REVIEW - Don't Die, Mr. Robot! (PlayStation Vita)

"Spoiler : You Will Die!"

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best - from a slice of bread fresh from the oven, to a cold beer on a hot day. This philosophy is carried across to the world of videogames, which is why classic 80's arcade games have such a strong following some 30+ years after their original release. While complex titles involving the use of more buttons than you would find in a helicopter cockpit have their place in gaming, it is the no frills, one or two button, easy to pick up & play titles that keep us enthralled for years - Just look at the roaring success of Rovio's Angry Birds and Namco's sublime Pacman Championship Edition DX for proof of this. Now there's another title that can be used as a perfect example of the 'simple = good' mantra - Infinite State Games' Don't Die Mr. Robot! on the PlayStation Vita.

Review - Behind You (PlayStation Mobile) Fun indie stealth game for your Vita!

Some games seem to want to remain anonymous. That's the only conclusion I can come to when faced with titles like Behind You, a small indie title I recently stumbled across on the PlayStation Mobile section of the Vita's Store page. You see, I could not find any information on the whole of the interweb regarding this cute, Japanese stealth action affair. It had a release date on Metacritic, but that's all I could find, hence you will see I have had to resort to taking screenshots of the game using my camera phone (yes really)! Though, the irony of a stealth game being hard to track down is not lost on me.

Review - Rogue Legacy (Vita, PS3, PS4)

Grindhouse

Back in October 2013 I reviewed Rogue Legacy on PC. Now, 10 months later, this roguelike platformer has found its way to Sony's fantastic and painfully underrated Vita console. And do you know what? I had a far more enjoyable time with it this time around. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Rogue Legacy is a 2d platformer in which you explore a Castlevania-esque castle, defeating baddies with your sword and spells, collecting as much loot as you can. Upon your death you choose a new character, spend the loot you gathered before dying on stats and equipment upgrades, and enter a completely new, randomly generated castle to do it all over again. The aim being to level yourself up enough to face off against one of the four bosses located in the four different areas that make up the game world. 

Review - Another World 20th Anniversary Edition (Vita)

A World of Pain

Originally an Amiga title, Another World (or Out Of This World in the USA) blew gamers away in the early 1990's thanks to its impressive animation and atmospheric alien world to explore. You played as Lester, a young professor working on dangerous particle acceleration experiments. One night, after arriving late at the lab one night (in his Ferrari, as the computer needlessly points out) to continue his work, disaster strikes when lightning hits the roof during a critical moment in the experiment. Lester is then transported to a strange alien world, and must escape. It was a pioneering title that would pave the way for more expansive adventures such as the unconnected follow-up title Flashback, Abe's Odyssey, and Tomb Raider. It could perhaps be considered the Uncharted of the time.

REVIEW - Putty Squad (PS Vita)

Like putty in my hands

Retro gamers and owners of Commodore's wonderful Amiga computer will be familiar with System 3's Putty games. The first, simply entitled Putty, was released in 1992 to favourable reviews, and gained a loyal fan-base thanks to the zany humour and stretchy protagonist. The sequel, Putty Squad, developed two years later, never made it to the system, instead finding a home on Nintendo's SNES console. This was due to the Amiga being a bit long in the tooth by this stage, and the publishers not wanting to risk releasing the, already completed, game to market. All was not lost, however, as System 3 finally released the Amiga 1200 version of Putty Squad - available as a free downloadable disk image - in 2013, as a warm up to the brand new reboot that is now doing the rounds on the PS4, 3DS, and now PS Vita. So, does the remake do the original justice? And is it still relevant in 2014, when fantastic 2D platformers such as Spelunky, Fez, Super Meat Boy and Rayman Legends exist?

Review - TxK (PS Vita)

Tunnel Vision

TxK is another entry in a long running series of psychedelic shooters from British developer, Jeff Minter. Ever since the days of the Commodore 64, when he unleashed his Mutant Camels onto the world, Jeff has had a borderline obsession with LSD-infused visual madness and farmyard animals - sheep, yaks, camels, llamas, you name it (though I guess it has to be a fairly exotic farmyard to host all of those animals). His most famous creation thus far has to be Tempest 2000, a reboot of Atari's classic 1981 arcade shoot-em-up created for their Jaguar console. It is widely considered to be the best game on the system, and deservedly so, despite there being little in the way of competition. It stuck closely to the formula set by the arcade original, only this time with Minter's unhinged acid-trip take on proceedings. Cue, fireworks, explosions of neon light, wobbling nonsensical text, speak-and-spell speech, sheep noises and a fantastic rave soundtrack. 

Review - Nom Nation (PSP Minis / PS Vita)

Playing with your food

The word 'Edutainment' is usually enough to send gamers running for the nearest exit. Whether it's the unnecessary addion of arithmatic or spelling in games such as Donkey Kong Math or Word Rescue, tedious historical searchings in Carmen Sandiego, or the downright laughable (for all the wrong reasons), diabetes related shenanigans in the appalling Captain Novalin, throwing learning into the mix is usually a recipe for boredom. Even Nintendo superstar Mario isn't infalable, with his shoddy educational exploits, Mario Is Missing and Mario's Time Machine proving that the classroom has no place in gaming.

Review - Life Of Pixel (PS Vita)

8-bit Gaming History - One Pixel At A Time

Hot on the heels of MURI, a new PC indie title that perfectly encapsulates the look, sound and feel of late 80's and early 90's PC gaming, I bring you another game that aims to recreate the style of old systems. This time, not one, but eight different gaming platforms. Life of Pixel tells the tale of a tiny computer pixel who wishes to see the sights and broaden his horizons. So he takes a trip across a wide range of 8-bit home computers and consoles, on a platforming adventure that will see him navigate the black and white worlds of the ZX81 and the colour-bleeding, flick-screen world of the ZX Spectrum, to the more vibrant, smooth scrolling environments of the Nintendo NES. And if he gets rich along the way by grabbing the diamonds littering each stage, then all the better.

Videogame Soundtrack Special - WipEout Series (PlayStation)

The music of WipEout

The impact the original Sony PlayStation had back in 1995 is simply astounding. Not only were the 3D visuals absolutely mind blowing, but the games had a darker, grittier edge that separated them from their 16-bit forbears. These were games aimed at adults (well, twenty-somethings and up anyway). Gone were the charming and twee chiptune tracks from previous console generations, replaced with CD quality audio featuring well known rave and dance acts. Suddenly, games were extremely cool, even making appearances in nightclubs at the time. I remember seeing WipEout being demonstrated on a large screen in a GAME store back in the day. There were large crowds standing around gazing up in awe at the visual spectacle on-screen. It was like nothing we had seen before and the air was electric with excitement. For me, it was love at first sight, and I knew then and there that I simply had to own a PlayStation as soon a humanly possible. Since that fateful day, I have had a long term relationship with the WipEout games. To me, they are the PlayStation brand and, along with Ridge Racer and Tekken, are the games that keep the spirit of the original 32-bit machine alive and kicking with each new machine released.

Review - Dragon's Crown (PS3)

Back to the old school!

The scrolling beat-em-up doesn't get much love these days, as developers struggle to find new ways to keep them fresh for modern audiences, but in their heyday they were incredibly popular. Capcom were undoubtedly the masters of the genre, and were also responsible for injecting some much needed depth into an otherwise simplistic type of game when they released the excellent licensed Dungeons and Dragons games, Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara. These titles added RPG-lite elements, a decent fantasy storyline, and magic spells and equipment to be used in battle, and proved to be a great success in the smokey arcades of the 1990's. The next big title that would follow a similar path was the sublime Guardian Heroes on the Sega Saturn by the talented folks at Treasure - with a Japanese anime visual style and far more levelling up options and alternative routes through stages - this game remains the pinnacle of this hybrid genre. Then things went quiet... until now. 

Oddworld : Abe's Odyssey Remake - New 'N' Tasty - coming out later this year! - Video Footage!

Exciting news for fans of the original 1997 PSOne title, Oddworld : Abe's Odyssey. It is getting a spanking new HD remake, and is scheduled for release later this year.

The original game was a unique adventure that combined 2D platforming, with stealth and puzzles to great effect. Coupled with a great atmosphere and setting, not to mention the excellent characters, it was a well deserved hit. The game put you in the role of Abe, a hapless alien who is part of the Mudokon race, who are forced to work as slaves at the RuptureFarms meat processing factory on Oddworld. Not only that, but he soon discovers that his fellow Mudokons are to be the main ingredient for a new food product. Naturally, he wants no part of this, and sets out to free his brethren. 

REVIEW - Aqua Kitty- Milk Mine Defender (Xbox Indie / PS Vita)

Got Milk?

There is nothing worse than running out of milk. We have all been there. First thing in the morning, you stagger into the kitchen and sleepily pour yourself a bowl of cereal and put the kettle on, only to discover moments later that you have run out of milk. Disaster! I guess there is always the option of a cereal bar or black coffee though. Poor old cats don't have that luxury. So imagine their abject horror upon discovering that the entire world supply of milk has been depleted – vanished – gone! It makes one wonder what happened to all the cows – or even goats (yuk!) - but this is never explained. Anyway, never ones to sit around doing nothing (er.. actually) the cats set off to locate a new source. As it turns out, naturally forming full fat milk is produced under the ocean floor – handy - so the felines turn to subaquatic mining to gather the goods.

SPELUNKY (XBLA version) coming to PC, PS3 and Vita this Summer!

OK, OK. Settle down. I know you are excited. I am too!

As you have guessed by the title of this thread, Spelunky is coming home to the PC. As anyone who has played the enhanced XBLA version will know, this is a very good thing indeed. Originally starting life in 2008 as a freeware PC title, Spelunky soon gained huge popularity due to its wonderful pixel graphics, solid platforming action, addictive gameplay and maddening difficulty. It managed to perfectly combine a fantastic 2D platformer with elements of the Roguelike genre. Permadeath, randomly generated levels and items, and no saves or continues made Spelunky a hardcore title. But hardcore titles always gain the biggest cult followings, and the one man behind the genius, Derreck Yu, revealed that an Xbox Live Arcade version was in the works.

REVIEW - Tales from Space : Mutant Blobs Attack (PC)

They Came From Outta Space

So, Mutant Blobs Attack, a bit of a give-away in the title there, but then anything featuring slimy lumps of alien jello is hardly going to be called Mutant Blobs Take You out for Coffee and a Chat now is it? An updated version / semi-sequel to the previous Tales from Space game, About A Blob, that appeared on the PS3 in  2011, Mutant Blobs Attack is an extremely quirky and amusing 2D platform devour-em-up. A giddy mix of Pac Man, Katamari Damacy and the excellent, Globdule on the Amiga (look it up) that takes its inspiration from the 1950's Sci-Fi B-movies that featured gelatinous monsters from other planets (usually Mars).

The flimsy story that mirrors those found in the aforementioned B-movies has our titular blob escaping from captivity in a science lab on Earth. Rather than chill out and catch the next bus home, he decides to wreak a terrible vengeance on humanity. He does this by eating everything, and I mean everything, in sight. Blob has clearly no concern for cholesterol or looking good on the beach this summer, but then he's a blob so what's he got to worry about?

REVIEW - Retro City Rampage (XBLA / PS3)

Observant readers of this site will notice that I have already reviewed the PC version of Retro City Rampage, giving it a fairly harsh score based on both my experience playing the game and the incredible disappointment I felt after waiting several years for it to finally materialise. Now that the dust has settled and a new Xbox Live Arcade version has arrived I felt it was time to come back to it with a fresh set of eyes and no preconceptions. While the core game remains the same, there are many notable improvements to the gameplay and as such I had a great deal more fun with it than the PC version.

The brainchild of just one man, Brian Provinciano, Retro City Rampage started life as a homebrew NES game based on Grand Theft Auto. Entitled Grandtheftendo, it soon grew far too big for its hardware boots and so Brian made the logical choice to produce it for PC instead. With the limitations removed he aimed bigger and soon a whole sandbox world was born. He wanted to stick closely to the NES roots so began adding references to classic 8-bit games. This soon incorporated TV and movie references from the same era and, as more and more nods to classic shows and games were added, Retro City Rampage was soon a full blown parody game.