EEK3 is the alternative showcase of small horror game creators that amalgamates every year like a shell of flies around the corpse of E3. It's a lot of fun for people who enjoy ye olde PS1 aesthetics and foggy throwback horror. The 2024 showcase was supposed to happen in time for Halloween, the night when the spirits of old platformer mascots rise from their graves to gift polygons to small children. But it was postponed due to technical problems. Only now has the 2-hour showcase of game trailers emerged, culminating in a new Haunted PS1 demo disc packed with upcoming games. "The curse," say the organisers, "is lifted."
There are over 70 games shown off. As you can imagine, it's quite a long show. But I heard you have lots of time on your hands. It's a whole new year. And if you need it, here's a full list of all the games on show.
There are more than a few stand-outs among the lo-fi horror. Prison Of Husks is a sword swinger set in a medieval castleland reminiscent of Lordran from the first Dark Souls. Angeline Era is a colourful and bumpy hack 'n' slash from the creators of the Anodyne RPGs. Meanwhile, Of Love And Eternity is an attractively pixelated knightly romance - and by romance I mean your love was killed and so were you and now you are in a hellish skull-filled country where you have to use a lantern full of glowbugs to see the bone-littered path in front of you. We last saw it demoed back in 2021.
There are probably a ton of other promising entries - I haven't got through the whole show yet. But I spy some familiar faces coming down the gore tubes. Trip is the funny, bright timeloop caper I tried in autumn. And the grasping hand of non-euclidean horror game Eclipsium recently got Nic cooing. And, oh look, Sorry We're Closed also gets a shout-out, despite the fact the hot pink horror with horny demons already released in November (Ed reviewed it, in case you're wondering). This is probably just a hangover result of the showcase's long delay.
Still, yes,
PC
Indiescovery
Free games
Indie
Akupara Games
Demos
Horror
Action Adventure
mystery
Hack & Slash
trip