Tag: Casual

If you’re looking for a game that won’t take up too much time or brain space, come browse the Thumb Culture news pieces and reviews of the latest casual games.

Contraband Police – PS5 Review
PlayStation Reviews

Contraband Police – PS5 Review

Contraband Police is a first-person simulation game developed by Crazy Rocks, a small indie team from Poland. Transported back to 1981, it is your job to stop smuggling, corruption, and forgery. Contraband Police is available now on the PlayStation Store for £24.99. Ready for duty? Using my real-life skills as a Police Detective, will I be able to become the best border guard inspector the Acarist People's Republic has ever seen? Join me to find out & let me know how you've fared! Gameplay In Contraband Police, you are a young trainee officer assigned to work a border post in the mountain region of Karitkatka. The year is 1981, with entry into the Acarist People's Republic being strictly regulated. Every move is monitored. In this new post, it is your job to ensure that entry i...
Coffee Bar Simulator – PC Review
PC Reviews

Coffee Bar Simulator – PC Review

Coffee Bar Simulator is a cosy café-management game, developed by Digital Melody and published by Games Incubator and PlayWay S.A. The premise is simple enough. Open up your own coffee shop, serve customers, and try to keep your tiny business running smoothly as rush hour hits. I played it on PC, and the game runs well with stable performance and quick loading times. A Relaxing Cup of Boredom As a newcomer to simulation games and someone with actual experience working in coffee shops and restaurants in the past, I really looked forward to playing Coffee Bar Simulator. Unfortunately, the game quickly became a monotonous stream of mouse clicks that didn't demand much brain power. It is only after I reached level three and the prompts stopped telling me what to do that things got a littl...
Strange Antiquities – PC Review
Gaming, PC Reviews

Strange Antiquities – PC Review

Strange Antiquities is the latest game from developer Bad Viking and published by Iceberg Interactive. It is their follow-up to the very successful Strange Horticulture, taking place in the same town/universe. And it is shaping up to be just as well-received. The game is a shopkeeper sim with a twist, much like its predecessor. You play as the nameless assistant thaumaturgist who is left in charge of the titular store as bizarre events occur. Set in town during an alternate version of Victorian Era England, where the supernatural is commonplace. Each day, you'll do your best to help the townsfolk as something evil stirs within Undermere, and hopefully, your knowledge will solve it in time. Strange Antiquities is available now on PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch. Alright, let's get to th...
Twinkleby – PC Review
PC Reviews

Twinkleby – PC Review

Twinkleby, developed and published by Might and Delight, is a cosy decoration game that hit Steam on September 23rd. Build adorable little dioramas across a whimsical archipelago of floating islands and make your little residents as happy as can be! Twinkle Twinkle Little Island It is once again time to review a cute decorating game! This one has a very unique vibe to it that I am excited to share with you today. Let's get into it! Gameplay Imagine diving into a peaceful, cosy world with a refreshingly simple premise. Twinkleby is like your personal digital dollhouse. You spend your time customising adorable floating islands, placing and decorating houses, building gardens and planting trees. But your work doesn't stop there! You will need to collect and place cute furniture all ov...
Game Night Anyone? Jackbox Party Pack 11 – PC Review
PC Reviews

Game Night Anyone? Jackbox Party Pack 11 – PC Review

Game night is back. Jackbox Party Pack 11 has hit the virtual shelves! Available now on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Get Back In The Box For many years now, Jackbox has saved our boring evenings with hilarious party games between friends and family. With five new game modes to play, players can compete in trivia and laughs. Some of us here at Thumb Culture came together to give the new Jackbox Party Pack 11 a try. Doominate - twist your friend's words. The first game mode is Doominate. Think of this as a typical mini game in that you take something wholesome your friends have written, and completely ruin it. With love of course.  The aim is to twist them into something funnier… or cruder. The winner is the one who can come up with the funniest twisted answers. As ...
Splatterbot – PC Review
PC Reviews

Splatterbot – PC Review

Splatterbot, is a family-friendly couch co-op party game by Hey! Kookaburra. It was released back at the start of September and priced at only £8.50 on Steam, it's cheaper than feeding the family at McDonald's. The Roomba Done You Dirty So just what does Splatterbot have in store for you? Let's find out! Gameplay Straight off the bat, you'll be greeted with a couple of modes. One allows you to play free-for-all, and one allows you to play team games. It's nice and straightforward, no frills here at all. Once you've picked your game mode you are greeted with the Select a player/colour screen. This is where you will determine what colour your Splatterbot will leave in its wake. But also, whether you will have 4 human-controlled players, or you want to add AI to the mix. Whether yo...
Eat The Rich – PC Preview
Previews & Early Access

Eat The Rich – PC Preview

Eat the Rich is a multiplayer party game all about alliances, betrayals, and secret advantages. Developed by Maccima Games and published by Monstronauts, it was released on Steam into Early Access on September 10th. Sounds like Food Poisoning to me Who doesn't love a good party game? What about a mediocre one? While it's great when game developers have many ideas for their game, maybe putting all of them in at once isn't the best idea. Let's get into it! Gameplay Eat the Rich is a multiplayer party game in which you scramble through mini-games, betray your friends, and ruthlessly compete to be as rich as anyone could possibly ever be! Imagine a weird mix between Jackbox Party and Among Us. The main difference is that those games are actually fun to play. Eat the Rich tries to throw...
Town To City – PC Review
PC Reviews

Town To City – PC Review

Sometimes there are games that you pick up on a whim and think 'oh I'll play this for a few minutes'. Next thing you know, it's one in the morning, and you don't know what day it is because you've been so absorbed. Yeah, Town to City is one of those games. The latest release from Galaxy Grove is currently available on Steam for £19.79. Rome wasn't built in a day, but my town was built in a few hours! Gameplay The point of Town To City is simple. Start with a small settlement and increase your market and population until you're a fully-fledged city. From decorating streets to building markets, it is up to you to maintain your residents' happiness until you can evolve. Unlike other city builders, your creation is not dictated by grids and anchor points. It's up to you whether you cre...
Mars Attracts – PC Review
PC Reviews

Mars Attracts – PC Review

Imagine building a theme park where the roller coasters snarl, the popcorn is mildly radioactive, and the main attractions are human exhibits from every era of Earth's history. That’s the deliciously twisted pitch behind Mars Attracts, a park-management sim from developers Outlier that drops you into the martian shoes or rather, the bulbous helmets of, the classic Mars Attacks! aliens. Ack Ack! Your job is simple: abduct humans, curate exhibits, run a smooth (if morally questionable) operation, and keep your martian guests entertained while you tinker with ethically dubious experiments. Mars Attracts launched into Early Access on PC recently and arrives dripping with retro sci-fi charm and a wicked sense of humour. Gameplay At its core, Mars Attracts will feel comforting to fans of...
Rita – PC Preview
Previews & Early Access

Rita – PC Preview

If you too are mourning the loss of the NY Times mini crossword to the deplorable paywall, then maybe this will tickle your fancy. Rita by Sporktank is an upcoming, crossword solving adventure where you play as a small chick Rita and learn about your world. The demo launched earlier this month and I was lucky enough to snatch it away from everyone else at Thumb Culture! Okay so one down is... something you play? Does this cosy little adventure have a lot of promise? Or is it a failed wordsearch looking for a dictionary? Well, let me tell you everything I know about little Rita. You can try out the demo for yourself here! Gameplay The focus of Rita is the word games. You waddle around the map, collect letters and then solve puzzles that affect the world around you. Starting as a hat...