The Scratching That Itch series is where I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Today marks six years since I started the Scratching That Itch series. So how are we doing with racial justice? Badly. Last year I said things would get worse before they got better, and I was right. In America our government is now openly fascist, sending masked agents into our streets to murder people. The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act, and at least one state is already redrawing voting districts in order to disenfranchise Black voters in the upcoming Congressional midterm elections. The president started a war with Iran because people found out that he’s a pedophile — and part of an organized network of pedophiles who hold powerful positions around the world. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine is still ongoing, alongside Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Which, incidentally, is still being supported by the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, India, and many others.

Now is the time to resist. Vote, protest, organize. But also let yourself feel joy. When facing fascism, which is based on hate and oppression, feeling joy can be an act of rebellion. Don’t ignore the injustices we’re facing, but don’t let them take away your joy, either. If you need some help finding joy right now, perhaps my favorite selections from year six of Scratching That Itch — picked from the 23 games or game-related things I covered this year — will help. Incidentally, that brings our total number of selections to 240, more than 13% of the entire bundle! Read about my favorite picks below.

Best Lo-Fi Style: TICKET

From magicdweedoo, the same developer who brought us the similarly strange Kevin Rudd Farming Generations, Ticket is a weird and constantly changing platformer starring a shoe. It looks and feels clunky at first, but soon reveals a constant stream of new ideas. The art style shifts, levels break the rules, and the shoe encounters all sorts of unexpected things. Dive into an old man’s brain to help him sort out his thoughts, go horse shopping, or just take a break on the beach. Somehow, Ticket remains a cohesive experience despite all its variety, and is one of the oddest and most interesting games I played this year. Even though I got stuck on one particularly twisty level for far too long. Bundle owners also get the equally eclectic original soundtrack! Read my full post about Ticket here.

Best Grandmas: Obachan Panic!

It’s a tabletop role-playing game starring aunties and grandmas who save the world with superpowers. How could you not want to play that? Obachan Panic! will need a group of players who are comfortable getting into character and doing a lot of role-playing, but it sounds like a raucous good time. Even just reading the book was hilarious. Players will spend just as much time doing standard grandma stuff — gossiping, panicking, and pulling increasingly improbable items out of their purses — as they will making anime-style transformations into superpowered forms to battle evil. A wonderful celebration of people who don’t often get to be heroes in popular media. Read my full post about Obachan Panic! here.

Most Colorful Superheroes: Glitter Hearts

Obachan Panic! wasn’t the only tabletop role-playing game about transforming superheroes using the Powered by the Apocalypse rules to come up this year. Glitter Hearts is heavily inspired by television shows in the “magical girl” genre, like Sailor Moon or Glitter Force, but it offers a ton of options for different characters or styles. Prefer jumping into a vehicle instead of undergoing a magical transformation? No problem. Regardless of how you decide to play, the tone remains light and optimistic, with moves such as Touch Their Heart and Do This Together. In fact, relationships between players — who will each have an everyday identity as well as a magical persona they can transform into — are key to play, affecting dice rolls and evolving over time as the story progresses. Glitter Hearts comes in a beautiful 135-page book full of colorful artwork and a ton of advice for new players who may not have much experience with tabletop role-playing games. Read my full post about Glitter Hearts here.

Best Dancing Content: Dancing With Demons

A heartfelt collection of essays by Nat Quayle Nelson broadly dealing with music, dance, and video games, Dancing With Demons is an excellent read. It goes well beyond its stated themes, delving into Nat’s personal struggles with gender identity and social acceptance on a college campus, and how those are inevitably entwined with her experience of music and games. It’s far more insightful than I was when I was in college, and introduced me to some music I’d never heard of to boot. It comes with an online playlist to give context to the essays, and even ends with some local band recommendations (as seen in the image above). Nat’s writing is worth reading, especially because it’s offered at any price (including free) for those who missed the bundle. Read my full post about Dancing With Demons here.

Best Flawed Metroidvanias: Aerannis and Visual Out

This year saw not one, but two Metroidvanias pop up, both of which shine despite some problems. Aerannis is set in a cyberpunk future Bulgaria where men no longer exist and trans-exclusionary radical feminists control the government, forcing protagonist Ceyda Farhi (a trans woman) into life as a criminal assassin. And things just get weirder from there. It’s notable for an emphasis on stealth missions scattered around the city of Plovdiv, which are intriguing despite clunky controls making everything harder than it should be. Aerannis is a lengthy game with beautiful pixel art full of reds and purples, but beware some initial frustration while adjusting to its awkward controls and unforgiving stealth. Read my full post about Aerannis here.

Visual Out, by contrast, leans hard into the Metroid origins of the Metroidvania genre, presenting players with a dense, interconnected virtual world to navigate. Despite genre-standard auto-mapping, it’s quite tricky to find one’s way around, given a prevalence of one-way paths and switch-activated doors. This, coupled with clunky controls and the occasional crash, makes it frustrating to explore. But stick with it and you’ll find an uncommonly intricate world that requires careful study and lateral thinking to master. Worth the effort, for the right player. Read my full post about Visual Out here.

Biggest Sword: Bold Blade

Bold Blade takes the giant sword trope, so common in games, to its logical, hilarious conclusion. Battle enemies to earn money, spend money to make your sword longer and wider, repeat. Soon enough your sword will reach across the whole screen, cutting through swathes of enemies in a single swing. And you’ll need to use single swings, because a stamina meter makes sustainted swinging ineffective. Carefully line up your enemies so they can be taken out in one or two swipes, and you’ll soon triumph in this short and very silly game. Bold Blade is the funniest thing I played this year. Read my full post about Bold Blade here.

My Favorite Pick From Year Six: Zone Of Lacryma

For the second year in a row, my favorite pick is a shoot ’em up. What is happening? But, in many ways Zone of Lacryma is an unusual shoot ’em up. It’s structured more like a story-heavy action game, with playable segments between missions where players can walk around their base and talk to people, and follow a tale of fighting back against space-borne ultra-capitalist fascism. There’s little emphasis on perfecting a perfect run through the whole game; instead players are encouraged to practice each mission until they emerge victorious, then move on to the next. And missions themselves are intriguing, offering different paths suited to different playstyles, and challenging players to master the ship’s energy management system to emerge victorious. Choose shots carefully, activate boost to refill the energy bar, and keep the ship’s automatic defenses up while flying through asteroid fields or the interiors of giant space installations. The thoughtful pace makes it a great game for shoot ’em up newcomers, and its got beautiful pixel art and excellent music to boot. An easy recommendation. Read my full post about Zone of Lacryma here.

That’s it for year six of Scratching That Itch. If I can maintain the average pace of the first six years, it will only take 38 more years to get through the entire bundle. But I’m more likely to maintain the pace of the last four years, in which case it will take about 53 more years. Let’s get to it!