Yearly Archives: 2023

Visual novel hybrids do interest me. Aside from the usual tales of choosing your own adventure, the addition of light gameplay elements can elevate them above the genre’s more wordy literature. Shuyan Saga is another attempt at that Lofty Sky Entertainment have undertaken. Set in a feudal China, this addition […]

Shuyan Saga – PS4 Review

September 28, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged brawler / canada / chinese mysticism / lofty sky entertainment / narrative choice / shuyan saga / visual novel by Mike

Mechs V Kaijus is a tower-defence game from Uruguay-based devs, Doble Punch Games. Originally released in 2018 on PC, the game has now made it over to PSN courtesy of publishers JanduSoft. The game puts you in the role of Commander, overseeing a squadron of powerful mechs as they defend the […]

Mechs V Kaijus – PS5 Review

September 28, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged mechs v kaijus / strategy / tactical / tower defence / tower defense by Richie

From Korean devs Neowiz & Round8 we’ve got what we consider to potentially be the worst monickered game we’ve ever reviewed. Based on the original 1883 Adventures of Pinocchio novel by Italian novelist Carlo Collodi, Lies of P is set in the city of Krat. Automata run the city, only […]

Lies of P – PS5 Review

September 25, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged krat / pinocchio / soulsborne by Ian

Mystic Gate is a twin-stick shooter from Zoo Corporation that has a rogue-like structure and a dungeon-crawling setting. It’s been around since February on PC but has now made its way over to PSN thanks to the ever-prolific publishers eastasiasoft (their lack of capitalisation, not ours). The game’s thin plot involves […]

Mystic Gate – PS5 Review

September 25, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged eastasiasoft / mystic gate / Pixel art / rogue-like / twin-stick shooter by Richie

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a role-playing game based on the Dungeons & Dragons (Fifth Edition) tabletop system and it comes to us from Belgian Studio Larian Games otherwise known for the Divinity series. The game itself has been out on PSN for a couple of weeks now and is already a shoo-in […]

Baldur’s Gate 3 – PS5 Review

September 19, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged adventure / baldur's gate 3 / dungeons and dragons / larian / rpg by Richie

What originally started out as a student project, Ad Infinitum is a first-person horror experience set in World War I. In almost a decade of development, the final product has, at long last, come to fruition. Whilst Hekate’s efforts are admirable, the lasting impressions I took from this are mixed. […]

Ad Infinitum – PS5 Review

September 17, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged ad infinitum / german / hekate / monsters / paranormal / psychological horror / puzzles / trenches / world war i by Mike

I’ll be honest, the Trine series has largely passed me by. I knew of it but never really had the curiosity to give the games a look. That’s changed with Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy arriving on the Playstation 5. Frozenbyte have spent well over a decade polishing the cooperative […]

Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy – PS5 Review

September 14, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 2.5d / Fantasy / frozenbyte / knight / physics-based / platformer / puzzles / thief / trine 5 a clockwork conspiracy / wizard by Mike

Digital Eclipse have always had interesting approaches to collections. Certainly keen on preserving the past, they’ve been good at providing documentary footage to give players a peek behind the curtain. Last year’s Atari 50 : The Anniversary Collection seems to have provided a good blueprint and now, The Making of […]

The Making of Karateka – PS5 Review

September 12, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged apple ii / asteroids / atari / broderbund / c64 / deathbounce / digital eclipse / documentary / fighting / francis mechner / game development / jordan mechner / mike mika / prince of persia / prototype / the making of karateka / tom hall by Mike

Kentucky Route Zero – TV Edition to give its full name, is the console port of developer Cardboard Computer’s episodic adventure. First released in 2013 with five acts appearing sporadically with the final act coming in January 2020. As a lapsed Edge reader, this reviewer watched from afar with interest […]

Kentucky Route Zero : TV Edition – PS4 Review

September 8, 2023 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged cardboard computer / equus oils / kentucky route zero / point and click by Ian

Die After Sunset is a third-person shooter with rogue-like elements and it comes to us by way of Spanish studio Playstark. With its colourful palette, a host of crates to loot and a lot of verticality, the immediate comparison is with the insanely popular Fortnite and certainly this game does have […]

Die After Sunset – PS5 Review

September 1, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged die after sunset / fortnite / playstark / risk of rain 2 / rogue-like / upgrades by Richie

Jets’n’Guns 2 is a horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up from Czech coders Rake in Grass. They’re a three-person crew who aren’t the most prolific studio we’ve ever seen, with less than twenty games in almost twenty years, which is evidenced a little by the fact that this sequel came 16 years after […]

Jets’n’Guns 2 – PS5 Review

August 30, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged amiga / horizontally-scrolling / jets'n'guns 2 / retro / shoot em up by Richie

The sheer scale of space is absurd. Plenty of games have aimed to capture a fraction of it but I’ve tended to give them a miss. Maybe they’re too big for comfort but I’m now in a position to have them thrust upon me. Everspace 2 is the new effort […]

Everspace 2 – PS5 Review

August 23, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged clone pilot / combat / courier / dogfighting / everspace 2 / Gear / lasers / loot / racing / rockfish games / space shooter by Mike