Looking at the Aerobat title, you may be forgiven for thinking that this is some sort of a new-wave take on the Aero the Acro-Bat series... but there is no bat-platforming going on here. Instead, the game takes a page out of Luftrausers' design manual by offering a fast-paced over-the-top shooter where the player has the ability to fire his engines or his weapons, but not both at the same time. However, unlike Vlambeer's sepia-toned blast-fest, developer Thew offers vivid colors, realistic backgrounds, and even more graphical effects to its adrenaline-fueled shootery. Players can dodge around the screen and get up close to the baddies or blast off into the sky and take them out while free-falling. The madness of the gameplay is a bit difficult to describe, so it's probably best to just check out the trailer (below).
Aerobat is coming to PC via Steam, and possibly to Mac and Linux at a later time, although there is no announced release date for the game as yet.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Light Fall, from developer Bishop Games, takes place in a world overrun by darkness where mysterious crystals have begun appearing and razing the land. The player makes use of a magical object called the Shadow Core which serves a variety of purposes, from environmental navigation to puzzle solving, and even as a defense against incoming projectiles. The player can manipulate the core to activate switches, block lasers, and use it as a counterweight, and it even acts as the basis for the player's double jump. Even on his own, the player character is very nimble and can manage platforming and wall jump maneuvers to move quickly around the environment, ascend great heights, and dodge enemies and other obstacles.
Light Fall is coming to PC and Mac, but does not yet have an announced release date.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Mighty Switch Force! Academy is the stage for Patricia Wagon's latest adventure. Patty has just entered the academy, which consists of a virtual training ground where she attempts to track down and arrest all of the Hooligan Sisters, just as she did in Mighty Switch Force. This time around, however, the action takes place from a zoomed-out perspective, and the player is able to see the entire stage at once. In addition, the environment wraps around on the edges, allowing the player to move off the edge of the screen and emerge on the other side, or fall down through the floor and pop out on the ceiling. The basic gameplay is in place, but a few new elements have been added, and WayForward is collecting player feedback during the game's time in Early Access to determine which new elements will be added to the final product. Oh, and the game features some classic levels from the original game as well as 4P co-op.
Mighty Switch Force! Academy is currently available for PC via Steam Early Access, but it will also be coming to (as yet unannounced) consoles on its final release. Check our full coverage of the Early Access version here.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Developer Chris “c3sk” Eskins presents Noct, a top-down multiplayer survival horror game with a gritty greyscale aesthetic mimicking an aerial thermal vision camera. For reasons unknown, Earth has been plunged into darkness, and terrible creatures known as the Nocturnal now roam the land. Players must blast away these monstrosities with weapons and ammo scavenged in the environment, as well as survive life in the wasteland by ransacking vacant buildings to seek out food and other useful items. While the game is played from a top-down perspective, players are only able to see what is directly in the line of sight for their character, meaning that a lurking terror might be lying in wait around the next corner. The game may be played online with other players or as a solo campaign.
Noct was intended to be released now, but the developer decided it needed a bit more time in the hopper following its closed beta. The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux in January, but it is currently available via Steam Early Access.
Following the release of the original 3-level demo for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, WayForward released an update showcasing a fourth area, which appears to take place in Scuttle Town. Here, a pirate ship moves through the background, firing shells into the foreground. Rather than standard cannon fire, however, these shells are packed with shadow pirates (a.k.a. Tinkerbats).
Six red-hooded creatures pop out of a door on top of the “cannonball” and begin patrolling the environment, and Shantae can whip them into oblivion with her hair. Oddly, the shell itself causes damage when touched, so she must also destroy it before she can move forward.
As Shantae runs through the level, the pirate ship continues to fire, sending projectiles into towers in the background, which break and fall down into the water. Shantae deals with wooden platforms that drop out beneath her feet and send her into the water, as well as a couple of instances where she needs to whip a crate in order to reach a higher ledge, but otherwise the platforming here is fairly straightforward.
Much of the focus is on fighting a continuous supply of shadow pirates that crash down from above, and jump onto your plane from fast moving boats that pull up alongside you.
Check our full coverage of the 4-level demo here, and be sure to check out the trailer below, which shows off areas not available in the demo. The demo is on the game's Kickstarter page and is available to those individuals who backed the Early Access tier.
Mushroom 11, from Untame, is an incredibly peculiar game featuring an ever-growing mass of fungi where players control movement by pruning sections of the mass to solve environmental puzzles. Players can push the shroomage through narrow passages by cutting off its back end, forcing it to grow forward, or slice it in half to trigger two switches at the same time, or use it is a prop to manipulate physics-based objects. The game offers a unique art style with strange creatures, dilapidated buildings, and twisted creatures and mechanical creations.
Mushroom 11 is currently available for PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam.
iZBOT is a precision platformer from Ruxar, designed along the lines of Super Meat Boy and Fenix Rage. The game stars a robot who hopes to bring peace to the world by ridding it of a pesky little outbreak of humanity. Typical of the genre, players must complete a series of platforming challenges in order to make it from one level to the next, and failure returns the player to the start of the level. There are 60 levels in total, plus three boss fights, as well as an optional pickup in each level to put expert players' skills to the test.
iZBOT is currently available for PC via Steam. Check our full coverage here.
Animal Gods, from Still Games, is a top-down action-adventure game featuring swordplay and strange creatures in a stylized Bronze Age world. Players use a sword to strike down up-close enemies, a bow and arrows to hit foes at a distance, and a cloak that allows for quick dashes and the ability to cross open gaps. The game takes place in an open world that allows players to tackle areas in any order they like. The game centers around the ancient Animal Gods who have fallen under the fumes of the burgeoning human civilization, and the player takes on the role of Thistle, a hero who is on a journey to destroy the curse and save the gods.
Animal Gods is available for PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam, and it's coming to the Wii U eShop in the fall of 2016.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
As it says on the (virtual) tin, Broforce, from developer Free Lives, is a patriotism simulator. This run and gun takes its inspiration from American action films of the 80’s and 90’s, and the over-the-top badass characters portrayed in them. The story is America vs. terrorists, kill them before they kill you, I ain’t got time to bleed, I pity the fool, I’ll be back, I am the law, thank you for your cooperation, groovy, get away from her you bitch, Machete don’t text, call me Snake, and yippee ki-yay… And if any of that just made sense to you, then consider yourself the target demographic for this game.
Broforce starts you in the jungles of Vietnam with a muscular machine gun-toting, bandana-wearing dude with long hair and a bad attitude. This fellow is known as “Rambro”, a caricature of Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo character from First Blood and its sequels. Throughout the game, you unlock numerous other characters, each with a “bro-ified” name, but all recognizable as their action hero counterparts.
New characters are discovered by rescuing POW’s from cages spread around the environment. However, rather than simply adding that person into your stock of playable characters, you instead instantly swap to that character and start playing as him. Each POW you rescue represents an extra life, which is quite valuable given game’s 1-hit kills and explosion-packed environments. Also, new playable characters only become available after you have made the requisite number of POW rescues. Read more >>
Broforce is now available for PC and Mac via Steam, and it's coming to PS4 and Vita as well.
Antipole a gravity-flipping action game from Saturnine Games, was originally released in 2011, and the developer is returning with an enhanced version entitled Antipole DX. The game centers around a hero with the unlikely name of Johnny Hurricane as he uses his gravity-flipping powers to destroy robots and navigate around spikes, spinning gears, and lasers. What separates this game from the likes of Metal Storm or VVVVVV is that gravity is affected in a circle around the character, rather than flipping the entire environment or just the character. The original game was fairly short, with 20 fast-paced levels and some unlockable challenge modes, but the new game promises additional levels in the main quest and tweaks to the original levels, as well as online leaderboards. Visually, the game sports improved graphics, as well as stereoscopic 3D in the 3DS version of the game.
The game is headed for Wii U and 3DS via the eShop, but does not yet have an announced release date.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Developer Turbo Gun presents Master Spy, a stealth-based action platformer. In a dystopian future, you don a prototype stealth suit that lets you turn entirely invisible. With it – and your twitch platforming skills – you sneak past guards, security cameras, dogs, and other obstacles to infiltrate various facilities and uncover a vast conspiracy. Expect to grab a lot of keycards and dodge the occasional laser beam and spinning saw blade, as you run through limited color palette worlds and watch Ninja Gaiden-style cutscenes. The game offers 50 levels across five themed environments.
Master Spy is now available on PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam. Check our full coverage here.
Tasukete Tako-San: Save me Mr Tako, from developer Christophe Galati, is a fittingly odd title for a game with an odd premise. For some reason, war has broken out between humans and octopi, and you play an octopus deserter named Mr. Tako who decides to turn on his former comrades and save the humans. At the start of the game, you can only jump and spit ink to stun enemies and use them as platforms. However, searching the world and discovering treasure chests allows Mr. Tako to find hats that give him new abilities, granting him more health and ink, giving him greater movement speed and jump height, and even giving him access to weapons such as swords, arrows, and bombs. Players run through large platforming environments, attacking enemies, breaking vases to reveal collectibles, and facing off against boss creatures. The game will also feature local cooperative and competitive modes for 2-4 players.
The developer plans to release the game on PC in 2016, and hopes to have a Wii U version available as well.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Developer and stealth-focused website Sneaky Bastards wants you to sneak around and play with matches in Wildfire. The game is a stealth-based platformer where the player is able to use fire to his advantage. The protagonist is able to sneak through tall grass and use smoke to hide his movements, and he can also use fire to frighten enemies and even cause them to be killed as they try to escape the blaze... which you must do as well, lest the flames burn out of control and consume you. Players must use fire strategically or they run the risk of being discovered as long grasses are burnt away, or the glow of the fire may alert nearby enemies in dark areas. Eventually, players will be able to do more than start fires; they will gain the ability to propel themselves to higher platforms with jets of flame and use smoke clouds to cushion landings from greater heights.
Wildfire is coming to PC via Steam in March of 2016.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
A Hole New World, from Mad Gear Games, is a retro-styled action game where dropping down through holes reverses gravity and turns the world on its head. The player takes on the role of an alchemist who tosses potions at his enemies, which adds a bit of extra challenge - especially in upside-down areas - since he tosses them in an arc. Different kinds of potions have different effects on enemies, with red potions igniting them in flames, and white potions bouncing and freezing them. The player also gains a charge attack that allow for a more direct assault on his enemies by firing off energy blasts that penetrate multiple foes in a row.
The game is headed to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam and is slated for release in December.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Lots of great games (and great developers) got their start on Xbox Live Indie Games, although they may have been a bit hard to find. The service originally launched in 2010 exclusively for the Xbox 360, and saw the release of thousands of games in its lifetime. Since then, Steam has become the king of digital distribution for indie developers, and many of the good games from XBLIG have made their way to the new platform. One of these gems, Curse of the Crescent Isle, is coming back as Curse of the Crescent Isle DX, courtesy of developer Adam Mowery. The original game was already solid, with lots of unique enemies that could be repurposed as environmental navigation tools, but the deluxe edition has improved visuals, a better physics system, and 2P local co-op, as well as boss rush and speedrun modes.
Curse of the Crescent Isle DX is now available for PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam. Check our full coverage here.
Developer Quattro Gear is developing a combo-based action-RPG entitled Black Witchcraft, which is inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The game features high-rez gothic artwork and some dark and twisted enemy and boss designs. Players control a witch with mechanical legs who carries a suitcase with a big red eye on the side. The suitcase is able to transform into a number of weapons, including a spear and a scythe for up-close action, and it can extend into a minigun for long-range asskickery.
The game is planned for PC, PS4, Vita, and Xbox One, and the developer hopes to have the game out for all platforms by the end of the year.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Serious Sam's Bogus Detour is a 2D Serious Sam game from developer Crackshell (devlog), the team behind the top-down dungeon crawler Hammerwatch. While Serious Sam is known primarily for his enemy-spewing 3D outings, this is not his first foray into the land of indie-developed 2D, as he has previously blown up baddies in Serious Sam: Double D XXL, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, and Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack!.
In fitting with the developer's previous work, Sam's latest adventure sees him blasting his way through an isometric top-down environment with his traditional array of armaments, from standard small arms to lasers, rocket launchers, and miniguns. Familiar foes return in the form of Gnaar, Kleer Skeletons, and the infamous Beheaded Kamikazes, spewing forth in large numbers, per series conventions. Players can move and aim independently - although aiming is restricted to 8 directions - and destroyed enemies leave behind sprays of blood and chunky bits when killed. The game also offers 2P cooperative and competitive modes (no word on whether Huff will make an appearance).
The game is headed to PC, but does not yet have an announce release date.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.