Guardian of Paradise A free, puzzle-based game (a lot like Zelda, but different) made by a Japanese independent developer - I think this game is up there with Cave Story in quality and fun, although it's far less popular. Translated by aeon genesis. More info here: http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=rakuga including instructions on how to download and apply the translation patch.
Please trust me when I say this game is extremely clever. Your character gains 12 elemental powers like flying, fireball, and more over the course of the game, can find items to increase your maximum health, and need to juggle what element you currently hold on to as you can only hold onto one of four elements at a time. A lot of the very neat puzzles center around arranging your elemental use and switching to get past obstacles.
If you like Zelda, you'll love this. It's NOT EXACTLY LIKE ZELDA, but appeals to me the way Zelda does - combat with lil baddies, exploring dungeons, getting new abilities (elemental spirits/powers rather than Zelda items though), big boss fights - it's a DAMN GOOD GAME, and free, like everything else in this thread.
It's one of my top two favorite "indie" games - including both free and for cost - it's that good!
Forget Ghosts N Goblins, Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads. This is the hardest game ever. It will tear your sanity away from you and beat you to death with it.
You take the role of The Kid, armed with his trusty gun on his quest to become The Guy thorough a metroidvania style explorable world in which excellent platforming skills required. However, one hit from anything be it enemies/spikes/apples and you die.
The game is about perseverance. You will fail over and over again, but the joy you will get after finally beating a screen/level/boss/the game will be unparalleled. If you liked the difficulty of the classic 2d platformers from the NES era, or if you are a just a masochist, then you will love IWBTG.
For the best explanation of what its like playing IWBTG, watch this video of someone playing through one of the early paths of the game, though they make it look a lot easier than it actually is.
On May 31 2010 02:35 nceuphoria wrote: I enjoy playing quite a bit of Valkyrie Sky when I get tired of SC. It's somewhat like old arcade plane shooters like Raiden.
Just a side note, although the game it's free, it's one of those item shop games. Although from personal experience at level ~30 ish, you don't really actually have to buy any of their items to progress.
awesome
My Contributions:
SINGLE PLAYER Warning Forevever:
CrimsonLand:
MULTIPLAYER Magic WorkStation:
Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike on GGPO:
Also pseudo free games if you are skilled at internets (both are single player puzzle/de games): Plants vs Zombies Luxor 3 (or any of the series I assume).
Ok, I got to say that Nexuiz is one of the best free games (it's a shooter) out there. The graphics are very good which is not always easy to say for free games.
I also love that it is available for both Mac and Windows. In fact the very same set of files plays on a Mac and Windows too. Very convenient. Say I want to play LAN from my mac with a friend on his windows machine? No problem. Just copy the files over and play.
A few of my recommendations are of games that entertained me eons ago.
First there are the remakes of the classic Sierra Entertainment adventure games Quest for Glory II and King's Quest I and II by AGD, and King's Quest III by Infamous Adventures. The plots, puzzles, art, and graphics have all been expanded and updated.
Several other old point-and-click adventure games have been released for free to be used with ScummVM such as the popular cyberpunk game Beneath a Steel Sky.
Lastly, there's the remake of the 1993 game Wing Commander: Privateer, Privateer Gemini Gold, which is an open-ended adventure space trading/combat simulator made with the Vega Strike engine (which itself was influenced by Privateer and is really cool). The Righteous Fire add-on's story is included as well.
Basically, this was a Q3A total conversion, which is now completely free after the Q3 GPL release. It's a mixture of various elements from other FPS: Maps and weapons are modelled realistically, quite like Counter-Strike, while preserving Q3 movement like strafejumping and adding new tricks like walljumping, climbing up ledges etc. There are lots of gamemodes like FFA, TDM, CTF, Bomb Mode (like CS) Team Survivor and more.
I have enjoyed this game for a very long time. As a former CS player, i liked the faster gameplay and bigger emphasis on movement/trickjumping in UrT.
A few of my recommendations are of games that entertained me eons ago.
First there are the remakes of the classic Sierra Entertainment adventure games Quest for Glory II and King's Quest I and II by AGD, and King's Quest III by Infamous Adventures. The plots, puzzles, art, and graphics have all been expanded and updated.
Several other old point-and-click adventure games have been released for free to be used with ScummVM such as the popular cyberpunk game Beneath a Steel Sky.
Lastly, there's the remake of the 1993 game Wing Commander: Privateer, Privateer Gemini Gold, which is an open-ended adventure space trading/combat simulator made with the Vega Strike engine (which itself was influenced by Privateer and is really cool). The Righteous Fire add-on's story is included as well.
Along with Falcon 4: Allied Force one of the most realistic (control wise) combat flight simulators I've ever played. This is made by fans, so it has some bugs, but it's been a while since I played it and they're still improving it (I hope. The latest version seems to be up since May 2010). FF5 has even slightly better realism than F4:AF (I remember anti-radar missiles (HARM) had more realistic (harder) manipulation in FF5). The manual on its own is a good long reading.
It's not an easy game at all, but the feeling that you get once you finally are able to even start engines, take off, and land, without breaking anything is great Then there is also multiplayer, I know people from FF community fly missions together in formations and stuff quite regularly.
The game is a huge source of fun at LAN, too bad the online community and the development has been dead for quite a while now. :/ It's still very fun especially as the game is very moddable.
Iji is an action-packed strategic platform shooter with a detailed story, large levels with multiple paths, powerful bosses and lots of secrets. There are alternate gameplay events, dialogues and scenes depending on what you do, a wealth of extras and bonus features, and seven stats to upgrade through a leveling system. Iji herself has superhuman strength and abilities, and can crack Nanotechnology, use her enemies' most devastating weapons against them, and be a pacifist or a killer - the story adapts to how you play.
Engage to Jabberwock is a freeware hybrid shmup from Japanese developer Platine Dispositif. In the game you roam a large, single dungeon in 2d, blasting enemies with various magic spells and collecting items. To describe it as “Bullet Hell Zelda” (Bullet Hellda?) wouldn’t be inaccurate.
Make sure to go to the option menu and change your input to “Keyboard” before you play (the default is “Joystick”). Change the key configuration, also!
Iwanaga is a run-and-gun shooter with lots of bullets and an interesting weapon system. The ice and fire shots have very different properties that make them excel at different situations. As you use one, its power level decreases, making the other more powerful. Download link (also, Vacant Ark is pretty good too)
edit: I have to personally un-recommend the previously-recommended Guardian of Paradise if you're looking for an adventure game with any kind of challenge. I guess if you like modern Zelda it might be a good fit though?