Released on Valentine’s Day, LOVE is an 8-bit styled retro platformer with stripped-back controls that put gameplay to the fore, eschewing pretty much all else. With an almost Atari 2600 colour palette, LOVE is a more accessible game than titles such as Super Meat Boy, whilst having that same vibe that any errors made are through […]
2018 marked the 40th anniversary of legendary studio SNK and to celebrate this extraordinary milestone, a variety of classic arcade games from SNK’s golden age have been packaged together in one anthology on Nintendo Switch. But this is not your typical SNK collection, which involves a myriad of side-scrolling beat ‘em-ups and fighting games… No, […]
A single-screen game mainly for multiplayer, Wondershot went down well at a games night I had recently. However, the brief game sessions and relatively light content wouldn’t hold up for extended play. A genre that really lends itself to multiplayer mayhem, the Battle Arena titles are designed for quick blasts of frantic action. Wondershot takes a […]
The Switch has seen a fair few multiplayer side-scrolling brawlers over the last couple of years, some of which were ported across from the PC and the light usage of procedural generation used in such games as Streets of Red add a frisson of variety to the proceedings which make playthroughs slightly different each time. […]
A simulation game based on numbers that’s set in a Lovecraftian landscape, The Shrouded Isle is a well-designed title rich in ambience and with a desert-dry sense of wry humour but the mileage gained from it will depend on the players’ level of fascination with gauge-juggling. The game casts you in the role of the […]
A tough game to locate online due to the similarly titled online game Paladins (although I haven’t played the latter), I’m pretty sure that Paladin is more up my strasse with its arcade sensibilities and pick-up-and-play approach, it plays like a modernised update of a classic. An action title with its roots in the seminal […]
In DIGITAL SHORTS we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition we take a look at Coffee Crisis – a side-scrolling beat ‘em-up with intriguing protagonists now available on the Nintendo Switch. Coffee Crisis is an arcade-style […]
The 2D motorbike genre goes way back to games like Stunt Bike and Kik Start on the 8-bit home computers and it’s a genre I played a lot as a child. As time went on, those games evolved into such titles as the Trials series, games where the fun lies in multiplayer havoc with pseudo-3D […]
What could have been a fun, tongue-in-cheek fighting game is instead a generic and repetitive title with few joys to be found beyond the actual concept itself. I like the idea, getting a roster of Gods and key religious figures from around the world and thrusting them, through some tenuous circumstance, into a situation where […]
There have been a serious amount of twin-stick rogue-likes released in the last few years and whilst Mana Spark is a nifty little game, it doesn’t offer enough to separate it from the pack and make it a key title, although fans of the genre will find something to take away from the experience. Set in […]
Nintendo have today announced that two new handcrafted Yoshi and Kirby games are launching in March 2019. Yoshi’s Crafted World, a brand-new adventure and the first game starring Yoshi for Nintendo Switch, launches exclusively for the console on 29th March 2019; whilst Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn launches for the Nintendo 3DS on 8th March 2019. […]
A classic genre that’s been around since pretty much the start of gaming, the shoot-em-up (or, Shmup) genre has a rich and storied history as wealth as a wealth of amazing titles under its belt. What sets apart Rival Megagun from its…well, rivals, is the focus here on pure multiplayer action, it’s a neat and […]
As the world crumbles, Gris loses her singing voice. She falls into a colourless void. Then she decides to rebuild, bringing light and colour and music back into existence… Gris is the debut game from Barcelona-based developers Nomada Studio. The distinctive visuals, which sell themselves in trailers and videos, were crafted by artist Conrad Roset. […]
In DIGITAL SHORTS we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition we take a look at Monkey King: Master of the Clouds – a remake of an 80s shoot ‘em-up available now on the Nintendo Switch. Based on […]
It was only a few months ago that I worked my way through Lizardcube’s re-make of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. I picked it up at a bargain price for the Switch (from Insane Games in Bridgwater, a haven of retro gold for those interested) and merrily made my way through the adventure. Its hand-drawn […]
Made by appSide Down – a team of just two – and published by Sonka Games, who are best known to Switch owners for Astro Bears Party, Escape Doodland is an autorunner platform game with bags of charm and a practically vertical difficulty curve. There’s nothing new about the gameplay conceit of outrunning a pursuing […]
Released in 2002 and 2004 respectively, Microids’ Syberia series was a hit for the French developer, featuring protagonist Kate Walker’s escapades in the small village of Valadilene and her travels beyond. With its photo-realistic graphics and relatively dry tone, it stood out at the time as a more ‘mature’ game. Played now on the Switch, […]
War is something we see on television and in films, some of us even play it in games like Call of Duty, but we do so for entertainment. We understand that there are wars out there and people get killed, but most of us are lucky and don’t have to face that. This War of Mine […]
The last game I played by publisher COSEN was the quirky Taiwanese puzzler Behind the Screen, which was relatively basic in its execution but had enough character to keep my interest up for the duration of the play-through. Destruction however, definitely feels more at home on a mobile device than the Nintendo Switch as its […]
Originally released in 2013, Rogue Legacy makes its way to Nintendo’s handheld console and proves an ideal match for gaming on the move. I’m very wary of procedural generation in video games and so when games like Nongunz, Moonlighter and Rogue Legacy use it well, it can really enhance the gaming experience and add real […]
A game of two halves that make a cohesive and enjoyable whole, Moonlighter spends all night dragging you through ever-more-difficult dungeons and all day making sure that you hawk that broken sword for just the right price from your cosy little store. Moonlighter is the name of the town that our merchant hero, Will, calls […]
In DIGITAL SHORTS we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition we take a look at Full Metal Furies – another side-scrolling brawler now available on the Nintendo Switch. My love for local co-op side-scrolling brawlers is […]
