Inspector Waffles: Early Days Game Boy Color Review 9/10 "A Purrfect GBC game, this cat definitely gets the cream!" 🐈 @golosogames @Broke_Studio @HomebrewFactory #GameDev #IndieGame

A feline-centric police procedural with a lightness of touch and a sharpness in its design, Inspector Waffles: Early Days has very quickly become one of my favourite Game Boy games.

A prequel to Goloso Games’ 2021 release Inspector Waffles, Inspector Waffles: Early Days follows the cat detective in his rookie days, as he finds his place in Cat Town. 

Under the guiding eye of your partner, Pancakes (yes, this game will make you hungry), you’ll crack six cases in total, cases handed into your capable paws by your chief – Patches. 

The first of these cases deals with the theft of a rare video game cartridge (good!), and you’ll soon find yourself falling into the satisfying pattern of discovering clues, interrogating suspects and solving crimes– as well as hopefully discovering some secrets along the way!

Monster Train 2 XBOX Review 9/10 " One hell of a freight" 🚂👹 @TheMonsterTrain #IndieGame #GameDev

In most visions of apocalyptic battles between heaven and hell, between angels and demons, between God and the Devil itself, the battleground is a scarred wasteland and the warriors are on horseback, wielding swords and axes. Something distinctly more Tolkienesque than Shiny Shoe’s interpretation in the Monster Train games. If their idea is to be believed, then the final tussle on earth takes place in a train carriage more reminiscent of something halfway between Snowpiercer and the climatic fight in Broken Arrow.

But what of the game itself? I’ll get this out straight away. Fans of the original certainly need not worry. This is everything the first game was and more. Expanded and enhanced in terms of options, cards, clans and mechanics.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 PS5 Review 10/10 "I’m Terrible at Clair Obscur and I Love It" ⚔️ @SandfallGames #IndieGame #GameDev

I am comically bad at RPGs. Something about having to look at percentages and statistics during my leisure time just shuts my brain down. The lizard brain takes over, and I pour everything into strength—because obviously, swinging a sword the hardest is the best way to fell a mountain-sized Elder God.

I’m even worse at turn-based combat. I’ll inevitably end up with a team of glass cannons who get wiped out if someone sneezes on them—and they can’t even do that much damage because I didn’t bless their weapons with the Scrotum of K’Narl fifteen hours earlier.

I tried Baldur’s Gate 3, based solely on the enthusiastic response to its narrative and rich characters, but the combat was a brick wall I couldn’t surmount. It’s always humbling when the loading screen stops saying “You can change the difficulty at any time” and starts saying “Why don’t you have a nice lie down instead?”

Enter Clair Obscur: Expedition 33—the first (I repeat: first!) game from French developer Sandfall Interactive, and the latest critical darling trying to woo me back to a genre that routinely makes a fool of me.