A very-very late summary of past months because time is flying - June&July
My last post was about April, so I have May, June and July to catch up with. Summer is not exactly my favourite season, and it usually has its mark on my lower game count - I just don’t like the heat, so I have way less patience and mental fortitude for gaming, or anything really.
I guess I’ll drop the money spent, new games bought kinda thing, even if I buy little, from the bundles the backlog just builds - and it ain’t making me happier to focus on it and its tracking.
2026 June
After May’s MiaM and Infinite Backlog’s Bingo I played way too many games, I couldn’t really find what to play with so the drop is very noticeable, especially in June.
Mega Mosaic
SG win from lext
I have little to say about this game. Minesweeper-like game, colours light and dark, finish zones to uncover an art banner of some sort. I had to use the hint button quite often: The game is one big puzzle, as you could strictly just go from known parts, and eventually you get stuck most ways, and the puzzle is just too huge (250x250) to find valid blocks by yourself. It was good for what it was.
Inbeto
Make colourful bento boxes by adding new elements to the box, moving them around, rotate them, copy them, etc. Can be surprisingly tricky, but I deeply appreciate the simplicity - the box size is clear, the tools you can use is a few and it’s always set for the level, and you know how it should look like. You can’t lost on too big puzzles, or get overwhelmed by choices, as how other puzzles like to do progression. The cat-family story is presented as one (or two?) static picture after each of the 14 worlds, each of which consists of 9 levels if I remember well. So it’s still 95% puzzles, 5% story/art :)
Nuclear Blaze
Gift from vot4ol
I played a few 2D firefighting flash games, and I always loved them, and Nuclear Blaze also seemed interesting. It’s a wonderful little arcade-y game with its silliness and simple mechanics. Go through levels in a very SCP-coded location, stop fire from spreading, find secrets and hidden cats, unlock secret ending, and have fun. Good balance of knowing your goal and having some freedom how to approach it. Some levels are straightforward, others have extra goals / necessities to do, so they are a little puzzle-y without coming to a screetching halt.
Carefully done by devs who seemed to have fun - absolutely deserving its 96% :)
2026 July
Proverbs
It’s Mega Mosaic (almost) again! Zones are not uncovering designs, but pixel art depictions of dutch proverbs. Also, every zone is a separate puzzle, so you know each can be solved on its own, which is an upside compared to Mega Mosaic.
Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-
SG win from schmetti
This game was on my WL for a loooong time, so it felt like a wonder that I won it. Also, I haven’t read / watched Record of Lodoss War, but a metroidvania sounded really cool.
And it was really cool! The pixelart is are absolutely gorgeous and the animations are detailed and fluid.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t get some references, but the game itself is pretty light on story as it seemed. It’s also pretty light on the metroidvania elements, as there is barely any backtracing needed. But it’s still a super solid experience - you can change between fire and water “states”, absorbing the attacks, like in Ikaruga. Your weapon and equipment/spells have different elements, that different enemies are weak/resistant to. The combat is quite simple but very solid, the archery skill isn’t used too often but very well done. The platforming and the design works really well, and the bossfights are quite fun and challenging. Had a lot of fun even in the boss rush mode, after figuring out them each :) Highly recommended for a fun platformer-brawler-ish game!
Evil West
A game with some super cool emlements that generally fails to be “good” as of cheap design choices when it comes to actual gameplay.
What could go wrong with a game, where vampires roam the wild west, and a secret government organisation sends vampire hunters after them?
Other than featuring Temu Hugh Jackman, the game really shows it’s AA elements as you play. Corridor gameplay, invisible walls galore, and most of the game features lockdown room after lockdown room after lockdown room. You literally have to climb into “arenas” to fight enemies, kill them all, and move on. That’s 80% of the game.
And for that, the game really suffers in my opinion. The enemy variety is low, yet most enemies have way too high health, or a gimmicky way to fight them / break their shields. You have a lot of tools (mostly gimmicks) in your arsenal, but at the end of the day, most are super situational. Your good old gauntlet, rifle, and later explosives (if upgraded) are enough. Oh, and the game is coded in the way that every weapon uses a cooldown system to reload, and the cooldown only works if you’re in combat. If you kill the last enemy with your shotgun, you have to wait the cooldown in the next combat. Meanwhile between the fights, you can use the same shotgun to blow up up crates and whatnot. Such a jarring, stupid choice :D
The story itself is pretty alright. You can tell some plot twist from hours away it’s as unoriginal, but characters are surprisingly well designed visually and personality-wise too. This world and game just begs for a Dishonored-like mission system from a hub, instead of this rigid and repetitive combat recipe.
Had quite a lot of grief from tanky enemies (I suggest you keep on easy for the fastest progress) and the unimaginative, repetitive combat, while characters and some locations, set pieces and lore elements are the absolute high points. Like with May’s The Ascent, this is a game thats world deserves a different, better gameplay.
(also some enemy designs are just so funny. Who makes special, monstrous foul-bloods through special vampire blood, then hammer random spikes, fence pieces or metal sheets into them? The design is cohesive, but unfitting to the lore and needlessly edgy :D :D )
The Last Hero of Nostalgaia
SG win from s4k1s
Surprisingly good Souslike homage. Has a unique world, unique idea, lots of lore, takes itself seriously (hence homage, not parody) when it comes to lore, but you can still find many easter egg-like equipment (Dead Space, Doom armor, just to name a few).
Definitely doesn’t live up to the originals in quality, but it’s a really decently made indie. You unlock extra abilities of items by “remembering them” at a certain location, which prompts quite a lot backtracking - you’re also incentivised to do this by having permanent bonuses linked to the number of remembered items. The game has excellent interconnectivity, but it can get a bit too much if you want to play it like a classic Souls game. Has some wonky animations that you may be familiar with (hello Titanite Demon hitting through environment) if you played originals… so prepare for mace-knights doing a 180 around you, certain wide attacks hitting past its animation, or werewolves jumping around corners and so :D
I enjoyed the demo and I was quite happy with the game too. Was a relatively smooth ride, and I’m not a particularly experienced Soulslike player.
In the three months I’ve dabbled with:
Legend of Mana (I feel a bit lost, and the game doesn’t super resonate with me with its locations and systems)
Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy (started for MiaM, realised how stupid that is :D)
Quake II (Played its multi back in the school, was fun. Maybe the timing is not good, but the campaign fails to grab me, and didn’t want to force it more. Shooting through brown-orange rooms until the level ends doesn’t sounds fun right now)
and maybe a few others not worth mentioning.