Dark Void Zero

A game by Other Ocean Interactive for PC, DS, and iOS, originally released in 2010.

Dark Void Zero is level-based open world actioner starring Rusty, a test pilot, fighter, and close friend of Nikola Tesla. Using advanced weaponry, a jetpack, and the insights of Tesla, Rusty explores the Valley of Doom, a science lab, and the so-called Inner Sanctum, wiping out aliens – and collecting gobs of keycards – on a mission to save humanity. The game is done up in a chunky 8-bit style with a reduced color palette and chiptune soundtrack.

Dark Void Zero was initially pitched by Capcom as a lost project, originating from 1987 when the NES was king, and Capcom had seen success on the platform with Commando and Ghosts ‘N Goblins, and was just about to release the first entry in the Mega Man series. The game was said to incorporate the multidirectional shooting of Section Z, along with a new piece of hardware that would allow for increased numbers of sprites on the screen without flicker or slowdown (hey, they could have used that in the Mega Man series!), along with a special dual-screen version to be released on the PlayChoice-10.

Of course, this was all poppycock.

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 2010, Capcom, DS, iOS, Other Ocean Interactive, PC

Momodora 1-3

Games by Bombservice for PC, originally released in 2010, 2011, and 2014, respectively.

The Momodora series was created and developed by Guilherme 'rdein' Martins and finds its influences in classic video games as well as many of the core designs of Cave Story. Momodora was released as freeware in 2010, offering a fairly linear action platformer experience with some optional side paths. Momodora II was released as freeware in 2011 and falls firmly into the metroidvania category with an open world and backtracking to reach new areas. Momodora III was released as a paid download in 2014 and returns to the series’ roots as a more linear action platformer.

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 2010, 2011, 2014, Bombservice, PC

Ninja Senki / Ninja Senki DX

A game by Jonathan Lavigne for PC, PS4, and Vita, originally released in 2010, with the DX version released in 2016.

Ninja Senki is a very traditional action platformer, harkening back to the glory days of the NES and GameBoy, where boys were boys and games were tough and all the best strategies were found in the pages of Nintendo Power. The story is as simple as they come: “Kinuhime was killed by a ninja demon. Now Hayate has become obsessed with revenge. But can revenge bring her back?”

You take on the role of the ninja Hayate who must travel across feudal Japan to avenge the death of his love. You are equipped with the standard 8-bit ninja skillset… a jump, double jump, and infinite shuriken.

You have a high 2.5x jump which can be extended a bit further with the double jump. In addition to jumping again in midair, you may also initiate a double jump while falling, which is used as an advanced technique to get Hayate between low overhangs and bottomless pits. Interestingly, the ninja can also perform a double jump after touching water, which opens up a small number of challenges where you must repeatedly jump across a body of water which otherwise acts as a bottomless pit.

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 2010, 2016, Jonathan Lavigne, PC, PS4, Tribute Games, Vita

Explosionade / Explosionade DX

A game by Mommy's Best Games for PC, Xbox 360, Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One, originally released in 2010, with the DX version released in 2021.

Explosionade - and the expanded Explosionade DX - falls into the 2D mech combat sub-genre, taking its inspirations from games like Cybernator, Metal Warriors, and Assault Suit Leynos. In these games, the player takes control of a huge mech that is represented onscreen by a relatively small sprite, but which has huge amounts of firepower. Navigation tends to be a bit slow and deliberate, with a focus on pressing forward, defending your position, and choking your enemies with mouthfuls of bullets, missiles, bombs, and whatever else you have stashed away in your arsenal. And, in Explosionade, you can double the firepower in local 2P co-op. Before we get any further, you may want to learn more about our secret and terrible Hidden Agenda. Or don’t. You can’t stop the apocalypse anyway…

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 2010, 2021, Mommy's Best Games, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, XBLIG, Xbox 360, Xbox One

VVVVVV

A game by Terry Cavanagh for PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Vita, Switch, 3DS, Ouya, iOS, and Android, originally released in 2010.

At the start of VVVVVV, Captain Viridian and his five V-named shipmates suddenly encounter some sort of interference that places the ship in peril. The crew heads for the teleporter to get away… but something goes wrong and everyone is sent to different locations. The player controls Viridian as he explores the world to find his crew and return them safely back aboard the vessel.

The player has very limited controls. He can move left and right, and he can flip gravity. There is no jumping on platforms, no climbing ladders, no shooting guns, no collecting upgrades, and no gaining new abilities; there is only movement and gravity. As simple as these mechanics may sound, the entire game is built around this limited control scheme, and each of its challenges centers on using them in various creative ways.

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 2010, 3DS, Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Nicalis, OUYA, PC, PS4, Switch, Terry Cavanagh, Vita

Astroman

A game by StarQuail Games for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

Astroman starts out in the same way as a number of other action-adventure games: namely all of the doodads that you need to collect have been scattered about a set of huge environments, and you need to find them all. Here, the doodads are ship parts, and you need them because a dastardly UFO shot down your ship, and now you must traverse 9 planets to retrieve them all.

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 2010, StarQuail Games, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Radiangames Crossfire 1 & 2

Games by Radiangames for Xbox 360, both originally released in 2010.

Radiangames has produced a series of games for the Xbox Live Indie Games channel, each of which focuses on a different gameplay concept. These concepts range from a twin-stick shooter, to an interesting take on the once-popular dot-eating genre, to a Gauntlet-style action-RPG. The thread that links these titles is their pick-up-and-play nature, and high production values.

Crossfire 2 marks the first time that Radiangames has revisited a previous concept, and it offers a number of improvements over the original title. Both the original game and its sequel are outlined in detail below.


CROSSFIRE
Crossfire, plays a bit like Space Invaders. However, rather than enemies slowly marching down the screen, they simply move back and forth (and sometimes up and down), and the player is free to warp from the bottom of the screen to the top.

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 2010, Radiangames, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Curse of the Crescent Isle

A game by Last Guy Games for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

Let’s get this out of the way right up front: Curse of the Crescent Isle isn’t just a game that looks old school; it’s also a game that plays old school. You can take that as a positive or a negative if you wish. Many of us who grew up playing the original 2D platformers have frankly lost the skills to play games that are high on challenge and low on hand-holding. We look upon chunky 2D sprite art with a sense of nostalgia as we recall the days when the infinite free time of childhood allowed us to master even the most unforgiving games, through sheer perseverance and memorization.

But they were still some pretty good games, weren’t they? Just because you can’t get past World 2-2 of Super Mario Bros. without blowing your first continue doesn’t mean the game is lacking somehow. It’s just that most games have eschewed both the 8-bit aesthetic and the 8-bit gameplay in favor of 3D worlds with veritable floating arrows pointing you in the direction of progress.

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 2010, Adam Mowery, AdamTheOtaku, Last Guy Games, XBLIG, Xbox 360

The Tempura of the Dead

A game by 8bits Fanatics for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

There once was a time when the President’s only role in an action game was to be kidnapped by ninjas or other nefarious ne’er-do-wells. Presidents and their daughters have been getting kidnapped for decades now, with little means to fight back on their own. For a long time, it seemed that Mayor Haggar would be the only public official capable of taking matters into his own hands.

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 2010, 8bits Fanatics, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Panic Attack - The Devil's Favorite Game

A game by DeRail Games for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

This is the second game in DeRail’s trilogy of titles that stars a bouncing emoticon named Hug. In his first adventure, Jump’n Bounce, Hug bounced his way through a series of 50 single-screen platforming levels (plus 10 challenging director’s cut levels), making his way to the shiny golden star at the end of the level, and avoiding enemies and spikes along the way. What set the game apart from other platformers on the market was the fact that Hug was unable to stop bouncing, which forced players to think about how to get through the environment without direct control of platforming’s one defining move: jumping. The world takes on a very different appearance when jumping is removed from the player’s hands, requiring new sets of skills to be mastered, such as long lateral bounces, and the act of jumping under enemies instead of over them.

Hug makes his return in Panic Attack - The Devil’s Favorite Game. The basic controls are still in place: Hug can move to the left or right, but he cannot stop bouncing. There are only 2 other controls available to the player. One is a double-jump, which you’ll need to use often to get over obstacles, avoid spikes, and perform basic environmental navigation. The second move sends Hug down toward the ground at a high speed. In Jump’n Bounce, this slam move allowed him to smash through certain types of bricks and to navigate under spikes, enemies, and low ceilings.

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 2010, DeRail Games, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Hypership Out of Control

A game by Fun Infused Games for Xbox 360, iOS, and WP7, originally released in 2010.

CONTEXT
Hypership Out of Control is an old-school arcade-style action game that could well have been developed in the early 80’s and sat alongside games like Galaga during the arcade heyday. It has an incredibly simple premise: you’re piloting a spaceship that can’t slow down; you’re hurtling through space, avoiding obstacles, and collecting coins. The game embraces its arcade-ness with nice chunky sprite art, a high score table (with online leaderboards), and a fun sense of humor. Hypership Out of Control was made for people who would never question why there are coins floating about in space, or why you would need to collect them.

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 2010, Fun Infused, iOS, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Gravitron 2 / Gravitron360

A game by Dark Castle Software for PC and Xbox 360, originally released in 2008, with the "360" version released in 2010.

CONTEXT
In March of 1981, Atari designer Mike Hally and programmer Rich Adam began working on a concept for a game that combined elements of Lunar Lander and Asteroids. The result was a prototype called Lunar Battle. The game went through a number of design changes, the greatest of which was to reduce the effect of gravity and lower the aggressiveness of the enemies in order to make the game less difficult. The Atari marketing department then changed the name of the game, which was released into arcades in the summer of 1982 as Gravitar.

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 2008, 2010, Dark Castle Software, PC, Ron Bunce, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Inferno / Inferno+

A game by Radiangames for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and iOS, originally released in 2010, with the "+" version released in 2012.

As the technology used to create video games became more powerful and therefore more capable, the mixing of genres – and the creation of new sub-genres – was inevitable. These days, folks might not be terribly surprised by a publisher who issues a press release labeling their latest big-budget game as a “stealth-based survival horror tactical shooter with RPG elements”. However, there are still some genre combinations that stand up and demand to be noticed, either in a “how the hell is that going to work?” sort of way, or in a stunned “I can’t believe no one has ever done that before.”

Inferno
And so it is that Radiangames has brought forth the twin-stick action-RPG, a genre blend that you wouldn’t expect or even know that you were missing until you give it a try for yourself.
The twin-stick shooter genre isn’t new by any stretch, as any Robotron 2084 fan can tell you, but it has certainly seen a sharp rise among the dual analogue consoles of late, particularly in the downloadable space. Geometry Wars is credited with bringing the genre back into popularity, but twin stick jockeys know that not every game that uses this control scheme can truly be labeled a “Geometry Wars clone”, and there have been a number of standout efforts in this sub-genre.

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 2010, 2012, iOS, Mac, PC, Radiangames, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Treasure Treasure Fortress Forage: Extra Edition

A game by Craig Forrester for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

This game was originally released on the PC as Treasure Treasure: Fortress Forage, and was presented in a standard viewer window with a grayscale format (although a fan-made color mod has also been created). The game has been re-released on Xbox Live Indie Games as Treasure Treasure: Fortress Forage: Extra Edition. In addition to adding a dash of assonance to its double dose of alliteration, the XBLIG version offers a few improvements over the original.

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 2010, Craig Forrester, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Jump'n Bounce

A game by DeRail Games for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

Jump’n Bounce stars a bouncing emoticon named Hug in an arcade-style platformer. Hug’s goal is to make it from his spawn point at the beginning of the level to the shining golden star at the end, grabbing pickups, and avoiding enemies and spikes along the way. If you’re thinking that this sounds like the description of practically every platformer you ever played in the 80’s, you’d be right… and this is by design. But you won’t be tackling the levels in the usual way, and that’s because of Hug’s unique control quirk.

In most platformers, your two primary controls are RUN and JUMP, and as the player, you need to determine when it is best to utilize each of these mechanics to dodge or destroy your enemies, avoid obstacles, and progress to the end of the level. But what would happen if one of those abilities were taken out of your hands? We’ve already seen games such as Canabalt that give you a platformer where you can’t stop running, and games such as Bump ‘n’ Jump where you can’t stop driving. Well, Jump’n Bounce is the platformer where you can’t stop jumping.

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 2010, DeRail Games, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game / Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game: Complete Edition

A game by Ubisoft Montreal for PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Stadia, originally released in 2010, with the Complete Edition released in 2021.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World began its life as a comic book by Bryan Lee O’Malley, which has since been turned into a feature film starring Michael Cera as the titular Scott. Roughly coinciding with the release of the movie is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. However, while they share similar release dates in order to capitalize on creating “synergistic value”, the game is actually not based on the movie at all, but rather also based on the original comic book series. Confused? Basically, this just means that the game is designed to be its own experience, to be enjoyed entirely outside of the experience of the movie.

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 2010, PC, PS3, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Ubisoft, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Platformance: Castle Pain

A game by Magiko Gaming for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

While some kids spent their off-time in school doodling army men and tanks blowing the hell out of each other with oversized artillery (an act that can actually get you arrested these days… yeesh), some of us were instead drawing out huge imaginary video game levels. Actually, some of us older gamers were sketching out huge Dungeons & Dragons maps… but it’s the same basic idea. We’d toss in all manner of fantastic creatures, sword-wielding skeletons, pits of water full of deadly aquatic life, and towering creatures blocking the way to fortune and glory.
Platformance: Castle Pain basically is that sketch sheet come to life and fully-realized in an actual game world. The world is presented as a singe gigantic level, one which you can zoom out and view all at once, and you’ll actually see the ornate frame holding the whole thing together. The game features 3 levels of zoom, which are toggled with the press of a button, operating in the same manner as Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, which Platformance beat to market by a couple of weeks.

You may need to zoom out to get a look at your surroundings, but often you’ll be too busy with what’s right in front of you to do so. The entire game is going on at all times, with fire rising up from a volcano, spikes constantly jutting out and retracting, and moving platforms sliding back and forth. You can play the game on any zoom level, but the fully zoomed in mode is the one of choice. The second zoom level lets you check out your immediate surroundings, while the fully zoomed out mode lets you see how far along you are in the game as a whole.

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 2010, Magiko Gaming, PC, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Lumi

A game by Kydos Studio for Xbox 360 and iOS, originally released in 2010.

Lumi starts you out in an idyllic world filled with green grass, a clear blue sky, brightly colored flowers and trees, and plenty of cute little round-eared puffballs with nothing more to do with their days than bounce around the beautiful countryside. But the wonders of this puffball paradise don’t last long, as their entire planet is suddenly sucked into a mysterious dark void, draining all the light from it. You play as a bioluminescent puffball who is tasked with restoring the light to the world and banishing the darkness.

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 2010, iOS, Kydos Studio, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Galaga vs. Retrofit: Overload

2D GAME VERSUS FEATURE

Galaga is a game by Namco for the arcade, originally released in 1981. Retrofit: Overload is a game by WAM Games for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

Folks describing their experience with Retrofit: Overload may be inclined to label it simply as “like Galaga”, and move on. The trouble is, nailing down the term “like Galaga” isn’t as easy as it seems, as the folks at Namco (now Bandai Namco) can tell you from experience. Namco struggled for years to capitalize on the success of this franchise, and to create a true successor that could carry the noble name of Galaga forward, and to appeal to a whole new generation of gamers. The trouble lay in pinning down the game’s appeal and translating that into new titles.

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 2010, WAM Games, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Limbo

A game by Playdead Games for PC, Mac, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch, and iOS, originally released in 2010.

In recent years, the puzzle-platformer genre has exploded, with a tremendous number of new titles hitting the market, mostly in the downloadable space. The genre isn’t new by any stretch, and throughout our short gaming history, it has seen several bursts of popularity. Games such as Prince of Persia and Another World (a.k.a. Out of This World) led a brief charge that resulted in a number of other developers attempting to replicate this winning formula for their own titles, such as Blackthorne, with varying degrees of success. The genre appeared to ripe for resurgence after Portal wowed the gaming public, and Braid became the surprise hit and beloved darling of indie game fans everywhere.

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 2010, iOS, Mac, PC, Playdead Games, PS3, Switch, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One