Hey it’s me again and I got yet another batch of games to show you guys. These are all games that came out this past month that may have flown under radar, a total of six of them this time. As always, thanks to the publishers who sent these games to me in order to make this video possible, and with that said let’s get started.
Radical Rabbit Stew
Sometimes you need a short, fun little puzzle game to pad out bigger games, and Radical Rabbit Stew was exactly that kind of game for me. You play as this little space chef guy with his trusty super spoon, a spoon that you then use to smack rabbits into saucepans. It’s a simple setup, but one that the game executes well, with a bunch of neat puzzle mechanics added on top of it. You’ve got the different spoon types, explosive rabbits, destructible environments, and even cannons.
All of these are used towards completing that one simple goal and there are even boss fights scattered about that use the mechanics in clever ways. The game world itself is composed of a series of levels with any number of saucepans to fill and it took me about two hours to beat the game on my first try. There’s extra stuff to do in that most levels have coins to find similar to the 2D Mario games and that can definitely add to the playtime as well. It’s a nice game overall and worth the look if you’re a fan of these indie puzzlers.
We should talk.
So this game is quite unlike anything I have played all year. It’s technically a visual novel, but feels more like a social experiment in the form of a video game. And it’s a fun social experiment at that. You take up the role of an unnamed protagonist, who has to balance talking with people at a bar as well as her partner Sam through texts.
The gameplay is a bit unique in this regard, as you don’t click on predetermined choices and go down specific routes, but rather construct sentences using a selection of different words. The tone of these sentences will end up determining where your relationships go by the end of the night. One ending can have you breaking up with your partner in the most disastrous way possible, whereas another may have you grow your relationship instead. There are nine of these different endings to achieve and it doesn’t take too long to go searching for them, as each run only takes about fifteen minutes.
So, while it is a short game, I had a good time with it. It was fun to go from playing the absolute worst girlfriend around to being a bit nicer, but still keeping some secrets. It would definitely be cool to see this concept expanded into a longer game.
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break
Rock of Ages is a classic, one that I used to play for this very channel many years ago. I may not have played the second game, but coming back with the third, I’ve found that it’s still the same fun classic formula, but with a bunch of cool extras this time around. Your goal, of course, is to simultaneously defend your own fort while rolling down a hill to break open your enemy’s. It’s a dueling tower defense game in this sense, with an emphasis placed on speed. As the ball, you simply have to make it down the hill as fast as possible, while on the flipside you’re constructing buildings and other traps to keep the enemy from doing just that.
This time around though, there’s a full-length campaign with a bunch of different cool levels, a ton of different game modes to shake things up, and even a full-fledged level editor to make your own crazy courses. It’s just some mindless fund whatever mode you may be in and it’s definitely worth a look, especially if you got friends to play it with.
Primal Light
As a big fan of SNES-era platformers, Primal Light was right up my alley. It’s an action-platformer that feels like it was taken straight out of that era, graphics and all. Of course, this also means that it is a difficult game, emulating a lot of the mechanics and design choices that made such games from that era so difficult. You do get your occasional checkpoint or two, but the game is built on a lives system and you will be reset to the beginning of a level if you lose all of them.
The game is divided into ten such levels, each with their own unique boss. The gameplay during these levels is relatively simple, making use of just a few buttons, but is designed in a way to maximize their capabilities. You got your attack, your roll, your jump, and your slide to start things off, with additional stuff being unlocked as you go on, mostly in the form of passive upgrades. You don’t see games made quite like this anymore and it was nice to see a throwback actually go all the way and try to emulate what made those games so fun, even if it does bring with it the extra challenge.
Blightbound
So I may have just featured Blightbound one a week ago on this channel, but that was the beta and now the game is officially out on Steam Early Access. For those out of the loop, it’s a 3-player dungeon crawler that combines elements from the hack and slash and RPG genres. You tackle dungeons with your group of three distinct classes, use your different abilities to wipe out enemies as fast as possible and solve some light puzzles, and take down a boss or two along the way.
And it does this with a great-looking dark fantasy style, kinda like one you’d find in a comic book. The characters and such are in 2D, but the environments and movement is done entirely in 3D, further driving home that comic book aesthetic. The game definitely has some problems in its current state (mostly with regards to server disconnects and the complete lack of a singleplayer component), but hopefully we can see those shaped up as development continues, I’m interested in seeing what the final product will look like.
Monster Crown
Like Pokémon? Well, then you’ll probably like Monster Crown too. Similar aesthetic, similar gameplay, and even similar level design, it’s pretty much as close as you can get. However, it does this while still making some core changes to that formula. For one, you don’t “capture” monsters in the traditional sense, but rather form pacts with them so they fight on your side. There are over 200 of these monsters too and even more so in that you can breed and fuse them to create your own species.
And yes, that is on top of the core gameplay one would expect from a Pokémon-style game, including the battles, exploration, and even trading. Despite its obvious influence though, the game has a rather darker story and theme to it. It’s not some happy journey you’re making to become the champion, but rather one to put a stop to a malicious power seeker. That and the language used is not entirely kid-friendly, making for this interesting contrast with the game’s seemingly innocent art. The overall package is nicely done and I’m interested in seeing where the development goes while the game is in Early Access.
And that’s all I got for this month. I’d be lying if I said it was better than last month’s, but at least we still got some cool ones. We’ll have to see what next month has in store for us, I’m hoping for the best. As usual, I have linked all of the games featured here (even the ones in the intro and outro) in the description, so do check them out if you are interested and don’t forget to subscribe for more cool videos. That’s all I produce, of course.
cublikefoot 