Gamebox 2.0: Games of January 2025
A new year, a new round of games for us to play. We started 2025 with a good mix of titles: We got flipped and bounced pinballs across animated landscapes in Zen Pinball World, we let our inter Willy Wonka create tasty chocolate treats in Chocolate Factory Simulator, we fought for the fate of the world in Shardfall: FitQuest VR, and more. Check our reviews for this month in the Gamebox 2.0 down below.
Chocolate Factory Simulator (Chris): Making chocolate confections isn’t simply mixing sugars and cocoa but hoping for the best. It’s a craft that takes timing, chemistry, and creativity to produce mouth-watering treats. But making good chocolates is just the start. If you ever want to be a famous chocolatier, many other details must be handled. Games Incubator and PlayWay present Chocolate Factory Simulator for gamers who wish to create their candy-making business empire, all without the real risk of making a chocolaty business messy. Set in a fantastical steampunk landscape, you step into the role of a new chocolatier looking to make a name for themselves. You have a whole factory to start a business and clients putting in orders, but beginning at the bottom; there aren’t any jolly singing employees to help. You’ll need to create a variety of delicious treats while ensuring the business continues to grow if you want to make your factory the best.
At first glance, you may think that Chocolate Factory Simulator will be a casual sim title. Grab ingredients, mix them, and heat them. Well, say that to any baker and prepare to get an earful of the complexities of making a moist cake. Chocolate Factory Simulator’s gameplay has many mechanics regarding gathering items, measuring ingredients, cooking, and selling treats. Nougat, a loyal robotic worker, will be your sole helper for the initial development phase. He’ll be the guiding voice to help the player understand the basic cooking and business flows. But until your business grows, upgrade Nougat; he’ll be the robotic voice in the back while you dash around the factory.
Most of the game is spent on focusing on the cooking. The controls have a lot of depth, so you can’t just drop items into a pot. Measuring out sugar or cocoa powder uses the mouse and manipulates the speed. Pouring out ingredients takes some precision, it does feel close to reality. But it’s easy to lose focus and pour too much. One additional or missing gram of an ingredient will affect the overall quality of the product. When it’s finally time to heat the ingredients, the temperature of the heating element affects the cooking time, and you’ll have to stir to avoid burning the melted chocolate manually. Then, depending on the recipe, the chocolate is set to be shaped and boxed for shipment. Each candy recipe requires a specific amount of ingredients and temperatures, plus a quantity weight based on the customer’s order. Customers will place orders with various degrees of chocolate flavors, shapes, and additives, which add to the difficulty of the order. Usually, the more decadent the chocolate item, the more steps are required to fulfill the order.
As your candies become more popular, you’ll expand the factory to purchase different stations, ingredients, and decorations. Still, you’ll have to stick to a strict budget to keep the factory going. The game doesn’t punish severely for lower quality products or using too many ingredients. Every wasted ingredient or burnt chocolate adds some additional cost, but a few occasional mistakes won’t ruin your progress.
Chocolate Factory Simulator has a whimsical setting and characters, but unfortunately, the steampunk word doesn’t greatly add in unique mechanics. There isn’t a steam-powered hand blender or some giant geared glove that dispenses fudge. The world outside the factory seems to be brimming with character, and it’s a missed opportunity to invite some more of that inside, where the cooking takes place. However, the cooking mechanics are still solid regardless of the setting.
Chocolate Factory Simulator is excellent for gamers with a sweet tooth who want a calm, relaxing time. It combines the best of a fantasy cooking experience with some gamification of the process of building a business. The game has nice pacing, introducing each mechanic and then building on it with every order, showing the slow but rewarding process of chocolate creation. It was released on January 7th and is available on Steam.
UVS Games – Solo Leveling Deck (Chris): The newest deck added to the UVS Games’ expanded roaster is Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling. Players will take up the role of the weak-level hunter, who was chosen by a mysterious program to become a warrior without limits. Now seeing the world in a different light, Jinwoo sets off to become mankind’s great hope. Sung Jinwoo’s playstyle follows the Assassin Skill Tree, in which all of the abilities start at the minimum point values and only become stronger with every level gained throughout the battle. Every action card dealt brings Sung Jinwoo closer to his ultimate form.
The deck features attacks and actions inspired by the season 1 anime series. Keeping with the theme, most of the attack cards feature Jinwoo’s hunter dagger and defensive ability, which are named after emotionally charged moments in the show. The Solo Leveling Challenger Series also features an all-foil Collector’s Booster packed with rare and ultra-rare cards. Sung Jinwoo deck cards are an essential addition for both fans of the show and players of the UVS series. It’s great for players who enjoy the patience of long-term strategy and waiting to strike back with full force. The Solo Leveling cards were released on January 10th.
Shardfall: Fitquest VR (Zach): If you want to get fit while exploring a fantasy world, get ready for Shardfall: FitQuest VR. Developed by Quell, Shardfall puts you in the shoes of a warrior tasked with fighting back a mechanical army looking to take control of ancient magical power, and dangerous creatures are also being unleashed. Armed with powerful gauntlets handed down from your ancestors, you set out to restore the balance of nature. If you’re familiar with games like Ringfit Adventure, Shardfall works similarly. It’s a workout as the game breaks down into two modes. Traversal happens between fights and you have to jog in place and use the joysticks or grip buttons on your controllers to turn to collect “rage crystals”. You can turn on Autorun if the jogging is too much, but that aspect sets it apart from other, more static workout apps focusing on boxing-type exercises. If you’re not a VR veteran, this section might give you some serious motion sickness, even with the tunneling effect that turns on, and there’s sometimes some mental and body disconnect when you see how fast the character is moving on screen compared to you jogging in place that fast. It’s also sometimes a bit unclear if you are jogging fast enough, as the crystal you are collecting only activate if you are going a certain speed but it sometimes feels you are going the same speed and they will turn on and off randomly.
You will box when you get to the fights, using jabs, uppercuts, and hooks to fight the various enemies you encounter. There’s a nice variety of enemies and some interesting mechanics, like having to try and quickly defeat an enemy with rapid punches who will explode if you aren’t fast enough or enemies that grow spikes on one side, forcing you to attack the other side until the spikes subside. You will also have to duck to avoid specific attacks, so you’ll get some squats in addition to boxing and jogging. You have to complete the game’s tutorial, which takes about 30 minutes but will give you a significant workout and explain all the mechanics, which includes spells you can cast. After each fight, you are given a choice between two upgrades, which will provide you with perks, like making your first punch cause more damage or giving your jabs more damage when you are low on health. You are also ranked on various categories after each fight and given a grade, with S tier being the highest. After completing an adventure chapter, you are given an in-depth breakdown, including the distance you ran, calories burned, and the workout duration. You can adjust the length of the workout if you want it to be more traversal or combat-focused, and there are quick play options if you want to jump in for a quick workout without tackling a story chapter. Shardfall offers some fun combat against some fun enemies and will help you work up a sweat if you want to exercise while in VR. It’s out now on Meta Quest.
Tyrant’s Realm (Zach): Rougelites meet Souls-likes in Tyrant’s Realm from Skystone Games and Team Tyrant. You play as a hero whose family has fought for generations against “The Tyrant,” an ancient being looking to gain absolute power and has corrupted the world full of treacherous and decrepit landscapes. You play through procedurally generated runs, always starting as a lowly prisoner in a dank dungeon and fighting your way out to explore other areas of the world. The game plays like a Souls game, and if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll find yourself right at home in Tyrant’s Realm. You have a light and heavy attack on the right bumpers, a shield on the left trigger, and a dodge roll. All your actions use stamina; you must balance attacking and holding back to regain your stamina. Regular enemies can quickly kill you, so watch for when they will attack, learn their patterns, and strike when you can. One technique that is hard to master but powerful when you do is the parry. If you can build up a meter, when you parry an enemy attack and stun them, you can perform a quick kill execution. I’m not a Souls expert by any means, but the combat feels solid and on par with other games with similar style controls and combat.
As you make your way through the levels, you’ll find gear that will increase your stats and sometimes give you special abilities, like if you find the clothes of a thief, you can loot any enemies you kill to gain additional coins. Coins are also found in chests and barrels around the levels, and you can use them to purchase upgrades and equipment at the merchant’s store, which acts as a rest stop between stages. You can find blueprints for weapons and armor in the levels and then spend coins to unlock them. They remain in store between runs, so you may want to hold off and buy them at a later time because, once you buy it and take the item or weapon, if you die with it, it’s gone unless you can find the blueprint or it randomly drops again in the levels. There are also permanent upgrades you can buy that will boost your armor or weaponry at the start of each run. One of Tyrant’s Realm‘s defining features is the game’s look, which is an homage to PS1-era low-poly graphics. The game looks great, and they nail what they are going for. The low-poly, chunky look gives the game a gritty, dark vibe that sets it apart from similar games. If you enjoy roguelikes and/or Souls-likes and also want some PS1 nostalgia drizzled on top, check out Tyrant’s Realm, which is now on PC.
Metal Thunder (Zach): If you were a fan of the AC-130 missions in the Call of Duty series, Metal Thunder makes that experience a full standalone game. As a gunner in an AC-130 gunship, you’ll provide air support to defend various vital bases and structures from enemy attacks. Your goal is to hold off the enemy forces and keep your target from being destroyed for a certain amount of time, usually 20 minutes. You start with your trust 30mm gun, but the game has a Vampire Survivors style upgrade system where, after killing a certain amount of enemies, you are given a choice between three different upgrades, which could be improvements to existing weapons or new weapons, like Hellfire missiles, 100mm guns, cluster bombs and more. You need to constantly switch between weapons and keep their reload times in mind, as the more powerful weapons can clear out large swaths of enemies but will also take longer to reload. You can also deploy friendly ground troops, who can help keep the enemies at bay.
While it obviously can’t match the fidelity of a CoD game, Metal Thunder still does a great job of making you feel like you are in the gunner seat of an AC-130, giving you the different vision modes like thermal and night vision and having your intelligence officer and other personnel commenting about hits and where enemies are. The enemies are relentless; on some maps, they can come from all angles, so you need to be constantly vigilant and not neglect one part of the map. The game controls great, with one stick used to aim and the other to zoom in and out. Switching between guns is fast and easy with the shoulder buttons (or keys if you are using a mouse and keyboard). New missions are unlocked by the number of kills you get in other missions and provide new challenges and layouts to experience. The game is early access, and new modes, like a story campaign, will be added down the line. It’s still a ton of fun in its current early access state, and the combination of the shooting and rogue-lite elements gives it a unique take. It’s out now on Steam.
Zen Pinball World (Zach): One of the premiere names in virtual pinball, Zen Studios has launched a new free-to-play pinball experience, Zen Pinball World. On Android and iOS, Zen Pinball World features 26 pinball tables ranging from classic, real-life Williams tables to Zen Studios originals based on properties like South Park, Knight Rider, Xena, and board games like Exploding Kittens and Gloomhaven. The Williams tables are some of the cream of the crop, including the beloved Addams Family, Star Trek: TNG, and Twilight Zone, along with other real-life classics like Black Knight 2000 (which has arguably the most incredible theme song in arcade history). The original digital tables created by Zen Studios feature elements you would find on an actual table, like ramps, spinners, and bumpers, but they also have elements that couldn’t exist, like characters that can interact with the ball and move around the table.
You can play in either a vertical or horizontal orientation, with several view modes for each style. While horizontal might be a bit easier on your hands when holding your mobile device, I found that all the views made it hard to see where the ball was and when it was heading back to the flippers, resulting in many sunk balls. The vertical orientation lets you see the whole table and is a much better way to play, in my opinion. Zen Studios has had years to perfect the physics of their virtual pinball, and everything feels great and how you would expect the ball to interact with the table elements and hit off the flippers. The one thing to remember when checking out Zen Pinball World is that it does have ads before each play on the tables, and they are the terrible mobile ads you see in other free apps. If you love a specific table, you can pay to unlock it to be ad-free, but all the tables are included and can be played right from the start. We were provided an unlock from Zen Studios that turned off the ads for every table in the game, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are thinking of checking it out. You can buy packs that include multiple tables at a slight discount. As you might expect, there are online leaderboards for each table, and each table also has several challenge modes, like getting the highest score in a limited time or with a limited number of flips. You can also unlock achievements for completing certain events and objectives on each table. If you don’t mind the ads, this is a great way to play several classic pinball machines and some excellent digital-only machines. Hopefully, Zen Studios will keep adding new tables as the game continues.