A quick look at games for July from James
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🆕 On the Shelves
🔁 The Alters
11 bit studios
Explore an emotional sci-fi game with a unique blend of survival, adventure, and base-building elements. Help Jan Dolski, the sole survivor of an ill-fated space expedition, create alternative versions of himself to escape a hostile planet and tackle personal turmoils with this unconventional crew.
From the people behind Indika (which I still want to play) comes a sci-fi survival game where you create clones of yourself and have them do jobs for you...? Sounds intriguing eh?!
This one is currently facing criticism for using AI in text generation... Not a huge issue? But they didn't disclose that on Steam.
🏖 Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Kojima Productions
Embark on an inspiring mission of human connection beyond the UCA. Sam—with companions by his side—sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction. Join them as they traverse a world beset by otherworldly enemies, obstacles and a haunting question: should we have connected? Step by step, legendary game creator Hideo Kojima changes the world once again.
So, I didn't actually play the first one. Well, I did, but gave up pretty quick. The constant cutscenes and movie like sections just do not vibe with my gamer tendencies. I much more prefer games that let me dive in and play with their systems quickly, and have never been a huge fan of narratives (though, there are exceptions)
As such, I'm not sure if I'll be picking this one up.
📝 And a few others...
📷 Instants
Endflame
Assemble a chronological puzzle of family photos to piece together their most cherished memories. Uncover the family's life story as you arrange the pictures in the correct order within carefully crafted albums. Unleash your creativity and decorate them with multiple scrapbooking tools!
🏞️ The Guardian of Nature
Inlusio Interactive
«The Guardian of Nature» is a hand-drawn, size-changing adventure. Embark on a magical journey with botanist Henry, use your size-changing ability to explore nature in big and small and solve solarpunk puzzles to put nature back in order.
❤️ Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4
tobyfox
Dive into the parallel story to UNDERTALE! Fight or spare your way through action-packed battles as you explore a mysterious world alongside an endearing cast of new and familiar characters. Chapters 1-4 will be available on launch, with more planned as free updates!
📡 On the Radar
🐭 Mina the Hollower
Yacht Club Games
We took the stage at Summer Games Fest today to unveil a world premiere for our upcoming game, Mina the Hollower. The trailer featured fast-paced combat-driven gameplay, shared our game’s official release date, and concluded with the surprise launch of a limited time demo. Leaning into Mina’s gothic horror roots, the top-down action adventure game is set to launch on October 31st.
From the makers of Shovel Knight comes a brand-new action adventure game with oodles of character.
🐞 Hollow Knight: Silksong
Team Cherry
Teased at the Microsoft XBOX event. Hollow Knight's DLC (but now full game) will be coming to XBOX later this year. I was a massive fan of the original—which was launched in 2017—so it's been a long while since we've seen a game from this team.
The team also stated they are not tied to a particular console or platform, meaning we might see it everywhere!
🎮 In Rotation
🤓 Formless Star
Splendidland
The Formless Star, a mysterious planet whose surface constantly changes...
You're Anemo, a field researcher for the Space Archives!
Your assignment is to travel to the Formless Star and gather data on the animals that live there.
Each time you step out of your spaceship, the land will change. A new world just for you!
Discover 60 different alien creatures, all with unique behaviours and descriptions.
I saw this one on Bluesky and was instantly captured by the art style. As the description notes, your job is to traverse an ever-changing star and survey the animals.
The creators put a lot of effort into the aesthetics of the game from the intro sequence, the character design, and of course the animal design. The animals are wonderfully diverse and colourful, with humorous backstories and traits. The biomes where they live are also highly elaborate and varied.
It does not take long to find the required 30 animals, and end the game. Perhaps 30 minutes, so it's a very quick, chill experience. The soundtrack is also really well-made and certainly adds to the chill nature of the game.
🦖 Dino Sort
Adamatomic
In Dino Sort, there are, uh, dinosaurs, and, well, you have to, you know, sort them out.
A fun sokoban-like puzzle game where dinosaurs have specific sensibilities or requirements and you, as sorter-of-dinosaurs, must make sure those requirements are satisfied. If they are, you clear the level.
It has an excellent difficulty ramp with plenty of different dinosaurs to sort. The levels get difficult quickly, showing off the creators knack for designing puzzles. Of note is that once you clear a level, a meteor falls down and kills all the dinosaurs on screen, leaving their bones behind...!
🌸 Sakura Momoka no Uki-uki Carnival
Nintendo
Recommended to me by melos han-tani on Bluesky, this is a delightful cosy game on the Game Boy Advance.
Only released in Japan. The promo page is still available on the Nintendo site.
In the game, you are tasked with organizing a festival and have to go around inviting people. The fascinating part of the game, however, is the in-game internet browser that just oozes charm. Characters have homepages and shops have websites. Using the search engine or browsing helps you discover items and details to progress through the game.
It also features a neat scrolling background, as other games from the era do (like Tokimeki Memorial), and I'm just a sucker for that aesthetic.
🏎 Mario Kart World
Nintendo
I was lucky enough to get a Switch 2 out here in Japan, so I bought the release title. To be honest though, Mario Kart has never really been my favourite. I get it, but there is really only so much you can actually do with it, right?
This iteration brings in a new mechanic where you can charge a jump, and then use it to essentially grind on rails or do wall rides. Cool... but it's still an arcade racing game with goofy weapons!
Don't get me wrong—it's fun and runs silky smooth on my TV at home. My kids and I have been enjoying racing against each other, but it will not have a long life in my household!
🟢 Final Fantasy VII Remake
Square Enix
As a lover of the original game—who played it a LOT when it came out in 1997—and having watched the Tim Rogers review of the game, I thought I should finally play the remake myself.
I'm only a few hours in and am finally starting to get used to the ultra active battle system. It's very different to the original and jarring at first. I did not like it. It reminds of Parasite Eve's system where you move around and fight whilst still being somewhat traditional.
One problem I'm finding is my PS4 really screams when playing this game. It really pushes the hardware to the max! Maybe I should upgrade to a PS5?!
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