Old School

In honor of Leap Day 2008, Anna Anthropy, editor of The Gamer's Quarter and hobbyist game developer, released Mighty Jill Off, a free, old-school, and delightfully subversive little PC game. Jill Off distills its gameplay down to a very simple and enjoyable level; press left and right to walk, press Z to jump, press Z mid-jump to stop your upward-momentum early, and mash Z repeatedly to hover. Jill Off also distills its theme and plot down to a very simple and enjoyable level; the titular chubby little dyke gimp (which I say in the nicest way possible) is climbing to the top of a tower simply because she's a submissive, and her greatest joy in life is when her dominatrix queen MAKES her climb to the top of the tower.

There are plenty of amazing platform shooters out there. Metroid. Gunstar. Contra. None of these games can quite compare to Cave Story, though.

Released in late 2004, Cave Story harkens back to a simpler time. The graphics are 8-bit, and yet they manage to be beautiful. The music consists entirely of chiptunes, and yet it's some of the best composed video game music I've ever listened to. And the gameplay? Fantastic.

If ever a game deserved a second chance, it's Eric Chahi’s Another World. Something of an homage to Jordan Mechner’s original Prince of Persia, at least in terms of similar gameplay and rotoscoped graphics, Another World offers both that game's precise platforming as well as an inviting science fiction landscape. Since its release in 1991 it has survived largely on its reputation as an old favorite of countless designers--but few gamers have heard of this classic Amiga title, and fewer still have played it, largely because of its limited distribution.

An oldie-but-goodie, Risk II was implemented by Microprose, before they were taken over by Hasbro, passed onto Atari, and gutted... Still the best digital implementation of the classic boardgame. If you like this kind of game, do also check out Lux Delux.