Any of you out there who owned a Sega Mega Drive back in the day might just remember a game called Empire of Steel, also known as Steel Empire in North America and Japan. An incredibly cool looking horizontal shoot ‘em up, the game stood out from the competition because of its steam punk theme….
Let’s just say this from the off: I absolutely adore top-down shooters. From early titles such as Commando and Ikari Warriors through to titles like Alien Breed and Loaded right up to the present day with the very recent (and absolutely excellent) Neon Chrome, I can’t get enough. The latter title had definitely whet my appetite…
One of my very earliest video game memories is seeing a huge 4-player Gauntlet cabinet looming over me from the end of a dimly lit arcade at Butlins in Margate. I could barely reach the controls but the beautiful artwork, colourful visuals and, especially, the speech booming out of those huge stereo speakers had me…
While the Xbox 360 became known for being a great shoot ‘em up machine, especially in Japan where it was pretty much the only reason people bought one, the Xbox One is particularly lacking in this genre so far (which explains the complete lack of interest in Japan too!). So seeing Solar Shifter EX arrive…
I do like it when publishers make it clear what game to expect from the off, and 10tons definitely did this with King Oddball – as this title is most certainly odd! That’s not to say it’s a bad game though; far from in fact, as I haven’t found myself this addicted to a game…
I have always been an absolutely huge fan of puzzle games; from the first time I played Tetris on a BBC Micro in my school’s computer room, I was hooked. With every new platform I purchase, a good puzzle game is one of the first things I look for so I was really pleased to…
I have always been a massive fan of scrolling beat ‘em ups over the years. In fact, I’d probably go as far as to say that it’s my favourite genre, so it’s great to see them making a comeback. One of my all-time favourites is the excellent Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn (which was also…
Just recently I reviewed Cast of the Seven Godsends, a new retro-styled game that is heavily inspired by Capcom’s classic Ghosts ‘n Goblins. In that review I mentioned that there was also another game along very similar lines, inspired by the very same arcade machine: Maldita Castilla EX. Like Cast of the Seven Godsends, this title also…
Remaking classic retro games certainly seems to be one of the biggest crazes among game publishers right now and Cast of the Seven Godsends is one of two such games that are both updates of the hugely popular Capcom coin-op Ghosts ‘n Goblins (the other being Maldito Castilla EX). This arcade classic – and for…
Every now and again you encounter a game where you really don’t know what to expect. For me, Into the Belly of the Beast from Lucky Brograms and Visionary Software was one such title. I hadn’t even heard of this game before it came in for review, let alone know anything about it, so I approached…
If there ever was a game that does exactly what it says on the tin, then it’s Dynamite Fishing from Handy Games – the latest title to make its way from your mobile phone to the Xbox One. It literally is just a fishing game where you use dynamite instead of a rod, review over!…
Around a year ago, Pac-Man 256 was released for iOS and Android devices. It was a furiously addictive play on the now legendary kill screen from the original Pac-Man arcade game. Developed by Hipster Whale, who also brought us the popular Crossy Road, it was hugely successful for publishers Bandai Namco so it’s hardly surprising to…
Reviving old favourites seems to be a bit of a theme on the Nintendo 3DS at the moment; just the other day I reviewed the rather good Sssnakes. I can only assume that this has been brought on by the huge success of the Sega 3D Classics series: there’s always somebody looking to cash in….
The resurgence of retro gaming continues on the Xbox One. First we had Rare Replay and then we had a multitude of old Xbox 360 arcade conversions such as Centipede, Missile Command and Wonderboy added via backwards compatibility. Now, Namco have chosen to release three of their biggest hits on the Xbox One in the…
Anybody out there who ever owned an old Nokia phone will undoubtedly be very familiar with Snake, the simple but furiously addictive game that came included on the handset. While it was not the first snake game (that honour goes to Snake Byte by Sirius Software for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit), it’s definitely…
Back in the days before the internet took over, box art was a really important part of any game. When you walked into your local game store it could often be the deciding factor in whether you bought a game or not. I have lost count of how many times I heard the phrase, “this…
Back in 1976, Atari released a revolutionary game called Breakout. Designed by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and engineered by none other than Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it set the arcades alight and inspired thousands of sequels and clones. Ten years later, in 1986, Japanese company Taito took breaking blocks to the next level…
As soon as I saw the previews for Skyling: Garden Defense I was excited; this little puzzle game instantly reminded me of old-school isometric titles of yesteryear such as Atari’s Crystal Castles and Marble Madness. I was even more pleased to see that developer Mighty Studios themselves pay homage to the classic games that have inspired it in…
Those of you who have been gaming since the 90s will remember a rather stonking war game by the name of Cannon Fodder. Created by the crazy guys at Sensible Software, it was a huge hit and appeared on just about every machine on the market at the time. If you loved that game as…
Given what a huge hit Terraria was, everyone has been waiting to see just what Re-Logic would bring us next. Well now the wait is over as they have teamed up with 505 Games once again to bring us their latest retro-inspired offering, this time with a helping of pirates thrown in for good measure:Â Pixel…
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