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.
One of the quieter events that piggybacked off the Nintendo Switch 2 launch was the release of the first in Hamster’s Arcade Archives 2 series. Ridge Racer launched with the console, and now there’s already a second title, with the arcade dogfighting sim, Air Combat 22 (don’t be surprised that we’ve already got two, as Hamster is incredibly prolific with…
Tamagotchi are one of those iconic things that you just hope hands around forever. The little devices that you pin to your backpack or carry around in your pocket for micro-distractions throughout the day are wholesome and charming. You’d be lucky if you spent more than five minutes with your…
Hideo Kojima is the video game industry’s big auteur. The Stanley Kubrick…
2025 has been an exceptional year for releases, almost from the first…
Welcome to the February episode of the podcast! As always, we’ve got a cracking episode for you this month. We start out by discussing the games of the month as always. Then we move on to our favourite snacks & drinks while gaming, before capping things off with a chat…
Read More
NISA’s efforts to preserve niche JRPGs of yesteryear has been admirable in recent years. The Prinny Presents series has now reached three volumes, each with two games that you may well have never played otherwise on them. Now the company has announced a collection focused specifically on the Rhapsody series.…
Read More
GoldenEye 007 has been the talk of the town again over the last few days, thanks to its recent re-release on to Nintendo Switch and the Xbox Game Pass service. There are, apparently, issues with the Game Pass version, but the Switch port is basically exactly the game you remember…
Read More
Today, the Australian Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, announced the Revive National Cultural Policy, which outlines the new(ish) Labor government’s position on the arts and the investments that it will make as part of that. Buried within it is some support for the games industry, but calling it a…
Read More
People often forget that Game Freak is more than Pokémon. Certainly, that’s where the big money is, but as a developer, the team have come up with some excellent smaller ideas too. Pocket Jockey on the Nintendo 3DS was one of the finest download-only games on that platform. Thank goodness,…
Read More
I never had the opportunity to play Risen on its original release, many years ago. It was banned in Australia. It’s still banned, but thankfully modern consoles are region-free and I’ve been able to grab a copy from elsewhere. This stream covers the first hour or so of the Nintendo…
Read More
I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. When you think of England’s iconic moors,…
Read More
Most people with a casual interest in Japanese culture are aware of kabuki theatre on some level. Even if they’ve never witnessed a performance, the mannerisms and make-up of kabuki theatre are one of Japan’s great artistic exports. Noh is to kabuki what opera is to Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals,…
Read More
I don’t really understand why Idea Factory continues to experiment with action combat systems. Action combat systems are far more resource intensive to get right, and for a company producing JRPGs on a very small budget, it seems counterintuitive. Recent Neptunia titles, including Neptunia Virtual Stars and Cyberdimension Neptunia, have…
Read More
SteamWorld has, over the past decade, built up to become a highly eclectic series. It started with a humble DSiWare tower defence, which was quickly forgotten, but had a breakout hit with the first SteamWorld Dig, which was something of a Mr. Driller iteration. Since then there has been a…
Read More