This is one of the best and most bizarre ways I've seen a developer promote an upcoming game. Slave Zero X: Episode Enyo serves as a free prequel to Slave Zero X, which itself is as a prequel to the 1999 PC and Dreamcast game Slave Zero. While Slave Zero is a 3D mech-action game, Slave Zero X is a 2.5D character-action game, and Slave Zero X: Episode Enyo - in perhaps the most strange situation of the three - is a full-conversion, six-level episode for Quake. The range of genres this series now spans is baffling, and even more surprising is the fact that the Episode Enyo, the end result of this prequel chain, is a genuinely great time. The soundtrack is brilliant, the moment-to-moment gameplay is fun and relatively frenetic - I just had a great time with this. Episode Enyo is readily available from within the new Quake remaster's add-ons menu, but is also available for download on Itch.io for use in various Quake sourceports. Genuinely a must-play for anyone with access to any version of Quake and an interest in user-created content.

Another Code: Two Memories, known as Trace Memory in North America, is an incredibly short yet enjoyable point-and-click adventure game for the DS. The island you explore, particularly the Edwards' mansion, is eerie and isolating; a sense of foreboding permeates your journey. While most puzzles are relatively basic, and the touch-controls are somewhat finnicky, many of them take advantage of the form and functions of the DS in interesting ways. Interactions with the environment aren't as smooth as they could be, but the Myst-like atmosphere and intriguing story kept me invested throughout. While the story of the Edwards family and Ashley - the main character - unfortunately didn't intersect much at all, it was interesting to have these separate storylines running in parallel. Piecing together D's past, and that of the Robbins and 'Another', was pretty compelling. North American localisations of Japanese games during the period in which Another Code was released tended to take more liberties than their European counterparts, so I can't speak as to the quality of Trace Memory. Given how text-heavy this game is, I can imagine that any localisation changes could've had significant effects on the ambience of Blood Edward island, and the game as a whole. I will say though, from playing a portion of the Another Code: Recollection demo - a Switch remake of both this game and its sequel - this DS version seems significantly better. The game seems far brighter, even more simplistic, and I really disliked the voice acting. I've since found out you can mute the voices though, so I may give it a go with the VA disabled at some point in the future - just to see if it really is as much of a downgrade as it seemed. I'd strongly recommend keeping two saves when playing this - with one ideally made at the end of Chapter 4 - as there's an incredibly unsatisfying bad ending, and a point of no return in the opening of Chapter 5. I happened to get this on my playthrough, as I'd missed a single memory. I didn't particularly feel like playing the full game again - with its relatively slow text speed - just to get a sense of finality, so I instead just searched this up. Another Code: Recollection makes this good ending impossible to miss, to my knowledge, and this is a pretty positive change in my opinion. There's no option to skip dialogue or speed up text on a replay of Two Memories, so doing everything again is not really enjoyable. Even knowing the solutions to all puzzles, it's a lot of text to slog through just for an extra five or so minutes added to the ending to make it more satisfying. Given its short length, I'd definitely recommend giving Another Code: Two Memories a go, but ensure you're inspecting everything related to the Edwards family as well as keeping an extra save just in case.