Yearly Archives: 2021

Ratalaika have taken a break from scraping the bottom of the visual novel barrel for this week and gone with a point and click adventure, Trails and Traces: The Tomb of Thomas Tew. It was released on itch.io a couple of years ago and has now made the jump to […]

Trails and Traces: The Tomb of Thomas Tew – PS5/PS4 ...

May 2, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged british / humour / one man dev / point and click / ratalaika / rotoscope / The Tomb of Thomas Tew / Trails and Traces by Gareth

Gravity’s a sure-fire fact of life but, in terms of games, mechanics around the force seem to becoming more commonplace. It’s a relatively quick way to reconsider how a level and encounters are designed but not everybody seems to get it right. The latest to attempt it is Brazil’s Studica […]

Gravity Heroes – PS4 Review

May 2, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2D Platformer / brazil / bullet-hell / gravity heroes / local co-op / robots / shooter / studica solution by Mike

From Belfast based Blackstaff Games, we have Buildings Have Feelings Too! They might do, but what we actually have here doesn’t really go into that particularly. It’s a cute title for the game at least. BHFT, if you’ll excuse us the acronym, is an urban planning game with a quirky […]

Buildings Have Feelings Too! – PS4 Review

May 2, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged blackstaff / boys from the blackstaff / buildings / urban planning by Ian

Pocoyo Party is the first game based on the endearing Spanish kids show from Zinkia Entertainment. At least that’s what the text on the PS4 dashboard says. It’s educational, fun for all the family and MULTIPLAYER! That’s verbatim in case you were wondering. However, firstly this is in fact the […]

Pocoyo Party – PS4 Review

April 29, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard / pato / pocoyo by Ian

Terra Trilogy is a compilation of three games: Terra Lander DX, Terra Lander II: Rock Slide Rescue and Terra Bomber. This is a series of old-school, arcade-inspired shoot ’em ups that share a minimalist design, a penchant for classical music and an uncompromising level of difficulty and all three games […]

Terra Trilogy – PS4 Review

April 27, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged arcade / lunar lander / physics / shoot em up / terra bomber / terra lander / terra trilogy / thrust by Richie

Ah, Super Meat Boy, an Xbox Live Arcade classic if ever there was one. It was such a finely crafted game with tight controls and excellent level design which was incredibly tough but fantastically rewarding. And the music! So here we have Super Meat Boy Forever on the PS4, which […]

Super Meat Boy Forever – PS4 Review

April 27, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / autorunner / difficult / forever / super meat boy / xbox live indie games by Gareth

Papa’s Quiz is, as you can probably guess, a quiz game that supports 1-8 players and comes to us from Swedish developers, Old Apes. It uses web-based technology much like the very popular Jackbox Party Pack titles so essentially you’ll have one player one their joypad and the others joining on […]

Papa’s Quiz – PS4 Review

April 25, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged jackbox / mobile / papa's quiz / quiz / quiz show / tv by Richie

Fantasy Friends is a child-friendly title from Spanish developer Xaloc Studios which is best described as a mobile-esque Viva Piñata-lite kind of affair. It’s bright, colourful, easy to get into and very much aimed at younger children (if you can pry them off their iPads, Minecraft or Fortnite). The premise behind the game […]

Fantasy Friends – PS4 Review

April 25, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged children / fantasy friends / kids / simple / viva pinata by Richie

Heal is a 2D puzzle game from Jesse Makkonen, the solo developer behind our two favourite Ratalaika Games titles, Distraint 1&2. His distinctive characteristics are fully on display here too with Heal being immediately recognisable as his work. That means you get a slow-paced, thoughtful puzzle game laced with hidden meaning, dark atmospherics and a […]

Heal: Console Edition – PS4 Review

April 23, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged atmospheric / distraint / heal / indie / jesse makkonen / moody / ratalaika by Richie

Are you a fan of challenging 2D platformers? Maybe you have a fondness for ActRaiser? Smelter, just released on PS4, hopes you are and does a pretty good job across the board of providing for both. The game opens with Adam and Eve. An apple drops from a tree and […]

Smelter – PS4 Review

April 22, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / actraiser / bosses / difficult / mega man x / platformer / smelter / trials by Gareth

There’s something to be said about how indie games of today and how diverse and unexpected games are, compared to the AAA efforts of recent years. I like to think of Indie efforts as a direct comparison to the bedroom coders of years past. The type that introduced impoverished gamers […]

World Splitter – PS4 Review

April 21, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged dimensions / hovva bovva / neo bird / platformer / puzzle / World Splitter by Grizz

Of all the worlds that can be conveyed in the medium of video games, the realm of dreams is by far one of the most interesting and varied that comes to mind. We all have them, some are whimsically fun, some are downright horrifying and that’s what makes them such […]

Darq: Complete Edition – PS5 Review

April 18, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged Complete edition / Darq / horror / PS5 / puzzle / Tim Burton by Grizz