Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Shinobi x Ninja Gaiden x Strider, you say?

I know retro-tinged indie games are a dime a dozen these days, but I can't help but be attracted to some of them.

Take the focus of this post, for instance--which calls to mind such 8-bit standbys as Shinobi, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden and Strider. You'd have to have a heart of stone--or have started playing games after the 16-bit era--to not find JoyMasher's Oniken at least somewhat appealing, in my opinion.



Does this mean I've already picked up--for $4.99, via Desura--and spent some quality time with this colorful side-scroller? Not yet, but that's not due to a lack of interest on my part. Rather, it's because my backlog is already too full of un-played games (check out some of my recent "Acquisition #123" posts for a few examples) for me to start another one.

That said, don't be too surprised if you see me update the "Now Playing" section of this blog to include Oniken in the coming weeks.

12 comments:

warp said...

This looks fun. There's actually a free demo, so backlog is no excuse not to give it a try!

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Looks BEAUTFUL!

RetroKingSimon said...

Looks pretty sweet! Can you get it on Steam or something? I'm scared of the unknown and that website falls into that category :|

Bryan Ochalla said...

warp: I don't think you understand the dire state of my backlog. Seriously, every time I buy a game these days I ask myself, "Why are you doing this to yourself? Play some of those games you haven't even touched first, and THEN buy new games!" Ugh.

That said, maybe I'll give the demo a try soon. Have you tried it yourself? If so, what did you think of it?

Bryan Ochalla said...

Justin: It does look pretty awesome, doesn't it? Gah, I'm a complete sucker for games like this (games that look like old NES, Genesis or SNES titles).

Bryan Ochalla said...

Simon: As far as I can tell, it's only available via Desura at the moment. Not sure if it'll ever hit Steam or the like or not.

That said, I haven't heard any complaints about Desura in the NeoGAF thread about this game, so I'm guessing it should be OK for you to use if you're curious?

Maybe you should start with the free demo first. Then, if you like it, you can do a bit of Googling to make sure Desura is an OK site to use.

warp said...

Having some installation drama. This Desura thing is a pain in the ass. It's like Steam probably was right when they started out. I'll keep trying tho.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, sorry about that, warp. Not that it's my fault or anything, but, you know, I turned you onto it and everything. Anyway, I hope you get it working eventually!

warp said...

OK, I finally got it sorted out. When you get to the end of the installation, it sits on the Direct X installation for a LONG time, and it looks like it's done. You just gotta be really patient, and let it do its thing.

As for the game, I played about 5 minutes in and got to the first boss, who pulverized me. It's actually pretty fun, and feels like an old SNES/Genesis action game. The best part for me is the music tho -- it's chiptunes of course, but with a nice eerie synth sound. Overall it's no Noitu Love 2, but definitely worth trying the free demo.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Hey, thanks for taking one for the team, warp :)

As for this game feeling like an old Genesis/SNES action game: Sounds awesome to me! As does the use of chiptunes.

Retr0gamer said...

I saw the article on HG101 and I'm totally sold on this game come pay day :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, there's an article about it on HG101, Retr0gamer? I'll have to check that out!