Running since January 2024, BrewOtaku is run by a small team that have their work cut out for them, judging by the sheer amount of games covered in each issue (it’s genuinely impressive!) Produced on glossy paper and currently stocked at Gaming Museum Wien in Austria, and RETRO Games in Germany, if -like me – you live outside of these areas, you can order the physical or digital copies online via this link.
The cover stories on one of the latest issues are the Monkey Island series of games, as well as S.E.U.C.K (Shoot ‘Em Up Construction Kit), as well as an interview with Francesco Terracciano (Straynus game studio, based in Spain) discussing their new game Cronela’s Mansion – which looks to be quite cool and influenced by Maniac Mansion – as well as a plethora of mini-coverage, and articles on both commercial and free games – more on that later.Six issues in and going strong, the editorial style of BrewOtaku is very refreshing in how they aren’t afraid of tackling tough topics such as clone systems, emulation, and the often preposterous costs of badly maintained retro consoles in the current market. As someone who has been involved in various groups pertaining to the retro gaming industry, and has seen the most tedious aspects of gate-keeping purists, the ‘open’ vibe of BrewOtaku just adds to the sense of camaraderie within the pages.
As hinted at above, BrewOtaku aims to cover as much ground as possible in the homebrew scene, and as such there are more than twenty pages of mini-articles alone, with six on each page – most accompanied by QR code links to each game (genuinely one of my favourite things in these types of magazines as it’s such an instant link to finding out more about something that catches your eye). With these being between roughly 25-50 words, it can be tough to impart much info, but the brief descriptions, single screenshots and accompanying data (game title, studio, system, and hyperlink to the game’s website) is enough to get you on your gaming journey if you come across something that catches your eye.
BrewOtaku also aren’t shy of the systems they cover; with GBC, Amstrad CPC, C64, ZX Spectrum, and Amiga OCS popping up on one double-page spread alone. The layout again aims to focus on the games as much as possible with bold, black text on light backgrounds that – cleverly and subtly - have borders that reflect the style or genre of the game, it’s a really nice touch that adds flavour to the pages without impinging on the text and making it unreadable.
Aside from the cover stories, mini-articles, interviews, and news on upcoming games, full-page reviews of the more involved titles are also a main feature, and this contained one aspect of the magazine that I wasn’t entirely sold on. As the games are all scored on a percentage scale - in the issue I’m using as an example - there are over twenty full-page games all scoring within 82% and 89%, with no games outside of that score-zone, and with no description of how the scoring is worked out.
Aside from the cover stories, mini-articles, interviews, and news on upcoming games, full-page reviews of the more involved titles are also a main feature, and this contained one aspect of the magazine that I wasn’t entirely sold on. As the games are all scored on a percentage scale - in the issue I’m using as an example - there are over twenty full-page games all scoring within 82% and 89%, with no games outside of that score-zone, and with no description of how the scoring is worked out.
The numbers seem somewhat arbitrary, especially when comparing a free game to a commercial release, as there is no guide describing how the review is broken down. There are also a couple of moments when the English in BrewOtaku seems slightly awkward, but it could genuinely be down to the level of tightening the editorial style uses to get as much information in a small a space as possible.
📚SUMMARY 📖
BrewOtaku is a specialist magazine that aims to spread the love of homebrew as far as possible from it’s European heart, an admirable task that the magazine succeeds at with aplomb.
📚SUMMARY 📖
BrewOtaku is a specialist magazine that aims to spread the love of homebrew as far as possible from it’s European heart, an admirable task that the magazine succeeds at with aplomb.
This isn’t a magazine for casual gamers, but more for those who admire the work and passion that homebrew designers bring to these titles, and the artistry behind them.
An incredibly impressive magazine made by a handful of individuals that very clearly adore this subject matter, BrewOtaku is a portal to creation on computers and consoles that very clearly have a lot of life in them.
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