New Release: Cannon Dancer - Osman

An enhanced edition of a bombastic arcade actioner, from Mitchell Corporation and ININ Games

New Release: Hazard Saviour

An open world platformer inspired by Crazy Taxi, from Sinclair Strange

New Release: Ginsha

An open world action-adventure that takes place across multiple planets, from PolarityFlow

New Release: Haunted Lands: Burial Grounds

A tough and bloody DOS-style shooter, from Alexey Goryachev

New Release: Curse of the Sea Rats

An open world action-adventure featuring 2D animation and 3D environments, from Petoons Studio

March 31, 2019

Target Acquired: Metaloid: Origin

Metaloid: Origin, from RetroRevolution, follows up on the developer's previous Mega Man-inspired actioner, Metagal, but delivers a much more polished experience. The game stars one of three robot cat ladies, each with a different set of weapons and special attacks, and you choose one to take into battle. From there, you can purchase and unlock new firing types, special attacks, movement abilities, and passive buffs to help you take down bad bots across nine themed areas. The game is a fast-paced combat experience at its core, but it rewards exploration, and it changes things up a bit with the occasional environmental puzzle or gameplay-altering vehicle combat sequence. The game also features numerous boss and miniboss encounters, each with unique behaviors that require you take full advantage of your weapons and special abilities to bring them to their fiery demise.

The game is now available on PC and Mac via Steam, and is planned for consoles at a later date. Check our coverage here.




March 28, 2019

New Blip: Gravity Ace

Hey, if there's one thing everyone likes, it's gravity... and nobody knows that better than John Watson, the developer behind Gravity Ace. There aren't a whole lot of gravity-based spaceship games on the market, but there have been a few standout examples over the years, including the seminal classic Gravitar, along with classics like Thrust and Oids, and a few modern takes on the genre, including the Gravitron and PixelJunk Shooter series. Of all these games, Gravity Ace seems to most closely mix elements from Thrust and the PixelJunk Shooter series.

Like Thrust, you must descend into caverns, taking out dangers along the way, and retrieving a reactor core from deep within... and then fight to escape the planetoid's gravity in time. Whereas Thrust was a fairly slow and methodical experience (but still harrowing, mind), the PixelJunk Shooter series is more fast-paced, features much more shooting, and the need to rescue stranded astronauts. In the end, the game borrows from its predecessors but definitely stands on its own, offering a chunky explosion-heavy world with the ever-present danger of smashing into a wall of rock and meeting your untimely demise. The game offers multiple interconnected levels across three worlds and even some boss encounters to spice things up.

The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam and Itch.io later this year.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

March 26, 2019

New Blip: Elden: Path of the Forgotten

Elden: Path of the Forgotten, from Onerat Games, is a dark action-horror game set in a medieval landscape and filled with Lovecraftian beasties and boss creatures. You can hack through these monsters using a selection of melee weapons or take down from a distance with a number of magic spells. The game features creepy chunky pixel art, lots of blood, and wordless hi-rez pixel cutscenes to further emphasize the horror tone.

The game is coming to PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One later this year.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

March 20, 2019

New Blip: Steel Sword Story

Do you even know the level of wackiness that 8bits Fanatics brings to the table? You may have heard of Aban Hawkins and the 1000 Spikes, or the updated version called 1001 Spikes, but even stranger than that is their samurai-meets-US-president zombie slayer The Tempura of the Dead (which still needs a Steam release, please!)... and now they're back! Teaming up with Kadokawa Corporation and Playism, the studio is bringing more ninja action with Steel Sword Story. This time you're plying your ninja skills in a dark fantasy world while fighting enemies, performing platforming feats, and taking down big bad bosses. Use your sword to slash enemies and your magical powers to toss fireballs while seeking treasures and avoiding spikes.

The game is coming to PC soon, but does not yet have an announced release date.

No trailer yet, but here's some footage from the demo:


To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

March 17, 2019

Target Acquired: 1 Screen Platformer

1 Screen Platformer, from Return to Adventure Mountain, is exactly what it sounds like... a platformer that takes place on a single screen. Fortunately, you can also zoom in on the action and play the game in a more traditional fashion, similar to the gameplay offered in Platformance: Castle Pain and Platformance: Temple Death. While the small game world makes for a short experience, there are a number of reasons to replay, such as going back in for a faster time, a better rank, or to try the harder difficulty setting which adds faster obstacles in higher numbers. But the main reason to replay is to try out each of the four playable characters. Not only do some characters offer new abilities, like a double jump, each has different mission objectives, with one simply tasked with reaching the end as quickly as possible, another that collects glowing orbs to activate checkpoints, and one that has to reveal the area by clearing fog-of-war-style shadows.

The game is now available for PC and Mac via Steam for 99 cents. Check our coverage here.

For some reason, the developer has no trailer for the game, so here's a video of some guy playing it for a few minutes:


March 14, 2019

New Blip: Iron Meat

Hey, you got your iron in my meat! Hey, you got your meat in my iron! That's likely what you'll be yelling when you play Iron Meat from Razz, a game that features two great tastes (iron and meat) that taste great together to deliver Contra-style shooting action against baddies and bots. The game features run and gun action, 8-way fire, a somersaulting soldier, and a variety of weapon pickups and powerups to help you shred everything that enters your line of sight. Weapons include machine guns, lasers, and heavy explosives, which you'll need to take down popcorn enemies, mechanical minibosses, and over-the-top level bosses across eight themed areas.

The game is planned for PC 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.

March 12, 2019

New Blip: Operation ECHO

Operation ECHO, from Green Legacy, is set in 21XX and stars an action hero named M16... well, he wasn't always an action hero. M16 got his start as a butler-bot, but then there was a Mutant Armageddon that put everyone's lives in danger, and his creator, Dr. Miller, gave him some heavy armaments and ordered him to hop into action. Armed with a plasma cannon and an array of other weapon types, including machine guns, shotguns, and rocket launchers, M16 runs through colorful levels blasting goo-spitting slugs, grotesque insectoid creatures, and other monstrosities until they explode... eventually facing off against giant disgusting boss monsters that require equal treatment.

The game is coming to PC but does not yet have an announced release date. A demo is available on Itch.io and Game Jolt.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

March 10, 2019

Target Acquired: Touhou Luna Nights

Touhou Luna Nights is an officially-licensed spinoff of The Touhou Project (東方), a series of Japanese bullet hell shooters developed by Team Shanghai Alice which has endured for more than two decades. The new game was developed by Team Ladybug, the studio behind KonoSuba God's Blessing on this Wonderful World! Revival of Beldia and Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue, both of which featured solid action combined with stunning sprite art... and this game is no exception.

Touhou Luna Nights features several characters from the main Touhou series, and stars Sakuya Izayoi, the head maid of Scarlet Devil Mansion, who is able to manipulate time. Sakuya can slow down time to bypass obstacles and enemies, or stop it completely, and she can even use her bullet hell grazing techniques to get close to enemies and projectiles to earn back health or magic. Along the way, she unlocks new special attacks and new movement abilities that allow her to reach previously inaccessible routes, per metroidvania conventions. Players will need to stay on their toes as enemies require them to employ an array of techniques, and bosses are even tougher. Even the environment reacts differently to time manipulation later in the game.

The game is now available on PC via Steam. Check our coverage here.




March 8, 2019

Proximity Alert: BoxBoy + BoxGirl

Have you been following Hal Labs' charming Boxboy puzzle-platformer series? It's well worth a look, as the existing trio of 3DS-exclusives are simultaneously excellent and inexpensive. If you aren't familiar, be sure to check our coverage of Boxboy, Boxboxboy, and Bye-Bye Boxboy. In any case, the series is quite inviting, so even if you missed out on the others, or don't own a 3DS, you can still check out the newest game, Boxboy + Boxgirl. It's much bigger than its predecessors, weighing in at 270 levels, and it also includes a number of cooperative 2P stages for people who wish to team up. Per series conventions, there are some unlockables, including a playable character called Qudy, who is rectangular instead of square and will therefore create new gameplay challenges.

The game is coming to Switch on April 26. Check out the gameplay presented during last month's Nintendo Direct:




March 5, 2019

New Blip: Hollow Knight: Silksong

Are you one of the folks who spent some quality time in the insectoid world of Hollow Knight? If you're a fan of dark metroidvanias and somehow missed out on this one, stop reading and give it a play, because it's downright engrossing, and the developers, Team Cherry, released loads of free content updates over the last couple of years... and now, they've returned with a sequel. Hollow Knight: Silksong stars a character named Hornet, who was formerly an adversary, but now she has her own standalone adventure where she clambers upward from the depths of Hallownest to explore new and colorful environments, and make some new friends. The game features fast-paced combat with aerial tactics against more than 150 new enemy types and a bunch of new boss creatures. The game features the same lovely art style as before, along with musical compositions by Christopher Larkin.

The game will launch on PC, Mac, Linux, and Switch, but does not yet have an announced release date. The first game also released on PS4 and Xbox One, so those platforms are possible as well, at a later date.




March 3, 2019

Target Acquired: Tiny Dangerous Dungeons

Tiny Dangerous Dungeons, from Adventure Islands is a bite-sized greenscale metroidvania starring an adventurer named Timmy, star of the original Dangerous Dungeons game. Timmy explores ancient ruins with nothing but a high jump keep him away from the dangers posed the by bats, spiders, and frogs that threaten his life. Along the way, he gains new abilities that allow him to reach new areas, attack his foes, and reach hidden treasures. The entire game can be completed in a single sitting in less than an hour (it is tiny, after all), but players can also hunt for optional health extensions or take on the time trial mode.

The game was originally released on browsers in 2013 and is playable on Newgrounds, Kongregate, and Stencyl, and mobile versions are also available for iOS and Android. However, the PC/Mac Steam version contains extra content, including the aforementioned time trial and hidden health extensions, as well as a new area. Check our coverage here.