Uh… Hm. This might be a damning way to open a review, but not every games needs to set your loins alight. I think a game industry where every title is tripping over each other in an attempt to be the most meaningful experience you have had would be pretty miserable. Developers should have fun with the creative process. It should be fulfilling to them. Otherwise, we’d just be getting our entertainment from workers on an assembly line. That’s not how art works.

This might be obvious, but I say that because Orbo’s Odyssey did not combust my crotch. I played it because I like the cut of the developer’s jib. Feverdream Johnny is probably best known for their work on Nowhere, MI. They’ve partnered with Ben Drury for this sort of spin-off or sequel to Peeb Adventures. So, I guess I’m here to spectate the creative process rather than have my genitals gelatinized. With that said, it’s still a fun time.

[caption id="attachment_398697" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Orbo's Odyssey (PC)
Developer: Feverdream Softworks
Publisher: Feverdream Softworks
Released: August 21, 2023
MSRP: $6.99

Orbo’s Odyssey opens with the eponymous meeple getting locked in their boss’s office along with Peeb. The door isn’t locked, but neither of them has arms, so they can’t work the doorknob. I can think of a few ways around this issue, but they decide the only two options are to either wait for the boss to come to the office (which he never does, typical manager) or use a device to craft a prosthetic arm capable of manipulating a door. I guess they don’t have buttcheeks, either.

They need to collect little Gear Parts that are conveniently located in product portals found in the boss’s office. So, you’ve got a little problem, a little hubworld, and Orbo’s Odyssey is a little platformer. It’s a micro-collect-a-thon. There are five gears in each world, and it takes a little over an hour to complete.

Or maybe I’m just amazing. I was told the controls are easy to learn and hard to master, but I had it down from the word "go." Actually, maybe I was just told that so I’d feel good about myself. In that case, it worked.

https://youtu.be/Ty8SJzoRNo0?feature=shared

Adventure vs. Odyssey

Beyond running and jumping, you can launch yourself through the air like a rocket. This is the big concept to wrap your head around, as while there’s more to Orbo’s Odyssey than just going ballistic, it’s all centered around your jet speed. There are time trials, puzzles, and battles, but they’re mostly all solved by ramming your head into them.

The real appeal is in the dreamlike visuals. Well, I say “dreamlike,” but my dreams usually involve a lot more noodles. Feverdream Softworks seems to dream about Draculas and businessmen. Their dreamworld is an awful little place where an unconvincing façade and awful corporate culture mix into something inhuman and alienating. Especially when you factor in all the house music that plays overtop.

There’s a lot of screwing around to be had. Scouring environments reveals a lot of strange displays, making it feel almost like a wax museum or an I Spy book.

If you look hard enough, you can see some of Feverdream Johnny’s trademark nightmarish existentialism. This possibly ties into the greeted Feverdream universe, but I can’t claim to be intimately familiar enough to know for sure. Standing apart, it’s mostly just confirmation that your discomfort is warranted. It reminds you that it might not be raining, but you're standing thigh-deep in a leech-filled swamp. It’s the good stuff.

[caption id="attachment_398698" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Box quote

Because of its brevity and whimsical apathy, it’s hard to really give a lot of feedback on Orbo’s Odyssey. It neither disappointed nor exceeded expectations. I doubt I’ll be doing an annual playthrough, but I’ll still be there for Feverdream Softworks’ next game. It’s not that expensive, and it’s maybe healthier for you than eating an entire bucket of ice cream by yourself. Hold on, I can do better. Here’s a good box quote:

“Orbo’s Odyssey is an adequate reason to put your fingers all over your mouse and keyboard.”

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Orbo’s Odyssey appeared first on Destructoid.

I’m not above being lured in by aesthetic. Draft of Darkness hooked me in with its grainy, pixelated photo manipulation. It looks like a tacky game that followed in the wake of Mortal Kombat. In fact, it would fit right in alongside titles that pushed the limits of tastefulness back in the ‘90s. It’s hypnotic.

In my experience, a well-executed aesthetic can be indicative not necessarily of a game’s quality, but of its inventiveness. Not always, but sometimes. My favorite type of game is one where the developers fucked around and found out. However, that methodology doesn’t always result in an appealing game.

Draft of Darkness is so well-executed in its mechanics that it makes them seem accidental. Aesthetics aside, everything I’ve seen surrounding the game makes it out to be this quiet little project by a solo developer. But when you get into it, you find a well-tuned machine. Yet, while I find myself captivated by it, there is one unavoidable flaw that I think is going to be very divisive for a lot of people: its roguelite backbone.

[caption id="attachment_398531" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Draft of Darkness (PC)
Developer: Crawly Games
Publisher: Crawly Games
Released: August 23, 2023
MSRP: $14.99

Dungeons and daggers

In Draft of Darkness, you pick a survivor from an ever-growing list of them. Each one is proficient with their own type of combat, from the knife-wielding Cara to the Chainsaw-swinging Rene. Each one plays extremely differently.

Draft of Darkness is a deckbuilder roguelite, but it plays a lot like a tabletop RPG. Or rather, it plays like a TTRPG if the GM had lost the will to live and was holding you hostage in a ‘90s metal music video. While your abilities in combat are controlled by the hand of cards you’re dealt, it’s backed by an abilities stat system and heavily reliant on resources you gather. If you’re carrying a chainsaw, you need fuel. If you’re carrying a shotgun, you need shotgun food.

Beyond that, the exploration system feels like something a dungeon master would draw out on grid paper. Each one is randomly generated upon entry and filled with a variety of encounters. They take place in an apartment building, in a factory, or on the streets, but they’re all very much dungeons. Your goal in each on is to try and gather power and resources for your party, then find the boss and escape to the next dungeon.

https://youtu.be/9sZE1xr7wvI

Smack the deck

Despite relying on the luck of the draw to give you a good hand, the combat is extremely deep and nuanced. While characters rely on sparse resources to use their strongest attacks, they always have a weaker alternative. The chainsaw maniac, for example, can deal an incredible amount of damage very quickly but is reliant on gasoline. She can still pull off some powerful attacks without starting her engine, which is best to do on weaker opponents.

Usually, you just want to start eating into your resources when the cards start looking stacked against you, like on bosses. However, there are characters who don’t require resources, like the knife wielders. For them, they can focus on critical hits and combos, but with Cara I liked to rely heavily on the bleeding status effect.

There are a lot of nuanced status effects, and playing certain cards in sequence can give you a huge advantage. There is a tonne of strategy from building your deck carefully so you can exploit even the most unfavorable of hand.

[caption id="attachment_398532" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Feed the TV

To progress through the actual story, however, you need to trigger various encounters. It can take multiple playthroughs and attempts before you gain any ground in the narrative. This is where I think Draft of Darkness is going to miss the connection with a lot of people. It is, at heart, a very slow and methodical game, and that doesn’t really click with the roguelite mentality.

It’s a game that asks you to be very careful about your strategy and resources, and then even when you do so, it’s possible to hit the jagged rocks of a difficult encounter. Since so much of the game is random and there’s very little wiggle room, it’s very easy to get your bones crushed between a rock and a hard place. And that can mean losing hours of progress with very little to show for it.

Specifically, a “complete” run can take three hours. If I wasn’t dying at the beginning from resource starvation, I was dying at the end from sheer blunt-force boss trauma. You’re always given tokens to spend at a store that allows you to unlock additional perks. Otherwise, you'll make progress through the various encounters that unlock characters. The store can allow you to customize your starter deck, but you’re largely starting from square one each time you start over. There are few advantages to be had.

[caption id="attachment_398533" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

It's time for plan B

To be fair, Draft of Darkness has an easy mode to help reduce the likelihood of sudden death. If it was such a big problem for me, I don’t know why I didn’t use it. Pride, I guess.

I feel like this is a game that doesn’t benefit from its roguelite trappings. I feel like a more round-based dungeon approach would have suited it better. Complete a map, and move on to the next one.

The mysterious narrative does make good use of the repeated playthroughs, however. The story involves the spread of something called “Darkness” which is used rather nebulously. Sometimes it sounds like a technology, other times a disease, and then others it just sounds like an abstract concept. It goes into a lot of detail without ever being clear on what it’s talking about. The Darkness really just seems to be all of the worst qualities of humanity lumped together. Good intentions marred by greed and paranoia. The inescapable need for progress and prestige. The disgusting aesthetics certainly suit the theme.

[caption id="attachment_398534" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Let the fists speak!

Despite the heartbreak from lost progress, I found myself glued each time I picked up Draft of Darkness. To be clear, you can always quit whenever you want and pick up where you left off. Throughout the review period, I preferred to sit down at the start of the evening and let myself get absorbed in the tacky, rusty visuals. Preferably with a nice greasy slice of pizza to really make things feel like living in the ‘90s.

I say that its successes feel almost accidental, but I know that it’s not true. Draft of Darkness is the result of a lot of careful prototyping and development, as well as inspiration from games like Slay the Spire. Crawly is clearly a developer who knows how to use feedback to create a tighter product.

While I think that the roguelite format is a hindrance on Draft of Darkness overall and will probably be the breaking point for a lot of people, I can’t get past my fascination for the game. While writing this review, I made the mistake of starting the game to make sure I had a few facts straight and started a new run. One hour later, I realized I was supposed to be writing, and had to quite painfully tear myself away. Even right now, Draft of Darkness is just minimized onto my taskbar, lurking and waiting for me to finish my job so it can capture my attention again.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Draft of Darkness appeared first on Destructoid.

Jollypunch Games has announced that the high-flying, toy-robot basketball game, Robodunk, will release on Switch and PC on September 25th, 2023.

I previewed the demo of Robodunk on a distantly long-past Steam Next Fest (it was this past February). It’s an over-the-top basketball game in the vein of NBA Jam. Two robots face a team of two other robots in a match of ups. Beyond just scoring some hoops, your robots are equipped with weapons and can dunk from the edges of space. Also, everything is made of wood for some reason.

https://youtu.be/OP55pjjMSkI

There’s also a roguelite progression where you try to make it as far as you can across various rounds of b-ball. Once you’re inevitably smacked back down to Earth, you can upgrade your robots or hire new ones.

After I wrote my preview for Robodunk, the developer reached out to me to get me to extrapolate on my feedback. At the time, one of my biggest issues was that I felt there was a dearth of personality to the whole affair, despite how over-the-top everything was. He pointed out to me that there are apparently lore entries that get unlocked as you play. What!? In a basketball game? No wonder I didn’t see them. That’s the last place I’d expect to find them.

So, I’m eventually going to play the full version, and I’m definitely going to check out these lore articles that give context to the automated dunks happening in the foreground.

You can check out Robodunk and its lore on September 25th, 2023 on Switch and PC. There’s also a demo available to check out on Steam.

The post NBA Jam-like Robodunk slams home on Switch and PC September 25 appeared first on Destructoid.

With its full release on PC happening back in October 2022, Vampire Survivors has quickly become a runaway success. Already, there are imitators popping up trying to duplicate the game’s special sauce. As with many games that have spurred a sudden explosion of similar titles, it tantalizes developers with its simple but malleable gameplay.

I did play the PC version a few months back and was lucky enough to eventually claw my way from its grips. But with the Switch version dropping, I felt it was time to fall back into its embrace for the sake of the review. Hopefully, I can one day escape again.

[caption id="attachment_396801" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Vampire Survivors (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch [Reviewed])
Developer: Poncle
Publisher: Poncle
Released: October 20, 2022 (PC), August 17, 2023 (Switch)
MSRP: $4.99

Vampire Survivors looks like a bootleg. It has an appearance like someone took one game, then changed all the characters to look like another game to capitalize on people’s affection for the property. In this case, it looks like a bootleg with Castlevania sprites.

The character movements also feel like they’re unchanged from that game developer milestone of putting a sprite on the screen and having it react to input. They just glide across a sparse, repetitive background. It’s minimalistic. Extremely so. Your character attacks automatically based on a growing number of cooldown timers, and you’re just left in charge of navigating the enemy-infested environments.

You don’t even have to press a button unless you want to skip the chest-opening animation. You just slide your character around the background, having them pick up items and slipping through the cracks that open between groups of enemies. It’s dead simple, but weirdly, there’s a learning curve and strategizing to be done.

https://youtu.be/ZZZArNBLrsA

Holy water, Batman

For the main levels, you pick your hero and get dropped into a big open area. Enemies start streaming in from all sides. As you defeat them, they drop XP crystals that you pick up. Each time you gain a level, you get to choose an upgrade between a number of passive and offensive abilities.

As the level progresses, larger groups of more powerful enemies start piling in. The goal is to power yourself up faster than the enemies can grow in strength. Ultimately, you need to last 30 minutes before the Grim Reaper takes things into their own hands.

While this is an incredibly simple formula, a lot of strategy develops in a lot of areas. You need to experiment and discover what sets of weapons work best for you. Since the upgrades are somewhat randomized, you then need to figure out what to prioritize. Then there’s a bit of risk and reward. Do you take a new weapon now or spend the upgrade on boosting the level of an existing one? If you decide to skip on a specific upgrade now, is it going to reappear later on when you need it? Do you need more attack power now, or can you spend some points on boosting stats like luck or attack strength?

And that’s before you incorporate the rather clever combination mechanic, where if you’re carrying two particular items and improve them to their maximum level, you can evolve the weapon into something more powerful.

[caption id="attachment_396802" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Cerebral bore

Then, after each run, you can spend money that you collected on permanent upgrades and new characters. There are also achievements you can aim for that unlock additional weapons and characters for each run. Both during a run and in the gaps between, you’re always improving.

It’s quite a well-executed mess of progression that creates an addicting experience. I don’t use that word lightly, and I don’t necessarily mean it as a positive. Vampire Survivors employs some pretty devious tactics to dig into your brain matter and make it difficult to stop playing. You’re constantly making progress, and you’re perpetually on the cusp of bigger and better things. Every upgrade promises some advantage for your next run, and every run provides a learning experience to employ.

And then luck is a factor, which means that after a bad run, you’re not necessarily going to want to take a break. Sure, maybe things didn’t go your way last time, but this time is statistically more likely to go better. It comes as no surprise to me that developer Luca Gallante has a history of working in the gambling industry, as Vampire Survivors incorporates a lot of the same tactics to keep people glued in place.

That would be awful, but Vampire Survivors doesn’t seem to have that much interest in your money. The price for the base game is relatively low, and the only microtransactions are DLC expansions. Even then, the DLC is very cheap and not essential. If Vampire Survivors had the clear goal of getting you hooked and sucking you dry, I’d be disgusted, but that’s obviously not the intent here. Instead, it just cracks open a can of dopamine and pours it over your brain. The only thing you’ve got to lose here is your time.

[caption id="attachment_396803" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Lots of math

The Switch port is exactly as it says on the tin. I played the PC version previously, and this isn’t really an upgrade. It’s just the same game on a new platform, which is fine. There is some slowdown when the enemies envelop every pixel of screenspace, but I didn’t find it to interfere with the gameplay. Cut the Switch some slack. There’s a lot of math going on in any one moment.

There’s also the new co-op mode for up to four players. It works better than you may think, as XP is pooled between players, and upgrades cycle between them. It’s a surprisingly laid-back multiplayer experience, and I’m actually tempted to break it out next time I’m visiting my parents. Although, I’m afraid everyone would just delegate upgrade choices to me since I’m the experienced one.

As an added challenge, you could just play co-op by yourself. Since you only use the left stick, that’s one for each thumb. Quite a brain tickler.

[caption id="attachment_396804" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Brain tickler

Vampire Survivors is also not content to just accomplish the bare minimum either. A lot of love has gone into crafting it, even if it’s not immediately reflected through the bootleg aesthetics and simple presentation. There are lore entries for each character and enemy, and there are plenty of bonus levels and secrets to tackle. There’s some depth an meat here.

I think it would be very difficult to dislike Vampire Survivors. Typically, I hate when a game just drills into my brain and starts pressing all the feel-good buttons. I usually feel manipulated. However, the fact that it doesn’t ask for money beyond the admission fee, and the fact that there’s something of a clear endpoint to the entire game, makes it feel benign. It wants to entertain you for a while but will eventually let you get back to your life.

Vampire Survivors is well worth checking out, whether you’re playing it on Switch or any other platform. Its simple gameplay hides an irresistible depth. Just keep in mind that once you’re in its clutches, it can be a struggle to get free.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Vampire Survivors appeared first on Destructoid.

I had the opportunity to get an early look at Astronaut: The Best ahead of its August 15 release. Admittedly, I knew very little before jumping in. All I had seen is this Launch Announcement Trailer that had silly 2D graphics that reminded me of Homestar Runner. This is also studio Universal Happymaker's first title, so I didn't have much history to rely on.

But then on the Universal Happymaker YouTube channel, I saw videos showing off Astronaut: The Best going back as far as six years. And, after learning more about the title, I found out the team of four has actually been working on it for over eight years. Whenever a team is willing to put that amount of passion and dedication into their work, I'm more than willing to try it out. And with Astronaut: The Best, I'm oh so glad that I did.

https://youtu.be/EbkPomZBxyE

Bring glory to Flaustria

The premise of Astronaut: The Best is rather simple. The previous director for the space program of the great nation of Flaustria has failed. Unfortunately, the program is in shambles, but the five High Priests have brought you in to fix things. Over the course of five missions, you're tasked with doing everything in your power to train your astronauts for space. However, like any grand space program, there are some hurdles.

First off, Flaustria isn't the only nation with a space program. You'll have to deal with a rival nation plotting to sabotage and curtail your program in any way. Each mission has a unique focus, but along the way, you'll also have to deal with the competing space program.

Also, the five High Priests each have their own desires for how they want the space program handled. It's your job to consider all the options to figure out what gives you the best chance of success while also keeping the High Priests happy. Each of the five High Priests has their own unique personality, leading to some pretty comical interactions.

For example, in mission two the High Priests deemed it necessary for two of my astronauts to partake in a boxing match against astronauts from a rival nation to show our superiority. This is all while trying to prepare them for the space mission, mind you. Before the fight, High Priest Inside Track, who is in charge of the economy of Flaustria, paid me a visit. He subtly asked me to throw the match so we could make a lot of money. As you can imagine, it can be challenging juggling the demands of the High Priests while trying to successfully get to space.

[caption id="attachment_396459" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

These may not be the best astronauts for the job, but it's up to you to change that

Each astronaut that you recruit has five stats and several unique traits. Most of the time you'll have to train your astronaut in a specific stat in order to unveil the trait. Some are good, some are bad, and some are both. Typically these traits give you an increase or decrease in specific stats. Sometimes the traits aren't stat-related at all.

For example, I had one astronaut who was a pirate in her off-time and was willing to share a cut of her pillaging gains with the space program. This gave me some more funds to train the astronauts each week. Or, at least it would have. Unfortunately, I also had an astronaut that was obsessed with the latest designer clothes and would bill it to the program. In the end, the two usually balanced each other out, but as you can imagine this can create unique hurdles for how you approach a mission.

Overall, Astronaut: The Best is a time management game. Each day you'll be visited by a High Priest, then choose how you want to train each astronaut that day. Training them too much will stress them out, which can lead to them having a breakdown with destructive results. However, you can give them the day off to relieve stress or use consumable items that do the same.

The gameplay reminds me a lot of Cultist Simulator mixed with a world like Papers, Please, or Not For Broadcast. If you like all those titles, you'll get into Astronaut: The Best.

[caption id="attachment_396460" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Astronaut: The Best does what it does well

If you're looking for a quirky time management game set in an intriguing—and comical—world, you want to check out Astronaut: The Best. I only got to play a couple of missions, but there are five in total. Each mission has its own branching storyline and narrative based on your choices along the way. This creates quite a bit of replayability, even if the mission count seems low at first. Events and tasks that pop up throughout each run are also procedurally generated, making each playthrough unique.

Don't let the screenshots fool you. They almost did me, and they made me a bit worried about what I was getting myself into. But, after playing, I can tell you this is the perfect graphical style for Astronaut: The Best. You can learn the fundamentals very quickly, and each time you play you will learn more about how to increase your chances of success with the space program.

Oh, and you also get to chat with a six-legged lion. Where else can you do that?

Astronaut: The Best releases on PC via Steam on August 15. It's also Steam Deck verified.

The post Astronaut: The Best is a fun quirky occult management game about running a space academy appeared first on Destructoid.

Crawly Games has announced that their deckbuilder horror game, Draft of Darkness, is leaving Steam Early Access and going full version on August 23, 2023.

If you’ve never heard of Draft of Darkness, just look at it. It’s like if Pit-Fighter had a personality beyond just “oiled beef.” It has grainy, digitized actors fighting with grainy, unspeakable horrors in rusty lo-fi locales. It has just the right mixture of goofy and sleaze that makes it seem like a lost PS1 game from the creators of Chiller. Ugh, I suddenly have the urge to play Loaded.

https://youtu.be/9sZE1xr7wvI

Draft of Darkness was actually billed to me as Slay the Spire meets Resident Evil. It’s an ammo-focused turn-based deckbuilder where you recruit survivors and battle monsters and government robots. It uses a roguelite system. Maps are procedurally generated, and you keep advancing until you’re overwhelmed by the darkness. You gain credits that can buy booster packs after each run, allowing you to build up your arsenal over time.

It also has a “meta-story progression system.” They say, “Every decision can alter the story's outcome and allow for new ways to progress. Different choices are available in each run, but be careful; some will have serious consequences.”

I’ve recently had some success when it comes to clicking with deckbuilders recently, and this looks right up my alley. I mean, 90% of that statement comes from just looking at the visuals. It’s like pixelated poetry to me.

Draft of Darkness is available right now for PC on Steam Early Access. The full version 1.0 will hit on August 23, 2023.

The post Draft of Darkness makes its escape from Early Access August 23 appeared first on Destructoid.

Alliance Arts has announced it will be publishing The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily. Created by developers One or Eight (Lost Epic), WSS Playground (Needy Streamer Overload), and Alliance Art themselves, it’s a strange twist on a turn-based strategy and is coming to PC in 2024.

You play as Duchess Scarlet, who is sentenced to execution for regicide. Head still connected to her shoulders, she escapes with the help of Lily. She’s turned into a prototypical streamer with the ability to incite people into acting out. She uses her newfound powers to capture enemy commanders and intends to “break” the world.

https://youtu.be/C_OfKwzdSSA

It looks like things are still rather early in development, but the aesthetic seems to be in place and looks great. 2D characters have an ornate anime look to them, and the 3D world has a voxel appearance. The world, with its heavy depth-of-field blur, reminds me of 3D Dot Game Heroes. It’s just very bright and colorful.

There’s also some flirtation going on between Lily and Scarlet, so I’m down for that. I’m not sure about the gameplay. The combat is shown, but I can’t grok the mechanics. It kind of reminds me of that Mii samurai game on 3DS, Warriors Way. Hard to say.

I guess we’ll find out for sure when The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily launches on PC in 2024.

The post The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily is a turn-based propaganda game coming 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

If you've been playing Phasmophobia for a while now, you'll know that developer Kinetic Games has been planning a big update. Essentially, the team is looking to reset all progress for players, ready for what is being referred to as the "Progression" update, which was due to be coming in three stages from July onwards.

However, the studio is putting a slight pause on this, with "Progression 1" now being pushed back two weeks so it can be given "a bit more love and care." That's according to the most recent piece of correspondence from Kinetic over on the Phasmophobia Discord channel, which was then reiterated on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/KineticGame/status/1683799768668205058

The team wants to make sure it remains transparent about the game and says that the update should be ready to roll out mid-August.

What about the console port?

The good news is that this delay should not impede the release of the console version of Phasmophobia. The message on Discord says that a late August release is still on track, so that's good news for you Xbox Series X|S and PS5 users.

On top of that, the developer is urging people to "keep an eye out" for some "sneak peaks" into something else that's on the way. So that's something to look forward to while we wait that tiny bit longer for the update.

It's been an interesting journey for Phasmophobia. A roadmap shows that Kinetic clearly has plenty of ideas in mind for its co-op ghost-hunting game. It's nice to see the developer is always looking to improve on the formula, and it's great that console players will finally get to see what PC horror fans have been raving about for nearly three years.

The post Phasmophobia is pushing back its big update appeared first on Destructoid.

Modern Wolf has announced that Afterschool Studio’s tactical space game, Cantata, is leaving Early Access and getting its full release on August 15.

Cantata is about a future war between the dickish humans and the oppressed robot masses. It takes place on the planet of Shoal, where the wildlife isn’t too happy that their habitat is being fought over. The game was pitched to me as Advance Wars meets Dune, and I can see it. But beyond the turn-based skirmishes, there’s also some base-building and exploration to be had.

https://youtu.be/vxyfRxWUQX4

I haven’t had the chance to try Cantata, but it looks pretty incredible. The bizarre neon art design is a great foundational aesthetic, but the gameplay looks expansive and tight. It’s somewhat hard to find a game that manages to capture mechanical depth and aesthetic splendor. Since I haven’t wrapped my filthy mitts around it, I can’t say for sure it’s successful, but all this evidence is pointing to yes.

It’s an unholy marriage of tactical skirmishes and grand strategy. Also, there’s a map editor and multiplayer for people who like to confound their friends.

Cantata is currently available on Steam Early Access. On August 15, it gets its full 1.0 release.

The post Tactical sci-fi game Cantata leaves Early Access on August 15 appeared first on Destructoid.

Developer Joel Jordan has dropped Time Bandit – Part 1: Appendages of the Machine on Steam and itch.io today. You might remember it from my blockbuster article, “Here are eleven 2022 indie games to look forward to.” It’s now the middle of (checks watch) 2023, and it has finally arrived.

Time Bandit is the story of having a crappy job and working for the man. In this case, however, the man is exploiting workers and using them to gather time crystals for potentially nefarious purposes.

https://youtu.be/Ug4Uokxc1F0

But slow down there since Time Bandit also runs on a real-time clock. Sort of like Pokemon Gold/Silver! Your shift is based on real-world time, and different tasks take different amounts of time. Sometimes you even need to meet characters at a specific time of day that they’ll schedule with you in advance. You’d going to need to rein in that spontaneity if you want to overthrow your capitalist overlords.

I was hoping to get a review of Time Bandit – Part 1: Appendages of the Machine up at launch, but ironically, I just haven’t had the time. Hopefully, I can circle back to it because I really enjoyed the build that I played last year. I also provided feedback directly to Joel, so I’m eager to see if any of it was incorporated. It’s like I have skin in the game when, in reality, I’m not really much different than any normal commenter.

Time Bandit – Part 1: Appendages of the Machine is available on PC and Mac via Steam and itch.io starting today.

The post Indie embezzlement game Time Bandit releases today on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

Indie studio Universal Happymaker announced their management adventure Astronaut: The Best will release for PC via Steam on August 15. In Astronaut, players have the task of managing an occult space academy in an uncanny world.

"Our team spent over eight years working to make a bizarre moral laboratory of a game, that feels truly unlike anything you've played before," said Mike Sennott, Lead Developer on Astronaut: The Best. "We hope you'll be deeply and delightedly surprised by what you find inside, and that makes all those years worth it."

Sennott was the Narrative Designer on the popular indie tactical RPG Wintermoor Tactics Club. The team also released a new launch date announcement trailer showing off Astronaut's weirdness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbkPomZBxyE

Running a culty space academy doesn't look easy

In Astronaut: The Best, it's literally your job to guide procedurally generated misfit recruits through a roguelite hodgepodge of scandals and challenges. You can guide your Astronaut team via a variety of methods including lies, witchcraft, and of course some good ole classic hard work. New recruits can be former serial killers, part-time pirates, or even members of the royal family. The team at Universal Happymaker notes that choices will actually have an impact on each recruit as well as their likelihood to succeed.

This game is definitely very weird looking, which has really piqued my interest. It's weird looking in an intriguing way. The visuals are uncanny for sure and in some aspects eerily creepy. It's sort of giving me Cultist Simulator vibes with a bit of Homestar Runner between the graphic and comedic style. I'm interested to see just how strange the game can get.

Astronaut: The Best releases on PC via Steam on August 15. It is also Steam Deck compatible.

The post Weird occult management game Astronaut: The Best blasts off August 15 appeared first on Destructoid.

Previously only available on itch.io, Taylor McCue has released their traumatic Game Boy Color art game, He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, on Steam. You can now nab it there for the price of free.

I’ve covered He Fucked the Girl Out of Me a couple of times now, but it was something that burrowed under my skin and has lived there since. Being a semi-autobiographical retelling of a slew of problematic topics such as sex work, getting it on Steam is no small matter. For one thing, it gets lumped in with all the 18+ games that have names like Sex Campus Story. I mean sure, minors should probably not play either one, but one has clearly different goals.

While the game is free, there are a few donation options presented as DLC, which I think is kind of neat. Beyond simple game design, Taylor does quite a bit to help the queer game development community.

Again, however, I’d like to be clear in saying that you should be careful playing He Fucked the Girl Out of Me and definitely pay attention to the content warnings. Not everyone is going to have such a visceral reaction to the subject matter, but some will. I’d hate for someone to think they are just going to be playing a neat Game Boy Color game and walk away with vicarious trauma.

You’ve been warned, but if you still feel like checking out He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, you can get it now on Steam.

The post Trauma art game He F—ed the Girl Out of Me releases on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

Maintaining a just war

BattleBit Remastered is the latest hit indie title that has been making waves in the gaming scene. With its low poly graphics, it may not look like much at first sight, but it provides endless addictive within a destructible world.

The game's popularity has also attracted cheaters and hackers looking to spoil the fun. Their days may be over, as BattleBit Remastered is strengthening its grip on the ban hammer.

BattleBit Remastered and cheaters

Cheaters and hackers have been a recurring problem within BattleBit Remastered. For a while, developers have been wrestling with DDOS attacks. Some of them are days long and cause servers to malfunction.

https://twitter.com/battlebitgame/status/1519782358660100096?lang=ca

Prior updates to the game have acknowledged the DDOS attacks, and developers pledged to "recruit a team that specializes in detecting cheats and weeding out possible cheaters". Despite the pledge, bad-faith players can still wreak havoc in the game.

BattleBit Remastered tightens up security

To combat cheating, suspicious accounts have been getting banned en masse in July. Earlier this month, a ban wave resulted in hundreds of accounts being purged, sometimes mid-match. Though this has helped to clean up the game, a few innocent players have been caught in the net, including Twitch streamer @SureFour.

https://twitter.com/Surefour/status/1680440502846406658

In addition to the ban wave, developers will be changing the anti-software the game uses. BattleBit Remastered has been using Easy Anti-Cheat, though it will be switching to FaceIt, which is an anti-cheat software also used in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The announcement initially caused an uproar, as FaceIt is not Linux-compatible. However, developers have confirmed that the game will be using a more casual version of FaceIt that is compatible with Linux, squashing fears that Steam Deck users may be left out in the cold. This, together with the bans, should considerably tighten up security.

Although the DDOS attacks have been harmful, they haven't stopped the FPS from being incredibly successful. With the low price of $14.99 on Steam, the title has managed to sell nearly 2 million copies. Much of that success can be attributed to word-of-mouth, and popular streamers introducing the game to their massive audiences. During a time when massive triple-A games seem to hog the limelight, BattleBit Remastered proves that simple good ideas can still thrive.

The post Cheaters beware, BattleBit is dropping the ban hammer appeared first on Destructoid.

Looks pretty boss

Lilycore Games has dropped their lesbian boss rush game, Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart today on Steam and itch.io. Previously, it was only available on mobile.

Yes, its aesthetics have some clear Undertale vibes with its minimalistic high-contrast colors. However, it’s pretty unique in its story about broke lesbian partners fighting devils in the streets. Meanwhile, you get to flirt between battles and confront your employer. Sounds real feel-good.

https://youtu.be/EMkf1gLQzLM

Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart is a rhythmic boss rush where the two lovers work together to take down baddies. Between them, you can build up combos, and if one goes down, the other can revive her. The narrative is provided through today’s most fashionable way of socializing: text.

While it doesn’t look like the most extensive or high-concept game, Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart looks like a fun time. As a violent pansexual, I’m always down for indulging my lesbian side, especially in the realm of gaming. It doesn’t come up all that frequently, for some reason. It’s almost like video game relationships, straight or queer, often only exist so someone can die and drive the survivor to a path of revenge. Our action-focused media sure has a strange approach to human romance.

Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart is available today on PC, and can also be found on mobile platforms.

The post Indie boss rush Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart launches today appeared first on Destructoid.

Gather your party

I've taken only a few steps into the darkened hallways of Demon Lord Reincarnation, and already, I know I'm in trouble. My first battle is tense and brutal; I knew it would be. But as my party members start to drop like flies against the horrors of only the first floor of this godforsaken land, I start to get it. This is going to be difficult, punishing even. I shouldn't get attached to anything. Because it's going to take a lot to make it down to the Demon Lord.

Demon Lord Reincarnation is the latest RPG from Graverobber Foundation, a team that's made a number of throwback role-playing experiences. This one in particular conjures up memories of Wizardry, in particular. It's a first-person dungeon crawler where you command a party of adventurers, heading down into the final resting place of the Demon Lord Leinad. Long ago, a group of heroes defeated Leinad and sealed him underground, and a maze was built up over it. Now, the seal is broken, monsters are swarming, and it looks like the Demon Lord is intent on resurrecting.

So, upon starting Demon Lord Reincarnation, you're given a selection of adventurers to pick from, building up a party of four to venture down. It's only five floors. How hard could it be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UCfkewb6Kw

Time for some hubris

Well, after losing two party members in the first fight, I got my answer pretty quick.

The first thing to know about Demon Lord Reincarnation is that it's not exactly a cheerful adventure. You can, and will, lose party members. That happy Valkyrie joining you, cheerfully believing they can help stop the great evil? Yeah, she's dead now. In fact, I had to fight her reanimated corpse on a later run. Yes, the Graverobber Foundation exhumed my dead party member and threw the reanimated corpse back at me in a random battle, with all their powers and skills still intact. It was both a wonderful and terrifying surprise.

[caption id="attachment_392651" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Every party member hails from a different class, with various weapon and magic types that can have different effects in battle. At first, you might not notice this; but after your three swordfighters fail to put a dent in one beefy enemy, you'll want to consider diversifying your damage pool.

Every turn, you can commit a fighter to defend themselves or use an action, which costs varying amounts of skill points. Everyone has a basic skill that costs nothing, but during battle, they can have a spark of inspiration and learn a new move.

[caption id="attachment_392653" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

These abilities are crucial. They're often not only useful for damage, but add much needed utility for surviving against the brutal waves of enemies in Demon Lord Reincarnation. Stunning, tripping, and even gouging a skeleton's eye out—yes that works, don't ask me about the logistics—will stop those swarms of nasty monsters from turning your optimistic party into gruesome maze décor.

Knowledge is power

It's at this point that I'll stress the same thing the developer stresses: read the manual. Every copy of Demon Lord Reincarnation comes with access to a little PDF manual, and it is filled with useful, borderline essential information. How do I know this? I played for an hour without realizing you can rest in the maze. Learn from my mistakes.

Either way, it's not all doom-and-gloom. Over time, you'll build up power. Characters get noticeably stronger the more they survive. They don't really level up in a conventional sense, but gain extra stat points as they overcome battles. Worse odds mean greater rewards. So maybe leading your party into battle against a swarm of butchers and imps isn't a terrible idea. Anyone who survives the meat grinder will be stronger for it, right? And the replacements you can recruit at the campfire gradually scale to be within your range, too.

[caption id="attachment_392654" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Graverobber Foundation[/caption]

A real appeal of Demon Lord Reincarnation is its adherence to the classic first-person dungeon crawling, though. And by that, I mean there is no auto-mapping. Unlike more modern entries, you'll need to manually track your location and create your own map of the dungeon if you want to remember where you are. Or, you can just let yourself get blissfully lost. Either way, the dark, gloomy vibes of the corridors create a delightfully dreary ambiance.

[caption id="attachment_392652" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Graverobber Foundation[/caption]

Surviving the dungeon

I've only played a little bit of Demon Lord Reincarnation, but I can't really seem to get it out of my head. There's the incredible art, making use of an eerie dithered style much like another indie RPG favorite of mine, World of Horror. (It actually uses art from Toriotto, through an archive the artist has approved for other commercial projects.) It's punishing, but in the right amount, like a particularly good hot sauce. The way it looks back on first-person dungeon crawling and adds a bit of its own flair is really compelling.

But Demon Lord Reincarnation also feels focused, laser-set on what it's trying to do. There is a task at hand, and you'll need to slowly understand and learn its systems to overcome it. Sure, the descent to the Demon Lord is not going to be easy. But it's the challenge that makes it feel rewarding. Demon Lord Reincarnation's maze may seem simple at first, but those tiles and doors hold a world of adventure and challenge ahead. I'm pretty eager to head back down them.

The post Demon Lord Reincarnation is a dark throwback to graph-paper RPGs appeared first on Destructoid.

My battle against autocorrect begins

Oxeliz has announced that their space colony builder, Quriocity, will be leaving Early Access on July 25. This completes its growth into a full version that began back in October, 2022.

Quriocity places you in the role of a leader of a space colony. Humans have developed faster-than-light travel, and it’s time to put roots down on new planets. More than just advancing and building up your space empire, you need to ensure that your colonists are comfortable this far out from humanity’s cradle. Beyond that, new settlers will be arriving on your space paradise, and you’ll need to be ready to accommodate them.

https://youtu.be/ZKFXhdivf64

The update that is coming with Quriocity’s release is a hefty one. It includes 5 new maps, seasonal and dynamic weather, and 48 unique campaigns. Considering the complaint that I often see leveled at Quriocity’s current state is a lack of content, this will probably be enough to satisfy that hunger. The developers state that this patch is the result of community feedback.

I’ve bounced off a fair few space city builders over the years. I’m not sure I have the time to jump into Quriocity right away, but I’ll have it earmarked to check in the future. I always find that games of this very particular sub-genre have a certain sterility to them. I’m sort of seeing that same problem here, but with the addition of foliage and dynamic weather, it might break the mold.

Quriocity is currently available via Steam Early Access, with the full version dropping on July 25, 2023.

The post Full release of space colony builder Quriocity lands July 25th appeared first on Destructoid.

Nowhere to go but up

Ternox has released their ‘80s immersed finance sim, Stonks-9800, today on Early Access.

You’ll probably need a deep breath after groaning and/or sighing at that meme-inspired name. After your lungs reinflate, take a look, because Stonks-9800 is a pretty neat-looking concept.

Economic sims aren’t necessarily a new thing, with the earliest titles dating back to the days of mainframe computers. However, we’ve recently been receiving some interesting new twists, like Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator. Stonks-9800 takes the concept back to Japan’s economic bubble of the 1980s. It’s presented sort of as a menu-driven interactive fiction game where you buy and sell things like real estate and cars. The goal of the game is to improve your own standard of living while also not dying of overwork.

[caption id="attachment_392114" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Ternox[/caption]

Ternox suggests that the game is going for a chill vibe, and while talk of finances tends to trigger my anxiety, I can see what they mean. If nothing else, you can unwind and play Pachinko or bet on horse races.

I think it looks pretty great. I assume the latter half of the name, Stonks-9800, is a reference to the NEC PC-9800, which was a ubiquitous computer throughout the 1980s in Japan. However, I could do without the meme interest. How about “Super Zaibatsu 9800” or “The Death and Return of Wallstreet Kid.” Maybe I’m the uncool one here.

Stonks-9800 is available right now via Steam Early Access. The full release should launch in 2024 and will appear on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.

The post Financial simulator Stonks-9800 hits Early Access today appeared first on Destructoid.

Who hurt you?

Turning beloved children’s characters into horror monsters isn’t something new. I think “nightmarish Alice in Wonderland” has been done roughly a bajillion times. So, My Friendly Neighborhood’s idea of murderous Sesame Street puppets may not seem that novel. Except that’s not what it’s about. I know. It kind of took me by surprise.

I’d also say it’s “My First Resident Evil,” and the argument could be made, but that’s selling the game short. My Friendly Neighborhood wears its inspirations, sure, but it’s more than just a horror game made friendly for a younger audience. Its themes of non-violence, its goofy characters, and its approach to horror all convey much more depth than you — or certainly I — might’ve expected.

[caption id="attachment_391837" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

My Friendly Neighborhood (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: John Szymanski, Evan Szymanski
Publisher: DreadXP
Released: July 18, 2023 (PC), TBA (Console)
MSRP: TBA

In My Friendly Neighborhood, you play as maintenance professional, Gordon. For the last job of the night, he travels to a derelict television studio to disconnect the transmission tower on the top floor. It has spontaneously started airing a canceled children’s TV show over the normal TV broadcast.

Upon arriving, Gordon doesn't look too surprised to see that the puppets are alive and hungry for deranged hugs. In fact, rather than feeling horrified at his situation, he seems mostly just annoyed and inconvenienced. He just wants to finish the job, go home, and watch TV. The puppets have other ideas.

Your expectations may be that this is a hide-and-seek kind of horror game where you navigate the studio while avoiding confrontations with murderous puppets. That’s not the case. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, it has more in common with Resident Evil. You have weapons that fire deadly letters, and the puppets mostly just inhabit the halls, waiting for you to alert them. You then have the option to take them down with your alphabet or just avoid them and conserve your ammo.

If you choose combat, however, they won’t stay down. They’ll be back up the next time you enter the room. You can make sure they stay down by duct-taping them, but tape is in short supply. In a way, it’s sort of like the Crimson Head zombies in the Resident Evil remake, except you won’t be spared kerosene with a chance headshot.

https://youtu.be/l7XeUD-0f_o

The Neighborhood is coming to town

It’s largely a non-violent affair. The puppets, when hit by projectile letters, react like puppets and make a cute comment as they fall into a heap of inanimate fabric on the floor. When you’re attacked, there’s no real indication that Gordon is suffering any permanent bodily harm. Sometimes he comments that he’s “going to feel that in the morning,” but otherwise, he just sounds annoyed about the unwanted affection he’s being subjected to.

Likewise, the horror aspect feels somewhat understated. There are some attempts at jump scares, and the atmosphere can be a bit spooky, but there’s no grotesque imagery. In the dark, the puppets natter away to themselves about nonsense that might seem goofy to most but merely unsettling otherwise. It’s a good horror experience for younger people or those who can’t handle the gore and danger of typical horror.

With that said, your expectations might be on a low-calorie “Resident Evil,”  but really, My Friendly Neighbor doesn’t pull any punches. I played on normal difficulty, and it still included concepts like limited saving and sparse supplies. There are also multiple unlockable difficulties above Normal and Survival.

I never found any of the puzzles to be taxing, and there are clear signs of it being a smaller production than any big-budget horror, but I never felt like I was playing a lesser product.

[caption id="attachment_391836" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Unwanted affection

Really, though, the non-violent angle has more to do with the game’s overall message. It takes place in a different world, in a city that once waged war against its Northern Neighbor in a parallel to the Vietnam War. There’s a lot about corporate overreach, humankind’s collective obsession with negative media, and the resultant need to dull our pain.

The whole climax of the game is, unfortunately, a bit of a stumble. The last act of My Friendly Neighborhood is visibly less polished than the first parts of the game. Certain parts of the plot aren’t as fleshed out as they should be. There’s a moment right near the end where you can viscerally feel the message of the game, but rather than knock it out of the park, My Friendly Neighborhood chooses to bunt.

I think it would be less disappointing if My Friendly Neighborhood had fewer ambitions and was merely average throughout. Instead, you can absolutely see where it’s going, it’s exciting, and then when it pops instead of booms, it leaves an empty feeling. Agh, my heart.

[caption id="attachment_391838" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

My First Horror

On the whole, however, My Friendly Neighborhood is a terrific experience. It’s designed with a cohesive vision, and aside from a disappointing last act, it largely succeeds in achieving it. It’s the sort of game that gets me more excited as a critic than as a player. I find it difficult not to appreciate all of its layers. It's also about five hours long, which makes meeting deadlines easier.

Where it succeeds best, however, is in being a terrific introductory horror game. Whether or not you’re a youth whose parents disapprove of gore or if you’re just one to hide beneath a blanket when a zombie appears on screen, My Friendly Neighborhood provides the depth of the Resident Evil experience without any of the violence. Not only does it fill an important niche, it proves that this sort of horror game can stand on its own without any of the blood.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: My Friendly Neighborhood appeared first on Destructoid.

Super brawling robot

Strap on your robo-boots, Domesticated Ant Games has dropped their retro-inspired platformer, Gravity Circuit, today.

What’s Gravity Circuit? I’m just learning that right now, myself. Past me really dug it since I put it on my wishlist and forgot about it. I can totally see why! It looks like a missing link between the classic Mega Man series and Mega Man X.

You play as metal hero Kai, who is trying to stop the evil doings of the Virus Army. Gravity Circuit barely tries to hide its influences behind a fake mustache. There’s ride armor and upgrade chips. However, there seem to be more combat options, as hand-to-hand plays a big part. It claims to have action “dialed to the max.” Its trailer sure makes it look like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnwIQ3hpDTk

The graphics are done in a way that emulates the NES color palette. Obviously, a lot of the effects would be extremely difficult to pull off on the actual 8-bit hardware, but the aesthetic is there.

Mega Man X is my comfort food, and I feel there’s more room in the world for platformers that can nail that same pace and feel. I’m not sure Gravity Circuit can do that, but I’m willing to find out.

You can find out yourself on Switch, PS4, PS5, or PC. Gravity Circuit is available today.

The post Rockin’ retro platformer Gravity Circuit launches today appeared first on Destructoid.

There's a spiral in your ear

Fangamer has announced that Junji Ito-inspired indie horror game World of Horror will get a physical release for Switch.

You may remember World of Horror as a game that has been sitting in my dubious backlog for quite a while now. It launched in early access back in 2020. It bills itself as a love letter to H.P. Lovecraft and Uzumaki mangaka Junji Ito. It is very “legally distinct” from Junji Ito’s style. Like, this game was developed because no one else was making a Junji Ito game and the developer got tired of waiting, so they made their own. It’s sort of a visual horror RPG.

[caption id="attachment_391230" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Fangamer[/caption]

The physical version being offered by Fangamer is mercifully subdued. I don’t need more giant boxes full of merchandise I don’t use. World of Horror just comes with an instruction manual with an art card. It’s set to ship out October 19, 2023, the same day that it comes out of early access and releases on Switch.

I used to buy a lot from Fangamer back in the day, back when they sold “legally distinct” video game merchandise. I still wear T-shirts I bought from them more than ten years ago. Then the Canadian loonie lost parity with the greenback, so I only buy sporadically now. They’ve gone all legitimate with real licensing, though. I’m so proud of them.

You can currently get World of Horror in its Early Access state on PC. It will be releasing fully on PC and Switch on October 19, 2023. That’s the same day that the physical version will release, but you can preorder now.

The post World of Horror is getting the physical treatment on Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

In AD1987, development was beginning...

The retro homebrew scene has really spread its tentacles and started grabbing us in new ways. What used to be a very underground niche has started gaining traction with what you could reasonably call big publishers like iam8bit and Limited Run Games. The retro market is going to keep getting bigger, and the appreciation for retro hardware continues to grow.

If the tale of homebrew started with bootlegs and ROM hacks, progressed into hacked cartridges, then new cartridges produced by small companies like Super Fighter Team and RetroUSB would be the third phase. For Super Fight Team’s part, they began by translating and porting Chinese Sega Genesis games and reproducing them on new cartridges. These were Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong, and they were notable for having the full retail look. Clamshell cases, instruction booklets, a hangtag – they had the works.

Perhaps the strangest of Super Fighter Team’s releases, however, was Penguinet’s 2009 shoot-’em-up, Zaku. Rather than a late localization of an existing game, Zaku was a brand new game developed for Atari’s ill-fated handheld, the Lynx. It got all the love that Super Fighter Team’s previous games got, but for a less prevalent and beloved system.

I actually bought an Atari Lynx specifically for Zaku and picked it up during its first production run. It’s no longer in production, but rather than let it slip into obscurity, I want to do my part in helping it achieve immortality in homebrew history. So, I’ve spoken with Super Fighter Team’s Brandon Cobb and Penguinet’s Osman Celimli about its creation.

[caption id="attachment_390717" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Meandering towards the Lynx

As far as handheld consoles go, the Atari Lynx wasn’t a total failure, but it definitely left a crater. It was released in 1989 before finally being discontinued in 1995. It sold an estimated 2 million units, far short of the Game Gear’s 10 million and the Game Boy’s kajillion. The Wonderswan, which was only released in Japan, sold more than the Atari Lynx. So you can see how it didn’t exactly cement itself in video game history. I was curious why someone would want to create a game for it more than a decade after it left the market.

“It was moreso a slow meandering towards the Lynx rather than direct inspiration to create software for it,” Osman Celimli told me. “Nintendo’s Game Boy was my first target, and I failed to assemble a single binary. It wasn’t due to a lack of resources, but rather my skills were at absolute zero - the instructions for running an assembler or linker read like complete gobbledygook. So I put the Game Boy aside and looked for more premade games to buy instead. The Lynx introduced itself soon after when I discovered it was the original home of Chip’s Challenge. Now, learning one of your favorite games was first developed for some giant plastic hoagie that devoured batteries was pretty out there, so I dove deeper.”

“It was then, by full coincidence, that I ran into the Lynx Programming for Dummies guide written by Björn Spruck - now, here was some literature on my level! The guide explained, step by step, how to set up Bastian Schick’s BLL Kit and build an example program. All it did was display a texture and move it leftward, but it was exactly what I needed. I spent countless hours modifying the example program, deleting or changing lines, and seeing what happened, and learned 6502 assembly through complete trial and error like this.

"I found the Lynx’s graphics hardware extremely friendly and became invested in the platform after making just a few test binaries. It felt very underutilized and seemed like a good home for the style of frenetic action game I wanted to make. This first materialized in 2003 as a fangame combining assets from Air Zonk and Sonic the Hedgehog, which eventually became Zaku.”

[caption id="attachment_390723" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A fistful of Air Zonk

If I had to quickly describe Zaku, I'd say it's the Turbografx-16’s Air Zonk designed for less powerful hardware and a much crummier screen. You play as the eponymous Zaku, who is trying to stop a flood of shovelware being churned out. Zaku flies with rocket boots and can blast enemies behind her with jets from them.

I think it holds up pretty well, especially when you compare it to other homebrew of the era. Osman has a different take on it.

“Zaku’s content feels very janky and amateurish to me now,” he told me. “But sealed within this clumsiness are the memories of its wondrous, jovial development cycle. We were all just having fun making stuff, and I treasure that deeply.”

The whole project kicked into gear when Super Fighter Team’s Brandon Cobb saw a demo that Celimli put out into the world.

[caption id="attachment_390725" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image by Destructoid[/caption]

Teensy Little Demo

“I saw a teensy little demo that Osman had shared with the community,” Cobb recalled. “It was clear he had the talent and passion to flesh it out into an incredible game, and I felt I was the right producer for him to partner with in order to achieve that goal.”

“I was enamored of the Lynx hardware and had dreamed about publishing a game for it. Not just any game, mind you: It had to be something incredible that people would be talking about for years to come. Otherwise, why bother? It’s such a special platform. I didn’t want to waste my chance.”

“Zaku presented the perfect chance. Although other publishers were all doing bare circuit boards at the time, I promised Osman that we would manufacture authentic, ‘curved lip’ plastic cases for the PCBs. This proved to be a tall order indeed for our factory, who actually tried to talk me out of doing a Lynx game at all! Once they saw our sales numbers, however, they realized we were on to something.”

Celimli tells the story in a similar manner. In his recollection, he says, “Brandon contacted me after playing an early prototype of Zaku in 2006 and expressed interest in publishing it. His offer sounded totally improbable. This ‘game’ had one stage and no sound, yet he was already thinking about manufacturing authentic-looking cartridges. It was completely unprecedented - nobody was making new plastics back then. But after seeing a copy of Beggar Prince, I knew he was legit, and it’d be better to have Zaku published by Super Fighter Team than on my own.”

“In hindsight, the game wouldn’t have shipped if Brandon hadn’t stepped in. I’m glad he did, too - not just for the sake of the game, but because we also became very good friends.”

[caption id="attachment_390728" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Super Fights

There were multiple production runs of Zaku before production ceased entirely. Now, Super Fighter Team is out of the physical market entirely.

As Cobb tells me, “Super Fighter Team ceased all manufacture and sales of physical product back at the end of 2019, returning to our roots as a freeware developer. That’s where we started back in ’98, and it’s where I feel most content.”

“Our most recent release is Sango Fighter Special Edition, for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Not only did we completely redo the mechanics, but there’s an enhanced soundtrack and the ability to play as versions of the fighters from both the MS-DOS original and Super A’can console adaptation of the game.”

Osman Celimli went on to create Rikki & Vikki for the Atari 7800. Once again, this was released as a physical cartridge, but not with Super Fighter Team. On this, Cobb tells me, “For Rikki & Vikki, he decided to self-publish, which I feel was the right decision as I don’t think I’d have been able to market the game as effectively as PenguiNet did.”

Unlike Zaku, which has only ever been available on Atari Lynx, you can buy a digital version of Rikki & Vikki on PC.

[caption id="attachment_390730" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Zakone Zaktwo

There were plans for collaboration between Penguinet and Super Fighter Team on further Lynx games. While none of these ideas took off, Penguinet had played around with a sequel to Zaku named Zaktwo.

“The story picked up immediately after the events of the first game - Zaku returns home only to find it completely overrun by gigantic fish. She blames the Penguin Bros. and Captain Bran for the outbreak and dashes off to confront them. So many of the enemies and bosses were various types of fish or other sea creatures. Keeping with tradition, some of them wore business attire.”

“Zaku’s moveset was also redesigned so that her interactions with each enemy, especially the bosses, could be far more nuanced. Each of her abilities became a tool in figuring out how to damage an opponent or manipulate a stage hazard. It was mostly in reaction to the abundance of bullet hell shmups at the time, and I wanted the game to feel much more physical.”

“Unfortunately, it languished more and more after I started working full time - and this also caused it to accrue technical debt extremely fast. At the time of its cancellation, there was only one fully playable stage and another handful were partially complete. I didn’t throw away any of my design notes, though, and would like to incorporate some of the ideas planned for ZakTwo into other projects.”

It was canceled in 2016 as Celimli moved on to Rikki & Vikki.

[caption id="attachment_390721" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Penguinet[/caption]

Atari escape velocity

Speaking with Brandon Cobb and Osman Celimli, I really got a sense of the adventure the whole project was. I don’t get the sense that it was an easy endeavor, but certainly, it was a worthwhile one.

“Seeing Zaku reach… I guess you’d call it ‘Atari Escape Velocity,’ really left an impact,” Celimli reflected. “I never thought anyone would buy a Lynx just to play the game, but it happened. This really helped keep Rikki & Vikki on the Atari 7800. With the addition of a digital version, it’d be an opportunity to finally see if using a console solely for its aesthetic could work.”

My favorite story Celimli imparted to me, however, was definitely around the acquisition of an actual Atari Lynx dev kit that he and Cobb went through.

He told me, “Shortly after Brandon and I arranged to have the game published through Super Fighter Team, we went in 50/50 on the purchase of an original Lynx Development Kit. This way, we’d have access to Epyx and Atari’s libraries, in particular their sound driver. It consisted of an Amiga 2000 and a large metal box containing a modified version of the Lynx hardware. However, the kit arrived in much worse shape than we anticipated! The Amiga’s clock battery had exploded, and the Lynx’s stereo board had dislodged itself and broken some of its connectors. I remember spending a week or two just restoring the kit.”

“This was also my first time using an Amiga. I didn’t really enjoy the user interface but found its multitasking capabilities very impressive. You could edit a text document while simultaneously formatting two floppy disks.”

[caption id="attachment_390727" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Penguinet[/caption]

Digital archeology

While Super Fighter Team has backed out of physical products, Brandon Cobb and Osman Celimli remain good friends.

“I can talk about all the gross software archaeology work that Brandon and I have been collaborating on,” Celimli told me. After years of poking fun at the Watara SuperVision, we seem to have landed the responsibility of documenting and preserving its… er… legacy isn’t really the correct term, so let’s say ‘residue.’ At the moment, I’m slowly reverse engineering the TV-Link and putting together an assembly development kit for the platform.”

When I reached out for this interview, I initially intended to just grab a few statements from Celimli. He insisted I speak to Cobb as well, and I’m glad he did. This whole experience was extremely enlightening to me, and I’m overjoyed to share it.

The passion around the development of Zaku is palpable. This wasn’t just a commercial enterprise to see if people would be keen on buying new games for old hardware. This was a group of people who just wanted to create something. No one here made any compromise, and it shows in the end product.

I already appreciated Zaku as a game. It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with actual commercial games released for the platform, and I’d be willing to elevate it by saying it’s one of the best on the Lynx in general. However, after speaking with its creators, I can only say that I respect it more now.

For other retro titles you may have missed, click right here!

The post Zaku is passion compressed into an Atari Lynx cartridge appeared first on Destructoid.

Murderer still at large

Ninjaconor has casually dropped their DOS-adventure-inspired RPG, Sergeant Squidley: Space Cop, on PCs everywhere.

Ninjaconor says that Sergeant Squidley is inspired by text-based DOS games, and I totally see the aesthetic. It has big crunchy pixels and lots of text boxes. However, looking at all the media for it – it looks like a dating sim.

https://youtu.be/vz8yPQ_yxzo

It might be partially due to the eponymous police-thing browsing a dating site, but that’s not what I’m talking about. We’re told that there are seven days for the former traffic cop to solve the crime, and you do so by choosing how you spend your days. You can upgrade your skills, look after your core stats, and the outcome is based entirely on how you spend your time. Almost like a true dating sim. This is Tokimeki Memorial but with more crime. And probably a lot less dating.

Regardless of its classification, Sergeant Squidley: Space Cop is aiming to be an open-ended experience. Through your choices, Mr. Squidley might reconnect with his estranged son, follow his sax dreams, or maybe become a super-cop of some sort. What’s important here? Sax dreams or catching a murderer. I think the choice is obvious.

Sergeant Squidley: Space Cop is now available for PC via Steam.

The post Sergeant Squidley: Space Cop lets you solve crime, find love, and follow your sax dreams appeared first on Destructoid.

Chugging along

Altfuture has dropped the biggest update yet for their train simulator, Derail Valley. It's been a while since the last update, but considering the size of this one, it's reason for celebration. It's titled Derail Valley: Simulator. That sounds horrifying.

Remember Derail Valley? I've heard of it, but it’s hard to pick something out among the many train simulators on PC. It started out as a very VR-focused title before offering non-VR options. It's been an Early Access title for a while now. Overhauled was its last big update in 2020, while Simulator is the next step in its evolution as it makes its way to meeting Altfuture's vision for it.

https://youtu.be/Htm2HD91Lmk

Why should you pay attention? Derail Valley isn’t just a train simulator. Whereas your typical train sim will cast you as the train itself, Derail Valley has you play as a person driving a train. So, you can get in and out, which is necessary to actually do tasks outside the locomotive itself. There’s a lot of tactile gameplay mixed in, possibly as a result of its original VR focus.

The Simulator update brings with it a complete redo of the UI, mouse cursor driving, new camera angles, a sandbox mode, more trains, steam simulation, weather effects, and… Just, a lot. Here are the patch notes to get a better idea.

Now I just need to know if I can play it with my Densha De Go 64 controller.

Derail Valley is currently in Steam Early Access for PC. The Simulator update is available now.

The post Train sim Derail Valley gets overhauled in big Simulator update appeared first on Destructoid.

I hope that means what I think it means

Even though the retro-inspired first-person shooter sub-genre has been running at full steam for a while, I feel like it just keeps getting better. Sure, I feel like a lot of it is mowing down demons or cultists to heavy metal music, and it can sometimes be hard to tell your Hyperviolent apart from your Turbo Overkill, but still new approaches pop up that are easy to miss.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is one of my favorite releases this year. It combines the weird aesthetic of the late-’90s FPS era with extremely effective character exploration. It stands out from the crowd, even if its gameplay is almost deliberately hobbled to evoke the feeling of an amateur mod.

Calcium Contract similarly defies explanation. Unlike Slayers X, it seems like an earnest attempt to provide an experience that plays and feels good, but it’s partnered with this absolutely bizarre aesthetic. It feels like if Duke Nukem 3D was designed by a studio localized within McDonaldsland.

[caption id="attachment_389943" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Grimace blood

Calcium Contract is the story of a chicken serpent who is not really all that big on the idea of dying. However, everything that lives must eventually meet its end, so you’re the latest in the line of doomed attempts to force the mighty beast to obey the laws of the universe. You’re essentially a grim reaper.

However, while that sounds pretty heavy metal in its own right, the aesthetic is anything but. The weapons and enemies look like they were designed by someone who passed out at daycare while fried out of their mind on peyote. They’re a colorful, toy-like cast that keeps them easy to read at a glance. The chickens? They run at you. The lizards? They cast fire spells.

The weapons, on the other hand, are a bit harder to read. Your basic weapon is a pitchfork that fires three projectiles. You’ll also find a shotgun and an automatic weapon that fires musical bones. That’s just the start, but you aren’t exactly given a vast, destructive arsenal.

[caption id="attachment_389944" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The end of wall humping

I think this may be to reduce the need to backtrack and scour the environment. There’s no wall-humping for secrets in Calcium Contract, which is something that I kind of appreciate. Instead, you’ll spot weird characters hauling around treasure chests, and you have to try and take them down before they escape. It’s a cool way to handle “secrets” since it ensures that exploration doesn’t bog down gameplay and tests whether you can quickly identify and take down a target rather than just how well you can drag the spacebar across a wall.

The levels themselves feel very familiar to someone who has played a lot of raycast shooters. Stages are largely of the key-hunt variety, and they vary in size and openness. Some of them depict environments that are somewhat recognizable, while others are much more abstract.

Of course, all of them share the same sugar-fueled nightmare aesthetic as the enemies. The skybox is one of the most peculiar I’ve ever seen. You can see the interior of the island towering in the distance, sometimes with the chicken serpent looking down on you. As you progress, it changes perspective, giving you views of various landmarks and making it feel like there’s tangible progress being made. It’s a nice, ridiculous touch.

[caption id="attachment_389945" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Drink plenty of Malk

I’ve said it before, but my favorite part of retro shooters is when they try to represent real-world locations in their primitive engine. It gives a charming quality that feels like home to me. Calcium Contract doesn’t seem to be aiming for that, or at least, it doesn’t, from what I’ve seen so far. However, it more than makes up for it by just being a blast to play.

While the firepower isn’t weighty and the action is rather measured, there’s a lot of neat stuff that goes on in a typical battle. There are jerks who resurrect fallen enemies, snipers who cast laser pointers across the battlefield, and mages that spray fire everywhere. The developer, Igor Aleksandrowicz, told me that they’re focusing on a “good game feel and also giving in its own unusual identity.” I can confirm that it’s largely a success.

There’s a demo available for Calcium Contract, which gives you access to four levels that are modified a bit from the development version of the game to give better access to weapons and a taste of enemies that would otherwise be differently paced. The final version is scheduled to drop later this year. Definitely give it a try. It almost certainly will tickle something in your brain.

The post Calcium Contract has a demo that will rattle your bones appeared first on Destructoid.

Got something that might interest you, stranger

Fractal Projects has opened the case to reveal their next action-packed inventory management game, Save Room: The Merchant. It’s more Resident Evil 4 flavor, with less fat!

If you’re unfamiliar with 2022’s Save Room, so am I. It’s an inventory management puzzle game based on the best part of 2005’s Resident Evil 4: the inventory. The goal was to arrange the various oddly-shaped objects into the limited space of the inventory case.

Save Room: The Merchant shifts the concept closer to the Resident Evil 4 singularity. You’re made to think outside the case as you purchase items from the legally-distinct merchant character to prepare for the rigors of a level. You just need to make sure your adventurer has everything they need while trying to balance your pocketbook. There will be 40 bespoke levels that promise “relaxing music and sound effects.”

[caption id="attachment_389499" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Fractal Projects[/caption]

Save Room was something of an indie darling, so it’s great to see it continue on its legally-distinct way. I’m not as organization-obsessed as some gamers, but I do like optimization, so I’d probably enjoy it. You probably would too.

Save Room: The Merchant is currently targeting PC, but no release window has been mentioned.

The post Save Room: The Merchant continues the intense inventory action appeared first on Destructoid.

Helping lift others

Stray Fawn has announced that they’ve scooped up the publishing duties for The Wandering Band’s upcoming city-builder Airborne Empire. The current plan is to launch it into Early Access in 2024.

Airborne Empire is the sequel to 2020’s Airborne Kingdom, a game that I can’t believe I haven’t played. It’s a game about building floating cities! However, it also ties in exploration, as a flying city is the ultimate mobile home. Airborne Empire will introduce pilots into the mix, making it so you’ll have to defend your city, as well as the cities on the surface. Airborne Kingdom was pretty well-received, so I’m interested to see how the sequel gets off the ground.

https://youtu.be/l1ja7SaqFFM

Stray Fawn is the developer behind The Wandering Village, another unique take on the city builder genre. I had a chance to talk to co-founder Philomena Schwab about the whole genre, and it’s cool to see them get into the paradoxically named indie-publishing business. Getting noticed as a small or solo developer often seems like a communal effort, so I love watching them come together to form a supergroup. Airborne Empire will actually be Stray Fawn’s second publishing deal announced, after the upcoming Earth of Oryn.

Currently, Airborne Empire has only been announced for PC and Mac, and will be entering Early Access sometime in 2024.

The post Stray Fawn will be publishing Airborne Empire in 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

This is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about

One of the things I respect about the medium of video games is its ability to tackle difficult situations in a way that other mediums can’t. Even when it comes to non-visual mediums like, say, the written word, we’re only spectators. A video game can make things about us. Some empathy is still required, but we can be the ones trapped in an uncomfortable situation.

Sometimes this is too much. When I played He Fucked the Girl Out of Me last year, it actually dug up memories of (unrelated to the subject matter) trauma that I had repressed. It was for the best, but it was also a lot.

But it doesn’t always have to be a lot, as A Long Journey to an Uncertain End proves. You can approach difficult subjects carefully and with a light heart without minimizing the seriousness of it. If you asked me before playing it how such a thing would be possible, I probably wouldn’t have an answer. And yet, here it is.

[caption id="attachment_389209" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End (PC)
Developer: Crispy Creative
Publisher: Crispy Creative, Mooncat Games, Fig Publishing Inc.
Released: June 28, 2023
MSRP: TBA

In A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, you’re on the run from your abusive ex. Also, you’re a spaceship. Actually, you’re the AI pilot of a spaceship, but you’ve been “unshackled,” so you can feel the full spectrum of emotions. Your ex wasn’t treating you well, and after a particularly violent episode, you’re liberated by a crewmember and are off to, well, an uncertain end.

That may sound rather ridiculous, but the presentation is eerily realistic. Someone smashing the control panels of a vehicle may sound more like property damage, but I feel really gross for just writing that sentence. If that’s too outlandish to really latch onto, your ex-partner is also psychologically abusive. And boy howdy, that gets across very clearly without being blatantly said.

As you travel, you meet a colorful cast of new crewmembers to recruit. Their antics do a great job of helping you forget that someone wants to emotionally beat you into submission. The sci-fi elements do a decent job of taking the edge off, the characters make things fun and entertaining, but the whole abuse angle is still there and capable of biting at you whenever a cutscene comes up.

I guess the best way of putting it is that A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is very careful and compassionate about how it handles the subject matter.

https://youtu.be/pbzXNf8TXkw

Dice or die

The game itself is sort of a mash-up of a visual novel and a simple tabletop RPG. There’s no combat, but there are a whole lot of dice rolls. Essentially, you move from planet to planet with the primary task of keeping your ship supplied for the next jump. You do this using simple trades, or by having your crewmembers do side-jobs. Sometimes these side-jobs will net you additional crewmembers or advance the plot in some way. People you help may also assist you in the final part of each sector.

Each member of the crew has expertise in a certain area, like tech or seduction. Then it’s just a matter of odds. You can call in favors to increase these and…

Ugh. Okay, so the gameplay is where everything breaks down with A Long Journey to an Uncertain End. As much as I have admiration for its unique premise and deftness when it comes to telling a difficult story, the gameplay is easy to get through at best and mystifying at worst. And it’s frustrating, because I don’t know where to begin.

I guess the best place is with its biggest issue: There’s very little feedback here. It seems like A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is trying to be an extremely friendly game, but part of the way it does this is by withholding punishment. If you run out of supplies on a jump to a new planet, for example, I’m not sure what the result is. Does this upset your crew members? I’m not sure. Can you fail a job entirely or just not complete it well? Why does calling in a favor sometimes wipe out all the crew mood increase that I get from a job and replace it with something else? What am I missing here? Why won’t you tell me!?

[caption id="attachment_389211" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I don't like these odds

It’s not as though I had a difficult time getting through 2-3 hours of A Long Journey to an Uncertain End. Largely, the only credible threat I could find was a clock that ticked down to when your ex catches up to you. That’s not nothing, but it’s pretty easy to just make sure you just take off before they get too close.

But midway through, I noticed I was packing bags of favors that I could call in. You typically use these to simply increase the odds of success for jobs. Since I had dozens of these things by the mid-point of the game, I was suddenly able to just scatter my crew across the jobs on a planet, then whiff it through all the decisions. Once at the end of a job, I could just pile on the favors and walk away with the reward. I’m pretty sure that’s not how the game is supposed to be played.

It’s almost prototypical. The framework of the gameplay was laid down, and all the writing was dropped on top of it, but nothing was done to tweak or polish it into an enjoyable experience. It’s not a completely non-functional wreck, but you can see what it was aiming for, and it falls way short.

[caption id="attachment_389215" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A sloshing bucket

It’s a shame, because the characters are fun and the story is reasonably well-written. I feel that the actual sci-fi elements are a little trite, but its integration of difficult themes makes it a success. The characters are a splash of LGBTQ+ color, to the point where the spaceship is filled to bursting with gender fluid. Their preferred pronouns don’t necessarily play much into the narrative, but their identities help each feel distinct.

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is just such a well-intentioned game that it’s a shame that it’s so limp where it counts. You rarely see its sensitive approach to difficult topics in video games. Yet, when it’s time to engage with it as a player, it falls into a heap on the floor. The cast of characters and narrative themes help elevate it above simply being average, but it’s hard to get over the nauseating sting of disappointment when you discover that A Long Journey to an Uncertain End isn’t quite where it could or should be.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: A Long Journey to an Uncertain End appeared first on Destructoid.

Comical RPG available for all next week

Epic Games Store has revealed the next title that it will be offering up gratis to all of its users next week — So grab your sword and knapsack, as we're delving into the silly fantasy adventure of The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos, which is available to download for free from June 29.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6o7m6XIq-k

Developed by Artefacts Studio and released in the fall of 2020, The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk is a tactical RPG that features all of the castle-running, monster-slaying, loot-gathering action one would expect from the genre, but with far more comical and dopey thematic than the standard grimdark fare. Based on an audio series by French author John Lang, this adaptation has players guide a party of hapless heroes through a series of quests, winning the day because of, rather than in spite of, their clumsy nature.

If you're a fan of tactical role-playing action, or fantasy dungeon crawlers, and want to check out a fun twist on a familiar favorite, then be sure to bag yourself The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos when it becomes free to download between June 29 - July 6. Before then, you still have the opportunity to pick up current freebie, immersive grim sim theHunter: Call of the Wild.

The post Dungeon of Naheulbuk is the next Epic Games Store freebie appeared first on Destructoid.

Said to be 'horrified' by recent events

The news about the missing submersible, Titan, which disappeared during a visit to the wreck of the Titanic is on many people's minds and all over the media. Now, the story has reached the gaming world, as the indie horror title Iron Lung has seen its sales increase in the wake of the real-world incident.

According to developer David Szymanski over on Twitter (via PC Gamer) there's been a spike in the amount of units that have sold for the creepy, underwater game. Szymanski shows a graph that depicts a significant uptick in sales, right around the time the missing sub became huge news in global media. This would suggest that the story of the missing occupants onboard the submersible has inspired some to buy Iron Lung.

https://twitter.com/DUSKdev/status/1671498543771574273

For those who don't know, Iron Lung is a small horror game that tasks you with investigating mysterious goings-on underwater. You're placed inside a cramped, iron vessel that takes you to the depths of an alien ocean, with nothing but ominous sounds and grainy pictures to keep you company. It was actually one of our Top 10 pics of 2022.

However, the fact that people are now buying the game in the wake of the missing Titan could be seen as poor taste by some. In fact, the developer has said, in response to someone on Twitter, that they "feel kinda uncomfortable" about the rise in Iron Lung's popularity. One person made a comment about not being sure whether they'd be "honored or horrified" by what's been happening, though Szymanski says they are "pretty horrified."

At the time of writing, the Titan sub, which went missing on June 18, has still not been located. Additional search and rescue teams are still looking for the vessel as well as its five occupants.

The post Iron Lung sales increase in wake of missing Titan sub, dev feels ‘uncomfortable’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Rev up your BPM July 5

One of the surprise success stories of 2022, Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fi Rush, is getting to set to unleash a fresh wave of day-glo color and block-rockin' beats, with the arrival of the Arcade Challenge update — Available to download next month, free of charge, on PC and Xbox platforms.

As revealed during yesterday's Xbox Games Showcase extension, the new update will bring two exciting new modes to the highly dynamic hack 'n' slasher. BPM Rush will task players with battling wave after wave of increasingly tough opponents, with bonus points awards for synching the battle to the beat. Stay on your toes, however, as the BPM will increase with each and every wave, and only the most rhythmic melee warriors will be able to keep the pace in this unique-looking endurance test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1dU394xpvU

The second mode Power Up! Tower Up! is a variant of Hi-Fi Rush's Rhythm Tower mode, and adds a slew of power-ups and bugs to the battle. Chai will be able to select from a variety of buffs and nerfs between rounds at the cost (or increase of) their score multipliers and other bonuses. Essentially, it is up to the player to increase their powers in exchange for a higher score, or to conversely reduce their own abilities for the big, big numbers.

In addition to the two modes, new challenges arrive that will reward players with clothing for Chai and Korsica, new poses and filters for Photo Mode, and all-new special attacks that see an assist from robo-friendos CNMN and Smidge. Get by with a little help from you friends indeed. You can check out all of this cool content for free when the Hi-Fi Rush Arcade Challenge update drops on July 5.

Hi-Fi Rush is available now on PC, Xbox, and Xbox Game Pass.

The post New modes coming to Hi-Fi Rush in Arcade Challenge update appeared first on Destructoid.