Reviews

ZOE Begone! is a shoot ’em up that’s about as far away from a traditional shooter as you can get. Forget your militaristic skirmishes or epic space battles, because this game comes from Retchy (Graeme Hawkins), a solo dev/animator from Scotland and he’s not looking to make the next R-Type or 1942. Instead, this […]

ZOE Begone! – PS5 Review

September 17, 2025 in PS5 by Richie

I can find it really hard to say much about games that keep themselves simple and to the point. Pic-A-Block is one of those games. A puzzle game from TreeFall Studios, it’s all about sliding and removing blocks. It holds very little mystery but it does work as advertised. Whilst […]

Pic-A-Block – PS5 Review

September 16, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged block sliding / cosy / grid based / pic-a-block / puzzles / relaxing / treefall studios by Mike

Hook: Complete Edition is, as the name might suggest, an amalgam of two separate titles. Hook and Hook 2 in fact. Penned as puzzle, casual and brain training on the PSN store, that’s a fair description. OK, review done. This is alright, go play it. Hours of mild diversion. Seriously […]

Hook: Complete Edition – PS5 Review

September 12, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged Casual / hook / hook ce / puzzle / rainbow train by Ian

From Vancouver-based developer and publisher Buffalo Buffalo we have the latest rhythm action game on PS5, in this case Fresh Tracks. We have to confess, we hoped the dev name was in fact the grammatically correct sentence “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” but sadly not. To quote […]

Fresh Tracks – PS5 Review

September 12, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged buffalo buffalo / norse mythology / planks of wood / rhythm action by Ian

Otherwar is a tower defence game and it comes to use from Polish devs Kantal Collective. Originally released in 2023 on Steam, the game is now available on PSN and we were pretty excited to try out a tower defence game, a once dominant genre that has fallen out of […]

Otherwar – PS5 Review

September 12, 2025 in PS5 tagged bullet-hell / tower defence by Richie

Hell is Us feels like a deceptive game. The trailers big up the lack of hand holding and the soulsian combat but neither truly reach their apex. Rogue Factor do make up most of the distance with an approach that makes exploration worthwhile. The central backdrop offers a potentially interesting […]

Hell is Us – PS5 Review

September 11, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged adventure / cataclysm / dodgy science / family reunion / hell is us / puzzles / rogue factor / sectarianism / souls-ish combat / war by Mike

In the same way that Mad Catz had the third-party controller market sewn up for in previous generations, when we think of audio headsets for gaming, we generally think of Turtle Beach. This US-based has been pushing out gaming hardware since 2005 but really came to prominence when the Xbox […]

Turtle Beach Atlas 200 Headset – Hardware Review

September 10, 2025 in Hardware / Reviews tagged atlas 200 / hardware / headset / turtle beach by Richie

Arcade rallying seems to be making a comeback. Whilst titles like Old School Rally specifically aim for that 90’s vibe, Rally Arcade Classics aims for something slightly more modern. Netk2 Games are at the helm and what they’ve delivered is an addictive, compelling racer. It does initially seem light on […]

Rally Arcade Classics – PS5 Review

September 9, 2025 in PS5 / Reviews tagged drifting / group b / legally distinct hatchbacks / netk2games / point to point / racing / rally arcade classics / rallying / stages / time trial by Mike

9 Lives to Defend is the latest auto-shooting rogue-lite to hit PSN following its release on Steam over a year ago and it comes to us by way of solo developer Goldarait Games (Felipe Cecato). By now you’ll know the formula. You’re put in an arena, of sorts, and tasked with […]

9 Lives to Defend – PS5 Review

September 8, 2025 in PS5 tagged 9 lives to defend / auto-shooter / cats / rogue-lite / survivors by Richie

Overpowered 1 – Mars Infestation might be marketed as a ‘survival shooter’ and looks as though it’s the latest entry into PSN’s growing list of Vampire Survivors clones but this is actually a twin-stick shooter. You know, those things we used to get tons of before the auto-shooting rogue-likes took over the […]

Overpowered 1 – Mars Infestation

September 6, 2025 in PS5 by Richie

core.sys, rather than an critical Windows system file, is a nifty little puzzle game from dev nipobox and publisher eastasiasoft. Ostensibly you’re hacking a security system across sixty-four levels. The first few levels are more of an orientation than anything else, just to get you used to the basic movement. […]

core.sys – PS5 Review

August 29, 2025 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged core.sys / eastasiasoft / hacker / nipobox / puzzle by Ian

While classic retro gaming often focuses on shooting things or jumping on platforms, the act of avoiding rocks in tunnels was pretty popular in the 1980s. Namco’s classic Dig Dug is the obvious example, while us real ones might prefer Mr. Do but every single format back then had some sort of […]

BOULDER DASH 40th Anniversary – PS5 Review

August 29, 2025 in PS5 tagged boulder dash / dig dug / gravity / mr. do / retro by Richie