Early Arrival: Jet Set Knights

Jet Set Knights, from FobTi Interactive, is an arcade-style platformer for single player or offline 2-4P multiplayer. The game features knights fighting through enclosed arenas, facing off against a dozen different enemy types with a variety of weapons and magical spells, including swords, spears, ice arrows, and an exploding chicken. In addition to fighting enemies and attempting to stay alive, the player must protect the princess at the bottom of the room from being attacked, which spells a Game Over. However, the player is able to construct defenses around the princess, adding a tower defense element to the action. If the player manages to keep himself and the princess alive through enough waves, he'll face off against a huge end-level boss.

Jet Set Knights is currently available for PC via Steam Early Access.




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

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New Blip: The Final Station

In The Final Station, from Oleg Sergeev and Andrey Rumak, you are travelling by train across a desolate landscape in a post-apocalyptic world. It's up to you to keep the train running and keep the remaining survivors safe as you stop off at stations to refuel, scavenge for supplies, and look for more survivors... But it's not as simple as that, as the shadowy infected stand in your way, requiring that you blast them into oblivion if you hope to survive. The game is being published by tinyBuildGAMES, publishers of a number of indie games, and the developers behind No Time to Explain.

The game will be released on PC via Steam this summer.




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

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New Blip: RunGunJumpGun

Taking a page out of the book of No Time to Explain, RunGunJumpGun from Thirty Three Games stars an action hero who uses his oversized weapon as an enemy-sploder and a bullet-propulsion system. The lone soldier must deal with enemies and dodge projectiles while keeping himself suspended over pits of spikes and lava in a post-apocalyptic world. The player must rapidly switch between firing forward and firing downward, and making a mistake sends him hurtling backward. Gamers will need fast reflexes and an incredible tolerance for high-contrast oversaturated mayhem flying at their meaty faces from all angles.

The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam this summer, and it is also planned for mobile devices.




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

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New Blip: Song of the Deep

Developer Insomniac Games is primarily known for the original Spyro the Dragon games, as well as the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance series, and Sunset Overdrive. While the studio has been on the forefront of 3D game development for years, they're now exploring 2D gameplay with Song of the Deep, an underwater metroidvania starring a girl named Merryn on a search for her missing father. After he fails to return home from a fishing trip, Merryn has a dream of her father trapped beneath the sea, and so she builds a submarine and heads out after him, exploring the ruins of ancient civilizations, vast seascapes, and the perils of the deep. As she travels, Merryn must upgrade the submarine in order to reach greater depths and overcome dangerous sea life and mysterious machinations.

The game is headed to PC, PS4, and Xbox One this summer via digital distribution, and the studio also has a partnership with GameStop, which will sell physical versions of these releases in their stores, along with a line of merchandise.




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

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Target Acquired: Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, from Bombservice, is the latest game in the Momodora series and acts as a prequel to the others. The adventure features Kaho, a priestess whose village has come under attack by evil spirits, but when she sets out to seek an audience with the queen in the Kingdom of Karst, she finds that it too has fallen under the curse, as the world of the living is being merged with the world of the dead, and spirits wander the streets. As in the previous games in the series, the player interacts with NPC's who are on quests of their own, occasionally crossing paths with Kaho... and sometimes getting in her way. This is an open-world action adventure with light metroidvania elements, and offers a longer quest than any of the previous games in the series, with numerous enemies and bosses to face along the way, and an array of active and passive buffs to aid Kaho in her quest.

The game is now available for PC via Steam and Playism. You can check our full coverage of the game here, or get caught up on the first three games in the series here.

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Target Acquired: Mutant Mudds Super Challenge

Developer Renegade Kid, the studio behind Mutant Mudds and Xeodrifter, returns with a revisit to their Mutant Mudds universe in Mutant Mudds Super Challenge. The game features the same layer-hopping gameplay as its progenitor, but with a significantly higher challenge. Make no mistake, this game is designed for expert players, so before you consider diving into this one, you should probably have a go at the original Mutant Mudds first. The game features 40 challenging levels and some tough boss encounters, as well as a number of familiar mud-based foes across a handful of newly-crafted worlds.

The game is available for Wii U and 3DS via the eShop. As with the original game, the 3DS version makes use of its 3D capabilities to emphasize the visual effects when jumping between layers.

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Target Acquired: Salt and Sanctuary

Ska Studios, the developers behind Charlie Murder and the Dishwasher series have returned with Salt and Sanctuary. The game carries the studio's trademark dark art style and twisted themes, with this tale focusing on a shipwrecked sailor on an island surrounded by terrible beasts. The game features brutal blood-spewing melee combat and long-range spell attacks, as well as a crafting system that allows you to create and modify weapons, armor, and spells. Awaiting you are towering bosses, deadly traps, and lots of salt, but you don't have to go it alone, as you can team up with a friend for local 2P co-op.

The game is now available on PS4 via PSN and is still under development for Vita (it will be cross-buy with the PS4 version) and for PC via Steam.

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News: Axiom Verge Coming to Xbox One and Wii U

Axiom Verge has been a labor of love for Tom Happ since he began the project in 2010, with the final product hitting Steam and PSN last year... and now the award-winning game is branching out to new platforms. Later this year, the game will be coming to Xbox One and Wii U.

Axiom Verge is a metroidvania title with obvious influences pulled from the 8- and 16-bitters of yore, with Metroid-style exploration, Turrican-style gunplay, and some decidedly Abadox-style gore. The game offers a large world to explore, loads of upgradeable weapons, items, and powerups to be found by players who opt to probe every dark corner of the grotesque game world, and a number of pulse-pounding battles against hideous boss creatures. Then there's the glitch gun, offering a number of unusual possibilities to modify enemy behaviors and reach new areas.

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Target Acquired: Deadbolt

Hopoo Games, the developers behind the excellent (and super tough) Risk of Rain, have returned with Deadbolt, a game where you play as the Reaper, blasting undead creatures in the face in order to prevent an uprising. The player must infiltrate a number of facilities, and he can opt to go the stealth route or guns-a-blazin as he moves from floor to floor. The environment plays a key role as players can move through ventilation systems to get the drop on their foes, or duck behind furniture and pop up to take shots at baddies. The player has access to melee weapons, handguns, shotguns, and machine guns, allowing him to leave behind huge sprays of blood on the surrounding walls, and he can also take out light sources and pick locks.

The game just came out on PC via Steam today.




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

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Target Acquired: Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, from Moon Studios (game site), is now available on Xbox One and is coming soon to PC via Steam. The new version arrives as paid DLC for owners of the original, or the full bundle may be purchased outright for new adventurers and includes two new areas, new attacking and movement abilities, and new story elements that expand on the original game. The update also adds difficulty settings and fast travel between areas.

The game is an action-adventure platformer set in an atmospheric world. A creature named Ori explores the world and gains new abilities that allow him (her?) to reach new areas, while attempting to escape the claws of Kuro, the dark owl. The game puts platforming first with a capable character who is able to move quickly and reach great heights, jumping from walls and parachuting down through spike-lined caverns. Ori travels with a sentient ball of energy that acts as a guide and also a weapon, allowing players to attack nearby enemies without breaking stride.

Ori and the Blind Forest was also our 2015 Game of the Year. Check our full coverage here.

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News: Jotun Coming to Consoles

Jotun, from Thunder Lotus Games (game site), is venturing forth from Steam and headed to your console of choice. The developers have announced that the game will arrive on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U this summer, and will come as a free update to owners of the original game. The updated version of the game is entitled Jotun: Valhalla Edition and will include a boss rush mode featuring tougher versions of the game's towering foes.

The game stars Thora, a Viking who has died an ignoble death and finds herself in purgatory. There, she must prove herself to the gods by fighting gigantic elemental beasts known as jotun, with the hopes that her victory will prove her worth and allow her to pass into Valhalla. The scale of each jotun is immense in the same way as Shadow of Colossus, with towering enemies that can smash the life out of you, but instead of a 3D environment and colossi, this is a top-down action adventure with hand-drawn animations. Fortunately, your relatively small size allows you to dodge their attacks and use your hefty 2-handed axe to move in and strike quickly, slowly whittling down the monsters’ long life bars.

Check our full coverage of Jotun here.

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New Blip: The End of the World

Developer Izanami GameWorks brings you The End of the World, an overhead car combat game that is less Bump 'n' Jump and more Bump 'n' Murder. In this game, your spend your time ramming other vehicles into oblivion, as well as firing machine guns with wild abandon, and taking on huge shmup-style bosses in the form of limo-riding jerks and huge mutant beasts made of eyeballs and tentacles that chase you through the streets. Smash through ambulances to get more health, cut a swath through busloads of baddies, and even blow off your enemies' heads, all the while racking up a huge combo of endless wreckage.

The game was originally developed for mobile devices, but the updated version is headed to PC via Steam with an as yet unannounced release date.




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

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Target Acquired: Skorpulac

Eirik Suhrke is primarily a composer, having created music for a number of video games, including Downwell, Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box, and Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom. However, he recently completed a game of his own, entitled Skorpulac. It's a lo-fi sidescrolling action game featuring a spear-wielding protagonist in a harsh landscape surrounded by enemies. The game features more than a dozen increasingly difficult levels with technical platforming and combat, a pair of boss encounters, and a few surprises along the way.

Skorpulac was released for PC as freeware on Itch.io. Check our full coverage here.

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News: Super Meat Boy Coming to Wii U

If you're a fan of 2D gaming, then you're undoubtedly familiar with a little meat-based platformer called Super Meat Boy from developer Team Meat. What you may not know is that the game was always intended to be released on the Wii, but this release was eventually cancelled as the game grew and eventually exceeded the file size limitations of Nintendo's WiiWare service. There was a bit of hope that the game might see a retail release for the system, but publishers were unwilling to take on the risk of releasing a late-cycle budget release for the platform. And so the game was released... everywhere else, starting with Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade in 2010, followed by computers in 2011, and a PS4/Vita release just a few months ago.

But in this week's Nintendo Direct presentation, a brief clip was shown of upcoming eShop releases, which displayed about eight seconds of gameplay footage from Super Meat Boy. Publisher BlitWorks, which is responsible for numerous ports of hit indie games, confirms the Wii U release on their details page for the game. So, six years later, the game is finally making its way to a Nintendo platform. No specific release date has been announced, but developer Tommy Refenes says that it should be released in a couple of months.

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New Blip: Pankapu: the Dreamkeeper

Pankapu: the Dreamkeeper, from Too Kind Studio, is an action-platformer starring the eponymous Pankapu, a warrior created by the God of Dreams to defeat dark beings that have passed through the Veil, the realm separating the the World of Nightmares from the World of Dreams. The warrior is able to change between three forms on the fly, altering his abilities as he does so, in order to take on his foes in different ways. His brave form has is strong and fights with melee attacks; his passionate form has a bow and arrows, as well as a double jump and dash; and his faithful form uses magic. The player is further able to customize the character by unlocking new abilities along a skill tree. The game is presented as a storybook tale told to a young girl, and the world is a construction of her imagination. The game is intended to be released episodically, with each episode representing a new chapter of the tale.

The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux in 2016, and PS4 and Xbox One in 2017. An alpha demo is available on the game's Kickstarter page.




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

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New Blip: Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime

Developer Spiritus Games (game site) brings together a team of developers whose previous credits include The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing and the Codename: Panzers series. Their first release under the new studio label is entitled Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime, which mixes science fiction and fantasy in a top-down action-RPG featuring space combat fought with medieval weaponry, including swords and axes. The Sun has been stolen by the League of Black Knights, plunging the world into darkness, and so the King's youngest son must travel through the seven realms to defeat the knights and restore peace. As the player travels across a number of procedurally generated star systems, he encounters legendary objects of folklore, such as the Seven-League Boots and the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs, and also unlocks new playable ships, upgrades, and skills.

The game being developed for PC and is aiming for a Spring 2017 release.




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

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