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A League of Legends rhythm runner game is coming to Switch, PC and Netflix
'Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story' was developed by the studio behind the Bit.Trip games.
‘Spelunky’ and ‘Spelunky 2’ hit Nintendo Switch on August 26th
Explore the caverns and dodge deadly enemies while you're on the go.
'Super Meat Boy Forever' comes to PlayStation and Xbox on April 16th
The platforming sequel is also on the way to Steam later this year.
Team shooter 'Rogue Company' is now free-to-play
Rogue Company, a 4v4 team-based multiplayer shooter that arrived in a closed beta early this year, is now free-to-play in an open beta.
'Ori and the Will of the Wisps' is available today on Switch
A collector's edition bundle of both Ori games is up for pre-order too.
Free 'Celeste' update adds 100 levels and 40 minutes of music
A free Celeste update will bring more than 100 new levels and 40 minutes of additional music to the charming platformer September 9th. It'll bring the total number of stages to more than 800. Creator Matt Thorson announced the "Chapter 9: Farewell" add-on at the end of last year. He and his team hoped to release the update around the time of Celeste's first anniversary in January, but that wasn't to be.
Gorgeous platformer 'Gris' arrives December 13th
Indie platformer Gris, which caught our attention for its beautiful visuals, now has a firm release date. Publisher Devolver Digital has revealed you'll be able to explore the game's gorgeous landscape starting December 13th.
'Yooka-Laylee' is at the heart of a 3D platformer revival
A few years ago, the 3D platformer was in a bad place. Mario was still around, but the genre had little support elsewhere. Colorful games like Crash Bandicoot, Pyschonauts and Jak and Daxter had vanished in favor of grittier, more realistic adventures. There was the occasional surprise, like the papercraft-inspired Tearaway, but nothing close to the breadth of games found on the N64, PlayStation and PlayStation 2. The market had moved on, publishers thought, and it no longer made sense to fund ambitious, big-budget projects like Beyond Good and Evil.
'Candleman' is a 3D platformer that will make your heart melt
Proper 3D platformers are a rarity these days, especially on the Xbox One. That's why we're intrigued by Candleman, a charming adventure featuring a tiny wax-based hero. To succeed, you'll need to decide when and how to melt your little candle. Illumination can trigger vital bridges, or spook dangerous ghosts. As your hero shrinks in size, you're also able to jump higher and flutter across gaps that would otherwise be impossible to traverse. The caveat? Candleman can only burn for 10 seconds before he disappears entirely. To survive, you'll need to get used to the dark.
'Super Mario Run' is now available
Finally, there's a Mario game on smartphones. As promised, Nintendo has released Super Mario Run today, giving iPhone and iPad users a new way to run, leap and spin through the Mushroom Kingdom. It's an auto-runner, meaning the portly plumber will jog, hop and vault over obstacles automatically. You tap the screen to jump, leaping across gaps and goombas to collect colorful coins. It sounds simple, but there's a surprising amount of complexity to the platforming. Like Rayman Jungle Run, timing is essential to unlock contextual moves, such as rolls and wall jumps.
Acclaimed platformer 'Inside' is coming to PlayStation 4
Limbo developer Playdead has revealed it will be releasing its latest acclaimed platformer, Inside, for PlayStation 4 on August 23rd. The date was announced via a new trailer which shows the game's main character falling into an abyss.
The beautiful cyberpunk game that turned two brothers into developers
Tim and Adrien Soret, brothers from Paris, were quietly developing a Studio Ghibli-inspired dark fantasy game when the Cyberpunk Jam digitally rolled into town in early 2014. They took a break from their existing development schedule to build a completely new experience, a pixelated, neon-infused, sci-fi homage to some of their favorite childhood titles -- Another World, Flashback and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. They were new to game development and unknown on the indie scene, but in six days they coded, animated and designed their entry, The Last Night, and then threw it online for voting. They didn't expect much. "When we discovered that we won out of 265 games, we were totally stunned," older brother Tim Soret says.
Ubisoft announces next experimental game for PC, Grow Home
Ubisoft announced a new platforming game for PC today, Grow Home. Developed by a small team at Ubisoft Reflections, the game features a red robot named BUD (Botanical Utility Droid), who travels across the galaxy to find a "new species of flora to help oxygenate his home world." While the game was built and launched internally on PC for Ubisoft employees to enjoy, the development team created it with a game pad in mind, as BUD helps a giant beanstalk-like Star Plant grow and climbs around it using the left and right triggers on a controller. Grow Home's universe features other floating islands, so players can branch the plant out to craft their own "playground in the sky." The game is physics-based and procedurally-animated, emphasizing freedom of movement and allowing BUD to latch on to any object should he find himself plummeting to the planet. Players will be able to launch off of giant leaves, teleport to other parts of the plant and use parachute-style flowers to slow BUD's descent, all while trying to climb two kilometers up to the robot's spaceship. Inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Pixar's animated film Wall-E, Grow Home will launch on February 4. [Image: Ubisoft]
Creative assassination in turn-based stealth game, Ronin
Ronin, a bloody action and stealth platformer from Tomasz Waclawek, is on its way to Steam for PC this year, courtesy of Devolver Digital. It's turn-based, fast-paced and deliciously violent, starring a "vengeful heroine determined to strike down five prominent figures of a powerful corporation." There's a free, early-build demo available here. Ronin has been lurking in the shadows of independent development lore since August 2014: Waclawek introduced it as "a Gunpoint ripoff" on Reddit, but Gunpoint developer Tom Francis kindly disagreed, calling Ronin "really fucking cool." Francis even uploaded a Let's Play of Ronin. "It's clearly not a Gunpoint ripoff, because the core mechanics are so different," Francis said. "A lot of what it does copy is superficial, and that stuff doesn't matter. But the jump is pretty central, and if that was directly taken from Gunpoint, I'm delighted. I wouldn't want anyone to reuse Gunpoint's artwork or music, but the ideas in it are absolutely there for the taking. Every non-standard thing about it, from the jumping controls to the saving system, I did because I wanted more games to be that way." [Image: Tomasz Waclawek]
Magnetic: Cage Closed entering dark portal in March
Swedish developer Guru Games announced a new first-person puzzle game this week, Magnetic: Cage Closed. Slated to launch in March for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Magnetic imprisons players in a dark labyrinth with a magnet gun, solving environmental puzzles to progress through the industrial facility. The game's announcement trailer gives strong Portal vibes, showing multiple wall and floor switches being activated with the toss of a heavy metal cube. Magnetic: Cage Closed will launch at $14.95 with a special edition slated to cost $19.95. It will be published by Gambitious Digital Entertainment and will be playable at PAX South this weekend. Guru Games' other project in development is the Oculus Rift-supporting, first-person horror game Medusa's Labyrinth. The developer canceled its Kickstarter project for the game in November after it came to a "standstill." It drummed up 55,805 SEK ($6,824) in support, far short of Guru Games' 2,500,000 SEK ($350,000 USD) goal. Guru Games discussed its failed crowdfunding campaign in a blog, acknowledging that it wanted to time the campaign with the Scandinavian launch of Kickstarter despite spending two weeks "creating a prototype, a card house of a game," before putting "it out there for all to see." [Image: Guru Games]
Super Kitty: This Game's Got Claws
Super Kitty puts players in control of an adventurous cat with a blazing red cape who is on a mission to save a princess. His task is not easy though, as he must avoid the enemies' clutches in an almost equally cruel platformer environment. Super Kitty is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 7.0 or later. Players find that most of the Super Kitty is an adventure in trial and error where they have to memorize crucial steps to successfully get past each section. The best advice anyone can give to someone about to play Super Kitty is prepare to die quite a lot. There doesn't seem to be any other way around that trial and error feature as most of the time the game is full of tricks and traps. For instance, during the first few moments of Super Kitty, players are introduced to the idea that they can smash bricks by jumping up from below them which opens up a pathway for them to continue on. However, the next time players see a bunch of bricks and do the same thing, they have to quickly dodge out of the way or they will be crush by that same stack of bricks. This deception is interesting and really keeps players on their toes. The art style of Super Kitty seems to draw some inspiration from Super Mario. This is seen in some of the assets like the bricks and golden boxes. The bright colors in Super Kitty give an inspiring and happy feel to the gameplay which can sometimes be downright cruel. There are a couple of annoyances in Super Kitty, the first is a full screen ad that pops up occasionally. The second is an oddity in which enemies are not affected when hole appears on the ground. This is confusing for players as the enemies should fall down when they go over the hole. Super Kitty is free on the App Store. It's recommended for people who like ridiculously hard but dastardly clever challenges. However, it's not recommended for those who don't like repetitive actions.
ROTO: Simply Addictive
Guiding a ball to a finish flag by timing jumps from one rotating circle to another is the core gameplay feature of ROTO. While navigating a maze of rotatory platforms filled with hazards, such as spiky saw blades, players have to collect stars which will unlock levels. ROTO is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 6.0. ROTO features simple mechanics set in a very minimalistic environment. Players tap to jump from platform to platform in an attempt to collect all of the stars in each level. The circular platforms have different speeds and this requires players to adjust their timing. Because of this, the difficulty level increases fairly rapidly, adding challenge to every level. In addition to different platform speeds, the platforms themselves have other attributes. This encourages players to plan out there moves more carefully. There are grey ghost balls that slowly disappear when players land on them, which players have to keep in mind or they will plummet to the ground. Orange balls that cause the player's ball to bounce off of are available after an in-app purchase. There is a demo level in the game for players to check out this challenge. Another challenge that is unlocked are portals, which test players' ability to choose the correct pathway of portals to get all of the stars in the level. The sound effects in the game add interest to the gameplay and make it easy to tell what type of ball a player is currently on its attributes are. For instance, when players land on a ghost ball, there is a sound effect that gives an urgent feeling referencing the impending disappearance of the platform. A downside to ROTO is that the pause button is too small, which leads to difficulty tapping the button. However, the fun addictive nature of the gameplay overshadows this minor setback. Players will be too interested in trying to collect all of the stars, and won't want to pause. ROTO is free on the App Store and recommended for players who enjoy puzzle-platformers with easy to use controls and addictive challenges.
New Super Mario Bros Wii crosses 10 million copies sold
New Super Mario Bros Wii reached 10 million copies sold, Nintendo announced via Twitter. The side-scrolling platformer first launched on Wii in November 2009 and became Japan's fastest-selling game for the console two months later. Nintendo's return to 2D platforming action in the Mario series was popular for its multiplayer offerings; up to four players could traverse the Mushroom Kingdom's environments together, knocking into one another along the way. The publisher has since returned to Mario-leaping action on Wii U with games like 2012's New Super Mario Bros. U and last year's Super Mario 3D World, the latter listed by Joystiq as one of the ten best titles that launched in 2013. Nintendo shipped over two million copies of Super Mario 3D World as of May. [Image: Nintendo]
Towerfall expands into the Dark World on PS4 in 2015
Towerfall Ascension's forthcoming Dark World expansion will arrive on PS4 early next year, developer Matt Thorson revealed via PlayStation Blog. The update adds new playable archers, four levels, power-ups and more to the archery combat platformer. The developer also upped the number of team deathmatch levels per tower to five in the expansion. Thorson announced the Dark World update in September, and has since detailed several improvements to the game via his blog. Dark World will add the Vainglorious Ghoul red archer to the game's roster along with her ghostly ship as one of the levels, The Amaranth. The final tower of Towerfall's expansion, known as Cataclysm, features procedurally-generated levels to keep the action fresh for multiplayer bouts. Dark World will also include power-ups such as Prism Arrows and Trigger Arrows, the latter behaving like remote mines. [Image: Matt Thorson]
Puzzling platformer Forward to the Sky scales Greenlight's tower
What do you get when you blend a third-person perspective, puzzles, platforming mechanics, JRPG-inspired art and a big sword together? Forward to the Sky, of course, the 3D puzzle-platformer-with-a-big-sword game from independent developer Magichnology. The Taipei, Taiwan-based developer added its first game to the list of Steam hopefuls on Greenlight, awaiting community approval for distribution on the PC platform. Starting out as a side project for the developer in September 2013, the game is set in a "sky tower ruin." Players control a princess that gathers crystal pieces while ascending the tower and learning about a disaster that seemingly erased history. Magichnology crafted six levels for the game, each highlighted by the game's "relaxing mood, bright art" and "adventurous but peaceful music." Forward to the Sky is slated to launch in Q4 of this year on PC, Mac and Linux for $10. [Image: Magichnology]
