Try it Tuesday: May 3rd, 2022
I played some intensely cool games the other night with the loose theme of “bold pixel style” – all of the games were going for a bit of a retro look with pixel art, and all had a vastly different approach to how they implemented it. I was also really impressed with each game, and came out of the experience with a different opinion then I initially entered the games with. Great lineup, overall! Let’s get into my impressions.
I‘ve included affiliate links to purchase each game and support the channel where applicable.
Backpack Hero
The first game of the night was Backpack Hero by TheJaspel, a unique take on the roguelike that turns the often joked about minigame of inventory management from most games and turns it into the central mechanic. Players take the role of a mighty mouse adventurer who dives deep into dungeons in search of a great cheese, taking on enemies in turn-based battles while juggling items within your backpack. Sometimes you’re asked to rearrange items to fit in something new and unique. Sometimes an enemy throws a curse inside your pockets. Each time you level up, you get more space to work with. And space is crucial, as you work tirelessly to rearrange items to fit new and exciting things into that backpack. This game is pain for the digital hoarder, because you’re always going to be leaving something behind with a “what if” no matter how you slice it, but ultimately the deeper into the dungeons and caverns that you explore, the harder it is to want to put down this game. Enemies get more complex, base strategies start to fragment into new, situational ones, and what you’re left with is an enamoring game that I believe is truly going to become one of the next big roguelikes to capture the attention of many. Currently, there’s a playable demo of Backpack Hero on itch.io, but the game is still on Kickstarter, being actively developed, and is something you can wishlist on Steam for a future release. Backpack Hero has a bright future, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
Links for the game:
Tunnel of Doom
I fully expected Tunnel of Doom to be your standard roguelike, perhaps even something more akin to The Binding of Isaac or Undermine based on screenshots. But what I ended up getting was something that surprised me in a good way. Tunnel of Doom does mix elements of the roguelike genre into itself, but also throws in a lot of strategy and tower defense mechanics, as well as a seemingly interesting storyline to follow. What we know is this: you’re playing as a woman named Angel who is on a mission to find her husband within the depths of a mining tunnel that seems to be, for all intents and purposes, and like the title suggests… doomed. From here, each randomly generated room asks you to plan ahead; set up traps to take on waves of enemies, and hopefully survive, in order to advance to the next. The maps are pretty big and full of various surprises: shops, supplies, and more. But each room ups the ante and increases the amount of enemies that you might run into. I was pleasantly surprised with how much thought had to go into each room and the combat, because you weren’t really given a ton of resources, and scavenging them from each room could spawn additional enemies on the fly that you might not be ready for. Tunnel of Doom was actually very challenging, but rewarding once you hit a stride with it. As it states from right out of the gate: dying is all a part of the learning process, and you’ll do a lot of it. Fans of strategy and tower defense will probably enjoy this game quite a bit – the mix of styles meshed together quite well, and it was easy to pick up despite the spike in difficulty.
Links to the game:
Loot River
Loot River is one of the more interesting games I’ve played in a while, not because of its style or its blend of mechanical styles. No, what Loot River does that I find most interesting, albeit this is still a big selling point of the game but impressive nonetheless, is that it changes the actual environment that you’re operating in. In the game, you’re playing as a character that’s going through different levels or “floors” of a “dungeon” to loot, explore, and fight enemies along the way. Progress your character through the collection of knowledge, et cetera. The unique thing about this, however, is that the floor of each level is manipulated, and that’s essentially how you move – therefore, you’re changing a lot of the environment in real time, which creates some interesting scenarios with both strategy, and exploration. Loot River‘s combat is also uniquely Soulslike in that the perspective is top-down… well, sort of, and moves quickly. Not every hallmark of a Souls game is here, however, but there’s a light and heavy attack, amulets and health potions, and a parry mechanic that rewards you for using it. Loot River is not easy, and it steeps itself in a rich but obscure setting that draws you in ever so slightly, and leaves you thinking about it days later. Were I to compare it to a title of the past, I’d have to say Titan Souls is perhaps its closest companion. Regardless, I enjoyed my time with Loot River, and will have to return to it soon.
Links to the game:
Mechajammer
Perhaps the most surprising title of the show was Mechajammer, a deep and intricate old school RPG with an incredible atmosphere that just begs to be explored. When I initially saw this title, I thought it was going to be a stylistic pixel hack-n-slash, and I’m not sure why. I guess when I check out games, I literally look at the cover, and don’t really look at much else – that leaves me feeling a sense of reward most of the time because I knew literally nothing going in, so I had no predisposed notion per se. It doesn’t always work out… but I digress. Mechajammer would go well bundled with a game like Death Trash, because they both felt similar in their opening character creator, tutorial, and vibe. I also felt a little sprinkle of Disco Elysium in there… but perhaps that’s a bit presumptuous. I think I felt that way because Mechajammer seems to be a VERY deep game, one that I really want to go back and play more of. I regrettably didn’t have a ton of time left in the show to go very far in the game, but what I did play was such a treat. Set in a cyberpunk-style universe, you’re more or less exploring a world that feels like something out of a Terminator movie: learning the dirty secrets of the city, taking on street gangs and recruiting strangers along the way. I haven’t even mentioned the pixel style, which really hammers in the 80’s roots the game is trying to embed itself deep within. I loved the little time I spent with Mechajammer, and I think anyone who loves an old-school turn-based RPG is going to love it as well. Check it out at some of the links below!
Links to the game:
