All indies–mostly PC, many on Nintendo Switch, and some otherwise.
I'm not sure if the preface of this game is an homage to any other pop culture time traveling islands, but maybe not. I had some theories while playing that maybe some kind of altered planes of existence, which had me thinking about the name. The title, The Gardens Between has a mystical ring to it, but I don't know if that is intentional. I think it might be, but that is my own projection. There's no dialogue or anything to reveal these things, but that's actually okay with me because it's super original and such an interesting gameplay experience!
I knew when I read the description of Knights and Bikes on the Nintendo eShop page, and the bounty of awards adorning it, that this was probably going to be pretty cool. It explores some great themes like imagination, curiosity, and adventure. Also, it’s about finding those adventures in a place you don’t need to journey far to find.
This one in particular is about a young boy who rescues an injured bird in the forest near his school. More specifically, he fends off a badger which tries to catch the bird in a forest clearing. The rest of the story flows organically from this incident and it is the primary purpose of the narrative.
I think I recently made a comment that, as I get older, the more I make the heartbreaking conclusion that mankind will never explore the galaxy due to physics and entropy. What a bummer. What if we had explored it though? And what if we went so far that we couldn't find our way back. That's what's going on in OPUS: The Day We Found Earth.
The idea of this game is you basically start a journey in an unknown path as a quiet beggar. You soon learn that you possess the powers of a god. Clouds are shifted, vessels are filled, and the beat goes on. Players have described this game as having an emotional impact on them. I can relate. The Beggar’s Ride has some cool storytelling choices that give you some context for why this is happening. It’s also something I notice that “quality” games tend to utilize, since it gives you a reason to keep playing. This is a good move, because it’s honestly a little random otherwise. Not that I’m complaining, but I’m really grateful the narrator and gorgeous info blurbs around the edges of the platform.
Nordlicht is a family friendly story book stylized find-the-object game with casual references to Nordict life and the lore/mythology of the viking culture in an anachronistic presentation. You investigate diverse levels with hidden objects and puzzles to solve to complete steps in an adventure story. I think this game would be fun in a family setting, but I found it intriguing enough to investigate as an adult.
This one’s a real treat. In my quest to document cheap games that are high quality, I am here to showcase today’s PC Game titled “Chronology.” Once again, I snagged this title from Steam for a meager $0.49. Booyah! When you start playing new games all the time, you start to notice themes and design aspects from the description. So I can pretty much guess what I’m in for and/or if the game is worth a purchase click.
You're an adventurous protagonist named Beatrix who has settled down on her uncle's ranch on an alien planet where the landscape is occupied by canyons of shiny cute blobs of a variety of species and value. Also some chickens. Which... some slimes eat. Moving on. Yer not from around here, are you? So, what is the point of this? Or the goal, to be a little more specific. Well, it's basically a high-quality vacuum cannon survival sim. This game is super wholesome--and fun. The slimes remind me of the sparrows that visit our backyard in the daytime to get food…
Alpaca Ball is about having fun. It's exactly what you need it to be. A game about alpacas playing soccer, I mean football, I mean ball, or maybe Europe is starting to call it soccer, or maybe they only call it that because of Americas--wait, where is this game from? There's Spanish music and the first level is Machu Picchu, which is in Peru, but the developers are in Austria, and the game is English. No worries.
Going Under: The stylistic, colorful, satirical beat ’em up from Aggrocrab Games. Here we go again. I am officially hooked on Going Under. Snagging it quickly on release day, I have some observations on what this is all about, and I like it. Mainly that it looks great and is very tongue-in-cheek hilarious in addressing some very thematic cultural themes in business.
