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

This week, cats, bugs, dinosaurs, possums and assorted horrors.

Quieter week this week. In a year largely dominated by an avalanche of massive releases, we have a bit of a break right now.

That’s not to say we are lacking in new games, of course, and there is plenty to pay attention to this. In fact, it was almost a fight for Game of the Week between the actual game and Mineko’s Night Market. In fact, pretty much everything this week looks cool as far as I’m concerned, but those two were the main standouts.

New Releases

Pizza Possum (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S) is a game about a lovely peaceful kingdom that bakes lovely pizzas…and you are a horrible possum seeking to eat them all. Or you can rope in a friend to be your raccoon accomplice. Looks very silly.

Afterdream (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S) is a spooky adventure set in a ghost-filled mansion in a dreamlike world. Some really impressive pixel art work going on here, to the point where I have no idea how they did a bunch of it.

El Paso Elsewhere (PC, Xbox) takes Max Payne, lowers its polygon count and imbues it with a horror vibe. You venture through a haunted motel taking down vampires and werewolves as stylishly as possible.

Paleo Pines (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is the first of two animal-themed cosy games this week. You must build up a ranch full of dinosaurs who aid in its success. And yes, you can ride your dinosaur friends like they’re horses.

Continuing the cosy theme of this week, Mineko’s Night Market (PC, Switch) where a girl named Mineko arrives in a little Japanese village that’s lost some of its historical charm. As Mineko you craft items to sell at market while collecting cats and venturing out to discover the secrets of the island.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week this week is Cocoon (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox), a surreal puzzle game about putting worlds inside other worlds as a bug man.

The new game from Jeppe Carlsen, lead designer on Limbo and Inside, Cocoon puts you into a surreal, alien world full of strange contraptions and biomechanical monsters. Also, the world you start in is in an orb, along with a few other worlds that must all be combined and swapped around to progress.

I played this for review and my god, it’s so good. It’s utterly bizarre and refuses to explain itself, but it’s definitely a great experience. There’s some solid puzzle design and some moments that made me gasp at just how layered the whole experience is. It’s not going to be for everyone, but if the trailer looks interesting to you, you should definitely check it out.