The term "demake" may not officially be a part of video game canon—yet—but it's certainly growing in popularity and application. The demake of Plants vs. Zombies for the Sega Genesis that surfaced at PAX Australia was the most recent and bizarre entry in the pseudo-genre, but Game of Watchcraft: Spawn of Squishy officially has it beat.
Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call is a stunning game. It's filled with action, suspense, a touch of intrigue, and so many interactive mini-games and puzzles that you'll wonder how long your mouse hand can stave off fatigue. Wrapped around this is an exciting story that mixes mythology with modern characters, creating a game that catches you from the opening cinematic and refuses to let go.
Aside from circus performers, zoo-keepers, and Goth types, most people consider snakes a source of fear and revulsion. At least that's what Tap It Games, the makers of 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek are counting on. In some ways, their snake-heavy premise succeeds in tapping into (pun intended) our deeply-felt reptilian phobias. In other ways, it slithers wide of the mark.
The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief: Episode 1 - The Eye of the Sphinx is more than just a point-and-click adventure. It's a wonderfully-realized Agatha Christie-style murder mystery that wouldn't be out of place airing as a six-part serial on PBS. It's not a particularly difficult game, but the outstanding voice acting and lively, exciting story do a masterful job of recreating an early-60's tale of theft, murder, obsession, and one man's quest to prove his worth to the world.
Birds are known for two things: singing and pooping. Turd Birds for iOS explores the dark side (rather, the chalky-white side) of avian life with an endless running game that's probably better described as an endless pooper. For a game that's all about excrement, Turd Birds surprisingly isn't caca. It doesn't advance the case for video games as an art form, but you will enjoy bombing the obnoxious humans scuttling below you.
The Last Door: Chapter Two - Memories begins in a style similar to The Letter, placing us in limited control of an unknown priest as he performs ritualistic flagellation in his room. We're soon returned to the familiar company of Devitt, now seeking mental counseling for the events he experienced in the first chapter of our tale. With Anthony's haunting parting words weighing heavily on his mind, Devitt travels to the boarding school where they grew up in the hope of learning what led him to this fate.
Paul Franzen may have doomed his newest project by admitting in the teaser trailer: "It doesn't have zombies. It doesn't have ninjas. It doesn't have dinosaurs." While we struggle to breathe through the meme-sobs this admittance has caused, let's consider what still-promising The Beard in the Mirror does have: a LucasArts/Sierra-inspired point-and-click style, a story of modern adult malaise-meets-childlike fantasy, and an absolutely charming husband-and-wife team that are infectiously passionate about their creation.
If you've been a regular reader here on Gamezebo over the past couple of months, then you probably know that I have a real soft spot for those bright and sunny open world platform-adventure games we used to play on the Nintendo 64. Okay, I guess it's not so much a soft spot as it is a complete obsession for anything that even slightly resembles Banjo Kazooie or Super Mario 64. But in either event, Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim from Ascension Studios is precisely the kind of title that gets me so excited about playing video games.