Terrible Toybox’s Thimbleweed Park can now be claimed for free from the Epic Games Store. You have until March 7^th and it’s yours to keep forever after claiming. Keep in mind that an Epic Games account and downloading the dedicated launcher are necessary for playing it.

Thimbleweed Park is the latest creation from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, better known as the minds behind Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. It sees two agents investigating a murder but things quickly take a turn for the weird. Several playable characters emerge like Ransome the Clown, Delores the game developer and so on whom the player can switch between during the game. Check out

Thus far, we’ve seen a number of excellent titles release for free on the Epic Games Store. Subnautica, Super Meat Boy, Axiom Verge and What Remains of Edith Finch are just a few examples. Several titles like World War Z, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and Metro Exodus have even skipped Steam in favour of the storefront (though not without controversy in some cases).

The bizarre, off-kilter, and impressively hilarious Thimbleweed Park is currently on sale at Steam. However, if the 60 percent discount (which ends on February 11th) doesn’t impress you, then don’t worry. Terrible Toybox’s old-school point and click adventure will be free on the Epic Games Store from February 21st to March 7th.

Thimbleweed Park is developed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, the minds behind Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. It’s a murder mystery, but everyone seems concerned about other things. With five playable characters, satisfying puzzles, and two difficulty modes, Thimbleweed Park is definitely worth checking out.

Previous titles offered for free include Subnautica, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Super Meat Boy. The current free game on the Epic Games Store is Thomas Happ’s Axiom Verge, an excellent Metroidvania title with retro visuals. You’ll need to sign up and download the Epic Games launcher though.

Thimbleweed Park, the well received and fan favorite adventure game that launched last year, ended up selling more on the Switch than on any other console, according to a breakdown provided by its developer. Sales on Nintendo were more than on any other storefront, though once you take sales of Steam and GoG together, the PC version still comes out ahead, with the Switch in second place.

What’s even more interesting, however (and in fact has been termed “perplexing” by developer Ron Gilbert) is that sales were lower on PS4 than on any other system. Not just consoles, the PS4 version sold lower than even the mobile versions of the game. This trend is even more puzzling when you consider that the bulk of sales for the game have come from Europe, which is commonly considered “PlayStation Land”, as a nod to PlayStation’s market dominance in the region.

More than anything, however, the takeaway is that the PC (obviously) and Switch are the most vibrant and healthy markets for indie game developers at the moment. Thimbleweed Park is out now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android. You can see a graph of the breakdown of sales for yourself below

In this feature, we’re going to take a look at what we feel have been the fifteen best adventure games so far this generation. Given how many of these there are to choose from, missing out on a few great ones was unavoidable on our part, so if one (or some) of your favourites got left out, let us know in your comments. With that out of the way, let’s get this started.

DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN

Adventure games are largely the domain of indie developers or studios with smaller budgets, but not exclusively so- David Cage and his team at Quantic Dreams have been making masterful adventure titles for several years now. And with Detroit: Become Human, they truly hit the ball out of the park. With a story that was meaningfully branching, choices and consequences that truly made the player stop of think, and excellent setting, and some of the best visuals we’ve ever seen in any video game, Detroit: Become Human ranks among the best of the best of this genre.

Paradigm

The number of adventure games that hinge on having outlandish premises is too high and it feels like Paradigm is in the same vein. The story revolves around a mutant named Paradigm cast out by his creators, only to develop a love for electronic music. It isn’t long before a candy spewing sloth comes calling and Paradigm must save the world. For all its quirks and retro-futuristic tendencies, it’s actually an extremely solid adventure packed with hilarious writing.

Nominees:

Hollow Knight

Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight doesn’t break much new ground. However, with its gorgeous art-style, stellar combat, massive and mysterious storyline and excellent environment design, it’s one of the finest Metroidvania titles ever. The aesthetic will immediately grab you before pulling you under into a dark fantasy world full of adorable (and deadly) insects. No matter which platform you’re on, Hollow Knight must be experienced.

Paradigm

Something is up in Krusz, an Eastern European country with mutants and genetically modified sloths. The game centres around Paradigm, a cast-away mutant who develops a love for electronic music before having to save the world. It’s bizarre, sure, but Paradigm is also memorable, embodying a retro future aesthetic and world design that’s best described as “Pixar meets Fallout”.

Cuphead

Fleischer-style animation meets swing music across a range of devilishly tough bosses and stages. Studio MDHR’s Cuphead is simply a triumph in visual design, embodying the 1940s seamlessly into its gameplay while presenting a unique platforming shooter for old and new school fans alike. It’s difficulty might push some people to the edge but if you stick with it, Cuphead is immensely satisfying.

SteamWorld Dig 2

Instead of the randomly generated areas of the first game, SteamWorld Dig 2 takes a decidedly more Metroidvania approach. As Dorothy, players are tasked with finding Rusty, the protagonist of the first game. That means digging through rocks, harvesting minerals, purchasing upgrades and solving the mystery of all these darn earthquakes. SteamWorld Dig 2 packs charm, enough freedom to make your own path and tons of challenges for the Metroidvania fans among us.

Statik

What happens when you’re tasked with solving puzzles in virtual reality? It sounds innocuous enough but Statik places a box around your hands, challenging you to figure out which button corresponds to which mechanic. There’s an intriguing story in the background, which also serves to provide hints to the puzzles, but Statik otherwise uses its VR premise to immerse you in a strange, hostile world with plenty of intrigue.

Night in the Woods

A talking cat traversing a nightmarish landscape while asleep and trying to make sense of her life while awake – that’s only the beginning of the rabbit hole that is Night in the Woods. This side-scrolling adventure game set in the town of Possum Springs sees protagonist Mei returning from college and trying to make sense of, well, life in general. Despite its relatively slow pacing, Night in the Woods scores with its aesthetic, quality of dialogue and strong character interactions. Greg rules, okay?

Nex Machina

Housemarque’s Nex Machina: Death Machine could be described as part Smash TV, part Robotron, three-fourths of a frantic action game and all arcade. It imbibes the spirit of old-school shoot ’em ups with a variety of weapons, screens full of enemies and a dash mechanic that adds some much needed mobility to the action. With its neon aesthetic and addictive gameplay bent, Nex Machina will eat up many, many hours of your life.

Thimbleweed Park

A dead body has turned up in Thimbleweed Park and two agents are on the case. But there’s a clown running about, a game developer torn between ambition and family, ghosts and much more swimming in the background. What is going on? A grand adventure from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, the legendary developers behind Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, that’s what. Come for the old-school visuals and stay for the laughs in this bizarre yet compelling puzzle adventure.

What Remains of Edith Finch

A great narrative in today’s world, especially in the realm of gaming, is tough. What Remains of Edith Finch makes it look easy, floating seamlessly from one perspective to the next, exploring lives across time and space. The narrative style is simply breath-taking; the aesthetic is one of the year’s best; and the story will affect you in more ways than one. Needless to say, go in blind and be ready for an incredible experience.

Far From Noise

Games that focus purely on dialogue aren’t uncommon in the indie space and few are as effective with it as Far From Noise. Set on a cliff with two characters trapped in a car, a discussion begins about the nature of life, the likelihood of death and making peace with one’s self until the end. It’s involving, interesting and worth a look, especially if you’re up for a casual playthrough about life, the universe and everything.

Winner: Cuphead

When recommending Cuphead, we often fall back on the fact that despite not being for everyone, this is a game that everyone should play. Cuphead isn’t just a beautifully animated, imaginative title filled with heaps of awesome boss fights. It’s not just tribute to the 1940s style of cartoon making or the swing music that influenced countless legends. The game itself is a glowing return to the days of run and gun platformers that tested your wit, reflexes, muscle memory and most importantly, your attention to detail. Forget about being the Dark Souls of platformers – Cuphead is a love letter to fans of Mega Man and Mega Man Zero, proving that run and gun gameplay with a fairly high skill ceiling is still an experience unlike any other in today’s industry.

Cuphead is delightful in that its very aesthetic invites players in while the compelling gameplay keeps pushing them forward. It’s a heady, addictive mix and even with a difficulty that prevents most people from immediately picking it up, Cuphead is subliminally impactful and wonderfully charming. It may not be reinvent the wheel as far as action platformers go but in terms of visual design, production, presentation and setting, Cuphead can’t be missed.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Terrible Toybox’s acclaimed point and click adventure Thimbleweed Park will be coming to PS4 on August 22nd. Developed by Ron Gilbert (creator of The Secret of Monkey Island) and Gary Winnick (formerly of LucasFilm Games), you can check out the PS4 announcement trailer before.

Thimbleweed Park centres on Ray and Reyes, two investigators who find a body in a river near the titular town. Players can switch between both characters, solving puzzles and talking to people in order to solve the mystery. However, with influences like X-Files and Twin Peaks, things are not what they seem. At some point the two agents will have to deal with such characters as Ransome the Clown and Delores, who wants to be a game designer.

You can pick up Thimbleweed Park right now for PC, Xbox One, Mac and Linux at $20. What are your thoughts on the game finally coming to PlayStation 4? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more updates.

Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program has come a long way from its initial conception- the days of the parity clause are long gone now, and most major upcoming indie games seem to be coming over to the Xbox One as well, rather than skipping it entirely in favor of PlayStation and Wii U, as they did in the early days of this generation.

So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the psychedelic survival adventure game We Happy Few, and Thimbleweed Park, the new retro pixel adventure game from the creators of Monkey Island, will both be coming to the Xbox One- and the fact that both of those games look absolutely awesome only adds to my excitement that they are both coming.

Check out the newest trailers, featuring new footage, for both games below, coming to us courtesy of Microsoft’s Gamescom showing. And stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information on the games.