All indies–mostly PC, many on Nintendo Switch, and some otherwise.
Play as Penelope, a fast food worker whose called into work on her day off with the only alternative being terminated. So, she goes in and there's nobody else working besides her and the manager who does nothing. Take your time and work through lines of customers who are pretty authentic in their variations and orders.
The Cultist Simulator is a good name for this game, although "occulist" would have worked too. For starters, the cards look a lot like tarot; they kind of play like tarot too. There are some pretty spiritual and existential horror themes in the story as well. I had to confirm this later, but there are apparently some heavy Lovecraftian themes in The Cultist Simulator, elder alien gods and such. Oh, also, the story is really up to you and how you play your cards. And what's in the cards...
Loco Motive is a standard Clue/family drama set in 1939 aboard a train in Switzerland. The conflict is a very classic trope, a tried and true one. Like all mysteries, just being in the genre usually checks all the switches into place for creating all the elements of an effective plot and engaging the audience.
I just saw Clocker released on Nintendo eShop this morning for a reasonable $3, so I snatched it up and gave it a go. These Switch games are kind of hard to predict sometime, but you have to pay your portion for the privilege once in a while. I do not really know what the origins of this game are. It was listed under Indie in eshop, with no publisher info. A little research revealed that the developer Wild Kid Games, published this through a studio called Indienova in China. Are there indie studios in China? I have wondered this a few times. I really don’t know much about it, but if there are that’s pretty cool.
The way games roll out in relation to cult themes these days feel like popping a bean bag chair full of glitter. Shiny and colorful, but spreading everywhere. Cloudpunk IS DEFINITELY a cyberpunk game. Life exists in an oppressively technological Babylon run by criminal overlords and the rebellious underdogs to send it tumbling--not always in an obvious way either. Of course, Cloudpunk is massive, and I have no idea how long it takes to reach the end, how it ends, or if it ends. Hold on let me look that up. WOW, this game is massive. Get Yourself Connected I…
Somewhere in my past, I played an awesome rally game that came fully loaded with mud-flapping corners and virtually no control over anything. I also know that these aren't a grapevine of hits in the racing genre, but rather a genre unto itself. That said, I had no idea before Art of Rally that rally races have a rich aesthetic history that looks darn fine low-poly rendered on a computer screen. Okay, let's get meta. Art of Rally: Go I don't want to bog this down with too much research, because I know there's some treatise on the themes of…
Finally, my love of tile board games like Carcassonne has been revived. But it's completely different mind you. Carto is a tile-placement puzzle released to much praise last year. My first impressions were very positive, but I set them aside until today. It's a terrific game! While it's probably the best adjective, I'm not really fond of describing games as cute anymore, because there are so many vocabularic adjectives for a game of this caliber. Perhaps this is "clever," "witty," "minimalist," "pleasant," and "empathic." There's a whole slew of wonderful descriptions. So, let me garner your attention and put the…
This game has a very simple concept behind it, one that I'm not sure of the importance of really--it's very light--but it's good enough to kick off another exploration of the eShop and click to purchase. Metaverse Keeper seems to have been promoted really hard lately. I never really thought a whole lot about this title, but since it's resurfacing in the real metaverse of social media, I'll take a look here. (By the way, this has nothing to do with Meta or Cyberpunk, which is odd--but fine.) So, without any more delay, here's Metaverse Keeper. Metaverse Keeper Has a…
Mysterious backstory, cosmic balance, ancestral duty. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Heavy topics, yes, but not to worry. This game is poetry, and these types of themes are in the prequel OPUS: The Day We Found Earth. It seems that there is even a theme in common between that game and OPUS Rocket of Whispers, but I am hesitant to say, conclusively, what it is. I'll give you a quick background on this game. It takes place somewhere that may be Earth or possibly a blue equivalent. You play two characters. Alternating as the story sees fit,…
I hesitated the first time I played this. I was up late at night and wanted to try something relaxing and I chose The Last Campfire on the Switch. Visually nice, interesting, but I was a little startled by the minuscule, but there, elements of macabre. Okay, it was just a single skeleton, but that’s enough to not be my usual thing! I set it aside and haven’t thought about it in a while. I’m happy to inform you that this game is actually quite good. It needs to be reconsidered by skeptics, even you if you are one. It’s a sweet and empathic story. Things can change before you would expect them to and it deserves a lot of merit for that.