Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit (Mega Cat Studios)
Into the Pit, the new chapter in the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, centers around a young boy named Oswald who lives in a rundown town, facing economic collapse after the local Mill closed years prior. When exploring the local pizza restaurant, Oswald jumps into a ball pit and mysteriously travels back to the 1980s, when the restaurant was a packed Freddy’s Pizza. The restaurant is soon filled with violence as an animatronic attacks the children present and terrorizes Oswald, both in the 1980s and his current day.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit takes a new spin on the franchise and the short story for children by Scott Cawthon and Elley Coop that it adapts. Rather than building fear and anxiety through jump scares, this game relies heavily on dialogue-driven plot and characterization to build suspense. Its pixelated art style also adds to the game’s ambiance, making the player feel like they are playing a 1980s video game. This game is a strong addition to the Five Nights at Freddy’s series and begins a new chapter separate from the previous installments. – Samantha Trzinski
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (A44 Games)
How many Soulslike games with companions can you think of—especially if one of them happens to be a charming, magical fox? New Zealand studio A44 Games has made a name for itself with this know-how. In their first game, Ashen, the main character is accompanied by a stern human partner in a brutal, sunless world. In their second project, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, they give us a fox-like creature named Enki. Enki is also a god.
With his help, which includes teleportation and various magical abilities, the main character—leader of the Blackstream Sappers, Nor Vanek, who is suspiciously reminiscent of Zendaya—is invited to save humanity, fighting the old Gods and hordes of undead.
Flintlock refers to firearms with a flint-striking ignition mechanism that was popular between the 16th and 19th centuries, perfectly capturing the game’s setting. Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn features a semi-open world structure, with cozy villages, grand castles, and other structures straight out of the playbook of the near-Industrial Revolution era. A44 Games has masterfully squeezed every bit of beauty out of this fantasy-meets-steampunk genre. Overall, they have crafted a convincing Soulslike game with plenty of exciting options and blended it with a smart Metroidvania-like level design.
Don’t believe the 70/100 Metacritic score. A44 Games has delivered a stylish, technically refined, and—despite its minimalism and modest budget—a deeply engaging project that leaves us anticipating the next move from this young and promising studio. – Igor Bannikov
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Grezzo, Nintendo)
This is the year of Nintendo’s princesses, often overshadowed by the male protagonists in their respective games. The release of Princess Peach: Showtime! gives the Mushroom Kingdom’s monarch some much-needed limelight. Similarly, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom finally gives the titular Princess Zelda the spotlight. This platformer returned to The Legend of Zelda games of a pre-Breath-of-the-Wild era in gameplay mechanics, focusing on dungeon exploration and key-item-based progression rather than open-world exploration.
Echoes of Wisdom begins with Link rescuing Zelda from Ganon. However, Link falls into a rift during this rescue and disappears into the Still World. It is up to Zelda to save Link and Hyrule by repairing the rifts. Because the game centers around Zelda, its mechanics differ from earlier examples in The Legend of Zelda franchise. Though the Hyrulian princess can use a sword and shield like Link, she also uses magic to fight enemies. This game is a welcome installment in The Legend of Zelda series and grants some much-needed autonomy to its heroine. – Samantha Trzinski
Little Kitty, Big City (Double Dagger Studio)
Double Dagger Studio’s release of Little Kitty, Big City lets players experience an open-world adventure as a black cat lost in the streets of a Japanese city. As the player navigates the cat back to its apartment, they can interact with the city by catching birds, jumping into boxes, stealing items, and communicating with other animals.
The release of Stray in 2022 gave players the chance to assume the role of a cat in an adventure game, and it was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews. Little Kitty, Big City employs similar gameplay mechanics, inviting the player to maneuver a cat through a large city. However, it is more relaxed and slower-paced than Stray. Rather than being narrative-driven, Little Kitty, Big City is experiential, allowing the player to see the world through a cat’s point of view. – Samantha Trzinski
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (Digital Eclipse)
Most video games seem disposable next to Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series. The second game in the series, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, is an interactive museum and compilation of dozens of games by indie developer Llamasoft. Designer Jeff Minter is an underappreciated figure in video game history. Minter subscribes to the maxim that playing a game should be its own reward. His creations are as strange as they are fun. Some games included are Gridrunner, a classic shooter; Llamatron, the name speaks for itself; Psychedelia, a light synthesizer; and one of the greatest games ever made, Tempest 2000.
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story’s bold premise is combined with its sleek interface, presentation, and accessibility options. Llamasoft’s symphony of outer space, camelids, beasties, neon bursts, arcade shooters, and light synthesizers signal that Minter is ahead of the curve. Indeed, Minter is the plutonic embodiment of the indie developer. By playing Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, you will get a greater appreciation of Minter’s contributions to interactive entertainment and the art of video games. Look to the past to see the future. – Luis Aguasvivas
Metaphor: ReFantazio ( Studio Zero, Atlus)
Imagine Persona games with their signature stylish design of everything and well-known social simulation elements, but set in a well-thought-out fantasy world, featuring a host of well-developed characters and enemies influenced by Hieronymus Bosch. Sounds promising, right? Thanks to Studio Zero, an internal development division of Atlus, a company best known for the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, we can now invest hundreds of hours of our free time into dungeon crawling, chatting with our party, and engaging in challenging turn-based fights in a fantasy setting.
Metaphor: ReFantazio‘s story takes place in the United Kingdom of Euchronia. As the protagonist, Will, we set out to find a cure for the heir to the throne, who has been cursed to fall into an eternal slumber. The significant part of our journey, of course, revolves around gathering a good old party. “No, not that party. The other one,” as they say. Fortunately, you and your companions will soon learn to summon mysterious entities called Archetypes, similar to Personas from the eponymous series. Who knew performing the same kinds of chores as in Persona games could be so fun when set in a dark medieval world full of conspiracies, poverty, elves, and magic?
At times, Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like a highly psychedelic game inspired by the lore of Flaming Lips‘ songs and the aesthetics of Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s films. This atmosphere is largely thanks to its amazing anime cutscenes, which could easily be a standalone hit on Netflix. – Igor Bannikov
MySims Cozy Bundle (Electronic Arts)
The release of the MySims Cozy Bundle was much anticipated by people who played MySims and MySims Kingdom on the Wii in the early 2000s. This remastered version of two top-selling MySims games lets players make friends as they adventure through the two games and apply their creativity as they design furniture and customize the world. Though these games do not differ much from their Wii predecessors, they bring the MySims franchise to a new generation of players and allow older gamers to revisit a childhood favorite.
By calling this release the “cozy bundle”, Electronic Arts invites the player to think of it alongside other hit cozy games, such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. This game may offer nostalgia to adult players, but it also encourages light-hearted and stress-free gameplay to players of all ages. The finicky controls when building furniture in MySims may frustrate some players, but these games’ overwhelmingly peaceful nature and slow pace make them an altogether positive experience. – Samantha Trzinski
Phoenix Springs (Calligram Studio)
The mystery of Phoenix Springs is a haunted illusion. Calligram Studio has made a poetic dreamscape disguised as an adventure game. As Iris (two of this year’s best games have a main character named Iris) investigates the whereabouts of her brother, you will go into a frenzied state with each narrative turn.
Phoenix Springs is a singular vision. Each team member involved in making this game played their part in making this a future classic. – Luis Aguasvivas
See also “Phoenix Springs’ Journey to Nowhere Is Worth It“.