CrossCode

A game by Radical Fish Games for PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, originally released in 2018.

CrossCode is a retro-style action-RPG inspired by the classics of the 16-bit generation, particularly those released for the Super Nintendo, a system famed for its library of charming and colorful RPG’s. You take on the role of Lea, who falls into the “silent amnesiac protagonist” archetype, but not in quite the way you’d expect. Lea is a player in an MMO called CrossWorlds, where the action happens in a real place that is populated by real people, along with limited-AI beings and other connected players. CrossCode is set at some undetermined point in the future where MMO's may be played in a way that simulates all five senses, and CrossWorlds takes pace on a distant Earthlike moon that is in orbit around a gas giant.

Lea wakes up in a room with no idea what's going on, and someone is communicating with her remotely. Apparently, Lea played CrossWorlds previously and somehow lost her memory, and her new friends are trying to help her regain her memory by revisiting the game's story and locales. In addition, Lea's speech synchronization system is not functioning, preventing her speaking. Little by little, she gains the ability to say a few words, including her name, “hi” and “bye”, and a few words that allow her to make inquiries, but this technological disability renders her largely silent as she relies on pantomime or one of her talkative companions to speak on her behalf.

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 2018, Deck 13, ININ Games, Linux, Mac, PC, PS4, Radical Fish Games, Strictly Limited Games, Switch, Xbox One

Resolutiion

A game by Monolith of Minds for PC, Mac, Linux, and Switch, originally released in 2020.

Many indie games take their inspirations from AAA genre representatives like Super Metroid or Dark Souls, but sometimes indie developers take their inspirations from other indies, with many precision platformers using design cues from Super Meat Boy, and may action-adventure games taking their lead from Cave Story. And now we have a game that takes a page out of the design of Hyper Light Drifter (a Hyperlight-like?) with its visually complex pixellated game world, bright neon colors (albeit more subdued), and a mixture of stylish hacky-slashy action and secondary projectile weapons.

In Resolutiion, you take on the role of a person named Valor, an assassin who has been awakened by an artificial intelligence known as Alibii, and she becomes Valor’s companion on his journey. Valor is missing vital chunks of his memory, and this absence appears to be intentional as Alibii describes these missing memories as being painful, although this also calls Alibii’s motives into question since Valor has little choice but to blindly follow her lead.

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 2020, Deck 13, Linux, Mac, Monolith of Minds, PC, Switch

Flat Heroes

A game by Parallel Circles for PC, Mac, Linux, and Switch, originally released in 2018.

Flat Heroes is a single-screen platformer that pits the player against ever-changing obstacles of increasing difficulty. The game focuses solely on gameplay and offeres only geometric shapes set in abstract environments. While there are countless games that offer visually simple presentations such as this, most such games are shallow and play poorly. Flat Heroes, on the other hand, is a highly technical experience that introduces simple concepts that are expanded upon and combined in clever ways to offer an escalating challenge, not unlike Jeppe Carlsen’s similarly abstract 140 and THOTH.

The game offers an incredibly simple control scheme that allows movement to the left or right, a high variable jump, the ability to jump up walls or stick to them, a multi-directional air dash, and a short-range melee attack. This limited skillset is tested to its limits across seven worlds and more than 100 levels in the main campaign, which may be played alone or with friends in up to 4P drop-in drop-out local co-op. The game also features several survival modes, most of which can also be played alone or with up to four players, as well as a few versus modes.

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 2018, Deck 13, Linux, Mac, Parallel Circles, PC, Switch