review

From the moment we got a glimpse of Animal Well during an Indie World Showcase last April, it sent tongues wagging with its unique premise and visual identity, becoming an easy add to plenty of 'Most Anticipated' lists. Its association with indie publishing label Bigmode, run by popular YouTuber...

While smartwatches have become popular companions for fitness tracking and smartphone notifications, they are definitely not for everyone. To quote one audience member's comment in one of my previous smartwatch reviews: "I have no need for telling time in 4K". Behind such comments are the often...

One of the finest examples that I can think of that highlight the differences between Western and Eastern game development, and some of the weaknesses that we as a collective industry have in critiquing video games, is to look at Dante's Inferno and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron...

There is massive money on the table for the first localization outfit that can produce high-quality translations of Chinese-developed games for their Western release. Unfortunately, we don't have that localization infrastructure yet. It has only been in the last decade or so that games from...

Of all the ways to use the mighty Demon Slayer license I honestly did not expect a Mario Party clone to be one of the first. And yet, that's what has happened. Following hot on the heels of the perfectly reasonable slash-em-up from from a few years ago comes Sweep the Board, and it is a whole...

"Fuckin' magnets, how do they work?" It's the immortal words sung by the Insane Clown Posse in their 2009 meme of a song, Miracles, that have stuck with the internet to this day. It's a lyric that I don't particularly spend much time paying heed to, but one that I couldn't help but bring to mind...

Talk to any video game fan over 30 about 3D platformers and they're liable to stare wistfully into the middle distance and start mumbling about the 'golden age.' Once Super Mario 64 arrived and codified the form, the decade straddling the millennium delivered a trove of colourful treasures that...

Endless Ocean Luminous is a rare treat. We live in a world where the games industry is steadfastly committed to speed. Often it's done through violence and combat, but not always. Even puzzle game developers are on the hunt for ways to make their ideas flow as snappily as possible. And then...

Epyx is one of those old publishers that commands a fearsome reputation today among a very cultish group of retro fans. You may well have heard of some of the company's classics, but in comparison to the likes of Super Mario, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Myst, Zork or Wizardry, the chances are slim...

Though the peak years of the 3D platformer genre were in the late '90s and early 2000s, there's been a bit of a resurgence in interesting new genre entries in recent years. Titles such as Glyph and Lunistice have shown that smaller platforming projects can be just as compelling as the more...

It's not difficult to make spiders scary. Many people are frightened of them anyway, even when they're normal sized and not reproducing at an apocalyptic pace. In this way, the new French film Infested is playing the horror-movie game on easy mode: All it needs are a few hairy legs and a cluster...

El Shaddai is an artistic endeavour in the same vein as Rez or Thatgamecompany's Journey, taking action genre norms and weaving them into an avant-garde, visual tour de force. Anyone familiar with the ill-fated Clover Studio, a Capcom subsidiary that started out in 2004 developing for the...

Since 2018 Kospet has been progressively iterating smart watches into something increasingly more desirable. Today I have the Kospet Tank T3 Ultra to try out and if first impressions are anything to go by, I think we have a strong contender for the top spot when it comes to affordability...

When picturing a Soulslike, Another Crab's Treasure isn't what comes to mind. This underwater adventure through a world of cartoon crabs is a far cry from the gritty dark fantasy aesthetic popular in the genre, but that helps it stand out. Even while upholding genre traditions like somber...

Library of Ruina is less than the sum of its parts. While this visual novel's dialog sets up a well-established, deep world with interesting characters, its talky repetitiveness eschews plenty of opportunities to make the most of what it's trying to set up. And even with a compelling, card-based...

The SaGa titles are part of a series that started life as Final Fantasy Legend, named to capitalise on Square's blossoming juggernaut. Despite being separate creative endeavours, the two franchises have grown up together. While never achieving the superstar status of its sibling, SaGa has carved...

Many games can get away with slightly sketchy performance if the gameplay experience is a bit more laidback and relaxed (or 'cinematic', if you like). Others, however, like Slave Zero X, which focus on blistering combat and stylish visuals, can be almost impossible to recommend if their...