Kaze and the Wild Masks is a modern platformer disguised as a retro SNES game. The game makes little effort to hide the fact that it took clear inspiration from the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy from the 90’s, which many would agree are some of the best retro platformers of all time. In fact,…
Tag: Indie Games
Top 5 Worst Levels from Kaze and the Wild Masks
It’s become quite the trend lately to appeal to one’s nostalgia. So instead of making photo-realistic games with massive worlds and cinematic cut scenes, many developers are taking the opposite approach and crafting games that remind us of what got us into gaming in the first place. Kaze and the Wild Masks is one such…
Kaze and the Wild Masks is the Retro DKC Sequel We’ve Been Waiting For
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…
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…
VIRTUAL BASTION 