How can you tell something is the result of passion and care, rather than cold, hard economics? For me, it is the little touches. The things that developers add in when there’s absolutely no need whatsoever. In Inkulinati, a game where you draw beasts onto a battlefield, your hand is represented by a human hand. …
You’ve doubtlessly heard of the phrase ‘running away to join the circus.’ Publisher Daedalic’s latest horror game has an altogether different proposition, based around a former circus worker’s struggle to escape from an illusionary world filled with twisted fun houses, clowns, ghost trains, and an untimely death. It’s very much a case of trying to …
For their next trick, the Sonic Mania team leaps into the world of 3D platforming. It’s a bold move, with even SEGA themselves infamously stumbling when it comes to creating fast-moving action platformers starring their blue-hued hedgehog. The team does at least have over two decades of mistakes to learn from, and as Sonic Mania …
Not every video game is for everyone, and at a time when there are more people playing games than ever, that’s perfectly acceptable. Moreover, it’s commercially viable – these days even something offbeat has a good chance of finding its niche. It may seem strange to introduce The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island – the …
If you’ve played past games from eastasiasoft, you’ll know that they tend to be on the short and easy side – experiences that last no longer than an hour or two, liberally handing out achievements and trophies. Dead End City stands out as a rare, but not entirely unheard of, exception. It’s a grungy vertical …
If you’ve never heard of the original Ufouria, chances are you aren’t alone. The 1991 NES platformer skipped the US market, all because Sunsoft’s American wing feared that the peculiar characters wouldn’t hold much appeal. Alterations were even made to the European release, recasting characters – including the penguin protagonist Hebe. This long-time-coming sequel stays …
They got it right the first time. That’s the headline here. I was going to start this review with a load of waffle about remakes and remasters and rose-tinted glasses and all that. But playing Tomb Raider, the thing that kept coming back to me was that simple phrase. The most important thing that this …
Late last year the world was presented with Prison City, a NES homage that fused together the little-known gems Shatterhand and Power Blade. Just a few months later, we’re now on the receiving end of another 8-bit mash-up, with Lords of Exile playing like an amalgamation of Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. With so many Castlevania …
The clue is in the name, really. Geometry Survivor takes Geometry Wars glowing vector aesthetic – traceable to the dawn of gaming, with 1977’s Space War – and introduces an auto-shooting twist inspired by the far more recent Vampire Survivors. Resembling Geometry Wars was clearly intended to be the initial draw, but it plays vastly …
Back when retailer GameStation existed, I once saw someone out of the corner of my eye waving a game case around while proclaiming that it was the weirdest game they had ever played. Curious, I turned around to discover the title in question was none other than Assassin’s Creed II. I’m guessing they were referring …
One reoccurring topic on social media is that movie studios should remake bad movies, not good ones. It’s a noble suggestion, but I’d wager cinema goers would be sceptical of paying to see a bad movie twice, should things also not pan out well on the second attempt. Ideas that made the original movie bad …
Take the concept behind Call of Duty: Zombies and apply a theme suitable for youngsters, and the result is STUFFED – a wave-based FPS involving a struggle to protect a little girl’s bedroom door from nightmarish toys looking to smash their way in. Here, we play as a plump teddy bear armed with make-do weaponry …
I doubt many would argue that GENIE Reprise isn’t a conventional game. That’s in the sense that it’s something that couldn’t have existed before digital distribution opened the gates for smaller, more personal, experiences. Essentially, it’s an interactive poetry recital that takes place in fantasy environments created using Unreal Engine 5. If it wasn’t for …
With a name like ‘Mustache in Hell’ it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to discover this twin-stick shooter has a comical tone. Our hirsute hero – known as John Mustache – is likened to a certain ‘80s American action TV show star, and wakes up one morning in Hell. Upon being confronted by …
After catching wind that Dungeonoid 2 combines dungeon crawling with Arkanoid style brick breaking, I figured it would play like an 8-bit Zelda game, ushering players from one single-screen dungeon room to the next while paddling balls into enemies, chests, switches, etc. You can imagine my surprise, then, to discover that it’s an auto-scrolling affair …