28/03/2024
Cybertrash STATYX Xbox Review 7/10 "A Fun Throwback in The Run ‘n Gun Genre" 💥 #IndieGame #GameDev
26/03/2024
Jagged Alliance 3 XSX Review 9/10 "A Modern Turn-Based Classic" 💥 @THQNordic
A series of turn-based games that have roots going way back to 1994, Jagged Alliance has always enjoyed critical success – and yet it’s a series of games I’ve only touched upon briefly since its inception in the mid-’90s. I recall having some friends who were hips deep, thinking very highly of the franchise, and so when the opportunity came up to cover the third major entry, I was keen to have a goosey.
25/03/2024
Boiling Point: Road to Hell PC Review 7/10 "Arnold Vosloo Kicks Ass Once More" 🚛💥 @playziggurat #IndieGame #GameDev
In quite a few of my reviews covering beloved (by me, at least) yet shonky games – usually open-world RPGs from the mid 2000’s – Boiling Point often crops up, alongside Xenus 2: White Gold (an oddly-named sequel to Boiling Point: Road to Hell), Precursers, and Hard Truck Apocalypse (which has AMAZING music).
The first two of which come from the same developer, Deep Shadows, a company that seem to have moved into hidden object and mobile titles, which is a shame, as they have real character and craft. If each game mentioned here had more time and money invested, they would be classics still talked of today.
18/03/2024
Gloomhaven XSX Review 8.5/10 "How Deep is Your (board gaming) Love?" 🧙♂️ @GloomhavenGame #IndieGame #GameDev
Although Gloomhaven was originally released on PC back in 2021, I wanted to cover it here on GF (on Xbox) in 2024 because I had such a rich experience with the boardgame on which it is based at one of our regular nerdy weekends away a few weeks ago. At said weekends, we tend to have several smaller, briefer games, and then a hefty one to tuck into for a good portion of each day. In this way we’ve played some pretty heavy hitters...but Gloomhaven always lurked at the back of our minds.
15/03/2024
Grandia II Memorial Soundtrack Vinyl Review By Britt 🎶💿 @WayoRecords #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl #VGM
Originally released for the Dreamcast in 2000 and eventually ported to the PS2 (and beyond), Game Arts’ Grandia II was a more mature affair than the 1997 prequel, and featured a lot of the returning original staff – including Noriyuki Iwadare, the composer of all three main Grandia games. The game told the story of Ryudo, a mercenary of wobbly morals who gets tasked with a seemingly simple escort mission that evolves into a grand(ia) adventure.
14/03/2024
Radical Dreamers (Digital) Album Review By Britt 💿🎶 @AmerigoGazaway #VGM #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl
Radical Dreamers is billed as an album that blends “melodic hip-hop beats, razor-sharp lyricism and the allure of old-school RPGs Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger”. I mean, all of that sounds good, so let’s give it a go.
08/03/2024
Video Game Lo-Fi - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest Vinyl Review By Britt 💿 @CuragaRecords #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGM
First off, I feel a fool! A fool I tell you! Up until receiving this record for coverage, I’d been under the impression that the second in the Donkey Kong Country series of games was called ‘Diddy Kong’s Quest’…but it’s actually ‘Diddy’s Kong Quest’ – I don’t feel too bad upon discovering this, as my fiancée was also under the same misapprehension, I’d barely taken the cellophane off this Curaga Records release, and I was already learning.
06/03/2024
A Void Hope Nintendo Switch Review 8.5/10 "An enchantingly melancholic game with a world class soundtrack" 🌲👻🌳 @EldenPixels #IndieGame #GameDev
The team that brought us Alwa’s Legacy and Alwa’s Awakening has returned with A Void Hope, a 2D narrative adventure with a soundtrack provided courtesy of the monolithic skills of Waveshaper.
The game begins with a short prologue that sets the scene; a couple exist in a world where people are becoming ‘empty’, which is to say they slowly lose their memories, before becoming ghostly, wandering figures that ‘haunt’ the city. Whilst the female is the main character of the prologue, the narrative soon focuses on the male, who begins in a forest cabin and must make his way through the city to find out what has happened to his partner, before his memories completely elude him and he becomes one of the empty.
29/02/2024
Video Game Lo-Fi: Jazz Hop Standards Vinyl Review 📀 @CuragaRecords #VGM #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl
The latest entry that we’ve received here at GF HQ in the Video Game Lo-Fi series from Curaga Records, Jazz Hop Standards is a different beast to other entries in that it features more of a collaborative effort, heavier involvement of acoustic instrumentation, and in a more tangible sense – a full size, four-page booklet that gives background and context to the music, a welcome involvement that enriches the listening experience.
23/02/2024
Golfinite Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "A surprisingly moreish golf title" 🏌️♂️⛳️ #IndieGame #GameDev @pmurph0305
13/02/2024
Sinden Lightgun Review "As I felt it’s heft as I lifted it out of the box, I simply muttered, “yes” 💥 @SindenLightgun #Retrogaming
As a collector of video games – as well as a reviewer of them – in my 40’s, I’ve seen a lot of genres come and go, get a new lease of life, get revisited, outmoded, souped-up, etc. and the one genre that burns me to the core most of all, seemingly swept aside by technological issues and the passage of time – is the lightgun genre.
Whether you were introduced to the genre through Duck Hunt on the NES, Point Blank on the PS1, House of the Dead on the Dreamcast, or Silent Scope, LA Machineguns, Time Crisis, or Beastbusters in the arcade, the chances are that you have some pretty strong memories bouncing around your noggin that involve that most shooty-shootiest of gaming genres (I also just remembered the Toejam and Earl Menacer game! What a multi-cart that was!), and they are fading away into the most distant past, as CRT TVs become harder and harder to get.
Quite frankly, unless you are a collector of video games and accessories from a bygone era, the most recent recollections that you’ll have would be of fiddling about with the incredibly tediously thin cable that came with the Nintendo Wii sensor as you tried to get it balanced on top of your TV without knocking it off, yanking the cord out of the delicate sensor, or just strangling yourself to death out of sheer frustration – which often seemed the most practical option.
12/02/2024
Metal Slug 4 Original Soundtrack Vinyl Review "I was first introduced to Metal Slug in the back of a dingy record store" 💿 #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGM
Since the first release in 1996, the Metal Slug series was a long-time staple in arcades over the world. I was first introduced to Metal Slug in the back of a dingy record store (Rainbow Records) in my hometown of Pontypridd, it was one of three cabinets at the back of the shop (the other two were Aliens and Power Drift, if memory serves), and I was instantly hooked on the high-octane action that the game delivered with it’s intense militaristic soundtrack, colourful visuals and zany animations (I’ve always loved the Metal Slug reload animation) – even the in-game slowdown added an oddly cinematic quality to the experience, and made it feel like you were causing so much on-screen carnage and havoc that the game was struggling to keep up with you, good! It’s a series to which I often return, usually when visiting arcades scattered around the UK, as a blast on a Metal Slug title – especially with friends - always brings back great memories.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Xbox Series X Review 9/10 "A wonderfully spun tale of love and grief" ⚔️ @DONTNOD_Ent #IndieGame #GameDev
I’ve been hankering for an RPG to sink my teeth into, and when Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden arrived at GF HQ, I was keen to tuck in and get a few dozen hours of adventuring under my belt. What I didn’t expect was to get sucked into the world of Red and Antea so deeply, and so quickly.
Set during the settling of America in the 1600’s, the game begins with Banishers (effectively mercenaries that deal with hauntings) Red and Antea arriving on boat to New Eden - a small settlement near Boston - having received word from their friend Charles that their ghost handling skills are required in this fledging town.
09/02/2024
The Monty Mole Collection Nintendo Switch Review 8/10 "Modern Monty Mole Maniacal Manoeuvring" 🐻❄️ @pixelgamesuk #GameDev #IndieGame
The 8-bit home computing platforming scene is something of a golden era to a lot of people. Filled with extremely challenging games, great music, and a very ‘British’ sense of humour (and social commentary).
Whilst I have played Monty Mole - many years ago - I associate the games more with Rob Hubbard’s astonishing score than the gameplay itself, and so I was keen to delve into this collection and experience them for the first time, on a modern system.
07/02/2024
Pinball M Xbox Review 7.5/10 "The spookiest balls around" 👻 @zen_studios #IndieGame #GameDev
Zen Studios have release Pinball M, a game that delivers horror thrills to pinball-lovers around the world through a pretty cool mix of franchises:
– Wrath of the Elder Gods: Director’s Cut – experience the eldritch horror unrestricted for free
– Chucky’s Killer Pinball: Step into a twisted realm where the innocent becomes sinister, and the playful turns menacing. Navigate through an eerie playfield where Chucky lurks in the shadows, ready to pounce.
– The Thing Pinball: Use your pinball skills and battle against the shape-shifting alien through the arctic chill of U.S. Outpost #31. Can you trust anyone, even yourself?
– Dead by Daylight™️ Pinball: Become the hunter or even the hunted in a thrilling fusion of classic pinball and the excitement of one of the most popular horror games ever created.
– Duke Nukem’s Big Shot Pinball: Enjoy the biggest, grooviest, most BADASS pinball table ever made packed with guns and babes. Push start and play with balls of steel!
06/02/2024
Bahnsen Knights Xbox Review 7/10 "My trousers began to slowly unbuckle themselves in anticipation..." 🕵️♂️ @lcbgamestudio #IndieGame #GameDev
The third in the initial trilogy of Pixel Pulp titles, Bahnsen Knights follows Mothmen 1966, and Varney Lake, visual novel titles – with a smattering of micro-games – in an 18-month period that has taken me on a journey that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed from a presentation and atmospheric perspective, but I can’t help but feel this most recent entry is the weakest of all.
25/01/2024
Video Game Lo-Fi: Super Mario 64 Vinyl Review 💽 @CuragaRecords @MateriaMusic #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl #LoFi #VGM
There’s something about these lo-fi records that makes them feel oddly perfect all year round. The last time I covered one back in November, it was a very wintry entry in the Curaga lo-fi series, matching perfectly with the change in weather.
As I listened through this Super Mario 64 record in quite bracing weather, it felt calming and warming, but I can just as easily imagine it seeming as mellow and engaging on warm summer days, adding a layer of groovy coolness to the proceedings.
24/01/2024
Crashy Laps Xbox Series X (mini-review) 7/10 🏎️💨 @cheapeesoft @JanduSoft
Harking back to classic top-down / isometric racers such as Super Skidmarks, Crashy Laps by CheapeeSoft (which could have easily genuinely been a wonderfully 8-bit, British development house name back in the ‘80s!) is a budget title that aims to capture that vintage arcade-racing feel, with modern touches.
23/01/2024
Uzzuzzu My Pet: Golf Dash (mini-review) Nintendo Switch 4/10 ⛳️ @RedDeer_Games #GameDev #IndieGame
Based on a popular South Korean franchise, Uzzuzzu My Pet: Golf Dash takes visual, stylistic and gameplay cues from What the Golf?
But it unfortunately fails to capture the charm and replayability that oozes from every pore of the game that it apes.
22/01/2024
Super Arcade Racing Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 🏎️💨 @outofthebit #IndieGame #GameDev
I recently covered Full Void by OutOfTheBit, and in requesting a code for reviewing purposes, I noticed their previous release, Super Arcade Racing.
As a fan of top-down racers, I thought it would be fun to do a mini-review of this, as I hadn’t heard of it before stumbling across it on the developer’s website, and it takes a slightly different approach to its gameplay when compared to games of a similar ilk, in that it’s much more of a fun, unfolding narrative than simply disjointed races.