Red and White
Red and White combines metroidvania-style exploration with puzzle elements and an abstract art style.
Explore a vast world and restore to it the colors it once used to have. Each time a color is restored, the walls that used to be of that color will act differently, and with clever use of them, you’ll be able to reach new areas you couldn’t previously.
Read More: Best Metroidvania Minimalist Games.
Paradox Vector
The most exciting and admirable aspect of Paradox Vector is unquestionably the art design, which is not only unique, but a true joy to look at. All the colors and shapes build up a very stylized, but beautiful environment which is exciting to explore to the last detail.
Apart from that, many other aspects of the game may or may not cause… 𝘮𝘪𝘹𝘦𝘥 feelings in certain players - depending on their gaming taste or temperament - like the enemy AI, the layout of the levels, the sometimes unbalanced difficulty, the sharp contrast between the first and second half of the game, etc. But even with the hit and miss parts, I think Paradox Vector is still worth to play. Recalls many great and interesting aspects of old (FPS) games combining with a truly unique aesthetic.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Metroidvania Lovecraftian Games.
I’m not too far into Paradox Vector but I’m very much enjoying the old school vibe of the game. Think 80s Tron combined with a prison-labyrinth setting. The game has proved quite challenging due to HP restores being limited, however the dev has noted this and adding some extra nodes to make the game a bit less daunting at the start. (Even though I died a lot, I actually enjoyed how punishing it felt, reminded me of the good old days)
There’s no real soundtrack to the game from what I’ve encountered, but the creepy ambience adds to the atmosphere. It actually surprised me with how many jump scares it’s given me. Prepare for plenty of brain-bending areas that will play tricks on your mind as you try to navigate your surroundings.
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game
Mind Lock
Mind Lock is an interesting game that I think is worth your time. I haven’t played many Metroidvania’s but I am a fan of in-depth magic systems in games, and this one offers a magic system like no other. As you can imagine since it’s in early access (and only one level is available), the game is still in the works and more content is being added in the future. Still, I want to give everybody a fair review to base their decisions on:
The game is charming, relaxing, and a good time if you enjoy messing around with magic systems, although your choices may not have as large of an impact as you may think. However, the current mouse and keyboard controls are a little asinine, and the game does state that it was designed to be played on controller. You can’t change your keybinds so I fear that those /iwithout a controller will have a bad time. If you do have a controller, you’ll find the controls to be very easy to get used to. Still, I can’t help but feel excited for the game’s future, and for $5 it’s not too much of an investment.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Metroidvania Crafting Games.
Penguin :D
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Dreaming Sarah
“Dreaming Sarah” is an adorable (and somewhat trippy) side-scrolling exploration game in which you play a young woman trying to wake up from a coma. Naturally this involves being harangued by a pirate in the middle of a desert, falling through the inside of a giant grandfather clock, and accidentally causing a massacre in a nightclub populated by aliens. (At times “Dreaming Sarah” almost plays like a journey through a magic-mushroom fiend’s dream journal).
There’s no real plot to speak of, other than the coma thing, which is spoiled in the Steam description of the game and not really integral to the game experience anyway (hence the lack of an alert in this review). The joy of “Dreaming Sarah” comes not from the sliver of a story but rather from the little throw-away surprises in its short, stream-of-consciousness levels (what is UP with that happily undead manor-keeper anyway?), the charm of the 2-D retro graphics, and above all from the excellent musical score by Anthony Septim (included with the game). The modern vibe of Septim’s ambient/trip-hop score provides a nice counterpoint to the old-school graphics and gameplay (one button to jump, one button to choose an inventory item), and dispels any hint of tedium from the game’s central exploration mechanic.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
A surreal little side scrolling adventure platformer, with minimal platforming elements and lots of exploration through weird but well made and definitely dream-like 16bit imagery.
I’m slowly realizing that I’m bad at these exploration type games. There is a certain amount of patience required to get lost in its weird maps that go all over the place, in two directions or even looping onto themselves, and that require you to revisit them after finding certain items to see whether something new has unlocked. I’m apparently also not great at solving a couple of its slightly more abstract, lateral-thinking-required puzzles, so yes, a walkthrough was consulted. However, the game is good at creating a sense of controlled bewilderment that makes the exploration interesting, most of the puzzles do seem to resolve themselves after a bit of exploration or trial and error, and the different locations were distinct enough to keep fascinating even after getting lost in them for the n-th time. It helps that the game isn’t particularly long (about 2-3 hours, depending on how lost you get), so frustration is kept at a minimum.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
ASCENXION
the bosses suck. who ever designed them is mentally retarded.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Overall I liked it a lot but it does have a few (very) rough edges. Shmup combined with metroidvania should be self-explanatory but what drew me to the game was tactical combat where you get slower while attacking, there are timed dodges and there are abilities that use the same resource bar as dodges. That makes it a solid foundation for some good bullet hell. Most of the bosses are very well designed and you get rewarded for exploration handsomely, with equippable accessories that modify your ship in various ways. Unfortunately there are a few issues I’ve had with it:
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Space Hole 2018
I’ve only played about 3 hours now, and I can tell I’m nowhere near completing this game. Space Hole 2018 is visually stunning. It plays a lot like the Super Monkey Ball series, but is a lot less annoying in every respect. Minor game mechanics make the game much more enjoyable, plus you gain these new mechanics throughout the game which gives a sense of achievement and growth. The soundtrack is great too. Overall, this is an awesome, relaxing, psychedellic game that is definitely worth the listed $3.
– Real player with 27.0 hrs in game
This seems to be what Sam Atlas was aiming for all along. This newest Space Hole has a lot more of the Antichamber vibe and is overall a great improvement on 2016. Here’s why.
Pros
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Visually a lot more interesting now. Full on psychedelia, the inner workings of a mass hadron collider, giant chess sets, hypercubes, Saturday Night Fever disco floors the lot.
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More varied levels this time. Not just a get from point A to point B anymore. You sometimes need to exit your ball and fly around to scope out the large levels to see where you are supposed to be heading and work out a strategy.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Dream Knights
i really like this game, the art is beautiful and it feels like a dream.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Dream Knights is “mostly” a “template flip”, that is to say, it’s a “game” that has been produced by copying a game template from Construct 2, changing a few things, then dumping the barely functional “product” on Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab (I already mentioned the developer changed a few things but they seem to want me to make sure people know they changed some things in the template). In this case it was the Construct 2 template for doing a simple retro platformer game. Dozens of “games” have been dumped on Steam using the same template, and it’s terrible.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Subterene
Excellent sound design and use of shading that makes the grayscale pixel art breathe
Also I did the ending theme and it sounds pretty rad if I say so myself 👀
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
My Experience
On paper, Subterene “checks a lot of my boxes.” I liked the game’s unique aesthetic and interface, it’s advertised short run-time, and the idea of slowly piecing together this mystery that has occurred beneath the floor of the ocean.
Unfortunately, playing Subterene is a slog. The game gives you very little direction while you stumble upon probes and bumble from one mining depot to the next. For some this may make the game a true “exploration” game, but not for me when the act of exploring itself is so tedious. The speed at which your mining vehicle drills, turns, and accelerates is just PAINFUL. This is only exacerbated when your vehicle becomes caught on some small piece of a block, which happens ALL THE TIME.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Heart Lock: A Cozy Intro To Spellcraft
Very well made game for just coming out. I like the idea and hoping to see future content and I’ve also gotten my friend to play it also!
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
nice, fun, little indy game
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
10mg: Always Down
An interesting abstract thingymabob that seems to be about a man turning into a frog, running away, and then hopping all the way back once he reaches full frogitude.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
10mg: Ten Ten-Minute Games!
Always Down is ‘a game about going away’ and is made up of simple puzzles, cute enemies and light platforming challenges. The player controls a cube-shaped character who, after declaring that they are leaving proceeds to descend deeper into the ground, undergoing subtle changes the deeper they go. The game uses simple pixel art aesthetic to portray the varying environment and matches this well with relaxing classical music. Despite a few hurdles, the overall experiences was pleasant and somewhat meditative with a thought-provoking conclusion.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game