One – also known as Kagayaku Kisetsu e – is one of the legends of the visual novel genre. Originally released way back in 1998, it was one of the early projects by a developer called Tactics, which is notable because many of the creative team moved on from that studio to found Key. Yes, the studio behind Little Busters!,…
Most of the time, Kemco is the publisher that churns out cheap and tacky JRPGs that make RPG Maker projects look professional. And it does them at a shockingly fast rate. And then, every once in a while, it discovers something that is genuinely interesting. Raging Loop is a hell…
Terra Nil is a story of hope that we sorely need right…
The release of Atari 50 last year represented a change in mindset…
It wasn’t so long ago that THQ Nordic dipped deep into its back catalogue of vintage PC games to release Risen on the Nintendo Switch. That Western RPG “classic” remained a fun time for its Caribbean-fantasy-with-pirates theme, despite being almost unplayable in places. Now it’s Gothic’s turn, and you’ve got…
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It’s hard to shake the feeling that with Super Bomberman R 2, Konami has finally got its groove back with its iconic mascot. This series is going to have a major audience again. And I’m not just saying that because just today I bought a pile of merchandise from a…
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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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