With Christmas not far away and with talk about delivery issues for all sorts of things, you might want to consider getting some of your gifts in early, and Tonies have a number of things you will want to consider.
Your entry ticket to a whole new world of adventures and audio fun for children is how Tonies describe their products, and they are not wrong.
There is a Tonies box which requires you to place one of the Tonies characters on in order play its content, whether it’s a story, a song or something else.
It’s very easy to use at any age as all you need to do is remove the character and place another on, it really is that simple, and it works very well. We have been using Tonies and listening to stories and songs on it for over 2 years now and is part of our nightly bedtime routine, and sometimes our morning routine too.
Welcome to Adventure Bay, the home of six heroic pups: Marshall, Rubble, Chase, Rocky, Zuma and Skye. Led by a young boy named Ryder, the PAW Patrol use their unique blend of skills to work together on high-stake rescue missions to protect the Adventure Bay community.
Marshall
Marshall is available now priced at £14.99, with a running time of 54 minutes.
Skye
Skye is available now priced at £14.99, with a running time of 58 minutes.
Chase
Chase is available now priced at £14.99, with a running time of 54 minutes.
Each one of the pups has a different sets of stories, for example for Skye has two Sea Patrol stories and Marshall has 4 different stories. If you, or your little ones are fans of PAW Patrol then these are a must have addition and will really help bedtime go more smoothly. The attention to detail is amazing and the sound quality is great too! We cant wait to see which is the next pup to be released!
Strictly Limited Games, together with Natsume Inc. are happy to announce the pre-order start of the iconic ‘Shooting gallery’ shmup, Wild Guns Reloaded. There will be different special versions of the boxed release, which will be available for pre-order from October 3rd, 2021 only at Strictly Limited Games.
Fans of the wild west shoot ‘em up can get Wild Guns Reloaded as boxed Limited Edition and Collector’s Editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Plus, there will be something special for the retro game enthusiasts out there – the popular, acclaimed ‘90s classic Wild Guns will be coming back in limited quantities for SNES!
Wild Guns is a classic fast-paced arcade-style shooter, mixing classic Wild West with futuristic yet retro steampunk. Play as Clint or Annie and jump, dive, and roll to get out of the way of the barrage of bullets enemies let fly. Grab a friend and face your enemies together in 2-player co-op! Gather machine guns, grenade launchers, shotguns and bombs to defeat the various enemies and bosses in different stages, all of which are coming with a visually outstanding and detailed design.
As the worthy remastered version of the classic game, Wild Guns Reloaded brings you two additional characters for some thrilling four player action. Besides Annie and Clint, you now also join the fight against the futuristic mech-opponents as Doris and Bullet the dog!
Wild Guns Reloaded additionally features:
Enhanced visuals
Two new characters added to the Wild Guns roster – Doris and Bullet
Up to four players cooperative play (local play)
Additional stages – ‘Underground’ and ‘Flying Ship’
New weaponry to master
With all the new content, however, Wild Guns Reloaded is making sure that players still get the original Wild Guns experience as it stays true to the roots of the original.
The well-known gaming site Nintendo Life had high praise for the game, saying:
“Wild Guns Reloaded sets the new benchmark on how to bring back old Super Nintendo titles to the current generation of gamers. It not only manages to remain faithful to everything that made up the original such a stellar effort, but actually offers some worthwhile new content. Solid, memorable and fun arcade shooting action that will keep you coming back for more, even if only to see Bullet hovering about while grappled by his lethal drone”. 9/10 Excellent.
Get yourself an awesome limited Edition for pre-order at the Strictly Limited Games Shop.
The Wild Guns Reloaded Limited Edition is available for €29.99 and limited to 2,000 copies for Nintendo Switch and 1,000 copies for PlayStation 4.
Farming Simulator games capture many players’ imaginations. Whether it’s the ultra-realistic Farming Sim franchise or the cutesy Harvest Moon type game, there is something for everyone. I admit I regularly get swept up in the hype surrounding these types of games, so I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to play Monster Harvest. It’s a hybrid of Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, and Pokémon, so in theory, what’s not to like?
Developed by Maple Powered Games and published by Merge Games, this is a cute farming simulator. Set in a colourful world, you must run a farm, grow Planimals and battle your neighbours and wild creatures.
Monster Harvest has a very generic plot.
Chances are that if you are reading this review, you’ve already played many of the market-leading titles. If that is the case, you’ll be disappointed to hear that Monster Harvest comprises a very generic storyline! You control a boy or girl who must turn around the fortunes of a rundown farm. You will clear the land, till the soil, plant seeds, and run your newfound business.
So, nothing new there! However, this is the moment of the grand reveal….your uncle (a mad scientist) has harnessed the power of slime. This wonderful discovery allows people to grow Planimals (plants + animals, you see what they did there?). He wants you to spend your time working the farm whilst also investigating the local slime company, Slimeco. This is Monster Harvest’s overarching plot in a nutshell. It may be well-trodden, yet, let’s not write it off because it lacks originality.
Take some time out from farming and have a cold beverage.
Cold interactions and the usual town setup.
This genre is renowned for the many interactions you have with the locals. This heartwarming mechanic makes you feel part of the community and creates additional side quests. However, none of that is true in this title. Conversations with your neighbours do build rapport, but there is no indication that it changes the gameplay. You are never presented with gifts or love, and there are certainly no additional tasks. Subsequently, the time spent in the village feels cold and heartless. This was truly disappointing, as I enjoy building relationships, yet, sadly, this key element was missing.
Another element that appears too generic and safe was the ‘normal’ selection of shops. Purchasing goods for everyday use was only a click away, but it never wowed me. I hoped that the main concept would evolve beyond its safe limitations, but it never did. You’ll purchase food and seeds to keep you going throughout, yet this is more out of necessity than a desire to be the best farmer. A vast selection of seasonal seeds can be selected and grown to sell, eat, grow hybrid plants, or cooked once you get the relevant tools.
You’ve got to start somewhere.
Turn-based combat and no daily timer.
Growing Planimals should have been Monster Harvest’s saving grace, yet it never takes off. Sadly, this is because the combat is unrewarding, mainly. Arena-like battles take place in a five-floored dungeon and against three locals every Friday. The latter eventually leads to the main fight that isn’t worth the effort. The dungeon that is far too small to be the centre of all the action does at least offer some challenge. Each turn-based fight asks you to take on wild creatures with your homegrown talent. Victory rewards you with resources, XP, and seeds, and little else. Defeat, however, results in you losing your beloved Planimals. Subsequently, the small amount of effort isn’t rewarded, and you are left feeling deflated.
Where Monster Harvest stands out against its peers is the bizarre choice to remove the daily countdown. You can spend as much or as little time as you wish on each day as long as you have stamina. Theoretically, this is an excellent idea, but in reality, removing this restriction gives you too much free rein. The developers had an all-or-nothing attitude, and this proves that less is definitely more.
You can mark your progress with festivities and the aforementioned weekly fights. Less said about the fights, the better and probably the same can be said about each seasonal event. These limp affairs will pale in comparison to its peers, and you’ll be wondering how the developers missed the mark so drastically.
Monster Harvest looks retro, cute, and colourful.
For all its shortcomings, Monster Harvest has excelled in its visuals. I loved its cool retro style, pixelated imagery and vivid colour palette. This is exactly what I hoped to experience when I saw it first advertised, and I wasn’t disappointed. Sadly, though, for its great style, the gameplay is loaded with bugs and glitches. I had performance issues galore and the game repeatedly crashed. For a title that isn’t hardware heavy, I expected it to be much more stable.
The audio is also presented as expected. The calm and serene music allows you to calmly work the fields. However, it increases with pace and aggression during battle scenes. I enjoyed the change in tone and style and this helped to keep the standard gameplay from becoming boring. I liked the sound effects and the basic yet effective noises matched each action and weather front.
Keep yourself busy with plenty of crops.
An easy to control farming sim.
With many tasks to complete, this had the chance to be complicated. Fortunately, a well laid out set-up and responsive buttons make Monster Harvest easy to play. Sadly, what isn’t so easy to understand are the additional mechanics such as the Planimals. These elements could be easily overlooked by new players to the genre and the developers should have made the basics clearer.
This genre usually oozes replay value and you’ll struggle to put down a moreish title. This can’t be said for Monster Harvest, as the story is short and the core concept doesn’t evolve. It’s a shame, as it has plenty of potential, but it fails to deliver on what should be an excellent title.
Monster Harvest isn’t bad. It simply can’t compete with its peers.
This review has a negative vibe, and this isn’t because Monster Harvest is bad. No, it simply can’t compete with its peers. It fails to highlight its unique selling point, and this damages its potential. It has so much going for it, yet it’s comfortable to never excel in any area. There are better examples from the genre, and I don’t recommend this one. However, if you want a copy, it can be purchased here! Run your farm, grow your crops, and defeat every Planimal you encounter.
After a long period away from our TV sets, the Cotton series, one of the originators of the Cute ’em up sub-genre, has been revived by publisher Success with Cotton: Reboot! which reboots (and includes) the 1993 X68000 Sharp computer release of the first game of the series Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton.
Cotton, the titular named character, is a young witch with an almighty sweet tooth who chases any lead that would deliver the holy grail of sweets – her beloved ‘Willow’. Most often, the faint promise of said sugary goodness is fed to her by Silk, a fairy who tries to tempt, convince and cajole Cotton into saving her kind.
Accompanying the amusing cutscene-based story is some nice Japanese voice acting.
A modern take on the original, the reboot mode, Arrange, is an addictive and manic explosion of color and bullets that meshes well with an in-depth item system while attempting to ease you into the 7 increasingly difficult stages. The assortment of ways to grasp and wield this multi-colored beast means that every playthrough feels unique but makes sense to a grand total of no one – to begin with anyway.
The system itself revolves around jewels dropped by defeated enemies, which can enhance and spread your stream of bullets, be picked up to increase your point total, or provide you with magic to launch attacks. Shooting them also changes their color, which in turn changes their potentially acquired magic, and jewels shot for a long period of time turn black for huge point increases. Another element to further mix this up is a multiplier feature called Jewel Fever which converts defeated enemies into a multiplied score and is best launched with a screen full of jewels and enemies.
Shooting jewels kills two birds with one stone, building up your multiplier (bottom left) and splitting your bullet stream into two.
Thankfully, a tutorial is provided in an attempt to make this somewhat fathomable to beginners and once you get the hang of it (and are sufficiently caffeinated) – it’s a blast, and chasing the insane online scores will have you coming back for more. How often you return to it will likely depend on the effort you put into learning the intricacies of the item system, but even then your success of which can sometimes feel more like trying to align fruit in a slot machine rather than anything skill-based.
This is especially true with the different magic power-ups that are gained by picking up jewels. Not only is shooting the jewels to your desired color hard enough, but the order of your acquired magic is fixed and can’t be selected from, so when you inevitably pick up the wrong colored jewel you often end up spamming the magic button regardless of what’s next, which makes the system quite random. A further offender is the point multiplier, which displays huge figures across the screen almost immediately after firing it up, obstructing a large part of the screen and putting all your efforts in peril unnecessarily.
Personally, I’d have preferred the challenge be with defeating the enemies and bosses instead of wrestling with the weapons, but it doesn’t negate the satisfaction that can be had from a successful run.
Prizes for those who can tell me who’s hiding behind door No.1
The X68000 mode, instead of a constant stream of color and flying paraphernalia, is a more subtle mode, and with fewer complications gives you time to breathe. Simpler weapons and plainer visuals make the original pop as much as the reboot, however, giving space for every feature to shine instead of being drowned out by the noise of its presentation.
The soundtrack can now be heard, for example, and the sprites seem more vibrant, coming together for a more cohesive effort that you feel more in control of.
Rather than this being better or worse than the reboot, this juxtaposes brilliantly in the overall package, giving you two very different experiences.
This mode comes off poorly when looking at screenshots, but is actually looks far better when playing.
Further online fun can be had with a Time Attack mode which are fast and frenetic incarnations of the reboot version in 2-min or 5-min loops with smaller enemies.
If this game has anything though – it’s character, with upbeat tunes filling the menus and stages with head-bopping melodies. The soundtrack is addicting enough to warrant turning off all other sounds to enjoy the mix of retro beats, screaming guitars, and poppy riffs. Complimenting the energetic presentation further is the amusing relationship of Cotton and her tiny friend which maximizes the charm, and comes together to create a warm and fuzzy experience that is good enough to forgive the sometimes spotty translation.
Despite the reboot’s imperfections, Cotton: Reboot! is still a very good package of side-scrollers that provides enough replay value and variety to revitalize a long-dormant franchise and provide enjoyment to a new generation of shoot em’ up gamers. The price point might seem a little steep for those only looking for the retro experience, but I’d be willing to bet that most would be won over by its charm if given the chance.
The horror genre divides its fan base like no other. Do the developers go old-school and stick to tried and tested jumpscares? Or do they play it much more casually while sticking to psychological tricks of the mind? Whichever method is used, you best be prepared for brown trouser moments and unnerving shenanigans. In Sound Mind utilises the latter option while focusing on multiple story arcs and exploration.
Developed by We Create Stuff and published by Modus Games, this is a first-person horror exploration title. Set in an undefined time, you must search for answers while solving puzzles and taking on unique boss fights. You’ll explore a weird world that blends reality with a dreamlike state. With some borderline clichéd mechanics, this is a title that may divide opinions.
In Sound Mind cleverly blends each mechanic in a well-trodden manner.
No one likes a spoiler as it removes the mystery and undermines the anticipation. For this reason, In Sound Mind is a challenging game to review. Many of its key mechanics are interlaced to define the protagonist and the root cause of the issues you face. I’ll try to steer away from plot defining moments, as this is a title that deserves to be experienced with unknowing eyes.
You control a therapist who investigates the problems surrounding the people he has helped. You’ll search miserable environments and surreal scenes as you uncover many strange happenings. There are bizarre goings-on that are linked in more than one way. The protagonist must listen to past therapy sessions while searching for clues. Your journey takes you through five random locations that all need a thorough search and a keen eye for detail.
Prepare to meet this creepy beast.
Odd enemies and stealthy moments.
Staying true to its therapy roots, the Rorschach test plays a key role in developing the plot while filling you with fear. Haunting images of inkblot creatures follow you throughout. These, like other foes, can be attacked or avoided. In Sound Mind doesn’t focus heavily on its combat mechanics instead, it wishes you to explore to unravel the truth. Therefore, stealth is a worthy alternative to combat and utilising the environment is as useful as going in all guns blazing.
The convoluted game of hide and seek adds to the creepy and suspenseful nature of this title. Crouching behind boxes while avoiding the creatures that haunt you makes this a horrifying experience. The tactical approach beautifully slowed down the gameplay and kept you on edge throughout.
Creep beginnings and limited resources.
The opening scenes ooze eerie and creepy vibes that suck you into this strange, puzzling world. As the game expands past the central hub of your rundown apartment building, the creepiness subsides. In Sound Mind then delves into its true course of searching for clues while unravelling the mysteries of this dreamlike world.
The gameplay spans four distinct sandbox locations, a grocery store, quarry, forest, and a lighthouse. You are encouraged to explore as much as possible! You’ll search every nook and cranny for clues and useful tools to solve the riddles. However, the distinct lack of hand-holding makes this particularly challenging. This is where In Sound Mind will divide its community. The semi-open world and partially linear plot encourage you to carve your path. Yet, missing key objects or losing your way happens regularly, and this leads to unnecessary frustration.
Armed with limited tools, you must survive while scavenging for key items. You carry a battery-powered torch, a pistol, a gas mask, and a shard of glass. You must find spare batteries, ammo, and food to continue your adventure. The gas mask protects you from deadly fumes and the shard enables you to see hidden objects in its reflection. The latter item wonderfully ties in the surreal nature of the plot and further increases the fear factor without becoming too clichéd.
Do you dare to approach the dummy?
Provoking phone calls, a talking cat, and not so challenging puzzles.
Though much of the gameplay goes off on a tangent, some constants reign it back in. The gameplay revolves around your apartment building and the slow-burning exploration as new tools are introduced. This is supported by the discovery of therapy tapes and the “transportation” to each aforementioned zone. Then there are the constant berating phone calls! A gruff voice teases and taunts you throughout. His brutal words mock your past indiscretions at every opportunity. He’s a thorn in your side, but one of the constants that tie together this bizarre plot.
Talking of bizarre….would you consider a talking cat an oddity? I would, but in a surreal land, I guess anything goes. Your talking companion is simply another dreamy layer that makes up In Sound Mind’s crazy storyline.
Though this is coined as a puzzle title, the riddles weren’t challenging to solve. The gameplay has made searching for each relevant item the difficult element and this may disappoint puzzling fans. This adds to the previously mentioned frustrations as key objects can be easily overlooked and this, unfortunately, stalls your progress.
In Sound Mind is dated and has performance issues.
In Sound Mind has a classic grainy look that combines vivid imagery to match its dreamlike theme. Its dated aesthetic wouldn’t be problematic if there were no performance issues. Sadly, however, there are frame rate problems, bugs, crashes, and more. These tend to relate to certain areas or bosses and hopefully, a simple update will remove many of the unsightly errors.
The excellent blend of sound and silence builds a suspenseful atmosphere. I loved the cleverly thought out audio that thrived on its retro inspiration. The Living Tombstone has created unique songs for each story arc in the distinct locations. Each different track prevents the action from feeling repetitive, but it helps to tie each story to the central concept.
Search every room by torchlight.
This would be better on a PC.
When a game focuses on selecting objects with a cursor, a console controller simply lacks accuracy. Therefore, a mouse and keyboard would make playing this much easier and would enhance the experience tenfold. Other than this issue, there is little else to complain about and the straightforward layout makes learning the controls simple.
Thanks to its strange ways and easy to miss objects, this contains some replay value. With around twelve hours of gameplay to enjoy and some weird experiences en route, you’ll love being creeped out at every stage. I liked the variety in locations and the many tasks you must complete. A thorough achievement list demands you keep playing and completionists will have a challenging time finishing this.
In Sound Mind explores some taboo ideas while maintaining its horror roots.
In Sound Mind bravely tackles some taboo subjects within its horror remit. I loved how it delivered its message while staying true to its theme. The mental health issues may be uncomfortable, but hiding behind surrealism has allowed the story to flourish while capitalising on some old-school horror/detective influences. I enjoyed its blend of horror elements and how it creeped me out and I recommend you to buy it here! Battle your demons while searching for answers to the problems that haunt you.
On her 18th birthday, our protagonist Olympia takes on the challenge of finding her soulmate. Craving to follow in the footsteps of her mother, she very quickly realises it isn’t going to be as easy as she had wished. I mean, how easy would it be to find your soulmate in a town where people are too afraid to even look in your general direction? Luckily, a quick turn in events introduces Olympia to a whole cast of heroes. Leading us to this question,
Who would you pick?
Now, I never thought I’d be one to sit down and play a dating simulator. But after the hype of Mystic Messenger and the universe of Hatoful Boyfriend, I find myself much more open to the idea. There’s a point in everyone’s life where, even for a second, the thought of people fighting over us is exciting. I’ll be the first to admit it. But I’d never let this play out in real life, which is why I think I keep coming back to dating simulators.
I’ve heard a lot of praise for Aksys. The developers hold the crown when it comes to dating sims, so are known for large and in charge titles. I went into this review with high expectations after researching the company and finding pages and pages of joy. But with an extreme lack of knowledge in the field of virtual dating, I had no clue what I was really in for. I found myself definitely jumping the gun and expecting a somewhat cringey and uncomfortable experience, but that’s not what I received at all.
Exceeding every expectation
Olympia Soiree is definitely a beautiful, compelling game. Unlike my experience with other games of this kind, Olympia Soiree has an almost tangible energy to it. Within the first five minutes I would definitely suggest I was hooked. There is depth to the characters and the story, and each chapter definitely leaves you wanting more. Which is undeniably what you want from this genre. If you don’t put it down and immediately want to pick it back up, is it really worth your time? Characters need to charm, the story needs to have enough to it that you think about it in day to day life, and I think Olympia Soiree has it all.
The thing I found most enjoyable about this game though, is how genuinely misunderstood our heroine is. Usually with sims, the female lead is ditzy and clueless. Just bimbling their way through life and bumping into unrealistically lovely and ethereal strangers. But Olympia isn’t like that. Reading between the lines of the story, she’s just a people pleaser. She does what she needs to get the job done, but never really cuts herself any slack. The introduction scene explains that she just wants to be normal, for people to not be afraid. But she doesn’t know how to go about it. Rather than focusing on the storylines between love interests, your main focus is on Olympia’s story and how to help her. It just helps that those explaining what to do are visually appealing anime boys. (Definitely extra points for that).
I also loved that this game is fully narrated, leading the characters to feel more real. If I had just sat reading words on the screen for hours I don’t think I would’ve felt nearly as captivated. You learn to recognise characters by their voice, and even the change in soundtrack. Which in itself is beautiful.
Final thoughts
The soundtrack and full narration made Olympia Soiree feel like rather than playing a game, I was watching a TV show. With all the reactions and paths I wanted to take. I cannot praise this game highly enough in terms of story engagement and character design. I certainly don’t think you have the time to listen to me ramble about how genuinely beautiful it is as a whole. So if you are looking to lose yourself for an hour or ten, I think you might love Olympia Soiree. Now let me be, I’ve got boys to flirt with.
Everyone wants to be in control of their own destiny! Following orders is one thing, but having no freedom to choose your path in life is something altogether different. A caged person will always yearn to see the world, and this is exactly what happens to the protagonist in A Juggler’s Tale. It’s a wonderful German-inspired fairy tale that takes you on a journey of beauty and highs and lows.
Developed by Kaleidoscube and published by Mixtvision, this is a 3D side-scrolling puzzle adventure title. It’s a touching tale about one girl’s bid for freedom, and the cruel world she resides in. You will explore stunning locations, enjoy wonderful mechanics, and be thrilled by the classic rhyming narrative.
The theatre is now open.
A Juggler’s Tale is a short but thoroughly enjoyable experience.
I’ve played many indie titles and rarely am I shocked by what I see. However, A Juggler’s Tale surprised me because of its combination of stunning landscapes, emotional audio, touching storyline, and excellent puzzling mechanics. I thoroughly enjoyed everything I experienced and was only disappointed when it ended much sooner than I hoped. The developers have captured the classic German fairy tale world perfectly and its inoffensive style allows gamers of all ages and skills to enjoy its story.
The plot revolves around a Bavarian theatre and a story about a girl called Abby. She wows the crowds with her tightrope walking and minxy ways. Yet, for all the cheers and pleasure she gets from her adoring fans, Abby wishes to see the real world. With a smart mind and an eye for detail, only her puppet strings hold her back. You must control her as she bids to escape the ringmaster who keeps her captive and the subsequent bounty hunters who chase her.
Simplicity is everything.
What makes A Juggler’s Tale so fantastic is that its simple concepts allow you to enjoy every element. There is a perfect balance of difficulty, exploration, puzzles, and character interactions. You will venture through many locations while climbing ladders, pushing boxes, avoiding your captures, and carving new paths. During every interaction, you must ensure that your puppet strings remain untangled and branches, poles, and overhanging surfaces will prove to be troublesome.
Working your way through each problem becomes increasingly tougher, especially when you are being chased by Tonda, a bloodthirsty barbarian who has been paid to return you to the circus. As he steps up his efforts, the surrounding world turns into a dank, war-torn environment filled with starving and dying citizens. Abby no longer knows whether she wants to be free, but she can’t return to the life she once knew.
Can you beat the bear?
A Juggler’s Tale is a wonderful blend of wonderment and misery.
The basic theatrical set-up is a fantastic setting for this fairy tale inspired title. This helped the developers to create any environment or location that piqued their interests, and I loved how each Act merged into another. The side-scrolling style focussed the action linearly, and this worked well with the structured lines of the play. The earthy tones and sultry colour palette enhance the classic look and emphasise the horrendous and miserable plight of each citizen. The misery was brilliantly juxtaposed with the bright characters and the joyous but fleeting moments of victory. I quickly got swept up in the drama of the plot and I loved how it was presented.
The classic medieval style was supported by the folksy soundtrack. This lively music brought energy and fun to an otherwise sad and desperate plot. The changes in tone and pace reflected the drama on the screen, and this prevented the story from having any low points. I admit the music was great, but it paled in comparison to the booming rhythmical narration. I loved Jack’s storytelling and the many twists and turns it created. This helpful fellow guides the story perfectly, but, a word of warning, don’t get on his bad side.
Don’t touch the water.
User-friendly controls.
Though some of the puzzles may be too challenging for a younger audience, the controls are user friendly. However, with a little guidance from a competent player, A Juggler’s Tale will be enjoyed by all age groups. With few buttons to remember, it was easy to pick up the controls. My only gripe was when it was challenging to find stones or fruit that can be thrown. A helpful indicator would have removed many issues and, in turn, this would have made those moments more pleasurable.
Unlike many of its peers, this has plenty of replay value. With hidden objectives and many ways to complete multiple tasks, you must play through each Act many times to complete this title. To finish this will be a challenge, and its short two to three-hour gameplay will be experienced many times if you wish to unlock every achievement.
A Juggler’s Tale is a great puzzle game that needs to be played.
Fans of LIMBO or INSIDE will adore A Juggler’s Tale! With so many great elements to enjoy and a wonderfully narrated story to experience, this is a game that needs to be played. I loved it and recommend you to buy it here! Will Abby regret her decision to escape? A dangerous world awaits her, but surely a life filled with fear is better than no life at all?
My review with footage captured from my Xbox Series X, enjoy!
Growing up, there was always that child who got great pleasure from antagonising others. They would bully, tease, and hurt you for no reason. As we age, we usually mature and realise that this behaviour is neither appropriate nor acceptable. Don’t Touch This Button is the gaming version of this child! It’s a cruel beast that takes great pleasure from taunting you from start to end.
Developed by 9 Eyes Game Studio and published by Ratalaika Games, this is an adventure puzzle title. Set in a green space-age labyrinth, you must move through each stage by solving the logic-based problems. Each level contains a clue to help solve the puzzle, but here’s the kicker…..the clue is always wrong and you must do the opposite to what is instructed.
Get it right or die!
Don’t Touch This Button is a cruel game!
I loved Don’t Touch This Button’s mean ways, but they made me wince regularly. I’m not a man who likes to ignore instructions, so I found the concept uncomfortable throughout. I did, however, enjoy analysing the cryptic clues, and when you solve a particularly tricky stage, it’s extremely rewarding. The game revolves around unlocking doors by pushing buttons. Sounds simple, right? Mostly it is, but the difficulty does increase and much of the success relies on a logical train of thought. You are required to smash vases, push boxes, find hidden paths, twist dials, and more as you seek out each green button.
With sixty-six levels to traverse, you may worry that this became tedious and boring. Fortunately, new mechanics are added in regularly and the puzzles are challenging. You must think outside of the box during the latter levels, and failure is all but assured as you scramble for the answers. The developers tried to spice things up near the end by adding in ‘Minions’. These floating creatures don’t do anything, but you must find them and destroy them to complete the game.
So many buttons to choose from.
A silly concept that culminates in a strange boss fight.
Though many of the levels will test your mind, they are built on a humorous and silly concept that may not appeal to all gamers. I liked Don’t Touch This Button because of its childish humour, but its counterintuitive methods may annoy purists of the genre. What I found frustrating, however, was when the clues were too vague and cryptic. On one level, you must discover an area where the gravity is different from the rest of the room. There is no indication of why you should move the cubes, and I had to check a walkthrough to solve this stage. This angered me as there was no clear solution and trial and error shouldn’t be a key concept of any puzzle title.
Alongside this annoyance, I found the finale to Don’t Touch This Button to be rather strange. The sixty-six levels culminate in a bizarre boss fight involving buttons, fans, and falling platforms. The game gives no indication that this giant creature exists, and I was confused when it entered the fray. It was an unnecessary element that needn’t have been added. Though I enjoyed the closure, I didn’t know why it was angry with me, what it was, or why it existed.
Don’t Touch This Button has a dated aesthetic.
Graphics aren’t an important part of a puzzle game, I just hope that they are pleasant on the eyes. Luckily, Don’t Touch This Button uses a simple but dated aesthetic that is easy to look at. The contrasting dark greys and vivid greens make identifying essential elements an easy task. The clean-cut lines and basic stage design ensures that wandering around each level is straightforward and trouble-free.
The audio follows suit with its uncomplicated approach. The synthesised and futuristic soundtrack matches the strange environment you are exploring, and the pace ensures that you don’t feel rushed, nor does it bore you. The sound effects like much of the presentation won’t wow you, but they are suitable and allow you to enjoy the action.
Best of luck getting to safety.
Easy and responsive controls.
With many items to move around, and some tight spaces to work in, the controls needed to be accurate and responsive. Luckily, the developers got this right and the simple button layout makes playing this pleasurable. With limited commands to remember, you’ll understand the fundamentals in minutes, and this allows you to focus on each puzzle you’ll face.
Sixty-six levels is a good amount of content for an indie title, yet it won’t take you long to fly through each stage. Yes, the difficulty does increase, but for logical gamers, this won’t be a challenge. All achievements will be unlocked through the first playthrough so sadly this does affect its replay value.
Don’t Touch This Button is a nice indie puzzler that won’t break the bank.
With many puzzle titles on the market, Don’t Touch This Button will struggle to stand out. Fortunately, it’s low cost, so won’t break the bank and so this will appeal to casual gamers and completionists, alike. I enjoyed it and recommend that you buy it here! Ignore the hints, solve each puzzle, and take down the odd final boss.
Here is my video review with footage captured using my Xbox Series X, enjoy!
Clearly inspired by the cult classic ‘Sensible Soccer’ from the early 90s, Super Arcade Football immediately scores on the nostalgia front.
Developed by OutOfTheBit Limited studios, there are many aspects to this game that feel heavily inspired by its popular predecessor. From the parody team and player names, to the visual design and overseer pitch view, it is clear that this game has been made with a lot of love.
Finding a home on the Nintendo Switch, this game has definitely got something to offer for Football (not Soccer) fans.
A proper arcade experience:
As you might have gathered from its title, Super Arcade Football moves away from the recent trend of more ‘realistic’ football simulation that mainstream hitters have adopted. Instead, the player is provided with a dedicated arcade experience.
Matches themselves are short and sweet, with a simple control scheme only demanding the use of two buttons to move, dribble, shoot, pass and perform satisfying crunchy tackles.
The ball has this tendency to glue to the players feet, meaning that intercepting an opponent’s attack, and dribbling to the other end of the pitch can be done in one fluid motion. This invariably leads to high-scoring games, which helps keep the action interesting despite the relatively simple mechanics.
This simplicity feels well attuned to the Nintendo Switch, as the game generally plays incredibly smoothly. But you’re not going to see a wide array of passes or shots here, like you’d see in Fifa. I did score a few decent long shots and headers, here and there, but animation variety is unsurprisingly limited.
Such a simple set-up demands variables to keep things interesting the more you play. Well, how about some thunderstorms? No, too tame? Okay we’ll just throw in some meteor strikes or maybe freeze the pitch in complete ice. The various modifiers that you can apply to matches keep the experience interesting, and the action absolutely frantic.
Add co-op and online to the mix, as well as a solid soundtrack from Barry Leitch (who has produced for other games, such as Top Gear on the SNES) and what you have is a really fun ‘drop in and out’, arcade experience.
Story mode:
One way that Super Arcade Football differentiates itself from other similar games is with its dedicated story mode. When you load up the game you’re immediately thrust into the story as Martin; your average football fan who stumbles upon the fact that his beloved local team, Balarm FC, are about to go bust.
A chance encounter with legendary manager, Old Joe (another parody character), provides the set-up for the story mode. Through some very simple, tasteless interactions (fat jokes galore), you soon acquire the club for the lofty price of £1.
That’s it. You’re now the proud owner of the club, manager and hopeful orchestrator of the team’s new found success.
Your goal now is to work your way up through the various divisions, as you also battle with wealthy local rival, Snakesfield FC (seriously, with a name like that, how else were they going to be?).
The story is on the simple side, but the comic-book cutscenes and character designs are charming enough, even when the interactions feel juvenile. You have different challenges in the matches, such as scoring three or more goals, or having over 50% possession, which will affect your star rating at the end.
Where this mode did disappoint is with the absence of any real tactical considerations. Yes, unsurprisingly – in a game that features all sorts of ridiculous weather ailments – tactics don’t really factor in deciding a game all that much. There really isn’t much ‘management’ involved in this mode, and beyond the brief cutscenes, there isn’t anything else to distinguish it in a meaningful way from the other game modes.
It would have been nice to have the chance to make some more meaningful decisions.
That being said, I still did enjoy my time with this game. The chirpy music, graphical design and simple gameplay all combined for a genuinely charming experience. Whilst the story mode fell short for me (especially with some of the obnoxious writing), it was nice to see something different, and where the gameplay does lack in terms of complexity, there are a number of crazy modifiers that spice up the experience.
If you have some friends to play with, or are just looking for a more casual football experience, then Super Arcade Football provides a solid offering at a reasonable price.
With the success of sequel Nexomon: Extinction, publisher Pcube has seen fit to release the original and previously android/PC exclusive, Nexomon, to consoles. The first of this ‘Pokemon-clone’ series is being released at half the sequel’s price, but does that mean that its value is worth half?
Well, it depends who you ask.
I reviewed Nexomon: Extinctionearlier this year giving it 8/10 without having played the original, but now having played both, it’s clear that Extinction is not just another money-grabbing sequel with multiple versions and colors, but it instead perfects the original, filling in the cracks in all the right places and greatly improving the overall experience.
The story and the overall background are much the same across the two games with immortal foes acting as antagonists spanning across different millennia. Omnicron, the evil king of all Nexomon and his children threaten to rise once again and rule over mankind – and that’s pretty much it, and don’t worry, you won’t forget – as you’ll be reminded every few mins of it. As the voiceless wonderkid you appear out of nowhere to save the day with a cast of allies and tamed Nexomon that you amass on your world-traversing journey.
Petril – effectively my one and only – we made from start to finish kicking ass all the way – and through 3 forms.
As you have likely noticed by the theme and design of the game, this is very much aimed at a youthful audience which may explain away the narrow and uncomplicated story, but it can get a little tiresome and repetitive as very little else fills out the world and its characters, despite it having all the tools to do so. There are multiple maps of NPCs and all of them can be spoken to and just like most other RPGs that wish to teach stealing at an early age, almost all of the buildings can be entered and pilfered from. The goal is too simple though as you learn nothing about yourself, your friends, or much else that isn’t linked to the meticulous hunting down of the poor evildoers.
Familiar to anyone who has picked up a turn-based Pokemon game is the battle system, which provides your 5 creatures with 4 elemental or physical attacks and health items to defeat the opposing team.
This system, in addition to the game’s 2D design, is where the charm of this game originates creating an addictive and moreish experience. The animation, the sound effects, the soundtrack, it all comes together brilliantly in each fight to make the hundreds of battles that you take part in, fun and enjoyable experience and if need be, a quick one.
Never afraid to tell it how it is.
Unfortunately, the leveling system is too generous making it far too easy to level up, meaning that with only a little grinding you can be 6-7 levels above the area’s enemies and can defeat a boss’s entire group with one Nexomon and with a single blow each. A facet of the game that this doesn’t exactly lend towards is the numerous times that you’ll defeat an enemy in battle only for the story to have you lose. This is hardly unique to Nexomon, but what makes this worse is that the gameplay is so easy that you might defeat a seemingly impressive enemy in under a minute or two and expect the game to praise you for your comprehensive victory, only for you to be utterly perplexed when both you and your allies are completely wiped out when the story resumes.
This contradictory aspect is somewhat of a reoccurring theme in Nexomon with the game even contradicting itself in short conversations. Assuming we haven’t come to a child-friendly adventure of Good vs Evil expecting a gripping story and outrageous difficulty (which ironically the sequel does get right), however, and there is fun to be had here with amusing scenarios and hilarious self-awareness from our robot sidekick, Atlas.
The genius robot carries the entire conversation and is absolutely full of one-liners.
The chibi-like anime designs animation and the colorful maps utilized through the Unity engine relaxes, and the soundtrack, while not very expansive, does a lot with very little, providing atmospheric and appropriately groovy tunes for each area. Having said that, I would have enjoyed each map more if the content was more varied, but judged on these aspects alone, the game oozes potential.
It’s a narrative that repeats itself over and over – and perhaps unfairly so – but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the predecessor has many unrealized or incomplete ideas that the sequel solves. Your inputted name is actually used in the conversation in the sequel instead of being a forgotten feature, you can entice Nexomon with food to catch them, there are conversation options and the narrative actually grabs you, but most importantly, there are side quests and you can access areas that aren’t essential to the story at that time, which provides a variety of task and character development that the first game desperately needs. A further feature of the sequel also provides detailed and customizable game settings, so if you find it too easy or repetitive that can also be adjusted.
It’s a shame that there wasn’t any effort made to remaster the original with the improvements of the sequel, but at $9.99, the publisher is seemingly aware of the deficits but has little inclination to change them. So, while Nexomon does still offer some value, it falls short of the essential Pokemon-like gaming heights that the sequel hits, and as it isn’t necessary to play this prior to Extinction, this predecessor lands haphazardly and squarely in the ‘for fans only’ aisle.
The real world is so boring, eh? Your job is mundane and unfulfilling and it doesn’t pay enough. You think to yourself that you should look for a new career, but that takes effort. So, instead, you turn to simulator games! The guaranteed way to escape the tedium of your existence while completing weird and wonderful jobs. My latest endeavour demands I live in a workshop and tinker with expensive robots. Sounds interesting, right? Well, welcome to the precise and futuristic world of Rover Mechanic Simulator.
Developed by Pyramid Games and published by Ultimate Games, this is a finely detailed simulation title. With demanding budgets, quick timescales, and an eye for detail all essential, this isn’t for the faint of heart. With a heavy data dump at the start, you have a meaty learning curve to get through before you get to the good stuff.
Rover Mechanic Simulator is slow and addictive.
Full disclosure. I didn’t like this to start with. The slow-paced nature of every element grated on me and I felt my patience ebbing away. However, I’m glad I stuck with it, as I discovered an addictive title once I battled through the first hour or so.
Rover Mechanic Simulator opens with a farfetched tale about the first Martian colony. You are employed to fix and maintain an array of rovers and robots for the companies that are exploring the planet surface. The rough terrain causes many problems and the machines are sent to you to be fixed. With many tools and machines at your disposal, you’ll fly through each task and help to keep the colonies on track.
A smaller rover doesn’t make the job easier.
Mars doesn’t have a throwaway culture.
When you are on an alien planet and resources are sparse, you adopt a more frugal attitude. Life on Mars enforces you forget about wasting goods and repair, reuse, and recycle become your mantras. Luckily, your workshop is stocked with machines to help. 3D printers, crushers, PCB desks, and workbenches all enable you to examine parts. You will strip down rovers to examine every minor element available. You’ll take apart wheels, cameras, motors, and more as you disassemble these upmarket machines.
If parts can’t be mended, then your limited resources must be used to print new parts. This sounds more interesting than it is, however! Sadly, each task is simply complete with a press of a button and it feels more like Rover Button Pressing Simulator than Rover Mechanic Simulator.
This was disappointing, but it was also a blessing and a curse. The level of detail that the game goes into is pretty deep, so any further information would have potentially been overkill. Yet, I can’t help but wonder if they dumbed it down too much.
Complete the game to finish each task.
Plenty of tasks and games.
Rover Mechanic Simulator packs in the tasks in its relatively restrictive framework. You pick from the available mission, select the difficulty, and get to work. Every task begins with you moving a crate with a crane. This is great, to begin with, but quickly became mind-numbing. Once the rover is unpacked, you are tasked with soldering parts, inspecting for damage, cleaning components, and so forth. This portion is interesting, as you must hunt for the root of the issue.
This can be challenging when you must strip down a larger rover just to remove three probes hidden deep inside. I loved this complex game of hide and seek, even if the aforementioned one button does it all, reduces some of the technical nuances. If you tire of taking part each machine, you can take a break and play some old-school games. These pointless distractions serve to break up the monotony and I admit I spent some time playing Snake.
Character progression.
As the quests became more challenging and the timers shorter, speed was of the essence. This is where character progression was paramount! For every successful task you complete, you’ll earn XP that levels you up. This in turn earns skill points that are spent on three possible paths, Economist, Analyst, or Technician.
Economist.
Materials become more cost-effective and the reuse or recycle mindset can be relaxed a little. Printing a new part isn’t so worrisome, and this potentially makes the game much easier.
Analyst.
You may be told the root of the problem before you begin a task. Also, scanning items is quicker and more effective.
Technician.
This is the go-to root for quick assembly and removal of parts. This counteracts the short-timers and gives you room to breathe.
A complex robot that’ll test your skills.
Rover Mechanic Simulator has some nice touches, but it’s also rough around the edges.
Rover Mechanic Simulator is played in a first-person perspective and this helps when you examine the machines. The clear line of sight allows you to focus on the actions and this was a good decision from the developers. The simple use of a colour system to highlight the condition of each part made identifying each issue much easier, and I appreciated this as well. The attention to detail on the small parts was interesting and will appeal to geeks and technically minded individuals.
It does sadly let itself down with its poor textures, dated graphics, and annoying camera angles. Moving around each rover was troublesome, and I was forced to run around each robot repeatedly instead of simply rotating the object in front of me. This was tiresome and should have been better implemented.
If you love the sound of unusual music of electronic screwdrivers, then you’ll love the never-ending audio. Luckily, the horrendous music can be turned off. However, the constant noise of screws moving and plugs being undone haunts every action. I expected nothing less from a mechanic game, but it was still annoying nonetheless.
Clean this filthy machine.
Challenging mechanics but easy to play.
Though there are lots of elements to understand and you have a massive data dump to start with, this is remarkably easy to play. With limited buttons to use and a well-labelled UI to remind you of the mapping, you suffer from few issues.
Taking apart a robot to clean, study, and repair was super addictive. I couldn’t get enough of racing against the clock while completing each task. If you add in the character progression and old-school games to play, there is a lot to keep you gaming.
Rover Mechanic Simulator is good, but it needs more variety.
Variety is the spice of life and Rover Mechanic Simulator needs more variety. Its one-button fixes all attitude and simple tasks soon become tiresome and mundane. I would have liked different tasks and more complex controls to challenge me further. However, I still enjoyed it and recommend you to buy it here! Mars needs a mechanical hero, step up to the mark, brush off your tools, and keep those robots going.
Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is the game in question today. A collection of six interactive episodes following the odd and eerie escapades of the titular duo. But while you’re a part of the journey, your control only goes so far.
Set in the presumably fictional town of August, Poe and Munro are two local radio hosts that tackle dark mysteries and dangers when not on the air. The partners take on a missing persons case in one episode, and find themselves held hostage by a painting in another (Yes, you read that right). There’s never a dull moment in their company, and all these adventures make for an entertaining collection of stories. I can genuinely say I enjoyed playing through them all.
Out Of Control
When I refer to Dark Nights as an interactive game. It’s exactly that, essentially just an interactive experience. There’s no choosing your own adventure, or drastically changing the outcome of any episode because of the choices you’ve made. Too many of my choices felt superficial or perhaps like I was deciding the flavour of a milkshake. At the end of the day, whatever choice I make, it’ll always be a milkshake. Regardless if it was chocolate or strawberry-banana.
One expects a certain level of control in the progression of the plot when playing a game of this nature. While generally in choose your own adventures there’s an overarching narrative that’s set in stone. By the end of it, the world state, which characters are still around, who hates or loves you can all change.
In this way the story sprouts out from the ground like a tree trunk set in place and immovable to the individual. However, there are a multitude of branches. With variations in the way the arms of the tree jot out, or the number and locations of leaves.
Which Flavour?
This kind of variation, branching, and control felt lacking in Dark Nights. It felt like too much of the plot just happens and the player just observes. Or perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by the level of influence one has in games like Until Dawn. However, as harsh or negative as this point sounds. The branching that does take place is still enjoyable in its own way. When you make one choice instead of another, you get alternate dialogue that adds interesting layers to the conversation. Your choices can lead to extra scenes that might take the story in darker directions. Like the first episode that has the potential to end in murder. Although, even this alternate ending is essentially just a different flavour to the vanilla. It still ends up as a milkshake.
While the destination may remain the same, the scenery on the road there may be entirely different. You may even gain some information early that would have otherwise been revealed later. Such as a big reveal in Poe and Munro’s relationship that can be uncovered as late as the fifth episode or as early as the first.
Dynamic Duo
Speaking of Poe and Munro, I was a big fan of their dynamic. The two leads Klemens Koehring and Leah Cunard had great chemistry and played off of one another really well. They make for a believable couple, if not a bit heavy on the innuendos. Honestly though, that just made them all the more entertaining to watch.
Munro was an instant hit for me. Leah nailed her performance, especially in the fourth episode, where she delivered some killer monologues. I have to admit though, at first I was not the biggest fan of Poe, especially his line delivery. It just felt a little forced; but it didn’t take long for him to grow on me. Soon I started to love his dramatic way of talking. As if he was constantly on the stage of a community theatre.
While most of the additional cast did a fairly good job. There were a couple of questionable performances. Especially in those moments when the scene calls for intense emotion or nuance.
Do It Again
Dark Nights with Poe and Munro may be a bit on the short side when you first play through. Episodes are about 20-30 minutes in length. However, with it being an FMV you’re more than likely to run through each episode a couple of times to experience every little bit of story you can.
Overall Dark Nights is a pretty enjoyable series of adventures. It’s shot well, it’s lead by two likeable characters and it has healthy doses of mystery and the supernatural. If you’re a fan of interactive games and FMVs, then there might be something here for you.
Sheltered 2 meticulously selects elements from a multitude of other games with the selectivity of a cherry-picker picking cherries in an orchard full of particularly cherry-looking haemorrhoids and marries them together with the care and attention of a vicar marrying Kim Jong-un to a velociraptor. It takes aspects from The Sims franchise but getting into violent knife fights makes it a LOT easier to kill the characters under your control without resorting to removing any ladders from any swimming pools. There are bits of Sid Meier’s Civilisation games in there except without the troublesome ‘civilisation’ bits and a focus on the faction relationships and the existence of hexagons. There are also strong Fallout Shelter vibes but where the expectations coming from mimicking that entry in the Fallout series are subverted by Sheltered 2 being good.
In Sheltered 2 you control an emerging shelter-dwelling faction of survivors in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Much like The Sims, each of your survivors has needs that must be fulfilled: food, water, hygiene, etc. You can either let your faction members deal with their needs themselves, dropping whatever tasks you’ve given them to go and get a drink or use the bathroom when they need to. Or, if you want them to only indulge their needs when you say so, you can go into a menu and turn off their free will, a piece of technology Jess Bezos is undoubtedly working on implanting into his warehouse workers as we speak.
However, unlike The Sims, where you can place a shower to deal with an infinite number of ablutions, everything is a lot more difficult to build and maintain in the resource-scarce wasteland of Sheltered 2. Loosely speaking, this is where the game borrows from Fallout Shelter, where you can expand your factions shelter by building rooms and populate those rooms with the vital pieces of equipment needed for survival. After all, a survivor is going to struggle to empty their hygiene meter without a shower and some of those little soaps from a fancy hotel. They’ll need food to empty their hunger meter but what happens when the vault runs out? They could build a snare to catch rabbits but what are they going to make that out of? You’ll need resources to build and repair the stuff your survivors need to continue being survivors. This is where you’ll need to leave the relative comfort of the underground shelter and go on expeditions to raid (hopefully) abandoned locations for resources.
To set up an expedition you need to choose who you’re going to send, what they’re going to take and where they’re going to go on a hex-like map. There’s a risk-reward system here. You can send your whole faction but then there’s nobody around to defend the shelter against attackers, the place will slowly degrade without people to maintain it and, when your away team returns, everyone will need to fulfil all of their needs all at once. But the benefit of sending more people is a greater amount of inventory space to bring resources back to base and more hands/knives/bees available to fight off any violent locals you might run into. I found the best early-game tactic was to send out Matthew, the most expendable member of my faction, with a very specific shopping list of resources to bring back and minimal survival rations in case he did get jumped by overwhelming combatants.
There are a range of likely looking combatants roaming the wasteland but a significant portion of those potential opponents are made up of other factions. However, you don’t have to be enemies with those factions. Much like the Civilisation games, once you’ve encountered another faction by bumping into one of their expeditions in the wild, you can talk with them via the shelter’s radio. Those relations can become unfriendly very quickly but if you manage to keep them on-side by trading resources and building your trust with them by completing loyalty missions, you can build up some strong allegiances with the groups with whom you’re sharing the wasteland. Alternatively, you can send Matthew into their main base and attack the faction leaders armed only with brass knuckles and a plucky disposition. This isn’t advisable.
As for the combat, I won’t go into too much detail here as I tried to avoid it and be as peaceful as possible (attempted assassination aside) and I wouldn’t say the combat system is a main thrust of the game. That said, it is more than competent. The combat is turn-based and you have several options for what to do on your turn depending on your equipped weapons, your character’s skills and your available stamina. Your odds will be significantly increased with a larger party, just by virtue of having more turns per enemy turn. There isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking here but what’s there is challenging, fun and solidly put together.
As much as there are a lot of similarities in mechanics to other games, Sheltered 2 brings them together in a way that is more than the sum of its parts. There’s a complex collection of game mechanics on offer here, bridging base-building, survival and exploration in a way that each mechanic complements the others like a wine pairing with a boeuf bourguignon. There is a comfortable sense of familiarity in Sheltered 2 which it manages without throwing away the crucial factors of novelty and intrigue. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have some tense relations with a faction to repair while arranging a funeral for Matthew. Well, what’s left of him.
Shoot-’em-ups should be the staple of any gamers diet. These fast-paced and menacing titles test dexterity, accuracy, reactions, patience, and more. When I was offered, Crisis Wing. I dared not to refuse! It offers the chance to experience old-school gaming with a modern polish, so what’s not to like?
Developed by PiesliceProduction and Eastasiasoft Limited and published by the latter, this is a vertical shoot-’em-up game. Set across seven brutal stages, you can play solo or with another player. You control a spaceship that evolves into a high-powered killing machine. You’ll dodge projectiles, collect power-ups, and shoot everything in sight.
Can you take down this gargantuan beast?
Crisis Wing: a nod to a glorious era.
Shoot-’em-ups are a timeless classic and Crisis Wing has captured its moreish and challenging essence perfectly. The simplicity of its concept is what captivates its audience and demands you to keep playing. As you progress through each stage, your opposition becomes tougher, larger, and more imposing. This culminates in a tough boss battle that tests your skills and reactions. The agonisingly tough gameplay will frustrate many as death is all but guaranteed. However, I loved these rage-inducing mechanics and I couldn’t put it down.
If for whatever reason, you tire of the main story, you can attempt to take on the Boss Battle or Time Attack modes. The latter is an unlimited lives challenge that pits you against an array of enemies. You have a set time to rack up a high score and see how you compare on the leaderboard. The Boss Battle, however, is an eye-wateringly challenging option. Death is inevitable and failure is guaranteed, so best of luck.
Power-ups and teamwork.
A shoot-’em-up would be hollow if it wasn’t for the booming power-ups. Machine guns, rockets, bombs, and more assist you on your quest. Collecting these vital tools is essential to your success, and they look cool as hell. I loved it when the screen was filled with projectiles and my foes exploded into pieces. The ultra-aggressive weapons never got old, and I enjoyed annihilating everything in sight.
I enjoyed the faithful mechanics and dated mindset incorporated within Crisis Wing. Yet, I appreciated the modern twist and two-player mode more. Playing this with a friend quickly became messy, but amongst the confusion and clouds of bullets was a thoroughly enjoyable game that kept me entertained for hours. Sharing the challenge with another player vastly reduced the difficulty, and this was another reason why I loved it. This option was more user friendly and allowed you to hone your skills.
Drop that skull bomb.
Crisis Wing is retro, so give it a CRT filter.
Few modern games can pull off a CRT filter, but Crisis Wing did it beautifully. This optional extra transports you to the prime moment of this retro genre. It looked fantastic with its vivid colours and pixelated imagery. The fast-flowing backdrops blurred as the ships raced by. Subsequently, the messy screens appeared overcrowded, and this added to the hectic nature of the gameplay. It was a wonderfully vibrant blur that will fill you with energy as you take on each stage.
The dated aesthetics are enhanced by the loud FM soundtrack. The ear-piercing audio rattles your brain as you blast your way through the levels. The upbeat sound matches the fast-paced action and its hypnotic style will have you hooked. You’ll wince at the booming sound effects that overpower the loud music. First, it’s the roar of your engine and the scream of your weapons that captures your attraction. Lastly, it’s the crashing sounds of your fallen foes that’ll bring a wry smile to your face.
Many enemies and dozens of projectiles!
A wonderful tutorial.
Most of Crisis Wing’s controls are self-explanatory, and I liked its straightforward style. Yet, for those who need a helping hand, the developers have kindly incorporated a thorough tutorial. So, whichever approach you take, you’ll enjoy responsive controls that are well mapped out.
Its three game modes, solo and two-player options, and moderately difficult achievement list add to the addictive gameplay. If you love the genre, you’ll get hooked on this. Casual gamers will also enjoy its moreish ways and quick levels.
Crisis Wing is an old-school classic with a modern polish.
Crisis Wing captures everything that makes this genre wonderful. With its old-school charm but modern polish, it’ll tick many boxes for most gamers. I enjoyed what was offered and recommend you to buy it here! Team up with a friend, collect your power-ups and blast everything you see.
