Games I've played lately
I started writing this because I had free space left at the end of a newsletter and now this one’s almost at email length limit too.
Mosa Lina
Mosa Lina got an online coop update recently! And apparently was rewritten from scratch not to be limited by what you can normally do in Electron?
It's an interesting game - you get a set of semi-randomized levels and tools to solve them with (touch every fruit and get out). Each time you try a level, you get 3 random tools from your set. No solutions are "intended" yet things almost always work out.
Co-operative mode builds on top of this - now you have two players with two tools each, each player must reach the exit, and some fruits have to be touched by both players. This can make the levels easier, harder, or generally more interesting.
I've played a handful of sessions with a friend and it was good fun.
Tactical Breach Wizards
It's a turn-based tactics game, but it's also a puzzle game where you try to figure out a chain of actions that might let you knock out every enemy before they get to hit you back. Very satisfying when you figure out a "perfect" solution to a level.
The game has a reasonably-long campaign and a huge pile of challenge missions that push the puzzle aspect of it.
Some people complained about writing being a little cheesy, but at large it's precisely my type of humor.
Echo Point Nova
A first-person shooter with a variety of movement mechanics, "bullet time", and online multiplayer.
The game periodically dumps a little dialogue upon you as message boxes on top of the screen, but it's only shown to the player that touched the trigger, so me and friend have paid attention to approximately none of it.
Ultimately we've played it for an evening on a weekend and haven't returned to it since as that friend's a bit busy being angry at Arena: Breakout.
Rocket Rats
It’s a survivors-type game, with rats! The game’s not out yet but a demo is up on GX Games. You can get a few horus playtime out of it and there are some neat synergies between cards. Gets pretty intense during last waves!
UFO 50
A set of 50 games themed as an anthology for a fictional console! I figure that most of the readers have heard about this one.
I think the game does what it sets out to do very well - you have arcade games, puzzle games, a bunch of platformers, "metroidvanias", and even a few strategy games of various types.
Many games are difficult (though not too difficult) and some games might be distinctly not for you, but I figure that most people would enjoy at least a handful games here.
The rest of this post is about UFO50 and my favorites
Porgy
An ocean exploration game!
Your fuel doubles as health and limits how far you can wander off before you find more upgrades, but stakes aren't too high either - you only lose a few minutes of time and whatever item that you didn't bring home (but you can come get it again).
This was the first game from the set that I played to 100% completion and I liked it enough that I compiled a world map from screenshots (note: spoiler-ish).
Bug Hunter
This one is a kind of turn-based tactics game where you try to prevent alien bugs from overrunning a quarry.
Both movement and attacks take up "module slots" and you can buy modules mid-turn, so there's plenty space for strategy.
Overbold
An arena shooter with greed elements!
It's round-based, you can buy upgrades between rounds, and you can also add more enemies for the next round. The more enemies you add, the bigger the rewards will be, but get too greedy and you might just get your butt kicked.
Figuring out just how greedy you can get with early-game rounds is a challenge and there's no one but yourself to blame.
Party House
It's a kind of a card game where you call in guests from from your "deck", try to not get it too rowdy, and buy more guest-cards and expand the game field between rounds.
Guests have attributes, some have actions, and it's generally good fun. Could very well be a physical game too?
Also has a mode with randomized (?) guest types that counts your streak and can offer both incredibly kind and incredibly unkind sets of guest types.
Mini & Max
This one's a platformer exploration game with a twist being that you can get smaller/bigger.
In a way this works like fast travel/world maps in RPG games and the game also ties a handful of functional mechanics into this.
There's a lot to explore here with numerous unique locations and quests. It's very nice.
Pilot Quest
A top-down adventure game with a sprinkle of idle game mechanics.
The way it works is that resources are passively produced even when you play other UFO 50 games, so you can get production going and come back to it time to time to spend your crystals on upgrades or to go on an adventure.
It's slow at first, but over time you reach the point where you can go on another adventure right after coming back from your previous one, and then it's time to make your way through the dungeons and fight all the bosses.
Mortol (I)
I've seen that people have been mostly comparing this one to Lemmings, but ultimately it's a bit of its own thing, really.
You have a number of units (that double as "lives") and you make it through the levels by controlling one of them at a time and occasionally sacrificing them to destroy your enemies or change the scenery.
There's a bit more depth to it than it might seem and there are incentives to re-play levels for a better final score (units gained-units lost).
Honorary mentions
Vaigner: a more conventional metroidvania with sector-based maps and upgrades in expected and less-expected spots.
Legend of Zoldark: a procedurally-generated top-down adventure game - each run the game generates you a map with 3 items that you need to bring back to win and some challenges and tools for them. Makes me want to make some kind of mapping tool.
Warp Tank: a platformer-shooter-puzzle kind of game. Fairly high-effort optional challenges!
Divers: this is one of two proper JRPGs in the anthology. Charming, but requires brute-forcing different weapon types on enemies to figure out what works best. An important mobility item is hidden in a wall and easily missed.
Devilition: this one's about setting up various units an detonating them to hit all of the enemies, but you don't know what's in your deck and getting the chain wrong is often a game-ender.
Thanks for reading!