8-Bit Sword and Sorcery

So there's this Android game I downloaded a few weeks back called Knights of Pen and Paper.

In a nutshell, the game pays homage to old-school pen and paper RPGs, such as Gary Gygax's Dungeons and Dragons.

There's a weird sense of nostalgia that the developers rolled into a single package. 8-bit graphics, the aforementioned D&D vibe and references to geeky pop culture take players through a strange but familiar landscape.

For a couple of dollars, the game itself is pretty lengthy and I think it's well worth the price. Players would find themselves taking control of a group of people having an RPG session. As the dungeon master, you'll decide how difficult most enemy encounters will be, as well as customize the in-game session room with furniture (which in turn affects the game world in various ways). You'd also take control of up to five player characters, who'll embark on whatever quest gets thrown at them by the DM, a-la most run-of-the-mill RPGs. Players also have to work on carefully selecting the way that their party is built, while giving consideration to how the person's innate ability matches up to their character class of choice. A bunch of things such as travel and crafting (for equipment upgrades) are determined by the roll of a 20-sided die, which favors the player most of the time.

The game is not as massive as more famous Android titles such as Broken Sword or Vice City, but it's a pretty good time killer. The promise of future campaigns is icing on the cake and the developers placed ingame countdowns for future updates. So far, they haven't missed any deadline (although they've only had one so far).

All in all, Knights of Pen and Paper is worth a shot. It's available for both Android and iOS via their respective app stores.