10 Days of 100 Games, Review

I have a new perspective on PICO-8 games. When I think of PICO-8 games, I typically only think of the best designed, most polished games; the featured games. This series has made me realize that there are far more works in progress and beginners’ games than masterpieces. After trying 100 PICO-8 games, I think I can say that the average PICO-8 game is: a Celeste mod, work in progress, or a decent game (that’s inclusive, Celeste mods can be decent games). And that’s fine. I’m glad that, beyond the stage of wizards, there’s a multitude of people making what they can and being accepting enough of their creations to publish.

Some other notes: 2 minutes per game was the perfect amount. Sometimes I’d be waiting for the timer, other times I’d forget it was running and continue playing long afterward. I’m not sure how I managed to not play any Celeste mods, maybe I’ll have to do a separate series. Also, PICO-8 is the perfect platform for trying lots of games. They’re all free, instant to download, and there’s plenty of variety. PICO-8’s Splore lucky draw feature made it super easy to find new games.

Here’s all the games I played, in the order I played them:

1. Alpine Alpaca
2. Drumset
3. Clouds Aloft
4. Stick v1.01
5. On the Wind
6. Cernan Slalom
7. Dominopolis
8. Can Crusher
9. frostpunk_pico
10. Amika’s Quest
11. PICOCHAK
12. S W O R D F I S H
13. Repo Runner
14. Lefty
15. UFO Swap Odyssey
16. Slider
17. Earth Was a Bad Choice
18. Picopolis
19. Wander Kid
20. Space Limit
21. Endless Train
22. Two Hiking Cats Have An In Depth Discussion About Life The Universe And Everything
23. Frog Home
24. SANDBOX-8
25. Squiddy (PICO-1k Jam)
26. Prove CSTORE 4096-Bytes
27. Solais (LD46 Compo)
28. PicoKart
29. Snackzzle
30. Twaffic (tweettweetjam, 554 chars)
31. Succer
32. Snowman Builder
33. Fireflies
34. Cellular automata tweetcart
35. MetroCUBEvania
36. Rainmaker
37. Euclid Was A Square
38. Web Pilot – Tempest-inspired tube shooter
39. TI-83 Fall
40. snowstorm
41. Mr.Box and Blocks
42. U-turn
43. Calculator Vs Blackboard
44. LIINES
45. GET OUT of this Dungeon
46. chode
47. Component Snow
48. podimikesi
49. NOOB No-Obj
50. OpenSimplex noise generator demo
51. A Doukutsu Demake
52. Star Beast
53. Music Cart: Hinata vs. Neji (Naruto OST)
54. Dash To The Core
55. gravdog
56. underball
57. Polyspiral
58. Super Poulet Poulet
59. Out Run / Hang-On style road rendering with tline()
60. Shodo
61. Pizza generator
62. Ready, Set, Goo!
63. Diamond Ghost
64. Jacquard Loom
65. The Merciless Deep
66. Antiban
67. PicoDiver
68. Fractal trees
69. The Floor Is Shaking, Also There Is Lava
70. flying_simulator
71. Ooze Runner
72. Metablob
73. Orbiter Suite
74. Mocha
75. The Chamber Scrolls [LD37]
76. Pilot8
77. Burger Queem
78. Cube Demo
79. not sid meier’s Danmaku
80. 8VENTURE
81. Classic Screensaver
82. Slime Bubble Bro
83. Pong paddle 1.3 (updated)
84. test
85. Anchors & Miners
86. Snow Tower
87. Generator+
88. Frog King
89. Z to Continue
90. SDF ray-marcher
91. Skydive
92. Untitled
93. Sinematch 1.1
94. Test Controls!
95. A study of horizontally scrolling shooter
96. platformer_basic
97. Change animation sequence on button input
98. Super Drift Bikes
99. unnamed rhythm game
100. zerpong

See you tomorrow for a review of the NES controller + retroUSB!