🚗💨 Absolute Drift: Zen Edition | Review | Nintendo Switch | Britt's Brief Bulletin | 6/10 - Melting | "Absolute Drift: Zen Edition makes a solid first impression" 🚗💨 @funselektor @AbsoluteDrift #IndieGames #GameDev

Absolute Drift: Zen Edition – 6/10

Nintendo Switch

A top-down drift racer with simple presentation and smooth visual style, Absolute Drift: Zen Edition makes a solid first impression.

🐙 The Innsmouth Case | Nintendo Switch | Britt's Brief Bulletin | 7/10 - Melting | 🐙 @robot_pumpkin #IndieGames #GameDev

Britt’s Brief Bulletin

The Innsmouth Case – 7/10

Nintendo Switch

A visual novel based on the world of HP Lovecraft presented with tongue firmly in cheek, The Innsmouth Case is a relatively fresh take on the miserable ones’ cosmic horror. That said, if the tone of humour doesn’t tickle your funny bone – as in my case – it can turn a quirky and breezily-written tale into a bit of a slog.

🧢 💥🤛Fatal Fury First Contact | Review | Nintendo Switch | "Pocket Sized Fighter That Packs A Massive Haymaker!" 🤜💥🧢 @SNKPofficial #FatalFury #NeoGeoPocket

Just before Christmas, it was announced that Fatal Fury First Contact from SNK was available to download on the Nintendo Switch.

I’d never come across this Fatal Fury game before and that would add up as this game only ever came out on the Neo Geo Pocket Colour in 1999.

When I heard about this I was excited to play a fighting game that I hadn't managed to get to from over 21 years ago.

🐶🐰 Sam & Max Save The World | Review | Nintendo Switch | Review By Dr Congo Fighting | "The World’s Best-Loved Anthropomorphic Dog and Rabbit Crime-Fighting Duo" 🐶🐰 @skunkape #IndieGames #GameDev

1993. The Midlands - a landlocked region of the UK, the historic home to heavy industry, heavy metal, and heavy accents resembling a large and very vocal cat in the throes of regret, having attempted to eat a toffee.

Zoom in to the window of a bungalow in a village on the edge of a green belt. Further, the camera in the room now as a thirteen-year-old Dr Fighting settles in front of his friend's PC.

A 486, DX2 66MHz, no less. The monitor lights his face, hair plentiful on the scalp, sparse on the chin. Time later decided that this was completely the wrong way around, and changed things accordingly.

The floppy disc is inserted. The mouse steadied. A command or two at the DOS prompt and Sam and Max Hit The Road boots up, brilliant colours filling the screen. The odyssey begins...I am in love with this game.

🎄🎅 B.R.U.C.E Saves Christmas | Review | Online Escape Room Game | "Whilst the festive period may be over, I heartily recommend recapturing some Winter magic" 🎄🎅 @bewilderbox #IndieGames #EscapeRoom

Something a bit different from GF today, as we talk about B.R.U.C.E Saves Christmas, an on-line escape room available from Bewilderbox.

🎃 Pumpkin Jack | Review | Nintendo Switch | "A treat for Halloween, Christmas and beyond" 🎃 @thepumpkinjack #GameDev #IndieGames

Pumpkin Jack is a game that’s been on my radar for a while, a 3D platformer in the vein of MediEvil – with whom it also shares a graphical style – I sadly missed the opportunity to play it around Halloween but was delighted to find, upon receiving it for review in the run-up to Christmas, that a Santa costume has been implemented for Jack to sport throughout his quest, making things festive as well as fiendish!

🐺🌳 Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest | Review | Nintendo Switch | "A Punchy Visual Novel With Bite" 🐺🌳 @differenttales #GameDev #IndieGames

My history with visual novels is somewhat patchy and mostly linked to stories of high school anime girls bickering in glacial stories that roll on for dozens of hours.

To be honest, my interest in them was renewed only last year with Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York which, whilst flawed, told an interesting tale in a breezy manner that was rich in lore without being bogged down by it.

👍🕹️ Sore Thumb Retro Games Subscription Box | @SoreThumbRetro | "Which box would you sign up for? Me?…I’m thinking Master System" 👍🕹️ #RetroGaming #LootBox

Having followed them for a while on Twitter via my @kingdomofcarts account, I was really intrigued when I caught a sniff of their monthly subscription idea and, after receiving samples through the post recently, it’s definitely a service that would benefit a lot of people, especially those starting off a collection or perhaps fancy dipping into gaming of a more retro nature.

🌵🤠🐍 Boot Hill Heroes | Review | Nintendo Switch | "There's A Snake In My Boots!" 🌵🤠🐍 @ExpGamerStudios #GameDev #IndieGames

Let it be said that I’m a sucker for pixel art retro aesthetic graphics.

Let it also be said that I love the thought of a Wild West Fantasy RPG.

Let it be known that I think that I love Boot hill Heroes for its charm and simplicity (and it’s pixel art retro aesthetic graphics)

This is the second Boot Hill game to be released on the Nintendo Switch but in fact, it is the first game in the Boot Hill series… 

Last year my dear friend and fellow inhabitant of the Freezer took a close look at Boot hill Bounties which is, in fact, the second in the Boot hill series but appeared on the Switch before Boot Hill Heroes… STAY WITH ME…

Anyway, I’m sure you will agree that my explanation of the Switch specific order of these games has nothing to do with the game and how it plays so lets cut to the chase, shall we?

🐷🐴 Animal Farm | Review | PC | "Your worst-case scenario is mass death" 🐷🐴 @AnimalFarmGame @PixelHunted #IndieGames #GameDev

At first glance, George Orwell’s classic 1945 allegorical novel Animal Farm doesn’t seem like a great candidate for a video game. 

The tale of rebellious animals seizing control of their farm, banishing humans and attempting to carve out a new society is an excellent satire but contains few action sequences, no hordes of monsters to blast your way through and, as far as I can remember from studying it in school, not a single high-octane car chase.

That’s where developer Nerial comes in. 

🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️ Unturned | Review | PS4 | "a tough sell" 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️ @SDGNelson #IndieGames #GameDev

A free-to-play title on the PC gets a port to PS4 at a price tag of £19.99. I don’t usually tend to focus on price and when I do, it’s usually to point out that a mobile game has had a lazy Switch port and the paywall removed which massively unbalances the game (yaaaaaay) so in the case of Unturned, things are slightly different but that knowledge of it being free on a different platform does sting, especially when the game behind it feels so empty and in-progress.

⌚️🐶 Watch Dogs: Legion | Review | PS4 | "Nothing to get too hacked off about" ⌚️🐶

My history with Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series is one of highs and lows, whilst the first game didn’t set my trousers alight and cause me to ingest it so that it remained a physical part of me forever, I enjoyed the hacking mechanics and remember the driving feeling weighty and substantial, this, combined with the functional narrative ended up being a pretty fun jaunt, overall.

The second game was a different beast, however. I really struggled to get any enjoyment out of it as it was not only riddled with busywork but I found every character unbelievably irritating. I played the game for a few hours but my patience wore thin and I moved onto other games, games in which dialogue wasn’t as infuriating as a Hermes parcel delivery.

This, the third game in the series was really, really hyped. It seemed to be everywhere in the months leading up to release and, coming off the back of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – which made my end of the year list – it was not only on my radar but also a title I was looking forward to, brushing off my experiences with the second game and instead fondly remembering the good times I spent with Aiden Pearce all those years ago. 

Alas, I just couldn’t click with this one.

🌾🍚🍛 Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin | Review | PS4 | "Rice has never been this much fun" 🌾🍚🍛 @XSEEDGames #IndieGames #GameDev

I dived headlong into Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin with no preconceptions of what I was about to be in for and it didn’t take long for its charms to win me over and its depth to pull me in.

A title that pulls off quite an astonishing balancing act that all holds together and feels not only rewarding but vital to the narrative.

👥 Shady Part of Me | Review | PS4 | "great puzzles, music and visuals let down by narrative and voicework" 👥 @ShadyPartOfMe #GameDev #IndieGames

A wonderfully designed puzzle game that hits real highs in terms of aesthetic, sound and mood but the whining voicework and obfuscated narrative leak through the game and wore me down to the point that I genuinely wished the game was purely music and puzzle driven with silent protagonists.

🎧 Headset review - Gioteck HC2 Decal Edition and XH100S by Lee Manuel 🎧 @GioteckArmy #GamingHeadset

Online gaming being the huge industry it is today, most people will need a headset if only to better hear what fellow COD players did with your mum last night. 

The big players in the market, like Turtle Beach, have been around for a long time and produce a staggering range of headsets, some of which cost in the hundreds. 

If you’re a pro, or stream to thousands, the feature set in that price range might be what you need. 

For most people though, a more budget solution is perfectly adequate.

Gioteck has come to market with a couple of great budget headsets – the HC2 clocks in at under £20 and the XH100S under £15.

🦹‍♂️ Kunai | Review | PC | "Kunai might win the prize for best/worst bad guy name" 🦹‍♂️ @TurtleBlaze #GameDev #IndieGames

Kunai might win the prize for best/worst bad guy name. 

The antagonist is an evil AI named Lemonkus. 

I know!

Anyhow, Lemonkus has pretty much achieved Bender's dream of killing all humans, leaving the planet mostly populated by robots. 

Your character is Tabby, a robot ninja with a tablet for a face, giving him a big range of expressions, from the default cheery grin to a full-on nutcase glare.

🧭 Britt’s Brief Bulletin | Nintendo Switch | Review | ORD | 7/10 | "A stark, experimental text adventure" 🧭 #IndieGames #GameDev @RatalaikaGames

A stark, minimalist text adventure based around groups of three words, Ord is one of the more unusual takes on the genre that I’ve played in some time and, whilst almost experimental in nature, the amount it leaves to the imagination ‘works’ in how its subtle changes of font colour and ambient sounds hint as to the larger scope and deeper meanings behind your choices.

🏎️💨 Britts Brief Bulletin | Nintendo Switch | Review | Ramp Car Jumping | 6/10 | "Does what it says on the tin" 🏎️💨 @BoomBitGames #GameDev #IndieGames

I must admit that the title alone of this one gave me doubts about its level of quality. It sounds like how a caveman would describe a game at its most fundamental level. 

A mobile port (which supports touch-screen controls); I must admit that I actually enjoyed the game far more than I thought I would… up to a point.

💰🏎️💨 Car Trader Simulator | PC | Review | Who would have thought the world of second-hand car trading could be so compelling? 💰🏎️💨 @livemotiongames @PixelHunted #GameDev #IndieGames

There’s a shiny new PlayStation 5 sitting under my TV with a copy of Demon’s Souls snugly nestled inside. 

A world of 4K, ray-traced, HDR goodness is just waiting for me… and here I am playing Car Trader Simulator.

😎🎮 Britt's Brief Bulletin | Mini Review | Pixel Ripped 1995 | 8/10 | "A joyous jaunt in a virtual, ‘90s world" 😎🎮 @PixelRipped #GameDev #IndieGames #PSVR

A PSVR title that sees you taking control of several vignettes in the life of a young boy, Pixel Ripped 1995 stood out as one of the better PSVR titles I’ve played this year. 

Moving through several segments from your home – where you must distract your mum with a rubber dart gun so that you can continue to play an 8-bit video game, much to her dismay -

to a scene set inside a video game store and a pretty thrilling car ride home that involves gunning down pursuing aliens, the VR is put to fantastic use here and the retro aesthetic is captured perfectly. 

A solid running time of 4-5 hours and a nice variety of genres on offer that feel like a highlight reel of ‘90s gaming, not since Astro Bot Rescue mission game have I been so drawn into a childlike sense of wonder, definitely one for your VR collection!

8/10