Free Game Fridays: Shy Guy Surfing

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Money is tight, gaming hardware and software is getting increasingly expensive, and “free to start” games exploit the gap left behind by trapping players in digital casinos. But there are still plenty of actual free games out there. Many of them are great, too! With Free Game Fridays, I want to plumb the depths of the non-commercial side of gaming, and spotlight the hidden gems. Unlicensed fan projects, experimental game jam entries, browser games. The only requirement is that they actually be free. Not free with micro-transactions, just genuinely free games you can play right now.

“NO ARCADE PLATFORMERS!” Reads a sign in the intro to Shy Guy Surfing. The talking flowers from Super Mario Bros. Wonder spout inane pleasantries as the titular masked minion strolls down the beach, before stealing a flying carpet off one of Super Mario Bros. 2’s Pidgit enemies and flying away, while the flowers yell at them to stop. This feels like a statement of intent from developer and chiptune artist LucasPucas. That there’s still value in simple, arcadey gameplay with clever level design. The type of game Nintendo has largely left in the rear view mirror to focus on creating expansive titles with open structures like Super Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild, which are more in line with modern AAA design trends.

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Digesting Consume Me: Why The Ending Works

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It was oddly fitting to play Consume Me, a semi-autobiographical teenage life sim developed by Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson, over the week bridging the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026. Micromanaging teenage Jenny’s schedule while thinking about New Year’s Resolutions and considering how to structure my own daily life in the coming year made her struggles resonate with me as we both tried to figure our shit out. Consume Me received many awards and glowing reviews, but I was surprised at some of the more negative user reception I’ve seen online, where many seem to feel its basis in the developer’s real life only weakens its narrative. So I wanted to unpack how its messy, semi-autobiographical nature is so core to why it worked for me, and what makes its ending so special.

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My 2025 Game of the Year is… Being Broke and Patient Gaming

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2025 was a rough time for me, for many reasons I won’t go into, but the bottom line is: for a large chunk of this year, I did not have a lot of spare cash to throw at video games. Given the rising cost of AAA titles, Nintendo releasing the Switch 2 at a very premium price point, and general economic instability in many places worldwide, I imagine I’m not alone in feeling a tightness in my wallet. For most of the year, I struggled to justify new game purchases. Even your average indie game at a more affordable price than the big retail AAA titles was something that could only be an occasional treat.

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