I didn’t think I’d be revisiting the mind of walkedoutneimans so soon after Tyko’s Dying Together, but here we are with iPad Baby. I need a breather. I can’t take this much sensory overload.

I feel that deeply, since more and more I can’t stand the internet. There are too many people there. Too many thoughts, opinions, and content flying around in all directions. It becomes impossible to parse the important information from the irrelevant. Worse yet, companies like Google are continually pushing irrelevant content to the forefront by allowing those who produce it in bulk to rise to the top of searches.

I’m not sure why I need an interactive interpretation of this distressing reality we live in, but here’s iPad Baby to extrapolate on the relentless assault of garbage we’re under each day.

Into the sludge

You’re dropped into iPad Baby with absolutely no explanation of what is going on, and none is forthcoming. However, your screen is already dominated by an iPad perpetually displaying meaningless video and a Ring camera pointed directly in your face. The world you are in is a spaghetti nest of corridors painted with watermarked and conflicting images. Flitting around these abominable hallways, are 2D homunculi compiled of various imagery. Almost immediately, you probably want to leave.

The iPad on the side reminds me of “Sludge Content,” a TikTok phenomenon where videos are cut together with other unrelated ones. Your digital companion shows ceaseless footage of gameplay of (maybe) mobile games, the head and shoulders of a Sim, and scrolls of microtransactions. It’s meaningless to gameplay, but that’s perhaps the point. It’s just there, passively gnawing at your attention.

The actual game here is actually rather simple. When you get near enough to one of the figures, you’re displayed a few items that you need to collect from the environment and throw at them. The obstacle you run into is that the hallways are intensely disorienting, and the inhabitants of the world move at a hyperactive pace. By the time you find the item they need, they could be absolutely anywhere.

Graphic assault

You wind up just dashing through the passageways, a can of energy drink in your hand, trying to find a person to fling it at. The “people” you pass keep on dropping bizarre, meaningless statements about their lives. Insecurities, complaints, hopes, and advice bombard you in grating text-to-speech voices. The manic soundtrack playing over all of this is strangely appealing throughout all of it.

Then an alarm sounds, a horrific police bulletin appears on your phone, and darkness engulfs the world before receding. The police are after you, every bit as compellingly twisted as everything else in the world. Don’t worry. If they catch you, they’ll simply take whatever item you’re carrying and slap handcuffs on your wrists. That has always been more of an enticement than a deterrent to me.

And that’s it, really. As you find objects and pass them off to the appropriate monstrosity flitting through the hallways, more of them get dropped. Once you manage to deliver them all, you “win.”

We are all damned

iPad Baby is not as complex as Tyko’s Dying Together, and that wasn’t too deep to begin with. The message it carries behind its garish jank-pop graphical assault is also far more overt. Tyko’s Dying Together dropped you into a confusing world where the deeper meaning very gradually surfaces, whereas iPad Baby kind of gives it away in the title.

The whole experience is as anxiety-inducing as the systems that it represents. The thing about iPad Baby is that it ends, whereas social media is so entrenched in society today that it’s hard to avoid it. Not impossible, but to demonstrate how necessary it can be, walkedoutneimans contacted me through Twitter to let me know of their new perversion of the Doom engine. The trailer is hosted on YouTube, because where else would you put it?

TikTok is something else, though. I already avoid YouTube unless I really need it, but the ability to just scroll down through a bunch of videos all competing for attention makes me nauseous to even think about it. It’s just, well, sludge. Enough of my attention already goes to waste.

Upsetting

The horrible desecrations of Doom that walkedoutneimans puts out are my favorite type of art. It’s the type that looks like offensive trash, but when you actually dig in, you learn something about the creator’s perspective and maybe connect with it yourself. I mean, analyzing iPad Baby caused me to start spitting venom at the culture that is growing like mold on the ass of the internet, so it obviously got a response. 

Meanwhile, my husband leaned over to look at my screen and said, “Ew, does it always look like that?”

“Yeah,” I replied, pointing the camera at the most offensive thing in the vicinity.

“That upsets me,” he said.

Well, yeah. That’s the point.

iPad Baby is available for free over on Itch.

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Mr. Podunkian revealed the Steam store page for their upcoming city life simulator, Sunkissed City, which is coming to PC sometime in late 2024.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the handheld version of The Urbz. Nor does it look like the console version of The Urbz. It looks more like Stardew Valley, which makes sense because Mr. Podunkian previously worked at Stardew Valley developer Concerned Ape. If you liked Stardew Valley, but felt like it needed more concrete, then this might be for you.

In Sunkissed City, you don’t actually live in a place called “Sunkissed City.” It’s Apollo City, which is similar. There you take care of DIY gardens, get to know the locals, and try to solve the mystery of why everyone has been feeling crappy. There’s even fishing, which I think is maybe a law for developing these sorts of games. You can also play co-op with friends if you're that sort of person.

I’m liking the looks of Sunkissed City. I like farming sims, but having grown up in a rural area, I prefer being an urban dweller because food is closer, and I don’t drive. While I’m still waiting for someone to adapt the gentle mix of adventure game and life simulator found in the handheld versions of The Urbz, that’s a different matter. For now, I’ll just be happy if I’m able to space out at the magazine rack at the 7/11 around midnight.

Sunkissed City is currently targeting a release at the end of 2024.

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Depending on who you ask, indie games are the bread-and-butter of modern gaming, and there's certainly merit in that statement, as they serve niches that AAAs simply do not. Take stealth gaming, for example, which received something truly exciting just a few days back: Intravenous 2: Mercenarism.

Those of us who have been eagerly anticipating when on earth might Ubisoft finally announce a new Splinter Cell game may have missed the memo about Intravenous and its upcoming sequel, Intravenous 2. The mostly unknown stealth shooter from the developer HypeTrain Digital enjoys solid reviews, but it's the 2024 sequel that's really interesting here, mainly because it's got a top-tier demo you could start playing right this instant.

What is Intravenous 2: Mercenarism?

Intravenous 2: Mercenarism is, in essence, a fairly comprehensive demo for the full-fledged sequel. More importantly, however, it is a more-or-less standalone experience that ties the two narratives together. Players get to interact with Intravenous 2's gameplay systems throughout four separate missions, each of which is surprisingly interactive.

The core gameplay loop is, as the screenshots may betray, all-in on stealth. All Intravenous games allow players to fine-tune their characters' movement as they could in the old Splinter Cell games, and the bird's eye perspective is reminiscent of the classic Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid titles. All the other stealth game tropes are present and accounted for, too. You can:

• Destroy lights and manage your sound profile
• Move bodies around and hide them in crates/closets
• Play non-lethally
• Pick locks
• Throw bottles and other assorted garbage to distract enemies
• Navigate levels and complete objectives in a free-form, open-ended fashion

It's a very impressive piece of kit, truly. Intravenous games can also be played as regular tactical shooters, though fairly hardcore ones, at that. They give you access to a whole arsenal of weapons both suppressed and not, each with their own respective statistics to keep track of. For example, there's a huge difference in the sound profile of a .22 LR veterinary pistol going off, and a 10MM Glock punching through the glass.

Intravenous 2, specifically, introduces remarkably in-depth gear and weapon modifications and the whole thing is present and accounted for in the Mercenarism demo. The demo which, in case I haven't been clear enough yet, any stealth game fan ought to try out.

Intravenous 2 proper is coming in 2024, but check out Intravenous, too

The full version of Intravenous 2 is due to launch sometime in 2024, with the full release window announcement still pending. Those who fall in love with the Mercenarism demo should make use of the first game's current discount, however, as it is now available at a whopping 60% off. The deal is available until February 2, so there's still some time to make the call.

Granted, it's not like Intravenous is an AAA game with an AAA price-point: at full price, it'll only set you back $20.00 or your regional equivalent. For stealth game fans, it's a lovely deal indeed.

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Hidden Object games are popular, easy, and relaxing. Within the genre, there’s a really specific sub-genre that I’ve recently found myself enjoying maybe a little too much — hidden cat games. And I think I’ve found the best one out there, especially for those who grew up gaming. 

An Arcade Full of Cats

An Arcade Full of Cats is a free-to-play game developed by DevCats that revolves around a suspiciously ‘Back to the Future’ looking pair of cats called Fofiño and Leo. In order to make the world a better place for cats (and humans), they go back in time to inject more cats into our most beloved arcade games. There is no combat, no time restrictions and nothing more taxing than… Finding cats. I know, it sounds bizarre at best, but it’s more than that. 

While hunting down these adorable little feline friends, you’re thrown into a pit of nostalgia that’s filled with references to video games and movies over the last thirty years - from Mario’s question mark block to iconic Zelda imagery to movie posters with incredible cat-related puns (Expurrminator, anyone?). I was both reminded of how old I actually am and left yearning for the simpler times of video gaming. 

There are five levels in the base game, one based every five years between 1980 and 2000. The arcade location is the same, but the decor slightly changes with each jump forward in time, with the pieces from the previous level relegated to storage behind the arcade machines. The arcade machines themselves change to reflect those which could be found in arcades around the world at the time, with popular games receiving a cat-themed pun name. 

Once you’ve completed the base game, you can download the DLC and find cats in a variety of time periods from the 1800s right back to prehistoric times. The DLC cost me £1.35 and that money goes straight towards helping Cats, according to the developers.

Now while I do love Cats, I love nostalgia just that little bit more. There’s nothing like remembering a simpler time when I’d take the money I earned doing chores and run straight to the arcade. I spent far longer looking for all the references in each image than I did actually finding Cats. Of course the nostalgia was lessened when it came to historic time periods because while the game has reminded me that I am getting old, I’m not that old. 

How it works

In every level, there are a select number of cats to find and a smaller number of “hidden cats” to find. Of course, you could argue that all of the cats are hidden, but the hidden cats are located in places where you can’t see them at first glance - in bags, under hats, in trash cans, and in one instance, inside an arcade machine itself. There is even one notable hidden ‘Mario’ cat which requires an old-school cheat code to find. 

There’s also a secondary level within each main level which you can access when you find the hidden coin on the main screen of said level. I know that’s a mouthful but bear with me. 

The secondary puzzle isn’t any more challenging than the first, but it does offer a nice chance to look for something other than cats when you start seeing cats every time you blink. My favorite secondary puzzle is Purr-purr-boy, during which you need to help a Paperboy find his papers. Turns out he’s a terrible shot, which is reminiscent of my own attempts to complete the old game this one is based on. 

While there is a certain level of challenge to the game, it's not particularly difficult and that means you can actually relax while playing - something which we all need from time to time now that we’ve grown up and no longer spend our weekends wasting our allowance on arcade machines. 

Other similar games

I’ll admit that I went down a bit of a wormhole after playing An Arcade full of Cats and it turns out that there are a surprising number of hidden cat games out there. Like I said, I went down a wormhole and I’ve played all of the ones currently on offer, with upcoming additions to the list going straight on my Steam wishlist. You could say that curiosity got the better of me, but thankfully I am not a Cat.

From DevCats, the developers behind An Arcade Full of Cats, the other titles on offer are:

• A Castle Full of Cats
• A Building Full of Cats

There are two other titles being added to their repertoire in the next few months, as well:

• A Park Full of Cats
• A Tower Full of Cats

Are they all, arguably, the same thing? Yes. However, each game has its own theme and story, which proves to keep them interesting. For instance, A Castle Full of Cats has a Horror theme, which appealed to the Horror nerd in me while featuring recreations of popular cat memes. 

If you love cats, or you love Hidden Object games, you'll love this one. If you love both Cats and Hidden Object games, you're in for a treat. Considering it's free to play, An Arcade Full of Cats offers a surprising amount of feel-good for nothing and I think it is the purr-fect way to unwind after a long day.

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Do you miss the days of physical magazines packed with demo discs? Would you like to see it perverted in sinister ways? PC Cursed 98 will give you the whole experience you’ve been looking for, it's free, and it’s available for PC now.

PC Cursed 98 is a compilation of short indie games in the framework of the sort of demo disc that came with magazines in the '90s and '00s. This makes it adjacent to Haunted PS1 and its variety of PS1-styled cursed demo discs. What makes PC Cursed 98 a bit different is that it comes packed with an actual magazine. I’m not even talking about a short pamphlet, either. It’s 52 pages of articles and twisted advertisements. That’s commitment. It’s even set up in such a way that you can have it professionally printed out. On top of that, there are even covers for a CD case for the demo disc.

The (free) demo disc contains 21-ish shortform horror games from a slew of creators. From the list, I only really recognize Jacob Jazz, who made the Baobabs Mausoleum games. But that’s kind of the point of these compilations: you get a glimpse into the minds of a variety of small, indie developers. Maybe you’ll like what you see and will form a brand-new parasocial relationship with them!

The games are supposedly all horror-themed, but their style runs the gamut between lo-fi, jank pop, and retro-inspired. Typically, for these jams, a lot of the included games are very experimental. As such, some of them fail. Others might make you wish you could unsee them. But a few may echo in the darkest recesses of your soul. It’s worth a look. Jam games, I guess you could call them.

PC Cursed 98 is now available for PC through itch.io. It’s free, so it probably doesn’t hurt.

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The developer of 2021’s Buck Up and Drive, Fábio Fontes, has been showing off his work on the upcoming sequel. While it’s still early in development, things look to be progressing well on the title.

If you’re unfamiliar, Buck Up and Drive, it’s similar to Out Run if it was taken to its furthest extremes. You not only race against time, but you also flip the hell out, performing absurd stunts that look like your car got stuck in the level geometry, and the physics don't know how to cope. There’s also drifting and rail-grinding, the normal sort of thing you’d expect from a racing game. It was part of my list of 2021 games you might have missed, which is what I did before just making the usual top 10 list every year.

Buck Up and Drive 2 looks to be expanding on that. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but Fábio Fontes obviously has the answer: driving on walls. Do you remember the Spider-Mobile from the 1970’s Spider-Man comics? It’s a lot like that but less dumb. Also shown off is character customization. I’m not sure why, but I’ll take it.

Buck Up and Drive 2 is built in the Godot Engine, probably because Fontes had a falling out with the GameMaker Engine following their move to a subscription model. Thankfully, the billboards have returned for the sequel. Some players complained about the original game’s common use of pride flags as billboards, so in response, Fontes added a “Pride Flag Billboard Toggle.” When toggled, it simply adds more pride flags. Respect.

Buck Up and Drive 2 is coming to PC. There is no stated release window, as it is still early in development.

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With Steamboat Willie now in the public domain, people have free reign over the classic cartoon. To celebrate that, indie developer Nightmare Forge revealed their new co-op PC horror, Infestation 88, to IGN that stars the Disney mascot himself: Mickey Mouse.

The game features co-op gameplay where players have to handle a rodent infestation. Who’s the leader of that club? Mickey Mouse. A disgusting, vile-looking Mickey Mouse. We get some gameplay with some creepy crawlies and that’s pretty much it. If you did watch the video, you can see that it starts with a disclaimer about Mickey that talks about free use. 

Now, the Mickey seen in the game is based on 1928's Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney’s first short. In it, a young Mickey Mouse plays music and transports Minnie Mouse on, you guessed it, a steamboat. Other versions of Mickey are still copyrighted, so you can’t use Fantasia’s version in your magic-based FPS just yet – sorry game developers.

Open Mouse

So why did Mickey Mouse go public? Copyright laws for any media from the past can only keep them for 95 years. It was originally 55 but Congress extended the rights up 20 years back in 1984 and again in 2004. 

That means a majority of things from 1928 are public domain now, such as J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and A.A. Milne’s The House on Pooh Corner, which introduced the bouncy marsupial Tigger. Also included is another Mickey Mouse short, Plane Crazy. Perhaps we’ll finally get a horror-based Peter Pan game that actually shows how insane Peter Pan is. Last year, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh was inducted into the public domain. This brought Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey to life.

No release date was given for Infestation 88. Given that it looks, in a way, playable, as well as relevant, I wager it’ll be out this year. Also, expect to see way more uses of Mickey Mouse in media. Hopefully, it’ll be much more than cheesy horror. 

Update - Infestation 88 changed to Infestation: Origins

[Update: In a statement released by the studio, the team is changing their game to "Infestation: Origins," following allegations that the original title evoked Nazi imagery (which the team refers to as "additional meanings").]

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Astlibra Revision is one of those “hidden gems” that I was advised to go into as blind as possible. To paraphrase, I was told to trust it would be worth my time to see it through to its conclusion. Now, three weeks and change later, I have finished Astlibra Revision. And while I don’t think that advice was totally necessary, I still don’t know how to begin describing the experience.

For lack of a better option, the best way to understand this game is to understand its creator. Astlibra was developed predominately by one Japanese developer who goes by the name “KEIZO”. From what I’ve gathered, KEIZO is not a professional game designer. So in addition to his full-time job, Astlibra was the passion project he worked on in his free time. In that sense, Astlibra isn’t unlike that one RPG Maker game you might have spent a month tinkering with. Except KEIZO kept working on Astlibra for 15 years, releasing chapters episodically until it was finished.

Of course, as you might expect, the boy’s firm answer to that last question is “no”. And after setting out on a journey that lasts eight years, the boy and his crow become proper monster-slaying grown-ups who finally find other human settlements. And before you know it, the duo quickly get wrapped up in a plot that not only takes them across the world, but time itself.

This mixture of clichés and twists honestly describes Astlibra as a whole. The plot is something I want to discuss later, as there’s a lot to unpack here. But even when it comes to the gameplay, Astlibra proves that you shouldn’t judge a game based on appearances.

But what even is Astlibra?

Despite starting on such a small scale, I can’t stress enough that the combat in Astlibra just keeps growing. With each chapter comes new magic, abilities, and entirely new attacks in your core move set. Even at the point you'd think the game would hit its mechanical peak, it still escalates. This is a good thing, because you’re going to need as many tools as you can get. Before long, you’ll find dungeons with ridiculous amounts of monsters and massive bosses that throw blankets of bullets at a moment’s notice.

That said, the game’s plethora of options quickly turns into a blessing and a curse.

Prepare to grind

If there is one thing I cannot stress enough about Astlibra, it is that it is very much designed for people who enjoy grinding. If you want just about anything in Astlibra, you must work for it. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, but it does make the game’s appeal very niche in practice.

For instance, take the game’s equipment. There are a ton of armaments you can equip, each different in terms of range, handling, power, and even elemental affinity. However, all equipment – armor and shields included – comes with skills you can master by earning enough EXP while using them. Some skills are duds, but others are basically essential. These include things like extending your invulnerability period after getting hit or boosting elemental damage. So to get the most of your character, you better like swapping equipment and filling up every bar you see.

However, you also must consider how you get equipment. Every area in the game comes with its own batch of things to buy, but you can’t just use money to get them. You also need a wide variety of monster materials from that respective area, which you almost certainly won't get through standard play. So the rhythm of the game quickly becomes identifying the materials you need, farming them until you’re done, and then repeating the process until you’ve grinded out everything you can in an area.

Make numbers go up

It gets better, though

A story across time

There’s no time like the present

How does Astlibra Revision run on Switch?

Weigh it on the scales

Despite all the game’s rough edges, that constant feeling of surprise ultimately nudged Astlibra into “Great” territory for me. At many points, I felt just as invested in the story on my screen as I was with the story of KEIZO creating it. Watching someone basically learn game design right in front of you is such a surreal experience, especially whenever you abruptly unlock new foundational combat mechanics that I imagine KEIZO just wanted to add on a whim. It’s a game that can, on occasion, be weird and baffling in ways that few commercial games are. But it’s nonetheless overflowing with passion, and I can’t help but feel impressed by that.

Astlibra Revision asks a lot from players upfront. It’s very much built for those who like grindy games, and it’s unpolished in ways that you’d expect from a title created by one person. But if you can enjoy what the game puts on the table, you’ll find an engaging combat system and a captivating, if not occasionally bizarre story. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but for those with the right palate, Astlibra is a one-of-a-kind experience.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Lethal Company has enjoyed enormous success since it launched just a couple of months ago. From smashing its player record not long after releasing to being the top-selling game on Steam (where it still sits), it's been quite the journey for indie developer Zeekerss. Now, the title could walk away with one of gaming's greatest honors.

The Steam Awards recently revealed the player-voted nominations for this year. With categories such as Labor of Love, Best Game on Steam Deck, Most Innovative Gameplay, and more, there's a lot of competition about. However, it's seeing Lethal Company up for Game of the Year that's most intriguing.

Obviously, we're aware of just how successful the release has been, but it says something that it's able to go up against the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 and Resident Evil 4. Those are some elbows Zeekerss' game is rubbing against, and it'll be interesting to see whether it can come out on top against such names.

Something of an underdog story

In a world of AAA flexing and classic releases being given a new lease on life in the form of remakes and remasters, it's tough for independent games to stand out. Whether Lethal Company takes the Game of the Year award away or not doesn't detract from the fact that it was nominated in the first place.

At the time of writing, it's still going strong, and I have – rather ashamedly – still not got round to playing it.

If you want to vote on your favorite in each of the Steam Awards categories, you can do so from December 21 (when the Steam Winter sale begins). Voting will close at 10am PT on January 2, so you've got the holiday period to make your choices.

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If you like the fun, rubber hose style of old Disney cartoons, but you wish they were more violent, this may be one for you. Mouse is an upcoming FPS that styles itself off these retro cartoons, and developer Fumi Games has just released a gameplay trailer for it.

Taking direct inspiration from the animated shows and noir films of a bygone era, Mouse combines high-octane first-person shooting with the goofy antics of these ancient toons. From what can be seen in the trailer, it looks like there's even some blood for that added sense of mindless violence. You can wishlist the game right now.

The studio describes Mouse thus:

With guns blazing and a retro rubber hose animation style, battle your way through a corrupt city full of crooks and danger.

It's like Mickey Mouse meets Edward G Robinson

At the moment, there's no exact release date, but Fumi is aiming to launch in 2025. While the trailer says it's "early gameplay footage," it's looking pretty good so far. A post on Steam says the team is "aiming to make sure to have the best game possible!"

There aren't many video games like this. The most obvious example that comes to mind is Cuphead, which goes for that rubbery style of animation, but in a more fun – albeit brutally challenging – context. Then there's Bendy and the Ink Machine, which leans way more into the horror aspects, but clearly takes inspiration from this era of cartoons.

It's nice that we live in a time when 1930s cartoons can be reborn as gritty shooters. There's a kind of fast-paced action to Mouse that seems like what Steamboat Willie would be like, if it was remade by Quentin Tarantino.

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Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has been hard at work on the next update for Stardew Valley. While the creator is taking their time to make sure the patch is ready for release, they have made it clear that progress is coming along while also sharing a little tease.

Over on Twitter, Barone has shared a screenshot from Stardew Valley, showing off the new "Big Chest" in update 1.6. The post goes on to say that the developer has "self-imposed" a crunch mode to get the patch out but made a "ton of progress" on it last month.

Nothing much has been said about what's coming, as the developer wants to keep "mostly everything secret." However, we have had some teases in the past, such as hats for animals. But we'll know more once the update does roll out.

A labor of love

Barone seems clearly passionate about their game, which has gone down as one of the best indie titles in recent memory. When asked why they continue to work on Stardew Valley, the creator said: "I want it to be the best it can be," adding that "it's been my life's work and I care a lot about it."

On top of update 1.6, the game is also going on tour, with an orchestra set to travel the globe playing arrangements from the Stardew soundtrack. The tour kicks off in Los Angeles on February 16, 2024.

On a personal note, I'm actually fairly new to the game myself. However, I became rather hooked on its simplistic visuals, relaxing mechanics, and the sheer amount of content that's been lovingly put in. The next patch is definitely one that a lot of fans will be keen to try out.

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The turn-based tactics and occult school life of Demonschool are taking a little extra time. Today, developer Necrosoft Games announced that Demonschool is moving to a Q2 2024 release window.

Previously set for 2023, the studio says it's taking more time to put everything together. "We're trying to make this thing as good as we possible can, and it needed a little more time in the oven," reads a statement from Necrosoft Games on Twitter. "But it'll be worth it! Please wishlist on steeeeeeam!"

The news arrives alongside a new trailer, shown at today's PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2023 showcase. The trailer features a good look at the mechanics of its turn-based tactics, as well as some glimpses of different characters that will be in your party.

School's out for demons

Demonschool is a pretty rad-looking tactics RPG, from the team behind games like Hyper Gunsport. It's been on our radar for some time, and made a strong impression when I got the chance to demo it at PAX East this year.

The story follows Faye, who's attending a university while also getting involved in a ton of occult and supernatural happenings. Between the turn-based battles, you can also wander around, pick up quests, and chat up other people.

It's really neat, and despite dashing my hopes for a last-second end-of-year surprise, I hope the extra time in the oven helps Demonschool shine. In an increasingly crowded 2024, this is still one of my more anticipated games. Definitely one for the indie and tactics crowds to keep an eye on.

Demonschool is currently planned for Q2 2024 on PC via Steam.

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Among Us is having a massive collaboration and players will get the chance to rock some brand new skins and other cosmetic items because of it. This collaboration includes seven popular indie games, including big names like Undertale and Castle Crashers.

Alongside those two, the other games involved in this crossover are Celeste, A Hat in Time, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Untitled Goose Game, and Alien Hominid Invasion. Innersloth, the developers of Among Us, announced this massive collaboration on November 28 and it is live now, until February 28, 2024.

There are a total of 25 hats, 18 skins, 12 nameplates, 9 visors, and 6 pets included in this crossover. With the in-game currency—beans—players can head over to the shop and purchase a Cosmicube. The Cosmicube allows players to have access to all cosmetics from each game for a mere price of 7,000 beans. Beans are earnable through gameplay, if you're finding yourself bean-less for this new cube.

Alongside this collaboration, Innersloth has also added in a number of different patches in order to improve Among Us. Since its release in 2018 and massive success it gained during the pandemic in 2020-2021, several updates have been released. The patch notes state that they’re falling behind because of all of the older versions of the game, so the team is removing older versions and encouraging players to update to newer versions for efficiency.

This collaboration will be the first update since The Fungle map was added to the game back in September of this year. The Fungle is the fifth map to be added to the game. It features a fungus-infested jungle for crewmates and imposters to explore.

The post Among Us collaboration adds a whole slew of indie crossover cosmetics appeared first on Destructoid.

The surprise horror hit of the earlier parts of 2023, Sons of the Forest was released to critical acclaim. While the hype died down rather quickly, the game did sell two million copies in its first 24 hours. And now, Endnight's follow-up to The Forest will be coming out of early access soon.

In a post on Twitter/X, the developer said that Sons of the Forest will be getting its full version 1.0 release on February 22, 2024. This will mark one year since the game came out, so the timing is pretty gnarly.

An update on Steam says a patch will be rolling out soon (if it hasn't been done already), and the team will "continue to release hotfixes as needed." However, in the future, Endnight will be putting focus on the next stage of its survival horror sequel.

The studio is grateful for "everyone who joined" the early access

On top of that, the tweet goes on to say that Shawn Ashmore will be expanding his role as the voice of Timmy. Many of you will know him for his voiceover work on the likes of Quantum Break and The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. Most recently, he played Tim Breaker in Alan Wake 2.

Quickly gaining popularity when it was released earlier this year, Sons of the Forest retained a high position on the Steam charts, even pushing some AAA titles to one side (Lethal Company, who?).

With its cooperative gameplay, creepy atmosphere, and the real star of the show, Kelvin, SotF is one that many will be happy is getting its full release next year.

The post Sons of the Forest will be leaving early access in February appeared first on Destructoid.

By now, much of the indie horror scene is aware of Lethal Company, the small co-op hit that's currently taking the genre by storm. While it's hard to say how long this popularity will last, the game is not only staying at the top of the Steam charts, but has smashed its player peak again.

As of right now, Lethal Weapon has hit 184,015 players over the last 24 hours. The chart over on SteamDB shows the trajectory the game's currently experiencing, and it's entirely possible that it could just keep going. We could easily see it break through the 200,000 mark.

It's also still the top non-Deck game on Steam right now, having not budged since the last time we checked. Okay, it's only been a week, but seeing as the likes of Modern Warfare 3, Counter-Strike 2, and Baldur's Gate 3 are starting to drop, it's a hell of an achievement for an independent game.

For those who have yet to play it...

Compared to such games as Phasmophobia, Lethal Company is something that should be right up the alley of horror co-op fans. That includes me, but sadly, I haven't got round to playing it yet. And I should, as it's extremely cheap to buy. I can't speak for other nations, but here in the UK, it's £8.50. I know some pubs that charge more for a pint than that.

The game's all about scavenging and collecting scrap for a company called...well...the Company. According to developer Zeekerss, you can "use the cash you earn to travel to new moons with higher risks and rewards--or you can buy fancy suits and decorations for your ship."

The Steam reviews have also been pretty glowing, with it showing as "Overwhelmingly Positive." User Cheiph describes it as a "morbid, yet derpy masterpiece." I think it's high time I pull the finger out and finally see what all the fuss is over in Lethal Company.

The post Lethal Company smashes player record, retains top spot on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

Suburban Basketball is a game that lives on in my brain, long after I finished it. It’s an aggressive attack to the senses and seems to say a lot and nothing at all at the same time. It hurts. It may never stop hurting.

So, I was excited to see when walkedoutneimans had a new game lined up. Okay, maybe “excited” isn’t the correct word. It’s more like morbidly curious. I really had to know if Suburban Basketball was just a one-off eruption of brilliant insanity or if the developer was intentionally trying to hurt us.

This time, we have Tyko’s Dying Together, another game growing parasitically on the backbone of GZDoom, and…

Oh no…

Oh no!

Always check the readme.

Let me start by sharing with you the explanation the author wrote in the included readme file:

“this game is a wholehearted endorsement of picmix.com and cooltext.com. if you take anything away from this game it should be that you should spend more time online looking at pictures and scrolling. picmix is a really good website to look at art that people from around the world make.” [Sic], obviously.

I’ll hyperlink those sites for you. You’re welcome. You may wonder what the hell the developer is talking about, but it becomes obvious once you get into the game itself. The whole damned thing is set up like an interactive picmix gif. Both picmix and cooltext look like Web 1.0 woke up from its shallow grave with a murderous thirst for revenge. It’s insane that picmix is so popular. It’s a social media site of itself. A horrible community of disgustingly garish animated pictures. 

I can understand the fascination. What part of humanity’s soul is so broken that we can find value in this?

Tyko’s Dying Together literally lifts this bizarre aesthetic. Your screen is constantly surrounded by a distractingly ugly border. An out-of-place clock and near-unreadable text complement the assault on your eyes. Walls are plastered with images so blatantly ripped from the website that you can often see the obvious watermarks checkboarding the surface. It is uncomfortable to look at, simultaneously conveying deliberate intention and detached laziness.

I think this game gave me a fever. I believe my brain has started to overheat, just attempting to process the assault of information.

I don't think we actually survived that car crash

You start off in front of an angelic statue in a pitch-black room. It merely looks at you disapprovingly. The controls paste themselves on the screen obnoxiously, and it’s disorienting just to find the hallway leading out. No one you encounter out in the world is going to help you. They won’t explain anything. Your only friends are a pair of giant emojis, one being your own internal thoughts and desires and the other being a vaguely hostile angel.

If you sift through the madness, you’ll get the impression that you’re dead and in the afterlife. Maybe all of humanity is dead, wiped out by Lord Chaos. The point is, no one is going to clarify for you, nor will they show sympathy. “Dying is a part of life,” the angel tells you before appending it with a :) emoji.

You can drink, you can eat, and you can go and catch a movie in the theatre, but for what? What is the point to everything?

The best direction Tyko’s Dying Together really gives you is that a robed lady has lost her three scrolls. Each one will teach you a different language so you can converse with the strangely attractive goblins and capybaras of the afterlife. Find the first scroll, and you might even get a pair of wings. It doesn’t matter that the goblins all say the same lines of dialogue, and none of it is helpful; you’re making progress. Your little emoji guy might tell you that there are gems to find, but picking them up doesn’t really seem to do anything.

There is no music, just this weird, unsettling hum that sometimes rises to an aggravating rumble. What does this game want from you?

Also, there are clowns

Sometimes, you’re simply encouraged to dive into TykoSocial, take pictures of animals with your phone to share, and earn Tyko Coins. You might even bump into the CEO of Tyko, who will extoll the amazing technologies the corporation is using to improve your afterlife.

And then you realize. This is the afterlife, all right. This is Hell.

An eternity of chasing pointless goals to gain followers. A world where the activities that seem so important to everyone are really just a pointless lot of emptiness. A place where you’re constantly sharing all your thoughts, experiences, and relationships while simultaneously cheapening all of them. A mindless and inescapable landscape where it’s easier just to follow along and take part because abstaining means that you’re no longer functioning within society. Where it feels like you just don’t exist, an invisible ghost watching the world from the outside.

Yeah, the weirdness of the aesthetic. The uncomfortable horror of the visuals. The aimlessness of the gameplay. It smiles unblinkingly at you, pretending not to notice as the horror of your existence settles on you like a weighted blanket of human fat. Not the afterlife depicted within Tyko’s Dying Together, but the one you’re living right now. This game, as garish as it is, is a better alternative. A distraction as your phone vibrates to itself next to you.

It’s bleeding! It’s bleeding through the screen! Don’t struggle! Don’t fight it! The beast must feed! What have we done!?

Creative intentions

There’s also a pointless day/night cycle that’s going on at all times. When night hits, the levels get darker, and the obviously flat sky texture changes from clouds to a starry sky. There is one textured wall that will lead you to the three worlds (Candy World, Dirt World, and Enchanted Forest), but which world it sends you to feels entirely random. I tried gleaning the workings of the magical texture but failed to. Instead, I would just keep going in and out until I wound up in the correct place.

I asked walkedoutneimans if they actually go into creating these games with any intentions. They told me they came up with the name first and then built something around it. That sounds exactly like the creative process I know.

Surprisingly, there actually is an ending to Tyko’s Dying Together. Quite a few of them, but according to walkedoutneimans, most of them are very similar to each other. While I’m not sure I found all of them, the ones I have come across are fitting ways to cap off an afterlife full of eye-blistering images.

Tyko’s Dying Together is available for free over on Itch. Just make sure you’ve adequately braced yourself.

The post Tyko’s Dying Together is an eyeball-wrecking journey through our collective failures appeared first on Destructoid.

I’m not surprised that The Game Awards has put games like Dave the Diver and Dredge on their list of nominations for the “Best Independent Game” award, but I am very, very disappointed.

That’s not to say that Dave the Diver is a bad game undeserving of an award. It’s just not indie. Its developer and publisher, Mintrocket, is a direct subsidiary of Nexon. The South Korean game publisher has an annual revenue in the billions of dollars. That’s not indie.

Dredge has more claim to the category of indie. Its publisher, Team17, considers itself an "indie publisher," a label not exclusive to them. However, Team17 is a publicly traded company that raked in over 137 million pounds in 2022. At what point is a publisher no longer considered an indie publisher? That's hard to say.

As an award, “Best Independent Game” should be a place where smaller developers who finance their games without the financial backing of a major company can find some recognition. However, with Dave the Diver on the list of nominees, The Game Awards is signaling that any major corporation can produce a game with pixel art graphics to buy away that recognition.

Splashed right across The Game Awards' nominees page for "Best Independent Game" is the definition, "For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system." The "traditional publisher system" isn't entirely defined, but if we go by the definition that most industries go by, it means works published without those outside agreements at all. From artist to market, essentially.

Four of the five games nominated involve a publisher. Only one of them does not, which is Sea of Stars. That sort of makes it sound like successful games without publishers are a rarity, which is entirely false. There are plenty of popular and successful games that distinguish themselves on their own. Even this year, without having to dig too deep, El Paso, Elsewhere and Slay the Princess were both independent games that have received acclaim. They are actually made outside the "traditional publisher system."

However, it may be acceptable or even prudent to consider games that go through an “indie game publisher” to actually be "outside the traditional publisher system." This is because some of these publishers don’t actually provide financial backing to the studios under their label. Sometimes, independent developers will go through them to get their games published on storefronts like the PlayStation Store, the Nintendo eShop, or even Steam. Other times, the publisher will just help with PR.

But that’s exactly where things get murky. Publishers and developers rarely disclose what their relationships entail. It’s also uncommon for those deals to reveal budgets behind their games, especially if that publisher is privately owned. It would be extremely difficult for publications to gatekeep and allow the spotlight to fall on actual independent developers who need it.

It would help if publications and the public, in general, pushed for better categorization of games. Right now, the two big catch-alls we have are AAA and indie. While AAA games are better defined by the size of their budget and indie games by their team’s independence, there’s no true in-between. Where does RoboCop: Rogue City fall? 

Some refer to that sort of game as a “AA game” or even a “B game,” but I don’t know why we’d want to categorize games like they’re cuts of meat. Beyond that, good luck getting a publisher or PR firm to describe a game as “AA.” It implies that they are inferior products. I personally use the term “smaller budget” because it sounds more like a possible point of pride.

Meanwhile, how do you define a game that is made by an independent or solo developer who has financial backing from a publisher? There’s a pretty clear line there, but we don’t have separate terms, which is vexing. Though, it’s vexing in a way that isn’t unique to video games. Music and film have both struggled with a firm categorization for independent productions. Solutions in those spheres have also been argued for years with no resolution. Video games may be doomed to the same.

What really irks me about the situation is the fact that the actual independent sphere of games is absolutely massive. The problem is that actually getting the word out is immensely difficult; perhaps the most difficult part of independent game development. Even the most promising concepts with the best execution can have a lot of trouble getting the ear of content creators or journalists.

That’s kind of why something like an indie category in an award production is so important to small developers. Winning an award, especially in something as big as The Game Awards, can be a huge boost for a small team. Not only does it get a lot of eyes on the game itself, but being able to advertise the win on a game’s store page can help sell it.

Meanwhile, Nexon has more money than the Gods of Lucre. The company can afford ads, a big PR firm, and the reach to easily get the eyes of the press and content creators alike. It doesn't need “Best Independent Game Award 2023” on its store pages to sell games. Nexon's marketing budget alone is something small, independent studios can’t compete with.

With Nexon copping an aesthetic we commonly associate with independent games, Dave the Diver gets to compete with developers far beneath its financial weight class. Whether intentional or not, it gives Dave the look of a plucky underdog you can root for, but really, he's a big-league player batting in a little-league game.

It's the same thing we see in film awards — a well-known actor with no shot at any "best lead" wins can easily run home with the "best supporting" title. In music, artists hop between genres and collect accolades they've got no business competing for. But again, that’s nothing against Dave the Diver specifically. It’s a worthwhile game.

I’m not going to tell you all of this without at least throwing out some ideas on how to fix it. Now, before I outline it, I want to emphasize that I’m just brainstorming here. I’m pulling the “there are no bad ideas” card. Even though I’ve been pondering the subject for a long time now, this isn’t something that I’ve been carefully considering and revising.

With that said, I think we should take a page from the music industry. Here are my proposed categories:

• Independent - No publisher
• Alternative - Small budget with publisher
• Mainstream - Big budget

There. Team17 can call themselves an alt-publisher, which sounds trendy. Dave the Diver can compete with the alternative crowd. Indie developers who spent their life savings just to feed themselves during development might actually get some recognition. We can say that Five Nights at Freddy’s was an indie game that broke into the mainstream space. Ideally, we would have a fourth category, but baby steps here. No need to frighten Geoff Keighley.

There isn’t going to be a single solution that makes everyone happy, and I get that. But if there’s one thing that I hope most people can agree with, it’s that Dave the Diver shouldn’t be anywhere near the independent category. Developers who have to pay their bills with the sales of their games shouldn’t have to compete with a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Not that I typically ever agree with The Game Awards in the first place, but that’s a different matter entirely.

The post The Game Award nominations are more proof we need to redefine ‘indie’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Some indie news to end the year is on the way. Nintendo has announced a new Indie World Showcase will air tomorrow, November 14.

The Indie World Showcase is set to spotlight around 20 minutes of information on both new and known games coming to the Nintendo Switch. It will air at 9 a.m. PT / noon ET on Nintendo's channels. You can follow it here as well.

As a reminder, this is an indie showcase, not a Nintendo Direct. So any hopes you might have for a new Switch or other reveal, don't expect that sort of thing here. Instead, Nintendo's indie showcases highlight third-party games, usually from smaller developers.

What to expect at the Indie World Showcase

I mean, it's an Indie World Showcase. The Silksong hope is tangible in the air. It's there, like it is every time we have one of these.

Otherwise, there are a few indies waiting in the wings. Animal Well, Rift of the Necrodancer, and Little Kitty, Big City are all games that have shown up at previous showcases that could reappear here.

But really, it's the surprises I always like the most in the independently focused showcases. Games that I hadn't heard of suddenly rocketing onto my radar. And of course, surprise drops. Who doesn't enjoy a good "it's out later today"?

So we'll see what Nintendo has in store for this end-of-the-year indie news lineup, in an already stacked year for games. Maybe there's something waiting to make GOTY even tougher than it already was.

The post A new Nintendo Indie World Showcase airs tomorrow, November 14 appeared first on Destructoid.

Get your bribe money ready. Weappy Studios, the developer behind This is the Police, has unveiled their latest game, Hollywood Animal. It’s set to release on PC sometime in 2024.

Hollywood Animal is a narrative management sim where you try to run a movie studio with as few scruples as possible. Manage staff through gifts or blackmail, create movies to gain favors, but just keep things as profitable as possible. Craft art, build stars, or simply find their dark spots so you can stick a hook in and make them dance. All this is covered in the absolutely fantastic announcement trailer.

I don’t remember the last time I saw a game trailer that superb.

Hollywood Animal is being billed as a narrative-first game, but includes all the standard management hooks. By the looks of all the systems show off, it’s really quite complex. It takes you through the ages as you try to keep your studio afloat while not bringing too much attention to your shady dealings. Select the director, the writers, and the actors, and then try to keep them all happy (or at least complacent). Navigate the changing political landscape of the ages.

I am so on board with this. I’ve wanted a good movie studio simulator for a while, or at least a re-release of 2005’s The Movies. Crime is also a passion of mine, so it's a really good mix.

Hollywood Animals is currently announced for PC and is expected to land sometime in 2024.

The post Hollywood Animal looks like a fantastic in-depth depiction of a shady movie industry appeared first on Destructoid.

Despite its legacy, Xbox 360 puzzle-platformer Braid hasn't been around much. However, that's all about to change as the game's creator Jonathan Blow has recently announced an Anniversary Edition coming in 2024.

Releasing April 30, this new version of Braid comes with improved visuals and animations, areas that have been "re-envisioned to make them more unique," and more than 15 hours of commentary. If you're interested in the world game development, that last one may be of interest to you.

This special Anniversary Edition – which is launching to celebrate 15 years of Braid – is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, Android, and even Netflix. It'll also be available on PS4 and Xbox One, with Linux and Mac ports coming later on.

Considered a "masterpiece"

Originally released on Xbox 360 in 2008, Braid has been described as one of the greatest independent games of its generation. It won several awards and was the second-largest-selling game on Xbox Live Arcade. It has a Metacritic score of 93.

Its developer Blow is no stranger to the video game world. Some of his earlier work includes being a programmer on Oddworld: Munchy's Oddysee and Deus Ex: Invisible War. He released the puzzle title The Witness in 2016.

He's also gained something of a reputation over the years, often being held aloft as an outspoken critic of the gaming industry. He was described in a 2016 New Yorker article as a "prickly genius," while an interview with Kotaku in 2011 said Blow's opinions are not aimed at individuals, but at "trends." He's also no stranger to making public controversial statements over the years, further complicating his legacy.

In any case, Braid is often signposted as an indie release that helped shape an industry of indie releases. This was before Minecraft did it. If you still haven't played the game (guilty), April's Anniversary Edition is definitely one to look out for.

The post Braid current-gen release coming April to celebrate 15th anniversary appeared first on Destructoid.

Do you hate traffic? Do you yearn to punish drivers? Sebil Engineering is a jank-pop game about directing a steady stream of traffic using only terraforming tools. It’s available today on Steam and Itch.

As a pedestrian, cars are my mortal enemy. Unfortunately, so far, my only way of fighting back against them is with my fists. I guess that’s because I chose to write about video games rather than become a civil engineer. According to Sebil Engineering, they are given pipe-wrenches that can increase or decrease the height of nodes on the edges of roads to give traffic a shunt in the correct direction.

Each level begins with a stream of cars pouring in from the margins. Your job is to change the heights of the road to direct that stream to the correct spot. I imagine that’s what getting up to pee at night is like for men.

Sebil Engineering includes more than 40 levels of Lemmings-like carnage. It boasts “high detail traffic simulation” and “realistic civil engineering.” The trailers available support both of those bullet points.

Real talk: I’ve got a lot of steam built up, and Sebil Engineering looks like a good way to let it out. I’m also in love with jank-pop, which is to say, games that look like they match the very worst examples from a bygone era. See also Suburban Basketball and Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer.

Sebil Engineering is available right now for PC on Steam and Itch.io.

The post Sebil Engineering is a game about brute-force direction of traffic, available today appeared first on Destructoid.

3D platformers have made something of a resurgence in recent years in the indie scene. Titles like A Hat in Time and Frogun show there's a market for inventive platforming ideas with amazing worlds to explore.

Many of these take inspiration from N64 titles like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie in various factors, echoing a time when 3D platformers were more common while remaining accessible to modern audiences. Pseudoregalia by developer rittzler is no exception to this, but that doesn't stop it from being excellent.

Pseudoregalia follows a goat-bunny girl named Sybil as she journeys across Castle Sansa to free its prisoners. To achieve her goals, Sybil must explore its secrets, becoming more powerful along the way.

In other words, Pseudoregalia is an open-ended 3D platformer structured as a Metroidvania, and it encompasses the best of both genres. Without question, this is one of the best controlling platformers I've played in years. It's also one of this year's most underrated games as traction for it remains relatively slow.

Pseduoregalia nails retro aesthetics like no other

It's hard to nail down one specific element that makes Pseudoregalia as special as it is. The excellent gameplay is certainly a factor, but its general aesthetic and atmosphere deserve praise too.

Pseudoregalia has a low-poly look that's more N64 than PS1, but differs itself by keeping environments largely foreboding. Castle Sansa feels far larger and more intimidating than it really is, with many dimly lit interiors and a thick fog surrounding its exterior. It's never scary, but even with music, it's isolating.

If it were to come out in the '90s, Pseudoregalia would still be considered a mascot platformer with its cute protagonist, but one with a bit of a darker edge. However its reception would have been back then, Pseudoregalia looks like an ancient gem that only surfaced now.

Helping sell its vibe is its soundtrack, which takes cues from old MIDI scores while attaining its dream-like vibe. The Sansa Keep music is a personal favorite because it keeps the same qualities as the other tracks while having an ethereal eeriness to it.

The sound design is excellent also, with each step, jump, and hit reverberating this echo to emphasize how grand and empty the environments truly are. These echoes also bring more impact to each action, amplifying how satisfying they are. Audio/visual feedback is an underrated aspect of game design, and Pseudoregalia excels in this department.

It is honestly worth the asking price for these factors alone. It perfectly embodies a lo-fi aesthetic while remaining unique in its ideas. The characters and environments help sell this surreal and isolating experience that's also relaxing to play through.

As amazing as these things are, they're not Pseudoregalia's best elements. That'd be its superb controls and platforming.

Hopping and skipping into my heart

If Pseudoregalia was just vibes, it would already be one of my favorite games this year. What places it among some heavy hitters is that it feels amazing to control.

Sybil only starts with a few basic commands, but that quickly expands as she collects more gear and upgrades. Since Pseudoregalia is a brief game, these tools come quickly while remaining well-paced.

My favorite piece of gear arrives early on: the Sun Greaves. These allow Sybil to kick off walls up to three times in their initial form. While this capacity can increase, even the base amount is incredibly satisfying. All the best platformers have wall jumping, and Pseudoregalia is no different.

The Sunsetter upgrade is a close second, however, as it acts as both a high jump and a ground pound. This can also be found early into Pseudoregalia and works amazingly in place of something like a double jump.

Double jumps and high jumps are awesome, but necessitating a previous action to gain momentum adds something to platforming. Even long jumps have that flavor since that ability is only useable while Sybil is sliding.

How Pseudoregalia handles movement is what makes it special. Every action has an amazing blend of weight and control which significantly adds to the overall experience.

Take for instance tall platforms and hallways where the floor is caved in. Much like Hollow Knight, these untraversable parts eventually are passed through without a second thought. When players receive the right upgrades in both, suddenly everything previously known about an environment shifts.

Sunsetter turns the ground into a trampoline, Sun Greaves turns walls into jump points, and Strikebreaker turns enemies into more platforms. Other games explored these ideas, but Pseudoregalia refines them to near perfection by keeping the actions simple while presenting increasingly complicated platforming challenges.

Making old-school freedom of movement accessible

Besides feeling great, Pseudoregalia's gameplay shines with its freedom. Players can wall-jump to a high platform if they don't have Sunsetter, and they can also high-jump onto the same platform if they don't have Sun Greaves.

Combining both with especially high points and using the last kick to jump off a ledge before circling back to hang on is one of the most nerve-wracking and amazing things I've added to my regular tricks within a platformer. Hell, slide-jumping and wall-kicks can help with completely circumventing some early game challenges players missed.

Even superfluous actions, like sliding under a gap to reach a platform when there are far easier paths to take, pop up now and again. Little moments like that allow Pseudoregalia to shine as the playground it is, while keeping its actual controls easier to consistently pull off when compared to actual platformers from the N64 era like Super Mario 64 while sacrificing none of that game's freedom of movement. It makes redoing certain challenges a blast on repeat playthroughs or even when goofing around.

Pseudoregalia also doesn't over-stay its welcome either. It's sold as a brief experience built around players exploring it for a few hours. Interesting secrets and areas litter the world, but its content never becomes bloated.

This isn't a review of Pseudoregalia, but it's at the least in my top five games this year. Its retro inspirations never trap it in that past by updating its movement to feel contemporary. I realized these are the kinds of lo-fi titles I enjoy most because they provide a phenomenal blend of old and new.

Anyone on the fence to try Pseudoregalia out can try its first few hours created for a game jam. It's shorter and less polished than the current version, but it also offers a taste of one of this year's best platformers.

The post Pseudoregalia is a magical platforming Metroidvania gem appeared first on Destructoid.

While I wasn’t looking, the King’s Field-inspired RPG, Lunacid has exited Early Access and launched its full version. This happened yesterday, October 30, 2023.

Why doesn’t Steam tell me these things? The game is in my Steam library. Does Steam think I don’t want to know when an Early Access game I own updates to its full 1.0 version? An email would be nice.

Rude, uncommunicative storefront aside, Lunacid is a first-person RPG dungeon crawler inspired by FromSoftware’s 1994 PS1 title, King’s Field. King’s Field is considered the spiritual precursor to Demon’s Souls and its follow-ups. Since we haven’t seen even a hint of a re-release, the formula and aesthetic is getting picked up by indie developers, and Lunacid is an early example of it.

I’m not sure how to describe it. King’s Field is more of a vibe than anything. A gritty, gloomy,  claustrophobic dungeon crawler with a hint of unknowable horror. While Demon’s Souls borrowed that vibe, King’s Field (and, by extension, Lunacid) is not a soulslike game. They’re more focused on exploration than intricate combat.

Developed by Kira, it entered Early Access in March 2022, and was gradually built up from there. Lunacid is an excellent title in its own right. Don’t take my word for it. It currently has the coveted Overwhelmingly Positive review score on Steam. The developer seems like a cool, cool person. They have promised more bug fixes in the future and have teased that they are working on a prequel.

Lunacid is now available on PC.

The post King’s Field-inspired Lunacid has released out of Early Access appeared first on Destructoid.

Slay the Princess is both easy to describe, and difficult to truly dig into. The best I can offer is a word-salad of genre titles and inspirations: horror meta-narrative visual novel with hand-drawn visuals and strong voice acting, something akin to The Stanley Parable meets Mundaun.

And it can get even more difficult to pin down as it goes on. Slay the Princess feels dreamlike, constantly shifting but staying focused on the drama and tension between its characters. It is simple to get into, but Black Tabby's words will linger in your mind long after journey's end.

So let's start at the beginning.

Slay the Princess (PC)
Developer: Black Tabby Games
Publisher: Black Tabby Games
Released: October 23, 2023
MSRP: $17.99

Into the woods

You find yourself in a forest. After you wake, a disembodied voice dubbed The Narrator tells you there is a Princess. And you have to slay her, or the world will end. You must truly Slay the Princess.

While this may seem straightforward, you don't have to play along right away. A series of options lines up on the right-hand side. Do you ask questions? Do you argue with the Narrator? Do you despise the notion that violence must be enacted without reason? Or maybe you simply embrace the revolution. There are, after all, no right answers. Just answers.

Black Tabby Games may be choosing the text dialogues for you, but these responses were impressively elaborate, ranging from basic questions to flippant contrarianism to deep interrogations of the philosophical issues surrounding, well, killing a Princess. Even in the opening moments, it's clear the player should engage with the text and react to it, in more ways than simply advancing a plot forward.

Eventually, you head towards the cabin, optionally pick up a knife set out for you, and head down into the basement to greet a Princess in chains. And still, you're offered options. The Princess can talk and reason with you. Are you going to hear her out?

Slay the Princess revels in this tension, put mostly simply by the Princess if you reach her cabin with a blade in tow: "At the end of the day, whatever the two of us have going on down here is about trust."

Trust is important as, it turns out, the Princess is no ordinary Princess. And she may be a bit more than you've bargained for. The title of this game makes the task seem easier than it really is.

What stays and goes

If you played the demo of Slay the Princess before, you know there's more going on than a simple encounter in the cabin. Situations repeat, yet you and the Princess retain knowledge. Alongside that, voices creep up in your mind, shifting from the pair of just the Narrator and enigmatic Voice of the Hero to a big block party of Voices: the Broken, the Cold, the Smitten, the Hunted, and more.

Revealing this here doesn't feel too much like a spoiler, because there's even more narrative framework hanging overhead. The story has an intrinsic loop built into it, one that sees you returning and repeating, poking and prodding for changes.

It's a system that highlights the best parts of Slay the Princess: the reactivity. There is an impressive, even daunting number of permutations a single encounter can go through, and Black Tabby Games has done a great job of accounting for all of the little nuances.

Taking the blade down into the cabin's basement is an obvious one; first impressions are everything, and it's hard to convince someone you mean no harm when you showed up with a knife. But maybe it's not just actions. Words can have an effect, too.

The branching paths are rewarding, not just for sheer scope, but how they make each playthrough feel tailored. Your run may have similar encounters, but they might change or even produce entirely different Princesses based on small differences in the actions you take. Each gets a handy name, like the Razor or the Thorn, to help drive their imagery home.

These Princesses can take on all kinds of shape and dispositions towards the player, creating the horror of the story. Betraying the Princess might be easy to do in one loop, but how do you think she'll react if she remembers that in the next? And if you try to show mercy, would a Princess you've previously stabbed and fought truly believe it? So many decisions layer on top of each other, all creating new ways of experiencing the same basic forest-cabin-basement setup until it's altogether changed.

As loops layer over each other, it can get hard at times to track where you're at. Thankfully, Slay the Princess is a fairly short experience. I clocked in at about 4-ish hours for my first run, and there's nothing in the way of filler. It's easy to go back and check permutations as well, and you really should. I was constantly surprised by how the developer put in so many choices, yet thought through how each would pan out, especially in concert with previous decisions.

Drawing conclusions

Alongside the story, a massive draw for Slay the Princess is its art. Black Tabby Games uses a hand-drawn style, similar to their work on Scarlet Hollow, and it's incredibly effective in Slay the Princess. What might seem simple at first can evolve and warp, and the art adapts well to different spaces and concepts. When the world starts not just shifting, but changing in its basic physical structure and even entering into the realm of surrealism, the art matches its pace well.

A few well-placed animations and other surprises keep the tension high, too. I don't know that I'd say this is an outright jump-scare game, but there were moments where I was peering at the text and dialogue through gaps between my fingers. Some of the most impressive horror happens when things get capital-W Weird, and it's laid out incredibly well by Black Tabby's art.

Voice performances also help drive the terror home. Slay the Princess has just two actors to its credits: the Princess, portrayed by Nichole Goodnight, and the Voices, by Jonathan Sims. Each gets to really show their range, as different evolutions and permutations change their presentation. Scared, terrifying, broken, domineering, and everything in between comes through in just their voices.

There were a few times where technical hitches cropped up. Borders on art would lift out from the bottom of the screen, and some voice lines sounded like mics had been swapped out. They're hitches I can mostly excuse though, as they never really pulled me out of the moment.

I will follow you into the dark

It's tough to talk about what happens in Slay the Princess without describing the actual mechanics getting you there, or the way it builds to an incredible showdown that beautifully ties in your choices in ways that feel thoughtful and meaningful. So I'll have to, as Slay the Princess sometimes does, speak in the abstract.

Slay the Princess is, to me, about finality. It's about the looming idea that everything we do is, to some degree, impermanent. Not just death, but our creations, the things we make. The words I'm writing here are as permanent as the servers they're stored in, and the eyes reading them. And we fight, desperately, to maintain some level of legacy that outlasts the unstoppable advancing of time. The life, the love, and the legacies all will, eventually, fade.

But it's the ways in which those experiences form and shape us moving forward that's beautiful. Carrying pieces of your past with you, whether they were helpful or difficult, pretty or ugly, shapes the You that moves forward. It makes those moments permanent, and can even give them new meaning, as we better understand ourselves and those around us.

They say every door closing opens another. It's certainly true in Slay the Princess, where every gory, somber, bitter end just leads into the next. But they do, eventually, arrive at something new, and something we have the opportunity to shape for ourselves if we allow it.

Slay the Princess is a horror meta-narrative visual novel about the choices we make, and how they change us and those around us. It's about the interpersonal relationships that can wound us, make us versions of ourselves we never imagined, yet teach us. It is a damn good story, and one worth experiencing.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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In the year 2024, a new Castlevania-like title is coming our way - for the Game Boy Color.

Coming to us courtesy of Incube8 Games and the development team at Spacebot Interactive, Dracula: Dark Reign is unique in that it's the first video game ever to be equipped with the Stoker license. Bram Stoker published his iconic novel Dracula in 1897.

Bram's great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker created the StokerVerse label alongside his partner Chris McAuley. The duo aims to publish games, comics, and novels under the StokerVerse banner. Each of these is inspired by the works of Bram Stoker.

Because Dark Reign sports the StokerVerse license, it's able to take a deep dive into the world of the 1897 novel. Players will take on the role of the story's protagonist, Jonathan Harker, as he attempts to escape the vampire's castle. The upcoming Game Boy Color Metroidvania title even features a never-before-seen prologue to the original book that's pulled from Bram Stoker's personal notes.

Incube8 Games promises a "unique blend of storytelling, exploration, and action" within Dracula: Dark Reign. All of which is based on Stoker's source material from many, many years ago.

Dracula: Dark Reign makes its physical Game Boy Color cartridge debut in 2024 for $59.99. A future Digital Edition is also planned that will be playable via PC or Mac emulators. A demo is available for players to try out on the Dracula: Dark Reign demo page.

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Many indie titles in the past several years have taken visual inspiration from previous generations. Some draw from the NES and SNES eras, but lately more are taking cues from the PS1/N64 generation.

These distinctive visual echoes from years past have undoubtedly made it far easier to appreciate the aesthetic while playing something notably contemporary. At least, that's how I view many of these games, since occasional visits to previous generations can sometimes be painful.

That said, some of the best games from the last several years have retro games to thank, be they platformers, survival horror, or RPGs. Some of these are the best in their respective years with others being quite underrated gems.

CrossCode

CrossCode is an ARPG with a 16-bit artstyle while retaining smoother combat and exploration. The store page makes its Zelda inspiration clear concerning how dungeons are designed around puzzle-solving and new equipment. Something that distinguishes itself from games like Link to the Past is the focus on ranged combat.

Protagonist Lea can attack at both close and long distances, with either method having a significantly faster pace than its inspirations. Couple this with a breadth of customization options for Lea's build, and combat always stays satisfying as the player's skill grows alongside Lea's strength.

The story can be hit or miss as CrossCode follows the amnesiac protagonist throughout her journey across the CrossWorlds MMORPG, but the gameplay always remains engaging. Clocking in at around 30 hours for the main story, CrossCode is a lengthy and memorable retro adventure.

Dusk

Titles taking inspiration from '90s FPS's have gained traction, but arguably none do it better than Dusk. On top of being one of the best retro shooters in recent memory, it's potentially one of the greatest shooters ever.

It takes visual cues from games like Blood but plays like an improved version of Quake. Players practically glide across levels using a mix of mid-20th-century weapons along with some more fantastical inclusions to decimate cultists and eldritch evils.

Each weapon is exhilarating to use, and I argue movement is better than even Doom Eternal still. At around 10 hours long, Dusk doesn't overstay its welcome and leaves a better impression of boomer shooters than even its inspirations can offer. Despite only being around five years old, its popularity helped earn it a free HD remaster.

Katana Zero

Continuing my trend of focusing on titles released in the last five years is Katana Zero, a slick action-platformer with several interesting gimmicks. It plays almost like a 2D Ghostrunner, as the protagonist only dies in one hit and primarily uses a katana. What Ghostrunner doesn't have is a dedicated slowdown mechanic that ties into the story.

What makes Katana Zero great is not only its mix of brutal and fast combat, but a genuinely intriguing story about identity, reliving traumatizing memories, and memory manipulation. It lives up to its neo-noir tag as an intertwining web of conspiracies forms with protagonist Zero in the middle.

It's a surprisingly tragic and heartbreaking narrative that also happens to be one of the best indie platformers. A free DLC has been in production for years to conclude the story, and I still need it.

NORCO

I'm not much of a point-and-click adventure game fan, but NORCO enthralled me. Inspired by neo-noir adventure titles like Snatcher, NORCO takes the cyberpunk genre into Southern Gothic territory. It also happens to be one of the most melancholy games I've played recently.

The perpetually dimly lit Louisiana atmosphere, slow jazzy soundtrack, and contemplative dream-like story create a genuinely moving experience. Its pixel art style greatly adds to this, coming to life in the way '90s graphic adventures did.

NORCO tapers off slightly toward the end of its four-to-six-hour adventure, but that does little to spoil the package. Its simple puzzles also make it approachable enough for non-gamer sci-fi and Southern Gothic fans.

Pseudoregalia

Pseudoregalia has some of the best movement I've ever seen in a platformer, and it stars a goat-rabbit girl. This 3D platformer takes visual cues from fifth-generation systems, namely the N64, while remaining structured as a Metroidvania.

Its structure is like any other as players guide protagonist Sybil across Castle Sansa to collect new abilities and powers. Almost every area is available to some degree at the start, but the setting only shines once some more abilities are acquired.

The entire movelist in Pseudoregalia is snappy and satisfying, doing a wonderful job at showing Sybil's skills as an expert acrobat who is drip-fed upgrades throughout her roughly five-hour journey. What it ultimately does best is emulate a retro platformer's aesthetics while outclassing its contemporaries.

Sea of Stars

Sea of Stars is among the more recent titles on this list, since it came out in August. Still, it made a splash in the same month Baldur's Gate 3 launched for being a loving tribute to 16-bit RPGs while standing on its own as a solid game.

Combat takes place in turn-based battles, taking cues from Super Mario RPG's timing-based attack system. It's honestly an underrated method for implementing turn-based combat, as it keeps encounters interesting when done right.

The art and narrative are arguably two of Sea of Stars' biggest draws. Its pixel art environments give the world an inviting feeling and lively portraits bring the cast to life. Helping is the story itself featuring an endearing set of characters who fit perfectly into a grand RPG adventure.

Signalis

Signalis is studio rose-engine's debut title and is a remarkable work of retro sci-fi horror. It takes cues from various works ranging from Kubrick and Anno to create a PS1-styled nightmare with a heartbreaking narrative.

The basic premise sees Elster, a Replika who crashes on an icy planet and whose human partner is missing. Her only option is to venture into a nearby facility overrun by berserk Replikas and horrors beyond comprehension.

Despite taking visual inspiration from various anime and films alongside gameplay from retro games, Signalis is almost entirely its own beast narratively speaking. Elster's tale of finding her partner is as surreal as it is soul-wrenching and unabashedly queer. This is a must-play for any fan of cosmic horror and dystopia sci-fi.

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors was one of 2022's biggest hits for a reason. At an incredibly cheap price, players get a simple but compelling action game. Its minimal graphics also help make it accessible to pretty much anyone who has a computer made in the last decade.

It also has an interesting premise for how simple it is. Vampire Survivors is a time-based survival title where players get the power to become stronger than a bullet hell boss. The only active thing you do is move around as progressively more projectiles and enemies flood the screen.

The number of enemies on screen is staggering by the end of a run and would feel overwhelming if not for the player's scaling abilities. The incredibly engaging loop also helps as it's impossible to resist trying at least one more time.

World of Horror

World of Horror officially launched this October, but fans have enjoyed the horror RPG for years in its Early Access builds. Taking cues from Junji Ito manga and 1-bit computer games, this horrifying title looks and plays like a cursed adventure title from the '80s.

Despite its monochromatic color scheme, World of Horror's excellent art direction captures what makes Ito's art so unnerving. Its structure of short runs with randomized adventures also emphasizes valuing every resource and every moment as all continuously dwindle.

As frustrating as randomization can be, it works in World of Horror's case as it helps further cement how hopeless the player's fight is. They are facing off against incomprehensible cosmic horrors, and they aren't going down without a fight.

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SFB Games, the developers behind Snipperclips and Tangle Tower, are dipping their toes into PS1-inspired survival horror with Crow Country. Right now, it’s slated for PS5 and Steam, and while I can’t find a release window, there’s a demo available starting today.

You play as Mara Forest, an investigator brave enough to search an abandoned amusement park in a short, white dress. She’s searching for the eccentric and elusive Edward Crow, a wealthy man who financed the eponymous amusement park, Crow Country. The amusement park has been left to rot for over a year, and I’m pretty sure you find out why in the demo, but I can’t remember, and I forgot to save the footage I took. Spooky!

That’s right! I got an early hands-on with the demo. It’s a rather beefy chunk of the game’s opening. It plays a lot like a Resident Evil survival horror title but from a tilted, top-down angle and with more sprinkling of humor. But while it adopts a more celestial point of view, Crow Country features manual aiming, allowing you to always aim for the head. If it has a head.

My most important takeaway, however, is that, having finished the demo, I want to play more. The demo’s pacing and sense of exploration are fantastic. Beyond the blocky, pixelated visuals, it’s the music that really sells the PS1-era aesthetic, being moody, atmospheric, and sparse. In a few ways, the entire production reminds me of Body Harvest’s interior segments. Except that game was on the N64, and there was no indoor combat.

I have a couple of minor concerns based on the demo. The first is whether or not it’s going to try and differentiate itself both narratively and mechanically from other survival horror games beyond just the addition of light humor. There are hints that it has a narrative trick up its sleeve, so we’ll have to wait and see.

The second is if the whole “survival” aspect is going to adequately materialize. Enemies seem to stay dead once you take them out, which allows you to make rooms and corridors safe for traversal. I don’t mind that, but there are no melee weapons in the demo, and to compensate for that, you can return to Mara’s car at any time to restock on pistol ammo. If someone is determined not to spend their more exotic ammunition, they can just keep pulling from the car’s infinite armory.

The planned release date for Crow Country is in the vague window of 2024. It’s coming to PC and PlayStation, and the demo will be available today. If you’re a fan of PS1-era survival horror, you should definitely check it out.

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As part of DreadXP’s Indie Horror Showcase, Philisophic Games has pulled back the curtain on Hellpunk, a horror game about hitting things with things.

I’ve got a dearth of information here, but Hellpunk seems to be a game trying to nail the ever-elusive feeling of melee combat in a first-person game. It uses somewhat lo-fi graphics, and all the press material I have just says it’s about angrily killing foes. The foes consist of CRT-headed dudes and other assorted weirdos. Don’t worry about creating CRT-headed orphans, however, because apparently, you’re fighting “through the depths of the human mind.” The very angry depths.

To be fair, though, the short, 22-second trailer says a lot. Beyond the trippy visuals, first-person melee is a carrot that few have even touched. 2005’s Condemned: Criminal Origins is often cited as one of the few games to even come close to making it work. I’m currently straining to think of another game that did it well following that. Doom (2016)’s glory kills come to mind, but it’s just hitting a button and watching Doomguy be all vicious. That really doesn’t count.

So, yeah, that’s all I got, aside from the fact that it calls itself “Murder-punk.” We’ll have to wait and see if Hellpunk manages to achieve what has been lost.

Hellpunk is coming to PC via Steam. Its page is available to wishlist, but there is no target release window.

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Last time I was face to face with an aerial Moby Dick, it was in Death Stranding. Well, it's back to the skyward trenches, apparently, because massive mammals are on the menu in Project: Mist. Developer Chicken Launcher and publisher Awaken Realms revealed the title as an open-world survival horror game that gives off serious The Forest vibes.

Thanks to Gematsu, we know a little more about the colossal terrors of Project Mist. While there's no release date, Project: Mist is in the works for PC and, as promised, features flying whales front and center. If that's not too harrowing for you this Halloween season, you can see them along with other sizable threats in the announcement trailer.

Project: Mist promises "full freedom" with "no forced quest[s], no hand holding, no telling you what to do." You're basically plopped smack dab in the middle of a harsh world with survival as the main goal. As you no doubt noticed in the trailer, flying whales aren't the only thing you'll have to worry about. There are big ugly heads, nasty mouth things, and even bigger and slimier dudes? Those aren't the canonical Project: Mist names, but they'll do for now. 

Thankfully, it sounds like you'll have plenty of countermeasures at your disposal. In addition to building a base and defending it from threats, you can create traps, weapons, and other essential items. There are axes, crossbows, guns, and apparently a "game-changing" Gravity Gun. It's not clear exactly how that one works yet, but maybe we'll learn more soon.

Chicken Launcher not included

The developer behind Project: Mist previously worked on games like 2022's No Place Like Home. The cute, relaxing sim garnered some positive reviews, and seems as thematically distant from Chicken Launcher's latest as possible. A Steam page is live now, so we'll just have to wait to learn the secrets of the giant wall. 

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Morteshka, the developer behind The Mooseman and The Black Book, has shown off their latest horror concoction, One-Eyed Likho, in a new trailer.

Do not adjust your monitor. The 4:3 aspect ratio is a feature of this first-person walking sim horror. One-Eyed Likho is based on the Slavic folklore creature of the same name. The developer describes it as “Likho is an embodiment of evil fate and misfortune in Slavic mythology.”

Not only is One-Eyed Likho in 4:3, but it’s also in greyscale. The latter isn’t entirely uncommon, but the former is pretty rare these days when it comes to 3D titles. But beyond those visual quirks, the game looks rather interesting. There’s some good horror imagery and good use of the game’s darkness. There’s a lot of arson depicted, which is always a plus in my book. Morteshka describes it as “burn mechanics,” which I can get behind. The protagonist also burns their fingers if they hold a lit match for too long, which is something I’ve always wanted to see.

I don’t often intentionally seek out walking simulator games, but I usually enjoy the ones that I play. As a cinematic splinter of the adventure genre, they’re an effective way of telling a narrative. Also, they seem to recognize that you can’t just solve every problem with a gun or even a length of metal pipe, which is something we should all learn.

One-Eyed Likho is currently set to release sometime in 2024. There will be a demo for it from October 26 to November 2, 2023.

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