Backfire

Great retro style game with full (Xbox One USB) controller support. The soundtrack inparticular is quite good. The enemies are varied and their death animations are violent including being blown to smithereens by grenades you launch or their chest being torn open after you blast them with a mech you've jumped into. The gameplay is nothing revolutionary and more an homage to old-school/retro shooters, but if you're a fan of that era of game then you will probably enjoy this as well. I especially like the character and enemy designs as they have a realistic portrayal and anatomy that is often missing from these kinds of shooters, which instead often opt for more cartoony or chibi-like features. There are a few technical issues with the game including a game-breaking problem I encountered in one area with how the levels progress at times, let's say you were supposed to take a corridor on the right, and instead walked "too far ahead" (or up) to obstruct your view of the corridor your wer...

This game has been released some time ago on itch, and I thought the idea was cool and the graphics looked simple, but unique. Now I also have it on Steam because I enjoyed the game, and it's really not making a difference to the wallet anyway. This game has its flaws, the controls can be a little stiff, you can't shoot enemies outside the screen which can get on your nerves sometimes, and it doesn't really have that much content. But the gameplay is simple and enjoyable. I have played this game alone and with a friend, and playing it with a friend is a lot more fun, also a lot easier(as playing alone can get really difficult by the other half of the game). There are not many items in the shop, but at least there is some variety to how to play the game with the different things you can buy there. Also, like I said before, the art style is simple, it does look like it's made in paint, but it is far from an eyesore. Frankly, I like the art style and the environments. The "cut scenes"...

I think the game was drawn in paint. This isn't necessarily bad but the menu definitely does not look unified. The gameplay would be fun if the controls were a little better. You can fire in 8 directions and you have to maneuver your character side to side. You can't change the direction you are firing while you are firing, so good luck responding to new incoming enemies. I feel like the game could be really fun. However, the more I think about it, the more things I come up with that I did not enjoy. The characters are interchangeable and in a game like this, you would expect weapon upgrades to drop. https://youtu.be/IE4IHKsN03Q

Backfire is an extremely badly made 2D retro pixel top down shooter/ripoff of games like Commando (only very very much worse). It was slapped together with the (Edit: GameMaker Studio, using some of the same libraries as Construct 2 in this case) construction kit, which means the developer had no idea what they were doing, and unsurprisingly the resultant garbage has no value or merit as a real game for PC gamers. There's some kind of lame sci-fi/cyberpunk theme as you shoot up waves of samey copy + pasted bad guys and wonder what you did in life to deserve such punishment as playing garbage like this. You can't shoot on angles and the badly done controls make it difficult and unpleasant just to even try playing. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The artwork here is terrible, it's a blend of old retro pixel "art" used as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics, and some of the most amateurish ...

Ok so I felt like supporting a very small game and maybe finding a gem; the latter unfortunately did not occur. But it still can! This game needs two important things to sell. The ability to rotate your shooting direction without taking your finger off the button, and HEALTH POWER UPS. Otherwise, all your great artwork will go to waste if no one ever makes it through to see it ;). Get the work fellas.