Fan-made games have come a long way in recent years thanks to the introduction of powerful game engines and the growing talent of homebrew coders and artists, but even so, every now and then a game comes along which genuinely surprises you with its polish and playability.
Built using the Mugen game engine, Battle Stormer Classics is described as an "old-school" game based around boss rush gameplay and features "classic [characters] from classic games." The gameplay is "based on platform games rather than fighting games."
The title showcases some of the most famous properties from the 16-bit era, including Castlevania, Sonic, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, RoboCop, Alien Soldier, Pang, Super Star Wars, Contra and Mr Nutz.
You could say we're a little late to the party with this one, as Battle Stormer Classics started life over a decade ago in 2012. Developer Douglas Baldan / O Ilusionista just updated it to version 2.5 to celebrate 25 years of working on the Mugen engine.
"Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would reach this milestone," he says. "Unless I'm mistaken, today I'm the oldest programmer on the engine who is still active. Things were definitely different than they are today, both in Mugen and in real life. In a few years, I'll be 50 years old, and I don't know if I'll still be here, but as long as I'm having fun with it and have the health to do it, I'll be here. Thank you very much to all of you who have followed me so far! And to celebrate this milestone, I'm updating my favorite Mugen work: Battle Stormer Classics."
The update now means that Battle Stormer Classics offers 26 playable characters, over 37 bosses and more than 49 stages. Additions to version 2.5 include Bib Fortuna and Boba Fett from the Super Star Wars series (both as bosses) and stages from Mr Nutz, Hagane and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
You can download Battle Stormer Classics for your PC here.