New Games With A Retro Spin!

At Emuparadise, our love for all things retro-gaming runs deep. Often in these newsletters, we fire up the way-back machine and highlight a series of games from times past. However, we aren't alone in our love for retro. In fact, so many people enjoy it that even some modern titles have adopted the aesthetics and tropes of days-gone-by to bring us that old charm in a brand new way.

This month at EP, we wanted to highlight some of the new, more recent titles that pay homage to those that came before. You may even find some of these to be a great gift idea for the retro-gamers in your life.

Hyper Light Drifter

System: PC, Mac, Linux, Ouya, PS4, X1 Year: 2016

Developed by the aptly titled "Heart Machine", Hyper Light Drifter is an amazing homage to retro gaming in both style and substance. It is the result of lead developer Alex Preston's desire to use artistic mediums to convey his own experiences of suffering from heart disease. The game's mix of bright optimism and dark ruin play together beautifully in the pixelated art-style. These feelings are also mirrored in the protagonist who you will often feel is powerful enough to tackle the obstacles ahead of him, until he is faced with his biggest foe; his own affliction. The gameplay itself is an interesting mix of action RPG, with a touch of bullet-hell flavor thrown in. That alone would make it a fun game, but it's the 'heart' that went into this games overall design that makes it truly special.

Fez

System: PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, PS3, PS4, Vita, X360 Year: 2012 Even if you haven't played Fez, you have probably heard of it. It was one of a number of titles featured in "Indie Game - The Movie" as it stands as one of the games exemplary of what makes indie games so special. From the moment you start to play Fez, you know you've stepped into a world crafted with love for retro games. The quaint atmosphere of the isolated islands is communicated to the player in an impressive manner, given that its style is very clearly focused on pixel-art. The real appeal of the game, however, is the ability for the player to rotate his 2D world in a manner reminiscent of 3D. It's a really fascinating mechanic that alludes to our own inability to perceive the 4th dimension.

Mega Man 9 & 10

System: PC, Wii, X360, PS3 Year: 2008, 2010 Possibly two of the best games to utilize the retro aesthetics are Mega Man 9 & Mega Man 10. Releasing almost 10 years after Mega Man 8 was released on the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation, Capcom hit the scene with 9 & 10. However, despite Mega Man 7 being 16-bit and 8 being 32-bit, they decided to pay homage to the majority of the series, and its most popular titles. Playing like a true 8-bit sequel, both games feature the same platforming and robot-blasting fun of the old days. What's more, is the releases of these titles that have led to a growing trend of developers following suite; releasing new sequels to old games in the original style.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - The Game

System: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 Year: 2010 With this game comes good news, and bad news. The good news is that Scott Pilgrim is a fantastic beat 'em up. It has an amazing pixel-art based graphic style done by the one and only Paul Robertson and is paired beautifully with a soundtrack done by the chip-tune band Anamanaguchi. It features RPG-like mechanics of leveling up and receiving new moves to fight with, as well as a money/shop mechanic for items. It also boasts 4 player co-op and loads of replay value. So, what's the bad news? Well, unfortunately, the game was de-listed from both Playstation Network and Xbox Live in 2014 leaving few avenues for new players to experience this amazing title.

Double Dragon 4

System: PC, PS4, Switch Year: 2017 Taking a cue from the Mega Man titles above, Double Dragon 4 stands as a new entry in the branch of Double Dragon titles on the NES. Taking place between the 2nd and 3rd entries on that console, Double Dragon 4 nails the look and feel of that time to a near-fault. Present are all the things we loved about those titles, from the art-style to the game-play... as well as all the things that frustrated us so much. The cheap enemies, the difficult platforming, graphical glitches, etc. Whether or not these detract or add to your experience is your call, but one thing can be said for certain: the developers took great care to recreate every aspect of those old entries!

There's certainly no shortage these days of retro-styled modern games out there on the market, and luckily for us, that trend doesn't seem to be slowing down one bit!