If my mind runs in circles, my Manygame Collection gaming diet follows. I reach for titles with quick runs, a sense of progress, and as many orbs as possible. Orbs you merge, orbs you fire, orbs on chunky mid-2000s user interfaces. Almost any orb will do.
Last month’s collection: Manygame Collection (February 2025): My Turn (Based) Now
This month’s media consists of shorter sips in between playing future titles for review. Crunch some numbers, dodge space debris, or simply take a few laps. (No, really. I’ve been resuming semi-weekly walks around the neighborhood and it definitely helps.) Anyway, enjoy!
Nubby’s Number Factory
Nubby’s Number Factory is an incremental peg-buster wrapped in an early 3D sheen. Instead of the sprawling layouts of other plinko-based games, the playing field is small and self-contained. Each claymation peg has a number value. Hitting that peg adds that value to your round score and halves the number on the peg. Pegs labeled two become ones. Hit them again and they vanish. Exceed the round score and your pegs will merge, making their starting values higher. A pair of twos will become a four, two fours will become an eight, and so on. And the round scores you need to meet only grow. It’s the best parts of Peggle and Threes reduced to pure hit-things-and-number-go-up concentrate.
And the visuals? Chef’s kiss. It’s giving Snood. I cherish every new item that appears in the store–a writhing, bulbous caterpillar, a bug-eyed cactus, a pyramid that shoots lasers. And in the cafe, I feed low-poly strawberries into a disembodied mouth. My supervisor, Tony, rotates in amazement, his MS Paint sunglasses wobbling. Nubby’s Number Factory has an identity beyond “what if edutainment was unsettling,” from the deliberate use of Comic Sans to the WordArt messages after a successful round. As far as I can tell, this is solo developer MogDogBlog’s first public release. With an opening this strong, I’m excited to see where they take their style from here.
Takara Cards
Takara Cards untethers its card-playing tactics from solid ground by constantly reminding you that you are a solitary force in a crowded space. Turn-based roguelikes often make you the most powerful force in a fixed environment, but Takara Cards challenges you further: what good is that power in a vacuum? Asteroids and space debris follow their own trajectories across the looping grid. Enemies dart forward and back. But it’s on you to learn their patterns and intentions, and that knowledge gap can chafe at first.
Takara Cards’ restraint initially rankled me. Genre peers conditioned me to act as a wrecking ball, using every tool in my arsenal to do maximum damage. But space rewards patience. But over time, I learned to let enemies come to me. Redirecting an enemy’s momentum meant burning less of my own. Less direct movement meant more uses of high-cost cards in my ship deck.
Takara Cards chooses recognizable roguelike elements–evocative 2D character art, minimalist user interface, digital playing cards–to sculpt well-trod genre terrain into something new. And after a few initial fumbles, I realized that sometimes the best thing I can do on a crowded field is just… wait. I may not fully grasp it yet, but the way Takara Cards uses stillness will linger with me.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Xbox Backwards Compatibility)
Midnight Club: Los Angeles is an open-world street racer from Rockstar San Diego in a hyper-compressed Los Angeles. It is achingly mid-2000s. Your character gets mission notifications from their Sidekick. Metro buses are stripped of branding. But you can always see a distant 7-Eleven. It’s perfect for when I can’t think or sleep.
I keep my save in the stasis period before they introduce real objectives. No refueling, no police in pursuit. Just me rocketing through miniature Los Angeles as a Diplo remix blares in the background. Streets I’ve navigated via real-life bus or train are unfamiliar all over again, summarized into straightforward shapes. And cars barely care if I scrape by them. I punch the accelerator and dart into the carpool lane once I hit the highway. One more lap, and then I’ll go to sleep. Just a little more time.
That’s all for this month’s Manygame Collection! For more indie game coverage, stay tuned to the site. And I promise not to post anything on April 1st.
