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

This week, Pikmin, angry Muppets and optical illusions!

Interesting week this week. A lot more releases than the past couple of weeks, but most of these are smaller titles. Nintendo have the biggest release of the week, as Pikmin 4 is the latest Switch exclusive to garner huge amounts of positive critical attention. I still need to get round to playing the third one. Yes, I’m aware it’s ten years old now. I have a lot of games on my list, sorry!

Elsewhere, the highlights include Let’s! Revolution!, Lakeburg Legacies, Sticky Business and Unholy. And my Game of the Week, of course, but read on to find out what that is.

New Releases

Blackout Protocol is an Early Access release about fighting off horrors in an underground research base. It’s a co-op shooter with spooky environments, basically.

Do you miss old-school XCOM? Then Xenonauts 2 may be what you’re looking for. Releasing in Early Access for Steam, this strategy game pits you against a technologically superior alien foe that you must use your wits to defeat.

Ducky’s Delivery Service (PC) is Flappy Bird with more purpose. You play as a duck postman with a jetpack working as a postman. You have to use the physics-based control scheme to navigate the world and make sure everyone gets their post on time.

The Repair House (PC) is the latest of many relaxing sim games about mundane activities. In this game, you have to take apart and reassemble a bunch of household objects. Looks like a nice chill experience.

Homeseek (PC) is a post-apocalyptic management game about building a new settlement in a resource-stripped Earth.

Punch Club 2: Fast Forward (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a game about managing a fighter in a cyberpunk world. Inexplicably, Majima and Kiryu from Yakuza show up in the trailer. I don’t know why, and I feel like no one should tell Sega. Just in case.

Sticky Business (PC) is a game about running a business selling cute stickers. You make the designs, sell them through your (not) Etsy storefront online, and listen to your customers’ stories. Very cosy and cute.

Let’s! Revolution! (PC) is a cross between a turn-based tactics game and Minesweeper with a very silly name. You must navigate a grid-based environment in pursuit of a tyrannical king you’re looking to dethrone. It’s got some cute art too!

Lakeburg Legacies (PC) is a management game about building a village. However, relationships are key to the village’s success, as you have to help manage character relationships to ensure happy couples blossom and procreate.

Unholy (PC) is a horror game set in a moody Eastern European town as a mother searches for her missing child, stumbling on cult activity as she goes. Emotion can be used as a weapon, which is an intriguing concept.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening (PC, PS4, Switch) is the latest in Koei Tecmo’s feudal Japan strategy series. This entry promises to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the franchise with 380 historical scenarios and more officers than ever seen before in the series.

My Friendly Neighborhood (PC) is one of those inexplicably popular cute-kids-thing-turns-murderous horror games. You play as a repairman sent to the set of a Sesame Street style show, only to discover the puppets coming to life and giving chase. Now you have to survive the wrath of…Bert and Ernie, I guess?

Pikmin 4 (Switch) is the latest in Nintendo’s acclaimed series about gathering adorable plant people and then using them to your advantage, usually by sending them to their horrific deaths. This latest entry sees you playing as a member of the Rescue Corps sent to rescue not only Olimar, protagonist of the first two games, but also the previous Rescue Corps team who tried and failed in their own attempt. You also get a space dog this time, which is adorable.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week this week is Viewfinder (PC, PS5), a mind-bending puzzle game involving photography.

You explore a mysterious world of memory and loss, and you overcome obstacles by taking photographs. You then use these photographs to reshape the world around you by building new paths.

The concept of this one is exactly the kind of quirky puzzle game I love to see. It uses a simple concept – photography combined with optical illusions – to create a game that caught my attention heavily in all the trailers. Definitely one to pay attention to.