Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
Squint hard enough, and the AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini x B.Duck Limited Edition looks like a Chocobo limited edition. That was a good enough reason for me to buy one. It’s actually my first AYANEO device, and I can certainly see the appeal of them, sitting in the growing pool of “Anbernic/Retroid Pocket but premium” category for emulation consoles. I…
The Two Point series has a lot to answer for. Yes, SEGA’s brand of casual business simulations is silly and charming, and it’s fun to see what whacky schools, hospitals and museums you can cobble together. But in their desperate effort to be feel-good fun times, the Two Point series…
(Many thanks to Ray N. for letting me use his art of…
Did you know that, while mazes are designed to confuse and confound…
For people who enjoyed the vibes of Monster Hunter, but found the challenging, highly technical action combat to be overwhelming, Capcom came up with the Monster Hunter Stories series. The first two were enjoyable, but with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, Capcom has landed on something really special indeed.…
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Just when I think my love for the work of Hamster Corporation has peaked, the team goes and finds a whole new level. Arcade Archives is doing the good lord Hatsune Miku’s work in preserving a whole bunch of arcade games that the rights owners either can’t, or see little…
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Before I fully launch into my review of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake, a remake of my favourite horror game ever, bar none and by a considerable margin, I do have to register annoyance about something. Koei Tecmo: It’s only “Fatal Frame” in America, and that’s a far sillier…
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The Nintendo Switch doesn’t excel at car racing, though it’s not necessarily the fault of the developers. The lack of analogue triggers means that you can’t quite replicate the feeling of pressing the foot down on a pedal, and the relatively modest hardware prevents the graphics team from truly embracing…
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Hamster’s Arcade Archives is doing important work in preserving classic arcade games that most other publishers wouldn’t bother with. Even when the licensing is straightforward. Take Bandai Namco, for example. Pac-Man is a game that the company finds worthwhile to preserve, because it’s iconic, continues to sell robust numbers of…
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Back in 2023 (dear lord, time flies fast), Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo was a surprising release by Square Enix. By that company’s standard, it was a humble and straightforward visual novel, but clearly the execs had seen the success of Danganronpa, AI: The Somnium Files, Famicom Detective Club…
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Mario Tennis Fever is one of Nintendo’s weakest titles in years, and certainly its weakest tennis title. This is tragic because I loved Mario Tennis back on the N64, Game Boy, and Game Cube. Let’s start with the story mode. On the one hand, I do congratulate the developers for…
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Snow Bros. Classic Collection is a misnomer, as the classic Snow Bros. isn’t on it. That’s also possibly why the game has fewer than four reviews on Steam nearly a month after it was released. Snow Bros. is a classic. Fellow DDNet contributor, Alex, and I might have the occasional…
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Jen Williams has seen the future, and like many of us, she’s worried about it. The studio lead at Cherrymochi, the Japan-based indie outfit behind the cult hit Tokyo Dark, spent the early 2000s working with Hewlett-Packard on GPS-triggered gaming experiments in Bristol. Back then, everyone was certain they were…
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Goichi Suda and his team at Grasshopper Manufacture have carved out a very specific niche. Starting with the likes of Killer7, No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw, the developer has mastered the grindhouse aesthetic and where most of the time “kitsch” is a pejorative term, with Goichi Suda, it’s a…
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