Retro

What is it about pandemics? We've had a rash of them recently, and here's another. In this one, though, the pandemic is the zombie apocalypse.

Most games with zombies are horror apocalypse; in this one, you are, by implication, a mad scientist unleashing the zombie apocalypse on the world. It's played in a series of stages, each one set in a "city"; you trigger a zombie infection, then watch as your zombies eat the brains of citizens, sweeping your pointer about to collect coins when they die. Then, you upgrade your zombie capabilities in the "Lab." At higher levels, the humans fight back with mercs, secret agents, Spiderman, Santa Claus and other such things who are harder to infect and who fight your zombies, possibly stopping the infection before you collect lots of coins. Luckily, you get bombs and such to blow them up as an upgrade.

Instead of posting about an imitation of an old-school platformer today, how's 'bout I give you a slice of the real deal? You most likely haven't come across this as it was only released in Japan and, erm, Scandinavia. Which is a damn shame, as this is one of my favorite titles to grace the NES. As someone who swears by Mighty Bomb Jack, Capcom's Disney-licensed titles, and all the usual suspects this isn't said lightly. The game was developed by Sunsoft, who admittedly have a less than stellar track record (Aero the Acrobat? Ugh.) This game is their unsung masterpiece, however, and deserves your attention. There was a great deal of love put into this, and is readily apparent in every aspect of aesthetics and design. If you're into platformers this cult-classic title shouldn't be missed.

This game is fresher than a Snapple, do you remember Snapple? It was in tight competition with Lipton Brisk. This game is brisker than a cute animal wielding a bazooka, who must be brisk lest he take too much risk.

We've already established that retro is a sort of cancerous fetish and/or celebratory exercise in practical limitations, it's one or the other, or both. We've seen retro sweep over the platformer genre like a plague of locusts, devouring every possible variation on physics, level design, goal-orientation, character development, and aesthetic. The term Metroidvania has been viciously defiled, mutilated strung upside down in a mock crucifixion. Now Zelda-style games are being descended upon, we can only expect a skeleton to remain in the wake. But for now, it's time to feast!

From the makers of the excellent DinoRun comes another exploration of mayhem in Atari drapings, laced with sweat and 8-bit MIDI. Mountain Maniac has you playing an estranged dwarf hammering out boulders from a mountain top to destroy a city below. Its like Pachinko meets Rampage with a suitably pissed off Scandavian midget going where no Southpark character has gone before. The joy of watching the boulder fall, the comedy of emergent timing as it crushes a bald eagle, narrowly misses the sasquatch and destroys a major bank, it almost makes you forgot that you can influence the boulder's path. I'm not sure which is better, having more control or having more looney tunes comedy as people's homes and lives are ruined by sheer physics.

Taper your beard and get antisocial, this game is simple, pure, fresh and fun. Its also a great example of how game investing should be done, pick out a talented team that has already distinguished themselves in doing something that has unique gameplay, not just good production values. Then you let them do pretty much whatever they want, and you get some crazy gem like this. Nice work PixelJam, and complimentary to that, nice work Adult Swim's portfolio manager!

The Black Heart has the best production values of any free game ever released. It is dope as fuck. I mean, I try to use sophisticated language when describing games, but some times, times such as this, there is no phrase that could be more appropriate than saying: this game is awesomely, extremely, manifestly dope as fuck. Are you with me?

I first played Super Mario World at the tender age of three, and when I did my mind was blown. Since my introduction to the genre, only three platformers have had a comparable impact on me. All three are indie titles. The first two, namely Spelunky and Braid, redefined what could be done within the platformer framework; they innovate to the point they seem like games from the future. The third title is VVVVVV, and it plays like a AAA title from the past. If this was pressed into a ROM back in the heyday of the NES it would be considered a seminal platformer, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mega Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Like the best of the 8-bit era, the game takes a single mechanic, builds upon it, and polishes it to perfection. VVVVVV is superbly designed and immensely fun, and has surprising length for an indie title. This is Terry's opus, a labor of love that put him in debt developing it. I know this is going to sound like bombastic hyperbole, but this is old-school design at the height of its craft; I sincerely hope you don't pass it up.

Update: Star Guard is a 2010 IGF finalist in the "excellence in design" category.

"Guide the spaceman through the castle and defeat the wizard" -- can't get any simpler than that. Do you need any more reason to blast your way through nine levels of old-school goodness? Didn't think so. Star Guard is a refined, minimalistic take on those 80s run-and-gun classics; like its predecessors, it focuses solely on fun and hits its mark (in the face with a laser beam, I might add.)

Tower of Heaven looks and sounds as if it could be a Gameboy title: flat gray (or actually) green-scale graphics and the kind of Midi music track you'd expect from such a title. What it actually is, however, is a little Gamemaker platformer notable for one thing: a highly polished, and frustratingly difficult set of level challenges. (At least frustratingly difficult for me, but as I've noticed before, I suck at this kind of game.)

In other words, there's nothing particular innovative about the setting or the mechanics, but the level design is both excellent and extremely tight.

I've been doing a play study on character movement in platform games, which sounds really academic, but I'm building a prototype for a platform game which could turn into a mega-awesome WiiWare title, so it's not academic. Pursuant to this I got to replaying two killer titles from my youth, Kirby Superstar and the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy. They're both not quite what I remembered them as, both were promisingly fresh examples of platformer kineticism in their time, and they're both dated in interesting ways. Kirby's series is one saturated in cuteness, softness, and padding: gameplay padding, physical padding, content padding. Ninja Gaiden is a series that is balls-to-the-wall difficult, being legendary among the grew-up-on-the-NES set for its insanely repetitive challenges.

The links section up there only lets me provide four links (my bad), so here's the Amiga demo, should you actually want it.

It may not surprise you to know that I look at a lot of indie games, and that a great may I spend only a few minutes with, because life is too short. Those are the ones that don't normally get reviewed here. Going into BOH, I expected it to be like that. Way retro graphics, manual with lots of widgets in it, ugly website, 3D overhead shooter, a genre done to death many years ago, and Amiga support, forsooth! Should be a quick no.

And then I found myself on the fifth level.