Yanga for Windows

Save your beloved from an evil wizard

Yanga is a free puzzle adventure video game wherein you must save the love of your life from an evil wizard. Developed by Serdjuk, this 2D retro indie game is designed for the ZX Spectrum platform—either 48k or 128k—and can be played on PCs with the use of emulators. It has over 60 levels and supports some controllers. The puzzles usually contain only one solution, though, so you may get stuck at some point.

Crafted with love

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom back in 1982. This machine was one of the first PCs in the UK that was aimed at a mainstream audience and had eventually become fierce rivals with the likes of the Commodore 64, Dragon 32, Oric-1, and other old machines. Despite being officially discontinued in 1992, video games for this platform are still being made thanks to the availability of emulators.

Its games—which are lovingly called “speccy games”—are well-known for having color-clashing visuals and this still true for Yanga. This indie puzzle game features 8-bit pixelated graphics wherein you control a character in a top-down view. You play as Yanga, a young Viking boy whose lover has suddenly gone missing—having been kidnapped by a nefarious villain. You have to traverse various rooms in order to catch up to them and save her.

The visuals here definitely live up to classics, as the colors are vibrant but also bring out each block or object’s detailed textures in each room. However, it can be hard to figure out which blocks can be destroyed sometimes. The gameplay is simple as you just have to slide rune blocks in a way that you’ll connect all three runes without getting yourself connected and killed in the process. The solutions for each puzzle are limited, however.

Fun puzzle title

All in all, Yanga is a 2D great indie game if you’re itching to play puzzle mechanics for the ZX Spectrum. While there’s not much flexibility when it comes to solving the levels, the whole atmosphere and sound design of this game can be a nostalgic trip for fans of speccy games. The controllers you can use to play are Kempston, Sinclair I, Sinclair II, and your keyboard.