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

This week, we catch up on the past three weeks.

If you’re wondering where the roundup disappeared to the past couple of weeks, it’s a simple case of poor time management. Releases from two weeks ago were mostly written but I didn’t get round to posting them, while last week I simply wasn’t able to get round to doing the writing.

So with some preliminary work done, and a much quieter week, here is a guide to a bunch of stuff that came out since 6 November. This means three Games of the Weeks, one for each week. Some changes will be made to how I do these posts to ensure this won’t happen much again in future, but hopefully this collection of three weeks’ worth of games makes up for it!

As usual, Games of the Week are special, but also American Arcadia, Spirittea, Howl, Super Crazy Rhythm Castle, Loddlenaut and the Super Mario RPG remake are some additional personal highlights.

New Releases

We have two Early Access launches on PC this week. Beyond Sunset is a cyberpunk shooter with a pixel art aesthetic, while Wantless: Solace at World’s End is a tactical RPG set in the minds of tormented mental patients.

Spells & Secrets (PC, PS5, Switch) is a dungeon crawler set in a magic school. You have to develop your magic skills while also saving the school from magical threats.

Cuisineer (PC) is a cute little roguelike crossed with a life sim. You play as Pom, a girl tasked with saving her family’s restaurant. Head out and fight creatures to obtain your ingredients, then come home and face the financial battle of keeping the eatery afloat.

Continuing the cute vibes, Spirittea (PC, Switch) is a game about living in the woods and managing a bathhouse for ghosts. It’s Stardew Valley if it was set in the world of Spirited Away, basically.

KarmaZoo (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S) is an experimental co-op platformer where your progression is built on the help of other players online. It sounds chaotic.

Do you wish that Pikmin was more aquatic? Loddlenaut (PC) is kind of like this. You play as a diver who’s attempting to clean the ocean. Along the way, they help and are aided by little axolotls called Loddles. It looks absolutely adorable.

Howl (PC, Switch) was a surprise release alongside the recent Nintendo Indie World presentation. It’s a tactics game presented in a gorgeous ink drawing visual style. You are a deaf girl attempting to rid her village of a werewolf plague driven by the howls of other werewolves.

The Invincible (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is an adaptation of the 1964 Polish hard sci-fi novel of the same name. You play as an astronaut who’s found herself stranded on an unknown world, her crew missing. Much of the game involves you exploring this world and uncovering its secrets, and hopefully finding your crew along the way.

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a rhythm action game with a twist. You traverse a castle playing through musical challenges similar to games like Rock Band, all while assorted ridiculous distractions try and keep you from succeeding. Looks a lot of fun, especially with friends.

Flashback 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is the sequel to 1992’s Flashback, one of the originators of the cinematic platformer genre. Ignore the fact that it already had a sequel called Fade to Black and this is actually a prequel, because Flashback is back, baby! Except based on reviews it has unfortunately not been worth the wait. Oh no!

For a better example of where the cinematic platformer has gone, there’s American Arcadia (PC). It’s essentially The Truman Show crossed with Inside with some first-person hacking gameplay. You play as Trevor, an ordinary man in Arcadia, a town that’s always on air. Due to his boring nature, he’s not popular with the audience and must escape before he’s cancelled. His gameplay is a 2D puzzle platformer while an agent named Angela uses her access to the systems to aid him on the backend.

Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a big flashy anime fighter set in the Naruto universe. Pretty much everything you’d expect from a Bandai Namco anime fighter to be honest.

Super Mario RPG (Switch) is a remake of the classic SNES collaboration between Squaresoft and the Mario cast. Mario, Peach, Bowser and two new friends head out to take down the Smithy Gang in a silly family friendly RPG soundtracked by the legendary Yoko Shimomura. I’ve played the original on the Wii and if it holds up to the original quality, you’re in for a treat if this is your first time playing.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week from two weeks ago is Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S), a spin-off from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, and the one you’d least want to get in game of charades.

A side game set alongside Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Gaiden features series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu going undercover as a secret agent in order to protect those important to him. It’s back to the classic brawler style, with Kiryu now boasting the Agent style of fighting, where he uses gadgets such as Spider-Man style wires, drones and explosive cigarettes. As always, it features all the usual side activities you expect from the franchise at this point, including karaoke and hostess clubs. It even has the first ever home port of Daytona USA 2 and a rare port of Sonic the Fighters in its in-game arcade.

It’s a Yakuza game, so of course I’m going to go to bat for it. It’s a smaller game designed to tide fans over until the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in January, but it’s still likely to be a great time. Definitely not one for newcomers to the series though.

Last week’s Game of the Week is Persona 5 Tactica (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox), aka Sega’s other big RPG franchise. The Phantom Thieves have reassembled to take down a new foe in this latest spin-off of Persona 5.

The Phantom Thieves find themselves in a new land living under a dictatorship. Joining forces with a revolutionary named Erina, the group now seeks to take down the regime. This time around, combat takes the form of tactical RPGs similar to Fire Emblem.

Look, it’s Persona 5, I don’t need to explain myself here. Yes, Atlus are milking it for all its worth but I don’t care. It’s got the same style and finesse that made the main game so brilliant, now wrapped up in a chibi art style and a tactical gameplay style.

This week’s Game of the Week is In Stars and Time (PC, PlayStation, Switch), an indie RPG about a party stuck in a time loop. See, I am capable of picking something that isn’t from Sega!

The game stars a band of adventurers who have set out to defeat an evil king. However, they are defeated, the clock resets and they have to repeat their entire quest over and over. Only one member of the party, Siffrin, is aware of the time loop, and with each repeat he has gotten wearier and more cynical. However, he keeps going in an attempt to end the loop.

There are two reasons for choosing this as Game of the Week. The first is it’s fun art style. It’s a stark monochrome that contrasts with the bold cartoony designs. The second is the concept. It’s reminiscent of Minit, which was another time-looping top-down RPG, but In Stars and Time appears to be tying the loop into the narrative in an interesting way. There are a lot of time loop games lately, but this one looks set to be one of the more interesting takes on the genre.