It is time again for a fortnightly dose of nonsense about video games. It’s volume 11 of Indie Insights, and it’s a real variety pack of genres this week. It’s as if I popped to the shops and picked up one of those packs of tiny little cereal boxes. Sure, they are technically all the same thing, but Coco Pops are a universe away from Cornflakes.
Yes, we’re having an extra unhinged edition of the column this fortnight because I haven’t slept properly for weeks. I’m running purely on the high of We Love Katamari Reroll and the horror of Amnesia: The Bunker (review soon!) Anyway, I digress; time for games!
Landlord’s Super – Steam
It’s time to go back to the 1980s in England! What will we be doing? Being neon and hanging out at discos? Hanging about in a graveyard listening to The Cure? Nope. You are living in the Hell that was Thatcher’s Britain. I am from England and was born in the 80s, so I know about the joy of Thatcher. Long story short, she was Prime Minister and doomed large swathes of the population to unemployment. That’s the broad strokes.
Anyway, you are a new property owner in this game from Minskworks and Yogscast Games. It’s a bit of a fixer-upper (several walls, doors, windows, and roof sections are gone), but you are determined to do the place up. Along with the renovations, there are a myriad of other things to accomplish, like looking for employment, helping out the local pub landlord, and searching for scrap.
You have to monitor your needs, à la The Sims, and learn how to do specific building and renovation tasks as you go. It’s a first-person game; you simply have to look down to access things like your journal. I say simply, but trying to actually select the journal is a massive pain. There’s no direction about what to do when you begin. You receive some mail and find out you have a property and owe someone money for the mortgage.
After you meet the landlord of the local pub trying to break into your newly acquired hovel, you have to meet him at his establishment to learn the ropes. It doesn’t tell you where that is or how to get there. Now in full release, Landlord’s Super is a fun novelty for a bit but soon becomes dull and glitchy. It’s a mash-up of games like My Summer Car and House Flipper but misses the mark.
Landlord’s Super is out now on Steam
Grow Your Pets – Steam
This lo-fi Tamagotchi-style game is from Soulwarmers and is designed to be a light and chill game that you can hop in and out of. As the title suggests, you have pets to hatch and raise. There are 15 types of pets to collect, each with different stats. The game aims to level up your animals and fill up your bestiary and collections.
There are different areas of the map to travel to that will present different challenges and mini-games. In the town, you can pick up order requests from the noticeboard, do a little gambling, and buy and sell from the trader. Additionally, you can also talk to the trader about certain things in the world, including finding souls and enacting an ancient ritual. Dungeons are available to run with your pets in the forest, fight creatures, and find items. You can also go to the docks and fish and explore other areas too. Furthermore, you can even farm some crops on a small farming plot.
There are 25 tracks of lo-fi music to enjoy while you play, and while it is a simple game, I found it really addictive. Events in the forest are pretty repetitive. There’s a weird little pinecone dude who appears and gives you gifts and a greedy goblin that asks for coins in exchange for shortcuts. They pop up incredibly frequently, and a little more variety would benefit the gameplay. Is it an in-depth experience? No, but it isn’t meant to be. It’s a fun distraction.
Grow Your Pets is out now on Steam
Olliefrog Toad Skater – Steam Demo
If, like me, you have ever wanted to be a frog and also a skater, behold a game made for you. Developer Mr. Thee has made it so that you can become a rad and round amphibian and flip your way around various levels. It is literally Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater: Frog Edition.
There is a wide range of customization options for your rotund avatar, from different colored and patterned skin to facial hair, weird hats, and a customizable skate deck, trucks, and wheels. I spent excessive time making my new son, Froggins, the correct shade of purple and giving him the fanciest of hats (another, smaller frog) before setting off on my mission to do a 1080 flip and crush Tony Hawk’s legacy into the ground.
Currently, only three levels plus the tutorial are available in the demo, but it’s enough to get a feel for the game and what more could come. If you love Tony Hawk’s games, then you’ll love Olliefrog. It is definitely best to play using a controller because trying to coordinate tricks on a keyboard, as I did initially, is a nightmare.
Olliefrog Toad Skater will be available in late 2023, with a demo on Steam.
Upcoming Releases
- Free-to-play PvP rhythm shooter Blasterbeat comes to early access on June 9.
- Narrative adventure game Dordogne comes to PC, Mac, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch on June 13.
- Dark fantasy game Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow comes to PC on June 14.
- Platforming adventure Fall of Porcupine comes to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and Nintendo Switch on June 15.
- Puppet Combo’s horror game Stay Out of The House comes to consoles PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on June 16.
- Resource management base builder Nova Lands comes to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and Nintendo Switch June 22.
