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Review Moving Out - Good, Old-Fashioned Fun That Just Falls Short Of Greatness
We quite like to move it, move it
You get an idea of Moving Out's tone when you're designated a F.A.R.T in the first sixty seconds; a Furniture Arrangement and Removal Technician. Much like that joke, the game is is silly, puerile and, unfortunately, a little bit lacklustre. Taking its cues from the frantic likes of Overcooked, Moving Out sees you...
Review Trials of Mana - Old And New Combine To Create A Fine RPG Adventure
A potent blend
It seems that Square’s cult favourite Mana series has been enjoying something of a renaissance of late, and the latest product of this resurgence is a new remake of Trials of Mana. Seiken Densetsu 3 – as it’s known in Japan – never saw a release in the west when it first debuted in the ’90s, and only got introduced to...
Review Cooking Mama: Cookstar - Definitely Needed More Time In The Oven
Undercooked
It’s been rather fascinating to follow the slowly unfolding trainwreck of Cooking Mama: Cookstar over the past week or so. What began as an innocuous and unassuming new release in a beloved series has quickly grabbed headlines after its mysterious and sudden disappearance from storefronts. Conspiracy theories around copyright...
Review Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - A Totally Unique Experience Marred By Technical Problems
I feel the earth move under my feet
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately. It’s by far the least interesting thing about Granzella’s Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, the revival of a PlayStation 3 title originally set to come out in 2011, but your reaction to it will likely be the biggest factor in terms of whether or not you’re...
Review One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 - Exactly What You'd Expect, No More, No Less
Maybe the real treasure is the friends we made along the way
The One Piece franchise is truly something to behold. Nearly a thousand episodes of the anime have been produced and the manga – which has been running since 1997 – has nearly a billion copies in circulation. Despite series creator Eiichiro Oda’s initial wish for it to run for only...
Review Zombie Army Trilogy - Undead Action From The Team Behind Sniper Elite
Schlock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
It's 1945, World War Two is drawing to a rather bloody close and everybody's favourite angry auntie Adolf Hitler has just been informed that it's not looking great for him and his goose-stepping grunts. Being the level-headed Fuhrer that he is, little Adolf reacts to this news by immediately killing the...
Review Gigantosaurus: The Game - Yet Another Poor Licensed Tie-In
A gigantic mess
Licensed games continue to be incredibly hit and miss. There are certainly examples of titles that have got it right, such as South Park: The Stick of Truth and its sequel, but sadly there are countless other games that just simply feel like shameless cash grabs, relying solely on the popularity of the property over compelling...
Review Saints Row IV: Re-Elected - Marvellously Madcap Open-World Fun
POTUS power
Few games do ‘fun’ with as much enthusiasm and self-awareness as Saints Row. While GTA tempers its acerbic tone and pop culture devotion with a firm set of in-game rules, Volition’s open-world series has always aired towards the silly and the slapstick. Want to throw yourself into oncoming traffic and ragdoll your way to insurance...
Pulled punches
Few shonen anime series fit popular culture’s continued obsession with western superhero tropes quite as well as My Hero Academia. This long-running manga and anime follows the journey of Izuku Midoriya, a young boy born without powers (or Quirks, as they’re known in the series’ canon) in a world where extraordinary abilities...
Review Animal Crossing: New Horizons - An Accessible And Addictive Masterpiece
The shores of Bell
Back when – what feels like forever ago – we found out that a new Animal Crossing game would be coming to Switch, we were told basically diddly squat about the whole thing, but excitement ensued nonetheless. As time went by and we learnt more and more about it, the hype reached ever higher rungs on the big ladder of...
Review Langrisser I & II - Fire Emblem’s Erstwhile Rival Gets A Second Shot At Glory
Back from the dead
Back in the early '90s, there were two very similar fantasy-styled SRPG franchises that battled each other for relevance: Fire Emblem and Langrisser. Though each series offered certain defining gameplay or stylistic characteristics that the other didn’t, they were about neck and neck when it came to the overall experience being...
Review Dead Or School - Mutant-Slaying With A Sense Of Style
A diamond in the rough
Dead or School is a game full of obvious jank: likely the product of a tiny team of three working on a very tight, crowdfunded budget to realise a very – perhaps overly – ambitious creative vision. It’s questionably optimised, particularly in handheld mode, where it chugs quite a bit. Its 2D sprites appear obviously...
Review Overpass - A Slow-And-Steady Racer That Strays Off The Beaten Track
Muddy textures
The active ingredient of pretty much every racing game that you care to mention, from Out Run to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, is speed. Overpass might require you to get to the finishing line in the shortest time possible, but it's almost wholly lacking in that S-factor. It sounds perverse, but in order to make suitably rapid progress here...
IMMORTALIZE!
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late is the third iteration of the indie visual novel/2D-Fighter from developer French Bread which was first released in Japanese arcades all the way back in 2012. An update in 2017 added four new characters, a bunch of new modes and gameplay tweaks for console versions, and this latest iteration adds yet...
Review Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo - A Fine Shmup Selection, But Input Lag Remains An Issue
Continued delay
Just as Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is the companion game to the earlier release of Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha, what you're reading now should also be considered the companion to our earlier review of the latter title. We suggest, to help digest the full context of this review, that the reader also hop over and read this companion...
Review Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX - Fun, But Only In Short Doses
Titled Zangoose Game
When it comes to Pokémon spin-offs, the Mystery Dungeon series is probably the lengthiest. For every short-lived game like Pokémon Dash or Pokkén Tournament, there’s a Mystery Dungeon title offering potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay. Of course, whether you’d actually want to play one of them for hundreds of hours...
Review Rune Factory 4 Special - The Definitive Version Of A Series Classic
"You're always welcome here"
The Harvest Moon series made quite a name for itself when it first released on the SNES in 1996, trading the typical combat-centric trappings of an RPG in favour of a much more laid-back and slower-paced focused on farming. Many sequels would follow in the coming years, and on the tenth anniversary, Marvelous produced an...
Review Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection - A Superb Selection Of Retro Classics
A legacy to be proud of
Those of you familiar with the backstory of the ongoing development of the Mega Man X series may be aware that Zero – the sabre-wielding, long-haired secondary protagonist – was, in fact, the original design Keiji Inafune wanted to use for Mega Man. That idea got shot down because of how different Zero looks from the...
Review Metro Redux - A Compelling Pair Of Amazing Horror Shooters
Apocalypse Now
Metro Redux unites a comprehensively overhauled Metro 2033 and its sequel Metro: Last Light in an excellent first-person survival horror package that's stuffed to the mutated gills with genuinely creepy stealth gameplay and a gripping story that sees protagonist Artyom make his way through the mutant-infested Metro deep beneath...
Review Samurai Shodown - This Blade Is Still As Sharp As Ever
Another 'victoly' for SNK
When Street Fighter II arrived in arcades in the early '90s and turned the one-on-one fighter into the genre of choice for millions of players, it predictably caused a deluge of copycat clones to flood the market, each offering a slightly different take on the concept. Few of these could hold a candle to Capcom's effort,...
Review Two Point Hospital - Arguably The Best Version Of An Acclaimed Modern Classic
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
Harkening back to the “good old days” of Theme Hospital from Bullfrog in the '90s, Two Point Hospital wraps the same irreverent humour into a modern game that introduces a whole new generation to the joys of medicine. This is a game about managing expectations. Patients expect to be treated and...
Review Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth - A Steampunk Visual Novel With A Literary Twist
Steampunk Hunks
Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth is an Otome visual novel originally released for the PlayStation Vita back in 2015 that sees you assume the role of Cardia, a mysterious young lady with a serious case of amnesia who's been shut off from the world and is living her life in a strange abandoned mansion at the behest of her elusive...
Review Darksiders Genesis - Thrillingly Visceral Action Tempered Slightly By Performance Woes
Cores of War
Darksiders Genesis continues the series' penchant for switching up its central gameplay style and influences, this time settling on a Diablo-esque camera angle for its hack-and-slash antics. At first glance, it may seem far removed from the third-person romps that make up the rest of the franchise, but, rest assured, once you jump in...
Review Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate - An Iterative Update For Hardcore Fans Only
Quantity over quality?
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate is here, and it brings with it a host of additions to the vanilla version of the game, adding some much-needed replayability via a brand new Infinity mode, seven new characters, tweaked gameplay mechanics, a slightly refined UI and beefed-up story. It's all pretty much as you'd expect if you're a fan...
Review Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha - Great Games Shamed By Horrendous Input Lag
Delayed reaction
At face value, Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha is an excellent proposition – a collection of some of the most beloved shmups and arguably the best titles Psikyo ever produced. At the humble price of $39.99, the new owner of the Psikyo properties, City Connection, is offering four must own shmup titles and two solid STG at an average...
Review Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold - Endearing RPG Action With Bags Of Character
It's nacho typical RPG
When you think about it logically, we shouldn’t have been surprised by Snack World. After all, when a game’s developed by the legendary Level-5 and has already enjoyed a hugely popular anime series and toy line in Japan, it really should have been on plenty of gamers’ wishlists. Despite this, it’s fair to say that...
Review Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 3 - Mucky Madness On Two Wheels
Scrubbed up
Italian developer Milestone might not have the pedigree of Polyphony Digital or Codemasters – at least, not yet – but the racing specialist has always seen the value in porting many of its games to handheld platforms. Just being able to play the original MXGP – albeit in its ‘Compact’ form – on PS Vita, years before Switch...
Review Ash of Gods: Redemption - A Gorgeous Turn-Based RPG Failure
Scammer Saga
Ash of Gods: Redemption wants to be The Banner Saga so bad it hurts. Everything about AurumDust's turn-based RPG is influenced massively by Stoic's superlative dark fantasy effort, and that's fine. It's got the exact same animation style, dark and brooding story, life-or-death decisions to be made, branching narrative, RPG elements,...
Review Soccer, Tactics & Glory - Unique Turn-Based Footy Action That's Not Always Nice To Watch
Manage your expectations
“Football is more and more like a game of chess,” Alex Ferguson once said in a 2009 interview. “In chess, if you lose your concentration for a second you’re dead.” Obviously he was speaking metaphorically – chess-based fatalities are extremely rare – but his point is an important one: when it’s played to a...
Review Darius Cozmic Collection - Swimming With The Fishes
M2 works its magic once more
Editor's note: This review is for the Japanese version of Darius Cozmic Collection. The game has since been released in the west in two versions: Darius Cozmic Collection Console and Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade. Close your eyes. Now think about “classic shmups.” What titles immediately spring to mind? Gradius