Staff Profile
- Username
- Shiryu
- First Article
- News/Features
- 215
- Reviews
- 104
- Avg. Review Score
- 7.3
- Article Comments
- 12,278
- Total Articles
- 319
Review Double Dragon Neon - An Energetic Reboot Which Has Aged Surprisingly Well
Neon Night Riders Forever
It has been no less than eight years since the Lee brothers' Saturday morning cartoon outing, Double Dragon Neon, was released. As 2020 comes to an end, does this over-the-top scrolling beat’em up still glow in face of stiff competition on the Switch from the likes of Streets of Rage 4? Genre similarities aside, it is...
Review The Eternal Castle [Remastered] - The Cinematic Platformer Reimagined In Dazzling Style
Keep going, never stop
The cinematic platformer genre has a distinguished and well-documented history, but considering the limitations of the hardware in the years of the genre's biggest breakthrough titles really puts things in perspective. The way pioneering game designers such as Jordan Mechner and Eric Chahi were able to squeeze incredible...
Review 1993 Shenandoah - One For Hardcore Amiga Fans Only
27 years in the making
To own a Commodore Amiga in the late '80s / early '90s was to be part of something truly special. You might have been lucky and previously stumbled upon a ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 at home, but you had to use your imagination to make those arcade home conversions look, sound and play anywhere near the real deal. The Amiga...
Review Rigid Force Redux - This Will Tide You Over Until R-Type Final 2 Arrives On Switch
R you my Type?
By the time the fifth generation of hardware arrived, 3D polygons in video games were nothing new. What changed was the available home consoles' power to manipulate them, forcing developers to adapt and evolve. Overnight, hundreds of 2D game series had full-3D makeovers with mixed success, but for the humble shmup, the move was more...
Review Synaptic Drive - A Fun But Bare-Bones Custom Robo Successor
Customless Robo
Delve in the uncomfortably long list of Nintendo game series published in Japan that never really had a chance to shine in the West, and you will undoubtedly stumble upon Custom Robo. This game series developed by NOISE began on Nintendo 64, offering tight solo and multiplayer arena fighting action with customizable robots. The...
Review Space Invaders Invincible Collection - 40 Years Of History In One Package
Invaders Must Die
Considering we have been shooting them out of our virtual skies for entertainment over the past forty-two years, any sentient extra-terrestrial life form might not be too keen to drop in to say “Hello!” these days, and with good reason – Tomohiro Nishikado's original 1978 Space Invaders didn't just kickstart a cultural...
Review Double Dragon & Kunio-Kun Retro Brawler Bundle - A Stunning Retro Collection
Come for the Dragons, stay for the Kunio
Being a Kunio fan in the West is tougher than the mean streets Kunio and his friends come from. We've had to endure butchered localizations and dozens of titles being missed because they were simply deemed “too Japanese for Western consumption”. In fact, even nowadays, few Western gamers might realise the...
Review Speedway Racing - Daytona USA Has Nothing To Worry About
Days of Blunder
For gamers of a certain age, the name Sega is a synonym for arcade racing perfection. From Yu Suzuki’s sprite scaling opus Out Run to the polygonal bliss of Virtua Racing, the company always stood at the top of the arcade racing genre due to on-point game design, ensuring that anyone regardless of skill could walk away with a silly...
Mini Review Gigantic Army - A Cybernator Homage That's Almost Over Before It Starts
Rocky robot
If you are a hardcore shooting game fan, three-man "dōjin" developer Astro Port might ring a bell. This small team has a clear love for the genre and have produced several shooters based on classics from the 16-bit generation over the past decade. It was a bit of a surprise to see an “old friend” pop up on both Switch eShop and in...
Review SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays - Brilliant Strategy RPG Action Bursting With Content
A Gundam 40th anniversary party, SD style
It takes a certain type of western gamer to be a Mobile Suit Gundam fan. You probably got hooked into mecha anime and spent your youth glaring at import gaming magazines, making lists of Gundam games you would either never play, or end up doing so decades after their original release after some brave fans...
Review REKT! High Octane Stunts - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Meets Rocket League
Big stunts with tiny cars on the cheap!
The eShop’s virtual shelves are getting ever more crowded with each passing week. Can the extremely inexpensive game REKT! possibly be anything other than another putrid attempt to break into the Switch Shovelware Hall of Shame? Get ready for a shocker: good things sometimes do come in cheap packages. There...
Review Stay Cool, Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story - A Neat Bonus, But That's About It
Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kobayashi Side Story
Unless you are a hardcore Kunio fanatic, there's a good chance that "Kobayashi who?" might be the first thing that goes through your head as you read this, so it's best we start off this review with a small introduction. Kobayashi Masao is both leader and strongest member of Reihō Academy’s Shitennō –...
Review River City Melee Mach!! - A Retro Trip That Should Satisfy Longtime Kunio Fans
Barf once again for the Renegade master
If you have been around video games for long enough to remember the success of Renegade and Double Dragon it is also highly probable you stumbled into one of Kunio’s numerous 8-bit Famicom outings, perhaps even disguised in the West with some hit-and-miss localisation efforts like River City Ra
Review Arcade Love: Plus Pengo! - A Unique Bundle Of Japanese Zaniness
Arcade beatings, shooting and Pengos for everyone
Triangle Service's debut title for the Switch is a fairly safe option for the small developer, which compiles three of their previously-published arcade titles – along with a unique 2012 version of Sega's Pengo – into a single package. But is it worth investing in Arcade Love: Plus Pengo!, which...
Review VASARA Collection - A Welcome Pair Of Bullet Hell Curios
Fly me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!
Visco Corporation may be best known for making 'unremarkable' games. We don’t mention this in a derogatory fashion; the games under their belt are far from bad, just arguably derivative and somewhat “safe”. Most of their arcade games were never given home conversions to begin with, making their...
Review Raiden V: Director's Cut - Bullet Hell On A Budget Both Veterans And Noobs Can Appreciate
Purple homing laser destruction for the whole family
It is hard to believe that Seibu Kaihatsu’s legendary Raiden shmup series graced Nintendo platforms a single time on Super Nintendo, twenty-seven years ago. But do all good things come to those who wait? We find out as Moss and UFO interactive grace the Switch with the 'Director's Cut' of Raiden...
Review War Tech Fighters - What You Get If You Mix Pacific Rim, Gundam And... Mortal Kombat?
We're not mech-ing this up, honest
Making a video game about giant robots fighting each other (or indeed, fighting anything at all) should be a guaranteed hit. Yet the modest list of Switch mech-related game releases has proven over time that this isn't as easy as it sounds. We do know that this will very likely change mid-September, but can Drakkar...
Review Psyvariar Delta - A Classic Shooter That Will Leave You Buzzing
The definitive (psy)variation
The original Psyvariar was released nearly two decades ago, developed by Success Corporation (of Cotton fame) and taking full advantage of Taito’s G-NET arcade board to effortlessly shift around simple polygonal models and hundreds of bullets on screen; any freeze frame taken could have passed as an impressionist...
Feature It's Time To Lay Down Your ARMS
We hang up our gloves in Nintendo's OTHER larger-than-life brawler
After two years and 30 Party Crashes, Gonçalo “Shiryu” Lopes finally gives his ARMS a rest, long after everyone else did, and looks back on his time with the game... Until June 2017 the humble Switch was known by fans (and non-fans alike) as “the Breath of the Wild...
News Earn Exclusive Skins And Gear In Mortal Kombat 11's Brand New Seasonal Mode
'Twas the season... of blood!
Originally announced within the game's news section, the Mortal Kombat 11 Kombat League is at last upon us. The first season has been (unsurprisingly) branded "The Season of Blood". Starting from 18th June and running for the next four weeks, all players will be able to climb from Apprentice to Elder God rank...
Video Witness Annihilation In The New Daemon X Machina Story Trailer
Meching it right
Despite everything we already know about the ravaged world of Daemon x Machina – even after the latest E3 Treehouse Live presentation which showed us an extensive look at the mechanized destruction ballet – the producers remain tight-lipped about the player's role in the single-player campaign. Sadly, Nintendo's new story...
Video Explore The Musical History Of The Elite Beat Agents
Agents are... GOne?
If you have fond memories of the Elite Beat Agents or are yet to discover the delights of this male cheerleader series which was localised in 2006, the latest 'Did You Know Gaming?' video by Nintendo Life contributor Liam Robertson is definitely worth a watch. Over roughly half an hour, Robertson investigates the entire history...
News A Forgotten (And Kirby-Free) HAL SNES Title Has Been Preserved For The Ages
Anyone for golf?
Some great news for retro gaming enthusiasts as the year of noteworthy Super Nintendo efforts continues unhinged. Reports of successful preservation of HAL Laboratory's Special Tee Shot prototype and subsequent public release means that we can all now enjoy the isometric mini-golf game that was meant to show up as a regular SNES...
News Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch Will Grace The Switch This Fall
Another JRPG masterpiece is on the way
Seems someone at Bandai-Namco is having a very, very bad day since most (if not all) their entire E3 2019 line-up has quickly and steadily leaked online for all to stumble upon. Among such titles is none other than acclaimed 2010 PlayStation 3 exclusive Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch which is gaining a...
