Remap Recommends, Volume XIII

Remember when you’d walk into a local music, book, or video store and there’d be an adorable section where the employees would recommend what they were interested in that month? 

Welcome to our little version of it, called Remap Recommends. 

It's a chance for the staff at Remap to let you know what they've been playing, reading, listening to, or watching.

Patrick Recommends: Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo

If you told me this was a "lost" game from the 16-bit era, I'd believe you. To the point that I'm actually a little upset I've put enough hours into this game that I can't rationalize starting over on my shiny new Switch 2, instead. Steam Deck it is.

I do not remember how Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo, what I can only describe as a fun mashup of Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda, came onto my radar, but it wasn't because a PR person told me. I've been doing this long enough that, at times, people will yell "hey, you should play this!" And they are often right, and in this case were very right, because Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo absolutely rips.

In fact, people have now understood my own weaknesses enough that they use them against me. No, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo does not have a traditional grappling hook, but you use the yoyo in question much like one, whipping objects and enemies around. A grappling hook, at the end of the day, is just about manipulation of the world, and I'm always looking for games that play with that.

Some of the tiny details are my favorite parts too.

For example, the game has a familiar skill tree, but rather than acquiring new skills or stat upgrades by slowly acquiring experience points, you are burdened with debt and weakness. Let's say you want more points to equip additional trinkets that boost your character in different ways. Well, in exchange for +1 in that department, you are now going to sacrifice half the money you pick up from enemies towards paying off your debt and your attack power is reduced by one. I am very much into video games that force you to play a little differently over time. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo does that a lot, making exploration of the world feel meaningfully different over time.

Chia Recommends: Rebel Princess

There've been a myriad of trick takers in the last few years that aim to take this basic mechanic and warp it to new ends (see: my (board)game of the year from 2024, Arcs), but one in particular kept passing in front of me. Rebel Princess is a twist on the classic game of Hearts, and this basis makes it a great entry game into the wider, weirder world of board games.