A compelling art style can do a lot for a game. Cuddle Monster Games’ Lone Ruin is a modest game from a small development team that doesn’t do anything to shake up the twin-stick roguelike formula, but the moody atmosphere conjured up by murky neon colours is enough to pull …
I’ve never paid much attention to stance in a skating game. Riding switch–what’s normally your back foot in front, and vice versa—might get you a few extra points, but beyond that, in every game I’ve played, it’s superficial to the point of being unnoticeable. My skater faces whichever way they’re …
For the latest Indie-view, I caught up with Matt Sainsbury of DigitallyDownloaded.net to talk about A Week On The Water, the ambitious next entry in the My Time With Dee Dee visual novel series. If you’re going to go to the effort of commissioning artwork for website mascot, why not …
“A farm life sim but you’re a witch” is an extremely enticing proposition. Games about settling down in a quaint little town and running a farm while getting to know the locals—the old Harvest Moon model that’s grown so popular in the wake of Stardew Valley—are delightful. Being a cute …
The world can always do with more cute-’em-ups. Shmups are all well and good, but trade the spaceships and gritty sci-fi for adorable characters and bright, playful colours and you get magic—as the TwinBees and Cottons of this world have proven time and again. It’s that tradition that Hazelnut Hex …
I’ll state right upfront that I’ve never played a Heroes of Might and Magic. Maybe that’s blasphemous, but such is life—you can’t play anything, and HOMM is one of those things that passed me by. A bring this up because, if you’re hoping for a review that’ll dive deep into …
A good metroidvania always hits the spot. It doesn’t need to be groundbreaking, or to reinvent the wheel; just the right balance of mobility, intertwining level design, and upgrades that change how you move around and interact with the game space. Get those fundamentals just right—easier said than done, admittedly—and …
When you win a dance battle in Ooblets—because dance-offs are how these particular collectible monsters compete—you get a chance to collect a seed from the leader of the other team. But rather than snatching the spoils from a vanquished foe, or ensnaring them in a little ball, you give a …
There were plenty of exciting announcements in this morning’s Future Games Show at Gamescom: a shadow drop of an English update for the Steam version of Wizardry: The Five Ordeals; an intriguing-looking climate change-themed city builder in Floodland; the release of a demo for character action game Soulstice; among many …
A new dungeon crawler is always good news. A new game that channels a sumi-e art style is always good news. A new game revolving around yōkai is always good news. So one that hits all three of those targets? Well that’s very good news indeed. Enter Labyrinth of Zangetsu, …
