Great games that I’ve tried and that you should too.
Haven Park is here today and we’re happy to have it. Where to start? Let’s start with adorable cute animal heads making friends in the woods. I’m drawn to them the moment I glimpse at them, and my heart gets their attention quick. Haven Park is a three-dimensional open world that expands on the social crafting genre. And it’s a cool option the addresses demand for games of this nature. In Haven Park, you play a little yellow bird who essentially inherits a whole park from its grandmother, You are tasked to maintain the park, draw visitors in, and explore. With crafting, in-game market, and skill trees, this is a pretty feature-abundant game! Let’s take a look.
Unbound: Worlds Apart is a unique new 2D platformer with a fantasy twist and versatile special abilities. On the surface, it's a beautiful game, on par with the likes of Ori and the Will of the Wisps. On inspection, there's a heck ton of attention paid to the fine details of the environment. And when you actually play, solving puzzles with your special ability rolls off your controller quite intuitively. This is a high-quality production for those who love platformers and want to really see what's possible in this genre. If you're ready to brave a collapsing reality inexplicably parallel to a world of creepy crawly things, but recluse in your summonable portals, say that 5 times fast and push the dang portal button.
The Universim is a civilization simulator from Crytivo that combines features from planet sims with more advanced skill trees. The game touts a robust planet-level environment with the ability to manage the course of civilization from primal to advanced stages. The game is still in development but is going through a rigorous beta, although you can purchase the early access on Steam, which many have. I'm kind of reminded here of experiences of other sims out there, but I saw some things I haven't seen before too. Thanks to the collaboration between my friends at Indie Game Collective and Crytivo, I've obtained an early access copy and am here to tell you about it. So here we go.
Mini Racing World is a newly released game that fits comfortably into the big leagues of indie racer games. As you may know about me, but probably not, I'm quite fond of low poly racing games. There are not a lot of options available for this genre, so it is refreshing to see this out there. Mini Racing World is an indie race circuit and stunt track game with an emphasis on style with a generous margin for skill tiers. Customize your vehicle, hone your talent, and progress through a variety of tracks to play. Developers call driving in this game easy to control, difficult to master. That's just about right. So, let's get started and I'll tell you all about it.
Weaving Tides sits comfortably in a genre of its own. Unlock a world map woven together through magic threads. You'll ride upon friendly creatures known as carpet dragons and weave new threads to move forward. With brilliant surface swapping mechanics that allow you to traverse impossible terrain, exquisite graphics, and smooth gameplay this is surely a work of art as much as a playable game. The artistic aspects of Weaving Tides are exquisite. You can just feel the silky textures of the world as you traverse, feeling perhaps you are enchanted, or simply on a very fine adventure.
Existensis is a hand-illustrated philosopher platformer game from the creative spirit of dev Librarium Oz. In Existensis you play as a masked character known as The Mayor, who is actually an artist. The objective is to gather inspiration in a journal so you can use it to create a tower to represent the journey of life. From situations and interactions with characters spread throughout vaulting platform areas and cities. You can learn more about your environment and gradually collect enough information/inspiration to enter swirling vortices around certain characters. They will help you teleport somewhere new and completely different so that you can collect even more inspiration. This game is beautiful, mystical, and one of the most interesting games I've ever played. Let me take you through it.
Say No! More is a super narrative-driven comedy office sim. These office sims have been coming out of the wall lately, but this game is one of the most hilarious out there. It uses an experimental "combat"-like system, where you start a job as the internet at a big company, then, thanks to a motivational cassette tape, take over the compliance enforced company with the powerful magic word: NO! I snagged this game on sale and played through it to give you a first account of how it is. It's a great game, not just for the experience of playing it, but also because it is incredibly unique and provides a social commentary that is as relevant as metaphorical. I'll give you the details here.
Widget Satchel is a cross-platform indie platformer out a couple of years but still very fun and fresh. It is currently available through the Itch.IO Palestinian aid bundle. Widget Satchel is a delightful flat graphic style game, where you play as an adorable ferret upon a space station. You start off with a satchel and explore junk-filled levels and builds things. There is no game over or way of getting hurt, but plenty of challenging scenarios to try things out. Let's have a look.
UROS: A Trip Through Shadows is another game from the ESAT student game studio program in Valencia. I previously reviewed a title from this group called Twin Stones which was extremely fun. UROS is a 2D fantasy action platformer-style game that exhibits independent lore that borrows from Hades like underworld lore. As you progress through the map of UROS you will unlock new areas and obstacles and make your way toward, presumably, a scenario related to the opening storyline. Almost missed this one, but here we go with another review at Mr. Dave Pizza!
Potion Party is a recently released indie co-op that involves running an alchemy shop and racing around part of your lab to create potions for hurried customers. Its style is a pleasant top to bottom, cute, pixel art environment. Get in the groove as an alchemist to thumpy party music of its namesake. Players may enjoy reasonable tasks along with adequately challenging objectives. In addition, there is a respectable host of elements that advance the needs of player skills as levels are completed from customers to creatures. I think this game is really fun and am delighted to share more about it with you!
