Author: Flare

Every now and then, a game comes along that stops you mid-session and makes you genuinely question what a small team is capable of. Causal Loop, from three-person studio Mirebound Interactive, is that game. Built in Unreal Engine 5 and published by Headup, this sci-fi puzzle platformer arrived in April 2026 and immediately made waves among fans of the genre — and for very good reason. You play as Bale, an exo-archaeologist who arrives on the alien world of Tor Ulsat alongside his colleague Jen to study the ruins of a lost civilisation. When Bale accidentally activates the Chronolith —…

In an era where RPGs often feel derivative, Seismic Squirrel has crafted something genuinely special with Aether & Iron. This decopunk narrative RPG transports players to an alternate 1930s New York where anti-gravitational technology has literally elevated the city into the clouds, creating a stunning backdrop for one of 2026’s most ambitious indie titles. A World Where Gravity Has No Hold Set in a meticulously researched alternate timeline, Aether & Iron presents a New York City transformed by aether technology. The floating metropolis isn’t just window dressing—it’s integral to both the story and gameplay. Players navigate the “Lowers,” the grittier…

In an industry constantly chasing photorealism, it takes a lot of guts to throw millions of polygons out the window in favor of monochromatic, hand-drawn 2D sprites. When the earliest clips of MOUSE: P.I. For Hire went viral a few years ago, the internet was instantly captivated by its 1930s Steamboat Willie aesthetic. But a great art style can only carry a game so far. The question remained: is there a solid game beneath the novelty? Releasing today from developer Fumi Games and publisher PlaySide, MOUSE proves it is much more than just a visual gimmick. It is a confident,…

The original Cooking Simulator was a breakout hit for a very specific reason: it perfectly captured the hyper-realistic, physics-based chaos of a commercial kitchen. Whether you were meticulously plating a five-star steak or accidentally setting the entire pantry on fire with a rogue blowtorch, it was a sandbox of culinary destruction. For the highly anticipated sequel, developer Big Cheese Studio decided to shift gears. Released on March 31st, Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together attempts to take the franchise in a more structured, serious direction. It introduces highly requested online co-op, deeper restaurant management, customizable chefs, and a massive recipe creation…

A 25-Year Wait for the Driver’s Seat If you grew up during the peak Thomas the Tank Engine era of the late ’90s and early 2000s, you likely spent hours pushing wooden trains across wooden tracks, dreaming of what it would be like to actually step into the cab of that iconic blue tank engine. Back then, video game technology was barely walking on two legs. The idea of exploring a fully realized, 3D Island of Sodor from a first-person perspective was pure science fiction. Fast forward more than two decades, and the simulation experts at Dovetail Games—the developers behind…

A New Dimension of Suffering Back in 2010, the original Super Meat Boy essentially wrote the modern playbook for the precision platformer genre. It taught an entire generation of gamers how to embrace failure, perfectly balancing controller-snapping difficulty with instantaneous respawns and buttery-smooth movement. When it was announced that the franchise was making the leap into the third dimension, the gaming community was understandably skeptical. 3D precision platformers are notoriously difficult to get right. Translating the pinpoint accuracy required to dodge a sea of buzzsaws from a flat 2D plane into a fully navigable 3D space introduces massive hurdles with…