Independent games publisher Devolver Digital has found the fun in announcing a series of delays to its upcoming slate of titles with Devolver Delayed – an accurate, tongue-in-cheek parody of the Nintendo Direct presentations.
Devolver announced that some of its most intriguing-looking games, including The Plucky Squire, Stick It To The Stickman, Skate Story, Anger Foot, and Pepper Grinder, would all be pushed back to 2024 after previously being announced for 2023.
To soften the blow, the Devolver Delayed presentation reintroduced titles that were still on track for release in 2023. These include:
- Gunbrella, a 2D action platformer inspired by Kirby and the NES Batman games
- Wizard with a Gun, a cooperative sandbox survival game
- The Talos Principle 2, the sequel to the philosophical first-person environmental puzzle game
- The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, a tarot-based narrative game
- KarmaZoo, a 10-player cooperative platforming game
- Broforce Forever, the final free update to the enduring 2D shooter inspired by 1980s action films
- DLC for McPixel 3, a series of 12 new levels for the comedic adventure game.
The delays are a little disappointing, given how unique a number of the games look, though more development time is always a good thing for the small teams behind them.
The Plucky Squire is one of the most enticing games of the bunch, with a visually arresting concept that sees a 2D children’s book character leap out of the page into a beautifully realised 3D world and back again – sometimes navigating a hybrid of the two.
Skate Story also has a strong aesthetic hook. It’s a skateboarding game that takes place in a brutal, ethereal dimension made of concrete, where your character is made out of glass. You’ll shatter into pieces in devastating ways anytime you fall, making the entire ordeal seem a little traumatic, but beautiful nonetheless.
And while Anger Foot firmly squats down on the other side of the scale, leaning into its bulbous, gross-out aesthetic, it’s already proven itself to have an incredibly engaging hook as you tear through its intense first-person stages. You play a character that seems to be a kind of human/frog hybrid, possibly, bursting through doors and gunning down goons – but also sending them flying into the environment and each other with your powerful kicks, all while a heart-thumping soundtrack reverberates through your body.
The upside of these delays is that Devolver already has a strong slate to look forward to in 2024.
