Gravity Circuit is a truly excellent game re-creating the best of the 8-bit era!! If this game had been released for the NES back in the day, it would be remembered as one of the all-time greats! From the graphics to the chip-tunes to the smooth and satisfying game play, it IS one the great 8-bit games of today!

After completing the initial (tutorial) stage, Gravity Circuit opens up like a 'Mega Man' game where you get to choose from one of the eight available levels. Each level has a different theme with gimmicks (hazards that activate to the music, fire traps / lava pits, fighting on trucks with road sign hazards etc.) and killer chip-tunes to match. Each level finishes with a boss (obviously) matching said theme and present a decent challenge, mixing it up enough to keep things interesting.

Instead of gaining new suits, play styles or abilities from bosses, currency collected throughout levels can be used to purchase 'Burst Techniques' and 'Booster Chips' which become available for purchase after completing levels or challenges.

'Burst Techniques' are 'Power Moves' that are based on boss abilities (mostly I believe), of which you can have up to four equipped at any time. They range from a leap forward into pile-driving an enemy to a giant fist attack or slamming the ground to create damaging lava bursts.

Even more interesting are the 'Booster Chips', again you can have up to four equipped at once. They grant abilities common to the 8-bit era (and beyond). The abilities from 'Booster Chips' can be 'double jump' or 'wall grab' or 'slow fall' but also include abilities like 'don't take fatal damage if over one health or increased attack speed'. The fact that they represent more 'common' abilities in games creates a very interesting dynamic because you can only have four at a time... do you equip 'double jump', 'wall grab' and 'slow fall' to become an agility master and fly through levels with slick maneuvering? or equip damaging abilities? or defensive ones? or do you find a balanced build drawing from each type of 'Booster Chip'? It is up to you!!

After completing the main eight levels, a couple of gauntlet levels are ahead... and while not overly long, they certainly could be a bit too long for some. One is capped with a boss rush (all eight bosses) which I loved, but could be a bit long / grindy for some players. Luckily the boss rush checkpoints every two bosses, so the difficulty shouldn't be a problem for most. I won't spoil anything here, but the final boss is great and truly represents what every final boss should... the greatest challenge in the game.

Complete with multiple game modes and a 'New Game ' this is a must buy for any fan of the NES era, action games, or platformers in general.

Gravity Circuit is my #1 Pixel Art Game of 2023!!

Must Play!!

Mago is a fantastic 'Game Boy' style platform adventure game, with simple 2 button controls (meaning jump, shoot and hold shoot to run faster) and a 'zoomed in' perspective. As you play and acquire collectables, you will upgrade your health / your wand will get increased range and coverage / and you will get new character skins. Now in this type of game, execution is everything and Mago does it right! Controls are super-tight to near perfect.

Graphics and sound / music are excellent across the board and level design / variety are quite good as well. There are some levels where you are transformed into a bird and play like a runner, one plays like an old arcade game, some levels where you play as a mech, etc. While these levels may not be as good as the rest of the game... they are fun and help to keep things fresh. There are also special levels (one per world) that unlock when you have completed all the levels on a world. They have you running from your 'shadow self' and you must complete the entire level without being touched.

And then there are 'Cappy Towers' on each level that play as a sort of randomised gauntlet of 8 mini levels of several types (avoid spike balls / kill all enemies / find all dolls / run from monster etc.) and are time limited, but time can be added with power-ups collected in each level. At the end of each 'Cappy Tower' one of 6 rewards will be granted at random so you will need to do each 'Cappy Tower' 6 times!! That might not be for everyone, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Bosses are fairly fun / interesting and overall I found this game an absolute blast! Also with achievements for completing the game without health or wand upgrades you can enjoy the game with increased difficulty, adding to its longevity (I quite enjoyed my second play through doing both 'no upgrade' runs simultaneously).

Mago is my #1 pixel art game of 2022 and I would recommend it to most gamers, especially ones that like this style of platformer / action game.