Garfield, minus Garfield

August 10 – August 16

Section: 

Clearly Paddington: Adventures in London is going to be the under-appreciated gem of our time.

Okay, no, it's not that bad of a week. In fact, I'd say it's a great week, as there's literally something for everyone in that long list of PC indie releases. I have eight, eight tabs open on YouTube trailers of games that interest me as I write this, and I have no clue which one to highlight. Mute Crimson+ looks to join Shovel Knight in the category of aesthetically pleasing homages to NES games with the refinement of design that those older games lacked. Hacknet combines the concepts of ARGs and tosses them into a pseudo-hacking puzzle-game where failure means a Blue Screen of Death. Illuminascii is a rogue-like that harkens back to the days of Ye Olde Doom, and Celestian Tales: Old North summons forth the nostalgia of Playstation role-playing games and turn-based combat systems. Want an inventive platformer? Gravity Error has your vector-based aesthetic dipped in a Super Meat Boy design philosophy, while Airscape: The Fall of Gravity looks like it could have come right out of Nintendo's own doors.

If I have to pick just one, however, then I'm going with Shaun the Sheep Movie. WAIT, I'm picking Beach Bounce. DAMMIT, I pick a wonderful frolic in a field of flowers and daisies.

All seriousness, I'm choosing Wanderlust Adventures. I love the 16-bit Final Fantasy aesthetic fused with dungeon-crawling gameplay and Secret of Mana-style design, and it features four-player co-op. I can think of more than a few GWJers I'd love to hop on Skype with and give this game a whirl.

So which game tickles your fancy?

Erik "wordsmythe" Hanson

Slitherine's put out some good games lately, so while I haven't tried the iOS variant, I'm interested in checking out the PC release of Pike And Shot this week. Who doesn't love a good turn-based romp in the 30 Years War? Here's your box quote: Religious turmoil has never been this fun!

Felix “new_cricket_hater” Threepaper

When all of your favourite teams in all your favourite sports suffer miserable failures during the week, you realise the only true source of joy is video games. A week like this can lead to errant purchases.
I don’t often go in for twin-stick shmups, but add in an economy like Cashtronauts has, and I’m tempted. The literal sandbox-game aesthetic of Toy Soldiers: War Chest has me rethinking my resistance to tower-defence games.

Ultimately, I’m voting for the Myst-for-kids Ferrum's Secrets: Where Is Grandpa? because its point-and-click puzzling and mystery solving offers no scores, points or any reminders of sport whatsoever. Except maybe a crossbow.

Greg "DoubtingThomas396" Decker

It isn't often my choices in the console wars get validated, but with Goat Simulator coming to PS3 and PS4, it's looking like I made the right choice both times. Having very nearly given it my Game of the Year nod last year, though, I want to make way for another abomination that should not exist.

Garfield Kart comes to the 3DS. I've personally seen Garfield Kart on the WiiU, though i can find no evidence of it on the Internet. Nor can I find evidence that it exists on any other platforms. So here's what we know: Somebody thought that they could make money selling a Garfield-themed Kart racer on Nintendo platforms.

I don't care if it's a good game. Sometimes sheer audacity is enough. If you're going to dream, dream big.

Garfield Kart gets my pick for this week.

This week:

PC

  • ABD: A Beautiful Day
  • Celestian Tales: Old North
  • Gunnheim (Steam Early Access)
  • Illuminascii
  • Neverwinter: Strongholds
  • OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
  • Blaster Shooter GunGuy!
  • Hacknet
  • Gravity Error
  • Cashtronauts (Steam Early Access)
  • The Cat Machine
  • PING 1.5+
  • Wanderlust Adventures
  • Mute Crimson+
  • Pike and Shot: Campaigns 1494-1698
  • Beach Bounce
  • Ferrum's Secrets: Where Is Grandpa?
  • Afterlife Empire
  • Void Invaders

PS4

  • Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
  • Toy Soldiers: War Chest
  • Gauntlet: Slayer Edition
  • Prototype
  • Prototype 2
  • Goat Simulator

Xbox One

  • Toy Soldiers: War Chest
  • Prototype 2
  • Prototype
  • The Bridge
  • Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings

Wii U

  • Brave Tank Hero

PS3

  • XBLAZE: Lost Memories
  • Goat Simulator

Xbox 360

PS Vita

  • XBLAZE: Lost Memories

Nintendo 3DS

  • Garfield Kart
  • Paddington: Adventures in London
  • Brave Tank Hero

Comments

Insert comment about how four people missed out on talking about ______.

To me, Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings is actually something to take a look at. It's a really fun baseball game, which One owners now get to enjoy. If you ever enjoyed swinging a bat without uber complexity that something like the Show gets you then this is the game for you. (Incidentally, if you liked any of the MLB Power Pros games then you'll like this also sans the RPG portion of those games. .....crickets....? Probably.)

garion333 wrote:

Insert comment about how four people missed out on talking about ______.

I am genuinely surprised that no one even mentioned Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. I would expect the new game from The Chinese Room to get a smidge more attention from our crunchy indie front pagers than that.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Insert comment about how four people missed out on talking about ______.

I am genuinely surprised that no one even mentioned Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. I would expect the new game from The Chinese Room to get a smidge more attention from our crunchy indie front pagers than that.

Hip indie devs and games aren't discussed in detail until after the games launch. Sheesh, Clock, you just don't get it do you?

Spoiler:

I know that wasn't needed, but maybe it is.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Insert comment about how four people missed out on talking about ______.

I am genuinely surprised that no one even mentioned Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. I would expect the new game from The Chinese Room to get a smidge more attention from our crunchy indie front pagers than that.

All seriousness, I somehow didn't even see that, and I usually am most carefully looking at the console releases. Don't know how I missed it.

Oh well. I learned about and drew attention to games that I sincerely believe look interesting and worth checking out.

Obviously our pockets were lined by bigger developers, causing us to overlook Rapture.

That's a pun.

I clearly wasn't a good enough person, and therefore missed the rapture.

At least I like German potato salad!

Actually, it's about the rapture

#notallindies

Spoiler:

now everybody's going to the rapture... except for Farscry

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I clearly wasn't a good enough person, and therefore missed the rapture.

Nah, you're just waiting for it to hit $5 in the Steam sale

Chris "C" Cesarano wrote:

Celestian Tales: Old North summons forth the nostalgia of Playstation role-playing games and turn-based combat systems.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/X1CG10m.jpg?1)

This single image from the Steam page took me from 0 to Tell Me More! in like 2 seconds.

Super Mega Baseball just sounds right. Like something from the mid 90s that should be awesome.