Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. This has been a really long week, as there was a death in my family and I had to serve jury duty. I still managed to cover a lot of games, but I’m amazed that this week was only a week long. Anyway, we got a surprise cross-platform release from inkle, the delightful Overboard!, which is the highlight of my week. Tayanna Studios also ported over their FMV mystery, The Dark Side of the Moon, which offers some campy fun. And though it’s been quiet in Genshin Impact, the beta version of Sky has been full of drama thanks to the testing of the upcoming season. So there’s quite a bit to discuss. Let’s not waste anymore time!

Overboard!

A new game from inkle is always exciting, but I’m especially partial to their surprise release, Overboard!, in which you have to try and get away with murder. You play as Veronica Villensey (as in “villain sea”) who’s had enough of her husband and pushes him overboard while they’re on their way to New York via cruise ship. You then spend the rest of the trip talking to other passengers and snooping through their things to see if you can find a way to convince them all it was suicide or frame one of them for the murder. As might be expected, there’s a lot of dark humor and you can even murder the other passengers. It’s meant to be replayed in order to find multiple endings, and so far I’ve played through it eight times. Most playthroughs resulted in prison, but even the failed attempts led me to information that was helpful in successfully getting away with murder. Anyway, I have a full review here so I’ll just let you read that. But this is one game that’s very easy to recommend.

The Dark Side of the Moon

One thing I didn’t know going into The Dark Side of the Moon is that the solo developer plays the main character and his real life family plays his family in the game. This is a very low budget FMV (full motion video) game, but I found its cheesiness endearing. It also didn’t hurt that it took some inspiration from one of my favorite FMV games, Contradiction, and even stars some of the same actors. I especially liked Rupert Booth in his role as Gedeon, as it was different from his cast type. Some parts were a bit tedious, like walking back and forth to different areas to see if there’s anything new there. Occasionally the game hints at where to go, but too often you’re just left wandering aimlessly, hoping that something changed. Other than that, I enjoyed solving the puzzles and was proud of myself for solving one of the trickier ones pretty quickly. I’m not sure where the multiple endings come in, as the game allows you to restart a scene if you make a bad choice. So in the end I got the good ending. I’m not sure that there’s any replay value since the game allows you to correct your mistakes. I do appreciate that I didn’t have to start the whole game over when I chose poorly, though. And I should mention that if you play, you can use a two-finger tap to skip cutscenes you’ve already seen. I didn’t notice it until close to the end, so I wasted time rewatching some cutscene. Anyway, if you’re open to a cheesy FMV game with some light puzzle solving, give the game a try.

Adventure Escape Mysteries – Psychic Squad: The Italian Affair

I mentioned Psychic Squad last week, as I participated in the Global Race that took place ahead of release. This week it became available for everyone, though, so I completed my guide. I still have to make videos for most of the chapters, but the guide is there if you need help until then. Overall, I enjoyed the game, even tho the story was a bit confusing at times. The puzzles were mostly logical and there weren’t any that were maddening. But there is one puzzle that’s troublesome, as my solution on my iPad didn’t work on my iPhone. And others are having trouble getting either of my solutions to work for them. But otherwise it was a solid addition to the series and I look forward to more adventures with Jacqueline and Khaled, the Psychic Squad.

flocks

I was a big fan nada studio’s first game, Starman, so I was thrill to hear they made another puzzle game in a similar style. The idea with flocks is that you control a group of people and you need to use them together to solve puzzles, like roasting a giant marshmallow or recycling a fridge. You can use all three together for a task or separate them to each do individual tasks. They can also be rolled into a ball and thrown, as well as shoot little pellets from their hands. I only played the first chapter, but there’s a lot to like. My main complaint is that it’s not always easy to tell if you’ve made a mistake that can’t be fixed, so you might waste a lot of time trying to find a solution that’s no longer possible. The controls can also be a little iffy, especially separating and combining people. It also drags a bit, as the animations between levels take a while. So the first few levels felt longer than they actually were. It’s also not possible to go back and replay individual levels, only entire chapters. I hope these things can be adjusted, as I really do like the overall idea of the game. I just wish it felt a bit better to play. Anyway, you can watch some of my video below to see it in action before deciding whether to purchase it.

Psychofunk

Psychofunk is an innovative auto-running platformer from the developer of One More Button and No More Buttons. You’re thrown into it without any explanation. You need to experiment and figure out how things work, but it’s pretty easy to pick up. Basically, your character runs automatically in one direction until it hits a wall, then it turns around and continues running. You can’t control the character, only the environment. Some platforms are orange and can be collapsed or solidified. If it’s solid, your character runs over it. If it’s collapsed, he falls through. There are also platforms with a little button that you press to make a coin appear. In each level, the goal is to get all three coins and make it to the exit. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. The difficulty ramps up pretty quickly, with spikes popping up everywhere and your character getting speed boosts to make it harder to make split-second decisions. I do like the game a lot, but I was stressed out from the first set of levels and needed a break. If you want a game that will challenge your reflexes, this is a good one. It’s also got a really unique aesthetic and overall feel to it. Again, you can watch some of my video to get a better sense of what it’s like.

Letter Rooms

Letter Rooms is a word game in which you need to figure out the word based on the clue given. At first, you just rearrange the letters, but as you progress you’ll also be able to deselect certain letters or even cycle through a few different options for a specific letter. So it does get trickier, especially if you encounter a subject you’re not familiar with. I played about 50 levels before I got stuck on “spicy paste.” I was close to spelling out “chili” but it wouldn’t let me finish and I couldn’t think what else it could be. Anyway, it’s a decent enough game if you’re looking for a word puzzler, but I’m not sure how much more I’ll play of it.

Super Slime Rush

Super Slime Rush seems like a great idea on paper. You need to navigate obstacle courses in under 60 seconds, before the whole place is flooded with slime. You get more points for collecting coins and there are power-ups that can help you out, like give you extra time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel great the control. The camera is at an angle that sometimes makes it hard to judge jumps. But the bigger issue is the joystick. Even though the whole right side works for jumping, the movement is done through a static joystick instead of a floating one or just having the whole left side be for movement. It made it hard to move with any accuracy. It also felt like it was getting stuck sometimes. The result was that I never truly felt in control and gave up on the game pretty quickly. Your mileage may vary, but it just didn’t work for me.

Genshin Impact

Like I said, it was a fairly quiet week in Genshin Impact. I mostly logged in for the Mimi Tomo event, where we talked to hilichurls and tracked down the Unusual Hilichurl to fight him. It got repetitive fast, but the rewards were good so I can’t really complain. Hopefully the next event will be more interesting.

Sky: Children of the Light

A lot happened this week in Sky. If you’ve been collecting all seasonal candles since the start of the Season of Assembly, you should be able to complete the constellation now. You can also play through the final quest and watch the ending cutscene. Meanwhile, the next season was announced, called the Season of the Little Prince. It started already in beta and there’s been some uproar, since some of the cosmetics are being sold as individual IAPs on top of the adventure pack. They’ve since moved two of the IAPs to be included with the season for either seasonal hearts or regular candles, so it does seem they’re listening to feedback. I also like the new area they added for the Little Prince and the spirit stories are very different from past seasons. The quests are also a nice departure, as the Prince joins you. If you don’t mind spoilers, you can watch my cosmetics and expressions videos below, and I have the seasonal spirits here and quests here.

SP!NG

Last week SP!NG got a huge update with a new theme and several new chapters, so I’ve been slowly working my way through them. 229 is giving me trouble so I took a break, but I’ll definitely get back to it when I have some down time. I still recommend this super polished game for just about anyone.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also saw my first movie in a theater since the pandemic started. I wanted to catch Raya and the Last Dragon before it was gone and I don’t regret it. There were some plot holes, but overall it was one of the better Disney movies. I also finished Mare of Easttown and Sharp Objects, both of which were excellent, and now I’m working my way through Hacks. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which ganes you’ve been enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!