Plagiarism is a touchy subject of late, with many indie releases taking inspiration from retro classics and forgotten gems. Most arrive to much fanfare, heralded as spiritual successors and passion projects. Others crumble under scrutiny, accused of copying ideas and artwork a little too closely. We firmly believe it’s down to whether the property in …
Many ‘80s movies and cartoons – the kind still embedded in pop culture today – were ripe for video game adaptations. But due to publisher greed, tight deadlines and consoles being in their infancy it sometimes took years, even decades, for the perfect tie-in to finally surface. Konami managed to do The Simpsons, TMNT and …
There’s a lot going on in Freedom Finger. It’s a shoot ’em up, sure. But it has at least three unique selling points: the mechanics, the presentation, and the music. The first two are connected: your ship is a hand giving it the middle finger, which gives us the non-standard shoot ’em up mechanics, and …
If you come to this arcade-style shooter expecting to top high score tables and perfect one credit runs, then you’re in for a disappointment. Although its roots can be traced as far back as the arcade classic Asteroids, due to it featuring a similar thrust and turn control scheme (not to mention countless asteroids), it’s …
Remember me raving about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3? It reminded me of the all great games of the PS2 era, and how they’re sorely missed, being far removed from the endless time pits many modern titles are. Well, here comes MUA3’s first DLC. Should you buy it? No! Has my opinion of the game shifted? …
In 2009 the iPhone was rising in prominence, putting a dent in the handheld market. iOS games like Canabalt, Angry Birds and Doodle Jump were available for less than a quid, making the £30 asking price for DS and PSP games seem steep. To counter this, Sony commissioned a range of ‘PlayStation minis’ – small …
Steve Jobs caught lightning in a bottle when creating Atari’s arcade hit Breakout, taking something as simple as Pong and adding a compelling twist. Some forty years later, breaking blocks with a paddle remains an inviting mechanic, the draw and desire to clear the board – potentially with one well-placed shot – forever burning strong. …
Chances are the youth of today are unfamiliar with the insane level of buzz surrounding The Blair Witch Project. Created on a budget of just $60k, the 1999 psychological horror flick went on to gross almost quarter of a million dollars, fuelled by pre-release hype including reports of cinema-goers being so scared that they were, …
The PSone era was packed with great RPGs*. The Final Fantasy games, which have never matched their PSone peak, Vagrant Story, Crono Cross, Xenogears and more. Wonderful stories bursting with imagination. It’s a joy, then, to see so many of them landing on modern consoles. A joy and a considerable time sink. The latest to …
We’ve seen many re-releases, remakes and remasters this generation. A copious amount, in fact. 16-bit brawler The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors manages to stand out from the crowd and in numerous ways. It sees the original development team revisit one of the Super Nintendo’s lesser-known scrolling brawlers, effectively making it a director’s cut, …
So, it has come to this. Console construction sims are so few and far between that we’re willing to take a punt on a tile-matching puzzle game with a side-line of city planning. Not that SubaraCity is much of a gamble, we should note, available for a mere £3.59 ($4.99) on the Xbox One store. …
The history of on-foot racing games isn’t particularly eventful. Codemasters’ Micro Maniacs failed to repeat the success of its toy-endorsed counterpart, early Xbox release Mad Dash Racing sunk without a trace, while Rayman Rush arrived on PSone too late in the day to make an impact. Sonic the Hedgehog is the only mascot to find …
As tempting as it is to run ‘n’ gun in Damsel, sending vampires back to their graves while dashing through the stages in leaderboard breaking time, doing so often ends in instant failure. You see, the small multi-floored levels are littered with hostages that can be accidentally killed by stray bullets. A single wayward shot …
Somewhat ironically, it seems impossible to escape the ‘escape room’ craze. After flooding the likes of Steam as a puzzle game sub-genre (although we’d argue the first series of The Crystal Maze, which aired in 1990, is where the concept began), escape rooms now cover every medium imaginable, books and board games included. Sometimes You’s …
Get ready for an ‘old-man-yells-at-sky’ moment. The gaming industry has changed drastically over the last ten years, with games as a service becoming more predominate. Keeping up with the likes of Fortnite and FIFA is almost a full-time job, with seasons, timed events and continual updates designed not only draw in new players but keep …