Let's Try: Curse Crackers: For whom the Belle Toils, Revolver and Co, and Calm Horizon
0It's the Indie Game Wednesday roundup for Wednesday, September 7th, 2022.
- Intro: 00:00
- Curse Crackers: For whom the Belle Toils: 0:02:02
- STRAWBERRY CUBES (I played it for a couple minutes and it just hurt my head so I stopped): 1:20:19
- Revolver and Co: 1:24:17
- Calm Horizon: 1:48:40
Curse Crackers: For whom the Belle Toils is a mouthful of a name, but a hell of a game. It's taking a lot of inspiration from GBC/GBA era games, with it's limited palette, chiptune, and overall aesthetic, but none of it feels cheap or kitschy. This feels like an authentic game for the time you'd think it was made for, but it's modern! It supports modern controller setups, high res screens, etc. I didn't get a whole lot of story in this demo, but near as I can tell: you are some sort of magic acrobat, whos date is stolen by I think an ex-lover/friend/co-worker, and you have go save them, River City Ransom style. You traverse the levels, smashing baddies and having some interesting, if simple, boss flights. There are unlockable items for doing side quests, trial medals for each level, collectables, the works. There's a lot in this game for everyone
STRAWBERRY CUBES is.. something. It's got a very distinct look, sound, etc going for it. Unfortunately looking at that game hurt my head way too much, and I'm pretty sure it tried to destroy my bitrate. I simply cannot pass judgement on it here.
Revolver and Co is a trivia game at it's heart, but it wraps a fun narrative around it as well as a few extra mechanics to spice things up. The gist is that you have a gun, and you solve trivia with it. The closer you are to the actual answer, the less ammo you use. There's a whole slew of categories of knowledge, as well as some power-ups you can use to make things easier/more interesting as you play through. There is a light story wrapped around the level progression with some cute if RaNdOm characters.
Calm Horizon is all about sailing a boat without a compass, which seems like a bad idea in my opinion. You are tasked with finding your grandparents, whos boat was wrecked. They've washed up on an island, and you've gotta track them down. You have to follow the sun, stars, and directions from the few populated islands you come across. It's an interesting game, and tries its best to keep things calm, but wow does it feel bad if you're off your trajectory by a bit. There's no easy way to reset to the last instruction point, so you have to manually sail back and just... try again. It's a cute game and with a bit of polish, it could really shine.
Game info:
Curse Crackers: For whom the Belle Toils: https://www.colorgrave.com/curse-crackers-for-whom-the-belle-toils/
Revolver and Co: https://ci.itch.io/revolver-and-co
Calm Horizon: https://rayvshimself.itch.io/calm-horizon-ggj
——————————————
Watch me struggle live: https://twitch.tv/cdutson
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cdutson
Join my discord to catch more: https://discord.gg/u3w2HJ796W