top down

Spellagis is an auto-shooter/survivors game from Shokin-dev/Nipobox and it’s published by eastasiasoft. If you’re not familiar with the genre, this is a homage of the now very popular Vampire Survivors or, if you’re a real connoisseur, Brotato (arguably this reviewer’s favourite game). As with other examples of the genre, you basically have to defend yourself […]

Spellagis – PS5 Review

November 18, 2024 in PS5 tagged auto-shooter / eastasiasoft / spellagis / survivors / top down by Richie

Twin-stick shooters with a bit of a Vampire Survivors theme has become a bit of a niche genre for Brazilian-based studio Afil Games. Unfortunately, the two efforts we’ve reviewed so far – Stickman’s Arena and Mighty Mage – were both absolutely terrible. But here is Afil Games, specifically Antonio Filipe, with […]

Primal Survivors – PS5 Review

June 22, 2024 in PS5 / Reviews tagged afil games / primal survivors / survivors-like / top down / twin-stick shooter by Richie

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

If there’s one thing we’d change about this generation of gaming, it’s the influences on game design that have come from F2P and mobile games. The sort of baffling complexity that got introduced during the PS4-era that creates such bad first impressions whenever we fire up a new game. Now, […]

Killsquad – PS4 Review

July 24, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged co-op / killsquad / loot / top down / twin-stick shooter by Richie

Ultra Mission is a top-down shoot ’em up from State-side indie studio, Gumbo Machine (which is mainly just Benjamin Hapferer who handles programming and graphics duties on this game). On the face of it, this is a fairly unremarkable game. We’ve seen plenty of top-down shooters on PSN (we seem to […]

Ultra Mission – PS5 Review

July 21, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged last vita game / shoot em up / top down / ultra mission by Richie

Formerly known, on Steam, as Chernobyl: Road of Death, the recently renamed Road of Death, is a twin-stick shoot ’em up game with survival elements. It’s a Ratalaika joint, so enjoy your quick Platinum, and developed by Diedemor Studio. The post-nuclear setting means that you’ll be facing off against irradiated foes using […]

Road of Death – PS5 Review

July 20, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged mutants / ratalaika / road of death / top down / twin-stick shooter by Richie

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is a top-down, multi-directional shoot ’em up based on a 1992 SNES game that was itself a sequel to an arcade game called Kiki Kaikai from Taito. The game has been given the remake treatment by Tengo Project who developed Wild Guns Reloaded and The Ninja Saviors for modern consoles […]

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined – PS5 Review

June 24, 2022 in PS4 / Reviews tagged arcade / pocky & rocky / retro / run and gun / shoot em up / SNES / top down by Richie

From the makers of the excellent Guacamelee! games, Drinkbox Studios, comes Nobody Saves the World on PS5. It’s quite a departure from those games with their Metroidvania level layouts, technical platforming and combat. Instead you walk around a top down world which looks similar to an older Zelda title but […]

Nobody Saves the World – PS5 Review

April 14, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 2d / experience / guacamelee! / humour / nobody saves the world / quests / top down / transform by Gareth

The Ascent is a top-down, twin-stick action RPG from Swedish software house Neon Giant. It’s their first game but members of Neon Giant were involved in Gears of War, Doom, Wolfenstein and PSC favourite Bulletstorm. With its top-down perspective and ‘dungeon-crawling’ mission structure, a lot of people seem to think of The Ascent as […]

The Ascent – PS5 Review

March 28, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged cyberpunk / the ascent / top down / twin-stick shooter by Richie

Moto Roader continues the recent trend of obscure old console games getting ported to modern consoles and certainly this is pretty damned obscure. The original Moto Roader was a top-down futuristic racer which came out for the PC Engine in 1989 and, aside from a Wii Virtual Console appearance, it’s never had […]

Moto Roader – PS5 Review

February 21, 2022 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged moto roader / pc engine / racer / retro / super sprint / top down by Richie

The top-down run and gunner is a sub-genre that we don’t tend to see in its original form anymore. Sure, you’ll get them as twin-stick shooters or with a heap of rogue-lite elements attached but Thunderflash, the latest offering from Ratalaika, is very much in the original style. You shoot in […]

Thunderflash – PS4 Review

March 1, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged arcade / commando / ikari warriors / ratalaika / retro / run and gun / thunderflash / top down by Richie

Inferno 2 is a twin-stick shooter from Radiangames, a one man developer from Illinois, which has been around on mobile formats for five years now and is the first game in the series to land on consoles. Now that might be a cause for concern for you, because who wants […]

Inferno 2 – PS4 Review

September 29, 2019 in PS4 tagged arcade / inferno 2 / shoot em up / shooter / top down / twin stick by Richie