Drew Sherratt's Reviews
Makis Adventure is the inaugural project from a young solo-developer and honestly, it plays as such. The love for the project pours from every pixel, but from a pure gaming perspective, it’s a little all over the map. Essentially, this is a small collection of mini-games held together by a rudimentary story and basic cast of characters, created by a passionate dev looking to test a variety of skills for the first time. Makis Adventure is limited in what it offers to a player, but can act as a stepping stone for Zoroarts to create bigger, more polished projects in the future, and we wish Matteo Covic all the best as he continues his journey through game development!
My time with Hentai vs. Evil was thankfully very short and produced more head shaking and fewer smiles than the average episode of Dragon’s Den. Designed to appeal to an incredibly niche demographic, there’s a feeling that the lack of content or enjoyable gameplay will be quite simply ignored if you allow the players to ‘hur-hur-hur’ at animated breasts.
Lydia is not so much a game as it is a public service announcement about the risks of alcohol, delivered through the medium of the eShop. The dark subject matter is at times well outlined by some bleak and surreal imagery, but it’s discussed in such a blunt manner that even a powerful ending leaves the story feeling less poignant and more thoroughly miserable. There will be those who can forgive the complete lack of gameplay in the face of raising such an important topic, and while I applaud the intention and understand the gravity of its creation, I find it hard to advocate anyone taking on 45 minutes of pure distilled depression, topped with a smattering of trauma.
SENSEs: Midnight manages to take all of the ingredients that made 1990s survival-horror games fun and bake them into a hellish experience with few redeeming features. There’s zero atmosphere to accompany you as you (slowly) backtrack across Ikebukuro Park, avoiding bland, almost-invisible enemies as you go. With a protagonist who is entirely inanimate except for her breasts, dizzying camera angles and a complete lack of quality gameplay, SENSEs: Midnight should stand as a warning of what not to do for developers looking to capture 90’s survival-horror nostalgia. This is a huge step back from an opening title that, while flawed, at least showed some promise.
Corpse Killer is a decaying relic of its time, with few redeeming features that would encourage anyone to unearth it. The full FMV levels are hilariously bad and the point-and-click shooting is the dictionary definition of rinse and repeat gameplay. B-movie aficionados or former Sega 32X players seeking some nostalgia may be slightly more inclined to resurrect this one, but the cheesy plot, poor production, and miniscule amount of gameplay will not appeal to many modern players at all. It’s an amusing time capsule to my misguided, zombie-enthused youth, but this is one that should absolutely have stayed buried.
After all these years, Another World still tells a great tale and is chock full of exciting moments - I had a tonne of fun with it, but it’s such a product of its era that I fear it’s unlikely to endear itself to modern audiences especially well. The original pixel art visuals may shine in the retro-renaissance we’re living through, but the 3D cinematics look thoroughly ancient and the entire runtime is shorter than a modern tutorial once you know what to do. If you’re a fan of old school experiences and want to play a shining example of adventure from a bygone era then give Another World a try, just be prepared for endless trial and error and more “gotcha” moments than an M. Night Shyamalan marathon.
RWBY feels more like a proof of concept than a fully fledged game, and its origins as a fan project are evident. It shows off the raw ingredients needed to make a good game – strong visuals, a great soundtrack, and the basics of a solid combat system, but they’re pulled out of the pan long before they’re cooked into a tasty meal. Given more variation in the level designs, a bigger roster of enemies, and ANY attempt at storytelling, Grimm Eclipse could have been a delicious morsel indeed. Sadly though, I feel that the game doesn’t do the vibrant hit series justice in any way.
With some excellent backgrounds and a well crafted soundtrack, there’s a tonne of atmosphere packed into Goetia. In fact, the point-and-click puzzler has a fair amount going for it, offering an interesting premise, a well written story, and some decent puzzles that lean on the occult themes incredibly well. But with poor signposting, buggy menus, and puzzle solutions that are often just too tenuous, I found Goetia as frustrating an experience as it was interesting.
Save Room cleverly takes one of the oldest games in existence and makes it relevant as a stand-alone idea again, albeit only briefly. While the actual inventory management in a survival horror game is a massive pain in the backside, Save Room capitalises on the satisfaction you feel when you finally squeeze in everything you need and it’s legitimately good fun while it lasts. Fractal Projects nail the theme by adding in some ammo-management and health tricks that we’ve all used over the years, but perhaps missed the opportunity to use scenarios to add some depth (or even plot) to the otherwise simple gameplay.
She Wants Me Dead is a concentrated precision platform experience that doesn’t take itself too seriously and wins as a result. My dash through the game was a fun-filled and blood-soaked affair, and despite taking me just an hour, chasing perfection will pose a significantly sterner challenge for those crazy enough to give it a try! With some genuinely tricky patches, the makings of a great soundtrack and swathes of collectable options, this is a game that could (and should!) easily be built upon into a much fuller experience.
Yomawari: The Long Night Collection is an attractive but ultimately long-winded experience. The hand-drawn backgrounds are beautiful and, alongside the impressive sound effects, manage to build a wonderful level of immersion in the static environments. But with no combat to speak of and very little actual action, you’re forced only to run away from the host of spectres at an achingly slow pace. Stumbling through two disjointed stories is slow going since they hang on just a few scattered, but admittedly fun scares without much other meat on the bone.
All-in-all, Gang Beasts is a fun multiplayer romp that’s best enjoyed with a few friends after a couple of beers, but doesn’t hold up nearly as well once you try to take the party online. The derpy characters, intentionally awkward controls, and daft physics will bring plenty of laughs in a room full of pals, but become more frustrating as a solo experience. Ultimately, once you’ve played a few rounds in each mode there isn’t an awful lot of meat on the bone; Gang Beasts is an admittedly tasty morsel, it just carries the price tag of a prime cut.
I can’t call G-Darius HD anything other than a run-of-the-mill arcade shoot ‘em up. While the capture ball and beam duelling are fun wrinkles to the gameplay, they aren’t enough to make the game stand out against a myriad of other titles in the same genre. The achievements and graphics updates are nice but I struggle to look past its short run time and genesis as an arcade cabinet that’s designed to eat your money. Sadly, this just isn’t an ideal console title. Fans of the genre will be overjoyed to have G-Darius HD available in their games library, but I don’t think it will capture many hearts outside of those players who forever yearn for the glory of the arcade High Scores table.
Trying to replicate the adventure book style with a grisly horror twist and reality bending plot line is an admirable undertaking, but I’m afraid there isn’t enough attention to detail to pull it off without a lot of confused eyebrow raising along the way. I certainly applaud the attempt here, but I’d say that Retrace comes off as more ‘pick your poison’ than ‘decide your own fate’ in the end.
While I like the low poly X pixel graphics style and think that the pulsing (albeit limited) soundtrack is great, I didn’t fall in love with Lone Ruin. Despite marketing itself on replayability, the main problem is that it didn’t do enough to make me want to keep coming back for more. The rapid-fire spell slinging is pretty good fun and there’s plenty of variety, but the short run length and lack of plotline or overarching upgrade systems makes Lone Ruin feel more like an arcade game than a roguelike. I’ve no doubt that the pick-up-and-play style will appeal to coin-op fans who like short-burn, intensive action, but I think traditional roguelike fans might lose engagement after just a couple of runs with the lack of a long game on offer.
As a lover of both wildlife documentaries and videogames I absolutely wanted to fall in love with AWAY, but the rough edges of the gameplay and some bugginess proved just too much of a burr under the saddle to be entirely enjoyable. The frustrating gliding controls, a rogue camera, and a smattering of weird and wonderful bugs throws salt on the rich earth of a great idea. The premise is a marvellous one and I applaud the team at Breaking Walls for doing just that – smashing down another wall of what can be made into a videogame. I hope that the team continues with their ‘Survival Series’ and works to bring more playable nature stories to life in the future – I have every faith that this could be a wonderful franchise with only some refinement.
All told, OTXO is quicker than a muzzle flash, offering rapid-fire twin-stick action that is seriously intense. Wrapped in a cool monochrome package and splashed heavily with the blood of your enemies, what it lacks in visual clarity it more than makes up for with an impressive sense of style. The gameplay isn’t built for lasting impressions though; with no long-game to speak of, it’s strictly a ‘how far can you get this time’ affair that harkens back to the arcade shooters of the 80s and 90s. Best enjoyed as a run or two in between more meaty experiences, OTXO is perfect for the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck, where you can wile away short commutes with a hail of bullets before slipping your machine back in its holster, ready to let rip again at a moments notice.
The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is a faithful port of a PSP classic. It ticks all of the boxes for a typical noughties JRPG that offers a tonne of nostalgia for fans of the genre, but with an arcade action-adventure style that brings a fun pick-up-and-play vibe for a broader audience. That said, it’s a game that shows its considerable age; with few modern improvements added, players may well grow tired of the formulaic gameplay long before the heavily padded content is complete.
Hidden beneath the veneer of some pretty outdated visuals, Lootbox Lyfe+ is a solid little Metroidvania that offers some moments of challenge. Progressing from a stationary orb into a double-jumping, ground pounding, speed dashing platform whizz is good fun, and there’s enough unique areas to give a nice sense of exploration too. The more random elements of the game might leave some scratching their heads, but if you’re willing to put your tongue firmly in cheek and just enjoy the platforming, there’s a few hours of enjoyment to be had here.
Ultimately, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark shows very little progression from the previous two entries, which is a shame, since the series has tons of potential. While this plot has something of a more meaningful framework and boasts an unexpectedly impressive final chapter, this game continues to be bogged down with the same glacial gameplay and woolly storytelling as Night Alone and Midnight Shadows. Lost in the Dark will be greatly enjoyed by existing fans of the series, as it follows the established formula closely, but those wishing for more than the same pretty hand-drawn graphics and well-rounded sound design will be left disappointed, as there’s been little evolution between entries one, two and three.