13 Jun 2025
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Xbox Series X Review 9/10 "Take a swig from a true holy grail" ⚔️ @TaintedGrail_AR @awaken_realms @Aga_Szostak #IndieGame #GameDev
4 Jun 2025
Inspector Waffles: Early Days Game Boy Color Review 9/10 "A Purrfect GBC game, this cat definitely gets the cream!" 🐈 @golosogames @Broke_Studio @HomebrewFactory #GameDev #IndieGame
A prequel to Goloso Games’ 2021 release Inspector Waffles, Inspector Waffles: Early Days follows the cat detective in his rookie days, as he finds his place in Cat Town.
Monster Train 2 XBOX Review 9/10 " One hell of a freight" 🚂👹 @TheMonsterTrain #IndieGame #GameDev
But what of the game itself? I’ll get this out straight away. Fans of the original certainly need not worry. This is everything the first game was and more. Expanded and enhanced in terms of options, cards, clans and mechanics.
30 May 2025
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Xbox Series X Review 9.5/10 “I think therefore I AM” 👄 @NightdiveStudio #RetroGaming #IndieGame #GameDev
I’ve experienced the game three times, once as previously stated, then again in my 20s, and now in my 30s, and each time my love for it grows, it is such an interesting and engaging story, based on Harlan Ellison's short story of the same name, it takes everything that's great about that story and adds to it.
2 May 2025
9th Dawn Remake Xbox Series X Review 9/10 "A Glorious CRPG that kept me coming back for more"⚔️🛡️🧙♂️ @Valorware #Retrogaming #IndieGame #GameDev
28 Apr 2025
Assassins Creed: Shadows Xbox Series X Review 9/10 “Sharper combat and characters make this a top target” 🗡️ @assassinscreed
Anyway, I actually became a bigger fan with the change of direction that Origins brought to the series, although I loved all the previous games, I must say that the last few have delivered some of my favourite Assassins Creed experiences, so when this was announced - combined with the fact that I really like the Feudal Japan setting - meant I was buzzing with excitement.
28 Feb 2025
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Xbox Series X Review 9.75/10 "Welcome back, Henry" ⚔️🐎 @KingdomComeRPG
My point being that I pumped almost two hundred hours into Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Well, 150 in hours of actual game time and probably 50 hours of LOADING SCREENS, something that is thankfully, thankfully remedied in this sequel) over those last few months before we became parents, and the game now reminds me of a pretty special time of my life, so getting the opportunity to lose myself again in the world of Henry of Skalitz was an exiting proposition to say the least!
7 Feb 2025
Starbound Xbox Series X Review 9/10 "Terraria in Space" ⭐️ @ChucklefishLTD #IndieGame #GameDev
A few years ago, my partner and I were hips deep in Terraria, I genuinely think I own a copy on every system it’s been released - aside from Switch, thinking about it - and we would often spend weeks just getting back into the groove with the amazing music (which I am lucky enough to own on vinyl) and just the pure sense of wonder and relaxation that exists in the quiet exploration. To be honest, we barely bothered with the boss fights, it was all about pottering about for us.
My next – and true – love, came through the glorious Aground, and once my gaming thirst had been slaked there, I vaguely hearing about Starbound, but as it wasn’t then available on consoles, I promptly forgot about it and went on my day, a day that was bereft of crafty, pixel, action-adventure games…until now.
29 Jan 2025
Dance of Cards Nintendo Switch Review 9/10 "A game that won my heart...and spade, club, diamond." 🃏🃏 @FrogOfHearts #IndieGame #GameDev
The game casts you in the role of the heroically named ‘Martin’, a magician and card mechanic in a small town that is getting sent on to the big city by his shady manager, on a cruise ship. And on said voyage...things go somewhat awry.
21 Jan 2025
Home Safety Hotline Xbox Series X Review 9.5/10 “The best horror game of 2024” ☎️🖥️ @SlickNickLives #IndieGame #GameDev
So, with my vast negativity about this game now out of the way, let’s get into why it’s utterly amazing.
9 Jan 2025
The Plucky Squire Xbox Series X Review 9.5/10 "Is gaming art? Who cares? it can however, be truly magical" ⚔️🔖🏹 @devolverdigital @apossf @JamesTurner_42 @onebitbeyond
The blending of the illustrated 2D cartoon world in which he resides with the ‘real’ 3D world opens up myriad gameplay possibilities, and really caught my eye. Fast forward to the tail-end of 2024 – to a situation whereby I have the opportunity to play the Plucky Squire with my three-year old son - and the act of playing the game becomes a family-bonding, transformative experience.
4 Dec 2024
BZZZT! Nintendo Switch Review 9/10 "A Perfect Potion of Platforming Perfection" 🤖🥪 @ko_dll #IndieGame #GameDev
The people who make the best platform games are the people that know the genre inside out from playing the classics and having an understanding of what makes a great platformer. What we have here my friends is one of the best indie platform video games that I have ever had the pleasure of playing.
Developed by KO.DLL BZZZT! is truly a love letter to the classics of the genre and also brings its own brand of charm and sauce! Bzzzt offers up a fast-paced, precision platforming experience with the game clearly being designed to be accessible to both newcomers and veterans of the genre with its perfectly pitched variation of difficulty levels.
26 Nov 2024
World of Horror Nintendo Switch Review 9/10 "A Must For Horror Fans" 🔪😱 @panstasz @YsbrydGames
After playing the game, I feel pretty confident in saying that this is a title that will be raising its head again in my GOTY article in a few short weeks.
4 Nov 2024
Total Extreme Wrestling 9 PC Review 9/10 “A Wrestledream” 🤼 @TransvaalGF @ArlesGreyDog #IndieGame #GameDev #TEW9
I've always been a huge fan of GM (General Manager) mode, a mode that for some unknown reason comes and goes from WWE games. Luckily, it is currently back in the last few games and I have spent many hours living out my dream of being a wrestling booker. The main criticism these games have is the lack of features, things that have been taken out, or should be have been in from the start. TEW9 doesn't have this problem, it was my first time playing this series and wow! Was my mind blown.
21 Oct 2024
Drova: Forsaken Kin Nintendo Switch Review 9.5/10 "One of the RPGs of the Year" 🐻⚔️ @J2D_Interactive #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieGameDev
I’ll open by saying that, whilst Drova: Forsaken Kin ended up being one of my games of the year, during the review period there was a shaky few days where V1.0 of the game had some issues that made me think that this was going to be another case of Wasteland 3, Wartales, or Shadows of Doubt, whereby a gripping and fantastic adventure seemingly genetically designed for my tastes would be scuppered by myriad technical issues, breaking my heart into a thousand pieces and casting them into the ocean.
Luckily, patch 1.1 was released and completely annihilated all the issues that I was having with the game, transforming it into a title that will be with me for a long time. In fact, I don’t even really need to cover this game as my handsome, suave editor Rich is already covering it on PC (I can feel a pay rise coming on – ed), but I want to talk about it so much that I’m writing this review anyway, purely to spread the word and share my love of it. So yes, I liked it a lot.
14 Aug 2024
Super Woden GP II Review 9/10 "No Wooden Spoon for Woden 2" 🏎️ @maxharvey79 @ViJuDaGD #IndieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev
As a man of a certain age, and one who cut his teeth on Commodores rather than Nintendo's, my nostalgic heart belongs to isometric racing games. Super Cars, Super Off Road and Skidmarks (*titter*) all get my pistons pumping and having tried a couple again recently (prompted by this review), they stand up fairly well as the gameplay is solid and simple.
Super Woden GP II has a silly name, but we’ll not dwell on that. We will dwell instead on what this game brings to the modern racing table. It brings us something delightfully retro, is what it does. What I will say before anything else is that if you enjoyed the games mentioned above, there’s a very good chance you’ll love this.
1 Aug 2024
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Nintendo Switch Review 9.99/10 "Thank Goodness This Game Was Made" 🥟🥧 @coalsupper #IndieGame #GOTY #IndieGameDev #GameDev
19 Jun 2024
Still Wakes the Deep XSX Review 9/10 "Possibly the most naturalistic dialogue in a video game" 🛢️🗼 @SWTD_Game @ChineseRoom #IndieGame #GameDev
The Chinese Room were the company that introduced me to the walking simulator genre with their minimalistic and glorious 2012 title Dear Esther. This was followed by a firm favourite of our household in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. And so, learning that The Chinese Room were making a game set on a Scottish oil rig in the mid-’70s was enough to make my trousers fly off and fold themselves neatly in a drawer, before definitively slamming it shut.
2 May 2024
Letters & Legends PC Review 9/10 "A Wonderful Twist on Classic Word Games" 🏹⚔️🅰️🅱️ @BowNArrowGames #IndieGame #GameDev
1 May 2024
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 PS5 Review "Now a New Generation Can Enjoy Getting Urinated on By a Guard" 📦❗️
I joke: “Why not squirt ketchup on the floor and lie in it so the guard thinks you’re dead?”. It works. A single shard of moonlight pierced the window to illuminate me. Trumpets played, angelic choirs sang. I had discovered Metal Gear Solid.