Ibb & Obb is a clever 2D puzzle platformer in which you and a friend (or an online stranger) must work closely together in order to successfully navigate a series of increasingly complex levels. The twist here is that the levels take place across two opposing planes, each with their own gravitational pull. The two playable protagonists – Ibb and Obb – need to alternate between these two planes via portals, assisting one another with tricky jumps and lethal enemies, all the while collecting as many points as possible from their fallen foes.

What’s immediately apparent when booting the game up for the first time is just how pretty the visuals are. Granted, they’re far from being technically impressive, but the abstract shapes, smooth gradients and juxtaposition of varying colours make for an incredibly pleasant looking game. In addition to this, the music is wonderfully relaxing, so the combination of the visuals and sound design brings great balance to the immense frustration you’re likely to feel during the more complex puzzles.

Despite its simplistic premise, Ibb & Obb injects heaps of creativity into its puzzles right from the start. A lot of it is based on momentum – so much like Valve’s classic FPS Portal, you’ll need to jump through various portals on the ground, alternating between the two opposing planes, in order to reach higher ledges. Of course, being a cooperative experience, you need to keep in mind that both players need to complete the puzzles in order to progress. It may be that you can quite easily reach a ledge from where you’re standing, but your friend on the opposite plane can’t, so you’ll need to stop and assess the situation, as many puzzles may not be as simple as they initially appear. Some portals are even colour coded, so only one particular player can pass through them.

Littered throughout the levels are spiked blobs that will cause Ibb and Obb to both explode if just one player happens to touch them. Thankfully, they can be easily dispatched – on the opposing plane to which the blob is situated, a white semicircle protrudes from the ground right below (or above) the blob. If you’re on the same plane as the semicircle, you can jump on it, thus exploding the enemy. Collectable points will then erupt from the fallen enemy for you to pick up, and at the end of each level, these are tallied up to give you a total out of the maximum available to collect.

Playing Ibb & Obb on your own is an absolute no-go; it just won’t work. But get together with a friend – preferably via local play – and you’ll have an absolute blast with this game. Some of the puzzles can be excruciatingly challenging at first, but it’s immensely satisfying when you finally figure out how to beat it together. It’s yet another fine co-op title to add to the Switch’s library.

Update – Sat 21st Mar, 2020 01:25 GMT: Pre-orders for the Classic Edition and Standard Edition of the game are now live. The standard edition will set you back $34.99 and the Classic Edition including various extra goodies is $59.99. Pre-orders will close one week after the digital release (TBD).

Original article – Tue 17th Mar, 2020 02:45 GMT: It’s still hard to believe Streets of Rage 4 is a thing – but yeah, it’s happening. It’s even better knowing a Limited Run Games physical release is also on the way. While we’ve been aware of this since the

start of the year

, the physical games specialist has now officially revealed what this hard-copy “Classic Edition” of the game will look like and what exactly it includes. If you don’t want that, you always opt with the standard edition.

In the Classic Edition, you’ll get the game, game case, a SteelBook case, and a large Genesis clamshell that houses all of it (how fitting). “Open pre-orders” on the Limited Run Games website will start at 10am ET on 20th March.

Limited Run also noted some slight differences between the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 edition:

The Classic Edition will be available on PS4 and Switch, both will have the same Genesis clamshell coversheet, but Switch will include an additional slipcover with Switch platform branding.

Although pre-orders go live on 20th March and will be open for an extended period, a release date for this title hasn’t officially been announced yet, so stay tuned. Will you be adding a hard copy of this game to your collection? Comment down below.

If you’ve ever played The Jackbox Party Pack, you might have also experienced the co-operative party game Drawful. Rather than relying on Joy-Cons, the game makes use of your smartphone or tablet device and requires players to draw a set of words and then get others to guess what they’ve created.

The sequel – Drawful 2 – is much the same and right now it’s on sale on the Switch eShop in North America for just $0.09. That’s so cheap, it’s almost free! Thanks to Wario64 for the heads-up on Twitter:

If you haven’t played this game before, be sure to read our review. One of the main problems we had with it was the asking price, so now that’s it’s 9 cents, it might be worth a look.

Will you be adding this one to your Switch digital library while it’s on sale? Comment down below.

If you’ve played an Animal Crossing game, we bet you’d probably agree that there’s nothing else out there truly like it. From the way you can interact with the animal villagers to the way the game syncs up to the internal clock in your system to make the wild world that much more immersive, it’s truly a special experience.

But did you know there is such a game that snatched up the animal village simulator style straight out of Nintendo’s hands and mashed it up with the DNA of Harry Potter? We’re of course talking about Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times (also known in Europe as Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry) for the Nintendo DS.

Not only does Magician’s Quest feature a rolling overworld with animal NPCs to befriend, but it also features other key elements of Animal Crossing formula. The ability to send letters, shake trees, and decorate your room are all present here. Heck, you’ll even be punished for shutting off your game without saving, just don’t expect to see Resetti. But that doesn’t mean the game doesn’t have its fair share of ideas.

For your viewing pleasure, we’ve gone ahead and summarized the majority of Magician’s Quests features and compared them to the Animal Crossing series in the video above. Be warned though, we didn’t have as much fun playing it as we hoped we would.

Have you heard of or played Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times? Are you interested in seeing a modern version hit the Switch? Let us know your thoughts down below?

This week, our focus is a community artist from the UK. He’s created some amazing Destiny-themed art in the form of fan posters, retro comic book covers, and more! We invited him to share a little bit about the artist behind the brush, or tablet in some cases. Please meet JackDrawss.

Let’s get down to business. Who is the infamous JackDrawss? Tell us about yourself and your journey as a Guardian in the real world.

Jack: So my name is Jack and I live in London, UK. I’m in my second year of college doing film and television studies, however I’ve always loved drawing as a hobby. In October of last year, after Shadowkeep dropped, I drew a fan poster for the release. I also made some for Destiny2’s launch and for Forsaken. I then decided to post it to Twitter under a newly made account, JackDrawss (I wanted to call it JackDraws but that was taken lol). Now I love posting and drawing for the Destiny community every day.

That is a fine looking fan poster. Tell us more about your Guardian. What class and subclass do you enjoy playing as?

Jack: So I’m very much a casual player, but I main a Titan and have done since Destiny 1 vanilla. I usually use the Sunbreaker (Code of the Devastator) subclass, I just love using that long-range melee!

Titans a fine choice and pretty universally agreed upon as the second best class. What’s your favorite weapon to arm your Titan with?

Jack: It’s hard to say but I think Ace of Spades or my Masterworked Hammerhead may be my favourite guns in all of Destiny. They just feel so satisfying to use and I especially love the Ace for its background story. Rest in peace Cayde-6. ?

We all miss him. Now that we’ve gotten to know you a little bit, tell us about your art. Your comic style pieces are awesome!

Jack: So I’ve been drawing since I was very young, I did art in secondary school but it didn’t sit well with me, so I didn’t draw or paint properly for a year until I moved to digital and invested in a Wacom tablet. I love using my tablet and in the couple years I’ve had it, I’ve made some of my favourite pieces to date. In fact, I’m still using the same old tablet and laptop today! I also love drawing Destiny art and last month I had the idea to merge the retro comic style from the 50s and 60s with Destiny’s incredible characters. This was a hit with the community and I’m so grateful for the love they received.

Love the collision of styles with these comics! Where can players go to find your work online?

Any final words before we go?

Jack: I want to thank everyone who’s supported me and my art. I only started a few months ago but everyone has been so kind and supportive of my work. I will continue to make art for all of you!

Thankyou. <3

Adam Robinson-Yu’s A Short Hike won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 22nd annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards tonight!

Originally scheduled to take place during the now-postponed Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the IGF Awards ceremony was reformatted as a virtual livestream to recognize some of the most innovative and excellent independent games of the past year.

In addition to the Grand Prize, A Short Hike also won the community-driven Audience Award, which is chosen by fans through a public voting process. A Short Hike uses a colorfully retro graphical style to present a vibrant exploration game that has players traversing the wilds of Hawk Peak Provincial Park, discovering hidden treasures, friendly hikers and the outside world in the process.

The full slate of 2020 IGF Award winners feature a slew of distinct creations, including the Excellence in Audio award winner, Die Gute Fabrik’s Mutazione, the “mutant soap opera” adventure game that delves into themes of community and personal connection amidst a curious land of lovable mutated creatures. Inkle Studio’s Heaven’s Vault, the winner for Excellence in Narrative, is an archaeological science-fiction adventure that lets players uncover history and deeper truths through puzzle-solving and conversations.

The Excellence in Design winner, Patrick’s Parabox by Patrick Traynor, is a game that plays with the presence and absence of space, creating elaborate puzzles out of recursion and infinities. The Excellence in Visual Art award went to Knights and Bikes, a colorfully hand-painted coming-of-age adventure by Foam Sword Games.

The Nuovo Award, which honors the title that makes jurors ‘think differently about games as a medium,’ went to developer Christoph Frey for The Space Between, a three act narrative experience using surreal motifs and a distinctly retro aesthetic to tell a story of a budding relationship between an architect named Martin and a woman named Clara. As the two explore the building site of the theatre that Martin is building, the two enter into a space where reality begins to subside and a dreamlike story of human relationships begins to unfold.

Finally, the Best Student Game winner, Goblin Rage’s Bore Dome, is a first-person exploration game that offers players a glimpse into beautiful imperfection.

The winners of the 22nd annual IGF Awards are:

Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000)

Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)

Excellence in Audio ($2,000)

Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)

Excellence in Design ($2,000)

Patrick’s Parabox (Patrick Traynor)

Excellence in Narrative ($2,000)

Heaven’s Vault (Inkle)

Nuovo Award ($2,000)

The Space Between (Christoph Frey)

Best Student Game ($2,000)

Bore Dome (Goblin Rage)

Audience Award ($2,000)

A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000)

A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)

The IGF was established in 1998 to recognize the best independent game developers and encourage creativity and excellence in independent games.

The awards were livestreamed on the official Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference at Twitch.tv/GDC and are archived both on Twitch and on the official GDC YouTube channel.

Organizers would like to thank the generous supporters of this year’s IGF, including [email protected] (Platinum Sponsor) and Gamasutra.com (IGF Media Partner).

For more information on the Independent Games Festival, please visit the official IGF website.  For more details on the Game Developers Conference, please visit the GDC’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent Informa Tech