At first — what is PICO-8?

PICO-8 is a virtual machine and game engine created by Lexaloffle Games. Games are written based on LUA language, you can play in browser or natively. “Cartridges” are png-files.

The most important difference in development is the token limit (8192). Tokens are variables, operators, etc. Thus, developers often have to be creative, plus the games are short (if they are not roguelikes).

I play on Anbernic RG351P, occasionally in a browser when it’s impossible to download/buy a cartridge.

Recommended games

• Celeste Classic, Celeste 2 — originals of the classic game.
• High Stakes — cool card game. You quickly realize the best tactics, but it’s good game to play.
• Porter — a wonderful mini-platformer about teleportation, there is a hard version (don’t play).
• Just One Boss — just read name again.
• Ma Puzzle — good fast puzzle.
• Olden Peak — Souls-like game.
• Gravitor — simple platformer, using gravitation (hi, VVVVVV!). Couple of mini-sections can piss you off.
• Pakpok — puzzle-platformer.
• Demon Castle - castlevania in a miniature.
• Shelled Shinobi - platformer with sliding.

Metroidvanias

They’re all simple, but I like the fact that you can write a complete metroidvania with all genre features within PICO-8 limitations.

• Shadow King
• Air Delivery
• UFO Swamp Oddysey
• Microbot
• Looprealm — too complicated with uncomfortable control, but 5+ for the idea (20 seconds loop and knowledge instead of abilities). Very similar to Minit.

Demakes

• Picohot (Superhot)
• FUZ (FEZ)
• POOM (DOOM)