A depressing week as far as “new” retro inspired games go. It is getting more and more difficult each week to sift through the wealth of “new” “super click”, “dress-up” and other “copy-and-paste-grammer ” (coined by Chris Cutler) developed game engine re-skins to find legitimate contenders for this list. I dove far back into the Mochi archive this time to bring you 5 games that I think you will really enjoy.
A Scrolling shooter/ rescue game inspired by Gravitar, Choplifter and…cattle from matts/Gimme5. The game is completely mouse controlled for flying, shooting, and bovine rescues. When you collect cows, they follow your ship in a snake-like pattern. Your job is to save as many cows as possible and get to the nest level. The game has beautiful graphics, nice sounds, and is a joy to play.
Free World Group‘s first game on the list this week. This one is a first-person scrolling shooter in the vein of Space Harrier, but with an added twist. You aim and fire with the mouse, but move independently with the keyboard. This gives the player a nice sense of freedom that is not present any many games of this type. Also, it looks and plays very cool.
An Asteroids/Geometry Wars inspired game from BlastOne (the same guys who made Partical Pong). Smooth playing, with crisp graphics, fast action and addictive game play. Your ship fires automatically, and each geometric enemy has a life-bar that must be depleted before it is destroyed. These guys at BlastOne have some neat ideas on how to take retro games and add their own spin. I look forward to their future efforts.
Free World Group‘s second game for the week. It is an innovative cross between pinball and breakout with progressive tables. The graphics are simple, but effective with very nice animations. The tables are large, but scroll, which can be distracting for a pinball game. The physics are nicely done, and while not 100% accurate, they sort of match the style of the game and don’t really distract the player at all. The action with the “breakout” style paddle is a very nice touch, and I suppose it is a much needed update to the classic game for allow for 21st century web user consumption. I personally like the classic game of pinball, but I very much appreciate what the developers were trying to accomplish with this game.
Arena from Xiotex Studios is a very satisfyitng arena fighter style game…for lack of a better description.. I can’t put my finger on any exact retro games that it reminds me of, but it doesn’t matter. It feels like a fun 16-bit Atari ST/Amiga game. The graphics are great, with nice explsions and enemies. The ship movement is near perfect. I found myself playing this much longer than I expected. As a bonus, the Xiotex Studios blog is a fascinating read.