Another week and another crop of brand new games to check out! This isn’t really a light week, but it’s not a huge week either, it’s yet another “just okay” week, and I’m “just okay” with that.

First up we have Homeworld 3, the sequel to 2003’s Homeworld 2, over twenty years ago! This tactical space game has been in development for almost seven years, I hope the series’ devoted fanbase is happy with the end product.

Homeworld 3 (PC) – Releases May 13^th

Developed by: Blackbird Interactive
Published by: Gearbox Publishing

For those of you that miss the Nintendo Switch exclusive Pac-Man 99, Namco is here to brighten your day with Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle Chomp Champs. This battle royale game features a small pool of players (only 64), but includes more vibrant, modern graphics, a different way to eliminate the competition, and TONS of customizable looks for your little Pac-er.

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle Chomp Champs (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 8^th

Developed by: Amber Studio
Published by: Bandai Namco

Moving to the world of indies, publisher Big Mode, created by YouTube sensation Videogamedunkey, is putting out their first title, Animal Well. The game is a metroidvania developed by a single person, Billy Basso, and looks really intriguing. It’s hard to tell if people are genuinely excited for the game or are only giving it a look because of the big name attached to it.

If you want more animals in your indie games, be sure to also check out Little Kitty, Big City from first time developer Double Dagger Studio. In this game, players take on the role of a small, black cat, and must guide them through a Japanese city on a quest to find their home. Along the way they can interact with various objects, talk to other animals, and wear funny little hats.

Animal Well (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases May 9^th

Developed by: Billy Basso
Published by: Bigmode

Little Kitty, Big City (PC/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 9^th

Developed by: Double Dagger Studio
Published by: Double Dagger Studio

Our last major release of the week is a remake (remaster?) of a Dreamcast game, Rainbow Cotton. This title was originally only available in Japan, giving players in the West their first chance to play the game without having to resort to importing. The Cotton games are well known for being bullet hell shoot ’em up’s, with Rainbow Cotton being no different, though it does appear to be a 3D shooter as opposed to a vertical or horizontal, 2D shooter. Was the wait worth it? Find out on May 9th.

Rainbow Cotton (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 9^th

Developed by: Success/Kritzelkratz 3000
Published by: ININ

Expansions:

Europa Universalis IV: Winds of Change (PC) – Releases May 8^th
Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns (PC/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 9^th

There’s a couple of expansions coming out this week. First up is Winds of Change for Europe Universalis IV. This expansion includes 600 new missions and 150 new events for over 20 of the countries in the game. Players can also dabble with new forms of government, and even dress their units up in new outfits (CUTE!).

Our second expansion of the week is Operation Guns for Vampire Survivors (which is still going strong, apparently). This time you can play as 11 characters from the Contra series, including fan-favorites Bill & Lance. Vampire Survivors is already hectic enough, with Operation Guns promising to make the game even CRAZIER. Are you a bad enough dude? Wait, wrong game.

Everything else:

As usual, there are a bunch of other games coming out this week that all want to grab your attention/take your money. On top of the standard slate of titles that only come out for PC, we’ve got a smattering of console releases as well, with the PSX era inspired Crow Country. This has my attention, based on the look and overall aesthetic. Is it good? Who knows, but it looks cool.

• CANDYLAND: Sweet Survival (PC) – Releases May 7^th
• Nangol (PC) – Releases May 7^th
• Whispers in the Void (PC) – Releases May 7^th
• With My Past (PC) – Releases May 7^th
• Fallen Seeds (PC) – Releases May 8^th
• Gift (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases May 8^th
• INDIKA (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 8^th
• Soul of the Forest (PC) – Releases May 8^th
• Crow Country (PC/PS4/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 9^th
• Cryptmaster (PC) – Releases May 9^th
• Summer Games Challenge (PS4/Switch) – Releases May 9^th

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 (and sometimes 40) years ago:

Welcome to Notable Releases, the “Side B”, if you will, so the weekly New Game Releases album. Today’s titles are varied and unique, with one entry that went on to become of the most important in all of video games, for a little while, at least.

First up we have 2014’s Transistor from developer Supergiant Games, creators of Bastion and Hades. Transistor features an isometric, similar to Supergiant’s other titles and has players traversing around a cyberpunk city as Red, the singer of a popular local band. Finding a dead man, Red takes hold of the giant sword, named Transistor, that is lying next to the man’s body. In turn, the sword steals her voice and she suddenly hears the voice of the dead man speaking to her, through the sword, the Transistor. Get it?

Anyway, the gameplay here is a mix of action button mashing and turn based combat. Each battle earns Red experience points that players can use to unlock new abilities. One of the major gameplay elements of Transistor is that players must experiment with different combinations of powers in order to be successful in the game. The dev team didn’t want players becoming overly attached/reliant on powers received early in the game, forcing them to swap out their abilities on a regular basis.

While their first game, Bastion, was published by a third-party, Supergiant opted to self publish Transistor in order to maintain their autonomy and, of course, reap more of the financial rewards. Their gamble paid off, with Transistor being a big hit for the indie studio, funding the development of their next game, Pyre, as well as their breakout, smash hit, Hades. If you’d like to play Transistor today, you can, very easily, on PC, PS4/PS5, and Nintendo Switch. Check it out!

Moving to 2004, we’ve got the GameCube exclusive Custom Robo, a 3D action/adventure game from developer Nintendo. Developed by NOISE, this was the fourth game in the series, but only the first to be released in North America (Europe wouldn’t receive one until 2006). In Custom Robo, players build and customize their own “robos” and pit them in battle against the robo’s of NPCs in the “Holosseum”.

In Custom Robo, players take on the role of “Hero”, who’s father has mysteriously disappeared. Years later, Hero discovers that his father has passed away and his dying wish was for Hero to become a robo master. So, you know, that’s kind of the catalyst that drives players to create and battle with their own robo. It’s kind of stupid, but whatever.

Custom Robo wasn’t very well received by critics, with the biggest complaints being that the game was far too easy, that its controls were too “floaty”, and that the story made zero sense. Most critics did agree, however, that once you got past the game’s story mode and engaged in the end game content, it really started to shine. This new mode, called The Grand Battle, had players engage in robo tournaments, taking on increasingly tougher CPU controlled opponents.

The Custom Robo series never really took off for Nintendo, with the next game in the series, Custom Robo Arena, being the last title in the franchise. As is the case with much of Nitnendo’s retro library, Custom Robo is unavailable to play on any modern console, seemingly wiped from existence for the crime of being mediocre.

Next up is 1994’s Magic Carpet, a 3D flight simulator developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by EA. In the game, players take on the role of an unnamed wizard as he flies through the skies on a magic carpet. The wizard, who is only an apprentice, is on a quest to restore balance to several worlds, as magic has run amok, causing all kinds of havoc and awakening hideous beasts.

To do this, players must travel to each world, 45 in all, and build a castle that can trap all of the extra mana, the source of magic, in order to achieve equilibrium. As the player collects mana, their castle grows, allowing for the passive collection of mana by special balloons, as well as the appearance of magical guards that protect the castle from attacks. If a players castle is destroyed then they lose and must start that world over from the beginning.

Magic Carpet was very well received by both critics and players (even being named GOTY by outlets in the UK and Germany), with high scores in all major gaming outlets for the PC version, as well as its ports to the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, where it was an early best seller for that console in 1996. Praise was given to Magic Carpet for its massive, open worlds, impressive animations, detailed sound effects, and easy to pick up controls.

Despite the positive reception from both critics and players, the Magic Carpet series ended after its 1995 sequel, Magic Carpet 2. I wish I had an explanation as to why, perhaps it wasn’t as popular with the general public as it was with critics, maybe game tastes were changing, or maybe just didn’t have it in them anymore, opting to devote their time to strategy/simulation games like Them Park and Populous. Happily, though, Magic Carpet is still easily available today if you own a PC, as both it and its sequel are available on GOG.

Our last notable title is a big one, 1984’s King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown, or, just simply King’s Quest I. Developed by Roberta Williams at Sierra On-Line, King’s Quest revolutionized the adventure game genre, almost single handedly inventing it. Up until the release of King’s Quest, adventure games had first been full text based titles, with no images, like Zork. Eventually, adventure games would have images, but they were often static, only helping to paint a vague picture for the player.

With King’s Quest, the developers at Sierra, were able to marry the “3D” movement of an action game with the text based gameplay of adventure games, to dazzling effect. In order to meet the demands of such a high performance game (for 1984), King’s Quest would be a launch title for the newly announced IBM PCjr, a powerful, but affordable, home PC that was marketed towards young families and gamers. IBM had hoped that a technological marvel like King’s Quest would help drive sales of the machine; it did not.

Seeing the poor sales of King’s Quest on the IBM PCjr, Sierra quickly pivoted and created a version for IBM’s standard PC, and included a lengthy novella sized manual that gave a detailed backstory for the game. In King’s Quest, players take on the role of the brave knight Sir Graham, who has been tasked with retrieving the three magic treasures of Daventry from an evil witch. As reward for his brave deed, the good king Edward has decreed that, due to not having any heirs, Sir Graham would rule over The Kingdom of Daventry as its new king.

In terms of scope, The Kingdom of Daventry is made up of an 8×6 grid, with each square being its own screen. The game also contains another, roughly, 30 screens that show the interiors of buildings, as well as an underground area, as well as an area that takes place in the clouds. The varied locations and large game world (for 1984) are part of what made King’s Quest so popular with critics and players.

As I mentioned earlier, the IBM PCjr version of King’s Quest sold terribly, causing Sierra to release a version for the already established IBM PC, greatly increasing the game’s awareness and sales. While I can’t find any concrete sales data on the first King’s Quest, the series, as a whole, had sold over 7 million copies worldwide. There aren’t a lot of reviews out there either, the couple that I found mention that King’s Quest was considered far too powerful for most computers on the market, requiring many consumers to upgrade their systems to play this massive new title with its state of the art graphics and animation (again, for 1984).

I’d like to go more into detail about the history of King’s Quest and what it did for video games, particularly on PC’s, and its impact on the casual gamer, female gamers, younger gamers, and so on, but I only have so much time and space. Suffice to say, the release of King’s Quest I in 1984 was a pivotal moment in video game history, giving the hobby one of its first major female developers, and pioneering an entire genre and style of game play. While the game isn’t nearly as impressive today as it was in 1984, it’s still a worthwhile title to check out, thankfully you can pick the game up on both Steam and GOG, and I implore you to do so.

We’re not done yet, folks, let’s go over the notable films and albums which, again, feature some all time great. First up is 2014’s Neighbors, which pits the schlubby Seth Rogan, a 9-5 office drove and new father, against the chiseled Zac Efron, a party-holic frat boy. The movie is pretty good, bringing in some of the comedic chaos of the 2000’s “frat pack” films but with a new generation of young stars, including Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Jerrod Carmichael.

2004 saw the release of the controversial documentary Super Size Me, in which director & star Morgan Spurlock vows to eat nothing but McDonald’s food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 30 days straight. The rules are that he must eat all of his meals there, he must eat everything on the menu at least once, and he must ALWAYS super size his combo if they ask him to. By the end of his experiment, Spurlock had gained nearly 25 pounds, was battling fits of anxiety and depression, experienced heart palpitations, and found that he mood was often sluggish, lethargic, and that his sex drive had nearly vanished.

While the film was heavily praised for shining a bright light on fast food companies penchant for creating highly addictive foods, heavy marketing to children, and overall goal of placing profits over the health of its consumers, even gaining a nomination for Best Documentary at the Oscars, much of the film’s message was overshadowed by Spurlock’s personality. Critics questioned his data, commented that he did almost no exercise, and that he did something far more extreme than any normal consumer of fast food would do. It would also come out, a few years later, that Spurlock was a massive alcoholic and that many of his health problems during the filming of Super Size Me could be attributed to that. Despite the kind of person Spurlock turned out to be, the film is still fascinating, and it does, easily, make the point that fast food is not good for any of us.

1994’s notable film is The Crow, one of my personal favorites, and features the final appearance of actor Brandon Lee. This darkly gothic revenge fantasy, directed by Alex Proyas, can sometimes be seen as the butt of jokes, being tied to any person’s “embarrassing” goth phase, but the movie is so much more than that. While it doesn’t quite have the depth of a more sophisticated film, The Crow was able to tell a classic story (revenge from beyond the grave) with modern style and sensibilities. As a big music fan, The Crow contains some really stellar tracks, with songs from bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, The Cure, and Nine Inch Nails’ brilliant cover of Joy Division’s “Dead Souls”.

Finally, 1984 gave us the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the second film in what we used to call the Indiana Jones Trilogy. While not as well received as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom is still a fun, wacked out adventure that gives us one of the best action sequences in all of cinema, the mine cart chase. Of course, you also can’t forget the dinner scene with chilled monkey brains, Mola Ram ripping out people’s hearts, the stress inducing bridge sequence and, of course, “No time for love, Dr. Jones!“. Anything goes!

Moving to notable albums, 2014 saw the release of Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! from punk rock super group Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. The gimmick this time is that the band plays songs all made popular by famous musical divas, including inspired takes on “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor and “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul. 2004 gave us the exceptional Hopes and Fears by the band Keane, featuring the hit songs “Somewhere Only We Know” and “Everybody’s Changing”

The biggest album of the week is the debut of Weezer with their self titled album Weezer, now more commonly known as The Blue Album. This was, and remains, Weezer’s best selling album of all time, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide. Critics often cite The Blue Album as one of the best and most important records of the 1990’s. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked The Blue as the 294th greatest album of all time.

The popularity of Weezer after The Blue Album was meteoric, backed by the mega hits “Undone – The Sweater Song”, “Buddy Holly”, and everyone’s favorite song in Rock Band, “Say It Ain’t So”. The Blue Album is so well known that, to this day, even its B-sides make regular appearances in Weezer setlists, like “Surf Wax USA”, “In the Garage” and one of the best opening tracks in music history, “My Name Is Jonas”. If you were a teenager in the 90’s then you probably loved Weezer, a lot (I know I did). Their output over the last 20 years might be a little lacking, but The Blue Album was a collection of artists at their best, truly one of the best albums ever made.

If Weezer had any success in the 90’s (and, to some extent, The Crow) then it was laid down by earlier power pop/new wave artists like Echo & the Bunnymen, who put out their fourth studio album, Ocean Rain, in 1984. The album was, and is, their best selling to date, driven by hit singles “The Killing Moon”, “Silver”, and “Seven Seas”. Critics of the day were a bit perplexed by the album, wondering where the hard driving sound of their earlier albums had gone, and why they suddenly decided to become this soft rock outfit.

Despite the disdain from rock critics in 1984, Ocean Rain is often considered the best album Echo & the Bunnymen have ever produced. The new, slow, goth sound that they leaned into turned out to be best for the band, opening them up to not just a wider audience, but a more rabid, devoted fanbase that became life long fans. Like The Blue Album, Ocean Rain was the right records released at the right time for an audience that didn’t even know they were looking for it.

Transistor (PC/PS4) – Released May 20^th, 2014: Wiki Link

Custom Robo (GameCube) – Released May 10^th, 2004: Wiki Link

Magic Carpet (PC) – Released May 1994: Wiki Link

King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown (PC) – Released May 10^th, 1984: Wiki Link

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