You'll quickly fall in love with the game's charming Kiwi bird protagonists - Jeff and Debra - but the chaotic puzzle platforming levels will keep you hooked. The levels are challenging and require teamwork, making it a great game to play with friends or family.
The game is the work of Ginolabo, a solo developer, which results in the double-edged sword of it being an impressive feat for one person (self-taught, too), but having some areas of the game where collaboration might have polished it up a little.
This ties into my initial – misjudged – thoughts on Stray. When it was released last year on PlayStation, the positive reviews that it received – and more so the comments surrounding it – I found actively off-putting in the comparisons to games of a more ‘cinematic’ vibe.
After receiving it for review purposes and playing it through in two straight sessions I really do recommend it, if you were - like me – put off by the thought of a saccharine gaming experience. This is Tokyo Jungle territory.
You play writer Etienne Quist, a writer serving a 30-year sentence (geddit?) of writer’s block for a mysterious crime. Etienne hopes to reduce his sentence by taking on “bookwalking” gigs, i.e. diving into various books to retrieve powerful items. For example, you’ll head into a fantasy world to swipe an Immortality Potion or venture into a gloomy robotic take on Norse mythology to get your hands on Mjolnir.
This time around I got Oxenfree 2 on my mobile phone via the Netflix Games part of the Netflix mobile app. I was impressed that it was there and couldn't resist the opportunity to go back to the world of Oxenfree for more transistor radio high jinks!
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals feels like it is a worthy sequel to the beloved original indie adventure game Oxenfree and it also expands on the original game's strengths, whilst also introducing some neat new ideas to the formula.
Virtua Fighter 5 returns with its all-out action and fast-paced - fighting that any arcade beat em’ up fan would be proud of...
This arcade (turned-console) beat 'em' up classic harnesses all of the features you would expect from its predecessors and finds more in this all-enhanced re-master. All new downloadable content is available, such as costumes and themes, updated graphic interfaces and most of all its alternate life bar User interface graphics. If you have loved all the others, then you will enjoy this!
With these fond memories swimming about my mind, it was quite exciting to discover that Microids would be releasing this new VR version of the game, and whilst it may have its flaws and visual differences to the original, this captures the sense of mindless blasting action that Operation Wolf provided to so many fans back in the ‘80s.
If you’re anything like me, you may tend to struggle solving puzzle games. On the other hand, maybe you’re just an exploration lover and you’re on the hunt for a mini atmospheric adventure game to play in your spare time.
If any of these apply to you, Silt might be the perfect candidate to add to your collection.
The developers’ previous game – Anodyne 2 – was my game of the year in 2021 and I’ve been waiting to get my hands on Sephonie since it was first announced, I admittedly had high expectations, knowing what gold the devs were capable of.
Dredge starts with your character - a fisherman, nonetheless - making his way through a foggy sea before he inevitably has a shipwreck. Waking up on a deck on a small fishing island called Greater Meadows...his journey begins.
35 years later (...ugh) and, despite my best intentions, I haven’t substantially improved. I’ve often returned to dip my toe into the genre, figuring that critically acclaimed darlings like
Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, or Gradius V would finally give me the motivation to get gud.
I never did, but even though I’m crap at them I maintain an admiration for their purity, the focus they require to master, the complex interlocking systems and, perhaps most of all, for the gaming wizards that can one credit clear these bad boys.
Enter the Ray’z Arcade Chronology, which consists of best-in-class remastering studio M2’s ports of three classic Taito shmups, 1994’sRayForce, 1996’s RayStorm and 1998’s RayCrisis.
Stay Out of the House is split into four sections; the first act is named Night Shift, whereby you go to your character’s night shift at a gas station. Things start out pretty normally, you clean up, deal with customers etc. the store also has an arcade cabinet in the corner which you can play when the store is quiet - oddly enough the arcade game is about a killer chasing you, and you must collect things in order to escape. I really liked this introduction it was a nice build-up of suspense, and even though you can see what’s coming, it still made me jump.
Luckily, the codes still worked and so began my adventure into the Switch indie vortex, and thus it was a bloody fantastic evening.
The first game I dived into was Donuts ‘N’ Justice, a game that has always tickled my fancy – and, as I was very much in the mindset for some pacey arcade action, it was just the ticket.
A 2D run-and-gun game with pixel visuals and a thumping soundtrack, the way I would describe this one in a single sentence is, ‘NARC, if it was snappier, groovier, and better.’
Developer FobTi also made Gunman Tales, which I covered earlier in the year – and whilst I didn’t get quite the same punch from Donuts ‘N’ Justice, this is still a very fun game to dip in ‘n out of – especially with a friend.
A game that can be completed in under an hour – although it has multiple endings – Fishing Vacation begins with two old friends who haven’t seen each other for years driving up to a rural cabin on a fishing trip. When they arrive, the uncle that owns the cabin is nowhere to be found and everything is in disarray...oh, and the fridge is full of rotting fish-heads…
