arcade posts

There's not many games that let you play as a dragon. Not a cute, almost human-like dragon such as Spyro, or a human that turns into a dragon like Divinity 2. Normal, fire-breathing, princess-stealing, loot-gathering, town-torching dragons are fairly absent from the rosters of gaming protagonists. Their actions are a bit hard to justify in a story-focused game, after all. Hoard aims to change that. Not the story bit, as the game is almost entirely arcade-like, but rather the playing as a mostly evil dragon part. Flying around and torching everything from towns to ogres has never been this satisfying, and Hoard has quickly become one of our favorite short-session games. Pop in, play for a few minutes, pop out. It's brilliantly designed, fairly cheap, and visually stunning. We found it difficult not to immediately love Hoard straight from the get-go.

Streets of Rage is one of those classic games that just about everyone with access to a Sega Genesis played at one point. The indie remake project, Streets of Rage Remake, has finally released the final version of their sprawling, PC-oriented remake of the classic franchise. Characters, stages, music, and objects from every game in the core series have been included and remastered, making this one of the most impressive remake projects we've ever seen. On top of that, it includes tons of goodies, such as editors and concept images.

[Via TIGsource]
[Image via Rock Paper Shotgun]

Sanctum of Slime has finally dropped into our laps, and while we're not sure how good it will be, we can be sure that it's going to be a Ghostbusters game! This trailer shows in-game footage, a cutscene or two, and brags about the arcade-influenced mechanics. It's not particularly exciting (unless you have plenty of nostalgia for Ghostbusters), but it's not too bad either.

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While this Sanctum of Slime trailer purports to be a developer diary, it's more of a co-op trailer. It features a developer voice-over hyping up the multiplayer features of the game and the various enemies without involving any in-depth discussion. Good gameplay footage and some information we haven't seen before, but not exactly what we'd call a "developer diary." Oh well. Those looking forward to the arcade-like Sanctum of Slime should definitely watch this trailer, but it certainly won't convert any newcomers.

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We quiver with excitement every time more information comes from the developers at ACE Team, and this trailer is one of those. Detailing the power-ups in Rock of Ages, it shows off a few abilities we've seen before but had never really been given clarification on. It appears that, at the very least, the rock will get four power-ups: increased damage resistance, increased damage, land poisoning, and double jump. If there are any more power-ups to be had, ACE Team is keeping their lips understandably sealed on what they may be.

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Sanctum of Slime is a shocker. It looks similar to the Ghostbusters arcade game of our youth, but sports vastly improved graphics reminiscent of the big budget title. We are interested! Unfortunately, we're always a bit pessimistic about crossover games, so the developers really need to knock it out of the ballpark with this one. A little more gameplay footage (not cut to ribbons, anyway) would have been fantastic. Still, there's more information to come regarding this new downloadable title, so we'll withold judgement until we see some more convincing (or not so much) gameplay footage.

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nail'd is coming out in about a week, and the folk over at Techland really, really want you to play it. So do, apparently, the previews. This trailer gives us both a look at the nail'd gameplay (looking as arcade-like and fun as ever) as well as some of the kind words being said about the ATV racing game. We haven't gotten our hands on it quite yet, but if it's as good as this trailer and the mentioned previews say it is, it's going to be one of the best racing games in recent memory. If not, well, it'll be one major disappointment. Still, explosions!

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Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Freeware games tend to follow a specific pattern. While they can be anything from proof-of-concept games (Dyson) to full-on, highly polished works (Iji, Cave Story), most have a distinctly retro air about them. And, of course, what is more retro than going to an arcade, laying down a few quarters, and blasting away at pixelated enemies while munching on a pretzel? Not much. Super Crate Box is a game in this tradition, and it has both an amazingly balanced core gameplay mechanic and a great sense of style. It's the first full game from Nijman and Rami's Vlambeer company, and it's a stellar freshman effort for the new company. In fact, thanks to its laser focus and balanced gameplay, it might just eat up more of your time than the latest AAA release.

There's a fine line developers walk when making games with clear, focused objectives. On one side of the line is boredom, where the game is too simple and too repetitive to offer any sort of meaningful gameplay to the player. On the other in confusion, where the simplistic and entertaining core mechanic is lost amidst feature creep as the developer tries to make the game more varied and interesting. Right in the middle is the sweet spot, where a game is fun, easy to learn, and offers a great amount of variety despite its adherence to a singular mechanic. Nimbus is one of these games. It's not particularly ambitious, it never suffers from feature creep, and the core of the gameplay can be described in a single sentence. However, it's one of the most interesting and entertaining indie games we've played in a long time, and easily draws more of our continued attention that larger big-budget titles.

If there's one thing that the Chilean-based ACE Team knows, it's surreal humor. Combined with an art style that faintly resembles the animations of Terry Gilliam, it's no surprise that there seem to be Monty Python references in Rock of Ages, even though this is just a trailer. The farting noise when Gandalf is squished, the usage of the statue of David, and the strange face on the rock all smack of avant garde comedy, and we're loving it. Of course, the physics-based, pinball-like gameplay doesn't hurt either. Nothing like smashing buildings apart with a massive boulder!

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