Well, the bells are getting Jinglier, the exchange rate on trading hair for watch chains is nearly at parity and haunted, underdone potatos are getting ready to reveal the wonders of temporal mechanics to loansharks. And that means the New Games pipe is frozen over and clogged up so it's the final NEW GAMES THREAD of the year.
So what better time than the Squishmas season to see a Christ Air? The ad copy writes itself, really, and that's why we have Skate Story, a story driven Tony Hawk-em-up where you're a demon made of glass and pain who thinks that their lot in life *kinda sucks*, but luckily the devil will set you free if you can do enough gnarly skateboard tricks to break out of hell, reach the moon, and then eat it.
Speaking of what happens to Bad Guys at this time of year, traditionally, Santa brings them coal. And where do you get coal? That's right; a hole. A coal-hole. And who isn't fascinated by the prospect of moving coal from a coal-hole to put in socks to admonish the wicked for their vile ways? TO THAT END, here's A Game About Digging a Hole, the indie darling that... uh... well, it's right there in the title.
Recreate your childhood longing for the mine as you find a small hole, and make it a big hole, using Hole Digging technology. Like "shovels".
Now, do you love the idea of big holes in the ground, but hate the idea of anything leaving those holes? Good, you SHOULD have that mindset, and that's what Keep the Heroes Out is banking on! It's a asynchronous, co-operative deck-building tower defense game dungeon building sim (that's... a lot of Steam keywords) where you've got command of a hoard of monsters trying to protect their precious, precious Dungeon Loot from Some Jerks who want it. And that means playing randomly assigned cards to do that!
I believe it's the kind of video game that was originally made out of boards!
Now if you're anything like... probably 70% of the people reading these threads you love either Stardew Valley or Factorio. And perhaps you love both, but have been out of luck, since those are two different games; you can't play them simultaneously. UNTIL NOW! Little Rocket Lab is the perfect little Reese Cup of a game, combining two of the juggernauts of the "I'll just do one small task in this game and then go to bed and WHOOPS, now it's several days later and the police have given up searching for me" genre.
You're a gal who wants to build a rocket ship, and since building a rocket ship is resource intensive, that means building your own little automated manufacturing plant in the back yard and befriending all your neighbors so they'll pitch in or at least stop calling the police because of the rocket ship you're building in your backyard.
You know what else is in space, and could *probably* use some more tinsel and garland and jolly songs, but probably already has a too many magical elves? Why, the grim darkness of the year 40,000 of course! And that brings us to our next game, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the Dungeons and Dragonsier adaptation of Warhammer 40K universe where you're a space man, with space pals, and a mind-bogglingly vast set of resources and the go ahead to help establish a foothold in the just... just *ludicrously* violent future where every species that has ever figured out how to make "up" a viable direction for travel has come a preposterous lunatic about everything.
I've heard a lot of good things about this one, and since there doesn't seem to be a Switch port of Baldurs Gate 3 coming any time soon, I'm happy to settle for the next best thing.
Now if you insist on the existential terror of a ceaseless technological nightmare-future, but also wish it was more Generally Spooky rather than Cartoonishly violent, good news; as one of the Grand Daddies of the Immsim Walk Around A Scary Place and Blow Up Bad Robots is back! System Shock: Remake is a gussied all to hell and back remake of the original System Shock game, released to wide acclaim a couple of years ago, and the predecessor to System Shock 2 which got a less robust remaster earlier in this year.
It's the year: Future, and you're a hacker stowaway who woke up on a space station one morning to find out that the AI in charge of the place went kiiiiiiiiiinda... genocidal, declared itself God and that every living thing should be an extension of its will and forcefully converted every other resident into a mindless cyber-husk.
Anyway, you're one raindrop in the face of a storm, so... good luck.
And speaking of a terrible future full of cyber-skeletons, which really seems to be a weird theme for a bunch of video games released in the middle of December, we finally have Terminator 2D: No Fate, after having been delayed, like, four or five times. A Contra'd up adaptation of Terminator 2 where you can play as the Cyberdyne Systems T-800 model-101 Endoskeleton, The Lady From Children of the Corn or... uh... Micheal Edwards, I suppose, recreating the events of the film in a much more frantic run and gun style. One of the levels has you playing as a fully nude Arnold Schwarzenegger, if that helps.
While I prefer the original movie to Terminator 2, this one is definitely the most popular of the series, so I get why this is the one to get a video game made about it. And also the trailer makes it look like a fun as hell shooter, so that helps.
And speaking of very appealing recreations of beloved 80s/90s fixtures, we've also got The Rogue Prince of Persia! Which isn't just a new Prince of Persia game (which is cause enough for celebration), but it's from the same peeps as what made Dead Cells! And, indeed, tries to be a mash-up of Dead Cells and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Crown (which was possibly my favorite PoP game.
Having played it a bit, I have to say that I felt it didn't really live up to that pedigree, but nothing possibly *could*, so I can hardly fault them for not doing the impossible.
Anyway, as the title, and comparisons to Dead Cells, implies, it's a very, very parkour and Fancy Sword Fighting intensive roguelite where you're a Prince (of *Persia*, no less!) who has to navigate a deathtrap and bad guys gauntlet in order to reach your dad, the King of Persia, before he can be entirely killed by an invading army of sand monsters. And, because Time Shifting Malarkey is a par for the course for all its component pieces, you're going to fail and do it again and again with a randomized level.
And speaking of old-style platformers that I always assumed were European, but never actually bothered to investigate, we've got Tanglewood, which should not be confused with Tangledeep, the roguelike dungeon crawler, even though lord knows I keep thinking it should be. This here is an indie puzzle platformer that looks kiiiiinda Genesis/Amiga-y where you're a l'il fox with gigantic eyeballs that I'm not sure is supposed to be a normal ass fox, or, like, a critter-man, and you've got to deduce your way through Puzzles and outrun Bad Guys and the like. Looks a bit like Limbo and Fantastic Dizzy and one of those short cartoons that aired in interstitials on Teletoon in the mid 90s.
Now we've had a lot of Terrifying Cyber-Skulls in the Dark Future and chill out relaxing games this week, so why don't we go and get something that covers the other essential video game genre; the humble Zeld-em-up. And Travelers Refrain will serve us well in that regard! It's a Zeldo where you're a Bard, stuck in a Fantasy Land who is in a bit of a creative rut. Which is. you know, bad, but not quite as bad as the army of monsters trying to kill him from inside puzzle filled murder-dungeons by kidnapping his wife.
Luckily, you're as good at smashing mouths as you are at Smashmouth and ROCK opens all doors.
And now into... what's got to be the most head scratching release in recent memory; Remember Baroque, the cosmic horror dungeon crawling roguelike? Kind of a proto Dark Souls but every character was ten times more jacked up by their proximity to the divine instruments of Gods will? It came out in English on Wii way back in the day and I believe it was a port of a Japanese Sega Saturn game? Well, it's back! Sorta!
Kinda!
Technically!
We have two spinoffs of a game that I don't think anyone has so much as mentioned in the last 15 years and, of course, neither are anything identifiable as being part of that series outside of the title; Baroque: Shooting Reversed is a shmup where you play as one of the angel enemies and Baroque: Become a Meta Being Revive, which is a Frogger knock-off starring one of the weird spider-monsters.
I am... as confounded by this as you are.
And speaking of forgotten PS1 era action RPGs, we have a MUCH better known one, by default if nothing else, courtesy of Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return. I... did not play Tomba 2, but I DID rent the first game a few times and deemed it "Basically Wonderboy, but with a Caveman" this looks to be largely the same, except 2.5 D instead of 2D, so that's half of an extra dimension! What a deal!
Another famous Christmas tradition is, of course, a small child being left home alone while the rest of their family is away on vacation, and also their mom is in the hospital and therefor needs some new shoes.
I didn't finish listening to the song, but I assume the shoes are medicinal.
ANYWAY, Milanos Odd Job Collection is about just that very same confluence of events so it's another perfect fit for Jingle Times.
As the title implies, this here is a mini game collection, and is also a never before localized port of... I want to say PS1 game wherein, accidentally abandoned Child-of-indeterminant-age Milano has to get enough scratch to survive for 40 days after being left at her absent uncles house while her mom is in the hospital. Luckily, this is a whimsical minigame collection kind of game and not a harrowing tale of survival and trauma.
And though it's been said, many ways, many times... merry Video Games... to you
NOW GO TO BED
So what better time than the Squishmas season to see a Christ Air? The ad copy writes itself, really, and that's why we have Skate Story, a story driven Tony Hawk-em-up where you're a demon made of glass and pain who thinks that their lot in life *kinda sucks*, but luckily the devil will set you free if you can do enough gnarly skateboard tricks to break out of hell, reach the moon, and then eat it.
Speaking of what happens to Bad Guys at this time of year, traditionally, Santa brings them coal. And where do you get coal? That's right; a hole. A coal-hole. And who isn't fascinated by the prospect of moving coal from a coal-hole to put in socks to admonish the wicked for their vile ways? TO THAT END, here's A Game About Digging a Hole, the indie darling that... uh... well, it's right there in the title.
Recreate your childhood longing for the mine as you find a small hole, and make it a big hole, using Hole Digging technology. Like "shovels".
Now, do you love the idea of big holes in the ground, but hate the idea of anything leaving those holes? Good, you SHOULD have that mindset, and that's what Keep the Heroes Out is banking on! It's a asynchronous, co-operative deck-building tower defense game dungeon building sim (that's... a lot of Steam keywords) where you've got command of a hoard of monsters trying to protect their precious, precious Dungeon Loot from Some Jerks who want it. And that means playing randomly assigned cards to do that!
I believe it's the kind of video game that was originally made out of boards!
Now if you're anything like... probably 70% of the people reading these threads you love either Stardew Valley or Factorio. And perhaps you love both, but have been out of luck, since those are two different games; you can't play them simultaneously. UNTIL NOW! Little Rocket Lab is the perfect little Reese Cup of a game, combining two of the juggernauts of the "I'll just do one small task in this game and then go to bed and WHOOPS, now it's several days later and the police have given up searching for me" genre.
You're a gal who wants to build a rocket ship, and since building a rocket ship is resource intensive, that means building your own little automated manufacturing plant in the back yard and befriending all your neighbors so they'll pitch in or at least stop calling the police because of the rocket ship you're building in your backyard.
You know what else is in space, and could *probably* use some more tinsel and garland and jolly songs, but probably already has a too many magical elves? Why, the grim darkness of the year 40,000 of course! And that brings us to our next game, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the Dungeons and Dragonsier adaptation of Warhammer 40K universe where you're a space man, with space pals, and a mind-bogglingly vast set of resources and the go ahead to help establish a foothold in the just... just *ludicrously* violent future where every species that has ever figured out how to make "up" a viable direction for travel has come a preposterous lunatic about everything.
I've heard a lot of good things about this one, and since there doesn't seem to be a Switch port of Baldurs Gate 3 coming any time soon, I'm happy to settle for the next best thing.
Now if you insist on the existential terror of a ceaseless technological nightmare-future, but also wish it was more Generally Spooky rather than Cartoonishly violent, good news; as one of the Grand Daddies of the Immsim Walk Around A Scary Place and Blow Up Bad Robots is back! System Shock: Remake is a gussied all to hell and back remake of the original System Shock game, released to wide acclaim a couple of years ago, and the predecessor to System Shock 2 which got a less robust remaster earlier in this year.
It's the year: Future, and you're a hacker stowaway who woke up on a space station one morning to find out that the AI in charge of the place went kiiiiiiiiiinda... genocidal, declared itself God and that every living thing should be an extension of its will and forcefully converted every other resident into a mindless cyber-husk.
Anyway, you're one raindrop in the face of a storm, so... good luck.
And speaking of a terrible future full of cyber-skeletons, which really seems to be a weird theme for a bunch of video games released in the middle of December, we finally have Terminator 2D: No Fate, after having been delayed, like, four or five times. A Contra'd up adaptation of Terminator 2 where you can play as the Cyberdyne Systems T-800 model-101 Endoskeleton, The Lady From Children of the Corn or... uh... Micheal Edwards, I suppose, recreating the events of the film in a much more frantic run and gun style. One of the levels has you playing as a fully nude Arnold Schwarzenegger, if that helps.
While I prefer the original movie to Terminator 2, this one is definitely the most popular of the series, so I get why this is the one to get a video game made about it. And also the trailer makes it look like a fun as hell shooter, so that helps.
And speaking of very appealing recreations of beloved 80s/90s fixtures, we've also got The Rogue Prince of Persia! Which isn't just a new Prince of Persia game (which is cause enough for celebration), but it's from the same peeps as what made Dead Cells! And, indeed, tries to be a mash-up of Dead Cells and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Crown (which was possibly my favorite PoP game.
Having played it a bit, I have to say that I felt it didn't really live up to that pedigree, but nothing possibly *could*, so I can hardly fault them for not doing the impossible.
Anyway, as the title, and comparisons to Dead Cells, implies, it's a very, very parkour and Fancy Sword Fighting intensive roguelite where you're a Prince (of *Persia*, no less!) who has to navigate a deathtrap and bad guys gauntlet in order to reach your dad, the King of Persia, before he can be entirely killed by an invading army of sand monsters. And, because Time Shifting Malarkey is a par for the course for all its component pieces, you're going to fail and do it again and again with a randomized level.
And speaking of old-style platformers that I always assumed were European, but never actually bothered to investigate, we've got Tanglewood, which should not be confused with Tangledeep, the roguelike dungeon crawler, even though lord knows I keep thinking it should be. This here is an indie puzzle platformer that looks kiiiiinda Genesis/Amiga-y where you're a l'il fox with gigantic eyeballs that I'm not sure is supposed to be a normal ass fox, or, like, a critter-man, and you've got to deduce your way through Puzzles and outrun Bad Guys and the like. Looks a bit like Limbo and Fantastic Dizzy and one of those short cartoons that aired in interstitials on Teletoon in the mid 90s.
Now we've had a lot of Terrifying Cyber-Skulls in the Dark Future and chill out relaxing games this week, so why don't we go and get something that covers the other essential video game genre; the humble Zeld-em-up. And Travelers Refrain will serve us well in that regard! It's a Zeldo where you're a Bard, stuck in a Fantasy Land who is in a bit of a creative rut. Which is. you know, bad, but not quite as bad as the army of monsters trying to kill him from inside puzzle filled murder-dungeons by kidnapping his wife.
Luckily, you're as good at smashing mouths as you are at Smashmouth and ROCK opens all doors.
And now into... what's got to be the most head scratching release in recent memory; Remember Baroque, the cosmic horror dungeon crawling roguelike? Kind of a proto Dark Souls but every character was ten times more jacked up by their proximity to the divine instruments of Gods will? It came out in English on Wii way back in the day and I believe it was a port of a Japanese Sega Saturn game? Well, it's back! Sorta!
Kinda!
Technically!
We have two spinoffs of a game that I don't think anyone has so much as mentioned in the last 15 years and, of course, neither are anything identifiable as being part of that series outside of the title; Baroque: Shooting Reversed is a shmup where you play as one of the angel enemies and Baroque: Become a Meta Being Revive, which is a Frogger knock-off starring one of the weird spider-monsters.
I am... as confounded by this as you are.
And speaking of forgotten PS1 era action RPGs, we have a MUCH better known one, by default if nothing else, courtesy of Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return. I... did not play Tomba 2, but I DID rent the first game a few times and deemed it "Basically Wonderboy, but with a Caveman" this looks to be largely the same, except 2.5 D instead of 2D, so that's half of an extra dimension! What a deal!
Another famous Christmas tradition is, of course, a small child being left home alone while the rest of their family is away on vacation, and also their mom is in the hospital and therefor needs some new shoes.
I didn't finish listening to the song, but I assume the shoes are medicinal.
ANYWAY, Milanos Odd Job Collection is about just that very same confluence of events so it's another perfect fit for Jingle Times.
As the title implies, this here is a mini game collection, and is also a never before localized port of... I want to say PS1 game wherein, accidentally abandoned Child-of-indeterminant-age Milano has to get enough scratch to survive for 40 days after being left at her absent uncles house while her mom is in the hospital. Luckily, this is a whimsical minigame collection kind of game and not a harrowing tale of survival and trauma.
NOW GO TO BED
