For many people, their favourite era of video games is the one we’re living in right now. Whilethis generation has struggled to carve much of an identitybeyond ‘last gen but it looks better and loads faster’, we live in a time of cinematic storytelling, photorealism, long video games that offer multiple bangs for the same buck as has always been, and video games are viewed as a credible artform. Reasons to be cheerful, for sure.
But for me, the golden age was a few years back in the 360/PS3 era, when being ‘gamey’ was a badge of honour. Graphics had janky personality, goofing off wasn’t seen as being ‘beneath’ games, and fewer suits were steering the ship to prestige dollars so devs were allowed to run wild with creativity. That’s why playingUsual JuneatGamescomfelt like such a welcome throwback.
The latest game from Finji, who will always have my heart after Chicory but who were also involved inTunic, Wilmot’s Warehouse, andNight in the Woods, is a little bit of a pivot. Though Tunic had combat andChicoryfeatured boss battles of sorts, Usual June is more like an adventure platformer in the vein ofPsychonautsorRatchet & Clank, with light-hearted but substantial combat, and a lot of scurrying around looking for secrets, collectables, or resources.
Those sorts of games (addSpyro,Jak,Rayman, andSly Cooperin the mix too) were my personal golden age of gaming. While I appreciate the depth of games likeRed Dead Redemption 2andThe Last of Us Part 2that we see today, and can probably say a lot more about them as a critic, the time when 3D platformers ruled the Earth will always be my pixel pinnacle. Usual June channels that, which gives it a substantial leg up in my affections.
The story itself follows June, who (contrary to the title), is anything but usual. She has been able to see ghosts her entire life, but since moving house her powers have overcharged, and rather than seeing spiritual apparitions here and there, she can now fully converse with these spectres and even travel to their realms - which is where the Psychonauts comparison feels particularly apt.
The ghost I met in the demo was not a regular ghost, as much as our protagonist is not a Usual June. June has typically seen the sort of ghosts we know from cartoons - white, translucent outline, spooky - but now sees them as angular glitched creatures, while their words are often jumbled. Heading inside the ghostly dimension, June has to fight against strange creatures to unravel the mystery of what made these ghosts this way to help them find peace. And, in doing so, likely discover why her powers have changed, and what that means for her future.
When I first started playing, it felt a little wonky. I was thrown into a narrative section with little knowledge of what came before, and combined with the strange Clangers dialogue (for US folks, think Mr Bean if he was a mouse who lived on the moon), it felt like a misguided attempt to capture the storytelling of Night in the Woods, especially when Tunic had managed it without words at all. However, it became clear these scenes merely held the action platforming together, and while I’m still not sure how I feel about the mouthful of sprouts sounds characters make, it’s clear the gameplay is where Usual June will shine.
In 3D platformers, story goes up and down. It’s a core component of Psychonauts, and Jak takes its narrative to oddly dark and gritty places, but often it’s just a loose framework to motivate character direction for the next stop. Usual June certainly seems to be in more of a ‘story matters’ vein, and with Finji’s experience I think that’s the right call - but I can also see it stumbling into aLife is Strange-style hella cringe teenagers shakka brah trap.
Thankfully, I expect the gameplay to carry it. The world has moved on from this sort of game, but there is still a large and passionate fanbase for these sorts of games, and though I didn’t have a lot of time with the game, I found myself wanting to explore each twisting corridor ‘just in case’. My biggest fear is that the emphasis on story makes areas too linear, too motivated by the next narrative beat, rather than giving areas of free roam where players can go their own way and gain a deeper affection for the gameplay.
Usual June feels like a remaster of a game I never played as a kid, and that’s the perfect feeling for this sort of title to evoke. Launching in 2025, it’s a throwback that channels games many of us grew up with, though maybe with a modern narrative bent. It’s new ground for Finji, and I hope it’s a risk that pays off.
