Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "Formulaic Fun" 🏹 @emberlab #IndieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev

Hey you! Yeah, you! You like platforming games, yeah? And a bit of puzzling floats your boat? How about a bit of combat to keep things interesting? Yeah? You like that? Well then, step right this way, I’ve got something I think you might enjoy, even if you’ve probably played it before. 

Unstoppable PC Review 5/10 "You play a bicycle courier, tasked with delivering a mysterious package to a skyscraper" 🩸🔨 @unstoppable_go #IndieGame #GameDev

When I saw the trailer for Unstoppable, I thought “smacking things with hammers and crowbars until they die – right up my alley!” and eagerly volunteered to review the game.

But we all make mistakes. 

Bio, Inc Review By Dr Congo Fighting "It’s Kill or Cure" 🦠 @DryGinStudios #IndieGame #GameDev

Let’s just address the elephant in the room. About a decade ago, a game called Plague, Inc came out. It was published by Ndemic Creations, and it was a smash hit. In it, you played the part of a disease, with your aim being to wipe out humanity by evolving various symptoms, and trying to beat to the punch a global effort to create a cure. 

Bio, Inc is not that game, and nor is it a sequel. Neither is it made by Ndemic Creations, instead coming out of software house DryGin Studios. However, it is (to me, at least) a spiritual successor to Plague, Inc and shares a lot of its mechanics (and both have shared origins as mobile games), but with a few significant differences. It’s hard not to make comparisons between the two games, but I’ll do my best. Because I love you. Anyway, elephant done. 

Propagation: Paradise Hotel VR Review 8/10 "Zombies! Hotels! Horror!" 🧟 @PropagationVR #IndieGames #GameDev

Steak and chips. Cannon and Ball. Coffee and cream. Zombies and VR. Some things are just destined to go together. Yes, there are roughly 5 gazillion VR zombie games. Yes, some of them are rubbish. No, this isn’t one of them.

Kill It With Fire VR Review 7/10 "Lots and Lots Of SPIDERS!!!" 🕷️🔥 @KIWF_Game #IndieGames #GameDev

SPIDERS!

Still here? Well, they make some people run a mile so now they've all gone, let's talk about Kill It With Fire. Because this game features spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. 

Waaay back in the beforetime (1990), there was a movie called Arachnophobia, which also featured lots of spiders. If you haven't seen it, watch it, it's great. Anyway, the reason that comes to mind is one particular scene in which Jeff Daniels makes a flamethrower from a lighter and an aerosol can. This prompted a spate of arson-lite events at my school which resulted in a lot of kids nearly blowing their hands off with cans of Lynx Africa (which, by the way, smells even worse when it's lit), and general flame-based mayhem. 

Some 30-odd years later and Kill It With Fire comes to VR, giving you the opportunity to relive the excitement of the homemade flamethrower, but with none of the danger. 

But that isn't all. 

Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom VR Review 6/10 "TV Tie-Ins Are Difficult Territory" 👒 @PeakyBlindersVR #IndieGame #GameDev

For those who don’t know, the BBC TV series Peaky Blinders is an international phenomenon. Set in Birmingham just after the first World War, it focuses on the titular street gang as they… well, I don’t know, do street gang stuff, presumably.

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. 

Du Lac and Fey: Dance Of Death XSX Review 2/10 "Half-Arsed?" 🔎 @SalixGames #IndieGames #GameDev

The Collins English dictionary describes "half-arsed" as:

"ADJECTIVE

slang

incompetent; inept; badly organized"

And that's the main takeaway from this game. Let's get the praise part of this review out of the way. Don't worry, it won't take long. 

Du Lac and Fey: Dance Of Death has some nice writing and some really good voice acting. There. I told you it would be quick.  

2022 in review or The Toilet at the End of the World by Dr Congo Fighting 📆 #GOTY

I have been offered a "loving nudge" to write something about my favourite games of this year. I don't know what that is, but I'm keen to find out.

So here it is - my favourite video game "stuff" of the last year. 

Shatter Remastered Deluxe Review 9/10 ⛔️ @PikPokGames #IndieGames #GameDev

Brick-breaking games have been around for ages. AGES. I mean, in gaming terms, they were probably what the dinosaurs were playing just before they got too busy for gaming on account of a massive asteroid wiping them out. Were joysticks invented to address the problems T-Rex’s had with reaching a mouse and keyboard? I suppose we’ll never know. 

For the unfamiliar, brick-breaking games kinda do what it says on the tin – you’re in control of a  paddle, which you use to bounce a ball against bricks until they break. A bit like one-player ping pong. But that’s where the similarity ends as they’re a lot more fun than Forrest Gump’s favourite Olympic sport. 

🐒🏝️ Return To Monkey Island Review 7/10 "The 90’s. If you’re too young to remember them, they were great." 🐒🏝️ @grumpygamer @terribletoybox #ReturnToMonkeyIsland

The 90’s. If you’re too young to remember them, they were great. Bands were cheap to go and see, you didn’t need to mortgage a kidney to heat your house or feed yourself, and beer was reasonably priced.

But none of that mattered to me back then because we had point-and-click adventures. Which were ace. 

🧟 Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes | Nintendo Switch | Review | 7/10 | "Lots of fun is pinball. And zombies!" 🧟 @ZingGames #IndieGame #IndieGameDev

Pinball. Who doesn’t like pinball? The clanking, the bumpers, the desire to be on that top score leaderboard, the dreaded tilt. Lots of fun is pinball. And zombies! Who doesn’t like zombies? Well, obviously I’d rather they weren’t in my house or attempting to eat what little brains I have left, but as a cultural concept, zombies are great!

So naturally, when I heard that there was a zombie pinball game, I wanted in. Then I looked a bit closer... zombie pinball roguelike with tower defence elements, kinda?! WTF?! (Note to parents and younger readers – by this I mean Wow, That’s Fun?!). 

Naturally, I was fascinated and needed to know more. If you’re fascinated and need to know more, well, read on.

That’s kind of the point of me sitting here.

🐶🐰 Sam & Max Save The World | Review | Nintendo Switch | Review By Dr Congo Fighting | "The World’s Best-Loved Anthropomorphic Dog and Rabbit Crime-Fighting Duo" 🐶🐰 @skunkape #IndieGames #GameDev

1993. The Midlands - a landlocked region of the UK, the historic home to heavy industry, heavy metal, and heavy accents resembling a large and very vocal cat in the throes of regret, having attempted to eat a toffee.

Zoom in to the window of a bungalow in a village on the edge of a green belt. Further, the camera in the room now as a thirteen-year-old Dr Fighting settles in front of his friend's PC.

A 486, DX2 66MHz, no less. The monitor lights his face, hair plentiful on the scalp, sparse on the chin. Time later decided that this was completely the wrong way around, and changed things accordingly.

The floppy disc is inserted. The mouse steadied. A command or two at the DOS prompt and Sam and Max Hit The Road boots up, brilliant colours filling the screen. The odyssey begins...I am in love with this game.