Despite all the technological advancements that have taken place during the lifespan of mobile gaming, the fondness players continue to have for retro-style games never ceases to amaze me. As iPhones continue to push out loads of onscreen polygons, sprawling 3D worlds, and high definition graphics, there will always be a place for charming pixel art and 8-bit tunes in my book. These two games are fun, original creations that take inspiration from video game heritage, and are worth a look for retro nuts and newer gamers alike.

Like many games from the early era of gaming, Max Vector is a difficult game. Memorization of enemy patterns and figuring out the trick to dealing with the huge bosses in the game are keys to success. It’s hard, but fun, and keeps you coming back for more. Max Vector is also noteworthy for being one of the few games made with GameSalad that I’m able to tolerate. I say tolerate because the game is not without it’s issues. The most glaring is that Max Vector will only currently run on 3rd generation devices and higher. Pretty shameful for such a simple game, but the dev is working to optimize for older devices in future updates. Also, the game is devoid of any kinds of frills or options. What you see is what you get, but it’s a fun ride and Max Vector is certainly worth checking out.

Amor can be controlled with either tilt or directional arrows, and a jump and attack button. He can shoot arrows to stun enemies or to stick into walls and be used to bounce to higher destinations. When close to a stunned enemy, his sword is used to finish the job. Bonus items can be collected on the way, and each level has it’s own set of trophies and a letter grade to be earned upon completion. A global high score leaderboard keeps track of the best players in the game, and every level can be replayed once beaten to try and earn a better grade. The game has a great difficulty progression that will really test your platform jumping skills, as well as you mental skill in finding the best way to conquer each level. A bug in the release version of Amor could cause save progress to be lost which made the game hard to recommend, but that has since been fixed in an update and Amor: The Unicorn Keep is a solid choice for retro-styled puzzle platforming goodness.