One of my favourite films is 1962’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. It’s about a young working-class boy sent to a borstal, and his relationship with the governor there, who befriends him and invites him to be on the long-distance running team. It’s a great film, but one that was made in 1962, …
Games entailing buses, trains, and farming have been big business for a while now, and I totally get the appeal. They represent an appeal to our inner child. A way to relive the joys of toy cars and those rugs that had pictures of roads on them. A warm comfort blanket, where our only worries …
It has been said that the newest Evercade cartridge is a response to fans demanding more obscure and lesser-known games for the retro-centric handheld. We’d say it was inevitable that manufacturer Blaze would have to look further afield at some point. There’s only a finite amount of hand-me-down Atari and NES arcade conversions out there, …
We’ve seen a few games lately with interesting backstories. There was Yeah Yeah Beebiss II, a sequel to a non-existent NES game, and the Quest for Glory homage Quest for Infamy – a love letter to PC adventure games series that flips the premise on its head. Now here’s Andro Dunos II – a sequel …
Ambition is a great driving force. How many people who have achieved truly great things in this world would’ve done so without their ambition? But when asked about my ambitions, I’m always a little coy about the answer. Where it’s common for many people to wish for fame, I’m the opposite. Infamy, after all, is …
This isometric adventure shares similarities with Nintendo’s recent Link’s Awakening remake, borrowing its soft visual style and central premise of a tunic-clad hero waking on a mysterious island. A great power dwells nearby, but to find and wield it correctly, three magical keys must be obtained from the island’s furthest reaches – Tunic’s equivalent of …
Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? is a horror game. If you’ve looked at the screenshots, and you’re thinking “What are you talking about?”, let me set it up for you. You’re trapped in a mandatory ‘family fun’ Zoom call with half a dozen horrible relatives, for the purposes of appeasing your overbearing mother. If …
Despite originally releasing just six years ago, Gal*Gun: Double Peace carries with it a strange aura of a long-lost Japanese retro game. There’s a very good reason for this – it came from a completely different era, back when a shrinking domestic console market led to publishers doubling down on erotic-themed releases that would guarantee …
As tycoon management sims go, I can’t think of a less “modern day” approved context than an oil rig platform. Not to get all Greenpeace, but it feels like a tonal anachronism to be pleasantly clicking around a voxel-based cutesy crude oil drilling platform, trying to squeeze the most profit out of black liquid gold …
I’ve been thinking about pacing a lot recently. Specifically, whose responsibility is it? Films are easy as they’re linear experiences with no paths to take. The responsibility clearly lies with the filmmaker. That Korean drama that drags out its episodes? Probably the network. But what about games? Is it the responsibility of the studio, or …
The original Submerged released in 2015 to a lukewarm reception. Rather than jump straight into creating an improved sequel, armed with newfound feedback, developer Uppercut wisely chose to give it breathing space while working on other projects. This break was clearly beneficial – Hidden Depths is a more enjoyable experience, arguably closer to the developer’s …
I love video games. Part of that love is the grand feeling of adventure which comes with just escaping into a virtual world and taking in the sights and sounds, perhaps speaking to its inhabitants, or maybe poking some of its monsters with the ouchy-end of a sword. It’s something I’ve enjoyed since being a …
It often feels like the Switch is overflowing with 2D platformers of every kind. There are the modern and polished likes of Donkey Country: Tropical Freeze, retro revivals such as Sonic Mania, and the tough as nails indies like Celeste. Now, competing for your time and cash is Pablo. A dog. With a grapple. Is …
Sergey Noskov’s 7th Sector – a cyberpunk puzzle adventure with impressive environmental storytelling – left us smitten back in 2020, being something of a hidden gem. Rather than build upon its foundations, Sergey next project was In Rays of the Light – a remake of their 2012 first-person exploration-based horror. Its unravelling story was able …
Barely a month goes by without a new single-screen top-down racer appearing on one of the digital services. It’s a tried and tested way to stir up nostalgia for the likes of Super Sprint, Super Off-Road, and such Amiga classics as Super Skidmarks and ATR. Moto Roader MC dates back to 1992, but manages to …