Steve Wright
Steve's the owner of Stevivor and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.
Writing For
Stevivor Latest Reviews
After hours with People of Note, I feel like I owe it an apology as a result of my preview. This, the second game from Iridium, isn’t so much a music-based game than one about music. Instead, it’s better to call this equal parts RPG, narrative adventure, and puzzler — and each of People of Note‘s elements has been crafted with precision and care.
Survival horror fans are having the time of their lives at the moment, with remakes and new entries coming from franchises including Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and now Fatal Frame. Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have paired for Fatal Frame 2 Crimson Butterfly Remake, though sadly this one doesn’t reach the heights of other remakes in the genre.
Romeo is a Dead Man is the latest from Grasshopper Manufacture and SUDA51, the latter recently part of the somewhat lacklustre Hotel Barcelona. Whereas that title had some interesting ideas that ultimately fall through, Romeo is a Dead Man tries to get by on style and attitude alone, and will divide players accordingly.
Team Ninja is back with Ninja Gaiden 4, this time teaming up with PlatinumGames for a title published by Xbox Game Studios. Those who enjoyed previous entries in this series will find a lot to like about this new title, which is old school in almost every way. The problem is, that’s not always a positive.
Despite having a silly name — do you pronounce the “x” or not — Ball x Pit does what it says on the tin: it features a bevy of balls, and takes place in a pit. What it really is, though, is a wave-based brick breaker turned into a highly addictive roguelite.
Tarsier Studios may have been acquired by Embracer Group, but Little Nightmares lives on at Bandai Namco, now under the care of Dark Pictures‘ Supermassive Games. Though the masters of narrative horror nail the look and feel of the franchise, it itself may be a little long in the tooth, and poorly conceived.
We’ve had a number of Mario Kart clones over the past few years, and even a Smash Bros clone here or there, but Mario Party clones have been few and far between, until now. Meet LEGO Party, a bundle of mini-games looking to compete, if not best, Nintendo’s juggernaut.
Hotel Barcelona is the latest from cult favourites SUDA51 (No More Heroes) and SWERY (Deadly Premonition), and is as weird as those who recognise those developers’ names will expect it to be. A 2.5D sidescrolling roguelite, White Owls’ latest title will surely appeal to those who lap up surreal experience, though those who want a proper roguelite experience may find this one lacking.
As is the way, hockey expanded my horizons and put Wales Interactive on my radar. While I’d played some of the publisher’s previous titles in passing — Late Shift immediately comes to mind — it was Letterkenny star Michelle Mylett’s turn in The Complex that had me really paying attention to the full-motion video (FMV) titles coming from it and its film-making partners.
I sat down to write this review with the realisation that I’ve been reviewing EA Sports’ NHL franchise for 15 years now. Re-reading some of my reviews, I couldn’t help but laugh at the general advice I always seem to give: you probably don’t need to buy new iterations of the franchise each and every year; one every two years should sort you. In later years, that’s been adapted to exercising some patience and waiting until this or last year’s version eventually makes its way to Pl...