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Boti: Byteland Overclocked Review

Reviews
BOTI Screenshot 8

Boti: Byteland Overclocked is a 3D platformer that satisfies every itch that 3D platformers have to scratch. There’s collectables, challenging platforming, an easier linear path where you can avoid the optional challenging content. The controls are tight, the power-ups are fun and the level designs are very cheery and positive. Humor-wise the game lands its jokes softly as you run through a cybernetic future. It’s about 10-14 hours of platforming joy, if you absolutely love games like Astro’s Playroom or Tinykins then this game will definitely charm you. There’s a lot of negative reviews on Steam focusing on bugs, but throughout our playthrough we didn’t experience any. One big thing, if you’re looking for a game to play co-op with someone else this is definitely one of those amazing co-op games that you can pick up and just play without any frustration. If you’re looking for a new couch co-op…

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Adore Review – Creature Summoning at Its Finest

Reviews
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Adore’s combat is groundbreaking, intuitive and different from creature summoning games that have been needed for a long time. The latest update and full release have shown a polished strategic pet summoning game that has ARPG elements, rogue-like elements and something different than turn-based pet combat. If you’re big into pet games, you shouldn’t take my word for it and head on over to the Adore steam page to start checking the game out yourself – we recommend it. You summon a team of four creatures who fight for you. Your main character can’t actually engage in battle directly, only dodge and you don’t have absolute control over your summons. You’ve got to involve a lot of strategy and tactics to get through combat and what appears to be simple gameplay unravels as you move deeper into the game. If you played the game early in early access, you will…

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Alterium Shift Preview – August 2023

Editorials
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Alterium Shift is an aspirational JPRG designed to follow in the footsteps of Legend of Mana and Chrono Trigger. Still in Early Access, the development so far has shown great promise that we may yet see another breakout hit this generation with the essence from decades ago. Alterium Shift is an aesthetic charm and once a bit more buttoned up will definitely be a competitive player in JRPG arena. We took a deep dive into the game and gave the early access a preview. It’s nice to note the game has a demo, which means if you’re on the fence about what’s available now you can always check it out before you commit. In the developer’s notes on Steam, which are really heartwarming and extremely fair, they even encourage users to. Be sure to give it a read if you’re curious about more details about the game. What is Alterium…

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The Life of a Magical Circle Review

Reviews
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The Life of a Magical Circle is the first game from Solideo, a one-person indie game development studio looking to focus on more philosophical games. Their first title definitely doesn’t disappoint, taking the general aesthetics of Geometry Wars, with the frustrations of Getting Over It, dashing in a bit of roguelike and philosophy with dynamic music, narration and lots of intent. There is a lot to what is overall a rather simplistic game. There’s just a circle, it’s a bit hard to control and there are things that you don’t want to hit. There are some collectibles. There’s not a lot going on until things start to advance and the narrator starts to provide color to the world you’re playing within. Soon you’re trying to figure out what each collectable does and what you’re wanting to collect and not along with the true meaning behind the journey. Intentional Design Simple…

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Unearthing the Unique Depth of Testament: The Order of High Human – An Honest Review

Reviews
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Truth is what we’re best known for and I’d like to start this off with an honest one: Testament: The Order of High Human is expected to be perfect and is not. It is a beautiful, gorgeous game with deep lore and very fun puzzles with some decent combat. It has an old school scrappy developer vibe to it that makes a lot of old games endearing with graphics that appeal to the modern eyes. We don’t use numerical rankings because it’s sitting on 6/10 on Steam right now and is at “All Reviews: Mixed” on a sample size of roughly ~20. I don’t think games that have the artistic depth that Testament does deserve to be put on a numerical scale where anything below 8 is a waste of your money. There’s an audience out there for Testament who love this style of game and when it comes to…

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The Best Retro Handheld 2024

Editorials
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I recently purchased this really fun Game Boy refurb called “Pastel Boy” from Vapor95 which is a reseller for Gamerchanger Mods. They took a case from MizuCat (which was limited to 50), some upgrades and voila: you get a new Game Boy. I haven’t received it yet but it got me hankering for more: I realized this wasn’t a Game Boy Color. This was, by all accounts, a wonderful decoration for my house and nifty toy but it wasn’t really useful. I needed something where I could bring my massive library that I have amassed of portable games around with me and the Zelda Game & Watch is really useful, but it only has Zelda. I don’t want just PSP either, I want GBA! Luckily that’s where retro handhelds come in. Steam Deck / ROG Ally These devices are now more aesthetic or price based – $150 or less to…

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Only Up! Controversy Explained (NFTs & Updates)

News
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Only Up! is a strange game that’s received a lot of attention lately and dialog around the game has gotten kind of… strange. For some context, Only Up! is a game that’s a Roblox Obby that takes itself as a Getting Over It style game made with Unreal Engine, generic assets and NFTs. That’s a lot, let’s unpack it. Only Up! and NFTs This is a weird one, the game has NFTs throughout it. No links, QR codes or advertisements so don’t believe the misinformation that the game itself is a scam. It does, though, have other NFTs in it which some people have found poor taste? There’s an argument that streamers have been advertising these NFTs unknowingly because they’ve been included in this game. There’s not much else other than a lot of misinformation. The only truth is the game does have NFT images in it, but an NFT…

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Idleon Developer Claims pay2win Update Is for Marketing

News
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LavaFlame, the developer behind IdleOn, released a controversial update in which players would need to spend between $200 to $500 for a companion that gave unbelievable advantages. For roughly three weeks the developer remained silent as users critical of the update were banned. Today an update for the game was released in which the developer explained his logic in the following post: A note to those wondering where I’ve been and are eager to get back to more content: as you hopefully understand, I felt it was best for me to stick to my main mission as a creator — working and delivering on actual content for people to enjoy. Put simply, what I’ve always cared about most is that A: my game is fun, and B: a whole lot of people play and enjoy it. For A, the game itself hasn’t changed, no new or old content restricted; my…

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Dave the Diver Review: A Comfy Sea Adventure

Reviews
DAVETHEDIVER Lobby

Dave the Diver Developer: MintRocket MSRP: $19.99 – Steam Dave the Diver captivated me within the first few minutes of playing. After dinner I was on my PC exploring the Blue Hole with Dave and loving every second of it. Dave the Diver is an action 2D/3D mash-up that has you exploring the Blue Hole with Dave while running a seaside Sushi resturant. There’s so much more though jammed into this amazing must play game. Dave the Diver is definitely well put together, the pixel art is striking and the game systems are considerate and have been iterated on efficaciously through the game’s early access. We don’t give any sort of numerical or percentile ranking to games, but if anything about Dave catches your eye then I would definitely say it’s worth the full price admission. It does everything it promises and it does it well and my nights with…

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The Rise, Fall and Future of Lore: Why Recent Indie Games Failed and How to Fix Them

Editorials
lore based games cr yurika corporation

Lore and worldbuilding have the power to ignite passion in players and fuel an immersive experience. At their best, lore-driven games create a sense of mystery and discovery that motivate players to explore each part of the world. However, some recent games have exploited lore and ambiguity primarily as a marketing tactic, rather than using it to enhance gameplay or build meaning. This phenomenon highlights the need for more balanced, player-centered design. When developers commit to transparency and ethical practices, lore can be used to strengthen community trust and craft impactful stories. But that depends on valuing immersion and artistry over profits alone. We’ll dive into the history of lore focused games, what happened and where to go from here. This is all inclusive of the entire indie scene, even if there’s a heavy emphasis on mascot horror. It makes the best example and we’ll avoid referencing mascot horror to…

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