500 Years Act 1 is sort of interesting to me. The graphics and music remind me of games I’d see on XBLIG, but the game itself looks like it has a lot of heart. That is, while the technical execution doesn’t seem all that great, it looks like something the developer made out of desire for the game, rather than for the sake of making money. I’d be curious to see if the game is actually fun. For only $1 (Canadian, if you’re worried about the four or five cents), it seems like it might be worth the investment to see where the developer goes from here.
Heavy Fortress “is a top-down minimalistic shooter”. The description on the game’s page seems to be all you need to know about the game—and, it's available for free, now! It kind of reminds me of Asteroids, or at least the first 30 seconds of Asteroids where you don’t bother to move your ship. Stuff comes flying in at you and your job is to blow it up. That’s about it!
Jump on the Beats seems like Audiosurf for people who only have $0.99. It generates a little beat-tracking game based on songs you upload. It looks pretty cute for what it is, and if you’re bored of Audiosurf but still want to play games with your favorite songs, this looks like it’d be worth the dollar.
Plith is a neat puzzle game where you place gears to try to move other gears. My description here is pretty poor, but you can probably get the basic idea by looking at the screenshots. There’s also a trailer if you visit their page, and a demo is available. This looks pretty good if you’re in the market for a puzzle game, but it seems to be PC-only. I’ll let you decide what you think about the $3.99 price.
Virus Jigglin Fever is some kind of sideways Arkanoid/Dr. Mario crossover. As far as retro titles go, this one does a great job at capturing the feel of an NES game. I’m picky about games going for a “retro” aesthetic, and I have to give it to the developers for putting some effort into their graphics and music.
It can be hard to tell from a trailer, but the gameplay looks pretty neat. The game is only $1.99, which seems like a good price, but there’s also a demo available if you’re hesitant. I’d be interested in seeing more from this developer.
Grim reminds me a bit of Bubble Bobble, at least visually. You star as a young Grim Reaper, tasked with collecting souls you mistakenly sent to the wrong realm over Christmas. The trailer shows some basic arcade-style single-screen platforming, mixed with the occasional boss fight. The 2.99 Pound (~$5) price for this seems a little steep until you realize that the game has 100 levels. If you’re looking for a retro game that’s not your usual metroidvania, this one looks like it should last you a while!
Junk Rocket looks like my kind of game. Don’t let that convince you personally, but I mean, come on. The entire premise of the game is that you build a rocket out of garbage and crash it into as many things as possible. Retro graphics and music are something that a lot of devs try to do, and do poorly, but this game manages to pull it off really well.
The page is nice looking, and the trailer gives you a good idea of what you’ll be getting for $2.99, which is about what one might expect for the game. Like the game’s tagline, “I dunno, but it works”.
Hatland Adventures is all about speed, momentum and hats.” I feel like that’s about all you need to hear on this one. It’s an endless runner with a global leaderboard and a “hat-based health system and powerup hats”. Replace the word “hat” with the word “beard” and it sounds like a game Paul Franzen would make. The updated price of $3.50 (Australian!) doesn't seem too bad if you're in the market.
81 is a game where you try to get 81 points. You then proceed to try to get more than 81 points. The theme of the blocks changes each time you beat a level, but the basic concept of block-matching stays the same. It looks clean and polished, and could be worth the 1.99 Euros (~$2.70) if you’re looking for a simple puzzle game for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux.
GRAVEROBBER looks to be some kind of visual novel, puzzle, adventure game sort of thing. I don’t see a trailer or a demo, but the page looks clean, the description is enticing, and the screenshots look pretty smooth. Oh, apparently I lied—there is a demo, it was just put on a separate page for some reason. For $2.99, this one looks worth investing in even if you end up not following the whole series.
Down We Go, when I only have the trailers to compare, seems to be “Mind Escape: Doors Edition”. It seems to take itself a little less seriously, judging by the description and the screenshots. Are those blood-covered ice cream bowls? Rice with ketchup? I also see doors with lock symbols, which could imply more puzzles or differing gameplay. Not sure.
It also only costs $1. Did this one have less effort put into it, or were the other devs charging too much? It’s difficult to say without buying both games, but I feel like more people will be willing to part with $1.
Mind Escape looks like some sort of cross between Arena and That Maze Screensaver, but maybe I’m just showing my age. There isn’t much in the way of description given for the game, other than the “some kind of Minecraft roguelike RPG thing” feeling that you can see from the pictures and videos. The price seems a tad high at $5, but I won't fault an indie dev for charging a more reasonable price than what people generally expect to pay.
