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 London based indie duo, Ritual Games, comes Cybarian: The Time Travelling Warrior. Published by Rinsemeisters to HM The Queen, Ratalaika, it plays it fast with the trophies as per. The unlocking template is alarmingly close to another recent Ratalaika game we reviewed recently in fact. We’ll go into that […]

Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior – PS4 Review

June 24, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged not conan / ratalaika / scrolling brawler by Ian

From Finland; land of bonkers racing drivers (Heikki), excellent goalkeepers (Antti), rugged central defenders (Sami) & salt liquorice (Salmiakki); comes Super Blood Hockey (Kiekko), clearly a labour of love from Oulu based solo developer Loren Lemcke. This port of a game originally released on itch.io has been carried out by […]

Super Blood Hockey – PS4 Review

June 11, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged #ultraviolence / arcade / ice hockey / retro by Ian

Another week, another Ratalaika release. For the most part, Neon Junctions by developer Nine Tentacles is a great experience. Embracing the synthwave retro aesthetic so beloved of Far Cry: Blood Dragon et al, Neon Junctions is a great puzzle game with a simple concept well executed. My father-in-law nailed it […]

Neon Junctions – PS4 Review

June 11, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews / Vita tagged ratalaika / retro aesthetic / synthwave by Ian

Effie sells itself short from the outset. That title for a start. It turns out the titular Effie is a little girl who is having a story told to her as a framing device for your adventure. You play as the storyteller Galand who is recounting his adventure to free […]

Effie – PS4 Review

June 4, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 3d platformer / indie / puzzle / spanish by Ian

From Brazilian duo Midipixel by way of Ratalaika Games, comes Warlock’s Tower. Our men Werther Azevedo and Ygor Speranza are very much fans of the Gameboy-era style of aesthetics and chiptune music as you can no doubt see from the screenshots here. You play as a courier trying to scale […]

Warlock’s Tower – PS4 Review

May 28, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged crossbuy / puzzle / ratalaika / retro by Ian

From Nottingham-based Fallen Tree Games by way of Curve Digital comes the forced 3D perspective open world game American Fugitive. The devs have some AAA chops including the likes of TimeSplitters & Crysis on their CVs, and it shows in the production values of this accomplished debut, combining on-foot exploration […]

American Fugitive – PS4 Review

May 21, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged GTAish / nottingham / open world by Ian

My Big Sister is the latest Ratalaika joint, so beloved of trophy whores everywhere for their generally easy to rinse platinums. This from solo Australian developer Stranga can still be rushed through, but to do so would be to do it a disservice. My Big Sister is an RPG of […]

My Big Sister – PS4 Review

May 10, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged asian horror / jrpg / ratalaika by Ian

We have to confess being a little alarmed when our download of UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure appeared on our PS4 before we’d even exited the PS Store. Moreso when we realised the publisher was Outright Games who previously brought us Paw Patrol: On A Roll. Thankfully a different developer in […]

UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure – PS4 Review

May 3, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged movie licence / pesky kids / uglydolls by Ian

When the splash screen for Fantastico Studio popped up with a VHS-style filter, this reviewer had a dreadful feeling they were playing Far Cry: Blood Dragon again for a second. Thankfully beyond the synthwave musical stylings and and ’80s trappings that’s where the similarities end. Black Paradox is a space […]

Black Paradox – PS4 Review

April 29, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged arcade shooter / bounty hunter / rogue-lite / synthwave by Ian

From Cologne/Köln based developer btf (aka bildundtonfabrik literally picture and sound factory) comes Trüberbrook, a late ’60s Cold War era sci-fi point and click adventure game set in the titular village. The locale brings to mind the Harz mountain region of mid-Germany for anyone familiar with the country. Trüberbrook first […]

Trüberbrook – PS4 Review

April 24, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 1967 / btf / truberbrook by Ian

Super Weekend Mode by London based solo developer Pixel Teriyaki is the latest from Ratalaika Games. It’s a retro styled pixel art shoot-em-up and fun with it, although in typical Ratalaika fashion the trophies are straightforward to unlock. A complete rinse with a mere thirty one minutes elapsing from our […]

Super Weekend Mode – PS4 Review

April 13, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged indie / ratalaika / rinse / shooter by Ian

From Hampshire based developer Three Fields Entertainment, a mere seven-person core team, comes Dangerous Driving. TFE take great pride in having been the original developers who brought us the Burnout series as Criterion, their four releases to date (Dangerous Golf, Danger Zone and Danger Zone 2 plus Lethal VR) all […]

Dangerous Driving – PS4 Review

April 9, 2019 in PS4 / Reviews tagged arcade racer / burnout / dangerous driving / takedown / three fields by Ian