Track critic scores against the player curve

Latest Review

Gareth Chadwick at TheSixthAxis

May 29, 2026 | Score 70

“Rune Dice is a great idea with good execution. Combining dice like you're playing a game of billiards or hockey is excellent, allowing risky trick shots that offer substantial reward if you can make it. But the game doesn't go far enough, with each run ending in half an hour and limiting how much you can experiment with builds. There's the potential in here for an excellent game, but what we have is simply a good one.”

Latest Review

Retrolike.net Staff at Retrolike.net

Jun 2, 2026 | Score 60

“Once you start replaying the original R-Type III, you run into the glaring differences in sprite sizes, hitboxes and projectile speeds that make this version, while visually beautifully done, almost impossible to play. R-Type Dimensions III might as well have been called R-Type III: Ultra Hard Edition, and if you are a veteran of the game who relies on muscle memory, you will surely be put off by the sheer differences in these areas. At the same time, it is too steep a mountain to climb for newcomers to the series. The net result is that the original SNES game, while still hard, is much better balanced and ultimately the better version to play.”

Latest Review

Vladan Nastanović at EmuGlx.org

Jun 1, 2026 | Score 100

“There’s little left to say about a sequel this impressive - if you have even the slightest love for cars or Japan, this is a game you simply can’t afford to miss.”

Latest Review

Violet Plata at GameGrin

May 27, 2026 | Score 75

“Thrifty Business has a lot of heart, making it a terrific title to pick up and wind down to.”

Latest Review

Thumb Culture Staff at Thumb Culture

Jun 1, 2026 | Score 40

“The game is just rather meh, the story wasn’t really doing it for me, and the combat was okay. But most of the problems stem from the oddly long and repetitive segments. It also felt out of place with having Thompson deal with his own personal trauma, while everything was going on. I personally didn’t see anything that connected him to what he was experiencing in the hospital. More so when the player has seen what he is grieving. Sadly, without giving spoilers, It Reaches just comes across as odd in a few areas. And with the amount of motion blur and stuttering I have already mentioned. I am giving it the Thumb Culture Bronze Award. If the various issues are resolved, then maybe it’s a silver.”

Latest Review

Cubed3 Staff at Cubed3

Jun 5, 2026 | Score 60

“Even stripped of its explicit content, Sinisistar 2 remains an engaging dark fantasy adventure filled with memorable environments, satisfying combat, and an atmosphere few indies manage to achieve. Its unique doujin charm and willingness to embrace grotesque horror and erotica help it stand out, but all these are held back by extremely limited progression systems, simple gameplay mechanics, weak rewards, and a very short duration. Sinisistar 2’s cardinal sin is that it never quite develops its full potential.”

Latest Review

Chiara Roscini at Indie Games Devel

Jun 10, 2026 | Score 87

“Creepy Tale: Snow Child is the most ambitious project Creepy Brothers have released to date, and the one in which their visual and narrative identity asserts itself with full confidence. A three-person Russian team – a programmer, an artist, a sound engineer – has built a hand-drawn interactive adventure that works on multiple levels simultaneously: as a hero’s journey, as a story about found family, as a meditation on identity and moral choice, and as the most structurally complex chapter in a series that critics have long described as anthological. Snow Child revises that description. There is a universe under construction here, with precise callbacks to previous titles and threads left deliberately open. At the centre of it all is Blizzy – an eleven-year-old boy with horns, raised by a creature called Furry in a forest somewhere between fairy tale and fable. When Blizzy breaks a seal he was forbidden to touch, he sets in motion a chain of events that sends him straight to Hell. What follows is a journey through an infernal city that is, unmistakably, Venice – lava canals, Gothic architecture, a Carnival poster in elegant nineteenth-century calligraphy – populated by some of the most memorable characters in the series: Adele, a Shakespearean antagonist with a sharpened tuning fork and a bipolar register; the Sarto, a Russian couturier who slips into Italian profanity when his composure breaks; Molek, a candy-loving devil with a habit of guiding human children through situations they shouldn’t survive. The writing is dry, often pragmatic, and gains warmth from a narrator who punctuates the story with philosophical questions. The gameplay matches this variety: stealth, platforming, environmental puzzles, quick-time events, and combat combine in a structure where each mechanic earns its place through narrative logic rather than the need to vary the pace. The art direction – hand-drawn, densely detailed, with a colour palette that functions as a storytelling instrument – represents the clearest evolution from Benjamin Lacombe’s early influence toward something entirely the team’s own. The original Russian voice acting and a tonally versatile soundtrack complete a remarkably cohesive package. Snow Child is one of those games you keep thinking about after you finish it. Not because it overwhelms you with feeling – if anything, it holds back – but because Blizzy, Furry, Gobbly and the rest stay with you, and their lives keep occupying your thoughts. This is exactly what happens when a story is written well.”

Latest Review

Mark Pell at Gamer Social Club

Jun 13, 2026 | Score 80

“The Caribou Trail left me caring for an unknown war story. Fisher, Gordon and Lonnie’s human tale of small island men being cast into a global conflict is equal parts sombre and heartwarming. The title’s great voice acting and audio design immersed me into this short story deeply.”

Latest Review

Alan Murilo Pereira Duque at Nintendo Blast

Jun 2, 2026 | Score 85

“Menace from the Deep: Complete Edition is an excellent deckbuilder game that deserves to be checked out by fans of the genre and enthusiasts of the life and work of H.P. Lovecraft. Although its conversion to the Switch wasn't without flaws, the work of the Flat Lab studio remains recommended on Nintendo's console, thanks to its fun gameplay and unique setting.”

Latest Review

Thumb Culture Staff at Thumb Culture

May 18, 2026 | Score 60

“I found Hotel Architect a little easier to wrap my head around compared to other management sims. I liked making and decorating rooms, although it was tricky to actually get my desired quests. I also struggled to keep the happiness level up for both staff and guests. The hotel does become chaotic rather quickly without having a way to slow down the influx of customers. That is what usually messes up my play-throughs, but that is all part of the fun when it comes to these games. A good thing this game has is zoning, It makes it easier to visualise each section I create. If I could suggest something, maybe more filters on the furniture, so that we can focus on certain customers. It gets tedious having to hover over each item and see who prefers what. It may seem small, but when you try doing a whole refurb to tailor your hotel, it becomes tricky. Hotel Architect’s campaign allows the player to learn more at their own pace. All while not holding your hand so much that you are spoon-fed. Take the start of the game, you get a nice and easy run down, then level two just says “oh yeah you need a bar now.” I did enjoy doing the level objectives. If you are looking for a new sim, then Hotel Architect is a good first choice, so it’s the Thumb Culture Silver Award from me.”

Latest Review

Oliver Shellding at WayTooManyGames

May 25, 2026 | Score 65

“I sincerely, truly want to like this game, and it’s easier for me to do that when I only have it for a moment at a time. But if you’re determined to sit down and bang this out over a couple of days, be warned: there will come a time where you simply run out of gas.”

Latest Review

Eser Güven at Oyungezer Online

May 18, 2026 | Score 75

“Whirlight - No Time To Trip offers a delightful experience for old-school fans of the genre, but it’s also true that players who expect absolute logic in puzzles or are used to getting help whenever they get stuck may find it quite challenging.”

Latest Review

Emanuele Feronato at The Games Machine

May 26, 2026 | Score 80

“Space Haven is a deep and unforgiving space colony sim in which you begin with four survivors and a handful of resources, tasked with building a self-sustaining interstellar colony piece by piece. Its gameplay weaves together crew management, production, power distribution, oxygen systems, research, combat, and rescue missions into a complex experience that rewards careful planning and nerves of steel. The excellent pixel art is paired with a somewhat rigid progression that veteran players may find predictable, but that's a trait shared by many of the genre's defining classics.”

Latest Review

Justin Nation at Nindie Spotlight

May 13, 2026 | Score 67

“There’s a cool idea at work here, turning the traditional fighting game into a card-based battler, but outside of the novelty it wears a bit thin overall”

Latest Review

Travis Bruno at Capsule Computers

May 23, 2026 | Score 85

“Vultures – Scavengers of Death blends tense survival horror with sharp turn‑based combat, thriving on exploration even if its story doesn’t fully take flight.”

Latest Review

István Szabó at AdventureGames.hu

May 13, 2026 | Score 70

“Although Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery borrows a bit too heavily from its competitor Duck Detective, it's still worth checking out for those craving adventure. Judging by the interest in the demo, there's certainly going to be an audience curious about the mystery of the meowseum.”

Latest Review

Luke Addison at Thumb Wars

Jun 9, 2026 | Score 80

“Directive 8020 is a love letter to iconic sci-fi horrors that terrified us in years gone passed. While certain aspects could be improved for example the efficacy of the Turning Point System, the real meat and bones of the game, the environments, the audio, the graphics, are outstanding and easily the best that SuperMassive Games has ever brought us. I enjoyed nearly every minute of my time with the game, and it succeeded several times over in scaring me. It’s the best that SuperMassive Games has ever given us.”