8 Bit Horse

ChainStaff

2026-04-10T18:39:00.000-04:00

A game by Mommy's Best Games for PC, PS5, Xbox X/S, Switch, and Switch 2, originally released in 2026.

ChainStaff marks a return to the gooey alien-blasting action that Mommy’s Best Games is known for, having started their foray into the monster busting business in 2008 with the release of Weapon of Choice… and also the reason this whole dang website exists. You take on the role of Sergeant Jesse “Varl” Varlette who is on a mission to save the world from nasty aliens, and push back The Encroachment that threatens to cover the entirety of our favorite planet with a veritable plague of mutant monstrosities. Unfortunately, things didn’t go well during one of Varl’s early missions. His squad came under attack by alien bugs, and he was the only one to make it back to base. But one of the bugs attached itself to Varl’s head, supplanting his life support systems while simultaneously granting him incredible strength and speed, and the ability to control a piece of alien technology known as the chainstaff (hey that’s the name of the game!).

Contra 4

2026-03-08T22:07:00.004-04:00

A game by WayForward for DS, iOS, and Android, originally released in 2007.

Contra 4 is a run and gun shooter that serves as a nostalgia-driven revisit of the NES Contra, while also acting as a direct sequel to Contra III: The Alien Wars on SNES. The game takes place in 2638, two years after the eponymous Alien Wars where Red Falcon was finally defeated by the descendants of the original game’s heroes. (Red Falcon was the primary antagonist in all three canonical Contra games to this point.) But after a short period of peace, the world is once again thrown into chaos when an alien being known as Black Viper descends upon Earth. All seems lost until strange readings are detected near New Zealand on a fictional cluster of islands known as the Galuga Archipelago.

You play as one of four heroes – or two heroes in local 2P co-op – although the differences between them are only cosmetic. You may select one of the heroes from the first two games, Bill Rizer or Lance Bean, or one of the heroes from Contra 3, Mad Dog or Scorpion. By competing objectives in the game’s optional Challenge Mode (which is unlocked when you complete the main game on any difficulty), you can also unlock Probotector from the PAL iterations of the early Contra games, as well as several other heroes from the Contra series, including Lucia, Sheena Etranzi, Jimbo, and Sully.

Gel-Tank

2024-04-21T18:29:00.000-04:00

A game by Technodot for PC, originally released in 2021.

Gel-Tank, also known as Nantai Todoroki wa Gel-Tank (軟体轟輪ゲルタンク), is a sidescrolling shooter starring a jelly-like creature named Gel, whose planet has come under attack by the invading Human Kingdom. While being chased through the forest by soldiers, the ground suddenly gives way and Gel finds himself in a cave system. In a scene reminiscent of Blaster Master, Gel soon stumbles across a tiny tank, which has an AI support unit named Eia. Eia suggests that Gel wear the tank as a sort of armor, which she promises will give him the power to fight back against the colonizers. Not one to look a gift-tank in the mouth, Gel squeezes inside and begins his adventure to thwart the invasion.

While outside the confines of the tank, Gel is a black blob with big yellow eyes. He can move quickly, jump very high, and he can stick to walls and climb them. Inside the tank – where his eyes peer cutely out from between the treads – he loses the ability to stick to walls, but he is instead able to shoot a rapid fire machine gun. The gun may be fired in four directions (down while jumping), and holding the FIRE button locks its aim so the player can continue firing in one direction while moving in another (this can be toggled off in the options menu). The player is able swap between these two forms instantaneously at any time.