Hidden gems

[mysha]

I'd like to start a topic highlighting games that might not be very popular or well known, but that still have something that made you remember them fondly.

For the first game I'd like to mention Iji from Remar Games/Daniel Remar, a free and quite old (2008) one person project.
Site: https://www.remargames.se/iji.php (works under Wine)
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33mxD4FjD3w

As the author writes:

Iji is an action-packed strategic platform shooter with large levels, powerful bosses, and lots of secrets. There are alternate gameplay events, dialogues and scenes depending on what you do, and a wealth of extras and bonuses.

The gameplay itself might not be the most remarkable, but it's not bad given it was made with GameMaker.
The "alternate gameplay events" (i.e. what you do gameplay wise can greatly influence the plot, not to spoil too much), the plot itself and the general mood are what makes the game memorable for me. "Earn your happiness" is quite fitting for some of the alternate plot events, given that killing is not the only option.
The music is also quite good, having some nice fitting original tracks and remixes (like a cover of Machinae Supremacy - Hero).

iji1.png (36.97 KiB) Viewed 171 times

iji2.png (21.78 KiB) Viewed 171 times

[Lightman68]

I'll always admire when a game's style has that 1 pixel thick lighting - like on those square panels with the 4 rivets, to indicate a direction light at the top left. It's really specific but that kind of thing reminds me of both messing in MS paint along with old Windows... windows. It scratches the brain well for me.

Respect for the deviation from the usual 'destroy to win', and also the Hero cover. Sounds like a neat thing.

[Lightman68]

This was personally a neat little game whenever I was much younger. It's called Debris (or apparently 3D astro Blaster at some point).

You got a little ship that shot normal ammo. Destroying asteroids or enemy ships that occasionally spawn can give you powerups to enhance your ship's capabilities such as engines, weapons, or shields. Dude, shields is an exercise in reaction time, because it drains as it's held down, and when it drops to zero it starts to flicker which isn't the best in protecting against asteroids - you take damage when you collide with something or get shot at by enemy ships. It's funny, because there's an upgrade that increases your armor (essentially you're able to shrug off an extra point of damage), so in some rare cases where you're able to increase your armor many times and take damage many times, your ship's systems can get so messed up in weirdly creative ways, like you could shoot a bullet every second or so with the green reserves only a few pixels tall. It was such a fun mechanic that I constantly played the demo many times.

It had an archaic way of buying it, in which it'll open up a notepad document to fill in the "___" to then mail with money to someone. Young me didn't have money nor really knew how to buy it, and the sad thing is that now I'm adult and I can't buy it anymore because it's now abandonware! I am forever stuck with the demo version. There's probably something metaphorical about all of this somewhere...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No7AEDyBxnw