Onelargeprawn
Retro-styled roguelikes are a popular genre, and the whole “roguelike” genre has been around since the days of the original Rogue. A new one by Paper Lantern called Bard’s Gold is now available on the Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita, so I equipped my sword and quaffed my potion to find out more.
Gravity Rush first made its appearance on the PS Vita back in 2012, and it was dubbed one of the best games you’ve never played. It featured a gravity-shifting lass named Kat in her adventures in the fictional town of Hekseville. In time for the sequel due later this year, we have a PS4 HD remaster of the game, so I got my gravity going to find out how it matches up with the original.
If you’re not mainly a PC gamer, you might not be aware of Don’t Starve, a ridiculously successful indie minecrafty roguelike that came out in 2013. Its main claims to fame were the Burtony-Goreyesque graphics and the fact that you were dropped into the game with nary a clue about what to do, and then you just went ahead and did it anyway. Oh, and you die a lot. Do you like games where you die a lot? Unlike many roguelikes, it’s acutally more Rogue-ish than usual, and I’ll explain why.
Soldner-X (or more properly, Söldner-X, a German term meaning “mercenary X”) was a side-scrolling bullet hell shoot-em up (“shmup”) game released in 2007 for the PS3. It was fairly well-received, and received a follow-up game, Soldner-X 2:Final Prototype in 2010. Today’s review is the PlayStation Vita port of the game. I suit up, and jump into the cockpit of my fighter ship because my trigger-finger is itchy. Let’s see how well the Vita version stands up on its own, shall we?
OlliOlli is a 2D sidescrolling skateboarding game where you have to perform skateboard tricks for sick and gnarly scores. The name of the game, obviously, comes from the name of the skateboarding trick, the Ollie, and you have to make your way across various bits of urban jungle in search of the best scores and the grooviest moves. I don my helmet and kneepads, grab my board, and prepare to gleam the cube.
Space Invaders was released in video arcades to an unsuspecting world in 1978, and remains to this day one of the most iconic symbols of video gaming. It was followed shortly thereafter by Galaxian and Galaga, and these games set the mould for the “aliens attacking in formation” style of shoot-em-up (or shmup for short). Titan Attacks is a game in that vein, but with a slightly more modern spin on it. I take on the alien hordes in my tank, and risk certain death by incoming alien.
Rogue-likes are an incredibly popular genre of video game, especially with people who enjoy playing Indie games. After all, you get a hell of a lot of game for your money, and the game maps always change, meaning that you can theoretically play it forever. Anyhow, Flame Over, a new game by Laughing Jackal Games, takes the idea of the Rogue-like dungeon crawl and turns it into a firefighting and rescuing scenario–a pyrogue-like, if you will. I take up my extinguisher, my firehose, and MY AXE to review this game.
Flyhunter Origins is a new game from new development studio Steel Wool Games, whose resumés include lots of work at Pixar. I take their new hero, Zak, for a small walk in a giant park using my PS Vita (as opposed to the Android, iOS, and Steam versions) to see what the fuss is about.
Table Top Racing, for those of you who don’t play games on your phones or tablets, is a racing game that uses the conceit of a bunch of toy cars racing around a track made out of household object. In fact, if you remember playing Micro Machines back in the early 1990s, you’ll be fairly familiar with the idea. This time around, though, we’re reviewing the new PS Vita release of Table Top Racing. Let’s see how much revving we need to do.
Runner games have recently earned a lot of popularity on portable devices for their “quick to get into” gameplay. Similarly, zombie games have also gained a lot of popularity lately, so of course it was about time that the two genres would mix. Enter Z-Run for the PlayStation Vita, a runner game featuring zombies. This should make everyone happy, right? Let’s find out.