I am always a sucker for sports games. Yes, they are mostly repetitive, but it is precisely that element that appeals to me. I don’t play exclusively in the sports genre, but if I ever want to escape into something, then its sports that I often turn to. It’s like a comfy pair of slippers or a warm blanket on a stormy winter afternoon. You can nestle down and go with the familiar. You know what to do, yet there are still variances, none more so than in an (American) football game.
What a year 2020 has been. Who would have thought that we would be sitting here discussing Crysis Remastered being released on the Nintendo Switch? A game that pushed computers to their limits just a decade (or so) ago is now available to play in handheld mode.
When is a Wrestling Game Not a Wrestling Game? The answer is when you’re playing Wrestling Empire. This game is unlike anything I have ever played before. Created by a single developer MDickie, this game is a strange testament to what can be achieved, while at the same time being an absolutely bizarre and unpredictable experience.
I love wrestling. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I watch more than my fair share every week, with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all taken by wrestling shows, and that’s not counting the McMahon empire of WWE. So, when I saw a game advert pop up while watching an episode of NWA Powerrr on YouTube about 18 months ago, I just knew I had to play it.
Who wouldn’t want to be a pirate? Sailing the seven seas, swashbuckling your way across the open waters. Sinking ships, plundering treasure, and trading stolen goods at various pirate friendly ports.
Who doesn’t love a good dystopian sci-fi affair? Growing up reading stories like 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, even stories like The Road or some of the more recent tales written by smaller name authors. I fell in love with the genre and write in it to this day.
I had no idea what to expect when I grabbed The Beast Inside. However, it was classed as a horror game, and that was enough for me to be interested. Boy, was I not prepared for the game that lay ahead of me. Now, with the credits rolling before my eyes, I am feeling a strange combination of emotions. Find out why exactly by reading this rapid review.
A little over three years ago, I reviewed Super Mega Baseball 3 for the site. It wasn’t the first baseball game I had played, but it was the first after I found a deep enjoyment from and interest in the sport. Now, I have the honour of reviewing the next title in the series, the cunningly titled Super Mega Baseball 4. Has a three-year wait been worth it? Find out in this rapid review.
A first-person survival horror game on the PS4? Count me in. A first-person survival horror game steeped with Asian culture and folklore? Count me in multiple times. I first saw this game when I caught the first part of John Wolfe’s playthrough on YouTube. It immediately caught my eye, and when I saw it was coming out on PS4, I knew I had to give it a try.
It is not often that I get excited about a game. Not that wrapped up, clock-watching excitement. Yet that is precisely what I felt from the moment I saw the trailer for Night Call. It had something about it that intrigued me. I had to play this game.
I am a big fan of dark and creepy games. They don’t need to be horror necessarily, but that dark, melancholy atmosphere, the creaking floorboards of an old house, or the shadows moving between the trees. Then you combine that with a story based in fact on a real place and draws inspiration from several different sources.
I have played and reviewed a couple of visual novel games now, and I was then and still am entirely undecided on what I think of them. Then I saw Collar X Malice on the review list. Was I ready for another visual novel? I didn’t know, but I’d played a few hectic games, and the idea of something chilled out certainly appealed to me. Plus, I love reading and story-driven games, and what could be more story-driven than a game that is essentially a novel. So, I ventured into this title, recently launched on the switch after a run on other systems earlier in its life. I did not know anything about the game going into it, but what did I make of my time in the world of Adonis? Was it a real page-turner of a game, or was it one of those stories that weren’t ever as strong as its blurb?
Injecting humour into games is nothing new. There is an easily recallable list of such titles for the Switch from the classic Undertale though to Thimbleweed Park and Jenny LeClue. Now, there is a new title to add to that list. Astrologaster is a comic look at the way certain people thought back in Shakespearian London. There are nods to all sorts of events and historic occurrences, both true and conspiratorial.
Let me start this review by saying how much I love hand-drawn animations. I play and enjoy a wide range of games, but visually, there is always something about the hand-drawn titles that catch my eye.
Paper Dolls 2 is the sequel to the aptly named Paper Dolls: Original, a game I remember playing and reviewing for the site about four years ago. It was a fun game, but not without its annoyances. So when the chance came to get my teeth into Paper Dolls 2, I was eager to jump back into the Yin mansion and see if anything had changed.
Helvetii is a hack ‘n slash game set around Celtic and Gaelic mythology. The hack ‘n slash genre is an acquired taste, or so I feel. I’m no expert in the genre, but the gameplay often feels frantic but directionless. However, I am a big fan of any and all mythologies, and games that explore cultural folklore always grab my interest. So I loaded up Helvetii with high anticipation.
I’ve been writing reviews for this site for a number of years now, and one of the best things about it, for me, is picking a game I know nothing about and enjoying the surprise it offers. Reviewing games has helped me step outside of my comfort zone numerous times. Some of my favourite reviews have been on games I would have passed over had I known more about them before I took the code.
Ziggurat is another recent port from a Wii U game, which itself is a port from releases to other rival systems. The game is a fantasy rich dungeon-crawling RPG with procedurally generated levels that keep things fresh and interesting. The premise of the game is as straightforward as they come.
Overall, Church in the Darkness is an ambitious product and while I understand what they were trying to accomplish, I feel they are just slightly off the mark. It’s a fun game, and one I still find myself going back to, but purely in the interest of seeing what endings there are, rather than being pulled in by the story. It just wasn’t everything that I was expecting.
EA has made the headlines a lot this year, but when it comes to their sports games, they know their stuff, and NHL20 is a prime example of a fun game that sports fans can sink their teeth into. Just don’t expect anything groundbreaking.