Stepping into the arena with KIBORG

It’s always neat when a demo of an upcoming game has more to offer than just a level or two. I’m not referring to things like ten-hour trials, as beneficial as they are, but rather when a developer turns a demo into a standalone product, such as a prologue. That’s the case with KIBORG: Arena, …

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A diver plays Endless Ocean Luminous

When I play games, I play with the experience gained from other games. I might mess around with the combat system to see how it differs from similar titles. I might look at the responsiveness and intuitiveness of the controls and compare them to genre standouts. With Endless Ocean Luminous things were remarkably different; I …

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2023: Games you might have missed

Every month of this year, including the typically quiet months of January and December, has seen a handful of must-play releases. An assault not just on gamer’s wallets, but their spare time as well. Browsing through 2023’s release lists, it soon becomes apparent that dozens of positively reviewed games failed to generate much of a …

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No, GAME’s Christmas Tinner wasn’t real

Christmas is fast approaching, and social media is awash with recycled memes. Yes, even more than usual. In addition to guff about Die Hard being a Christmas movie, UK retailer GAME’s infamous Christmas Tinner appears to be doing the rounds again. Back in our day, it was only rubbish BBC Christmas specials that were repeated. …

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Most Played – Wanted: Dead

On paper, Wanted: Dead puts a lot of ticks in a lot of boxes. Originating from Japan, it’s a gory third-person shooter with hack ‘n slash elements, blessed with a smattering of silliness and a bunch of mini-games that wouldn’t look out of place in SEGA’s Yakuza series. It also reminded me of SEGA’s overlooked …

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The evolution of Nintendo’s Game & Watch series

After observing a Japanese salaryman playing with a calculator while travelling, Nintendo’s R&D director Gunpei Yokoi was left feeling inspired. An idea for a handheld toy sprung to mind, not for children but rather for adults to play discreetly in the palm of their hand to pass time. Nintendo’s president Hiroshi Yamauchi realised the potential …

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Most played: Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale

There aren’t many games around that allow you to re-live the innocence of being a child. Unless those games are ones you previously played as a youngster, you’re hard pressed to find something that awakens the inner child, knocking at the door of long forgotten memories and emotions. However, there is a fine line between …

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Most Played: Time on Frog Island

If you’ve played Nintendo’s monochrome marvel Zelda: Link’s Awakening, then you may feel a sense of familiarity with Time on Frog Island. Specifically, Link’s Awakening’s optional trade quest that entailed swapping items with certain characters, starting with a Yoshi doll won from a claw machine.   Time on Frog Island takes the concept of ‘trading …

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Sonic the Comic’s First Christmas

I have in my mitts the first festive issue of Sonic the Comic, dated November 27th1993. It wasn’t the closest issue to Christmas, but it did come with a cardboard tree decoration. Now seems a good time to talk about this issue, the history of Sonic the Comic, and my relationship with Fleetway’s fortnightly publication. …

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2022: Games You May Have Missed

It’s time once again to talk about games that were overlooked or have perhaps become forgotten about as the months went on, with this year’s list featuring two titles that launched as far back as January – almost a year ago. Funny, that. A handful of honourable mentions seems like a good idea. Our recommendations …

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How many RPGs did Square-Enix release this year, exactly?

If you read our weekly new release round-ups, you’ve likely noticed that Square-Enix releasing a new RPG almost every week has become a running joke. The joke being most RPGs tend to be vastly timing consuming, while aimed at a certain audience. It’s a mystery how anybody could possibly find the time to play them …

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NekoNecro developer interview – what, how, and why?

Games Asylum contributors Jay and Zayne are about to release NekoNecro, a hand-drawn 2D platformer with a three-year development and lots of fine-tuning. Obviously, reviewing it would be considerably shady – a huge conflict of interest. We even stepped back from a preview. But we still want to get the word out of its imminent …

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Most Played – August 2022

With the exception of Rich, who has been busy playing Blade Runner on Switch while traveling, the team’s plan to beat the summer heat seemingly involved staying indoors while playing console games. With a freezer full of choc ices nearby, it’s a plan that’s hard to fault.   Games with Gold freebies – Matt I’m …

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