To throw my hat in the ring, I've been playing and ratin/ranking/commenting all games in the bundle, my full list is currently here:
https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice
You can follow that collection/list to get updates when I add more, here are a few recommendations from the other thread:
https://bludgeonsoft.itch.io/vilmonic
I love my simulation games and this game falls right into that. Some of you will hate it, but its hard for me not to love what they were going for here, with evolutionary theory being used as game mechanics. You get a creature type and then evolve more different types from that. Its very open ended, so you shouldnt expect a goal here, its more an evolutionary sandbox which is fun to explore and figure out. You might end up being happy with exploring what the game does in 2 hours, but man does the rabbit hole run deep. Animals "evolve" by changing their body forms with individual pixels that are used to show how they react to their environments. Different colors means different behaviours to certain aspects, while the size (or the amount of "wrinkles" changes surface area and as such how much water they need. Figuring all of these mechanics out is a gameplay experience that not everyone will appreciate, but this gets a thumbs up from me. Only downsides are that the visual variety is a bit limited and the game could use some inspirational goals after the tutorial. For everyone loving to explore game mechanics: 4/5
https://finji.itch.io/overland
Another game about travelling through the USA, trying to survive while fending off monsters. People seem to complain a lot about the difficulty of the game and I can see why. Its really unforgiving and requires you to use your tactical options to your fullest potential to have a chance of surviving. I really enjoyed my first hour with it though. Its tough as nails and you will lose, but there is also a surprising amount of tactical depth here and the tension kept me on my seat the whole time. I really didnt mind restarting as the levels were substantially different enough to feel intriguing again. Curious what other surprises this game holds. 4,5/5
https://finji.itch.io/night-in-the-woods
Easily the most popular game I looked at so far, Night in the woods is a thoroughly unique and intriguing slice of life adventure, observing a million different aspects about her life, the city and the pains of growing up. The game is almost painfully slow as you wake up and just go about your life every day with sorta normal scenes from "life". It all just feels very real though, as its written well and the characters are so well realized. I can easily see a lot of people getting bored by it, but man is it a special game that really doesnt come along too often. 5/5
https://dos.itch.io/the-secret-of-tremendous-corporation
Adventure game in a unique handdrawn style made for a game jam. Pretty standard affair overall, right up to the end, where the puzzle becomes a bit stupid. Really didnt care much for the story, characters or setting unfortunately. Top that off with some weird input lag for controls and sometimes unreadable text and it ends up... not particularly enjoyable. 2/5
https://prophetgoddess.itch.io/astaeria
I really like the idea of a poem visualizing game and it kinda succeeds in creating pieces of music that feel distinct enough for each poem. The platforming parts though just feel identical with a color swap, which means I got the most enjoyment out of this by just pointing the mouse on the floor reading the poems. Not much of a game, but the idea has potential. 2/5 for the music generation.
https://toastygames.itch.io/parallax
This is a stupidly pretty 3d puzzle platformer with Portals. The puzzles obviously get more intricate as the game moves on. It is focussing more on exploring a few puzzle mechanics across its different worlds, so its missing that last inventive spark and variety that games like Portal have, but the game is so ridiculously pretty, especially in motion, that its just enjoyable to work yourself through the levels and watch the inverting colors pass you by while using your brain matter. 3,5/5
https://squinky.itch.io/pamplemousse
Omg, I cant anymore. I am laughing my ass off. This game really cant actually be rated and ranked. At its core its a very light adventure game with claymation animation. Oh and its a musical. Fair warning: The singing isnt good, but its so... consistent and just works charmingly well as this worlds voice that I find it hard to complain about it. Be prepared to smile about the frequent off pitched note, though. This game seems so wrong, but its also so cheeky and utterly unique, that its in its own league. Short adventure game. If you are in a very special mood, you might end up randomly loving this to bits and pieces. I kinda did and I promise you its one of the most memorable games you will have played lately. Unrateable/5
https://problematicar.itch.io/stophat
Arcade style game of slapping someone with its tophat. Admittedly a rather unique setting, there isnt much more to it. 2/5
https://2darray.itch.io/not-the-robots
Great stealth game with a very unique and interesting gameplay loop that requires you to "eat" the furniture in the level, allowing you and your opponents new paths and strategies. The items can be used to more efficiently sneak through a level, which increases your score, which in turn unlocks more features/game modes and extra levels. Incedibly polished package for a unique concept in a well known and beloved genre. 5/5 without question.
https://codeavarice.itch.io/paranautical-activity
Competent Roguelite first person shooter. Its a bit more simple and less thought through than its more popular genre brethren (Ziggurat), but its weirdly intriguing to shoot floating ghost sharks into their face with a shotgun. Also has incremental unlocks that allow you to see more of the world and enemies over multiple playthroughs. It still feels a bit stitched together though and the combat and enemies dont give you a decent enough feedback. 3/5
https://qlrz.itch.io/qlrz
You create the right color with the color mixer at the bottom of the screen to shoot incoming colors. Get hit enough times and the game is over. Technically a solid highscore game, but controlling it with a mouse is incredibly annoying, I can easily see this being a great timewaster on mobile though as the colors and gameplay is well executed. 2,0/5 on PC (Probably around 3 with touch controls)
https://crowbarska.itch.io/switch-n-shoot
Super addictive highscore game controlled with just one button that steers the ship left and right. If I wouldnt try to play more of these games I would easily fall down this rabbit hole. I wish it had more of everything, even just unlocks for the ship graphics, side panels/skins whatever to fully satiate my neverending highscore hunger, but still a great game. My record is 46, beat me. 4/5
https://madameberry.itch.io/visual-out
Highly intriguing Metroidvania with an AI theme. It is intentionally obtuse and has a very large world that you need to explore before understanding where you might be able to go, with almost every room chipping away at your health if you arent too careful. I definitely will get back to this, as this game still has a ton of mysteries and upgrades that I want to explore, listening to the fantastic ambient soundtrack. Might up/downgrade the rating later as its a longer game, but seems like a fair bet for 3,5/5 or higher.
https://eniko.itch.io/midboss
This one caught me a bit off guard. Challenging roguelike with a very cool and unique mechanic of possessing other monsters, which drastically changes up your moves/abilities as you move along the floors and it even throws you some bones with the death cards, that save your previous run as a character card that you can pick one item from for the next run, making for constant progression. The UI is a bit weird sometimes, but the Disgaea style humor/feeling and the deep tactical gameplay actually hit me quite hard. I really want to get back to this game and dive deeper into it when I get the chance. Really, really nice first impression. 4.5/5
www.resetera.com
