STILL PLAYING/ NEAR MISSES
Doronko Wanko PC Bandai Namco’s New Employee Training Project is a scheme wherein the publisher’s incoming staff are encouraged to work on smaller titles to hone their skills before being moved onto larger projects. Three games from this year’s programme have been released via Steam for free, and this time they come with English-language support. Nottolot is a compact and moderately engaging action-puzzle game in which you ‘hack’ various robots by launching your own spherical bot into their conveniently sized ports to advance through a series of chambers. Then there’s Boomeroad, which isn’t a residential estate for sexagenarians, but rather a platformer of sorts in which you launch a boomerang to create mid-air rails that you can then grind along to reach your destination: an enjoyable traversal mechanic whose potential isn’t fully realised here. Pick of the litter is this game about a Pomeranian making a terrible mess of its owners’ pristine new home. Channelling both Splatoon and Untitled Goose Game, it’s an hour of gleeful escalation – beginning with you rolling around in muck and shaking it off while activating Roombas to help you spread the mess, and eventually reaching the point where you’re firing a paintsplattering minigun at a giant golden statue. There are bonus objectives to complete besides, while unlockables (from cosmetic accessories to objects that aid traversal) come thick and fast. Such is the giddy pace of the power creep that it makes a persuasive case for more shortform titles, rather than forcing its clearly talented makers to graduate to bigger games.
Animal Well PC Our save file has survived the past few updates (each providing a spike of anxiety as we wait to see if our progress has been erased) and so we’re finally able to reach the credits of Billy Basso’s subterranean adventure. It’s clear, though, that our quest is far from over. Three more game-changing finds later, we’re perilously close to peeling back another layer as we scour the world for one particular item that should supply the answer (and likely a few more questions with it). Fittingly, just as Easter weekend arrives, our collection of eggs appears to be approaching completion, but we sense getting our hands on those last few isn’t going to be easy. Either way, we’re more than ready to deliver our verdict in four weeks’ time.