Yearly Archives: 2025

Static Dread: The Lighthouse comes to us from Solarsuit Games and Games Harbor. You play as the nameless keeper of the previously automated Outsmouth Lighthouse. Quite why it falls to you isn’t entirely clear, but it sets you up for all manner of eldritch goings on as you see out […]

Static Dread: The Lighthouse – PS5 Review

December 20, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged fax machine / jog wheel / lighthouse / lovecraftian / minidisc / outsmouth / papers if you will / static dread / the old ones by Ian

Another month, another Hidden Cats game, once again from Silesia Games and Nukearts, this time in Istanbul. Not Constantinople, that’s right out. Once more unto the breach with lovely lightly animated images and finding the cats. This is basically the same template as the Rio De Janeiro installment, once again […]

Hidden Cats in Istanbul – PS5 Review

December 16, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged hidden cats / istanbul not constantinople / nukearts / silesia games by Ian

Kill It With Fire 2 from Casey Donnellan Games is the follow-up from the original that we reviewed in 2021. That was quite a fun tightly focussed puzzle game. Our anticipation was that this would be more of the same, having been in early access on PC for more than […]

Kill It With Fire 2 – PS5 Review

December 16, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged burn burn burn / casey donellan / hsf vindicator / kill it / spider hell / why did have to be spiders by Ian

Dino Land is a port of a pinball game originally developed by Japanese developers Wolf Team and released on the Megadrive/Genesis (and also the Sharp X68000) way back in 1991. And it’s really a strange choice of game to port. The original never led to any sequels, the developers eventually […]

Dino Land – PS5 Review

December 15, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 1991 / dino land / megadrive / pinball by Richie

Ultimate Zombie Defense is a top-down twin-stick shooter, with some tower defense elements, from Belfast-based studio Terror Dog. And this is a really strange game. Not so much because of the mechanics of it, this sort of thing has been done before in games like #killallzombies, but more because of basically […]

Ultimate Zombie Defense – PS5 Review

December 11, 2025 in PS5 tagged tower defence / twin-stick (sort of) shooter / ultimate zombie defence / zombies by Richie

Skate Story is a skateboarding/adventure game from New York native Sam Eng which has been creating quite a stir on social media for a couple of reasons. The first is that it looks a bit like SKATE, which is important because EA’s new free-to-play update to that franchise is a load of […]

Skate Story – PS5 Review

December 8, 2025 in PS5 tagged adventure / sam eng / skate story / skateboarding by Richie

You only get to make one first impression. If Project Motor Racing sounds familiar, it’s because it’s from former Slightly Mad alumni. They’re now stationed at Straight 4 Studio and have only had one thing in mind. Whilst Project Cars was a more fully-featured racing sim, this spiritual successor is […]

Project Motor Racing- PS5 Review

December 3, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged career mode / cars / circuit racing / GT1 / Hypercars / online multiplayer / project motor racing / racing / straight 4 studios / weekly challenges by Mike

Despite being one of the few classic coin-ops that still plays well today, you don’t really get many games that riff on the old Pac-Man formula. Sure, Namco will drag Pac’s carcass out of the cupboard and beat a few more pennies out of it every chance they can but for […]

Dungeons and Ducklings – PS5 Review

December 3, 2025 in PS5 tagged beer belly games / dungeons and ducklings / pac-man / retro / rogue-lite by Richie

MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is an arcade-style beat ’em up from Quebec-based studio Tribute Games who were behind other coin-op/retro-inspired titles like Mercenary Kings and Scott Pilgrim. But more recently the were behind the brilliant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge which, like this game, was very much a love letter to the […]

MARVEL Cosmic Invasion – PS5 Review

December 3, 2025 in PS5 tagged arcade / Beat em up / cosmic invasion / fighting / marvel / retro by Richie

Hannah is a 3D platformer from Spaceboy. It boast a decent dollop of horror and unease but the platforming, and lack of peril can really undercut the mood. Dreamy and surreal, it has a cohesive style and some mildly engrossing puzzles. Unfortunately, it’s a little too rough around the edges […]

Hannah – PS5 Review

December 2, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 3d platfomer / hannah / horror / narratively-driven / obligatory stealth segment / puzzles / small girl big world / spaceboy / trauma by Mike

Lumines Arise is the last of the loose trilogy of Synaesthesia Engine games from Enhance & Monstars, following Rez Infinite and Tetris Effect, both being Tetsuya Mizuguchi jams. The concept might be familiar to you, first appearing as a PSP launch title and with a subsequent sequel on the same […]

Lumines Arise – PS5 Review

November 29, 2025 in PS5 / PSVR / Reviews tagged enhance / lumines arise / mizuguchi / monstars / synaesthesia by Ian

Schildmaid MX is the latest shoot ’em up from our prolific publishing pals Eastasiasoft and it comes to PSN a couple of years after its initial PC release. And this is quite an unusual take on the genre as while it does look like your standard low-budget horizontally-scrolling shooter, there are […]

Schildmaid MX – PS5 Review

November 26, 2025 in PS5 tagged eastasiasoft / horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up / schildmaiden mx by Richie