I’m sure many of us remember those Saturday Afternoon Kung-fu flicks. It’s difficult to look at films like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, Dance of the Drunk Mantis, and Five FIngers of Death and not see the inspiration for modern day fighters such as Tekken and Mortal Kombat. Hell, look at Fei Long and all the other Bruce Lee look-alikes you see in various fighters. Kings of Kung Fu and Shaolin vs Wu-Tang is a pair of fighters from jae Lee productions that pay tribute to these old movies. For a pair of independently developed fighting games, these aren’t half bad.
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Vlambeer’s (Super Crate Box, Luftrausers) 2013 mobile fishing game, which is an enhanced version of the company’s flash browser game Radical Fishing, is perhaps more famous for the developer’s battle with the developer of a cloned game. To make a long story short, shortly after beginning work on a mobile version, developer Gamenauts released Ninja Fishing, an game that had a similar style of play. The game became an instant success, and this discouraged the developers to a point where they temporarily scrapped the project. However, after winning awards for their game Super Crate Box, the team decided to scrap everything and rebuild Ridiculous Fishing. Thankfully the game was a success, and is one of the best games available on mobile platforms.
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Last Friday was of course, the kick off for the holiday season. No doubt people will be going to war with each other for cheap microwaves and HDTVs in scenes that no doubt rival the WWE Royal Rumble. However, many of our more sensible readers no doubt want to join in on the savings, even if they don’t wish to risk their lives. Fear not, once again for the 5th year in a row, here is a selection of cheap games that are $20 or less all year around. Because of current cybermonday/black Friday/ steam sales, you might be able to find them for cheaper.
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Much has been made about the media and the role it plays in daily life. Also, much has been made about censorship and its role in the media. With this past week’s election, many people have different opinions on the media and its role in politics. Double zero double zero’s indie title The Westport Independent takes aim at the press and censorship. Like 2013’s Papers Please, it’s a low resolution title that is easy to play, but makes its players think about a major hot button topic.
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You’ve no doubt played shitloads of games involving war. Maybe they were strategy games where you commanded an army and gathered resources to fund said army until you can smash your opponent into oblivion. Maybe you played a role playing game where you and your party were involved in a plot which had the war as its backdrop. Maybe you played games such as Dynasty Warriors, Age of Empires, or Total that let players battle through historical (if not totally accurate) portrayals of war. Maybe you played FPS games that made you a one-man army as you gunned down untold amounts of faceless enemies. War in a video game always helps enhance the gameplay or the plot is is typically an awesome affair. As anyone knows however, war in real life is nothing like in a video game, and in real life, not everyone involved in a war is a soldier. I’m not talking about the politicians and corporate execs who profit and benefit from war either, but the innocent civilians caught up in the war. This War of Mine, from 11-bit, helps capture the experience in what can be considered the darkest version of the Sims ever.
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Hotline Miami 2 is the sequel to 2012’s surprise hit. The game follows the stories of several different factions in the wake of Jacket’s 1-man rampage in the original. The game’s storyline is Tarantino-esque, and you’ll often jump around between the past and present as you learn about the alternate history of Miami, and more about the mask-killings. The new playable characters include a group of fans of Jacket who commit random murders, a rogue cop, and a movie actor filming a movie about the killings. Gameplay is pretty much the same as the original, although that isn’t a bad thing. You’ll have to make your way through each stage, killing everything and everyone in sight. Like the original, you’ll find a variety of weapons by which to utilize to inflict pain. The game features more synth-heavy 80s inspired music, and the soundtrack is on sale via Steam. Hotline Miami 2 contains more of what gamers liked about the original: challenging gameplay and gory action with an old-school look.

5 Nights at Freddy’s and its sequel have less production values than the last Resident Evil, Dead Space, and Silent Hill games. However, it may be even scarier and disturbing than all three of those games combined thanks to its minimalist design. 5NAF is a point and click adventure game where you play as a security guard at a Chuck-e-Cheese-esque pizza restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s pizza that features several animatronics; Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and the titular Freddy. During the day things are all good (barring a couple of incidents….), but during the night, the animatronics are put on free roam mode, because if they don’t roam around at night their servo motors would lock up and apparently it’s cheaper to hire a security guard than a repair man. Here is where things get well…… you know. It’s creepy enough having these things walk around by themselves like innocent children, but the truth is is that they’re actually trying to get into you office. They think you’re an endo-skeleton without a suit so they’re trying to stuff you into one, killing you in the process. You’ll have to monitor the cameras, turning on the lights, and shutting doors when needed, all while keeping an eye on your power. If you run out of power before 6am, you’re fucked. In the sequel, there are no doors and you’re only given a freddy mask to hopefully deceive the animatronics. Yikes. If the animatronics make their way into the office, then it’s game over in the scariest possible way. However, the hidden lore and fan theories behind the game prove to be scarier and more disturbing then the game itself. Check it out over at the http://freddy-fazbears-pizza.wikia.com/wiki/Five_Nights_at_Freddy%27s_Wiki

The Ouya isn’t exactly taking the world by storm, but I still gotta show it some love. Yes I know its launch wasn’t exactly perfect and not that many people are buying the software, but it’s not a triple A console, it’s an independently developed project funded via kickstarter. It’s $99, it can run your favorite retro games via emulator, it has a library of games already available for it (for better or worse), and you can develop software for it. That last part is especially important, because with the indie development scene exploding, you’ll wind up with experimental entries like American Dream that you won’t see on Steam any time soon.
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