Success often leads to imitation. Whereas Souls-likes took a year or two to surface following the critical and commercial success of Dark Souls, games looking to replicate Vampire Survivor’s winning formula started to appear within months. This was clearly due to their simplistic nature, with the first batch of clones mimicking the retro-style pixel art …
Play Capcom’s fast-paced dino blasting online shooter for just an hour or so, and you’ll start to notice similarities with the Japanese giant’s previous works, most of which contribute to its existence. The obvious example is the celebrated Dino Crisis, but in truth, it owes its creation to Capcom’s other dino wrangling series – Monster …
This 3D platformer features a PlayStation 2-style low-poly aesthetic. While this art style is usually reserved to evoke a sense of nostalgia, that isn’t the case here – Sephonie is far removed from the cutesy, mascot-starring, platformers of the early noughties. Instead, it’s an experience far more ‘out there’ and contemporary, being a combat-free experience …
The platforming genre is one of the oldest around, so it’s no surprise to discover developers going to great lengths to implement innovative mechanics to keep things fresh. Just as a dash of garlic is enough to give a mid-week dinner a spicy kick, the 8-bit inspired platformer Garlic will also leave you tingling. Our …
[Edit: Review by Lauren Relph] Set on the cartoony Octane Isle, this couch co-op game is a race against time where you make fenders funky, re-energise engines and rebuild cars to transform them from battered jalopies into the machines of dreams. Don’t panic if you prefer to work alone, as this is possible too, though …
You’d think that the very first Deadliest Catch tie-in would be subtitled ‘The Game’ to make it apparent that it was based on the TV series. But no – this is the latest in a long line of tie-ins, and the first to make it clear that it’s a licensed product. The early noughties run …
Nobody wants to see a system fail – competition is healthy, after all. But the death or failure of a system can also benefit former rival platforms. It took the fall of the Dreamcast for SEGA to go multi-format, resulting in Sonic gracing a Nintendo platform – something ‘90s gamers never thought they’d see. The …
In these times of colossal updates and install sizes, it’s likely most gamers have a quick blast ‘go-to’ game to play while installing their latest purchase. For me, it’s the Xbox One tile-absorbing city-themed puzzler SubaraCity. It’s a mellow experience that’s easy to jump into. Despite playing it on and off for over four years, …
From as far back as the ‘80s, the name Sunsoft was synonymous with quality. Perhaps a name not quite as revered as Capcom or Konami, but if you were to buy a game brandishing their logo you knew you were in for a good time. This was particularly true for NES owners, with the likes …
Fitness games are inherently very difficult to review. Everyone has different fitness needs and there’s a ton of fitness games currently on Switch vying for attention. Zooming out even further, there are the likes of Nike Fitness on Netflix, YouTube fitness channels, and things like Peloton and Apple Fitness. Fitness Circuit certainly has its work …
The concept of a top-down RTS set in the Aliens universe doesn’t leave all that much to the imagination. It’s easy to envision grey industrial facilities with strip lighting and low-lying fog, inside of which a squad of cautious Colonial Marines slowly step forward. “We’ve got movement!” one yells, prompting a drop-down menu of available …
You only need to glance at Slipstream’s screenshots to see that it was inspired by SEGA’s seminal racer Outrun. Play it for just a few minutes, and you’ll see that the admiration for SEGA runs even deeper, with the presentation paying homage to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A handful of racetracks, ergo their trackside detailing, …
If you were to line up screenshots of arcade-style shoot’em ups, it’s highly likely the typical gamer would struggle to name them all. The 16-bit era saw many, many, sci-fi shooters with sleek spaceships and starfield backdrops. Even now, games just as described appear on the digital storefronts on almost a weekly basis. With this …
This turn-based adventure immerses players in the dramatic story of Etienne Quist, a writer facing a severe sentence of writer’s block for his crime. Through its multi-perspective narrative, it explores themes of control, redemption, and the power of the written word. The visual presentation is commendable, with the real world depicted in rich detail and …
A few years ago, BigBen Interactive (now Nacon) quietly released Bee Simulator on all formats. Despite the name, it wasn’t a simulator in the literal sense – it focused more on story and mini-games, with the pollen-loving protagonist tasked with exploring Central Park to find the ideal place for a new hive. Once the story …