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Thursday - 5/9/2013, 10:49am  ET

This video game image released by Ubisoft shows a scene from "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon." (AP Photo/Ubisoft)

Associated Press

Video games came of age in the 1980s, a decade that was also the heyday of cheesy Hollywood action movies. Thirty years later, you don't have to look hard to see the influence of one medium on the other. The ultraviolent power fantasies that seem so corny today -- movies like "Rambo," ''Commando" and "The Delta Force" -- pretty much provided the template for popular games like "Call of Duty" and "Gears of War."







Here are a few more inexpensive, downloadable releases that evoke memories of gaming in the '80s:

-- "Guacamelee!" (Drinkbox Studios, PS3, Vita, $15) combines the two-dimensional fisticuffs of, say, "Double Dragon" with the exploration of "Metroid." It's a fast-paced romp with gorgeous graphics drawn from Mexican mythology.

-- "Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine" (Pocketwatch Games, Xbox, PC, $15) takes the top-down perspective of early maze games like "Robotron: 2084" and applies it to a nerve-racking heist caper. You can play solo, but it's much livelier when you cooperate online with three other thieves.

-- "Thomas Was Alone" (Curve Studios, PS3, Vita, PC, Mac, $10) boils down the running-and-jumping platform game to simple visuals that could have worked on an Atari 2600. Its heroes are simply colored rectangles -- but as the game proceeds, they develop distinctive, endearing personalities.




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