Hidden Gems of Game Design Vol 40

Plenty of amazing games go unnoticed and are not played widely for various reasons. Maybe it’s a diamond in the rough, or the marketing wasn’t there, or it could be a game ahead of its time. For this monthly series, I’ve asked my fellow writers on SUPERJUMP to pick a game they think is deserving of a chance in the spotlight. Let us know your favorite hidden gems in the comments.

Josh Bycer

Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (2025) 

This hidden gem hurts to report on, as I loved the demo and was hoping to see this title get a bigger reception. Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is an adventure game about exploring the afterlife as Kulebra, an undead snake with many secrets. 

They have been charged to help spirits who are stuck for one reason or another and refuse to move on. Each chapter takes place in a different part of the afterlife as Kulebra learns about the life and death of the chapter’s main character. The stories are a bit sad, but the game never goes dark and remains hopeful about these characters.

The gameplay mixes a bit of everything here and there. You’ll explore by slithering along or curling up into a wheel and racing around. The main puzzle element here is that everyone except for certain characters and Kulebra is trapped in a time loop. The day goes through three periods of morning, afternoon, and evening, which determine where people will be and which events will be happening. Your job is to use the different time periods to learn more about the world and complete puzzles that will permanently stick certain actions or events in the world. 

At the end of each chapter, the player has to “fight” a boss, which consists of puzzle solving and a quiz show to make sure that the player has been paying attention. The art style is fantastic and really goes all out during the boss fights.

Despite my praise, the game has not gotten a lot of mainstream coverage, and I want more people to know about it. It ends with a pretty big cliffhanger that seems to hint at DLC or a sequel, but it’s unknown as I’m writing this if it will happen. If you’re looking for an adventure game with a lot of soul to it, I definitely recommend checking it out.

B. Cantrell

Steel Assault (2021)

Playing Steel Assault feels like jumping onto an arcade cabinet in the late 90s, back when 24-bit Neo-Geo systems were pushing pixel art to its limit. Developed by New York studio Zenovia Interactive and published by Montreal’s Tribute Games (known for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and others), the game is clearly designed as a love letter to the pixel art run-and-gun era.

With a story evocative of 90s anime, you play as Taro Takahashi, a Daybreak Resistance soldier traversing a post-apocalyptic America to avenge his parents and topple dictator Magnus Pierce. The core of Steel Assault’s appeal is its dedication to old-school design. Players are armed with an 8-way electric whip, a double-jump, a slide dodge, and a unique zip-line that allows diagonal grappling across the screen. There are no aimless Metroidvania corridors here; this is an arcade-style linear adventure reminiscent of Metal Slug, where you blast through waves of enemies across gorgeously realised pixel art stages.

Power-ups replenish sub-weapon energy, but there are no new weapons. Combat emphasises mastering the whip, zipping through enemy patterns, and landing well-timed melee strikes. The difficulty is deliberately punishing; Arcade Mode has no checkpoints, and the player has only a single life, echoing the one-credit runs of classic shooters. I chose to lower the difficulty on my first playthrough, and am currently attempting a second run at higher difficulty (super tough).

Steel Assault’s levels are rendered in richly detailed pixel art, from rain-soaked jungles to a drowned, climate-ravaged New York City. The game is full of lush pixel art goodness: sprites are huge, animations fluid, and explosions lavishly animated. The CRT-filter options and 4:3 presentation heighten the nostalgia. However, I quickly turned them off as I prefer my pixels clear and vibrant. For me, the fuzziness of the CRT era is something I’d rather keep as a distant memory, thanks very much!

Zenovia originally announced Steel Assault on Kickstarter in early 2015. The game was initially planned as an 8-bit-style NES homage, but the art direction shifted as more developers joined the team. This change stretched production, and what was intended as a 2016 release evolved into a six-year labor of love culminating in a 2021 launch. The commitment to hand-crafted design meant the team built each level and encounter by hand, an approach that paid off with the game unfolding as a cascade of memorable set pieces and huge boss fights.

Steel Assault remains a challenging, unapologetic run-and-gun experience whose pixel art, anime-style cutscenes, and stage design capture the raw spirit of arcade platforming classics. For players craving a throwback challenge with a modern sheen, Steel Assault is a hidden gem that proves old-school button-mashing intensity never goes out of style. 

Anonymous

Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge (2002)

In the 2000s, every company needed a platforming mascot. Sega packed the blistering speed of Sonic the Hedgehog, while Nintendo had Mario’s iconic jumps. Before Sony got Crash Bandicoot, publisher Universal Interactive almost got Aero the Acro-Bat there first. 

Universal ended up shifting its focus to Crash Bandicoot (1996) and worked with developer Naughty Dog. This included David Siller, Aero’s designer. Before Universal got the rights to Aero from Siller, he helped publisher Sunsoft with two Aero games for the SNES and Sega Genesis. A third 3D game, destined for the PlayStation, was cancelled. In 2002, Siller bought back the rights and hired Atomic Planet for a GBA port of the first Aero.

In Rascal Rival Revenge, Aero is a circus performer looking for attendants who've been kidnapped by a mean-spirited industrialist. The bat can dive-attack enemies at 45-degree angles (cough, Silksong), bounce off trampolines, and leap through floating rings. Pick-ups let Aero fire stars and hover for a short time. His extensive moveset is held back by slippery movements, making single-tile platforms and balloons difficult to traverse. 

Instead of the genre-standard level design of simply getting to the exit, Aero has to complete tasks like finding keys or riding a vehicle to progress through two dozen levels. One stage has the bat hunting for five switches in the dark, with only a spotlight for company. This novelty is held back by an overenthusiasm for placing spikes just out of sight. This makes some stages a test of your patience instead of your skills. 

Rascal Rival Revenge features some great pixel artwork across its vibrant environments and interactable objects. The bat Aero remains instantly recognizable despite his disproportionate head, like every platformer hero of the era. Its music is forgettable, featuring upbeat tracks with a circus motif. Aero’s challenges are made easier by save states in a remake of the Super NES version by Shinyuden. If you’re looking for a platformer to hop through in an afternoon, the 2024 re-release might be up your alley.

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