Taking it easy this week with... cosy games. Didn't expect that, did you?
2025 backlog challenge: week 4
It’s my birthday week! That means I’ve been doing other things like eating cake and… well, honestly, that’s mostly what I’ve been doing.
Aside from food, I’ve been fixated on RimWorld and PalWorld with little to no regard to the rest of the world, and that means there will be only a couple of games this week. And that’s okay.
I am 🌟 embracing it 🌟 for the self care that it is. Old Amy would have pushed herself to still reach the “one new game a day” quota and get burnt out. New Amy sees “one game a day” as a stretch goal and accepts that “a few new games each week” is good enough. #PersonalGrowth
And then when I got fixated on the third game I played this week and came down with a stomach bug, I did some more “accepting it”.
Whelp. That was enough “brain goes brr” seeping through. Onto the games.
Game #1: Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
From the very first second, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure absolutely charmed me with its cosy and heartwarming vibe. The game starts with Alba (you!) as a toddler wobbling after your grandparents, making photos with them, which is a truly adorable way of introducing the tutorial. This beautifully sets the tone for the adventure that follows.
Fast-forward 10 years, and the real story begins. One of the first mechanics introduced is saying “yes” or “no” by literally dragging Alba’s head up and down or side to side. That was hilariously refreshing! Super tactice way of selecting yes/no.
The game gently nudges you into its world of environmental activism through small acts of kindness: picking up trash, taking down and folding laundry, and generally helping out around the island. It’s such an organic way to instill a sense of purpose, subtly weaving in themes of preservation, cleanliness, and caring for the environment and the wildlife. The animal models (and the villager models, too, actually!) are super, super cute!
And then the smartphone drops into your lap, complete with a camera and an animal identification app, and I was sold. The main quests were all but forgotten as I gleefully ran around taking photos of not only birds, but rabbits, hares, sheep, foxes, and anything else that moved - including all the villagers. The sheer joy of snapping pictures and discovering the island’s fauna made me feel like a real wildlife enthusiast.
Sadly, I did lose about a day and a half of progress due to a bug when the game froze on the final day. Luckily, that was after I already 100%ed the Steam achievements.
The whole experience felt like a warm hug and left me with a renewed appreciation for nature and conservation.
👍 Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, meaningful experience that’s both relaxing and inspiring. From its charming mechanics to its heartfelt message, it’s a game I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who loves cosy adventures, heartwarming storytelling and environmental themes.
Game #2: Hidden Cats: Thief
Nothing much to say about this one.
I received Hidden Cats: Thief to try it out and review it, which I’m gratful for - but whelp, I didn’t like it.
I thought this was going to be a cosy "find the cats" game like the "I commissioned some ____" series, and in essence it was - but the amount of achievements is endlessly annoying.
Every cat you click, you get an achievement popup.
When completed, this game would clutter your account with a hundred achievements, one for each cat in the game. That's... too overwhelming. Too much.
Achievements mean something to me, and it doesn't sit well with me that they are so “cheap” and spammy. This reminds me of the Trivia Vault achievement scam games with which I’ve had my own set of issues. Which is sad, because I do think the game would be cosy if not so overwhelming on that front.
👎 It’s a no from me.
Game #3: Ooze Keeper
I am cheating today. Ooze Keeper isn’t a backlog game—I just couldn’t resist using my birthday money for it! It reminded me of TerraCards, which I loved, so I had to grab it. Sorry not sorry.
There are a couple of minor gripes with the interface: the buttons look greyed out, so it’s not always clear what’s clickable. It also lacks hotkeys and double-click functionality, which makes certain actions feel slower and more tedious than they need to be. These aren’t dealbreakers, though. Just things that could be improved upon.
The gameplay loop is amazing. You start by placing slimes on islands. The slimes give you stamina, which you use to clear debris / rocks / trees / plants / … from the islands to gain resources. These resources can be sold for money or used to craft and build other items and structures. These structures add buffs or produce more resources / items to sell. Breeding slimes introduces new types with unique abilities—like growing trees or producing stone—based on their type, their proximity to other items or the structures they’re working. This adds a fun layer of strategy to deciding what to place where.
As you progress, you unlock new islands, acquire more slimes, and build an increasingly vast network of islands and resources. Every few rounds, a shop pops up offering new slimes, crops, and buildings to expand your options. The pressure to maintain income is ever-present. Drop below a certain threshold and you can’t pay your rent, which means game over.
👍 Despite some small interface issues, Ooze Keeper is cosy, gorgeous, and offers a satisfying loop that keeps pulling you back in. It’s perfect for fans of strategic resource management with a chill vibe. This game just oozes “keeper”. Got it? Right.
So this was a short week. And that’s okay. I still played three new games, one of which is one I will keep playing until I turn into an ooze blob myself, so Ooze Keeper definitely deserves 🔥 Most Addictive 🔥. In addition, it gets ⚙️ Best Mechanics ⚙️ because these are more or less the mechanics I was looking for a couple of weeks ago, when I was disappointed in Another Farming Roguelike. Between Ooze Keeper and TerraCards, that section is covered.
And Alba takes home 🌍 Most Immersive 🌍 for very obvious reasons. The game was so adorable, it was so much fun to just wobble around and photograph animals, I lost track of time.
Want to tackle your backlog as well? Or just want to chat about mine?
Click here to join the Steam group to share and discuss all of these games!
Not sure yet and want to see how I keep it up first? That’s fair, too.