Tangle Tower, Crow Country devs’ next game, The Mermaid Mask, is out this Summer

SFB Games has announced that its next game, The Mermaid Mask, now has a release window of Summer 2026 for PC and console. In addition, the demo has been updated for Steam Next Fest.

Colour me excited. I covered the initial demo of The Mermaid Mask for Destructoid back in (wow) 2023 when it was known as The Mermaid’s Tongue. At that time, it was due for 2024, but my guess would be that it got overshadowed by Crow Country. Or, you know, just needed more time to cook.

The Mermaid Mask follows Detective Grimoire and his sidekick, Sally. This time around, they’re trying to solve a murder on a submarine. Someone has ended the adventures of “the enigmatic captain of the world’s strangest submarine,” and the duo are here to crack the case.

The format is similar to Tangle Tower. You travel via map, investigate rooms, and interview people. As you’d expect, you need to solve puzzles and put clues together to move forward and catch the killer.

BACK FROM THE COUNTRY

After I played the initial demo of The Mermaid’s Tongue, I went and played through Tangle Tower, which I absolutely loved. I came very close to having a review written for this very site, but, if I recall, the 2023 holiday season then hit, it disrupted my flow, I had difficulty getting back into it, it languished, and when I finally went back to finish the review, I found that too much time had passed and all my critical insight had fallen off.

That’s a shame, because I loved it. As The Mermaid Mask promises, it was filled with great animation and solid writing. I’ll probably replay it before Summer to finally finish that review.

Playing Tangle Tower did lead to me picking up Crow Country, later in 2024. It’s an entirely different beast, but it was one of my favourite games of 2024. It’s a PS1-inspired survival horror game. It’s unique in the way that its backgrounds are real-time 3D, but are shaded in a way to make them look the pre-rendered backdrops from Resident Evil. The best part is really the writing, however. It starts off simply enough, but when the ending hits: hoo, gosh. One of the most creative and unique horror plots this side of Junji Ito.

Here’s hoping we get more of that good stuff when The Mermaid Mask launches in Summer 2026 for PC and consoles. And, if you’re not sure, be sure to check out the updated demo, available now on Steam.