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Chess has long been a game played by millions across the world, dating back as far as the 1500’s; although the exact origins seem to be unknown. Knight’s Retreat is a puzzle game that brings together the elements of chess to create a unique experience on the Nintendo Switch.
Mighty Goose is a run and gun shooter featuring a bounty hunter goose. Fight your way through hordes of bugs and robots to prepare for battle against the Void King. Meet an adorable cast of battle-ready creatures and fight with high octane gameplay. Is this goose cooked all the way through? Find out in my Rapid Review.
When I first booted up Save me Mr Tako, my brain got dragged back to my youth. Where a younger me and a friend of mine were camped on his porch playing Gameboys. Those basic, crunchy chiptunes, the muted green and black colour palette, times were a lot simpler back then. Save me Mr Tako harks back to these simpler times, with its pure gameplay and classic presentation, it’s a breath of fresh air in this trying modern era of gaming.
Ratchet and Clank are PlayStation icons, with their futuristic escapades giving 3D-adventuring masterclasses ever since the PlayStation 2 days. I remember playing and loving the original game, whilst every entry since has been top class too. They have been welcome faces on the platform since 2002, with their adventures certainly standing the test of time.
When it comes to professions that cheeky Nintendo mascot Mario, and his band of chums seem to have done it all. From Kart racing, playing Doctor, and even dabbling with DIY – Mario has been there, done that, and gotten the t-shirt. Now it’s over to golf with the recent release of Mario Golf: Super Rush. But does this all-star sequel head straight to the green? Or does it flounder in the fairway? Come with me as I find out.
“You cannot change the past, but you can always change your perspective”. It’s a quote that feels fitting for Maquette, both with its gameplay and its narrative. The puzzler from developer Graceful Decay doesn’t just give players a myriad of challenging enigmas to solve that requires them to use different perspectives to alter the objects around them, but it also tells a love story that’s somewhat bittersweet. That’s not a spoiler, by the way, but something that’s addressed in the intro.
I know what you’re thinking, Metro Exodus has been out a good while now but the version that has been optimised for Xbox Series S|X has recently released and so this will be a slightly different kind of review. Seeing as we already have a review of Metro Exodus (which you can read here), this will more be a review of the Xbox Series S|X version and how it differs from the original. Now that is out of the way, let’s get on with it.
Destroy All Humans! is a semi-open world game set in a fictional 1959 where Cryptosporidium 137 (or Crypto for short) is sent to Earth by his leader, Orthopox 13. His task is to find out what happened to his predecessor Cryptosporidium 136, who disappeared in 1947 after he was sent to Earth for a similar mission. Orthopox 13 (a.k.a Pox) asks our grey little protagonist to harvest human brain stems to prevent his Furon species from going extinct. Why do you ask? Well, a long long time ago, after an encounter between humans and Furon warriors, the human DNA now contains particles of the Furon DNA. Unfortunately, a shadowy government organization called Majestic, and led by Silhouette stands in the way of Crypto’s mission.
Those were the first words mentioned about Biomutant, found in an advertisement in GamesMarkt, a German gaming magazine. However, it was officially announced a couple of days later on the 21st of August 2017: since then, the hype and expectations have been growing and growing. Personally, I haven’t been following Biomutant‘s development from the very beginning. I purposely avoided looking too much into it, first learning about it I believe at E3 last year. For open-world RPGs, I love experiencing them with just a basic idea of the story!
Game Builder Garage is signature Nintendo. For better and for worse, GBG exemplifies the Japanese company’s commitment to innovation, and it’s a real compliment to the already brimming back catalogue of titles. What GBG represents is a company dedicated to game development, to young and aspiring programmers, and to the future of video game design. Naturally, anything ‘signature Nintendo’ does come with a few concessions that hold it back from being everything it could be, but that shouldn’t deter anyone even remotely interested in this games’ offering.
Trails and Traces: The Tomb of Thomas Tew is a short point and click adventure game created by a single developer. The gameplay is just like any other of the genre, solving puzzles by interacting with things in the world. You take the role of a private detective, solving a couple of cases through the course of the game. I played it without a guide and it took me about an hour to complete. None of the puzzles were particularly difficult, but there was difficulty found elsewhere…
I’ve played plenty of point-and-click adventures of varying qualities over the years. Some will stick with me forever (I’m looking at you, Monkey Island) but others aren’t so memorable. Sumatra: Fate of Yandi falls into the latter category. Whilst it isn’t bad, it did nothing exciting to help it stand out in what is already a crowded genre.
The first Layers of Fear was a really, REALLY, horrifying game… in the best way possible, of course. With its ever-changing environments and haunting narrative, it really gave me the chills when I first played it. Naturally then, I was expecting to be spooked out by its sequel Layers of Fear 2. I mean, more of the same eerie thrills but on a boat? Count me in.
Space Engineers is a game that has grown exponentially since its 2013 Steam early access release. What started out as a budding open-world survival sandbox has quickly become one of the most intricate and detailed sandbox titles out there. Successive updates and DLC have added new maps, scenarios, and building pieces to the game that offer more opportunities for players to let their imagination run wild. But how does it hold up after all these years?
If you haven’t played the Yakuza games then I guess you may have been hiding under a rock. Either that or you simply haven’t stumbled upon the series just yet. Judgement is essentially a spin-off of the Yakuza series and an excellent place to start for newcomers to this genre of game. Judgement was originally released way back in 2019 for the Playstation 4 and has now found its way to other platforms.
Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt is at heart a hunting simulation. It sees the hunter, i.e you, entering multiple ecosystems while hunting one of the many different dinosaurs to take down and claim as your trophy. In the process you earn gems, which is one of main currencies in the game. This will allow you to purchase guns, upgrades and perks. Each environment is slightly different from the last. Some take place at different times of the day with some slightly different effects, like fog for example.
Not a lot of people in the gaming industry know that my day job is currently on the railway. So when I saw Train Station Renovation was releasing on Xbox I had to jump at the chance of playing it. It’s no secret that the railway network in the UK isn’t the best in terms of infrastructure and speed. Delays galore in built-up areas and signalling problems in the more challenging rural areas of the country. The truth is that the railway takes complex logistics to run. It is almost like a giant jigsaw puzzle, if one piece goes missing or wrong then the remainder is in a sticky situation.
If you placed a Tony Hawk title and the cars from Rocket league into a blender and mixed them together what do you think the end product would be? Well, I have the answer, that would be REKT: High Octane Stunts! Developed by Little Chicken Game Company and published by No Gravity Games, the game is available across several platforms. Starting its life on the mobile gaming scene, REKT: High Octane Stunts is also on Steam and Nintendo Switch. For the purpose of this review, I’ll be playing the game on Xbox Series X.
Committing tax evasion in the UK is illegal and punishable by fine or imprisonment. So too is asking Switch players to use B to select items in a menu, but for the purpose of this review, I’m willing to go forgo any penalties against Snoozy Kazoo – the development team behind Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion.
Have you ever played a game that, at times, makes you want to hit yourself in the face with a cricket bat? Think of uncanny, wonky, physics-based games like QWOP or Getting Over It. These rage-inducing, weird games are cult hits but I am not sure they are that good or even that enjoyable. Welcome to the Rapid Reviews Balancelot PlayStation 4 review, sit back and prepare for disappointment.