Sword Of The Sea (Playstation 5): From some of the crew behind Journey and Abzu comes... a cross between Journey and Abzu. Which means the movement feels great, and the world is ultra-detailed & beautiful & full of fish.

But SOTS feels more slight than either of its predecessors, and there's little reward for exploring that world. Luckily, the joy of moving through the world is enough... for a little while.

Current Backlog: 239, Average Release 25-Feb-2017, Median Release 13-Jul-2018.

Flock (PC): Well, this was a bit cosier than I was expecting! A nice little bird-based collect-a-thon with (very) occasional (extremely) minor puzzling, with a podcast-friendly grindy post-credit achievement-fest. Brilliant audio design supports the initial collecting, with ears proving to be just as useful as eyes to track the buggers down. Slight, but enjoyable.

Current Backlog: 240, Average Release 10-Mar-2017, Median Release 22-Jul-2018.

Forrest Byrnes - Up in Smoke (Playdate): A fun little procedurally-generated platformer that's lovely to behold. Unfortunately, it suffers from the fact that the proc-genned levels vary wildly - some are fifteen-second blasts to rinse, others feel ten times longer and are impossible to 100%.

The great thing is that you lose very little on a dud level - time investment is minimal. And it's still pretty fun to play!

Current Backlog: 241, Average Release 21-Mar-2017, Median Release 31-Jul-2018.

Please, Touch The Artwork (PC): In a previous life, I was a bit of an ArtWanker. "Please, Touch The Artwork" cheerfully reminds me of that time through light puzzling in an abstract aesthetic. It's a handful of engaging hours, with the New York "gallery" evoking some familiar ArtWanker vibes. Recommended! :)

Current Backlog: 242, Average Release 29-Mar-2017, Median Release 3-Aug-2018.

Labsylle (Playdate): A fun puzzler that uses the PD's crank to swap pairs of syllables to form words. It's very more-ish - I played all the content the day I bought it...

...but charging through all those puzzles back-to-back reveals a somewhat ugly truth: that it's not much of a puzzler at all - more like busywork - because you either know the answer immediately, or you brute-force it. Much like crosswords, I guess.

Current Backlog: 243, Average Release 6-Apr-2017, Median Release 7-Aug-2018.

Executive Golf DX (Playdate): An interesting side-on golf game that makes a frustrating first impression. It's only after I stopped using the crank, and started using the powerup balls, that this game opened up & became somewhat enjoyable. High-scores for a game with random courses is baffling.

Hints of corporate cynicism help its cause, but I *still* believe the only good golf game is the original C64 Leaderboard.

Current Backlog: 243, Average Release 6-Apr-2017, Median Release 7-Aug-2018.

Blippo+ (Playdate): Is the Playdate the best way to experience Blippo+? Probably not - I experienced *many* system crashes that seemed more frequent with certain episodes (Week 10's "Subroutines" episode was a killer). But some of the writing hits harder (& funnier) on the Playdate, even the second time around. Great stuff!

Current Backlog: 244, Average Release 13-Apr-2017, Median Release 26-Aug-2018.