If you're someone who has an affinity for the Sega Master System, then you might be interested in checking out Star Runner — a new action-puzzler game for PC that was recently released on itch.io and is designed as a bit of a love letter to the classic Sega machine.
The game was developed by @badcomputer0, who previously created the 8-bit shoot 'em up Blast Arena, and features an incredible upbeat soundtrack from the self-described "Master System fanatic" Polaria Poyon.
It sees players taking control of the titular Star Runner — a helmet-wearing superhero — as they are tasked with travelling through various mazes in space transforming all of the available tiles from red to blue. There are 20 levels in total, with the difficulty changing depending on the stage. In some instances, you will need to switch sizes in order to reach smaller platforms or navigate around enemies who are capable of undoing all of your hard-earned work. There is also a time bonus for how quickly you can complete each stage, as well as a reward for switching tiles in quick succession.
Remarkably it was developed in only four days and was created as part of Game Maker's Toolkit's 2024 game jam event, but the developer has stated online that the small team is hoping to develop "a polished SMS version eventually."
If you want to give it a try now, you can play it in your browser of choice for free.