There’s a temptation to talk about Pacific Drive with reference to genres: survival, extraction, roguelite, action, adventure, driving… But it’s doing something really cool with it’s tone and atmosphere, making it something altogether unique. Clever progression, tactile UI, great music, terrifying SFX, and a world worth exploring. Cool game.

Balatro absolutely rules. And this is coming from someone with abject disdain of poker… Traditional poker hands are your basic tools, but that’s about as far as the connection goes. The rest of Balatro is a wickedly clever, psychedelic, insta-classic roguelike through which you’ll devise cunning ways to break the game. Cards and modifiers are tightly designed, crisply defined and delightfully synergistic. Again, Balatro just rules. Play it.

I really want to like this game. It has a really well defined and executed identity and the overarching gameplay loop is super fun at a high level. What stopped me from having a great time won’t stop everyone: the gunplay and movement is chunky and cumbersome by design - and indeed fits the tone well - but it’s a bit too heavy and laborious for me. Still think it’s a super cool game, but it’s not my preferred feel.

[Early Access] Without taking anything away from Pocketpair, it’s kind of wild that it took this long for someone to pull this off. For everything Palworld may lack in (narrow) originality, it makes up for in execution. It throws down the gauntlet for what a creature collector could be, and somehow blends it with modern genres and sensibilities in a way that, surprisingly… just works? Time will tell if they truly stick the landing over the course of EA, but there’s already enough here for an outrageously fun time.

A space-themed Suika-like, with satisfying, bouncy physics, and a novel way to ease congestion. Simple but cosy, and it’s cool to see something like this made in PICO-8.

Buckshot Roulette is a stark and bite-sized horror-themed game that echos an essence of 2021’s Inscryption: a unique, gritty industrial vibe in an extremely tense, 15-20 minute package. It doesn’t outstay its welcome in exploring the concept, and is a refreshing little experience overall.

Shamelessly combining Hades, Vampire Survivors and Diablo, Death Must Die is a bullet-heaven wherein you pick perks from (even hornier) gods, collect items and survive increasing hordes of baddies as you attempt to break the game and become OP. The inspiration verges on derivative, but it’s a compelling combination with enough new ideas to make for fun results. Give it a go.

Really fresh and interesting take on incremental games with a delightful aesthetic and charm all the way down to the tooltips. Compelling upgrades, addictive progression, great art and music. If you’re at all into incremental stuff - just get it.

Epic continues to push the Fortnite-as-a-platform strat. Understandably not as deep as LEGO Fortnite, but a fun little racing game with a big emphasis on drifting and obstacles reminiscent of Mario Kart, and wild courses à la Trackmania. Be prepared to feel like Schumacher as you first place Bronze and Silver ranks only to be met with your first decent human opponents and summarily crushed. Fun though!

What I thought would be a quick, relatively low-effort brand collaboration turns out to be a remarkably fleshed out exploration/building/survival game with an incredible level of polish. A bit of Minecraft, a tiny bit of Animal Crossing, and even rolling in combat - sooo, we’re a soulslike now? Fun game, and the fact that Epic remade over 1,200 skins to suit the LEGO-verse is crazy in itself.