Blade Assault XSX Review 7/10 "I Was Well On Board Even Before Picking Up The Controller" 🔪 @SuneatTeam #IndieGames #GameDev

Having seen the trailer video for Blade Assault, I was well on board even before picking up the controller. Blade Assault is a 2D hack-and-slash roguelike platformer that lets you tear through enemies at a rate of knots.

Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart XSX Review 6.5/10 "A Simple Racer, Perfect For Hatchlings" 🦖 @3DClouds @Outright_Games #IndieGames #GameDev

Based on the French educational TV series Gigantosaurus, Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart puts the main characters of Rocky, Bill, Tiny, and Mazu – along with a  host of their friends – into various pre-historic kart-type vehicles and sets them speeding around their world through 15 different tracks, avoiding hazards such as steam blasts, chasms, rockslides and, of course – Giganto himself!

Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart is a game aimed at very young children, as is its TV show counterpart. So straight off the bat, it’s worth getting out of the way that this title – even on its hardest difficulty setting – isn’t going to be a challenge for those adult karting veterans out there.

That said, the way in which Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart caters to the younger demographic is impressive and made it possible for even my two-year-old to have enormous fun joining in the races.

Homebody | Xbox Series X | Review | 8/10 | “With Death Comes Knowledge” 🔪 @HomebodyGame @Rogue_Co @GameGrumps #IndieGames #GameDev

Homebody is the newest game from the YouTube channel Game Grumps and Rogue Entertainment, the game is a psychological horror with fixed camera angles, retro graphics and a love for some good old-fashioned puzzle solving.

Raging Bytes XSX Review 7.5/10 "A Byte-Sized Zombie Adventure" 🧟🧟‍♂️🧟‍♀️ @KEMCO_OFFICIAL @KEMCOGLOBAL

I feel like there will always be a place in my life for simple, turn-based JRPGs with 16-bit styled, top-down visuals. I’m not hot on the whimsy and light fantasy that a lot of the releases in the genre seem to focus on, but when a game instead has a grittier cyberpunk/steampunk/horror aesthetic my trousers instantly begin twirling in anticipation - as if they are a cane in the hands of song and dance man mid-performance in the 1920’s - as they did here upon initially seeing the trailer for KEMCO’s Raging Bytes a few weeks ago – and as always, my trousers were correct. (always trust the trouser - Ed)

Dark Quest 3 XSX Review 8.5/10 "oh go on...one more go..." ⚔️ 🧙‍♂️ @brainseal #IndieGames #GameDev

It has only been over the last few years that I’ve really gotten hips-deep into board games. From diving into breezy games like Dungeon! And Hero Quest to rule-laden slogs like Massive Darkness or Endure the Stars/Rules, I’ve really come to appreciate the wonderful blend of dedication and camaraderie that comes from a day of getting some snacks and drinks in, then settling down for eleven hours of arguing over the results of dice rolls and bafflingly unclear card descriptions.

It was after a recent weekend jaunt to a salubrious part of the country – where the curtains were promptly drawn and daylight not sighted for 48 hours – that I began to yearn for a single-player board game experience… but in the digital realm.

I genuinely spent a few days installing and uninstalling various games on my phone, hunting around for what I was looking for - and it was then that I stumbled across Dark Quest 3, which was due for imminent release, I can’t comment on Brain Seal Ltd’s other games, or even the preceding two titles in this trilogy, but I can certainly say that Dark Quest 3 is exactly what I needed.

Lego 2k Drive Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "Is it as good as Mario Kart?" 🏎️ @LEGO_2K_HUB @2K #LEGO2KDrive

Every time a new kart racer comes to market, be it badged as Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, or, somewhat oddly, Garfield, the first question everyone asks is, "Is it as good as Mario Kart?" and the answer, invariably, is no. Lego 2k Drive is the latest to come at the King, and while it does miss, it's a good game in its own right.

No One Lives Under the Lighthouse XSX Review 8/10 "More Bite-Sized Horror Gold" 🗼 @marevocollectiv #IndieGames #GameDev

I am a big fan of bite-sized titles that can be enjoyed in a single evening – horror titles especially, as Boomfire’s recent The Creepy Syndrome reminded me.

No One Lives Under the Lighthouse is a game with some serious character in its presentation that drew me in on multiple levels from the visual style through to the subtle gameplay mechanics, narrative, and incredible sound design – with the only slight hiccup for me being the final sequence of events.

The game – a first-person adventure - opens with your character being dropped off at a remote island, with the titular lighthouse looming large. The boatman makes cryptic comments about the previous lighthouse keeper before rowing back off into the darkness, leaving you alone on the island….or are you?

Varney Lake XSX Review 8/10 "More Interactive Pulp Fiction From The Best In The Biz" 📑 @lcbgamestudio @ChorusWorldwide #IndieGames #GameDev

The second in the Pixel Pulp series from Argentinian developer LCB Game Studio (following Mothmen 1966), Varney Lake moves away from cryptids and towards classic vampirism. However, there are links throughout that connect the stories in an over-arching narrative.

Before I even go into the narrative, I have to commend the team for the astonishingly evocative introduction sequence, a wonderfully set up image of the story as if presented in a real magazine, complete with a schlocky cover, a missing poster of a child and a smoking match-head as beautifully melancholic music plays over the title screen (all too briefly!). I was instantly hips deep, it’s such an entrancing combination of visuals and audio.

King of the Arcade XSX Review 6.5/10 "A fun, mini-game-laden budget title" 🕹️ @SuperVillainDev #IndieGame #GameDev

King of the Arcade casts the player as a once-adored arcade master that has now fallen to the lows of living in his mum’s basement, with zero cash and mounting debt. In a last-ditch attempt to get a job, he applies at the local arcade, where the owner recognises him from his glorious gaming past.

Sworn to a life out of the limelight, our protagonist is dragged into a situation where he must once again waggle his joystick better than anyone else, as he strives to best the thugs from a competing arcade at their chosen games…or not, as the case may be.

Catan Console Edition Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "I’m a pretty keen board gamer" 🧩 @DTGBoardgames #IndieGame #GameDev

I’ll preface this review by saying I’m a pretty keen board gamer. I’ve got a semi-regular gaming group, involving some other Games Freezer contributors, and we enjoy the odd weekend away getting stuck into tabletop delights, with Yellow Pages-esque rulebooks and hundreds of miniatures that end up all over the shop (looking at you, Endure the Stars).

Curiously though, before getting this for review I’d never played Settlers of Catan (or Catan, as it’s now officially called). It’s one of the board games that’s credited with bringing the hobby into the mainstream, with simple rules and fairly deep gameplay (at least, if you compare it to Scrabble).

WWE2K23 Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “No Steps Back” 🤼‍♂️ @transvaalgf #WWE

When reviewing the previous entry in the series - WWE2K22 - I mentioned that recent WWE games have a habit of going one step forward but two steps back. Well, finally for the first time in years, that statement does not apply to this entry. After having good building blocks from last year’s version, they didn’t remove a mode or change things drastically for no reason, they simply worked on and improved what they had already built last year.

The gameplay is largely the same, which is a good thing, as there has been a long-running joke between my brother and me in that the first thing he would ask me about the new WWE game would be, “Have they changed the control scheme again?”, so it was nice this year to say “no, it’s the same as last year, they haven’t moved counter to RB… no, its X this year… no, wait! You wiggle the thumb stick!”.

Clash: Artifacts of Chaos XSX Review 8.5/10 "Pretty Pugilism" ⚔️ @theACETeam @NaconFR #GameDev #IndieGame

It was only as I was installing Clash: Artifacts of Chaos that it dawned on me that I’d played the previous games in the series a decade ago - Zeno Clash and Zeno Clash 2 (2009, 2013) – and enjoyed their idiosyncratic take on the 1st person melee fighting genre.

As the installation percentage slowly rose, I cast my mind back to the sessions on my PC with the initial Clash games, they were incredibly unique titles with flawed but fun mechanics that had a narrative style and structure that called to mind Ice-Pick Lodge’s Pathologic – but the Clash series was different in that they actually held up to close scrutiny and were fun to play.

It’s a heady combination when you discover a developer that isn’t afraid to go off-piste with their narrative presentation, whilst also pushing forward a pretty niche genre, in this case, an FPS melee combat / RPG hybrid.

Fast forward to the present and within a couple of hours, I was completely on board with the third title in this long-running series - Clash: Artifacts of Chaos.

41 Hours XSX Review 5/10 "An Initially Fun But Flawed FPS" ⏰ @ValkyrieInitia1 #IndieGame #GameDev

41 Hours – despite being set in a pretty standard genre (FPS) – began in an oddly endearing way for me, the narrative kicks off in media res, with the protagonist – Ethan – having rescued a mysterious woman with whom he is apparently fixated and escaping from the facility in which she was kept.

The opening chapter is all about putting as much ground between you and the mysterious enemy forces as possible, as fragments of the narrative are laid out. It’s here that the game sets out its stock, and I was initially intrigued due to several aspects of the design choices made.

Cions of Vega XSX Review 5.5/10 "He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother" 🏘️ @eastasiasoft #IndieGame #GameDev

I’m a big fan of walking simulators, some can be quite affecting and haunting, such as Dear Esther or What Remains of Edith Finch, whilst others can perhaps not connect as deeply with the player, but still be positive and fun experiences as you get lost in the atmosphere and chill out for a few hours.

Cions of Vega is unfortunately a very scattered and tonally uneven game, and this affects the way that I reacted to the story, that of a man searching for his missing daughter through rural countryside and small, forgotten villages – with his brother tagging along, spouting exposition to our silent protagonist.

Go! Go! Pogogirl! XSX Review 8/10 "A Pixel Perfect Pogo Platforming Party" 🤾‍♂️ @ohsat_games #IndieGame #GameDev

There’s something really timeless about a well-done platform game with pixel visuals. A purity to the gameplay that makes everyone feel they can pick up and play, and Go! Go! Pogogirl! Is a shining example of just this.

Your character is a forever-bouncing girl on a pogo stick who must bounce her way through twenty levels – with each group of five representing one of the four seasons. 

Fight ‘N Rage XSX Review 8.5/10 "A Wonderful Throwback Title With Astonishing Depth" 💥👊 @sebagamesdev #GameDev #IndieGameto

The side-scrolling brawler genre is such a timeless and wondrous thing when done properly, as one-man Uruguayan studio Seba Games Dev has done here with Fight ‘N Rage.

The natural repetition of the genre is spiced up here by an insane amount of unlockables that make the grinder part of me twitch into action.

There have been some tasty games in the genre over the last year or two – mainly courtesy of DotEmu - (and I know it’s older than that, but I have to mention Mother Russia Bleeds) and Fight ‘N Rage absolutely has to be mentioned in that conversation.

Du Lac and Fey: Dance Of Death XSX Review 2/10 "Half-Arsed?" 🔎 @SalixGames #IndieGames #GameDev

The Collins English dictionary describes "half-arsed" as:

"ADJECTIVE

slang

incompetent; inept; badly organized"

And that's the main takeaway from this game. Let's get the praise part of this review out of the way. Don't worry, it won't take long. 

Du Lac and Fey: Dance Of Death has some nice writing and some really good voice acting. There. I told you it would be quick.  

Terror of Hemasaurus XSX Review 9/10 "The Best Rampage Game Ever Made" 🏨🦖 @LorenLemcke @ShawnDaley #IndieGame #GameDev

I am very much a lover of monster movies and games, and to me, Midway’s Rampage series of games always looked more fun than they actually played. It was a great concept, but it always felt let down by lacklustre gameplay, stiff controls and repetition. Luckily, Loren Lemcke is here to smash down those issues, and breathe fireballs all over those lesser games, standing proudly above the ruins, heaving a throaty roar of triumph into the night sky.

Risen Xbox Series X Review 7/10 "Risen Has Risen Again" 🏹 @Piranha_Bytes #GameDev #IndieGames

I originally played Risen back in 2010 on Xbox 360, it was a port that wasn’t particularly well-received at the time, but it came from a period of my life where I was hips deep into janky RPGs such as Boiling Point, Hard Truck Apocalypse, White Gold: War in Paradise and Precursors – so some dodgy controls, graphical glitches and ropey AI were par for the course for me at the time, and as such I had a lot of fun with Risen.

This re-release isn’t a re-master or remake – as the upcoming Gothic will be – but instead is a sort of lightly ‘touched-up’ version that adds full controller support, reduces – but doesn’t fully remove – loading times and has an improved UI. It does run at a mostly solid 60fps, which is a huge leap over the aforementioned Xbox 360 port, although probably level with the original PC version. 

One Piece Odyssey Xbox Review 8/10 “A Wonderfully Fun JRPG Romp” 🉐🏯 @transvaalgf

One Piece Odyssey begins with the Straw Hat Gang’s ship ‘The Thousand Sunny’ getting shipwrecked on the mysterious island of Waford.

With the ship needing repairs, they set out exploring the island, and soon run into Lim, who is very fearful of them as she has had several bad experiences with other pirates, using her ability, she alleviates the gang of their powers.

Small cubes containing the powers rise out of their chests and are soon scattered around the island. Now depowered, they set out to retrieve the cubes, some cubes are larger - and to be restored they must enter the dream world of Memoria and relive the past to regain the power held in the cube, this takes them to past locations, reliving adventures, but with some differences.