Hello and welcome back to another free game of the fortnight. This time we’ve got a great selection of free games for you to dip into during your free moments. In this selection of five we’ve got a cute take on PT in QT, a Kirby-twist on Celeste in Ingeste, and a football management game powered by dice in Dice Soccer City. To find out more about these fantastic five just read on.
Rob Covell’s Pick: Dice Soccer City by LambdaMu Games
I’m not a big fan of sports games, but I do like some dice! Dice Soccer City is a free mobile game in which you build a city, recruit footballers, and take on other teams through the power of dice! Each player has a six-sided die with different numbers on the faces, and during the three-on-three matches they roll these dice. If a team scores higher than the other team, they progress toward the goal and get to take a shot or take the ball from the opposition. The first team to score wins! Of course, there’s more to it than that, with players having special abilities tied to certain scores, and stamina to manage.
Picking the right team is key to victory! Those victories earn you money and loot boxes that allow you to build up your town to attract players with better dice! Being free to play, there are the usual microtransactions that allow you to buy ‘cubes’ to rush building and get more coins for construction. The prices don’t seem too high, but expect the usual time gating mechanics. I’m having fun with this, and it’s certainly worth a look.
You can grab Dice Soccer City on iOS.
Dann Sullivan’s Pick: Territory Idle by Aleksandr Golovkin
I’m a sucker for games with a medieval setting, and that’s normally enough to pull me out of whatever genre comforts I’ve enforced upon myself. So, here we are. In Territory Idle I’ve been building an empire from the very first farm all the way to continental crossings.
Territory Idle does all of the usual incremental stuff, you buy things until it takes too long and then force a restart to the world with some progression carrying over. In the case of this game it’s gold, you get a gold piece for each 10 production units you are creating. There’s a couple of resources, wheat, wood and faith, but most interestingly you’re buying tiles to expand your kingdom through the generations, and they persist too. Once you’ve got enough field workers you can restart to get some gold to buy some wood, that allows you to make farms which boost fields, etc. A few hours in and you’re building dockyards and sending heroes out (once a generation) to claim more land.
It’s simple, especially in appearance, but is well balanced and quite easy to ignore for the time that you need to leave it resting. That’s about all I ask for in an idle game, and I’ve been enjoying expanding my empire (slowly) throughout the last day.
You can download Territory Idle on Steam.
Terry Jeffryes’ Pick: Mini Doom II by Calavera Studio
Take Doom, Make it 2D. That’s what the Original Mini Doom did.
This completely remade that game, added more insanity, added features from the 2016 Doom and cranked it all up to 11.
A frantic 2D shooter set in the Doom universe, with everything you would expect from a Doom game, just made on a 2D plane. Doom x Metal Slug as it were. Seventeen levels spread over a Mario World style overworld, all with branching paths, keys and secrets to discover. Fourteen weapons, covering all of the classics you know from the Doom arsenal. There’s a heavy metal soundtrack, including homages to the original tracks. It would not be Doom without it. It’s all here.
Somehow both cute and disgusting at the same time, the graphics are chibified and slightly off, which is perfect for this self-styled parody game with satisfying explosions, giblets and blood spraying everywhere.
Mini Doom II‘s controls are as solid as you would expect from the genre, handling a lot like a Metal Slug game. Firing your weapon in four directions is possible, while you can change between weapons by using the right stick (like a modern FPS). There’s also platforming skills to be unlocked, like double-jumping.
It’s a perfect meld of both old and new, and a pure joy to play.
You can download Mini Doom II on the developer’s website.
Bryan Taylor’s Pick: Ingeste by EX.ULT VIDEOTAINMENT
Ingeste is a mod of the Pico-8 version of Celeste. Abandoning wall-sliding and mid-air dashes for Kirby’s infinite flying ability makes Ingeste ultimately much easier in comparison, but it doesn’t abandon the challenge and fun of the original.
The graphics are well-designed and cute and they even went as far as to replace the floating hearts from Celeste with Maxim Tomatoes from the Kirby universe — which are optional and compliments well Celeste’s original philosophy of accessibility. Music is a chiptunes version of Green Greens from Kirby’s Dream Land and very well exemplifies the silliness of the game.
Ingeste just feels good and as someone that had a really rough time with the original, it was almost uplifting to be able to clear this mod in six minutes and some change. The character choice of Kirby is a perfect selection for this variation as it lends itself to the verticality of the original levels quite well and ultimately, it might feel like you were cheating a bit, but it’s just so darn fun to play. It’s a great representation of the original with plenty of tweaks to keep it feeling fresh. Jump in, give it a shot, and try to land a high score!
You can play Ingest in your browser on itch.io.
Jupiter Hadley’s Pick: QT by Happy Snake Games
Exploring a strange, dimly lit, hallway is always going to be scary — well until you turn on the lights that is. QT is a scary, creepy game right up until that light is turned on. As you explore the darkness, there are hints of adorable in the form of decorations on the walls and characters within the game, but there is always this feeling that something is going to jump out at you or scare you. Once you figure out how to turn on the lights, you start wandering through a looping hallway, always filled with different things as you explore.
A wild party? Sure. Something to do with being under the sea? Yup. Some doggos? Certainly — this game does have doggos. A long, twisting, creepy hallway becomes something of wonder as you make your way through, gaining achievements for what you see and as you grab items to open up new areas. Maybe you’ll even find your friend.
QT is the first in a trio of games by Happy Snake. The other two are being funded through Kickstarter, so if you like this weird game, consider backing their Kickstarter so the next two can come out as well!
You can find QT on itch.io.
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