🕹️ Creatures and Shadows

🆕 On the Shelves

🦃 Flock

From the Steam page:

Flock is a multiplayer co-op game about the joy of flight and collecting adorable flying creatures with your friends. Soar through beautiful landscapes, seeking out rare and elusive creatures to add to your flock.

Wholesome, chill, forest-flying Flock! You fly through a forest discovering and collecting the flora and fauna that live there. I've been hearing wonderful reviews of this one for its graphics (colours and aesthetic) as well as chill, easy to pick up (but hard to put down!) gameplay.

☠️ Dungeon Muncher

From the Steam page:

Avoid becoming Muncher's next meal in this fast-paced adventure! Control your anger, this game is hard!

Found on X, this one reminds me of the levels in Crash Bandicoot where you run towards the screen as a giant boulder chases you, Indie Jones style. I love the fact that its not just running though, but solving mini-puzzles at the same time. A real frustration-builder, guaranteed.

🥊 Sleet Fighter

So Valve made a 2D fighter...? Well, not really. It's a mini-game within DOTA2 that features 5 characters to play with. Still, interesting to see that Valve are interested in the world of fighting games. With EVO2024 just finishing to roaring success, perhaps Valve want to expand into the fighting game community as part of their eSports dominance. Let's see where this goes in the future..!

📡 On the radar

🥏 Chronosphere

A really crunchy 2D game which borrow from Superhot in that time only moves when you do something. Play for free on itch.io now, and expect a release later in the year.

🎮 In Rotation

🕶️ Schim

From the Steam page:

SCHiM is a game about jumping from shadow to shadow in a relaxing and lively environment. This 3D platformer takes elements of light, shadow & animation and adds them directly to the gameplay, delivering an experience that you will only find in SCHiM.

A cute, low-poly(?), limited-palette puzzle game where you jump from shadow to shadow. I've been playing this with my son, and enjoying the journey. It has a feel about it similar to the Untilted Goose Game in that as a shadow you can interact with items and cause temporary mayhem, though not to the level of UGG.

🧩 Arranger: A role-puzzling adventure

From the Steam page:

Find your way in a world of breezy, thoughtful puzzles, along a charming journey of self-discovery.

It should be noted up front that the artist of Braid designed the art for this game: David Hellman. It's gorgeous! I've only just dipped my toes into it, and already loving it (I should mention that I'm a puzzle fan). One of the core mechanics that I've discovered (been shown) so far is the flip mechanic where if you go off one side of the path, you end up on the other (think "Pacman") which you have to use to reposition items. I'm looking forward to seeing what else the game asks of me in the later stages.

🎾 Retro Slam Tennis

From the makers of Retro Bowl, this is a tennis sim where you level up a character over multiple seasons to become the world number one. The controls are simple and you can pick up and play between meetings, on the train, etc. Super light, easy to get into. The core gameplay has you respond to key shots during a tennis match. For instance, to save or score a game point, match point, etc. You pull the screen back to choose the direction and power of your shot and then hit a moving tennis ball with your finger to add spin.

It's not as good as Retro Bowl in my opinion because the core mechanic is a bit abstract compared to fast-paced tennis, making it a bit jarring. That is to say, in Retro Bowl, you choose a play, and pull back to select the power and direction of a throw, but it all falls within the realm of what might be happening in reality. Slam Tennis on the other hand feels like a game rather than a simulation due to this disconnect between what the player does and what you'd do in reality. Still, it's a fun little game with character progression. Worth a look!

🐑 Sheepy

A short adventure but with an EPIC feel.

It's free (so go grab it). I'd easily play for a full game of this quality. The mechanics are great, and feels like a chill version of Hollow Knight.