Strung Up By Sketches (2023)

Platforms: Nintendo DS
Genres: Role-playing (RPG)
Main story: about 25 hours
Where to get it: Website

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A short surreal Pokemon Mystery Dungeon ROM hack with horror undertones, handcrafted levels, and an emotional narrative.

darkhorrorfantasystory-richfan-gameatmospheric

About

A short, story-focused ROM hack of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky that depicts the surreal and off-kilter tale of an amnesiac Smeargle and a doll named Amber on a journey to free the world from suffering. The game integrates more deliberately designed levels alongside the randomly generated dungeons of the original game and has an added emphasis on puzzle solving.

More games like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.