Rapid Reviews UK
HomepageRapid Reviews UK's Reviews
Afterpulse is a third-person multiplayer shooter that made its debut on mobile devices. As a primarily free-2-play title, Afterpulse features your typical team deathmatch style gameplay with the added extra of buying extra cosmetics and weapons with your hard-earned cash. Afterpulse on the Nintendo Switch offers the same experience, yet asks for a hefty £17.99 upfront cost for the pleasure. So, is it worth it? Well, come with me as I find out…
Let’s get it out of the way, this game is about shooting aliens to strip animé girls of their clothes. There’s no way to make it sound any better than that. The game has a certain audience it’s looking for…however; a quick Google search would allow players to find all the naked animé girls they want without having to pay for this title. Waifu Uncovered tries to be funny, but it misses the mark with its childish and immature attempt at humour. Often it’s left until the boss fights at the end of each stage, but even the pre and post-stage screens have some text that feels like it’s written by the child in school who tried too hard to be funny.
When Radiation City appeared on the eShop list of titles ‘Coming Soon’, I was excited. The original mobile port release by Atypical Games, Radiation Island, was one that I spent considerable time with during my early days playing the Nintendo Switch. While it was not without its fault, it offered an open-world experience with simple-to-play game mechanics and a crafting system I quite enjoyed. Fast forward then to my first, and last, hour playing Radiation City, and my thoughts on a promising game experience with bags of potential had diminished from excitement to utter, utter disappointment.
DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace is a third-person on-rails shooter based on the 2022 movie of the same name. Admittedly I haven’t seen it, so I won’t comment on if the game is enhanced prior to viewing. Maybe the movie adds something to the game. I don’t know.
We live in a time where you can now play a simulator for everything and anything; power washing, goats and even construction . So to be able to stand out in the sea of simulators is no easy task. Rover Mechanic Simulator – as the title suggests – sees you working on various Mars Rovers, assembling, cleaning and fixing different vehicles so they are able to function again. Some simulators thrive and become instant classics while some silently whimper and become just another name on the list. Rover Mechanic Simulator, is the latter.
It’s not very often I get sent physical copies of stuff, so you can imagine my joy when I was offered a physical copy of Ikai to review. Having not known anything about it, knowing nothing of its form or function, I was happy to give it a bash. Unfortunately, this is where most of my joy ended.
What is the first game to come to your mind when you think of top-down shooters? How about hack n’ slash games? What I think of is Halo: Spartan Assault for a top-down shooter and I think of Devil May Cry for a hack n slash game. With Blackwind, you get the best of both worlds, but at a cost. What’s that cost? Your sanity. I have been playing this game now for at least five and a half hours, and I have wanted to just chuck my controller at a wall. More on that later.
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’m a fan of silly little games that utilise chaotic physics systems and ridiculous gameplay mechanics. They offer an experience that’s a little bit different to the norm. I’ve spent a ton of hours with Goat Simulator and it still gets plenty of laughs out of me. I also have fond memories with the likes of Surgeon Simulator and Octodad: Dadliest Catch. Sure, they may not be the most polished of gameplay experiences, but that was part of the charm.
The Snake King replicates the classic gameplay loop of Snake while altering the formula. Instead of the classic Snake gameplay, The Snake King features one hundred and fifty levels where you maneuver through obstacles and collect apples. Collecting every apple will spark joy in players as they traverse the five worlds.
I am a big fan of the 2.5 horror format. Having played and reviewed both Coma games as well as thoroughly enjoying games like Detention, the thought of a zombie-based game was intriguing to me. There is a lot that could be done with this genre. Having read the premise to this game, I was definitely more than ready to give Red Colony a go.
There will be games that make you feel like you don’t want to play them because they are so bad. Dread Nautical is that game for me. This game has many things that made me not like playing it, and I will be honest in that I have not beaten this game. I’ve had this game for a bit now, and whenever I start doing a session, I need to stop playing it 5-10 minutes at each time and at this point, I have grown tired. So why do I not like this game? Let’s find out.
When it comes to video games, I have genres that I tend to play more than others, such as platformers and fighting games. However, there is a genre that I don’t advertise that I enjoy equally as much as these. Virtual sports games, with Pool being a very firm favourite. With this small bit of exposition out of the way, I recently had the chance to play Pure Pool on the Nintendo Switch. Did I enjoy my experience with the game? Find out after the “break”.
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is an exciting premise; you play as both the Joes and Cobra, helping to restore order and conquer the world at the same time. It’s a team-based game, where you can solo/co-op play through the campaign and duke it out with your buddy, split-screen locally of course, (not an option for this Covid era, however).
Clash Force promises to be “a love letter to classic 8-bit run-and-gun action games and 80s cartoons!”. In reality, it is more of a postcard of influence than a love letter. The game definitely has 8-bit vibes but it’s no Contra or Metroid. It also doesn’t have the over the top action or dramatic tension found in all the best 80s cartoons. If Transformers or He-Man had been as flat as this game, we wouldn’t even remember them.
Random Heroes: Gold Edition reminds me of a simpler time in gaming. When consoles used cartridges, control pads had wires and three buttons, and simple sprites were cutting edge. Times have changed, we’ve moved on, but some developers still look back to those early days for inspiration.
Greyhill Incident is set in the fictional town of Greyhill, where paranormal activities are mysteriously on the rise. Our protagonist, Ryan Baker, takes it upon himself to figure out what’s going on, only to realize that aliens have landed and they are real. While everyone is worried about alerting the police in fear of getting locked up, Baker decides to take matters into his own hands and save Greyhill.
I’m an admirer of the Darksiders franchise, with its heart on its sleeve inspirations from the greats of gaming such as Zelda, Diablo, God Of War and now Dark Souls!
Have you ever wanted to play a game like The Elder Scrolls but heavily stripped back, lacking any depth, and is just utterly bland? No? Me neither, but here I am reviewing Ravensword: Shadowlands.
After reviewing Freddy Spaghetti on PlayStation 4, I didn’t expect to ever see Freddy again. It seemed pretty definitive that the playful noodle had met his end, and that his creator – Dr. P. Starr – regretted ever trying to create a sentient piece of pasta. Apparently, I was wrong. Developers Playful Pasta have rebirthed Freddy in Freddy Spaghetti 2, where he now takes on the role of an office worker with an attitude. This second instalment in the franchise focuses on Freddy’s journey into adult life and taking on the responsibility of employment – not that he shows himself to be responsible, of course.