Last Soul
LAST SOUL is a 2D Pixel-Art, Shooter, Action, Platformer with a compelling story about a future where mankind is losing its will to live.
Get cover
Use shields to protect yourself from the bullet hell that enemies spread towards you. You need to also use these shields as a platform when reaching the higher ground.
Dash
Dash and destroy. With dash, you are fast as F boi! Often the attack is the best defense.
Bullet time
Last Soul is a fast-paced game, and there is a lot’s going on around you. Control the time and use the bullet time to dodge enemies bullets.
Big guns
You need big guns to destroy big bosses. Collect them all and spread mayhem around you.
Fly like a hawk
Death from above! Use a jetpack and fly like a bird. Enemies don’t even notice what did hit them.
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Play as an AI robot tasked with saving humanity.
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Explore and fight your way through tens of distinct regions.
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Enjoy the amazing PixelArt graphic and an immersive music style.
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Evolve your character, unlock new and more powerful weapons and abilities.
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Master special powers, including bullet time, jet pack, and shields.
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Take on awesome boss fights, or die trying.
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Make your best speedrunner time and show off on the leaderboard
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Discover Easter Eggs, boost your points, and get a totally different skin from the rest
Read More: Best Arcade Singleplayer Games.
Arcana Heart 3 LOVEMAX SIXSTARS!!!!!! XTEND
Warning: The netcode is delay based and current population of regulars is maybe 10 people max (including myself) who are pretty chill but kinda insular, who also happen to have solid connections with each other (mostly). The patch notes for Xtend are available, but the Mizuumi section for Xtend is largely barren. The game is also apparently tied to your monitor refresh and needs to be capped through external methods. The training is lackluster and does not not natively have a input display.
Turn back now if these factors are a turn off, or just plain inconvenient - which is entirely reasonable.
– Real player with 90.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Arcade Singleplayer Games.
This has probably been my favorite surprise-release of 2017, at least in the fighting game genre, since I had no idea this game existed, let alone was going to be released.
Now, despite the fact that I am a big fan of games like Nitro+, UNIEL, Aquapazza, Melty, etc, I never really got into AH3LM. The main reason was likely because, at the time I picked it up on Steam, barely anyone played, and those who did would body someone like me before I could even confirm anything. The other problem was, while I could get my friends interested enough to try out BlazBlue, or UNIEL, or even Nitro+, for some reason, no one would give AH3LM a try for some reason. So, since I was limited to continual training for the off chance of an online match, or single player modes, I had pretty much dropped the game, except for the occasional itch for something different.
– Real player with 60.4 hrs in game
Dreamland Prison
Dreamland Prison is an action RPG slasher game with dynamic combat. You play as Ares the young man who get’s involved in demons game. Your main goal is to destroy Leviathan’s strongest servant Archdemon, only by doing it you can save hundreds of people in white sleep.
Story
A mysterious disease - white sleep takes place in the Arai city. People suffering from it fall into a deep coma and a mysterious birthmark appears on their hands. Several days after the first case of the disease, hundreds of sick people die simultaneously in one evening. After this event, more people get sick the very next day, including mother of our main character - Ares. During a visit to his mother in the hospital, Ares falls asleep. He awakens in front of a powerful being - Beliar. The demon explains to Ares that he became his player in the game against the second gamemaster Leviathan. To save his mother and hundreds of people in white sleep Ares must win the demonic game.
Combat
We chose a combat system in which all attacks are area of effect, thanks to which we can simultaneously slaughter hordes of enemies. As you play you need to avoiding monsters area attacks as well. The fight will become more and more spectacular and interesting as our character grow. Stronger enemies will have more and more deadly skills.
Key features
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Fictionalized quests and captivating story
Play as Ares and sink in an immersive world full of dozens of different tasks.
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Get into a conflict of interest
Two demons are playing with your world - are you able to survive their demonic game?
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Takeover the power of Ezares
Explore a beautiful handcrafted world!
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Deep character development
Strengthen your character with attribute points, choose from a wide range of skills and face hordes of enemies.
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Hundreds of items ready to be equipped
Equip your character with legendary item sets and take on Leviathan’s most powerful creation.
Read More: Best Arcade Action RPG Games.
Drift Stage
Drift Stage is a drift-focused arcade racer with intuitive mechanics and fluid high-speed action.
Features
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Loaded Roster of Exotic Cars - Explore an array of vehicles ranging from JDM tuners to Italian sports cars to find the car with the style and handling to match your taste and driving style.
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Tracks in Beautiful and Unique Locales - Race through blue-sky sunny beaches, neon-infused urban highways, and more unique and beautiful locales.
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Online and Split-Screen Multiplayer Drifting - Tear up the asphalt with friends in online and split-screen multiplayer.
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Rocking Original Music - A large original soundtrack from the softshred virtuoso Hugh Myrone that will make you want to crank your car radio.
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
Mostly Boring
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a platforming game where you play as a pair of characters that can switch on the fly, changing the environment, the enemies, and in a lot of parts, the available collectible crystals. Crystal collecting and switching are at the core of this game, and not much else.
Don’t expect much of a story. I’ll be honest, I found none myself, so this is really just pure game. The problem is that the game it is isn’t very good.
Navigate levels by jumping and either spinning, which turns the character into a kind of cannon ball that can break walls or attack enemies; or twisting, which allows the character to descend slowly and with more control after a jump.
– Real player with 54.7 hrs in game
Personal rating: 8/10
What about Giana Sisters - Twisted Dreams?
This seemingly cute and unambitious platformer will prove that you should never judge a book by its cover. It sports increasingly challenging level making use of the core mechanic; dual world that can change how enemies and the environment behaves around you.
The game is so cutesy, it must be easy! Hint: It is not
Although the game starts simple and easy it soon becomes one of the most difficult platforming games with long levels full of secret paths leading to more gems, which you will need to explore if you wish to earn the best rank.
– Real player with 29.0 hrs in game
Lil Tanks
A hidden gem of not only 2017, but for Shoot ‘em Up fans everywhere in my opinion!
4 out of 5
PROS: A well balanced, yet challenging shmup. Banging music. Great arcade-y and charming look. A small, yet diverse enough array of pick-ups to combine and use at your disposal that offer some imaginative use. Specials that can get you out of a sticky situation. Unlockable characters (tanks) with different playstyles. Boss Training Room (a mode I find necessary for Shmups), and difficulty mods to increase the challenge this game has to offer. Also, it has a rewarding level up system where you get permanent upgrades to your tank(s). Such as triple shot, a spread shot pattern, and depending on what tank you are using, specific artillery adhering to the characters play style.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
The controls are so slow that it sometimes is physically impossible to dodge, even if you make the enemies’ bullets out between the confusing optics. You DO have a shield that prevents one hit, but it wont recharge when you lost one of your two lives, so its useless after that. The choice of weapons is also quite low.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
BEARZERKERS
Great fun to play with a small group of friends.
Love that it has both a competitive and co-op multiplayer modes.
Art direction is superb.
Really liking the level variety.
– Real player with 33.6 hrs in game
Thought i doesn’t have a lot of content at the moment it is a great game to play with the family. Thought this game is labeled as multiplayer(Online). You must have more than one controller and a person who’s willing to play, because if not this game is completely pointless to have. This is the game’s only downfall, I hope that in the future they will add AI players that you can compete against. Also that the moment there is a limited amount of content, but I’m sure it will be expanded upon in the future. I can’t wait to see what’s in store. Btw, by 9 year old niece endorses this game. :) For that I recommend this game for people who have siblings, or friends are are willing to play. When you do have people to play with, this game is a blast!
– Real player with 24.7 hrs in game
Sentris
Sentris is definitely worth looking into if you have any interest in creating music. It reminds me of my days playing with software such as FruityLoops, but puts its own unique spin on things. I’ve enjoyed playing through the provided songs and am starting to create my own unique setups (as well as attempting to emulate some more widely-known music too).
“What is Sentris in 2 Minutes?” Video:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502221656
Overall the game is a lot of fun, and quite a versatile tool once you get to grips with it. That said, there are a few features I would love to see implemented going forward. Primarily these are just additional expansions for added versatility when creating songs. It would be great to be able to select notes outside the standard scale that I choose, and to apply effects (such as reverb or echo) to specific instruments during remix.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
I played an early version of this game at PAX last year and could not get my head around it. I dropped blocks haphazardly in to a wheel, not understanding what I was supposed to be doing and not enjoying the sounds I was creating. I walked away feeling embarrassed that I had failed to ‘get’ Sentris.
The tutorial in the release version immediately got me on the right track and removed my doubts about this game. Within five minutes I was creating funky loops that went beyond the tunes the game was feeding me and I felt the thrill of composition that I know the designer was aiming to inspire. There is a real satisfaction in building loops layer by layer and it is especially cool to see how the sound evolves as later layers start to push earlier ones out of the loop. The way the progression of songs helps you learn what the game has to offer in terms of depth is almost perfectly executed, the only thing that I struggled a little to figure out was how to change octaves in freestyle mode (you have to climb or descend the scale to reach the octave you want to play in).
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
Shovel Knight is essentially the mascot for indie games, tied with Undertale in that regard, and for good reason. Shovel Knight provides a challenging yet fair and fun platforming game with the single best pixel art I have seen in a game. Period. There is no reason to not buy and play Shovel Knight, it has something for everyone and anyone.
– Real player with 142.3 hrs in game
I nearly quit gaming about a decade ago. Then I played Shovel Knight and it reminded me that games can just be charming and fun. Never looked back :)
All of these campaigns are well worth your time but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to space playing them out a bit. I played them as they were released so had no problems but I could easily see myself getting burnt out playing all 4 back-to-back. Your mileage may vary though.
Well worth picking up the soundtrack too - many of these make great ringtones :) Jake Kaufman is a genius.
– Real player with 53.3 hrs in game
Mercenary Kings: Reloaded Edition
‘You can’t be serious. Okay listen, this is a suicide mission. There are hundreds of enemies, we know nothing about the terrain and only have very limited suppli-…’ – ‘It’s okay, we’ll send in the KINGS, they can handle everything.’ Insert some dramatic music
‘Mercenary Kings‘ is an interesting recipe: You take a portion of ‘Mega Man‘, add some elements of ‚Monster Hunter‘ and spice it up with a pinch of ‘Metal Slug‘ or ‘Contra‘. This may sound like a very odd combination and the reviews are quite ambivalent about the qualities of the game but especially in co-op this game is a blast.
– Real player with 49.0 hrs in game
First Impressions
When I first saw the trailer, I thought of an earlier era of gaming. Many older games consisted of military members lugging around guns, dodging flashily colored bullets, and charging enemies. Over time the emphasis shifted from 2D games like this to 3D FPS. It’s nice seeing this style of game nowadays, and this is what caught my eye, in spite of a lackluster overall rating. Having put so much time into the game, I understand the mixed results better now, and hope to explain the ups and downs of this game.
– Real player with 47.0 hrs in game