Latest Reviews
Root Film tells a wonderfully winding, thrilling mystery in a true Edogawa Ranpo style, but what’s more important is that Root Film is a gorgeous visualisation of an often-ignored but deeply valuable part of Japan. If you walk away from this game with a deep desire to see Shimane for...
I was expecting Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S to be a fairly standard port of the previous Miku puzzle mobile title, MikuLogi. Why wouldn’t it be? The mobile game is excellent, with plenty of colourful puzzles, a good rewards loop (one new Miku artwork for every puzzle completed!) and it...
I’m all for games being complex, challenging, and unforgiving. Just this week I reviewed a simulation title, in A-Train, that comes dangerously close to being a genuine degree in urban planning and an MBA, rolled into one. But, if you are going to go down the route of unforgiving complexity,...
Gnosia might not be a new concept – there are so many video games out there that feature death games with deception at the core of them. Last year’s Quantum Suicide even set the scene in space and had a less-than-benevolent AI pulling many of the strings, just like Gnosia...
Dry Drowning reminds me a little of another game that I went into with absolutely no expectations, and went on to become one of my favourite games of all time: Tokyo Dark: Remembrance. Both are heavily inspired by noir and horror elements, though Tokyo Dark is Lovecraftian and Dry Drowning...
Harvest Moon: One World is ultimately forgettable and limited, but I didn’t regret my time playing it. Perhaps that is simply because I’m such a fan of these anime-casual farming sims, and have been since the “genre” emerged all the way back on the SNES, but as someone who has...
Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection is a harsh game that wastes little time in making it clear that this is entirely the point. Then again, why should Capcom’s venerated and vintage platform action series waste any time? If you’ve ever played any of the games in the series, you’ll already be...
Littlewood is charming and bright, and wears its “indie spirit” on its sleeve. The developer has created something highly playable that also acts as a lovely homage to the Harvest Moon tradition. By all accounts, Littlewood has been a commercial success, too, on its prior release on PC. That success...
Exactly. Maquette allows a good chunk of its potency as a narrative experience be undermined by the quality of its puzzles. I don’t think the developers have done a poor job with either. I just don’t think the two distinct elements at play in this game come together in a...
Over the last few years, the last vestiges of “the console wars” being anything more than pathetic capitalist sycophancy have washed away. The various players within the industry work together with increasing frequency, and where once there was a point to having a preferred console (because they would end up...
Once again, here, too, Bravely Default II shows itself to be equal parts homage and deconstruction of the genre roots. These characters are, in broad strokes, traditional to the genre. But they’re all given twists and quirks that pull them very far out of those typecasts and encourages you to...
So there are some very clear positives and very clear negatives to Little Nightmares II. The narrative is quite good, solid with lots of meaning flowing beneath the surface. The gameplay is mostly simple enough, the settings are ugly-pretty, the music enhances everything. Basically, it does wrap into a neat...
