In our latest indie game roundup, we’re checking out Soccer Golf, Amber Alert and Bunny Cubed – three new games that can be picked up at a budget price point.
Soccer Golf review (PS5)
Ratalaika Games continues its prolific streak of budget-friendly puzzle and arcade titles with Soccer Golf, an unlikely hybrid of two sports that ends up being more engaging than it first appears. Built around a clean and colorful presentation with cartoon visuals and bite-sized level design, the game sees you teeing/kicking off across 54 levels filled with hazards and mechanical contraptions. Despite its basic pitch, Soccer Golf has a few neat tricks in its locker that make it stand out in the ever-growing catalog of quick-fire indie puzzlers.
Mechanically, the game starts off simply enough. You adjust your aim, charge up a kick, and try to get the ball into the hole (goal) using as few shots as possible. It’s a bit like the Midnight games we played on the Vita years ago in that sense. However, it quickly becomes more involved thanks to the option to strike the ball mid-air – an ability that introduces both a layer of strategy and a touch of chaos. This system becomes crucial in later stages where precise timing and quick thinking are needed to deal with moving obstacles like lasers, spikes, and destructible barriers. Clever use of levers, buttons, and environmental interaction keeps things fresh across the three themed worlds, even though the core idea remains fairly static.
One of the more surprising things about Soccer Golf is how challenging it can be. Despite the casual visuals, it demands tight control and fast reactions, especially if you’re trying to earn top scores on the clock-based leaderboard or unlock every achievement. Fortunately, it’s not punishing to the point of frustration, especially with the forgiving structure that allows progress even without perfect performance. This makes it appealing for achievement hunters, who’ll be happy to learn that a full trophy haul is possible within an hour if you’re somewhat skillful.
There’s no real narrative or progression beyond completing the levels, and the limited scope means that Soccer Golf may wear thin if played for long stretches. But at its low asking price, it offers just enough content and challenge to warrant attention, especially for fans of bite-sized arcade puzzle games. Its inventive mid-air mechanics and satisfying learning curve help it kick above its weight, even if it never quite reinvents the wheel and things might seem familiar to some.
Amber Alert review (PS5)
After a somewhat rough PC debut, Amber Alert now arrives on PlayStation 5 with its promise of immersive bodycam horror. The setup is interesting enough: you play a lone officer investigating a missing person in a dark, seemingly abandoned neighborhood. The raw, grainy visual style and minimal HUD effectively sell the bodycam concept, and the sense of vulnerability is real. It’s a tense premise with disturbing undertones – but sadly, one that also eventually collapses under a few gameplay design choices.
While the game aims for survival horror, it leans too hard into trial-and-error. Enemies strike with little warning and erratic behavior, and objectives are often unclear. Randomized item placement and enemy routes attempt to add replay value, but mostly result in confusion rather than suspense. The core mechanics, including stealth and exploration, feel underdeveloped and frequently at odds with the game’s intended intensity.
Visually, the game’s lo-fi aesthetic captures the right tone, but environments are bland and lifeless. Audio design helps build atmosphere with occasional effective cues, but there’s not enough variety to sustain the tension. What begins as a promising horror experience devolves into a repetitive and often frustrating loop, where tension is lost rather than built up.
Amber Alert has an intriguing concept and brief moments of potential, but it’s held back by technical issues and incoherent gameplay. Fans of experimental horror may find it worth a glance, but most players will likely want to steer clear with so many excellent choices in the genre available to you out there.
Bunny Cubed review (PS5)
At first glance, Bunny Cubed appears to deliver exactly what you’d expect from a cheerful, budget-friendly puzzler: a cute rabbit protagonist, bright springtime visuals, and 60 block-pushing puzzles designed to test your logic in gradually more complex stages. It’s built around the familiar mechanics of pushing crates onto marked tiles, and early levels ease you in with small, clear layouts. Unfortunately, while the aesthetic is pleasant and the music upbeat, the gameplay never evolves beyond its barebones premise – and veterans of this subgenre will blaze through about half of the game with little effort.
Rather than introducing new mechanics or fresh puzzle twists, the game simply increases the number of boxes per level as a way to raise difficulty. While this forces you to think a bit more carefully about your move order and spatial awareness, it doesn’t do much to keep things feeling fresh over the course of dozens of levels. There’s a sense that Bunny Cubed is satisfied with doing the bare minimum to stretch out its runtime rather than trying to surprise the player with new ideas or complexity.
Control-wise, precision is essential in a game like this, but Bunny Cubed stumbles a bit. Using the D-pad works fine, but those opting for the joystick may find the controls a tad imprecise, sometimes registering multiple moves in rapid succession and leading to costly mistakes. It’s the kind of flaw that can break a good run and make resets more irritating than they should be, especially in later stages where the margin for error narrows. In other words – go with the D-pad for this one.
There’s nothing fundamentally broken about Bunny Cubed – its core puzzle mechanics work, and it offers a breezy audiovisual atmosphere that fits the genre well. But when compared to stronger entries in the puzzle genre, it struggles to stand out. It’s competent but uninspired, and with so many more inventive puzzle games available – many of them within this price range – this one feels more like a filler title than a standout pick.
Press Play Media 