This week’s indie trio shows just how wide the spectrum can be when smaller studios get creative. From an offbeat police sim that juggles resource management with pinball combat, to a time-loop puzzler where your past mistakes literally come back to haunt you, and a retro adventure that wears its Game Boy roots proudly, each release brings its own flavour of experimentation. Whether you’re after narrative quirk, mechanical ingenuity, or pure nostalgic charm, there’s something here to explore.
Karma City Police review (PS5)
Karma City Police is an ambitious indie title that attempts to blend narrative-driven police dispatch simulation with pinball-style combat and RPG elements, resulting in a unique but somewhat uneven experience on PlayStation 5. At its core, the game places players in the role of a new recruit tasked with managing emergency calls and allocating scarce resources to handle various crises. This setup offers moments of genuine engagement as you juggle medical aid, police presence, and the unpredictability of prank calls, which can escalate in unexpected ways. The narrative leans into workplace drama and eccentric characters, injecting humor and satirical takes on police politics that keep the story lively and often entertaining.
Gameplay-wise, the dispatch mechanic encourages thoughtful decision-making, but the calls themselves sometimes lack the depth needed to fully captivate over the game’s relatively short duration. Players must carefully manage limited cops, cars, and medkits, weighing the urgency of each call against available resources, which creates tension but can feel a bit repetitive. Adding to the mix are sporadic combat encounters framed as pinball mini-games, where you fend off enemies by bouncing a ball around a confined arena. While this mechanic is a clever and surprising change of pace, it doesn’t always feel polished; the ball physics can sometimes be unresponsive, reducing the satisfaction of these sequences.
Visually, Karma City Police adopts a pixel art style that many will find charming. The police station setting is richly detailed and bustling with life, from quirky characters to environmental storytelling elements like news broadcasts and interactive terminals. Character designs stick to familiar police archetypes, which helps ground the narrative but can feel formulaic at times. The soundtrack, composed specifically for the game, complements the atmosphere well without being overly memorable, providing an effective backdrop for the unfolding events.
Overall, Karma City Police stands out for its unusual mix of gameplay ideas and its humorous approach to often serious subject matter, making it a niche experience with a distinct personality. However, the uneven execution – from underdeveloped dispatch calls to less-than-ideal pinball combat and a few technical hiccups we saw – keeps it from fully realizing its potential. Fans of quirky indie games and narrative experiments may find enough to enjoy here, but others might find the rough edges too distracting.
GOST of Time review (PS5)
GOST of Time wastes no time (pun intended) throwing you into its bizarre, darkly comedic future, where bureaucracy governs even the act of retrieving a pill. You control a government-issued clone sent through increasingly dangerous and convoluted time-based puzzles to fetch medication for an old man. The absurd premise is backed by sharp writing that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with little narrative asides that make the whole thing feel like a pixel-art fever dream.
The main hook lies in its time-loop puzzle mechanic: every time you restart a run, your past self replays the actions you took before, forcing you to plan ahead so that your previous clones help rather than hinder. It’s a clever twist on trial-and-error gameplay that works well when levels are tightly designed, though occasional repetition and the need to restart multiple times can make progress feel a bit grindy. Boss fights spice things up by requiring you to think several steps ahead, juggling enemy patterns alongside your own time-echoed movements.
Controls are generally responsive, though the combination of twitchy shooting and puzzle precision can be unforgiving when you’re under pressure. Missteps are often down to timing errors rather than input lag, but in a game where one mistake can undo an entire plan, frustration can creep in. Still, the pixel art style is colorful and expressive, and the exaggerated gore adds to the chaotic comedy rather than feeling gratuitous. The soundtrack’s fast-paced, synthy energy matches the urgency of its puzzles and firefights well.
As a package, GOST of Time stands out for its strange sense of humor and inventive core mechanic, even if it occasionally leans too hard on repetition. If you enjoy indie games that fuse puzzle design with frantic action – and don’t mind dying dozens of times while learning each stage’s quirks – this is a short but memorable ride through a future that’s equal parts absurd and dangerous.
Pokettohiro review (PS5)
Pokettohiro wears its Game Boy Color roots like a badge of honour: a tiny, sunlit kingdom packed with secrets, goofy NPCs and enough off-beat charm to make a modern bedroom feel nostalgic in an instant. The premise is happily straightforward – gather the Magic Crystal pieces, free the heroes, take on the Black Knight – but it’s the way the world folds around that goal, with little detours, hidden dungeons and quirky side quests, that gives the journey personality rather than just padding.
Under the hood Pokettohiro is deceptively clever: you start with a plain sword-wielder but slowly assemble a party of six distinct characters, each unlocking traversal tricks that open previously unreachable nooks. That light Metroid-lite structure – switch to the archer, ride the flying bird, sneak a small hero through tight doors – makes exploration genuinely rewarding, and the monster-filled dungeons build to punchy boss set-pieces that break the loop at just the right moment. The trade-off is that some puzzles lean vintage-cryptic; you’ll either love the “aha” moments or you’ll want a hint system sooner rather than later.
Play feels mostly solid but not perfect. The original Game Boy constraints show in little ways – occasional sprite flicker and the old console’s idiosyncratic collision quirks – and a few awkward hit windows and invincibility frames that can make some fights feel fiddly until you learn the rhythm.
Visually and sonically this is a love letter to 8-bit palettes: the Game Boy Color-style sprites sing on a big screen, the biomes each have character, and the soundtrack supplies plenty of ear-worms even if some tracks don’t quite stick as long as others. Add in the bonus material – manuals, sprite sheets, a bestiary and other collector’s treats – and the package gains a lot of soul for anyone who remembers poring over game manuals on the bus home. If you’re a retro fan who enjoys exploration, character swapping and a few old-school frustrations, Pokettohiro on modern consoles is a tidy, affectionate port that keeps the original’s heart intact while smoothing a few rough edges.
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