New games keep my backlog pretty busy, but it's those sweet, sweet rereleases that really throw me for a loop. I kinda already played you, or I skipped you for a reason, but here you are looking all hot and spicy again. Thank you, I hate you for doing this to me.

  • Drinkbox Studios will always have my attention after all the grins it gave me during Guacamelee. Although its last release, Severed, was a Vita exclusive touch-based game so it kind of fell through my cracks. It's out now on iOS though and I'm not going to let it pass me by twice. I'm ready to cut some fools and find my family. Severed is out now on iOS and Vita.

  • I couldn't figure out why RunGunJumpGun seemed so trippy. In the mean time, its chaotic side-scrolling looks like something I can get behind. It looks loud, fast, and weird. And holy shit, the Hotline Miami artist worked on this. That's why this drugs. Coming to PC/Mac by the end of August.

  • I've never thought about the life that the giant foot from Monty Python must lead outside from crashing through title sequences and squishing things into fart noises. But someone has to take care of that foot. And that's gotta be super gross. Ashi Wash looks like to be that living nightmare of nail salons everywhere. Cringe. Ashi Wash is available now on itch.io.

AM2R

  • The best Metroid? Maybe not. The most unique Metroid? We'll go with that. Metroid II: Return of Samus is forever etched in my memory. Hunting down mutant Metroids is one of my happy places, and it existed before Super Metroid changed everything. Until a recent virtual console port, Metroid II had been a relatively forgotten Game Boy classic. Leave it to Metroid fans to bring it back into a modern remake 25 years later. AM2R updates Metroid II with modern pixel graphics and modern game design from the adventure genre it inspired. It was available for download, but it looks like Nintendo's lawyers took this labor of love down for obvious legal reasons.

  • The efficiency of Tinder's design cannot be denied. I guess it was just a matter of time before swiping decisions made its way into a game's design. Reigns looks to be that game, because managing a kingdom is a series of yes/no choices. There's something brilliant in that oversimplification. Reigns will be out on August 11th for iOS, Android, and PC.

  • Just so you know I'm not partial only to Nintendo retro classics, some of the best Disney platformers of the 16-bit era have been rereleased on GOG.com. Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book still play as beautifully as they look. It's also worth mentioning that they chose the right Aladdin for this rerelease. Genesis does what Nintendon't or something.

  • Survival games have never pulled me in for very long, and I can be pretty dismissive of recent entries in the genre. Near Death sounds pretty appealing to me though. It's all about surviving an Antarctic blizzard. You aren't fighting anything but mother nature here. There aren't too many meters to manage that get in the way of more important survival puzzles. Finding ways to keep warm during a whiteout sounds terrifying. I'm used to needing alcohol and or lights in order to get through scary games, but Near Death may require hot chocolate and some long underwear. It's out now on PC, Mac, Linux.

If you have any other discoveries of your own for Backlog to the Future, let me know in the comments.