absolute platforming perfection. this game is so well crafted and pretty damn difficult. if you’re a fan of platforming and have not played this game, get excited, you have a few real great days coming.
beautifully atmospheric art and music. niffla’s games are so enjoyable. both knytt stories and within a deep forest have a similar engine, but play as unique games. i strongly recommend these titles for anyone who liked ico, or really anyone who wants to play a perfect puzzle-esque platformer. it’s on par with cave story, without weapons.
I’ve been playing Penumbra now for a while. The first part was great and the second one, the one I’m playing now, is good too but the enemies are a bit ridiculous in this one, like naked black metal Gollums. Otherwise it’s a great game, not free though.
Tumiki Fighters: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/tf_e.html
Harsh but compelling hectic japanese shmup in which you collect fallen enemies and stick them onto your own ship gaining extra firepower. I got seriously into this a couple of years ago, managed to get 2 million-odd points. It doesn’t look that amazing and can be cruel at times but once you manage to reach that tipping point where you are more powerful than any of the enemies it’s immensely satisfying.
Warning Forever: http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/dlcount.cgi?product=wf
More japanese bullet hell, this one is absolutely fantastic. It’s basically an endless stream of boss fights, but each time a new boss appears it will have evolved slightly based on how you attacked it last time.
The obsessive-compulsive inside me got seriously hooked, because it’s possible to defeat the boss in a certain way to control how it grows. There are only a certain number of main boss ‘forms’, and I just had to collect them all, like fucking pokemon or something. I spent an unhealthy amount of time trying to grow the ‘ISE-ONE’.
