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 …
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 …
The recent arrival of GBA games on Nintendo Switch Online was a cause for celebration. The first wave includes some of the handheld’s finest, and Nintendo has already confirmed that Golden Sun, Fire Emblem, F-Zero, and more are coming. But there was one title within the launch line-up met with disdain – Mario Kart: Super …
Three years after the coronavirus pandemic hit Japan, resulting in the closure of hundreds of arcades nationwide and even SEGA selling its chain of game centres to Genda, you’d think few companies would be willing to invest in new arcade software and hardware. Yet here we are with Chase Chase Jokers, a brand new release …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
When people think of Atari, the games and systems that spring to mind likely depend on which decade you grew up in. ‘80s kids will recall the company’s coin-munching arcade cabinets and the behemoth that was the Atari 2600 – a system that managed to survive the ’84 market crash, with games released in Europe …
To say the PlayStation 2’s launch line-up was patchy is an understatement. Not only were developers up against the clock to get games ready for launch, but they were also clearly struggling with the system’s complicated architecture. Namco managed to deliver Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament on time, a solid yet unspectacular duo, …
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 …
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 …
To say Konami put The Simpsons license to good use would be an understatement. Their 1991 scrolling brawler is often referred to as the greatest Simpsons game of all time, even if it did take a few odd liberties with the license. A perfect example of this was Moe’s Tavern being relocated underneath Springfield cemetery, …
EA has been around since 1982, amassing a back catalogue of hundreds – if not thousands – of games. Yet, the company very rarely explores its past, being firmly fixated on the future instead. This has been true for around a decade now, with the uber publisher doubling down on its annual sporting games, online …
So much for ‘Most Played’ being a monthly feature – this is our first round-up of the year. With so many new releases to cover and review, 2022 has been exceedingly busy thus far. We think we can be excused for our tardiness. During the muggy month of June, James has been busy playing an …