Summer is not the best time for your pal. I exist in a sartorial binary: it’s either I’m wearing something that could be mistaken for a dishrag, or I’m wearing a turtleneck. Those are the only two options. It makes any attempt to be professional during the summer an over-heated affair, as my coworkers look at me through a quizzically as my sweat collects in my turtleneck in 90 degree heat.
This is a long way of saying that I look forward, constantly, to fall weather, for that is when the turtlenecks are in their element and I can live my full turt best in peace.
It also so happens that fall is a great wave of games (see that transition!), and there are a number of titles coming out in September that already have me filing them into my personal budget for the coming month.
Get yr turts ready. Fall is coming.
LATER ALLIGATOR
Later Alligator is a hand-drawn adventure, put out by the Smallbu Animation, the two-person team behind Baman Piderman, the surprisingly affecting series about two off-brand superheroes. One of them is dating a tuba. A pumpkin accidentally comes to life and falls in love with a squid. It’s in the line of Steven Universe or Adventure Time in terms of “both absurd and disarmingly sweet.” In short: it’s great.
On Baman Piderman alone, I’d be interested in the game. After watching the trailer, I’m thrilled to see that it has Smallbu’s trademark cozy squiggly style and tongue-in-cheek dialogue. It promises puzzles and alligators. I honestly don’t know what more you (read: I) could want.
Later Alligator comes on out on Steam and itch.io on September 5.
SIMS 4: REALM OF MAGIC EXPANSION PACK
I thought I escaped The Sims in high school. After years of obsessively playing — with friends, by myself, in the middle of the night, when I was supposed to be doing other things — I thought I should put away childish things, as it were.
However, I recently used a local lecture series as an excuse to jump back in. Truthfully, I was inspired by Gita Jackson’s full-throttle support of The Sims on Kotaku , and her joy in play and discovery through The Sims mod community.
Turns out: I still love The Sims. I love that The Sims 4 recognized that players just want to mod the game, and created a specific folder in the game file so you can easily add the mod you’ve downloaded. I love that you can now play with gender diversity by allowing players to customize their Sims voices and bodies, regardless of the listed gender. (They still don’t have a listed nonbinary gender, but I hold out hope.) They still have one of the only robust online game communities that is predominantly women.
And it’s still got a gameplay loop that is addictive as heck.
The Sims has always made its money by releasing the base game for cheap, and then charging extra for expansion packs for things like pets, new areas, more items, or, like, vampires.
One of my favorite expansion packs of all time was the original Makin’ Magic pack for The Sims, and now The Sims 4 is bringing it back with Realm of Magic. Yes, I WILL go to a Hogwarts ripoff. And I WILL spend actual human money adding to a game I already own. Pew pew. Magic.
The Sims 4: Realm of Magic comes to the Origin Store (booooo) on September 10.
UNTITLED GOOSE GAME
Where did Untitled Goose Game come from? I could just Google it, but I prefer to answer this rhetorical question with how I remember it:; that it sprouted out from the internet’s head, fully formed, after a goof of a post about a year ago. The title then was Untitled Goose Game, and the title now is Untitled Goose Game.
The gameplay is — you guessed it — goose-centric, with players tasked with solving problems and/or annoying locals via honking and other goosely actions. It looks like pure, dumb fun. Like if Grand Theft Auto had a goose for a protagonist.
Untitled Goose Game come out on Epic Games and Switch on September 20
LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING
I have something to confess: I am on my third playthrough of Breath of the Wild. Link’s Awakening will be nothing like BotW, as it’s a remake of the classic Zelda game originally put out for the Game Boy.
However, this looks cute as heck. I’m a huge fan of the tilt-shift perspective, and the redesign is bright and cheery in a way that will carry me well into the shorter days and longer nights.
And, let’s be honest, it will be a great interstitial for the inevitable fourth time I dive in/give in to Breath of the Wild. Because it’s the best game of all time.
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening comes out on the switch on September 20