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 three-man Kiwi developer Rainbite (of Vita/PS4 adventure Reverie) and prolific shoot-em-up publisher Eastasiasoft comes Trigger Witch. If you’ll excuse us, this is a revised take on our review from last August, since this is fundamentally the same game with a 120Hz option and adaptive trigger support. We can’t comment […]

Trigger Witch – PS5 Review

February 2, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 120 Hz / adaptive trigger support / ballisticism / eastasiasoft / guns guns guns / ps5 port / rainbite / tonz 'o' gunz / uzi lover / witches by Ian

From developer Nuke Nine and publisher Blitworks Games comes the small but perfectly formed Vagante. The short elevator pitch is a roguelike with a cute exterior that belies its fierce challenge. It’s not too different from its obvious influence Spelunky in that respect. When this reviewer played Derek Yu’s nails […]

Vagante – PS4 Review

January 30, 2022 in PS4 / Reviews tagged hard / rng / roguelike / we're so pretty oh so pretty vagante by Ian

From Argentinian developer Round 2 Games and publisher Top Hat Studios comes Guardian of Lore. Very much a Latin-American flavoured game in which you’re the titular guardian who is the protector of an ancient library containing all manner of legendary tomes, the names of some of which may be familiar […]

Guardian of Lore – PS5 Review

January 14, 2022 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged latin america / lemon / round2games / top hat / white saviour by Ian

Gardener’s Path is the latest joint from yer man Ratalaika. As is the norm, this was originally on itch.io and developed by Viridino Studios, they also of Duck Souls, Rabisco and Pinkman. As is also the norm, the splash art on the loading screen is absolutely beautiful and bears little, […]

Gardener’s Path – PS4 Review

January 7, 2022 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged puzzle / ratalaika / viridino by Ian

From dev Bad Dream Games and publisher HandyGames, comes musical puzzle platformer One Hand Clapping. Previously an early access title on Stadia, it has now made its way to PS4. So was it worth the wait? Largely, yes. What was originally a tech demo student project in 2016 has become […]

One Hand Clapping – PS4 Review

December 21, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged a number of microphones / handygames / one hand clapping by Ian

From developer Hakama and publisher Marvelous in conjunction with chiefly localisation from the consistently great XSeed, we have Rune Factory 4 Special. It’s a refinement of the a 3DS game from 2012, though it took two whole years extra to localise for European audiences. Unless you’re a massive fan of […]

Rune Factory 4 Special – PS4 Review

December 13, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged harvest moon / rune glifberg 4 special / sparks / story of seasons by Ian

From Swedish boutique dev ‘Something We Made’ we have Toem: A Photo Adventure. Stylised as T📷EM, it’s a black and white photography game. As you can see it’s quite lovely looking. We hoped that Toem was some kind of abstract Scandinavian concept like hygge or that smug feeling you get […]

TOEM – PS5 Review

November 29, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged lovely / photo / something we made / toem by Ian

Bassmaster Fishing 2022 then. Coming to us from Dovetail Games, dev and publisher of the Train Simulator games, this is a competitive fishing game writ large as only America knows how. The back of a fag packet scribble for this is NASCAR and Sega Bass Fishing made a baby. Even […]

Bassmaster Fishing 2022 – PS5 Review

November 23, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged all about that bass / bass / bassmaster / dovetail / keep bitin' at the bait / peace out premier take me out with the fader by Ian

We reviewed Crysis Remastered just over a year ago giving it a fair 8, so we were intrigued to receive Crysis Remastered Trilogy. We thought that it might be some kind of unified affair like the Master Chief Collection from those noisy neighbours in Redmond. But no, it turned out […]

Crysis Trilogy Remastered – PS4 Review

November 18, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged Cry if i want to / crying in the rain / crysis remastered / crytek / remaster / will it run crysis by Ian

Backbone from Vancouver-based developer Egg Nut and publisher Raw Fury is, to use their own words, a a pixel art cinematic adventure with stealth and action elements. That’s labouring the point a little bit perhaps as it’s more a walking and talking gumshoe-em-up. Think film noir scenes based on a […]

Backbone – PS5 Review

November 15, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged backbone / egg nut / howard lotor / raw fury by Ian

It’s fair to say quite a lot has gone down since the precursor to Bouncy Bullets 2 came out on PS4/Vita two years ago. 2020 happened for a start. Covid happened and remains very much in the foreground. The government voted in favour of not penalising water companies for draining […]

Bouncy Bullets 2 – PS5 Review

October 27, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged bouncy bullets / more of the same / petite games / ratalaika by Ian

From fantastically named developer Kyle Thompson and publisher Top Hat Studios we have, in their own words, a quirky metroidvania platformer about a shape-shifting sheep-thing. Right, we needn’t bother extrapolating any further. OK, we kid. Along with Kyle, there’s Eric Thompson who composed the music, though unlikely anything to do […]

Sheepo – PS5 Review

October 22, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged metroidvania / shapeshift / sheepo / thompson by Ian