Everyone's talking about the wonderful Pizza Tower lately since it's such a well-designed Wario Land-style game with boatloads of personality, but I think people have been overlooking another great similar game that came out recently:
Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils!
It's a GBC-style platformer starring a circus acrobat girl and her living bell pet on a quest to get back at her kitsune necromancer lady nemesis, and god I loved every word of that premise. Since the game stars an acrobat, movement tech is delightfully smooth, varied, and well-animated while keeping within the visual constraints of GBC sprite work. The level layouts are loaded with secrets and alternate paths which can vary across visits - this game will absolutely scratch your Wario Land 3 itch, if you've been jonesing for something similar.
There's a ridiculous amount of lore for such a short game. The environments suggest so much about the world without saying it outright, and let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks. The character designs are so creative that it feels like every single character, regardless of importance, could be someone's OC - it's fun just to see who the character designers are going to come up with next.
I really hope this studio is able to continue along in its niche of making lovingly-crafted Game Boy Color-style games with lots of fresh ideas. Their debut Zeldalike game Prodigal had a similar look, and with Curse Crackers, they're proven they have range across genres. Best of luck to them!
But seriously, I wholeheartedly recommend Curse Crackers if you want a GBC-style platformer with satisfying movement tech, tons of secrets and mastery rewards, great character designs and a setting that's way more interesting than it has any right to be, and of course, cute furry girls.
