Dark Quest 4 Xbox Series X Review 8/10 *A Quest Very Much For Heroes* 🎲⚔️🧙‍♂️ @brainseal #IndieGame #GameDev

Dark Quest 3 was installed on my Xbox for a very long time back in 2023/24 when I covered it, and earlier this year I covered Brain Seal’s Blow It Up! Which was also a good time. 

Whilst I haven’t played the first two iterations of the Dark Quest series, I can tell you that whilst it looks the same in trailers, and the artwork and characters are familiar, this is a different beast to Dark Quest 3, moving away from random encounters and luck-based sections, and more towards a style of gameplay that feels more akin to the quest-based Hero Quest board game that Dark Quest gets some of its inspiration from. 

Whilst this does freshen things up, it also feels oddly stripped back, as the mechanics now feel quite bare, and I found myself wishing for a little more depth and camera control, especially in areas where parts of the environment were a mystery to me because of the locked view.

Desert Race Adventures Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "Oregon Trail With Less Dysentery and More Horsepower!" 🚛 @bssgameshq #IndieGame #GameDev

This new title from Firedrake Games is a rally game with a difference, as opposed to actually racing, your vehicle instead trundles on regardless as you take a backseat from driving, and instead focus on the logistical side of this mammoth task – which is driving across Europe and Africa.

With some lovely pixel visuals, and simple, looping music to keep you company on your trip, Desert Race Adventures begins with choosing your driver and co-driver from the six available and selecting up to three items for your vehicle loadout. 

Whilst each driver / co-driver has their own strengths and accompanying weaknesses – perhaps they fatigue slower, or require less nourishment than the other, greedier drivers, but also suffer more in crashes – the balancing act of switching between the stock in your limited carrying space makes up a very important part of your journey.

Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 Xbox Series X Review 8/10 *Spooky Match 3 Action!* ⏹️🔼⏺️ 🦖 @StrangeScaffold #IndieGame #GameDev

I had no idea what to expect when I was installing Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3, but it very quickly became apparent that I was going to love it. 

A hybrid game that blends traditional Match 3 style gameplay with light horror-comedy elements in a setting that becomes very meta very quickly, it initially feels like a hodgepodge of ideas on paper that somehow works surprisingly well together in practicality!

Heading Out Xbox Series X Review 8 /10 "drive your fears away" 🚗💨 @SeriousSimGames @CrunchingKoalas #IndieGame #GameDev

Heading Out single-handedly saved my entire weekend recently, I had a rare free day and fully intended to veg out on the couch, getting slowly tipsy on bourbon whilst diving into some gaming gold. Unfortunately, the gaming ‘gold’ that I initially decided upon was the recent Game Pass title ‘Dragon Age: Veilguard’ which I’ve been keenly awaiting since release last year, having been a huge fan of the previous Dragon Age games. Within a couple of hours, I was deflated, morose, underwhelmed…and quite frankly uninstalling Dragon Age: Veilguard quicker than Oliver Reed can get the free drinks vouchers out of his pocket at a wedding.

Having no intention of playing further through the insipid, tedious game, I was flustered as to where to turn next, my Saturday plans lay in ruins. It was then that I remembered I had been sent the review code for Heading Out and decided that it could be a saucy palette-cleanser, and indeed it was, thank you, Serious Sim!

Canine PS5 Review 7/10 “All Charm and Some Bite” 🐺 @PuKoStudio #IndieGame #GameDev

I’m going to start my review of this horror game by not talking about gore, or darkness, or being scared… but about charm. Now, when talking about things that one finds important in a game, charm isn’t usually at the forefront - but I find that it can go a long way, and I found both Canine and its overall message really charming, there is a real sincerity to it, the love for both horror and dogs shines through and although without it Canine would still be enjoyable, the heart makes it much more special.

You play as a boy who has lost his dog, Tomy, I want to at this point inform both spell check and my editor - it is just Tomy with one ‘m’ (noted, maybe they named him after a much-loved Japanese toy company? – ed). You find out he has been taken by a company called Umbral. It is not really a spoiler to say this, as they are a company in a video game which means they are as evil as… well companies in real life, I suppose - so very quickly you realise that you need to get your dog and leave. In most horror games you have a weapon to defend yourself, such as a handgun or perhaps shotgun, heck - in Resident Evil you even fire a rocket launcher! 

Echoes of The End Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "a visually stunning action-adventure title that fails to entirely engage" ⚔️ @MyrkurGames @deepsilver #IndieGame #GameDev

Myrkur Games began work on Echoes of the End back in 2016, and that length of time and dedication shines through in a lot of the visuals and audio work, but the core puzzling that makes up the bulk of the gameplay feels somewhat inserted, and actively works against the games’ strengths, meaning that each area soon stops feeling exciting and evocative, as you instead grit your teeth and wonder what contrived puzzle you’ll have to work your way past in order to proceed further through this genuinely beautiful and desolate world.

Echoes of the End begins with Ryn, our heroine, and her younger brother Cor, as they make their way through a rocky, mountainous region of their land of Aema. Ryn is a ‘vestige’, a person who has magical powers feared by the majority, leaving her a fiercely independent spirit who prefers solace to the city. Cor, on the other hand, is a youthful optimist that seeks out adventure naively, often at his own risk. As the game begins, we find that large, vital crystal formations called ‘wards’ have begun to be destroyed, and whilst trying to find out what is causing this, Cor gets kidnapped, leaving Ryn to try and locate him with the help of Abram, a mysterious older adventurer that luckily happens across her path just as her brother is taken away.

Our Summer Festival 2 Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "A Bunch of Mini-Games Set in a Japanese Festival" 🎈 @SAT_BOX_2011 #IndieGame #GameDev

We’ve covered a few Sat Box games here at GF, with the most recent being the very enjoyable Desktop Golf. This newest title takes us away from the links and instead plonks you and up to three other players in a Japanese festival in which you will find yourself doing everything from fishing through to dancing, and even cooking!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown Xbox Series X Review 8/10 ‘Turtle Renaissance’ 💙🐢 @StrangeScaffold #IndieGame #GameDev

Leonardo leads.

Donatello does machines.
Raphael is cool but crude.
Michelangelo is a party dude.

Anyone (over forty) knows this to be true. Though “doing” machines is not something one ought to interrogate too closely. Anyway, I, like everyone I knew at school, loved the Turtles (NB. ‘Ninja’ in America, ‘Hero’ in soft-shelled Britain). And this game from Strange Scaffold promises to bring back the radicalness of the teen greens and blend it with turn-based tactics.

I am a great fan of the XCOM and Rabbids games, and as a starting point, TMNT:TT (as I’ll snappily refer to it) can be summed up as just that, a mix of those two. It’s not as detailed as XCOM, and it isn’t as silly and fun as Rabbids, but it manages to succeed on its own terms.

Alien Breakout Nintendo Switch Review 8.5/10 "An accessible, 100 level alien platformer!" 👽 @Vergiuu @eastasiasoft #IndieGame #GameDev

It’s easy to get burned out on certain genres, many times over the years I’ve moved from one epic RPG to the next and just sighed at the sheer weight of time-suck that I know is about to take place, and I’ve learned to switch to shorter, more succinct titles whenever this happens so that I don’t lose interest in gaming for a while. 

I was recently at this very point, and so fancied covering a few titles that were a little more pick-up-and-play friendly in style, cue Alien Breakout from developer Vergiu and publisher Eastasiasoft, folks who very much have a taste for this genre of games - a simple 2D platformer that’s perfect for beginners, has a player-friendly learning curve, and is just the ticket for some quick blasts of action!

Golden Tee Arcade Classics Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "True Golf Classics Approach The Tee Once More" ⛳ @DigitalEclipse #RetroGaming

The Golden tee series of golf games were a mainstay in arcades here in the UK back in the ‘90s, and I have many fond memories of playing them throughout the country on various holidays and trips (and more recently, thanks to the awesome folks at Timewarp Arcade in Bridgwater). It was always good to see golf games in amusement centres, with the main two being the Golden Tee series and of course, the mighty Neo Turf Masters.

What set Golden Tee apart, however, was the trackball…which we will talk about later.

Collectible Cars Shop Simulator Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "That Endless Loop Has Become Oddly Relaxing" 🚗 @nostra_games_ #IndieGame #GameDev

Being the father of a four year old that has more Hot Wheels cars in our house than Oliver Reed has receipts from Oddbins in his back pocket, the chance to cover Nostra Games’ Collectible Cars Shop Simulator was one that I leapt at. 

Whilst it feels very ‘assety’ as a lot of the ‘simulator’ games can be, the lack of variety in NPC character models, fiddly controls, and endlessly looping music couldn’t put a dent in my enjoyment of the core gameplay – opening the store, hiring staff, upgrading where possible, and making dosh off flogging those sweet, sweet toy cars before closing up for the night and doing it all over again the next day.

Labyrinth of the Demon King PS5 Review 8/10 “Let’s Horror like its 1996” @jrhudepohl #IndieGame #GameDev

I must admit, when I first started Labyrinth of the Demon King I had a horrible feeling. Upon seeing tons of fog and noticing that, when you saved it flashed red - it dawned on me, “Oh, there are some real Silent Hill influences in the game” which should delight me as the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series of games are two of my favourites, but playing and reviewing horror games has kinda burnt me out on them, so many games are inspired by and take influence from them that it has just lessened the enjoyment. Luckily, within about thirty minutes I realised that, no, this is the good kind of influence - gentle nods but a completely different experience, so I dived in, kept playing and had a wonderful yet brutally awful experience.

All You Need is Help! – Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "Tetris Inspired Funky Family Fun" 🧶 @PixelJunkNews #IndieGame #GameDev

Whenever a four player co-op video game drops into the Games Freezer I immediately think, "Will this make it onto our Best Video Games To Play With Your Kids list?" Some of my best times playing video games come from gathering around the Nintendo Switch at the BIG telly and playing four player Minecraft, Mario Kart or Overcooked and I'm always super keen to add more good times to the ever growing list. All you need is help gets a lot of things right to make it onto the list but slightly falls down on other things which means it's not an all time classic co op game.

In the ever-growing pantheon of indie party games, All You Need is Help! brings a nice cosy dose of teamwork, miscommunication, and gloriously silly chaos. The game has been developed and published by Q Games who always seem to be bring out some fun arcade style video games on the Switch.

Ready or Not Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “A Surprisingly Dark Descent Tied To SWAT Tactics” 👮‍♀️💥 @VOIDInteractive #IndieGame #GameDev

I tend to play online co-op games with fellow GFer Transvaal, and our usual approach of ‘shoot, shoot, shoot’ sometimes hits a wall when playing games frolicking on the more tactical side of life, such as here with VOID Interactive’s Ready or Not, a game playable in both single and multiplayer modes that casts you in the role of a SWAT team commander in the fictional Los Suenos Police Department (LSPD) as you make your way through a surprisingly generous amount of missions, in the hope of arresting the guilty whilst protecting the innocent. Each mission leading on from the last – although you wouldn’t necessarily know this until you get a high enough ranking in completion of said missions, which adds key context to your actions, filling out the narrative background.

Victory Heat Rally Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "A Super Vibrant Retro Racer" 🚗💨 @skydevilpalm @PTonicFriends @VHRgame #GameDev #IndieGame

A vibrant racing game with retro-arcade style mechanics, Victory Heat Rally makes a great first impression with its energetic audio, bright graphics and kinetic sense of energy. Indeed, whilst the devs of Victory Heat Rally are based in LA, it’s very easy to assume that this is a Japanese-made game, so strong are those classic arcade vibes! 

Featuring many stages and environments, the order of the day here is super-fast arcade racing. It’s a very bare bones setup in terms of the core game loop, the tracks are often short, and you can whip around them in around thirty seconds, with the high speed action being all about avoiding other cars and managing your boosts. 

Hole Digging Master Nintendo Switch Review 8/10 “Take a deep breath, and dig...deep.” 🕳️⛏️ @nostra_games_ #IndieGame #GameDev

I have to admit to covering Hole Digging Master out of sheer curiosity, the premise seemed somewhat bland, but hey – Fishing Vacation was awesome! There was also the fact that the trailer promises mysteries and treasures, tied to relaxing gameplay...good.

Hole Digging Master begins with a swift tutorial that introduces the game mechanics and core loop, that is – you dig, you sell, you upgrade...you dig. Played out entirely in POV, Hole Digging Master takes place entirely in a garage and the nearby garden, with a large square marked out on the grass, and the surrounding paraphernalia suggesting that the reason for digging – initially, at least! - is to get a swimming pool on the go. And so you grab your – erm – battery-powered shovel, and get to work. 

The Siege and The Sandfox PC Review 7/10 "A Cunningly Stunning Stealthvania That Lands On 3 Legs" 🦊 @siegeandsandfox #IndieGame #GameDev

Let me start by saying: I wanted to give this beautifully crafted game a higher score. From the moment it boots up, The Siege and the Sandfox dazzles with its pixel art—rich in detail, bursting with colour, and animated with a loving, frame-by-frame touch. The sound design is equally lush, with a narrator whose warm voice adds instant storybook gravitas to your journey.

The controls are intuitive—if you’ve played any platformer with climbing mechanics, you’ll feel right at home. On-screen prompts are crisp, and the stealth system is a genuine delight. You crouch to move silently, extinguish lights to melt into shadows, and monitor your tiptoeing like a true sneaky old fox in a one-hit-kill world.

Locomoto Nintendo Switch Review 8/10 “A wonderfully cosy train ride with a few unfortunate bumps” 🚂🚂🚂 @GreenTileGames #CosyGame #IndieGame #GameDev

As the father of a four year old who loves trains, Locomoto was a no-brainer when it came to having the chance to cover it. I don’t particularly have a history with the cosy game genre, but I have enjoyed Stardew Valley in the past, and watched my other half pound hundreds of hours into Animal Crossing over the years – a game I find too oddly regimented to enjoy.

Locomoto allows you to create an animal character, who naughtily ‘borrows’ an abandoned train in a bid to help the local villages and towns with the various issues that raise their cheeky heads, thus begins our adventures in the world of Locomoto.

Lies of P: Overture PS5 [DLC] Review 8/10 – "The Deserved Encore to a Twisted Puppet’s Tale" 🎻 @Liesofp #GameDev #IndieGame

When Lies of P launched in 2023, it stunned the Soulslike community with its twisted reimagining of Pinocchio’s tale. Now, with the Lies of P: Overture DLC, developer Round8 Studio proves that the puppet strings still have plenty of tension left. This DLC doesn’t just extend the story—it elevates the entire experience, delivering a prequel that’s as emotionally resonant as it is mechanically refined.

Set years before the events of the base game, Overture transports players to a Krat untouched by the full devastation of the Puppet Frenzy. The narrative uses time travel to explore the roots of the Petrification Disease and the Alchemist faction’s twisted experiments. You encounter characters whose fates were only hinted at in the original game, adding emotional weight and tragic irony to every interaction.

Kiborg Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "lock ‘n load...again, and again, and again" 👊💥 @SobakaStudio #IndieGame #GameDev

I was quite a keen follower of Kiborg during its development, developers Sobaka Studio (I previously covered their game Redeemer in a past, pre-GF life) very clearly have a knack for guttural combat, and the trailers promised a silky smooth 60fps title featuring some very involved melee combat that gnawed away at the part of me that still craves visceral versions of the 16-bit brawlers that used to rule the roost such as Streets of Rage, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs... and Crisis Beat. 

A genre that is very much alive today thanks to Lizardcube and Cartel Studios frankly amazing Mother Russia Bleeds (another blast from the past). Kiborg though, leaned into a 3D realm and seemed to encompass the glowing, beautiful future that titles such as Fighting Force merely hinted at. 

What Kiborg ended up delivering, however, was a brawling rogue-lite that has an incredible amount in it’s favour, but feels oddly limited by the very rogue genre that it so leans into. This is a solid and fun game that could have been truly great.