Category: Indie

Keep Driving is the kind of game that sounds deceptively simple when described on paper. Buy a first car, pick a destination, and make your way across the country to a music festival. In practice, however, YCJY Games turns that road trip into an unusual mixture of RPG, resource management, procedural exploration and slice-of-life storytelling, where a flat tire can be just as troublesome as any traditional videogame enemy. Originally released on PC, Keep Driving has now made its way to PlayStation 5, bringing its deliberately low-key road trip to a new audience. The result is a game that is much less about reaching the festival than it is about everything that happens between leaving home and getting there. Continue reading “Keep Driving review (PS5)”

MONOWAVE is the kind of puzzle platformer that initially looks almost too cheerful and uncomplicated to hide much beneath its surface. Developed by Studio BBB and published by Studio BBB Inc. and Phoenixx Inc., it presents a colorful world where emotions are not just part of the story but the foundation of practically every gameplay mechanic. We first got hands-on with the game during Gamescom, where we also had the opportunity to meet with the developer, making this Nintendo Switch and PC review our first proper experience with the game. That first impression was certainly one of charm, but the finished game makes it clear that there is considerably more going on here than its cute presentation might suggest. Continue reading “MONOWAVE review (PC/Switch)”

Indie games do not need enormous budgets or sprawling worlds to offer something memorable, as this latest selection of reviews makes clear. From the grimy, hazard-filled Sokoban puzzles of Hazard Pay and the retro spy action of 1964: Operation Velvet Twins to the compact strategic battles of Order Automatica and the wonderfully ridiculous physics puzzles of Shoe it All!, each takes a familiar idea and gives it its own distinct identity. Not all of them reach the same heights, and some are held back by limited variety or modest scope, but there is plenty of creativity on display across these four releases. Continue reading “Indie roundup: Hazard Pay, 1964: Operation Velvet Twins, Order Automatica & Shoe It All!”

Blood Dungeon is the kind of game that makes its intentions clear almost immediately: enter a dungeon, kill whatever gets in the way, collect blood, improve the character and try to survive the increasingly chaotic waves that follow. On paper, that sounds like another entry in the increasingly crowded survivors-like or bullet-heaven genre, and the basic loop certainly isn’t unfamiliar. The difference is that Messhof, the studio behind Nidhogg, has built that formula around 2D platforming rather than a conventional top-down arena. That one decision gives Blood Dungeon a much stronger identity than its familiar progression structure might suggest, although it doesn’t completely prevent the repetition that eventually comes with the territory. Continue reading “Blood Dungeon review (PS5)”