Tag: Indie

Baba is Not You in Tip of the Icebug’s Silly Sokoban

This was the first video game I finished in 2020 because it was only ten minutes long! More people make ten minute games please.

If you played Baba is You, this is like that but without the programming languages rearing their indecipherable heads. Developer Jon Topielski sticks you in a big Sokoban grid and has you maneuver yourself to the exit while both utilizing and avoiding the obstacles along the way. It’s certainly not as unique a concept as Baba, but if we’re grading on that curve our expectations might need some readjusting. No, this time instead of moving the literal, tangible phrase BLOCK = BAD around a maze in some interesting way, we’re simply heaving that bad block out of the way ourselves.

The Baba is You influence is readily apparent, but the What the Golf? nod had me intrigued. Turns out, yeah there’s a bit of that DNA here as well! If this were ever to be fleshed out into something larger, the silly surprises of What the Golf? would add a lot of identity to an otherwise pretty simple Sokoban riff. Just in the first handful of levels (I think there’s only six or seven total), the silly surprise of taking control of a random stage object instead of the main character still hasn’t lost the charm since What the Golf perfected the concept last year.

The visuals are just enough not-Baba to get the job done. The elevator / carnival-lite music is also pretty chill while not doing anything to stand out. For what it’s worth, the one looping track works just fine as background music to walk around the house and eventually write this post to. The central concept is good and the ancillary stuff just works! I hope we get to see Topielski experiment further with blending puzzle genres, because after my ten minutes was up I was ready for more. Also, adding a dash of What the Golf’s manic brilliance into every genre should be industry standard going forward.

Go enjoy your ten minutes of puzzling on the game’s itch.io page!

February 2, 2020
Chuchel is a Wonderful Comedy Adventure

No matter how many screenshots you look at of Chuchel on the store page, I guarantee you aren’t prepared for how weird it’s gonna get.

Chuchel is a point-and-click adventure game that never gives you a second to be bored. You control a hairy black blob who is determined to eat a cherry, no matter how many literal acts of god get in his way. Chuchel splits its puzzles into individual screens, so there’s no walking back and forth across through a maze to return a key to a door. Nope, everything you need is right in front of you, and it’s up to you to figure it out.

The game plays out as an absurd cartoon not unlike a sillier Tom and Jerry, where the main character can, for instance, pull on something so hard that his arms stretch out and fall off. The interactions are never so obtuse that you don’t know how to solve a screen, but they always lead to something at least twice as silly as you expected. I knocked on a small turtle’s shell once to get his attention, and when he emerged he pulled out an entire arcade with him. I’m telling you, it gets wild fast. It can sometimes feel like you’re playing through an interactive cartoon rather than a puzzle game, but the gameplay that is there never stops being surprising and fun. If you can somehow manage to finish Chuchel without gasping in awe or laughing out loud at least once, I’d like to know what kind of monster replaced your soul.

*MILD SPOILERS AHEAD* *JUST GO PLAY IT* *IT RULES*

As if simply being an excellent point-and-click adventure wasn’t good enough, Chuchel eventually becomes a genre-hopping journey through platformers, a Pac-Man maze, Space Invaders, and more. I was already all-in on Chuchel well before any of that stuff started popping up, but by encompassing so many diverse playstyles in this one little game, Chuchel became something really special to me.

*END SPOILERS* *IF YOU PLANNED ON PLAYING IT I HOPE YOU DIDN’T READ THAT*

It’s a creative, happy cartoon from start to finish, complete with a bouncy soundtrack and surprises every minute. There’s even musical interludes where you might otherwise see the commercial break! In a year where Celeste and Monster Hunter came out like three months ago, I needed Chuchel to remind me that 2018 still has plenty of love left to give.

If you have any room for joy in your life, go check out Chuchel on its Steam page.

March 31, 2018
Fidel Dungeon Rescue Trusts Your Instincts

Fidel Dungeon Rescue seems like a simple thing on the surface. Just from the few screenshots I saw of it last year, I had decided that it wasn’t something for me. I’m not typically into grid based strategy stuff that isn’t titled Mega Man Battle Network, and it just reminded me of a gussied up version of a bland Puzzlescript game.

Uhh… also I was wrong.

(more…)

January 8, 2018
Try, Fail, Repeat in Getting Over It

I’m back! I realize the site’s been on probably the longest hiatus in years, but I’m back! I’ve been away having some comfort food gaming during a stressful season of getting back into the swing of things after the car accident. I played every 3D Mario game under the guise of maybe revisiting them for a future column (we’ll see!), and played around with a bunch of other old stuff… oh, and start sinking my life into Breath of the Wild again. That game’s super cool, right?

I’m diving back into the indie scene today with a game I’m glad I found sooner rather than later. Getting Over It is Bennett Foddy’s best work yet.

(more…)

December 28, 2017
The Tomatoes are OK (But You Might Not Be)

So I went into The Tomatoes are OK knowing… not really much of anything at all. I hit the strange landing page after hearing that it was little unnerving, and jumped straight in. I suggest you do the same.

(more…)

September 9, 2017
Dead Horizon is My New Favorite Video Game Western

Every once in a while I stumble across a tiny game that I know I’ll remember for as long as I keep doing this. Remember Crawlies? I do… I still think about it a couple times a month. Level 2: The Virus Master? Yup. 2017’s excellent Baba Is You? That’s a hard one to get out of your head.

Let’s add @Matthewmritter‘s latest, Dead Horizon, to that list. I’m a sucker for Westerns, and this is right up your alley if you’ve ever romanticized the hat-wearin’, gun-totin’ cynicism of moseyin’ from saloon to saloon.

Dead Horizon is probably the most satisfying 10 minutes you’ll spend with a game this week. You’ll end the lives of several villains and possible heroes, point ‘n click your way through to the end of a well written narrative, and and remember the sweet sweet aesthetics of the Super Nintendo era complete with appropriately beautiful art and music. All of that in ten minutes. If you’re as much of a proponent of short games as I am, Dead Horizon is a godsend of an example.

There’s not a whole lot more that I’m willing to spoil, because the barrier to entry is so small. If you have a computer that can download a 50mb game and a few minutes of free time… I can’t think of anything else lately that I can recommend more than Dead Horizon.

Even if Westerns aren’t typically your thing, Dead Horizon is totally free and I urge you to give it a shot. It’s a surprisingly strong piece of art made my a tiny team of people, and they aren’t charging a dime. Check it out on the game’s itch.io page, and support this kind of talent if you want to see more of it.

September 9, 2017