Bubsy 4D review

Christmas 1993 was my introduction to Accolade’s furry mascot, with the first Bubsy gift-wrapped under the tree alongside the Super Nintendo Mario All-Stars bundle. While Bubsy earned a few positive reviews in the gaming magazines of the era and was certainly presented nicely, it didn’t take long for adolescent me to realise something was off. …

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Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster review

Inti Creates, of Mighty Gunvolt and Bloodstained fame, returns with this fusion of an action RPG and a city builder. You increase your level and gear in 2D hack ‘n slash platformer stages, before heading home to spend your hard-earned rewards on building a city, complete with taverns, shops and more. It’s a nice idea, …

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Hamster acquires rights to Warashi Inc’s works, plus this week’s retro re-releases revealed

HAMSTER Corporation, purveyors of the weekly Arcade Archives series and the slightly more irregular Console Archives, have added another publisher’s works to their catalogue. Warashi Inc’s games will not only be coming to Arcade Archives and Console Archives, but can potentially gain outside releases through licensing. This means collections from other retro-focused publishers may be …

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Do You Even Forklift? review

Predictably, this physics-based puzzler starts off simple, giving players a chance to learn its controls and mechanics. More unpredictably, this grace period lasts far longer than it needs to. It isn’t until twenty minutes in that the first puzzle with a ‘fail state’ appears, and even then, the difficulty level thereafter remains low. In fact, …

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‘90s star Soccer Kid is coming back in time for the World Cup

The World Cup involves bringing the entire world together. Somewhat fittingly, Latin America publisher QUByte are bringing back the ‘90s platformer Soccer Kid – originally developed here in the UK by Krisalis Software. Soccer Kid Collection includes the SNES and MS-DOS versions, and will feature save states, CRT filters, screen size options, and a gallery of …

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Luna Abyss review

Welcome to the abyss. This moonbase megastructure was abandoned after being consumed by a force known as The Scourge. Now a prison, those incarcerated can knock a few years off their stay by taking on missions considered too dangerous for anyone else. This proposition tempts our heroine, Fawkes, a jailbird with a hefty sentence. It …

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Slots & Daggers review

There’s something very appealing about slot machine roguelikes. The mechanics of a gambling device translate well to the genre, lining up matching reels perfectly either for a huge payout or a damaging blow. The flashing lights, pitched sound effects, and chinking of coins are all pleasing to the senses too. Recently, CloverPit and Luck Be …

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Claymation-style action platformer Kidbash: Super Legend announced

Newborn publisher Acclaim are heading to the BITSummit expo in Kyoto, armed with two releases. The vibrant looking HYPERyuki: Snowboard Syndicate – inspired by SSX and Jet Set Radio – was announced several months ago, and is fast nearing completion. Kidbash: Super Legend meanwhile is a new acquisition, looking promising even in this early state. …

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