It’s the little things. Hurdle Turtle’s digital ‘front cover’ is styled identically to the earliest NES games, blockbusters like Super Mario Bros. and Metroid. At once both a reverential nod to the early forefathers of a relatively young industry, and a canny ploy to reel in gamers with a nostalgic bent, there is no denying it’s a successful tactic. The nod to gaming’s past doesn’t stop there; Hurdle Turtle is styled completely in 8-bit graphics, with an 8-bit gameplay mechanic to match.

The aim is straightforward. You control the eponymous turtle, decked out in a natty white sweatband and matching wristbands with only a few well-placed pixels, as he traverses an athletics track and leaps over hurdles. As with fellow indie game FlipSide, the action begins to speed up, throwing the offending obstacles at you at an increasingly accelerated rate. Other obstacles, which can’t be jumped over, will cover sections of the track and can be safefully navigated by pushing up or down on the D-pad to avoid them. The game is split over three difficulty levels, each with it’s own theme. Normal difficulty takes place in The Slowpoke Mountains, where bog-standard hurdles and brick walls are the order of the day, against a backdrop of rolling grey mountains and a pixellated disc of bright yellow sun. Run, Tortoise, Run!, the Hard difficulty level, takes place at night in the woods, with mossy log sprites and deer aiming to bring you down. The hardest track, ominously titled as Insane! difficulty, is set in prehistoric times and features T.Rex tails and Triceratops.

As with all the greatest indie games, it’s all about trying to beat your own high scores, or in this case, your greatest distance. Timing is crucial to a good performance, especially when gauging whether you should be leaping several hurdles in one jump, or playing it safe. The levels are accompanied with frenzied 8-bit chiptunes (created by Octapus) pumping in the background, punctuated by exaggerated sound effects. Sadly, it’s this kind of high-score aim that screams out for online leaderboards, but that’s a tall ask for cheap indie offerings, so satisfaction is derived from beating your own scores. Hurdle Turtle stills allows you to play two player co-op, however, as its way of compensating.

It’s a simple premise, but a well-executed one. Rendered in its 8-bit aesthetic, it’s both a love letter to the videogames of yesteryear whilst also highlighting just how far the industry has come. Its longevity will be determined by your own desire to beat your own best and nothing else, but as a blast of retro-flavoured fun, it’s difficult to fault it.