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Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa’s Rampage Review

Viscera Cleanup Detail Santa's Rampage Logo

Developer: RuneStorm
Publisher: RuneStorm
Platform: PC – Steam

Are you the type of gamer who can perform the same sort of menial task over and over again? Does it sound like fun? Although this might seem weird to many, it definitely can be fun and that is proved by playing Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa’s Rampage. In this game, you’re tasked with cleaning up the mess Santa has left behind after a murderous rampage at the North Pole. All you’re armed with is a mop, bucket, and sensor to detect bloody bits and trash.

If nothing else, this is a pretty unique game. First-time janitors might find it a bit confusing, but there’s not much to it. After starting the job, you can choose to start mopping up the blood or disposing of bodies, bullets, and the like. No matter what you decide on, the beginning is pretty rough. Mopping requires water buckets dispensed from a machine but the water quickly gets overwhelmed with blood. Sometimes, you’ll knock the bucket over and cause a huge new blood spill. Oh, and stepping in blood at all will have you leaving a trail of fresh bloody footprints throughout the cabin.

Picking up bodies and trash aren’t exactly any easier. Although you can grab a biohazard bin from the dispenser, it has a habit of dumping out bloody bits of bodies instead. In any case, carrying that around to pick up small meaty chunks and shell casings is easier than running them one by one to the fireplace. Oh, speaking of the fireplace, that’s where you dump all the trash. After a few seconds of sitting in the fire any object will disappear. Of course, the game tells you none of this and hopes you can figure it out on your own.

Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage Featured

Beyond these mechanics, there’s not much to it. There is no goal beyond the one you setup for yourself, which usually is “clean/destroy everything“. Unfortunately, there are some glitches right now that make it impossible to finish. For example, TNT explosions can cause objects to be lodged behind walls which means you’ll never be able to reach them. This happened in my first complete playthrough and was a bit disheartening!

Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa’s Rampage is under $3 and a ridiculous time-waster so it’s hard to bash it too much. I recommend playing with a partner to make the mess more manageable, although you might need to run a program like Hamachi to do it. All in all, it was a weird three hours spent cleaning digital messes and I was glad to have done it. My hope is that RuneStorm’s final product, simply titled Viscera Cleanup Detail, will expand on the concepts found in Santa’s Rampage.


Score: 3.5

3 out of 5 alpacas


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The Blackwell Legacy Review

The Blackwell Legacy Boxart

Developer: Wadjet Eye Games
Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Platform: PC – Direct, GOG*, Steam

The Blackwell series by Wadjet Eye Games is one of the most notable independently published adventure games out there. In fact, in 2006, it was part of a very exclusive club as “episodic” titles hadn’t really broken into the mainstream yet. In anticipation of the final game in the series, Blackwell Epiphany, I’m playing through the previous four. My mission begins with The Blackwell Legacy.

The story begins as we meet a woman named Rosa releasing the ashes of her aunt over a bridge. Rosa seems confused, unsure of how things will play out now that the only family she had has passed away. However, she soon learns from her aunt’s doctor that the family may have an unprecedented issue with hereditary dementia. Shaken and distressed, Rosa returns home where she comes face to face with her worst nightmare – a ghost. Has her cognitive ability already started its decline or is this ghost real?

The Blackwell Legacy Featured

She quickly steels herself with the decision that the ghost – named Joey – is real enough. Using his 1930s vernacular he explains how the previous Blackwell women also had Joey tag along with them in their waking lives. He doesn’t even know how it happened but he has become something of a legacy to the family line. According to Joey, as long as he’s around, the two of them must help wandering ghosts come to terms with their own death. By acting as a medium, Rosa will be able to finally set their spirits free.

The Blackwell Legacy certainly spins a good yarn. As far as gameplay is concerned, it’s pretty standard point and click adventure fare. However, it’s incredibly easy and that was something I really appreciated. There are no ridiculous puzzles and only a few bits of deduction necessary anyway. Mostly, you’re safe to guide Rosa and Joey to various destinations and see how things unfold.

Since the series includes five games, the first is incredibly short. I devoured the experience in one two hour sitting and wished for more. Of course, there was, as I have the other games too! In any case, The Blackwell Legacy proves to be a very promising start to a long-running series. I look forward to seeing what happens next!


Score: 4

4 out of 5 alpacas


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Sid Meier’s Covert Action Review

Covert Action Boxart

Developer: MicroProse
Publisher: Tommo
Platform: PC – GOG*

Sid Meier is still a pretty well known name in the gaming world thanks to Civilization and Pirates! But that’s far from the extent of his development history. One that seems to have been forgotten by many is Sid Meier’s Covert Action from 1990. Considering how neat it was, I can’t figure out why it doesn’t receive praise today.

The player assumes the role of a CIA agent (Maxine or Maximillian) and are tasked with uncovering criminal activities on a global scale. To be a good agent, you must discover clues and track down people before they can orchestrate their plans or run away. Interestingly, Covert Action utilizes two very different types of gameplay to make this all work.

First there is the information-gathering which primarily takes the form of wire-tapping and decoding documents. Decoding itself is a fun little minigame. You can take information to have it analyzed or see what your pals at the CIA have to offer. Gathering info often requires your agent to get into dangerous circumstances. Basically, they’ll have to infiltrate enemy headquarters.

Covert Action Screenshot

Checking out enemy buildings is where the game transfers to a top-down perspective. You must explore the many rooms of buildings and hopefully hack into their machines or open their safes. Enemies will meander about and even set off alarms if they spot you. Thankfully, a minimap lets you know where enemies are so you can get the upper hand.

There is a lot about Covert Action that seems tremendously intriguing. It does show its age and isn’t going to light up many modern gamer enthusiasm, though. Shooting is fairly clunky and hideouts always seem too vast and maze-like. Also, the reward of going to the beach after catching a crook is ridiculously hokey. Oh, did anyone mention the appalling artwork? Despite all this, I can’t help being lured back in for more Covert Action cases.


Score: 3

3 out of 5 alpacas


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DROD 1+2+3 Review

DROD Boxart

Developer: Caravel Games
Publisher: Caravel Games
Platform: PC – Direct, GOG*

DROD, known more formally as Deadly Rooms of Death, is a tremendously fun (and sometimes frustrating) series of puzzle games starring Beethro Budkin. This fellow is the exact opposite of dashing and explores dungeons, killing enemies and solving puzzles as he goes. The three titles included in GOG’s collection are DROD: King Dugan’s Dungeon, DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold, and DROD: The City Beneath.

The first game is the simplest in regards to story. In fact, it’s barely there. Still, the gameplay is practically perfect in the first anyway. It is played from a top-down perspective as you navigate Beethro through various rooms. He’s armed with a sword that can be positioned in eight directions and that’s about it. Moving occurs in a turn-based fashion which is important to note when enemies are progressing near you. If you don’t get your weapon facing them directly before they arrive then you’re dead!

Many rooms have puzzles which vary in difficulty and type. Oftentimes, you’ll have to find out how to hit buttons in the right order (and without getting killed). Puzzles are often very creative which is fun unless you get stuck on one for a long time. At times like this, just try quitting the game for a while before coming back to it. If you still can’t figure it out then you can head to the game’s official forum which serve as a great resource for confused players.

DROD Screenshot

Playing DROD: King Dungan’s Dungeon might seem hard, but you can eventually get into the swing of things with enough perseverance. The sequels continue to ramp up difficulty which is why you may want to play the original first, even though Journey to Rooted Hold and The City Beneath both have a greater emphasis on story. In any case, no matter which game you’re playing they all follow the same basic formula: Solve puzzles and stab stuff.

Visually the games are all quite similar and do not look very pretty. However, the graphics hardly matter because the gameplay is so engrossing. Wracking your brain for solutions to tough sections quickly becomes commonplace but that makes finally solving them all the more rewarding. In a weird way, struggling against the difficulty becomes pleasant too. Anyone who is ready to test their mental mettle will find a worthy opponent in the DROD series.


Score: 4

4 out of 5 alpacas


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Jets’n’Guns Gold Review

Jets'n'Guns Gold Logo

Developer: Rake in Grass
Publisher: Rake in Grass
Platform: PC – Direct, Steam

Shooters (not the FPS sort) are one of my favorite genres to play despite my total lack of ability with them. There’s something about attempting to weave tiny ships through enemy bullets, fight gigantic bosses, and somehow come out alive in the end. Jets’n’Guns Gold is a more modern shooter but that hardly stops it from being a contender for the title of classic.

Jets’n’Guns Gold gets so much perfect that it’s hard to tear your eyes away from the screen – and more importantly – your hands from the controls. As with many shooters, the game starts you off by loading players into a fairly svelte ship and forcing them right into the action. Enemies don’t pull their punches, even on easy. And this might make me sound completely weird, but you can almost feel your ship taking the bullets. Shots feel heavy and powerful as they should.

If you keep getting killed then it might be a good time to try swapping out weapons for other equipment. The more stages you complete, the more are unlocked for use. Getting comfortable with certain loadouts is appealing, but it’s worth experimenting as well. Of course, even trying out different ship customization might not be able to help some. I, for one, spent a great deal of time on early levels simply because everything was too hectic! It’s a shame that easy difficulty couldn’t have been actually easy.

Jets'n'Guns Gold Featured

The gameplay is definitely solid and is backed up by an excellent soundtrack and attractive graphics. Although the art itself isn’t completely inspiring, seeing what creative ships and enemy types they came up with is a lot of fun. Maybe it’s just my eyes but everything did seem a bit small though, making some bullets smash into me without ever seeing them approach. On the other hand, the music is fantastic. For some reason, most shooters have excellent soundtracks and Jets’n’Guns Gold is no exception.

Fans of shooters should have already picked this up when it initially launched in 2006. If you somehow missed out on it though then now is definitely the time to jump on board. Newbie shooter fans might want to hold off on a purchase just yet, unless you’re ready to lose a lot before really digging into the experience. Jets’n’Guns Gold is succinctly defined with just one word: Awesome.


Score: 4

4 out of 5 alpacas


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Fading Hearts Review

Fading Hearts Logo

Developer: Sakura River Interactive
Publisher: Sakura River Interactive
Platform: PC – Direct, Steam

I’ve enjoyed using Steam for years but have always felt disappointed at the lack of visual novels on the platform. Fading Hearts is part of a small group of games from the genre cropping up on the storefront, which leads to quite mixed results. Fading Hearts isn’t a brand new game as it actually launched in 2009. But is it a worthwhile title to play today or should you look to something else?

Well, first it must be said that there’s an incredibly diverse reaction to the game. Some love it and some hate it! I’m in the camp that was pleasantly surprised, although not everything about the experience was wondrous. With that said, let’s get into the review already.

Fading Hearts Screenshot 1

Fading Hearts is a very unique visual novel. You play as a teenager named Ryou who has two best friends – Rina and Claire. As you might expect, there is some romantic triangle stuff going on, but you don’t have to pursue it either. What got me so captivated was realizing that the game wasn’t just a droll cutesy dating sim. Instead, it can take a great many paths, many of which are far more interesting than Fading Hearts initially lets on.

Because there are so many ways the story can twist and change, you’re going to have to beat the game a few times to see everything. With a first playthrough taking 3 to 5 hours, it isn’t a massive time investment to explore a bit more to complete it. Different characters have different stories whcih are revealed if you befriend them, while whole other avenues open up if you make the right series of choices. The game definitely gets weird at times, but I enjoyed it.

Fading Hearts Screenshot 2

Alongside hanging out with friends, you are also trying to unravel strange occurrences going on around you. Beyond this, you also work on improving the stats of your character. Some of this aids with earning more money from part-time work, while others help you gain battle stats, but I won’t say anything more about that…

The negatives that many people appear to harp on are the fact that the story is sometimes silly (Y2K orphans, anyone?), has a few seriously odd twists, utilizes a fairly standard anime-style art, and is overall not a polished experience. These things are true but I don’t at all find them game breaking. Still, players should go in expecting that every once in a while there are typos, the music isn’t particularly endearing, and perhaps some of the plot points will seem too outlandish. With all that said, I had a lot of fun playing through Fading Hearts and will definitely be checking more alternative paths soon!


Score: 3

3 out of 5 alpacas


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Probably Archery Review

Probably Archery Logo

Developer: South East Games
Publisher: South East Games
Platform: PC – Steam

Video games are often hard for people who haven’t grown up with a controller in hand. Those of us who have been gaming for many years often overlook this reality. It’s only when games like QWOP or Surgeon Simulator 2013 come out that both gaming and non-gaming types can be on equal, wobbly ground. Probably Archery is another one of these extremely difficult to control games. Only this time, you’re an archer.

Probably Archery gives players control of the left and right arms of their avatar. Arms are moved pretty freely from shoulders, elbows, and even rotate wrists. Switching between shoulder or elbow control is handled via button presses, as is moving to left hand. The left hand holds a bow which means you often have to get that in the right (or rather, least horrible) position before shooting arrows.

It actually isn’t too difficult to get a feel for the control scheme if you play enough, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be hitting bulls-eye all the time. For me, it was quite hard to gauge exactly how the arrow would behave when launched. Sometimes the arc seemed too high or too low, but perhaps the realization of how it works will come to me in time.

Probably Archery Featured

The best feature of Probably Archery is that the developers crammed in multiple game modes to accompany their silly controls. You can shoot static targets or moving ones, a noose, or a swarm of strange men. Perhaps my favorite mode is where you shoot an apple off the head of a muscular man whose own head is a much larger apple. If you think that’s funny then you’ll likely love the rest of the humor inherent while playing.

With all that said, it does feel like even the variety of modes can’t cover up the fact that it’s a simple archery game with wonky controls. Multiple modes deal with the pinpoint accuracy or swarm style and there’s not much else variety to it. Still, Probably Archery is entertaining. If you end up with a copy then head into online multiplayer so I can finally play with other awful archers!


Score: 3

3 out of 5 alpacas


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Goscurry Giveaway!

Goscurry Featured

Hello and welcome to our latest contest on Pixel Pacas! A few weeks ago we reviewed a tremendously fun (and challenging) game by the name of Goscurry. With great music, attractive minimalistic visuals, and gameplay that makes you want to try “one more time”, it is a game that deserves far more attention. That’s why we’re tremendously pleased that the developer is letting us host a mega giveaway!

When I say mega I mean it. We have twenty Humble Store downloads for Goscurry just waiting for people to win them! One entrant will receive the game and soundtrack combo. Take it from me – the soundtrack is awesome. If you want to see the game on Steam then head over to its Greenlight page and click the thumbs up button!

Here are your options for entering our giveaway.

Option One:

1. Follow our Twitter account – @PixelPacas

2. After you’ve followed us, post the official contest tweet: Goscurry looks like an awesome challenge and I want to win a copy! Pick me, @PixelPacas !

Option Two: 

1. Comment on this post with why you’re excited to play Goscurry. 

Note that you are allowed to do both options! This will grant you two entries into the giveaway instead of one. If you do both, make sure you tell us your Twitter handle in the blog comment so the entries get paired up.

Our Goscurry giveaway ends on Sunday – March 2nd at 10 AM PST. Good luck!


If you’d like to stay in the loop about our contests and content our Twitter is always kept up to date. But if you don’t use Twitter, we also have a Steam Group that is updated whenever a new giveaway goes live.

Interview with Daniele Giardini and Isak J Martinsson, Creators of Goscurry

Goscurry Logo

In late January, we provided our first-ever interview here on the site. If you missed it then definitely check it out! We chatted with Michael Stearns who was one of the lead developers on Tiny Barbarian DX! This time around we interviewed not one both of the main people behind Goscurry – developer Daniele Giardini and musician Isak J Martinsson. We at Pixel Pacas are proud to present this great interview!


Pixel Pacas: How did Holoville Games get started? Were there any other independent developers you looked up to at the time?

Daniele: I jumped quite suddenly into the Unity game engine, because I installed it when I got a job where I had to recreate (along with Paul Harden and Grazia Genovese who made the graphics and the design) an interactive version of the lost Kircher Museum. After I finished it, I was in love with the engine, and wanted to do more. Games obviously, since I made some in the past, but Flash-based and super small, never taking them seriously. So I created the Games subdivision of Holoville (my tiny company, which existed since many years but for interactive stuff dedicated to museums, tvs, or things like that – and which I closed at the end of 2013 by the way, so bye bye Holoville Games).

I always had a passion for games, but my true passion were comics, which I loved, studied, and wrote/drew, while I didn’t really have a serious knowledge about the game development culture. So I wasn’t really looking up at anyone at the time: I just wanted to make games. Only later I got to know the indie scene more (a lot more), and was lucky enough to become friends with people like Isak and his wife Natalia, which I respect and admire, and to find great sources of inspiration all around.

PP: When designing Goscurry were there any existing games you found inspiration from? How did the cool and colorful minimalist art style come about?

Daniele: The only conscious inspiration were Canabalt and the first two GTA games, or Micro Machines. Those games that had a top-down view with controls relative to the vehicle and not to the camera. And obviously Canabalt, since it’s the first (and almost only) runner I played, and which inspired me to make one myself. After putting Goscurry on Greenlight, I saw people saying it was similar to Audiosurf. I actually didn’t know it, but when I searched for it, I was “wtf! it’s a ship! on a road!”, though the gameplay is indeed very different.

The minimalist style is first and foremost due to the fact that I decided to make Goscurry 3D, and 3D doesn’t make sense to me unless it’s minimalist. The colors are probably inspired by the colors I sometimes used for my comics, which in turn were inspired by the works of Lorenzo Mattotti, among others.

PP: The game is pretty difficult with players needing to hone their twitch reflexes to last on any stage. How long did it take to get the difficulty settings “just right”?

Daniele: Getting the difficulty “almost right” was pretty quick, and I think it took no more than a week. I used a playful approach to development, where I would just create the engine, add some parts, play like crazy with my lady (Jelena, who is very into games but not into action/arcade ones, so she provided a great alternative feedback), and then tweak it until it felt good. It was fun, and when I heard her screaming, swearing, and saying “one more!”, I knew I was going in the right direction. Getting it “just right” instead was a longer road, where the feedback of all the players of the first free online version was fundamental. I tweaked little parts of it for all the 6 months, maybe more, of development.

PP: You’ve been very open to input from the community of Goscurry players. Did they bring up some good points that you didn’t consider while working on the game?

Daniele: They did indeed, and it was great! The Friends list, the average score, the much harder difficulty that you can choose if you unlock every achievement, were all done thanks to feedback from players. And most of all, I have to thank KingOreO, who suggested me to add different sceneries after a given distance, in order to give players something to reach (and who was also the first player to show me that Goscurry, which I thought was very hard, could be almost too easy for a special kind of crazy gamers). That’s why I chose to create all the Goscurry cities. By the way, you know all the avatars in Goscurry? Many are invented, but many are also based on players who helped me somehow, as a small way to thank them.

If I can take a small digression here… I believe that, rather obviously, being open to the community of players is extremely important. Both because they give precious feedback, and because, what the hell, they’re playing your game, so they deserve your respect and your gratefulness. That said, it’s also a risk. As a developer, you would tend to implement everything they say, as long as it makes sense, to make them happy and to egotistically revel in their satisfaction. You have to pay attention there though, because you risk going astray and changing your game into something else. Instead, it’s very important to keep your vision (and to make it grow in future games, but that’s another story). So, yes, being open to feedback is very important, but it’s also important to keep your game personal, by filtering everything in the right way.

PP: An integral part of the Goscurry experience is its music. How did you approach composing the soundtrack?

Isak: Before I started making the soundtrack I listened to the 80s music revolution really much in an unhealthy way, because everything from that age sounds just happy and awesome. So for Goscurry I wanted to try make something to tribute my feelings I got from those magical years. Later on I found out about the wonderful style “Electro” and you could say the Goscurry soundtrack is like Electro on speed! It needed to pump the player, keep them pumped and dancing in front of the computers while struggling not to explode. I always test my tracks with my love Natalia first to see if she starts shaking with the beats, then it’s usually approved. Her body is a very good critic! And Daniele’s feedback was a great value, he seems to understand my irony and music sometimes better than me when I start gliding too far off the concept.

Daniele: I just want to say that Isak’s music blew my mind. He was, like, “hey, I could make a music for it”, and then kablam! He made Rackety (the first Goscurry song)! I first listened to it with Jelena, and I can’t describe enough our happy faces and the wohooos we emitted. I knew Isak was good, but that was totally unexpected.

PP: Speaking of the music, what inspired the names of the tracks? Titles like “The Secret Indie Circle” and “Swedish Taxes” come to mind. What are your favorite songs in the game? (I personally love “Abductination” and its use of theremin sound effects!)

Isak: The names are just my way of communicating with people, since none of my songs have vocals. And sometimes it’s just the lack of an idea to a name that creates something ironic from the essence of the song, or something like that. The secret indie circle (that’s misspelled forever!) came up after we made a crowd funding and learned a lot how the “indie elite” game development scene works, and it’s a weird thing. I just wanted to point it out, that there’s a secret circle. Like illuminati. And we don’t fit in that group. Swedish taxes is there just because I’m from Sweden and the taxes are sick! I was angry at that point of naming the song and felt it was the right one. Also, N.A.T.I is short for Natalia and I made the song for her when she was angry. I love all the songs, but my favorite must be Abductination. It was a long time the underdog and bullied song that nobody liked, but I found a way to make it special so it would be accepted.

Daniele: About my favorites, I love them all, seriously, each of them for different reasons. But my favorite one must be “Rackety”. Mostly because it’s the first one Isak made, and as I mentioned above it blew my mind. Sometimes, when I go to bed, even if I didn’t work or played with Goscurry, it just starts playing in my head. Another super-favorite is “Aaa”, which I find very epic in an anime way, but with a touch of hidden drama inside. Then “Abductination”, for the exact same reasons Isak said, and because it manages to be both energetic and deeply romantic. And “Face to Foot”, because it’s the first Goscurry song where Jelena and I had sex, while it looped over and over and we sometimes laughed and said things like “you see, the song is good”.


PP: What were some of the first video games you ever played? What do you play today?

Daniele: My memory really sucks, but the very first game that left a lasting impression on me was Loom, by the greatly missed LucasArts (Lucasfilm at the time). I was so little, that I didn’t even know you could save games, so I kept replaying it from the start each time. Nowadays, I play all kind of games as long as they don’t require powerful hardware, since my computer is pretty old, with a predilection for turn-based strategy. My favorite game for last year is definitely “Papers, Please”, for many, many, many reasons. Still, I keep getting back to Chivalry (the rare times it works and doesn’t crash because of some of its many bugs – which is a pity because otherwise it’s a really fun game), since my stepson Aki and I love to cut each other’s heads in multiplayer.

Isak: First game was Mario, and I played it for hours until our NES got a meltdown and we had nothing left. As for today, I try playing a variety of games when I have time but there’s a clear winner that has stolen all my time and that would be Dungeon Defenders. I’m hyped for the release of the second one!

PP: For all those who have yet to play Goscurry, why should they give it a try?

Isak: Anyone who enjoys dancing in front of the pc at the brink of rage but still hanging in there for just another try, to beat the highscore and be the champion of all, should give Goscurry a try! When you master the speed and obstacles, it’s really a very relaxing game to play when you had a stressful day.

Daniele: I suck at self-promotion, but I agree with Isak: weirdly, it can be a really relaxing game, in spite of its high difficulty. It deserves to be played at least to see if you can reach illumination in the midst of chaos. And because it’s really challenging, obviously!


Thank you both Daniele and Isak for taking the time to participate in our interview!

If you missed our Goscurry review, then go give it a read! Those who would love to support Holoville Games can do so by purchasing the game on their website, or by upvoting it on Steam Greenlight. Or, you can take a shot at entering our massive Goscurry giveaway!

Oniken Review

Oniken Boxart

Developer: JoyMasher
Publisher: JoyMasher
Platform: PC – Desura, Steam

I hate to admit it but I was not raised on the era of tough as nails NES games. Nope, instead I became friendly with an Apple IIe, Atari 7800, and off-brand Pong console. These devices offered their own difficult games but it was quite a different experience when you typically only had one button and a joystick. Missing out on the greats like Contra, Ninja Gaiden, and innumerable others has caused me to wonder what it was like to grow up with them, though. So, from my perspective, it does feel like Oniken is bringing a classic experience to players.

It starts things off on the right food with a wonderfully cliche storyline. The Oniken – bad guys – are attempting to seize control of humanity. A ragtag trio of resistance fighters aren’t having any of it! They jump into action to stop Oniken by any means necessary. Lead character Zaku is armed only with a sword and grenades but will work his way through countless enemies through the game’s six stages.

Oniken Screenshot

As you might expect from a title hearkening back to the NES era, Oniken is a 2D side-scrolling action game. You slash up foes, jump over dangerous areas, and generally kick a lot of butt in order to beat bosses and complete stages. Each area might seem fairly tough the first time but repeated plays make them seem increasingly manageable. For me, that meant maybe ten or so rounds on the second stage, but I’m not as skilled as players actually honed on NES games are. After watching a few people play it, I found that perhaps the game wasn’t even that hard at all – my skills simply weren’t up to the task.

Both the visuals and music seem to accurately recreate the era as well. I can’t say for certain if the color pallete and amount of pixels are right on, but they seem good enough to me! It’s exciting to see that even at this point in time there is still something uniquely engaging about a game that operates with such a bare minimum of keys. Oniken is a ton of fun even for people like me who don’t feel indebted to the systems of their past. Basically, if you’re in the mood for a retro-styled romp then Oniken is a fine choice.


Score: 3.5

3 1/2 out of 5 alpacas


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