A decent soundtrack and precise input recognition are all you really need to make a good rhythm game. The musical style, presentation, narrative framing, and method of interaction are all important details, too, but it’s those first two that will make or break any music game. It’s easy to get …
Escape room puzzle game and arcade-style shoot ‘em up don’t exactly seem like they’d fit together. But that’s exactly what makes such genre mashups so fascinating: when you find (or create) common ground between such disparate influences, the results can be an unorthodox delight, even if there’s a bit of …
If you enjoyed watching Pepe play for Real Madrid, you’re going to love Mario Strikers: Battle League Football. The matches are brutal, tackles are rough and the on-pitch breakdowns are ever present. Fortunately, beneath the chaos and theatrics, there lies a surprisingly entertaining football game that can be enjoyed by …
Red Earth. Released in arcades in 1996 as the showcase for Capcom’s new CPS3 arcade platform, this somewhat eccentric fighting game soon slipped into relative obscurity. A quirky little fighting RPG with just four unfamiliar characters was always going to struggle to step out of Street Fighter II‘s shadow, and …
Remote Life is nothing if not ambitious. The work of solo developer NAME, it’s a side-scrolling shoot-’em-up with clear R-Type inspiration, an expansive campaign by arcade shmup standards, lots of variety, and impressive visual design that carries its alien horror vibes well. But for all its ambition, it’s a game …
Metal Max Xeno isn’t something I’d expect to see getting a major overhaul. The original is just a few years old, met with middling reviews, and never really made much of a splash despite an intriguing premise and some unique ideas. A rebirth might be just what it needed, though: …
After OlliOlli World introduced the world its wonderfully outlandish skate-themed fantasy world, it seems only fitting that the first DLC, Void Riders, should revolve around an alien invasion. So when a UFO crashes into Burntrock and a bunch of odd-looking creatures come out in search of the raddest skaters to …
In a lot of ways, Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers is a very different beast to its predecessor. The first was a funny, heartfelt, optionally romantic visual novel about the daily lives of a game centre operator and their eccentric regulars; The New Challengers is all about arcade esports: competition, …
I know I’m not alone in my preference for vertical shmups, especially of the bullet hell variety. It’s hard to articulate well, but tracking bullets, reading patterns, and positioning your ship just feels so much more intuitive in a vert. But every now and then, a game will come along …
At first blush, Cotton Fantasy feels a lot like last year’s Cotton Reboot. It’s got a new story, new levels, new enemies and boss fights, but the same cute, playful vibe, same general approach, and similar (if slightly simplified) scoring mechanics to Reboot’s wonderfully exuberant revamp. It’s a sequel, after …
