January 15 - 21

  Felix “Royal Reboot” Threepaper

Welcome folks and happy “227th Anniversary of the debut of the top hat” week!

As the story goes, on 15 January 1797, haberdasher John Hetherington stepped out in public in London wearing the first top hat. It is said to have caused riots: women fainted in the streets, children screamed, dogs even yelped. This became folklore, retold well into the 20th century, and no doubt propelled sales and street cred for the top hat during its long tenure as Best Hat. Except it didn’t happen—apparently there wasn’t even a haberdasher called John Hetherington and the top hat was invented by someone else in 1793. You may all celebrate by playing a game with a dodgy origin story.

Happy New Year! I’m back on deck after a rainy holiday.

Next week I will start a new feature for TWA: the GWJ Gaming Glossary. In an effort to demystify this hobby of ours for outsiders, I will explain a piece of gaming jargon each week. GWJ: helping noobs, one week at a time. Feel free to suggest or request your own!

If you haven’t listened to episode 900 of the Conference Call, I recommend it—the panel takes a delightful look back at games from years gone. One game that I was surprised did not get a mention in the 1989 section was Prince of Persia.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown takes Prince of Persia back to its original, 2D, side-scrolling roots. It’s by the devs of the Rayman series and looks like a well-executed Castlevanioid. The platforming, puzzling, and combat start relatively simple, and ratchet up in complexity as you are drip-fed powers and items. Then you realise you’re pulling off combos and moves that would have looked impossible at the start. The enemy and puzzle toughness scales, so the game feels challenging throughout its 20-odd hour journey. The art is lush and colourful, with a nice variety of locales and enemies. So far, so Castlevanioid. The feature that the early reviews are raving about, that innovates the genre, is the screenshot function. You can annotate your map with screenshots, to remind yourself to go back to things once you’ve unlocked a new power or whatever. This ensures you spend most of your time solving puzzles and fighting enemies, rather than backtracking to search fruitlessly for that door you saw hours earlier. There’s also plenty of story nods to earlier Prince of Persia entries.

All Quiet in the Trenches enters Early Access this week. It’s a narrative RPG set in World War I that focuses on a squad of soldiers. You have to manage their needs, lead them in battle, and keep them alive. Will it be a procession of stunts and japes to avoid going over the top, Blackadder-style? I’m not sure, but it’s an interesting premise nonetheless. During Early Access you will be able to play the first year of the game, from 1915 to 1916.

Bahnsen Knights is an interactive adventure that claims inspiration from mid-20th century pulp fiction and mid-80s computer graphics. Experience the story about weird cults and fast cars in stunning EGA.

The Cub, on the other hand, claims inspiration from 90s Sega Disney games like The Jungle Book and Aladdin. It’s post-apocalyptic platforming in a world that suffered a calamity and saw the rich flee to Mars. The environments have a ‘nature is reclaiming’ vibe much like The Last of Us.

Speaking of which, The Last of Us Part II Remastered renders all its harrowing emotional beats in 4K for PS5. There’s also a roguelike mode, some lost levels and a “making-of” documentary thrown in. It’s a full price release; though if you own the PS4 version you can upgrade for 10 dollars or pounds.

My first GOTW of 2024 goes to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I’m not a regular player of Castlevanioids as a genre, as I tend to drop off while backtracking. So the quality-of-life map screenshot feature, which keeps the flow going, makes me way more likely to jump in. Plus it looks really pretty.

Here's the list, in release-date AND alphabetical order!

PC

• 01-15

• Artifact Seeker:Prologue
• Captain Edward
• Chromatic Isle
• Deadly Nightmare Unwanted Heritage
• Death ring (II)
• Dreamscape of Delights
• el puppster
• Elvera
• Forest legend
• Garlic Builder
• Heroine's Claw
• Jump, Froggy! Jump!
• My Grandparent's House
• NUDOMATIC
• Omurice Next Time
• Sakura Succubus 8
• Soul Sader
• Sovereign Syndicate
• Spellbound Hearts
• Sympathia
• The Glitch Prison
• The Last Medic
• Wipe Girls

• 01-16

• A Thug's Ascension
• Chaos Sisters
• Elf boss's dog training
• Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity
• Home Safety Hotline
• Homebrew32
• Just Click The Button
• Kingsvein
• Panda Go
• Spectator 2
• Starlight Scouts
• Toy Trains
• Virtual girl save virtual boy

• 01-17

• 3D PUZZLE - Factory
• 77th: The Game
• Apocalypse Siege
• Atlas Wept
• Combo Card Clashers: Prologue
• Creature Summon: Showdown Moment
• Dominions 6 - Rise of the Pantokrator
• Educational Enamours
• Frontline Survivors
• Little Elf Tanks
• No Case Should Remain Unsolved
• Powerless Heroes Boiled Eggs 2
• Project QT
• Renovation Plan
• Romance Fantasy
• Satoyama Oto Natsukusa Komichi
• TetraMage
• The Lab and Dungeons
• What's Up There?
• Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami
• Zero Grounds

• 01-18

• All Quiet in the Trenches
• Apex Heroines
• Battle for Desert City
• Belonging
• DUNGEON: Cradle of hell
• Escape From Inferno
• Escort World
• Exiled
• Grim's Gambit
• Mortadelo y Filemon: Balones y Patadones
• NEXT FLOOR
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• The Forgotten Cabin!
• The Pony Factory
• Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

• 01-19

• Bad Santa
• Big Adventure: Trip to Europe 6 - Collector's Edition
• Capital Dilemma
• ChildStory
• Cluck Frenzy
• Demon's GunPlay
• Edward's Journey
• Familiars.io
• Glory to Ukraine!
• Gordian Rooms 2: A curious island
• Hypnosis Card
• Ingression: The Portal Trial
• Intravenous 2: Mercenarism
• Jumpfox: Always Running
• Love n Life: Lucky Teacher
• Love n War: Warlord by Chance II
• Quiet on Set
• Rooftop Story
• Runaway bride
• Seven betrayers
• Snake Crush Survivors
• SUF 30k
• Swing Solver
• TAKEUMA 2D
• The Basement
• The Cub
• Two Climbers

• 01-20

• OcculThieves

• 01-21

• EPIC ROGUE
• Foothold
• Lucky Pirate Deck
• The Hamster's Journey
• The Math Problem Killer
• You Can Save Everyone

Xbox Series X

• 01-18

• Bahnsen Knights
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Xbox One

• 01-18

• Bahnsen Knights
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

PlayStation 5

• 01-16

• Toy Trains

• 01-18

• Bahnsen Knights
• Bulletstorm VR
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami

• 01-19

• The Cub
• The Last of Us Part II Remastered

PlayStation 4

• 01-18

• Bahnsen Knights
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

• 01-19

• The Cub

Nintendo Switch

• 01-15

• Legend of Grimrock
• Ultimate Racing 2D 2

• 01-17

• Nephenthesys

• 01-18

• Bahnsen Knights
• Choo-Choo Charles
• Dasshutsu no Heya
• Downhill Driver: Extreme Racing Simulator
• DreadOut 2
• Fairytale Theatre
• Haya Oshi! 3 Hintokuizu
• Hero of Fate
• Oku Dake Sutadi Hanguru Ouyou Tango Yubiippon de Kankoku-go Kantan Benkyou Gakushuu Chiiku Game
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Room of Depression
• Sukue! Jashin-chan Dropkick
• Super Sean 007
• Sushi Shot
• Tenement
• The Pedestrian
• Turnip Boy Robs a Bank
• Vigour

• 01-19

• Another Code: Recollection
• The Cub
• Witch Rise

• 01-20

• Monster Truck Freestyle