Felix “I can make you Godzilla at home” Threepaper
Welcome folks, and happy “157th Anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” week!
It was an instant hit when it came out in 1865: critically praised and loved by adults and children alike. It ended a trend of didacticism in children’s literature, where children’s stories had to have a moral or teach Victorian values. Instead, it was simply nonsensical, absurd, and dreamlike. Its influence is far-reaching, across many forms of art. Apart from direct videogame adaptations, you can feel its touch through the bizarre logic of adventure game puzzles. You may all celebrate by playing a Gabriel Knight game.
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is the 7th entry in a long-running, Chinese-language RPG series that’s big in Asian markets. All the spoken dialogue is in Chinese, with English subtitles. It’s got action-JRPG features, like real-time combat where you switch between party members and lots of scrolly-text dialogue, plus a story that’s grounded in Chinese mythology. The art design is quite stunning. It reviewed quite well when it was released in China and on PC last year, with the main criticism being that it was buggy. Hopefully those bugs have been ironed out for PlayStation release.
South of the Circle is more a vehicle for a story than a super-interactive, gamey game. It’s a short (4hrs), linear, narrative game. While you can examine a few things along the way, you are definitely on rails, with one way to go. It’s set in the UK and Antarctica in the 1960s and the main characters are a couple of Cambridge University academics. The story explores some Cold War themes, as well as the social tumult that was going on in the 1960s. The voice cast is a strong roll call of “that persons” from British TV and theatre. Fans of Downton Abbey or The Crown will recognise a few of the voice actors.
Gale of Windoria is a more traditional JRPG with pixellated sprites, turn-based combat, and dungeon crawling, 2D-Zelda style. It’s out on every platform, including mobiles.
Frogun is a retro 3D action-platformer, with the look, sound, and feel of an N64 game. The “frogun” is a hand-held frog, whose tongue you use like a grappling hook. It can also grab things, toggle switches, and fight stuff. There is an antagonist, with his own animal-based traversal tool, who will turn up in levels and start hassling you if you take too long. This was funded through Kickstarter and hit all but one of its stretch goals, so it will also have multiplayer, battle arenas, and levels where you can play as the antagonist.
After Wave: Downfall is an arcade shmup with local co-op, upgradeable ships, and bullet-hell bosses. ‘Nuff said.
If you want an actual, old-school arcade game instead of an homage, then there’s Arcade Archives: Dig Dug. I was back in an arcade recently for a kids’ birthday party, and it wiped away all my arcade nostalgia. Thank the deities for home gaming and design principles that encourage you to progress, rather than shaking you down for credits.
GigaBash is a Super Smash Bros-style brawler with kaiju and mecha, by a Malaysian studio. Giant, off-brand monsters face off against each other in destructible environments. Not only can you punch or throw your opponent into buildings, you can pick up and throw the buildings. You build up your Giga-meter with attacks and damage. When it is full, you can transform into a super-powered Giga-version of your monster that has damage immunities and super-powered attacks. Up to 4 people can play at once, either in teams or in a free-for-all. If you play in team mode and your character is knocked out early, you can still contribute by moving a cursor around the arena to deliver stunning lightning bolts every so often. There’s 10 characters to choose from at launch and a single-player story mode for 4 of the characters. This game has been demo-ing and trailering for about 2 years and by all accounts, the controls are pretty smooth.
GigaBash gets the GOTW this week. Most of the other games this week are hitting some retro vibes, which don’t really tug at my wallet-strings. GigaBash isn’t trying to be a mere clone of Super Smash Bros—it’s got its own thing going on, without big-name IP licensing, and just looks like a fun, couch co-op time.
Here's the list, now in release-date AND alphabetical order!
PC
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08-01
- After the Inferno
- Animperium
- Anomalia
- Beaver Clicker
- Blobble Wars 2
- Boat Crew
- Boxel Golf
- Cavelon
- CREATURE CREATOR
- Cut to the Core
- Dagger of heroes
- Dreadful Hours
- Emorrior
- Escape Yourself
- Farm Defense
- Fire All Humans
- Force of Warships
- GOT
- Great Song's Records of Economy
- Hundreds of Heroes
- Idle Research
- Iron Age
- Island Elf
- Jones
- K3LVN
- Mad Trapper
- Magefall
- Match Match Mania!
- Maze Mart
- Meta Sudoku
- Minimal Bubble Pop
- MMI
- New Horizon
- Picking Wheat
- PlayWith
- Presenter Slides
- PSI Masquerade
- Quest: Escape Dungeon
- Radial Flow
- Retreat To Enen
- Revival AO - Argentum Online
- Road Warriors
- ROBOCRACY
- Rooftop Garden Simulator
- Seabed Frog
- ShadowSENSE.
- Six Braves
- Sokobalien
- Soul Shard
- Space Ballers
- StarMech
- Still be a Human
- SUPER MAZE PLANET
- Supernova TD
- The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe)
- The One Chapter 1
- Tvo
- Unnatural Investigations
- Vespa's Test
- Voxrush
- War of Bellrook
- Yeomna
- Yujian Three Kingdoms
-
08-02
- Aero Tales Online: The World - Anime MMORPG
- Another World Quest
- Frogun
- Gun Devil
- Hi Eggplant!
- Kingdom Draw
- Koncolos
- Legend of Zero
- Logic Circuit: Marble Puzzle
- Mark's Magnificent Marble Maze
- REDSHOT
- Royal Idiots
- Rush Rush Rally Reloaded
- RUUUUUUN
- SharkDrag Episode 5: Uniting the 5 Kingdoms
- Spiriat
- The Dancer: Definitive Edition
- The Mortuary Assistant
- The One Penny Adventure
- Third Wild
-
08-03
- Afterslave
- Bulletkour
- Champs TD
- Dan the Inmortal
- Dark Desire 3
- Earth's Shadow
- Fight For It
- GHOSTKEEPER
- Go Home
- Icarus Challenge
- in your books
- Infinity Project: PATTERNS
- Lost Light
- Minion Raid: Epic Monsters
- Mission: Driver
- New Fury
- Project Wunderwaffe
- Rise of the Underworld
- Sail
- South of the Circle
- VIRUSUM
- VOIDCRISIS
- Warrior Maiden
-
08-04
- A Mage Reborn
- Ashen Will
- Bicycle Rider Simulator
- Camp Buddy: Scoutmaster Season
- Camp Canyonwood
- Cosmic Cruiser
- Gale of Windoria
- h8machine
- Hard West 2
- Hindsight
- IKO 39
- Illuminaria
- Jasper Vice: Legends Untold
- Love, Money, Rock'n'Roll
- LUMbA: REDUX
- Move 78
- PlateUp!
- Project Speed 2
- SCP: Containment Breach Remastered
- Spectre Of Eternity
- Super SpaceMail
- Tanks Boom Boom
- The legend of heroes in the Jianghu
- Turbo Golf Racing
- Unknown
-
08-05
- Animalistic
- Apollo's Adventure
- Breeze
- Cat Dungeon
- Death Slave : You Need to Master Death
- Drain Runner
- Egglien
- Eternal Supreme
- FAMILY BATTLE: Tag Arena
- GigaBash
- Hearts United
- House of Witches
- Magic Click
- Mao Yu's Adventure
- Master of the Tattooverse
- Mello Haunted House
- Miho Adventures
- Milliopoly - Language Quiz and Learning (Early Access)
- My Dad Left Me: VR Game
- NetaJump
- NoAmmo
- Opalescence
- Our Synergy
- Pink Explorer
- PLANETOIDS
- Poly Memory: Primates
- Solar Nations
- Solo War Medieval
- The Adventures of Poppe
- The Ball Flow - Nature and Light
- Tiny Tactics
- ToyCar
- Under The Moon
- Vain Ascendance
-
08-06
- Urban Real estate tycoon
Xbox Series X
-
08-02
- Frogun
-
08-03
- After Wave: Downfall
- South of the Circle
-
08-04
- Gale of Windoria
- Turbo Golf Racing
Xbox One
-
08-02
- Azure Striker GUNVOLT 3
- Frogun
-
08-03
- After Wave: Downfall
- South of the Circle
-
08-04
- Gale of Windoria
- Turbo Golf Racing
PlayStation 5
-
08-02
- Frogun
-
08-03
- South of the Circle
-
08-04
- Sword and Fairy: Together Forever
-
08-05
- After Wave: Downfall
- GigaBash
PlayStation 4
-
08-02
- Frogun
-
08-03
- South of the Circle
-
08-04
- Arcade Archives: Dig Dug
- Sword and Fairy: Together Forever
-
08-05
- GigaBash
Switch
-
08-01
- Hot Lap League: Deluxe Edition
-
08-02
- Before We Leave
- Frogun
- Pure Crosswords - the best Crossword Puzzle Word Game ever!
-
08-03
- South of the Circle
-
08-04
- After Wave: Downfall
- Arcade Archives: Dig Dug
- Hindsight
-
08-05
- 90'' Soccer
- Roll The Cat
- Sofiya and the Ancient Clan
- Toy Soldiers HD
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