Latest Reviews
Reflections of sadness
Blue Reflection is the latest offering from Gust, the developer who previously brought us the Atelier series. A brand new IP, Blue Reflection focuses on the story of Hinako, a former child ballet star who starts a new high school. She discovers that she's a Reflector, the game’s version of a magical girl, along with her new...
Pick 'n' mix
You’d have to be Slightly Mad to go up against simulation racing juggernauts Gran Turismo Sport and Forza Motorsport 7 this holiday, but that’s the unfortunate position Project CARS 2 finds itself in. The sequel to the British studio’s somewhat uneven crowd-funded debut attempts to standout by increasing the number of motorsport...
Review Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two - Episode 3: Jailhouse Block (PS4)
A happy little review
Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two - Episode 3: Jailhouse Block starts off with a much more intriguing plot than the first two episodes in the season. Jesse and his companions are locked in a bedrock prison at the bottom of the world which is controlled by the Admin’s loyal followers. They must find a way to escape it and...
Review Mary Skelter: Nightmares (PS Vita)
Once upon a time
Based on some of Compile Heart’s previous games we weren’t expecting a lot from Mary Skelter: Nightmares - just a simple dungeon crawler with a bit of fanservice thrown in. What we actually got, however, was something far more interesting. The opening to Mary Skelter is surprisingly dark. The game’s protagonist Jack and his...
Smile like you mean it
Happy Dungeons is a simplistic dungeon crawling hack and slasher which also happens to be a free-to-play title. It's got both online and offline co-op, loot, and a load of different upgrade systems. It'll keep you busy if you find the combat sufficiently entertaining, but as is the case with many a free-to-play release,...
Review Hidden Dragon: Legend (PS4)
Fighting Dragon, Hidden Legend
Following in the footsteps of Eastern epics like the already classic Nioh and July’s excellent Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Megafun Games’ Hidden Dragon: Legend is a side-scrolling combat platformer set in Imperial China. The story begins with the amnesiac Lu, who staggers out of a prison massacre and...
Review Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash (PS4)
Peachy keen
Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash wears its heart on its, er, bras and bikinis with unabashed aplomb. It’s the purest kind of ecchi content you could possibly imagine, arguably upping the ante for the game series with a cast of over 30 well-endowed women soaking each other with water guns. To say that things get wet and wild is an...
A bad crop
When we received the code for Maize, a comedic first-person adventure game about sentient corn, we were obviously intrigued. How could we not be? The key art features a stalk of corn listening to a boom box, and in an industry that can at times feel bereft of fresh ideas, this left-field offering from Finish Line Games excited us. Not...
Review Planet of the Eyes (PS4)
A road less travelled
Buried beneath the mishmash of platformers new and old comes the emergence of Planet of the Eyes – a funky puzzle platformer originally released for PC and Mac back in 2015. Though not much has changed throughout its transition to the PlayStation 4, it does feel like a welcome one. Guided by the wisdom of one man’s...
Review Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (PS4)
Marvellous?
For a publisher seemingly in need of a success story, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite should be the very definition of an easy win. Indeed, since Marvel vs. Capcom 3 launched, the comic book brand has become an unstoppable force in theatres, with multiple movies becoming record breaking blockbuster hits. And that’s ignoring the fact that...
Review Final Fantasy IX (PSone)
I want to be your canary
Republished on Tuesday 19th September 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the game's remastered release on PlayStation 4. The original text follows. As far as Final Fantasy games go, Final Fantasy IX is one of the most cohesive, charming entries in Square Enix's beloved series. It marked the...
Review Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4)
Bear with me, I’ll think of a pun soon
The Danganronpa series is known for being delightfully dark and twisted while at the same time wrapped in a layer of light-hearted eccentric silliness. The main crux of the series centres around Monokuma and his ‘killing game’, where a group of students are forced to live together and the only way to...
Review Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (PS4)
Lurking around
The immersive sim is one of the most rewarding genres in gaming. The more you put into them, the more you get in return, and the Dishonored series is one of the best examples of this in recent years. Death of the Outsider is a smaller scale adventure at around half the length of 2016’s Dishonored 2, but it retains the same brilliant...
Review PES 2018: Pro Evolution Soccer (PS4)
YES
The fact that the box of PES 2018 has a Barcelona shirt-touting Neymar emblazoned on the front may seem like a bad omen for a series that, in the past few years, has often had trouble staying up-to-date. Pretty much every PES game on PS4 has had a troubled launch, taking months to update lineups to reflect the summer transfer window - but this...
Shocking
Sparc is a virtual reality version of Pong with Tron-like visuals. In a way, it's very similar to PlayStation VR Worlds' Danger Ball. You face off against an opponent, each standing at opposite ends of a long empty corridor, and you must throw a ball at your opponent in order to score points. That's the basic...
Through the darkness of future past
There’s some stiff competition for top-down twin-stick shooters these days. With heavy hitters like Hotline Miami, Nex Machina, and Mr. Shifty, studios have to deliver a very distinct and fresh experience to stand out. The developers at 10tons Ltd, are no strangers to achieving that in this genre, with the...
Review Radial-G: Racing Revolved (PS4)
Round and round
Radial-G: Racing Revolved is a PlayStation VR zero-grav racer that quite literally revolves around a track. Most of the tracks consist of tubes, with you clinging to the outside, able to freely rotate around, trying to reach that next boost or power-up. It makes for a lot of fun, even if you want to just simply spin around the tube a...
Review Redout: Lightspeed Edition (PS4)
Fast and furious
The anti-gravity racing genre may not be as popular as it once was, but that doesn’t mean developers aren’t still creating games for the genre. WipEout Omega Collection recently launched on the PlayStation 4, and while it was a fairly impressive collection, the fact that it focused squarely on the past held it back in some...
Review One Piece: Unlimited World Red - Deluxe Edition (PS4)
A pirate's life for me
One Piece, for those who are unfamiliar, is an insanely popular manga and anime series that has been around for over 20 years now, and has received a slew of video games. The series focuses on Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat pirate crew as he strives to claim the title of Pirate King. One Piece: Unlimited World Red first...
Review Resident Evil: Revelations (PS4)
Pier pressure
With Capcom seemingly hell-bent on releasing every modern Resident Evil game on the current generation of consoles, it was only a matter of time until Resident Evil: Revelations made its appearance. Originally released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012, the title has gone through a number of remasters and received a variety of changes and...
Gronk star
Yes, the football season may have just started in the UK, but across the pond, something different is going on: the football season is about to start. Not the one with feet or balls, mind you, but one even more complicated and technical, a sport in which “PA Max Protect” actually means something. To a new player, the prospect of...
Knack strikes back
It’s fair to say that Knack divided opinion upon its release alongside the PlayStation 4 in November 2013. Some concluded it to be an abomination that failed to live up to the promise of being a Crash Bandicoot successor, while others deemed it to be not so bad. Either way you look at it, it's now clear to see that the divisive...
Grin and bear it
Sony’s VR headset has had a reasonably consistent release schedule when it comes to new software. Some of these titles have been rather good, while some have been less than stellar. The Lost Bear is a new side-scrolling platformer by indie team The Odd Bug Studio, and it’s another of the smaller VR titles worth putting your...
The discus’ whiskers
The real classics never die, and Windjammers’ peak popularity is proof of that. Despite being a relatively obscure Neo Geo release in the mid-90s, this game of futuristic Frisbee has endured the test of time – becoming a popular streaming attraction in recent years due to its balletic competitive play. And now, courtesy of...
Review Tekken 7: Ultimate Tekken Bowl (PS4)
Split opinion
Tekken 7's first downloadable content pack is here, and it comes in the form of Ultimate Tekken Bowl. Available as part of the game's season pass or separately as a standard add-on, it revives the series' Tekken Bowl mode, in which you're free to take to the lanes and knock down pins as your favourite characters. First thing's first:...
Review Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 1: Awake (PS4)
The Price is right
Despite us never meeting her, Rachel Amber played an enormous role in the inaugural season of DONTNOD’s teen thriller Life Is Strange. Very much the princess of Arcadia Bay, the original five episodes cast her as the coolest girl in school, and while protagonist Max Caulfield was only ever able to meet her vicariously in the...
500 Days of June
Games are often about how many people you can slaughter, and the efficiency with which you can do so. This makes death abstract – a means to an end. The more death you can cause, the more points you’ll get, and the more points you get, the more likely you are to win. Last Day of June isn't about death in the abstract. In...
Review Guardians of the Galaxy: Episode Three - More Than a Feeling (PS4)
Star Bores
More Than a Feeling is, unfortunately, more of the same for Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy. In our reviews for the previous two episodes, we've talked at length about how the Telltale incarnations of the popular Marvel superheroes feel like a watered down version of their big screen counterparts. We've mentioned the main narrative...
Fore play
Few franchises last as long as Everybody’s Golf, but it’s celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The arcade sports series has been a staple on every single PlayStation platform to date, and its latest edition is by far its most ambitious yet. But after a protracted production cycle, has veteran developer Clap-Hanz managed to sink...
Review RIGS: Mechanized Combat League (PS4)
Big RIGS
Republished on Wednesday 30th August 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of September's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. It's got all of the ingredients needed for a title charge, but RIGS: Mechanized Combat League never quite escapes the doldrums of a...
