I really wanted to like The Cave. The premise caught me immediately. Start out by assembling a team of three from a rogue’s gallery of characters ranging from a perpetually flourescent time traveler, a knight in shining armour, and a pair of twins who look like they fell out of a Tim Burton movie. After making your pick, drop down into a mysterious cave and delve into the dark backstories...
Organ Trail is more of a prolonged joke than a game. Anything based on Oregon Trail would have to be, I suppose. For those of you who aren’t children of the 1990s, Oregon Trail was a computer game released to schools on floppy diskette. The player assumes the role of a man guiding his family across America to Oregon by means of covered wagon. Raging rivers, bears, and dysentery stand in the...
The best word to describe Spelunky is dangerous. The player takes on the role of an unnamed adventurer with an uncanny resemblance to Indiana Jones. With nothing but a whip in hand and a backpack brimming with ropes and bombs, you plunge into the depths of an ancient cavern. Deadly spikes, arrow traps, snakes, and giant spiders lurk around every corner, each hellbent on preventing you from...
As a retro enthusiast, there’s nothing listed under Legend of Dungeon‘s key features that I can complain about. “26 floors of randomized dungeon.” “Tons of items, weapons, and magic.” “[A] [l]ocal and online scoreboard.” “4 player co-operative gameplay.” In theory Legend of Dungeon delivers on all the golden tropes of the rogue-like genre it hails from. But after a few hours of...
Shadowrun Returns surprised me. First off, because I completely forgot I had funded the project on Kickstarter. A banner advertising the game on Steam caught me off guard, prompting me to plumb the depths of my Gmail account for a long forgotten activation code. Secondly, because of how good the game is. Shadowrun Returns is a rare Kickstarter project that not only manages to live up to the hype...
This review can hardly be considered timely. Castle Crashers was released for XBLA in the throws of 2008, years before pandas invaded Azeroth and console controllers had giant screens in them. The game was, however, granted new life through a Steam release late last year. Considering that the last console I purchased was a Gamecube, this seems as good a time as ever to review this indie gem. The...
There’s a fine line between retro graphics and lazy graphics. In my review of Knights of Pen and Paper, I applauded the pixel-art aesthetic. The low fidelity graphics helped to further the throwback premise of the game and, more importantly, were well executed. Subtle details and charm oozed out of every pixel. The graphics in Rogue Legacy feel phoned in by comparison. Given, games of the...
The premise of Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy is simultaneously high concept and simple. An evil warlock has discovered a spell that can destroy the entire world. This incantation takes exactly thirty seconds to cast, and you must slay the villain before he finishes it. Superficially the game’s core mechanics ape those of a classic JRPG. Of course, defeating the dark...