retro

Nova Strike is a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up from French/Thai developers Sanuk Games. We last encountered their work when we reviewed their Tetris clone, Tetraminos, but now they’ve switched gears entirely with this rogue-like shooter. That said, they’ve dabbled in a lot of genres in the past since making Gameboy Advance games in 2006. This […]

Nova Strike – PS5 Review

August 5, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 16-bit / horizontally-scrolling / nova strike / retro / shoot em up / upgrades by Richie

Akai Katana Shin is a collection of three versions of Akai Katana, a horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up that debuted in arcades back in 2010 before receiving pretty much this port on the Xbox 360 in 2011. Akai Katana is one of four horizontal shooters from the legendary developer Cave, best known for their […]

Akai Katana Shin – PS4 Review

August 3, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged akai katana shin / cave / horizontally-scrolling / retro / shoot em up by Richie

Twisted Metal: World Tour is the second game in Sony’s long-running vehicular combat series which stretches back from 1995’s original and was last seen in 2012 with the PS3 exclusive reboot also called Twisted Metal. The games always enjoyed some degree of popularity, enough so that there’s actually a TV […]

Twisted Metal: World Tour – PS5 Review

July 26, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged destruction derby / port / ps1 / retro / sony / twisted metal / vehicle combat by Richie

Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up from one-man Canadian coder, Doragon Entertainment. The previous two games never made it over to PSN, and seem to just be mobile phone efforts, but this game landed on the Switch back in 2019 and has now finally made it to […]

Danmaku Unlimited 3 – PS4 Review

June 15, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged bullet-hell / danmaku unlimited 3 / retro / vertically-scrolling shoot em up by Richie

Herodes is a 2D horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up from Brazilian indie studio TecnoloGils. It does the old bit of putting you into a microscopic ship and injecting you into a human who is suffering from some sort of deadly disease. We’ve seen the concept before in games like Viva Ex Vivo […]

Herodes – PS4 Review

May 24, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged herodes / indie / retro / shoot em up by Richie

While the 16-bit era’s biggest successes were Nintendo’s SNES and the Sega Megadrive, many gamers spent their formative years with a Commodore Amiga and, let’s admit it, a stack of pirated games on cheap floppy discs that they got from some sketchy guy who ran a computer shop that is […]

Zool Redimensioned – PS4 Review

May 15, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 16-bit / amiga / port / redimensioned / retro / zool by Richie

Wild Dogs is a 2D run and gun shooter from Brazilian coders 2nd Boss. Sporting a deliberate four-colour Gameboy/NES aesthetic and taking most, but not all, of its gameplay cues from Contra, this is as old-school as it gets but that’s not to say that Wild Dogs doesn’t have a […]

Wild Dogs – PS4 Review

May 10, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / contra / retro / run and gun / wild dogs by Richie

Cannon Dancer is a 2D platform/beat ’em up that has quite the enigmatic history. It was an arcade title that came out in 1996 and was the spiritual successor to Capcom’s famous Strider. Albeit without Capcom’s involvement. Kouichi “Isuke” Yotsui, the lead designer of both games, had moved onto the less […]

Cannon Dancer Osman – PS5 Review

April 19, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged arcade / cannon dancer / coin-op / port / retro / strider by Richie

Atari Mania is the latest game to show up as part of the ongoing 50th anniversary celebrations of legendary software publishers, Atari. We’ve recently seen Atari 50, a huge compilation spanning Atari’s time in the industry, and a whole heap of remastered games in their Recharged range, Atari Mania is something else altogether. Essentially, this […]

Atari Mania – PS4 Review

April 13, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged atari mania / mini games / retro / warioware by Richie

It’ll be no surprise to you that Guns N’ Runs is a run and gun shooter/platformer and it comes to us from Brazilian coders Statera Studio following its initial PC release back in May 2021 that was seemingly missed by most gamers and reviewers out there. But it’s here on PSN […]

Guns N’ Runs – PS4 Review

March 27, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 16-bit / 2d / platformer / retro / run and gun / runs n' guns by Richie

Fight’N Rage is a side-scrolling beat ’em up from Uruguayan developer, and fighting game enthusiast, Seba Games Dev and it is very much inspired by the classics of the genre, a genre which arguably had its heyday back in the late ’80s and early ’90s but repeatedly gets dipped back […]

Fight’N Rage – PS5 Review

March 19, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 90s / Beat em up / fight'n rage / final fight / retro by Richie

Heidelberg 1693 is a 2D action platformer from Andrade Games who we became aware of when we reviewed Sturmfront: The Mutant War which was a wild top-down shooter in the vein of Total Carnage (itself a successor of sorts to Smash TV). It was a good looking game that was absolutely stuffed with […]

Heidelberg 1693 – PS5 Review

November 21, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 2d / ghosts 'n goblins / hack and slash / heidelberg 1693 / retro / run and sort of gun / sturmfront / undead germans by Richie