It reminds me of a story about Ricky Jay, the great and much-missed close-up magician and historian of magic. After a particularly dazzling piece of card control performed for a New Yorker writer, he was asked if there was anyone left in the world who would still play cards with him.
You know that moment in a good roguelite where you've overextended yourself, but you've also won riches that you don't want to lose before you can bank them? This is what Loot River is built for, ultimately: I race around the world, dashing from one tile to another, breaking off from a little continent, an archipelago of burning wood and then searching, searching for the level's exit as I eye my tiny health gauge with fear. A procedural dungeon-crawler where you can rescramble the once-scrambled levels? Gary Chang would be proud.
Ultimately, though, these games are so refined, and delivered with such odd, coffee-shop-and-library charm, that it doesn't matter how you play. My daughter is of the age where she completely missed the Wii, so when this new game arrived and we started moving the furniture around, she didn't have a clue what we were up to. But that afternoon we must have played together for hours, with breaks for when a diving header animation made her laugh so much she needed her breath back. The whole thing was intoxicating.
Tunic turns its many influences into something that feels both familiar and gloriously new.
A zen puzzler that lingers restless in the mind.
A thrilling leap forward for a magical skating series.
Drinkbox's latest is an ARPG that has real fun with the classes.
A microsurgical blending of genres results in a lovely balance of precision and chaos.
A commentary on games and players and a compulsive grind to boot.
Rewild an alien world in this elegant and thoughtful game.
An elegant mystery with curiosity at its heart.
A lurid and generous trip through the iconography of seventies rock.
This glorious game about movement and adventure also feels like a rumination on something deeper and more personal.
ElecHead is an ingenious, compact, and elegant puzzle-platformer of wordless brilliance.
Golf is reduced to its rich essence here, but there's still room for plenty of secrets.
Pick a direction and wander off to get the most out of this mesmerising game of exploration.
Playful challenges and a warm sense of place and character converge in this cheerful modern classic.
The Switch is the perfect home for Nintendo's freewheeling charmer.
This is an art toy to savour, and a time-waster of great power.
A road movie told in multiple border crossings and a narrative game to remember.