My Night Job
Cartoon-styled side-scrolling beat’em up game with surprisingly complex and challenging mechanic.
Basically, you’re dropped just outside of some big mansion, filled with respawning monsters and “civilians”, as well as some items you can use as weapons - from umbrellas and chairs to gas baloons and everyone’s favourite - the Chainsaw!
In short, you beat monsters, gather people and led them to rescue (helipads on the edges of the mansion). For each rescue you collect some goodness, like healthkits, guns with ammo etc. After you rescue 100 people, your main goal changing to blow up the mansion, by settling some C4 in the basement. Meanwhile, as you running back and forth through the area, the monsters are growing their numbers, and if they reach some trigger point, they starting to tear the mansion apart - yeah, before you’ll be able to save everyone and leave the place.
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Competitive Games.
If you think I missed something in my review feel free to tell me
My Night Job
My Night Job is a tribute to the classics of horror and is a nice paying occupation if you somehow live through the job. I will add a TL;DR at the end.
Gameplay
My Night Job is fairly simple as your goal is to save 100 survivors from an abandoned mansion as you are also trying to make sure you do not die and hope that the mansion is not destroyed by its monstrous guests. Do this by using various environmental objects to kill the monsters. This is not an easy game by far and there are tributes to classics all around the mansion. The tributes include the different areas of the mansion and six special survivors you can recuse which give you certain bonuses. An example of one of these is the girl from the ring which you can rescue through one of the televisions within the residence.
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Crossing Souls
Crossing Souls was such a weird experience. When I’ve seen the screenshots, I’ve fallen in love with the game. When I started playing, I loved the music, it’s really outstanding. But the more I played, the less I enjoyed.
Tehcnically the game is somewhat lacking. Weird control scheme with mouse and keyboard, no ability to rebind, and basically no visual settings. The game is played in a pseudo-3D environment with sprites, that makes depth perception hard at points. For platforming you need to check your shadow, and at points it’s just silly to jump over lasers. And it’s just simply horrible at the penultimate boss.
– Real player with 15.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Adventure Games.
I am not 100% sure why I feel the need to write a review for this game, but I do, do here it is.
The setting, theme, music, cutscenes, collectibles- all good. They very successfully capture the mid-80s aesthetic in a fun, tongue-in-cheek manner. I particularly like how the cutscences play like an old, slightly worn out VHS recording, complete with wear lines and slight audio skipping. The art style isn’t really to my liking, but it certainly fits the time period and all in all the feel of the game is great, and the major reason (besides stubborness) that I finished it.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Dirty Land
Dirty Land is a game about real estate, crime, and desperation, inspired by classic sales movies of the 80s and 90s.
Step into the shoes of Frank Marsh, a newly hired salesman for Pure Sky Properties, a real estate office where coffee is for closers and the status quo is hawking swamp land to unsuspecting buyers for a tidy profit. Will you cast aside your ethics for a quick buck, or will you take the high road and find a way to scrape by honestly?
Something New Every Day
Welcome to your new job. At the start of every day, you begin out front of an unassuming, drab strip mall, where Pure Sky Properties is tucked away. Every day brings new characters to meet, new events to experience, and new stories to be told. What will it be tomorrow?
Choose a Lead, Go on a Sit, and Close ‘em!
These are the new leads. You’ll probably close one of your leads today, but can you close two leads a day? You’re gonna need some caffeine for that. But you know what salesmen say about coffee… you better prove your worth if you want that cup of joe!
Every day you’ll have chances to make a sale. Learn what they like, study their habits, memorize what you can about them, and get them to sign on the line which is dotted!
The Birth of a Salesman
You are Frank Marsh. You’ve made a mistake that has ruined your family. You can’t change your past, but you can change your future!
Will you take the high road and stick to your principles, or take the low road and chase the easy money? Whichever path you take, you’ll discover multiple endings based on the choices you’ve made and whether you succeed or fail in those choices.
On top of those choices, you’ll need to balance your family life with your work life. Will you be a model father and go home and play with your kids? Or will you go out on another sit and close that elusive buyer? Go too far down one path and there will be consequences… your choice will change Frank’s story - at work and at home.
Make Friends First, Sales Second
An office is a place where dreams come true. A place to meet lively new people. A sociopathic manager. An elusive owner. An opportunistic coworker out to steal your money. A flamboyant salesman with no concept of failure. A seductive hairdresser. An intrepid drycleaner. A neglected wife. A pair of dumb mob thugs. A ripped-off customer. A brutal detective. A homeless derelict with clues to a mystery. A rival firm across the street. And many more…
Always Be Closing
The money is out there. All you gotta do is reach out and grab it! How many leads can you pitch and sell? Can you bag the top leads? Will you take advantage of easy prey, or tackle deals with honor?
Play the Sleuth
Do I have your attention? Good. Because it’s not just sales numbers that you need to keep your eye on. You need to keep your wits about you, because in an office full of backstabbers, anything can and will happen. Including the surreal!
Clearly you’ve been framed. But by who?
Solve Murder Mysteries
In a desperate world you’ll meet desperate people. Dangerous people. People who will do anything to make rent. To not get fired. To make that promotion. To secure those juicy leads. From unsavory characters to hilarious charmers, they all have secret motives to uncover… you’ll need to gather clues and piece together the truth to gain the upper hand in this double-crossing world!
Everyone is a suspect! Especially you!
And this murder won’t be the only one…
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Adventure Games.
198X
Just finished this amazing little game. My total playthrough was just under 4 hours, but that’s just the time you need to play through the game to completion. To ace the minigames and get all the achievements, you’d need to put in double or triple that. I’m not a massive achievement hunter, so I’ll take my 4 hours and bow out gracefully.
Without spoiling this game too much, it’s a story that many of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s know all too well. We were kids at a point where the technology curve was a sheer cliff. Only the minds of kids could comprehend the changes, and the adults were left standing. Those of us who yearned for sci-fi worlds of AI and Robots, space travel, dungeon delving were utterly misunderstood by our parents and told to stop daydreaming… And then came computers.. Suddenly you didn’t just read about it in the comics or (if you were lucky) books… Now you could actually go there! Just a 5 minute tape load, or a 10p inserted into an arcade machine was all that separated you from the mundane world of impending nuclear war, urban decay, hyperinflation and riots. Suddenly you were in another world, escapism at the time when we needed escapism the most. And this game tells that story, through the eyes of someone living through it, experiencing the loneliness of constantly looking out at the horizon and thinking “This can’t be all there is! There must be more!”. A chance walk, a turn, and suddenly you find yourself surrounded by portals into other worlds, and you have a handful of keys to the portals in your pocket.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
198X takes an arcade game time capsule from the 1980s and brings it to life through superb pixel art, awesome music, and amazing story-telling. Sure, it might be short overall, with completion time anywhere around 1.5-2 hours estimated, but the experience is quite a blast.
Take a trip down memory lane with very (and I mean very) forgiving retro-style (look, feel, the whole deal) arcade games recreated with so much love and attention found within this title. The game recreates five different styles of games with a really unique and fun gameplay element in each one, so no wonder this game claims to not just be this or that, in its really enticing trailer.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Antstream Arcade
Antstream Arcade is the place where you can find the world’s largest collection of classic games in one place. Download to instantly play thousands of retro video games - all for free! One account works across multiple devices, so you can pick up and play on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Amazon Fire, NVIDIA Shield, and Atari VCS. Easily replay your favourite games from your youth such as Asteroids, Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble and many more!
Challenge global leaderboards and compete against your friends to get the highest score. Take on our social challenges - bite size sessions which allow veterans and new players alike to experience a fresh take on retro games. Compete against the world in our weekly tournaments!
Beat Cop
In Beat Cop’s trailer we see Kojak, Columbo, Magnum & Miami Vice… We’re in the 80’s!
But none of that, nor Sledge Hammer himself, you are Jack Kelly, a NYPD detective who has been demoted to street police after a confusing robbery of a senator’s house…
You have 3 weeks to solve the case while you fulfill your role as a street cop.
From where I start? For God’s sake, what a 3 weeks! What a street!
This game is a rare mixture, gameplay is very original. We are talking about an adventure with retro graphics where decisions matter, with a main story and daily secondary missions every day of the 3 weeks that at most will last the game (21 days) full of jokes, very funny! But it’s also a time and resource management game. As if that weren’t enough, there is also a reputation system with different factions and many different endings. All at rhythm of small (only 4 tracks) but exquisite soundtrack set in the 80’s. An explosive cocktail!
– Real player with 35.4 hrs in game
Warning: You cannot be a “good cop” throughout the whole game
Beat Cop is somewhere in the middle for me, but below the margin. I think I actually enjoyed the gameplay and visual/audio style the most, while the main storyline, the dialogue, and your “freedom” with choices are not that great.
The game focuses way too much on over-the-top dark humor to a point where it gets annoying, especially at the beginning of each day where you listen to fellow cops repeat the same cliche, one-dimensional, arrogant personality rants.
– Real player with 15.5 hrs in game
Donuts’n’Justice
Donuts’n’Justice is one of the best 2D arcade shmups I’ve ever played. Looking for a real challenge? This game is for you. Its standard difficulty is so hard that even though the game only has 6 short stages/bosses, it took me around 5-6 hours to beat it. Your reflexes will be tested constantly while playing this game and you will die….a lot. So much in fact that the game tips on each loading screen will encourage you to demote your difficulty down to “Thumbsucker” mode. There is also an even harder mode available within the settings but beware - I’m sure it can’t be good for your blood pressure, lol. I’m convinced that the overall difficulty of this game was balanced a certain way to encourage co-op play, which is a big feature of this game. Vibrant, silly, action-packed and extremely fast-paced, the game is centered around two Super Cops in the 80s who are on a mission to eat donuts and kick ass. Fighting through droves of laser-wielding criminal gangs, gun-toting punks, katana-swinging ninjas, molotov-chucking thugs and even alien donuts, you start the game with a pretty useful sidearm (good firing speed and decent damage) + infinite ammo and the unlockable arsenal is generous considering the small scope of this game. It contains about 10 unique weapons, but you don’t have each weapon on hand at all times - you must pick up boxes that are dropped by slain enemies in order to obtain a random weapon out of the 10. Picking up these boxes can either work in your favor or not, depending on what weapon you end up with since some are weaker/slower than others and some are situational at best. Some weapon examples include grenades, powerful pistols, shotguns, uzis, flamethrower, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, freeze gun, kitty gun, DNA swapping gun, etc. Slain enemies will also sometimes drop other pick-ups to turn the tide of battle such as bulletproof vests to protect you and magic mushrooms (tripping on these slows everything around you down so you can take a breather if you’re getting swarmed). The controls are super simple and easy to use - arrow keys to move and the X/C keys to fire left and right. The sound design is high-energy, catchy and repetitive, but no matter how long you stay trying to pass a level, the music never gets annoying. Customization is also available after collecting enough wads of cash dropped by dead guys - you can purchase different kinds of fun hats to wear in game (some even have useful gameplay perks that activate when they are worn). Additionally, the pixel art and retro design for this game is gorgeous and performance is extremely smooth, I was very impressed upon finding out that this was a completely homemade indie game crafted with total love by just one dev. He nailed it all. In conclusion, Donuts’n’Justice is a highly enjoyable experience packed full of challenge and you genuinely feel rewarded upon beating it. Buy this game and support awesome indie devs!
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Donuts ‘n’ Justice is a pixelated game that appears to be a throwback to the arcade games of the 1980s. It is also a reminder of the famous 1980s TV show Miami Vice. It is not a brawler game by any means; it is a side-scrolling shooter in which you go up against criminals by playing either Mick Riggs or Nick Gordon if you choose the single-player mode. You can also play co-op with a friend so that both Riggs and Gordon can take down the criminals together.
By looking at the game’s graphics, this is no doubt an indie game. It looks quite decent for an indie game. You simply shoot at bad guys as you move horizontally to the right, but there will be some villains shooting at you from behind on the left side of the screen. The keyboard controls are simple: X to shoot left, C to shoot right, Spacebar to throw grenades and arrow keys to move around. I got accustomed to the controls quickly despite not having much experience with them. As the action progresses, criminals will drop items such as badges, mushrooms (eat them to slow down time), boxes of new weapons. and donuts. Donuts have long been associated with cops, but in this game, donuts can save your life since they add lost health. Weapons range from the familiar to the laugh out loud types. One weapon, a DNA modifier, turns enemies into animals like chickens and pigs.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
In The Shadows
I saw this game at a student developer showing at a college in Montreal some time ago and was very impressed so when I saw it on Steam I had to try it out. The game is very good, the story, design and game play are very well thought out. I am a big fan of unique puzzle games, kind of tired of the same stuff so I look for more original designs and this one fits the bill with a nice light and shadow based game play that adds new concepts as you go through the levels to keep it interesting, even to the point where I would have liked to see even more levels with certain mechanics (like the movement of the sun or the shadow mirroring levels). Given this it must also be noted that there are some issues which I am sure could have been polished with more time. The controls are less responsive than ideal (mainly the jumping), there were some glitches where I had to restart the level as my shadow no longer jumped, the respawn points were often off leaving you in an area that forced a level restart plus a few other minor bugs. None of these really were much of an issue though, so I still really recommend trying it out.
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
In the Shadows is a little gem of an indie game!
I really enjoyed the pixel art and animation in this puzzle game.
Clearly a lot of time and effort was put into the visual aesthetic and soundtrack and it makes for a very atmospheric experience.
Most puzzles are a joy to figure out, but I did run into 2 or 3 that required too specific a timing and execution to complete for my taste.
Overall however the levels never outstay their welcome, on top of that all of them are nicely varied and beautifully detailed.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
QUACK ATTACK 1985: TURBO DX EDITION
Yo! This game is the shit! You all need to make this game for MacBooks so I can play it when I’m with my mom too! This game is very fun and addicting for me, just not good for anyone with sensitive eyes, and again guys, you all should make it available for Macbook
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
2 points:
-
Regardless of your susceptibility to epilepsy, this game WILL give you a seizure (note the 5.5 hrs on record - i was not conscious for at least 5 of those hours).
-
This is not a duck simulator and is exploitive to waterfowl more generally.
All that being said, I recommend this game. …if only to promote a market where more waterfowl is featured in gaming.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Slime’s Revenge
Enjoying this one so much!
Fun, frustrating, easy to control, well set up levels and a nice price…everything a platformer should be!
Watching for more games from this company :D
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
A game about a slime who has had enough of the hero establishment harvesting their friends, family and themselves for petty aristocratic gains, who themselves has been failed by an inadequate feudal system unable to protect them. You navigate through a system that’s seemingly designed to be hazardous to you and other forms of life, no-one knows why there are spikes all over the human’s home or other seeming inefficiencies in their system but those questions must be asked later as you escape them.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game