Worming From Home
Developers: Zach Northrop, Mason Sabharwal
Publisher: Zach Northrop
Platform: Steam (Windows, Mac; Steam Deck Verified)
Price: Usually $10, with a 25 percent discount until September 18
Sometimes, games name themselves. I can’t imagine there was any other viable option for the title of Worming from Home, a remote work simulator in which you play as a worm.
You’ll need to hurl your invertebrate around the keyboard to type messages and complete spreadsheet tasks as you try to move up the financial analyst career ladder. You’ll sometimes have to answer the phone — I’ve heard that something interesting happens if you dial 911 — and hop on a video call with your boss. Let’s just hope they don’t discover that you’re not human.
There are life sim elements to Worming from Home as well. You can work out, go shopping for hats and flirt with co-workers.
I’ve been looking forward to Worming From Home for a while, but I haven’t had a chance to dig into it yet, unfortunately. I’ve been too busy working from home and trying to convince people I work with that I’m human. I mean… I’m definitely not a worm, I swear.
Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia
Developer: Ocellus Studio
Publisher: Microids
Platforms: Steam (Windows; Steam Deck Verified), Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Price: $30. A demo is available
I was eager to check out Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia after enjoying the first game and this sequel does not disappoint. It’s a mascot platformer in the vein of the Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot franchises in which you play as the star of a long-running Belgian comic book series. You play as three of these characters, in fact. In each level, you can swap between two of them to take advantage of their unique abilities, much like you’d switch between Diddy and Dixie Kong on the fly.
I’ve played around 90 minutes of Marsupilami 2 so far and I think it’s an improvement on its predecessor. The variety of abilities (for instance, one character can roll into a ball to bounce around and avoid damage from spike traps) and clever, secret-packed levels are keeping me engaged. The gradual ramp up in difficulty feels fair too.
It doesn’t seem to be a particularly long game as I’ve already completed two of the four worlds. I’m going to finish this and I might be tempted to stick around and play the bonus levels. If you’re into fun, colorful platformers, don’t sleep on this one.
He Who Watches
Developer: Bobby Vanden
Publisher: Draknek and Friends
Platform: Steam (Windows, Mac; Steam Deck Verified), Itch
Price: Usually $20, with a 15 percent discount until September 16
This chin-scratcher is making a very timely arrival ahead of next week’s Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct. It looks like a first-person take on the shrine puzzles from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. Developer Bobby Vanden took inspiration from Fez, Animal Well and Tunic, so it probably should not be a surprise that He Who Watches has lots of secrets.
You can walk along the walls and ceiling, and use a magical bow and arrow to solve riddles. The arrow can activate switches and move blocks. It doubles as a hookshot to help you traverse gaps.
One thing I find especially interesting about He Who Watches is its hint system. Within each room, there’s a smaller puzzle you can tackle. This aim is to help you figure out the approach you need to take to the main riddle without holding your hand too much. Neat idea.
ShipShaper: Falconeer Chronicles
Developer: Tomas Sala
Publishers: Wired Productions, Gamersky Games
Platform: Steam early access (Windows; playable on Steam Deck; demo available)
Price: Usually $9, with a 10 percent discount until September 16
Tomas Sala (The Falconeer) loves boats, so he made a game to help players design ships with more freedom. “It’s a boat designer married to experimental interfaces that are intended to take away the tedium from designing boats,” Sala wrote on the ShipShaper Steam page. “No 3D skills required, no endless stacks of cubes, just some organic shaping and attaching props and functional items to create whatever ship you want.”
After you build the ship of your dreams, you try it out on the high seas as well as in Sala’s previous game, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles. But you can really do whatever you want with it. As an ode to Sala’s past as a modder, he’s allowing developers to use ships they build in their own games. You can create physical versions of ships via an option to export 3D printing files. I love that!
Shoe It All!
Developer: Amberbite
Publishers: Amberbite, Bright Gambit
Platforms: Steam (Windows, Mac), Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Switch, Android, Google Play for PC, iPhone, iPad, Mac
Price: $8 on PC and consoles, $5 on mobile. The Steam version has a 20 percent discount until September 17
This game is all about solving puzzles by launching shoes while swinging back and forth, so it’ll be important to get the timing right. Developer Amberbite promises that there are secrets and ways to solve puzzles using fewer hurled shoes. You can try to master trick shots as well.
Shoe It All! has more than 65 hand-crafted puzzles, along with collectible stickers and a speedrun mode. I’m into the comic-style look of this game and it certainly doesn’t hurt that there’s a pop-punk soundtrack. I think I’m going to grab the mobile version to help steer me away from doomscrolling. As much as I love Poinpy, it can’t be the only game I play on my iPhone.