Pampas & Selene

That the retro scene is alive is proven by Pampas & Selene — a modern homebrew metroidvania for the MSX that came about long after this platform's commercial era. It is loving proof that old machines still inspire new authors to honest craftsmanship.

Metroidvania means an interconnected world that opens up gradually depending on what abilities you gain. You return to previously inaccessible places, work out where you can finally reach with a new skill, and the map unravels before you like a puzzle. Pampas & Selene carries this principle over to the MSX with a feel for what the platform can handle and with a design that already knows how the genre works in its modern form.

The advantage of contemporary homebrew is that creators combine period aesthetic sensibility with today's game-design knowledge. The result tends to be a game that looks and sounds like it's from an eighties MSX, but controls and flows more pleasantly than we remember many period titles doing. It is nostalgia without needless frustration.

Such projects also carry cultural significance: they keep the platform alive, give collectors new physical cartridges, and give the community a reason to gather. The MSX still has devoted fans in Japan, Europe, and elsewhere, and it is precisely homebrew titles that form a bridge between memories and an active present.

If you're curious what a modern loving letter to an old platform sounds like and want a metroidvania in an authentic MSX coat, Pampas & Selene is a great example of the fact that retro is not just the past but also living creation.

Why play: For a modern metroidvania in authentic MSX garb that combines period aesthetics with today's feel for design.