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

This week, Canada, Pokémon and Bungie.

Blue Prince got shadow dropped onto Switch 2 this week. Last year’s indie darling roguelike puzzle game about uncovering the secrets of a mansion can now be played on Nintendo’s system.

Since being set free from Square Enix, it seems that Crystal Dynamics have been doing everything in their power to make the entire Legacy of Kain series available. Ports of the Blood Omen games and a remaster of the Soul Reaver games have already released, and now it’s time for the final game. Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered takes the current final game in the series, the game that definitively ties together the stories of Blood Omen and Soul Reaver, now with improved visuals and, for the first time, a demo of the unfinished Dark Prophecy game.

Releasing in Early Access, The Legend of Khiimori is part of a growing movement to produce horse-based games that break the curse of being shovelware for girls. You play a Mongolian courier in the 13^th century, where the bond between you and your horse is an essential part of your job, especially as you’ll be traversing a vast open world. Developed by Aesir Interactive and published by Mindscape.

To much excitement, Slay the Spire 2 is now out in Early Access. The original launched in 2019, became one of the most lauded games of the year and became the template for a million deckbuilder roguelikes that followed. And now developer Mega Crit have advanced the timeline by 1000 years and allowed the titular spire to evolve and twist in new ways, opening up opportunities for new challenges.

The Abbess Garden (PC) is a cosy game about tending to a garden abbey in 1600s France. It’s a time of political upheaval but your job is simply to keep the plants alive. Features a realistic plant simulation where different plants have different needs that must be properly met in order to thrive. Developed by MD Studio and published by indie.io.

Pieced Together (PC) is a gentle game about scrapbooking, looking back on the friendship between two young women who haven’t spoken in years. Through processing this relationship, the game will ask players to consider if it’s worth reaching out or leaving the past behind. Developed by Glowfrog Games.

Cupiclaw (PC) is to claw machines that Balatro was to poker. You play as Morris, a man who lost his engagement ring to a claw machine and now needs to head up through the arcade to retrieve it. The only way is to win big points on each claw machine, combining items in a way to maximise points and bonuses. Developed by Typin.

Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse (PC, PlayStation, Switch 1, Xbox X/S) is a roguelike Metroidvania clearly inspired by the hand drawn style of Hollow Knight. You play as a witch with a cursed hat that can bring her back to life and can also be used to possess enemies for their abilities. But also, you get to build a village for yourself, adding a management aspect to the whole experience. Developed by Frontside 180 and published by Pocketpair.

Rotwood (PC, Switch 2) is the latest game from Klei, emerging from Early Access in a Nintendo Indie World shadow drop with a complete storyline and quality-of-life improvements. It’s a roguelike brawler about fighting corrupted beasts to protect your home.

Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) is the sequel to Wishfully’s cinematic platformer about a girl saving her planet from invading robots with only the help of a friend-shaped creature named Mui. With the robot threat now gone, their technology has corrupted parts of humanity, and greed and power threaten to tear their peaceful society apart. This means more puzzle platforming and petting Mui. The original game was very sweet, so I’m pleased to see a second one.

Ever since Disco Elysium, there have been a few attempts to replicate the low combat/high dialogue style of that game to fairly middling results. Esoteric Ebb (PC) is one of the few that’s determined to not stumble on those same hurdles. Solo developer Christoffer Bodegard has put a lot of work into analysing Disco Elysium’s systems and writing so he could extract the good bits and apply it to a silly Dungeons and Dragons adventure. You play as a Cleric with his goblin sidekick as he works to uncover some dark political secrets. Or dies trying, presumably.

Bungie returned this week with Marathon (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S), a new extraction shooter entry in their pre-Halo shooter franchise. You and your team venture into the colony of Tau Ceti IV, seeking resources and trying not to encounter other hostile scavengers. Will be interesting to see how this one does, as it’s another extraction shooter live service in a sea of many games that have tried and failed the same thing lately.

Sometimes Nintendo lends out their properties to third-party developers and they come back with something unhinged. Pokémon Pokopia (Switch 2), co-developed by Dynasty Warriors and Dragon Quest Builders studio Omega Force, puts you in the shoes of a Ditto pretending to be a human. In a game that mixes Minecraft and Animal Crossing, you build up your little habitat and recruit additional Pokémon to aid you, all in a world where humans have seemingly vanished. Bizarrely dystopian and starring the floppiest of protagonists, this is such an odd game and yet critics love it.

Game of the Week is Scott Pilgrim EX (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox), a new Scott Pilgrim brawler, now developed by Tribute Games (TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge).

Set after the events of the original game (and comic and movie), Scott’s bandmates have been kidnapped while Toronto is ravaged by gangs of robots, demons and, of course, vegans (who are better than everyone else). Scott and Ramona (and some redeemed exes) now must fight across space and time to punch the highlights out of people’s hair and make the ve-gones begone.

Look, at least two of us on this team are in lesbians with the Scott Pilgrim franchise, so it was a guarantee this was going to be Game of the Week. They made a new one! More specifically, the Shredder’s Revenge team made a new one! That’s pretty cool! And now it’s a sprawling set of levels completely unleashed from the original story, although creator Bryan Lee O’Malley is still involved. Music by Anamanaguchi too, as God intended.