Ian

About Ian

Ian likes his games weird. He loves his Vita even if Sony don't anymore. He joined the PS4 party relatively late, but has been in since day one on PS5.

From Polish-based publisher Ultimate Games comes the console port of a three-year-old PC game, Bus World. Originally produced by Russian developer Kishmish Games, this port was likely produced by Ultimate Games as going by the Steam page for the game, it seems to have been pretty much abandoned by the […]

Bus World – PS5 Review

January 8, 2026 in PS5 / Reviews tagged bus world / from russia with bugs / here we go yo / janky mess / ultimate games by Ian

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

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

This reviewer’s kid used to love this book by a writer called Julia Donaldson called What The Ladybird Heard, most of the fun of reading as a parent being really enthusiastic doing the animal noises. If you read a book to your kid in excess of twenty times, you make […]

Cat God Ranch – PS5 Review

November 22, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged bafflement / cat god / China / crazy potato by Ian

Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro is the latest from Silesia Games and in this case, Nukearts, they of the last but one hidden cat game we reviewed, that being in Tokyo. You know the drill by now. Look at images, find the cats. It does away with the largely […]

Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro – PS5 Review

November 16, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged hidden cats / joinville sc / nukearts / rio / samba / silesia / wout van aert by Ian

Instruments of Destruction is quite the nostalgia trip. Gamers of a similar vintage to us will surely recognise a little shared DNA with Rare’s 1997 N64 game Blast Corps. In that you drive various vehicles at buildings with the aim of affecting their integrity sufficiently that they fall down. Or […]

Instruments of Destruction – PS5 Review

November 16, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged blast corps / now you're trying to impress me / radian games / secret mode / time to get moving by Ian

Fast and Furious Arcade Edition is the home version of Raw Thrills’ 2022 arcade machine, only without the twin 65” UHD screens. It’s fun to see that even they resort to weapons grade bullshots on their publicity material, what’s shown there are in fact renders as shown on the loading […]

Fast and Furious Arcade Edition – PS5 Review

October 24, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged bernard is better / fast and furious arcade / full of holes like a swiss cheese / havana laugh / hong kong blaverage / rubberbandman / shallow / what colombia famous has made a prick out of you / you'll be furious fast if you buy this by Ian

Gnomdom is the latest from our pals at Silesia Games. In a somewhat shocking turn of events, it’s NOT a hidden cat game. It definitely falls into the casual cosy game category, so not a massive deviation in that regard. Developed by Dana and Vivi, we guess a small indie […]

Gnomdom – PS5 Review

October 23, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged Gnome / puzzle / silesia games by Ian

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter first came out PC in 2004 and then PSP in 2006. Western audiences didn’t get it until XSeed did a localisation job of the PSP edition in 2011 and even then it passed many by, including us. It even came out on Vita a […]

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter – PS5 Review

October 12, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged falcom / i hate that duck / orbal / steampunkish / trails by Ian

Cats & Seek: Kyoto is the latest from Silesia Games, this time developed by noobzilla. Sharp eyed readers might remember this dev also did Cats & Seek: Dino Park and this is very much more of the same in that regard. As it happens that was the first hidden cat […]

Cats & Seek: Kyoto – PS5 Review

October 10, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged hidden cats / it comes from camberwell and looks like a carrot / noobzilla / once you gone you stay gone or you be gone / polska / silesia games by Ian