I'm going to try something new here. I have been known to review demos in the past, but they get kind of buried under other projects. I really want to dedicate time to as many as I'd like to. All things relevant, I made a post on Twitter about needing to play for Game Boy style indies. I got a great tip from cshPinecone of Indie Game Collective about the game BIOTA from "small bros." It's a shmup--aka shoot 'em up.
Let's jump right into Ducksoup Dungeon. It's a free web browser playable rogue-lite on Itch.io by developer Richard Lems, also known as Blastmode Games. You might have heard of Lems' work on the game Mighty Goose. In the game I'm discussing here, Ducksoup Dungeon, you choose one of four heroes. It is playable in a web browser or can be downloaded. Starting with "Slashchicken," the first hero is a chicken. With amazing firepower at your side, you'll blast your way through and collect coins. Each play's collection can be used to unlock the other three heroes. Every level features hidden procedurally generated areas, meaning it can be a different layout every time you play. The levels, of which there seems to be an infinite number, are filled with containers destructible for coins, reached by eliminating various mobs.
Dogurai by HungryBear is a Game Boy-style indie Metroidvania. I know about it through, a couple of co-creators from Indie Game Collective. Thank you, Jaunty Adventures and Pursuing Pixels. Their taste is superb, as this turned out to be an exciting game. I've covered very few Game Boy titles here, aside from Lasagna Boy and... actually, that might be it. It's a great genre if you want to get into indies. In summary, the designs are aligned with the palette and rendering of old-school Game Boy games. This one in particular is a nice platformer/Metroidvania that takes you through some moderately challenging levels. There are ruffian henchmen, shielded hulks, and old-school SMB 3-style bosses. In my video, I had to jump around like more of a ninja to obliterate the first boss.
Plot your way as a tadpole through a polluted river. When you heal corrupted wildlife with a splash of water, they move back underwater so you can navigate your way through. Some creatures are bigger than others and more challenging. Tadpole Tales is quite challenging in general though. These are occasionally known as shmup games. The developers, who are a small team under the Pinnacle Games brand publishing, have dubbed the game a "Clean-em Up." Don't you love that?
This is a 2D pixel-art platformer about a little alien named “bobe” who needs to clean dust-bunnies around a space station using a vacuum called a clean0tron. Solve path puzzles to navigate your way through the cozy mechanical environment and progress through the game. The vacuum has space for one item at a time, so you’ll have to figure out what order to vacuum and relocate blocks so that you can complete each level. The puzzles are challenging enough to keep things interesting, but you’ll most likely find the gameplay light and pleasant.
Village Monsters is a solo dev project from Josh Bosser. It's a pixel art town sim that departs from conventional titles with an alternative community of friendly monsters. The game plays on similar genre themes as Stardew Valley but the content goes into the outsider/quirk genre of games with its monster acceptance communicated in each character's unconventional friendliness. It departs from too much comparison by offering a vast amount of exclusive unique story concepts in each characters' backstory and dialogue. Players can also enjoy activities like treasure hunting, fishing, exploring, working, and contributing to the town itself. Village Monsters is pleasantly surprising and the subject of this indie game collective showcase/review post. So, let's see what's inside!
The recently released pixel platformer Pompom: The Great Space Rescue ran across my desk as a showcase opportunity through my friends at Indie Game Collective. It's a precision platformer, sort of, with a feature I've never seen before this involving time slowing AND improvised platform placement. You can play with a controller, or you can play it with a mouse (or hamster actually, since that is Pompom's main character you play as.) The game balances innovative gameplay, a moderate learning curve, and generous leniency to keep your gameplay flowing. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, at the level of some other top precision platformers like Celeste. From the pleasant pixel art to the rewarding gameplay, this game earns every slice in the Mr. Dave Pizza pie. So, let me do my duty and share with you some information about this excellent game. Also, I made a cam appearance for the first time on this game's video--with my favorite hat! Not sure why, just felt like doing it.
I'm a big fan of fishing in games, but even more so a good story involving it. Moonglow Bay has done it. It's a story about a retired fisher getting back out there. It is also about settling a community's superstitions and getting back to the foundation of their livelihood. The story takes place in a traditional Eastern Canadian seaboard fishing village in the 80s. It is otherwise perfectly afloat in its conventional timeless qualities. I related to this game on a personal level, but it floats my boat on multiple. Let's see.
Dogs dashing, catching, posing, and dogs riding scooters to surfboards throughout the whole game. Pupperazzi is a comedy game with a pretty clean content concept. In all honesty, I initially wasn't too interested in the game, until I saw it was on Xbox Gamepass where I tried it for free. To my surprise, I found this game very funny, and it had enough achievement-based gameplay that it was actually quite fun. I know games like this aren't for everybody, but I thought it was a good romp that didn't require too much brainpower. So, here we go with my complete thoughts on Pupperazzi.
Forgive, me, because we're about to "dive into" some game material from the past. All the way back to the year 2018. Which isn't really that long ago, making the sentiment of that sentence nearly arbitrary actually. Donut County is on its fourth year after release, and I've been meaning to play it for about half of that time. Why did I wait so long? I have no idea, but anything that was offsetting about it has vanished from any of my pre-conceptions. Donut County is a hilarious, strategy-based game from Annapurna Interactive, a publisher of some really good indie games.