Humble Choice March: Pick’n’Mix Rundown

My Friend Pedro is a bit bonkers. You’re guided by a sentient, floating banana on a killing spree. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s fast, frantic and clever – with slow-motion buttons, split-aiming and plenty of precision required for the high scores. Speed-runners would have a blast on this. If you like run-and-gun gameplay, or grinding out new high scores, give this a look. Although I would say it’s worth looking into re-mapping your controls after a level or two – I didn’t find the default keybindings really made sense to me, personally.

It’s also available on Xbox Game Pass for PC at the time of writing, if you’d rather try it there.

Planet Coaster has – quite frankly – an insane amount of creative tools available (as Let’s Game It Out shows pretty well). You really are only restricted by your imagination in this one. If you ever played Rollercoaster Tycoon or Theme Park and wished you had more ‘coaster design options, this one is for you. Building is intuitive – particularly if you’ve played similar games before – but with tons and tons of options for track types, shapes and designs. If you’re not huge on the creative elements, there’s also lots of pre-built stuff – so don’t let it put you off if it sounds like too much work!

Probably the best theme park builder I’ve played recently – a definite recommendation if you love the genre. If you’d rather be making a zoo, there’s also Planet Zoo (although that’s not a Choice for the month).

Codemasters have had the F1 license for a few years, churning out generally solid driving games of great authenticity. F1 2019 continues that tradition, delivering the twitchy, fast driving you’d expect from the pinnacle of motorsport. The addition of some F2 features for this edition is a pretty cool evolution of the series. Big tick from me.

I’m really glad I found Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. I used to love Final Fantasy Tactics on my GBA and DS, and you can clearly see the tributes being paid to the series by this game. Not to mention in the store description. Being able to play this style of game in a new world and with some fresh systems/classes has been great. If you have fond memories of Tactics – or similar, like Disgaea – grab this as a Choice.

Grab this on a laptop for maximum portable nostalgia.

Battle Chasers: Night War is an interesting RPG. A bit of a mix of classic turn-based RPGs with a Western, steampunky setting makes for a nice little title to lose a few hours to. Definitely a candidate for your picks if you’re a fan of Torchlight’s setting and the battle systems of classic JRPGs like Dragon Quest.

If you’re a subscriber to Game Pass on the Xbox console, this game is currently included there.

Exapunks is another tech-heavy transmedia game from Zachtronics. Like Shenzhen I/O from last month, Exapunks sees you programming movement and actions of droid-like programs for hacking. Instructions come via printable zines – or digital ones if you have a tablet/second screen to use. The zines offer a bit of world-building to support the story too, so it’s worth a flick through if you’re committing to the game. If you’re like me and not naturally a coder, then the feeling you get when a program works is awesome and worth the reading up.

As with many coding games, you really have to understand what you’re doing to progress – but if you’re a tinkerer who thrives on debugging, Exapunks would be a good pick.

Remember Turok? Over 20 years since the original release, there’s apparently been a remaster (not the *other* Turok from 2008) and it’s now on Steam. That’s what you’re getting here. If you’re a fan of retro games and first-person shooters, Turok plays as well as any. The visuals and gameplay loop show it’s age, but it’s a solid shooter overall and a perfectly good choice for a couple of hours killing dinosaurs.

If you’re a fan of this retro shooter, Turok 2 was also remastered and is available to buy separately.

Pixel-art, side-scrolling, action-platformer, role-playing, Souls-like. That enough hyphens for you? In fairness though, Death’s Gambit pulls it off. Probably not tough enough for hardened Souls-like veterans, but with solid platforming, progression trees and equipment to find, and some very nice artwork, it’s worth your time – particularly action-platformer fans.

198X is a mixed bag. It’s really short. Clocking in around the hour mark, it’s not a huge no-no as that hour is a super nostalgia trip, with short snippets of retro games (a la Streets of Rage, Out Run etc) tied together with some lovely pixel art and the start of a story. It’s worth looking at because it’s a great snack-sized game with plenty of retro charm. But it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend this above some of the other Choices in terms of value-for-money.

Worth picking up if you’ve got a spare Choice and nothing else is jumping out at you.

Sole survivor… I mean. Survival game for the month. Niffelheim is an attractive, Nordic-styled game which features multiplayer, as well as a single player mode. Like many survival games featuring multiplayer, my sense is that it’s better played with friends. It’s a bit grindy – even by survival standards. Probably one for purists, but I can’t recommend it too much as a generalist pick.

This one is #deep. Like many good strategy games, there’s a lot to get your head around with buildings tied to unit types, unit types tied to buildings, resource management, tech trees, hacking and waging war on the macro and micro level as you battle AI on the near-planet level and the galactic level. Plenty to keep you occupied, then.

AI War 2 leaves you with plenty of ways to fight and options to customize – while remaining accessible. Anyone with an interest in RTS should take a look.

A physics-bending puzzle-platformer that’s a bit like playing in an M. C. Escher drawing. I played on keyboard and it felt like it was designed for controller, so bear this in mind. Overall solid little game – reminded me very much of Fumiko’s gameplay and Abzu’s visual style. Worth grabbing if you like puzzles and jumping.

The extras for the month are a demo of One Step From Eden (pictured/linked) that plays very much like the old Megaman Battle Network games on GameBoy Advance. It releases in the Humble Store on March 26th and I enjoyed the demo – worth looking at as it’s included anyway!

The other title included is Space Routine. It’s kinda like if you crossed The Sims with The Jetsons. Except it doesn’t really live up to either – it’s quite a basic title to be honest, and a bit repetitive without a clear goal other than setting high scores. It’s also in Humble Trove at the moment if you don’t activate your Choices this month.