PixelLinkr #186: The Story Behind the Puzzle

Comix Zone puts its hero inside a comic and lets the artist draw enemies into the panels. It is a strong visual concept and an extremely hostile working relationship between creator and character.

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🟢 Easy: Modern RPGs styled after the 16-bit era

Games: Chained Echoes · Cosmic Star Heroine · I Am Setsuna · Rise of the Third Power

These games borrow the readable maps and party battles of 1990s console RPGs without pretending design stopped there. Chained Echoes removes random encounters and adds mechs. I Am Setsuna turns a familiar pilgrimage structure into a snowy exercise in melancholy.

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🟡 Medium: Cards drive tactical battles

Games: Marvel's Midnight Suns · Gordian Quest · Floppy Knights · Card Hunter

The deck determines what a unit can do, while the board determines whether doing it is useful. Midnight Suns treats superhero powers as cards. Floppy Knights runs its tiny army from floppy disks, a storage medium finally rewarded for its combat potential.

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🔵 Hard: Illustrated pages frame the action

Games: Comix Zone · Viewtiful Joe 2 · Liberated · The Plucky Squire

Liberated presents its dystopia through comic panels. The Plucky Squire jumps out of a storybook into a 3D bedroom, then returns to the page with new tricks. The connection is the page as both visual frame and playable space.

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🟣 Tricky: The playable hero is a fox

Games: Spirit of the North 2 · Lucky's Tale · Super Lucky's Tale · Kingsley's Adventure

Two Luckys bring bright platforming. Kingsley adds armor and a sword. Spirit of the North 2 drops the cartoon posture and lets a red fox travel with a raven. Foxes, it turns out, support several equipment loadouts.

Today's CineLinkr board also has performers in unusual roles, although its musical numbers contain substantially more murder.