Linkito elevates the form, with stunning art, a daft and interesting story, characters who talk to you betwixt levels, hidden extras, and a sense of fairness. It’s really rather excellent. And for this I only slightly resent it.

I cannot fathom why this is free. I even asked the developer, Daniel Carr, and he sort of shrugged and said he wants as many people as possible to be able to play it. So, take him up on this!

Leap Year describes itself as a “clumsy platformer”, but don’t be fooled. Nor indeed put off. Developer Daniel Linssen is being mischievously modest, because beneath its clumsy presentation and opening gambits, this is anything but. It’s actually rather brilliant.

I’m so pleased games like this are still being created. They certainly deserve to be supported. An English Haunting is a surprisingly long, enormously detailed creation, with stunning artwork and immaculate prose. And features a bunch of lovely in-era cameos and references for those who are already fans of the genre. For those who aren’t, there’s a fair chance they will be by the end.

Mimic Search definitely feels like something that could become a very engaging longer game. There’s a lot of unrealised potential in the whole idea of the Mimic possibly being one of the few people in these woods, and that’s certainly not helped by the game’s one rather enormous flaw: it uses character models that don’t blink. Oops. I really like the idea of a game like this, with a larger forest to explore, more buildings, and a different NPC as the Mimic each time you play. Someone make me that, pronto.

I wish I could better communicate just how incredibly ingenius this game is, and without ever being all “LOOK AT ME I’M SO CLEVER!” coughjonathanblowcough. Instead it’s smart, modest and charming, like I’m not. The best thing is you just play it.

It’s ridiculously cheap for a game of this size and complexity, and it’ll absorb you for many, many hours. If you, like me, wish Nintendo would just make another Link To The Past, then this is a must-buy. It completely understands the remit, and then delivers and delivers and delivers.

But it’s also a really fun thing to just pick away at while listening to a podcast, or browsing YouTube – second-screen entertainment stuff. And as much as I tried, I just kept playing it instead of getting around to writing about it. I mean, it’s literally sitting behind this browser window, peeking out the sides, trying to lure me back in right now.

I’m so, so impressed by Neoproxima. I desperately wish it had been properly script edited in English (hey, indies, hit me up – my rates are very reasonable!), because it’s a constant issue. But it’s testament to the quality of every other aspect that I still loved this game so very much. Especially the way it begins to mess with its own UI, to force you to ask questions about your experience as you play. Just excellent. This is a brilliant idea, brilliantly executed, and absolutely shouldn’t be overlooked.

It’s so pretty, and so happy, and somehow non-verbal spaceships are able to have meaningful relationships. More importantly, Minishoot is also exquisitely well designed, with splendid dungeons to puzzle and fight through, and a vast overworld that’s so smothered in secrets that I’m still revelling in finding every part of the game long after I’ve rolled credits. This is utterly stunning.

There are far too few investigative games, and almost none where the solutions aren’t made inevitable by the process. For that, I found Between Horizons refreshing, if somewhat unsettling. But more importantly, this is a hefty, involving, and characterful game, with a novel setting, deep mystery, and a whole heap of interesting characters. And, unlike so many that boast of multiple endings, here the results can be light-years apart. The core beats of the story play out the same, but the results of your actions mightily effect the experience, and can dramatically alter how it concludes.

This gobbled up a couple of hours of my life in a really enjoyable way.

This is very deliberately not a true point-and-click adventure, so don’t go in expecting one. And be warned, this is a grim tale with unpleasant themes. It is, after all, a horror game. As you might expect, if you’ve played any of Navarro’s games before, the pixel art is impeccable. The writing is fantastic, too, and the hour-long experience – as ever – makes me crave a longer, more involved game from the creative team. However, these episodic bite-size games allow entirely different approaches, art styles, and themes, which is very welcome too.

This is a dark story, and it’s one that has allusions toward historical acts of rape, cruelty and death. It’s a game very much for adults, and its melancholia is very affecting. It’s also astoundingly well written (this is from a Portuguese team, and the English is perfect), beautifully delivered, and the all-too rare treat of a solidly well-made adventure game. That this is developer Whalestork’s first project is mindblowing. I am fascinated to see where they go next.

This is in fact the impossibly sublime mix of a twin-stick shooter with a mining game, and it’s compellingly fun.

It’s a bunch of lovely ideas, each used just once, despite many being strong enough to be the basis of a game of their own. (The Snake puzzle especially.) I can’t wait to see what FLEB does next.

Absolutely excellent.

I’ve shouted out loud so many times while playing, sometimes in mad frustration at myself, other times in absolute delight at my success. I have even proclaimed, “I AM SO GOOD AT THIS!” immediately before leaping straight into the teeth of a spinning cog. It’s just an absolute pleasure to play, no matter how bad you might be at it.

Oh, and it has a very brilliant, and extremely reachable ending (something I think too many post-Papers Please games make unrealistic for most to ever see), followed by a new game+ that will address any lingering questions you may have. I know this has received more coverage than some other games featured on Buried Treasure (including some pretty huge YouTube attention I wasn’t aware of until after reviewing–it’s fair to say our audiences don’t overlap much), but for some bizarre reason this hasn’t extended to reviews, and all-important review scores, so here we are. Home Safety Hotline is certainly too repetitive, lacking that one extra twist that would have propelled players to the ending, but its imagination, writing, and performances ensure it succeeds.

Oh, and the whole thing is beautifully rendered, every scene looking stunning, and the voice acting is AAA-standard. I’m so very taken with how it subtitles conversations in floating text around scenes, with shimmering outlines of half-remembered people. The Gap is pretty special, handling its tough topics without histrionics, and is splendidly constructed.

This is simply tremendous, has kept me busy for countless hours while watching YouTube nonsense on the other screen, and I love it.

And yeah, part of me craves the mind-melting tricksy puzzle game this could also have been, where I’m juggling times of day, weather conditions, who’s in an area, and innovatively using stickers for non-conventional puzzle-solving purposes. But that’s someone else’s game to make. A Tiny Sticker Tale has its own motivations, and they’re fantastic. It’s a sweet, warm and gentle game with a novel mechanic, and we can use as many of those as we can get.

This is tremendous fun, and for a fiver, there’s so much of it. There are 12 different classes, each with three variants, which offers an enormous amount of replayability. Plus, its more bite-sized approach to the format, accompanied by a 3D view and vast array of enemies, makes it different enough from the crowds to stand on its own merits.

That Matt and Mike Chapman are still making new Homestar content brings me so much happiness. It’s sporadic now, the two brothers having gone on to work on many other TV animations since, including a bunch of Disney projects. That they’re making entire games, albeit pretty short ones, is mindblowing.

This is really decent. Strong puzzle design, such that when you find one that seems too easy, it means there is going to be one that follows that looks almost identical, but is much more fiendish. And I’m delighted that, in the end, it doesn’t even make sense to compare it to Flow Free – this is a wholly different approach.

It’s lovely, it’s cheap, and it’s longer than you might expect.

It’s worth adding that it’s all presented in a tiny, two-colour rectangle in the middle of your screen, and looks lovely. The art is incredibly simple, but this belies the detail in the animations, the movements, and the perfect sound effects. This could have been much more throw-away, and still worked, and I love that it’s not. It is definitely a shame that the text is so incomprehensible, because it’d have been the cherry on top to have a great little story told as you played. As it is, however, you can just click through it.

I’m not entirely sure what earns it the grandiose name! I feel like a completely unnecessary storyline might have been wisely cut at some point, leaving just the mystical title behind, and rather love that. You can imagine your own overly-grand reason for pointing light in specific directions as you play. And play it you should.