DeVuego

I don’t know if the developers intended to put the ideas I get when I play the game, but I think it’s a must-have game for the parents. Maybe some parent freaks out when playing this game to the point of actually beginning to pay attention to how their children live, what they consume and what they perceive as normal.

My niece is a first-grader and she likes to play the games I have on my devices. She took a sneak peak at MechaNika and got upset when I told her she can’t play it with me. Why – because there are loads of bad things, grown-up things in there. “But I saw children there,” she said, “aren’t there children in the game?” Yes, there are, and it’s a bad thing. There should not be any children in the middle of this adult mess. Period.

Stories of Bethem could have been a worn-out old tune; instead, it turned out to be a breath of fresh air. It is full of paradoxes. There is nothing new about it – familiar adventure/ RPG, good old story, tried out mechanics. Yet, these elements seem to be the tried-out components of a successful adventure game, and Stories of Bethem uses them with dignity, spicing the genuinely entertaining gameplay with great 16-bit design and an excellent soundtrack. It is highly polished, deep and meticulously crafted, which makes it even more surprising why it’s free. I recommend this little treat wholeheartedly to anyone fond of the genre, Zelda-like adventures, or just willing to explore the indie side of the market.