The best way to describe The Stanley Parable is a piece of art which uses video game mechanics (yeah I know, it’s the old ‘Games as Art’, but work with me here people). Originally a Source Mod, The Stanley Parable has received a full release on Steam as well as a visual upgrade and achievements. This game, if you can call it that, is unique. There are no puzzles, no guns, or enemies to shoot. What you do is explore, and either follow the narrator’s directions, or don’t. You’ll either love it or hate it, so grab the demo and try it out if you think it’s something you would like. If you do like it, it’s on sale during Steam’s Winter promotion.

For the sequel to one of the greatest real-time strategy franchises of all time, Blizzard decided to do something big and somewhat controversial: split the game into 3 parts, one for each of the three factions. Wings of Liberty deals with the Terran faction, while the recently released Heart of the Swarm deals with the Zerg. However, just because WOL deals with only one faction, it is by no means incomplete, as the tale of Jim Raynor is a story deep enough to stand on its own, and the RTS gameplay, refined over the years since the original Starcraft’s release, stands the test of time.
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The Ouya isn’t exactly taking the world by storm, but I still gotta show it some love. Yes I know its launch wasn’t exactly perfect and not that many people are buying the software, but it’s not a triple A console, it’s an independently developed project funded via kickstarter. It’s $99, it can run your favorite retro games via emulator, it has a library of games already available for it (for better or worse), and you can develop software for it. That last part is especially important, because with the indie development scene exploding, you’ll wind up with experimental entries like American Dream that you won’t see on Steam any time soon.
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Tokyo Jungle is one of the more unique games lurking around the Playstation Network. It’s weird and sometimes repetitive, but how many games have you played that let you play as a Pomeranian? Well, this title not only lets you take control of a Pomeranian, but you also get to play as dozens of other animals. Tokyo Jungle was released as a retail disc in Japan. However, it came over here as a downloadable title, and is better off for it. While it is a good package, it’s not something most gamers would pay full price for.
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Developed by Toronto based Cellar Door Games who describe it as a Rogue-Lite, Rogue Legacy is a perfect example of why the indie movement remains fresh with new concepts and ideas. A combination of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dark Souls, and The Binding of Issac, Rogue Legacy is a challenging game that pushes players forward by challenging them. You make your way through four areas as you battle monsters, gather items, and fight bosses. You will die, and die often. However, when you die, you take control of one of three possible descendants, each with their own abilities and traits, and your stats and equipment carry over to them. The real fun of the game comes when choosing the descendant. There are several traits a character can have. While some are cosmetic, others affect gameplay. For instance, characters with ADHD move faster, characters with vertigo play the game upside down, and characters with the nostalgic trait see everything with a golden hue. In between attempts, you can upgrade your family’s manor to upgrade your abilities, hire personnel such as blacksmiths and architects, and unlock new items and equipment. Oh yeah, the game’s layout resets each time you play, unless you pay the architect to lock down it’s design. Thankfully if you defeat a boss one time, it remains defeated. While Rogue Legacy will be very difficult at first, it gets easier with every attempt. Players who stick with it will be rewarded. When you complete the game, you’ll unlock a new game+ where you can play with your upgraded stats in a much harder quest. Players who love old-school exploration style games will love Rogue Legacy, as long as they are prepared to accept the challenge.

Normally I don’t feature free-to-play games in this column, but with this game I’m making an exception since you don’t need to spend any real world money to experience everything it has to offer. Pixel People is an 8-bit version of what the 2005 film The Island would look like if instead of being murdered and having their organs harvested, the clones actually were being sent to an island, and this island was in space. You are in control of a colony of clones on an island in space. After they come to an arrival center, you assign them jobs by splicing two genes which represent professions. There are over 200 to unlock, and there are small animals and other items to find and unlock as well. Your island is constantly expanding, so you’ll need to purchase more land for buildings and houses. There are two main resources: gold and utopium. Gold is harvested on a regular basis, while utopium is a bit more scarce. You can buy utopium at a premium price, but if you’re patient, you can wait until you save up for whatever you need. A recent update added the ability to add facebook friends so you can trade commodities with them, leave gifts, and visit their towns. If you got an iPad, and a few minutes a day to kill, grab this from the app shop. It’s free-to-play, but thankfully it’s not pay-to-win.

When Bethesda Software released Fallout 3 in 2008, it became one of the biggest and best RPGS of this past console generation while resurrecting the classic Role Playing Game franchise from years past. Obsidian Entertainment, whose development team consists of people who previously worked on the classic fallout games released this follow up. More than a simple spin-off and not quite a sequel, New Vegas is an RPG that uses the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 3 to tell an all new story.
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As I type this, it’s a few days removed from America’s birthday. Which means leftover fireworks, leftover hot dogs, and public pools. More importantly, it’s the middle of summer. Which means the temperature is getting higher, and with those temperatures, tensions are getting higher. Eventually, with those high tensions, this will happen:

But why get into a real life brawl and risk ending up on worldstarhiphop.com when you can engage in some digital fisticuffs instead? This special edition of $20GOTW/Maximum Letdown takes a look at some of the best and worst fighting games of the recent and distant past, so click below and check it out.
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