Horizontunnel

Video games have become a lot more accessible in the last decade, and so has game development. It’s no longer a basement hobby enjoyed by a handful of people, especially not when you’ve got examples like Candy Crush Saga or Minecraft. Hence, almost everyone has a game within reach today, whether it’s on their computer, smartphone or tablet.

Horizontunnel is a retro action-platformer in which the levels are procedurally-generated and the gameplay pretty hectic, while the difficulty level is through the roof. There’s not much of a story either, since all you have to do is get to the end of each level alive and do it again when the next one begins. You can jump, shoot and destroy the environment piece by piece, but it’s up to you what kind of approach you choose.

Your character has a limited number of bullets, and you have to replenish your ammo on a regular basis in order to survive. Each monster you kill drops ammunition, but there are times when you just don’t have enough time to wait and pick it up. Thankfully, you can also destroy enemies by simply jumping on them, although you have to make sure you land on top of them, otherwise you take damage.

Your gun can destroy a lot more than the enemies, on the other hand, since everything is destructible in the game. Granted, the levels are only designed using the same kind of blocks, so it’s not much of a surprise. Still, it’s a great way to avoid the platforming entirely, especially if you manage to be wary of the flying monsters that move a lot faster as well.

Speaking of which, there are also intermittent lasers that halt your progress every now and again, since the only way you can get past them is by waiting for them to become inactive. Things get significantly more difficult when more lasers spawn near each other, because you really have to work on your timing and make sure you don’t touch any of them.

In the end, Horizontunnel is not a revolutionary game, but the gameplay is challenging enough to intrigue gamers. The retro graphics might just trigger your nostalgia, which is always difficult to resist.