Erasmus Magnus

Assassin Blue is a 2008 freeware platformer by Greg "Banov" Lobanov. It puts you into the shoes of Blue, a covert government assassin carrying out missions for his boss, in order to put an ongoing war to rest. However, things are shaken up when Blue partners up with another assassin, Red, who has a nihilistic, cynical disposition, and the two assassin's creeds clash with each other, until it reaches a boiling point. Assassin Blue is a swashbuckling old-school platformer. It has wall jumping, vines, tricky maneuvering, etc. What sets this game apart, besides the moral ambiguity, is the sword combat. Your basic attack consists of light sword swings that can combo, and a charged heavy attack that you can also combo into and use to break enemy guards, as well as a guard stance of your own. You can also counter enemy attacks for an instant kill and reflect explosives back at the enemy. You can unlock more sword combos and other goodies by attacking hidden targets, which serve as the game's currency. The graphics are a combination of pixel art and hand drawn backgrounds. As for the soundtrack, it was composed by Prophecy, and for a free platform game, it is pretty impressive, with both low quality MIDIs and high quality mp3s available to be heard. The game is short, with 12 levels, with a boss fight every three levels with multiple stages, but for its size, the game is quite dense, with the main attraction being the unique swordplay combat. For a free game, I'd say it's definitely worth your time.