July 17 - 23

  Felix “Hoth Transmission” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “209th Anniversary of the publication of A Voyage to Terra Australis” week!

From 1799 to 1814, Matthew Flinders charted the vast coastline of Australia, which was then called New Holland. On 18 July 1815, he published his complete maps under the title “A Voyage to Terra Australis”, the first work to show the complete Australian coastline, and the first to call the landmass “Australia”. He died the very next day. You may all celebrate by playing a game where the colonialists suffer some unintended consequences.

I’m at the snow, so I’ll be quick. Quiet July gets a little louder this week with one big Switch game and a bunch of indies.

Pikmin 4 is the big Switch game. It’s the first new Pikmin in 10 years. The basic template is the same: you command squads of Pikmin who have different abilities, which help you negotiate the environment and deal with obstacles and enemies. New features include a customisable player character, new Pikmin types and a hub world that provides a bunch of side quests for you to grind side activities as well as the main quest. Pikmin 4 has been so long coming, it was almost considered vapourware for a while there, so it’s good to see it finally release.

The Sims 4: Horse Ranch is yet another expansion, with an equine theme. It’s serving cowboy flavours for the new homestead styles and you can buy, catch, train, accessorise and care for all sorts of horsies. If you train them well enough, you can enter them into competitions. Goats and sheep also get a look in. This expansion will come with a bunch of other general updates to Sims 4, such as the long-requested paintable ceilings!

As for the indies, My Friendly Neighborhood is a shooter that’s like Resident Evil meets Sesame Street. It’s survival horror with a “twisted puppet show” aesthetic that’s big on jump scares and low on gore.

Dros is an Aussie-made adventure puzzle game about a slime that has a bounty- hunter shell, each with their own abilities that you switch between in order to progress through a Steampunk tower. The slime sneaks around and traverses while the bounty hunter does the combat. The art style looks pretty and the puzzles look pretty fiendish.

Sea of Thieves continues on its merry way to incorporate all other pirate-themed IP with a Monkey Island crossover.

Xenonauts 2 is, like the first game, an attempt to recreate the 1990s XCOM games in all their granularity, fiddliness, and arbitrary brutality. Did you forget to pack extra ammo in your squaddies’ bags? No reloads for you! Did you forget to examine that one blank corner of the downed UFO? Full squad wipe for you!

Cramped Room of Death is a dungeon-crawler where your character wields a spear, but the rooms aren’t always spacious enough to manoeuvre it. This gives combat a puzzle vibe, as stabbing forwards relentlessly isn’t always the best option.

On the reboot front, there’s Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Definitive Edition and Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening. Each is encapsulating the classic vibe of the originals, with quality of life improvements to reflect gameplay improvements in the last few decades.

It’s hard to go past Pikmin 4 as GOTW. Don’t throw your Switch in the trash after you finish Tears of the Kingdom!

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

PC

• 07-17

• Balance 100
• Benyouji
• Bionic Momentum
• Cats Hidden in Paris
• Clueless Crosswords
• Dreamkeeper
• Evergreen - Mountain Life Simulator
• First egg
• Gluua
• Goolems
• Illegal Plantation
• inRun
• IsoChess
• Kebab Simulator: Prologue
• Kill The Cute
• Last Bloody Snack
• LOOPER * LOOPER
• Meaningless
• Pocket Academy 3
• Pocket Planet
• Shape Shipter
• Soul Dog TD
• Sticky Business
• Super BAWK BAWK Chicken
• The Break-In
• The Complex: Expedition
• The Dungeon Tower
• The Last Veggies
• They Speak From The Abyss: Zenith
• To The Sky
• Toing's Pops
• Trance, Trauma
• Treasure Chest Clicker
• West Ride

• 07-18

• Back alley chronicle
• Bloodhound
• Cabezurrio vs Robots
• CapybaRun
• Dangerous Border
• Electric Sheep: A Cyberpunk Dystopia
• Escape The Office
• FallinBara
• from Madness with Love
• Full Void
• Lachesis or Atropos
• LISA: Definitive Edition
• Monster College
• Murder Is Game Over: Streaming Death
• My Friendly Neighborhood
• My Hypnotized Family
• Outliver: Tribulation
• Puffy Adventure Park
• Purrfectly Hidden Cats - Kittenwood
• Righteous Mojo
• Roll the Dark Heart
• Roto Force
• Sap: School Days
• Shan Hai Express
• Shaper
• The City of Extraordinary Powers
• The Four Elements: Zombies
• Three Kingdoms Aspirations 3
• Ultracore
• Viewfinder
• W.O.L.F
• Xenonauts 2

• 07-19

• Agriculture
• Blackout Protocol
• Cramped Room of Death
• Crystal Tower Defense
• Doomsday Jetlag
• Farsiders
• Froggy's Battle
• Gunsmith Simulator
• Jigsaw Puzzle Womens Day
• Krzyzacy - The Knights of the Cross
• Lawnmower Game: Mission X
• Let's! Revolution!
• Lethal Application
• Magical Girl Dash
• Monsters Idle RPG
• Pain Fighting
• Pyrami Head
• Raptoid
• Run a Cafe
• Silent Cricket
• SpeedOverflow
• Stack Stones
• Street of Secrets
• Suicide Guy: The Lost Dreams
• Super Tank Attack
• Surface Runner
• Tea For God
• Tetris-Retro
• The Repair House
• The White Dreams : Road To Gate 1
• Twist & Turn
• Unidentified Falling Objects
• White Flame Inna: Daughter of the Void

• 07-20

• Abnormal Status ~Tattoo / Prohibited Books / Parasites~
• BeetleQuest 2
• BIKEOUT
• Bird Watch: Central Park
• BlazingAngel Mistletear
• Bloodecay
• Contraptions 3
• Cross Tails
• Death Rattle - Evil Onslaught
• Demon Lord Reincarnation
• Devinica
• Diebrary
• Doctor Cat
• DROS
• Ducky's Delivery Service
• eCheese Zone
• eSheep
• Eternal Return
• FLOWFALL
• Frank and Drake
• FUNG
• GAIA Survivors
• Heros and Monsters: Idle Clicker Game
• Homeseek
• Inexplicable Geeks
• Lakeburg Legacies
• MAKABAKA
• Mega Snake
• Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Definitive Edition
• Oaken
• Outer Space Shack
• Punch Club 2: Fast Forward
• PuzzleSquare
• Red Line
• Scratch Man
• SGS Battle For: Stalingrad
• SpaceMine
• Stillborn Slayer
• T10X Car Simulator
• The Karters 2: Turbo Charged - Prologue
• The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen
• The Sims 4: Horse Ranch
• Toleo
• Train World
• Underworld Adventures
• Unholy
• V-Art Paint Studio
• Whispike Survivors - Sword of the Necromancer
• Wizard World
• Zombie Exterminator

• 07-21

• Bambie
• Blood Samurai
• Bondage Play
• Brewpub Simulator
• Chester: Into The Light
• Crime O'Clock
• Cubic Survivor
• Dungeonman
• Eternal War Hymn
• Forge Industry
• Grapple League
• Gym Empire
• Hotel BOOM!
• LethalCrisis
• Loretta's Brand New Job
• Lost Forest
• MAD WAY
• Moonlight Knight
• Only One Way Up
• PlanetBlight
• Pulse Codex EP
• Rocket Horizon
• Scopaesthesia
• Shroom & Doom
• Shy Cats Hidden Orchestra
• Speedway Racing
• STARWEAVE
• The Envolution Of Wandaland
• The Trade Prince
• Warlords Under Siege - Prologue
• Witch's Banquet
• Worldwide Battle Royale

• 07-22

• The Voyager

• 07-23

• Droidmals: Lavanlier Town
• Micro

Xbox Series X

• 07-18

• LISA: Definitive Edition
• LISA: The Joyful - Definitive Edition
• LISA: The Painful - Definitive Edition
• REMEDIUM: Sentinels

• 07-19

• Agriculture
• Maquette

• 07-20

• Cross Tails
• Oaken
• Strategic Mind: Fight for Dominance
• The Sims 4: Horse Ranch

• 07-21

• Antstream Arcade
• Remnant II
• Sephonie

Xbox One

• 07-18

• LISA: Definitive Edition
• LISA: The Joyful - Definitive Edition
• LISA: The Painful - Definitive Edition
• REMEDIUM: Sentinels

• 07-19

• Agriculture
• Maquette
• Skullgirls: 2nd Encore

• 07-20

• Cross Tails
• Oaken
• Punch Club 2: Fast Forward
• Strategic Mind: Fight for Dominance
• The Sims 4: Horse Ranch

• 07-21

• Antstream Arcade
• Sephonie
• The Snow Fable: Mystery of the Flame

PlayStation 5

• 07-18

• Gravity Crash
• LISA: Definitive Edition
• REMEDIUM: Sentinels
• Twisted Metal
• Twisted Metal 2
• Viewfinder

• 07-19

• Agriculture

• 07-20

• Cross Tails
• Killsquad
• Oaken

• 07-21

• Remnant II
• Sephonie

PlayStation 4

• 07-18

• Gravity Crash
• LISA: Definitive Edition
• REMEDIUM: Sentinels
• Twisted Metal
• Twisted Metal 2

• 07-19

• Agriculture

• 07-20

• Cross Tails
• Killsquad
• Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Definitive Edition
• Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening
• Oaken
• The Sims 4: Horse Ranch

• 07-21

• Sephonie

Switch

• 07-18

• BLEED: Arcade Arena Shooter
• LISA: Definitive Edition
• LISA: The Joyful - Definitive Edition
• LISA: The Painful - Definitive Edition
• Madshot
• REMEDIUM: Sentinels
• Wood Cube Block: Classic Casual Puzzle

• 07-19

• Agriculture
• Cramped Room of Death
• Spirit Hunters: Infinite Horde
• Unidentified Falling Objects

• 07-20

• Aery - Heaven & Hell
• Armored Lab Force VULVEHICLES
• Cross Tails
• Crowded Mysteries
• Doomsday Hunters
• Forest Fire
• Frank and Drake
• Haunted Hell House
• Legends of the Eternal Flame
• Lucy Got Problems
• Masquerade Kiss
• MetaDude
• Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Definitive Edition
• NightmareScape
• Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening
• Oaken
• OMNIMUS
• Punch a Bunch
• Sailing Era
• Sweets Pusher Friends
• Takoyaki Party Survival
• THE KITTY in The Spaceship
• Wathitdew Record Game Studio BATTLEFIELD
• Whispike Survivors - Sword of the Necromancer

• 07-21

• D-Corp
• Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys Breakup!
• Pikmin 4
• Ramp Car Racing
• Ring Racer
• Sephonie
• Super Dinoblasters