July brought us some of the best and the worst cozy games, but that’s fine. You never know what will happen when you throw things out of a balance.
I don’t really have a lot to say about this crop of games that isn’t summed up in the quick verdicts, so let’s just roll right into it.
Though… I will just say, Ova Magica was dope. That was some cozy gameplay.
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Reviews
While Paper Trail isn’t your run of the mill cozy game, it’s a lot of fun and definitely meditative in its own way. Puzzle lovers are going to love the mechanics of this one.
Ultimately, I liked the idea of Simpler Times more than I liked the reality of it. The controls were far from seamless and it’s stupidly easy to lock yourself out of levels that you have to restart the game to get back into.
The three new GUNNAR tokidoki collaboration glasses are surprisingly underwhelming after so many recent big hits (including another tokidoki collab). While there’s nothing truly bad with the Donutella or the Cotton Candy Carnival, the SANDy brings this entire collection down several notches.
It’s crazy what you can do with Fortnite nowadays as an island creator. While not perfect by any stretch, Aquarium Tycoon has the makings of an actual game on its own, complete with addictive unlockables and exploration.
While I don’t think Fireside is a bad game, it’s not one that I’d necessarily call fun. There’s a lot of grinding involved that feels tedious without reward. The graphics are good and the premise is solid, it just wasn’t for me. However, it may be for you.
Été is an incredibly relaxing and fun game to sink your time into. It’s got a beautiful watercolor style, lots to explore and collect, and even the painting is fun which I find most art-related games fall a little short on, but not Été.
SCHiM has a lot to love and a little to dislike. The art style is gorgeous and the play style for puzzles is unique. But, I can’t understate what a difference a checkpoint would have been in the longer, 20 minute+ levels.
While Valley Peaks is an interesting game, I found the graphics to be too brightly saturated to withstand long sessions. Plus, I got turned around from the start and never found my way back. It has potential if you don’t have sensitive eyes.
GUNNAR is no stranger to licensed glasses. Both pairs from the new Overwatch collection have something for fans of the franchise to love, depending on your needs and budget. While not perfect, there are a few things to take into account when choosing these frames.
REAL ESTATE Simulator is one big loading screen after another of buying something and selling it for just a bit more over and over and over again. It’s the Groundhog Day of real estate.
Previews
If I’ve ever influenced you to try a game, this should be up near the top. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Ova Magica, but I’m having the best time.
Demos
Tiny Garden is a simple game and since I only had the prototype to play with, there wasn’t much to the game. But, I had SO much fun playing with it
We got a chance to try out Tavern Keeper’s demo and I can’t even begin to express to you how much fun this game is going to be when it launches. But, I tried to get it all laid out in the article.
Releases
- Dive into Nature: Preserve Makes a Splash on Steam Early Access, August 8th
- Valley Peaks is Coming to Steam on Wednesday July 24th!
Other
Mansion Restorator: This game is the epitome of a classic mobile game. You run around homes picking up trash and then laying down flooring, wallpaper, and furniture items. You can only carry so much and walk so fast, so you go back and forth until you can upgrade those things.
Let me be super clear, this game is a guilty pleasure and I didn’t have the worst time with it, but it is pretty basic. So, if you like these types of mobiles games, give it a go. Unfortunately, there were quite a number of bugs and you couldn’t change the item colors once you put them down which resulted in some truly hideous homes on my part.
Riddle Tower: I gave this one a go and it just wasn’t for me, friendos. While I enjoy word puzzle games, half of the main questline is all math based. We don’t know math here, numbers are evil and I will not be finding the missing variable of anything. I ended up getting stuck because I boxed myself in by questions I didn’t know the answer to. Classic.
Unfortunately, even taking math out of the equation (ha), the hint system was lacking or I’m just spectacularly dimwitted. Either way, I didn’t enjoy it, but if you’re a puzzle/riddle/math aficionado, you may enjoy it.
Chill Seekers: This one was sent to us and while I got some value out of it, but I had the same problem with this one that I did with Riddle Tower. Chill Seekers is a moving parts puzzle that I want to call a slider, but I know that will evoke the wrong image.
You play as penguins that are trying to get back into the water. You lure them with fish that you place on ice or snow blocks. On ice, they keep sliding and on snow they stop. I got myself so boxed in that I couldn’t move forward and this brand of puzzle not in the realm of cozy for me.
The Garden Path: I’ll be honest, I have no clue what this game is about. I popped it open and was only able to make a character before the Godot Engine crashed and proceeded to crash every time I retried. I couldn’t move forward. So, while the art style seems unique, I just couldn’t play it.
I’d recommend waiting for some patches on this one.
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