This week, we play the Prologue to Starstruck, a wild roleplaying rhythm game by Createdelic. It’s a surreal, imaginative game about helping some claymation kids play guitar and avert the end of the world. We talk about rhythm games, the game’s surprising music quality, and its “toy-like” aesthetics. Blake is surprised to learn that Jordan plays the violin.

Find the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1297720/Starstruck_Prologue/

And follow the creators on Twitter: @playstarstruck

We play the demo of “Shady Knight,” a first person melee game that we played in its game jam version for a previous episode. In a word, this game slaps. We talk about why that is, and how the game uses clever design choices to make melee combat feel both impactful and dynamic. 

Find the game here (when it releases): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155650/Shady_Knight/

And follow the creator on Twitter: @cptnsigh

In this week’s episode, we play Tony Hawk’s Existential Nightmare, a narrative/rhythm game based on, well, a meme. It manages to be a strangely sincere game about the cost of ambition, despite its meme origins. The game prompts a discussion about pro-skating, growing up, and the relationship of sincerity to humor. Jordan tells us where he recognizes the music in this game from. It’s a deep cut.

Find the game here: https://black-vein-productions.itch.io/tony-hawks-existential-nightmare

And follow the creators on Twitter: @BlackVeinPro

In this week’s episode, we play High Rise, a mobile puzzle game about stacking blocks to make buildings. We talk about how this game innovates on the puzzle formula of games like 2048 and Threes, as well as speculate about the optimal strategy. Blake is very happy to have achieved the higher score. Jordan tells us about the time he played the entirety of Knights of the Old Republic on a phone. 

Find the game on the app store/Google Play: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/high-rise-a-puzzle-cityscape/id1479215827

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SMPL.HighRise&hl=en_US

And follow the creator on Twitter: @fgrolig

This week, we play “ペタリムーブ,” a delightfully strange game about an orange blob that moves around with his sticky limbs. We talk about what makes the movement of this game feel so fun, as well as what gives videogame avatars their personality. Jordan gets a little bit too into the music.

Play the game here: https://unityroom.com/games/petarimu-bu

And follow the creator on Twitter: @shironilnil

This week, we play Biomass, a game-jam game based around the devious premise that all your equipment gets worse the more you use it. After geeking out about the game’s impressive pixel-art (made in MS paint!), we talk about rogue-likes and Metroidvanias and the unexpected overlap of the two genres. Neither of us was able to beat the game (but Jordan did technically get farther…)

Find the game here: https://brainos.itch.io/biomass

In this week’s episode, we tinker with evolution in PlanetFriend, a game by Laura Michet and Brendon Chung. It’s an amusing planet-sim designed over the course of the Covid-19 quarantines. We talk about simulation games, this game’s sense of humor, and the fun we had tinkering with the game files.

Find the game here: https://lauramichet.itch.io/planetfriend

And follow the creators on Twitter: @lmichet, @BlendoGames

This week, we play another game by Colestia: “A Hand with Many Fingers,” a historical mystery game about a Cold War conspiracy. It’s… a delightful game that manages to make archival research weirdly exciting. Among other things, we talk about mystery games, research, history, conspiracies, and US-Australia relations. 

Find the game here: https://colestia.itch.io/a-hand-with-many-fingers

And follow the creator on Twitter: @colestia3

This week’s episode is the second of two episodes on Soon Only the Ocean, a real-time game about climate change by Max Myers. In our conclusion to the episode, we talk about real-time events, Peter Molyneux, and climate change. Blake changes the time and date settings of his computer on-air in an attempt to break the game.

You can find the game here (though it’s now technically over): https://mjm.itch.io/soto

And follow the creator on Twitter: @ApparentRaisin

This week, we play the experimental “post-post-net art” game The Online Museum of Multiplayer Art, by Like Like Arcade. We talk about the museum’s many text games and our encounters with random people in the game. Blake reveals a startling betrayal. Turns out Jordan is a rube.

Play the game in-browser here: http://omoma.glitch.me/?room=likelikeOutside

And follow the creators on Twitter: @likelikearcade