It seems kinda fitting that after a fairly lengthy enforced absence from playing much in the way of videogames, the first game I want to post about is by Tom Sennett, author of the last game I posted about.

Ultralight Beam is the perfect distillation of the be-positive-scribblepunk aesthetic Tom’s been working with for years and as aesthetics go, it’s definitely one of my favourites. Combine that with an arena collect ’em up? Yeah, I’m down for that, alright.

Look, you just collect stars and avoid monsters, right? There’s not really that much to explain.

But sometimes you don’t need much more than collecting stars and avoiding monsters.

Because sometimes avoiding monsters and collecting stars feels really fucking good.

And when the game looks and sounds really good too?

Don’t look at me to go picking at it, wondering if and where it could be better.

Sometimes I just want to feel good, y’know?

Yeah.

^{Originally posted May 2016, updated January 2021}