Hello! Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Games Release Roundup!

This week, little nightmares, big battlefields and middle ages brawling.

Re-Releases and Ports

Yooka-Replaylee (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is Playtonic’s attempt to redeem their 2017 spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. This new release is the original game with drastically improved controls, maps and greater customisation. I wonder if I’m in the credits of this one (I was a Kickstarter backer for the original).

New Releases

Carimara: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs (PC) is a creepy low poly horror game where you play a mute sorceress in a forest of strange, threatening beings. You must use your powers to transfer objects into cards which you can use to ask these beings questions to uncover the truth behind the trees. And hopefully don’t get killed in the process. Developed by Bastinus Rex and published by Critical Reflex (Mouthwashing, No I’m Not a Human, Arctic Eggs).

Cairn: Mathair’s Curse (PC) answers the questions, what if EarthBound was extremely Scottish? Set in a world inspired by the Scottish Highlands, you play as a boy discovering the world and examining his relationship with his family. I played a demo of this at the Glasgow Indie Games Festival, and it made me fight a rusty gate for a tutorial fight, so that’s a winner in my eyes. Yes, it’s the game I mentioned on a recent podcast. Developed by Ross McRitchie.

Bye Sweet Carole (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is a horror cinematic platformer with the visual style of a 90s Disney movie. This hand-drawn dark fairytale sees you guiding Lana Benton through a dark world in search of her friend Carole Simmons during the rise of the suffragettes. Lots of puzzle solving, running from evil entities and the ability to turn into a bunny are all present. Developed by Little Sewing Machine and published by Maximum Entertainment.

Battle Suit Aces (PC, PS5, Switch 1) is a deckbuilder where your cards are collected by forging alliances with mech pilots. There’s a strong 90s mecha anime influence here, as you take your crew of handpicked pilots into battle against the galaxy’s greatest threats. A genuinely interesting take on the deckbuilder genre. For once. Developed by Trinket Studios and published by Outersloth with their Among Us money.

Pixeljunk devs Q-Games are back with Dreams of Another (PC, PS5), an artsy game where your bullets build rather than destroy. Set inside one man’s imagination, he must travel around, shooting at the indistinguishable mass of light particles, assembling it into ideas and memories. Also available as a VR experience, if that appeals.

Absolum (PC, PlayStation, Switch 1) is the latest game from the Streets of Rage 4 dream team of Guard Crush and Dotemu (fellow devs Lizardcube were otherwise busy making the new Shinobi). Much like that game, this is an old school brawler with a fantastic cartoony art style. This time, however, the team are tackling an original property, one set in a high fantasy world where a party of adventurers are seeking to take down a tyrannical king. However, it’s also a roguelike, and it’ll be interesting to see how that works with the beat-em-up gameplay.

Battlefield 6 (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is the latest in EA’s Battlefield series, which seems determined to try and steal Call of Duty’s crown once and for all. With input from studios across EA including usual studio DICE, Battlefield 6 takes place in a conflict between NATO and a questionable PMC in 2027. Andrew Wilson wants this to sell ten million copies so he can get his big payout before EA is stripped for parts by the Saudis. We’ll see how that goes.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week is Little Nightmares III (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox), the latest in Bandai Namco’s weird spooky children series.

No longer in the hands of Tarsier Studios (who are currently developing the very similar ReAnimal), and now under the stewardship of Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology), Little Nightmares III is another delve into a twisted world of stopmotion-esque horrors where tiny children struggle for survival. This time, there are two kids, Low and Alone, who are controlled by you and a friend. They’re trapped in the Spiral, a world of delusions where everything is out to kill them.

I loved the first two Little Nightmares games, so getting a third is exciting, especially now it’s a co-op game.