Tetris Effect (by the same developer as Lumines Arise) was a breakthrough puzzle game in the way it utterly transformed how we look at action puzzle games as audiovisual experiences. It was, essentially, an interactive music video with some of the coolest, most rhythmically vibrant music. The way it inspired…
Read More
Football Manager is in a fortunate position of having no meaningful competition. Most other sports properties have at least one contender tilting at the windmills, but for Football Manager, the biggest risk has always been that people simply get bored with it. And given that this is a series that…
Read More
Jeff Vogel is a legend. It’s not because he’s produced a game that has sold a billion copies. The likes of EA, Microsoft and others haven’t come sniffing for his company, Spiderweb Software, like they did for Bioware, Obsidian and others. He’s a legend for another reason: For decades now,…
Read More
Ball x Pit is excellent. Can I end this review now? No? The editor guy, Matt, is telling me to do my job before I can go back to playing, so I guess not (yeah, I’m a total dictator like that – ed.) Dammit. Very well then. Conceptually, Ball x…
Read More
Last year, a humble Ukranian developer released Light de Deux, a sweet little romance visual novel about ballet dancers that I absolutely loved. The dance theme got to me, of course, but it was also well-written, well-drawn, and the characters inspired me so much I arranged with the developer to…
Read More
There is arguably no bigger name in the world of interactive films and FMV games than Paul Raschid, who directed The Complex (2020) and wrote and directed Five Dates (2020), The Gallery (2022), and Ten Dates (2023). And his games always drop at the best times; for example, online dating…
Read More
Nightmarish twin-stick shoot-em-up roguelite NeverAwake FLASHBACK began as DLC for the first NeverAwake game, but it seems as though fan demand pushed Phoenixx and Neotro to make it an entire sequel. It will now be released as a full, standalone sequel for PC before the end of the year. More…
Read More
I love love. It is beautiful to see what can blossom between people, whether platonic or romantic love. I’m a very monogamous gal — I feel best when I give everything I have to one person, who, in turn, gives everything back to me. But that’s just my personal preference.…
Read More
Last year’s Duck Detective: The Secret Salami was one of my highlights of the year. A wonderfully slim yet totally fulfilling 2-3 hour noir satire, the game offered just the right balance between quality humour, puzzles that were both puzzling and made you feel good about yourself, and the all-important…
Read More
We do live in an era where developers and publishers are scrambling to tap into nostalgia and make some (relatively) easy money from reminding people of the games they loved growing up. There’s no end to Final Fantasy, Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Rogue-based releases going around, after all. I must…
Read More