Interesting games on itch.io: November 2

I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive, subversive, and downright dangerous. It’s a true “art gallery” for game ideas and creative developers, and it should be celebrated for that.

What makes itch.io a little difficult at times is finding things that are interesting to play. Discovery is a real issue when great ideas are buried among high school projects and nasty little efforts to scam a quick buck from players. With that in mind, I thought what might be helpful to readers would be if I did a brief write-up of interesting games that I’ve come across on itch.io each week. In many cases these games will be unfinished or “in development,” but I’m highlighting them because they promise something special and are well worth keeping on the radar.

Note: I also haven’t played these games. I highlight them as interesting based on the itch.io description and concept. Where I find the time to do actual reviews or other coverage, I will compose separate articles on the game in question. These aren’t so much an endorsement (or piece of criticism) as they are a head’s up.

Naturally, if you want to pick up a couple of the Dee Dee visual novels while you’re there on itch.io to support our work here, I would be eternally grateful! There’s a new one that recently came out, Sade!

Resident Evil 4: Otome Edition

Set over the course of seven days, Mothered features a full day-night cycle, and some pretty shocking content warnings (sickness, abuse and death). You’ve got to assume that they’re trying to latch on to the same SEO juice behind the Remothered series – which is unrelated but has built up a substantial fan base – however, this developer has created a couple of games of their own at this point, and it does seem like they’re generally well-received. 

This is another game that may or may not be up for very long, but Duck Tales was (and is) great, so I’m most definitely up for fan-takes on that classic platforming action. With Webby To The Rescue, the team has decided to build a ZX Spectrum 48X game, with all the gorgeous retro art that entails, and puts you in control of the ever-lovable Webby, as she sets on a journey to rescue Uncle Scrooge and the nephews.

The game promises to be a very traditional 2D platformer, with a castle full of quirky, Duck Tales-style enemies to make your way past. Just looking at the screenshots it looks like there will be a nice dose of challenge involved too, which is important for anything related to Duck Tales. I just wonder why the developers didn’t come up with something of their own here. They’ve put all that effort into a game that they’ll never be able to commercialise, whereas if they made something in homage to Duck Tales, but their own property, we could also be playing this on consoles… As impressed as I am with fan games, there are times that I can’t help but think the developer does themselves no favours by doing this.

The developer of Dating Sim! decided to remake a visual novel that they produced on Flash back in 2008 (with Flash now being formally ended), and that’s why we have Dating Sim! Re:Mastered. In addition to preserving the narrative of that original game, the new remaster has updated visuals, characters, and is generally the improvement that you would expect, 12 years down the track.

  

The developer leans into it all, too, with a story about crawling into bed, waking up 12 years later (2008 to 2020, see), and yet still being in college, with the exact same problems, and chasing after the exact same girls. My favourite is Luna, whose bio reads: “Luna is considered a pervert because she’s always talking about things like cybersex, but this makes her more approachable when it comes to romantic advances.” This is a “short but sully comedic VN,” so it should be good for a laugh or ten. The art is lovely, too.