Game Thoughts: Children of the Sun
Nothing was clicking for me game-wise for a bit. I'd had my fill of pixel art for the year, and my usual fare wasn't holding my attention for more than a couple of hours. Fortunately for me, there appears to be a resurgence in a new retro aesthetic that feels surprisingly fresh: Low-poly.
I purchased Mouthwashing and Children of the Sun, both sitting somewhere between PS1 and PS2 visuals, and heavily utilizing low-rez textures and muddy palettes to maximum effect.
Children of the Sun has you playing as "Girl" who, as surmised by fever-dream still frames, is out to get revenge on a cult that resulted in a loved one (her father?) being killed. Girl has a special power: the ability to change the trajectory of bullets.
And that's the whole game. You check out a scene, you fire a single bullet, and every time that bullet kills someone time freezes and you get to aim it again. Each level simply consists of "kill everyone in a single shot".
It's beautifully done. Each level is a puzzle awash in acid highlights waiting for you to cover it in gore. You progress linearly, get some additional bullet-bending powers, kill everyone, continue to the leader. There are a couple unfortunate mini-game levels where the creators strayed from this formula (a car-chase and a weird pacman thing) which were both awful, in my opinion, but I think they were intended to shake things up a bit.
It wasn't a long game, but it was the palate cleanser I needed to get back into gaming right now and worth every penny.