misthold

Luminous (2018) is a retro-style platformer starring a BIPOC protagonist who has to save the world by rekindling the light. It's got a great style with very strikingly stark colors and pseudo-1980s graphics, plus a really good soundtrack. Plus: the story is not as straight-forward as it seems at first, with some unique twists to the genre/game style.

However, I couldn't finish playing and eventually gave up after about twenty minutes. I had a few problems: one, the light lines-on-dark background style actually made my eyes hurt after a while. Two, I have no patience for trying to jump onto a ledge exactly right in order to move forward in the story and that's basically the whole game. And three, I had a SUPER difficult time killing the monsters-- not sure if that's on purpose or if I just can't get the hang of the controls, but it was annoying.

If you're good at platformers, you'll be fine. And I think the style and unique story elements make it worth checking out!

Price: $1.00

Available for Windows and macOS. I played the Mac version.

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Cats Are Liquid: A Light in the Shadows (2015) is a 2D platformer about a cat abandoned by her owner and put into a world she must try to escape. Basically, you just move the cat around different levels, jumping/rolling/squishing it through each obstacle.

It's cute! The cat is white and glowing, with an emoji face and a blobby body. The game mechanics make for fun visuals-- any time the cat squishes down into a tiny area is fantastic-- and the levels are all bright primary colors. Good background music, too.

There are 90 levels; I played about 5 or 6 before quitting. Apparently in later levels you get new powers, like flying and exploding. It has a story element which keeps it more interesting than just a typical "jump over things" platformer, but I'm really more into narrative games at the moment, so I set this one aside for now.

Price: $1.00

Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. I played the Mac version.

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The Floor is Jelly (2018) is a platformer, a cute jumping game set in a jiggly and gelatinous world of brightly colored 2D art. I played the Mac OS version.

I love the look of this and if I was any better at jumping games I'm pretty sure I'd adore it. However, jumping games are my least favorite, so I quit after about 10 levels. Supposedly it gets weirder and more complex the longer you go, to the point where people were raving about the physics, but I just couldn't push myself to keep playing.

Still think it's really cute, though!

Price: $9.99

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Dusk Child (2016) is an adventure/platformer game starring an archaeologist in search of her past.

Couldn't get Mac version to work (kept crashing), so I played the browser version.

Fun graphics, they remind me of 90s computer games like Jill of the Jungle. Good colors, and the atmosphere was to die for. Good basic game mechanics, just jumping, picking things up, and (apparently) running. It's VERY old school, to the point where you can't hold a bucket AND read a sign.

Jumping and landing on small squares takes some doing! I saw some other reviews that complained of "slippery feet," but I actually found it fairly forgiving for my skill level. Took me a while to beat the last room because I'm not that good at jumping on small squares.

A short (<2 hours) but enjoyable game!

Hint for opening the final temple door if, like me, you couldn't figure it out: Stand on the statues in the east/west temples and use the X button.

Price: Name your own price!

Crossposted to

indie_games 6/20/20

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Misthold Welcomes You

tozka plays (video) games

Luminous (2018)

Cats Are Liquid: A Light in the Shadows (2015)

The Floor is Jelly (2018)

Dusk Child (2016)

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