Tag: Void Stranger

It's the box-pushing festival on Steam, these are the games you must not miss for anything in the world

The genre of moving boxes, sokoban, may not be the most appealing to most players. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it has excellent video games. Moving boxes sounds like something that isn’t fun, but when done well and integrated into the logic of puzzles, or even other genres, it results in excellent games. And what better opportunity to check it out than with the Steam Box Pushing Festival? We have to admit that there are several games we love that aren’t discounted, but we have still managed to gather five moving games […]

The genre of moving boxes, sokoban, may not be the most appealing to most players. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that it has excellent video games. Moving boxes sounds like something that isn’t fun, but when done well and integrated into the logic of puzzles, or even other genres, it results in excellent games. And what better opportunity to prove it than with the Steam Box Pushing Festival?

We have to admit that there are several games we love that are not on sale, but we have still managed to gather five box-pushing games with a generous discount that you shouldn’t miss. Because sokoban is great. Sokoban is life. And we are going to prove it to you with these five games that you shouldn’t miss for anything in the world. Even if your first reaction to the idea of box-pushing games is to think that we are crazy for saying that all these games are great.

Stephen’s Sausage Roll (€8.69 / -70%)

To begin with, technically we don’t push boxes. We push sausages. And we do it in one of the most absolutely brilliant puzzles of the last decade, which knows how to play excellently with humor, extraordinarily complex scenarios, and puzzles that are much more complex than they seem at first glance. Doesn’t it seem so because of its premise? We have to move sausages. With a kind of meatball using a fork. But trust us: Stephen’s Sausage Roll is a game you shouldn’t miss for anything in the world.

Isles of Sea and Sky (€9.75 / -50%)

If you love Zelditas, the 2D Zeldas from NES, SNES, and Game Boy, then you can’t miss the best Zeldita that hasn’t come from Nintendo in years. It’s also a sokoban! Because Isles of Sea and Sky is exactly what one would expect from a 2D The Legend of Zelda, but placing a lot of emphasis on puzzles and moving boxes. All of this with excellent art and brilliant mechanics that will delight fans of the Nintendo franchise.

SquishCraft (€3.41 / -40%)

Another very particular sokoban, this time about combining boxes. If we push two boxes with the same texture together, it will form a new box with a new texture. From there, we will have to figure out how to overcome its 60 levels, all based on this premise: squashing boxes. But do we only squash boxes? Maybe. But to find out, you’ll have to play it and discover why, for many, it was the hidden GOTY of 2022.

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure (€8.99 / -50%)

What if instead of moving yourself to move the objects in the world, you moved the world to move yourself and the objects that are in your same line? That’s what the absolutely brilliant Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is about, a game as beautiful as it is absolutely fascinating, which also reminds one of the 2D The Legend of Zelda, but in a very personal way. One of those absolutely unique games.

Void Stranger (€9.07 / -23%)

We saved the best game for last. The true GOTY of 2023. An absolute monster absolutely impossible to System Erasure that if it’s not the best puzzle game in history, it’s at least in the conversation. Void Stranger is a box-moving game and is infinitely more than that. Narratively fascinating and mechanically brilliant, it is one of the densest, most complex, and profound games you have ever played. If you like puzzle games, take our word for it: this is the best one out there, whether it’s about moving boxes or anything else.

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These have been the best indie video games of 2023 according to the critics

The world of indie video games is vast, but critics have sifted through to determine the best ones, and we bring you a list of them for you to enjoy.

It is undeniable that during 2023 an obscene amount of great games have been released. That’s why it has been impossible to keep up with everything. Even more so if we talk about such a complex space to navigate as the indie scene. That’s why we made this list. To tell you which are the best indies of the year, in our opinion, and the reasons why you shouldn’t miss them.

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A Space for the Unbound

Indonesia is far away from us, but A Space for the Unbound does the impossible: it makes us feel like we have lived there in a rural area in the late 90s. With fabulous art, beautiful music, and a story that touches delicate themes with immeasurable grace, A Space for the Unbound is one of the games that has gone unnoticed the most and deserves all its accolades. A small masterpiece that proves that gems are made in every part of the world. Not only in Europe, the US, and Japan.

Cocoon

Jeppe Carlsen, designer of two authentic wonders like Limbo and Inside, decided to take his time to make his magnum opus. And it has been worth it. Cocoon is a delicate, intelligent and extremely polished work. Its puzzles may seem simple at first glance, but they hide multiple layers and extreme delicacy behind them. And like the other great puzzle games of this year, a narrative much deeper than it seems.

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Humanity

From Tetsuya Mizuguchi, creator of Rez and Tetris Effect, we expect nothing less than excellence. That’s why we weren’t surprised when Humanity offered us exactly that. Putting ourselves in the skin of a shiba-inu, we must guide humanity through its destiny, giving them directions on the ground so they know where to go. Easy to understand, not so easy to complete, and very difficult to fully conclude, it is a prodigy of puzzle design and, although it may not seem like it from the outside, one of the most heartfelt games of 2023.

Mediterranean Inferno

Visual novels have an unjustified bad reputation. Mediterranea Inferno proves it with an adventure about millennial anxiety, the consequences of confinement and the pandemic, and what it means to grow older in a society obsessed with youth. All with excessive imagery, heavily inspired by Dario Argento’s giallo, and LGBTQ+ culture. Do you need to be a millennial or gay to enjoy this game? No. Because even those who are not, will find something true resonating in the heart of Mediterranea Inferno.

Pizza Tower

Intense, complex, and for a very specific audience, Pizza Tower is the spiritual successor to Wario Land that we were all waiting for. As if a cartoon character were having an anxiety attack and decided to avoid it at all costs, everything in Pizza Tower is aggressive and hilarious. And at the same time, it is perfectly designed. An example of prodigious design and how a great game can be made that simply isn’t for everyone.

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Pseudoregalia

Although platform games are still being made, a certain type of games in this genre were only made for a very short period of time. For example, Super Mario 64-style games were only made for a few years. That’s why it’s amazing to see a game like Pseudoregalia, which rescues that kind of design and takes it to a level where we break it with combinations of insane jumps. A prodigy that no lover of the early 3D platformers should miss.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

The latest game from the Spanish developers Deconstructeam is probably their best game to date. Playing as an exiled witch on an asteroid, we will have to predict the future of other witches using tarot cards that we design ourselves. All of this leads to a stunning story, accompanied by amazing art, writing, and music, which speaks to both the game and the player.

Void Stranger

What starts as a simple game of pushing boxes to reach the stairs and keep going down, soon becomes something more. The puzzles become stranger, the narrative becomes obscure, and everything we took for granted becomes complicated. Throw away all the expectations you had before playing Void Stranger. Do you like puzzle games? Then play this game without knowing anything else. You won’t regret it.

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