Death, Love & Carrots - A lovely pixelated platformer available as Early Access

Trawling through many of the games found on itch.io, there was always a chance of finding a nice game that not only looked charming but had the enjoyment factor that anyone in the family could pick up and play. Well thankfully one such game could fit both of those descriptions, as we've just learnt Thraxx Media has released in early access their bunny bouncing platformer ' Death, Love & Carrots ' for the PC.

Tower 57 - Anticipated retro inspired shooter is finally here on GOG and Steam!

We've been banging on about ' Tower 57 ' for many months now, ever since it was first announced as a retro inspired shooter to that of Alien Breed and even Chaos Engine from the glory days of the Amiga. Well as of today, the team behind the game benitosub and cyangmou, have announced the Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight success of 'Tower 57' is finally available on Steam and GOG for both PC and MAC!

Tower 57 - Eagerly awaited retro inspired shooter gets a 16th November release date!

This is just brilliant news and more so as it's a game that has featured highly on our website, as Cyangmou has told us that not only is the Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight success of 'Tower 57' coming to a home computer near you 16th November 2017. But the team behind the game Pixwerk and 11 bit studios have released a 11 FACTS about Tower 57 - premiere date trailer, which features more than your average retro inspirations!

LOWREZJAM - Over 200 rather cool and low rez games to play

A lot of good games have appeared today, but it's time to go beyond that and smash the barrier, as JackOatley's #LOWREZJAM 2017 is nearly finished and already there's 200 rather cool games to play! This unusual game Jam, in which people around the world came together to create their own uniquely styled games with a set resolution of 64x64 pixels. Features a wide range of genres ranging from an Another World inspired game, to a beat em up called 64 FISTS and even a F-Zero type game called Subshred!

Noita - A magical action rogue-lite with smashing pixels revealed!

Welcome to ' Noita ' by NollaGames,  a rather special game created by the same team behind Crayon Physics Deluxe, The Swapper and Environmental Station Alpha. This magical action rogue-lite, set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated using the developers in house Falling Everything Engine.Will put you in control of a powerful character that can explore and fight through a procedurally generated world using spells you've created which can melt, burn, freeze and even evaporate the pixelated landscape around you.

Jester's Quest - Fairy tale metroidvania is aiming for a Steam Greenlight success

I thought it best for the time being to put aside the latest homebrew developments and look towards Steam Greenlight for my gaming fix, with the newly added retro-ish metroidvania platformer ' Jester's Quest ' developed by Fendi. This is a fairy tale game with some RPG elements, that puts you in control of a lovable Jester that not only has to save the Kingdom, but also has to get the princess!

Thy Sword - Retro styled action platformer greenlight success

Great news today from the developers GamePhase, as their retro styled pixelated action platformer 'Thy Sword', is now a Steam Greenlight success! Currently available as a demo, with development for the PC,  Thy Sword draws its inspiration from Norse mythology, with a hint of Conan the Barbarian and other great games such as Golden Axe and Moonstone. It also features, as we said before; single or co-op, player vs player, procedurally generated levels, different environments such as forests and mountains, different weapons, spells and enchantments, Loot, lots of enemies and bosses, steam achievements, and unlockable content, all mashed up in lovely pixel art with chip music using the SID from the C64!

Sid Meier's Pirates! On the ZX Spectrum? Well sort of

It is incredible to think that the original Sid Meier's retro gaming hit of 'Pirates!', from way back in the late 80's can still be played today and enjoyed by people of all ages. It had you sailing your very own ship such as a fast sloop, capturing other ships, looking for treasure, sword fighting on deck, and marrying a rather pretty lady! The problem was however, that even though it was highly addictive and appeared on the Amiga, Amiga CD32, Apple II/IIGS, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and many others, it did not appear on the ZX Spectrum. So an artist by the name of 4thRock has done a what if of Pirates!, with images converted over to the ZX Spectrum!

Gorgeous ZX Spectrum Art Work - Part 2

At the beginning of this year, we featured in our opinion some of the best ZX Spectrum artwork, that was re-created by many different talented artists. Many of the designs were either from original games given a touch up, or completely redesigned to look far more impressive and gorgeous to the eye. But to my shock, the article ended up so popular that our Facebook and Twitter feed was shared multiple times. So it is with great pleasure to announce our second listing of favourite ZX Spectrum images, with one of them being Privet by r0bat, which is shown above (link).

Slain! - A very gory pixelated platformer available today on GOG

Prepare yourselves for blood dripping from the walls and gory bits everywhere, as Wolf Brew Games have announced that their very bloody pixelated action hack and slash platformer of ' Slain!', is now available to buy on GOG! A big Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight success and one of our most eagerly awaited releases, has stunning jaw dropping visuals and lots of bloody effects that would make even the horror fans amongst us look upon in delight.

Is the C64 palette far superior to the Amstrad CPC?

To this day people still argue over which is the better system way back in their gaming youth, it doesn't matter if it's the Amstrad, C64 and the ZX Spectrum, or the Amiga versus the Atari. It's a topic of conversation that has lasted many years and it's why so many Facebook groups are very computer specific, try posting an Amstrad in the ZX Spectrum group and see what happens. So what does a user by the name of SuTeKH/Epyteor do on the CPCWiki forums? He tries to prove that the Commodore 64 palette is far superior to the Amstrad CPC by converting many C64 pixel art images over to the Amstrad and comparing them! So in a word posting a C64 topic in an Amstrad group!

Gorgeous ZX Spectrum Art Work Recreated!

You may have already shared our Facebook post and our Tweet, but we thought we'd give a more detailed post to some of the most amazing recreated ZX Spectrum artwork you have possibly seen in some time. Many of these designs are either from original games given a touch up, or completely redesigned to look far more impressive and gorgeous to the eye. One such designer by the name of Oleg Origin blew us all away with his overhauled front end of Golden Axe II and Metal Man Remixed. But looking below, you can see there are other artists out there that really should be getting all of your attention!

Super Mustache - A man with a moustache aims for a greenlight success

Here we are in 2016 and yet again another retro styled platformer is aiming for a Steam Greenlight success. This is ' Super Mustache ' by Back to Basics Gaming, a vintage pixelated platformer that stars Captain Super Mustache on a journey to save his planet Uranus. Featuring a more modern 8-bit artwork, a chippy soundtrack, 3 worlds with 15 hand crafted levels and customizable controls, Super Mustache looks like it could well be a charming experience for all ages.

Dead Knight - An early WIP dark free Roguelike with lovely pixel art

I think we have found possibly the nicest looking game this week that's currently available to play as an early test version via itch.io. Welcome to ' Dead Knight ' by Backterria; a roguelike platformer that's both dark and very creepy with lovely pixel art. In this game your wife has just killed you and the only way to get revenge on that evil woman, is by climbing up to the surface and showing her what she did was a seriously bad idea.

Pico-8 : An 8 bit fantasy console from the makers of Voxatron (IRN Cracktro special!)

For the last couple of weeks I've been playing around with a "fantasy console" from makers of voxatron, lexaloffle. This review was supposed to be a quick report of a cool looking toy I found for making retro style games and prototypes or game jam entries. It started with an innocent posting that made it to the front page of Hacker News, and a quick glance indicated it would be suitable fodder for Indie Retro News. A quick round up of what was going on with some screenshots. Yeah, I'd have this wrapped up in a day. What I didn't expect was what I discovered...

Kingdom - Minimalist medieval strategy with gorgeous art, today on GOG/Steam!

Pixelated games are pretty much the in thing for game developers these last two years, with some being amazing to look at, Slain! for example, while others could do with a bit more development time. But there is a game that's due today on Steam, which looks to be very appealing and that isn't just because of the level of detail, but it looks like a great strategy/resource management too. Welcome to ' Kingdom ' by Raw Fury ;a 2D side scrolling management hybrid with a minimalist feel wrapped in a beautiful, modern pixel art aesthetic.

MegaSphere - Action sci-fi and impressive pixels gets a demo

After our previous feature of Anton Kudin's epic looking pixelated action sci-fi of 'MegaSphere', the developer hasn't just announced the availability of a PC/MAC/Linux demo, but the game is also available to pre-order with early access release on Steam! Featuring oodles of pure blasting action, a mighty upgradable weapon, tough AI enemies, randomized levels, physics based platforming and robotic enemies, MegaSphere is all about the sci-fi and damn does it look good!

Tower 57 - Retro inspired shooter Amiga Kickstarter update!

Even though we have already done a big feature on Benitosub and artist Cyangmou's retro inspired shooter of 'Tower 57', which is currently going through a Kickstarter campaign. We are here to inform you of some very special news for Amiga owners, that came as a huge surprise by the retro gaming community just days ago. Not only is Tower 57 a PC, MAC and Linux Steam Greenlight success, but the developers have announced an Amiga port to be created by Daniel 'Daytona675x' Müßener, (who is known for coding the NG-Amiga Battle Squadron remake-ports, the Cherry-Darling games and who's currently also working on Warp3D).

The Last Door - Adventure Horror : Season Two Episode 3 is now available!

When we played the first Season of the horror adventure of ' The Last Door' many months ago, we were pretty much blown away by how good it was, in not just the story, but how the detail stood out in a Sierra like style. We were so pleased by the game that our review ended with " a true Adventure horror title of which I'm glad to have played ". But now the game has gone even further, as the developers The Game Kitchen has announced Season Two : Episode 3 - 'The Reunion' which is available today.

Tower 57 - Retro inspired shooter aims for Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight success

After all these months of hyped up pictures and animated gifs, we were overjoyed to hear of the recent announcement of the Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight campaign for 'Tower 57'. Developed by Benitosub and the artist Cyangmou, with a recent heads up by one of our readers Alexh, 'Tower 57' is an arcade shooter inspirational love child of those gaming greats Alien Breed and Chaos Engine, which even today are still played on the Amiga!