💹 The Invisible Hand | PC | Gameplay | Ten minute Taster | "How To Buy, Sell & Short" 💹 @PowerStruggleG #GameDev #IndieGames

The Invisible Hand - Want to get rich, quick? Welcome to FERIOS, where you’ll be empowered to pursue wealth and success as a mid-level stockbroker!

Your wildest dreams of wealth can come true… at the cost of everything else.

🧠🔖A Tale Of Synapse: The Chaos Theories | Nintendo Switch | Review | 7/10 | "Nero & Sci Best Friends Forever" 🧠🔖 @ATaleOfSynapse #IndieGames #GameDev

A Tale Of Synapse: The Chaos Theories is an abstract styled and fun puzzle platformer littered with maths-based puzzles and a distinct gameplay mechanic which can see a second player playing the role of your on-screen ally as you work through the puzzles together.

🏍️ Urban Trial Tricky Deluxe Edition | PC | Gameplay | "Press Q To Spin!" 🏍️ @UrbanTrial #GameDev #IndieGames

Grab your seat and pull off the most savage tricks and combos on your motorbike. Ride freely, spin around in the air, go back and forth and let yourself be carried away by the fun, fast-paced gameplay, colourful visuals, and smooth controls.

🈷️🥋 Within The Blade | Nintendo Switch | Gameplay | Ten Minute Taster | "Ninjas Are Cool!" 🥋🈴 #GameDev #IndieGames

Within the blade is a game in the genre of stealth and platforming with elements of RPG, in which the player plays as the Shinobi (Ninja). The player can gain experience when killing enemies and eventually be able to unlock more advanced ninjutsu.

Going through the levels the player will collect the various ingredients in which he can craft weapons: shurikens, poisons, elixirs, grenades, mines, as well as the main weapon the Ninjato and Kusarigama. 

At the end of each level the player gains experience for the past level completed, the game utilizes a stealth mechanic in which hide and seek can be your best weapon of defence and offence. Being able to hide in the shadows and deliver crucial and critical blows to an enemy can also give you experience in the end.

After each level, the player will be returned back to their home village in which they are able to purchase weapons, items and more advanced ninjutsu in the game.

🪓🩸🏥 A Way To Be Dead | PC | Review | Early Access | "Find 4 Friends Before You Buy This!" 🪓🩸🏥 @CraniaGames #GameDev #IndieGames

Turkish game devs Crania games bring us a grim-looking asymmetrical multiplayer game that is currently available in Early Access and runs in good ol’ Unreal Engine 4. 

A Way To Be Dead is actually set in the universe of the team’s previous 2017 game, Roots of Insanity https://store.steampowered.com/app/598440/Roots_of_Insanity/ which garnered some good Steam reviews and was also set in a chilling, skin-crawling hospital.

🧲 Super Magbot | Nintendo Switch | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Magnet Troubles" 🧲 @SuperMagbotGame #GameDev #IndieGames

 

Super Magbot is a precise 2D platformer with a twist. 

NO JUMPING

Master your magnetic powers to beat each level with speed and skill. 

Enjoy classic 16-bit gaming vibes, tackle challenging achievements and compete for global leaderboard supremacy along the way.

🕺 Disco Elysium | PS5 | Review | 9.5/10 | "Bringing Disco back" 🕺 @studioZAUM #GameDev #IndieGames

The Disco Elysium opening tells you a lot about the game. First is a weird exchange between your limbic system and the void, and after that’s all done you awake in a trashed hotel in only your underwear, whilst hearing voices and with total amnesia. You proceed to find your clothes - which includes a talking tie - and it’s off to the races. It's interesting, it's surreal and it encapsulates the rest of the game.

👁️ Intrepid Izzy | Dreamcast | Review | 9/10 | "I’m off to punch a giant sea creature in the eye." 👁️ @SenileTeam #GameDev #IndieGames

I do love covering new releases on classic systems. When I received the accompanying press kit for Intrepid Izzy from Wave Game Studios, there was a statement in which the game was described as a blend of Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania and Streets of Rage.

I wasn’t sceptical so much as squinting into the distance, trying to visualise what that mash up would look like.

It looks like Intrepid Izzy, as it turns out.

🕹️📺 Best Alternative Nintendo Switch Dock For Under £15 | INTPW SB-C DIGITAL AV MULTIPORT ADAPTER 🕹️📺 #NintendoSwitch

Watch me as I test out the INTPW SB-C DIGITAL AV MULTIPORT ADAPTER on my Nintendo Switch. I am now using it as my dock alternative for my Nintendo Switch and it works a treat.

SWITCH DOCK LINK: https://amzn.to/3kL7hot (amazon affiliate link)

🧹🧙‍♀️ Cotton Reboot! | Nintendo Switch | Review | 8/10 | "Sweet Loving Witches Dodge Bullets For Fun In This Broom Em Up!" 🧹🧙‍♀️ @ININ_Games #GameDev #IndieGames

Surrounded by a blaze of bullets and headless zombies marching along the bottom of the screen Cotton Reboot could be mistaken for a fever dream quite easily as it throws everything at you in a colourful explosion of mayhem and madness interspersed with some non-sensical cut scenes about willow candy...

🦅 The Falconeer | PC | Gameplay | "Lets Go Fly A Kite!" 🦅 @WiredP #IndieGames #GameDev

In The Falconeer you will soar through the skies aboard a majestic warbird, explore a stunning oceanic world and engage in epic aerial dogfights, in this BAFTA-nominated air combat game from the solo developer, Tomas Sala.

🕹️ How Do You Celebrate Your Enthusiasm For A Franchise? 🕹️

 

pixabay

How do you show your loyalty to a brand? For clothes, we tend to buy special edition items, such as sneakers that are around for a limited time only. For things like music, we tend to support our favorite artists by buying their 1st edition album. For books it's the same, we go to the opening of a book sale, and we get a signed copy.

So what do you do for gaming?

Well, you can buy special edition figures, t-shirts and other forms of memorabilia. However, you have to separate the cheap stuff from the quality so you can be proud of having it in your home.

🥋 Within The Blade | Nintendo Switch | Review | 8/10 | "Ninjas are cool" 🥋 @pixelshinobi #IndieGames #GameDev

Within The Blade looked me in the eyes and said 'play me immediately'. A game that just screams '80s Ninjas and plays like a well oiled Bruce Lee is always going to evoke the memories of playing The Last Ninja and watching Enter The dragon for the 48th time after recording it on ITV at 11.30 on a Friday night.

🎶🎷 VGM Live – Pecaminosa Live Performance & Mark ‘TDK’ Knight 🎹🎶 #vgmusic

The last couple of years have seen me getting more and more into video game music, resulting in covering the LVGO (London Video Game Orchestra - https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2020/03/london-video-game-orchestra-classics.html) – pre-lockdown, natch – and embracing the releasing of soundtracks on vinyl (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/05/video-game-vinyl-britt-recommends.html / https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/05/games-freezer-interviews-blipblop-vgm.html). 

I wanted to write an article on two shows that really stood out to me over the last year…so I did.

💚 Where the Heart Leads | PS4 | Review | 9/10 | "A warm-hearted tale of life and all its possibilities" 💚 @ArmatureStudio #IndieGames #GameDev

When I was asked about reviewing Where The Heart Leads the only knowledge I had was that it was a dreamlike, narrative adventure with a lifetime of choices, which are words that fill my heart with glee.

Making decisions is probably my favourite thing to do in terms of mechanics, I love it. Having to contemplate things like morality, ethics and predicting outcomes are things I enjoy in other media as well as life in general, so I was very excited for Where the Heart Leads.

🪂🛩️☁️ Black Skylands | PC | Gameplay | Ten Minute Taster | "By Hook or By Crook" 🪂🛩️☁️ @BlackSkylands #GameDev #IndieGames

In Black Skylands you can build your skyship and explore the open world, fight factions of pirates and monsters, claim your territory by foot or by your flying vessel.

You're the captain and the sky is the limit in this Sky-Punk Open-World action adventure!

📟 Beautiful Desolation | Nintendo Switch | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Isometric Desolation" 📟 #IndieGames #GameDev

BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION is an isometric adventure game set in the distant future. 

Explore a post-apocalyptic landscape, solve puzzles, meet new friends and make powerful enemies, mediate conflicts and fight for your life as you unravel the secrets of the world around you.

🧠🔥 Fire: Ungh's Quest | Nintendo Switch | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Fight Fire With Brains" 🧠🔥 #IndieGames #GameDev

 

FIRE: Ungh's Quest is an exploration adventure with intuitive puzzle design.

Without losing many words it tells a savagely hilarious story.

Journey into the Stone Age and face the most challenging task of this era: The search for fire!

🐛👸 Mushihimesama | Review | Nintendo Switch | 8/10 | "Mushihimesama, or Bug Princess Bullet Hell" 🐛👸 @cavegames #IndieGames #GameDev

Despite this being a fairly obscure Japanese game, I had stumbled across Mushihimesama before. I read an article about the "bullet hell" sub-genre of shoot-em-ups and found a couple of YouTube videos of examples. One was called Perfect Cherry Blossom (Japan, there) and the other was this one, Mushihimesama, or Bug Princess.

🛩️ Red Wings | PS4 | Gameplay | Ten Minute Taster | "Barrel Rolls Ahoy!" 🛩️ @RedWingsTheGame #GameDev #IndieGames

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is an arcade action game that puts you in the middle of WWI aerial battles. Accompany the legendary Red Baron and cheat death on your way to victory!

💥 Gearing up for the release of BEEP’s side-scrolling shoot ‘em up Cotton Reboot! 💥 #GameDev #IndieGames

ININ Games is gearing up for the release of BEEP’s side-scrolling shoot ‘em up Cotton Reboot! releasing both digitally and physically on Sony PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Europe, Australasia and North America on 20th July.

Cotton is already a much revered and iconic brand appearing on many consoles and computers from  PC Engine, Neo Geo Pocket Color, right through to Playstation. Cotton Reboot! presents PlayStation and Switch gamers a fun, colourful, cute ‘em up that offers brand new features, 7 stages that really highlight what a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up should deliver and it does it in abundance, together with a dazzling display of onscreen cast and challenges.

The player takes the role of the young witch Cotton, who ventures out on her magical broom on a quest to get her favourite candy. What unfolds involves her getting entangled with several world-threatening terrors which she must destroy. A really cool feature is the more enemies the player kills the more he can upgrade his weapon by collecting power crystals. Players can also charge their weapon for special attacks and enlist the aid of Silk, Cotton’s magical fairy friend who can form up in different “option” configurations.

 

Visual/Audio/Gameplay Features

• Remastered with hand-drawn HD graphics
• Remixed soundtracks
• Comes with Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams in the X6800 original mode
• + 2 more game modes
  Arrange mode features 16:9 screens, redesigned graphics and characters.
  Score attack mode: the player competes for scores online within a limited time (2 minute and 5 minute modes can be selected).

Nintendo Life (Import)

Of all the "cute 'em ups" out there, it remains one of the best……………. 8/10 GREAT

M! Maniac (Import)

The gameplay is as precise as it is powerful, the shots have a lot of bang and the levels are interestingly designed. And the X68000 version is not just a nice bonus, but a completely independent game with its own challenge and different systems - a great package for every shooter fan!

Successful shooter package: Enjoy an action classic in its best home version and a great reinterpretation.  81%/100

Cotton Reboot! really does define what is best about the cute ‘em, shoot ‘em up genre and offers a whole lot more in what is a really magical and enchanting, atmospheric experience.

For more information, visit https://cotton.inin.games/.  

 

Limited Edition with Special Offerings

In addition to the physical and digital retail versions, there are three premium limited editions available, exclusively in the Strictly Limited Games Partner Shop.

• The Limited Edition comes with a manual and is available for €39.99 and limited to 3.000 copies for Nintendo Switch and 1.500 copies for PlayStation 4 worldwide.
• The Collector’s Edition is available for €79.99, limited to 2.000 copies for Nintendo Switch and 1.000 copies for PlayStation 4 worldwide and includes a tea set, the original & remastered soundtrack, an art book, shikishi and more.
• The Deluxe X68000 Collector’s Edition is already SOLD OUT due to huge demand.

👴🧓 Just Die Already | Nintendo Switch | Ten minute Taster | Gameplay | "Watch Out For Violent Bin Men!" 👴🧓 @DoubleMoose #GameDev #IndieGames

 

Just Die Already is an old people mayhem sandbox game created by the designers of Goat Simulator. 

You are old and angry and you've just been kicked out of your retirement home. How will you survive in a world that wants you to Just Die Already?

🐍 Anguna: Scourge of the Goblin King | A Brand-New Action RPG For The NES! 🐍 @6502Collective #GameDev #IndieGames

Anguna: Scourge of the Goblin King is a brand-new action RPG, or A-RPG, for the original Nintendo (NES). Drawing clear inspiration from classics such as The Legend of Zelda (1987), Anguna also takes inspiration from forgotten games like Deadly Towers (1987). 

The player must traverse the world in order to locate the Goblin King, a task that involves collecting items and power-ups along the way. Find ways to cross rivers, navigate rooms of darkness, and get past obstacles in the terrain. Anguna features real-time combat as the nameless hero squares off against lesser enemies and fearsome bosses, and culminates in a final battle with the Goblin King himself!

⚱️ Infinitrap: Rehamstered | Review | Xbox Series X | 8.5/10 | "fun, cute, twitchy, very addictive and extremely moreish" ⚱️ @ShadebobGames @showmemagic #GameDev #IndieGames

Like many cool kids of a certain age, I grew up watching the adventure movies of the ’80s and this game, at least in my head, is paying homage to the greats. The plot slightly echoes the Grail Knight scene in The Last Crusade on a seemly endless loop and the main protagonist looks like Quatermain from King Solomon’s Mines; If Sharon Stone makes an appearance, I might never remove this smile from my face!  

👊💥🖐️ Alex Kidd In Miracle World DX | PC | Gameplay | "Time To Master Nah Janken" 👊💥🖐️ @MergeGamesLtd #GameDev #IndieGames

 

A legend returns in stunning new detail with Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX! Fire up your power bracelet and relive a platforming classic alongside new modes, levels and features!

🤖 MONO BOT | PC GAMEPLAY | "ROBOT LIMBO" 🤖 @Ukuza_games #GameDev #IndieGames

Mono Bot - Coming online, Mono finds himself alone in a dark, dystopian world overrun with other hostile robots.

Guide Mono through his solo journey, unravelling puzzles to uncover the buried secrets of this desolate world.

Can you break the infinite cycle and find your true self?

🎲🕹️ The Best Party Games To Play IRL With Friends 🎲🕹️ #BoardGames #VideoGames

 

Image Link (CC0 License)

Games are ten times better when you play them with friends. A lot of us spend time gaming online, but there are instances where we get together with others for some IRL fun. In these cases, it helps to have some fun party games to play with everyone. So, here's a pick of some great games you can all play in the same room:

⚔️🛡️ Chivalry 2 | Xbox Series X | Review | 8.5/10 | "An Axe-Throwing, Head-Lopping, Catapult-Lobbing Joy" ⚔️🛡️ @TornBanner #GameDev #IndieGames

Historically, I’ve never really played many online multiplayer games. I even have a very close group of friends that regularly meet up virtually to play games that I thoroughly enjoy in single-player modes but don’t appeal to me in multiplayer, maybe I’m a recluse…hence the name of my band (www.recluse.bandcamp.com).

And yet…when I saw the trailer for Chivalry 2, the weighty-looking combat completely won me over as it reminded me of Kingdom Come: Deliverance (another game that completely bowled me over by surprise) and I am a sucker for some medieval action, these two factors led to me taking a dive into the game and it is a choice that has rewarded me deeply!

🚀 The Persistence : Enhanced | Review | PS5 | 5/10 | "Sucked into a Black Hole" 🚀 @FirespriteGames #IndieGames #GameDev

I found this review hard to write. Jumping into this game with no knowledge; I looked at the cover art - which appeared to represent a horror game  - and leapt at the chance to review it, but within thirty minutes of playing it, I realized it does something that I am really not keen on and I especially don’t enjoy it when horror games, in particular, do it.

Truthfully, If I was playing this game without intending to review it, I would have stopped after forty-five minutes and put it down as ‘just not my cup of tea’. Though I do enjoy occasionally trying out games that I would tend to avoid -  to see whether the game can win me over and possibly change my view - this game sadly didn’t and in fact, further cemented my thoughts.

🌴🗡️ Green Hell | PS4 | Review | 8/10 | "Desperate Enough To Eat a Rotting Snail" 🗡️🌴 @GreenHellGame #IndieGames #GameDev

Green Hell is a survival game set in a jungle at the edge of the Amazon river. You play as Jake Higgins, an anthropologist who is researching the area with his wife, Mia. Mia goes to a nearby tribal village to learn and understand the ways of the indigenous people living there and ends up going missing. You hurtle to the rescue only to be outmatched and easily overpowered, ending up retreating and lost in the forest with very little to help you survive. 

📖 From Gamers Magazine | Issue 1 | Review 📖 @FromGamersMag

As a gamer of a certain age, print magazines formed an important part of growing up for me. From Zzap! 64 and Crash to Nintendo Power and Mean Machines Sega, there weren't many months that I didn't buy (or get my mum to buy) a new mag to read about the vast universe of games I couldn't afford.

So the new trend of print magazines launching via Kickstarter is a welcome one.  I've backed a few myself and it's always great to get an A4 envelope full of gold through the door. From Gamers Magazine  hit its fundraising target in March and is now being delivered to backers. 

🤖 MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries | Xbox Series X | Review | 7.5/10 | "Lock & Load" 🤖 @PiranhaGames #IndieGames #GameDev

My history with mech games seemingly peaked in 1996 with Earthsiege 2. Prior to that, the only ‘big robot’ games I’d played were things like Cyborg Justice and Mazin Saga, I didn’t realise that there was an element of the genre that embraced the slower, weightier and more strategic element of piloting a skyscraper-sized behemoth.

Upon playing Earthsiege 2, I vividly remember thinking that it was the absolute zenith of ‘lifelike’ tactical combat and, even though it was a genre that was not on my radar at all, I was completely hooked and played through the entire campaign multiple times, something I rarely do (even now!).

I also remember playing the original MechWarrior on the SNES and finding it a pale imitation of the shining diamond that was Earthsiege 2, it seemed more arcadey, slick and, to be honest…I was never a fan of Mode 7.

Admittedly, in the quarter of a century since, I’ve rarely returned to the genre and when I have, nothing has captured my imagination in the way that Earthsiege 2 did *wipes away a single tear*.

💾 Lowtek Games | Interview With Alastair Low 💾 @Wallmasterr #IndieGames #GameDev

I first became aware of Lowtek when I covered the Dreamcast version of Flea! Last year for The Mighty Games Freezer. I really enjoyed developer Ally Low’s genial personality and approach to not only the promotion of his game but also the updates of the upcoming title Tapeworm and so wanted to know more about Lowtek and its history. Who better to ask than the brains behind the operation!