Spirits Abyss
Anthony Case is essentially a Stephen King of rogue-lites, and probably the most self-aware game developer when it comes to this not so humble genre that dominates the indie scene. This game is clearly inspired by Spelunky but I think we can safely say that it has plenty of features that make it a unique experience. What I love about Caiysware games is that he understands the genre so well, it becomes a liability, I think the developer is too smart (as you can see with 2% of players that found the final boss). Just a warning, this final version of this review is going to be pretty biased and perhaps justifiably so, I very much love this game, in more ways than one, it reminded me of ‘no hand-holding’ classics that are so dear to my heart. I bought it about a year ago on the first day of early access, I knew it was something really special but I still could not grasp the full picture because there is so much hidden content. Even for a genre veteran like me, this game had more than a few surprises.
– Real player with 134.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Platformer Roguelite Games.
Overview
Spirits Abyss is a challenging 2D platformer with online leaderboards, multiple game modes, randomly generated levels, numerous references, plenty of unlockables, and a lot of heart.
The Good
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Plenty of game modes
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Lots of items
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Unlockables including cards, characters, level variants, and game modes
– Real player with 83.1 hrs in game
Spelunky 2
Thus continues my solo quest to reach the Sunken City…
This game is very addictive and helps me procrastinate from other tasks.
– Real player with 1161.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Platformer 2D Platformer Games.
Thank you Derek for the fun time.
777 hours are a lucky number.
This is a really hard game, and very punishing, but it’s also really nice. While it’s hard the difficulty is adjusted by your objectives. Want to just beat the game? Good luck, it’ll take a while but you’ll do it reliably with some effort. Want to get the hard ending? It’s reasonably harder, but you’ll be ready for most of it once you have to do it. Want to get the special ending? Good Luck. That’s all. It’s a challenge ridiculously hard and long, but you’ll enjoy the way.
– Real player with 796.2 hrs in game
20XX
As a fan of the first Mega Man X game, and not really any other Mega Man game (at the time of this writing since I’ve not really put time into other Mega Man games), I have to say this game is amazing. The RNG can be frustrating, but it’s also what sets this game apart from Mega Man X. The randomly generated level layouts and powerups make each playthrough a new adventure, but also similar enough to where you start to get better at passing certain obstacles.
I like to play as Nina a lot since she controls just like X and uses a buster gun, but Ace can be fun too with his sword. The best part is that you can have BOTH! That’s right! 2 players can team up to run and gun through the levels (or more like slice and slash for the Ace players). Although a “balanced” team is Nina + Ace, both players can be Nina if they wish, or they can both be Ace! No limitations in that regard, which is great! The game even uses an alternate color scheme for the 2nd Nina/2nd Ace so that it is always crystal clear which one you are controlling during cooperative play. Nina is blue, 2nd Nina is red. Ace is red and 2nd Ace is blue. No matter who you play as, one of you will be red and the other will be blue.
– Real player with 3304.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Platformer Roguelite Games.
20XX is one of the best Mega Man experiences out there, and is currently my favorite game of all time. While this game is definitely worth the $15 price, I’ve seen negative reviews from players who did not read the description, or simply don’t know what a roguelite entails. Maybe it’s silly to hope that they’ll read the reviews by chance, but it’s worth a shot.
Roguelite Details
20XX has permadeath, which means you have to beat all 8 “robot masters” and the two Sigma-esque stages with their respective bosses all in one go. This will be a lot trickier than normal, since the levels are generated using hand designed segments, so memorizing the levels isn’t an option. To compensate for this, there’s a variety of powerups that you can receive along the way which will make the trip easier, and they are much more powerful than you would fine in an X game. You’ll be receiving large boosts to your damage, speed, jump heigh, health, and max energy. There are also more unique powerups, like shooting through walls, different busters/blades, a front facing dash shield, etc. In addition, pits and spikes do not instakill you, so don’t worry about that.
– Real player with 1453.2 hrs in game
Caveblazers
Caveblazers is a mechanically sound action rogue-lite platformer in which you traverse a cave system, utilising many weapons, items, accessories and powerups while engaging in satisfying combat against the local flora and fauna whilst on your quest. In short, Caveblazers is a more combat focused Spelunky and that means it demands your utmost attention otherwise you’re going to die.
TL;DR
Caveblazers is a great rogue-lite platformer with an exquisite combat flow, interesting supporting mechanics and intelligent AI design where the game flow demands your attention in order to make progress throughout the game.
– Real player with 657.9 hrs in game
Caveblazers is a nice game. Fine-looking, polished, and with good original soundtrack and general audio.
One current issue that most negative reviews complain about difficulty being uneven. Let me clarify,
Say, health. Depending on starting loadout, you have anywhere between 60 to 150 health (mostly 100). Enemies hit for 10..20 damage at most. Healing items drop at random (from enemies, crates, bosses) and heal between 10 to 40 health per piece.
And it’s generally fine, but the pure randomness of it has it that there’s no amount of health you can expect to recover per stage. The game might rain healing items upon you, or you might get a single one for a level full of dangerous layouts. Even bosses may sometimes not drop health, which looks like mockery when you’ve already been on brink of death for a few levels.
– Real player with 210.4 hrs in game
Ascendant
#Intro
I am not much of a rewiwer, more of an analyst. This review is based on experience both with the game and the genre, at the time of writing sunk 40-50 hours into this game. I will not play a bad game for 40 minutes let alone 40 hours. If you are a fan of the genre buy it, game is excellent. If you would like a more detailed reasoning behind why keep reading, there wil be very very minor gameplay/story spoilers as it is impossible to talk about certain mechanics of the game without referencing them.
– Real player with 115.0 hrs in game
Ascendant is a rogue-like dungeon crawler which is best played in short bursts rather than over an extended period time. It has fun gameplay mechanics, where you’re able to blink to attack enemies from afar, parry attacks, dash, etc., and I’ve never felt that at any point in time the mechanics in the game weren’t important, since certain enemies move faster than your character making the blink important, parrying projectiles one-shots most enemies, and you can avoid enemy fire to get behind them with your dash. The unique positive and negative attributes separate this game from others in the same category, with one positive being a character heals upon boss kills, and a negative attribute for a character is upon picking up health, it has a low chance to fizzle to dust and do nothing. While this game is fun, it’s only playable in short bursts due to the soundtrack. Although it fits the theme of the game, the music can detract some from wanting to play it, and because to that I give a warning to those who are easily bothered by repetition to not purchase this game.
– Real player with 25.6 hrs in game
Rogue Princess
Being the princess of a big kingdom is soooo frustrating! Live the exciting battle fantasy of the Rogue Princess, wield an array of procedurally generated weapons, explore exotic levels, fight vicious enemies, and get upgrades to help the Princess end this endless party night in harmony.
FEATURES
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Live the battle fantasy of the Rogue Princess in Victorian era London.
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Procedurally generated platforming levels, a new adventure every time!
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Pickup new weapons every run. Beware, if you get hit, you lose your weapon, it may never reappear!
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Slash fantastical enemies and meet typical monsters of the era.
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Multiple environments: Victorian London, Scotland, Ireland, Egypt, India, Amazonia, Hong Kong, Fiji, …
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Challenge tough bosses at the end of each zone.
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This is a Rogue Lite: collect skulls and spend them between runs to increase your stats.
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2 players local coop: get the help of your little brother, he is the heir to the throne after all!
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The princess needs an outlet, she’s quite irate.
Adventuring Gentleman
10/10
Really made me feel like an Adventuring Gentleman
– Real player with 9.9 hrs in game
A great roguelite / platformer that involves lots of action and eccentric style.
Gameplay + review video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHQyZcsHtaM
Overview
Adventuring Gentleman is a steampunk roguelite platformer. You start your game as a gentleman in a club room: there are multiple other chaps sitting there and telling you the news (aka quests). As soon as you pick your quest: you are taken on adventure, where you need to clean 5, 10, or 15 rooms and defeat a boss. After clearing each room from enemies, you can choose a bonus which improves your weapon or your character. It can be double-jump, flight, double shot, explosive shot, etc. If you kill the boss at the end of the quest – the pool of random bonuses is increased. This improves your chances to beat the next bosses: after all, the unlocked bonuses are more powerful.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Bard’s Gold
I am a big fan of rogue-like games, simply for the challenge posed by them. Bard’s Gold is no exception to that rule. When I first picked up my controller, I died nearly instantly. I felt silly, dying to a stupid bat, so I picked myself back up and went in again. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve died thus far, but I’m enjoying every obsenity-riddled moment of it. The slightly randomized feel to the levels helps you learn where secret treasures are, how to navigate through the obstacles, and ultimately, get your treasure so you can buy upgrades. I have found this much more enjoyable because there is a somewhat unpredictable nature to the levels themselves. The enemies are always the same, regardless of the layout, but each different scenario gives you a better idea of how to kill the monsters around you.
– Real player with 29.4 hrs in game
Note: I was given early access to the game.
Bard’s Gold is a slow-paced platformer with a high difficulty. It stars Bard (the player) attempting to get his family heirloom back from a nasty goblin who stole it. Bard must travel through four worlds, each containing seven levels in an attempt to obtain his treasure. The game is fairly hard and punishes you for making a mistake, but it’s not the kind of punishment that would make you overly upset. Patience and level memorisation is required in completing this game.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Inverse Evolver
Inverse Evolver - Just a roguelite.
Story
Human body modification technology is invented in 20xx. Through the use of modified organs implanted in the bodies, human beings obtain power and wisdom beyond physical limitations.
In 2127, this technology is already very mature. Depending on it, science, technology, society, and art no longer have the bottleneck. All of these usher in explosive development.
Ninety-nine percent of human beings have taken part in the modification process. They call themselves “cyborg”. But they are so wrapped up in the benefits of the technology that they don’t realize the crisis is imminent. Their thinking modules are attacked and controlled by the central system of the modification, which is called “the Heaven Brain”. So the cyborgs all lost their infinite power. They become the puppets of the Heaven Brain and force the original people who have not been transformed to do the so-called modified surgery.
To defend against this crisis, the original people establish an underground basement, the “Inverse Evolvers.” They hope to be able to protect themselves against the cyborgs there.
The powerful cyborgs became puppets, while the weak original people take on the task of saving humanity.
Without modification, there is no strength to fight, but with modification, there is a slow loss of humanity. What’s your choice?
Platformines
This is a really fun little game. While it is kind of little, it’s worth the time you’ll spend. You are, I guess, an explorer, trying to make money, while shooting baddies and monsters, avoiding traps, collecting treasure, and ultimately platforming his way to riches. You’ll run into a small variety of enemies, from other humans with many degress of dififfculty to work through, to more exotic monsters, as you try to build the machine that will transport you out of the caves and to the surface.
Playing with a controller strongly recommended!
– Real player with 24.8 hrs in game
Reliving the days gone by.
For those who want to relive the old pixelated days of spelunking and exploring a
world with a new twist, Platformines is a great choice.
Platformines plays more like a classic rogue game with simple graphics, simple rules and addicting gameplay. In this world, you start as a named character derived from the clothing with which you’ve equipped your character. You explore the world with the hope of reviving your spaceship and escaping the planet. Unlike old games, the spaceship is made entirely of blocks and your mission is to find all the block-cannons that allow you to repair your ship by filling in the missing blocks. Thankfully there’s a map, waypoint, and numerous portals which make this considerably easier. Unlike Binding of Issac, death doesn’t remove you from the map which is both good and bad.
– Real player with 11.2 hrs in game