First sighted at Magfest, currently in public alpha and available to try now, RetroBlazer is a game that presses all the right buttons for me. Early 2.5d FPS gameplay (Wolfenstein, Rise of The Triad, etc) with an aesthetic very heavily inspired by the MegaMan X series, and running on the Darkplaces engine, a very powerful modern variant of the software behind Quake. It looks like a high-tech version of Locomalito’s 8-Bit Killer if it were made by Capcom, and I must have the full game ASAP. Gameplay footage and some impressions after the break.

After the impressive success of Recettear and Chantelise, it was clear that indie localization team Carpe Fulgur were on to a good thing. Now, they’ve unveiled their third translated Japanese indie title – Fortune Summoners: Secret of The Elemental Stone, due for release on January 17th for $25. A steep price, even compared to their previous two releases – it’s going to be a hard sell.

Running with Rifles – although inadvisable for those lacking the proper arms training – is surprisingly effective as a top-down shooter, I recently discovered. Modulaatio Games are putting something particularly impressive together with this title. The premise is simple: it’s belly-to-the-ground, blood-and-guts warfare on a massive scale. You play one man with one puny weapon who, in the long run, will be able to climb ranks to influence his comrades and lead them into battle. The developer explains:

Katawa Shoujo is a very unusual game. Notable enough that it’s a romantic visual novel developed by a western studio. Even stranger is the setting – a boy with a heart condition seeking romance in a special needs high-school. More unusual still is that the demo version was translated to Japanese, and earned no shortage of fans when it and associated art materials were sold at key comic markets around Japan. But the strangest thing of all? It started out as a joke. A tongue-in-cheek sketch done by a Japanese artist, detailing a range of disabled dating sim characters led a team to assemble from 4Chan – first to mock it… then to try to turn it into a full-length game. And now? It’s just a few weeks away from release.

Stephen “increpare” Lavelle has got a new game, and it’s out right now. His fuzzy ball-pushing abstract puzzler English Country Tune has just released, and it’s available here for $9.99 of PC and Mac, and here for $4.99 on iPhone and iPad. Read on for more details.

Nemesys Games, the Hungarian outfit responsible for the likes of Fortix 2 and Air Traffic Controller, released their shiny car racing game onto Steam last month, and for those curious enough to try it out, they’ve just today uploaded a demo of it too. Grab the demo yourself from Steam right here.

Blink and you’ll miss it – you stop paying attention to fangames for just a couple of days, and a whole community convention is held behind your back! The Nintendo Community Fangame Convention this year saw a whole raft of great freeware games released. While you can see the whole list of entrants on the NCFC site, here’s a few choice highlights, encompassing both complete titles and demos. There’s some really impressive games on show here, well worth your bandwidth and time:

One of the top games from the Eurogamer Expo Indie Arcade was Squid in a Box’s Waves, and unreal engine powered twin stick shooter. You can catch my impressions from the expo here, and my interview with designer Rob Hale here. But you probably don’t need to, since thanks to the magical technology of a free demo, you can try the game for yourself. Go and grab the demo for yourself over here.

The demo gives you a taste of the Crunch Time game mode: You’ve got unlimited lives, but just three minutes to kill as many baddies as you can. I got 254,731 on my first go, but you can be sure I’m going to go back and beat that later.

It’s great that there’s a free demo for this, since you really need to see the level of polish and witness how slick everything is for yourself to really appreciate it.

Why not have a look at this trailer whilst the demo is downloading.

The full version of Waves should be available “soon”.

[Squid in a box]

Good news for those of you who really, really wanted to play the Binding of Isaac, but were too cheap to shill out the $5 entry fee to play the game as Edmund McMillen and new Grounds have teamed up to offer a demo of the game in the flash variety!

The game can be played via your browser right now but only features 2 of the full 8 levels in the Binding of Isaac. Also if you buy the full version (for only $5!) you get a slew of extra content including additional endings, more items and 3+ unlockable characters as well as any updates that may or may not be coming…

For those who don’t know what the Binding of Isaac is, here’s a brief description:

When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother.

The Binding of Isaac is a randomly generated action RPG shooter with heavy Rogue-like elements. Following Isaac on his journey players will find bizarre treasures that change Isaac’s form giving him super human abilities and enabling him to fight off droves of mysterious creatures, discover secrets and fight his way to safety.

Our own review of the game will be coming later this week as well as a walkthrough of sorts. Until then, if you feel the need check out the demo and let us know what you think!

[Buy via Steam, Demo]

For as many roguelike, Metroidvania and other “like” games out there that are set in genres based on thew games that pioneered them for whatever reason there just never seemed to be that many Zelda-like games, despite itself being a rather unique and incredibly popular series. Sure, back in the NES/SNES heyday there were quite a few rip-offs like Neutopia, but in today’s modern day and age you’d think indie developers would rise to the task.

Luckily, one developer certainly has gone the distance to create a game that lands somewhere, graphically, in between the original Zelda and Zelda: A Link to the Past, with a very haunting setting.

The game has you playing as a destitute vampyre who promises to rid a village of some rampaging specpyres. A specpyre essentially being a vampyre that can transform itself into ghosts and other spectral beings.

As I’ve already stated, the game itself looks remarkably like the old school Zelda games. There are multiple weapons, dungeons and destructible environments all similar to the beloved Nintendo franchise.

If you’re interested in checking it out follow the link below to the demo. The game itself won’t release until next month some time (fittingly enough) for an undisclosed sum.

[Demo]

Trailer