Bubble Bobble is one of the greatest games ever made, and it’s also my go-to game when I’ve been asked about my favourite game of all time. Taito’s certainly done some interesting things with the Bubble Bobble IP over the years, and while a lot of the spinoff games have been excellent – I’m thinking titles like Rainbow Islands, Parasol…
I first heard of Demonschool about three and a half years ago, during the PC Gaming Show in June 2022. At that time, it was meant to launch in 2023. I’ve followed news about the school-life tactics RPG ever since, through multiple delays (2023 to 2024 to September 2025 to…
Disclaimer: I’m making this quick disclaimer so it’s clear and up-front. I…
Kirby Air Riders is fun. It’s not any more than that, and…
I know I’m late with writing this review. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, otherwise known as “the remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics” was released while I was away in Japan, and it’s been enormously difficult to catch up, given that I’ve needed to prioritise the new games, also releasing…
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The best way to think of Tormented Souls 2 is as an atmospheric experience above all else. That was the case for the first, too, but the developers have doubled down on it for the sequel, and that’s playing it smart. The atmosphere is definitely Tormented Souls 2’s strength. It…
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The HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III went down really well with players and critics, so it was perhaps inevitable that Square Enix would give the same treatment to the first two titles in the trilogy. Wisely packing them together (much as the port of Dragon Quest 1 and 2…
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I’m not the world’s biggest fan of first-person shooters, but People Can Fly’s Painkiller is one of the exceptions to that rule, thanks to its grim, gothic theme, great monster design, and furious pacing. It was like the developers blended Hexen (another of my small list of beloved shooters) and…
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George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is considered one of the finest horror films of all time for the clever way that it blends B-grade cinema tradition with some sharp themes – most notably, a criticism of consumerism and capitalism. Now I’m not going to sit here and argue…
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Game Freak can’t do anything without pissing off a good chunk of one of the most aggressively negative “fanbases” in video games. I still have to delete the occasional abuse-filled comment for having the audacity to write a positive review for the last Pokémon game. Something I still play regularly…
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In all the ways that really matter, Persona 3 Reload on the Nintendo Switch 2 is exactly the same as Persona 3 Reload on other platforms. By that I mean it offers the same narrative (with Reload itself not really touching the narrative of the original game). Ultimately, if you’re…
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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…
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I was very hesitant to review Ghost of Yotei, as my experience reviewing its predecessor was… less than great. Applying even a rudimentary critical analysis to the artistic side of a major blockbuster game is asking for the fanbase to take it as a personal affront and then proceed to…
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Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is an enormously important game – arguably, you could trace the lineage of so many puzzle blend RPGs back to Puzzle Quest (Puzzle & Dragons, for example). The game itself, released way back in 2007 on the PSP and Nintendo DS by the same…
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