Screenshot Saturday Featuring Witchfire, Coffee Talk, Many More

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Ah, Screenshot Saturday. The time of the week where developers, publishers, and many more promote their latest work in quick ways with the #screenshotsaturday hashtag, leading to…to…okay, sorry, but we’re a bit wiped out this week after having to cover The Game Awards, and then we got blindsided by the Kinda Funny Games Showcase this weekend, which we weren’t prepared for, and that’s on top of all of the regular stuff to cover. So long story short, we still have a lot of work to get to, so let’s just skip the intro and head straight to this week’s crop of games to check out! Enjoy!

Witchfire- Speaking of The Game Awards, have you ever wondered about Witchfire, the FPS from The Astronauts that was announced at last year’s awards show? Are you also curious about it, given that we haven’t heard anything major about the game since then? Well, as seen here, that’s thankfully about to change beginning Wednesday, when regular updates begin! Presumably, the devs may have been afraid of winding up in these nooses due to impatient fans…but we kid, here’s to more Witchfire and what should hopefully be some kickass old-school action soon!

Game 02- I admit to not having featured untitled games here often, but Upstream Arcade’s dark Western – currently only known as Game 02 – caught some eyes when Raw Fury announced that they were now helping to publish the game. Considering the last untitled game that Raw Fury picked up and the reception it currently has, and combined with the amazing style, character design, and supernatural Old West flair here, it’s safe to say that this has earned a prominent place on our radar as well.

Backbone- This actually involves four tweets, the one seen here and the three replies within. It basically showcases the process on how a real-life location such as Granville Street here ends up in a pixelated noir adventure about a dystopian Vancouver filled with anthropomorphic animals. It’s a technique you may have seen before, but it still looks quite impressive, and reinforces just how much hard work is going into a labor of love such as this.

Dark Devotion- You know, for a moment there, given the ornate palace setting in this clip, I thought our main character was wielding some sort of giant feather duster or similar cleaning tool. Nope, it’s just a giant mace-like weapon, which would indeed be a better fit for a good-looking 2D Souls-like game such as this. That being said, I definitely wouldn’t some sort of joke weapon you earn in New Game Plus or something similar, maybe, so keep that idea on the table.

The Last Friend- This entire game about protecting your mobile dog shelter in a post-apocalyptic world is a hybrid of beat-’em-up and tower defense games, yet we haven’t actually seen much of that particular specific mixture so far in Screenshot Saturday. So let’s remedy that with a bit of old-fashioned fisticuffs followed by the quick activation of a wall to hold off other attackers for the moment. Looks like some damn fun multitasking indeed.

Steel Assault- Do we have too many retro sidescrollers that evoke the likes of games such as Contra, Castlevania, and Ninja Gaiden these days? Some might say yes, but we would say that we’re cool with them as long as they keep putting their best foot forward and feature a great deal of effort. And this game definitely seems to fit that criteria, with its lush backdrops and fun weapons such as an electrowhip. The fall of the United States never looked so good.

https://twitter.com/st_thegame/status/1071452551894196225

Stranger Things 3: The Game- This oddly makes the second game featured in Screenshot Saturday that’s a mobile title based on a Netflix show (Hilda Creatures being the first). And much like the previous one, I should really get around to actually watching the whole show one of these days. So I’m a bit in the dark when it comes to recognizing anything specific going on with this restoral of power, but it still looks like an impressive game so far, so showcased it shall be.

Etherborn- Giving the gravity-bending nature of this puzzler, one has to ponder if we’re really running up this bridge, or if we’re underneath it instead, and running upside-down across the bottom of it. Or maybe we’re just thinking too hard about things after being taken on a slight trip, a result of having been mesmerized by this game’s beauty. It’s an occupational hazard, really.

Boneko- Even when you gain mystical powers as a result of your cat being turned into a chapeau that you now wear, sometimes the simplest solution when it comes to combat is to exploit your enemy’s weaknesses. In this case, an AI that causes them to fire even when mechanical allies are in the way. Just sure to still keep some distance between them afterwards.

https://twitter.com/fredriklauw/status/1071303043679870976

Coffee Talk- A heart-to-heart “talking simulator” where you serve up coffee to customers in a modern fantasy world, in what feels like a cross between VA-11 Hall-A and the upcoming Necrobarista. It’s a blend that looks like it could easily work, though, especially when it gives you the chance to get chatty with some intriguing demons…and maybe ask them where they get the little horns for their phone.

https://twitter.com/astroneergame/status/1071584729307082752

Astroneer- Currently available in Early Access, the hit sci-fi exploration game is gearing up for its full release in February, still hard at work when it comes to developing each location and the unique landscapes within. We’re not sure if any of them will indeed include trees that flail around to dubstep in the final product, but it definitely wouldn’t be unwelcome.

Tänzer- Going back to old-school action for a moment, homebrewed 16-bit console games still continue to impress, as evidenced by the successful Kickstarter campaign from earlier this year for this game. And here we see a spread showing why it succeeded, as it appears to deliver classic 2D hack-and-slash action with a few quirky touches. So collectors and gamers in general may want to keep an eye out for this.

Reed 2- The first Reed came out earlier this year, and hit it off with critics as a simple, challenging, hardcore mobile platformer. Obviously, a lot of time was spent mastering each level, and dying a lot. But now Reed 2 is already on the way, and as seen here, it actually promises more to uncover, so be prepared to see that death counter spike again…