Wave Break

Wave Break

A fun and unique take on THPS style game.

  • Be warned that the game has a very steep learning curve, especially if you’ve never played a THPS game before. If you have, you should feel mostly at home, but the game does offer unique twists and differences in gameplay that you will need to get used to and master.

  • There is a lack of tutorial apart from the very basics, and there is a lot of vital information that the game doesn’t tell you apart from the occasional tip during the loading screens.

Real player with 8.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Difficult Split Screen Games.


TLDR: This game is a lot fun playing solo or splitscreen with friends, especially for fans of THPS looking for something new and different!

Let’s get one thing out of the way, this is not a 1-1 recreation of a THPS game, and it isn’t trying to be. The controls are familiar if you’ve played those games, but a bit looser (Byproduct of riding a boat rather than a skateboard) and there are some differences like initiating automatics (this game’s manuals) or reverts that while easy to get a hold of will require some conscious effort to not rely on muscle memory for at first if you’re a veteran of that series. However, outside of its clear influences, this game has a style all its own! The visuals are fun and colorful which are a nice contrast to the more muted color pallets of other games of this type. The characters are animated well and the written dialogue doesn’t take itself all that seriously adding some charm to it. If you are a fan of Synthwave music this soundtrack is heaven, pairing very well with the art direction making it very easy to get into a relaxed flow with the mix of chill and upbeat tracks. I’ve had fun with the campaign maps I’ve played so far and am looking forward to the rest. The single player will have you completing more traditional goals like high scores, collecting letters, landing specific tricks and even collecting secret tapes, but there are also a handful of “story missions” for each level that have you completing tasks that showcase some of the more unique gameplay features in this game like the slow motion shooting while you complete various Miami Vice influenced objectives based around running product and encountering undercover cops. From my brief experience with the park creator, I have high hopes for what the community adds to this game over time through Steam Workshop content as there appears to be a wide variety of options and I can see multiple people collaborating on a park in a session together being a lot of fun! Multiplayer has been a chaotic blast and having a deathmatch option adds some nice variety to the standard time attack and free skate modes. I would however like to see more game modes from both skating and shooter games added in the future for example graffiti, HORSE, capture the flag, king of the hill, etc. Overall I would say if you are on the fence about this game based on what you’ve seen so far, I can confidently say it is exactly what it advertises itself to be and the quality is there so please do yourself a favor and give it a shot!

Real player with 7.8 hrs in game

Wave Break on Steam

Color War

Color War

Long ago the rainbow relic was shattered, taking away all of the worlds colors with it. The shards of color found it’s way into some lucky hands and color factions were formed. And for some reason, it’s your job to help fix it. You play as a cat dude and fight your way through extremely difficult bullet hell style boss battles in an attempt to get back home and out of this strange world. In the process, you’ll make many friends and enemies.

The game switches between a lively top-down overworld to a straight on bullet-hell boss rush type game. You’ll fight many different bosses while attempting to bring together the color shards. There is different modes for varying levels of difficulty, so if you just want some casual play there are options, as well as a very difficult mode for those seeking a challenge.


Read More: Best Difficult Funny Games.


Color War on Steam

Escape Initiative

Escape Initiative

A very interesting game, I was so angry that I dropped my keyboard on the ground 👍

Real player with 0.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best Difficult Minimalist Games.


Escape Initiative on Steam

Zodiac Legion

Zodiac Legion

Zodiac Legion is a turn-based tactical RPG featuring lethal combat, squad management and strategic elements. Lead your heroes through daring raids and forgotten ruins, defend your land in a time of conquest and betrayal, and master the secrets of volatile ancient magic to restore a realm beset by the armies of undying fiendish sorcerers.

features

  • Lead your knights in turn-based tactical battles.

  • Explore ancient ruins and places of power, thwart the plans of enemy lieutenants, forge alliances, and restore the Zodiac Order.

  • Smash your way through fully destructible dungeons.

  • Expand and strengthen your stronghold, research new spells and craft powerful artifacts.

  • Reshape the terrain to your advantage.

  • Develop your warriors into mighty champions.

As the Grandmaster of the Zodiac Order, it will be your duty to restore this knightly brotherhood and rally its champions under the banners of the thirteen Zodiac signs. You will manage your domain, take important diplomatic decisions and train your warriors in the arcane arts. Enemy armies will invade your borders, forcing you to dispatch your knights on missions resolved through turn-based, tactical battles. Their superhuman powers will tip the scales in the face of overwhelming odds, but beware: many will not survive the ordeal. Yet exploring the secrets of necromancy may reveal that a Zodiac Knight’s duty need not end in death.

The work on Zodiac Legion began because we shared the vision of a game that would combine the tactical combat and strategic campaign of X-COM, with the fantasy aspects and dungeon crawling typical of most roleplaying games.

We decided to use the theme of the Zodiac because of its association with classical mythology, and due to its ties with distinct character archetypes, which served as the foundation of our class system. There are hundreds of distinct features and qualities attributed to the signs by astrology, which lends itself to a robust and interconnected system that has an impact on all the aspects of Zodiac Legion’s gameplay and storytelling.

Zodiac Legion on Steam

Coromon

Coromon

A new day dawns on Velua, a new day for the world and a new day for you, a freshly minted battle researcher of the global research society known as Lux Solis. Lux is dedicated to peacefully harnessing the potential of Velua’s unique wildlife for the benefit of mankind.

Pack up your belongings, board the train to the campus, and be ready for a career in the field: Catch Coromon, train them, then unleash them on the world to push back the boundaries of science!

A New Take on a Classic

Coromon is a new take on the classic monster taming gameplay, combining old-school battle mechanics with a robust RPG system.

  • Each of the 120 Coromon is defined not just by its type or number, but also by statistics, available skills, potential, and more.

  • Help them grow through countless battles and gain priceless knowledge for Lux Solis, investigating the six Titans and their essence.

  • A mysterious danger awaits in the depths of Velua, a danger that can undo the world! Will you be able to save it?

A World to Explore

Venturing out the door is the first step in a great adventure. By its end, you will explore the whole of Velua together with your Coromon.

Explore different biomes, from freezing glaciers to blistering dezerts, from high-tech towns to the deepest of forests, fighting both wildlife and other trainers looking for a challenge.

Solve puzzles using tools and information provided by Lux Solis to keep your investigation on track.

Locate and confront the mighty Titans, solving puzzles and defeating their guardian Coromon, to collect their essences!

A New Experience, Each Time

Coromon is all about putting a modern spin on a classic genre. That includes playing the game just the way you want.

  • Pick from scores of options when creating your battle researcher. Lux doesn’t care about how you look, merely about how you perform in the field.

  • When you’re done, you can fine-tune the difficulty level to your heart’s content. Go easy, go hard, go insane, or pick a random difficulty that might be completely unpredictable!

  • Want more? Go online and battle your friends' Coromon, testing your squad and sharpening your tactical skills!

A Word from the Developers

We’re honored to be able to provide Coromon to you, a game we’ve poured our heart into. Coromon is our tribute to the classics of the genre. While staying loyal to the core gameplay, we wanted to add new gameplay features but also keep the retro look, with a modernized pixel art style.

Thank you for playing Coromon. We hope you will enjoy the game as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Coromon on Steam

Edifice of Fiends

Edifice of Fiends

Nice tiny tutorial how to do your fights & skills

Saving your progress is possible but at a certain cost :P

Each floor you progress through gives u shops & items to buy and improve your character

Interface kept simple but goes fast even playing with the keyboard

Gives you the possibility to change the keybindings

Game also is getting regular updates at the moment of writing

Some minor points:

First floors not have much of a scenery/setup change, took some floors to see a small chance, could use for sure some variations

Real player with 3.4 hrs in game

I saw this on sale for 80% off ($1) and decided to pick it up.

Can’t recommend it. This is a poor RPG maker game and there are better ones out there.

Let’s take a look at the listings on the store and go one-by-one, shall we?

“Every choice matters as you try to fight your way to the top of the Edifice of Fiends”

Your choices are… what do I buy, and what skills/attributes do I spec into. There are not any other meaningful choices (well, I guess you could waste your time picking up a pickaxe/felling axe so that you can possibly make gear that is basically as good as what you can buy in the store)

Real player with 2.6 hrs in game

Edifice of Fiends on Steam

Must Dash Amigos

Must Dash Amigos

(Early Access Review. As an early access release, you may experience bugs, content, interface and optimization changes. If you are not excited to play the title in its current state and to help support the title to full release by reporting bugs and requesting additional content, you may want to wait for further development)

Introducing a remarkable family-friendly couch potato game that is jam-packed full of frantic single-player and multiplayer fun. What exactly is it you might ask? It is a combination of a time trial racer and brawler with a ton of spicy action! Take control of a character from one of the 4 available; if more than one person chooses the same character they will have a different color assigned, unless you or they have unlocked any more skins. No matter what game mode you play, you will need to grab pinatas spread around the tracks that contain buffs/debuffs (with random contents). They will either give you a weapon or a boost to use to gain an advantage.

Real player with 8.1 hrs in game

Before I bash the

! censored out of this game, can we take a minute and talk about time trial mode?

Why, the

! CENSORED, do you immediately take a -1s penalty on your first lap, because the lap timer starts counting before your character can even move?

I wouldn’t normally complain about something so small and petty… but this game’s time trial mode probably wasn’t even tested. Or it was tested by a

! censoreding TAS.

The turning circles for each character are awful.

Real player with 4.6 hrs in game

Must Dash Amigos on Steam

Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition

Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition

Nioh 2 is a must buy for any soulsborne fan or people looking for Ninja type games. It’s way better, and I mean it…than Nioh 1, be it in terms fluidity, game balance, inventory management, combat is more polished and Yokai transformation mechanics is just a cheery on top of a cake. I had a blast going through the game and although the end game farming is kinda rough but it’s not something undoable, if you know the mechanics. As for bosses, Nioh 1 bosses are better lorewise, difficulty wise but Nioh 2 bosses are more fun to fight against. World design is more vibrant than Nioh 1 and to me, it’s even better than Dark Souls. Final rating, 8/10…damn near perfect souls like. Also, don’t buy this game for PvP, it’s non-existant.

Real player with 525.4 hrs in game

Absolutely phenomenal. This game bumped Dark Souls as my favorite of all time with an asterisk that it owes much of its inspiration to the original “Souls-like.”

I see a lot of comments warning not to compare Dark Souls 3 to Nioh 2 because they are “completely different games.” This is a lie. Dark Souls 3 and The Sims are completely different games. Aside from both being Action RPGs, Souls and Nioh have a lot in common:

-Almost identical death system. Lose your experience unless you can touch your grave, keep your items.

Real player with 233.8 hrs in game

Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition on Steam

Duality of Doodles

Duality of Doodles

Pros:

  • the character customization is pretty cool, reminds me of that old DS game, Drawn to Life

  • gameplay is ultimately fun

  • good amount of content for what this is

Cons:

  • poor sound design

Real player with 6.4 hrs in game

Duality of Doodles on Steam

Mousebound

Mousebound

Upon initially opening Mousebound I was immediately thrown into a difficult and non-apologetic world. Every level, every sequence, and every jump constantly has the player trying their hardest to apply different movements to try and figure out a way to achieve that next jump. While at some points it make you want to scream, at the same time you are brought into a beautiful world with fun physics and mechanics that make the player feel that with every jump and every attempt they are bettering themselves and building upon their last attempt to finally beat it this time. Mousebound is a fun open-world puzzle game that I truly enjoy and highly recommend.

Real player with 4.1 hrs in game

Like Monkey Ball but no monkey and more stress. Fun level design keeps each section fresh while still adding the pressure of other Foddian games like Getting Over It and PogoStuck. Overall, pretty good :)

Real player with 3.6 hrs in game

Mousebound on Steam