Gold-Plated Games

These Weeklong Deals lists keep getting longer and longer, and this time it’s because they dredged up a bunch of junk! There’s plenty of good stuff like Brigador, Bunker Punks, and The Flame in the Flood, but I’ve also had a long, painful stroll down memory lane with some of the more terrible games I’ve reviewed in the past. Fans of takedowns, both reluctant and gleeful, your time is now.

We’re on the cusp of some pretty exciting stuff this week, too! On Thursday we’ll start the Reader’s Choice nominations for Spooktober, which is your chance to add a game or two you’re curious about to my annual October series. And of course, that means said series will be starting a week from tomorrow, with new horror reviews every day of the month. We’ll also be streaming more spooky games over the next few weeks, including some classics and some newcomers to the scene.

 

APPROVED

Brigador (Review) – About as good as tactical isometric giant robot rampages get

Bunker Punks (Review) – Simple, brutal retro FPS roguelike about blowing up corporations

Hard Reset Redux (Review) – A fair bit of fun, if you don’t mind repetitive fights

The Flame in the Flood (Review) – Beautiful roguelike adventure of limited scope but fantastic aesthetics

Catmaze (Review) – Great little metroidvania based in Slavic folklore

Nevermind (Review) – One of the few solid psychological horror games on Steam

Shattered Planet (Review) – Lovely sci-fi coffee-break roguelike

Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Review) – Colorful and creative hidden object game that stands above most of the genre

Miasmata (Review) – An actual hardcore walking sim with a very cool mapping system and some genuinely creepy parts

Volume (Review) – A sort of arcade stealth game with some shockingly good writing and VO

The Last NightMary (Review) – Very neat little Brazilian horror adventure

Ghoulboy (Review) – Solid retro platformer with some neat mechanics

Bit Blaster XL (Review) – Decent little arcade shmup

Cities in Motion (Review) – Super chill management sim

Nihilumbra (Review) – A fine puzzle platformer with a cool painting gimmick

Shotgun Legend (Review) – Decent homage to OG Legend of Zelda

Cast of the Seven Godsends – Redux (Review) – I used to hate this game, but the Redux seriously did it a lot of good

 

DESPISED

Majesty 2 (Review) – Pretty impressive feat of killing a promising franchise with terrible level designs

Tower of Guns (Review) – Seriously, forget this exists and go get MOTHERGUNSHIP instead

The Bridge (Review) – Nowhere near gratifying or clever enough for a game based on the art of Escher

Deadly 30 (Review) – Terribly boring side-scrolling zombie survival shooter

INFERNIUM (Review) – Huge waste of a very promising concept and aesthetic

Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space (review) – Ugly, nauseating, and borderline incomprehensible

Broken Armor (Review) – There is such a thing as too retro

Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals (Review) – Just read the comic, this is nonsense

Megamagic: Wizards of the Neon Age (Review) – Looks neat, but sadly looks are all this one has going for it

Yōdanji (Review) – I REALLY wanted this to be good, but bad roguelike design kills this Japanese ghost-collecting dungeon crawler

Nicolas Eymerich – The Inquisitor – Book 1 : The Plague (Review) – Almost bad enough to be funny, but being slow and janky doesn’t help

Chaos Domain (Review) – Possibly the worst platformer I have ever played

Haunted Hotel: Stay in the Light (Review) – Really bad survive-the-night game