We had an inkling a Nintendo Indie Direct was imminent. The eShop almost constantly gains 30+ eShop titles per week. If fewer than 20 are showing as upcoming in any given week, it usually means a bunch of surprise releases are incoming. This week was looking slow, then ‘boom!’ – a new Nintendo Indie Direct. …
Ah, the humble Amiga. Very few systems can boast a software catalogue more diverse – it offered a little bit of everything, from arcade conversions to point ‘n click adventures. During the early ‘90s, it looked unstoppable – games such as Worms, Lemmings 2, Cannon Fodder, The Chaos Engine, Syndicate and Theme Park showed that …
Just as the Olympic Games draw to a close, SEGA’s official Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 tie-in climbs to #3 in the UK all-formats top 40 chart – its highest-ever chart position. The sports compendium claimed #11 at launch and was at #8 last week. F1 2021 remains the UK’s no.1 for a third week running. …
A video game, at its very core, serves up a set of rules that ultimately determine how we play and behave within its virtual world. Load up a game of, say, Sonic the Hedgehog, and this quickly becomes apparent: run straight up to the first loop-de-loop and the resulting outcome communicates all you need to …
Haven Park’s developer – one man, Fabien Weibel – is very honest about its inspirations: A Short Hike and Animal Crossing. There’s nothing wrong with that: there’s plenty of room in the world for more games about having a nice time doing nice things in a nice place. And that pretty much sums up Haven …
A handful of already released games make their way to new formats, ergo larger audiences, this week. Foremost, the excellent indie RPG Hades makes the jump from Switch and PC to the PS4, PS5 and Xbox family. Gearbox’s pretty but vacuous PS5 launch title Godfall dives onto PS4, just in time for new DLC, while …
There are a plethora of reasons why a video game may be considered frustrating. Difficulty spikes and glitches are some of the more common offenders. The presence of peculiar design choices is less common, which is perhaps why they can aggravate more so than something like dim-witted AI. The Ascent has more of its fair …
Portals have become somewhat ruined in recent years, being the literal butt of jokes for media like Rick and Morty, where the handy dimension dipping device often opens doorways into a land of giant farting butts. Thankfully the juvenile nature of portals is waning, and while we can put parping posteriors to the back of …
Things are relatively slow on PSN and the Xbox Store this week. It’s business as usual on Switch, however, with dozens of curious indies to ponder over. Jupiter Corporation’s PICROSS S MEGA DRIVE & Master System edition has caught our collective eye. As the name suggests, it’s good old picross, only with classic SEGA pixel …
Sumo Digital Academy – a talent development programme – has dipped into Gremlin Interactive’s back catalogue to give ‘90s mascot Zool an overhaul. The team of young developers were tasked with creating a C++ game engine in order to bring the colourful 1992 platformer to a new generation. Zool Redimensioned will host a bevy of modern …
Even though Monstrum Nox is the latest entry in Falcom’s long-running Ys series, there’s no need to worry if you haven’t played previous entries. Monstrum Nox happens to be an ideal point to jump in, with a (mostly) self-contained story and mechanics that are introduced slowly and sensibly. Monstrum Nox once again puts you in …
A handful of last week’s new titles gained physical releases, but only one managed to break the UK top 40 – NEO: The World Ends with You at a respectable #10. The Square-Enix published JRPG also made #4 in the PS4 chart and #8 in the Switch chart, so we can almost certainly consider it …
Last week publishers were tripping over themselves to get their new releases out the door. There were so many new games that we even felt that some – such as The Forgotten City, Fuga: Melodies of Steel and Horror Tales: The Wine – were being pushed aside. This week? The quietest we’ve seen in months. PS …
Throughout this relaxed adventure – soon revealed as a pilgrimage – our silent lead discovers the power of light. Light not only leads the path to freedom; it’s also an invaluable power source. The magical staff they possess can harness said power, duly used to energise glowing runes and other ancient devices. This ties in …
Several big-name releases are vying for your time and money this week – the Switch definitely isn’t suffering from an infamous summer game drought. NEO: The World Ends with You, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Samurai Warriors 5 have all received vastly positive reviews, with Square-Enix’s JRPG sequel gaining high scores than many expected. …
