Boreal Tales: Bargain Indie Scares Up The Past

Posted on May 22, 2020 by geelw

With a game developer name like Snot Bubbles Productions, one would imagine the Vancouver-based team to have a first game straight out of the gate that’s going to be pretty darn interesting. Or kind of damp and sticky, ewww.

Welcome to Boreal Tales, folks.

The game is out now and it’s a paltry $3.00 or Steam or itch.io and that makes it for me, an automatic purchase even though I was offered a free code to review. Small developers with a great looking game such as this need a boost with any sales they can get and I really like these offbeat games, so it’s on my BUY IT! list as we speak. Anyway, “What’s the game about?” you may be asking right about now. Well, I’ll duck quickly into show and tell mode here (quack, quack!):

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INFINI: Pardonnez mon français, mais ce jeu est bizarre (et doit être joué!)

Posted on March 2, 2020 by geelw

Well, to be honest, my French is perfectly awful, but Montreal-based art team/development studio Barnaque has me completely intrigued with its new title, so It’s making me feel inspired enough to drag out the Google Translate language mangler thing. INFINI, set to release on PC for Steam and itch.io March 4, and on Switch a bit later this year. Here’s a video and screenshots along with a description of the game from the developers, David Martin and Émeric Morin:

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Panzer Paladin: Tribute Games Has Been Busy, It Seems

Posted on January 22, 2020 by geelw

Whip it good, Squire!

Montreal-base indie developer Tribute Games has been a fan favorite for a few years (go sign up here and follow them, I say), with games such as Flinthook, Mercenary Kings Reloaded Edition, Ninja Senki DX, and Curses ‘N Chaos being games I’ve enjoyed in the past along with many others. I haven’t yet played Wizorb yet because it hasn’t come to consoles, my Steam library is so huge I’d probably forget that I bought it by the time I got to the backlog there, and I have no mobile device to play it on (gasp!).

Anyway, their in-progress game, Panzer Paladin is set for a release this coming Spring and is looking quite fantastic so far, so yes, lets take a look at some early gameplay here:

Lovely, huh?

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Super Neptunia RPG: Cool Canadians Bakin’ Up A Hot JRPG? Yep, Nep!

Posted on June 24, 2019 by geelw

Out on PC via Steam last week and coming to PS2 and Switch June 25 in North America (the 28th in EU territories), Super Neptunia RPG is coming from an interesting combination of forces. Japan’s Idea Factory and Compile Heart worked with Canada’s Artisan Studios to bring Nep fans an all-new game in the long-running series and the very first side-scrolling entry, to boot. As a fan of the series since the PS3 days, I’m quite intrigued by this one and the opening movie has sealed the deal that this *must* be played:

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Be Chairman of the Board This Cyber Monday With A Few Cool Card Games

Posted on November 28, 2016 by geelw

So. Need a few gift ideas today but you don’t want to move too many muscles treading over the bones of last week’s defeated? I guess that’s why they call this Cyber Monday, huh? Anyway, if you like board and card games or maybe both mashed together, well, good:

Just click on that lovely art above, buy what you like, sit back and wait until your box of stuff arrives, then wrap and place under tree or in back of closet or wherever if you aren’t an indoor tree-hugger.

If on the other hand, you’re feeling REALLY creative, have a great color printer and are very, very good with cutting things carefully and maybe even using a glue stick and a load of acid-free board to mount stuff on, the extremely aptly titled and incredibly fun 5-Minute Dungeon has a hugely successful Kickstarter with a budget reward for those of you who can’t wait ’til 2017 to play this great family game.

While you can (and should!) get a retail copy of the game (set to ship in 2017), a $5 pledge will get you a print-and-play copy of the game in December. That’s where your printing and cutting skills will come in handy. Of course, if you’re terminally lazy, have no scissors or sharp crafting blades and own a crappy dot matrix printer or a Rexograph machine, this reward will be as useful as a whistle on a plow. In that case, just go pay for the big deal boxed version and go take a nap until next May.

-GW

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Crowdfunding of Note 1: November Brings a Number Of Early Winners

Posted on November 1, 2016 by geelw

For those of you fans of crowdfunding, this month has some pretty awesome products you can pledge towards and add to your future gift list even if you’re investing solely for that gift for yourself. Here are some surefire picks from yours truly you should look into:

The Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (SPUD): Alex Wesley is a genius, period. His invention, currently on Kickstarter has blown past its funding target on the first day and still has 44 days to go. SPUD is about to shake up the the words “portable entertainment” in such a big way that Wesley is pretty much assured a place on a few tech award lists for coming up with a portable multi-purpose screen solution. I only saw this a few days ago in a Skype presentation and was absolutely floored that it worked so well.

A 24″ screen that weighs less than two pounds and folds down to book size to fit in a backpack or carry-on bag with a screen made of material that not only provides a sharp image, it doesn’t wrinkle up like you’d expect AND is useful for way too many applications? SOLD. Set to ship next summer, I’m predicting SPUD shows up in a few interesting places as a must-have product including TV and a few movies because it’s a perfect representation of the future as NOW (or sooner than you think).

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5-Minute Dungeon: Success Is In The Cards For This Great Hybrid Game

Posted on October 28, 2016 by geelw

Get ready for one of the most fun games you’ll ever play, folks…

You know a card or board game is going to be a big hit when the only non-gamer who shows up to play wants it as a prize for being the one who “had the MOST fun”. That was one of the hilarious results of my evening with Connor Reid’s wonderfully fun 5-Minute Dungeon, an upcoming Kickstarter project from Ontario, Canada-based game company and two-time Mensa Award winner Wiggles3D scheduled to launch November 1st.

If you’re into any sort of RPG, board games, card games, family fun, and/or friendly all-out mayhem happening on game night (or any night and hey, who said you HAVE to play at night?), keep an eye peeled for this and yep, go drop some cash on your own copy.

Made for 2-5 players and yes, you can (and NEED to) complete a match in five minutes, 5MD can get pretty frantic as players cooperate to blaze though a dungeon to defeat enemies and take down a boss before time expires. No waiting for turns means each match is a speed-run of attempted coordination as enemies and obstacles are taken down on the way to that big, bad boss waiting at the end.

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