I’d brushed the proximity of Jack Move several times this year. Seeing it here, seeing it there, probably even passing up a demo. When I just had to have the Tactics and RPG turn-based bundle from Humble Bundle this month, I got a chance to play it. Turns out Jack Move, the pixel graphic cyberpunk RPG, is a fantastic, well-paced and interesting adventure. Here are my first impressions of the game along with…
Grab your mop, bring your Stardew Valley membership card, and head into olden times with Travellers Rest. Yes, I literally just started this game, so I’ll continue to update this as time goes on, but I’m already hooked. I do in fact still love that old classic Stardew Valley, a basic grounding point for this game. But I have also enjoyed the medieval theme of RPG’s for a long time. The concept is…
MMORPGs get tossed into the indie content spin room all the time these days, generally with a slight irreverence. Inkbound is different though, it has A LOT of potential. I sat down with the game at my PC to test out a new character in this magical book-themed MMO. Is Inkbound actually “a world” yet? Yes–and a plentiful one–which I’m still exploring the depths of. A couple of important facts: This early access…
Black Skylands is an immersive fantasy skypunk RPG that takes place in the colorful airborne landscapes of another world. As an indie gamer, this is indeed one of the most optimistic projects I’ve looked at, and yet very promising indeed. Take the helm of a family airship and float between islands in the sky to claim your stake. I revisited this game in 2023 after a couple of years to see how it…
Getting started with Potion Craft can be intriguing and fun but also confusing–by nature. The game features role playing game elements mixed with strategy and casual gameplay. It’s one of the hottest games out there for alchemy sims, but quickly has become a diverse favorite for gamers. I’ve taken some time to compile some tips and tricks I think are essential to the full release version of this game and will guide you…
This review was rehauled for 2023 with the whispers of the internet saying once again “Silksong.” Will this be the year? Gamers have been waiting patiently for a sequel to Hollow Knight for, well, A LONG TIME. But the creators of this series know that their audience needs, no wants, no gnashes for it. And it’s not totally obvious to some players, who just see it as a mid-tier hand-drawn platformer. Either way,…
Finally, I sat down with the tremendous Bear & Breakfast, a game I’d wanted to try since last year. Now, my personal quest has resumed with a plunge headfirst into this BEARY good game. Here are my thoughts on all the vast building and crafting systems, quests, and exploration features that make this game so good. Not to mention the fantastic hand-drawn woodland setting and the game’s humble (and hilarious as it were)…
Daedelic Entertainment is a huge high-quality game publisher featuring a range of developers from small to major, including the new Gollum game and also Wanderful from the German developers Tiny Roar. I have my eye on this publisher as an unbiased indie gamer because while, yes, the smaller indie community is my foundation, I also like really good games. So, when you can, there’s a great game you need to try from them…
Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition touches my heart in a way that’s genuine and welcome. It’s one thing for a game to speak of the hereafter as a storyline, but another to make one truly wonder as this game does. It is also an excellent example of intentional gameplay that makes you want to keep going deeper and reveal all its fruits. I’ll share with you why Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition combines the deep spiritual context…
I’ve been waiting way too long to try Cult of the Lamb. From its conceptual uniqueness to its popularity, I’ve been waiting (shudder.) I like to ask why people do certain things–like why everybody from a certain culture believes in the same thing but others don’t. OR: Why does this cute indie game exist about a tiny lamb who is forced to destroy hordes of cultists and collect woodland creature followers to build…
Nordic Ashes: Survivors of Ragnarok is a ride and a vibe–or whatever these new Midgardians call things. It was a great time trying the early access on Steam, and I’ll tell you about it. This is a passive auto-combat… roguelike–it’s a Vampire Survivors type game basically. Overall, these are good fun, and anybody can play them with a little familiarity with the genre. In this one, you play a Viking warrior (is that…
Hey, thanks to JustWall Games for letting me try Terrene: An Evidence of Life. This is an indie open-world space exploration game with some sweet pixel graphics and the types of deep-cut quirks that make me play indies, seriously. I didn’t know what to expect at first, to be honest. I suspected some kind of multi-faceted character-based system, but that is only part of it. Actually, there are so many open-ended exploration features…
DreamCell: Lost in Nightmares is a 2D action twin-stick rogue-like that landed on my desk today. I have been hooked on the rogue-like/lite genre quite a bit lately. You may want to navigate to my YouTube channel for proof with the video below. Despite that, games like DreamCell: Lost in Nightmares give enough content to chew on for a regular day’s gaming. The game is currently in a demo stage, scheduled for release…
Here we go with Kraino Origins. Add this to your Halloween Indie Game countdowns, because it’s got enough spook for the whole community. This game feels like it was made from the plucking of my own seasonal heartstring, with its borderline creep-fest color scheme and environment. Slash your way through constant monsters, zombies, and ghouls in this 2D platformer that spans 8 bosses–now out on Steam! Kraino Origins – What Is This Magic?…
Hayai is a pretty cool game. I played another game like it recently called Pizza Tactics, but only in the sense that the main mechanic is drawing a path with my mouse. Really though, Hayai is a full-feature game aimed at casual play. Control one of 5 Ronin, and clear hordes of enemies swarming from the sides of the map by dragging a line between the individual enemies in one long swipe. It…
The idea behind Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue is in the title, Firegirl. I find myself drawn to this game due to its slight quirk and frank concept. But the game deserves a little more credit than assuming the entire plot is based on a conjunction of the words “fire” and “girl.” Although you are exactly that in the game, Firegirl is the type of game that should have been made, conceptually, at…
Yep, Haiku the Robot is about robots, although you’re more likely to catch on fire before most of its poetics! It’s a dystopic pixel platformer with a variety of routes to navigate through. The tunnels are left from the aftermath of an apocalyptic turn. It does have somewhat of a narrative for the first minute. Mostly, you’ll be in the heat of battle. You are thrown into the general theme of trying to…
Vesper: Zero Light Edition is out on Nintendo Switch and PC today! Players can find this new version, plus the big debut Switch release, on eShop and Steam. It’s an innovative platformer with arcane space vibes and shimmering, colorful environments. It also includes a compelling and innovative storyline told through holographic recordings and plentiful checkpoint diversions. I played the first twenty minutes on my Switch for you. I have to say it’s one…
Back with another Indie Game Collective showcase for Rotund Zero. It’s a precision platformer with a Game Boy monochrome style that uses directional keys only to solve puzzle levels made of bouncing blocks. It’s only $1.99 on Steam at the moment and encourages problem-solving in timed runs. You have 5 minutes to complete as many levels as possible, and there are 26 levels, 1 for every letter of the alphabet! You’ll be on…
Today, I’m taking a look at the soon-to-be-released, arcade-style title Galacticon from developer Radin Games. It’s similar in style to 1980s arcade games like Defender, Joust, and Jetpac. You might be familiar with some of these from the book Ready Player One; and maybe the film, but I can’t remember, although I know Joust featured prominently in the book. I sat down with the space-themed preview they provided and honestly got really into…
It’s been some time since a game like this has been featured on MrDavePizza. Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective absolutely belongs. As a game that originated in a book series, the game takes many cues from the visual classics of growing up for me. Incidentally, I was a big fan of books like Where’s Waldo? and Eye Spy, which are similar in scope and content as Pierre the Maze Detective–perhaps you remember…
I’ve got a great video up for Bumballon on my YouTube channel because I found this game on a Steam sale for 89 cents! With some investigation, I narrowed down some impulse options for pixel art platformers in the likes of some recent faves like Grapple Dog (which hopefully I’ll get to) and PomPom. Bumballon is a game with unique characters and a traditional SNES-type side-scroller game that puts me into an optimized…
Village Monsters is a solo dev project from Josh Bosser. It’s a pixel art town sim that departs from conventional titles with an alternative community of friendly monsters. The game plays on similar genre themes as Stardew Valley but the content goes into the outsider/quirk genre of games with its monster acceptance communicated in each character’s unconventional friendliness. It departs from too much comparison by offering a vast amount of exclusive unique story…
The recently released pixel platformer Pompom: The Great Space Rescue ran across my desk as a showcase opportunity through my friends at Indie Game Collective. It’s a precision platformer, sort of, with a feature I’ve never seen before this involving time slowing AND improvised platform placement. You can play with a controller, or you can play it with a mouse (or hamster actually, since that is Pompom’s main character you play as.) The…
I’m a big fan of fishing in games, but even more so a good story involving it. Moonglow Bay has done it. It’s a story about a retired fisher getting back out there. It is also about settling a community’s superstitions and getting back to the foundation of their livelihood. The story takes place in a traditional Eastern Canadian seaboard fishing village in the 80s. It is otherwise perfectly afloat in its conventional…
Dogs dashing, catching, posing, and dogs riding scooters to surfboards throughout the whole game. Pupperazzi is a comedy game with a pretty clean content concept. In all honesty, I initially wasn’t too interested in the game, until I saw it was on Xbox Gamepass where I tried it for free. To my surprise, I found this game very funny, and it had enough achievement-based gameplay that it was actually quite fun. I know…
Forgive, me, because we’re about to “dive into” some game material from the past. All the way back to the year 2018. Which isn’t really that long ago, making the sentiment of that sentence nearly arbitrary actually. Donut County is on its fourth year after release, and I’ve been meaning to play it for about half of that time. Why did I wait so long? I have no idea, but anything that was…
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…
Well, here I am, back to keep things fresh here with a showcase for Inked: A Tale of Love I have the privilege of receiving a review copy for what was originally a PC game, now out on Switch, Xbox, and Playstation. Today I tested out the Switch version on the handheld mode and made my way through the first couple of chapters to see how well the transition has been (plus promote…
Today, I plunged headfirst into the free games pile of new releases over on the Steam store. On my arrival, I discovered a cozy little visual novel among the listings called Fayburrow, and I decided to take a look at it. Fayburrow is a free game created by the self-named “Fayburrow Troupe” at VIA University College in Denmark. It just hit the Steam store today. What was first intrigue, turned into a fascination…
I’m spending time playing a lot of food games lately. While cooking sims are the most obvious manifestation of this, platformers like Dadish 2 are right on board too. Dadish 2 is a continuation of the original Dadish game and both are available on most platforms. You, Dadish, awake from a nap at work one day when your several radish children come to visit you for “bring your kids to work day.” They…
Welcome to my post about Make the Burger. This game’s release date on Nintendo Switch occurred this week, although it has a presence on Steam and ItchIO as well. This is a casual food truck sim with catchy and fun pixel environments and a line-up of hungry and paying illustrated customers. Your entire success is dependent on your ability to remember ingredient symbols and who ordered them. Take orders from customers to cook…
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…
My hunger for low-res grounded pixel games lately opened me up to a stellar sale on a game called Pizza Express. Pizza Express is an indie pixel-graphic pizzeria simulator about a fast-paced solo restaurant run by animal friends Gastone the cat and Lucky the rabbit–and also you. The game is fairly simple but incorporates playful dialogue and gameplay that is quirky in the best indie-adhering ways. It is very similar to the game…
If this headline doesn’t raise an eyebrow, then stick with two, because this article is tapping into some unexplored territory with the game Necrow Co. by creator Zahran Worell. The game Necrow Co. is a 2D pixel platformer, playable with either a controller or keyboard. It’s a light narrative about a crow who starts work for a company of reapers, featuring a cozy skeleton psychopomp grim dispatching you to a national park filled…
We’ve got a big event going on right now for THE BIG ADVENTURE. Many demos, and many great indies. I set my eyes on What Lies in the Multiverse first. It’s a collaboration between Studio Voyager, IguanaBee, and Untold Tales. Everything you’ll see in this game has a silvery thread of classic games like Fez, Owlboy, etc. But it’s a little more than technicolor flashing pixel animations, it’s dealing with a really awesome…
Alright, folks, I am compelled to write about this. Last night I posted a video of a game on itch.io called Soul Delivery. Yes, it is true, the graphics in this game are so stunning, it’s enough to short-circuit. Though, until now, I’ve never even heard of it. I don’t know who the dev is, and I don’t know anything more than what’s covered on the itch.io page. But, since there’s a demand…
Celeste. Yes, it’s about time we did this. The renowned precision platformer from Extremely OK Games has been out for approximately three years now (Celeste was released on Jan. 25, 2018, hence the three-year anniversary,) and it has not lost its charm. And why would it? The game sold over a million copies by the end of 2019. Whether you’re hanging out in your game room or playing on your Switch en destination,…
Unpacking is an isometric puzzle game by Witch Beam, an Australian developer, published by our very own sponsor Humble Bundle. You are a third-person clicker, looking down into an empty room with a stack of boxes sitting in the middle of the floor. There’s no direction or impetus, but as you open the box, intuition sets in, and you start to place objects from here and there. Before you know it, you’re an…
Yak & Co released Down In Bermuda catering to the growing indie cozy fanbase in Q3 of 2019. Yes, this game is over two years old, but with the occasional mega discounts, from time to time and continuing interest it’s cognizant to explore. It’s still relevant, fun, and cozy–indeed. The level of a-ha moments in this puzzle platformer is suited to YouTube, Twitch, or wherever you want to turn a gathering into a…
Amongst the trove of pale-skinned characters, glowing misty caverns, and punchy character abilities, this one might be new to you. Greak: Memories of Azur is similar to platformers like Hollow Knight and Undertale, perhaps even Ori or maybe Hoa, sure. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of any of those! What Greak offers is a borderline cozy adventure with very unique, engaging gameplay that is an experience of its own. Greak, Adara, and…
In the Fall of 2020 when I was just launching the Mr. Dave Pizza concept, I played Good Pizza, Great Pizza by Tapblaze on an Android tablet, one of the many formats this game is available on. Today I played the official version released for Nintendo Switch to go back and really see what amused me about this game. Pizza, the food, has always been pretty popular, but in the last five years,…
Discovered through Game Pass, I’m rather fond of this new title, The Gunk, from Image and Form/Thunderful Development, which just launched a few days ago. It fits neatly into the category of games I usually enjoy which are casual character development, soft sci-fi, and familiar mechanics of resource-collecting games. And this version of those styles is well presented here. While the game is really very straightforward without much need for introduction, a quality…
It seems that Figment 2: Creed Valley, is a new game headed to Nintendo Switch in February of 2022. I’ve been all about checking out these Switch demos right away, and when I saw this listed today I downloaded it immediately. I wasn’t quite sure what I was dealing with here, as it seemed somewhat derivative but also cozily familiar, the reason of which I discovered later. This game is really pleasant-looking though.…
Today’s game, Loading Story, listed as developed by “potatodog” on Steam is a tad quirky but genuinely satisfying. It’s a very short game about a character troubleshooting a game loading error in an imaginary video game town, where the loading tube passes through. Just wander around and solve the mystery. It’s good that it’s free because it only takes about 20-30 minutes to play, which is fine. I’ll tell you enough about it…
This is a game that had come across my desk yesterday, which I had accidentally overlooked because of my new format, but I was really interested in it. Shindig is an interactive fiction in the style of something like a family-friendly exploration picturebook with some tried and true interactive gameplay. As you might know, it’s always been my goal to seek out wholesome indie games because I’m a bit jumpier than a jackrabbit…
In between monitoring my every action, eShop suggested I check out what demos were out. I had really been looking for them though! So, this game The Last Friend showed up as a demo out. The art looked cool and didn’t seem too derivative of anything course. So, I downloaded it and loaded it up. The Last Friend is a brawler kind of game with some turret defense mechanics. Most importantly, however, is…
Okay, let’s talk about The Lightbringer. This is kind of random. No, really, it is. Might as well roll for initiative. Anyway, I’ve been spending a ton of time on the Switch lately, since I was traveling with the handheld recently and got kind of used to it. However, I recorded it while playing on my TV, so I don’t know. Anyway, was looking back through some of my YouTube videos and realized…
Update: Alchemic Cutie is, once again, a game running across my desk, slated for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5 for June 2023. I really have no particular context for describing it after so long, but when I tested it on PC I felt that it fits into the few neat descriptors of bright, colorful, cute. It’s an RPG. In all fairness, it is a monster collection game, à la Pokemon-style games. In the…
Spooky Station, Fifo’s Night, Haunt the House, Pumpkin Jack, and Monster League. Spooky Station is actually 9 games too, I was boggling over what games to include, but I ultimately realized: how about everything? Let’s go! Fifo’s Night is some major deep cuttage, which we love here. And some recent covered games too! Are you ready for this frightful/thoughtful indie Halloween game list? Anything could happen… Hit it! 1. Spooky Station: A Collection…
