A couple of new games have been making waves and getting some attention on Steam's Greenlight service, enabling gamers, media and the community at large to stand up and take notice of these indie gems that aim to delight, enlighten and brighten up our days, or at least provide us with some delectable targets to devour as cannon fodder in our space-age aerial craft.
The handful of games spotlighted in these Greenlight buffet of digital delights includes Liege, Strike Vector and Armikrog. We'll get things started with Liege because this game here seems to be a real throwback to classic JRPGs like Tales of Phantasia and Seiken Densetsu 3 on the SNES. The highlight, however, is that the game does make use of some of today's newer graphical technology, employing shadows, playful lighting and 3D-esque character designs in a somewhat isometric RPG viewscape.
Liege has a very unique blend of artistic chemistry and a stoic visual presentation to give gamers a stronger focus on ambiance and story development. How well this will work in the endgame is anyone's guess but it at least looks good and seems to have a steady head on its shoulders. You can check out more over on the Greenlight page.
Strike Vector is a really cool, fast-paced 3D, aerial, arcade simulator. You get all the fast-paced action and thrills that you would might have expected from a 3D vector game from 1995, but made for today's gamer in mind.
The combat is very similar to old-school titles like Descent and Terminal Velocity, where the focus is on hard-hitting equipment that really feels like it packs a punch. This is coupled with extremely tight controls, very fast-paced combat and dogfighting maps designed to really push the limits for players who will have to maintain both flight proficiency and targeting efficiency. It's a neat throwback to the sort of X-Wing and Privateer games of old.
More recently there were titles like Black Prophecy that tried to capture this element, but unfortunately it was prematurely shut down. If you'd like to see more sci-fi flight simulators on the market in addition to RSI's Star Citizen, you can check out Strike Vector over on the official Greenlight page.
Hey, remember The Neverhood? Yeah, back when Microsoft used to make really great games and they were pushing for a lot of high-end games back when Windows 98 was a prime marketing directive for the company? Well, Armikrog is a throwback to that era where creative game design was at the forefront of interactive entertainment and visual ingenuity and originality had a tendency to really capture the audience back in the day.
With all the hoopla over classic point-and-click adventure titles hitting massive success on Kickstarter from companies like Double Fine and tons of 16-bit style RPGs making a comeback via crowdsourcing (similar to Liege above), it only makes sense that live-action claymation games make a comeback, too. Right? Right?
While the Wii U stretch goal didn't quite pan out, maybe if the game hits some success when it does release we'll eventually get a port over to Nintendo's latest console? Who knows. Anyway, Pencil Test Studios' Armikrog is fully funded and aimed to bring the point-and-click adventures of old to you once it's done and ready. Getting the game upvoted and approved on for Steam just makes the process easier for people to buy it when it finally does release. If you want to see the return of claymation in your video game library, feel free to give an upvote or two to Armikrog over on the official Steam Greenlight page.
