Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
---

Title: Silky soccer, romancing everything and other new indie games worth
checking out

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2025 11:00:55 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/silky-soccer-...

Summer is finally here ΓÇö at least for those of us north of the equator ΓÇö
and you might be planning to spend more time outdoors. Thanks to a swathe of
great handheld devices, it's never been easier to play some fantastic indie
games wherever you might be, so you can soak up the sun while unlocking
achievements.

There are a bunch of intriguing new indies you can check out right now, as
well as a significant update for a certain thirst-inducing roguelite that's
still in early access. I've also a few upcoming titles in this, the latest
edition of our indie roundup. One of them has a Steam demo that you might end
up spending several enjoyable hours with.

Before we get started, a quick word of warning: Your wishlist and resolve are
about to be tested as the Steam Summer Sale starts next week. I mean, good
luck in advance with the bargain hunting!

New releases

I have to hold my hands up, I was skeptical about Rematch. When it was
revealed that Sloclap ΓÇö the team behind martial arts games Absolver and
Sifu ΓÇö was making an action-focused soccer game, I had some doubts that it
would work. Rematch looked like the studio had taken Rocket League and
retrofitted it with human characters. And with both that car soccer game and
EA Sports FC 25 as competition, Sloclap was really going to have to do
something special to break through. I think the studio might have just pulled
that off.

Rematch is entirely skill-based with no stat upgrades for your character. You
control one player throughout the match, and you'll transition between
attacking and defending while rotating the goalkeeper role with teammates.
The action is very fluid and fast, and the controls are responsive (they'd
have to be). Like in Rocket League, the ball doesn't go out of bounds. There
are no fouls or offsides either.

I've really enjoyed my first dozen or so games of Rematch. I came to realize
that I'm more effective in a midfield/playmaker role or even as the
goalkeeper than as an attacker. I haven't been able to get the hang of using
the twin-stick controls to aim and shoot at the goal well enough as yet, but
I've figured out a way to both help my team and have fun.

There are some bugs that the developers are racing to fix and the lack of
cross-play at the jump is a bit disappointing (Sloclap says it ran into some
technical issues there, but getting that sorted is a top priority for the
team). Still, Rematch feels like a very sticky game that I imagine many folks
are going to sink dozens of hours into. It's already off to a strong start
ΓÇö it surpassed a million players on its first day.

Rematch is out now on Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It's on Game Pass
Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

After some delays, it's finally time to date everything in Date Everything!
As the title of this dating sim from Sassy Chap Games and publisher Team17
suggests, you can romance anthropomorphized versions of things around your
home. There are more than 100 voice-acted characters you can woo, from the
doors and wall, to a mouse trap and dust bunny behind a couch, to fire and
air. Things get pretty meta, as you can also date the devs, the game itself
and "your overwhelming sense of existential dread."

There are multiple endings for each character and around 70,000 lines of
dialogue, so there's plenty to explore here. Reviews have been generally
positive, with praise for the writing and design. I can't wait to see the
reactions of my seatmate when I'm playing it on my next flight.

Date Everything! is out now on Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Lost in Random was received fairly well a few years back and now a roguelite
spinoff has arrived. Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is out on Steam,
Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

This is a run-based action game with an isometric perspective and some
permanent progression. So, it's very much Hades-coded, though it gives the
genre a gothic storybook spin with a dice-rolling element.

Speaking of which (and in case you missed it), the third major early access
update for Hades II arrived this week. Oh, sure, there are new bosses and
combat options and so on. All of that's great.

But for many fans, the biggest addition this time is proper character art for
Narcissus. Unsurprisingly, he's hot and he knows it.

Upcoming

From time to time, IΓÇÖll start playing a demo and very quickly feel that GIF
of Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons pop into my head. You know, the one where
he goes "Haha, IΓÇÖm in danger!" (the GIF is actually from a crossover Family
Guy episode in which characters from that show visited Springfield, fact
fans). Such is the case with Ball x Pit, a game that I am already certain is
going to absorb many, many hours of my life.

I didn't get to the Ball x Pit demo until after Steam Next Fest ended, but
it's still available until the full game goes live later this year (it's
coming to Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch too). After playing the demo,
itΓÇÖs easy to see why publisher Devolver Digital dedicated the entire Summer
Game Fest edition of its Devolver Direct showcase to this project from indie
developer Kenny Sun and half-a-dozen collaborators.

Ball x Pit is a blend of Breakout and Vampire Survivors with base-building
elements. As you play the brick-breaking survival levels, you'll earn
resources you can use to build out your homestead, which feeds back into the
projectile chaos. It's an absorbing loop, but the real fun for me comes in
the pit.

Here, your character will (either manually or automatically) fire magic-
infused balls at enemy tiles while avoiding their attacks and making sure the
bad guys don't reach the bottom of the screen. You'll collect more
projectiles and passive upgrades throughout your run. The real magic happens
when you're able to fuse together a pair of balls to combine their effects.
So, a ghost ball that passes through enemies instead of bouncing between them
might also deliver a laser attack to other baddies in the same row or column.

It's already apparent that the gameplay here will run deep. There will be a
host of levels, characters and upgrades to unlock. I really can't wait for
Ball x Pit to entirely ruin my productivity.

I loved the Goosebumps books and TV show as a kid, so a stealth game based on
the series caught my eye. In Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek (from PHL
Collective and publisher GameMill Entertainment), you'll try to avoid
monsters in a nightmarish town but if you run into any, you can defend
yourself with your slingshot.

This game includes puzzles and an original story with multiple endings, while
the art style looks charmingly old-school. It's coming to Nintendo Switch,
PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam on August 29.

Let's close things out for this week with the latest look at PowerWash
Simulator 2. I enjoyed the first game immensely, and the new trailer shows
off some more fresh features that are coming to the sequel, which is slated
to hit PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year.

This time around, you'll be able to abseil or use a scissor lift to get to
grimy, hard-to-reach spots. Multi-stage jobs are also new in PowerWash
Simulator 2, and there will be a public restroom (ick) to make pristine. In
addition, you'll be able to buy and restore antique furniture for your home
base, while your pet kitties can join you on cleaning jobs. Cute!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/silky-soccer-...
new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-110055973.html?src=rss

---
VRSS v2.1.180528