UPCOMING 2D GAMES!
2D RADAR is a list of all of the promising new 2D games that are in development right now. We will continue to provide updates with new blips as they appear.

In our dire and medically dangerous love for 2D games, we tend to keep a lot of lists. Among these is a list of every in-development game that looks like it might be something our readers would enjoy. Some of these games will eventually have full overviews written for our Upcoming 2D section.

But then we thought: why keep this list to ourselves? Wouldn’t our readers like to put saddles on our brains and ride them around for a while, perusing the ethereal stables of not-yet-released 2D video games, while speaking entirely in inappropriate and incomprehensible horse metaphors? The answer to that question is ABSOLUTELY!

So here it is, unlocked for everyone to see, the 8 Bit Horse 2D RADAR:



Apple Jack’s Great Escape | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games | 2012
Tim Sycamore has announced that he is working on a sequel to the critically acclaimed Apple Jack, which was a platformer with puzzle elements and a higher-than-average number of pandas and washing machines. The sequel will introduce some new gameplay as well as new level layouts. In addition to the 8-way scrolling from the original game, some levels will be standard horizontal scrollers without vertical movement, and others will feature vertical ascent ala Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess. There will even be some chase sequences featuring a giant panda pursuing Apple Jack as he attempts to run, jump, and push blocks to make his way to escape. But not to worry, the object-tossing gameplay from the original is still intact in the sequel.




Awesomenauts | Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA | February 2012
Ronimo Games is the Dutch developer behind the stylized 2D RTS Swords & Soldiers released as a downloadable for PS3, Wii, PC, and Mac in 2009 & 2010. Many of their employees came from the original de Blob team. Now, they’re mixing up a batch of multiplayer mayhem with Awesomenauts, in what they have dubbed a “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena” (MOBA) game. The game features action-platforming through a variety of colorful environments, with cartoony characters shooting, punching, and even barfing on one another for battle supremacy. Some of the combatants include giant robots, acid-spewing monsters, brains in jars, and monkeys with head-mounted lasers.




Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment | NES | Release Date TBD
In 2010, Sivak Games released homebrew platformer Battle Kid: Fortress in Peril on an actual NES cartridge. The sequel is also coming to the NES with over 400 rooms, two dozen enemy types, and 8 bosses. The new game adds a death counter ala Super Meat Boy and the game is expected to be every bit as difficult as the first. The title has styles and gameplay reminiscent of Mega Man, and a structure similar to the newer Castlevania titles, with a huge map, save points, and teleporter system for quick travel throughout the environment. Given that the game is meant to run on actual NES hardware, 8-bit style and gameplay are abound and aplenty.




BattleBlock Theater | Xbox 360 via XBLA | 2012
The Behemoth was at the forefront of the 2D resurgence with their release of Alien Hominid in 2004, which they followed up with Castle Crashers. Their third game is an even weirder (apparently, yes, this is possible) 2D platformer with the trademark Behemoth art style, animation, humor, and zany multiplayer… and deadly stage performances.




Black Knight Sword | Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA | Release Date TBD
Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind such cult hits as Killer7 and No More Heroes, is teaming up with Digital Reality to bring forth a 2D-ish game (2D gameplay with a mix of 2D and 3D artwork) called Black Knight Sword. The traditional Suda51/Grasshopper oddball humor is prevalent, along with some Monty Python-esque humor as represented by disturbing 2D artwork intermixed into the piece. The game’s presentation appears to be a cross between the shadow puppet theater stylings of Nin-2 Jump and a twisted children’s pop-up book. Gameplay mixes platforming with magic attacks and hack-and-slash action against a variety of peculiar enemies, punctuated by huge blood splatters as they are defeated.




The Bridge | Xbox 360 via XBL Indie Games, PC via download | Release Date TBD
The Bridge from developer Hypercube Games is a puzzle platformer that focuses on gravity manipulation, allowing players to rotate the game world, changing ceilings and walls into floors and vice versa. These changes allow the player to walk along almost any surface, but they also influence objects in the environment, causing barriers to slide open and closed, and causing large Rock of Ages-like balls to roll around, potentially crushing you. The game is presented in a black and white sketchbook style and is reminiscent of the works of M. C. Escher, featuring environments that wrap and fold in upon themselves in impossible ways. The game was recognized for its gameplay and art direction at the 2012 DICE show.




Captain Jameson | PC via download | Release Date TBD (Alpha available now)
Captain Jameson is an extension of the universe introduced in Captain Forever, a series of Flash-based arena shooters from Farbs that focused on ship construction as a means of progression. When enemy ships were destroyed, their components were left behind and could be collected by the player, adding to his ship’s abilities, such as overall firepower, and reducing the ship’s abilities as components were destroyed. Captain Jameson, on the other hand, takes place in a persistent exploration-based world over a large area. The player begins the game in a desolate area, with a series of nearby space stations that are all offline. As the player visits each station – which can be interacted with via an old-school text-based interface to ping servers and communicate – he can leave people behind to run the stations and bring them back online. Each station serves a purpose and allows the player to expand his reach into the larger game world and activate other stations. For instance, stations may provide oxygen-generation capabilities, or show a map of the surrounding area. Of course, ship construction is still a core part of the experience, and destroyed ships can be stripped of parts and added to your own.




Charlie Murder | Xbox 360 via XBLA | 2012
This is the next game from James Silva's Ska Studios label. You may recall Silva's previous sidescrolling action games, Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and Dishwasher: Vampire Smile on XBLA, and he's also the man behind Xbox Live Indie favorite I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IN IT!!1. Charlie Murder is a 4P co-op brawler which puts you in the shoes of the 4 members of a (fictional) punk band called Charlie Murder. Each of the band members has his own fighting style and specials based on their musical instruments. The band fights off hordes of zombies, ninjas, and other enemies on a quest to get their frontman's girlfriend back from a rival band.




Closure | Playstation 3 via PSN, PC and Mac via download | Q2 2012
Closure is a puzzle-platformer that originally got its start as a Flash game, but Eyebrow Interactive has spent the last couple of years rebuilding the game from scratch to create a larger and more polished experience. For the upcoming downloadable edition, the development team has added nearly 100 new puzzles, several new gameplay mechanics, new art, and a fuller narrative. The team likens the scale of the changes to comparing the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES to Super Mario World on the SNES. Closure is presented entirely in black and white and features a number of atmospheric environments. Light plays an important role in environmental navigation and puzzle solving, since surfaces that are not lit effectively do not exist. As such, you can push a block along the ground on a lit path, but push it into the shadows and it will fall. The player is not entirely at the mercy of light and darkness, as light sources can be manipulated as well. The game is the winner of the 2010 IGF award for Excellence in Audio, and was also nominated in the Technical Excellence and Nuovo Innovation Award categories. And, the game won the Indie Game Challenge at the 2012 DICE show, taking the $100,000 top prize.




Cloudberry Kingdom | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games | Release Date TBD
Pwnee Studios has been working on Cloudberry Kingdom for a long time now. This ridiculously-hard platformer has procedurally generated levels that test the limits of human endurance and sanity… but they’re all physically possible to complete.




Dragon’s Crown | Playstation 3 via PSN, Playstation Vita | Q2 2012
If you’re a fan of 2D games (and we’re guessing you are, since you’re here), then you’ve been keeping an eye on VanillaWare since the very first Odin Sphere trailer was released and you saw a glimpse into a world where the Sega Saturn won its console war and 3D games were dismissed as a fad. In this parallel universe, impossibly detailed and beautiful 2D action-RPG’s began spilling forth. And now we’re getting an HD 2D game from the studio, an even that could cause the universe to collapse in on itself as the gaming world as a whole seems to be launching itself headlong into the realm of 3D. The new game, Dragon’s Crown, is also an action-RPG, featuring both single-player gameplay and 4-player online co-op across an enormous fantasy world. Players may choose between a number of character classes – covering the standard fantasy classes such as fighter, wizard, and thief – and then head out on a quest to uncover the secret behind an ancient dragon that threatens it.




Dust: An Elysian Tail | Xbox 360 via XBLA | 2012
Dust: An Elysian Tail originally looked to be headed to Xbox Live Indie Games. While it seemed a bit slow when it was first unveiled – but still gorgeous – it was the winner of Microsoft’s 2009 Dream Build Play competition. Well, now the game is running at a more action-oriented pace, with all of the gorgeous visuals still intact, reminiscent of the detailed designs of Vanillaware (Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire).




Face-Plant Adventures | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games | Q2 2012
Developer Oddworm games presents Face-Plant Adventures, a game featuring a plant in the shape of a face, or at least with a giant grotesque mouth. Florence (that’s the face-plant’s name) travels through a number of hand-drawn platforming environments, featuring some odd and disturbing artwork, including giant colored mushrooms, leering eyeballs on huge stalks, and strange segmented plats. Florence is on a quest to gather maple leaves tucked throughout the levels, and must use jumping, wall jumping, wall sliding, and swimming skills to explore, and avoid dangers such as spikes and green slime.




Fallen Frontier | Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA, PC via Steam | 2012
Moonshot Games was formed by 3 ex-Bungie employees, and their first game out of the gate is a 2D action title with high production values. The game takes place in a future where people from Earth are settling the frontier worlds of Alpha Centauri. Most are going there for a new beginning, but one man is going there for revenge. The player has a number of tools at his disposal, ranging from machine guns, shotguns, and grenades, to a very fast and capable grappling hook that you can use for environmental navigation and grabbing enemies. The game even features 2P co-op, with a dynamic split screen reminiscent of Treasure Treasure Fortress Forage: Extra Edition. At the moment, the developers are targeting PSN, XBLA, and Steam for the game’s release.




FEIST | PC, Mac | Q3 2012
FEIST’s silhouette style may remind you of Limbo at first, particularly with the floaty jumps. Not too much has been revealed about the game during its 2 years of development, but it does have a strong sense of style and atmosphere, and the visual design has already won it some recognition.




Fist Puncher | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games | 2012
Developer Team2Bit brings back the traditional scrolling fighter with Fist Puncher, presented with chunky sprites and a style reminiscent of River City Ransom and Double Dragon. Players can select from one of several characters, each with his own sordid past, and there are hidden characters available as well. Players can go it alone or team up in 4P co-op, as they fight their way through street thugs and bosses with punches, kicks, special attacks, and various weapons.




The Floor is Jelly | Flash | Q4 2012
One-man Flash developer Ian Snyder has been creating games for many years, and his most recent game, The Floor is Jelly was an honorable mention at the 2012 Independent Games Festival Student Showcase (Ian is a student at the Kansas City Art Institute). The game is based on a very simple question, namely “What if the floor was made of jelly?” The result is a platformer with a physics system that can only be described as “moderately bonkers”. Bouncing around the environment causes it to respond in kind, jiggling wildly and sending you flying through the air while trees and houses on stilts wobble like mad. The game fulfills your childhood fantasies of filling a swimming pool full of name-brand gelatin product, or at running around a house lined entirely in bedsprings.




Fractured Soul | Nintendo DS | February 21, 2012
It always seems to happen… just as a new console hits the market, a bunch of interesting new properties are released its predecessor, making it hold its appeal just that much longer. Not five minutes after the 3DS hit the market, the original DS saw the release of Monster Tale and the announcement of a new Kirby game. And now we have Fractured Soul coming from Australian developer Endgame Studios. The game is a combination platformer and shmup that splits gameplay between the two screens of the DS, somewhat similarly to Divergent Shift. However, rather than controlling 2 versions of the player simultaneously, Fractured Soul features a player character that can transfer between each of the DS screens to navigate the environment, fight enemies, and solve puzzles. And the two sides of the game world can be quite different. For instance, the player may be splitting his movement between indoor and outdoor environments, hallways and fiery lava flows, regular and reversed gravity, and even bouncing back and forth between dry land and underwater environments… complete with the changes in movement and inertia you would expect. The screen switching works during the shmup sections as well, allowing for some creative bullet dodging and obstacle avoidance.




Gateways | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games | 2012
Smudged Cat Games, the developer behind The Adventures of Shuggy and Growing Pains returns with another concept title. Gateways is a platformer starring a scientist with a very interesting device that allows him to open up gateways on walls and other surfaces, and pass through them. While this may sound astoundingly similar to the gameplay in Portal, there are several nuances to the design that dramatically impact gameplay. First off, gateways can be placed in various sizes. Passing through a larger gate and emerging from a smaller gate actually physically shrinks the scientist, and doing the opposite allows him to grow. Gateways can also be connected to different points in time, allowing the scientist to pass through and encounter his earlier self. Placement of entrance and exit gateways also allows for manipulation of the environment, such as walking through a gate on the ground to emerge from a ceiling and walk down the side of a wall. The player starts in a small area of a larger game world and is able to explore by using his tools, solving environmental puzzles, and getting powerups.




Grapple Buggy | Xbox 360 via XBLA or Xbox Live Indie Games | Release Date TBD
Grapple Buggy is a high-flying, grapple-swinging action adventure game with a dynamic branching story and multiple endings. It is under development by Mommy’s Best Games, which also brought you Weapon of Choice, Shoot 1UP, and Explosionade, all critically acclaimed titles on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel.




Guacamelee | Platforms TBD | Release Date TBD
In case your mind is having difficulty parsing Guacamelee into its representative parts, it’s a mashup of guacamole and melee. Canadian developer DrinkBox Studios, known for Tales from Space: About a Blob, has packed everything they know about Mexico into a single game. You play as a masked wrestler named Juan Aguacate who uses wrestling moves to take down sombrero-wearing banditos in a world that draws inspiration from Mexican culture and folklore (according to the developers). Hey, watch out for those chickens and Mayan pyramids! As he learns new moves, he can more easily dispatch enemies and open up new areas in the environment Metroidvania-style. But he also has the mysterious ability to transfer between alternate realities at will, allowing him to progress through the environment in altered versions of the same level. If you have an amigo, you can share your salsa in same screen 2P co-op as well (and no, we don’t intend for that to be as dirty as it sounds).




Gunboy | PC | Release Date TBD
Indie developer Tennis is hard at work on a platformer called Gunboy, a chunky 2D sidescroller somewhat reminiscent of the MegaMan games. The plucky hero embarks on a quest using his double-jumping and form-switching abilities to defeat enemies and access treasure chests. Several forms are available to the player, including one that shoots standard projectiles, a fire form that lobs deadly bouncing fireballs, and a plant form that allows the player to drop floating platforms (again reminiscent of Capcom’s later MegaMan games, as well as Demon’s Crest). The floating platforms crumble after a short time, raining down destruction from above which can harm enemies or even open chests.




Gun-Lord | Dreamcast, Neo Geo | December 2012 (MVS), 2012 (AES, Dreamcast)
Yep, that’s right; we said Dreamcast and Neo Geo. German indie developer NG:Dev.Team previously brought Last Hope and Fast Striker to the aforementioned systems in very limited production runs. And now they have a new game called Gun-Lord. So, if you’re one of those gamers who has been keeping your DC and/or MVS systems warmed and ready for the day when someone decided to release a Turrican-style action-platformer, your day has almost come. The game will feature a variety of weapons, huge detailed bosses, and 8-way scrolling that are guaranteed to give you some serious Psygnosis flashbacks.




Gunpoint | PC via download | March 2012
Gunpoint is a Game Maker-based game developed by Tom Francis, featuring a well-gadgeted freelance spy who must infiltrate a variety of secure facilities. The agent is equipped with some unusual clothing, including a pair of special “Projectile Trousers” that let him launch himself into the air and reach some pretty unreasonable jump heights. Fortunately, his special trench coat keeps him from dying from long falls, and his sticky gloves let him climb up walls. Earning money from missions allows you to purchase a number of oddball item that will help you on future missions, such as a belt that repels bullets, “anti-door” boots, booby traps, and a number of items that will assist you in hacking and overcoming electrical systems. Chief among his tools is an item called the Crosslink which allows the player to rewire circuits, making a previously impenetrable security door easily opened by simply flicking a nearby light switch… or waiting for a hapless security guard to do it for you. Practically any electrical device can be routed to any other, and multiple connections can be made. So, using an elevator can simultaneously shut off the floor’s security cameras while turning out the lights elsewhere in the building, which will cause a nearby guard to flip try the switch, which can be rigged to something else… There are usually several possible solutions to any given level, although the patrolling guards can make your life tough and will shoot you on site. Fortunately, you have the option of launching yourself at them to send the both of you flying out of a window (guards don’t have special high-fall trench coats), by throwing open doors Bonanza Bros.-style, by dropping down from the ceiling above them… or simply by sneaking past unnoticed.




Hollow’s Deep | PC via download, and possibly Xbox 360 | Release Date TBD
Hollow’s Deep is an indie production from Vancouver-based developer by Chevy Ray Johnston (yes, that is his real name), who is the designer, programmer, and writer for the project. The game has a strong focus on theme and atmosphere, with roots in Romanian folklore. The art, music, and sound effects draw from these sources as well, helping to weave the overall fabric of the game. Artist Sara Gross (who previously worked on Oil Blue for Vertigo Games, among other projects) is providing layered 2D artwork presented in a painterly style, composer Josh Whelchel (known for The Spirit Engine series and Bonesaw) is creating the music, and HyperDuck SoundWorks providing the ambient sound effects that will permeate the game. While the game has a strong focus on atmosphere, the lead character is a skilled fighter as well, and she can dispatch enemies quickly when the need arises.




Ibb and Obb | Playstation 3 via PSN | 2012
Ibb and Obb is a cooperative platformer from developer Sparpweed. The game features two worlds, one on the top side of a line, and one on the bottom, and gravity is reversed on either side of the line. In the lower world, the player falls upward, and in the upper world, players fall downward. Unlike other games that use this sort of reversed gravity mechanic (such as Divergent Shift), players are often free to switch from one side of the line to the other, retaining and falling momentum as they enter the other side of the screen. Players must assist each other to make it through each of the levels, which can be done by moving from one side of the line to the other, standing on the other player’s head to reach a higher platform, or by helping the other player eliminate enemies or obstacles. The world of Ibb and Obb is full of globulous characters, stark edges, and gradient colors. The game won an award for Design Innovation in the 2008 IndieCade International Festival of Independent Games.




The Iconoclasts | PC via download | Release Date TBD
The Iconoclasts is the latest project from Konjak, the developer of the Noitu Love series, Legend of Princess, and several other artful 2D games. The developer behind the studio, Joakim Sandberg, is well known for his sprite art and character animations in several WayForward titles, including Contra 4. The Iconoclasts is a colorful action adventure title starring a girl named Robin, who is a mechanic in a world where her particular craft is considered to be illegal (for reasons you’ll have to discover on your own as you explore the world). Robin uses her wrench to navigate the environment by cranking open doors, grappling, and clobbering enemies. The game features melee- and projectile-based combat, puzzle solving, NPC encounters, and fighting huge bosses.




In the Dark | PC, Mac, Linux via download | Release Date TBD
In the world of In the Dark, developer Escapement Studios explains why monsters hate the light. For a monster, light is a solid object, and getting caught in direct light traps them and eventually causes them to disappear. However, one monster, a cat/bunny-like creature named Bump, makes use of this quality to navigate the environments and defeat other monsters. As Bump shoves objects around, beams of light can be blocked or broken, allowing him to make progress. He can even run along beams of light as if they were solid surfaces, allowing him to reach new areas while avoiding dangers like swinging lamps and light sources that turn on and off intermittently.




Invincible Knight | Playstation 3 via PSN | US Release not confirmed
Taiwan-based developer Keystone Game Studio is currently working on Invincible Knight, a high-speed jousting game that falls directly in the gonzo category. The titular knight charges through levels at a full gallop breaking through hordes of soldiers and fighting huge bosses. The game does technically use 3D graphics, but they are presented from a locked 2D perspective. Normally, we’d just post a screenshot here, but in this case, we really feel that the teaser offers the best representation of the title’s over-the-top action. Someone call Atlus or Rockin’ Android and let’s get this sucker localized.

Ittle Dew | PC via download| 2012
Ittle Dew is a game from Swedish developer Ludosity, known for the physics-based action-puzzler Bob Came in Pieces (PC, Mac). Ittle Dew is a throwback to overhead action-adventure games, with The Legend of Zelda series being the most obvious influence what with the colorful overworld environments, puzzle-based dungeons, crystal switches, pushing blocks, a shop system, and using torches to light sticks on fire to melt ice, set off bombs, etc. But it offers some unique gameplay, such as a wand that casts a spell that leaves a glob of jelly behind. Hit an enemy – or even yourself – with a second blast from the wand, and they will be teleported to the jelly’s location. It can be used to dispatch enemies and solve puzzles. A second wand allows you to freeze enemies and push them around like blocks, or hit them again to crumble them to pieces. Of course, there is also a sword which allows for straightforward attacks. The developers plan to release the game in multiple individual episodes.




JForce: Unstoppable | Xbox 360, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, WP7, via download | Release Date TBD
There are a lot of top-down shooters on the market these days, but not many that fall into the action-adventure category. JForce Games’ JForce: Unstoppable is packed to the brim with weapons – over 40 in all – ranging from short- and long-range melee weapons, to machine guns, bombs, glaives, lasers, rocket launchers, and all sorts of non-traditional death dealing instruments of destruction. Environmental navigation tools include a hookshot-style grappling device and a Portal-style teleportation gun. The game is presented in a cartoon style with bright-colored environments and fluid character animations, and even some humorous fully-animated cutscenes. The game is also planned to include cooperative and competitive multiplayer and a level editor.




La-Mulana | Wii via WiiWare, PC via download | 2012
This game has a full-length overview in our Upcoming 2D section. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
The game features action-platforming, puzzle solving, and a non-linear design which requires backtracking to previous areas of the game to access new paths. A variety of weapons and equipment become available as the player makes his way through the game, some of which drastically impact gameplay. Certain items allow players to unlock new areas or to return to a previously inaccessible path with a newfound ability. Read more >>




Maldita Castilla | PC via download | Release Date TBD
Locomalito, the indie developer behind such titles as Hydorah and Viriax, returns with a sidescrolling action game inspired by a number of late 80’s arcade games, most notably Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. Maldita Castilla even features a number of the same projectile weapons as the GnG series, and the soundtrack (created by Gryzor87) has a very FM Synth feel to it that makes it sound like the Sega Genesis version of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. The game features an armored knight who walks slowly through a number of foreboding environments fighting undead creatures, flying birds and spirits, hulking hangmen, various enemy knights, and a number of large boss creatures. Locomalito is somewhat less cruel than Capcom, starting you with a 3-hit life bar, rather than the 2-hit system offered in the GnG series, and this also means that you won’t spend any time running around in your underwear (for better or worse). The game features 7 levels, a number of weapons that can be acquired in treasure chests or purchased in shops, and settings inspired by medieval Spanish architecture. In addition to GnG, the developer cites many other arcade titles as influences for the project, including Tiger Road, Black Tiger, Shinobi, Rygar, Karnov, and Trojan.




Noitu Love 2 – Devolution | Wii via WiiWare | Release Date TBD
This game has a full-length overview in our Upcoming 2D section. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
While you have direct control over Xoda Rap’s movement and jumping, you utilize the Wii remote to move a targeting reticule to control her attacks. By clicking over a specific spot, Xoda will dash to that location, and you can use this method to navigate the environment, dodge attacks, or dash to enemies and unleash a flurry of punches and kicks. Different attacks occur based on whether you simply hit the ATTACK button, or drag the cursor across the screen while attacking. Additional moves include a wall-jump, a remote shield, a charged shot, the ability to grab onto hooks, and to grab and toss enemies. Read more >>




Oniken | PC via download | Q2 2012
Brazil-based developer Arcana shows their retro love with Oniken, a game that pays homage to the NES era. Everything from the sprite art and color palette to the level designs and enemy types scream NES. The hero is introduced in an old-school opening sequence with big art panels and very little animation, and then the player hops into the game for some platforming, katana swinging, and grenade-chucking action against a number of NES-influenced foes, including soldiers, biomechanoid skulls with laser rifles in their mouths, metal clad armored sentries, and huge bosses. There are some vehicle segments as well where the player must jump and shoot his way through a hostile landscape… and the occasional robotic polar bear. The player has a life bar, but there are still plenty of insta-death bottomless pits to quickly rob you of all you have worked so hard to obtain. The game retains not only the look of an NES game, but the difficulty level as well, so you’ll need to flex your 80’s gaming muscles (or grow some) if you hope to make it through.




Owlboy | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games, PC | 2012
This game has a full-length overview in our Upcoming 2D section. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Owlboy is a game about a student owl named Otus who wears a cloak that allows him to fly. The world in which he lives is made up of a series of floating islands, which has recently come under attack by sky pirates. Otus has set out on a quest to stop the sky pirates and save his home village of Vellie. But in order to do this, he will need some help.

Otus is a more-than-capable platforming hero – especially given the fact that he can fly freely – but he is lacking in offensive abilities. He has a spin attack that knocks enemies back, and he can pick up items such as rocks and toss them at the baddies, but he has no projectiles of his own. To assist him in this department are a number of gunners that can be carried through the environment, and the player is able to use them to aim and fire in any direction.

At first, the player will have access to only a single gunner, a somewhat meek friend named Geddy, who has the advantage of firing at a high rate of speed. Throughout your journey, you are able to recruit new gunners, and switch between them at will, giving you a number of different offensive options. Each gunner has different projectile types and firing rates. Read more >>




Out There Somewhere | PC via download, and possibly Mac | Release Date TBD
Brazil-based Studio MiniBosses brings us Out There Somewhere, a puzzle-platformer that has a familiar beginning… a ship has crash landed on a danger-packed planet, leaving the captain to traverse the world. Where most games of this sort would immediately equip you with super jumpy shooty powers, the protagonist here relies on teleportation. The world is set up with a number of spatial puzzles, intermixed with enemies, lava, and all of the other terrible things you’d hope to come across on a hostile alien world. The captain can fire a teleportation projectile across the screen, which causes him to warp to that position when it hits, allowing him to cross large gaps. Teleportation works while standing, moving, jumping, and falling, and many puzzles revolve around your ability to quickly perform multiple teleportations on the fly to avoid death.




Platformines | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games, PC via download | 2012
Magiko Gaming, the developer who brought us PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain and PLATFORMANCE: Temple Death has a new game in development. Platformines features customizable caricatured soldiers fighting their way through fog-of-war platforming environments fraught with numerous types of obstacles and traps, as well as enemy soldiers. The player is on a hunt for treasure which will allow him to make purchases from the large-breasted merchant at his home base. Finding certain minerals hidden around the environment allows for the creation of new types of weapons, which range from handguns to shotguns to rocket launchers. The player is free to explore the environment, grab as much treasure as he can carry, and make his way back to the base. He can also place teleporters at any point on the map that has been previously explored, allowing him to bypass previously-completed areas and make quick runs for more treasure.




Rayman Origins | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, PC | NOW AVAILABLE (consoles and Vita), March 20, 2012 (3DS), March 29, 2012 (PC)
First off, it’s Rayman, and Globox, with nary a Rabbid to be seen. Secondly, it’s under the direction of premiere game designer, Sir Michel Ancel, the man behind the bulk of the Rayman series, as well as Beyond Good & Evil (the series, hopefully). And finally, the thing is just so damn pretty. Originally planned as an episodic downloadable title, the game will now be a single full retail release. Game features include collectible Lums that can be used as currency to purchase powerups, acrobatic chain challenges, and 4P local co-op.




Reaper | Playstation Portable, PC, Mac, iPhone | 2012
The PSP doesn’t get many true 2D games. This action-platformer puts you in the shoes of a reaper, who is responsible for harvesting souls for Death. Or Miss Death, in this case, as the role is played by a female. Collecting souls also allows you to summon creatures as you fight your way through the game’s 50 levels. And it features artwork by Luc Bernard of SteamPirates and Eternity’s Child on PC.




Retro City Rampage | Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA, Wii via WiiWare, Playstation Vita, PC via Steam | May 2012
This game has a full-length overview in our Upcoming 2D section. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Despite the retro style, the game has all of the things you would expect from a modern open-world game: dozens of vehicles to be liberated from the citizenry, more than 20 weapons, a huge script with tons of dialogue and cutscenes, loads of missions and side missions, and a whole city to play around in. It’s definitely not a game that could have run on NES hardware, but it still looks and feels like an NES game for the most part. The only difference is the amount of content and the fact that you’d never have this much stuff happening onscreen at once without a complete hardware meltdown. Also, playing it in widescreen 480p is somewhat more impressive than the old 13” CRT’s that many of us grew up with. Read more >>




Seasons After Fall | PC, Mac, Linux | 2012
Seasons After Fall is being developed by a new France-based indie studio called Swing Swing Submarine, founded by ex-Ubisoft employees. In addition to the various computer formats, the game is also planned for as-yet-undetermined consoles via download. The game features a wild fox that is traveling across the landscape, exploring, platforming, and interacting with other animals. The key to progressing is the player’s ability to change between any of the 4 seasons at will, and doing so may have dramatic effects on the environment. For instance, if your path is blocked by water, you may change the season to winter, causing it to freeze and allowing you to pass. If you cannot reach a high ledge, you may plant a seedling, which will sprout into a full-sized tree before your eyes as you change to the proper season, allowing you to climb up.




Secrets of Grindea | PC via download | Release Date TBD
Over the years, many budding developers have sought to capture the essence of the original The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, mimicking their structure and mechanics, while sometimes lifting creatures, weapons, and puzzle solutions directly from the originals. Others have created new works simply inspired by the game, but with completely different gameplay, such as Konjak’s Legend of Princess. Secrets of Grindea definitely falls into the former category, but rarely has a game borrowed so heavily from The Legend of Zelda formula with so much style. The structure should be familiar to Zelda fans, as the lead character walks through town, chatting it up with NPC’s, hacking hedgerows with a sword, and even scaring off the local chickens. But where Grindea makes its departure from the legacy is in its gameplay focus and character customization. The goal of the hero (or heroine, if you choose) is to become the world’s greatest Collector as he sets off on a quest to collect as many rare and valuable items as he can. There’s also a robust character creation and skill system that allows you to level up and apply points to a number of different attributes, allowing the player to craft a character to his liking. And, the entire game can be played in single player or with up to 4 players in co-op mode. The artwork is notable as well, featuring detailed spritework and animations, and even showing equipment changes on the main character.




Serious Sam Double D | PC via Steam, Xbox 360 via XBLA or Xbox Live Indie Games | NOW AVAILABLE ON PC, Q2 2012 (Xbox 360)
First off is Serious Sam Double D (get it… 2 D’s = “Double D”), a side-scrolling action-platformer by Mommy’s Best Games, developers of Weapon of Choice, Shoot 1UP, and Explosionade. In this game, Sam ‘Serious’ Stone must once again use the Time-Lock to travel into the past and destroy Mental’s forces. But this time, he has 2 new relics at his disposal: the Porta Pad and the Gun Stacker. The Porta Pad is like a portable jump-pad that lets Sam jump to incredible heights, while the Gun Stacker allows Sam to fire all of his guns at once (and explode into spaaaaace!!). No weapon restrictions here; Sam can carry multiple weapons and unleash all of their firepower simultaneously. Many of Sam’s familiar foes return, including the beheaded kamikaze, kleer skeletons, and bio-mechanoids, and a few original enemies are being introduced as well, such as the Etanoh Salvo Spider and the flying Chimputee. Expect some huge bosses as well! Read the full article!




Shank 2 | Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA, PC via download | JUST RELEASED!!
Klei Entertainment revisits their stylish actioner Shank with a sequel that offers better controls, new abilities, and expanded multiplayer. Just as before, Shank can take down his enemies with a number of melee and long-range weapons, but this time around, he can actually use his enemies’ weapons against them with moves that let him bludgeon, stab, slice, and otherwise brutally beat them into meaty blood fountains with whatever weapons they were carrying. You can also string multiple attacks together to create deadly combos, which allows you to get a bit more creative and do some more hefty crowd control. Online multiplayer tasks a pair of characters with surviving an endless onslaught of increasingly powerful enemies.




Skullgirls | Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA | Q1 2012
Skullgirls is a marriage of high-resolution hand-animated sprites (with over 1,000 frames of animation per character) and fast-paced 6-button technical fighting. Mike Zaimont, a.k.a. “Mike Z” is the hardcore fighting gamer behind the project, who hopes to create a 2D fighter that fixes some of the annoyances he finds in the today’s genre representations. Behind the artwork is Alex Ahad, who is responsible for the game’s “Dark Deco” style. The player is able to choose either a pair of tag-team characters – with custom assist moves – or a single stronger character to take into the fight. The game includes some huge moves, air dashes, and over-the-top combos, but for all its speed and flash, the game is meant to appeal to a broad range of skill sets without dumbing down the gameplay, and to prevent exploits, such as infinite combos. And of course, no all-female fighting game cast would be complete without one important genre staple: big floppy boobies.




Snapshot | Playstation 3 via PSN, PC via Steam, other consoles TBD | Q2 2012 (PC), Q3 2012 (PS3)
Snapshot is a puzzle-platformer built around a single game mechanic: taking snapshots. While the concept sounds simple, this mechanic offers a great deal of variety in the gameplay. The game stars a robot named Pic who has a built-in camera. When Pic takes a snapshot of something, it disappears into the photograph, allowing him to place it back into the environment wherever he chooses. At the outset, you’ll just be using this mechanic to do things like dropping a block in front of you so that you can reach a higher area, or taking a picture of the key to a door so that you can unlock it. However, as the game progresses, things start to get a bit more complex. For one, the game has a full physics engine and your camera not only records the image of an object, but its movement as well, so you can take a picture of a falling rock, then place the picture back into the environment and rotate it in 90 degree increments, allowing you to fling it across the environment. You can even take a picture of yourself to add another robot into play do things like push heavy blocks. There is often more than one way to solve a puzzle, and the numerous objects combined with the freedom in puzzle solving give the game a slightly Scribblenauts feel. Snapshot was originally announced as coming to PC and possibly “one other platform”, which is as yet unannounced, but the gameplay would certainly lend itself to any of Nintendo’s systems.




Sound Shapes | Playstation Vita | 2012
Sound Shapes is a game that defies genre labels. The developer, Jonathan Mak (creator of Everyday Shooter), describes it as a “musical platformer”, although that descriptor doesn’t go very far to reveal what the game is all about. The game is most certainly about music and platforming... and the two are deeply entwined. In Sound Shapes, the levels are the music, and the music is the level. Players travel through the 2D sidescrolling environments as a ball that can roll, jump, and stick to surfaces and roll around them similarly to The 2D Adventures of Rotating Octopus Character. Collecting items in the level adds notes to the music, and certain objects in the game generate music when you touch them, recording the sequence of your moves and playing them back. On the flip-side, you can use the touchscreen interface on Sony’s new portable to create and arrange music – there are a number of different instruments to choose from – but this is also the level-creation tool. As you are creating music, you’re also creating levels, which you can immediately play and share, opening up a lot of possibilities for user-generated content.




Spelunky | Xbox 360 via XBLA | Release Date TBD
This game has a full-length overview in our Upcoming 2D section. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
The original concept for the game came from Derek Yu’s love for both platformers (Spelunker being the most obvious influence) and roguelikes. The creation of Spelunky was his way to combine both of these loves into a single game, creating a platformer with procedurally generated levels, meaning that no 2 playthroughs are ever the same. While this means that there is a strong element of randomness in the layout of the levels and item placement, there are rules in place to prevent the game from creating impossible situations. Read more >>




Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory | PC via download | 2012
Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory comes from the sugar-addled minds at Turtle Cream, a Korea-based development studio. The game is a puzzle platformer starring a super-cute anthropomorphized sugar cube with big rectangular eyes. Cute platforming stars are – or at least used to be – the norm, but the gameplay here is far from traditional. As your sugar cube navigates the level, panels in the background flip around, revealing a secondary environment. The new environment may contain walls, platforms, spikes, teleporters, or any number of other objects which impact your progress. As you move, you will unveil new dangers and new paths of travel, and you’ll need to use to these your advantage to avoid enemies and make it through the 90 tile-based single-screen levels. The game won the Best Game award in the IGF China 2010.




Sumioni: Demon Arts | Playstation Vita | Q2 2012
Sumioni's title is a combination of Sumi-e and Oni. In Japan, Sumi-e is a traditional brush technique that uses black ink (a style used in Capcom’s Okami games), and Oni are demons. Players take the role of Sumioni, a red ink demon who uses his brushes – controlled by the Vita’s touch screens – to draw objects in the game world, allowing him to create new platforms, summon monsters, create storms, and set enemies and objects on fire. He can also hack and slash enemies with his sword, dispatching them with huge sprays of blood, and he even faces off against large boss creatures. Sumioni is a single player action with 3D character models and 2D backgrounds and objects. The game developed by Acquire, best known for the Tenchu and Way of the Samurai series, as well as the zany What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? games.




Super Comboman | PC via download, and planned for PSN and XBLA | Release Date TBD
Interabang Entertainment certainly isn’t shy about tossing a bunch of different ideas into the mix with their Super Comboman title. The game features white-outlined sticker people in platformer-based environments with brawler-based combat. The game stars a young mulletted islander by the name of Struggles who is obsessed with his favorite comic book character, Super Comboman. As you might expect from the title, combat is heavily focused on stringing together combos to cause more damage, and you can unlock new combos as you progress by finding packs of stickers. You’ll also do a bit of puzzle solving and perform some wreckage of numerous destructible environments along the way.




Super Cyborg | PC via download | Release Date TBD
Contra fans should pay attention to the latest from Russian Studio Artur Games. Super Cyborg takes the runny and gunny from Contra and tosses in the robotic characters from Probotector (the European version of Contra on the NES). Everything from the spritework to sound effects to weapons is a throwback to the NES versions of Contra and Super C. You’ll find the traditional machine gun, fireball weapon, laser, and the world-famous spread gun, unleashed by shooting floating pods that move across the screen in a wave formation. Somersault and 8-way shoot your way through hordes of alien critters and huge disgusting end-level bosses… just be careful of those one-hit kills.




Swimming Under Clouds | Platform TBD | 2012
Swimming Under Clouds is being developed by Piece of Pie Studios, and features a fish that is wandering freely through the outdoors, trapped within a bubble of water. The game is a puzzle-platformer with bubble physics somewhat reminiscent of Soul Bubbles. The fish can squirt water out of the bubble to interact with objects, manipulate switches, and even propel itself through the air. The game features artwork by Mikaël Aguirre, better known as Orioto, the talented creator of many pieces of game-related art. UPDATE: Orioto is no longer involved in the project, as of November 15, 2011.




Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack | Playstation Vita | 2012
The blobs are back! Toronto-based DrinkBox Studios, the developer behind PSN’s Tales from Space: About a Blob returns with a sequel to their blob-based adventure, this time for the Playstation Vita. Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is a sci-fi platforming adventure featuring blobs that can jump, slide, contract to fit into small spaces, stick to the sides of solid surfaces, and absorb things in the environment to grow ever larger, including people! There are a number of platforming and physics-based challenges to overcome using a combination of thumbstick and touchscreen controls.




They Bleed Pixels | Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games | 2012
Spooky Squid Games is bringing its low-fi action-platformer to the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. While the art is pretty minimalist, there’s actually a lot going on when it comes to movement and animation. The game draws a lot of its inspiration from Messhof’s abstract pixel-chunky title Nidhogg. The main character has a large moveset, somewhat reminiscent of Kirra from Divergent Shift: double-jumping, wall-jumping, wall-sliding, ground-sliding, and the character also has a full set of fighting animations. Enemies spew showers of red pixel blood as you punch them, kick them, juggle them in the air, dive-bomb them, and send them flying into pits of spikes. Chiptune music for the game was provided by Shaun Hatton (DJ Finish Him).




Toki: Arcade Remixed | PC via Steam, Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA | Release Date TBD
This updated version of Toki is a remix of the arcade original that was released by TAD Corporation in 1989 and subsequently ported to a number of home consoles. The game features an ape on a quest to defeat an evil sorcerer so that he may be returned to human form. This is an action-platforming game and a shooter, although the projectiles emerge from Toki’s mouth rather than any kind of weapon. Visually, the game has been given a huge overhaul, featuring extremely rich and detailed 2D graphics, and lots of nice animation. The developer, Golgoth Studio, is planning for an Xbox Live Arcade release, and is considering other platforms as well. This is also the studio responsible for porting Noitu Love 2 to WiiWare.

Arcade Original                              Updated Version

Toki Tori 2 | PC and Mac via Steam, Wii U via eShop | Q4 2012
Dutch developer Two Tribes released the original Toki Tori at the start of the WiiWare service, which served as a modern update to their original Game Boy Color title of the same name. The sequel offers more colorful puzzle-platforming action featuring the pudgy yellow bird. Our hero isn’t a particularly agile character; he can’t fly and he doesn’t go dashing through the environments at high speeds. Also, the tool/weapon system from the original titles has been eliminated to allow more freedom in exploration and puzzle solving, and requiring interaction with the local flora and fauna rather than use of specific inventory items. The player must use his head to figure out how to cross gaps and reach new areas as well as how to stun enemies, find creative ways around them, or use them to his advantage.




Vessel | PC via Steam, Playstation 3 via PSN, Xbox 360 via XBLA | March 1, 2012 (Steam)
Indie developer Strange Loop Games delivers Vessel, a physics-based puzzle game that centers on fluid dynamics. Like the PixelJunk Shooter series, each type of fluid – water, lava, slime, etc. – has its own unique properties and can be used in different ways to solve puzzles. By interacting with various machines in the environment, the fluids bring life to the machines and imbue them with the properties of the fluid, allowing them to move about, intermix with other fluids, and even melt down and re-form. Players will explore the machinations of 4 highly-detailed physics-based worlds.




Waking Mars | iPhone, iPad | March 1, 2012
Waking Mars, from Tiger Style Games is a moody yet humorous action-adventure title that takes place beneath the surface of Mars. The game features a jetpack wearing astronaut has he explores environments, tosses the occasional projectile at aggressive flora and fauna, and avoids boiling pools of green liquid. The game features a layered hand-drawn art style reminiscent of such titles as Capsized and Weapon of Choice. The player must use items in his environment to lure attacking plants away from him, and to open up membranes that block his access to new areas. Earthquakes (Marsquakes?) will occasionally shake the area, potentially altering the paths available to the player.




Wyv and Keep: The Temple of The Lost Idol | Xbox 360 via XBLA, PC and Mac via download, Android, iPhone | 2012
This game has a full-length overview in our Upcoming 2D section. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
The primary gameplay in Wyv and Keep comes from manipulating the boxes in each level in order to provide walkways, block projectiles, and activate switches. And while platforming prowess is definitely essential to the player’s survival, proper box movement is the only way you’ll make it through each of the game’s 54 single-screen levels. As such, the game is primarily a puzzler. Attempting to rush through a level with your platforming prowess alone will quickly find you stuck and unable to continue; careful planning and strategy are ultimately required for success. Read more >>




* Because these games are in various stages of development and represent in-progress work, certain elements could change prior to release, including the release date and platform.