Pretty, Little, Pixels | Nubby's Number Factory, Zombieville USA 3D, Blood Typers, and ANEURISM IV.
Your only job is to make numbers.
« PRETTY, LITTLE, PIXELS is an independent newsletter about video games that are weird, different, pretty, and/or indie—by Juno Rylee Schultz (she/her).
Pretty, Little, Pixels will always be free but tips are appreciated and do help support this publication.
» Consider buying me breakfast or coffee on Ko-Fi/PayPal, or leaving me a small tip on Venmo.
« Contact me at juno.stump@gmail.com if you need someone with experience in mock reviews, copy editing/writing, PR work, etc »
Edits: Morgan Shaver (they/them), Nathan Miller (he/him), and Bex Stump (she/her).
NUBBY’S NUMBER FACTORY is a strategic Plinko-style game all about making the biggest numbers you can.
It’s important to stay focused on work, without slowing down—and making sure you don’t fail, or the sun will explode and kill us all.
During his introduction at the beginning of your new career at Nubby’s Number Factory, Supervisor Tony makes it very clear:
“I don’t really care about your name—or anything—let’s just get into this. Your only job is to make big numbers.”
Nubby’s Number Factory is an instant classic for anyone who enjoys puzzles, numbers, and anti-capitalist art all wrapped in a fun, arcade game package.
Nubby’s Number Factory is available on Steam for five bucks.
ZOMBIEVILLE USA 3D is a sharp and vibrant explosion of color and wonder, with an isometric camera angle placing you squarely inside the attacking hordes of zombies.
Search for loot and more powerful weapons, all while popping off headshots—in single-player or multiplayer—as you unlock new characters, weapons, and gameplay modifiers along the way.
The music bites me in all the right ways. It’s so, so good. The best zombie-time, video game music since the world was gifted the entirety of the Plants vs Zombies soundtrack.
Zombieville USA 3D is available on Steam for nine bucks.
An ambitious title that mostly succeeds in recreating the silliness and tension of the Typing of the Dead series, Blood Typers is as delightful as it is “janky”—but it’s still a good time and worth the low entry price.
In Blood Typers, you’ll type out words as they appear on-screen to move, attack, explore, and survive. Every verb you want to do is done through typing words. (It’s so much fun! I love typing!)
I do wish the game was less buggy though, as it’s unclear where to go at times, resulting in me re-typing the same words repeatedly while walking in circles.
I also think there are ways Blood Typers could balance the gameplay against the “typing” hook more, such as letting players freely move with arrow keys while searching areas they’ve already fully explored and cleared of enemies.
That being said, I want more Blood Typers, more from this developer, and more games in this style.
Blood Typers is available on Steam for ten bucks.
It feels like the majority of multiplayer games are more focused on shared success, but ANEURISM IV is lifelike—instead asking players to find catharsis inside the suffering shared by everyone.
Aneurism IV is more than a video game; it’s an experience all about discovering the meaning packed inside each lingering moment.
Despite the game’s misleading title, Aneurism IV is the first game in this series, and the developer’s gameplay structure feels just as ambitious as their lack of regard for traditional numbering.
Booting up Aneurism IV immediately feels like you’re being transported into a world you’re not even supposed to be inside of, and yet there you are…
Multiple servers and locations in Aneurism IV all contain a different piece of the sprawling, decaying, urban landscapes for new citizens to synchronize themselves inside.
You need to find your place though.
You can work in factories and die—or explore and find a different purpose inside a city that cannot hold hope.
During this gameplay session, I chose to spend two hours folding laundry with other, real people. It was so surreal.
I’m intrigued and intend to explore every corner and job this world has for its citizens to hide or scrape by in.
Aneurism IV is available on Steam for about nine bucks.