Interstellaria
123 hours, just came back for more after not playing for a few months, and had to write a review.
I can not for the life of me figure out the negative reviews (keep in mind though I am more of a ‘benefit of the doubt’ reviewer than a ‘this game is not precisely what I expect/desire therefore I will crap all over it’ reviewer). This game is a blast. I have to assume they are doing the usual ‘reviewing it as compared to some other game they like more’ or ‘reviewing it for what they want it to be rather than what it is’. Either way, my opinion is this game is one of the better unkown space games in existence. All these ‘FTL’ clones, and no mention of Interstellaria, is a travesty, this game needs more PR.
– Real player with 124.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Sci-fi Games.
Short version:
It’s fairly similar to FTL with the added ability to explore planets (with simple ground combat), move your ship freely in deep space (with dynamic tactical space combat) and enjoy an entertaining plot that guides you through the open-world universe.
Is it perfect? No. There are issues and the UX is not the best, but unless that puts you off, you can definitely enjoy the game.
Coldrice seems to be working non-stop to fix any issues and there are also some planned improvements.
– Real player with 77.3 hrs in game
Apollo in Outer Space
Apollo in Outer Space Is a 2D platform / adventure game that makes use of physics mechanics in its puzzles. An adventure marked by challenges that follow continuously until the end of the campaign.
Apollo must jump between planets!
Solve puzzles to advance the campaign!
Dangers such as meteors and alien life forms will cause the player to
Think twice before taking a leap!
An adventure marked by challenges that continue continuously until the end of the campaign. With the desire to return to Earth, Apollo knows that his intelligence and the laws of gravity will be his greatest allies in solving puzzles, crossing space and protecting himself from dangers never seen before!
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Action-Adventure Games.
Galaxy Highways
GALAXY HIGHWAYS is a 2D twin-stick retro looking pixel art action shooter in space where you are doing pirate raids into other star systems inhabited by alien civilizations where you destroy enemy ships, space stations, defensive positions, mother ships or bosses and try to complete all missions as soon as possible before enemy defense system destroys you with its increasingly powerful waves of attacks.
The game takes place in the future when after the expansion of our civilization and the discovery of the so-called jump gates built by an unknown civilization to quickly move between star systems is our civilization discovered by aliens. Home planet and civilization itself was almost completely destroyed and after last failed fight they had to escape and started hiding in the edge of the galaxy. New colony was built and people now trying to survive by sabotaging, stealing enemy resources and researching new technologies to survive. It’s up to you and few others in special squads to show, that we are still here and we’ll not be forgotten so easily.
Game features
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Twin-stick retro looking pixel art space shooter
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Optional order in which the player completes missions in the levels
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Optional reward-based missions increasing the difficulty of the level and rewarding a player with achievements
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An enemy defense system that sends increasingly stronger waves of enemies to destroy the player
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Lot of different weapons
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RPG elements such as upgrading weapons and ships
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Intense boss fights
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Visual representation of game progress and achievements by visual improvements of the dock and the large battleship in it
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Catching story
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Killer hard rock/metal style soundtrack with retro synthetisers to support retro and fighting atmosphere.
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Sci-fi Games.
Galaxy Pass Station
Galaxy Pass Station is a space station simulator where aliens from all over the galaxy arrive. You will be the first caretaker of this station, will work for the largest corporation in the solar system - Spherical Corp. All guests must go through your control! You need to carefully check all galactic papers, carry out various tests and not let dubious aliens into the station. After all the checks, the guests go to the station, to the galactic duty-free zone, where they can eat, sleep, buy something from Earth, apply for a visa, and have some fun. Your task is to build the best station in the galaxy to satisfy all the aliens and the corporation.
Galaxy Pass Stations is a game in the vein of indie titles, such as “Papers, Please” and “Beholder”, to name a few.
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Explore more than 15 alien species.
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Check alien photos, DNA, and others in galactic papers…
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Build and manage your space station near Earth.
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Meet unique characters from all over the galaxy.
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Survive at the station. Monsters are nearby.
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Unlock multiple story endings.
Game Features
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Colorful 2D pixel graphics.
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Procedural Character Generation - every visitor to the station is unique.
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Endless and Story game modes.
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Base Building System - your station will be your base, office, and home.
Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander
This game at first may appear like a turn-based RPG, but it is actually only like that during combat and some mild leveling). Overall, this game actually plays more like a real time strategy… just, without the real time and more actual strategy. That might seem confusing, but hear me out. It’s actually really smart and makes for an extremely enjoyable game.
A majority of this game is recourse gathering and management/base building. Sounds like an RTS, right? Just replace constructing buildings with construsting rooms inside your mothership, and that’s what this game is. You build units (granted, a much smaller number of units than in a typical RTS) to farm recourses so you can build more units (captains and ships), contruct more rooms on your mothership and purchase upgrades. The only catch is, time isn’t always moving. Whenever you’re in your base looking at upgrades to buy, rooms to build or ships to construct, time stops. Then once you’ve done your maitence, you manually unpause time to resume progress. You can pause time anytime you like as well, so can do things like select each of your ships and tell them what to do while time is frozen, then unpause and have all of them begin their tasks at once. Most things take time to complate - a ship moving from planet to planet, an upgrade being research, a ship being built - so these things will only progress while time is unpaused. The result is a game that plays very similarly to an RTS, but gives you time to plan, breathe, and strategize. So, this game can ultimately be described as an RTS with less RT and more S.
– Real player with 27.3 hrs in game
Edit: On top of what I wrote here, I have now crashed TWICE in the final boss fight, both at points when I was winning. On top of everything else, this game is a buggy POS.
This is one of those games that is a really good idea, and has some really good mechanics, but in its current state I just can’t recommend this. The basic premise is a solid one: you manage a starbase in the midst of an invasion by a species of very hostile aliens. You have to manage your starbase a la XCOM, do turn-based combat with the alien invaders both in space and on the ground, and manage your various officers.
– Real player with 26.2 hrs in game
JETBOY
Saw this on the new releases page for 5$ and said “why not”
Turns out it was a pretty good decision.
It’s a very simple game. Each level has basically the same objective. Bring back a set number of collectibles to the ship and then leave. Each level provides you with a weapon you also have to collect as it spawns randomly in the level most of the time. All of this to some pretty decent tunes.
You have a jetpack with fuel that replenishes slowly when on the ground and 3 hit points.
There are a few power up and gimmicks like a flying surfboard that has a flamethrower, a space worm that grows longer when it eats enemies or a UFO firing missiles for example. Those you can use yourself once you’ve killed the current owner
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Amazing game. Given key for the game to try out and so grateful for it. This game has great music and also really amazing level designs. Perfect retro style game. 10-10 Will be posting content for the game on my youtube channel and social media. Check out The_casualgam3r on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Twitch.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Bik - A Space Adventure
Impressive little point & click. Bik has a great story, highly likable characters & a hell of a lot of charm. Sure at 1st glance it looks a little ugly. But it quickly becomes apparent the look was intentional. The grainy amateur looking asthetic actually turns out to be quite beautiful. The puzzles posed a little bit of a challenge. Although there are some sequences that can be a little annoyingly repetitious, until you figure it out.
Overall Bik left me wanting more. I hope to see more of this in the future. This is well worth the $1.19 I paid for it, but at $5.99 it may be a little steep. I’d say grab it fast if it’s $4.00 or less.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
A really good point-and-click! It seems criminally underrated, and that’s a shame. It’s a lovely hidden gem.
The game’s got great writing, story, and characters. There’s a lot of good humor, adventure, and even drama (and sandwiches). I really like the worldbuilding this game establishes. Space is an interesting and colorful place with lots of things to discover and genuinely likable characters to meet. I had a lot of fun just clicking on different things and trying items in different combinations just to see what would happen. There’s also a bunch of neat little references to classic sci-fi here and there without it being distracting. What I really found fascinating is that you can use the “examine” button on the character you control, giving you some insight into their mental state; you learn something new about them whichever area you’re in. It was an interesting mechanic that gave whichever character you control a little bit more depth.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Helixian
Poggers
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Good indy game with chill vaporwave beats.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Crying Suns
IN A WORD: UNMISSABLE
IN A NUTSHELL:
WHAT TO EXPECT: Space themed. Strategy rogue-lite. Epic sci-fi story. Numerous battleship types. Unlockable officers with abilities required for events and combat. Vast number of bridge-view encounters. RTS ship-to-ship tactical battles. Hex-tiled maps with minor dynamic elements. Abstracted text-based planetary missions. Stylised presentation and GUI. 2D pixellated graphics. Hard reset every chapter. Singleplayer only.
– Real player with 47.9 hrs in game
Something I’d recommend, but with some reservations.
tl;dr It’s FTL: Faster Than Light , but story-oriented and focus on fleet-level rather than ship-to-ship combat. Overall FTL is the better one of the two, with more run variety and less time wasting fluff, not to mention it’s cheaper, while Crying Suns shines in presentation and other “meat around the bone”.
The good
- Gameplay wise the game copies many of the good parts of FTL, but puts its own twist on the formula by instead pitting whole fleets against each other. Your mothership dictates your playstyle – alpha strike, turtler with lots of mothership guns, suicide swarmer, general space superiority etc. – and there’s a good number of different squadrons and weapons that either affect the battlefield or directly attack the enemy mothership, with their own quirks and special powers, plus officers that confer unique bonuses to your fleet or ship systems.
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
Galactic Delivery
I had the pleasure of playing this game over the last two weeks.
The game’s title serves as the perfect forecast to what to expect in the game play. With that said, I personally prefer games with more content and a longer amount of game play.
I was hoping for more to do with the random items you can buy from random planets but all and all, it’s a short, simple, and sweet game.
I have to say the pixel art in this is so beautiful and the soundtrack is very nice and relaxing.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Galactic Delivery is an interesting little game where you have to deliver packages across the galaxy. You can get side missions and try to get a high score while trying to finish your day before the daily deadline or you’ll lose some money for undelivered packages.
This is an alright little game and I actually like a lot about this but I do feel like it’s fairly light on content. You have a 15 day internship at the company and when that is done you can choose to either end the game or continue on (I assume endlessly) delivering packages. The game really feels like it ends after the internship though because everything after that feels like just more of the same.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game