Hello! Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Games Release Roundup!
This week, Moomins, time loops and superhero fights.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era sees Ubisoft hand off the license they never use to strategy specialist publisher Hooded Horse and developer Unfrozen. Together they created this prequel to the original Heroes of Might & Magic games, designed to bring the series to a new generation. Currently in Early Access with only the first act of the campaign completed, more content is set to come for the full release.
Inkonbini (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a game about running a convenience store in a small Japanese town in the 1990s. Keep the place stocked up and clean, manage the money and keep your customers happy. Along the way you’ll get to learn the stories of all the locals as their lives intersect with yours. Developed by Nagai Industries.
Continuing the 90s nostalgia, a long-lost CD-ROM game from 1995 has somehow found its way onto Steam this week, as a game that wasn’t meant to be seen by human eyes. And by that, I mean Forbidden Solitaire (PC) is a throwback to the feeling of finding an obscure DOS game in the early to mid-1990s and losing yourself in its forbidden pleasures. This horror card game takes place entirely in an old computer setup, daring you to uncover its secrets. Developed by Night Signal Entertainment & Grey Alien Games.
Aphelion (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is the latest game from Don’t Nod, who’ve turned their usual narrative focus on a sci-fi story developed with the help of the European Space Agency. You play as Ariane and Thomas, two astronauts that have been sent to Persephone, a new planet discovered in our solar system. However, when they become stranded, it seems that they may not be alone on this new world.
Remember Garry’s Mod? Well now it’s back in the form of s&box (PC), an even more comprehensive creative tool for making games, built on the Source 2 engine. Build games, share them with the community and play the work of other creators, with options for monetisation and Steam publishing on their way. Developed by Facepunch Studios.
Neverness to Everness (PC, PS5, Mobile) is to Zenless Zone Zero as Tower of Fantasy is to Genshin Impact, ie. Perfect World taking some…inspiration from HoYoverse, shall we say. An action RPG set in the city of New Eridu Hethereau, where Hollows supernatural anomalies have popped up, and your team of gacha-acquired characters with Ether Affinity Esper powers enter these anomalies to investigate them, led by the player avatar known as the Proxy Appraiser. Also it has vehicle sections (wait, is that a Mini?!) so it does have that going for it as a unique element.
Invincible VS (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is a 3v3 tag team fighting game set in the world of Robert Kirkman’s superhero comic and the Amazon adaptation of it, published by the games division of Kirkman’s company Skybound. It features 18 playable characters from the cast, with select voice actors reprising their roles from the show, including JK Simmons as Omni-Man. While the development team, Quarter Up, are a new studio, they are staffed by many people who worked on 2013’s Killer Instinct, and that gory 2D fighting style comes through here.
Saros (PS5) is the newest game from Sony first-party stablemate Housemarque, and follows in the same structure as their previous game, Returnal. You play as Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli), a member of a rescue team investigating an off-world colony. It’s a roguelike third-person shooter where you battle your way through the ever-shifting alien landscape, reviving when you die. Apparently a little less of a challenge than Returnal was, but still getting solid reviews.
Game of the Week is Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth (PC, Switch 1), Hyper Games’ second adaptation of the classic Moomin stories by Tove Jansson.
While Melody of Moominvalley saw you playing as Snufkin as he violently ended gentrification, Moomintroll puts you in the shoes of the title character, exploring the frozen lands of winter to forge friendships and bring warmth to the frigid lands. You wander around, solving puzzles, uncovering secrets and playing mini-games with new friends.
I am admittedly not super familiar with the source material, but much like Snufkin’s game before it, it’s hard not to find this incredibly charming. I love the art design on show here, which resemble cut-out pictures ripped straight from Jansson’s original illustrations, layered on some gorgeous painterly backdrops. As a game it also just seems like a beautiful wholesome time, and that’s something we all need from time to time.
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