Review by Matt S. Dear game developers and publishers: if you’ve got a visual novel that needs localisation, you really need to consider the process of finding a quality localiser to be an essential step in the publishing process. Your game exists exclusively for that story, and if you can’t…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. I’m all for cultural games and that means I’ll naturally have a positive slant towards titles like Road to Guangdong. This game, penned by writer Yen Ooi and published by Excalibur Games, sees the player taking the role of Sunny, a recent art graduate in mid-90’s…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. “Why are all the girls wearing such short skirts when they’re using technology that lets them fly through the air, with all the disadvantages that would bring to wearing a skirt?” This was, quite genuinely, my first thought as I settled into Aokana. It’s not like…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. Chinese Parents looked like a harmless enough life sim. What harm could it do, with its colourful, cutesy art-style and the premise of tracing a young Chinese child from birth to their eventual undertaking of the Gaokao (the university entrance exam)? As I now know, it…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Through the Darkest of Times is a critically important game that is so relevant and poignant today and we should all play it (and then be terrified by its implications). It’s the kind of game that belongs in schools and museums because the points its making…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. Over the past few years of Switch ownership I’ve become a kind of a connoisseur of “bewildering” games – games which I enjoy not to play for myself, but to witness the abject confusion and frustration in the eyes of someone else playing it. The easily…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I’m going to review the Nintendo Switch “ports” of Neo Geo Pocket Color fighters King of Fighters R-2 and Samurai Shodown! 2 together, as I don’t think there’s enough to write an entire review on them individually – especially as these games share many of the…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. It’s fascinating to see what a difference a console release can make. Earlier this year I first played Banner of the Maid when it released on PC in English. I had a fine time with it, but as a Final Fantasy Tactics-like JRPG, I felt like…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? has got to be one of the neatest titles for an anime or visual novel. It’s immediately descriptive and you know exactly what you’re going to get going in (i.e. fantasy action with a…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. Skully is a frustrating experience, which is a shame because I normally love marble games. I love it when 3D platformers offer a sense of speed, and to be fair Skully’s screenshots do show the types of expansive and vertical environments that would work well in…
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