While Kaze and the Wild Masks may have been released in 2021, this 2D platformer has a lot more in common with retro classics from the SNES era, most notably the Donkey Kong Country trilogy from the mid-90’s. Featuring beautiful pixel art and a soundtrack that already feels nostalgic, Kaze must save her friend Hogo…
Category: Indie Games
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood: Demo Review
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is the sequel to Max & the Magic Marker and opens with a scenario that seems strangely similar to the plot of the movie Labyrinth from 1986. An older sibling gets tired of their annoying younger brother and wishes they would disappear, only to immediately set out to rescue said…
The Gardens Between: A Beautiful Tale of Friendship
The Gardens Between is a puzzle game about two friends, Arina and Frendt, who find themselves on a series of islands where time flows in both directions. Each island represents the pair’s memories of their time spent together, and the two must work as a team to reach the top of each island, all culminating…
Aspire: Ina’s Tale Could Have Been So Much More
Aspire: Ina’s Tale is a short and simple puzzle game about a girl who must escape from the Tower. Along the way, you gain several “spirits” that allow you to solve puzzles. These spirits are: energy (for powering things), movement (for moving objects horizontally or vertically), and magnitude (for making objects bigger and smaller).
Hunting Down Missing Strawberries in Celeste
A couple years ago, I wrote a review about my experiences with Celeste, a super difficult game about climbing a mountain. The game was amazing, don’t get me wrong, but it was also quite a trial. And while I did manage to complete the main game (chapters 1-7), there’s a whole lot that I didn’t…
Arise: A Simple Story – Demo Review
Arise: A Simple Story is a casual puzzle game about losing the love of one’s life. The game begins with the death of your own character, and as the demo progresses, you find these statues that seem to be telling the story of how the protagonist and his future wife grew up together. Gameplay involves…
Yoku’s Island Express: A Pinball-Metroidvania Adventure
Yoku’s Island Express is an interesting combination of pinball and Metroidvania, and it’s one of those weird ideas that works way better than I ever would have expected. You play as a dung beetle named Yoku, who was just recently hired as the new postmaster of Mokumana Island. The game features a very pleasant art…
I and Me: Demo Review
I and Me is an obscure puzzle game for which I could find very little information. You control two cats who move in unison with each other, and the goal is to figure out how to get both of them into these…boxes? Picture frames? Playing demos has exposed me to games of a wide range…
A Short Hike: A Relaxing Adventure on Hawk Peak Island
As the stresses of life continue to pile up, I’ve been finding myself more and more drawn to relaxing games that are more about a casual experience than strenuous gameplay. One such game that I recently got on sale was A Short Hike, where you play as a bird named Claire who’s vacationing on Hawk…
Arietta of Spirits: Demo Review
Arietta of Spirits follows the story of Arietta and her family as they visit the island where her grandmother once lived before her recent passing. The demo covers a short jaunt into the woods to gather apples for dessert, which includes a boss fight against a giant bee. According to the game’s official description, Arietta…
VIRTUAL BASTION 