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Now Playing at SUPERJUMP, Issue 25
We're back with another issue of Now Playing at SUPERJUMP, and this one marks the quarter-century point! We've gone monthly with this format, giving our writers the time to truly sink into the games they're playing. True to form, they've been toiling away at a wildly eclectic and diverse set of games, and they're dying to tell you about them! Enjoy this week's entries and we'll see you back here soon with more recommendations and odes to the games we love!
Charlotte Huston
I finished a replay of Portal 2 the other day and I was impressed at how well it still holds up; it's the pinnacle of the puzzle genre to me. The way it respects your time, and keeps you engaged is genius, since it gives the player a reason to want to complete all the puzzles in their way.
The main thing I've been playing is Disco Elysium. I'm not the biggest CRPG person, but Disco Elysium presents itself in such a way that I've been thoroughly enjoying it. It somehow manages to be utterly engaging almost immediately. I really couldn't bring myself to look away from it, and I was utterly enthralled by its writing and atmosphere. I do think getting into the world-building is a tad hard to wrap your head around since this is a fictional town with fictional countries and history. I've had an issue trying to establish that in my head from what the game gives you.
Beyond that, I've thoroughly enjoyed what I've played of Disco Elysium so far. I'd highly recommend playing it but without any prior knowledge. This feels like something you just need to play and experience for yourself. It feels like a visual novel a lot of the time despite being a CRPG, especially since the dice rolls don't feel intrusive. Sometimes you'll have to fail a dice roll in order to figure out what to do next, and I think that just shows how good the game is at putting the player in their world right away while making sure they feel comfortable and not overwhelmed at all. I can't wait to play more of it.
I also intend to play Star Wars: Bounty Hunter's re-release after a friend gifted it as a birthday present, really looking forward to that as well.
C.S. Voll
I finished 428: Shibuya Scramble's main story and most of its side routes, bonus stories, and bad endings. It's easy to see why Famitsu gave the game a 40/40 review score back in the day; it convinces you to care about all the characters, including the ones that are initially quite irritating, too. The team accomplished that largely through still photos and text; quite the accomplishment. It really goes to show that, no matter how you tell it, a good story can elevate an experience. It must have been a mammoth effort to fill out all those branching storylines on a board (my playing time clocked in at over 30 hours, and I didn't even complete everything).
Now onto another visual novel: Steins;Gate. I first encountered Okabe's story through the anime, when I was much younger. Back then, I was about the same age as the protagonist, and I admired his frenetic, mad scientist energy. Now, playing the game with a couple of years of added life experience, I kind of feel sad when I watch him act out his delusions at the start. It's interesting how the passage of time can change one's perception of a complicated character. It's still a special, if somewhat melancholic experience to revisit this story in a different form, though. When I started up the game for the first time, the distinctive notes of the theme song played, and I had to sit back and soak it all in for a moment. This is going to be quite a ride.
Taylor Levesque
If 7 Days to Die and Half-Life had a baby, it’d be Abiotic Factor. Recently my husband and I have been trying this game out, and we are absolutely loving it! It’s an Early-Access game that’s still in the works, and the Deep Field Games team is actively looking for feedback to improve it. I’ve already gone and convinced a few family members to get it because I was already having so much fun.
As you may have guessed by my description – or from what you've maybe even seen in screenshots or videos – this game is survival-by-crafting. You’re a scientist (or group of scientists) trapped in a research facility, aliens are on the loose, and you’ll need to use everything at your disposal to craft your way to survival. Cook up some dead aliens to keep from starving, get enough sleep, find sources of clean water, and ensure you can find a toilet in time, all while destroying anything in sight that you think you can use to make your next big invention. It may sound simple, but good gods, it is addictive.
Priya Sridhar
I started playing Princess Peach Showtime! and am having a blast. Part of me wants to make some of the cookies that she assembles and bakes in the Festival of Sweets. Also, I can dive into another world with my basic gaming skillset and receive a lot of forgiveness for failing to dodge or jump at the right time.
Ignas Vieversys
Besides continuously getting my ass handed to me by the creatures of The Realm of Shadow - special shoutout goes to Bayle The Dread, the Brobdingnagian proto dragon, the ugly sibling of Deathwing with broken hitboxes, who made me change my entire gear and took around 40 attempts in total, but rewarded me with one of the most epic boss fights so far (Shadow of the Erdtree players don't miss out on this!) - this month I've been playing KinitoPET.
For those who don't watch Nexpo religiously, KinitoPET is a little horror game inspired by BonziBUDDY, the infamous desktop virtual assistant from the 90s (think Clippy but more sinister and hairy). The game can be finished in an hour or two (there are multiple endings, as per the tradition of other fantastic fourth-wall-breakers like Pony Island and IMSCARED), but the tricks that KinitoPET pulls off in that short time - like turning on your webcam and opening the command prompt - do make you uneasy in the best possible way, especially if you're playing this alone in the dark (my salute to those daredevils). One piece of advice: go into this experience blind. Don't watch any walkthroughs, nor read any reviews - just download KinitoPET, have a glass of holy water by your side (just in case), and start the game.
If you love the cheap thrills of obscure horror games as much as I do, this one will blow your socks off. The most insane part is that KinitoPET was created by a high school student with no prior coding or interactive design experience if we were to believe that one Reddit interview. As a person who went through a game design course myself, to see people work full time on much lesser projects with additional help from experienced developers, I'm both in awe of the young lad and frankly, a bit scared. If he was able to make some players believe that KinitoPET is an actual virus as a first-time developer, who knows what thrilling horrors await us in the future?
Bryan Finck
Having polished off Dave the Diver not long after the last "Now Playing..." was published, I immediately jumped to another highly acclaimed title in my backlog - Tunic. I'd heard great things about the game while it was still an Xbox console-exclusive title, and I've been dying to get to it ever since it came to PS Plus. I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint, and I quite enjoyed getting one of several endings to the game's story. Though I found the game's main gimmick of playing rather blindly while you discover the instruction manual to be new and refreshing, it led to some WTF moments that seemed too cute by half. The minute-to-minute gameplay was almost always great though, and for me that is what matters most. I enjoyed my time with it and I can't ask more than that.
My most anticipated game of the year was EA Sports College Football '25. As a college football wonk and devotee of the games before their 11-year hiatus, I was beyond excited for the game to return. That said, I've barely played it because I was trying to finish Tunic, which I suppose is quite the recommendation for the diminutive fox and company. Now that I've had time to jump in though, the gridiron simulation is all I had hoped for and more. The on-field gameplay is a bit tougher than I remembered, which is appropriate, as defense can be a challenge even against "lesser" teams both in the game and in real life. Dynasty mode is where I'll spend most of my time, leading my beloved UCF Knights to an eventual College Football Playoff Championship with a side of world domination. Definitely pick it up if you're a fan of the sport.
Last but not least, the horrific reviews of the Borderlands film led me to jump back into Borderlands 2, which I started in 2020 and never finished. So now I'm (hopefully) about to face Handsome Jack for the final time, and I'm remembering why I loved (and occasionally hated) the game. Wave after wave of enemies can feel punishing to the extreme, but blasting them to bits is always mechanically pleasing. With death a mere blip with no real consequences, and each new weapon gives that sweet loot-filled hit of dopamine when you need it most. I wanted an FPS fix in the extreme and Gearbox's sequel hit the spot just right.
Be sure to tell us what you're playing in the comments and check back next month for more of what our team is getting into
