Pixel art

I took one look at the trailer for Loretta and thought it would be my bag. Hand me a good story and I’ll be happy. Coming from Yakov Batuzov, this 1940’s noir delivers a thriller full of secrets, lies and intertwined lives that successfully kept me engaged. Whilst it is […]

Loretta – PS5 Review

April 15, 2024 in PS5 / Reviews tagged adventure / choices / film noir / hitchcock / loretta / mystery / narratively-driven / Pixel art / thriller / Yakov Batuzov by Mike

Hammerwatch II is a top-down RPG hack and slasher from Swedish studio, CrackShell. It follows on directly from the 2013 original Hammerwatch, pretty much ignoring their 2018 rogue-like Heroes of Hammerwatch, a game that had its flaws but one that we liked enough to put in hundreds of hours with. Even now […]

Hammerwatch II – PS5 Review

December 23, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged bad netcode / crackshell / hammerwatch II / Pixel art / rpg by Richie

Cats and nosey sods, let’s be honest. I’ve had plenty through my life and their need for attention gets them in situations they really shouldn’t be in. Cats and the Other Lives is a narrative-driven puzzle game from Cultic Games which looks to replicate the feline experience. I’ll be honest, […]

Cats and the Other Lives – PS4 Review

October 31, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged cats and the other lives / chase sequences / cultic games / dysfunctional family / eavesdropping / mouse catching / nattatively-driven / nosey feline / Pixel art / puzzles / stealth by Mike

Hero Survival is a top-down auto-shooter from indie studio PigeonDev which combines the dodging/shooting action genre made popular by Vampire Survivors with simple 16-bit visuals. This genre is exploding on mobile platforms but is just getting started on PSN. We previously reviewed Remedium: Sentinels which had a go at this sort of […]

Hero Survival – PS5 Review

October 18, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 16-bit / auto-shooter / hero survival / Pixel art / rogue-like / top down by Richie

Mystic Gate is a twin-stick shooter from Zoo Corporation that has a rogue-like structure and a dungeon-crawling setting. It’s been around since February on PC but has now made its way over to PSN thanks to the ever-prolific publishers eastasiasoft (their lack of capitalisation, not ours). The game’s thin plot involves […]

Mystic Gate – PS5 Review

September 25, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged eastasiasoft / mystic gate / Pixel art / rogue-like / twin-stick shooter by Richie

It started with a message from our editor. “Review this” he said. “Review what?” we asked. We initially thought it was his sort of thing, until we realised it was erroneously labelled as a football game. Let’s be clear, Legend Bowl is an NFL game in all but name. The […]

Legend Bowl – PS5 Review

August 22, 2023 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged crap kicking / gridiron / Pixel art / wide right by Ian

We’ve seen this game before, back in 2018, but Riddled Corpses EX has just had a PS5 release. This game, from French devs Cowcat, is an isometric/top-down twin-stick shooter that places equal emphasis on blasting zombies and upgrading your firepower. Set just after some sort of demonic apocalypse, the game has […]

Riddled Corpses EX – PS5 Review

July 13, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged Pixel art / riddled corpses ex / twin-stick shooter / zombies by Richie

I’ve come across a few cooperative puzzle platformers in this job. Whilst it never quite feels like there’s a surge behind it, they seem to trickle through every few months and largely prove to be decent. Kinduo comes from Nibb Games, a three-person studio that’s been fairly prolific on Steam. […]

Kinduo – PS5 Review

February 2, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 2d / boxes / cooperative / keys / kinduo / lifts / nibb games / Pixel art / puzzle platformer / switches by Mike

I can’t quite imagine living in a small rural setting. They always look kind of devoid of life and I tend to miss my home comforts. The Prince of Landis, developed by one-man team Lorestrome, is an adventure game with a small slice of that life. Landis feels like one […]

The Prince of Landis – PS5 Review

November 20, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged Adventure game / aliens / bullying / narratively-driven / oregon / Pixel art / small town life / the prince of landis by Mike

Carrion is a 2D Metroidvania style title with a fun reverse horror/sci-fi theme. It comes to us from Devolver Games and was coded by Polish developers Phobia Game Studio. Originally released for all the other systems in 2020, PS4 owners have had to wait over a year to get their […]

Carrion – PS4 Review

November 1, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / carrion / horror / Pixel art / retro / the thing by Richie

Q-YO Blaster is a horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up from South American developers Team Robot Black Hat. As a shoot ’em up in the classic arcade style, that means it needs to fall into one of the major archetypes and ultimately this one aligns itself to the Parodius way of doing things. Here […]

Q-YO Blaster – PS4 Review

September 3, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged animation / horizontally-scrolling / indie / Pixel art / q-yo blaster / shoot em up by Richie

I know the market’s full of them but I haven’t played a Metroidvania in a while. When they’re good, the deliver a flowing experience that I’ll always enjoy. Exploration always appeals to me and uncovering new secrets across an expansive map. Unspeakable Pixels released Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials last […]

Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials – PS4 Review

August 3, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / batbarian: testament of the primordials / companions / light-hearted / luminous bat / metroidvania / Pixel art / puzzle platforming / rpg elements / secrets / unspeakable Pixels by Mike