2024-09-17: Obscure Stuff I Played Recently (2024) III: The Search for Games (feat. free stuff from itch)

Here are some games worth your time. And, what's more, most of them are FREE! (remember to compensate your local indie devs for their hard work so they can afford electricity for further development activities)

MOUTHOLE

MOUTHOLE is a surreal first person adventure-ish puzzle-ish game where you experience the final five days of a shut-in whose terrible dental hygiene has led them to the brink of Total Tooth Collapse. Tonally, the game comes across as a bit grim and paranoid, but with a comedic edge that stops it becoming too much of a downer - but, fair warning, it's not a game for people who are squeamish about teeth. You can brush in game if you want, but I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that it's too late for a pearly whites good ending for our protagonist. It's hard to pick out a screenshot to represent MOUTHOLE because of its relentless lo-fi visual variety, but the gameplay is relatively straightforward. Explore, collect things, use items on things to unlock other things, until you get one of the several endings. Kinda like Crypt Worlds but without a jump button.

Since I wrote this, Vinny Vinesauce played this game on stream (this may give you a clue over how long a period of time I put these together). I was considering removing it, but ages after that broadcast it's still only up a relatively few reviews. Oh well. Maybe it's just the ultra replayable games that win the Twitch publicity lottery.

btw all this next stuff is free on itch

Yo! Noid Was Ahead of its Time

You wouldn't think a free game jam game that doubles as an unauthorised Dominos advert would also be a top notch platformer, but that's exactly the case with Yo! Noid Was Ahead of its Time, alternatively titled Yo! Noid II: Game of a Year Edition. There's a real solid 3D platformer here, with quite a bit of content (almost two hours in my case), a fun and fleshed out movement system, and a lot of aesthetic polish. If not for the gratuitous branding all over the place, this could well have been a paid title.

prairie world

A surrealist, atmospheric point and click adventure of sorts, set in a strange world of familiar but uncanny AI generated backgrounds. I know AI generated assets aren't exactly the most popular thing around these days, but here they are used to a compelling and aesthetically unique end. It's very striking.

Acephalic

A harsh noise EP in video game form, Acephalic is not for the faint of heart. Narratively, visually, sonically, Acephalic swings wildly between moments of calm and unrelenting assault, hitting on almost every content warning you can think of on the way. A unique and evocative experience, if you can stomach it.

0_abyssalSomewhere

0_abyssalSomewhere is the first and so far only entry in the Tower of Many series, and it makes a solid first impression. Foreboding and atmospheric, restrained without becoming dull, level design evoking remarkable scale despite the short runtime - a great opener, if the developer can match this level of quality.


It's been a while since the last update, eh? I was enjoying some alternative interests - reading, watching TV, engaging in erotic roleplay with AI chatbots - and played a bunch of games I didn't particularly want to shill, so this meagre little list took a while to put together. Bit of an anti-climax but it is what it is :/