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Aim for the fastest time! Cool 3D action "Neon White" unfolds in heaven!

• Neon White" (Angel Matrix)
• Genre: Action
• Release date: June 17, 2022
• Price: 2,950 yen
• Copyright: (C) 2022 Angel Matrix
• #: 2022 Angel Matrix

Have you ever seen an RTA, which stands for "Real Time Attack," a style of game play in which players compete to see how long it takes to clear a game from start to finish? Some of you may have seen large-scale RTA events such as "RTA in Japan" on video streaming services, but it can be a challenge for some people to try it for themselves. The "Neon White" introduced here is a game that allows you to easily experience the fun of such time attack.

This is a 3D action game from the first-person perspective. The first thing that catches the eye is the washed-out graphics. The cool, yet pop and catchy visuals will probably make people who like games and anime go gaga over it. Incidentally, although the article doesn't convey it, the music in this game is also cool. The fast-paced BGM is sure to liven up the gameplay.

Before introducing the contents of the game, let us first introduce the story and world view of this work.

The protagonist of this work is a man who has died and lost his memory. He was destined to go to hell, but when he wakes up, he somehow finds himself in heaven. There, the messengers of God tell him that they will ask "neons," humans like the protagonist, to defeat daemons in the "10 Days of Judgment," and the best of them will be rewarded with permanent residence in heaven. The main character, who was given a mask with a bomb in it by the angels, was to compete as "Neon White" with the other demonHunters, the Neons, for the right to live permanently in heaven. ......

The storyline of the race to exterminate the demon of sinners in Heaven! The storyline is very appealing. The game has a unique worldview with a somewhat mysterious atmosphere due to the appearance of elements such as heaven and demons.

This is a stage-clearing action game. The objective is to reach the goal by defeating all the enemy daemons in the stage. The basic actions are "attack" and "jump," a relatively orthodox structure for an action game. However, there is one system that is unique to this title. That is the "soul card. These are cards that are placed in stages or dropped by defeating enemies, and when picked up, players can use the weapons depicted on the cards, such as machine guns and shotguns.

The katana, a melee weapon, is in your possession from the start and can be used without restrictions, but many enemies are located in places where melee attacks cannot reach, so you must use the "soul cards" placed throughout the stage. The long-range weapons on the "Soul Cards" do not allow the player to look through a scope to aim, but the player shoots bullets at a cursor in the center of the screen, which is similar to "hip shooting" in an FPS game.

Often there are steps and terrain in the stage that are clearly unreachable by normal jumping. In action games, this can be overcome by activating gimmicks hidden in the stage or by leveling up and learning skills, but the way to overcome them in this game is on a completely different level. It is the "destruction of acquired soul cards.

In fact, in addition to being used as weapons, soul cards have abilities that can be used only once by destroying the card.

For example, the "Elevate" handgun-like weapon can be discarded to enable a two-step jump, and the "Purify" machine gun-like weapon can be discarded to place a bomb. As the name suggests, the Discard ability is activated by tearing up a Soul Card, so it is important to note that once it is used, it disappears.

In addition, there are situations that require advanced actions, such as "Discard the Elevate and jump two steps, then get the Elevate again, discard it immediately, and jump continuously," or "Use the blast of a bomb placed by Purify to jump high. The greatest appeal of this title is its fast-paced parkour action, in which players use their soul cards as weapons to kick enemies while activating their discard abilities to overcome terrain as they go.

The game is a fast-paced game, and the "speed" of the game, or how fast you can clear a stage, is also important to the story.

In each stage, there are four levels of rating: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Ace, depending on the clear time, and a player's rank rises with a Gold rating or higher. Players can advance to the next chapter by reaching a certain rank, so players will challenge the same stage over and over again, aiming for a rating of Gold or higher.

In order to clear a stage as quickly as possible, players need to be creative and use trial and error to find the best possible action, or to find shortcuts by combining discarded card abilities. This is what I mentioned at the beginning of this article, that this game offers the fun of a "real-time attack (RTA).

However, there are probably many people who think that playing the same stage over and over again is a bit tedious (......). However, this title has an ingenious feature that allows players to enjoy playing the same stage over and over again. The "Insight" points are accumulated based on a four-level evaluation when a stage is cleared.

As these Insight points accumulate, various elements are unlocked in each stage. These include the "Global Online Ranking," which allows players to compete against other players from around the world, and the "Player Ghost," which displays replays of their fastest data during the stage. These unlockable elements increase the enjoyment of replaying the same stage, so that players naturally become absorbed in the time attack without feeling a sense of work.

Incidentally, even if you fail to beat the clear time, you can get a little Insight by clearing the stage, so if you play the game patiently over and over again, you will eventually unlock the elements. This is a small point, but it is one that casual gamers will appreciate.

Of all the unlockable elements, the one I particularly recommend is the "present. In the story of this title, there are many attractive sub-characters, such as "Neon Red," a sexy woman with a mysterious atmosphere, and "Neon Violet," a girl with high tension and a little bit of a bad temper. The game also features special conversation events and sub-quests that occur as a result of acquiring gifts placed in each stage and giving them to the characters. This system of giving gifts, raising sensitivity and collecting events is ...... like a gal game!

It is a game that allows you to experience both the stylish and stoic action part of a time attack game and the adventure part of a gal game-like system all at once, which is quite unique in the wide world of video games. At any rate, I felt that this present system succeeded in motivating players to play this game even more.

Neon White" is packed with numerous attractions: exhilarating and fast-paced parkour action, a well-designed time attack system that makes repetitive play less painful, and a unique story with characters whose personalities are exploding with personality. It is an addictive title that is sure to please not only those who enjoy action games, but also those who do not usually play action games.

2. "Let's Play. Oink Games" offers six board games online, including backgammon to explore the ocean floor, drawing wargames, guessing games, and more! Oink Games".

• Let's Play! Oink Games" (Oink Games Inc.)
• Genre: Board game
• Release date: July 7, 2022
• Price: 2,500 yen
• Copyright: (C) 2022 Oink Games Inc.
• #

Suddenly, do you like board games?　The best part of board games is to get together and have fun, but in this day and age, it is difficult to get together in one place and play together. It is precisely because we live in such a time that I recommend "Let's Play: Oink Games"! Oink Games".

This is a digital board game title that allows you to enjoy various analog board games that actually exist in the real world with a single software package. At the time of this writing, there are six games included in the game. The official website explains that "more titles will be added in the future," so we can expect to be able to play more board games through updates and other means. The Nintendo Switch version of this game was released in December of last year, prior to the Steam version, and at the time of release only four board games were included. The title of the game, "Oinku Game", is a reference to the game.

The title "Oink Games" is the name of the game maker behind this title. Stylish and cute artwork and an innovative design in which all the necessary components are contained in a small box about the size of a playing card that fits in the palm of your hand are the main features of Oink Games' analog games. Bodoge enthusiasts may have seen the eye-catching Oink Games small boxes at game stores.

The following six games can be played with this title.

Undersea Exploration", "The Fake Artist Goes to New York", "Star Taps", and "The Fake Artist Goes to New York".
Star Taps
Lunar Expedition
Which face is this?
... in the bushes

The lineup includes a wide variety of games with completely different playing styles, such as competitive games, cooperative games, drawing games, and guessing games. Incidentally, the game selection screen shows a lineup of small boxes that resemble the actual analog versions of the games, and you can also appreciate the reverse side of each box. Bodoge lovers will no doubt be thrilled just by looking at the backsides.

While the ability to play as many of the six board games as you like is appealing in itself, the greatest appeal of this title is that it supports "online play.

The best part of board games is playing together, but gathering players to play together tends to be a hurdle. Especially in this day and age, it is difficult to get several people together to play in one place, but online play clears this hurdle.

This title supports online play for 2 to 8 players, allowing players to play together in real time not only with distant friends, but also with strangers from around the world. The game also supports cross-platform play with the Switch version. Another nice feature is the ability to use stamps for easy communication.

Of course, offline play is supported as well as online play, and for four of the six games, you can enjoy playing alone or with the CPU in a competitive or cooperative game.

Another hurdle to board games, besides getting the right number of players, is understanding the rules. In particular, all of the games in this title are completely original works, so it is essential to check the rules before playing. However, it is quite a difficult and painstaking task to thoroughly read an instruction manual full of text. However, this title is equipped with functions such as "Introduction," which provides an overview of the game in a short video, and "Easy Explanation," which allows you to grasp how to play the game roughly with 4 pages of illustrations and text, and also allows you to check detailed rules in an easy-to-understand manner with illustrations. Furthermore, detailed rules can be checked at any time during the game.

Moreover, all of these features can be checked at any time during the game. These systems considerably lower the barrier to understanding the rules, and in general, I felt that the game is easy to play for everyone.

From here, I would like to introduce some of my "recommended games" from among the board games included in this title.

Undersea Exploration

The first one is "Undersea Exploration. This is a popular game that has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. In this backgammon-type game, players, who are the crew of a submarine, roll dice to go to the bottom of the ocean, pick up treasures, turn around, and return to the submarine again.

The deeper you go, the more likely you are to get a high score, but when you pick up treasure, your dice roll is subtracted by the number of treasures you pick up, and the "air" shared by all the players is rapidly decreasing. If you fail to return to the submarine before the air reaches zero, your score will be zero, so you must watch what the other players are doing and decide when to turn back.

Although it is a simple backgammon game that anyone can play, "Undersea Exploration" offers a thrilling chicken race-like experience due to the treasure and air systems involved! Oink Games" is a game that you should play if you have any doubts at all.

The Fake Artist Goes to New York

The next game we would like to introduce is "Fake Artist Goes to New York. In a word, it is a drawing wargame.

Players draw lines one stroke at a time according to a theme presented to them, but there is one "fake artist" among the players who does not know the theme and is just drawing randomly. After everyone has painted twice, the players vote on who they think is the fake artist, and if the fake artist gets the most votes, the fake artist loses.

In other words, it is a game to find a liar (werewolf) who draws a picture without knowing the subject, and it is also called "drawing werewolf. The rule is that even if the fake artist gets the most votes, the fake artist wins if he or she can guess what he or she is drawing (the subject).

This rule creates a dilemma for the players: they must draw the subject without letting the fake artist know what they are drawing, but they also want to show that they know the subject. This distress is the greatest appeal of this work. Also, since there is no need to lie in conversation to argue, the game can be played more casually than most wargames, which is a nice point. This is a recommended game that can be enjoyed as a quick party game.

In the bushes

Another game I would like to introduce is "Yabu no naka" (In the Bush). This is a game of deduction and deception based on the novel of the same name by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Players take on the role of detectives and try to deduce the murderer of a murder case by looking at the information on two of the three human-shaped tiles on the board, who are the suspects in the case. The human-shaped tiles are numbered from 2 to 8, and the highest number among the three is the murderer. The key to guessing the culprit is whether or not there is a "5" among the three, but beware that other detectives may be deliberately making a false guess to make someone else guess wrong. Players, in turn, place chips on the tile they think is the culprit, and the last person to guess wrong is penalized.

The rules are simple: "guess the largest (or smallest) number," but the game offers both deduction and deception at the same time, making "Yabu no Naka" an addictive game that you will want to play over and over again.

With "Let's Play. Oink Games," you can enjoy a wide variety of board games both offline and online! Oink Games", where you can enjoy a wide variety of board games both offline and online. Analog board game fans, as well as those who don't usually play board games, will enjoy this title, so if you are interested in it, please check it out.

3. The legendary "strange game" is back in 2025!　GARAGE Garage" is a mysterious adventure game in which players try to escape from a spiritual world.

• GARAGE Garage" (Sakuba Metal Works)
• Genre: Adventure
• Release date: July 8, 2022
• Price: 2,400 yen
• Copyright: (C) 2022 Sakuba Metal Works
• #1

In Japan, there are three novels known as the "three great strange books. The term refers to the three novels, "Degras Magura" by Hisasaku Yumeno, "The Black Death Pavilion Murder Case" by Mushitaro Oguri, and "An Offering to Emptiness" by Hideo Nakai, which are full of eccentricity and fantastic charm. There are three games that have been called "the three strangest games" in the video game world: "Coulomb's Gate" released in 1997, "Baroque" released in 1998, and "Garage," which I will introduce hereafter.

Garage Garage" was released on Steam as a remastered version of "Garage: Bad Dream Adventure," a game that has made a name for itself in the gaming world as one of the three most bizarre games of all time.

The original version was released for Windows in 1999, but due to various reasons, only 3,500 copies of the game have been sold in the market, and its rarity has caused the price to skyrocket in the used game market. I actually checked the price on a certain store's online site, and found that it had a tremendous premium price of up to 300,000 yen. As one would expect from such a fantastic game ......!　The fact that such a "Garage" is being revived as a complete version for Steam in this age of 2025 has been a big topic of conversation, mainly among game enthusiasts, even before its release. Incidentally, a smartphone app version of this game has also been released.

I know the name "Garage" and that it is a strange game, but I know nothing more about it, and of course I have not played the original version. So, let's start with the story of this work.

The protagonist of this work is a person who has been put through a strange psychotherapeutic device called "Garage," which is said to work on the deep consciousness of the subject and create a bizarre world of darkness.

The device, which treats the mind by entering the subject's own psyche, throws the protagonist into a confined space with crumbling wooden structures, rusted metal, and sewage everywhere. He also discovers that his own body has been transformed into a "bio-machine" that is neither machine nor organism. Will he be able to escape from this strange and complicated world? ......

The synopsis of the film itself, in which the protagonist enters his own psyche and becomes a bio-machine, alone is "strange," but what really catches the eye is the visuals. The unique graphics, which are somewhat retro and cyberpunk, yet beautiful and decadent at the same time, have such an impact that one look at the game and you will be convinced, "Oh, this is definitely an odd game. The intensity of the game is so strong that it might appear in your dreams if you play it for a long time, but since "Bad Dream Adventure" is set in a spiritual world to begin with, it is probably natural that it would appear in players' dreams.

This work is a point-and-click adventure with a focus on solving puzzles. The player clicks the cursor on the screen to move around, and then clicks on points of interest on the screen to investigate them, solving the mystery and advancing the story, a relatively orthodox style for an adventure game. Incidentally, the points to be examined are generally brightly lit, so you won't get lost too easily.

The objective of the game is to escape from this world. In a letter left behind when you wake up, it is written that you must find your lizard in order to escape and that you may be able to find it if you ask a being called Psyche for help.

Like these words "lizard" and "psyche," this world is full of unfamiliar and unique terms. The "aquatic machines" such as crabs and frogs, the "bindou" to catch crabs, the "adaptability" and "shirakawasu" HP-like statuses that result in game over if they run out, and other words that sound somewhat strange despite their Japanese origin can be confusing at first. However, as you continue your exploration in the world of "Garage," you will become more and more accustomed to using these words in your daily life, giving you a strange sensation as if you were traveling in a strange land.

In addition to the visuals, worldview, and language, the game's system is also quite unique. One such feature is the means of transportation. As mentioned above, you move by clicking the cursor in the direction you want to go, but the means of transportation is a cart. The main character, a "bio-machine" that is neither a machine nor a creature, uses a cart instead of legs to move around the world on rails. This world of rails has a somewhat complicated structure, with two lines, "inner" and "outer," just like the Yamanote Line's inner and outer lines. This complicated structure, which takes some time to get used to, may be one of the factors that make this work an "odd game.

Another important element of this game is "adaptability" and "white gas.

Adaptability is a status that expresses "how much you are like yourself.
If your adaptability level decreases, you will enter a state called otonuke, where you cannot speak, and if your adaptability level decreases further, you will enter a state called udenuke, where your arms will no longer do what you say. In this state, the user cannot save, and must use a "wooden horse" or "adaptor" at a facility called "Junreido" to recover.

The other status, "white gas," is like fuel needed to move the machine's body.
If it runs out, the machine will be unable to move, so it must be refueled before that happens. In fact, the main male machines cannot refine this white gas, but the female machines can refine it by eating crabs and frogs. Therefore, when they run out of fuel, they need to go to the white gas shop and get refueling from the female machines lined up there.
In other words, the system is simple: "The main character has two types of HP, and when one of them runs out, the game is over and he needs to recover at the store. However, the richly developed world view and setting make this game a unique and unforgettable "odd game.

Incidentally, the protagonist can also perform "body modifications," such as attaching tanks and modifying the cart in order to increase adaptability and the maximum fuel value, and to improve fuel efficiency. This is another strange and spiky power-up system made possible by the unique setting in which the protagonist's body is a machine.

In order to use both Junrodo and Shirokawasuya, you need "stamps," which are the money of this world. How do you earn stamps? In fact, fishing is such an important element of this game that it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is a fishing game as well as a mystery-solving adventure.

Fishing is an important element of the game. You go to one of several fishing spots in the world, select a hook and bait, and get started. When a frog bites instead of a fish ......, you adjust the reel up and down so that the hook does not go into the top and bottom red areas of the gauge. Although this game is a peculiar "strange game," the fishing system is very easy to understand and well-balanced as a mini-game. The exquisite difficulty setting and the joy of catching a rare frog may make you forget your original goal of escaping from the strange world and become completely addicted to fishing.

With its impressive graphics, unique and rich worldview, and a number of unique systems that accelerate your immersion in such a strange world, "Garage Garage" is truly a "strange game" in every sense of the word. However, just because the game is maniacal and eccentric does not mean that it is difficult to play or that it is too challenging. Another major appeal of this game is that it is set in a special world called the "spirit world," which makes it possible to enjoy the various considerations and interpretations of the story. If you are interested in this game, please play it and try to escape from this mysterious world.

Did you find any recommended Steam titles that interest you?

So, we have introduced three recommended new Steam titles that will be released in June and July.

We picked up a wide variety of titles, including a cool and stylish 3D action game, a collection of board games you can enjoy together online, and an adventure game called "The Legendary Strange Game. If you find a title that interests you, please enjoy it at home during your summer vacation.