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

This week, climbing, muddy cars and Wario.

Oh god there’s so much this week. I had to cull a few more off my list this week, but unlike last week, there’s still a lot of especially notable games to cover. This includes a mixture of big releases, stylish indies and a few small games that I think are doing something especially interesting.

So much so that Game of the Week was a little tricky. You’ll see my justification for my choice at the end as usual, but there’s plenty more to take note of. I’ve played a little Song of Nunu and it already seems adorable. Thirsty Suitors feels like a South Asian Scott Pilgrim spinoff with more skateboarding. Noun Town seems like a brilliant piece of edutainment. This Bed We Made is intriguing. And Ebenezer and the Invisible World is notable simply for daring to be the rarest of things: a Christmas video game. I personally feel that any of these may be worth your time.

Plus JRPG and Wario fans are doing well this week, as are people who like going fast and getting dirty. Not like that, calm down.

New Releases

Language learning is difficult, and this is what Noun Town: Language Learning (PC – Early Access) aims to fix. As a game, it places you into a world where everyone speaks your intended language. It’s a life sim where immersion in a new language is key to everything, with the world growing and becoming more colourful as you improve your vocabulary. This is such a cool idea, and I’m genuinely considering getting this to improve my Japanese and French. Korean, Chinese, Spanish, German and Italian are also available.

It’s that time of year when it becomes socially acceptable to traumatise the rich into being good people. Meaning that the roughly 4 million adaptations of A Christmas Carol are set to hit our TV screens in the coming months. But only now do we get a video game adaptation. Because, oh yes, Ebenezer and the Invisible World (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a bizarre Dickens-based Metroidvania, a phrase I never expected to write. It’s a year since A Christmas Carol and Ebenezer Scrooge is a changed man who can also now see ghosts. And now it’s time for him to take on a new grouchy rich man while using the abilities of the dead. Bizarre, but I’m kind of into this whole concept.

This Bed We Made (PC, PS5) is a mystery game set in a 1950s hotel, where you play as a maid. This narrative driven game sees you unravelling a mystery by using your position to snoop through the possessions of your guests. A genuinely cool concept and I always love a good mystery, so I’m interested in this.

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a rhythm-based mini-game collection starring pigeons. These games include standard rhythm action, guess the instrument and, somehow, football. Looks very silly.

Fashion Dreamer (Switch) is the game that fans of Style Savvy (aka New Style Boutique) have been looking for. In fact, it’s from the same developer. It’s a fashion game, where you aim to become a great influencer by meeting requests from the general public. Not really for me, but then again, I am aware that the Style Savvy series gave Super Smash Bros one of its catchiest music tracks, so I like to imagine there’s more of that here.

Little Goody Two Shoes (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is a combination life sim and horror game. You play as a young girl named Elise who ventures into the woods in seek of magical fortune. Meanwhile she must maintain her relationships with fellow townsfolk to avoid being accused of witchcraft.

Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story (PC, Switch) is the latest Riot Forge game, where an indie developer takes a character from League of Legends and makes a game in their style. For this game, that developer is Rime and Gylt developer Tequila Works. You play as Nunu, a small boy from the frozen north of Runeterra who travels with his friendly yeti buddy. The game itself is a short emotional journey featuring platforming, puzzles and brawler combat. It’s adorable from what I’ve played so far (which admittedly isn’t a lot!)

Robocop: Rogue City (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) allows you to become Robocop without all that pesky cybernetic enhancement. This is a first-person shooter set in Detroit between the events of the second and third movies. It features Peter Weller himself as Robocop and from what I’ve seen, it still contains all the trademark satire you’d expect. Sadly, you cannot buy it for a dollar (it’s a bit more expensive than that).

Mind-bending philosophical puzzle games The Talos Principle gets a sequel with The Talos Principle II (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S). You play as a robot in city containing the last of human consciousness and solve puzzles to raise questions about the nature of the universe.

If you thought Scott Pilgrim would be better if Scott fought his exes and also was a South Asian woman, Thirsty Suitors (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) might be of interest to you. A stylish mixture of narrative adventure, turn-based RPG and skateboarding, you play as Jala, a young woman trying to impress her mother, defeat her exes and sort herself out. There’s a lot going on here, but it all looks brilliantly over the top and fully self-aware of its own ridiculousness. All with a South Asian flair we rarely get to see in games, so that’s neat.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R (PC, PlayStation, Switch) is a remake of the second Star Ocean game, originally released on PS1. It utilises 2D sprites in a 3D world as you venture through a story of space exploration, ancient prophecies and a quest to save a mystical planet.

WarioWare: Move It! (Switch) is the latest in Nintendo’s bonkers WarioWare franchise, where the goal is to get through a series of microgames, each of which lasts mere seconds. This latest edition puts a focus on the motion capabilities of the Joy-Cons, similar to the Wii’s Smooth Moves.

EA Sports WRC (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is one of them car games. This is effectively the latest outing for the Dirt Rally series, only now with EA’s money paying for an official WRC license. Perfect for anyone who’s into that kind of thing (it’s me, I’m into that kind of thing). Shame about the generic as hell name though.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week is Jusant (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S), a game about climbing and being friends with a cute lil alien buddy from the developers of Life is Strange.

Jusant is an action puzzle game all about climbing a vast tower. You play as a boy who is seeking the secrets of this tower, all while he’s accompanied by a creature known as Ballast. This little blue boy rides on your shoulder and powers the natural world around you.

Honestly, Jusant looked adorable from the moment I saw it in an Xbox showcase earlier this year. It’s a game that promises a meditative vibe as you climb, and it’s almost certainly going to feature an emotional narrative. It’s caught my attention in a big way and I can’t wait to get started on it (eventually).