Rule number one of Backlog Club: Work through your pile of unplayed video games one at a time, and discuss them with other people. Rule number two of Backlog Club: Don’t talk about Backlog Club.
Just kidding! Tell everyone. Please.
This article is part of our new experimental series, Backlog Club, where we (Nintendo Life!) pick a game that’s likely to be on our list of “games we should get around to playing”, and then we (NL + you!) spend the next month playing that game.
Pirates! They’re so hot right now. Or, well, lukewarm. Maybe the temperature of the Caribbean Sea. There’s Our Flag Means Death, the excellent TV show that all my friends are talking about constantly but I still haven’t seen it yet so no spoilers please, and… admittedly, that’s about it. But who doesn’t love pirates? Everyone loves pirates, all the time. I will take any excuse to look at pirates, or to wear shirts with frilly lace sleeves and tight laced trousers, since that’s apparently what pirates wear. Yarrr, etc.
This month, it’s time to, uh, hoist the mainsail and weigh anchor (?) because we’re going piratical with June’s choice of Backlog Club game: Return of the Obra Dinn!
Return of the Obra Dinn is a game by Lucas Pope, the developer that also made the excellent Papers, Please, and it’s a little hard to neatly describe. It’s a logical deduction game where you play an unsuspecting insurance claims adjuster, sent to investigate a mysteriously empty ship full of bones.
You have in your possession two items: The ship’s ledger, which informs you of all the names of the lads on board, all of whom are now, you guessed it, piles of bones; and a strange watch with spooooooky powers. For various reasons, you have to match the piles of bones to the names in the book, and how they died, because that’s how insurance works, I don’t know. Don’t worry about it! It’s more fun than it sounds!!!
Where to get Return of the Obra Dinn
The prices vary quite a lot for this one between platforms if you’re not in the US, so choose whichever one works best for you! But don’t steal it. We’re not those kind of pirates.
| Storefront | Price | Free with subscription? |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Switch eShop | $19.99 / € 19,99 / £17.99 | NSO: ❌ |
| Steam | $19.99 / € 16,79 / £15.49 | N/A |
| Xbox Store | $19.99 / € 19,99 / £16.74 | Game Pass: ❌ |
| PlayStation | $19.99 / € 23,99 / £18.99 | PS Plus: ❌ |
Next Month’s Game
Cor, it’s already almost July, and then it’ll be August, and then it’s basically Christmas. Where did 2022 go? Into the bin, if I have my way. But until then, let’s pick out our next Backlog Club game!
Last month’s theme was adventurey-type visual novel-ish murdery-games, but next month we’ll keep it a bit simpler: Modern classics that combine elements of platforming and metroidvanias! If any of these three are on your backlog, like they are on mine, then hopefully you’ll relish the chance to finally knock them off. The shaaaame.
Oh, and catch up on previous Backlog Clubs right here:
Have you started Obra Dinn yet? Did you play Papers Please? Enjoying Backlog Club so far? Let us know in the comments!
