Finger Guns

Post Void will assault your retina’s with flashing lights and colour clashes that’re both hypnotic and headache-inducing. The old school, fast paced shooter action tied to a system which demands you kill, kill, kill are almost impossible not to enjoy but this is a punishing game that’ll need the player to have a lot of patience with the repetition it’ll put them through.

I’ve made it to the final round. As I stand with my five other competitors, it’s a straight race to the top to touch the crown and claim my first victory. How hard can it be? This final run looks good. I’m right at the front and I can easily avoid everything coming my way in the hopes it will knock those behind me into the abyss and the crown will be mine.

With so many other sniper games available on the market that provide mechanical depth, narrative and a dearth of features, it’s hard to justify the existence of Sabec’s Sniper or recommend it in any capacity. The environment is initially interesting but it’s such a poorly designed, awkward experience that’s so bare bones, it’ll have outstayed its welcome within half an hour of play. While it’s a cool concept, the execution shoots it in the foot and leaves it for dead.

As stated, the difficulty can spike at times, but it shouldn’t be too much of a distraction. We’re used to this happening in games like the aforementioned Crash, Jak & Daxter, and many more. So again, don’t take that as a criticism. Instead see it as a polite warning: don’t fall too hard for the charm, as for a head with no feet, Skully will kick your ass at times.

While Relicta treads a lot of the same ground as its contemporaries, its high production values and enticing narrative make it a worthwhile, quality entry into the genre. With puzzles that will have you scratching your head for hours and a narrative that encourages you to do so, it’s a smart game that has just a few niggles that do very little to sour the experience.

Spitlings is a satisfying and solid puzzler, and provides plenty of challenge for those who enjoy a fun mechanic with plenty of wacky design. There are so many Spitlings to unlock, that anyone will find the game lasting them a fair amount of time. It encourages completion, through the same “gotta catch ’em all” ethos as Pokemon. If honking up flem and spitting it at others is your idea of a fun evening, maybe do it with this game, rather than off a bridge.

Sadly, the terrible performance issues marred the taste for me, and the constant death due to delayed inputs was too much for me to overlook. In there is a decent game that lies trapped under terrible implementation. There’s a co-op mode if you need help, as well as a unique death mechanic in that the shell you previously occupied will be running loose for you to kill.

Played almost entirely on one screen with clunky controls and game play which has you at the mercy of a random number generator, Mittleborg: City of Mages is quite a tedious game to play. It’ll kill a few hours of spare time as you get to grips with what the game is trying to achieve but the experience quickly degenerates into a mundane, repetitive resource management game that’ll have you reaching for something else.

An interesting concept, potentially exciting systems and some appealing visuals are utterly squandered in Alpha Invasion. With a profound number of technical issues, mechanical inconsistencies and level design that portray a slapdash feeling, you’ll need an immense amount of patience to overcome this games annoyances.

One thing I do know is it is far more fun to watch than it is to play. Find a streamer gung-ho enough to punish themselves, and watch them for a bit. I had more fun writing the review than I did playing the game. All these fight club references don’t make themselves, you know. This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time. You haven’t got the time to waste on games like Fight Crab.

Fans of Outlast, Amnesia and SOMA are probably more used to the mechanics than I am, so there may be nothing inherently new here to experience. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, as Maid of Sker isn’t so much ripping off other titles as it is showing that it’s easy enough to emulate.

I love platformers, I recently sunk many hours into The Messenger and Ori 2. Celeste is among my favourite games of all time, but Ageless does not compare. It suffers from its clear desire to be something it is not, and would have benefitted from an overhauled control system, closer to that of Celeste. With the fluidity of that game, I could have been chucking rhinos around all day and probably had a lot more fun doing it.

Othercide does not skimp on the hours it will take to complete, and the interruption mechanics are rewarding, but without any characters, hook or impetus to work through the difficulty, it became little more than a sequence of creepy battles, that are going to be far too hard for most people to progress through.

This remake of Destroy All Humans! is really quite incredible and the developers at Black Forest Games should be applauded for what they’ve achieved. The original has been torn apart and rebuilt with the benefit of modern day visuals and game play design while retaining the game’s original character.

There’s little else to differentiate the two, Mineral Town doesn’t feel like a new game by any stretch of the imagination and whilst we can focus on the various plus points (the marriages, the farming festivals are a delight and the overall sweetness of the game can’t be ignored as a tonic to daily life), it’s difficult to recommend over the likes of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.

Full of all the wit and charm we’ve seen grow in games like Thomas Was Alone, as well as Valve’s masterpiece, Superliminal is another to add to that list. Combined with a fantastically frustrating new take on puzzles with perspective, it’s truly a game that needs to be played to be believed. Even the loading screens are chuckle-inducing, as you can see above.

There’s 6 to 8 hours of content in this original package with the hint of more to come later but in less than half of that time, you’ll have seen everything this game has to offer. It’s easy – far too easy for my taste as it becomes boring quickly – but this is a comfortable way to kill an hour or 2 before the monotony sets in.

It’s hard not to admire the goal of Clash Force. Releasing a Mega Man inspired shooter in 2020, even sticking to the 4:3 aspect ratio and adorning the wide screen sides with images of the main characters, is bold. This game is obviously a labour of love for Spicy Gyro Games.

Yet, that’s not a criticism at all. Admittedly, this will only really appeal to those who love their retro titles. Although, even I knew nothing about this, and I’m still enjoying it. If you fancy something a little bit old fashioned, but don’t want to fork out for the Sega Classics Collection, then Ultracore is the game for you.

Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is more of what worked in the previous games with a handful of new modes and a creation suite. A tactical tower defence game that’ll have you scratching your head combined with an arcade physics derby that’ll have you grinning over the destruction left in your wake, it’s a lot of fun to play. It’s still not perfect but for those who’ve had fun with the previous 2 games, this instalment builds on that formula in the right places.

I’m sure it will please its target audience but for me, Waifu Uncovered is a simple, functional yet characterless shoot ‘em up that rewards the player with lewd images that are far too stereotypical. There’s less than 3 hours of content in the game across all 3 game play modes and you’ll have to work to get to play on the game’s best mode, “One Finger Mode”.

It seems there really is a limit to how long you can play a game where you fling rabbits around (who knew?) and it seems to be about two hours, when that trophy pops. It’s better than a mobile game, because it’s on console and you can use buttons, but please don’t go in expecting much more than that formula. Probably best played in a dozen bitesize sittings than one marathon.

One minor caveat that made me laugh: when you die, you’re given an old cartridge-style code to jump in where you left off with that exact loadout. However, it locks all progression and achievements/trophies. Best thing is to bite the bullet, finish your drink at the bar and dive back in.

It can be fun getting so good at a twin-stick that you can stay static in the middle of the screen. This just isn’t the game where you are going to want to invest the time to hone your skills to the point you can do it. The ground levels of Towaga offer something interesting but are ultimately outweighed by the game’s lack of options and the lackluster flying mechanics that leave you constantly exposed and unable to move fast enough to play in the manner you’d want to.

I can’t pretend I know how well it holds up to the real world politics and machinations of the sport, but for both pros and novices alike, there’s one of the deepest racing games I’ve ever played in here. Seasoned veterans will take to this like a duck to water, but that shouldn’t put a novice off. Hell, if I can enjoy it, then so can you.