Staff Article Lists

Imagine this: You’re on the playground(or maybe the park) and decide it’s a good time to break out Pokemon GO or a similar app and go hunting for cute creatures that might be hiding around the landscape. This is the premise behind Critterrupters, the newest critter catching adventure being developed by Isle of Swaps dev Fuzz Force. I’ve been given the wonderful opportunity to play and share my thoughts on a pre-alpha build of it and I have to say, there is a lot of potential here.

Oh no! You’re a duck who has been turned into a human! Now you find yourself indebted to the Goddess who saved you, and they need you to help them find stuff for people so that she can regain her power. You establish a new company to do just that, and Lost and Found Co. is born. Thus begins one of the greatest point-and-click searching games ever made.

Something beyond words compelled me to try out Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime. With its simple design, off-beat characters, and the question of “what the heck is frogtime” needing to be answered, I clicked start and began a little adventure that kept me guessing, laughing, and transported into a world beyond words. At the heart of it all is this mysterious “Frogtime” game that everyone in the game is absolutely obsessed with. No one has a qualm with quelling quarrels with this simple to understand yet deceptively strategic Chinese Checkers-like experience, where the goal is to move your frogs from one end of a game board to the other while your opponent tries to do the exact same thing. You never know who (or what) you’ll be playing Frogtime against, but it’s the engine that drives the funky comedic trip that is Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime. It’s off-kilter, made from a place of surely beautiful personalities, and always runs parallel to a feeling of community and friendship.

Every so often, a game comes along that not only surprises me but becomes one of my favorite games of all time. It’s rare - especially as of late - that it happens, but when it does? I can’t help but gush about the game and Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is one such game. Not only is this one of the coolest and best games I’ve played so far this year? It’s also, quite easily, my third favorite game of all time and a prime contender for my game of the year. I’m serious, I’ve never had a game that made me smile this hard and gave me this many hours of fun since Earth Defense Force 2025. Yeah, there were games in between that release and this one that I had fun with and that also made me smile, but not to the extent I did with this title. Would you like to know more?

Remember Catlateral Damage? The game where you play as a psychotic cat destroying everything on site? Ever wanted the same type of game but, instead of a cat, you’d play as a dog or a bird? That’s where Messy Up comes into play: A fun, if somewhat lacking and slightly boring, party-style game where you make your owner’s life a living heck as you destroy their home.

The tagline of “cozy farming adventure on the high seas with an adorable animal companion” is enough to get me very intrigued by a game, and developer VoodooDuck had to know they had a great idea when designing Collector’s Cove, because that’s one heck of a premise. I’ve spent quite a few nights now enjoying the lapping waves on my boat as I fished for new surprising catches, sprouted tons of fun crops, and outfitted my animal-carried boat with a productive set of machinery, trees, storage boxes galore, and lots more. That’s before even mentioning the new friendly merchants I met that are definitely not all the same person with different clothing. Truly, Collector’s Cove was like a pleasant bedtime tea; not overly in-your-face, and nothing too extravagant, but hits the right spot when you want exactly what it provides.

Multiplayer games filled with creative ways to enjoy chaos together are having a big moment recently, and we’re all for it! Entering the fray is “Trash Day”, a game that has you teaming up with your buddies to form a raccoon squad in a physics-based co-op adventure. Scavenge trash, fill your shopping cart, and work together to get back home. Hijinks and accidental (purposeful?) craziness is sure to follow as you and your furry friends feverishly fetch “valuable” loot amidst a barrage of human and other animal interference. You’ll have to cross various obstacles with your trusty shopping cart, all in an attempt to complete the campaign, which sorta reminds us of “RV There Yet?” another fantastic entry in the genre from earlier this year. We’re partial to being able to be raccoons with a buggy though, we must admit. 

🦝 About Trash Day🦝

• Online 4-player co-op adventure
• Physics-driven chaos (things will go wrong)
• Steal, scrounge, and scavenge anything not nailed down
• Built for shouting at your friends

Trash Day on Steam | Off By One Games | Bluesky | X 

Look for Trash Day to release in 2026!

Turtle Power! How many of you remember the TMNT fondly from your youth? I know I do. I personally grew up with the 2003 series and it still holds a special place in my heart. But I’ve grown to love other versions of the Turtles over the years as well. Long time readers will know this isn’t the first time the Turtles made headlines on GF. My colleague reviewed Shredder’s Revenge a little over a year ago. So when I heard they would be coming to one of my favorite card games, you can bet your kunai I was excited and honestly? They’re pretty fun to play with.

Going beyond just a simple hotel simulator, Hotel Galactic invites its players into a role filled with mystery, management, and a multitude of tasks to complete to build up a rundown intergalactic hotel into a bustling, beautiful hub of life and hospitality that tourists from across the galaxy visit to feel renewed, well fed, and taken care of. To accomplish this, developer Ancient Forge has employed the use of nostalgic anime-styled visuals, a hefty helping of unlockable and satisfying gameplay elements, and well-tuned audio accouterments to compliment it all. Through its bumpy beginnings, Hotel Galactic manages to set sail and take you on a trip that you’ll gladly continue revisiting.

Platformers are a curious breed. Ever since the days of Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, they’ve remained popular. Yet being innovative and different can be a little difficult to accomplish at times. Fortunately Croak, the upcoming bouncy 2D platformer from WoodRunner Games doesn’t have such difficulties. In a Steam Next Fest, it takes a lot to really stand out and after playing the demo, I can see why it caught the eye of my fellow staff members. This game is a gem in the making and will be well worth checking out when it fully releases.