First released on the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991, this cutesy pinball game from Wolf Team (Earnest Evans, Sol-Deace, Valis) could be seen as a trendsetter. It arrived a couple of years ahead of Sonic Spinball, sharing a few similarities, and was ahead of the curve when it came to the prehistoric/dinosaur craze that Jurassic …
It isn’t often that a video game sells itself short, with publishers and occasionally developers making promises they’re unable to keep. True to its name, Bus World does indeed involve driving buses in a handful of different countries. Cast aside any preconceived notions of taking old dears to the nearest hypermarket, however, as Bus World …
As the Evercade advances onwards, now in its fifth year, it’s increasingly at risk of hosting collections we’ve already seen on other platforms. This winter’s assortment of new carts is a perfect example of this, with The Llamasoft Collection featuring a near identical selection of games as 2024’s multiformat Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, while …
The retro enthusiasts at Bitmap Bureau made their intentions for Terminator 2D crystal clear: to create the high quality 16-bit style T2 tie-in we never saw in the early ‘90s. No longer faced with hardware and cartridge limitations, they’ve arguably had an easier time creating Terminator 2D than the likes of JLN and Ocean did …
Earlier this year we looked at Accolade Sports Collection, which brought together five retro sports sims from the early ‘90s. While a couple didn’t fare too well in this modern age, the package still had worth, with the more technically impressive titles propping up the poorer ones. This brings us onto new collection Jaleco Sports: …
Cosy games are commonplace nowadays, offering relaxed and wholesome experiences intended to distract from the bustle of daily life. It’s a genre, if you can call it that, with a lineage that can be traced further back than you may think. The Harvest Moon farming series made its debut on the SNES in 1996, for …
Knowing genre conventions can be a blessing and a curse for both the game and the player. Take Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song as an example. I’m more than familiar with the genre, so I thought I knew what I was in for. I began my quest, chose a fun looking starting character, refused the ‘slow’ …
From houses with no visible door numbers to blocks of flats with busted elevators, being a pizza delivery driver is likely arduous at times. Nothing can compare to the hardship this narrative adventure’s star delivery girl has to endure, however, with the last order of the day requiring a jaunt across steep hilled countryside, a …
Intended as a follow-up to a 2022 CGI movie, Paws of Fury is in essence a combination of Hong Kong Phooey (ask your dad) and Kung Fu Panda, starring unlikely hero Hank – the sole canine in a world populated by felines. If you haven’t heard of the movie, that’s understandable. It was in production …
2023 saw the release of BROK the InvestiGator, a unique combination of a futuristic point ‘n click adventure and a scrolling beat’em up. It worked how you’d expect, indulging in a spot of sleuthing before heading into a back alley to batter some ruffians. If you didn’t care for the adventure aspect or have a …
Set in the not-too-distant future, this psychological first-person horror takes place in a world where personally tailored AI powered video games are an upcoming trend. Not every job on the planet has been eliminated by machines, thankfully, as there’s still a need for somebody to put these AI-powered development platforms through their paces. This is …
After waking in a blood splattered prison cell, you’re presented with a slot machine and informed that to earn your freedom you’ll need to win big, reaching increasingly exorbitant debt deadlines to survive. That’s the premise for CloverPit, a new gambling themed escape room roguelike influenced by Vampire Survivors just as much as the poker …
October saw a glut of horror games primed for spooky season, varying from psychological thrillers that delve into the protagonist’s psyche, to more fantastical themed endeavours borrowing from the works of Lovecraft. Few can compare conceptually to QUByte’s Saborus though, which puts a spin on the genre by placing you in control of a chicken …
Even with hardware able to effortlessly throw around countless detailed 2D sprites, it’s still easy to imagine making a visually spectacular run ‘n gunner is a tall order. To fulfil that quota, lengthy scrolling stages require rich and varied backdrops with minimal repetition. At the same time, backdrops can’t be too busy, or the risk …
One of 2023’s highest rated indies was DREDGE, a compelling and bleak (or compellingly bleak) fishing sim with an unmistakable Lovecraftian influence. Imagine, if you can, a side story set in the same universe, only you play as a hardworking lighthouse keeper instead of a humble fisherman. That’s Static Dread: The Lighthouse in a nutshell, …