February 22 - 28

Section: 

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Darker Dungeons” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “114th Anniversary of the first cabs with taxi meters operating in London” week! Apparently before that, cab drivers just drove people around for free. Capitalism ruins everything. You may all celebrate by playing a tycoon game.

It’s a week of no AAA games, but a host of mid-priced ones, with many leaning on nostalgia to tempt you. The Switch has a buffed-out list of ports, as usual—Nintendo has embraced the Switch as the ultimate mobile platform, making it into a finishing school for successful games from the mobile App stores.

Speaking of taxis, Taxi Chaos is a retread of the classic Sega Crazy Taxi games. The template is largely the same: timed runs, delivering passengers, and crazy stunts. Upgrades include leaderboards, shinier graphics, special objectives given by voiced passengers, and the cars can jump now. You can find some wild shortcuts by bunny-hopping onto rooftops.

From a spiritual successor to an actual sequel: RetroMania Wrestling is a sequel to WrestleFest, the hit arcade wrestling game from 1991. This one looks like it was made in 1992, with its 2D sprites and old sound chip voices.

Apparently, doing Dynasty Warriors mashups with other games is a mini-genre, because here comes Persona 5 Strikers on PC and Switch. Story-wise, it’s a sequel to Persona 5, which was a PlayStation ‘sclusy. Gameplay-wise, it’s an action-RPG where you play mostly as Joker, but you can swap out for other party members at any time. You can pause and line up your attacks if you miss the old, turn-based Persona combat. It’s got some pretty jarring difficulty spikes for boss fights, but other than that, most Persona fans seem pleased with it following its release on PlayStation earlier in the month.

Curse of the Dead Gods is an isometric, roguelite dungeon-crawler which has been in Early Access on PC for about a year. At first glance, it may look like a Diablo clone, but the combat seems deeper and more skill-based than the click’n’cooldown systems of other clones—for example, dodging uses stamina and there’s parrying. Darkness is also a thing, as you explore the dungeon with torch in hand, lighting braziers to reveal rooms, enemies, and traps. There’s also a curse system that opens up elements of risk/reward during a run, like a trait in Fallout. It’s also got a striking, comic-book art style.

Another game coming out of Early Access and onto PC and consoles this week is Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. This is a new FPS on the Quake engine, published by 3D Realms (who made Duke Nukem 3D back in the day) and made by the folks who made the renowned Quake mod, Arcane Dimensions. As such, it’s a very Quake-ish throwback to 90s shooters: fast-paced with demonic enemies, a crunching metal soundtrack, and pixelly gibbets.

I’ll give the GOTW to Curse of the Dead Gods—it’s got all the makings of being the next big roguelite, if everyone’s done with Hades.

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

PC

  • 02-22

  • AnShi
  • Blobert
  • Dadish
  • Escape Machine City: Airborne
  • Grappling Ball
  • HyperShot
  • Incremental Epic Hero
  • Jurassic Big Head
  • Kosmonavtes: Academy Escape
  • Make the Burger
  • Middle Age Conquest
  • Nyako Restaurant
  • QUICAL
  • Reincarnation Xiuxian Jue
  • Rocha's Golem
  • Russian Anime
  • TOGUM
  • TRIPILL
  • Vanilla Click
  • Viking Story
  • Watermelon Blocks
  • Z.O.M.B.I.E.
  • 02-23

  • Black Baby
  • Collapse: A Political Simulator
  • Curse of the Dead Gods
  • Cybernetica: Final
  • Destroy It
  • Domino killer
  • Escape The Ordinary: Tales of Romina Manor
  • JEI VR
  • Jujubos
  • Live Labyrinth
  • Martial Arts Legend
  • Metric Racer
  • Of Mice and Moggies
  • Persona 5 Strikers
  • PewPew!
  • Push The Box 3D
  • Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
  • Ryaku
  • SAW HELL
  • Snowboard (Snowboard)
  • Story of a tiny earth, the symbolic ages
  • TOP TRUCK DRIVER
  • 02-24

  • Bard Harder!
  • Black Cat
  • Build Em' Faster
  • Cold Breath
  • Dangerous sea area
  • Farm Dungeons
  • Fights in Tight Spaces
  • Geneforge 1 - Mutagen
  • Gondola's Adventure
  • Gun Duel
  • Jetscout: Boot Camp
  • Jurassic Attack
  • Kouko Yosei
  • Lycanthorn II - Rain of Beasts
  • Old School RuneScape
  • Tested on Humans: Escape Room
  • The Forgotten
  • Typed82
  • 02-25

  • A Knight Never Yields
  • A Wake Inn
  • Aery - A Journey Beyond Time
  • Arcaxer
  • Astrodogs
  • Beyond The Waterfalls
  • Boss of this gym
  • Counter Fight ICHIRAN
  • Dadish 2
  • DateJournal
  • Doomsday Hero
  • Fantasy Adventure
  • Fu Shiro Shoujo
  • Hadean Tactics
  • INFINITE VERSUS
  • League of Maidens
  • Naau: The Lost Eye
  • New Witch in Town
  • Pixel Game Maker Series Remote Bomber
  • Portals World
  • Princess Daphne and the Orcs
  • Sea of Blood
  • Sentience
  • Slide Stars
  • The Architect: Paris
  • The Lost Cube
  • Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery
  • Tiny Traffic
  • Twin Stick Heroes
  • Voidigo
  • Waifu's Spooky Space Station
  • Wigmund. The Return of the Hidden Knights

Xbox Series X

PlayStation 5

PlayStation 4

  • 02-23

  • Curse of the Dead Gods
  • Horned Knight
  • Taxi Chaos
  • 02-24

  • Pumpkin Jack
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
  • 02-25

  • Moving Out: Movers in Paradise
  • Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
  • Yupitergrad
  • 02-26

  • RetroMania Wrestling

Xbox One

  • 02-23

  • Curse of the Dead Gods
  • Killer Queen Black
  • Taxi Chaos
  • 02-24

  • Active Neurons 3 - Wonders Of The World
  • Horned Knight
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
  • 02-25

  • Moving Out: Movers in Paradise
  • Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
  • 02-26

  • Akuto: Showdown
  • Beyond Enemy Lines - Remastered Edition
  • Dungeons & Bombs
  • RetroMania Wrestling

Switch

  • 02-22

  • AnShi
  • Dry Drowning
  • 02-23

  • Curse of the Dead Gods
  • Dynos & Ghosts
  • Johnny Bonasera Full Season
  • Persona 5 Strikers
  • Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
  • Taxi Chaos
  • 02-24

  • Active Neurons 3 - Wonders Of The World
  • iota
  • Retrace: Memories of Death
  • 02-25

  • Aery - A Journey Beyond Time
  • Blastful
  • Castle Kong
  • Clocker
  • Code:Realize ~ Wintertide Miracles ~
  • Codebreaker Puzzle 1000! ENG & JAN
  • Demon's Rise - Lords of Chaos
  • Dotori
  • Forward to the Sky
  • Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection
  • Hellpoint
  • Lawnmower Game: Racing
  • Legal Dungeon
  • Littlewood
  • Mike Dies
  • Moving Out: Movers in Paradise
  • Republique
  • Steam Prison
  • Under Leaves
  • Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
  • 02-26

  • Bravely Default II
  • Demon Hunter: Revelation
  • Dungeons & Bombs
  • Horned Knight
  • Monster Truck XT Airport Derby
  • RetroMania Wrestling
  • Thunderflash

Comments

Curse of the Dead Gods does seem cool.

Bravely Default 2 (the third game in the series, natch) is out and that's cool. I don't much care for the BD games, but I'm glad they exist and continue to do well for S-E.

Bravely Default 2 is my big one this week.

Curse of the Dead Gods is news to me. Thanks!