Wraithkal: The Indie Gaming Corner
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‘Tis the Season: MAGS December’s “Christmas” Theme is Rather Festive (and Timely)

While everyone's likely busy shopping for Christmas - or will be, soon enough! - don't even think about ignoring this month's MAGS, as it is very much in that same spirit. What? No, not shopping - Christmas! 'Tis the season, holy night, Santa kissing someone's mom, and so on. That said, MAGS December won't end until the 31st, in spite of its theme kinda saying otherwise. Weird stuff.
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Wits Will (Hopefully) Beat Jumpscares as ‘Clea’ Prototypes Puzzling Survival Horror

I'm not overly great with horror games, and the Clea prototype all but confirmed that as the moment those ever-approaching creepy sounds got too close, I would... hide in the nearby closet until they stopped. Why couldn't the two kids have done as told and stayed put? Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so... let's send Clea and Ed off to their doom. Or have them both die trying. Or something.
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‘Equilinox’ Puts You in Charge of Entire Ecosystems, Evolving Animal and Plant Alike

Wielding the powers of a god, in charge of an entire world, creating and shaping everything, can be an amazing experience - in a video game that is. You know, like Populous let us experience back in the day? But that was then, this is now, and on top of looking incredibly stylish, recently released Equilinox lets you micromanage entire ecosystems, planting, (re)shaping and evolving however you see fit.
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‘Screencheat: Unplugged’ Review

Split-screen gaming is a dying art. Blunt, perhaps, but there's no other way to put it. Online gaming has destroyed couch multiplayer and that's a shame. I've felt like this for a while, but... significantly more so after playing Screencheat: Unplugged - a game that turns back time to the glory days of 4-player split-screen first person shooting. Also, everyone's invisible. At all times.
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‘Degrees of Separation’ Aims to Prove That Even the Most Contrasting Souls Can Coexist

Hot and cold. Ember and Rime. The two could not be more different, and yet, these poor contrasting souls... are going to work together somehow. Degrees of Separation is full of environmental obstacles after all, all of which require one or the other to overcome - once the puzzle of figuring out how to even reach said roadblock has been dealt with. Truly a tale of fire and ice.
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Manipulate Body Fluids With Surgical Precision in ‘Spitkiss’ to Convey… Emoji?

Show of hands, who loves the craziness of emojis? Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, how about the art of spitting? Oh. Decidely fewer. That's a shame, because Spitkiss is all about combining the two. Kinda. I mean, there's a love story somewhere too, but the main thing is that... you travel by way of spitball. An intriguingly strange concept, to say the least.
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Stop the Feline Antagonist in ‘Cat-A-Strophic’ From Destroying All Your Valuables

For the record, while I am a dog person, I do not dislike cats. In fact, I absolutely love how adorable their behaviour, in general, is. If only that also applied to the feline in Cat-A-Strophic, but that's not even remotely the case, as this cat is hellbent on destroying every last item on the shelf. Guess the player somehow pissed her off before the game even began? Oh boy.
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Interplanetary Survival ‘Astroneer’ Leaving Early Access With Brand New Planets… Soon

Survival games are a dime a dozen these days, and while I do have a personal favorite, 7 Days to Die is kinda missing something (not zombies, that's for sure). Something another genre entry by the name of Astroneer has in spades: the ability to visit other planets and... do space stuff! Oh, and it's almost ready to ditch Early Access, bringing with it even more planets. Groovy.
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Par for the Course is Decided in ‘Resort Boss: Golf’ as You Build and Manage a Golf Club

Early 2019, the likes of La Quinta and Rosewood are going to get some serious competition. Wait, no. That'd only be the case if they were virtual golf clubs, and somehow set in the same world as Resort Boss: Golf. Which they aren't. Right. Anyway, my point still stands, as this upcoming resort builder is already looking mighty spiffy with its accessible interface and lovely art style.
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Amnesia-Struck Hunter Struggles Against Unspeakable Horrors to Get Paid in ‘HellSign’

Hunting is supposed to be a simple affair, if a brutal one: pick a weapon, an area, decide on your prey, and... well, go for the kill(s). Barbaric? In our world, without a doubt; but for the protagonist in HellSign, it's how the bills get paid. That and, you know, hopefully it'll help in figuring out why remembering anything is so darn difficult. But while no one likes being amnesia-struck, going up against unspeakable horrors on a daily basis is arguably worse.
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‘Screencheat: Unplugged’ Overhauls Chaotic Split-Screen Party Shooter for Switch Port

It's one thing to try and hit other players in a first-person shooter craze, but... what if everyone's actually invisible? As in, completely hidden from sight, no silly gadgets or vague outline to discern your target from the environment. Yeah. Crazy? Probably, and yet that's the core component in upcoming Switch title, Screencheat: Unplugged, a multiplayer shooter which requires players to screencheat (get it?) to spot their adversaries and blast them. Before they do the same, preferably.
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‘Death Ray Manta SE’ is a Flashy Space Fish Twin-Stick Shootin’ Oldie With Arcady Roots

After playing Death Ray Manta SE a grand total of less than ten minutes, I was certain I had experienced all the overly flashy and colorful twin-stick shooter had to offer. Well, aside from actually beating - or even reaching - its 32 levels, that is. But I had collected gems, blasted countless tiny robots, dodged even more bullets and gotten a tiny bit dizzy from the sensory overload of its flashy visuals. Good stuff? Well...
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‘LandR’ (Demo) Makes Puzzle Platforming a Fun Challenge With Single Player Co-Op

Puzzle platformers, for the most part, has players take control of a single protagonist - a lone entity, as it were. But... what if we were instead allowed access to two... at the same time? While LandR is by no means the first to attempt this, it at least does so in a way that doesn't feel awkward or cumbersome, levels obviously designed with an additional moving object in mind. Groovy stuff.
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Easy as Alpha, Beta: Early Access Now a Thing on the Discord Store

Unsurprisingly, Discord's own store front recently added a Early Access section. Not a bad idea, really. I mean, Steam, GOG.com, itch.io - they all have it in one form or other, and in spite of having already seen more than a handful of games that were, well, abandoned, it is still a neat inclusion. Oh, and Discord launched theirs with a 'First on Discord' (translation: 'time limited exclusivity') title, because why not?
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The Power of Three Goes Portable as Frozenbyte’s ‘Trine’ Trilogy Arrives on Switch

Remember how much fun it was to swap between characters in The Lost Vikings, using their unique abilities to overcome obstacles and/or enemies in that classic platformer? Well, even if you don't, that's quite alright. It's just that this very mechanic sits at the core of the Trine trilogy, the wizard, knight and thief each bringing a unique set of tools to its puzzle-filled worlds - in a really fun way.
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Experience the Mystical World of Kynseed Over the Course of Several Generations

In just about every game I've played where the protagonist actually aged, growing old meant he/she was nearing the end of the road for... well, everything. No continuing, second chances at life, and certainly no more tales to tell. That isn't quite the case in Kynseed, as a mysterous acorn enables you to pass down both skills and powers to the next generation. Undeniably a good thing, as this world holds far too many wonders (and obstacles) for a single lifetime.
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Dinosaurs in Top Hats and Tutu Skirts Fight Aliens as They ‘Roarr!’ and Cause Mayhem

Meet Rex. Rex is a dinosaur, and probably mankind's last line of defense against alien invaders, starring in his own very game, wearing a top hat and... a tutu skirt? Oh boy. This is a weird one, isn't it? Well, whatever the case, there are aliens - and cities - to demolish, and you can even bring friends (Rex clones, surely) to help with the mayhem. Don't forget to Roarr!
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