Target Acquired: Fading Afternoon

Fading Afternoon is the latest gritty dramatic actioner from yeo, the developer behind Arrest of a Stone Buddha and The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa. In this beat 'em up, you take on the role of Seiji "Gozuki" Maruyama, an aging yakuza who hits the streets after a long stint behind bars. With so much of his life behind him, he searches for meaning while getting up to his neck in his old violent ways... beating the hell out of guys in the streets and sometimes just pulling out his gun and snuffing them out for good. The game features a more robust set of moves and animations than the 8-bit Kunio-kun games you grew up with, and no shortage of visceral and bloody combat. You explore an open world, take part in some minigames, and hopefully survive to see one of the multiple endings.

The game is now available for PC via Steam, and it's also planned for release on Switch.

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Target Acquired: Gunbrella

From Doinksoft (now a Devolver Digital studio), the creators of Gato Roboto, comes a game with lots more colors, but lots fewer kitties in weaponized exoskeletons (presumably). Gunbrella is set beneath the darkened sky of some dystopian landscape that's filled with bad mofos, mutants, and monsters. You take on the role of a woodsman -slash- amateur detective as he investigates the seedy underbelly of a chaos-wrought world on a mission of revenge. The weather is cloudy with a chance of bullets, but fortunately you've packed your gunbrella, which doubles as a weapon and an environmental navigation tool. Summon your inner Penguin and use the gunbrella to glide through the air, bash enemies, deflect bullets, and of course... fire your gun.

The game is now available on PC via Steam and GOG and Switch via eShop.

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Target Acquired: Ginsha

Ginsha, from PolarityFlow, is an open world action-adventure that begins on a far future Earth where machines now rule. You take on the role of Gin, an alien symbiote who has crash-landed on Earth along with many others from her species. By taking over a clone, Gin and her companion Gon explore a half dozen planets to learn why they were drawn here, and find out what happened to the others who came before. You make use of several weapon types and an extensive skill tree to make yourself more effective in combat and exploration, and an XP system allows you to level up your stats as well. The most useful tool in your arsenal is a psionic shield that allows you to defend yourself from attacks, avoid damage from certain obstacles, and lower your local gravity to sail over gaps and ride air currents. On your journey, you'll interact with numerous NPC's, some of whom can help you craft items to navigate hostile environments... or even teach you an alien language to help you communicate with life forms on other planets.

The game is now available for PC and Linux via Steam, Epic, and GOG, and Swith via eShop. Check our coverage here.

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New Blip: Stand-Alone

Stand-Alone, from Lifuel, is a roguelike actioner where anthropomorphic animals rule a technologically advanced civilization. (Technically it's STAND-ALONE from LIFUEL but who wants to wear out their CAPS LOCK key?) You take on the role of a robot named Athro (but technically it's "athro" for some reason) that has lost its memories thanks to some great explosion... but it also lost its body, so it takes over the body of a sheep instead. The primary aggressors in the game are wolves, and normally a sheep would not be the right animal to take into a wolf fight, but when you're a sheep with a huge sword, a slew of upgradeable fighting techniques, and a handful of support drones, then AI-powered mutton is exactly the right sort of warrior to bring a wooly death to your wolfy enemies. The combo-based combat is fast and flashy as you trek across the wasteland slashing the absolute hell out of every critter with pointy teeth.

The game is coming to PC in 2024.

To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our 2D Watchlist.

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New Blip: Laika: Aged Through Blood

Brainwash Gang presents Laika: Aged Through Blood, a game that seems to be named after everyone's favorite canine cosmonaut. You take on the role of a coyote warrior as she sets out across the post-apocalyptic wasteland in a motorcycle-based metroidvania (McGrathvania?) on the road to revenge. Fortunately, she shoots as well as she rides, as she races through the landscape, hits ramps, and gets big air while blasting baddies in the face with her trusty pistol and sawed-off shotgun, and she reloads by doing backflips! But wasteland soldiers aren't the only danger... she must also face down huge mutant creatures that have been repurposed for war. And when she's not performing facial deconstructive surgery on her enemies, she's cruising through a beautiful hand-drawn world.

The game is coming to PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox X/S, but it does not yet have an announced release date. A demo is available via Steam.

To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our 2D Watchlist.

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