Worth Checking Out - Apotheon

I stumbled across the trailer for Apotheon this morning and immediately went hunting for a pre-order. Alientrap's 2D platforming RPG is styled after the black figure era of Greecian pottery artwork and follows an acolyte solider as he must battle the capricious Olympian Gods and save his homeland. The game comes out tomorrow(!) on both PS4 and PC, so if the trailer scratches your itch for mythological-god-and-monster-slaying, follow the link to Alientrap's website and go grab a copy yourself!

Worth Checking Out - Tetropolis

When the buzzword "Tetroidvania" was dropped, I was instantly intrigued. "How can the classic puzzle game Tetris ever find it's way into a game with Metroidvania style mechanics?", I asked myself before diving into the Kickstarter. My question was answered with a game far beyond my initial expectations, and it looks radical.

Tetropolis may be influenced by the 2-D exploration aspects of the Metroidvania genre, but it's mechanics are the true sparkle to this gem. The puzzle aspect of the game are incorporated in an awesomely unexpected way, Tetropolis focuses on platforming with a rather unique way of maneuvering. Each separate Tetris piece has it's own way of maneuvering, such as the long piece stretching in order to increase it's jump.

What looks to be the real meat of the game's Tetris influence is it's mini-map, which also consists of separate pieces. These pieces of the map can be rotated at any time, giving the opportunity to access room that were not originally accessible. With the mixture of movement based puzzles and the ability to reorient the map layout, I can already imagine some incredible puzzle opportunities.

As of now, Tetropolis has 30 days left to reach it's $50,000 goal. If you'd like to help Kickstart NextGen Pant's project, you can head over to their Kickstarter here.

Enjoy A 10-Minute Preview of The Metroidvania/Dark Souls Inspired Ghost Song

Hot damn has the game got me amped. Back in August developer Matt White Kickstarted his metroidvania/Dark Souls fused action platformer and met success with funding almost 4 times the initial goal. With promises of a deep and engaging combat and an explorable world much like the games of Metroid, the game got me hooked upon first viewing (and apparently thousands of other contributors as well).

With the little snippets of gameplay first provided for the Kickstarter, it's awesome to finally get a glimpse at the work Matt White has put into the game. It may be a bit light on actual gameplay mechanics, but the atmosphere it sets is absolutely topnotch. 

The metroidvania style mechanics are noted almost immediately, starting players in front of their crashed spaceship before traversing the unknown planet (very reminiscent of nearly every Metroid entry). What surprised me the most was how quickly The Dark Souls influence made present, not only with the game's dark tones and combat but the inclusions of NPCs and their almost hopeless dialogue.

Ghost Song is definitely looking like a deep engaging experience with a lot of soul and a whole lot of ambiance. No set release date has been announced for the game, but if you'd like to offer additional help for the game's development you can pre-order it from the website here. 

Worth Checking Out- 'Blood Alloy' An Insanely Difficult Metroidvania-like Game

While combat in most Metroidvania inspired games is relatively solid, nothing looks to give as smooth of an experience as Blood Alloy. Mixing the combat mechanics of Dark Souls and movement speed of Vanquish, Blood Alloy is an indie title with a lot of flash and even more substance. Judging from the gameplay trailer above, the game looks ridiculously hard, but in the sense that when you f*ck up it's your fault, not the game's.

 

Much like all indie games being released, Blood Alloy is need of a little support over on Kickstarter. The folks over at Suppressive Fire Games LLC have put together an awesome looking concept and this definitely I would love to see get a little more backing. I'm always on the lookout for challenging games and this definitely looks like something right up my alley.

Worth Checking out - Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope

The indie scene has been on a metroidvania frenzy lately and I have absolutely zero issues with this. Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope is the next indie title to get the metroidvania treatment and it couldn't look any better. Set to the tune of an incredible sound soundtrack, beautiful character design, and the "tough but fair" game design seen in Dark Souls, this is definitely a metroidvania title to look out for.

In the same vein as Dark Souls, players will piece together the deep history of the world as they progress through the world rather than being spoon fed cutscene after cutscene. Judging from the game's environmental art, the game has quite the potential for fleshing out a deep and interesting world.

Developer Matt White is asking for a measly $15,000 dollars for this project, something that can easily be crushed especially for something with as much potential as this. Ghost Song is currently sitting at a comfortable $10,000 with 29 days remaining, implying that we should absolutely destroy this game's goal and get the most out of Mr.White as we can. To donate head over here.

Worth Checking Out: A.N.N.E

I'm loving the Metroidvania love indie devs have been giving recently, I honestly don't think there's a genre that captures my full attention quite as much. The newest game to join the fray of the upcoming Metroidvania-style game is A.N.N.E, a love letter to all things Metroid and Castlevania mixed with the fantastic SHMUP, Gradius. With only 8 days left as of now, the game has finally reached it's Kickstarter goal!

Developed a single, wonderful, beautiful and loving man (plus a little bit of help here and there), A.N.N.E is definitely an indie title worth looking out for. While I might never get tired of this style of game, A.N.N.E has definitely stood out as one of the best in-class. If you'd like to further the game's development, head over to the Kickstarter and help reach those stretch goals!

The Metroidvania Indie Title, Chasm Gets a Kickstarter

A few weeks ago we showed you the fantastic procedurally-generated Metroidvania inspired game, Chasm. While it looks like the developers have a nice foothold on the projects development, the dark side of game development has begun to stand in the teams way, because unfortunately people need money to live.  It's always sad news to see a game that oozes with love potentially be thrown away without ever reaching it's full potentially. Thankfully, this is why crowd funding is now more popular than ever.

With 26 days to go the game has reached about a third of it's initial goal, but with your help we can fully fund this gem. What's even better is the Kickstarter has a downloadable Alpha of the game for you to enjoy and decide if the game is worth donating to. Don't worry, your wallet will be out of your pocket in no time.

Head over to Discord Games' Kickstarter page and get to downloading and donating.

Chasm: Metroidvania Filled Goodness

Fresh out of GDC comes this fantastic trailer for the upcoming title, Chasm. Filled to the brim with Metroidvania style action, this game was destined to hit my list of titles to watch out for. Set for Windows, Mac and Linux, Chasm is a 2D hack n' slash platformer with a twist, following the recent trend in procedurally generated content. Chasm is definitely looking like an incredibly solid title especially if you're like me who's been relatively hard-pressed to find a game with solid replay value.

While the game isn't due til early 2014, there's still no reason for you to not support it early on. If you head over to the game's Steam Greelight page, you can vote for the title to get a little extra publicity and give it the chance to hit the Steam marketplace when it releases. This and next year are already looking fantastic for games especially for the indies, I can't say I'm not excited.