Black Skylands
This is a hearty thumbs up from me- it’s a great adventure game, with a story that fits the purpose well. Includes airship combat, which you can think of pirate-navy stuff- replete with upgrades, various ships, etc. Big open world, and everything you go out to do feels like a grand adventure. I think this one is going to be a home-run when it’s fully finished.
Here’s the caveat- it is modestly buggy right now. Not severe, but you’ll probably hit a few snags. Big open world games are like that, and it’s good that they’re taking an EA period, because at the moment, it’s a very, very cool game- with bugs.
– Real player with 24.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Atmospheric Games.
The game concept is good and has a lot of potential. I just list down what I don’t like about this game after 2-hour gameplay and hopefully it will be fixed or improved in the future. Maybe what I mentioned below will be unlocked as I proceed the game.
- The developer said this game is the mixed of stardew valley and bioshock theme. However, I’m into the game for nearly 2 hours but the farming is no where near Stardew Valley. No season, no watering, just simple click for growing and harvesting crop (?). Maybe it will unlock more features as I proceed.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Westerado: Double Barreled
“Now remember, things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is.”
~The Outlaw Josey Wales
Back in the days, Taito’s Gun Fight was one of the very first arcades I’ve ever seen (aside from some weird local stuff that is) and Atari’s OUTLAWAtari 2600. The idea of both games was pretty simple (well, those were simple times) – player moved his character up and down, while the goal of the game was to shoot the opponent, who was doing the same thing on the opposite side of the screen. There were some obstacles like cacti, trees and even moving wagon, but all in all, it was just that – two players (or one player and the computer) were moving their heroes up and down while trying to eventually shoot each other. The Gun Fight was the very first game to depict human-to-human combat (we’re talking seventies here), while having something like that at home in OUTLAW (the arcade version of OUTLAW was a completely different game) felt… well, it’s hard to describe, really. I mean, for modern kids it feels like video games were always around. Like sun above their heads, cereals in their breakfast bowls and annoying adults everywhere. But the thing is – there were times when such entertainment was fresh and new. And let’s just say that playing a game with a friend on your TV… it felt beyond awesome. Sure, gameplay was way too basic, but come on! We were trying to kill each other! On a freakin' TV screen! And we were bloody cowboys! Even today, I consider OUTLAW as one of my brightest video game memories. Never had a chance to play Gun Fight long enough, but man, I can’t even count for how long I’ve played OUTLAW. But enough with nostalgia. Why am I even telling you all that? Well, there’s actually a reason for that. That’s right, kids, this old geezer ain’t babbling crap for nothing. The thing is – what we have here is a game that was heavily inspired by Gun Fight and OUTLAW. An open world one too. Because the guys from Ostrich Banditos decided that it’ll be a fun thing to combine both old and new school.
– Real player with 328.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Adventure Games.
Westerado is most definitely a fun game, but it’s far from being perfect.
You live in the West with your mother and older brother. One day, a buffalo escapes from your family ranch. You decide to go after it to catch and bring it back, but at return, you see the ranch burning down, your mother dead and your brother as good as dead. He makes you swear for revenge after he asks you to put him out of his misery. With nowhere to stay, you meet up with your uncle.
And now you do whatever you want.
– Real player with 11.9 hrs in game
Retro City Rampage™ DX
I think the concept of this game is great. The idea is that it’s an open world crime game like GTA, but it’s set in video game land filled with parodies of almost any video game character you can imagine. It’s a brilliant idea, and fortunately the game mostly lives up to this great concept even if it falls short in some areas.
The game plays as you’d expect out of an open world crime game. However, the game tries to have a much better variety of mission styles. It doesn’t try to be only standard A to B shooting. The game tries to mix it up by including missions that are arcade-like or based on old NES games. Thanks to this the variety is incredible and every other mission mixes up the gameplay in some way, so you’ll rarely get bored. The quality of the missions do vary however. A good amount of the missions are fun and challenging, but others tend to be a little shallow and funnled, not leaving a lot of room for experimentation. On the whole though, the biggest problem with the missions in this game is that they’re all a bit short.
– Real player with 31.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Retro Games.
Retro City Rampage.
What can I say? I love this game. I can’t even write from an objective standpoint here to make an honest and fair review with this one. I’ve spent over 20 hours with this game here on steam, gotten every achievement- and even then- I didn’t quit. I took the time to Gold Medal all the optional missions too. I seriously can’t get enough. I tried for hours to put my name up on the leaderboards. I’m in the top 20 for lots of the missions and I’m quite proud of that. But enough about me.
– Real player with 28.7 hrs in game
Skjoldur Story
My first game that I remember playing through was Link to the Past on my SNES, so I figured this game would be right up my alley (and it was!). Like it’s predecessors it is top-down, but non-linear so you aren’t beholden to a specific order of dungeons or biomes. I will say, though, that similar to games of old this is no walk in the park. You’re probably going to die a bit, but that’s OK - failure is how you learn. Graphics are colorful and ‘cute’, a nice contrast to everything that can kill you. :)
– Real player with 18.4 hrs in game
Think original NES Zelda gameplay meets NES Kirby power absorption, colors, and environment.
The world is a nice large landscape to explore with some troll-y vibes in there (at least the minimap fast travel helps minimize that.) Solving the numerous puzzles felt rewarding after scratching your head for quite a bit. The bosses were my biggest draw. I find it refreshing not having to spam attack to defeat something by mashing a button as fast as you can while they have an opening. They are all like a puzzle in themselves and man does that boss music get stuck in your head. The mini-games are an adorable change of pace to a surprisingly stressful world of baddies (okay still a lil' stressful, lookin' at you penguin ball.)
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Arcane Waters
Arcane Waters is an online pixel RPG, featuring trading, exploration and combat. On your own, or with friends, explore handcrafted sea and land maps, travel in your ship to visit remote towns to trade goods, and hunt for treasure in dangerous waters and lands filled with monsters. In the meantime, tend your farm to grow crops, buy and upgrade your fleet of ships and craft items to use or sell.
Create and customize your character and begin exploring a huge and open world full of surprises!
TRADE
– Whether you grow your own food, or buy it from traders, you will need to find the best price to sell and make a profit. This will mean sailing far from home to discover new continents and towns where your goods are highly sought after.
FIGHT
– However, if you do decide to delve into the darkest regions of the world, you are bound to end up having to fight to survive! On the high seas, fight tense real-time cannon-blasting battles against pirates and huge monsters. On land, take part in thrilling active-time fights with strange creatures to reveal hidden treasures. Whether you fight with swords or pistols, you’ll need your wits about you!
JOIN
– Form a team with friends and go on adventures! Explore six different biomes, each with their own unique towns, valuable goods for sale and dangerous monsters, to complete quests and help each other level up.
LEVEL UP
– Stay neutral to avoid being attacked by other players, or join a guild to help fight for your place in the world. Level up by completing quests, finding new locations, and utilizing your skills. Use Perk points to increase stats based on your chosen specialties, and use your hard-earned gold to buy new equipment to help you progress even faster.
FARM
– Starting with a humble farm, plant seeds, water them and pick your crops. Eventually you will unlock other farms to increase your yield and diversify your produce.
CRAFT
– Use items dropped by enemies or sold at stores to make your own weapons and armor, and either use them yourself or sell them on the public Auction for a profit!
Crystarise
The player becomes a guardian god apprentice girl,
We aim to rise up a sky island while going back and forth between the extremely vast field that continues to be automatically generated and the island that serves as the base.
First, let’s get down to the field to collect resources.
In an isometric 2D world, monsters, items, dungeons … various things are reflected on one screen.
Combine shooting and slashing actions to defeat monsters and get resources.
Once you have the resources, produce a variety of things and customize the island to your liking.
Fantasy of Eden
When it comes to games, there’s a time and a place for everything. My favorite JRPGs have systems that are so complex you could get lost in them, and I like them better for it. But man, sometimes I’m in the mood for something real simple, something bare-bones that doesn’t require intense focus or a huge time commitment. “Something like Final Fantasy 1,” you say? No, think simpler. Think Fantasy of Eden.
Fantasy of Eden, a game so obscure that I can’t find any videos of it that aren’t on the dev’s YT channel, probably won’t take you more than a couple hours to play through. The plot boils down to “there is an evil guy somewhere, go beat him up.” None of your party members have any personality or backstory beyond “he’s a fighter, she’s a healer, he’s a mage.” And yet I found myself enjoying FoE more than I thought I would because it’s an easy-breezy RPG. You’ve got your standard RPG tropes – traversing dungeons with a boss at the end, getting a ship that lets you explore the whole world, finding a secret village hidden in the forest – but it’s all shrunk down and condensed to something that you can fully experience in a single afternoon.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
I’m actually a little bit surprised here. I was looking for something cheap and fun to play. I usually avoid the RPG Maker clones, but the other review on here got me to give the thing a shot.
On the surface, it feels like a cheap, poorly translated RPG Maker game, but when you tear into it, it’s surprisingly deep and well balanced. The controls feel a bit unintuitive, but once you get them down they aren’t bad. Altogether, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a classic JRPG experience replete with all the things that make that great.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Hollow Island
I heard about this game from Vindsvept, which is the person who does the music in the game, and I love his music in generally and the price for the game was very cheap so I figured I wanna support him at the same time attempt to play single player (Which I normally can’t do).
However I most say this game was very pleasing, Very relaxing and rewarding at the same time. It was the kinda game where you were given the easy option out but you didn’t want to take that road because it felt like the game would end to quickly. I normally take those easy options in a game but not in this one.
– Real player with 40.6 hrs in game
Hollow Island is an extraordinarily relaxing and straight forward experience. And well worth the price of admission.
People will drawn comparisons with Stardew Valley, and I agree up until a point - It has a really laid back atmosphere that’s felt down to the smallest sound effect, you’re the new kid on the block and your success is down to your own pursuits, you can farm or go mining, and good lord the soundtrack is incredible and perfect for the setting.
But there’s less of an emphasis on community relationships, and much more of an emphasis on exploration, dungeon delving and combat.
– Real player with 36.9 hrs in game
Mystiqa
Non-Linear and Randomly Generated
The whole overworld, caves and dungeons are randomly generated and designed in a non-linear way, so every playthrough is truly a fresh experience of the game.
Secrets & Puzzles
There’s a secret on almost every screen in the game!
Solving puzzles is integral to overcome the game’s dungeons.
Equipment, Combat & Boss Fights
There is large playstyle diversity using different types of equipment and magic.
Boss Fights are a major key gameplay element of Mystiqa and will challenge you greatly!
Built-in Randomizers
There are multiple built-in randomizers on top of the base random generation of the world, including an Item Randomizer with fully configurable randomization settings.
Multiplayer
The game supports local and online multiplayer for up to 4 players.
SantaCraft
I’m a big fan of Milkbag Games. They make fun, relaxing games with a lot of thought and creativity in them just for the player’s enjoyment! Santacraft was a lot of fun to play. I was hooked and couldn’t stop. My desire to completely clear the map will probably send me back into the game very soon! Music, characters, and pop culture references are all on point!
EDIT for 2021 update: Love all the new stuff added, including a way to keep building! Thank you so much, Owen and Matt for making SantaCraft even more fun!
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
A perfectly witty and wholesome Christmas game just in time for the holidays! Definitely worth the $5!
On top of being fun for me, I’ve found that it is a great way to teach my 6 year old to use a mouse as he finds controllers too difficult and has given up on other games like Minecraft. This game is right up his alley with the cute characters as well as incorporating the crafting and building that he loves to do!
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game