Published by Chucklefish and developed by Robotality, who brought us a sci-fi turn-based strategy RPG called Halfway back in 2014.
Robatality’s new game, Pathway is a strategy adventure game set in the 1930s and leans heavily on influences from Indiana Jones and XCOM style turn-based battles.
A PS4 port of a 2012 PS Vita game, if you are familiar with the Ys series, you are in safe, if familiar hands. If, however, the Ys games are something you have never played before, this acts as a great starting point.
An astonishingly well-balanced crafting game that is elevated through the use of a subtle but key narrative push, Aground is a game that I am already certain will make it into my ‘Games of the year’ list and I urge everyone to play it, there’s a free demo so I don’t want to hear any excuses!
Hardspace Shipbreaker is my new obsession! Embark on a journey to pay back the 1 Billion debt that you owe LYNX Corp and cut up a load of space ships in the process. You are basically a one-man scrap metal merchant and I love this game!
I first reviewed the original version of this game when it was released on PC in 2018 as Rigid Force Alpha. Below I have combined that review with updated thoughts on the Redux versions released on consoles.
TAITO Darius Cozmic Collection Console - PS4 £34.99
The Darius series pioneered horizontal Shoot 'Em Up Games and was developed by the legendary TAITO Corporation. The first Darius game wowed arcade going fans when it was released in 1986 with its dedicated dual-display cabinet, imaginative enemy designs and revolutionary sound design.
Darius Cozmic Collection Console - Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 includes 6 titles (9 versions) from the Darius home console series:
HomeSheepHome: Farmageddon Party Edition re-launches on the Greenlight label for Nintendo Switch and I have been playing this lovely little puzzler on my switch.
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout was Originally released in 2013 and now The award-winning cult classic point n click adventure game is back with a new paint job! You’ll set out to assist young Edna and her talking stuffed bunny Harvey on an attempt to escape from her padded cell.
You’ll be in for a thrilling ride as you get to experience a bizarre journey all across the insane asylum and then far beyond its brick walls.
Fly Bunch Boom! - Take 100g of Saturday morning 80’s cartoons, a slice of madness, two shots of over the top cartoon violence and your someways toward describing the crazy button timing beat em up that is Fly Punch Boom!
The Waylanders is pitched as a classic party-based RPG featuring some of the top-talents who brought us well-known titles within the genre like the Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Pillars of Eternity sagas.
Here's one for all you Space Invaders lovers out there...
TAITO and Strictly Limited Games announced what is reported to be the most complete Space Invaders collection on cartridge ever is coming to the Nintendo Switch.
Three limited, physical versions of the Space Invaders Invincible Collection will be available exclusively on strictlylimitedgames.com starting from Sunday June 28th.
Championship Manager 2 has been on my list of games to play on YouTube for years now and finally, I have pulled my finger out and taken the job of Nottingham Forest Manager.
Come see how my season unfolds in these short sharp Champ Manager vids.
By Ben Steele So Arcades are mainly a thing of the past now although there are still a few dotted around they are nothing like what they used to be and I feel bad for new generations never knowing that feeling of putting 10p or 20p coins into these wonderful machines and having the time of your life well the time of my life.
Fans of retro games will find this unearthed treasure a must to check out. With its pedigree, development team and new and updated restoration, UltraCore is a real nostalgic sojourn! ININ Games announced that they were now able to give fans of retro platformer games the opportunity to play Ultracore after more than two decades of waiting!
Was it Iron Maiden that once asked, “Can I play with madness?!” Well, thanks to the clever developers at Rock Pocket Games and Dreamloop Games now you can, Mr Dickinson. Moons of Madness is clearly a horror game for horror Lovecraft fans, Insert me! My approach to playing games of this genre is to turn off the lights and strap on a pair of headphones...I’m already scared - Send help! Headphones are essential when playing horrors - they help turn the milk chocolatey!
If you’re an avid gamer and you want to share your passion with other people, launching your own gaming website could be the ultimate endeavour. With the right tools and content, you can ever turn your hobby into a lucrative side hustle or your main source of income, so there really is no end to the benefits of creating your own site.
During your life, it’s safe to say that you’ll play a video game or two every now and then at the very least. If you’re not really a huge gamer, then you’re not exactly going to be staring at a screen as much as the rest of us, and that’s cool. You’ll still dabble in a few games here and there, though, due to curiosity! Everybody wants to, at the very least, try! There’s too much hype behind the gaming industry for you not to be a little interested.
Isle Of Spirits is a casual survival game based on accessibility and simplicity, Isle of Spirits has some really solid ideas but is let down by an oddly rigid, unforgiving end-game and a lack of diversity in the gameplay. Isle of Spirits begins with your character washed up on the shores of a deserted island, his goal? Escape. To do this, you’ll need to build a raft by collecting stone, wood, plants and the like from around the island and lashing them all together so that you can sail to safety.
Liberated is an exciting and surprisingly involving tale with a shifting narrative that is unfortunately marred by technical issues.
Told – very effectively – via the medium of a digital, 4-issue comic book, Liberated is a game that really connects with the player through the narrative. The desaturated imagery, in an almost cold-blue monochromatic style, drives home the storytelling.
Gaming Glasses was a term that I'd never really come across before but then I noticed a trend via explodingtopics.com which explained that during the COVID 19 outbreak gaming usage spiked and millions of gamers began suffering from dry eyes, dizziness and other symptoms of long gaming sessions.
Therefore more people began to use orange-tinted gaming glasses while playing. I was immediately sceptical of the effectiveness of these so-called 'Gamer Glasses' and set out on an intrepid journey of discovery through my use of Google and typing in those immortal words "Gaming Glasses"
Since the days of the Amiga, I’ve always enjoyed flight simulators with a more casual bent and the bi/triplanes of the first World War have always held a simple majesty. When I think of them, I’m reminded of titles such as Red Baron, Blue Max and of course public domain classic Biplanes (BIP). The more technical simulators with their keyboard overlays, glacial frame-rates and baffling multiple camera views never appealed to me, my trousers remained firmly buckled in their presence.
Aqua Lungers - Switch - £12.99 eShop Aqua Lungers at its heart is a frantic fun multiplayer game that is well made and knows exactly how to get players shouting at each other in the same room as each other as you steal treasure from a giant octopus and literally stab your fellow players in the back!
The Legendary Darius series pioneered horizontal Shoot 'Em Up Games and was developed by the TAITO Corporation.
The first Darius game was a hit when it was released in 1986 with its dedicated dual-display cabinet, imaginative enemy designs and revolutionary sound design.
The first Darius is set in a futuristic 2D world, where the player pilots a Silver Hawk craft alone, or with a second player, and shoots their way through enemy hordes, navigating tricky terrain and battling giant robotic sea creatures.
In Arboria you begin your journey in this dark fantasy rogue-lite as an ancient forest-dwelling troll-like warrior You will descend into the ever-changing forest and uncover the mysteries of your tribe.
You get to use a variety of Symbiotic Weapons to fight enemies and you will get the chance to mutate to become even stronger on each run.
Ever wondered what would happen if one of Rob Brydon’s cushy cruises turned bad?
Or if Jane McDonald hadn’t forged a daytime presenting career, but instead had to fight off hordes of bizarre beasties?
Of course, you have. Anyone who’s been on an ocean liner fears the day it’ll be overrun by marauding monsters with a taste for blood and a penchant for attacking people with suspect accents (more on that later).
Poly Bridge 2 The acclaimed bridge-building simulator is back and better than ever!
New levels, new mechanics, a custom physics engine, workshop campaigns, and much more! Rediscover your engineering creativity with even more hours of puzzling fun!
A mobile port to the Switch, Hill Climbing Mania makes no bones about its similarities to Fingersoft’s 2012 title, Hill Climb Racing. Whilst this is a ‘snack’ genre that I have had a lot of fun with on mobile platforms, InLogic’s title has too many issues for it to be a recommended purchase.
Here's some exciting news about a video game that nearly never came to light and as a bonus, it's from the talented people at Westone that made the Wonder Boy series! Strictly Limited Games and ININ Games announced today that Clockwork Aquario will be released in 2020 - after being lost for 27 years!
Get a 10% Discount by using the affiliate code FREEZER at the checkout!
Fury Unleashed is a combo-driven run n gun rogue-lite action-platformer and feels like its the love child between Metal Slug and Dead Cells whilst also looking at Broforce with longing looks.
In Fury Unleashed it’s all about achieving combo kills as each kill increases your combo and by hitting certain combo numbers and your damage resistance and healing powers kick in! Fury Unleashed oozes good looks and has a comic book vibe that hits the mark in every department as you play each panel of your comic book screen by screen.
As a fan of both golf and video games, any time the two collide, I fly into action on a pedal-powered whirligig that uses crossed 9-irons as rotors whilst screaming my battle cry of ‘Tommy Armour III’. I also have a penchant for Warioware-Esque mini-games and so What the Golf? appears to be genetically designed for my gaming palette. Good.
"PONG Quest™ bills itself as a new take on Pong as you take control of a brave young paddle and attempt to traverse treacherous randomly generated dungeons in a PONG®-themed dungeon-crawling RPG."
A puzzle game that requires two players, Tick Tock: A Tale for Two is a pleasant distraction for a couple of hours and a very neat idea that is worth a gander for the puzzle-lovers out there, especially during these locked-down times.
Volcanoids is a first-person, base building survival game set in the steampunk era.
You’ll get to Explore a volcanic island, operating giant drills and enduring eruptions triggered by mechanical beings while you try and unravel the mystery of what is causing the volcanic eruptions.
Operencia The Stolen Sun almost completely nails the sweet spot between an old school dungeon crawler and an up to date RPG and I think I like it a lot!
I’m a big fan of physical Escape Rooms and it seems to be a good fit to the gaming medium, what with it effectively being a series of puzzles. PlayTogether Studios have seized upon this idea and brought it to life with the resulting game being impressive, challenging and fun.
I was really excited about Wartile. I am a huge fan of strategy games like XCOM, Age of Empires, 8-Bit Armies etc. and have been since the 90s (playing Command & Conquer Red Alert over LAN was an experience).
Fledgling Heroes is giving me the Flappy Bird vibes but with more feathers and finesse. It has a lovely looking hand-drawn style of graphics and an ultra-tight control system that is easy to learn and hard to master. This is one slick fun video game. The game does feel very much like a mobile game that has been brought to the switch but that’s no bad thing as the game feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch and gives you a nice zen experience while you flap through this relatively short but fun side-scrolling flapper.
When I chart back my journey through video games over the years and I think back to my childhood years of playing video games a pivotal moment in video games always took place at a mates house.
From my first moments of seeing a Spectrum to the point where I realised I needed a PC these moments were all borne from a visit to a friend’s house who had the latest console or the coolest game of the time.
So let’s get into my own personal time machine and head on back to those key moments from when I was growing up and discovering video games for the first time.
Nelly Cootalot Spoonbeaks Ahoy is a quintessentially charming British pirate point n click video game that has stacks of humour and is played at a relaxing pace which is perfect for people who love to play old school point n click inventory based video games.
