Golden Tee Arcade Classics Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "True Golf Classics Approach The Tee Once More" ⛳ @DigitalEclipse #RetroGaming

The Golden tee series of golf games were a mainstay in arcades here in the UK back in the ‘90s, and I have many fond memories of playing them throughout the country on various holidays and trips (and more recently, thanks to the awesome folks at Timewarp Arcade in Bridgwater). It was always good to see golf games in amusement centres, with the main two being the Golden Tee series and of course, the mighty Neo Turf Masters.

What set Golden Tee apart, however, was the trackball…which we will talk about later.

Collectible Cars Shop Simulator Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "That Endless Loop Has Become Oddly Relaxing" 🚗 @nostra_games_ #IndieGame #GameDev

Being the father of a four year old that has more Hot Wheels cars in our house than Oliver Reed has receipts from Oddbins in his back pocket, the chance to cover Nostra Games’ Collectible Cars Shop Simulator was one that I leapt at. 

Whilst it feels very ‘assety’ as a lot of the ‘simulator’ games can be, the lack of variety in NPC character models, fiddly controls, and endlessly looping music couldn’t put a dent in my enjoyment of the core gameplay – opening the store, hiring staff, upgrading where possible, and making dosh off flogging those sweet, sweet toy cars before closing up for the night and doing it all over again the next day.

Labyrinth of the Demon King PS5 Review 8/10 “Let’s Horror like its 1996” @jrhudepohl #IndieGame #GameDev

I must admit, when I first started Labyrinth of the Demon King I had a horrible feeling. Upon seeing tons of fog and noticing that, when you saved it flashed red - it dawned on me, “Oh, there are some real Silent Hill influences in the game” which should delight me as the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series of games are two of my favourites, but playing and reviewing horror games has kinda burnt me out on them, so many games are inspired by and take influence from them that it has just lessened the enjoyment. Luckily, within about thirty minutes I realised that, no, this is the good kind of influence - gentle nods but a completely different experience, so I dived in, kept playing and had a wonderful yet brutally awful experience.

All You Need is Help! – Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "Tetris Inspired Funky Family Fun" 🧶 @PixelJunkNews #IndieGame #GameDev

Whenever a four player co-op video game drops into the Games Freezer I immediately think, "Will this make it onto our Best Video Games To Play With Your Kids list?" Some of my best times playing video games come from gathering around the Nintendo Switch at the BIG telly and playing four player Minecraft, Mario Kart or Overcooked and I'm always super keen to add more good times to the ever growing list. All you need is help gets a lot of things right to make it onto the list but slightly falls down on other things which means it's not an all time classic co op game.

In the ever-growing pantheon of indie party games, All You Need is Help! brings a nice cosy dose of teamwork, miscommunication, and gloriously silly chaos. The game has been developed and published by Q Games who always seem to be bring out some fun arcade style video games on the Switch.

Ready or Not Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “A Surprisingly Dark Descent Tied To SWAT Tactics” 👮‍♀️💥 @VOIDInteractive #IndieGame #GameDev

I tend to play online co-op games with fellow GFer Transvaal, and our usual approach of ‘shoot, shoot, shoot’ sometimes hits a wall when playing games frolicking on the more tactical side of life, such as here with VOID Interactive’s Ready or Not, a game playable in both single and multiplayer modes that casts you in the role of a SWAT team commander in the fictional Los Suenos Police Department (LSPD) as you make your way through a surprisingly generous amount of missions, in the hope of arresting the guilty whilst protecting the innocent. Each mission leading on from the last – although you wouldn’t necessarily know this until you get a high enough ranking in completion of said missions, which adds key context to your actions, filling out the narrative background.

Victory Heat Rally Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "A Super Vibrant Retro Racer" 🚗💨 @skydevilpalm @PTonicFriends @VHRgame #GameDev #IndieGame

A vibrant racing game with retro-arcade style mechanics, Victory Heat Rally makes a great first impression with its energetic audio, bright graphics and kinetic sense of energy. Indeed, whilst the devs of Victory Heat Rally are based in LA, it’s very easy to assume that this is a Japanese-made game, so strong are those classic arcade vibes! 

Featuring many stages and environments, the order of the day here is super-fast arcade racing. It’s a very bare bones setup in terms of the core game loop, the tracks are often short, and you can whip around them in around thirty seconds, with the high speed action being all about avoiding other cars and managing your boosts. 

Hole Digging Master Nintendo Switch Review 8/10 “Take a deep breath, and dig...deep.” 🕳️⛏️ @nostra_games_ #IndieGame #GameDev

I have to admit to covering Hole Digging Master out of sheer curiosity, the premise seemed somewhat bland, but hey – Fishing Vacation was awesome! There was also the fact that the trailer promises mysteries and treasures, tied to relaxing gameplay...good.

Hole Digging Master begins with a swift tutorial that introduces the game mechanics and core loop, that is – you dig, you sell, you upgrade...you dig. Played out entirely in POV, Hole Digging Master takes place entirely in a garage and the nearby garden, with a large square marked out on the grass, and the surrounding paraphernalia suggesting that the reason for digging – initially, at least! - is to get a swimming pool on the go. And so you grab your – erm – battery-powered shovel, and get to work. 

The Siege and The Sandfox PC Review 7/10 "A Cunningly Stunning Stealthvania That Lands On 3 Legs" 🦊 @siegeandsandfox #IndieGame #GameDev

Let me start by saying: I wanted to give this beautifully crafted game a higher score. From the moment it boots up, The Siege and the Sandfox dazzles with its pixel art—rich in detail, bursting with colour, and animated with a loving, frame-by-frame touch. The sound design is equally lush, with a narrator whose warm voice adds instant storybook gravitas to your journey.

The controls are intuitive—if you’ve played any platformer with climbing mechanics, you’ll feel right at home. On-screen prompts are crisp, and the stealth system is a genuine delight. You crouch to move silently, extinguish lights to melt into shadows, and monitor your tiptoeing like a true sneaky old fox in a one-hit-kill world.

Locomoto Nintendo Switch Review 8/10 “A wonderfully cosy train ride with a few unfortunate bumps” 🚂🚂🚂 @GreenTileGames #CosyGame #IndieGame #GameDev

As the father of a four year old who loves trains, Locomoto was a no-brainer when it came to having the chance to cover it. I don’t particularly have a history with the cosy game genre, but I have enjoyed Stardew Valley in the past, and watched my other half pound hundreds of hours into Animal Crossing over the years – a game I find too oddly regimented to enjoy.

Locomoto allows you to create an animal character, who naughtily ‘borrows’ an abandoned train in a bid to help the local villages and towns with the various issues that raise their cheeky heads, thus begins our adventures in the world of Locomoto.

Lies of P: Overture PS5 [DLC] Review 8/10 – "The Deserved Encore to a Twisted Puppet’s Tale" 🎻 @Liesofp #GameDev #IndieGame

When Lies of P launched in 2023, it stunned the Soulslike community with its twisted reimagining of Pinocchio’s tale. Now, with the Lies of P: Overture DLC, developer Round8 Studio proves that the puppet strings still have plenty of tension left. This DLC doesn’t just extend the story—it elevates the entire experience, delivering a prequel that’s as emotionally resonant as it is mechanically refined.

Set years before the events of the base game, Overture transports players to a Krat untouched by the full devastation of the Puppet Frenzy. The narrative uses time travel to explore the roots of the Petrification Disease and the Alchemist faction’s twisted experiments. You encounter characters whose fates were only hinted at in the original game, adding emotional weight and tragic irony to every interaction.

Kiborg Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "lock ‘n load...again, and again, and again" 👊💥 @SobakaStudio #IndieGame #GameDev

I was quite a keen follower of Kiborg during its development, developers Sobaka Studio (I previously covered their game Redeemer in a past, pre-GF life) very clearly have a knack for guttural combat, and the trailers promised a silky smooth 60fps title featuring some very involved melee combat that gnawed away at the part of me that still craves visceral versions of the 16-bit brawlers that used to rule the roost such as Streets of Rage, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs... and Crisis Beat. 

A genre that is very much alive today thanks to Lizardcube and Cartel Studios frankly amazing Mother Russia Bleeds (another blast from the past). Kiborg though, leaned into a 3D realm and seemed to encompass the glowing, beautiful future that titles such as Fighting Force merely hinted at. 

What Kiborg ended up delivering, however, was a brawling rogue-lite that has an incredible amount in it’s favour, but feels oddly limited by the very rogue genre that it so leans into. This is a solid and fun game that could have been truly great.

PGA TOUR 2k25 PS5 Review 8/10 “Drive For Show, Putt For Dough” 🤑⛳

I always enjoy reviewing pretty much any golf game, it’s something I don’t just like - I love it, and I’m not just talking about the video games, I enjoy watching it on TV - seeing Rory McIlroy complete the Grand Slam brought me a lot of joy - I also love playing it in real life.

Well… I say ‘playing it’ but even though I do suck I still love being out on the course. I noticed for the previous instalment in the PGA2K series how many reviewers stated that they ‘tried golf once, sucked at it and would never play it again’ which is fine, you don’t have to do something in real life to review a gamified version of it, I'm neither a professional hitman nor have I ever been trapped in a town overrun by zombies, but I have reviewed games about those things and my knowledge and experience is a big fat zero. 

It doesn’t matter really, but I do like at least the thought that when the game tells you about the different shot types, that I at least understand the difference between a punch shot and a flop shot. I struggle to do them in real life mind you, but I know what they are, and I come at both PGA2k25 and golf itself with some knowledge and a lot of love.

Jerry Anker and The Quest To Get Love Nintendo Switch Review (physical edition) 7/10 “An Extremely Graphic Adventure” 🍒💖 @FunboxMediaLtd #IndieGame #GameDev

 ⚠️WARNING, EXPLICIT CONTENT ⚠️

I once had a soft  massive, raging, stiff spot for more adult games... when I was in my teens, bizarrely.  There was something about playing a more lurid and provocative title that made it feel like you were playing a game ‘outside the rules’. From sheepishly purchasing Strip Poker 3 from Electronics Boutique (or rather, coaxing my mum to, brilliant!) through to discovering Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love For Sail a years later, there was always a primal thrill when I discovered something that appealed to the more base instincts that dwell in us all.

As I got older, and pornography (and dalliances with the fairer sex) became more readily available, adult gaming very much faded away, and even the more recent Leisure Suit Larry games – whilst having various positives – felt somewhat watered down when compared to previous counterparts. And so for a long while, the likes of Cobra Mission: Panic in Cobra City, and Knights of Xentar were far from my mind...

..until I caught wind of Ktulu Solutions’ Metropolis: Lux Obscura back in 2018, a game that – whilst flawed in tone – featured some saucy bare skin and reminded me of the seemingly lost adult genre – lost in  a mainstream context, at least.

CYBERCORP XBOX SERIES X Review 7/10 "It's the definition of a quick-couple-of-goes blast" 💥 @apcrol #IndieGame #GameDev

While on the surface CyberCorp is your standard isometric twin-stick shooter fare, reminiscent of 2021's excellent The Ascent or PC port Synthetik, the hardcore loot mechanics and online co-op draw inspiration from the likes of Destiny or The Division, leading to a hybrid experience that sits between the two camps.

In the future, agents like you don't even need to leave the house to engage in corporate espionage - you can just upload your consciousness into a Synth, a tooled-up battle droid that does the hard work for you. Your former employer, the eponymous CyberCorp, has found a rat within their ranks, and has engaged the shadowy Operator as the middleman who sets you the task of rooting them out.

Stunt Flyer Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "A fun title for casual pilots, tally-ho!" ✈️ @TorusGames @ULTGames #IndieGame #GameDev

Originally released on the Wii back in the ‘00s, Stunt Flyer is now unleashed on Xbox with a host of visual upgrades to bring it up to speed. Also playable in local multiplayer, Stunt Flyer is a game more suited to more casual, or younger gamers.

You’ll find yourself diving into action with very little tutorial, and working out the majority of the buttons for yourself, as you barrel roll and loop-de-loop through various rings and missions, shooting your water guns at hidden gift boxes along the way in a bid to unlock all three islands and a host of aircraft. 

Kemono Heroes Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "hectic swipey-swipey action!" 🦊 @MadGearGames @JanduSoft #GameDev #IndieGame

From the developers that brought us A Hole New World – an 8-bit styled title - comes Kemono Heroes, now making the leap to a 16-bit style, complete with chunky pixels, parallax scrolling, and a lot of weapon-based swipey-swipey action. Good!

Playable with up to four players in co-op, Kemono Heroes has a mystical Eastern vibe in which the main characters are anthropomorphic animals, each with their own special skills, although the main attack of each is a ‘Strider’-esque swipe of their blade - a little nod to one of its influences. 

Survivalist: Invisible Strain Xbox Series X Review 7.5 / 10 "More zombies than you can shake a selfie-stick at!" 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧟 @bob_the_PR_bot #IndieGame #GameDev

Zombies are very much here to stay! Luckily, I am nowhere near tired of the shambling monstrosities in gaming, and so the chance to delve into Survivalist: Invisible Strain was very much up my strasse.

Casting the player in the role of a wandering survivor, Survivalist: Invisible Strain is playable in both campaign and sandbox modes, with the sandbox mode especially offering an incredible amount of customisation options to suit your preferred approach, with the ability to pretty much knock the zombie element on the head and focus purely on city-building and the more social aspects, should you so wish. 

The game features graphic novel-style visuals, with quite a unique screen layout, including portraits of the characters and enemies taking up a fair chunk of the screen real estate. It’s quite an idiosyncratic premise, but really does give Survivalist: Invisible Strain a sense of identity, and the focus on individuality in the game also ties in with this design aspect.

Trident’s Tale Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "Pirate fun for all the family!" 🏴‍☠️⛵@3DClouds #IndieGame #GameDev

The chandler never mentioned the glow in the dark sails at the showroom

My four-year old son has a penchant for open world games in which you are free to do as you please, with LEGO City Undercover, little Kitty Big City, and Goat Simulator 3 being firm favourites that will seemingly never be uninstalled from my consoles. When I caught wind of Trident’s Tale, I snapped up the chance to cover it, as the cartoonish darkness and spookiness appealed to me, and pirate games are always worth a blast of the cannons!

Playing the part of Ocean, a young pirate who yearns to explore the seas, she soon finds herself mourning the loss of her guardian as skeletal pirates hunt her down, seemingly due to her discovering a small trinket that has a lot of otherworldly folks very interested in it!

The Precinct Xbox Series X Review 8/10 "Pick up that candy wrapper, punk – go ahead, make my day" 👮🏻‍♀️🚔👮🏻 @fallentreegames @Microids_off @kwalee #IndieGame #GameDev

Basketball Hoop looked on longingly from the side of the court

A top-down, action-packed police procedural with simulation elements, The Precinct is the latest title from Fallen Tree Games, the developers who previously gave us a game that I have always had a soft spot for - American Fugitive. Whilst this is a worthy follow-up to American Fugitive – and definitely improves on the frame rate issues that plagued that title (on Switch, at least) – I couldn’t shake the feeling that there are a couple of little, missed opportunities along the way.

WWE2K25 PS5 Review 8/10 “Strong and Steady” 🤼‍♂️ #WWE

The WWE2K games have been on a nice run, just like the product it’s based on, we haven't had any massive backward steps, and whilst there are some things that don’t land or could be improved upon, it’s nothing that makes you want to throw your WWE merch into a pit of fire. 

After loving the last few entries I wondered if we would finally have the rug pull, modes and match types taken out, corners cut etc. but to my very pleasant surprise we are still on a great roll, remaining modes have been improved, and most of the new additions are good - but I do think one game mode should have been left out... or maybe sent to an island, never to return.
The first thing I always talk about when reviewing WWE games is GM mode, probably the best thing in the entirety of human existence...OK, maybe that is a stretch - but it is one of my favourite things, so how does this mode hold up this year?