The Test is a fascinating series that is well worth experiencing; each individual entry is less than £2 and takes maybe 30-45 minutes to work your way through, depending on how quickly you answer the questions. The final results you get from each game are thought-provoking and worth reflecting on even if you have no intention of moving on to plug your secret words into Randumb Studios’ other games, and this idea of “video game as therapy” is definitely a solid one that is probably worth exploring further.
Descenders is an absolute delight that I can highly recommend to anyone in the mood for a good, silly, arcade-style racer with a significant but optional extreme sports stunt element. It’s a game with potentially limitless replayability, yet one which doesn’t make unreasonable demands of your time; it’s the perfect thing to have on the back-burner when you’re in the mood to just play something which excites and thrills, but which doesn’t demand commitment or too much brainpower.
Castle in the Clouds feels like a game that simply wants you to have a good time without compromising on either its lewd content or its solid gameplay.
Despite its age, Kamui is an absolutely magnificent shoot ’em up that every enthusiast should have in their collection alongside the other two The Tale of ALLTYNEX titles. Following the closure of Nyu Media a few weeks back, the ALLTYNEX games have been picked up by prolific doujin publisher Henteko Doujin, so it seems like they’re in good hands for now. So if you’re in the mood for some top-tier 32-bit-style blasting, nab yourself a copy of Kamui now — you won’t be disappointed!
Metallic Child looks great, sounds great and most importantly feels great to play. It’s a satisfying game that runs super-smoothly and slickly on both Nintendo Switch and PC, and with its compelling combination of relatively short individual play sessions and its absolute mountain of challenges to overcome, this is absolutely a game you should have in your collection. So if you’ve passed on it up until now, I urge you — give it a go, ’cause Studio HG are clearly immensely talented, and their work deserves to go recognised!
Anyway, if you enjoy platformers that strike a good balance between accessibility and challenge factor, Micro Mages should be high up your list of games to give your time and attention.
I would happily play a full-length game starring Brucie and Jade as they investigate multiple cases that require their exorcism services, but as a bite-size adventure that simply shows a snapshot of their less-than-lucrative career, Physical Exorcism works well. If you’re in the mood for a horror game that is less about explicit scares or gore and more about psychological trauma and people being awful to one another, it’s a great choice for an evening’s entertainment — and it’s certainly got me curious about what the rest of the series has in store.
RefleX is a pretty magnificent shoot ’em up, all told. Its mechanics are simple, straightforward and easy to understand but hard to master, and the experience as a whole is fundamentally satisfying. It might have been nice to see some difficulty options — though the ability to practice individual areas and the gradually increasing number of continues you get with each unsuccessful clear attempt are both welcome features — but on the whole, it’s not hard to see why those deep into the shoot ’em up scene love and respect SITER SKAIN’s work, and why these games still hold up so well nearly 15 years after their original release.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is simple: I like HoloCure a lot more than Vampire Survivors, even though at the time of writing Vampire Survivors technically has more “content”. Passion projects like this are worth supporting and celebrating, particularly when they’re as high quality as this — and who knows? This could be just the thing to get those of you who have so far resisted the allure of VTubers to dive down the rabbit hole at last. Come on in, it’s nice and warm down here…
Would you ever want to go back to Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club – Soccer Story after playing this, then? Well, perhaps; the unpredictable aspect that the weather system brings to the table might not always be what you’re in the mood for, so when you’re feeling that way and still fancy a kickabout, the previous game still has value. For the most part, though, Nekketsu Soccer League is the superior game in almost every regard — and, like its predecessor, is once again appealing and playable even to those of us who aren’t fans of the real-life “beautiful game”!
Ultimately, Daytona USA is a pleasant reminder of a bygone age of gaming: a time when Sega made blue-sky arcade games with hilariously wonderful soundtracks; a time when arcades were still alive and well (though in more recent years, arcade-style gaming is making a grand comeback); and a time when it was okay for a game to just exist without needing constant updates, DLC and additional “content” added on a regular basis.
In summary then, despite ALLTYNEX Second’s age, this is still a solid investment for any shoot ’em up fans looking for something new to try — and if you already own it and haven’t had a blast on it for a while, now’s the perfect time to fire it up and see if you’ve still got what it takes. SITER SKAIN’s work is consistently regarded in shoot ’em up enthusiast circles as being of very high quality, and while ALLTYNEX Second isn’t their very top-rated title — that honour seems to be commonly agreed as going to ALLTYNEX follow-up Kamui — it’s definitely a very strong game.
All in all, this is a good collection. It’s a shame about some of the flaws and omissions — particularly the rather raw deal Pac-Attack has ended up with — but perhaps the most troublesome issues can be patched. It’s certainly a decent celebration of the life and times of our spherical yellow hero — and the metagame element should keep you busy in the long term if the games included here aren’t already compelling enough!
Either way, this is probably one to skip. Eastasiasoft has much better lewd fare in their catalogue, so I would highly recommend that you go enjoy literally any of those instead of this.
If you’re not accustomed to this type of shoot ’em up action, Typhoon can easily become absolutely infuriating. Hell, even if you know exactly what it’s doing, it can be rage-inducing. But it’s a game that is worth investing some time and effort into, because the feeling of satisfaction you get from successfully overcoming a particularly challenging encounter is absolutely wonderful — and you’ll quickly get hooked on that feeling.
But if not, don’t sleep on Namco Museum Remix; it’s a great example of Namco paying tribute to some of its lesser-known games — and an even better example of the Wii playing host to a number of experiences you simply can’t get anywhere else!
While the Famicom isn’t particularly known or well-regarded for its lineup of fighting games — it was really the 16-bit console era where it really started to shine — Nekketsu Fighting Legend is an example of how an 8-bit fighting game can work well. It doesn’t overcomplicate things, it makes use of mechanics and conventions that will be familiar to those who grew up with the beat ’em up genre, and, like the other Kunio-kun games, is absolutely packed with personality and good humour.
Like I say, don’t come into Spacewing War expecting spectacular screen-filling bosses, super-slick parallax scrolling and thumping beats that will be stuck in your head for the next 30 years — rather, expect a loving homage to games on the classic Game Boy by people who clearly understand what it was that made that platform in particular so beloved by so many.
So long as you’re on board with the fanservice angle — and make no mistake, this is one of Compile Heart’s most fanservicey games of all time — then Seven Pirates H will keep you entertained for a good period. There’s plenty to do, but it doesn’t outstay its welcome, either — just the thing we all need for a palate-cleanser between more weighty fare!
These nitpicks aside, Pretty Girls Speed is a solid addition to the Pretty Girls series, and further evidence that Zoo Corporation and eastasiasoft are keen to develop and evolve this series in increasingly inventive and enjoyable directions. It makes sense; when announcing the physical release of the Pretty Girls Game Collection 4-in-1 bundle, eastasiasoft’s project lead Joshua Michael French noted that the Pretty Girls series are among the company’s most popular titles, and thus it stands to reason they’d want to keep bringing these characters back in new contexts — as well as develop spin-offs, such as the excellent Otoko Cross.