Metacell - 2D twitch puzzle shooter

Metacell is an immersive 2D twitch puzzle shooter with a hard sci-fi plot. Though we don't feature many puzzle shooters, this one peaked my interest. It's also the first installment in an epic five-game saga, with each game in the saga having its own distinctive gameplay tailored to its position in the story arc.  You play as a galactic hero with his crew fighting to save the universe from devastation. Just check out that huge eye, it's out to destroy us all ahhhhhhh!

Indie Royale - The Evolved Bundle

Another epic gaming bundle from Indie Royale, this is The Evolved Bundle which contains 5 great indie games. The list of games include, Unmechanical, The Path, Krater, Sugar Cube and O|O, but what makes these games worthy of your play time?

Distance - Next Generation Racing

This is Distance, a next generation racing game in the style of wipeout and other such intense racing, futuristic racers. Thanks to the team of Nitronic and soon to be available for Windows/Mac/Linux, this combines the intense action of arcade racing with the exploration of an atmospheric world.

Deep Space Settlement - Space RTS

This is Deep Space Settlement, a real-time space strategy game, focused on empire building and grand-scale space battles. A game genre that I am very fond of, especially as I couldn't put down games such as Deuteros on the Amiga. The empire building aspect of Deep Space Settlement is the taking care of your economy and your population. This is done by building defenses, expanding, exploring and exploiting new resources. By building stations you can essentially transform resources into other resources. An economy is based on production and consumption.

Just Tactics - 1 on 1 Turn Based Strategy

Just Tactics which is described as a turn based, 1v1 online multiplayer, tactical war game, could be just the thing for table top gaming fans. Also with the addition of Fog of War, it gives that added surprise to the game, with plenty of units to keep you busy.

MineCraft is coming...

WinterFell

If, like me you're a massive Game of Thrones fan then you'll definately be interested in this mammoth MineCraft project called WestoCraft, which is a MineCraft project dedicated to rebuilding the fantasy lands found in in popular fictional world of G.R.R Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series.

Bean's Quest [Review]

A Mexican jumping bean with a sombrero is apparently the perfect choice for a new gaming mascot for the iPad and Android gaming platforms. Expect ringtones, cuddly toys and crazy frog style ring tones in the merchandise section...  well not really, but Bean’s Quest is a nod to the era when every new platformer strived to make their investment backers swim in metaphorical pools of merchandisable money. The irony is, because Bean’s Quest is actually an interesting and fun game, it would probably be successful in the area it's jokingly imitating.

While the game design is a nod toward the 16 bit era of marketable mascots, the gameplay is unique for the modern era of on the go touchscreen gaming. With perhaps an imminent Steam Greenlight release, does Bean’s Quest still have the flavour of spicy Mexican seasoning about it, or has ol’ Beany accidentally jumped into a can of Heinz baked beans instead?

Asylum - Horror with a kickstarter announcement

This is Asylum, a scary as hell horror point-and-click adventure game by the same designers as Scratches (Senscape). That game, yes Scratches gave me goosebumps, It was one hell of a well made Adventure, in a first person perspective. But Asylum looks to go beyond that in the fear factor. This is a  psychological horror adventure inspired by H. P. Lovecraft set in a massive, decaying mental institute.

Aqua Kitty - Milk Mine Defender : Shoot em Up

Another high quality Shoot em up, but this time with Cats! It's Aqua Kitty : Blast your way through level after level of fast paced, horizontal scrolling underwater action in HD 720p Hand Drawn, 16bit era styled graphics. Each level is a branching map progression, while varying sea depths subtly affect the Shoot em up style gameplay.  Although this is a PSN title, they hope to port it back to the PC if the interest is high enough, thanks to Steam Greenlight this may be the case. The game is being developed by a 2 person team of experienced developers: Art by Dugan (the artist for games such as `Stealth Bastard`, `Gravity Crash` and `Rock Boshers`). Code by Gabor.

Quake Fans Behold, a new EpiQuake has arrived! (MOD)

A new mod for Quake has been released, which overhauls the game in a pretty big way, this is a huge sound & music mod which turns the game into an epic experience. Add in the Darkplaces mod and you've got yourself a true classic in an almost HD experience.

(Hotline Miami VS. Your Childhood)

What would happen if Hotline Miami's main blood thirsty character was to invade your vintage retro games, you so loved and cherished. Watch the video and find out :)

Realms of Arkania - HD RPG Remake

Hot off the press, a HD remake of the fantastic all time classic Realms of Arkania - Blade of Destiny is being developed. This title is being Developed by Austrian developer Crafty Games, and is a one-to-one remake of the 1992 original.

Nvidia 313.95 beta GeForce drivers

Although not strictly Indie or Retro gaming news related, you will need the latest drivers for certain games, especially if they have issues. These are the new 313.95 beta GeForce drivers for NVIDIA graphics cards.

My Fantastic Park - F2P Browser Game

My Fantastic Park is a new Free to Play, Browser Based Theme Park management game from the German game development studio Upjers. You can build the park of your desires, with Bumper cars, merry-go-rounds or roller coasters. The better the Park, the more guests and money that start flowing in!

Oliver and Spike Dimension Jumpers - HQ Adventure Platformer

Welcome to Oliver & Spike, developed by Rock Pocket Games. A beautiful Adventure Platformer with Puzzle and Exploration mechanics mixed in, that would look good on any screen. This Adventure Platformer is full of eye candy, it's amazing how far games of this type have come since I was a kid. You might ask, what does Dimension Jumping have to do with this game? Well, each world you play on has at least three parallel dimensions to explore and use. Each of these dimensions has its own storyline, quest-arcs, npcs, fauna and flora but most importantly: different physical laws. Each dimension is fully explorable, which opens up this Platformer to a huge amount of gaming possibilities

Quest for the Gauntlet - Action Co-op

Recently announced on Facebook by the creators of Dwarfs!? Is a new game called Quest for the Gauntlet, for Windows, Linux, and Mac systems.  Although this is early footage, it looks to be a 4 player co-op in the same genre type as Gauntlet from the 1980's. They also look to be putting in an Assassin, Prince, Weapon Master and a Rune Master going by this drawing.

Nemesis Online - Retro Online Shoot em Up

My favorite Genre are Shoot em ups and this game is no exception. Nemesis Online is a multiplayer remake of the saga of games Nemesis, Gradius, Salamander and Parodius that Konami made many moons ago. This is a free game of up to eight players simultaneously via online play with more than 35 stages. What's more, there are even more ships to play with, so you're not limited to just the one!

Sarif - Hardcore Platformer Puzzler

Another VVVVV style game is on the block, this is Sarif, in which difficult comes as the main pointer of the game. Be prepared to die over and over again, while struggling to deal with all the spikes and all the fun gravity puzzle solving goodness.

Wings - Cinemaware's Flight Sim Kickstarter project revamp

Hot news for all the Cinemaware fans, it looks as if we might have a kick starter revamp on our hands and it's a game very close to our Retro Hearts. Wings may well be coming back.... Again, but before that, a little bit of negative history. In August, the 10th, 2012 to be exact, Cinemaware created a Kickstarter for Wings. However all was not well, even though many of us had fond memories of the original, the HD game never made it's pledge goal and it flopped big time, which was a huge shame. I for one was a pledger and was gutted for it not to succeed.

Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos - Strategic Economic Planning

A game in which you Create and build your own Call Center, this is Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos. Whereby you have to develop client relationships while balancing your financials and workload. Plan an efficient operation through micro management of your workforce while achieving objectives.

Ultimate Amiga Online - Play lots of Amiga games online!

A brilliant idea from the guys of Ultimate Amiga, is the ability to play Amiga games online with other players. Now I remember when I was a weeee youngster that I had so much fun with my friends coming over and playing on the same TV via my Amiga 500 system. We used to play Lotus Esprit, Settlers 1 and many others. But with this new setup, you can play with others across the globe on your PC.

Treasure Adventure World - HD Adventure Platformer

Another well made Platformer is about to hit our gaming screens, it's Treasure Adventure World, which a complete remastered HD version of the hit 2011 freeware Treasure Adventure Game. Developed by Starbound creators Chucklefish and Robit, this game is sure to make the platformer gamers drool.

Bye Bye Pacman - Website Update

Just a short update, as you may have noticed the Pacman characters are now gone, I felt it was time to move on from the original design. That design was a call out to all that is Retro but it needed a facelift, plus I felt it was too busy for a background and we needed to be more professional, while keeping to that Retro/Indie feel. As such, we killed Pacman, sorry guys ;) But anyway, further improvements will be made over the months, with all the best news you have come to love.

Unclaimed World - Survival and Exploration

Every so often we get a game on Indie Retro News, that comes across as a game that could be very special. This is Unclaimed World, developed by Refactored Games, which is a sci-fi game about survival and exploration of an alien planet. Sure we've had games like this in the past, but not many that really push the boundaries of greatness and this game could well do just that.

Time Surfer - physics-based slingshot gameplay : (iOS)

An unusual gameplay genre, but with the high quality art style that I expect of the developer Kumobius, it's Time Surfer. This iOS designed title, mashes up two very different game ideas to make something new. Apparently mixing Tiny Wing’s simple physics-based slingshot gameplay and Braid’s mind-bending time reversal. Which comes to a result of a twitch-based, time-rewinding, amped-up ride across the fabric of time and space. Something that certainly suits the iOS and any other handheld devices!

Gala Giveaways - FREE STEAM GAMES!

Is it christmas still? Must be with all these deals and giveaways going on at the moment. This one is no exception, it's Gala Giveaways, a new awesome IndieGala website where everybody can win great Steam games! From AAA titles to indie gems, play with them and you can have it for free!

EA/Origin Amazing Deal!!! - Everything listed for under £5

An amazing deal has just cropped up from EA, via the Origin store/service. All of the games in the current listing are all being sold for under £5. However as we are purely an Indie & Retro site, why is this here you may well ask. Well, some of the games in the listing are Indie games and even the odd Retro title!

WinUAE 2.6.0 beta 3 - The BEST Amiga Emulator

Toni Wilen has released the latest beta 2.6.0 Version 3 of this amazing Amiga Emulator WinUAE. Which enables us to play Amiga games on windows. We are not long since the previous final version of 2.5.1, however after testing a few games with this new version, they are now working so much better than before!

Patchwork - HQ 2D Adventure

We haven't featured a 2D click adventure title for awhile, so here comes PatchWork, which was part of the Summerbatch bundle. This looks to be of high quality and reminds me very much of Broken Sword, so that will most likely pull in some extra gaming points in my book.

Bean's Quest - High Quality Platformer

Heads up Gamers, we've got such a well made Platformer to show you, that it will blow you away just looking at it! This is Bean's Quest, a game with 50 stage quests to regain your humanity in a colorful place that will bring back your gaming childhood. That's not all, you will be Platforming through 5 worlds, while dealing with crazy physics and listening to 10 pieces of outrageous video game music.

Castle Dracula [Review]

The indie gaming scene is currently going through somewhat of a revival for the graphic point and click adventure game. In what has been a steep decline for nearly the past two decades, the genre is now seeing an outpouring of titles thanks to successful Kickstarter appeals and most recently ‘The Walking Dead’ winning multiple game of the year titles. It seems then that Gondefire have picked the perfect time to introduce fans and newcomers alike to their debut graphic adventure title, 'Castle Dracula'. 

The question then is have these developers managed to adapt this granddad of the adventure genre to a modern age of teabagging and mobile gaming; or have they shunned the complexity of modern gaming to remind us of a simpler time of story and puzzle based adventuring?

WarZ - Patch 1/22/13

The patch we mentioned last week for this Zombie Survival MMO, titled WarZ, has finally gone live today. Servers just went into shut down and reboot mode and your Launcher should be updating.

Claustrophobia: The Downward Struggle : Indie RPG Roguelike

Claustrophobia: The Downward Struggle is an indie RPG roguelike, with a very retro graphic style and a terrible sense of humour. I for one am a huge fan of RPG games, I especially like roguelike's and this one looks very well designed. The game takes place in a series of ever descending randomly generated dungeon floors, packed full of monsters to slaughter and loot to pillage.

Axiom Verge - Action and Exploration Platformer

Axiom Verge is an upcoming indie game focusing on action and exploration. In the style of Metroid and other action platformers, this one looks awesome indeed and has a fantastic yet unique art style. You play as a guy called Trace, who awakens alone in a strange, labyrinthine world. You explore this world to find items and upgrades which in turn allow you to explore further

Path of Exile Open Beta Begins - January 23rd : Online Action RPG

The Online Action RPG, which some say is as good as Diablo 2 and or Torchlight 2 will be available for all  to play, in an Open Beta Phase, which begins on the 23rd Jan. Grinding Gear Games developed Path of Exile as an online Action RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast.

Flashback - HD Remake (Action Platformer)

Flashback was an amazing Action Platformer for it's time, it was released in 1992 by Delphine Software on a multitude of systems. The good news is, we may, at some point, have our hands on a HD remake. Now there's not a lot to go on at the moment, as the news has only just come out today, thanks to bluesnews for the heads up

Grand Prix - Retro Racing Remastered!

We recently had another racing game already on Indie Retro News, but this game goes even further back in time. Yet I'm sure many of you retro gamers looking at the video grab will know exactly what game this is based on. Basically it's a remastered Pole Position, called Grand Prix! It's the remastered edition for today's computers, sure it doesn't have amazing graphics but it has to be as close to the original style as possible.

Prospekt Reborn - 2D indie social ORPG

A new Indie game in the style of classic nes style rpg's has appeared. Prospekt Reborn is a 2D indie social ORPG based on their own modification of Eclipse Origins. The developers claim that this Online RPG has unique gameplay and many tough challenges to complete. Currently it is in pre-alpha state but the server is online 24/7.

Throbax TD - Tower Defence

I know we have a number of people that read our site that really enjoy Tower Defence games, going by the stats at least. This game that's in development, could be of interest to you. It's Throbax TD, a game in which you have to survive wave after wave of fiendish enemies in a struggle for nothing less than your whole planet.

Want to join our team of contributors?

When I first created this site, I wanted it to be one of the best places for everything that is Indie and Retro game related. There are other sites out there, all with their own different styles but not many that deal with both Indie and Retro gaming at the same time, it's either one or the other. So this is one of many reasons why Indie Retro News was born! Besides I've always wanted to have a place to call my own, to show my up most respect to all the Indie and Retro developers out there. Also my love all that is Nostalgic, hey I did have an Amstrad cpc 464 ;).

Leave Home - Shoot em up (Pay what you want)

A nice little shoot em up with some psychedelic graphics, it's Leave Home. This Abstract shooter has adaptive difficulty and metaphorical explosions. Fixed length game session. Score points. Increase difficulty and Split shots.

The 90's Arcade Racer - Daytona USA fans time to go crazy!

Turn your engines on and rev up, as the ultimate style 90's racing arcade game could be appearing on your PC, Mac & Linux systems via kickstarter. This is Arcade Racer, a racing game to recreate the feeling of an intense but beautiful looking racer. Maintaining the colorful, vibrant look and sense of speed but with modern visuals and car handling models.

Lode Runner Classic - Retro Puzzle Platformer (iOS and Android)

We have a treat for you today, it's Lode Runner Classic which combines the classic game play of the award winning Apple II original Lode Runner with graphics and features engineered for today's advanced smartphone platforms.

Dizzy - Night at the Museum v1.02 : Retro Platformer

Dizzy is back in another great Fan Platform Adventure. It's time for, Dizzy - Night at the Museum, which is a throw back to the eggy days of the Amstrad and Amiga era. The only difference, a new story, cool platforming puzzles and updated graphics.

The Adventures of King Croc [Review]

Reading through the descriptive information page for new indie game ‘The Adventures of King Croc’, one word was used to sell me on this game, ‘Retro’. Fair enough, after all this is a retro indie gaming website, so this should be a winning combination. The hyperbolic description of how this game ‘re-imagines how 2d games [will] work’, along with the promise to relive the glory days of difficult platform puzzlers sets itself a mighty task indeed. 

The prospect of utilizing, now popular physics based puzzle features, like those found in Valve’s Portal games and even a nod toward Minecraft’s bloc creation tools had me a tad excited for what an indie game could deliver by combining all these features into a gem of a 2D puzzler.

Players progress through each stage by collecting Red crystals, which provide ‘ammo’ for your multi-purpose ray utility gun. This allows the creation of jumping pads, to bloc creation and destruction. It also does portals yay!

Sadly this expectation of what could have been a great game idea is completely destroyed by perhaps one of the worst games I have ever played.

WarZ - Development Diary, 1/18/13

Well it's finally here, the 1/18/13 development diaries us WarZ gamers have been waiting for, which gives us a little bit more explanation about the patch that's due next week 22nd JAN. So let's take a look at just how good this server hopping fix is going to be (we hope).

Doomed Dungeon - A First Person RPG with a difference!

Prepare yourself to fight the bad guys with sword in hand and potions at the ready, it's Doomed Dungeon. A role-playing game with procedural levels and semi-3D graphics. The aim of this game is to go further down the dungeon and fight the big boss. But the only way to do that, is by having to kill at least 75% of the enemies that are on your current level. You can then use the stairs, down into the depths of evil!

Time for some 8Bit Chiptune Music! It's Rainbowdragoneyes

I haven't posted any music for ages, but while listening to some classic retro tracks I came across a band called RainbowDragoneyes. The cover didn't really come across as containing retro 8bit chiptunes, but sure enough it does, not just that some of these music videos contain a mix of not just chiptunes but singing and what sounds like a mix of thrash voiceovers.  I'm impressed, not sure you will be though, my tastes seem to differ from everyone else on the site ;)

Not one but THREE big bundles! - Indie Gala Magika, The Snow Storm Bundle & The Indie Face Kick Bundle

We have three new Indie Bundles to show you and the first one above is called, The Indie Bundle Magika. Which as always, contains some fantastic Indie games such as : You are Empty, Trine, Cities in Motion, Deponia, Magika and Painkiller. What's more if you spend more than the recommend price, three unlocks will come your way and one of those is Home, which is a rather scary horror title. IndieGala lets customers set their own price for high-quality indie games and music, then donate some or all of the proceeds to Able Gamers charity and Gala Project X, the videogame project backed by Indiegala.

NeoTokyo - FPS Half-life 2 Mod

Just recently the latest version of the FPS Half-Life 2 mod, NEOTOKYO was released, which contains more weapons, maps, skins and other such cool stuff. This excellent looking first person shooter provides a visceral & realistic combat experience in a futuristic setting. It is greatly influenced by their admiration for Masamune Shirow (GHOST IN THE SHELL) and Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA).

Legend of Grimrock - Expansion?

Legend of Grimrock was one of the best Indie Dungeon Crawler games of 2012, it took me back to the days of Eye of the Beholder, the Dungeon Crawler RPG of my day. The developers were overcome with joy, as the game was a massive success. So much so, that today, they showed off some brand new screenshots of what looks to be an expansion to the game.

WarZ Patch 1.0.1 - 1/22/13 (Long Patch List)

A new patch is coming on the 22nd of Jan and this one looks to be a pretty damn fine patch. I for one, am looking forward to the " Server Hopping Fix ".

WinUAE 2.6.0 beta - The BEST Amiga Emulator

Toni Wilen has released the latest beta 2.6.0 of this amazing Amiga Emulator WinUAE. Which enables us to play Amiga games on windows. We are not long since the previous final version of 2.5.1, so hopefully it's worthy of this beta update so soon.

Baldur's Gate : Enhanced on Steam

The enhanced edition of this classic RPG, Baldur's Gate was available, exclusively, via Beamdog’s online service  however it's now available on STEAM! Get ready to get excited as this is an all time great game, with all the skills, massive story line, sub stories and everything else you could want in an RPG!

WarZ - Show us your Skills!

For some time now, even since the start of the WarZ gaming escapade, the developers have promised us, that at some point we will be having Skills implemented. Well here is the first proper update on what skills will be available and how they will look on our screens.

Warzone 2100 - Remastered Open Source Retro RTS at it's best!

It might be 2013 and Warzone 2100 was published in 1999 but it was one of the best games of it's time. But since then, it's had it's own open source development, with a ton of new features and a new release! You command the forces of The Project in a battle to rebuild the world after mankind has almost been destroyed by nuclear missiles.

WarZ - Hacking Update!

It's been some time since we've had a WarZ update on the site, but alas i've been in Hospital then bed bound. But since things are back on track, it's time to give you the latest update on the Hacking Situation. It looks as if the developers have upped the anti against the Hackers, though many of my friends claim it's just as bad as ever.

The Sucker - Zombie Browser Horror

Fancy playing a neat little horror game with Zombies, that's completely playable in your browser? Then here comes The Sucker. The aim of this game is to eat and throw as many enemies as possible!

Reus - Black and White Lives again! Well sort of

Reus is a 2D god game being developed by Abbey Games, a Dutch independent game studio in the style of Black of White. They recently released the first in-game trailer depicting a game in which you take control of nature through the hands of mighty giants.

Bundle Stars - Bundle 2: Indie Jam

Fancy these Indie games for a GREAT price, then check out the Indie Jam bundle from Bundle Stars. This bundle contains 8 fantastic games from Tower Defence Strategy types to Sci-Fi Action rpg's. Unstoppable Gorg, Stellar Impact, Twin Sector, Dead Horde, Future Wars, Greed: Black Border, Grotesque Tactics and Trapped Dead. The current price is only £3.90 and you can even help towards a Charity.

Top 10 Amiga Games You've Never Heard About

Many of us have fond memories of the Amiga. I myself had an Amiga 500, but during a rather stupid period, I chucked it away! Fast forward to last year and I purchased another Amiga 500 and it's now being looked after, wrapped up in warm blankets. These videos I'm about so show you thanks to LemonAmiga, tell us of a time when not only did they release Amiga games that where well known but there were many that were good, but most of us have never heard of.

Ascension - Horror Side Scroller

Good morning viewers, it's me Neil, your lovable Indie Retro News poster, btw this Mac sucks! Well today we have a new Horror game on the scene and it's called Ascension. We've had a few games like this, with this particular play style, namely Home and Lone Survivor. You play as Atticus, a grounds keeper who has brought his sick daughter to work on the day of a horrible accident. Separated from her, you must find your way back before something else reaches her first.