I’ve been waiting for Mineko’s Night Market for quite a while. I can’t say I am disappointed by the result. It is a cozy little game with charming characters and locations, and it’s come just in time for the cold rainy days of Autumn.
While Steampunk Jigsaw Puzzles is not a groundbreaking gaming experience, it still offers a few hours of relaxing puzzle solving, with beautiful pictures and enough customization options to please everyone, from a player wanting to relax to someone looking for a challenge. And all that for free!
I was looking forward to Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The London Case and was not disappointed. I keep seeing complaints about visual and technical bugs, but in my playthrough, I didn’t experience any major once. Now that the movie Haunting in Venice has also emerged, this Autumn is Hercule Poirot’s. And we still have another game coming in October, Murder on the Orient Express, which promises a slightly different take on the story. It’s an excellent time to be a fan of detective games.
Tower defence games aren’t my usual game genre, but ZaciSa: Defense of the Crayon Dimension! offered me an exciting glimpse into the topic. I don’t know if I will be back for more, but for real fans of this type of game, ZaCiSa might sink in some hours.
My Lovely Pets 2 Collector’s Edition is a nice, lengthy casual game for fans of the hidden object genre. It offers enough content and variety to keep you occupied for a long, long time
Fishjong 2 is a nice and chill little Mahjong Solitaire game. It will be a relaxing experience for admirers of the genre and casual players.
Moving Through Life is a short game with huge potential. For now, we have no choice in objects and furniture and no choice to change colour palettes or even different furniture styles, but that may change in the future. For now, the game feels a little bit empty. Also, the fact that when you finish the game, you start from the beginning with no chance to replay a specific chapter hurts the replay value of the game. Still, it’s a solid try, and just for that, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
While I found Delusion difficult, even on the easiest difficulty, I will go back to it and tinker some more. It is a game that allows for multiple replays and solutions, which can add hours of gameplay.
Venba is a great game and has an even more remarkable story. It gives us a brief glimpse at what an immigrant family goes through, the hardships and the joys. Venba also gives us an idea of how difficult it is to find the balance between adapting, fitting in, and still hanging on to your culture. It also touches on the universal idea that our children will not lead the life we do. This game has much humanity in the interactions between Venba and Paavalan, them and Kavin, the family, and the outside world. There are also simple moments of humor and love that feel so real that they could be someone’s memory. While Venba is short, it is also long enough to do what it sets out to do: tell us a story and make us want to hug our parents.
It was interesting to learn that En Garde! was created as an award-winning student project and then reformed and expanded to remake the game from the ground up. I am a big fan of classic swashbuckling adventures like The Three Musketeers and Zorro. Sadly, it’s not a theme often explored in video games, so I was beyond happy with En Garde! If there is one thing I didn’t like, it was that the story mode was too short for my taste. I can only hope we’ll see more of Adalia in the future
Tuttle: Star Flower Harvest is an excellent little game. Despite the frantic nature of the gameplay, it is strangely relaxing as a whole. That being said, it is by no means brainless action; it requires concentration and strategic thinking. Despite my initial somewhat reservations, I found myself hooked on the game, and I’ll keep playing it for quite a while.
It is easy to fall in love with the hand-drawn art style of Some Distant Memory, its narrative, and its characters. The story ends on an emotional, hopeful note that opens the door for sequels or DLCs. In my opinion, this is a game worth experiencing and will leave an impression long after completion.
Hidden Cats in New York is an excellent addition to the Hidden Cats games. It offered me a relaxing and fun distraction from everyday life for a few hours. I can only wait in anticipation for the next game in the series.
Some people complained about Fall of Porcupine being uneven tonally. I don’t feel like that. The game looks light-hearted, but the topic is a resident caring for patients in a derelict hospital. For what it’s worth, I think that the tonal switches were handled beautifully. There is warmth, fairness, and humanity in the relationship between the characters, and for that alone, I recommend Fall of Porcupine.
While Brain Show does have some kinks, it is a good trivia game. If you have a group of friends and a couple of controllers around, Brain Show will be a fun game to pass the time. What’s more, it has a solid foundation, which, if developed further, can become an excellent trivia game.
While Big Adventure: Trip to Europe 4 is by no means a groundbreaking game, it does what it intends very well. It offers the player a few hours of relaxing, unhurried puzzle-solving while also offering some interesting tidbits about some of Europe’s best places.
I was excited for Annie and the AI, and in general, I think it is a very solid game with what it strove to do. That being said, I feel like it should be known that it touches on some very serious issues in the family and school, which might not be anyone’s idea of fun. However, if you are okay with those topics coming up in games and you like visual novels and AI, I think you’ll like this one.
Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines is a great addition to an already great game series. While it is an absolute must for fans of the games, it also makes for a great entry for new players to join in on the fun. The game is guaranteed fun with its gorgeous art, beautiful music, and smooth controls. I can hardly wait and hope for Onyx Lute to release some DLCs to go with the game.
Hello Goodboy shows a remarkable sensitivity to a painful topic from the beginning by warning the players that while the story is light-hearted, it can still be painful to someone who has lost a precious person. In that matter, it heavily reminds me of Spiritfarer (2020). Hello Goodboy is a memorable cozy gaming experience that is definitely worth trying out.
With its simple yet challenging gameplay, Cubic Figures is a fun addition to the casual puzzle genre. The game’s content is more than enough for a few hours of fun.