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 guy behind the Warlords series (an Aussie, Steve Fawkner!) was…
Lego Party is a Mario Party clone. Let’s not beat around the bush about that. It is what it is, and the development team at SMG isn’t for a second trying to claim otherwise. The problem is that Mario Party is a pretty challenging formula to get right, and… well,…
Let’s get this out of the way up front: Varlet very badly…
Of all the many golf properties out there, Everybody’s Golf has reliably…
Animation Arts has been around for a little over two decades now, and has a particularly well-regarded reputation for its work in classic point-and-click titles. Most people with a fondness for the genre know the Secret Files trilogy, after all. Monolith is the team’s latest. Sadly, it’s not up to…
Read MoreIt is genuinely impressive that Xuan-Yuan Sword VII has come to the Switch. This is one of the more technically detailed games to have come out of Taiwan, and concessions did need to be made to make it work on the Switch. If all that matters to you is the…
Read More
I missed the original launch of Slave Zero X, but now that there’s a physical edition for consoles, I’ve had the opportunity and excuse to give it a go. In theory, I should like this, since it’s an anime brawler of big action that allows you to mow down hordes…
Read More
I love Democracy 4. My first re-election campaign was a bit dicey, but some quality speeches on the campaign trail got me there. Despite the Australian Commies (AC) party running at an approval rate of only around 35% for much of the term, I was able to get it to…
Read More
Yeo, the one-man-band indie developer from Russia, is going to be remembered as a far better artist than the relatively muted popularity of his games deserves. Fading Afternoon is his new one, and while it’s a retread of a lot of what makes his first, The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa,…
Read More
I am genuinely surprised by the launch of the two Quintessential Quintuplets games in this “double pack” (Memories of a Quintessential Summer and Five Memories Spent With You). They’ve been published by MAGES, one of the legends of visual novel development. They’ve also been published by Spike Chunsoft, one of…
Read More
I have a particularly strong attachment to the original Cupid Parasite… indeed I think that it is that game, above and beyond any of the others that I’ve played, that convinced me that “hey, I have to make my own one of these visual novel things.” The result may not…
Read More
Sometimes, games don’t need to be remade. When the creative vision was already fully realised the first time around, simply making the thing available again is all that’s needed. That’s what Nintendo has done with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and it’s as good now as it was ever. Related…
Read More
One of the things I’ve learned in making my own visual novel is that scope can very easily blow out. Every new scene, character, idea, and story beat that you add in means more backgrounds, CGs, character costumes and music. Then it all becomes very expensive. And so, in most…
Read More
One of the finest examples that I can think of that highlight the differences between Western and Eastern game development, and some of the weaknesses that we as a collective industry have in critiquing video games, is to look at Dante’s Inferno and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron side-by-side.…
Read More