The past few years have seen several major mobile gaming franchises cross the 10-year mark. Games like Temple Run, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and more. This always comes as a shock because some part of me still feels like the iPhone is this crazy new thing that just released, but somehow the wacky world of mobile gaming actually kicked off well over a decade ago! Anyway, one franchise that’s perhaps not quite as well-known as your Angry Birds or Temple Run or your Ninja Fruits also celebrated its 10th anniversary recently, and this one possibly shocked me the most: Commander Pixman from One Minute Games. Well, technically it hit the double digit milestone back in September, but it was only this past week that a big update was released to celebrate the big 1-0.

The main attraction of this 10th anniversary update is a pack of new Ultra Hard levels. The game already had more than 100 levels that I would not hesitate to describe as “ultra hard" so if these new levels are officially labeled as Ultra Hard then, well, you better strap in I’d imagine. That’s kind of what I love about Commander Pixman though. Just completing a level is a satisfying challenge, but if you want a little something extra you can try to defeat all the enemies on a level as well and earn an extra badge. And if you REALLY want to test yourself, you can try earning 3 stars on each level by beating its par time. This is where Commander Pixman really becomes one of those masocore style games where you will die over and over and over again and you’d better be prepared to love every minute of it.

With mobile games feeling more ephemeral than ever with games being pulled from the App Store for underperforming or games breaking with iOS updates and never getting fixed, it is so nice to see a little one man studio continuing to keep his baby updated and in top shape. And with new levels to boot! So if you haven’t crossed paths with Commander Pixman previously and enjoy a well-designed and challenging platformer with no BS, help celebrate its 10th birthday by picking it up for its currently discounted price of just $2.99, and be sure to drop by the forum thread to join in on the decade-long discussion.