Bold and Bizarre Games Bulletin (January)
Welcome to the first Bold & Bizarre Games Bulletin of the year. 2025 is in full swing, and Pantaloon has been busy. We have many tremendously important things to share with you. But alas not today.
Today we have games for you. We've sifted through the oddities and enigmas that have launched over the past month to bring you the boldest and best from the frontlines of indie.
#1 Gar-Type
Out Now, Itch.io | Lumpy
There are only so many words needed here; the title does all the heavy lifting for us. It's R-Type. With Garfield. Never have a more beautiful combination of things been brought together (unofficially, ofc).
Gar-Type (a free fan-game) is a classic shmup reimagined with a cosmic Garfield dressing, fully playable in your browser.
#2 Headliners
Out Jan 30, Steam | KAFI
Headliners is interesting because - rather than soldiers or mercenaries or some other gunslinging survival variant - it puts you in the shoes of a journalist. Headliners is a 1-4 player co-op horror game that's all about the scoop. NYC has been overrun with mysterious creatures, Cloverfield style, and it's up to you to document the attack (whilst staying alive in the process).
#3 botsbotsbots
Out Now, Itch.io | cnnmon
botsbotsbots is smart and timely; a 'reverse Turing Test' set in a dystopian future where the bots have taken over (little close to home, no?).
As a hacker of a corporation comprised entirely of AI employees, it's up you to blend in with the bots via your inputs in the chat room, as not to be detected, before each of the bots votes who's most likely to be human before being kicked out the room.
#4 Helskate
Out Now, Steam | Phantom Coast
#5 Syntaxia
Out Now, Itch.io | Spelkollektivet
Syntaxia's somewhat cutesy exterior belies a dark and hugely innovative set of systems that allows the player to change the fabric of their reality by swapping word in and out from a text-editor. It's similar to Penrose, in a way, which Pantaloon featured as a partnered game back in May of last year.
It also has one of the best Itch pages I've seen.
Reminder! Pantaloon's partnered games for January is Vampire Therapist
This month we're giving you a copy of Vampire Therapist; a critically acclaimed visual novel grounded in real-world therapy concepts.
And it just so happens that our partnership with Little Bat Games dovetails with the upcoming release of DLC for the game in the form of Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy - the natural extension of the game that brings partners into the mix.
Ok. We're done here.
See you next week for the key drop x
pantaloon.