Playlist (September 2018) (Patreon)

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I’ve spent most of this month playing big console games like Spider-Man and Tomb Raider. As well as over 100 Game Jam games! But I found some time, here and there, to play some indie stuff. Here are three games of recent times you might have missed, but should definitely check out.

Donut County

My brother and I came up with this genre: noodle ‘em up. It’s for games like Noby Noby Boy and GNOG, and some other puzzle games that don’t have really tricky logic puzzles: you just kinda noodle around, play with things, poke and prod the world, and eventually you’ll find the answer. 

So that’s how I’d describe Donut County: a noodle ‘em up. This game is about controller a hole, and you can manipulate it with your finger - or a controller if you made the silly decision to not get the iPad version - and use it to suck up bits of the scenery. Like Katamari Damacy, the hole gets bigger the more stuff you suck up. So you’ll start by munching on bricks and weeds, before gobbling up boulders and cars and buildings.

It’s oddly satisfying! The physics work really nicely, and slowly removing everything on the playfield just feels great. And there are tiny puzzles to solve: like gobbling up fire and corn to make popcorn. Nothing that will keep you up at night hunting for a solution, but enough to keep the gameplay fresh.

There’s a silly story in-between levels that’s pretty funny. It’s all a bit Adventure Time or Night in the Woods. Charming as heck. It’s something to fiddle with when you just want to chill out and suck up some scenery.

The Messenger

I almost wrote off The Messenger. I played this one on a stream, and found the first few levels just interminably boring. It was so obviously trying to be like Shovel Knight - another 8 bit inspired throwback game - but without the level design skills, or the terrifically precise platforming.

But I got more into it, and found myself really enjoying it. The game got a lot harder, and suddenly the level design started to improve. Instead of long, boring screens of nothing it became a gauntlet of difficult platforming challenges. And ones that actually use the game’s core mechanic.

You see, the game has this thing where you can do a double jump - but only if you manage to slash something, like an enemy or a candle when you’re in mid-air. And it’s desperately underused for the first bit of the game but really comes into its own later when you’re bouncing from thing to thing to make it over a bed of spikes. 

Then there’s also the fact that the game is full of surprises. I don’t want to spoil them in case you’ve been out of the loop. So just know that it changes in ways that most games don’t. Certainly keeps thing fresh!

The Gardens Between

The Gardens Between is a really endearing puzzle game, about manipulating time. All you have to do is hold right on the analogue stick and time will move forward, or left to move in reverse: you don’t control the characters, who walk and jump by themselves, you can only fast forward and rewind like you’re watching a movie.

The goal in each level, or as far as I’ve played at least, is to take an orb to the end of the stage. But that gets tricky when you need to use that orb to power up a bridge, or the orb gets sucked away by a nasty vortex. Luckily, the orb works independently of your time control powers, so you can place it on a moving platform, and then rewind time, and it will ride along on the moving platform.

This is quite hard to describe, actually! And that’s one of the strengths of this game: it wordlessly explains its rules in a way that you can understand the weirdo time-travelling logic of this game with ease… but try and actually explain it to another human being and you’ll sound crazy. 

Basically: it’s a bit like those levels in Braid. But less demanding on your noggin, and the presentation reminds me of low-key puzzle ‘em ups like Monument Valley and Unravel. It’s also got a story about best friends but I haven’t really dug into that yet - I’ve only played a few levels. But I like what I’ve seen and will definitely keep going. 

That’s your lot! Thanks for your support - see you next month!