Just when I think my love for the work of Hamster Corporation has peaked, the team goes and finds a whole new level. Arcade Archives is doing the good lord Hatsune Miku’s work in preserving a whole bunch of arcade games that the rights owners either can’t, or see little value in. Now, the team is turning its attention to…
Hamster’s Arcade Archives is doing important work in preserving classic arcade games that most other publishers wouldn’t bother with. Even when the licensing is straightforward. Take Bandai Namco, for example. Pac-Man is a game that the company finds worthwhile to preserve, because it’s iconic, continues to sell robust numbers of…
Back in 2023 (dear lord, time flies fast), Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries…
Snow Bros. Classic Collection is a misnomer, as the classic Snow Bros.…
You know how the saying goes: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” I do feel both very foolish and a great deal of shame for playing Taito Milestones 2. It’s not because this is a retro compilation of poor games. Far from it. The…
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Samba de Amigo is a game of pure joy and high-octane energy (with some acid surely thrown in when it was being developed). It comes across as an even more explosive explosion of colour and humour than Bandai Namco’s excellent Taiko the Drum series. In the party context that this…
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Reality is increasingly uncertain, and this is fascinating. Anonymous;Code, the latest in the series that has brought us Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head, is a play on this idea, and it, too, is fascinating. Quite possibly the most fascinating of all this series of visual novels, precisely because it is so…
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There is something fascinating about how frequently the classic JPRG genre has become something that independent game developers have decided to pastiche. It’s more than perhaps any other genre. Yes, there are plenty of modern games that channel retro shooters like Doom, and many independent developers are inspired by Mario.…
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I struggle to think of a more consistent developer than Otomate. The Idea Factory otome specialist developer produces games at such a rate that I’m convinced the only reason we don’t get all of them in the West is that the localisers simply can’t work that fast… and that’s a…
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Tsugunohi has been around for a few years on PC, but despite the developer proudly proclaiming the many, many minutes of streaming time it has chewed up in the promo material (over 100 million video views, apparently!), it’s been niche and exactly that kind of indie horror. Now it’s on…
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I must admit, I never thought I’d see Cricket Captain land on the Nintendo Switch. The Football Manager Touch series does fine, but this is a whole other kettle of niche. In theory, cricket should work nicely for a manager game. Cricket is a sport of statistics and tactics, as…
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Like most people, I grew up with Disney being a real part of my childhood. So, while I find the content of modern Disney to be little more than a corporation demanding money, the classic hijinks of Mickey and Donald and co will always tap into deep nostalgia. Case-in-point: Next…
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Given that Koei Tecmo won’t do anything with its Uncharted property (no, not the Sony one), Sailing Era was something worth paying attention to leading up to its release. With some truly beautiful character art, this promised to be a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, combining JRPG mechanics with…
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Nobunaga’s Ambition has finally landed on the Nintendo Switch. To celebrate the series’ 40th anniversary, Koei Tecmo has gone all out to make this latest entry in the venerable series assessable, story-driven, and interesting, and the team there has comprehensively succeeded. Related reading: Our interview with the producer and director…
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