It has been a good while since we've seen an indie game that has taken inspiration from the 8-bit era. They haven't stopped coming out altogether, but the current trend is to mimic the look and feel of the PlayStation/Saturn/Nintendo 64 era of games. Dark Scrolls is a throwback to when indie titles were starting to use an enhanced NES style for their aesthetics. In the preview build for Dark Scrolls, we saw something that would still be considered a rarity today.

The story sees you as part of a motley crew of adventurers hired by a knight to defeat a three-headed dragon and retrieve a powerful ancient scroll. The group successfully defeats the dragon, but the knight betrays the group, killing them and using the scroll to exert power over the land. You play as one of the members of the group who have somehow been resurrected by mysterious forces, and your job is to set things right by defeating the now-evil knight.

Dark Scrolls is a roguelike in nature that is similar to titles like Neon Abyss and Exit the Gungeon. It is a side-scrolling, run-and-gun adventure where your guns are all medieval weapons that are being thrown. For example, the barbarian throws axes, the thief throws daggers, and the mage throws fireballs. All of those weapons come with their quirks; daggers inflict a good deal of damage and can be thrown rapidly but have a pitifully short range, while fireballs seem weak on their initial hit, but they can bounce around and you can fill up the screen with them in short order. None of these weapons can be changed out, and are all unique to their respective characters, but you can add temporary buffs for the run, like giving your weapons an added fire effect. All of the characters also have double-jump-related attacks, such as the thief being able to do a double-dagger attack aiming downward and the mage being able to do a dash, all of which deliver increased damage. These are all done through procedurally generated levels, which always end with the same bosses. Like any given roguelike, death becomes a means of progression, as each run gives you XP that is translated into currency for future permanent upgrades.

The game doesn't just saddle you with a choice between the original three adventurers. Throughout the stages, you'll get opportunities to unlock new characters, but you'll have to make some big decisions regarding your run. The preview build shows off a situation where you'll be fighting the game's first boss, but a cage periodically drops from the ceiling before being raised up again, and it disappears for a time before it reappears. We can imagine more situations like this, where you may need to cut a run short to get a new character, and it will be worth it to most players since the cast is highly unusual. The one in the example is a dog whose bark delivers minimal damage at first but goes through enemies, while the subsequent bark attack stacks on damage to any enemies who haven't died from the initial bark attack. Based on the trailer, the cast can become even more wacky; you'll get a chef who constantly tosses raw steaks as a weapon, while another character is a giant rat who uses the notes from his saxophone as his means of attack. The weapon variation and offbeat characters are great to have because it promotes different approaches to multiple runs and the game features both online and local two-player co-op, which will have people coming up with complementary combos for optimal runs.

This all feels like familiar territory, but Dark Scrolls makes one change that feels wholly distinct: automatic scrolling. This has been attempted in platformers before, but more people associate this with shooters, so seeing it applied in this title can be jarring, since this occurs throughout the game instead of just a few levels. The mechanic works well because the automatic scrolling goes at a measured pace. It is neither so slow that you'll find yourself with moments of doing nothing, nor is it so fast that you feel like you need quick reflexes. It works well as a risk/reward mechanic, where you wonder if you have time to open a chest and capture coins before you get squished or if you can leave an enemy alone because the screen will pass it by before it can harm you.

The other mechanic that changes things is the star system, which really needs more analysis time to determine if it is helpful or harmful to a run. As you attack enemies, you build up a star reserve until you get to a max of five. The number of stars in your possession dictates how powerful your burst attack can be; it burns up all of the stars, so you can rebuild the meter. That part works fine. During your journey, the temporary buffs are assigned to a star level, so if you assign your speed attack to star level three, then that's when it'll kick in. The problem is that the effect is temporary, and you can only assign one effect per level. The effect also only occurs when the star level is reached, so if you buy the effect and place it on an earlier star level than what you currently have, it won't activate until you expel all your stars and build the meter to that level again. The system is certainly different compared to other roguelikes, and based on the limitations, there is a viable argument for not spending the cash to get those buffs since the effect is more temporary than usual.

As for the presentation, what you're getting here is more of an enhanced 8-bit experience rather than a wholly authentic one. The color scheme fully adopts the prime 8-bit aesthetic of later-era NES games, while the various parallax scrolling elements and lack of slowdown or other limitations shows that the game is aiming for capabilities beyond that of those old consoles. The sound is more authentic; the chiptune tracks do a great job of evoking those nostalgic feelings of the era. For old-school fans, this is near-perfect stuff.

So far, Dark Scrolls looks like a hidden gem of a title. The mix of platforming and side-scrolling feels better executed than some other games that have tried this method of roguelike play. The automatic scrolling adds a nice twist to the formula, as does the playful take on weapons and characters. The game is currently set for release sometime in 2026, but we can't wait to see what kind of silly characters await us.