Magicmaker
I wasn't expecting much, but I must say, Magicmaker is pretty fun. The visuals are charming, the dialogue can be funny. The game is set up in a Metroidvania esque style, as you travel from the central academy hub through portals to large enemy-filled areas.
But what makes Magicmaker so fun is its core concept: making magic. The player is equipped with a wand, spell, and robes and each can be customized in myriad ways, such as the colors and hues of each attack, but the best part is how varied and diverse the magic is. You collect various elements on your quests, and then at certain academy stations, can stack abilities. So with fire, feather, and rock, you can craft a fireblast that knocks enemies and burrows through walls. Or with slime, and electricity, you'll fire an arcing attack that causes a damaging area of effect on surfaces. What's more impressive is that each element as two uses, one when equipped for your wand or spell and one when equipped for your robe. So electricity cause a shield when you walk. Slime lets you walk on walls. Metal creates a turret ally. Katana gives you a short range dash.
The numerous abilities and the myriad ways you can stack and combine them really gives MagicMaker an addictive quality, since you want to go and find new items to mix and match. Replaying areas on harder difficulties means more enemies but also let you find higher ranked items, which give you more more powerful effects.
Retrobooster
What stood out the most, from the moment I started playing Retrobooster, was the visuals. Now in terms of textures and other details, Retrobooster isn't exactly photorealistic, but once the bullets start flying and enemies start exploding, the game is an absolute visual treat. The particle effects, the subtle lighting playing across walls and ceilings, the realistic smoke of your thrusters against surfaces, it turns the relatively simple gameplay of evasion, maneuvering, and shooting into an intense frenzy of light and color and particles that's a joy to watch in motion. However, Retrobooster is more than a visually stylish experience; it's a challenging action game that requires skill to survive. Learning how to control your thrusters, momentum, and inertia takes practice, but once you get past the learning curve, you'll be able to weave through the dangerous traps and thread between projectiles with ease. The level design shines here, from the deadly crushers and moving gears to the claustrophobic caves and tight mazes of metal and stone to precisely move through, all while evading bullets and firing your own.
1. Glitchspace
2. Cosmochoria
3. Nothing To Hide
4. Magicmaker
5. Grabbles
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6. . Xaxi
7. Retrobooster
8. Box Out
9. NeonXSZ
10. Lift
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12. Bosses Forever 2.Bro
13. Tesseract
14. KiloBite
15. Mirage
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16. Maverick Bird
17. Action Painting Pro
18. cubrick
19. HOMEunculus
20. Black Ice
21. Walk
