Games you missed out on in March 2024

Here are five smaller games you may have missed last month

Plumbers Don't Wear Ties / United Pixtures / Limited Run Games

March was once again packed with massive triple-A games, as PS5 players were still busy with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which came out at the very end of February, and Rise of the Ronin, which offered a big soulslike open world. On all platforms, everyone was sinking hours into Capcom's massive world of Dragon's Dogma 2. Even Nintendo players got Princess Peach: Showtime!

With so many big-name games with big marketing budgets, some of you may have overlooked several smaller indie games that were also released last month, but we played them so you don't miss out. Here are five smaller games you may have missed in March 2024.

Mediterranea Inferno – GY

Mediterranea Inferno / Santa Ragione‬

Our three protagonists, Mida, Andrea, and Claudio, all have very relatable problems. Claudio doesn’t know how to live up to his family legacy, Mida wants to appear successful to his friends, and Andrea feels lost without others around him. They all rely on others to prove their self-worth and were, therefore, all deeply affected by the pandemic. Mediterranea Inferno is about these three former besties reconnecting, with just three days to see if they can be that close again.

Mediterranea Inferno breaks away from typical visual novels with visuals and storytelling reminiscent of a psychedelic fever dream. You get to know the characters better through dreamy mirages that represent their inner fears and desires. My main criticism is that it all goes by in a flash. Each round is short and sweet, and you have to play several times to get to know the characters. Giving the characters a little more room to breathe and develop would have done a lot. Some quality-of-life changes, such as the ability to skip read text, would have also gone a long way.

Mediterranea Inferno fills a niche, in that it tells a mundane relatable story often overlooked by visual novels, yet one that is important to many. I look forward to the teams next game, where hopefully the refinement needed is made.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

Inkulinati – GY

Inkulinati / Daedalic Entertainment

At its heart, Inkulinati is a roguelike strategy game, but there are so many things that elevate it. A very important part of this is its approachability, with numerous ways to allow people – like me – who don’t play strategy games to get started. There are two main modes: Academy, which features small tutorial levels, and Journey, where you collect new units and skills for battles as you make progress. The Academy is great for beginners, introducing you to new concepts slowly while giving you small puzzle-like levels to complete to test your knowledge. You can then transition to the main mode, where there are difficulty levels that change how smart the AI is.

While Inkulinati caters to beginners, it has very deep strategy concepts that allow players to create amazing synergies and combos. Like the best roguelikes, after you win one game, new elements are added that will increase the brainpower required going forward. Aside from the gameplay, the presentation is witty, whimsical, and engrossing, which is what drew me to Inkulinati in the first place despite not being a strategy fan. It’s all the small details that make it so playable, though more concessions need to be made for those playing on the Switch’s tiny screen.

Score: 8/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

As Dusk Falls – GY

As Dusk Falls / Xbox Game Studios

I’m a sucker for a choices matter game, and few games feel like your choices really matter like As Dusk Falls. Looking at the timeline after rolling credits, I realized that almost everyone can perish throughout the story, which made saving as many people as possible feel all the sweeter. As Dusk Falls tells the story of a robbery gone wrong, and all the fallout that comes with that. What starts out as a family trying to dig themselves out of debt, evolves into numerous life-and-death situations, where you decide everyone’s fates. Small things you don’t think would matter too much can have huge consequences, something I really appreciated.

That’s not to say it isn’t flawed. Personally I liked the art style which uses stills instead of motion, but I can see how people would find it distracting. You take on the role of five different characters, giving you multiple outlooks on the story, though I bemoaned that Vince, the first character you play as, is the least interesting and developed. The decisions that have the biggest impact also don’t feel too difficult, but it might just be that my pacifist stance aligns with the developer. People also often talk about the cliffhanger ending, which left more questions than answers. 

Despite these flaws, As Dusk Falls instantly became one of my favorite choices matter games, and I loved how decision making could be done with friends. Part of the game took place outside the screen, where you and others debate, persuade, and despair over each choice. I hope that a sequel or third book in the story is made to tie up the loose ends so clearly left in the story.

Score: 8/10

Version tested: PlayStation 5

Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties – GY

Plumbers Don't Wear Ties / United Pixtures / Limited Run Games

This is one of the most difficult games I’ve ever had to review, as it has often been slated as the worst game of all time. It reached cult status for just how bad it is, giving it the same appeal as The Room has in the movie world. Plumbers is a full-motion video game, though that title is used loosely, as the vast majority of the game is actually made up of still photos. The plot makes no sense, the dialogue is horrendous, and the weird costumes, filters, and colors are just the icing on the cake. Plumbers was created as a passion project by the director, who had just sold his business and was interested in making a game. It was made for him to see if he could do it, rather than to have people give it the reverence it has today.

So, really, we need to take a look at the whole package and ask if Plumbers needed to be re-released. There is a point here about video game preservation, and Limited Run has done a great job of remastering the images to make them crisp. There are also some small quality-of-life changes, you can now make selections without waiting for the narrator to finish talking, and skip scenes, something I don’t remember from the original 3DO release – and yes, I am unfortunate enough to have had and played this. Limited Run also got in contact with a number of people who worked on the game to get the full story, though for most of them, it was a tiny footnote in their lives they don’t remember much about.

It is clear that a lot of effort has been put into trying to preserve this game, which has such a unique position in the industry, but the story behind it is about as interesting as you expect. The game is as bad (good?) as it ever was, and uncovering the story behind it removes some of the magic. The team has added a Plumbing the Depths mini-game to unlock all of the behind-the-scenes videos, but just like many things in the game, it feels out of place. This release answers the questions we had about Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, but the whole thing might have been more magical if we were left curious.

Score: 5/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story – GY

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story / Digital Eclipse

Despite being just a twinkle in my father’s eye during the ’80s, I know a lot about Jeff Minter. That’s because I have an unusual obsession with game history. Jeff Minter is a game developer who has made over 60 games since the ’80s and is still working to this day. Under the name Llamasoft, he has developed for a huge number of systems, but his games are best known for their psychedelic aesthetic with plenty of beasties thrown in for good measure.

Llamasoft: A Jeff Minter Story tells Minter’s story in game development from the start to the present in an interactive documentary. It is filled with readable documents such as reviews of his games, manuals, and newsletters that he used to send to fans. This is interspersed with pictures from his career and video interviews with the man himself. The best bit about this interactive documentary is that you can play each game as it is talked about, so you can better understand each reference.

It’s comprehensive in its presentation, but there are some parts that could have seen improvement. Some of the documents aren’t the easiest to read, and the zoom can be pretty limited, especially for those playing on Switch. I also would have preferred more video content to balance out all of the reading, as it plays more like an e-book than a documentary. However, if you want to learn about one of the most prolific developers in gaming history, this is one of the better ways to do it.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch