The action in Bullets & Brains never stops, constantly forcing you to dodge zombies while wielding a variety of weapons. As you defeat enemies, they drop resources like brains and energy. You collect these to unlock upgrades, improve your gear, or unleash powerful special attacks. With unique characters offering different abilities and starting weapons, you can choose diverse playstyles and build strategic teams.

Cooperative gameplay is a big deal in Bullets & Brains, making it great for playing with friends. It supports two-player local co-op and sharing resources and using defensive tools together is crucial for survival when enemies overwhelm the screen. Teamwork does indeed add the needed depth, encouraging planning and communication to tackle the hardest challenges.

The post Kooperativna pucačina sa zombijima Bullets & Brains izlazi sljedeći tjedan za PC i konzole first appeared on IndieGames.

You lead a squad of three Sovietborgs, moving through post-apocalyptic areas with guns, grenades, and a talent for big explosions. The game’s story pulls inspiration from 1980s action hits like The Terminator and Universal Soldier, mixing satire with wild chaos, while the gameplay will remind you of retro classics The Chaos Engine and Gauntlet.

The top-down view keeps the action fast and intense, with enemies such as mutant chickens, zombie hordes, and radioactive centipedes popping up from unique generators you must destroy to clear each level. Plus, there are shmup-style bonus stages, where you blast through enemy waves, and huge boss battles against towering, creepy foes.

The IndieGoGo campaign, kicking off on June 25, will fund the game’s final development and support releases for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Dreamcast, and Neo Geo. Expect special editions like an exclusive PAL Dreamcast case and many more.

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While Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade isn’t a bad game, it’s definitely not for hardcore fans of the roguelite genre. Despite having three distinct characters with unique stories and abilities, it suffers from excessive repetition. You’ll encounter the same bosses, enemies, and skills, run after run. Even with random skill acquisition and saved progression, the lack of varied levels means nothing ever feels new. Once you’ve learned the boss patterns, the game quickly becomes boring. The only real difference between runs is your starting weapon and its upgrades.

Set in a mythical Edo-period Japan, this action roguelite RPG plunges you into a fight against yokai and the Nine-Tailed Fox to restore balance between humans and demons. It blends Hades-inspired roguelite mechanics with a stunning ukiyo-e art style, offering fast-paced combat, character-driven stories, and weapon customization across three campaigns. Previously overpriced, the recent price drop makes this game well worth diving into.

Combat flows smoothly, though level design can feel repetitive

The game’s core loop starts with you picking a hero: Shigure, a katana-wielding samurai; Sara, a speedy dual-dagger wielder; or Taketora, who uses both a bow and his fists. Each stage throws you into enemy-packed arenas, broken up by rest areas for upgrades, and capped off with a boss (a Kraken, a giant Crab, or even your own demon-tured Master). Runs either end in victory or death, but death doesn’t mean the game is over.

Combat is top-down, a dynamic mix of combos, dodges, and parries. You’ll use light and heavy attacks, unleash a special move after a successful parry, and use unique character abilities. As you play, you’ll grab Soul Orbs for temporary boosts like extra damage or speed, and collect materials for permanent upgrades like crafting new weapons or boosting your stats. In rest areas, you can grab ramen for buffs, buy items from vendors, or take on risky challenges.

Weapon customization is another strong point, allowing two unique weapons per run, for example, one might grant critical attacks while another unleashes exploding or homing petals. However, this system is poorly designed. You’ll rarely use a second weapon because stages are too short: just two before a boss fight, preventing you from properly utilizing both. While one weapon might excel against specific bosses, and dual-wielding becomes more viable in the lengthy late-game campaigns, there’s little reason to switch otherwise. It basically tricks you into thinking its useful.

“Weapon customization is another strong point, allowing two unique weapons per run.”

Yasha steps into the roguelite scene with a new vibe

While initial impressions are positive, but as mentioned, the fixed stage design quickly leads to repetition. Bosses, despite being visually distinct and well-designed, quickly become predictable once you learn their patterns. Although various buffs offer an edge, I often felt my damage output was insufficient against the ridiculously high HP pools of some bosses. Though hidden stages and yokai festivals offer rare items, they don’t alleviate the repetitive “rinse-and-repeat” structure, which feels oddly implemented.

Each campaign demands multiple runs to advance chapters, with permadeath resetting run-specific upgrades. While you’ll unlock weapons, abilities, and stat boosts at the hub, meta-progression is a slow grind due to sluggish Soul Power gains. The high cost of upgrades feels disproportionate, especially considering the length of each campaign. This early grind is a major deterrent, often leading to frustrating deaths even against weaker bosses. However, the game does improve once you acquire some upgrades.

It’s not all bad, though. The game offers plenty of build diversity, numerous weapons to try, and characters to play, rewarding your investment. However, as mentioned, if you’re a roguelite veteran, this game likely won’t stack up to others in the genre. I can’t help but compare it to Realm of Ink, which draws heavily from Hades and offers incredible replayability with insane builds and varied buffs/debuffs. Yasha feels like a baby in comparison.

“Each campaign demands multiple runs to advance chapters.”

Perfect for players who love a bit of grinding and diverse playstyles

That said, Yasha does have interesting ideas for buffs, such as the yin and yang system – one offering pure positives, the other a mix of boons and drawbacks to maintain balance. There are also abilities and weapon skills designed to synergize. So, don’t misunderstand; Yasha is still a decent roguelite game with solid combat.

With an art style that fuses ink outlines and watercolor, the game evokes traditional Japanese paintings. Environments are also detailed, from lush forests to haunting yokai designs. Characters faces are expressive too, with cutscenes feature great anime-inspired portraits, while weapon effects like flaming spheres and drills enhance the visual appeal. Unfortunately, the vibrant hub village lacks depth, featuring unmoving NPCs and repetitive dialogue.

In the end, Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a visually stunning action roguelite, boasting great ukiyo-e art, fluid combat, and unique character stories. However, repetitive level design, grindy progression, and clunky mechanics make the experience repetitive. Roguelite newcomers might appreciate its accessibility, but veterans may find it shallow. It’s a fair choice for fans of Japanese mythology and fast-paced combat, though casual players should consider waiting for updates or a sale.

“Yasha is still a decent roguelite game with solid combat.”

Review copy provided by the publisher

3.6

The post Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade – Solid Japanese-styled rougelite game first appeared on IndieGames.

You’ll be drawing cards to see what kind of monster hordes you’ll be facing, and as you play, you’ll unlock new heroes, weapons, and encounters. The mysterious Dealer from the original games is back too, making things even more challenging. It’s like they took the deckbuilding from Hand of Fate and mashed it up with a top-down shooter where you’re dodging tons of bullets.

Get ready to build your deck to earn tokens and unlock more cards, so your arsenal keeps growing with each run. There are also text-based events and quests that can have surprising outcomes, and they can even give your weapons powerful buffs. From axes that set things on fire to crossbows that explode, you’ll be collecting and upgrading gear to unleash serious damage on enemy waves as you explore familiar and new places from the Hand of Fate universe.

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In ANNIE: Last Hope, you control Annie, a young woman searching for her fiancé after a sudden invasion of monstrous creatures tears them apart. What begins as a desperate rescue mission spirals into a deeper mystery, uncovering conspiracies and dark secrets behind the world’s collapse. The narrative weaves themes of love, betrayal, and survival, with moral dilemmas and critical choices shaping Annie’s journey through a zombie-infested wasteland.

The game’s top-down shooting gameplay is fast-paced and intense, pitting you against relentless waves of infected enemies. Combat feels smooth, enhanced by a unique HD voxel art style that makes environments vivid and destructible, adding dynamism to battles. You will also navigate diverse levels, from dense forests and abandoned schools to chaotic highways and cramped elevators, each offering new challenges and encounters.

The post ANNIE: Last Hope Brought Voxel Zombie Action to Consoles Today first appeared on IndieGames.

Based on X posts and gameplay clips, the game features fast-paced action where players dodge enemy projectiles while collecting coins. In short snippets, developer Manu reveals that the aiming system is intentionally straightforward: it follows the mouse position directly, with no auto-aim, snap-to, or magnetism. This design emphasizes precision and player control, a perfect fit for a shooter where accuracy and quick reflexes are essential.

The comparison to Nuclear Throne suggests the game may include roguelike elements, such as procedurally generated levels, permadeath, or randomized enemy spawns. Clips showcasing frantic combat against waves of foes, along with an on-screen timer, further reinforce this idea, hinting at a gameplay loop built around survival or room-clearing challenges.

The game seems to be in active development, with Manu currently refining animations, particle effects, and other details. While the absence of a Steam page and ongoing adjustments indicate it’s not yet release-ready, the progress points toward an upcoming playable demo or early access version.

Added some juice to the game #gamedev #animation #indiegame pic.twitter.com/PL7BRcdWSc

— Manu (@Manu_E3) March 7, 2025

Line them up! Sniper bullets only get stronger with each pierced enemy#cartoonbash #gamedev #animation #indiegame pic.twitter.com/cSG7j87poS

— Manu (@Manu_E3) March 29, 2025

very tiny update, added a little animation to the loading screen #cartoonbash #indiegame #animation pic.twitter.com/iGNl4ZyrRt

— Manu (@Manu_E3) March 16, 2025

The post This indie dev is making a Cuphead-style top-down shooter first appeared on IndieGames.

SONOKUNI mixes Hotline Miami's instant-death action with cyberpunk style and Japanese flavor. Made by DON YASA CREW, seven hip-hop artists who turned game developers during lockdown, it's both a love letter to their music and a brutally hard action game. You play as Takeru, a solo assassin taking on a evil biotech empire. The game's world is crazy, violent, and full of wild legends. With blazing-fast gameplay and loud, intense style, this isn't for players who want something relaxing.

Precision in Chaos

At its core, SONOKUNI is a top-down action game where every hit is fatal, both for you and your enemies. Takeru wields a katana, a parry ability, and a time-slowing mechanic, navigating rooms packed with grotesque, genetically mutated foes. Unlike Hotline Miami’s gunplay, combat here is intimate and melee-focused, with spinning kicks and sword slashes replacing bullets. The parry is a standout feature: time it right, and you’ll deflect projectiles or counter enemy strikes, turning defense into offense in a split second.

The game’s structure is straightforward but relentless. You enter a stage, clear rooms of enemies to unlock the next, and repeat until you face a boss. Each room is a micro-puzzle of aggression, enemies have distinct patterns (archers prep shots, sprinters charge, acid-spitters lunge), and you must prioritize, dodge, and strike with precision. Death sends you back to the room’s start, not the stage’s, making retries quick but punishing. A “Speedrun” mode, introduced at launch, amps up the challenge for masochists, flipping stages into mirrored layouts.

Beating a room feels like solving a fast, dangerous puzzle. Pulling off perfect blocks, dodges, and kills while DON YASA CREW’s music pumps in the background is incredibly satisfying. But the game has problems. At the start, it doesn’t explain much. You’re suddenly dealing with too many things at once, enemies attacking, bullets flying, and split-second timing. Around halfway through, the difficulty jumps sharply. Some rooms feel unfair, forcing you to die over and over just to learn what to do.

There’s an “Easy” mode to help, but the game still requires quick reflexes and a lot of patience – not everyone will enjoy that. The biggest issue? Repetition. Many rooms full of enemies can just be skipped. Fighting through them feels pointless since they don’t give rewards or tie into the main story. I wish clearing these areas actually mattered, but right now, they’re just optional challenges with no real payoff.

Myth Meets Morality

The game mixes biopunk dystopia with Japanese myths. The story isn’t told through long cutscenes, instead, you learn about the world through short talks with characters and mysterious videos between levels. These show a dark, neon world where it’s hard to tell right from wrong. Takeru struggles with all the killing she has to do. Every enemy she defeats is another tough choice to protect her people. The developers say they based this on real Japanese stories about hard sacrifices. While the story doesn’t explain everything about its world, it does a great job making Takeru’s mission feel like a sad, never-ending battle.

Characters don’t talk much, but when they do, every word matters. Most of the story comes through the game’s dark mood and Takeru’s actions rather than long conversations. The boss fights, especially the final one, connect to the game’s big ideas about power and sacrifice. However, players who want deep stories with lots of character growth might be disappointed. SONOKUNI focuses more on creating a strong mood than explaining everything. The unclear ending might frustrate some some of you who want definite answers.

The music is the true highlight. DON YASA CREW created 50 powerful hip-hop tracks that drive the action. The deep bass and raw energy match perfectly with every sword swing and block, making you feel like you’re in an action-packed music video. This isn’t just background music, it’s the soul of the game. The excellent sound design even won awards like BitSummit’s Excellence in Sound prize. While the game doesn’t have voice acting, this actually lets the music and combat sounds stand out more.

Ending thoughts

Despite its many good points, the game’s difficulty is uneven. Once you learn the mechanics and how to use all the combat tools, it gets easier. But it can be very frustrating if you keep dying at the same level over and over. SONOKUNI is a fast, intense game that throws you into the action with loud hip-hop and a bold style. It’s not perfect: the story is thin, and it may not have much replay value. But when it clicks, it’s a unique indie game with a strong attitude. If you love games like Hotline Miami, stylish action, or Japanese underground style, you should try it. Otherwise, it might not be worth the risk.

Review copy provided by the publisher

3.8

The post SONOKUNI - Hip-Hop Fueled Biopunk Beatdown first appeared on IndieGames.

To survive, you’ll need to scavenge resources and fight for supplies across space cathedrals and bunkers. Crafting tools and weapons is crucial to enduring the edge of a black hole. Each location houses a sacred relic, but finding and defending it from biomechanical monsters requires strategic thinking and quick reflexes. If the nun dies, the Church will send another crusader to reclaim her blessed remains and continue the mission.

One of the game’s standout features is the Stigma System, which influences gameplay based on your choices. Holy or cursed stigmas unlock different items and abilities, making sanctity management essential for survival. A powerful stigma can even make the nun divine enough to resist the biomechanical horrors hunting her.

Additionally, Void Martyrs features procedurally generated levels, with roguelite mechanics enabling meta-progression, while handcrafted pixel-art visuals give the game a distinct charm. Inspired by titles like Darkwood, Signalis, Blasphemous, and Void Bastards, Void Martyrs delivers a dark and atmospheric experience that will appeal to horror and action game fans alike.

The post Void Martyrs Was Announced, A Space Horror Adventure Starring a Nun first appeared on IndieGames.

The game’s core mechanic revolves around mind-capturing, allowing you to take control of enemies and use their strengths to your advantage. With limited resources, like a single magazine of ammo and no first-aid kits, you must rely on this ability to survive and complete their missions.

Memory Lost offers a unique blend of action, strategy, and storytelling. The game features 60 unique enemies, each with their own abilities that you can take over to influence the outcome of battles. The game’s five skill trees allow for endless configurations, letting you experiment with different combinations to find the playstyle that suits you best.

The story is driven by the Neural Network, the game’s main character, which evolves as you capture enemies’ memories. These memories shape the Neural Network’s personality and unlock new abilities at the Mind-Map hub. The game also introduces a karma system, where your actions, whether killing for the common good or showing mercy, affect the story and lead to one of three possible endings.

The post Top-down shooter Memory Lost is set to release next month for PC, with a console launch to follow later first appeared on IndieGames.

In Dark Light: Survivor, you are a Dark Hunter, one of the few remaining humans tasked with saving what’s left of humanity. The Phantom Train, powered by celestial quantum technology, is your only hope of traversing the multiverse. Each universe you visit presents new challenges, from mystical forests to post-apocalyptic ruins. Your goal is to collect energy to power the train and move closer to Elysium.

The game features dynamic perspective shifts, allowing you to switch seamlessly between top-down and close-up third-person views. This adds a tactical layer to the gameplay, letting you adapt to different combat situations. The visuals are a blend of stunning cinematic graphics and nostalgic pixel art, with the option to switch between 4K cinematic mode and retro pixel mode.

Dark Light: Survivor also includes deep customization options, allowing you to collect armor, gear, and weapons to upgrade and adapt to the challenges of the multiverse. This title is set to release on PC via Steam, and it promises to be a standout title in the roguelike and survival genres.

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