We see A LOT of retro-inspired games on mobile, or really, in video games in general. Lots of stuff inspired by the 16-bit or 8-bit eras, but occasionally some that go back even further than that. Like the monochrome era of the original Game Boy or the surprisingly vibrant world of graphing calculator homebrew. These are what immediately came to mind when I first fired up Pixboy, a new platformer from developer Oaky Games.

When you’re dealing with essentially just black and white, you have to go that extra mile to give your visuals some extra detail and life, and Pixboy does a great job with this. It’s the kind of game that looks totally lo-fi on the surface, but actually runs so smoothly and is filled with fancier things like particle effects that wouldn’t have been possible on actual hardware of the day. There’s also a couple dozen unlockable color palettes so you can change up the look while retaining that retro visual style.

In fact unlockables are a big part of what I’m digging so much about Pixboy. This game is absolutely stuffed with secret areas to discover which hide hidden coins and popsicles to seek out and collect. A crown badge awaits those who collect all coins, and one for all popsicles, and a third for beating a level’s completion time. There’s even a special Pacifist badge to earn if you’re able to beat a level without killing any enemies, which can be super challenging.

Pixboy won’t redefine what you expect out of a platforming game. It’s mostly straightforward with some interesting wrinkles thrown in here and there to keep things fresh, and of course countless secrets to discover and goals to shoot for in its 40 well-designed levels. For platforming fans looking for their next fix, this should do nicely, and the players in our forums have been enjoying this one a lot too so be sure to see what others are saying about Pixboy.