You Have to Win the Game
What really defines a “retro game?”
Sure, there are quite a few two-dimensional one-afternoon’s-scope games out there with chunky, obvious pixels and “chiptune” soundtracks – how I hate that appellation, much as I dig the genre itself – and surely you’ve encountered buckets of ‘em in your travels. They’re clearly trying to appeal to a certain nostalgic market, but I find that many of these so-called “retro” games don’t really understand what it is to which they’re alleging to pay homage.
You Have To Win The Game has no such difficulty. It understands its audience quite intimately.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Free to Play Indie Games.
FANTASTIC LITTLE FREE GAME
“You Have to Win the Game” is a simple, well done old-school hardcore platformer offered for the low, low price of FREE. I’ve gotten about 8+ hours of enjoyment out of this game so far, so it’s emphatically been an incredible value. If you like games like Super Meat Boy, hell even if you don’t, download this game. It’s free, so what have you got to lose?!
[GOOD]
- Plenty of presentation options. Play in the old school looking default settings, or if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, set it up the way you want with the multitude of display options available. 8-bit color, 16-bit color, fullscreen, monitor border, there’s a lot there.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game
Thibalryn
loving this game it is tough but not impossible fun to exploere however i am missing though a minimap that would be a great QOL update(but not a must)
– Real player with 25.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Free to Play Indie Games.
A fantastic tribute to the classics, filled with as much flying bacon and evil red frogs as you can handle.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
KreisReise
Kreisreise is not for the soft. When you play the game without being accustomed to fast-paced action gameplay, it will engulf you and spit out the bones. It has a handful of cheap moments (with leaps of faith over spike pits) and the rotary view can be disorienting, but it’s a rewarding game to those who want a “Metroidvania” that plays like a true test of skill.
– Real player with 29.3 hrs in game
Hidden gem.
– Real player with 27.1 hrs in game
Blood Brothers
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– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
A Fun short game. Original Ideas. My son and I enjoyed the team work aspect and the game over all. Our only complaint was that it was too short!
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Birth of a Hunter
This game is fantastic. It is very Metroid Prime like. The battery system is unique and very well done. Also the music is fantastic as I was waiting for the world to generate it was great to listen to. Gameplay is also very well done. This is also a good game for replayability as the world is unique every time you start a new game. Good job to the developer on this! 100% recommend this.
Check out the first couple of minutes of gameplay here: https://youtu.be/wscOzoV8xTI
– Real player with 9.9 hrs in game
I’m sorry it is a good game but there are many flaws in it, such as knock back when you get hit, the laser turrets in the yellow area. In my personal experience, I have never had to rage so much that I literally got a headache. Again, i’m sorry, but i can barely play this game because of the amount of bull that it has. If the laser turrets were updated or something to make it so that they can’t hit you when they are off the screen or something, then i would probably enjoy the game more often but thats my main issue with it.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Hargrave
++ I have edited this review to be more updated. Additional thoughts at the bottom. ++
A mix between “Metroid” and “Mega Man”, this game manages to offer a nice experience for free. Another game that I’d put in my list of podcast/lecture games, so you have something to occupy your hands while listening to these types of media. And you can play it on a really weak and old machine, like the one I’m currently using.
The character controls fairly well, there is some precision jump required (especially in the harder version of the stages unlocked after you collect all powercells, but I didn’t play those) and you can even map keys to do some common actions like jumping down from a platform or jumping just one square up.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
As an avid fan of both the classic Megaman games, and the Metroid series, I knew I had to at least give this a shot just by looking at it, and man oh man did it deliver. It captured the difficulty of Megaman, albeit in a new way. Rather than unfairly placed enemies taunting you into a bottomless pit, nearly every hazard you touch will likely kill you. While this sounds rather punishing, it feels great to weave in and out of death’s grip once you master the controls. Not to mention the various health upgrade to help protect you from many of them, and the lack of lives and/or continues really helps speed things up.
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game
The Unfolding Engine: Paint a Game
So far, this has been amazing. For reletively new, early access, I entirely enjoy it.
Having the whole 90s RPG side scroller while designing when your playing is awesome, it just works and is something i’ve been looking for and is really helpful.
Theres heaps of tools you are given, so far they can create some insane worlds even with limited items at the moment, but you can import to expand on with your own sprites, sounds etc!
The music is really brings that 90s connection but also very deep which I love so much that I bought the OST.
– Real player with 16.4 hrs in game
well it’s a free game engine for you to create a game but i don’t like it
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
UROS: A Trip Through Shadows
What can I say about this game? By and large, a very good action-platformer. Fast, not very heavy, with nice graphics. Yes, it feels like many things were “taken”, or simply copied from the Hollow Knight. But in general, it is interesting to play. It would be. If not for a small unpleasant circumstance. I have run the game twice. And twice it flew out of me with the deletion of my save! This is just wonderful! This is just fine! I don’t have the words. Developer, how can you make games LIKE THIS and upload them to the public?! Was it really impossible to conduct tests at least for critical bugs?! If they correct it over time, I will even go through to the end. But now this game is simply impossible to play! Dislike.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
This game still need a lot more work to do, especially the way the sword slash effect is short but still hit enemy a bit far from it is kinda weird, theres a bug where after you defeat the 1st boss, when you fall down it wont load the next room and you just fall into void. Also the most annoying thing is that your game crashes and then your save file is gone.
If you can bear the current state of this game, i would recommend you to give it a try.
Otherwise, just wait for the full game to comes… maybe…
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Friendly Fire
First of all, I would like to apologize for my previous hasty negative comment. After many updates, this is already an excellent free game with 5 endings. Although the plot is relatively simple, we can also see the efforts of the developers. The picture of the game is also excellent. Plus some novice guidance, the whole game appears more exquisite.
So now I have changed and choose to give this game a good comment, thank the developers for sharing, and look forward to your next work expectantly.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Nice game fun and short.
But, there are some glitches: (when i say reset or restart the game I mean without exiting out from the game)
If you jump right before hitting the water you will jump on invisible ground (for some reason) and you can get to the other side of the river just as the game starts. But if your holding the rock and throw him the same time your feet touch the ground the rock starts floating and pushing to the left. He then pushes you himself and the small fire man into the wall which sends you to the very top of the map above the cloud softlocking your game. You can also not be pushed into the wall and have the rock and small fire go into the wall to softlock as well. Lastely if you do the same technique but throw him tot he right them he will float above the water and when you respawn you will constantly drown and not be able to jump and be softlocked.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
GunGirl 2
This is awesome! Gameplay is great, music is amazing, story and dialogues are funny (easter eggs are a nice touch), and graphics look sketchy but I don’t mind that at all considering that the game is free. BTW if developer would consider adding a “donationware” DLC - I would absolutely buy it.
I’m usually not really into hardcore platformers, but this game has just right amount of difficulty for me to be enjoyable. Except for boss fights, those are damn hard :)
I had some problems with initial controls config - default button mapping for controller is weird and when Steam Input was ON - game did not recognize my controller at all; so eventually I turned Input off and configured controller via in-game settings and it worked fine.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
Awesome platformer and zombieshooter with a nice amount of exploration, progression (story and abilities). The weapon-pool is well thought out and requires to change them according to the threat (composition and placement of the enemies around you). Getting hit makes the character loose some of the experience points (and upgrade levels) for the currently equipped weapon, which can force the player into using suboptimal weapons, which is a nice element.
The music is awesome and the graphics work well. While the animations and gore effects are nice, the overall artstyle feels more like “programmer with extended ms-paint skills”, which has its own charm.
– Real player with 15.1 hrs in game