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

This week, desert surfing, revived classics and a herd of unruly cattle.

Ports and Re-Releases

A year after its PC and PlayStation release, Black Myth: Wukong comes to Xbox. Perfect time for you to catch up on the Journey to the West inspired Soulslike, right after its imminent sequel was announced at Gamescom.

Early Access

Stick It to the Stickman is a game about climbing the corporate ladder. Mostly through extreme violence. You, the blue stickman, must fight hordes of red stickmen in order to climb your office building, find your boss and defeat him to take his job. This physics-based brawler is completely absurd and that’s high praise. Developed by Free Lives (Broforce, Terra Nil) and published by Devolver Digital.

New Releases

Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi (PC) is an adventure game where you take control of a Guardian and a monk that’s been turned into a wolf. Together they must explore ancient temples to put a stop to the Void that’s encroaching on their home. Expect a lot of puzzles. Developed by MarsLit Games and published by Neon Doctrine.

Continuing the girls on perilous journeys with animal companions theme, The Girl from Arkanya (PC) is an action adventure heavily inspired by 2D Zelda games, particularly the GBA ones. You play as Marisa, a treasure hunter, as she sets out for glory but ends up teaming up with a capybara and switches to a mission to save the world. You can play as Marisa and Kapi interchangeably, using their different abilities to succeed. Developed by Arkanya Games.

It’s obligatory cosy game time, as Discounty (PC, PlayStation, Switch 1, Xbox) sees you put in charge of your aunt’s supermarket in the small town of Blomkest. You’ll be managing stock while building relationships with everyone around you, while striking a balance between increasing your profits or improving the town.

This is the first of two games this week I debated including here or in re-releases due to their strange history. Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution (PC, PlayStation, Switch 1, Xbox) is the second Shantae game. Now, if you’re aware of WayForward’s genie platformer series, you might be thinking that’s strange when there are five of them already.

As its name implies, Shantae Advance was originally supposed to be the second game in the series, developed for the Game Boy Advance. However, due to the niche audience of the first Game Boy game, a publisher couldn’t be secured and the series would go on hiatus until 2010, when indie development became easier. And now, 15 years after that, WayForward have gone back to the game, with the game already getting a limited GBA release earlier this year (yes, really) and now on modern systems.

Technically released last week, but I decided to carry it over, OFF (PC, Switch 1) is second of the games I debated including in the re-releases section instead of here. But if I could count The Roottrees Are Dead as a new release (and Game of the Week) earlier this year, this should get the same treatment.

OFF was an RPG Maker project released in 2008 by a solo developer under the name Mortis Ghost and his composer friend. It was a surreal RPG about a man named The Batter, setting out to take down spectres to purify the world. And now it’s been remade with a larger team, including the original solo developer, with extra funding from Fangamer to polish the game. If you liked Undertale or EarthBound, you should be working on beating OFF right now.

Herdling (PC, PS5, Switch 1, Xbox X/S) is a game about herding a group of cattle-like creatures through a treacherous mountain path. From Okomotive (Far: Changing Tides) and published by Panic (Firewatch, Untitled Goose Game), this is a game about survival, tough puzzle challenges and the difficulties of herding a lot of animals into a specific location.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week this week is Sword of the Sea (PC, PS5), the latest game from Giant Squid (The Pathless, Abzu).

You play as the Wraith, a mysterious figure who’s been resurrected and now heads into a deserted Necropolis to uncover a hidden sea below the ruins. To achieve this, you jump on the Hoversword, which allows you to skate across the landscape, effortlessly acting as skateboard, snowboard and surfboard all at once. You must navigate the environment, doing a lot of sweet tricks and solving a lot of puzzles.

Sword of the Sea is gorgeous, and it’s immediately obvious what the developers’ previous work consists of. The movement mechanics are a lot like The Pathless, the water sections evoke Abzu while the sandy environment is more than a nod to creative director Matt Nava’s previous work on Journey. It’s apparently a short experience, but it promises to be an unforgettable one.