Omen of Sorrow Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "The Horror! The Horror!" 👊 @eastasiasoft #IndieGame #GameDev

When one thinks of horror icons pugilistically going at it hammer and tongs in a video game environment, the Darkstalkers series springs to mind.

Bright, cartoonish and 2D, Capcom’s ‘90s one-on-one fighter stood apart from others in the genre by having instantly recognisable archetypes from the pantheon of horror for players to choose from and rain down violent misery upon their opponents.

The gothic horror lover in me always enjoyed the games and especially the characters within.

Eastasiasoft’s Omen of Sorrow takes the same idea in a different direction and the 3D visuals and gloomier, darker, more gothic take on things result in a solid fighting game, but one that perhaps doesn’t quite bring the personality that makes a game a classic.

Voyager Ten Minute Taster PC Let's Play Gameplay "Lo Fi Beats In Space" 🌚 @VoyagerPlay #IndieGames #GameDev

Come with us now on a journey through music and space... To the world of VOYAGER ◯∘ A minimalist, relaxing & atmospheric experience to chill out to for a while.

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.

Flight From The Dark | Book Review | Author: Joe Dever | Publisher: Magmanund "Timeless Adventures For All -You Are Lone Wolf!" 🐺⚔️ #GameBook

When I had the opportunity to cover Magnamund’s Flight in the Dark gamebook, it dawned on me that I used to adore the gamebooks of my childhood and teens, but then they seemed to fall by the wayside - for some reason - for decades.

A couple of years ago, I was in a charity shop in my home town of Cardiff and saw a good number of Fighting Fantasy books for sale and grabbed them all. After reading a couple, the fun of the experience set back in and it sparked some conversations with friends – especially my GF colleague Max – as the design of the books is timeless, and there’s universal accessibility in them that I’ll touch upon later.

In short, the chance to write about Joe Dever’s Flight in the Dark could not have been more timely.

The Creepy Syndrome Xbox One Review 7.5/10 "Frightening Fun For Under a Fiver!" 👻 @JanduSoft @BoomfireGames #IndieGames #GameDev

I was lucky enough to cover Boomfire Games’ prior release - Cards of the Dead - back in 2021 around Halloween time. I was a big fan of the deck-based storytelling and simple, yet tense premise - escape from the zombie-ridden city without dying! In fact, I enjoyed the artwork and game so much that I backed the Kickstarter for the actual card game release of Cards of the Dead – and recently played through a few rounds of it during an extremely nerdy weekend board game retreat with a  group of equally nerdy friends.

The game went down a storm, and I’m already keen to play again! 

And so, a few months ago when Jandusoft began to tease the release of The Creepy Syndrome, my britches were full of twitches! 

Escape From The Red Planet PC Ten-Minute Taster Gameplay "Turrets & Solar Panels At The Ready!" 🪐☄️ @frostypopgames #IndieGames #GameDev

 
Escape From The Red Planet simplifies resource management, tower defence, and first-person mechanics into a singular arcade experience. On the latest mission to Mars, the Orion III crash-landed. With Martian attacks looming, Houston most definitely has a problem!

Redemption Reapers Nintendo Switch Review 6/10 “A Decent SRPG, That Doesn’t Want To Take Too Many Chances” ⚔️ #IndieGames #GameDev

Redemption Reapers opens with a very engaging cinematic, it’s very effective and does a good job setting up the narrative whilst sowing intrigue. It introduces us to our band of mercenaries, ‘The Ashen Hawk Brigade’ who have taken up the fight against The Mort - a destructive band of orc-like creatures who have swept through the land, decimating village after village.

It’s an interesting setup and I was definitely invested quickly, the problem came about three-quarters of the way through my time with Redemption Reapers, when I realised the opening had been the most impactful thing so far - and though I was enjoying my time in this world, it never managed to recapture that initial interest.

Mario Mixtape by Mustin 🎶 @Mustin #SuperMarioBrosMovie #SuperMarioMovie #VideoGameMusic #VGM

You might have noticed that there was a Super Mario Bros. film released recently. Or, I don’t know, perhaps you’ve been in a cave thousands of feet below the earth’s surface. 

In any case, music producer Mustin has released an album in celebration. Mario Mixtape is a genre-hopping collection of remixes of tracks from Nintendo’s number one franchise, written by Mustin himself and produced with his 17-year-old son Logan.

The twelve tracks cover the entire series, from the underground theme in the original game, all the way through Dr Mario and Super Smash Bros. Melee, to a military drum-filled version of Attack of the Airships from Super Mario Galaxy. 

Standouts are the electro-swing Delfino Plaza, from Super Mario Sunshine, and the city pop-esque Piranha Plant’s Lullaby from Super Mario 64. This album is a lot of fun and gives a new lease of life to a lot of tracks you forgot you knew.

 

Mario Mixtape is available on all streaming services, and if you want to support Mustin directly (as I always recommend) it’s available digitally and on CD for $ 9.99 USD on his Bandcamp page.

Speedonauts PC Review 7/10 "Speedonauty, Very Nauty…" 🎿 @WorldAwayGames #IndieGames #GameDev

Alto, the lonely goatherd and toadly gnarly snowboarder have a lot to answer for. Fire up one of his adventures on your phone and time has a tendency to disappear. This sideways scrolling endless runner game had a beautiful simplicity to it and a series of increasingly difficult challenges that draws you back in. And draw me in they did.

So, when presented with the opportunity to take a closer look at World Away’s Speedonauts, I was excited, but also concerned about developing another snowsport addiction.

Thumby by TinyCircuits "the smallest handheld console ever made?" 👍 @TinyCircuits #Retrogaming #GameDev

My fiancée introduced me to Thumby a few weeks ago via – I believe – an Instagram post she came across.

It was an intriguing and novel concept – a challenge to make the smallest handheld console ever made, and for it also to be a fully functional system.

Sanctuary SAGA PC Ten Minute Taster "Pixel Art Perfection" ⚔️ @SancSagaRPG #IndieGame #GameDev

Protect your caravan and face the brutal Untamed Wilds in rogue-lite turn-based RPG Sanctuary Saga. Engage in row-based combat across multiple varied biomes and keep your group together using a dynamic relationship system.

Calmer from Flare "A Game Changer" 🦻👂@flareaudio

I initially came across the Calmer product via a source that I usually pay no attention towards -  Twitter advertising.

However, I’m acutely aware of anything that can assist with my younger brother’s daily issues with certain frequencies triggering incredibly debilitating, migraines (it doesn’t help that I communicate with him exclusively by blowing on a whistle for differing lengths of time - in a language entirely of my own devising, to be honest) and also, with me being the singer/guitarist in a band outside of GF (www.recluse.bandcamp.com), I’m only too aware of the long-term effects of poor ear-care combined with consistent exposure to loud volumes without due preparation.

And so I contacted Flare, who kindly sent out promotional units for us to cover. 

I have to say that the results of using Calmer have been quite astonishing.

VGM Essentials: Pokémon Remixed Vinyl Review "Flash Forward A Few Years and Now I have Kids, and They Like Pokemon" 💿 @MateriaStore #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGMVinyl

The Pokemon series has, by and large, passed me by. The original came out in the late 90s, and I bought a Gameboy with the game just to see what all the fuss was about. 

A couple of hours in and it never really grabbed me, so that Gameboy pretty much became a Tetris machine (no regrets). And, like everyone in the world, I did a little bit of Pokemon Go at first but never actually understood what I was meant to be doing.

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).

Beyond The Long Night Ten Minute Taster PC Gameplay "Twin Stick Balloon Shooter"🎈 @NoisyHeadGames #IndieGame #GameDev

In Beyond The Long Night you explore a whimsical underground world whilst being chased by a mysterious corrupting force in this charming twin-stick action roguelike! 

Befriend loveable characters, fend off enemies with chaotic abilities, and uncover the secrets of this subterranean kingdom caught in a time loop.

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!”.

ODYSSEY "Original Amiga Demo Scene Soundtrack" Vinyl Review | "If you are a fan of Amiga audio, I heartily recommend that you grab this" 💿 @WRWTFWW #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGMvinyl

Readers of previous records that I’ve mentioned or covered over the years - such as David Whittaker’s Shadow of the Beast or The Bitmap Brothers:

Odyssey will know of my love for the Amiga. The singularly impressive sound chip and sheer creativity from artists of the time mean that there’s a really special moment and nostalgia for me when I get lost in the Amiga soundscape.

I’d say I spend more time listening to the music of various Amiga games than actually playing the games themselves because the audio is so evocative and transportive. 

Formula Retro Racing World Tour Nintendo Switch Gameplay "Race Like It's 1995" 🏎️💨 @CGAStudioGames #IndieGame #GameDev

 
Building on the success of the original retro racing hit, Formula Retro Racing: World Tour introduces new tracks and car types for an additional level of depth. 

You'll race through iconic global locations, compete against other drivers, and try to beat your lap times. 

Do you have what it takes to master each racing line, hug every apex, and cross the chequered flag to victory?

Transparent Tech is Back as GameSir Launches The New T4 Kaleid Transparent Wired RGB Controller 🎮 @mygamesir

GameSir today announces the launch of its new T4 Kaleid RGB gaming controller. Equipped with special motion aim/steer technology, users can enjoy their favourite games with motion control, or through regular analogue stick gameplay. 

The GameSir T4 Kaleid is available on the GameSir website now at a discounted rate of $41.99/£41.99 (RRP £41.99) and AliExpress for £37/$43.

It will also be available on Amazon.com and Amazon UK at the end of April for $41.99/£41.99/€57.99

Boasting Hall-Effect magnetic sensing joysticks providing anti-drift technology, the T4 Kaleid is a durable controller that retains its precision over the course of its use. Joy-con drift can greatly impact gaming, so users of the T4k can rest assured that their controller will not be affected by the wear down caused by continued heavy usage.

Wall World Ten Minute Taster PC Gameplay "You're Just Another Brick In The Wall" 🧱 @alawarteam #IndieGame #GameDev

 
In Wall World, you'll explore the mysterious Wall World on your giant robot spider: mine for valuable resources, upgrade your equipment to fight off hordes of monsters and discover exotic biomes in-between attacks. 

Will you be able to survive and learn the secrets of the Wall World?