Ask Lemmy

GUNZ The Duel - man that was just so much fun. Online guns and swords gladiator style battles in the most neat stages. I remember an old mansion with broken staircases and balconies, a train station with freight cargo all over the place, an actual roman colosseum, a beach with a grounded ship ashore.

Some people could do this thing called K-style or butterfly style where you slash your sword against walls or other objects which made you lift off the ground, and switch between your gun to shoot as you do so - it was a neat trick which I learned but definitely did not master.

So much fun though.

Guardian Heroes was an outstanding RPG beat 'em up on Sega Saturn. It had

• a two player co-op storyline with branching choices to get alternate endings

• unlockable characters for a 6-player arena mode

• incredibly unique characters to unlock, spellcasting with ➡️⬅️⬆️⬇️ input

• and a kick ass soundtrack.

Nothing has really scratched the same itch since (yes, I'm aware there's a sequel, but it's terrible).

Squarez Deluxe.

I've been on a one-man promotion spree of that game for almost 20 years

It is now freeware, it's available on DOSBox, and it is the best shape-packing game ever made - you cannot even debate me once you try it.

Urban Terror

The Adventures of Lolo - a puzzle game on the NES. There were 1 or 2 sequels depending on how you count and they were fun too.

It’s a puzzle game with fairly simple mechanics but surprising complexity and difficulty. I beat both US versions and designed levels for a knockoff but have never met anyone in person that has heard of it.

Patricks parabox. The ultimate sokoban IMO

Revenge of the Mutant Camels - highlight 1: "Ninety-foot high, neutronium shielded, laser-spitting, death camels". Hightlight 2: Almost 40 years after its first release, in 2021 Jeff Minter fixed a bug on collision detection in the Commodore 64 version.
Impossible Mission - highlight: "Another visitor. Stay a while... stay forever!"
Deuteros - highlight: the way the game world unfolded and opened up
Syndicate - highlight: abusing the Persuadertron
Shadow Hearts - highlight: the Judgement Ring

I think I'd have to say La-Mulana.

Dysmantle.

Casual post apocalyptic survival etc game. It’s also available on consoles, switch and mobile.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/846770/DYSMANTLE/

Hellnight/Dark Messiah

It's a relatively obscure PS1 game in the horror genre.

The main thing that made it relatively unique among the horror game of the PS1 era is its lack of action mechanics. It’s essentially a horror dungeon crawler without action mechanics. You can run away or sneak past the invincible enemy, or if you gain a companion, the enemy kills your companion allowing you to run away when caught.

It is pretty different from the other horror games from the PS1 era, which made it relatively disappointing for those expecting it to be similar to the likes of Resident Evil or even Silent Hill.

The Strider reboot. I wouldn't have minded another one of them, but I guess I'll replay it again instead.

Mortal Sin, a Melee - Roguellike with great visuals and a dev that cares a lot.

ΔV: Rings of Saturn, a hard-scifi 2d asteroid mining game. Great to relax to, a nice community and a great dev, linux native!

Deadlink, a Roguelike arena shooter, tight controls, pretty hard for an aging man like me, but i still like it, even if it puts me in my place regularly lol

Dark Fall 1 & 2 (specifically not 3)

couple of my favorite point and click adventures, and I've played a lot

Strife - last commercial release (at least until a recent retro game using it) of the Doom Engine. Picked it up for £3.50 or something about '97.

Think Hexen but plot, charming pixel-comic art, and some potentially frustrating boss fights and rpg lite elements.
Lots of fun, and does interesting stuff. I quote the voice acting quite a lot, but no one notices.