Interactive Melodies 001

Special Issue

A few words about less noisy games.

Exit Interview by chriscollins (Itch.io) — A wholesome experience about leaving the physical plane.

WHISKEY.ST2007S by Bonicle (Itch.io) — Absolutely unique first-person shopping cart whiskey mayhem. This is the next evolutionary step of vaporware.

Chalicebound by Warkus (Itch.io) — Chalicebound is an interactive expansion that pays homage to Plastiboo’s incredible Vermis books. It will leave you gasping for more.

Resident Evil 4 (Remake) (PS5) – A game fully aware of its nostalgia factor. Playing this was similar to rediscovering with maturity (and the capacity to drink) a country only visited as a child. I salute that they didn't smooth out the mechanics and tropes that are out of date too much. They just made them fun, embracing the anachronism.

Children of the Sun (Steamdeck) – Highly recommended. Think Silent Scope through Panos Cosmatos' Mandy with puzzle elements. The soundtrack by Aidan Baker (one half of doom metal duo Nadja) is straight fire.

Valfaris: Mecha Therion (Steamdeck) — The Contra: The Shattered Soldier of power metal is back in this sequel as a horizontal shmup, and it fully delivers: hectic, meaty carnage and heavy warcrimes weaponry.

Floor 13 (DOS) – I had the pleasure of revisiting this game for an upcoming collaborative article. It was as opaque, unrewarding, and unpleasant as I remembered, but in the best way possible. Interactive cybernetic necropolitics. It would have been Michel Foucault's favorite game. More about it later.

Mullet Madjack (Steamdeck) – Post Void mechanics transposed in an eighties anime. The sensorial chaos of PV performs here as a bloodlust generator amplified by over-the-top cynical concepts of the plot.

Wanted:Dead (PS5) – Some described it as the new generation Deadly Premonition, but this is its own beast entirely. Actually, reviews of this shooter/hack-and-slash hybrid generally missed the point of the object: ultraviolence for the sake of it and feline worship. Give it a try.

Revolution X (Arcade) – Playing this bloody Aerosmith take on Terminator 2: Arcade Game is more pleasant if you consider NON and Mistress Helga as representatives of Boyd Rice.

The Lost and the Wicked (Switch)—The art brut aesthetic of this twin-stick shooter was the main attraction for me. It's a weird game, with a nonsensical plot of guilt and revenge delivered through eerie structures of void and children's drawings of creepy crawlies. It is enjoyable, but due to lagging, it is nearly unplayable on Switch in the later levels.

Dead Island 2 (PS5) – The F.L.E.S.H. gore system was enough motivation for me to finish the game. So that's that.

Star Ocean: Second Story R (Switch) — I succumbed to nostalgia and made this my main entertainment for a 25-hour flight. I had some pleasure revisiting my favorite JRPG as a teenager, but it didn't age that well… except for the crafting system, which remains impressive. It's a shame that they changed the blobby 3D animation of the PS1.

Deathwish Enforcers (Switch) – Entirely forgettable, even if you're a fan of seventies macho 5-0 violence.

Cocoon (Switch) — As mentioned in my comments on Spheres by glkt, this is another example of Jeppe Carlsen's brilliance. Without a single word, Cocoon aspires you to its colorful and occult universe. Unfortunately, it's a tad too long, exhausting the sense of wonder at the midpoint.

Rooten (Switch) – I thoroughly enjoyed this slow-paced ecohorror game, which reminds me of movies such as In the Earth (2021), Gaia (2021), and Jeff VanderMeer's novels. Controls and terrain detection are awful – sometimes you can climb a surface, often not – but the creeping horror makes up for it.

tERRORbane (Switch) – The gameplay loop of "glitching the game" naturally flowed with my tendency to never go the right way. Not all the jokes hit the mark, but there are some gold nuggets here and there.