Indie game Pizza Tower has quickly gained attention from gamers around the world since its release in January 2023. Developed by "Tour de Pizza," the game boasts a fast-paced and stylish gameplay experience, coupled with a cartoony pixel art-style. Drawing inspiration from classic platformers such as Wario Land and off-beat '90s cartoons like Ren & Stimpy, Pizza Tower offers a unique and refreshing take on the platformer genre.
Beyond being a great game, Pizza Tower represents a niche community that has largely been overlooked by the mainstream gaming industry. This group originated from places like the YoYo Games Sandbox and Newgrounds, where creators could experiment with unique and small projects, and people could consume them without freely. Unfortunately, many of these places have gone defunct, and most people who enjoyed these types of creations are either part of the Sonic or Friday Night Funkin fanbase, have become artists and developers, or have simply moved on. However, the projects that used to be available in these circles, despite being viewed as janky or simplistic, were charming and offered a fresh perspective that is often lacking in today's gaming sphere. Charm is precisely what makes Pizza Tower stand out. It is in a way, opposite to "square" games like Celeste or Spelunky - it is over the top with it's style, creativity, and fun. The game's inspirations and unique worlds are guaranteed to put a smile on one's face. It is not simply a Wario clone, it is a representation of this entire niche by design. No wonder the game was present in the event SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo), considering that is where most of the creators from that era of "rough around the edges but charming games" participate in. In art, charm is critical, but it has been gradually disappearing with the advent of AI and NFTs. This trend is not new; it has been observed in various forms of art, including minimalist logos, big tech corporate art styles, and gaming franchises like Mario and Sonic, which have grown stylistically stale since 2010. Developers and artists have tried to find a balance between their artistic style and what works best in the modern world, leading to the creation of more "square" products and fewer "circle" ones. However, there is hope for a revival of charm in the gaming and art world. Since Sonic was mentioned, taking a look at his latest title, Frontiers, while it may not match Pizza Tower's level of charm, it is a step in the right direction. The world design and UI of the game may be dull, but the core game design features Sonic's attacks and Super Sonic bosses, among other innovations that infuse the game with style and appeal. This resurgence of charm in gaming is a welcome trend and one that gamers can look forward to, and one that hopefully, Pizza Tower will further emphasize the importance of. In conclusion, Pizza Tower is not only a great gaming experience but also a game that offers a laser-focused artistic vision, it is the representation of what a "circle" game is, being extremely expressive and creative. This artistic freedom and charm is often missing in today's gaming landscape, which makes Pizza Tower stand out. For those who enjoy a good platformer or crave wackiness in their games, or feel represented by it by any chance, Pizza Tower is a must-play. POST WRITTEN BY PVIC; 08/03/2023; EDIT: Just to clarify; The definition of what a "circle" or "square" artpiece might be vague. I would say "square" is related to things that are somewhat very predictable in style, trying to fit a norm; while "circle" are products that feel very hand-crafted and out of the ordinary.
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Following a climb to 1000 followers on their Twitter account, the Sonic Legends team showed images of their opening stage on Jan. 25th 2020. These images show a remake of Sunrise Gate Zone from the unfinished 2014 fan game "Sonic Overture". More images can be found on the original Tweet. The images show remade stage assets, as well as 3 playable characters.
Sonic Legends is a fan game project spearheaded by ScarlyNight that celebrates the 20+ years of Sonic Fan Game Headquarters (SFGHQ) and the various fan games that it helped create. This post was written and published by MrLevRocks. ![]() After it's last event being cancelled due to SAGE happening around the same time it was meant to take place in, HedgeCamp returns once again, now taking place in February 4th. This event will be specially useful for the people who live in South America since it's currently vacation time over here, leading to getting people more motivated to doing their projects. As a side note, the event's artwork has been redone, now using a brand new art piece done by the talented Spectra, who is a friend of LakeFeperd who also moderates his HedgeLand server and usually participates in his streams. Post Written And Published By PVic.A giant 17 minute preview of Hez’s 'Sonic Classic 2' fan game is now available to watch on YouTube. In this video he showcases many things, such as stage ports from 'Sonic Classic' (his previous project) and stages from Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. This project is coming out to be one of the best fan projects out there and we from the Sonic Legion staff can't wait for it to come out. Post Written And Published By PVic.Some new very fascinating discoveries about Sonic Jam for the Game.Com were made, these discoveries include a new set of sprites from Sonic 3, some of these which resemble sprites from the Sonic 3 prototype which was newly shared by Hidden Palace. The user "Chainspike" on Sonic Retro shares more information on the case: You can see more information about the case here: forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-3-prototype-assets-discovered-in-sonic-jam-game-com.39056/ Post Written And Published By PVic.After 6 years, the fan game Sonic Incursion, which appeared in SAGE 2016, has been released. Sonic Incursion is a full 2.5D Sonic game made in UDK by 678EII, made possible by the SGDK codebase by Xaklse. The guy behind this project has done multiple things aside from this project, such as Sonic GDK tutorials, Sonic Generations Surround Tests along with other test using SGDK. He has in the last few years been more active with his project actively posting devlogs about his project and now he has done a few playthroughs showcasing the game. You can see more information about Sonic Incursion in it's Sonic Retro page here: forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-incursion-released.32866/page-10 And you can also download the game here: mega.nz/#!9rwWXIZQ!F9msoa7QrtEBYsJGpbMh8M9vVeLe3GKuUv9LG9MXdBQ Post Written And Published by PVic.Sonic Youtuber Crazysonicfan110 reported of being a "pedophile creep" by user "Flor Geneva"8/19/2019 The Youtuber Crazysonicfan110, known for being one of the biggest non commentary Sonic The Hedgehog YouTubers is now being reported of a pedophile creep by Twitter user Flor Geneva. In his own words, "[...] Crazysonicfan110 is a 25 year old dude who sent me dick pics and begged for my nudes thinking I was a 17 year old girl. He is, if not a pedophile, a quite disgusting horny creep. [...]". The case goes much further then that, with user Flor Geneva reporting many things about the case, such as him sending nudes and both users "sexting" (simulating sex via text messages).
It's more then important that everyone in the Sonic community takes action and either avoid this user or report him. Other users also replied to Flor Geneva's twitter thread saying that Crazysonicfan110 also "harassed" them via the Amino platform. You can see more information here, featuring multiple screencaps from the case here: https://twitter.com/Fl0r_Geneva/status/1163474185043271680. You can access Crazysonicfan110's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU7f1kAVsLCY3ka1CXkFigg. SpeedBlitz, shortened to Speed, is a developer who has been participating on the fangaming scene for a while now, having his first original fangame being released in SAGE 2017, Sonic NG, which you can check out here. Just like Sonic NG, Sonic Quartz seems to experiment to bring two worlds together. Those two worlds being the Classic Era and Dreamcast Era. The game seems to be aiming to have classic sonic level design mixed with a 2005 sonic aethstetic in terms of design and sounds, which is an idea many have attempted but failed in the past, although Speed in this new project seems to, judging from most reviews, do the idea justice, featuring beutiful spritework from people such as SoniKast (developer of Sonic Frost), Wiztoad (Developer of Sonic: An Untold Dystopia which has participated in many projects as a spriter, such as Sonic Megamix Mania) and Voltrix. Post written and published by PVic.Yacker releases Sonic Journey Alpha featuring Online Multiplayer and returning Sonic Blitz stages8/1/2019 Sonic Journey, not to be confused with the below average game from the last SAGE, is a 3D sonic fan game made by the user "Yacker" which features online multiplayer functionality and many stages from classic Sonic Blitz games, most of them made by Alox12, having stages such as Apotos (Windmill Isle), Default Green Hill from the classic Sonic Blitz, etc. Check out more information about the project here: Post written and published by PVic.It's already July and SAGE has yet to be announced. Not to worry though, LakeFeperd, developer of games such as Sonic After The Sequel and Spark The Electric Jester decided to bring back HedgeCamp, his own take on the SAGE event. This time however, Lake seems to be trying to go for a more acceptance vibe, even describing his own event as a training camp and saying that he won't be harsh in the announcement he made in his discord server, HedgeLand. The event's deadline this time is on September 22. You can access the site here: https://sites.google.com/view/hedgecamp/hedge-camp-2019-info Post written and published by PVic. |
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