In Wandersong you play as a bard, and interact with almost everything through a fun and expressive singing mechanic. You’ll do a LOT of singing. Turns out there is no problem that can’t be solved through song, even the end of the world.

Wandersong came along at the right time. Its sweetness and positivity never felt cloying, and despite its story sometimes going to some dark places it felt like just the shot of hope it turned out we needed. We fell in love with this charming game and its vibrant cast of characters.

Get Wandersong on Nintendo Switch or PC/Mac via Steam or the Humble Store. It costs $20 and will take you about 10 hours to complete.

Links for this episode:

What’s making us happy this week?

Segment starts at [00:53:06]

Upcoming episodes:

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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Your hosts this week were:

• (00:00) - Wandersong

After years in development and what seems like decades on the Short Game upcoming games spreadsheet, solo developer Ben Esposito has finally released Donut County. We loved playing as as a hole in the ground in this odd story driven physics puzzle game. Just the right length, and with a ton of charm, this game was made for our podcast.

Donut County is currently available on Steam and GOG for Windows and Mac, as well as on PS4 and iOS.

What’s making us happy this week?

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

• (00:00) - Donut County

In this, the year of too many Metroidvanias (jk there can never be too many Metroidvanias) Drinkbox returns with a long awaited sequel to their 2013 action platformer hit Guacamelee. (We covered Guacamelee way back in episode 37, and their dungeon crawler slice-em-up Severed in episode 108.

If you played Guacamelee and (like us) you wished for more of it then you’ll find lots to love in Guacamelee 2. The formula is essentially unchanged from the first game, but with lots of tweaks and additions large and small. It’s no secret that we love Drinkbox, and the Guacamelee series deserves your attention even when the feast or famine that is the exploration action platformer genre turns to feast mode as it has in 2018.

Guacamelee 2 is available on PC/Steam and PS4, with other platoforms likely but not announced.

What’s making us happy this week

• (00:00) - Guacamelee 2

Bomb Chicken is the first console game from mobile game royalty Nitrome. It’s a perfect example of a developer creating a entire game based on a single, super polished mechanic. Nitrome uses clever level design to spin their simple one button bomb-egg mechanic into dozens of unique challenges. Also the chicken is so fat. So so fat.

Links for this episode

What’s making you happy this week?

Laura:

• (00:00) - Bomb Chicken

It’s an all-singing-all-dancing episode this week as we play Peter Panic, a mobile game that mixes WarioWare style micro games with the magic of musical theater! This mobile game stands out by being a fully-sung musical sung by actual broadway talent.

Peter Panic is available for iOS and Android. It’s free to download and try, with the ability to save your progress available for $2.99.

Links

What’s making us happy this week?

Nate – Sous Vide

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Your hosts this week were:

• (00:00) - Peter Panic

This week we’re taking a vacation from our typical format to talk about playing games while traveling. The obvious topic is how the Nintendo Switch is chainging how we play, but we also discuss gaming travel memories from childhood, the pros and cons of portable platforms, and even some non-video-games for travel. Have fun on your trip to Ireland, Laura!

00:00:00 Gaming and Traveling

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Your hosts this week were:

• (00:00) - Gaming and Traveling

Yoku’s Island Express is a pinball-metroidvania. Yeah. And as a synthesis of those two seemingly incompatible ideas it actually succeeds incredibly well. We break down what makes this bizarre fusion more than just a novelty.

Yoku is available on Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam for $19.99. Expect it to take about 5-8 hours to complete, not including post-game content, secrets, etc…

00:00:00 Yoku’s Island Express

00:58:44 Outro

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Your hosts this week were:

• (00:00) - Yoku's Island Express

Gary Butterfield of Duckfeed.tv joins us to discuss West of Loathing, the hilarious stick-figure open-world RPG by Asymmetric. West of Loathing originally released last summer on Steam, but it recently launched as a console exclusive on Nintendo Switch. This is an extremely funny game, but it also respects your time in ways that other RPGs and open world games could learn a lot from. Thanks to Gary for a great discussion.

West of Loathing is available on Steam for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, and on the Nintendo Switch eShop, for $11. Expect it to take around 10 hours to complete. Spoiler break at [00:56:36].

What’s making us happy this week?

Find Gary’s work at Duckfeed.tv. Gary’s newest podcast, Heartbeat City, is at Heartbeatcity.city.

Past Short Game episodes with Gary:

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

• (00:00) - West of Loathing