The main attraction this week for PC gamers is TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, which contains thirteen games spanning decades of console releases. And once you’ve had your fill of inflicting psychological damage on yourself due to the extreme difficulty, you can then indulge in the psychological horror and tension of the rest of the choices.
We have two card game-themed titles, Inscryption and Card Shark, which both diverge in very different ways gameplay-wise but share the same tension and risk in each card battle. Needy Streamer Overload explores the psychological horrors and mental degradation that livestreaming and the greater internet culture can inflict on all of us, while Abaddon: Princess of Decay explores the psychological damage that more physical manifestations of fear and horror can inflict on young minds.
Whatever your gameplay preferences are, there’s a game that will fit your needs. So make sure to check out the offers on this list, and you definitely won’t be disappointed.
TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection
The big release this week is the TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, a massive collection that contains thirteen classic games including several online multiplayer titles. Following on the heels of the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, this collection gives old fans and newcomers more beat-em-up and platformer action all the way back from the NES titles.
While there are a few hiccups like a clunky UI and no native controller support, the games themselves run pretty smoothly and there’s full online support for the multiplayer games. But also, for those not familiar with old school Konami games know this. They were extremely difficult. Like break-your-controller hard, and these older games make Elden Ring look like a tutorial level.
A lot of the platformers require you to manage the four turtles by mastering their unique abilities to traverse the various levels, and if you didn’t do this perfectly then you would die constantly until you did. And the beat-em-up titles sent wave after wave of enemies at you, forcing you to think strategically as you deal with increasingly difficult odds in both regular foes and later bosses. Shredder’s Revenge used this same formula to great affect, and you see what makes it so addictive in this collection.
Find the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection on Steam
Abaddon: Princess of Decay
Just a warning: this is a very sexually graphic game as well as very gory and bloody, and these themes often cross over. That said, Abaddon: Princess of Decay is so much more and if you’re fine or even prefer games that are unabashedly horny, then you’ll find incredibly deep and complex RPG mechanics and old school exploration inspired by Capcom’s NES classic, Sweet Home.
The cast are young adults trying to escape a haunted mansion, with the protagonist searching for his father and two college assistants who are trapped somewhere as well. You have several other characters to choose from to form a party in which you explore with, search for clues, fight enemies, and can even activate special scenes and events with as they pair off with the protagonist or each other. Each party member comes with their own unique ability and enemies they fear, and if they lose all their hearts they’re dead forever. Depending on how many party members survive affects cutscenes and endings, and also the frequency of events that permanently kill off remaining party members.
Exploration and enemy encounters in the field are very Sweet Home-esque which means both random and difficult, and you’re expected to complete multiple runs to build your item and weapon inventory. This makes later runs easier, which means you can access more endings including the true ending. This is not a game for the faint of heart but there’s tons of content with plenty of rich lore, along with more than enough dirty content to make things interesting.
You can find Abaddon: Princess of Decay at Itch.io
Card Shark
In Card Shark, which takes place in 18th-century France, your character is mentored by the noble Comte de Saint-Germain (based off the real life Count of St. Germain) as he teaches you various underhanded tricks and cheats to win card games. As your repertoire grows, so too does the stakes of each card game as you keep from being found out by your opponents.
The tricks start off small, but you soon learn to string together complex combinations that include card marking, false shuffles, deck switching, false deals, and other cheats. But you have to be fast while pulling these off because the longer you take the more suspicious your opponents become. And if they find out you’ve been cheating, it’s curtains for you, especially as your fellow gamblers become more and more dangerous and the stakes get higher.
Gameplay itself can definitely be challenging and tense but the controls aren’t difficult to master at all. A lot of them require certain button presses or analog stick movements in various patterns and directions. The hardest part is memorizing the order of each trick in a combo but you have the option to lower the difficulty if it gets too much. Then there’s the gorgeous painting-like artwork and the beautiful musical score that accompanies the various card games, which adds an extra flare of emersion and high society culture.
Find Card Shark on Steam, available now
Needy Streamer Overload
For those immersed in current online culture, we know that beyond the ultra chipper livestreamers trying to please their supportive and increasingly demanding audience, lies a much darker world filled with an obsessive fanbase, online abuse, deteriorating mental wellness and self esteem, and other issues.
Needy Streamer Overload delves into that online culture headfirst through the eyes of a young woman named Ame who dons the alias of super cutesy “OMGkawaiiAngel” as she seeks online fame and self validation by slowly growing her follow count through various livestreams. It’s incredibly accurate and well researched, conveying streaming culture with both a critical lens and a clear love.
The interface is bright, colorful, and well thought out as it contrasts with extremely dark themes like suicide, drug abuse, self harm, mental breakdowns, verbal abuse, and more. The localization is absolutely masterful and perfectly reflects the already excellent Japanese script. Meanwhile, Ame makes for a messy and complex protagonist who deteriorates with each of the many endings.
Check out Needy Streamer Overload on Steam
Inscryption
Another card game title, but this one goes in a completely different direction. It combines a dark setting with a deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room puzzles, and psychological horror into a bleak yet addictive title. According to the description on Steam, you “acquire a deck of woodland creature cards by draft, surgery, and self mutilation” while uncovering the secrets behind Leshy's cabin.
The mechanics of the card game are simple: you start with four cards and a resource deck. Each card, called a creature card, has an attack and defense value along with a summon value. Summon value includes blood (number of creatures to sacrifice) or bone tokens. Meanwhile, the resource deck is filled with squirrels which are no cost cannon fodder used to either defend attacks or sacrifice for stronger creatures.
Its roguelike elements keep you on your toes and keeps from strategies becoming too convoluted and meta. The flexibility of the deckbuilding and ruleset, along with the puzzle elements of exploring the cabin, makes the game interesting and keeps pulling you back for more. Of course the dark and disturbing artwork and world, combined with the atmospheric music and sound design, enhance the experience and setting even more.
Check out Inscryption on Steam
