From the moment “Press Start” appears on the screen, players get a glimpse of what awaits them in Cloudberry Kingdom. The Kickstarter-funded side-scrolling platformer by Pwnee Studios features the customisable hero Bob as he traverses his way through various levels of increasing difficulty to the point of near-impossibility. The first…
Read MoreSome gaming enthusiasts might criticise the App Store as being a collection of watered-down versions of arcade titles and console games that we’ve come to know and love. And there is some truth to this argument. For every original game or quality port that makes its way onto iOS devices,…
Read MoreStealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark sneaks its way onto the PlayStation Network and brings its unique mix of puzzle/platforming and stealth-based action onto both the PS3 and the Vita, packing the much beloved cross-buy and cross-save features right along with it. This is a game that stands proudly…
Read MoreDespite the fact that I never really got into the RPG genre (which deserves an article of its own), I have always loved exploring mysterious new worlds. This doesn’t happen much outside of your Elder Scrolls and Dragon Quests, but games like Super Metroid and Shadow Complex managed to combine…
Read MoreShantae has a legend almost as powerful as the 1001 Arabian Nights that it draws inspiration from. The Game Boy Color game went through all kinds of development and then publisher hell and in the end the publisher, Capcom, was only able to shift copies to retailers by forcing them…
Read MoreOver the last couple of years, the relationship between platformers and narrative has gone in some rather interesting directions. While the basic “damsel in distress” trope is effective enough for games like Super Meat Boy or your favourite Mario title, games like Braid and Thomas Was Alone have turned heads…
Read MoreThe Great Giana Sisters originally hit stores in the 80s and, as the amusingly plagiaristic title implies, put its own little “spin” on the Super Mario Bros. formula. Its tweaks were deemed insufficient by Nintendo’s legal department though, leading the publisher to eventually withdraw copies from sale. The series returned…
Read MoreIt’s a little sad seeing Mickey’s second “Epic” outing ported to the Vita, given that the original console release was such a failure that the team that made the game no longer exists. It’s like the port is a virtual obituary to the developers: “here is the last game of…
Read MoreI grew up on platformers, which are often a test of several things – reflexes, memorisation and in no small part – patience. There are a lot of things that can ruin the experience for players, making platforming titles on of the tougher genres to ‘get right’.Rush Bros is a…
Read MoreFor some reason I missed the original Wii release of Donkey Kong Country Returns. I’m not sure if it just released at a really busy point in time, of it I was broke, or if it was some other reason, but despite loving Rare’s Super Nintendo trilogy, I skipped the…
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