cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/38963703

First, a little announcement. At this point, I've made plenty of articles in this "what I'm playing" series, and this is the eighth.

So now I'm gathering them onto my extremely barebones website, under the "gamelog" tag!

Not your father's Nokia Snake game

WORMHOLE, like all Snake-style games, has the usual formula. Eat stuff, get longer, and don't hit the walls or yourself. I found this game from a Steam Next Fest last year, where I was drawn in by the enigmatic trailer. I was really surprised by how intense and hypnotic the demo's gameplay was.

Snake Arcade (Snarkade)

But WORMHOLE is also a natural advancement of the Snake formula, bringing in arcadey additions. You get a choice of three classes of worm each with their own unique ability and wind your way around the galaxy through craptons of levels, full of planets to eat. You occasionally get a break to choose which set of levels to go to and get an upgrade on the way.

There are side objectives to eat, like the skulls that show up to steal your snacks, costing you points. UFOs fly by, worth big points if you catch them. Eat an entire trail of stars and you trigger a supernova, clearing the whole screen.

Obviously, there are wormholes as well! That's why this game is called WORMHOLE. You go in one and come out another. They make it easy to reach faraway parts of the level and can be handy escape routes if you trap yourself with your long body.

It also mimics old-school arcade games in its presentation. The game uses monochrome pixel graphics with the usual set of filters to make the game feel like it's on a worn, ghosty CRT display, but you can turn those effects off if they bother you. The extremely restricted palette of WORMHOLE's graphics reminds me of Downwell, which does the same thing. And likewise, you get to unlock alternate palettes as a minor reward for playing the game. I've been deliberately switching palettes to show them off in this article.

You can also choose from a range of corny background art that's like what you might see on the panels of an arcade cabinet, including some that write game instructions into the art.

Snake turned up to 11

A game of WORMHOLE starts off looking and feeling pretty mild, but that contrasts with the much more intense late game. This game hypnotizes like the Polybius arcade machine from urban legends. It's full of very juicy effects to dazzle you, with plenty of particles, screen shake, and hitpause. It's especially apparent in the bonus levels, which are packed with UFOs to eat.

Early on, the music sounds chipper and friendly, but gets more and more panicked and aggressive near the end. The game gets faster and faster. Your worm gets longer and longer. The levels get increasingly intricate or cramped. You'll need to react quickly to navigate the levels. Thankfully, the game helps you a bit here: you get a brief warning period if you're about to die, with the game slowing down and the screen dimming. And if you don't save yourself in time…

With a longer worm and smaller levels, you'll start moving in dense squiggle patterns to fit, but that comes with its own risks. If you're not careful, you'll make a closed loop and trap yourself.

This wormhole was made for me

I've been playing this game a lot in the past few weeks. A full run doesn't take too long but it's definitely satisfying to get into a flow state and mentally sink into the wormhole.

Early on, I was really struggling to control the worm properly, especially as the game speeds up. But once I synchronized with the vibe of the game, I started to figure it out. Knowing which wormholes are connected. Always keeping track of where the head is to steer accurately. Always keeping in mind the tail length so I don't trap myself. Developing a strategy for which upgrades to take.

Of the three classes of worm in the game, I found a fave in Yeehaw, a cowboy hat-wearing worm that shoots bullets. Lately, though, I've been focusing on playing Dash because of its strong high score potential. I've found that the Dash worm's high-speed charge can finish levels very quickly, which leads to big score bonuses.

WORMHOLE is a hidden gem

WORMHOLE is a proper hidden gem. The game is small in scope but very polished for its purpose. Currently, it has only 35 reviews on Steam. If you merely finish the game, you'll be guaranteed a top 10 spot on the leaderboard, since only the top 9 have even gotten to the kill screen!

You want to make it to the kill screen?

EAT EM ALL.

This game is unlikely to make it to Steam, since it breaks the copyright on a popular anime. As a result of that breach, it's freely available to all, which is great since it's a very well-assembled implementation of the Ace Attorney formula, whether or not you're familiar with the cutesy characters on offer.

There's lots of custom music, a pretty decent visual presentation, and only a few "guide dang it" moments across the mysteries. Once knowing it was unlikely to feature actual murder mysteries, I lost a bit of interest, but gained it back when some of the cases developed more twists than I expected.

This game had some fun ideas to me; both high-level, narratively (it's not quite clear if the heroes are "animals" but they're sentient enough, and imply a rich history) as well as low-level. You control a small team of characters, each with unique abilities that can be used in various scenarios. At the game's most challenging moments, it asks you to swap mid-air in order to perform jumps in a certain way.

There's some good character moments as well, showing vulnerability and growth from each of the heroes. The only bit I didn't like as much is the navigation. Much of the game revolves around use of blood vessels to navigate, since it all takes place inside of a living being. As a result, when one character says to "head East", they sometimes mean "Wander in an indeterminate direction to unblock a blood vessel around the middle of the map so you can get an ability that will let you unlock a path that warps you out East."

Steam Next Fest is happening right now with thousands of demos of upcoming games to play!

Have you made any cool discoveries? Share them here!

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is a top-down 2D action-adventure game that released in May of last year, combining classic Zelda dungeoneering and upgrade progression with an urban setting and fresh yoyo tricks. It was developed by Brazilian studio Pocket Trap, who've previously created Dodgeball Academia.

• YouTube trailer
• Steam Page

Catch Yoyo Drift

This game puts you in the boots of Pippit, a young yoyo enthusiast visiting his aunt and entrepreneur Madame Pipistrello, just as she's attacked by four evil crime bosses who have beef with her. One thing leads to another, and suddenly aunti's soul is trapped in Pippit's yoyo, and the two have to work together to put her back in her body. The game revolves all around Pippit's use of his yoyo, from the basic attack to the metroidvania-style ability unlocks, all the problems in the game can be solved by throwing your yoyo at them in the right way. Each new ability meaningfully expands and compliments your toolkit, and the developers have done a remarkable job of coming up with clever puzzles and technical platforming challenges that put you through your paces. Wait, platforming? In a 2D top-down game? Yes! This game is probably the best example of top-down platforming I have ever seen.

The combat is good but not great; each move feels satisfying thanks to the game's general responsiveness and satisfying sound design, and enemies exploding into clouds of coins to collect never gets old. But I did find it lacking in depth; it's by no means bad, but it's definitely not as strong as the rest of the gameplay. Some special moves are very powerful, leaving little reason to use anything else. And while each enemy does have a unique move set, there just isn't a huge amount of them.

Dungeon-Crawl in a Mall

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is a game that takes place entirely within a city, trading dilapidated temples and stuffy dungeons for locations like a mall, a construction site and a football-stadium. The setting feels fresh thanks to how these places are contextualized with the gameplay mechanics, and the Brazilian flair. It also helps that this game's sprite work is fantastic! The different districts of the city feel distinct, the stylish character designs each pop with colour. It successfully evokes memories of the best that offerings of the Gameboy Advance. The soundtrack accompanying your journey is great too, though some tracks stay on repeat a little too much.

(Almost) no Strings Attached

I had an absolute blast playing this game on my Steam Deck, and couldn't put it down until I completed it to 100%! As silly as it sounds, it just feels good to push the buttons! While I do have some minor gripes about missing depth in the combat, a strangely punishing upgrade system and some truly devious optional challenges, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is a game I happily recommend to anyone who thinks the trailer looks even remotely interesting.

Posting through my local account here because apparently my main instance is having some troubles fetching yet-unfederated communities from here.

Anyways, I've finished earlier today a game I'd been pushing in my to play queue for a few months now, Overseer by thestoff.

I made a post in another community reviewing the game, but the short version is that it's very hard, but in a way that doesn't feel cheap. Dying is normal in the game, but design feels like it's made to give players a tangible sense of improvement the better they get at each challenge the game throws, boss #2 being the cutoff between what would be the tutorial segment and the difficulty that permeates the entire rest of the game.

Sound and art are pretty good, and metroidvania being a metroidvania, it has horror elements as a constant element but not the main one.

Also if someone plays the game, a tip, though there is no walkthrough for the game, the save is not encrypted so you can get some hints from there if you don't know what to do.

The Big Catch is an upcoming 3D platformer planned to release some time in 2026. It had a surprisingly extensive free standalone prologue released in back in 2024 called The Big Catch: Tacklebox, which I absolutely adored and will be gushing about here.

Momentum Is King

This is a 3D-Platformer, so the movement has to feel good — and my goodness gracious, it does! Tackle, the bird/rabbit-hybrid fisherman protagonist, feels extremely snappy and smooth to move around thanks to very responsive controls and liberal use of squash and stretch in his expressive animations.

Despite this, the basic jump in this game is surprisingly... weak. There is no double jump or similar ability to correct your trajectory in midair either. To make up for it you have a ground-pound and a slide, which can be combo-ed into wall-runs and wall-jumps. Using your momentum and committing to jumps is key!

This game is not afraid to raise the difficulty and push you to utilize its move set to the fullest. Failure is often pretty punishing with no fast respawns, which I consider one of two blemishes of this game.

You should be aware that there is no set order in which to complete the game, (nearly) all areas are accessible right from the start. There are no ability unlocks and only one progression gate. So if you find yourself getting stuck and/or frustrated, maybe try somewhere else and come back later.

Fisherman in the Desert

This game's setting and art-direction oozes style, feeling both fresh and familiar at the same time. Its low-poly aesthetic intentionally evoking console classics like Super Mario Sunshine or Shadow of the Colossus, and combines it with distinct and charming cartoonish designs for its characters and creatures. The soft and warm colours of the desert, the many mysterious looming ruins within it and the smooth and squishy animations are simply a joy to look at!

Earning Your Scales

This prologue is all about Tackle trying to "earn his scales", a rite of passage for his tribe of people. In the game's brief tutorial you meet your instructor Bail, who tasks you to venture out into the vast desert plateau to search for... fish! Find them, hunt them, exhaust them, smack 'em and reel them in. It pays well, after all! Just don't let them run away. Oh yeah, the fish have legs.

The Big Catch: Tacklebox is a collectathon, and somewhat limited in its scope. There is very little story and only one other character besides yourself. The closest thing to an ending can only be unlocked after 100%-ing everything else, and combing the desert for the last few little coins you missed can be painful (that's the game's second blemish). Thankfully the game's compass (which you can summon to be visible at all times by pressing D-Pad down on controller, or 3 on keyboard) has a hot-cold function that helps you track down any missed collectibles. The final challenge and ending are well worth it though in my opinion!

Development Background

The Big Catch originally launched as a Kickstarter campaign by the Canadian two-man team Filet Group, Quade Zaban and Harrisson Bright, who have previously worked together on YoNoid II and a few other game jam games. The successful campaign lead to the team expanding and eventually being picked up by XSEED as a publisher.

The Tacklebox prologue was originally intended to be an exclusive reward to high tier backers, but Filet Group decided it would be better to release it to anyone, for free. I am very thankful for that decision because I missed the Kickstarter campaign.

Looking Ahead to the Full Game

The Tacklebox prologue is an entirely stand-alone game, and all of its content is unique to it. You won't be retreading the same ground in the full game. As mentioned in the preface, The Big Catch is planned to launch some time this year. It was originally slated for late 2025, but caught a delay to this year, with no specific release date or window provided.

There is actually surprisingly little info about it, and how it'll be structured. We know you'll be playing as a different character, Caster, who works for the eponymous restaurant by providing it with fresh fish. There are little bits of footage of various areas smattered across the trailers, along with hints of something more sinister lurking in the depths (also hinted at with the checkpoint lanterns and the broken moon in Tacklebox). I'm personally fine with this though, Tacklebox gave me more than enough confidence that this game will be fantastic, and I'll get to experience the full game mostly blind!

I highly recommend anyone with even a passing interest in 3D-Platformers to give this one a look!