Inspector Waffles
I’ve been following Inspector Waffles over the past 3 years or so and was extremely happy to have the opportunity to help out in beta testing as well as drawing one of the Woolball cards. The demo version covers the (relatively short) first of five chapters and does a good job of getting you interested in the full game.
Personally, I love the colourful pixel art graphics as well as the hand drawn cutscenes and the quality is consistently good throughout the game, also helped by the atmospheric music and good sound effects. The characters have a lot of personality (not just gruff street smart protagonist Waffles and his adorable partner Spotty, but also the geeky Pixel, the shrewd owner of the antiques store to name but a few) and the story goes surprisingly deep with some intriguing twists, quite a few of which I did not see coming (or at least not very far in advance) but which all made sense given the facts of the case.
– Real player with 32.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Pixel Graphics Games.
Inspector Waffles is the cat’s meow, hitting the sweet spot for fun in point-and-click adventure games.
I love detective stories; I love point-and-click games, and since Inspector Waffles combines those with cat and dog characters, it was a no-brainer to give it a go. Calling back to genre classics like the Monkey Island franchise, the game hits its comedy notes for a fun adventure in a universe I’d be eager to visit again.
Game Universe
Inspector Waffles takes place in a universe populated by anthropomorphic animals, mostly cats and dogs, with common pet names (e.g., Spotty, Snowball). The player mainly takes on the role of the titular character himself, although there are a couple of scenes where the player acts as Waffles’ supervisor, Patches. Waffles as a character may be intended to be an old school cynical noir detective, but the game’s overall tone is one of humor. The game dialogue is replete with puns and jokes, particularly ones poking fun at cat and dog stereotypes, such as that cats love boxes and that cat booze is strong milk. There are also some humorous fourth wall breaks. The idiosyncrasies of point-and-click games are even sometimes written into the universe, such as the hilarious explanation for limited use magnets.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Athanasy
GENRES: VN, Adventure, Sci-fi, Horror, Biohorror, Biopunk.
PLAYTIME: 2-10 hours
SUMMARY:
DESCRIPTION:
Deep under the surface of the dead Earth, the last haven of humanity — the City — is teeming with life. A combined effort of engineering genius and all mankind’s endeavors, a giant structure made of steel, concrete, and biopolymers, keeps the remnants of civilization one step away from complete extinction.
Josiah Kaviani, a young mathematician and statistician, starts his journey in an underground maze of cramped streets. He is talented and intelligent, but he has one terrible drawback — his unbearable loneliness.
But soon Josiah will have a fateful encounter that will turn his whole life, and his worldview, upside-down. A meeting with someone — or, perhaps, something — that is hidden in such depths that even the cyclopean City cannot reach them. Something so hidden that the very knowledge of it can be deadly. Something truly monstrous.
FEATURES:
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A well-written world with deep lore and terminology.
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Complex, adult characters, each with their own motives, aspirations, and skeletons in the closet.
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A variety of complex and difficult choices that might lead the story to an unexpected end at any time.
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A dark and frightening science fiction story based on real study.
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A variety of different routes and endings — realistic situations that end poorly or worse.
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An atmospheric soundtrack specially written for the game — each track is inextricably linked with the narrative.
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A lot of high-quality art.
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Special art gallery where the player can check their progress.
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Some of the author’s ideas were censored as to be found too dark and cruel…
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…but most of them remained.
Read More: Best 2D Visual Novel Games.
Azurael’s Circle: Chapter 5
Enjoyable game with plenty of characters, puzzles and a good story.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Top-Down Games.
A novel idea start to finish, and while I recommend this for anyone wanting to finish the saga of Azurael’s Circle, I feel it was not a fitting ending. It came too soon - the game play, while familiar, lacked the intensity and scariness of some of its predecessors. I would love to see an epilogue that goes further to finish the story… otherwise, the mechanics remain as awesome as they ever were. I still enjoyed the slow reveal of the light in the shadows and having to make sure I walked every square inch of each room to ensure I didn’t miss anything.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Lockheart Indigo
Lockheart Indigo was a short but fulfilling experience, with all of its parts forming a cohesive whole. The art, the music, the characters and the gameplay all fit together seamlessly to tell an exciting story.
It offers a unique system where, instead of battling your enemies in combat, you have to win them over with clever persuasion. And it’s clear the developer took a lot of time in crafting the various responses to show each character’s unique personality and motives.
I definitely recommend this game, it was a joy to play and a great homage to the Game Boy era from which it took its inspiration.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
About 2-3 hour long detective game where the combat is replaced with interrogation, it’s kinda like playing Undertale and only using the dialogue choices (no bullet-hell though). Whenever you need to get information from the character you have to find a way to probe them by using evidence and their motivations against them. The story was decent enough for me to finish the game, but I was a bit disappointed with the illusion of choices as the game is pretty linear overall. You can use F4 to set the game to fullscreen, however, it does not have a widescreen so you will be playing with black borders. Even though the game is relatively polished and resistant to stupid choices, there are some potential softlocks due to the enemy AI, you should keep 2-3 save slots 30 minutes apart just in case (I wasted like 40 minutes because one of the quest items became inaccessible).
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Ms.Director
Ms. Director is a game I can’t give justice to in just words. Either by my terrible writing skills or by repeating what others have said. Yet I can say that Ms. Director is one of the best RPGmaker-style games I have played in a very long time. It succeeds with the good ol’ cliche 2D horror game formula, but feels like a refreshing new experience in the RPGmaker-style genre. Either by well-written characters, fantastic links to LGBTQ+ Hollywood history, or fantastic music.
My final words about this game being a wonderful and beautiful small indie game that has been clearly made with passion and creativity. True love, research and time went into making this and it shines with it. It’s got the typical growing pains and teething problems of being a first major RPGmaker project, but those will eventually go away when the developer learns more and grows from mistakes. Ms. Director is a game I can’t recommend enough. Just writing this review isn’t even doing it justice.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
I found this game through a friend on twitter, and saw that it was an indie horror title. I went and played it, not knowing what to expect, and fell in love with the characters, art style, puns, and presentation. It’s a really solid title, with a lot of thought put into it. It is a bit short, and there are a few text errors, but it’s pretty easy to miss when you are focused on all the weird stuff happening in the mansion. I’m looking forward to seeing what sketchy nonsense puts out next.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Bear With Me: The Lost Robots
This is a first impressions style of review, as I haven’t finished the game, and I’m part way through what I guess is the prequel.
Firstly, I love the art style. Growing up, seeing some Don Bluth animations, and Space Ace / Dragons Lair arcade games, the cartoon quality animations always made me go “wow”. Now we take it for granted. However this is one of those games that makes you go “wow”, with the film noir 1930’s / 1940’s style, with the modern animation. I really do like it. And surprisingly, the grey scale works amazingly well and fits in with the whole style.
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game
A trully masterfully made little game that at first glance seem to have no right to actually be as good as it is.
Bear with me is a mix of a noir style detective narrative, with some clever humor sprinkled in that at times is way to cynical to be targeted at children, so don’t be fooled by the graphics style. To top the noir atmosphere there’s a very layered narrative that can be enjoyed both by kids on a surface level (with the cute looking characters) or on a deeper level by adults who might reminis about their past. The DLC even has a bit of twin peaks thrown in for good measure and is generally darker than the main game.
– Real player with 24.8 hrs in game
Dark Grim Mariupolis
Dark Grim Mariupolis creates a point and click adventure branch of it’s own with it’s interesting theme and dialogue. Aside from the mythology, mysticismm, and pseudo-dystopian society world you can easily found yourself wrapped up in interest as you control the footsteps of Thor in this crime noir adventure. Aside from the two color simple yet elegant art style and intriguing story line this game really excels with excellent sound design. The pattering of the rain combined with the calm yet unsettling smooth background music sets the tone as you are playing a pseudo-detective role.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
Its a pretty simple point & click adventure at the first glance
but then its so much more
best described as a piece of art.
And even to the gameplay doesn’t feel smooth at times I just fell in love with the dystopian feel, the references to mythology and the noir athmosphere.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
MAMIYA
At the time I’m writing this review I have yet to experience MAMIYA fully and to completion. I’ve seen all its endings (and not endings, for that matter); however, there are still some stories and details to uncover in three more not-exactly-routes closely related to three more characters (whose existence is a bit spoilery). I will absolutely read everything that is there to read, and I mean everything, because each and every word of MAMIYA is a heavenly treasure I hold very close to my heart.
– Real player with 53.3 hrs in game
Target Audience: Those with a soul
Summary:
To say that Mamiya brings out the best in emotional writing that tugs at your heartstrings is like saying that EA brings the worst out of monetization strategies. Mamiya may have supernatural elements and interesting twists within its 15 hours of story. With strong characters who you connect with almost immediately, to dark themes that really dive into some interesting subjects without any fear, Mamiya is something that I really don’t want to spoil anything off: because even the most basic elements of the story should be experienced without any sort of spoilers. I mean, I could go in how the twists are realistic and yet really satisifying, that all the substories work in a variety of ways and hit a range of themes, and that the writing is down to earth and yet is a style that feels a little bit different then others out there. It’s all done with a mysterious story that makes those who pay attention to small details have it pay off for them.
– Real player with 51.4 hrs in game
Mothmen 1966
Mothmen 1966 is set during the Leonid meteor shower of ‘66.
You are Lee, a college student obsessed with the American Civil War. Someone at school told you about Holt’s gas station outside town, just the spot to watch the upcoming meteor shower for a perfect date with your girlfriend. But at Holt’s you’ll meet Lou Hill, a writer investigating the link between these meteor storms and sightings of human-size winged creatures with red, glowing eyes. It seems to Lou that whenever these ‘mothmen’ are spotted, bad things happen…
Created by novelist Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel, ‘Pixel Pulps’ are a fusion of exceptional writing and stunning illustration, inspired by mid-20th century pulp fiction and 80s home computer graphics. Mothmen 1966 is the first of three Pixel Pulps coming in 2022.
Mothmen 1966, like all the Pixel Pulps, is made to be played by anyone who enjoys fine storytelling:
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Rich, branching narrative
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Evocative illustrations fuel your immersion in the story
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Accessible, ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style gameplay, with life and death consequences and many mysteries to unravel
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Multiple endings, and many paths to reach them - repeat playthroughs will continue to surprise
Deep Lake: Prologue
nice opening music. nice graphics. Story is okay- from what I can make of it. Bad translation in parts which made it hard to follow. For example the mc stepped in a ‘paddle’ twice and got his feet wet smh. I hope the later installments fix this. Might be pretty good if they do. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and thumb this one up, but if there’s no improvement, I’ll have to change my recommendation.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
This is the first ‘visual novel’ I have experienced. It isn’t a game; you don’t make any choices. So, having gotten over that expectation, I will proceed.
Obviously a novel needs an interesting story, and this is interesting. I imagine it is better in Russian, but since I don’t understand a single character of Cyrillic, I had to make do with the English version. It needs some work. I was able to get the gist of what they were saying most of the time, but an important part of a novel, to me, is how the story is told. So in order to make this a successful English visual novel, they’re going to need to find a fluent Russian/English translator. Google Translate just doesn’t do it. You can’t use the word ‘defile’ when you mean ‘define.’ Two totally different meanings.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game