itch.io

Very elegant puzzle game that does remind me a lot of Sudoku. Every color blob is indicating a colour in a space around it and its your task to deduce which color slots in where. The presentation is surprisingly pleasing as filling in the ever weirder shapes keeps being very satisfying, while the new mechanics that get introduced help subtly easing you into its harder puzzles. Its a bit unfortunate that the two mistakes you get make each level a bit easy as you can theoretically bruteforce any puzzle. I probably would have preferred the game not telling you at all if any mistake had been done until you solve it. Even then, I am really, really enjoying this one as it makes for a pleasant and breezy headscratcher. 4/5

Its a Papers, Please style bureaucreatic simulator, where you decide on the fate of the human beings reduced to nothing but a picture and a few lines of text before you. The game has a fantastic art style and I love the banter you have with your ever present companion and boss "Fate". The game is relatively easy and straight forward but shines in giving you contextual feedback on your actions that become less and less obvious choices. A researcher that heals cancer? Let him live and humanity might discover a cure! A fraudulent CEO taking peoples money? Let him die and more people are better off! But how about that AI researcher? What would his footprint on society be? I love how the game incorporates your past decisions in future profiles as well. Definitely recommended. 4/5

This one is really hard to rate, because its an amazing sandbox that takes the usual mech/robot/AI building and programming theme and gives it a neuroscience spin, but is still missing more game like goals. You build the basics of your underwater creature, connect it with muscles and then program reactions with different energetic patterns to decide how exactly the muscles are supposed to fire. This seems relatively simple when you look at the first tutorials, but there is a stupid amount of depth what you can accomplish with that relatively simple system. The gameplay is still more of a sandbox, but its still enjoyable to play around with the different rules of the levels. Amazing toy. 4/5

This is a massively cool god game simulation with intriguing mechanics that are genuinely interesting to explore, while at the same time being held down by some technical difficulties and slightly weird pacing/waiting for your next action. The performance is horrible, but I still played it for 2 hours straight. Why did I do that to myself? Because the underlying game is immensely interesting. Its a god game in which you create commandments based on phrases that have 3 items. Everyone terraform this into djungle. Young People eat old people. You know, the usual commandments a god may give. While the game has many different well explained mechanics to explore, the most interesting is how the followers can reinterpret your commandments, which means you inevitably will run into commandments that on top of hunting ostriches might also make you hunt other people. Super cool system as it becomes a huge part of the gameplay loop to focus your time on keeping track of those meanings and figuring out the optimal way to guide your people. Super cool, even if it lacks replayability somewhat. 4/5

Very fun little challenge run. You need to run through the maze in a set amount of time, while avoiding increasingly dangerous traps that will test our reflexes and quick thinking skills. Its quick, snappy, feels good due to its small hitbox, so that ever mistake feels a result of your impatience, has a million different characters and even a decent coop and versus mode. In coop you both get to try the level at the same time, and if one of you finishes, you both advance to the next level, while versus obviously have a race to the finish. Quirky, unique and simply... fun. 4/5

This game is the videogame equivalent of a surrealist short film exploring the meaning of your journey through life. Its incredibly beautiful, has great sound design and is snappy enough in its story telling that even though it moves "deliberately", you always feel like it dwells just enough time for you to take in all the details. You can finish it in about an hour and I havent grasped the meaning of every set piece yet, but if you want something that puts you in a bit of a mood questioning your own path through life, then this hits the spot very directly. 4/5

Another pretty famous game that probably needs not a lot of introduction. its a mainly story focussed Visual Novel with relatively simple puzzles in an adventure game style. The big highlight is the very vivid game world and character personalities and incredibly charming realization of it all. Mixing the retro Cyberpunk look and feel with a futuristic city works out so well, its enjoyable to just dip into the world, even if its a tad easy. 4/5

Considering most of the visual novels in the bundle seem to fall a bit flat for me, I am glad to see that there still are VNs that manage to excite me. Its the story about a young girl, her parents, a bit of murder and a lot of insanity. The decisions you make here directly affect the personality your main character develops, which in turn changes how you approach the story. Its well written, intriguing, has a great style and actually makes you think in the interrogation sections where you need to lead people onto the path you need them to be on. 4/5

Reminds me a lot of the run and gun bullet hell style games like Gunstar Heroes and its pretty darn well done. The levels are short, but well balanced around the idea of getting better in the stage areas to maximize your health bar for the very challenging and varied boss encounters. The boss levels can feel a bit frustrating at first, but after getting into the groove of things, I really, really enjoyed this romp jumping and dashing through the bullets. 4/5

How have I not heard about this before? The creators previous game Pony Island was a tour de force of overthrowing expectations in game design and I absolutely loved it. This game follows up on that premise and is a bit more ambitious about it. I dont want to spoil too much, but if you've been around games for a while, you'll love how this game treats game stereotypes and the surrounding discussion on videogames. The actual gameplay elements are a bit hit or miss, but its a nostalgic and surprisingly enjoyable journey through decades of videogame history. Clever game. 4/5

Hyperstylized reaction action. There are 9 cubes on the grid that you will need to collect with the arrow buttons. Easy? Not so fast, as te game will throw a variety of barriers at you that you will need to evade/react to, resulting in an arcade ballet of retries. It scratches a similar itch that Super Hexagon does by getting your mind and fingers into the zone, but I actually like this a bit better because the 100 levels mean that you will always have a new challenge waiting for you that requires you to retrain your hand movement. 4/5

2 player mindgame arena. This is good, really good. Its easy to learn, but the intricate dance of managing the proximity to your enemy and positioning is just so well implemented. You grab a ball, defend it with the right timing or wait for your moment to strike. It is a very well rounded competetive game that will probably shine on a local gaming/lan party if you have a few others around that enjoy playing these reaction based mind games. There is also a few competent single player challenges, but this shines really as 2 player contest. 4/5

Utterly fantastic little roguelike experience. You slot your inventory together to make for the most effective use of items and artefacts, which is a very pleasant puzzle, activate different abilities depending on your chosen setup (effectively deciding between higher stats or more flexibility in abilities) and then walk through this neatly arranged little world. Absolutely needs a fully realized game version.as the combination of relatively simple game mechanics to a more complex and cohesive whole works perfectly. Lovely, lovely game, that would deserve more content. 4/5

Its a relatively short game that highlights the different issues the US is facing right now and tries to envoke a message of hope how we can start working towards a better society with the support of a majority of the people. The scenarios are well chosen and I really appreciate that they try to paint a picture later down the line what your choices might mean for society or your own government plans. The game does an admirable job of showing the political reality that you will need to take a foul compromise sometimes and some things you consider good might have far worse consequences than you initially anticipated. Overall, a good message at the right time. 4/5

A visual novel with an intriguing premise. Every playthrough is quick and snappy, you get to know 3 Ghosts, ask one of them out to get them to know more and get some cool background and story beats from each one. Even though the game is kept in a super simple style, the ghosts really feel vividly portrayed and its fun to figure out how they behave or what happened to them. Lovely game that will easily drag you into another dead persons life. 4/5

Very solid oldschool RPG by a develoer who clearly has a fond love for old RPGs as he is effortlessly subverting usual story genre tropes at pretty much every corner (that I do not want to spoil for you here) The gameplay and combat mechanics are on point and the game always adds at least one interesting idea to a dungeon or boss fight, so the game keeps feeling entertaining. This is an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys these games as the game playing with expectations continues being very, very entertaining, while a good soundtrack keeps the spirits high. 4/5

Cool crime scene investigation western. Even though its all low poly, some of the voicework is a bit hit or miss and I am baffled by some design choices, the atmosphere is spot on for an experimental wild west whodunnit. You arrive at a cabin where just shortly before everybody died. You can go back in time to experience the last 12 days of interactions in the cabin again and need to figure out who killed who, who had grudges against which particular person and slowly piece together the madness of this massacre. Its a bit janky, has a bad tutorial and has no save system (dont close the game, you need around 1,5 hours to finish), but it still felt like a wholly original concept with some cool graphics, wild west banter and engaging gameplay ideas. I really enjoyed this despite its flaws. 4/5

Another puzzle roguelike with quasi-deckbuilding elements and just judging it based on the graphics, you'd be forgiven for not giving it a second thought. The presentation and layout scream first hobby Indie project, but this game offers some seriously clever strategical gameplay decisions to the player. What makes this stand out is how your positioning on the board decides the attack you are able to use. You continuously optimize your row setup by unlocking new varied skills, which open up a ton of strategic and tactical decisions. Add a bit player progression, unlockable characters, several difficulty levels, and this is an unassuming small gem that is very, very easy to overlook and if you have any interest in the genre would definitely be missing out. 4/5

Fantastic little piece of interactive art disguised as walking simulator. The world has come together to fight a giant evil destroying the world and you are experiencing those very decisive moments. Its not deep or challenging, but its immensely evocative with its multiple endings you can explore, depending on what you do/who you talk to, it has a fantastic lofi art style that basically felt like walking into an adventure game from the 90s, which fit the mood perfectly and the game has enough sub systems to keep you second guessing yourself, while things progress in a way that I dont want to spoil here. Marvellous little atmospheric game. 4/5

Another good shmup in the bundle that focusses on double dimension/screen action. Your ship position moves parallel in both dimensions and you need to decide when to switch over to the other one to fight, collect upgrades or just to avoid particular nasty hindrances. The shooting mechanics are relatively standard, but through this multidimensional focus, the game really does come into its own as it is surprisingly challenging to keep evaluating the action on both screens simultaneously. The game has a progression system that also unlocks more abilities, which is appreciated as it eases you gently into its more intricate combat dynamics. Apparently no leaderboards in the itch version unfortunately, but still great fun and worth it for the campaign. 4/5

This is a classic puzzle toy that is hard to not find incredibly endearing. The game contains a series of Dioramas that you explore by clicking on and interacting with the individiual colorful elements around the scene until you manage to find the exit. Its not very long, but its cute, enjoyable and a pleasure to explore its short levels. Lovely little visual toy and classic in the genre. 4/5

Simplified science based plant genome simulation. The game allows you to do two things: Gather plants and planting crossbred variations of each other. At first I was a bit disappointed it wasnt the type of gardening game to let me take care of these plants for days/weeks Viridi style. However, its more of a visualization of how the scientific concept of crossbreeding genes works. Want to make the highest plant? Look for the plants with the strongest and longest stems and crossbreed those. The game emulates more subtle aspects like dominant and recessive genes that affect how hard it might be to transfer certain aspects and if you visit again tomorrow, the game might have sprouted entirely new variations of your new favourite plants. Contemplative and lovely science toy. 4/5

Absolutely adorable and whimsical game about getting to know a few very lifelike monsters, their hobbies and their passion for card games. There isnt a lot of depth to this, but the game just comes together so well that you barely notice reaching its end after about 3 hours for all chapters. The card games are simple, but kept me engaged as it had just the right amount of variation and challenge to stay on top of it, the characters are lovely and the game does an admirable job of making you invested in all of them. Relaxing and enjoyable. 4/5

Absolutely adorable and whimsical game about getting to know a few very lifelike monsters, their hobbies and their passion for card games. There isnt a lot of depth to this, but the game just comes together so well that you barely notice reaching its end after about 3 hours for all chapters. The card games are simple, but kept me engaged as it had just the right amount of variation and challenge to stay on top of it, the characters are lovely and the game does an admirable job of making you invested in all of them. Relaxing and enjoyable. 4/5

Absolutely adorable and whimsical game about getting to know a few very lifelike monsters, their hobbies and their passion for card games. There isnt a lot of depth to this, but the game just comes together so well that you barely notice reaching its end after about 3 hours for all chapters. The card games are simple, but kept me engaged as it had just the right amount of variation and challenge to stay on top of it, the characters are lovely and the game does an admirable job of making you invested in all of them. Relaxing and enjoyable. 4/5

Its a crying shame that this game was a complete failure upon release. The game remixes its obvious inspirations (Zelda 2, Metroid..) into a new game that manages to delight and surprise with its interwoven world and quest design. Instead of an endless list of levels, you explore a world with a lot of freedom, hidden areas and secrets to uncover and increasingly difficult platforming challenges. Whilte it doesnt reinvent the genre in its mechanics, it also adds a world randomizing mode on top, so you can replay the game with fresh dungeons. 4/5

This one caught me a bit off guard. Its a short roguelike action platformer with a pretty unique hook. You have one shot and need to kill all enemies on each floor by recollecting that one bullet to keep shooting. Sounds simple? The kicker comes knowing that you should catch that bullet you shot midair to increase your combo meter, which in turn allows you to buy better upgrades after each level. Its a simple setup, but the controls are tight and the combo mechanic really feels gerat once you start learning all the enemy patterns and dance around them. Really snuck up on me. 4/5

I love my simulation games and this game falls right into that. Its hard not to love what they were going for here, with evolutionary theory being used as game mechanics. You get a creature type and then evolve more different types from that. Its very open ended, so you shouldnt expect a goal here, its more an evolutionary sandbox which is fun to explore and figure out. You might end up being happy with exploring what the game does in 2 hours, but man does the rabbit hole run deep. Animals "evolve" by changing their body forms with individual pixels that are used to show how they react to their environments. Different colors means different behaviours to certain aspects, while the size (or the amount of "wrinkles" changes surface area and as such how much water they need. Figuring all of these mechanics out is a gameplay experience that not everyone will appreciate, but this gets a thumbs up from me. Only downsides are that the visual variety is a bit limited and the game could use some inspirational goals after the tutorial. For everyone loving to explore game mechanics: 4/5

Reading the negative reviews of this game feels a bit like bizarro land. This is a game that does something truly unique with its combat/movement mechanics and everybody complains its weird to navigate because they are not used to it. Yes, thats the point of doing something new. You initially unlock a power that allows you to "fly" away from your sword and then command your sword back to you, which works as movement mechanic, as well as combat option as everything your sword touches takes damage. In the beginning you are trying to play this game as another platformer, which is a bit jarring, but once you let the games mechanics take over, it really feels cool to explore this world within the boundaries set by the game. You unlock a variety of new forms and can even go for the ultimative challenge of a peaceful run. Every new area becomes a bit of a puzzle how you can traverse it efficiently with the different movement/power options given to you. Really enjoying this. 4/5