Bloodhound Xbox Review 4/10 "Bit of a dog’s dinner" 🐕 @knfproductions #IndieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev

I fear the word ‘retro’ sometimes. It can mean a loving homage to a classic release, or a genre. It can mean taking a game back to basics and focusing on great gameplay over Triple A graphics and presentation.

Bloodhound is retro in that it harks back to a golden age (for old gits like me) of gaming. Graphically it reminded me of games like Doom II/Quake and Duke Nukem , and even more so to the similarly titled Blood, from 1997. The trailer certainly piqued my interest with it’s fast-paced gameplay and throbbing rock soundtrack. When I was sent the preview copy I was EXCITED.

Star Wars: Battlefront Collection | Xbox Series X Review | 4/10 “Turned To The Dark Side” 💩 #StarWars

There are two things I have a deep hatred for that are part of a lot of childhoods, and they are E.T, and Wookiees. Now, I won’t go into why I hate Mr Extra Terrestrial, but Wookiees are related directly with Battlefront 2, as a kid I loved these games, my friend and I played them for hours and hours - they are highlights of my childhood, but one memory sticks out and that's the time - whilst fighting a particularly tough battle - it came down to 10 vs 8, our team finally had the lead after replaying this missions several times, and victory was finally in sight! I had a fool-proof plan to win… get in a ship and take the enemy down from the skies. As I made my run to the ship, a Wookiee ran from the other side, entered the ship, and then flew it straight into the landing bay door destroying not just himself and the ship but also my hopes and dreams. As I stood in the landing bay filled with hate and disappointment, the enemy overturned the deficit and won. That moment changed me, I became a different person… I was now... a Wookiee hater.

Uzzuzzu My Pet: Golf Dash (mini-review) Nintendo Switch 4/10 ⛳️ @RedDeer_Games #GameDev #IndieGame

Based on a popular South Korean franchise, Uzzuzzu My Pet: Golf Dash takes visual, stylistic and gameplay cues from What the Golf?

But it unfortunately fails to capture the charm and replayability that oozes from every pore of the game that it apes. 

Anthology of Fear Xbox Series X Review 4/10 “Five Minutes on YouTube” 🏥 @AnthologyofFear #IndieGame #GameDev

Walking down corridors and having something shout “boo!” is great, but they do wear thin after a while, and as much as I love horror, I definitely need a break from the horror walking simulator genre. Well, after playing Layers of the Fear a couple of months ago, I booted up Anthology of Fear put on my walking shoes and headed down the creepy corridors.

Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo Nintendo Switch Review 4/10 “VertigNo” 🕵️‍♂️ @pendulostudios #IndieGames #GameDev

I had a plan when this game was released, I had promised myself this year to watch more Hitchcock movies, and so before I played Vertigo, I would sit down and watch the film version first - and then dive straight into the game. I hoped that by watching the original source material I would enrich my gaming experience by having a fuller picture and understanding how this game embodies the film on which it is based.

I can say that watching the film Vertigo didn’t really help. The game doesn’t follow the plot at all, it takes a couple of aspects but changes them heavily which isn’t a bad thing, per se. The game tries to have a Hitchcockian vibe and incorporate the ‘master of suspense’ style into many aspects of the game. This is a huge undertaking, and the game never gets near hitting the heights of Hitchcock or Vertigo.

📸🔪 Dreadout 2 Xbox Series X 4/10 “Less is more” 📸🔪 @dreadoutgame #IndieGames #GameDev

I have spent my last few reviews lamenting over the horror genre, all the games had similar flaws and each of them seemed to languish in generic plots without a hint of originality, so going into Dreadout 2 I was hoping for a big kick up the butt, with a horror game filled with new ideas and an amazing plot.

Nope. within the first twenty minutes, I could see where we were heading, except it now included technical problems. Now, this game is obviously made on a budget, so I do cut it some slack, but it does things that make you think, “if you’re on a budget… just don’t do it, horror is the perfect genre to scale back and subscribe to the motto less is more”.

📷 35mm | PS4 | Review | 4/10 | "The very last task you’re given is to find three batteries hidden in a city..." 📷 @PixelHunted

When the apocalypse arrives it’ll probably be kinda boring. Games like Fallout, The Last of Us, and Days Gone are all razzle-dazzle combat, world-changing drama, and malformed flesh-eating monsters to mulch.

Contrast that with 35mm, in which I spent an hour trudging through an abandoned village trying to find a bucket so I could use a grubby broken-down well. Let’s face it, that’s probably a more realistic scenario for you if civilisation collapsed.

💥 SHINORUBI | PC | Review | 4/10 | "I Am A Basic Bitch When It Comes To Shmups" 💥 #IndieGame #GameDev #SHMUPS @LastBoss88 @PixelHunted

I am a basic bitch when it comes to shmups. I’ve played Treasure classics Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, Jeff Minter’s neon ungulate work, and dabbled in a few Cave shooters. This is like being into music and only having listened to The Beatles, and vast swathes of bullet hell games have passed me by in a blizzard of neon, clashing colours, and J-rock soundtracks.

Consequently, bullet hell is a genre I admire from a distance. Deep in my bones I know I’m never going to be good at it but I can appreciate what works and what doesn’t.

All of which brings me to indie dev Last Boss 88’s SHINORUBI, a new early access title “inspired by classic shooting games”. You know the drill, pick your ship and jump into a vertically scrolling battlefield teeming with enemies, power-ups and thousands of bullets. The developers promise “all the best aspects of Japanese bullet hell games” in super shiny Ultra HD.

🛹🐦 Skatebird | Nintendo Switch | Review | 4/10 | "Tony Squawks" 🐦🛹@glassbottommeg #GameDev #IndieGames

I'm a curmudgeonly old sod. I remember seasons living up to their descriptions, and turning up when they should. I remember having to memorise phone numbers if I wanted to call someone. I remember penny sweets being a penny. And I remember the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater coming out. 

And there lies the rub. In reviewing Skatebird, I find myself constantly wondering whether Tony ruined me for other men. Birds. Games. OK, it isn't a great analogy but, we are where we are.

👎 Ploid | NES | Review | 4/10 | "It’s not very good " 👎 @PixelHunted @NapeGames #Nes #IndieGames #GameDev

If you have a spare $400 you can buy a painting made by an elephant. With a brush clutched in its trunk, the elephant makes a couple of marks on a page which the gallery names things like “Banana Surprise” or “My Feather Boa”. It seems like a good racket and apparently, the elephants have fun.

But how do you evaluate an elephant’s painting? 

Can you compare it with a human artist, or is the fact that an elephant has painted something worthy of praise in and of itself?

This is the conundrum presented by Nape Games’ Ploid, a new NES game that runs on original hardware. 

Do I hold it next to other 2021 releases, review it as if it’d come out in 1988, or simply marvel that it exists at all?