Solo developer Andre Gareis and publisher Dear Villagers have partnered together to launch narrative, non-linear detective game Mindcop. Set to launch later this year for PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, Mindcop puts you in the shoes of the titular detective, trying to determine which of a camp’s inhabitants is a murderer. It mixes a story-driven adventure, investigation time management, and…
I don’t think I’ve played a lot of games developed in Indonesia, but the ones that I have remain with me: Coffee Talk, its sequel, and A Space for the Unbound are great examples. While more horror than cozy, Let Me Out can teach its players about Indonesian mythology. Fascinating!…
After Untitled Goose Game, I’ll check out any game about a bird…
What if you were playing a JRPG where the combat system was…
At a very quick glance, Howl looks like an intriguing tactics game with a gorgeous, sombre art style. What it is more like is a turn-based Chu Chu Rocket… just not as charming, appealing, or worthwhile. The protagonist of Howl is a deaf prophet. Your goal is to help navigate…
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Dandori is a pretty simple word in the Japanese language. It simply means “plan,” “arrangement,” or “organisation.” A person that’s really effective at organising their time has good dandori. A person that is always late to meetings has poor dandori. For most Australians, dandori isn’t that important. If I could…
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Puzzle Bobble is an amazing puzzle game. I use that tense specifically because it’s one of those concepts where the developers got it absolutely plumb right from the get-go, all the way back in 1996. Yes, that was a long time ago. But I’m right. Fire up a copy of…
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I love real-world escape room experiences. You’ve got an hour or so to sort out an extended puzzle, find your way through a couple of different challenges and, ultimately (and usually with the assistance of a group of friends), make your way out in time. Escape rooms prove that a…
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Ruku’s Heart Balloon is right up there with the sweetest games I’ve ever played. The developers set out to make something treacle-sweet, to the point where prolonged exposure to it may well sicken you, and they succeeded. I just wasn’t able to play it for long before desperately needing to…
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I often wonder how successful I’d be working as an air traffic controller. It seems like it would be a stressful job, given how quickly air flights can turn deadly, and how busy airports are these days. I also suspect I’d be less-than-good at the job, given how many nightmare…
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For the last five days, I’ve found myself quite hooked on a humble minigame collection, called, simply, Advent Calendar. The game does what the name on the box promises – each day you open one new “present” under the virtual tree, and each of those “presents” is a new minigame…
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I’m not sure how the initial launch of 7 Days to End with You slipped past me, but it did. The puzzle/visual novel game is all about language, and what does a games journalist love more than games and words? Very little. In a place where you don’t know the…
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Self-described “cozy” games are all the rage right now. Often they’re life sims, sometimes other genres, but there is nothing quite like Riley & Rochelle. I’d describe it as cozy because it is an intimate look at two young lives, and it creates a swirling warmth sensation around you while…
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Otoko Cross is basically a reskin of the Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire. There’s a Mahjong Solitaire grid there on the screen, and you match pieces to clear the board. Then, after a few rounds, you also see the character on the left-hand side of the screen change into something skimpier.…
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