Sworn to a life out of the limelight, our protagonist is dragged into a situation where he must once again waggle his joystick better than anyone else, as he strives to best the thugs from a competing arcade at their chosen games…or not, as the case may be.
A couple of years ago, I was in a charity shop in my home town of Cardiff and saw a good number of Fighting Fantasy books for sale and grabbed them all. After reading a couple, the fun of the experience set back in and it sparked some conversations with friends – especially my GF colleague Max – as the design of the books is timeless, and there’s universal accessibility in them that I’ll touch upon later.
In short, the chance to write about Joe Dever’s Flight in the Dark could not have been more timely.
The game went down a storm, and I’m already keen to play again!
And so, a few months ago when Jandusoft began to tease the release of The Creepy Syndrome, my britches were full of twitches!
Escape From The Red Planet simplifies resource management, tower defence, and first-person mechanics into a singular arcade experience. On the latest mission to Mars, the Orion III crash-landed. With Martian attacks looming, Houston most definitely has a problem!
Redemption Reapers opens with a very engaging cinematic, it’s very effective and does a good job setting up the narrative whilst sowing intrigue. It introduces us to our band of mercenaries, ‘The Ashen Hawk Brigade’ who have taken up the fight against The Mort - a destructive band of orc-like creatures who have swept through the land, decimating village after village.
It’s an interesting setup and I was definitely invested quickly, the problem came about three-quarters of the way through my time with Redemption Reapers, when I realised the opening had been the most impactful thing so far - and though I was enjoying my time in this world, it never managed to recapture that initial interest.
In any case, music producer Mustin has released an album in celebration. Mario Mixtape is a genre-hopping collection of remixes of tracks from Nintendo’s number one franchise, written by Mustin himself and produced with his 17-year-old son Logan.
The twelve tracks cover the entire series, from the underground theme in the original game, all the way through Dr Mario and Super Smash Bros. Melee, to a military drum-filled version of Attack of the Airships from Super Mario Galaxy.
Standouts are the electro-swing Delfino Plaza, from Super Mario Sunshine, and the city pop-esque Piranha Plant’s Lullaby from Super Mario 64. This album is a lot of fun and gives a new lease of life to a lot of tracks you forgot you knew.
Mario Mixtape is available on all streaming services, and if you want to support Mustin directly (as I always recommend) it’s available digitally and on CD for $ 9.99 USD on his Bandcamp page.
So, when presented with the opportunity to take a closer look at World Away’s Speedonauts, I was excited, but also concerned about developing another snowsport addiction.
It was an intriguing and novel concept – a challenge to make the smallest handheld console ever made, and for it also to be a fully functional system.
However, I’m acutely aware of anything that can assist with my younger brother’s daily issues with certain frequencies triggering incredibly debilitating, migraines (it doesn’t help that I communicate with him exclusively by blowing on a whistle for differing lengths of time - in a language entirely of my own devising, to be honest) and also, with me being the singer/guitarist in a band outside of GF (www.recluse.bandcamp.com), I’m only too aware of the long-term effects of poor ear-care combined with consistent exposure to loud volumes without due preparation.
And so I contacted Flare, who kindly sent out promotional units for us to cover.
I have to say that the results of using Calmer have been quite astonishing.
Curiously though, before getting this for review I’d never played Settlers of Catan (or Catan, as it’s now officially called). It’s one of the board games that’s credited with bringing the hobby into the mainstream, with simple rules and fairly deep gameplay (at least, if you compare it to Scrabble).
The gameplay is largely the same, which is a good thing, as there has been a long-running joke between my brother and me in that the first thing he would ask me about the new WWE game would be, “Have they changed the control scheme again?”, so it was nice this year to say “no, it’s the same as last year, they haven’t moved counter to RB… no, its X this year… no, wait! You wiggle the thumb stick!”.
Odyssey will know of my love for the Amiga. The singularly impressive sound chip and sheer creativity from artists of the time mean that there’s a really special moment and nostalgia for me when I get lost in the Amiga soundscape.
I’d say I spend more time listening to the music of various Amiga games than actually playing the games themselves because the audio is so evocative and transportive.
Building on the success of the original retro racing hit, Formula Retro Racing: World Tour introduces new tracks and car types for an additional level of depth.
You'll race through iconic global locations, compete against other drivers, and try to beat your lap times.
Do you have what it takes to master each racing line, hug every apex, and cross the chequered flag to victory?
GameSir today announces the launch of its new T4 Kaleid RGB gaming controller. Equipped with special motion aim/steer technology, users can enjoy their favourite games with motion control, or through regular analogue stick gameplay.
The GameSir T4 Kaleid is available on the GameSir website now at a discounted rate of $41.99/£41.99 (RRP £41.99) and AliExpress for £37/$43.
It will also be available on Amazon.com and Amazon UK at the end of April for $41.99/£41.99/€57.99
Boasting Hall-Effect magnetic sensing joysticks providing anti-drift technology, the T4 Kaleid is a durable controller that retains its precision over the course of its use. Joy-con drift can greatly impact gaming, so users of the T4k can rest assured that their controller will not be affected by the wear down caused by continued heavy usage.
In Wall World, you'll explore the mysterious Wall World on your giant robot spider: mine for valuable resources, upgrade your equipment to fight off hordes of monsters and discover exotic biomes in-between attacks.
Will you be able to survive and learn the secrets of the Wall World?
As the installation percentage slowly rose, I cast my mind back to the sessions on my PC with the initial Clash games, they were incredibly unique titles with flawed but fun mechanics that had a narrative style and structure that called to mind Ice-Pick Lodge’s Pathologic – but the Clash series was different in that they actually held up to close scrutiny and were fun to play.
It’s a heady combination when you discover a developer that isn’t afraid to go off-piste with their narrative presentation, whilst also pushing forward a pretty niche genre, in this case, an FPS melee combat / RPG hybrid.
Fast forward to the present and within a couple of hours, I was completely on board with the third title in this long-running series - Clash: Artifacts of Chaos.
This is the setup for the tense and atmospheric Loretta, from developer Yakov Butuzoff. The game wears its influences on its sleeve, attempting to capture the paranoid vibes of Hitchcock movies like Vertigo, Dial M for Murder and a smidge of the desolate Psycho. Less a game and more of a visual novel, Loretta lets you guide the titular housewife through one of the worst weeks of her life while her sanity gradually crumbles under the weight of her past and her murderous inclinations.
Syntech, an innovative manufacturer of quality and affordable electronic accessories and consumer technology products has today announced the launch of its new 6-in-1 USB-C Docking Station for Steam Deck.
Providing users with 6 different ports to meet most needs, and the ability to output to a 4K monitor or TV at 60Hz, it is a handy and ergonomically designed gadget to complement a Steam Deck gaming setup.
The Syntech 6-in-1 Docking Station for Steam Deck is available for £39.99/$39.99 on Amazon UK and Amazon US
Post Void is a hypnotic scramble of early first-person shooter design that values speed above all else. Keep your head full and reach the end; Kill what you can to see it mend; Get the high score or try again.
The latest addition to the HaloLock™ system continues ESR’s mission to level up MagSafe
ESR, a leading global brand in tech accessories, today launches its latest product to level up MagSafe, the HaloLock™ Power Bank Wallet. Instead of having to choose between attaching a wallet, stand, or a power bank on the back of a phone, the HaloLock™ Power Bank Wallet combines all three in one convenient, user-friendly accessory.
The HaloLock™ Power Bank Wallet is available from 6th April on Amazon for $59.99 with UK and European availability on Amazon in May.
Shapeshift Records came hurtling onto the vinyl scene in 2022, when they released GOTHAM ‘89, a soundtrack of an imagined 16-bit Batman video game, good.
When a label does something this audacious, it tends to stick in the mind, I mean – if that’s how they kick off – what is the next release going to be, can they top this?
It turns out that the guys and gals behind Shapeshift Records are not shy, and this, their second release is an absolute belter- and will make a lot of Ghostbuster-lovin’ folks very happy.
It wasn’t until after I’d played Saga of Sins for a few hours that it dawned on me that I’d played a game by the developer before and it was interesting to compare the style of the two releases, especially visually!
I don’t know because I’ve never watched it. I’ve seen it, but I haven’t watched it. The main reason for this is that I am a native of those lands, and after about 10 minutes of it, the accents grated on my nerves so much that I turned it off, never to watch it again.
