Retro Reviews
Review Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi (PlayStation 3)
A novel idea
Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi is one of those rare video games that aren’t really video games at all. Actually, it’s a novel, cunningly disguised as something that you need a controller for. Occasionally the story will be interrupted with a choice for you to make, but largely the main goal is to keep on reading. It may be...
Review SoulCalibur: Lost Swords (PlayStation 3)
En garbage
Forget about missing blades, we suspect that the folks at Bandai Namco may have misplaced their minds while developing SoulCalibur: Lost Swords. This wretched free-to-play fighter serves up the gaming equivalent of seppuku, except the ancient Japanese suicidal rite isn’t riddled with obnoxious loading times, and thus is preferable to...
Review EA Sports 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (PlayStation 3)
A place in the sun
Summertime is often a period where people like to make memories. Whether it's creating moments of happiness with friends or taking the time to clear out your ridiculous gaming backlog as the sun blazes outside, there's no time quite like it. However, what usually makes summer all the more enjoyable – especially if you're a footy...
Review Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels (PlayStation 3)
Pick a card
Trading card games are everywhere these days, mostly thanks to smartphones and the free-to-play model. Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels looks to present the genre in a more traditional way. With thousands upon thousands of cards available to collect and utilise in battle, as well as both single player and online modes, it’d be easy to spend...
Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (PlayStation 3)
Half shelled
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows – a game developed by Red Fly Studios and published by Activision – released in August last year on both Steam and the Xbox 360 to a largely atrocious reception. With the game taking around eight months to hit the PlayStation 3, then, one would expect (or at least hope) that the delay...
Review JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle (PlayStation 3)
Fist of the flamboyant
A long running manga series that spans generations of different bloodlines, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is just as, er, bizarre as its name suggests. The crazy creation has enjoyed something of a Western popularity surge in recent years, which has resulted in the localisation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle – a...
Review Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - Deluxe Edition (PlayStation 3)
Wayne too far
You may remember the side-scrolling Arkham spin-off that graced your PlayStation Vita last year. Well, as with so many other franchises before it, the Dark Knight has been transported from the handheld to your living room in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate – Deluxe Edition. While the portable version was widely criticised for...
Review Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day (PlayStation 3)
We'd prefer a 'Slightly Longer Peace' next time
What do a polar bear, a Japanese firefighter, a karaoke booth, and a dancing frog made of umbrellas have in common? They all take centre stage in Bandai Namco's latest Eastern offering, Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day. Rather than one specific game, this is a compilation of four excellent...
A neighbour's nightmare
If there’s one problem with Rock Band, it’s that most of its content is DLC. Sure, it’s great to be able to pick and choose what you want to play, but purchasing individually means that you’re unlikely to try new things. SingOn tries to solve this problem by going with a subscription model, allowing instant anytime...
Review MLB 14 The Show (PlayStation 3)
Pinch-hit home run
MLB 14 The Show is this year’s entry in the long running and highly respected baseball series from Sony’s own San Diego studio. Being a sports game, it’s to be expected that it ends up feeling a little like an iterative experience as opposed to an innovative one – but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing good going...
Review The Wolf Among Us: Episode 3 - A Crooked Mile (PlayStation 3)
Howl at the moon
It may have only been a couple of months, but the wait for Episode 3 in Telltale Games’ fairytale detective-‘em-up The Wolf Among Us has been agonising. The mind boggles at how the award winning studio even manages to juggle development of its various leviathan franchises at the same time, let alone make them impossible to put...
Review Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom (PlayStation 3)
Finders weepers
Once upon a time, titles like Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom were ten a penny. The movie tie-in boom ensured that supermarket shelves were crammed with action platforms, each bearing colourful characters on the cover and containing gameplay more average than the mathematical mean. Gradually, consumers started to realise that these...
Review Skullgirls Encore (PlayStation 3)
Back for more
When Reverge Labs’ Skullgirls launched in April 2012, it was received very well. What’s incredible, however, is that it’s managed to maintain that level of popularity in the months since, with crowdfunding keeping the release alive once its ties with publisher Konami were cut. During all of the real-life drama – and name...
Review The Witch and the Hundred Knight (PlayStation 3)
Swamp thing
Nippon Ichi Software has a reputation for the absurd and strange, and while The Witch and the Hundred Knight initially seems poised to continue that trend successfully, the game’s humour soon turns dark and indignant – and its minor flaws begin to stack. Make no mistake, there’s a solid action RPG hidden beneath this title’s...
Review BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (PlayStation 3)
Burn bright, burn blue
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is the latest game by Japanese developer Arc System Works. It’s the third title in the 2D fighting series BlazBlue, and takes place after the events of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. The release was originally conceived as an arcade game, which deployed in late 2012. It then received a PlayStation 3...
Review MXGP: The Official Motocross Game (PlayStation 3)
Rev bull
There’s something strangely appealing about the way in which Italian outfit Milestone constructs a single player campaign. The developer’s previous forays into the World Rally Championship and Moto GP have all lacked polish, but have had a certain je ne sais quoi in spite of their presentational shortcomings. MXGP: The Official...
Review Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (PlayStation 3)
Dead and Alive
Ryu Hayabusa – gaming icon and goody two-shoes – is a little bit too awesome, don’t you think? He’s worked his way through some of the hardest games on the market, hardly breaking a sweat. He’s faced all sorts of fiendish enemies and has come through mostly unscathed. But not anymore – Yaiba Kamikaze, a psychopath ninja,...
Review Luftrausers (PlayStation 3)
Don't mention the war
Dutch developer Vlambeer is known for creating deceptively simple arcade titles that have a worrying tendency to burrow deep under your skin and take hold of your every waking thought. Its latest venture, Luftrausers, sees you seated in the cockpit of a World War II fighter plane, attempting to take out a boundless barrage of...
Go with the flow
Think about your favourite video games. Have you ever wondered why they’re your favourites? We’re sure that you can think of a sea of reasons, but we’d like to point out one that likely applies to each title on your mind: flow. The greatest adventures are typically the ones with brilliant ideas in every area wrapped in an...
For God's sake
A downloadable and retail title for the PlayStation 3 that’s currently only available in North America, Magus is a premium priced role-playing game that sees you step into the shoes of the aforementioned titular hero in his quest to become an all-powerful God. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. The release adopts a rather...
Review Dark Souls II (PlayStation 3)
Death imminent
As a cursed individual banished to Drangleic, it’s your goal to collect the requisite souls required to prevent yourself from becoming a hollow while learning about the mysteries that surround you. This may be a sequel to Dark Souls, but it exists very much in a realm of its own, and doesn’t rely too heavily on the series’...
Review The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 2 - A House Divided (PlayStation 3)
Next time on The Walking Dead
After a three month break designed to let our minds digest the events of the first episode of Telltale’s second season of The Walking Dead, it’s time to step into the small shoes of Clementine once again. As is customary for the series, we last left the pint-sized heroine after making a difficult decision between...
Review Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation 3)
Three's a charm
Taking place 500 years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII-2, the latest instalment in Square Enix’s mega franchise begins with pink-haired protagonist Lightning being shaken from her crystal slumber by God Bhunivelze. The heroine’s task? To save humanity from an imbalance between life and chaos which has prevented people from...
Review Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky (PlayStation 3)
Philosopher's groan
Once again focusing on the practice of alchemy and the need to complete countless jobs for the populace, Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky is the latest entry in developer Gust's long running series. It's full of the kind of mechanics, tropes, and characters that fans have come to expect – but does the tried...
Review Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (PlayStation 3)
Co-lette things lie
Tales of Symphonia is a classic JRPG from the GameCube era with a wide following, multiple (mostly Japanese) spin-offs, and now a well-deserved HD remaster. In addition to the underrated and underplayed gem, this new collection also contains the second game in the series, Dawn of the New World – although the primary reason for...
Review South Park: The Stick of Truth (PlayStation 3)
The Elder Trolls
Licensed video game adaptations are rarely the stuff of legend. Films are easily the worst offenders, as you could probably list the number of decent attempts on one hand – although television properties have played host to a selection of stinkers as well. As such, we were cautious when we first caught wind [Not that kind – Ed]...
Review Pac-Man Museum (PlayStation 3)
Pac's the way I like it
Whether you're a ghost-munching veteran or a total newcomer, there's no better way to experience the multiple old-school adventures of Bandai Namco's infamous yellow orb than Pac-Man Museum. Bringing together nine titles that span three different genres, it's difficult not to feel that you're getting plenty of nostalgic...
Review Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (PlayStation 3)
Bloody hell
With the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series, developer MercurySteam successfully rebooted Konami’s much loved series. Now, with the arrival of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on the PlayStation 3, the Spanish studio’s aiming to bring the series to a close, while at the same time attempting to fully deliver on the promise shown by the...
Review Rambo: The Video Game (PlayStation 3)
It's over, Johnny
In an industry where fantastic, marketable games are cancelled all too often and publishers are desperate to make up for years of inflation, the most impressive thing about Rambo: The Video Game is that it exists at all. However, that probably has something to do with the fact that it cost about £30 to make. It’s not all bad...
Review Earth Defense Force 2025 (PlayStation 3)
Alien ant harm
The biggest bugs in Earth Defense Force 2025 are not the iconic silver-backed ants that grace its outrageously ostentatious box art. The latest entry in Sandlot’s cult co-operative shooter series is a technical disaster, running a gamut of performance blunders larger than its colossal robotic adversaries. However, franchise fans...
