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…
Have you ever played a game that feels like it was designed specifically for you? Jack Jeanne is just that to me. In fact, I’m working on a visual novel project myself, and I’m shocked at just how thematically and structurally similar it will be to Jack Jeanne (at least,…
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Nightmare Reaper aims to be a blend of roguelike and nostalgic throwback to the “boomer shooter” era of Doom. In a sense, it succeeds. It is indeed a roguelike (with procedurally-generated levels and a need to start from scratch with each death), and it has the violence and manic action…
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The original Etrian Odyssey, released in 2007, was something of a lifeline for the dungeon crawler genre. At least as far as consoles were concerned. After the NES and SNES enjoyed robust support from the genre, things dropped away significantly, and while there were still PC titles produced, it seemed…
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So in a game titled “Company of Heroes 3” you get to play as the Germans (the, uh, World War 2 Germans) in one of the game’s campaigns. That is… certainly a brave decision. If the story was in any way effective, this would have been an enormously controversial game.…
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Sunshine Shuffle is a fun and even clever idea that falls to bits in execution. There’s some genuine genius in there but it becomes such a struggle to play through far too quickly for its own good. Related reading: For a solid game of poker (and 50 other classic games…
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Gollum offends me. It’s not the bugs, and thankfully the launch version of the game is less buggy than the review build that vexed other critics (though it still has bugs). It’s also not because of the less-than-AAA presentation that some have been complaining about. It looks good for a…
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At first glance, it’s difficult to understand Ghostpia’s appeal. You place static screenshots, out of context, next to the breathtaking art of Otomate’s visual novels, the vivid energy of something like Danganronpa, or even independent efforts like Sweetest Monster or Corpse Factory, and it’s really hard to see why PQube…
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Fun trivia fact about me: After Hatsune Miku figures, the most collectible plastic I have in my home is a collection of rubber ducks. I’ve always liked them as a kid (and have always liked ducks in general), and they come in such a wide variety these days that they’re…
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Puzzle Bobble is an amazing puzzle game. I use that tense specifically because it’s one of those concepts where the developers got it absolutely plumb right from the get-go, all the way back in 1996. Yes, that was a long time ago. But I’m right. Fire up a copy of…
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Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook could have been something special. The premise is really quite clever, but unfortunately, it ends up relying too heavily on the roguelike foundations for that premise to really take flight. Survival is meant to be the core of the thing, and in theory, it reaches…
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