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

This week, wizards, crows and monkeys.

Re-Releases and Ports

It’s taken a while but Kena: Bridge of Spirits is now on Xbox. This beautifully animated Zelda-like adventure about a shaman girl and her adorable Rot friends was one of my favourite games of 2021. If you’ve not already checked it out on PC or PlayStation, now is the perfect time to do so. I highly recommend it.

Developed by Ember Lab.

Early Access

Releasing in Early Access for PC and, apparently, Switch, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is a cosy game about a trainee witch who sets up her own delivery service. If that sounds aggressively Ghibli-coded, you’d be correct.

Developed by Chibig Studio (Summer in Mara, Ankora: Lost Days, Deiland: Pocket Planet).

New Releases

Oddada (PC) isn’t so much a game as it a unique piece of music making software. You collect various noise-making machines and assemble them in a way that creates beautiful music. Or discordant noise if you prefer. Of course, you can save your creations to virtual tapes which can be exported as audio files.

Developed by Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffmann.

Gourdlets (PC) is a casual sandbox game where you built a city for little vegetable people and watch them go about their day, harvesting their blooms whenever you can. You can even leave them to idle at the bottom of your desktop while doing other things.

Developed by AuntyGames and published by Future Friends Games (Laysara: Summit Kingdom, Summerhouse, Exo One).

If WipEout is the nightclub, Phantom Spark (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is the late-night comedown for when you get home. While it’s primarily a fast-paced time trial racer, its single player campaign sees you going head-to-head against otherworldly champions.

Developed by Ghosts and published by Coatsink (Islanders, Worldless, The Last Hero of Nostalgaia).

Leximan (PC) is a fantasy adventure set in a world where magic has the potential to be embarrassing as much as it is a spectacle. You solve the unique problems of a basement dwelling wizard by using leximancy, a brand of magic making use of words to cast spells. Imagine a cross between Undertale and The Typing of the Dead and you’re almost there.

Developed by Knights of Borria and published by Marvelous (Story of Seasons series, Silent Hope, The Last Alchemist).

Arco (PC, Switch) is a tactical RPG set in a Western-inspired world and covers three tales of revenge against the Red Company gang. There’s a chunky pixel art style to this one, and the reviews from critics are overwhelmingly positive. Feels like a sleeper hit in waiting.

Developed by Franker, Max Cahill, Bibiki and Fayer and published by Panic (Untitled Goose Game, Firewatch, Thank Goodness You’re Here!).

Farewell North (PC, Switch, Xbox X/S) is a gentle narrative game about dealing with loss. You play as a border collie in the countryside whose role is to bring colour back to their owner. Expect lots of open fields and an abundance of sad, reflective moments.

Developed by Kyle Banks and published by Mooneye Studios (Lost Ember, Smushi Come Home, Haven Park).

Dustborn (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) is a story about a road trip and a band tour crossed with a sci-fi dystopia set in an alternate America. Combat makes use of words against your foes and the story focuses on the power of a found family. There’s a lot going on here, and it’s from the same team who created The Longest Journey and its extended universe.

Developed by Red Thread Games (Dreamfall Chapters, Draugen) and published by Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain, Under the Waves, Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior).

One of the fundamental problems of the current games industry is how much money corporate executives are investing in soulless live service games that are almost certainly dead-on-arrival. On a related note, Concord (PC, PS5) is a team-based shooter as part of Sony’s doomed overinvestment in live services. It’s apparently a fun time, if you can vibe with its pseudo-Overwatch sci-fi setting. But we’ll see how well it does since the reaction to it so far hasn’t been great.

Developed by Firewalk Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Black Myth Wukong (PC, PS5) is a big action game set in the story of Journey to the West, where your Destined One monkey protagonist fights his way through a series of aggressive enemies. Getting a lot of buzz around this one, as it’s rocketed up the Steam player count charts immediately upon release. Plus it looks stylish as hell.

Developed and published by Game Science.

Games of the Week

Two Games of the Week, one for last week and one for this week.

Last week’s Games of the Week is Just Crow Things (PC, Switch, Xbox), the corvid equivalent of Untitled Goose Game.

You play as a crow looking to prove themselves to the world, and to achieve this they must gather shiny things, poop on unsuspecting humans and generally causing havoc. The game sees you flying around various sandbox levels based on different parts of the world as you build your crow empire.

Just Crow Things looks like an absurd time all round. It has the same chaotic energy as Untitled Goose Game, where you play as a bird whose job is to ruin everyone’s day, only now you’re airborne. I’m always up for a bit of chaos, so Just Crow Things looks like a lot of fun.

Developed by Unbound Creations (Rain on Your Parade).

This week’s Game of the Week is Tactical Breach Wizards (PC), a tactics game with magic.

Tactical Breach Wizards sees you play as a band of wizards out to unravel a sinister conspiracy in a modern environment. However, while they have enhanced their arsenal with rifles and tactical body armour, they are still wizards that can blast magic around. Using this magic is key to your success, as you seek out the most effective and, more importantly, most stylish way of taking out your foes. It’s a tactics game, so lots of turn-based combat and thinking about positioning. But mostly that positioning is about the best angle to fireball someone out of a window.

Tactics games are hit and miss with me, but this one has some neat hooks going for it. The emphasis on creative solutions and the way magical abilities have been incorporated into your abilities suggest this is going to be something special. I also really enjoy that they encourage experimentation with the use of a rewind mechanic. Plus it’s called Tactical Breach Wizards, and you can’t say no to that.

Developed by Suspicious Developments (Gunpoint, Heat Signature).