you access to 2 playable characters, one huge level full of secrets, multiple routes and bosses, and a time-attack based Dojo.

It has all the hallmarks of a great Sonic game, speed, style, energy and fun, but cranks them all up to 11. Play the original Sonic games after this and they’ll feel a little pedestrian.

Download the Alpha Demo, Free (Win & Mac)

Posts tagged retro game