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

This week, the horrors of acting, photography and tough ninja games.

Early Access

Two unique driving games released into Early Access this week that might be worth your time. Fumes is a Twisted Metal style car combat game, one with some fun retro visual style. Meanwhile, Recharge is a game about racing RC cars, which has some arcade sensibilities while also aiming to replicate the real experience of controlling an RC car.

Releasing in Early Access on PC and Xbox, Grounded 2 is the sequel to Obsidian’s survival sim inspired by Honey I Shrunk the Kids. As a group of shrunken teens doing science experiments in the park, you have to protect yourself from the giant bugs and other horrors living in the grass. This time you can tame bugs and ride them around.

New Releases

Birdigo (PC) is a roguelike deckbuilder word game where you earn points in word games to help your flock of cute birds advance. Imagine Balatro with more words and birds and fewer jokers played disturbingly by Ben Starr. Developed by John August & Corey Martin and published by GameTeam6.

Strange Scaffold continue their relentless release schedule with Co-op Kaiju Horror Cooking (PC), a game with a bizarre yet somehow entirely straightforward name. You and your friends play a group of monks who have ten minutes to feed giant monsters their desired recipes. You know, standard stuff.

Earthion (PC) is a new game from Ancient, a company whose name feels apt these days, as they’re best known for their work on 16-bit systems, including Streets of Rage 2, Actraiser 2, The Story of Thor and Robotrek. They’re back this week with a new Mega Drive game. Yes, you read that right. Earthion is a shmup designed with the Sega Mega Drive in mind, and they’ll be releasing a physical cartridge next year through Limited Run Games. For now, you can play the game on PC, with modern console versions in September. You play as fighter pilot Azusa Takanashi, on a mission to save the earth from alien invaders. In other words, classic shmup stuff.

Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game (PC, PS5, Switch 1, Xbox X/S) is a cosy life sim where you’re a hobbit. Essentially, imagine if Animal Crossing was in The Shire, and that’s basically what this is. Developed by Weta Workshop, and if you think they’re not known for game development, the reviews are showing that maybe that lack of experience could be a problem. Unfortunate.

The debut publishing release from Palworld studio Pocketpair comes from a surprising source. Dead Take (PC) is the newest game from Surgent Studios, responsible for last year’s Tales of Kenzera: Zau. Dead Take is a psychological horror about the perils of fame and stardom. You venture into a mansion where a friend has gone missing and uncover its secrets. Features an all-star cast led by Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33) and Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil Village), and also featuring the likes of Matt Mercer, Laura Bailey, Jane Perry and Sam Lake.

Classic hard side scroller franchise Ninja Gaiden is back to its roots courtesy of retro revival masters Dotemu and Blasphemous developers The Game Kitchen. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (PC, PlayStation, Switch 1, Xbox) stars Kenji Mozu, a ninja-in-training who must step up to the plate when his village is attacked by demons and usual protagonist Ryu Hayabusa is off doing something else (we may see what later this year?). This is a stylish retro throwback, and almost certainly features the same ridiculous difficulty as its predecessors if Blasphemous and the series history are anything to go by.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week is Heartworm (PC), a retro horror game featuring a camera.

Heartworm stars Sam, a young woman grieving for her grandfather. After visiting a strange forum, she heads out to a house in the mountains, where she hopes to reach beyond the veil. As you might expect, this may not be the best idea in the world.

I’m a big fan of this PS1 retro horror trend that’s been going on lately. A lot of games taking the classic Resident Evil and/or Silent Hill formula and putting their own unique spin on it. Heartworm is no exception, which not only also drags Fatal Frame into the mix (your weapon is a camera) but also features some impressive visual design based on all the trailers. Monsters are weird static figures while some of the environments break the bounds of reality. Also the music in the trailer is pure Yamaoka and I love it.