28 Jul 2025
Ready or Not Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “A Surprisingly Dark Descent Tied To SWAT Tactics” 👮♀️💥 @VOIDInteractive #IndieGame #GameDev
25 Jul 2025
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!
22 Jul 2025
Tiny Pixels Vol. 2 – Stormy Knights Nintendo Switch Review 6.5/10 “Bite-sized, princess-rescuing action” 🏰👸⚔️ @eastasiasoft #IndieGame #GameDev
A snappy, heavily timing-based adventure game that casts you in the role of a knight on a quest to rescue several princess trapped in separate castles, you’ll find yourself adjusting to the simple control setup quickly, and timing your movements, shield blocks, dashes, swipes and magic accordingly as you cut your way through the enemies ahead of you, in single-stage battles.
21 Jul 2025
Hole Digging Master Nintendo Switch Review 8/10 “Take a deep breath, and dig...deep.” 🕳️⛏️ @nostra_games_ #IndieGame #GameDev
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.
18 Jul 2025
Gore Doctor Xbox Series X Review 5/10 “Gore, Gore, Gore” 🩸🪓🤡 @Salient_Games #IndieGame #Horror #GameDev
I am someone who reviews a lot of horror games, and I am also a massive fan of the Saw franchise - it being my favourite horror series of all time. I also have House M.D as my favourite TV show, so a game entitled ‘Gore Doctor’ sounded right up my street and was something I thought would be hard for me to not enjoy - and yet this game struggled to fully grab me.
14 Jul 2025
The Siege and The Sandfox PC Review 7/10 "A Cunningly Stunning Stealthvania That Lands On 3 Legs" 🦊 @siegeandsandfox #IndieGame #GameDev
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.
11 Jul 2025
BrewOtaku – The Homebrew Gaming Magazine Review By Britt 📖 @brewotakumag #IndieGames
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.
9 Jul 2025
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster – Rich’s Rapid Review 🎮🔫 @NightdiveStudio #IndieGame #GameDev
Is it still terrifying? Does it hold up in 2025? And what’s been upgraded for modern players? From SHODAN’s chilling monologues to the claustrophobic corridors of the Von Braun, this remaster brings back one of the most influential immersive sims of all time.
8 Jul 2025
The Secret of the Four Winds SEGA Mega Drive Review 8.5/10 “One of the Most Technically impressive Mega Drive Games Ever Released” 💨 @Kai_MSX #IndieGame #GameDev
Kai Magazine Software seemed to burst from the ground with the sole mission of pushing the Mega Drive beyond its known boundaries and limits. I’ve been lucky enough to cover all of their MD releases over the last five years or so, and each one has breathed new life into Sega’s much-loved 16-bit console, and given thousands of retro gamers worldwide reason to boot up the black Sega classic.
From the tongue-in-cheek MERCS-esque Metal Dragon through the Metroidvanian Life On Mars to the run-n-gun ‘tastic Life On Earth: Reimagined, Kai Magazine Software push the hardware in different directions, through differing genres – but none have felt quite so special as The Secret of the Four Winds.
Beginning with Inspector Henge in pursuit of a suspect – a suspect running on foot as Henge chases in his cop car!- resulting in them both entering an abandoned warehouse, where the suspect disappears and Henge watches a man die, stealing his gun to discover it’s a supernatural weapon that kills ghosts, it’s safe to say that The Secret of the Four Winds has one of – if not, THE – best kick-off to a Mega Drive game, helped immensely by the anime-style cut scenes, and – I will be talking about this a lot – the incredible, INCREDIBLE music.
Honestly, when the game first booted up and I could select between between the enhanced or standard music, I sat bolt upright the moment the energetic, sax and guitar laden soundtrack kicked in during the intro chase, it was a clarity – and style – of audio that I had simply never heard come from my Mega Drive in the thirty-five years I’ve spent with the console, and on the strength of that aspect alone, my genuine, reflexive initial response was “well, this game is getting 10/10 as far as I’m concerned”.
Even more impressive was the fact that, when I switched the audio to ‘FM’ style, there was still a gorgeous swing to everything, that called to mind the saucy soundtrack of Side Pocket (which is yearning for a vinyl release).
Moving away from the soundtrack though, the visuals are tasty, and depict a top-down world in which the characters that you control – an eventual choice of three in total - move through with quite a unique control scheme. One button runs – and drains stamina – whilst the others act as aim and shoot. It initially feels very esoteric, but quickly becomes second nature as you make your way through the mostly night-time locations that the game takes you through.
Whilst some stages require simple detective work and puzzle solving, the vast majority of The Secret of the Four Winds involves making your way through the waves of enemies – most of which are weak to light and strongest in darkness – as you hold down the aim/shoot buttons, taking them out before they can get anywhere near you.
Whilst there are three characters to – eventually – choose from, and there are RPG aspects of the game that level up stats such as accuracy, health points, and power etc. this is the part of the game that starts off positively, but becomes a crutch relatively quickly.
Look, I love this game, and I’ll reiterate that the retro Japanese style of visuals, incredible music, beautiful physical presentation, nuanced and bold control scheme, as well as the mood and narrative of the game is fantastic...but my word, does the core gameplay result in a bone-crushing grind. Not just a grind of the type you’d see in most modern games, where you hit a rut and go off exploring, giving at least a little variety in the proceedings, this is a game in which you hit various points that result in you incrementally making your way forwards through areas that are just designed to kill you over and over until the numbers in your stats are high enough for you to make progress.
Thus making what is initially a thrill in how it blends action and RPG (and that world-beating music), and the heart of the enjoyment of the game itself an eventual brick-sieving, repetitive sludge-fest of progress. I promise you that there will never be a speed run of this game, the grind is too built-in to ignore.
SUMMARY
Kai Magazine Software are one of the most exciting developers around for the Mega Drive, and The Secret of the Four Winds is a game that deserves to grace a lot of shelves, pushing the Mega Drive not only through its saucy music, but also in blending genres, visuals and creating a mood in general that seems genetically designed to please me on a cellular level.
That said, the incessant grind and repetition that kicks in after a couple of hours can’t be be ignored, and perhaps leans too heavily on retro-Japanese design philosophies to connect with me, personally. That said. The music? Play it again, Sam.
7 Jul 2025
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.
3 Jul 2025
Lies of P: Overture PS5 [DLC] Review 8/10 – "The Deserved Encore to a Twisted Puppet’s Tale" 🎻 @Liesofp #GameDev #IndieGame
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.
2 Jul 2025
Kiborg Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "lock ‘n load...again, and again, and again" 👊💥 @SobakaStudio #IndieGame #GameDev
1 Jul 2025
Turtle Beach Kone II Mouse Review By Britt 🖱️🐁 @TurtleBeachPC
The mouse makes a great impression straight out of the box with the bold design, and smoothness of use. The Kone II is a wired mouse, and as such there’s no need to worry about dongles and charging etc. as that’s covered by the braided USB-A cable that feels practical and robust as well as being lightweight.
24 Jun 2025
PGA TOUR 2k25 PS5 Review 8/10 “Drive For Show, Putt For Dough” 🤑⛳
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.
20 Jun 2025
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 ⚠️
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.
16 Jun 2025
CYBERCORP XBOX SERIES X Review 7/10 "It's the definition of a quick-couple-of-goes blast" 💥 @apcrol #IndieGame #GameDev
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.
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
12 Jun 2025
NACON RIG 400 GEN2 HS in Arctic Camo Review By Britt
The first thing you notice when unboxing the headset is how striking the camo design is, the colours match the PS5 and result in a nice visual parallel. The Arctic Camo is a PlayStation edition, but there is also another edition - Urban Camo - which is designed for Xbox consoles. The headset works with most consoles (PS5,PS4,Xbox and Switch) and PC so you can pick up either design, it doesn't just have to match the console, maybe if you are in the middle of the Antarctic you would pick the Arctic Edition and if you’re in the middle of a concrete jungle you can pick up the Urban Camo edition...or maybe just pick whichever design you like most.
11 Jun 2025
Stunt Flyer Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "A fun title for casual pilots, tally-ho!" ✈️ @TorusGames @ULTGames #IndieGame #GameDev
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.
10 Jun 2025
Agent Fall Nintendo Switch Review 6.5/10 "A brief ‘n breezy 2D shooter for the casual player" 🔫🕵🏻♀️ @PufferfishDig @eastasiasoft #IndieGame #GameDev
From the Website:
'Agent Fall is an action game inspired by classic titles, where you face an intergalactic government conspiracy. With aliens siding with the government, you, as an agent, must take down this dark alliance. Prepare for frantic combat, with powerful weapons, relentless enemies, and epic bosses.'