20ish Exciting Games From the Summer Latin American and Southeast Asian Games Showcases

Dono’s Tale by Super Item Studios

Guess what? These were the last showcases I needed to write about from the summer “E3” season. Am I late? Of course, but in my defense you were probably playing Death Stranding 2 or finishing Clair Obscur anyway (I wish that’s where I was). 

No overblown introduction this time–we’ll get straight to the games. 

Once more into the fray... 

White Knuckle

Climb towards salvation, one callous and fingernail at a time, as a nightmarish factory of blood and metal surges beneath you. I’ve been writing about this regularly for a few months and it was released in April. For the last time (I promise), you should go play White Knuckle. 

LAN Party Adventures

I’ve only ever attended a handful of LAN parties throughout the course of my life (and most of them were as simple as daisy chaining Xboxes together) but I love performing mundane tasks inside virtual worlds. This trailer also hints at a deeper mystery–so we’ll see how the narrative evolves as I plug too many things into a single power strip.   

Tormented Souls 2

The original Tormented Souls is an excellent example of classic survival horror made modern. I had a great time with it, but personally, it lost some of its appeal during its final act. If the team at Abstract Digital and Dual Effect grinds down some of those rusted, jagged edges, this sequel could be something special (and leave me hungry for a Tormented Souls 3). 

Taria & Como, Dig! Dig! Dino!, and Catchadiablos

The Playdate is a small, bright yellow, handheld console with a crank on its side. The indie developer in me wants to build a project for it some day (maybe when I’m more established and don’t panic every time I open Unity). It’s such a niche product targeted to a specific demographic of weirdos (not derogatory–I am that weirdo) that I’m tickled any time it shows up in a traditional showcase. If I get my talons on one, you better believe I’m ready for some pocket paleontology. 

Shadow Sacrament: The Roots of Evil 

The eerie environments and pixelated gore on display here has a level of detail that rivals the Blasphemous titles. The weapons also seem to carry a certain impact and weight–I bet it’s going to feel so good to blast things that the human mind was never meant to comprehend (and the occasional crocodile). 

Grizzly Man

Marketed as a pixel pulp slasher set in the Alaskan wilderness, Grizzly Man represents a certain slice of retro horror that I find irresistible. The magenta in the nightmarish color palette practically screams ZX Spectrum. 

It’s available now. 

Avante! Atlantis

Avante! Atlantis is clearly inspired by the classic Advance Wars and Fire Emblem games (and unlike the recent rerelease of the former, they chose to keep the pixels). There isn’t much here that doesn’t get me excited, including the mechanical hint at the end of vehicles falling through the ice. 

Dono’s Tale

Speaking of clear inspirations, Dono’s Tale is a love letter to Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi’s Island. Do you also enjoy collecting letters as you make your way through a level? There will always be room for more quality 2D platformers. 

On a super dorky note, look how good the parallax scrolling is. 

Its Kickstarter goes live on July 25th. 

The Requiem of Shadows 

Despite its spooky title, The Requiem of Shadows appears to be an extremely competent Zelda-like (Game Boy Color Zelda with some extra bells and whistles). 

It has a very active roll–what else do we need? 

Eagle Knight Paradox

The flashy run and gun gameplay looks spectacular (seriously, everything you would want to glow is glowing in these clips) but I’m just as interested in the walking around town and interacting with corgis aspect of Eagle Knight Paradox. Spiritually, this a Sega Genesis game–emphasis on the Blast Processing. 

We’ll hopefully be able to get in the robot later this year. 

Bogdan’s Cross

In Bogdan’s Cross you play as a Templar bear while they navigate their crisis of faith during the Crusades. 

What a fantastic sentence. 

I’m not sure if this is “for me” but I’m so happy it exists. Video games, man. Video games. 

The Trolley Solution

The Trolley Solution takes that basic puzzle/dilemma of would you flip the switch to save one person if it meant sacrificing others and runs (sometimes straight off the rails) with it. 

This trailer is pure joy and kept me guessing every second of its runtime. 

Bubblegum Galaxy

A pastel world populated with hexagons and customizable office spaces. 

Tonally, something here reminds me of Katamari (and I love Katamari). 

Tanuki: Pon’s Summer

In order to renovate your ancestral shrine, you play as a tanuki bike courier and pull off the occasional sick grind or backflip. Your hot (raccoon) dog summer will also include sumo, baseball, and taiko mini games. 

I can’t express how badly I need this in my life. It might be near the top of my most anticipated list. 

Cats Around Us: Black Cat

One part jigsaw puzzle. 

One part coloring book. 

One part hidden object game (but better–because the hidden objects are cats). 

This is simple and charming and doesn’t need to be anything else–but I’m hoping the late game puzzles have claws. 

Urban Jungle

A cozy, tidying up and interior decoration sim–the perfect game to play while listening to the rain. At the very least, you should be less stressed about killing the plants. 

Urban Jungle is out now. 

Glyphica: Typing Survival  

This is exactly what it sounds like, Vampire Survivors you tackle with the clickity clack of your keyboard. I’m definitely not good enough to hit credits in Glyphica (last time I checked, I average 54 wpm) but I’ll probably give it a shot nonetheless. 

Sega, this is a sign–it’s time to bring back The Typing of the Dead. 

Identifile

A bullet hell where you vaporize computer viruses and reduce pop-ups to pulp. I imagine anyone who grew up in the early, Wild West days of the internet will be able to sympathize. 

Keep your left click limber–there’s a demo available now. 

The Fractured Shimmer

This teaser may have only lasted for a handful of seconds, but that was enough for me to feel the 2.5D horror in my gut. What else is lurking just behind that curtain?

Lost and Found Co. 

It might seem odd for me to close this article with Lost and Found Co.--another hidden object game. However, its style is so clean and its game world is brimming with life and stories. I have very little experience in this genre (unless you count the I Spy series of picture books and the MicroMacro tabletop releases), it might be time to acquire some. 

It’s scheduled to release later this year. 

We made it! Over the last five weeks, I covered 180 games (that equals 13,428 words–or roughly 54 pages for those not afflicted with publishing brain rot). I have very few regrets on the exercise as a whole (other than, obviously, I wish I’d been faster)–but I can’t wait to do literally anything else. 

I miss GB Studio. I miss Blender. I miss making games. I miss actually playing games. 

While I’m hoping to spend less time locked in here for at least a couple weeks, I will gradually be releasing more interviews and reviews that I neglected to finish during the great Geoff Keighley Rampage of 2025. Check back soon, I have some cool surprises in the chamber.