What we've been playing

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: shadows, more shadows, and lovely scrolling.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We’ve Been Playing, here’s our archive.

I discovered Ombra by mistake. I think I was looking to see if the original Tomb Raiders were on Xbox – no luck – and Ombra came up in the search results.

So glad it did. This is a top-down shooter with a distinctly PomPom aesthetic – chunky characters and lurid laser beams. The twist is that rather than shooting swarming enemies yourself, you use the light you carry and nearby objects to whack baddies with a massive lump of roving shadow. You cast the shadow by moving the light past pillars and what have you.

I love this kind of thing. A few years back twin-sticks were everywhere. And people were still thinking away, working on making them odder, more challenging, more memorable. Ombra, I am so happy to have found you!

Ombra got me thinking about another great game that involves using shadows.

Back on iOS I downloaded Helsing’s Fire again, for what must be the first time in a few years. This is an ingenious puzzle game in which you place potions to destroy any baddies within sight. But what complicates it is the level architecture and the shadows it casts.