3. Anodyne
An adventure that evokes all the great nostalgia from the original Zelda with its side-scrolling screens, and features similar visuals and sprites from Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon series, Anodyne is a dungeon explorer within a dream world and was released in February earlier this year for PC. Placing you in the protagonist's shoes, Young, you set off in search of answers to protect the land from the darkness, which is in turn searching for the legendary Briar to use its power for evil. It's a shameless Zelda rip-off from the outset even its trailer squeezes in a reference to Navi and 'Hey, listen!' with Young seeking advice from a village elder named Sage within the game's tutorial and introduces you to your first enemy, a slime, within the first dungeon. But even though it is utterly shameless, like Ittle Dew, Anodyne parodies Zelda and often pokes fun at the "Hero's Quest", while taking inspiration from both A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. Anodyne's gameplay mechanics are inspired by the legendary dungeon crawler, with your first item being your trusty broom enabling you to sweep up all those filthy slime trails. Doubling up as your sword, the broom gives you the ability to take down enemies with a couple of hits. And other than its quirky appeal, the broom also sweeps up dust clouds which can then be placed in front of enemies or ice machines to block their path it's both practical and cleans up after you, who needs a sword? Eventually you'll pick up shiny new shoes so you can jump something the player can't control as Link and a series of cards will need to be collected from each dungeon in order to progress. Although Anodyne attempts to shirk off the resemblances to the Zelda universe, developers Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka were clearly heavily influenced by the late 80 and early 90s gaming era. The game's quirky appeal gives it an undeniable glossy sheen, but what it really boils down to is ripped off Zelda nostalgia, albeit with a broom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWRU5toicQ