This is it, kiddos! The grace period is over. The backlog is about to get even less logged (more clogged?), and the current GOTY lists are about to be turned upside down. September is officially upon us—press F to pay respects to all those poor developers who are trying to avoid the shadow of a game that will never release this year and are instead fighting to the death in an extremely packed launch window.
While I’m beyond excited about the flood of titles coming our way over the next few weeks, let me take a second to reflect on what I got through over the past 30 days.
Denshattack!
Starting this list off with a Shmizzleboo! (See, I can make a random word too.) Denshattack! is a crazy game to try and describe. You’re a train that does kickflips and railgrinds around a dystopian Japan while winning the respect and love of hardened gang leaders.
Huh, guess it’s actually not that hard to describe.
Regardless, it’s a heck of a lot of fun. It’s flashy, frantic, and some other f-word—but like a good f-word. Hmmm, I’m doing a bad job here; just check out our review below.
Schrödinger’s Call
This game made me cry. Turns out, once I had one of my own, I’m a donzo when kids are involved. It’s worth going into this blind (as so many on this list are). I don’t personally love the visual novel genre, but I’m very happy I gave this a chance. I can honestly say this is a masterclass in subverting expectations and storytelling.
Sovereign Tower
I’ll come clean. This is actually the last game I finished this month. I just pulled it up on the list because I really wanted to include it in the thumbnail.
Every year, there’s a game that surprises me with how much it sticks in my brain, and this year I found myself thinking about Sovereign Tower a lot. The writing and humor are quite good, and I genuinely enjoyed the hemming and hawing over which missions to take and who to lead them. I have some thoughts on the UI/UX side of things—I’m a pretentious designer like that—but overall I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this 12-hour romp.
Splatoon Raiders
Splatoon Raiders is a perfectly good Switch 2 game. It plays well, runs great, looks nice, and has loads of content. I’m not embarrassed to admit I exclusively played this in handheld mode, on the couch, watching Love Island (UK Season 13) with my wife. That said, I couldn’t help but miss what I’ll call “actual” Splatoon. While this shows promise for a proper fourth entry, I want to go head-to-head with people and splat with my friends.
ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs
This takes the slot of my monthly “podcast game.” Something I can play and zone out with while catching up on Christopher Dring’s soothing business recap. It gets a little repetitive by the end (the game, not the podcast). Still, there was definitely a cozy feeling in brushing the dirt out of my 50th totally-not-a-PlayStation-system before slapping some yellow paint on it as my shop’s signature. There’s a slight chance I was working for the mob the whole time, but I’ll be honest, I kind of lost the plot while I listened to the current state of the gaming business.
In a total meta move, you can listen to our podcast about this very game below!
Halo: Campaign Evolved
“It’ll be the best way to play the original Halo,” I said.
“It’ll score in the 90s easily,” I said.
“You’re an idiot, and I know better than you, dummy dumb,” Jon thinks I said.
Whatever may or may not have been said, this game fell on the disappointing side of the fence. Sure, it had some work done—some things tucked and nipped—but at the end of the day, great lighting and visuals can’t keep Chief standing on one leg while the other (multiplayer) is amputated. My argument from the beginning was that this was supposed to showcase what Unreal Engine 5 can bring to the series. The problem is, more than half the cutscenes didn’t play; I had my graphical and control settings reset every time I launched; and, oh yeah, I DIDN’T GET MY “LEGENDARY-COMPLETE” ACHIEVEMENT. It’s fine. I’m fine.
If you want to hear the full rant, I linked it below.
Ocean Survivors
This was a super quick entry for me, having beaten it on the first run and having other things to get to, but for being the dude’s first game, I applaud how well it looked, how smoothly it handled, and how positive the comments are on Steam. It might not be the deepest entry in the genre, but a fantastic start deserves praise. Congratulations, and best of luck, Ralf!
Nautical Survival
Look, it was nautical week on Steam, okay?! What was I supposed to do? Not play every one of these? For what it’s worth, this one handles, looks, and plays extremely differently, and it nails it. The strategies kept evolving; the shift from “this weapon sucks” to “oh, just kidding, it’s goated” was constant. It includes everything you want in a game like this. While not my favorite art style (I actually prefer the one above), it uses its aesthetic well.
Twisted Tower
I’m not a horror guy, save for one series: BioShock. Okay, and maybe Alan Wake. And Control. Resident Evil, obviously. Wait… am I a horror guy? No. NO. Back on track (that’s actually a pun for this game). To be fair, Twisted Tower evokes a lot of what you felt when you first set foot in Rapture. The mystery, the droning bad guy who wants to be appreciated, the creepy people who sound squishy when you use the first melee weapon you find to beat their skulls in. You can tell where the inspiration is pulled from. Yet sometimes when you walk too close to what you’re inspired by, the differences are way more obvious. To be clear, I don’t think this is a bad game. For all intents and purposes, it’s actually very well made. It’s just not BioShock, and I’m an unfair jerk.