Low-fi Lowdown
Platformers with blocky, pixelated graphics have been on a big comeback recently, especially in the form of downloadable indie titles. We’ll leave an analysis of how the low pixel count makes it easier for individual developers to draw each frame of animation themselves and simplifies collision detection to the Gamasutra member blogs, though, and instead just link those of you who want to play some games to the (free) goods(!).
I will warn you that along with this resurgence of old-school graphics comes old-school difficulty. A couple of these games had their share of serious controller-throwing moments. Luckily my keyboard isn’t wireless, so I was safe. So, the games:
MoneySeize (Flash or Windows download)
My favorite part of MoneySeize is that it makes it cool to be a fat rich guy in a suit and top hat again. Since I’m halfway there, I figure by the time I find my suit and top hat this will be what everyone in Brooklyn will be aspiring to and I’ll have a head start on the latest trend. Anyway, as a FRGiaSaTH, you of course have to gather up all the money so that you can build a fabulous tower on the main map. Along the way, you have to do some serious platforming just to get the bare minimum of coins in a given level.
The game isn’t perfect— the pixel art aesthetic is occasionally ruined by some weirdly smooth animations or particle effects, and there is some weird anti-aliasing that Flash is doing that makes the graphics look a little fuzzy sometimes. However, it’s fun to see just how many coins you can collect on each stage, and there is one thing more rewarding than filling your coffers: the feeling you get just from mastering chaining together the double jump, the wall jump, and the skid jump in various combinations. When you manage to pull off an impressive feat and get a single coin that was out of your way, you will feel extremely proud. Go out and swat an orphan with your cane, FRGiaSaTH, you’ve earned it.
Star Guard (Windows/Mac)
A fun distraction with an appealing aesthetic that gave me flashbacks of playing Apple IIe games at my friend’s house as a kid. Anna Anthropy wrote a thoughtful, well-illustrated breakdown of the game from a design perspective that highlights the cleverness of the stages, but I found the fight against the boss frustrating because it broke the Bioshock-like mechanic of the game that kept the world persistent across multiple lives and as such required a total shift in play style. Still, it’s definitely worth spending some time on, as it reminded me of other games from 2009 like Jumpman and AsciiPortal that add some new gameplay ideas to very classic, stripped-down engines. Jumpman and Star Guard in particular do a great job of letting you enjoy the mechanics without being burdened by B- narrative and load times.
Broken Cave Robot (Windows only)
Broken Cave Robot requires multiple playthroughs. It has a manual mapping system and a cavernous expanse filled with steep drop-offs, crazy power-ups, and a lot of dark labyrinthine segments. It also has a weirdly charming protagonist and a very “Metroid” feel in its exploration and power-up structure. The constant pressure of a time limit proved to be too much for me to handle right now, but the time I did spend with this game was enjoyable. If you like games that are punishingly hard but expect you to take what you’ve learned from each playthrough and apply them to the next, you may like this one.
You Can’t Possibly Expect Me To Do That (Windows only)
The name says it all— You Can’t Possibly Expect Me To Do That does, in fact, expect you to do that. You have to continuously commit suicide, aiming the trajectory of your corpse in such a way that it will collide with a block that will revive you, often on the other side of some wall or otherwise impassable obstacle. This game is kind of crazy. Are you crazy? You might like this crazy game.
Tower of Heaven (Windows only)
I enjoyed Tower of Heaven most out of all of the games listed here. It’s really simple, and not particularly long, but the way it imposes “laws” that complicate your passage through initially simple levels is really neat and I liked the Game Boy aesthetic that the game featured. If you don’t play any other game on this list, please at least play this one.
—Casey
