Jake 
It’s always interesting to play something created by just a couple of people – there’s something almost intimate, getting a glimpse into what’s going on in their head. And with Isolomus, what’s going on in their head is grotesque. It’s a follow-up of sorts to Wurroom, Michael Rfdshir’s short plasticine-crafted point-and-click curio which we reviewed …
It goes without saying that a lot has changed in the 20 years that Games Asylum has been kicking around. But we’ve never been ones to shy away from pointing out the obvious, so here we go: another birthday piece. While a lot has changed, a lot hasn’t changed too. Let’s have a look at …
No. Which I know because a rather neat tool came up on social media this week, which very efficiently searches Hansard (the extensive official record of the UK House of Commons) for the first mention of any word or phrase. Inevitably I went straight to Dreamcast – but nothing. The first mention of Sega, however, …
One of the advantages of working from home – due to one thing and another – has been listening to more music than I have done probably since I was a student. Without the Melody Maker to guide me, I’ve had to turn to new sources of inspiration, one of which has been Sound of …
There’s arguably a difference between what you do in Art Sqool, and what Art Sqool is. And I think what you get out of it will depend to an unusual degree on what you put into it. Let’s get the facts out of the way: you play as Froshmin, who has just started at Art …
When the Past was Around should be right in my wheelhouse. It’s short – bingo. It’s about grief – good news. It’s a bit odd – please and thank you. It aims high, but I ended up with less than the sum of its well-crafted parts. It’s craft worthy of a better game. The hand-drawn …
I’ve always had a problem with wires. As a teenager, I had my TV on a chest of drawers, with consoles set up inside, the cables running unseen out the back out of unit, and the nest of controller wires safely contained within the drawers. We’re in a world of wireless controllers now but – …
Seers Isle doesn’t make life easy for itself – or the player. At the start of the story (we’re in interactive graphic novel territory here) the main character is mysterious at best, and it’s not even clear that you’re making decisions as that main character. It makes for a slightly awkward first playthrough, and only …
You’ve broken up with your boyfriend. You’ve moved to the massive country estate you’ve just inherited. So let’s chalk up relationships and small-town politics. That’s two elements. But the rule of three; three is always better than two. So what other ingredient do we find in this interactive visual novel? It’s obvious: witchcraft. It’s a …
There’s a surefire way to know that a puzzle game has sunk its claws into your brain: it’s there when you close your eyes. It’s happened with Get 10 Quest, which is almost all you need to know. With that said, on with the needless detail. It’s a simple mechanic: tap an area of two …
It’s not easy to keep things simple, to resist the temptation to over-complicate. Singled Out originally came out of a game jam (theme: ‘only one’), and the full release – initially on Steam, now on Switch too – hasn’t tried to needlessly bulk it out. This is a self-proclaimed “short, simple but challenging arcade game”. …
Streets of Rage 4‘s easy mode is described in the game as, “For those who love every part of beat ’em ups, except getting beat up.” I initially took against that, but actually, I do fit that description. Especially because I don’t think dying in Streets of Rage 4 is much fun. On death, the …
The big PlayStation 5 reveal revealed at least one revealing fact about the hardware: there will be more than one hardware, and one version won’t do discs. It’s not the first time there’s been a digital-only version of a console of course – indeed Sony’s own PSP Go was, ridiculously, more than a decade ago. …
Why is the Dreamcast still held in such high regard? That’s one of the questions that SEGA Dreamcast: Collected Works attempts to answer, through a mixture of editorial, contributions from key personalities – including Yu Suzuki, Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Peter Moore, among many others – and a whole lot of gloriously reproduced imagery. That question …
I can’t remember the last time a graphical effect made me double-take. But the light of the setting sun filtering through the palm trees on Ybiza did exactly that. The characters and scenery are pleasantly chunky, but belie what I assume is significant technical whizz-bangery to make it all pop in quite the style that …