Powder is a roguelike developed specifically for the Gameboy Advance (GBA). It is not a port of an existing roguelike as the controls of the GBA are very different from the traditional keyboard and the screen imposes some additional limitations. It is built around replayability and long term ergonomics, not short term learning. It uses actual graphic tiles (16x16) rather than the traditional characters. You may wish it didn't as I drew the tiles and am not an artist.
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With how accessible its gameplay is, and with the amount of ports it has had, there's really no excuse to not play this if you like roguelikes.
Fantastic game.
Fantastic game.
Fantastic example of what a homebrew game can be. There's a PC port and the game's good enough to where I've put a good amount of time into playing this game on older laptops, but the game was designed for flashcarts and homebrew enablers by someone who understood those platforms. The core gameplay is fun enough to where the limitations of its creation either don't really impact the overall experience or, within the context, exceed expectations.
The presentation's a prime example. The game's look is simple, but it's trying to convey a large amount of information to you with a relatively small screen. Even with hordes of enemies on screen, everything is clear and readable. The tilesets included make this one of the easier games of its era to go back to without mods. I never feel like the camera needed to be zoomed out further than it was.
This doubly extends to the gameplay. It has closer ties to classic roguelikes in the amount of actions a player can take. You have some esoteric commands and interactions that don't feel like a chore to partake in. Character progression is meaningful and in depth, but a level up doesn't take more than 20 seconds to iron out. The length of the journey is about two hours~, but there is a suspend save feature that doesn't necessarily require save scumming.
So much was shaved down to get this game working on a GBA, but the core design of the game is so solid that it doesn't feel like a stripped down experience and makes as a great introduction to the genre. This isn't a fun novelty or proof of concept tech demo, Powder's just smart.
The presentation's a prime example. The game's look is simple, but it's trying to convey a large amount of information to you with a relatively small screen. Even with hordes of enemies on screen, everything is clear and readable. The tilesets included make this one of the easier games of its era to go back to without mods. I never feel like the camera needed to be zoomed out further than it was.
This doubly extends to the gameplay. It has closer ties to classic roguelikes in the amount of actions a player can take. You have some esoteric commands and interactions that don't feel like a chore to partake in. Character progression is meaningful and in depth, but a level up doesn't take more than 20 seconds to iron out. The length of the journey is about two hours~, but there is a suspend save feature that doesn't necessarily require save scumming.
So much was shaved down to get this game working on a GBA, but the core design of the game is so solid that it doesn't feel like a stripped down experience and makes as a great introduction to the genre. This isn't a fun novelty or proof of concept tech demo, Powder's just smart.
perhaps the peak of the Hack subgenre of roguelikes for all it removes, with the possible exception of IVAN.