hard

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

I’ve played quite a few Souls clones in the past few years and I generally enjoy them. I played through Code Vein relatively recently and ended up not liking it very much, whilst The Surge 2 I find to be fantastic. Mortal Shell is an indie take on the formula. […]

Mortal Shell – PS4 Review

August 25, 2020 in PS4 / Reviews tagged boss / combat / dark souls / hard / harden / lore / mortal shell by Gareth

Xenon Valkyrie+ is a retro tinged, 2D platformer, rogue-lite. We’ve had a boat load of rogue-lites, and rogue-likes, and in such a heavily saturated genre doing something to stand out from the crowd can be pretty tricky. Presentation is very good in Xenon Valkyrie+ and right from the title screen […]

Xenon Valkyrie+ – Vita Review

December 23, 2017 in Vita tagged 2D Platformer / hard / retro / Rougelike by Steven

Indie games can often have a single strong idea to carry through the gameplay and that’s just what Let Them Come does. Armed with a sentry gun, a boombox and loads of bullets your task is to destroy a near endless wave of hostile aliens. Riffing on the sentry gun scene in […]

Let Them Come – PS4 Review

December 7, 2017 in PS4 tagged alien / arcade / guns / hard / Pixel art by Steven

Bleed was released over four years ago on the PC and now it has made its way to the PS4. It checks all the boxes for an indie game, but does its simplicity work in its favour? The world has shown its gratitude to its heroes with a Hall of […]

Bleed – PS4 Review

September 10, 2017 in PS4 tagged bleed / hard / indie / no more heroes / platformer / shooter / slow motion by Gareth

As a self-styled hardcore platformer BLACKHOLE: Complete Edition is a repackaging, for the PlayStation 4, of the original 2015 PC release with all the subsequent DLC included. Although warmly received on the PC, the PlayStation 4 is a different market and things have moved on since 2015, does a two year old […]

BLACKHOLE: Complete Edition – PS4 Review

August 17, 2017 in PS4 tagged 2D Platformer / Blackhole / gravity / hard / Vic and Bob by Steven

Deck13 Interactive created Lords of the Fallen, one of the first games to take the formula developed by From Software for their Souls series of games and try their own take on it. The Surge is their next attempt, but whereas Lords of the Fallen was incredibly similar to Dark […]

The Surge – PS4 Review

May 26, 2017 in PS4 tagged dark souls / hard / lords of the fallen / sci fi / the surge by Gareth

Originally released in 2014 for the Nintendo eShop The Legend of Dark Witch has now come over to the Vita. Its a colorful and simple platform shooter and the easiest touchstone to compare it to would be something like Megaman. Starting up The Legend of Dark Witch I was stuck with the general budget […]

The Legend of Dark Witch – Vita Review

May 2, 2017 in Vita tagged 2D Platformer / anime / budget / hard / japanese by Steven

A Bastard’s Tale is the type of game people will describe as a 2D Dark Souls. You know, that lazy shortcut which basically means a game is difficult. It’s a massive disservice to a great game. Dark Souls I mean, not this. A Bastard’s Tale has been out for over […]

A Bastard’s Tale – PS4 Review

October 8, 2016 in PS4 tagged 2d / A bastard's tale / blocking / hard by Gareth