Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection: Destiny Board Traveler

Final Yu-Gi-Oh! review for this year! Yet again, we’re moving away from the card game as it usually works to delve into a different type of gameplay – this time, a proper board game that involves dice and spaces and Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters- wait, again? Yep. Can’t escape those.

Destiny Board Traveler was first released in Japan under the name Sugoroku’s Sugoroku on March 18th, 2004; and then made its way to North American markets on October 26th of the same year. That original title is a reference to Yugi’s grandpa; Solomon Muto’s original name is Sugoroku, also the name of two ancient board games that have some similarities to modern Snakes & Ladders and Backgammon, respectively.

But of course, there needs to be a twist that involves the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game. The characters of the manga/anime appear as playable, there are several boards to choose from (if you unlock them), and the cards themselves will be integral parts of the strategy and gameplay.

Maybe this time I can keep it short.

’Round the Board

Makes sense to pick Yugi. ow I just have to hope his
legendary lucks rubs off on me. (Hint: It didn't.)

Four players move around one or more 5X5 square-shaped boards. Each player has a hand of monsters drawn from their Deck (this game doesn’t use Spells or Traps, and all monsters are treated as Normal and don’t have their effects). On their turn, each player creates their own die from cards in their hand by setting them onto its faces. They do not need to set monsters onto every face of the die, however. The value of each side of that die is equal to the level of the monster on it. The die has one side known as the Star Face, while the other five remain regular faces.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection: Dungeon Dice Monsters

Most Yu-Gi-Oh! games are all about the franchise’s card game. Those began appearing early in the manga’s pages, and it only took a few books before the story shifted to focus on tournaments. However, before those, the manga had several tomes in which Yugi’s alter ego played various games, against many opponents. The early days were DARK; Yugi’s first Shadow Game had someone almost stab themselves for a game about picking up bills with a knife. In another, he burned a criminal to death.

As far as game tables go, I think those in the manga (for
Duelist Kingdom and Dungeon Dice Monsters) make more
sense than the giant arenas from the anime.

Then, there was Duel Kingdom. Shortly afterwards, there was Battle City, which ended up with rules much closer to the real card game. However, between the two, a short arc introduced another game of Kazuki Takahashi’s making: Dungeon Dice Monsters (shortened DDM). Created by Duke Devlin (Ryuji Otogi in the original Japanese), an aspiring game maker whose family sets up shop near Yugi’s home, the game features monsters appearing when dice are deployed on a field. I will explain much more in due time.

These odds are looking good!

There was also a whole thing about a disfigured man in a clown mask, an intense desire for revenge, and arson, but that’s because the manga has always been ballsier than the anime.

Dungeon Dice Monsters was eventually adapted into a physical board game. It never quite caught on, probably due to the complexity of the system that demanded a full board to play as well as the associated dice – not quite as simple as just playing with cards! It also got an adaptation on the Game Boy Advance, released in North America on February 11th, 2003 (though it came out two years earlier in Japan), and a rerelease in the Early Days Collection.

What IS Dungeon Dice Monsters Anyway?

Try not to get yourself cornered.

I’ll open by explaining the game, its rules, and its mechanics. As the name indicates, this game trades cards for dice. The board is made of 13X19 squares, with players on opposite sides. Each player has a pool of 15 dice, which will be the ones they roll. Each player has a figurine named the Die Master in front of them; this figurine starts with three hit points.

Dice sides are called Crests. There are six different  types: Summon, Movement, Attack, Defense, Spell and Trap. Every die has a different selection of these Crests – as an example, a die may have one or two Attack Crests, or maybe none! The only Crest guaranteed to be on every die is the Summon type. Dice have levels ranging from 1 to 4, and the lower the level is, the more Summon Crests it will have.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection: Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories

The first Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling simulator was a bit of a mess, but some of that could be excused from the game releasing while the manga’s first tournament arc wasn’t over, the mechanics weren’t set in stone and the card game as we know it now did not exist yet, and being on Game Boy meant much smaller data storage space.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories (not to be confused with the next Yu-Gi-Oh! game, also titled Dark Duel Stories) was released on July 8th, 1999 in Japanese only. We get to play it freely and in English thanks to the Early Days Collection released in February 2025. With more space in the cartridge and a stronger system, surely this new installment improves on the first game, right?

...Hey, that box art is just reusing the
Volume 10 cover art!

The New Tournament

Ahhhh! Color!

Just like Duel Monsters I, this game is a dueling simulator split into stages containing multiple duelists. You must defeat every opponent in a stage 5 times to unlock the next. This makes some sense, since you are drip-fed cards to improve your deck; you only receive one card at each victory against a CPU opponent, dropped from that opponent’s pool of rewards. This justifies having to beat every opponent repeatedly, since you wouldn’t otherwise gather enough cards to stand a chance against better opponents.

The plot? Just a different tournament beyond Duelist Kingdom, again helmed by Pegasus. Who cares, really.

The Stage 1 opponents (Yugi, Joey, Bakura and Tristan) are laughable; I went through those 20 duels without editing my deck once. They’re basically a tutorial. None of them ever use monsters with ATK higher than 500. Enemy decks are once again randomized out of their personal card pools, with some cards having higher chances to appear than others. Opponents cannot fuse their own monsters, nor use Magic or Trap cards.

However, they can still destroy your monsters
if they get lucky with Alignments.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection: Duel Monsters I

Back with another themed month, and I return to the well of Yu-Gi-Oh! Except, this time, I’ll be focusing on older games. In February 2025, Konami released the Early Days Collection, which contains 14 (technically 16) games from the earliest of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. I already covered one of these, The Sacred Cards, in the first year of Planned All Along, which leaves 13 games to cover (technically 15; you’ll understand why I say that, but not until next year).

This volume had the duel against PaniK,
also known as the Player Killer of
Darkness in the original Japanese,
because the manga was edgy like that.

I figured that I would start with the shortest games (according to How Long To Beat); but the four I’m planning to cover this month, I’ll do in chronological order. I’m opening today with the first game in the entire collection, the original Duel Monsters, released for the Game Boy on December 16th, 1998. Several of these classics had never been officially released in languages other than Japanese before, so it’s a chance to discover them and experience the start of a legacy.

Technically, it isn’t the first Yu-Gi-Oh! game ever released (the actual first was based on a lesser game from the manga’s history, Monster Capsule), but it is the first to feature the card game that would then take over the anime and be the sole focus of every following series. When it came out, the manga itself was at its tenth volume, in the middle of the Dueling Kingdom tournament arc. Barely halfway in, not even in the finals. The duel against Pegasus is still far. The timeframe in which this game was made explains a lot about it. For starters, the characters we meet and duel are only the ones we have seen in the manga pages up to that point.

However, it’s most notable in gameplay, with duels obeying the, um… elastic rules of Duelist Kingdom. I’ll get there soon enough.

The OG Duel Simulator

Choose your fighter Duelist!

Before the game starts, Yami Yugi tells the player to input their duelist name. It’s not important in the Story Mode, but it is a screen name for dueling and trading with other players using a Link Cable (remember, this was the Game Boy era).

Story? What’s that? When the game begins, your first screen shows the mugs of Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Bakura Ryo. We can surmise, based on the background showing a large boat, that we’re on the ship taking our characters to Duelist Kingdom. Each of these four will say the same thing: If you want to proceed, you’ll have to beat them all five times. Why five? Shouldn’t one be enough? Nah, not here.

Okay, back to that pin about gameplay. The card game as we know it didn’t even exist yet. The cards at the time were the Bandai OCG, a short-lived version that ended in 1999, when the actual Konami card game began and overtook the former in popularity. As a result, early Duel Monsters video games had the bare minimum to base themselves on, gameplay-wise. All they had was the Duelist Kingdom rules (which would later be streamlined for the second tournament arc, Battle City). Also, take into account the hardware limitations: A Game Boy cartridge could only contain a maximum of 4 megabits of data, and the game had to be designed to account for the tiny screen.

The Most Obscure Games I've Ever Covered - The List

The list – Other interesting results

After writing so many Top 12 lists, I decided I wanted to get creative with them. My two lists of worst marketing campaigns required a ton of research, and I loved that aspect; so I felt like digging into a different type of research, this time data collection. The results could be… interesting, after all. So hey, why not make a list of the least known games I’ve tried?

Just the first 8 questions... of 473.

For this article, I created a Google Form cataloguing every single game I reviewed on this blog (all 473 of them), and for each one, gave four options:

-I’ve played it (does not necessarily mean its player owns the game);

-I own / have owned it (considering how many gamers I know with massive backlogs of games they’ve never touched, I felt something would be missing if this wasn’t included);

-I heard of it (saw someone else play it on a livestream, or know of it through word-of-mouth, advertising, or reputation);

-Or I've never heard of it (the element that matters today).

I knew most games covered on this blog were likely to be in that last category, especially since I pivoted to playing and covering a lot of indie games after joining Steam in 2016. Yet, there are still plenty of surprises to be found.

At the time of writing, I had received 42 answers to this survey, but it was enough to cut down the list to… 34 titles. That’s a long way from 12; so expect me to lump together titles for which I have the same comments to make. Had I received 50 or 100 responses, maybe this would be different; maybe I would have ended up with much fewer unknown games, maybe even fewer than 12! Thus, you can take today’s article with a grain of salt, I know my sample isn’t as representative as it could have been. That said, I think the results are interesting! In fact, tune in this coming Monday for more data I’ve picked up from studying the survey results. By the way, you’ll notice that there isn’t a single console game on this list – it’s all PC, indie games. Oh, and if games are no longer available for purchase but their Steam page is still up, I’ll include a link to the page anyway.

Alright, let’s start this list! We open with…

12. Free stuff

Examples: Pink Hour, Pink Heaven, Elisa: The Innkeeper – Prequel

Oh, I remember thinking this one was so cute.

When I joined Steam, my first order of business was to find as many games as possible to add to my new collection, in a short time and on a small budget. The solution? Go down the list of Free games, and pick among those. Now, I’ll differentiate between Free-to-play (which can make its budget back through players’ in-game purchases), and full-on Free. Generally small stuff that a developer could easily give away without feeling a blow to their finances. I’d imagine that such games are often released without much fanfare, with their studios either banking on their pre-existing reputation (like Studio Pixel, which released the Pink duology but is better known for Cave Story+), or a freebie that ties well with the remainder of their output (like the Elisa prequel, which ties into games with a price tag). You have to seek these out, basically. With that said, offering free games is a winning strategy; it seems to have worked well for Epic Games’ own platform...

Quick Review: Transistor

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These things don't look friendly.

Created by Supergiant Games and released on May 20th, 2014, Transistor is the story of Red, a singer in the futuristic city of Cloudbank, where the population can vote to change everything, up to and including the color of the sky. One night, Red is attacked during a performance but is saved by her bodyguard, who takes a mysterious sword to the chest. That night, Red awakens only to realize that her ability to speak is gone, and the soul of the man has been transferred within the sword, the titular Transistor, which has bizarre properties related to computing. Something very wrong is going on in the city. It's infested by robots known as the Process, which are dead-set on “processing” everything and everyone into data. They were seemingly unleashed by a mysterious group known as the Camerata. With the city almost deserted, it’s up to Red and her companion to fight the threat and, if possible, restore Cloudbank…

Nope, not friendly. Good thing I have this big magic sword
that draws from the powers of souls!

Red moves around with the arrows, or you can give her a location to run to with the mouse on the grid-like maps. When she encounters enemies, she can fight using one of up to four Functions (keys 1 to 4), pre-set among the ones unlocked, and chosen at Access Points. (Some of these functions are collected from dead bodies, also taken into the Transistor.)

Let's see if these robots still stand after these next seconds.

The true interest, however, is the Turn() feature the Transistor has, which allows Red to go execute a series of commands in a split second. In that moment, you can move around, which costs time, and then use your Functions in any order. There’s a limit to how much you can do, but said limit will increase each time you level up. Still be careful; a fully used-up Turn() will have to cool down for five seconds, potentially leaving you in harm’s way.

And that's just early into the game, imagine all the
things you'll be able to do down the line.

At the access terminals, you can do far more than just set up your functions. You’ll unlock many over time, as well as new slots to use them. Each main function can be further enhanced with two more that will apply extra effects when used. Beyond that, you can unlock extra slots granting passive bonuses when filled. Every single function has uses programmed in when used as a main action, as an enhancement, or as a bonus – so, experiment! Oh, and every function has a cost in Memory (MEM), which means that you will have to choose wisely how you mix-and-match everything. (The level-up system can occasionally grant you additional MEM, giving you more options. It can also unlock Limiters, which will grant you more experience after each victory at the cost of making the game harder in some way, and yes, you can have all of them activated at the same time for the most challenging experience.)

In fact, some of these Process things are really strong.
Even this first boss is nothing compared to later ones.

In fact, you ARE encouraged to experiment, especially if things don’t go your way. When Red’s health bar is depleted, it will refill at the cost of losing your function that’s taking up the most MEM. You’ll continue the fight with three functions left, and losing one more if your health hits zero again. A Game Over is seen only if Red loses them all, so you basically have four health bars. Lost functions are broken and aren’t restored right away, either; it takes visiting two access terminals to repair a broken function so you can equip it again, which means that you’ll have to resort to new tactics for a moment afterwards if a battle didn’t go your way.

Learn to plan against every Process machine's eccentricity.
No need to smash a Younglady twice, they teleport after
you hit them once.

Robots that can obscure the screen with photos of Red, all
while shooting at her, and other robots whose entire goal
is to protect other Process on the battlefield. Oof!

The game is story-heavy, even if most of it has Red and her companion traveling the increasingly blocky “processed” surroundings of Cloudbank and reading reports of the worsening situation. However, progress is very linear, with nothing but the occasional reveal interspersed with battles against the Process. That said, you can find Backdoors that lead to a beach-like area from which Red can access challenges testing her speed, endurance, puzzle-solving skill, all through more battles. Also of interest is the New Game unlocked after beating the game once, which allows you to keep everything you've unlocked, while all battles (aside from bosses, of course) are now randomized.

The cutscenes look so damn great, too, even with their
limited animation. So much style through the entire game.

The Process even has chicken-like robots? Weeeeird.

I was a bit disappointed by the rigid linearity, but everything else is spot-on. The music is nice, the story is excellent, the environments are varied and impressive, and there are tons of inventive ideas to find here. I love the massive number of options in battle – once you learn to use them effectively, every one can become overpowered and tear through everything quickly. Some enemies and bosses have abilities that complement and challenge your skills in ways that could only happen with this system (the final boss is chef’s kiss). Worth playing, since it cemented Supergiant Games’ reputation for stylish titles packed with powerful storytelling, as the studio has done before with Bastion and would do later with both Hades games.

Transistor is available on Steam for 19.99$ USD.

Quick Review: Recesses

You ever hear kids giving each other philosophy classes in the schoolyard? Nah, I usually just see them play children’s card games.

The start of an epic card game journey.

A creation of Sanjuny released on August 23rd, 2024, Recesses is a roguelite card game. Your character is a fifth grader, and your best friend Clair teaches you about this new awesome card game called Battaliens. Later, she goes missing, and everything points to this disappearance being linked to the game. You set out to investigate, challenging kids at recess in growing order of grade. One student per day, all week. Maybe, by Friday, you’ll have enough information to find Clair?

I should explain Battaliens, then; there's a lot.

Hey, you can even save up to 8 different decks! Good to
set up strategies against specific opponents.

-Battaliens are split into four types: Cute, Weird, Gross and Scary. Each type has one other type it's generally strong against, and a third it's generally weak against.

-Each Battalien has a value on the top right that counts as both its HP and attack power. When a round is played, both monsters attack at the same time, each deducting their attack from the other’s HP. A monster whose HP hits 0 as a result of battle gets sucked into a black hole, while a survivor returns to the shapeship (the deck) with its new, post-fight HP/attack.

All my remaining monsters have strengths and weaknesses.
Just hope you're lucky

-Most monsters have strengths and weaknesses, where their base attack/HP will be modified depending on the type of the creature they’re fighting. As an example, “Cute +1” means your card gains 1 HP/attack if it fights a cute creature. A monster doesn’t die if its HP reaches 0 from strengths/weaknesses/effects alone. (The cap for HP/attack is 9.) Most monsters also have a special ability that triggers at specific moments (at the start of a turn, when first played, when it wins a battle, or when it loses).

-Both players' “spaceships” can hold 8 cards. The player that sends all cards from the opponent’s spaceship to the black hole wins. (In Story Mode, a tie is considered a loss.)

-If both cards have effects that activate at the same time, a coin is tossed to figure out who goes first. Luck can screw you over here. You do not know which cards your opponent uses until they use them – which can make picking random targets a double-edged sword.

That’s the basics. You’ll figure it out as you play.

Beat that other kid up? Nah. When the core of the game is
about a competition (cards, monsters, etc.), I only desire to
punch those who deserve it. I call it the "Lysandre Rule".

The further in you go, the harder the enemies become. They
even have their own Egyptian God-level cards...

The story's format is a roguelite. Each day, you’ll battle another student. No matter the outcome of the duel, you get a booster pack with 8 extra cards, so you can build your “deck” from there. Opponents get tougher every day, so you’ll probably lose at some point – in which case, you start over on the next Monday. But! You later get access to tools that make the week more tolerable. The first is a friggin’ time machine (…don’t question it) that lets you skip to the day of the last opponent you’ve beaten. Which means that you’ll have to beat them again before accessing the next opponent, sure, but it helps. More stuff comes up over time. Perhaps more intriguing are this game’s bosses and their “Elder God” Battaliens…

I swear these fifth graders talk like university
philosophy students.

No, wait, even MORE intriguing is how all the opponents you beat have some spooky, borderline philosophical talk about life, the universe, and everything. Stuff no kids should be talking about, but apparently, there’s just something about Battaliens that opens their minds. Ehhhh, don’t question it.

The game started out with a lot of goodwill on my end; the concept was interesting, and the game's simple look hid its depth, which I discovered the longer I played. The story is engaging and the art style deliberately imitates the look of stuff drawn by elementary school kids. Even the difficulty feels fair for the first few opponents, but then the game takes a big swerve into Ultra Hard territory.

This opponent has TWO Elder Gods. And she's goddamn
unbeatable unless you literally cheese the battle by using
cards that specifically counter her big two. I HATED this fight.

You can hardly plan ahead due to the randomness aspect and the fact that even coin tosses can screw you over if you’re not lucky. Later opponents have downright unfair cards, and are so hard to beat they turn the game into an utter slog. Your only option is to tailor your spaceship to fight specifically what you know you’ll encounter (final opponents have randomized decks, aside from specific cards they always carry), and hope you'll be lucky with card interactions. For a game with so much strategy, that so much of it still boiled down to luck, and not enough to skill to my liking.

I think it says a lot that, after beating the game's final story
boss (not the girl here), I found out there were higher
difficulty levels and I instantly went, "Nope!"

You might still enjoy this one if you like card games and feel like trying to beat its roguelite format – all I can say is, good luck. There's even extra difficulty settings if you can beat the story a fist time.

Recesses is available on Steam for 4.99$ USD.

Quick Review: Iris and the Giant

Introspection is rarely this mythological.

I'd better deal with the archers, or they'll all attack. And then.
there's the minotaurs at the back...

Developed by Louis Rigaud, published by Goblinz Publishing, Maple Whispering Limited and Mugen Creations, and released on February 27th, 2020, Iris and the Giant tells the tale of Iris. She’s not doing well; bullied at school, emotionally shut down at home, barely finding joy in her pastimes of  creating card games or studying mythology. One day, at swim practice, she falls from the diving board into the water, and goes unconscious. This lands her into the world of her imagination, where her problems manifest as Greek mythology monsters, and she must fight with her own cards detailing various weapons and survival tools. The source of her inner turmoil is represented by a giant weeping at the top of a mountain, and it is only by confronting it and winning that she’ll return among the living.

Beware of boss enemies that can spur their troops to
attack twice each turn...

This is a roguelite deckbuilder. The game is split into floors, on which Iris plays her cards to fight enemies. Most cards are weapons that strike using different mechanics; swords (can use all the swords in your hand on the same turn), bows and arrows (attack backrows), whips, and so on. And then, magic such as bombs or fireballs. You'll find other special cards with effects, like Confidence, which restores Iris’ Will (her health), or a shield that protects from all attacks and negative effects for a few turns, and more to discover over time.

Soon enough, I'll reach the top. You just wait, Giant!

Fire everywhere, and Cerberus' three heads. Fun!
Now I just need an axe to kill all three at once.

Ther enemies appear in a grid pattern of 2 to 4 rows, and they attack after your turn has ended. Just like cards, enemies all have their own mechanics (as an example, archers and other spellcasters can attack from the back), and bosses having features that make them a lot harder to deal with. (I especially despised the boss based on Pandora’s Box…) The best you can do is attempt to adapt to whatever’s being put in front of you. The loadout also includes treasure chests, which allow you to grab extra card packs, all of which contain one or many cards of a specific type of weapon/spell/item. You can also pick up crystals on the floor.

If you no longer have the perfect cards to fight Pandora's
Box, you're pretty much done for. And it's a very late
boss in the first Path.

There are four "upgrade" systems to this game, two of which are used during a run, while the other two are accessed from the main menu, in-between runs. The two within a run involve crystals and stars. When you collect enough crystals, Iris gains a new ability for a specific weapon, allowing for different builds depending on what you find. Alternately, enemies grant stars when defeated, and after enough stars, other abilities can be unlocked to increase Iris’ base Will or regain some when doing specific actions, or perhaps influence her hand or other helpful things (like drawing extra cards each turn, or increasing shield durability, etc.).

During this adventure, Iris can find symbols pointing to events of her life, detailing all the issues that took her to this point. Reconnecting with herself grants Memory Points that can be used in their section on the main menu to unlock more perks. The other is Imaginary Friends, which must first be discovered, then unlocked by completing a side-quest. You can only have one at first, but with the right Memory perks, you can have up to 3.

The Memories tug at your heartstrings.

I need more good cards. Gimme gimme.

It’s a Roguelite, so the point is to keep trying as you learn all the mechanics, lose repeatedly until you know what you’re doing, then continue trying until you win. The game keeps track of everything you’ve discovered, so there’s something there to scratch that completionist itch. Even better, there are higher difficulties for those seeking a challenge, AND after beating the Path of the Giant, you unlock two more paths, for the Ferryman and Chronos, with new encounters in both.

The final challenge, time to confront the Giant.
Or rather, its apparent infinite sadness.

Great game, had me hooked for the couple days it took me to beat the first Path; I couldn’t try the rest due to time, but I certainly wouldn’t mind revisiting it later. I love its unique visual style, its tone, its story. A strong recommend for all roguelite/roguelike fans.

Iris and the Giant is available on Steam for 17.99$ USD.

Quick Review: Guns of Icarus Online

For a moment, I was afraid I’d have two game eulogies this year; turns out, there’s only one (it’ll come later in this set of Quick Reviews), but... today's title has definitely seen better days.

Enemy on the left! Uh... how do we say left on a ship
again...

A creation of Muse Games released on October 29th, 2012, Guns of Icarus Online is a multiplayer game about operating steampunk airships and going at war against other factions. Before I start, I want to say that, like pretty much every multiplayer-only game in my collection, this one has been sitting a long time unplayed; I received it in a Humble Bundle back in February… 2017. At a time where I can safely assume the game was a lot more active. And though it’s still receiving occasional updates, unless I’ve played at a particularly slow time, the playerbase appears to have gotten low - the most I saw on my first session was 9 players online at a time.

Say hello to my friend Mortar! You've already met Gatling.

The game features multiple factions warring over a large map, taking, stealing and reclaiming territories, similar to other multiplayer games I’ve played in the past (such as For Honor). However, combat is exclusively dogfights. Each airship has a crew of four, the captain steers (forwards, backwards, turning left or right, and ascending/descending), while the other three can man the ship’s weapons or fix any machinery that gets broken by enemy fire. You don’t need to have four human PCs on one ship; all it takes is one. However, the captain must always be a human player, so if you’re on your own, your job is automatically to drive. I imagine the big interest in this one is to have a full team of four communicating and coordinating their efforts to both get to the guns in time to shoot down enemy ships that come close, and repair what needs to be. The tutorial focuses a fair bit on repairing and maintaining the ship, with piloting as its final course.

Hell yeah, I'm on fire! Wait... No! Ahh! I'm on fire! Ack!
Quick, the extinguisher! My gun is on fire!

There's a wide variety of battle types and matchups. The friend I played with and I went through two modes that could be played between the two of us; together as a team against CPU enemy ships, whichever team destroyed three ships of the opposing team won; and me versus him, attacking each other across the desolate deserts, broken cities, and graveyards of giant dead machinery. (And him wiping the nonexistent floors with me, ‘cause he has more experience with driving/piloting games than I'll ever have – but hey, I got to test the game, that’s what matters!)

Nothing a little percussive maintenance can't solve.

The tutorials cover every position, so you should know how to operate no matter where you land on a team. You have Practice options to play on your own, summoning enemy ships at will to train yourself, or playing against CPU pirates. Multiplayer has 5 modes allowing for varying numbers of players and teams (2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2v2, 4v4, and King of the Hill Mode can be an 8-player Battle Royale). There’s even Skyball in there – whatever that is.

I do wish there was a mini solo campaign to this thing, it
would be interesting to have. I could have taken more
piloting skill tests like this one at the end of the tutorial,
where we're driving through canyons.

Add to this a ton of options for your secondary tools when driving and many choices to customize the look of your personal ship (though a lot of cosmetic stuff is locked behind real money) and weaponry loadout (lots of different gun and ammo types). Like I said earlier, I can imagine what Guns of Icarus was like at the height of its popularity, and even a few years after that; the concept is interesting, the controls and mechanics take some getting used to but can make a seasoned player a definitive threat on a map, and there are enough lore and details to have players care at least a little about the story.

Hello, pirates. Time for you to go down.

However, though I still linked to it and tell its current price at time of this article’s publication, I don’t know if I can “recommend” it, not nearly 13 years into its existence and with such a massively decreased player base. Unless you buy copies for all your friends as well, but even then, I don’t know how much mileage one can get out of it at this point. Same for the update, Guns of Icarus Alliance, advertised in the base game.

Still, if you’re interested, Guns of Icarus Online is available on Steam for 4.99$ USD. I also don’t know how much longer still it’ll be available for purchase, after all this time. But hey – not a eulogy for once!