• Roguelikes continue to be ever-present on Steam’s front page. No matter the Roguelikes remain ever-present on Steam’s front page. No matter the genre, a few teams are hard at work finding a way to present a randomized vision that combines gradual progress with dynamic gameplay. The King is Watching does this for a few different genres at once, combining elements of tower defense and base building with a grab bag of other strategy mechanics. The blend is immediately enticing and initially pretty fun. That fun unfortunately wanes after its initial hours, a problem that many roguelikes stumble over on their way to greatness.

    (Content Warning in the above trailer for annoying fake gamer chat)

    Here’s what everyone is buzzing about. The King is Watching presents players with a strategy game where the buildings themselves are collectable. The resources and troops you generate all come from various buildings you acquire as rewards from victorious battles or random events that pop up every so often. So, one run could rely on an army of undead skeletons while another could see a legion of madmen escaping from the sanitarium you constructed right next to the crystal mine. It’s all up to Lady Luck, and that in itself could make for an appealing game. Of course, that’s not all this game has to offer.

    As the title might suggest, The King is Watching‘s central mechanic is that you are not playing as an omniscient deity. You are a king who can only micromanage your kingdom so much. Your gaze is represented by a small box that overlays your buildings. Only buildings within the box are active. Players quickly learn that this means splitting their time between resource production and troop production, although finding a mix between the two is possible for those who really enjoyed Tetrising their guns into their inventory in Resident Evil 4.

    King is Watching Gameplay

    In addition to the inherent limitations of your king’s eyesight, players also must contend with the small size of their kingdom.  You can’t build everything you acquire, and some resources will only pop up occasionally in the pool of available buildings. Your bumblebee warrior-producing flower patch will be useless if you haven’t already stocked up on grapes, and your swordsmen will have nothing to swing if you don’t invest in ore. It’s entirely possible to roll three buildings that just don’t work for you in a run as a reward. A few of those rolls can pull the rug out from an otherwise well-oiled machine and end a run cold.

    The size of your gaze can upgrade during the run, as can the size of your army. However, the size of your kingdom is one of numerous gameplay features that are only unlockable from The King is Watching’s roguelike progression between runs. Each unsuccessful attempt at reaching the final boss nets you coins that you can spend on an upgrade tree that starts affordable before almost immediately requiring an intense grind to unlock anything. I believe that you should be able to snag at least one meaningful perk after most runs in games like this, but The King is Watching does not share my opinion in the slightest.

    King is Watching Gameplay

    It’s not like the runs in The King is Watching are quick, either. You will almost certainly spend a half hour building up your kingdom and watching your army slowly overtake forces you know you can conquer before inevitably falling to a boss you know you can’t beat. It’s not respectful of the player’s time, and the enemy variety doesn’t expand wide enough to make it feel like you’re facing off against new foes each time you sign up for another excursion. Instead, it feels like you’re hitting a game over and starting from scratch.

    At their best, roguelikes are all about systems that can be broken, but it doesn’t feel possible to hit that miracle game-breaking run in The King is Watching. Early on, the way the resources gate your progress makes it so that everything has to build on everything else, and you’ll hit the same milestones no matter what type of troop or resource you’re focusing on. This is all sound logic for a regular strategy game, but it makes for a poor roguelike experience all the way around.

    King is Watching Gameplay

    Most disappointingly, some of the temporary upgrades offered in each run are straight-up unusable without first unlocking core features of the experience from the roguelike progression, something that is a real downer when you’re new to the experience and looking to see how expansive the game is. I don’t want to have to play for hours to unlock one of my king’s three abilities just to use a random boost artifact, especially when I didn’t even get to choose my king in the first place, since there’s only one unlocked from the start. 

    The King is Watching Final Thoughts

    So yes, The King is Watching makes a great first impression, but that’s about all it has going for it. The game’s crippling flaw is featuring mobile game progression in a PC game wrapper, and it’s just not worth anyone’s time. Unless you’re prepared to dedicate hours upon hours to unlocking core features of this experience, there are better kingdoms to conquer out there.

    The King is Watching was reviewed on PC via Steam with a code provided by the publisher.

  • 2055 isn’t so far away in our current hellscape, but it’s still a far-off future in Neon Inferno. This side-scrolling shooter from Zenovia Interactive and Retroware has promising action and a killer name. The recent Steam Next Fest demo let me play through the game’s first mission. Even though it only lasted me about twenty minutes, that was more than enough time to get me on board. 

    The game’s futuristic, neon-lit New York comes to life with a retro 2D style that feels genuine to the glory days of the arcade. However, this is no nostalgia trip. Neon Inferno is a modern production with plenty of detailed spritework and flashy effects. Lights shatter to your bullets, enemies grimace when they’re fired upon, and cars explode into exquisite fireballs. It’s glorious.

    There are plenty of games nowadays that capture the old-school arcade aesthetic perfectly. Usually, they fall flat when it comes to capturing the gameplay in the same way. Neon Inferno comes very close to hitting both out of the park but doesn’t quite get there. 

    Neon Inferno gameplay

    You’re equipped with an infinite ammo pistol and tasked with juggling shots between the foreground and background. This works surprisingly well, although it feels slow to aim when firing into the background. That’s a problem since you can’t move while you’re aiming, and your foes don’t give you the space to line up your shots.

    Simply put, the number of things asked of the player upfront can be overwhelming. You have to shoot forward, backward, and into the background. You have to dodge certain shots while reflecting others with your katana just to prove how cool you are. Within ten minutes, you’re doing all this while riding a motorcycle. Then, you have to switch lanes to dodge civilian vehicles and roadblocks. As they stand, the controls don’t seem up to the task of juggling all these actions. It can lead to taking cheap damage and earning unsatisfying game overs.

    Neon Inferno Conversation

    At the very least, Neon Inferno understands that players in 2025 come in all shapes, sizes, and skill levels. A game like this ten or fifteen years ago might have taken pride in being hardcore and demanding of its players. Nowadays, Neon Inferno offers a range of difficulties, including that nihilistic Arcade option. If that’s not your bag, you can go with a more generous playthrough complete with checkpoints and less aggressive opposition. It might be a surprise to some, but arcade games are fun even with unlimited continues.

    Neon Inferno strives to be something akin to a cyberpunk Metal Slug and falls short. Still, getting close to the throne is a good place to be when you consider how close to perfect SNK’s original is. I can understand why the developers didn’t want to veer into twin stick territory, as that comes with a whole lot of unnecessary expectations. I just hope they can make things a bit tighter and faster in the final release.  Still, even with some sluggish shooting, Neon Inferno slaps.

    Neon Inferno was previewed as part of the June 2025 Steam Next Fest.

  • Friendship’s marketing banks heavily on Tim Robinson’s rising star, and that’s a wise move. His Netflix show, I Think You Should Leave, is a viral sensation for good reason. After all, you can’t go on social media for long without seeing something from the show. After seeing the film and enjoying the show myself, I’m still left wondering what could have been with a different lead. Yes, Robinson did a fine job with this material. Still, the longer format of Friendship seems to clash with the short-form insanity for which he’s known.

    Friendship follows Tim’s Craig Waterman, an isolated family man whose typical way of life is shattered when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves in next door. Originally hitting it off, Austin steps away from the titular friendship once Craig comes on too strong. Unable to take this rejection, Craig bounces from one unhinged move to the next. He is unable to regain his stability and risks his whole way of life in the process.

    The above plot description doesn’t sound much like a comedy, and that makes sense. The bones of this movie aren’t very funny. The way Robinson and Rudd get on provides relatable insight into male relationships in the modern age. Even when they’re at odds, you see why these two are spending time together. It’s a realistic tragedy of errors that wouldn’t be out of place in the cringe-inducing sitcoms of twenty years ago. The best laughs come from natural, awkward moments that flow from the main story. Unfortunately, it feels as though Friendship doesn’t expect you to laugh right then and there.

    Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson share a scene in Friendship

    Robinson brings his signature outlandish character work to Friendship. Craig has a bounty of peculiar quirks, just like the show’s best personas. In addition, many later scenes feature Robinson’s trademark over-the-top shouting. However, these attempts at comedy feel like discarded bits from I Think You Should Leave. They don’t fit into the more realistic world the movie sets up, and I was constantly taken out of the movie because of it. I couldn’t buy that human beings would react to Robinson’s antics with anything but a call to the local asylum.

    Even the few times where Friendship shifts itself around to give Robinson Netflix-esque setups fall mostly flat. Is it humorous that Craig ends up on a drug trip that is as mundane as the rest of his life? Sure. Still, it’s nothing compared to the material that emerges when Robinson is both behind and in front of the camera.

    Tim Robinson sits behind the drums in Friendship

    Writer/Director Andrew DeYoung claims that the role of Craig was written specifically for Tim Robinson. I have no choice but to believe him, but that fact doesn’t gel with what’s on screen. Robinson’s bits clash so hard with the rest of the picture, and it’s hard not to imagine a version of the movie that ups the tension. There’s an edgier version of Craig’s slow descent into madness that I just want to see. Especially since Robinsion does a great job when he isn’t asked to ham it up and instead acts more to the ensemble.

    The rest of Friendship’s cast does a great job of existing around Robinson’s varying aura. Paul Rudd feels like he’s riffing on his character from Anchorman in his role, which was a welcome treat. Kate Mara works wonders in the small role of Craig’s suffering wife, Tami, as does Jack Dylan Grazer as the couple’s son. All the parts are there for the interesting black comedy that Friendship’s marketing promised. But, like a missed call from a good buddy, Friendship is a misfire that only hints at its true potential.

    Friendship was reviewed in the theater with a ticket purchased by the reviewer.

  • Snake (or if you’re OG, Blockade) is one of gaming’s universal experiences. Almost anyone who has played games has spent some time with something like it. Start as a segmented serpent in a small grid. Eat nondescript pellets to expand. Fight the timer and keep going faster before finding inevitable death via your own tail. It’s right up there with Tetris and Breakout from the early days. A format-defining experience that offers simple yet addictive action to anyone with a Nokia in their pocket. Serpentes builds on Snake and its many iterations to create something great. No longer a simple distraction, this is a rapid-fire high score chase that I cannot get enough of. 

    Rereleased for its 10th anniversary, Serpentes greatly improves on its no-frills inspiration. This is Snake, but with strategic depth that allows players to decide their own challenge. Who knew that adding Call of Duty-esque perks and loadouts would work so well for this arcade classic?

    Serpentes gameplay

    When you start, you pick two “gifts” to give your snake. These include an expanded timer, a smaller body, and the ability to grind on walls and avoid easy deaths. Once you’re in the game, your snake’s goal is to consume fruit. Each fruit unlocks a tier of powers, bringing predictable rewards and punishments. Each bite of the apple, banana, or pineapple changes things up. One fruit might add to your snake’s length. Another might add hazards to the board or give your snake new abilities. You can even unlock mini-games that you play alongside your Snake run.

    All these new additions take a few runs to absorb. This is a game in the style of classic arcade cabinets after all. There is no tutorial stage to guide you through everything. Instead, you can learn about each fruit’s mechanics on a screen off to the side from the gameplay. The rest of the mechanics are best laid out on the game’s store page. This could be a problem, but you know how to play snake, and you can have a good time even if your only goal is to eat more fruit. Still, once you get a grasp on Serpentes’ hidden depth, you’re playing an entirely different game.

    Serpentes banana time

    Serpentes’ masterful presentation and pacing help in capturing the attention of first-time players. Catchy techno beats from Pentadrangle keep you engaged from run to run. This is key since you can complete even the most successful of runs in a handful of minutes. In a game with higher stakes, the times when you get stun locked and rammed into a wall would be too frustrating to bear. Thankfully, runs here are so quick that your deaths simply fuel your forward momentum. It’s all progress toward unlocking more fruit, more perks, and more chaos for your snake to overcome.

    In a world of expansive multiplayer shooters and unwieldy AAA releases, it’s great to know that a game like Serpentes can still tap into what makes interactive entertainment truly wonderful. Simple, repeatable gameplay loops. Challenges that encourage players rather than driving them away. Kickass tunes that drive you forward. This is arcade gaming at its best and sold to players at a reasonable price. Especially when compared to the number of quarters I would have thrown away on this in the good ol’ days.

    Serpentes: 10th Anniversary Edition was reviewed on PC via itch.io with a key purchased by the reviewer. It will eventually be available on Steam.