All indies–mostly PC, many on Nintendo Switch, and some otherwise.
Today, I plunged headfirst into the free games pile new releases over on Steam store. On my arrival, I discovered a cozy little visual novel among the listings called Fayburrow, and I decided to take a look at it. Fayburrow is a free game created by the self-named "Fayburrow Troupe" at VIA University College in Denmark. It just hit the Steam store today. What was first intrigue, turned into a fascination with the conjunction of such delightful graphics with a genre I have not covered in far too long! So, after downloading, I fired it up and took it for a spin at the courtesy of the game's student makers and you dear reader. Let's take a look at Fayburrow.
I'm spending time playing a lot of food games lately. While cooking sims are the most obvious manifestation of this, platformers like Dadish 2 are right on board too. Dadish 2 is a continuation of the original Dadish game and both are available on most platforms. You, Dadish, awake from a nap at work one day when your several radish children come to visit you for "bring your kids to work day." They convince you to leave the chainsaw and cannon-filled office building and set off into this weird world. Dadish 2 has a narrative that is humorously inconsistent but is very entertaining and quirky.
Welcome to my post about Make the Burger. This game's release date on Nintendo Switch occurred this week, although it has a presence on Steam and ItchIO as well. This is a casual food truck sim with catchy and fun pixel environments and a line-up of hungry and paying illustrated customers. Your entire success is dependent on your ability to remember ingredient symbols and who ordered them. Take orders from customers to cook the burgers they want as accurately and quickly as possible. Upgrade your establishment each day by using funds to purchase new ingredients, furniture, and various tools of the trade. Each session starts at the beginning and it's up to you to play as casually or seriously as you'd like.
Sometime about 100,000 years ago Owls became all the rage. I joke, since owl knickknacks and stories have surged in popularity over the past couple of decades. But they've long symbolized intelligence, wisdom, and ability. Which is good, because those are common themes in Owlboy. I tested this game on Nintendo Switch, but it is a cross-platform Metroidvania, an acceptable umbrella term for a whole ton of games out there.
My hunger for low-res grounded pixel games lately opened me up to a stellar sale on a game called Pizza Express. Pizza Express is an indie pixel-graphic pizzeria simulator about a fast-paced solo restaurant run by animal friends Gastone the cat and Lucky the rabbit--and also you. The game is fairly simple but incorporates playful dialogue and gameplay that is quirky in the best indie-adhering ways. It is very similar to the game Good Pizza, Great Pizza, but is older and definitely a bit more grassroots. I enjoyed it very much, so I've decided to bring this review of it together for your reference. Please enjoy.
If this headline doesn't raise an eyebrow, then stick with two, because this article is tapping into some unexplored territory with the game Necrow Co. by creator Zahran Worell. The game Necrow Co. is a 2D pixel platformer, playable with either a controller or keyboard. It's a light narrative about a crow who starts work for a company of reapers, featuring a cozy skeleton psychopomp grim dispatching you to a national park filled with spookies, squishies, and don't-touchies (terms coined on our end.) Abilities are basic: move left and right, jump, and shoot a sort-of crow song wave that disables mobs. Necrow Co. is a charming adventure, and despite the grim theme, fairly soft on the player. Let's take a look.
We've got a big event going on right now for THE BIG ADVENTURE. Many demos, many great indies. I set my eyes on What Lies in the Multiverse first. It's a collaboration between Studio Voyager, IguanaBee, and Untold Tales. Everything you'll see in this game has a silvery thread of classic games like Fez, Owlboy, etc. But it's a little more than technicolor flashing pixel animations, it's dealing with a really awesome powerful mechanic. Changing universes. That's right, when you click RT you change universes in this game, and, honestly, it's unique, it's a seldom-used trope, but a particularly amusing one, because when you play a game like this, you can drop out real quick and drop back in as if you were putting on a new hat.
Alright, folks, I am compelled to write about this. Last night I posted a video of a game on itch.io called Soul Delivery. Yes, it is true, the graphics in this game are so stunning, it's enough to short circuit. Though, until now, I've never even heard of it. I don't know who the dev is, and I don't know anything more than what's covered on the itch.io page. But, since there's a demand on this, let's just take a look at it right now, and I'll polish this up later once I've had a little more time with it.
Celeste. Yes, it's about time we did this. The renowned precision platformer from Extremely OK Games has been out for approximately three years now (Celeste was released Jan. 25, 2018, hence the three-year anniversary,) and it's not lost its charm. And why would it? The game sold over a million copies by the end of 2019. Whether you're hanging out in your game room or playing on your Switch en destination, this is the kind of pick-up and go game dreams are made of. You'll have to pardon me as I haphazardly introduce a game that's been out for three years! I'm compelled to share my heart with you on this one though. So, let's do it. Let's talk, Celeste. I'll cover "Farewell" a little bit as well.
Unpacking is an isometric puzzle game by Witch Beam, an Australian developer, published by our very own sponsor Humble Bundle. You are a third-person clicker, looking down into an empty room with a stack of boxes sitting in the middle of the floor. There's no direction or impetus, but as you open the box, intuition sets in, and you start to place objects from here and there. Before you know it, you're an artisanal thing mover. You may take solace in a simulation of this if you're particularly neat, or simply like no-pressure puzzles. The game starts off in the year 1997, then soon 2004. Certainly, there are enough years on the timeline to keep you busy! But no rush, nor absence of themes. When you play Unpacking, you'll have plenty of time to put things as you like.
