Terraria is simply one of the most famous games ever made, yet I hadn’t ever played it until just recently. The gameplay is engaging and the pixel art graphic style is pretty satisfying. It has a simple premise that matches other survival craft games, like Minecraft, that being: build a fort, fight or hide, and survive–then just keep building and building and building. And though I only put effort into one aspect during…
Hip Witch is a free adventure game released on Steam this week by developer Studio Hip Sword. The environment is handmade, and the storyline involves a lost young witch boarding in a state park, where she begins a quest to investigate odd happenings on the park’s grounds. It is playable with a controller or keyboard and is short but charming and cozy met with positive reviews. Gameplay in Hip Witch: You Got Spells,…
The game Moonlighter is a combination of rogue-lite dungeon-crawler mixed with trade simulation and story-rich RPG elements. This timeless, beautifully rendered pixel top-down was released by Digital Sun in 2018, and the game is available on most platforms like PC & Nintendo Switch.Moonlighter is a story about hopeful adventurer Will, a shopkeeper in the small commercial town of Rynoka. Although his family’s shop offers stability and prosperity, it is sustained by the materials…
Let’s talk about Owlboy. Sometime about 100,000 years ago Owls became all the rage. I joke since owl knickknacks and stories have surged in popularity over the past couple of decades. But they’ve long symbolized intelligence, wisdom, and ability. This is a nice bonus to covering commentary-based analysis because those are common themes in Owlboy too. I tested this game on Nintendo Switch, but it is a cross-platform Metroidvania, an acceptable umbrella term…
“Onirism” is a good example of another game where French indie dev teams are making games potent in fun and translates to a wide audience. This goes beyond exaggeration and is an interesting subject to me, but one which I don’t know a lot about. Regardless, I committed to this game, so I’ll take you through a brief but satisfactory run down of the world of Onirism. Additionally, the game recently received a…
Demetrios is the second title from COWCAT’s indie studio that I have played, the other one being BROK the InvestiGator. My friends, let me preface this by saying although what I present to you are my first impressions from the demo, I enjoyed this enough that I purchased the full version because I am 100% behind this game developer and might very well go in-depth at some near-future point. Demetrios: The BIG Cynical…
Phoenotopia is more than a cozy pixel-art game about a hero with pink hair. There are some pretty deep theme but also pleasant gameplay. For a sample, a group in Phoenotopia known as the last councils decide the fate of humanity. This game has emotional and philosophical depth. But once again, it’s buffered with some enjoyable run and jump platforming. In my playtest of the demo, I enjoyed the open world environment and…
“HEADS UP,” Moderately creepy imagery is in Lasagna Boy, this will be my only warning. I don’t generally review horror games, but Lasagna Boy made me laugh, and then, it intrigued me. It merits analysis based on absurdity alone but also on design. I also personally understand people like illustrating and drawing creepy monsters because… well, it’s fun! Why not throw in a third or fourth eyeball here and there? We’ve been doing…
Finally, my love of tile board games like Carcassonne has been revived. But it’s completely different mind you. Carto is a tile-placement puzzle released to much praise last year. My first impressions were very positive, but I set them aside until today. It’s a terrific game! While it’s probably the best adjective, I’m not really fond of describing games as cute anymore, because there are so many vocabularic adjectives for a game of…
A Bird Story is an indie game title from Freebird Games, a game studio that is led by Kan (Reives) Gao. This game came out in 2014, but it laid a lot groundwork for solo dev RPG’s. It’s the first in a roster of game titles from FreeBird that encapsulates pleasant illustration and crafty story. This one in particular is about a young boy who rescues an injured bird in the forest near…
You’re an adventurous protagonist named Beatrix who has settled down on her uncle’s ranch on an alien planet where the landscape is occupied by canyons of shiny cute blobs of a variety of species and value. Also some chickens. Which… some slimes eat. Moving on. Yer not from around here, are you? So, what is the point of this? Or the goal, to be a little more specific. Well, it’s basically a high-quality…
