Hello! Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Games Release Roundup!
This week, musical puns, Pokémon battles and gang warfare.
After a significant period of Xbox exclusivity, Starfield is now on PS5. While certainly not what fans wanted out of a Bethesda space RPG, there’s still a lot to be interested in here, and it’s good to see it reaching a wider audience.
Super Alloy Crush is a Mega Man X inspired roguelike brawler about anime robot girls. You can choose between Muu or Kelly, two Rangers seeking out a treasure planet and taking out every obstacle on the way. The sprite work on this is phenomenal. Developed by Alloy Mushroom.
Nippets (PC) is a hidden object game where you can change the events of the map with different objects you find hidden in the world. Don’t normally highlight these games but the charm and silliness on display on this one caught my attention. Developed by Blink Industries.
ChainStaff (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox X/S) is a retro side scroller with some of the weirdest imagery I’ve ever seen in the genre. Inspired by Contra and Shadow of the Beast, you play a soldier who has an alien creature stuck on his head, which is mostly inconvenient but also allows him to control the alien artefact of the title, which allows him to take on the alien hordes invading the planet. Psychedelic, abrasive and chaotic, ChainStaff looks like little else out there at the moment. Developed by Mommy’s Best Games.
Cult Vacui (PC) is a horror point-and-click where you play as a janitor who travels to a Scottish island to start their work on a summer estate. Problem is, the island has been taken over by a murderous cult who has wiped out most of the small island population. And now they’re a target, so your goal is to piece together what’s going on and find a way to survive through their ritual. Developed by LBRTY Games and published by Dionous Games.
Proudly advertising itself as from developers behind Goldeneye and Timesplitters, Beyond Words (PC, PS5, Switch 1, Xbox X/S) is…not exactly what you’d expect from that statement. This is another Balatro-like, this time drawing heavily from Scrabble. You form words, add multipliers and try and rack up huge scores. And not a single gun in sight. Developed by Mindfuel Games and published by PQube.
KuloNiku: Bowl Up! (PC) is a cooking game about running your own small-town restaurant and protecting it from threats. Mostly through competitive cooking contests and keeping your eccentric customers happy. Developed by Gambir Studio and published by Raw Fury.
Speaking of cooking, Town of Zoz (PC) sees you playing as an adventurer chef in the titular town, splitting your time between cooking for the townspeople and venturing into the local dungeons during the menacing night to fight off monsters and uncover dark secrets. Some of the character designs in this make me think of Okami, which is a huge compliment. Developed by Studio Pixanoh and published by Balor Games.
House of Hikmah (PC) is a narrative puzzle adventure set during the Islamic Golden Age. You play as Maya, a 14-year-old girl whose father has just died and in her attempts to deal with the grief, she enters the titular House of Hikmah. Inside she discovers the teachings of great Islamic scholars and uncovers her father’s legacy. Also features a soundtrack from Journey composer Austin Wintory. Developed by Lunacy Studios.
Find Your Words (PC) is a game about communication, seen through the eyes of a non-verbal child. Developed by Capybara Games, a team led by two dads of non-verbal kids looking to share their stories. You run around a camp, making friends and learning how to find ways to make yourself heard without words. Looks incredibly sweet.
Minos (PC) is Dungeon Keeper but Greek, and without Peppa Pig’s dad guiding you through the experience. You are a minotaur, leading adventurers into your labyrinth. You construct the maze, set the traps and work to overcome the invasion. Perfect if you’re feeling a little devious. Developed by Artificer and published by Devolver Digital.
The Occultist (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is a dark horror game about a paranormal investigator who delves into his father’s disappearance on a long-abandoned British island. Use supernatural tools to solve puzzles while avoiding combat through stealth mechanics. Developed by Daloar and published by Daedalic.
Developed by Liquid Swords, a studio formed by former Just Cause director Christofer Sundberg, Samson (PC) is a crime thriller about a man who’s been dragged back into the criminal underworld, where he either beats up enemy gangs Yakuza-style or runs them off the road Driver-style. Not entirely sure how these two elements click together, as the trailers are vague on it, and reviews are not looking great, so despite its impressive visuals this may be one to skip.
Pokémon Champions (Switch) answers the question, what if Pokémon Stadium was a competitive online multiplayer game? It has the same basic premise – the game focuses exclusively on battling Pokémon, and you can import your own teams from the standard games via Pokémon Home. However, it lacks the single player progression in favour of online rankings. Free-to-play (or more accurately from Nintendo, “free-to-start”) so expect a lot of monetisation.
Game of the Week is People of Note (PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox X/S), a musical RPG mashup from new studio Iridium (founded by voice actor Jason Wishnov) and Annapurna Interactive.
You play as Cadence, a singer living in a city built around pop music. In her attempts to win a talent contest, she sets out into the wider world of Note to find musicians of other genres to present a fresh new sound. This turn-based RPG uses elements of rhythm games to create an adventure through a variety of musical landscapes.
I played this one in full! Finished it yesterday, in fact, and wrote some brief impressions over on Siliconera. But to sum up, this is an exceptionally silly game, especially for anyone with a love of music. The game is abundant in musical puns, a phenomenal soundtrack mixing styles together (any time rock and EDM collide I am very happy) and a battle system that combines Final Fantasy VII with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. There are even musical performances, including a Backstreet Boys parody that made me lose it. I highly recommend this one.
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