Tag: Keeping Score Page 1 of 4

Keeping Score: 140

On December 19, 2025

This is Keeping Score, a series about games and their soundtracks. This particular entry is an honorary member of the Rainbow In The Dark series about games that actually contain colors. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’ve had 140 in my library for a while. I read a review over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun back in 2013 when Carlsen Games released 140, and must have picked it up not long after. It’s sat in my backlog ever since, near the top due to its numeric name, and many a time I’ve pondered playing it, only to pass it over in favor of something else. But I always kept it in the back of my mind for a Keeping Score post, because not only did my copy come with the soundtrack included, but 140 is itself a musical game, concocting platforming challenges in time to its pulsing techno beats and big synthesizer hits. I suspect, in fact, that the title refers to a tempo of 140 beats per minute. It’s also a very colorful game, constantly shifting palettes for its minimalist artwork, making it worthy of my Rainbow In The Dark series as well.

Keeping Score: Between Horizons

By Waltorious

On November 11, 2025

In Uncategorized

This is Keeping Score, a series about games and their soundtracks. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Astute readers may remember that my partner and I have been enjoying playing detective games together. Specifically, we enjoyed the sublime Return of the Obra Dinn, and The Case of the Golden Idol, both of which offer satisfying detective puzzles to solve that work well for two people playing as a team. I then looked into other, similar games we might play next, and drew up a shortlist. Then I got completely distracted when I saw GOG offering a sale on “detective pixel art games”, and ended up nabbing a couple of titles I’d never heard of before. We decided to try one of them: Between Horizons, by DigiTales Interactive. It casts players as Stella, the young chief of security on board the starship Zephyr, as she investigates a series of crimes.

Scratching That Itch: Hi-Score Boi

By Waltorious

On September 1, 2025

In Uncategorized

This is the two hundred twenty-fourth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein 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. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred twenty-fourth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is sat on the couch, controller in hand, ready to get that high score. It’s Hi-SCore Boi, by 88domo, and it’s messing up my intro formatting by not having a tagline in the bundle at all. Touché, 88domo.

Scratching That Itch: Danger Crew

By Waltorious

On June 10, 2025

In Uncategorized

This is the two hundred seventeenth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein 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. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred seventeenth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is challenging us to a hacking battle. It’s Danger Crew, by Team Danger Crew, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Retro-style, top down RPG about being a programmer

Grab your laptop, folks. It’s time to program.

Keeping Score: Slave Zero

By Waltorious

On March 24, 2025

In Uncategorized

This is Keeping Score, a series about games and their soundtracks. This entry qualifies as an honorary member of the History Lessons series too. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

When I first started the Keeping Score series, I viewed it as one way to sort through my massive backlog of games. I figured that instead of looking through the entire thing for something to play, I could pick games for which I also had their soundtracks, and write about them both. Before long, however, the series became a place to catch any particularly cool soundtracks I’d stumbled upon, from games I’d played for entirely separate reasons. I’ve been wanting to get back to the original spirit of the series, though, and have finally done so with Slave Zero.

Released in 1999 for Dreamcast and PC by Infogrames North America (formerly Accolade), a year before they were fully absorbed into French firm Infogrames, Slave Zero is an action game about a giant robot attacking a massive cyberpunk megacity. I played a demo of it back then, in the era when demos came on CDs bundled with game magazines, and I thought it was cool, but not cool enough to spend my limited game-buying budget on. The press seemed to agree, giving the game middling reviews. Yet, it stuck in my memory. When it was released on GOG, I picked it up, but didn’t play it right away. When I started the Keeping Score series I noted that GOG’s version of Slave Zero includes its soundtrack, and I considered playing it for the series, but got distracted by other games instead. Now, I decided to go for it.

The Case Of The Golden Idol Is Another Great Game For Collaborative Detective Work

By Waltorious

On January 13, 2025

In Uncategorized

This post is part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Long time readers may remember that I wrote about Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn about a year ago. Specifically, I wrote about the experience of playing it with my partner, who is less well versed in games than I, and how it served as an excellent introduction to games. We enjoyed its intricate puzzle-like mystery so much, we looked into other games that might offer similar deduction puzzles. A kind reader suggested The Case of the Golden Idol by Color Gray Games — although mistakenly referred to it as The Curse of the Golden Idol, a mistake I keep repeating as I write this. It was inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn, and it got a lot of praise from the press, so it seemed like a good choice. But then we got distracted. Now we’ve finally given The Case of the Golden Idol a try, and I’m happy to report that it not only offers some quality detective work, it may be an even better introduction to games.

Scratching That Itch: Utopias: Navigating Without Coordinates

By Waltorious

On July 30, 2024

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred ninety-sixth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein 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. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred ninety-sixth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is imagining not one, but nine different perfect worlds. It’s Utopias: Navigating Without Coordinates by AAA, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A utopian planetary system of nine worlds, a collective hallucination woven…

Get ready to hallucinate nine times.

Scratching That Itch: Super Win The Game

By Waltorious

On May 11, 2024

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred eighty-fifth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein 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. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred eighty-fifth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has flickered to life on an ancient CRT screen. It’s Super Win the Game, by J. Kyle Pittman (although in-game it’s credited to Minor Key Games, who are David Pittman and J. Kyle Pittman) and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A retro-core explosion of exploration and platforming action!!

That’s right: it’s time to get retro.

Scratching That Itch: Heavy Bullets

By Waltorious

On April 23, 2024

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred eighty-fourth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein 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. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred eighty-fourth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is stalking us through some sort of indoor wilderness with a big revolver. It’s Heavy Bullets, by Devolver Digital (although they are only the publishers; the game itself is credited to Terri Vellman, with audio by Doseone), and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Heavy Bullets is a randomized FPS dungeon crawler with limited but reusabl…

Don’t call it a roguelike.

Rainbow In The Dark: Knockout City

By Waltorious

On December 1, 2023

In Uncategorized

This is Rainbow In The Dark, a series about games that actually contain colors. This particular entry is also an honorary member of the Keeping Score series, about games and their soundtracks. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

This Rainbow In The Dark entry honors a game that, sadly, no longer exists. Well, sort of. Official servers for Knockout City went offline on June 6, 2023, rendering the game unplayable. But developers Velan Studios released a separate version (PC only, sadly) of the game compatible with private servers, for free. Setting up a server isn’t easy, but fortunately fans came to the rescue. A core group of players created the Knockout City Launcher, which automates installing the game and connecting to an existing fan server (or starting your own). This is great, because the team-based dodgeball antics of Knockout City are a blast, easy to understand for new players but with a lot of nuance to learn and master. I never ended up playing the smash hit Rocket League, but I got the sense that Knockout City is a similar beast: accessible, but with a high skill ceiling. During the COVID-19 lockdown times, I turned to Knockout City often when I needed a break, and it’s the first competitive multiplayer game I ever put a lot of time into.

Oh, and it’s also beautiful, with a bright and optimistic retrofuturistic style full of flying cars, holograms, and 1950s American fashion.