STILL PLAYING
Chicory: A Colorful Tale Switch The best version of our number two game of 2021? Perhaps it’s the influence of Zelda and EarthBound that initially makes Chicory feel particularly at home on Switch, but the controls – thoughtfully adapted for handheld and docked mode – seal the deal. Those splats of paint look particularly vibrant on an OLED model, while finger-painting via the touchscreen makes up in immediacy what it lacks in precision. And on the big screen, split Joy-Con controls are a revelation – as long as you remember to recalibrate every so often. . The Pedestrian Xbox Series X Arriving on Game Pass at the same time as Gorogoa feels a little unfair on any puzzler. But while Jason Roberts’ astonishing creation is the one we’d recommend trying first, this offers a delightful afternoon’s worth of breezy brain-teasers. Indeed, the two games are both about making surprising connections: in this case, linking street signs that sit within a realistic world so that stick figures can pass between them. As you move through different backgrounds and sign types, there’s not only a strong mechanical progression but a real sense of having been on a journey, especially during the (all too infrequent) moments where the 2D and 3D environments have a direct effect on one another.
Olija Xbox Series X What a treat to revisit Thomas Olsson’s pulpy fantasy: a masterclass in making a world feel dangerous without resorting to extreme difficulty. Its opening deftly creates a dark, unsettling mood, from the throaty growl of the title to the violent shipwreck that leaves protagonist Faraday on the shores of Terraphage to the crunches, creaks, squelches and shrieks that soundtrack your journey inland. It’s a place that’s both enticing and forbidding, the kind where you see black smoke drifting from a dark passageway but can’t resist investigating what lies within.