It’s been a great year for black-and-white video games
I’ve got three to recommend.
I guess I don’t need color in my video games, because I’ve been dazzled this year by a trio that’s in black and white.
All are out now and well worth a look…
Helix: Descent N Ascent
Developer: Badass Mongoose
Platforms: PC, Switch
Helix: DNA is one of the most visually interesting games of the year, with an art style inspired by, the developers say, “1980s indie comics, 1990s manga, and 1970s Franco-Belgian comics.”
You can admire it up top and in the screenshots below:
Helix is cleverly designed, but its excellence snuck up on me.
When I started, I thought I was a basic top-down exploration/puzzle game about a strange bipedal character walking through a starkly stunning world. My guy quickly gained the power to conjure blocks into existence. This ability is represented by a square that can be seen in the game’s user interface and in symbols in the game world. I used the power to drop blocks into watery gaps, forming bridges where old ones had crumbled. I explored a small world, using that power to solve some puzzles, found an exit and returned to the hub world where I’d begun.
Soon, I found a new symbol that gave me a new power: an ability represented by smile-curve (with a horizontal line under it) allowed my hero to summon and control a drone. This power replaced the ability to conjure blocks. Back into the main game world I went. I could no longer cast blocks to cross gaps, but I could send my drone into pipes to activate remote switches. Different puzzles solved.
Okay, I figured I’d keep finding powers that would swap with the previous one I’d collected.
Not quite.
Back in the hub world, I noticed a pedestal marked with a strange symbol. The light bulb went on. The strange symbol was a combination of a square and a smile-curve (with a horizontal line under it). I activated the symbol and, sure enough, I now had the block-making power and the drone-summoning power. Even better, I discovered I could combine those powers: I could make a block, fly the drone into it; the drone would posses the block, allowing me to move the block remotely.
That’s what this game actually is: not finding a small number of puzzle-solving powers and using one of them at a time, but repeatedly diving into a world equipped with different combinations of those powers, discovering what each combo can do.
I have a long way to go, but the interface—and the game’s promotional copy—indicate there are 25 different ways to play. I’m excited to find out what they make possible.
Towers of Scale
Developer: Makiki
Platform: PC [free demo available]
There might be some purple in this game, but the levels I’ve played have been black and white (with shades of gray).
Towers of Scale is a math game about directing a warrior through a dungeon filled with stationary enemies and locked doors. Your warrior starts at a power level designated by a specific number: say, 5. Every enemy also has a number: say, 3. If you’re a 5 and they’re a 3, walking into them eliminates the enemy and turns you into an 8.
That’s pretty much the game.
Some enemies have negative numbers that lower your total. And those with higher numbers than yours won’t budge. You might have to pass through a gate that halves your power. Try to do that when your number is low. Be sure to drink a power-doubling potion when your number is high.
All you need to do is find a numerically feasible path to the next staircase.
Easy, right?
Towers of Scale is tough!
Even as you scale up to defeat enemies marked 100, 500, 10,000 and beyond, your climb is easily stymied by bad mathematical decisions. I’ve gotten stuck a lot, keep hitting undo, and then I try again to find a good route. It’s a captivating challenge.
What’s the Password?
Developer: Trampoline Tales
Platform: PC [free demo available], mobile
This puzzle game features over 100 challenges, each of which is solved by inputting a four-digit password.
I’ve solved 14 puzzles so far, some easier than others.
This one wasn’t that tough: the solution is 4371
This is the next one. What’s the password? I’m not sure yet.
Those are my top three.
Have you played any great black-and-white games this year? Let me know!
Item 2: In brief…
🚫 Blizzard has fired a QA tester who helped a group of players cheat to complete a World of Warcraft dungeon in record time, Kotaku reports.
In a very different kind of speedy feat, WoW developers say they’ll soon add a virtual version of the viral raccoon Jimothy as a collectible pet, GameSpot reports. Jimothy became a social media phenomenon earlier this month.
💬 Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot is the first AAA publisher to be on the record about Sony’s plans to stop producing discs for new PlayStation games in 2028, thanks to an analyst asking him about it during the company’s earnings call on Thursday.
Asked about the plan’s potential impact on Ubisoft’s business, Guillemot said: ‘“What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market. There’s also some pressure, for the future, on the cost of machines, so being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would say. As you said, there are plus and minus, but we think it will not disturb too much the industry.”
Unpacking that a bit, Guillemot is anticipating a PC-like future for consoles, where discs are all but gone and almost all games are obtained digitally. And he’s speaking vaguely about the potential increase in component costs for future game consoles, which could drive a company such as Sony to avoid the expense of including disc drives in their consoles.
(For a smaller publisher’s take, check out Game File’s interview with the CEO of Serenity Forge.)
🎮 Cuts among Microsoft workers and contractors who worked on accessibility—ensuring video games are accessible for people with disabilities—have raised concerns about the scale of such work going forward at Xbox, Aftermath reports.
Accessibility has been a signature Xbox initiative over the past decade.
👀 Microsoft is testing a program that will allow Xbox users to play cloud-streamed versions of games they own for one hour at no added cost, as long as they sit through up to two minutes of pre-roll ads.
Normally, gamers would need to pay for a monthly Xbox subscription to stream games. Watching ads could offer an alternative way for “paying” for that.
Mobile gamers are used to being offered ads to watch in exchange for playing time and other perks. That approach is largely unexplored on consoles.
🎬 Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto says the company greenlit recent Yoshi and Star Fox games to capitalize on those characters being featured in the latest Mario movie, per an interview with Famitsu covered by VGC.
🗓️ February 2027 is filling up. There aren’t many confirmed video game release dates for 2027, but the few that have been announced are clustering in one month:
Tomb Raider remake Legacy of Atlantis (Feb 12)
Role-playing game remake Persona 4 Revival (Feb 18)
Microsoft’s recently-delayed role-playing revival Fable (Feb 23)
Newly announced, Sony’s major spin-off God of War Laufey (Feb 16)
First-person shooter Metro 2039 is also slated for Feb 2027, no specific date yet
Item 3: The week ahead
Tuesday, July 28
Game release: Halo Campaign Evolved (PC, PS5, Xbox) is a remake of the original Bungie-developed first-person shooter, and the first (last?) Halo game to ever be released for a PlayStation.
Wednesday, July 29
Game release: The creatively named Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?! (PC) is an anime-themed game about driving a magical delivery truck and helping fight monsters in another world.
Event: Microsoft presents their quarterly earnings for their first quarter (July-August). That should provide at least a brief update about the state of the Xbox business.
Thursday, July 30
I played this one that’s basically a mickey mouse noir rpg shooter.