If you told teenage me that there existed a lo-fi zombie survival shooter inspired by video nasty era Lucio Fulci movies I would’ve laughed you out of my little video dungeon bedroom that I spent my youth in. Nowadays, with an indie market saturated by Puppet Combo’s distinct, much imitated brand of horror games, it’s hardly a surprise.

Still, it’s a delight basking in the bleak, jagged world of Night at the Gates of Hell. The gameplay isn’t anything fancy, but I found the zombie shooting most satisfying, perhaps more so than in a number of RE games: the way the zombies move - slow, creeping but firmly towards the player - creates tension, and being able to pop them in the head with a single skull-splattering shot is deeply satisfying. Much in the spirit of Fulci’s movies The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery and City of the Living Dead, the zombies look unrealistic and rather abstract, but freaky in their own way, with bulging eyes and monstrous grins.

I found much of Jordan King’s penchant for trashy, irreverent comedy relief less suited to the atmosphere here than in his previous game, The Booty Creek Cheek Freak which feels like a joyous South Park parody against its contemporaries. Likewise, the plot is as nonsensical and thinly sketched as you’d expect from any Italian-American schlock horror picture of the late 70s, but the ending still feels a little cold (an enjoyable final image nevertheless).

Generally, Gates is inconsistent, but a fuller experience than Bloodwash and Cheek Freak. It peaks early with the apartment and coastal village segments, but there’s plenty to enjoy, perhaps more for the movie buffs strangely enough.

Banger game. The movement is top notch. I do think this one will be surpassed by whatever comes next in the series because I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned in terms of mission design and in terms of difficulty scaling here. Aside from one mission where I struggled with ammo management with my build, the only difficulty came from end of chapter bosses, which is fine, but the gap in difficulty was really steep between those and the rest of the game in a way that I thought was a little weird, especially for From Software

Capcom's done amazing work in preserving it's game legacy moving forward into modern platforms in the last few years in ways few developers of their age and lineage have. There are currently 7 MegaMan collections, Phoenix Wright collections, Fighting Game and Street Fighter collections, Arcade Stadium options, and Devil May Cry HD Collections. Hell they even ported Ghost Trick recently to more modern platforms recently.

With this push also came the Capcom Beat 'em Up Bundle. A collection of 7 fairly obscure ports of arcade specific beat 'em ups. Overall it's a good collection. The ports are well done, each play smoothly and Capcom included the ability to play online with friends including setting up lobbies, playing either the English or Japanese releases. It includes art galleries for original concept art from all 7 games as well as a few pieces of gorgeous art made specifically for the collection. It feels like some effort was put into making this rather than just a quick cash grab I really appreciated. I played all the games online with a friend as well as offline solo and found it all very smooth. Due to the arcade nature of the game Capcom also allow infinite credits for people to play all the way through as these games can get hard by design.

Where the collection is a bit disappointing is the included games. It's great that Battle Circuit and Armored Warriors are on here as the first time they have had a home console release and some of the others are pretty hard titles to play legally, (I'd never heard of Warriors of Fate) but it's more what is missing that is more telling. It doesn't have The Punisher, Aliens vs Predator, Cadillac's vs Dinosaurs, Dungeons and Dragons : Tower of Doom or Shadow Over Mystara which are in my opinion the best Capcom games in that genre. My suspicion is it's a licensing issue that the cost wouldn't be worth their inclusion as they aren't Capcom intellectual property. A similar problem with porting most of the Onimusha franchise due to actor likeness. That said though Aliens vs Predator did appear on Capcom Home Arcade console and the fact that Final Fight 2 and 3 weren't included as bonus games (or console versions of Knights of the Round or Captain Commando) was also kind of sad to see. It's a great collection, but it could have been a truly amazing one.

What is here though is a piece of Capcom Arcade beat 'em up history more than worth playing. Not all the games are great, A couple I actively would never play again actually but the fact that Capcom did release them for me to find that out and with some effort put in is an absolute credit to them. Now port Megaman X Command Mission, A Resident Evil Outbreak bundle with online play, Dino Crisis and a Breath of Fire collection please Capcom!

My scores for the games:

Armored Warriors 4.5/5
Battle Circuit 3.5/5
King of Dragons 3.5/5
Captain Commando 2.5/5
Final Fight 2/5
Knights of the Round 2/5
Warriors of Fate 2/5

ethereal and epiphanous; hauntingly religious, and ominously intriguing. Norco dares to tell a story that feels unlike any game before. its near-future pseudo-cyberpunk setting depicts the very-real city of Norco, Louisiana under the regime of the very-real supercorporation, Shell. its so grounded such that its dystopic themes and outcomes feel... possible, and acts as an exaggerated account of the real-life experiences of people living in the shadow of a domineering corporation, effectively in charge of many aspects of their lives. different from the fantastical and paradoxically compelling setting of "traditional cyberpunk", whose themes are understandably lost on most.

as the mystery unfolds - non-linear and often enigmatic - we approach the absurd. a government conspiracy, a religious cult, a biological abomination. thematically, the game deals with life and truth under an extreme capitalist force, and mankind's panic and response through religion. to seek a way out, to seek salvation, or maybe just seek quick answers in a complicated world.

gameplay-wise, its reminiscent of Kojima's SNATCHER, even the puzzles are the same style of cryptic. a great game, but sometimes obtuse. Norco can be obtuse, but not as bad.

in summation - Norco is a WEIRD game. it is FREAKY and FUNNY. it's not for everyone, but if you liked anything that I said, I recommend CHECKING it OUT.

Happy 18th anniversary to Fatal Frame III: The Tormented. The timing of this review was purely coincidental!
Iconic as Crimson Butterfly is, this one, for me, takes the cake. I found the SH4-esque home setting to have the most unnerving scares (the feet!); the story does a good job of intertwining characters from previous games into a new and engaging story predominantly about the three G’s: Guilt, Grief and… Ghosts. The characters and environments radiate more depth and detail than before - the ghost faces are terrifying up close. The utterly timeless gameplay mechanic of the camera obscura remains unchanged, but if it ain’t broke…

A couple of gripes keep this from the full 5 stars. The level design can sometimes appear samey - I enjoyed getting familiar with the layout and navigating the various hidden passageways but sometimes it’s hard remembering which brown, washed out room is which, making for a lot of frustrating back and forth. The enemy boss fights overlap a delicate line between satisfyingly challenging and just plain annoying - those fucking flying Priestess Girls UGH.

But even at its most testing, the strange atmosphere and PS2 charm kept me coming back. And even now upon completing the game I find the urge to revisit the Mansion of Sleep and uncover numerous secrets I will have missed. I myself have become tormented.

It’s here - Danganronpa 4, in a nice legally distinct package. And it’s about 40% gameplay and 60% staring at constant and unbearably long loading screens.
This is really only worth playing if you’re a Danganronpa fan, and if I had to rank it with the 3 mainline games, this would come last by a wide margin.

The game uses a ‘mystery labyrinth’ gameplay section, that’s essentially just the trials in Danganronpa. The trials in those games felt natural within the story though, and here the game bends over backwards to force the introduction of all the same trial gameplay mechanics. I got used to it as the game went on, but the initial introduction of the labyrinth in chapter 0 felt unnatural and forced, which put me off a bit. I don't know if Kodaka just wanted to make Danganronpa 4, but felt he couldn't due to the ending of 3, so he had to stretch this story into unnatural places to force the inclusion of those gameplay mechanics, or if he genuinely thought this was a good application of the same gameplay mechanics within a new story, but the way it was handled just really didn't work for me.

Chapters 2, 4 and 5 were enjoyable for me, but chapters 0, 1 and 3 were unbelievably tedious. Way too hand-holdy and you have no connection to the characters featured in those chapters. And of course, the performance is terrible. I know this is running on switch, but the loading screens are just crazy - even the chapters I enjoyed felt like a chore at a lot of points due to the endless loading screens that you have to endure.

My Friendly Neighborhood isn't another mascot horror game instead it is an indie survival horror puzzle game about a repairman named Gordon who is sent to a film studio for a Saturday morning puppet show that is obviosly heavily inspired by Sesame Street. In it's core the game is „another“ homage to survival horror classics like Resident Evil 1. From RE4's inventory management, manual save tokens, puzzles, lots of backtracking, navigation(which was a big problem for me because I easily get lost in these type of games) it's all here. But this isn't just another poorly executed game which copies stuff from survival horror classics, no the devs added new unique mechanics or put their own spin on already existing ones. Even though you can clearly see that the bosses are heavily inspired by Resident Evil. You know what I mean what you look at them. The game can very well stand on its own due to the fact that it's a mix between satire and horror. It also has a big interconnected map and you can backtrack most of the time so you can use your new found items or keys to solve puzzles or reveal secrets. I followed the development for years and I also played the demo, the one thing that bothered me is that the puppets don't have many voicelines. Some lines from the demo are still in the game, which is not a bad thing but since there are so few I can see that it could get annoying for some people. Luckily that wasn't the case for me, Norman( one of the puppets) teaching you to count by swallowing your hands so you know that you have two hands in your stomach was a weird but a nice way to break up the tension. This tension and the horror are both tied to the isolated and narrow corridors in which you can find yourself easily surrounded by puppets that all want to hug you. The replay value is also pretty big, you can unlock different cheats like infinite ammo or long arms, unlock different endings, solve unsolved puzzles from your last playthrough to unlock new secrets and yes there are a lot of secrets and some even haven't been solved by the community at the time of writing this review. Overall My Friendly Neighborhood is already one of my indie game highlights of this year and it perfectly balances horror, humor and satire and the mix between puzzles and fighting is very well executed.

Man, sometimes a game just hits in all the right ways. This was just perfect to me, and I know I’ll be chasing another game I enjoy as much as this for a while. I picked this up in a sale nearly a year ago and never played it, I ended up starting it on a friday evening before a long weekend. My husband was out, I had a beer, no new games, and picked this one out of my steam library to try out. Within an hour I was starting to regret all social plans I had over the weekend, as I just wanted to play this game all weekend long. I really cannot recommend this enough to fans of both survival horror games and classic adventure puzzlers. It has been ages since I have been this captivated with a game.

It’s funny and absurd while still being tense and unnerving, with an engaging and lovable cast of characters supporting the game. The gameplay and story worked together in perfect harmony, nothing felt superfluous or like it dragged at all. Yes, there's some bizarre, kinda stupid stuff here, but it worked for me, and everything was just impressively well-balanced.

A few puzzles in this are challenging/unintuitive, but largely I don’t think you’d need a guide to solve anything. Without a guide though, you will likely miss a lot of stuff if you're moving along only where the central story is pointing you. This is a game that really requires a lot of unguided exploration to experience everything, and the completion of multiple endings to get the full story. I did one blind playthrough then went back and used a relatively spoiler-free guide to find everything I missed. This is a great game to replay/get all the achievements and endings for, as they all come together to help resolve the story.

Just fantastic.

I'll begin by saying the less you know the better. Go into it blind, don't even read this review just go play it!

The first hour of this game feels similar to those grim, pre-2000s children's films you watch and get mildly scarred for life by. They all have that one scene that evokes a 'wtf were they they thinking' response: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory's boat scene; that poor horse in The Never Ending Story; yeah basically the entirety of Return to Oz like wtf.
Bramble starts you off making friends with giants and frog kings and gets you playing hide and seek with cute little gnomes but then you'll be hit with an abrupt plunge into a world of rotting corpses and maggots. On my first boss (some horrific butcher monster thing) I almost had heart palpitations when my cutesie fairytale Hansel-looking kid protagonist got sliced into photorealistic chunks of gore!

What's kind of brilliant is how the stylistic clash of fantasy caricatures and a realistic world design - especially the forest - captures the earthiness of folk horror, the mythical monstrosities lying beneath the beautiful and the mundane. I can't stress enough the power of that magnificently jarring 180° tonal shift.

And the rest of the game is great too, even if it becomes episodic in structure, as you encounter different monsters in newer, less inviting places. It has that clunkiness of a book full of short Nordic myths, tied together by narration that doesn’t always work - the voice acting is stronger elsewhere, notably a segment involving witchcraft. A significant peak later in the game involves a Silent-Hill-2-esque boat ride and a sinister figure in the form of the mythical plague maiden Pesta. This nightmarish boss fight, and other moments in the game, can be frustratingly trial-and-error in places but the generous checkpoints keep the pace afresh.

Elsewhere, the gameplay consists of light platforming, undemanding puzzles, one or two chase sequences and some use of a magic light wielded by our hero. It’s certainly nothing groundbreaking - even the story and tone borrow from Limbo - but it’s done well. The simple gameplay gives attention to the game’s other strengths: consistently evocative sound design, inspired use of dynamic lighting and overall impeccable game direction. I pretty much wept at the moment, just after escaping the clutches of a fiendish troll, when you ride a little hedgehog across a pond to the soundtrack’s gorgeous folk song ‘Blomstertid’ - Death Stranding levels of sublime!

Overall, a pleasant surprise! I have confidence that the devs at Dimfrost are capable of greatness in their next outings. Until then, please don’t overlook this absolute gem.

Don't let the slightly garish Stranger Things packaging fool you. This hidden gem is a masterclass of minimalist interactive storytelling, where simple text adventure and trivial completion of instructions manage to evoke chilling psychological revelations. Without spoiling anything, I was thoroughly impressed by the writing, the gradual build up of narrative elements and maintaining such a creeping sense of dread with so little. It's the kind of horror I love.

Speaking of horror I love: Silent Hill. Townfall. I wasn't fully convinced when I saw No Code was at the helm of this new game; but playing Stories Untold, I'm reassured it's absolutely a perfect match. I cannot wait!

I didn't like BOTW so I don't know why I thought this would be any different, grabbed by the hype once again! I just never learn!

Nothing about these games gives me that revolutionize of the open world genre buzz that they're praised for and honestly, it pisses me off that I don't get it. It makes me feel INSANE when I see the praise, but it's just not clicking.

The new building mechanics feel clunky to me, but I do see the vision. It's a toybox with more toys to fool around with. For me though, the thought of doing shrines again, especially with these mechanics, just makes me want to turn off.

For positives, I do enjoy the visuals. I think the art direction and presentation are gorgeous. It's got that Nintendo charm that always appeals to me, which further makes it sadder that it doesn't hit for me.

I've put in around 10 hours and I've had my fill. Overall, it's my own fault. I knew I wouldn't like it, but a mixture of FOMO and hope that something would grab me took hold. It has put me in that Zelda mood though, I'll probably replay one of the older ones soon.

Similar to Unmechanical I played recently, The Swapper is a game I've had since near the start of the PS4 era yet never got around to playing until 10 years later. Equally like Unmechanical this game is also a sci-fi puzzle game but I feel overall though this is a much tighter and more interesting experience.

The Swapper uses cloning as a way of providing plenty of puzzles as well as a background for it's narrative of something weird and sinister happening at a deep space mining outpost known as Theseus. Your unnamed character finds a gun that allows them to create multiple clones of themself that copies their movements. This gun also allows your character to swap consciousness into the clones leaving your original body behind. There is some simple philosophy raised as the game progresses about what constitutes a mind and the morality of using the swapper though it's all surface level questions raised as you progress chasing after another astronaut that is talking to you and themselves at the same time.

The game is essentially a series of puzzle rooms off of a fairly linear path to collect orbs that allow you to open doors to progress. Rinse and repeat. It feels a little Metroidvania in the absolute barest sense that there is a map with locked doors. The puzzles are simple in a way I appreciate in that they are all fairly logical. Making clones at distances, swapping between them to hit switches etc. There are a few additional mechanics involving coloured lights limiting where you can create or swap clones as well as some artificial gravity to both mix things up and make the puzzles a bit harder. Most were fairly straight forward but a couple did stump me for a while until I realized the solution was much simpler than I thought, I just wasn't thinking laterally enough. The Swapper isn't perfect, some of the puzzles even when you have figured out what you need to do can be messed up by one poor placement forcing you to start the whole process over again can be a little frustrating at times but this is a minor complaint for other wise fairly consistently balanced puzzle design.

As good as the mechanics are the aesthetics of a game help bring it all together thematically and this game has a fantastic atmosphere, like a mixture of Aliens and The Abyss. The design, use of lighting and music create a great feeling of loneliness and fear despite it being a puzzle title that the thought of being isolated in space or under the sea can produce. What is more impressive is this was made entirely by two university students, as per Wikipedia:

"The Swapper was a project made by two University of Helsinki students Otto Hantula and Olli Harjola in their spare time. The Swapper was backed by the Indie Fund, the 6th indie game title the fund has supported. Rather than digital textures, the game features handcrafted art assets and clay which forms the various game levels."

I didn't notice it at the time playing but it actually makes a lot of sense for the visual style here.

The Swapper is only a few hours long, I finished it in a day which is either going to be a positive or negative for you but personally I puzzle games should be short and sweet so they don't out live their welcome. If you've got a spare afternoon or weekend you could do far worse than this atmospheric narrative based puzzle game.

Mission quality is a bit up and down in this one, which is the case for pretty much the whole trilogy, but I noticed it especially here compared to 2

It’s still excellent. The levels clearly had a ton of thought and time put into them, and I feel like the story was a bit more engaging in this one, especially as it related to the missions themselves.

I am honestly just super happy they were able to get all the missions from the past games into one big package with this one because as a whole if you played them back to back you have one of the best games I’ve ever played. Tonally, it just works so well to have these goofy moments with the serious story and OST. The presentation is very clean. Everything just works, and I think the game is rewarding to come back to and experiment with, but even if you just okayed it through once, I think you’d probably have a great time because the paths are so well thought out that on your way through a mission, you will at least see SOMETHING cool

It’s no small task remaking what is perhaps the dictionary definition of a game changer. Capcom’s groundbreaking 2005 classic, for better or worse, brought survival horror to the masses with its now standard over-the-shoulder shooting style and adaptive difficulty. Resident Evil 4’s signature mechanics have been refined and incorporated into its sequels as well as remakes of its predecessors. And so ‘RE4R’ is not as much a reinvention, more rather a preservation, a celebration, of its contribution to the RE canon.

That is not to discredit a variety of fun new additions. The ‘open zone’ level design now makes the village, castle and overall world (‘somewhere in Europe’) feel real and connected, encouraging exploration and discovering secrets new and old. The treasure seeking is all the more engaging with the furthered mechanic of adding gems to trinkets to increase their worth. The puzzles have been reinvented but more or less capture the fun and challenge of the originals: I spent longer on those cyber-circuits than a number of early Silent Hill puzzles.

More than anything, Resident Evil 4 just has the most fun story. Sure, it’s pure schlock - rescuing the president’s daughter from evil Europeans - but the balance of horror, action and adventure is perfectly achieved. The remake enhances that balance through both its gorgeous presentation and refined gameplay, although my only gripe is it may be too refined. There’s still a handful of cheesy quips and b-movie character stereotypes that made it into RE4R, but for the most part it strives for a certain self seriousness, often playing things safe. It can sometimes render the outrageous plot a bit clinical. Playing on hardcore - recommended for players of the o.g - can certainly make things exciting particularly in horde situations but I still found a number of bosses and previously challenging Ashley-escort segments a little dialled down compared to before. It’s no secret that games nowadays are made easier to play in order to appeal to a wider demographic but the imbalance is quite noticeable here - with or without that adaptive difficulty mechanic.

But small gripes aside, the remake manages to be both faithful and entertaining in its own right. Purists will argue it’s not the true way to play Resident Evil 4, but thankfully the heavily ported original is still an available option on most platforms - the opposite of such is my key concern with a remake like Silent Hill 2 (fingers crossed it doesn’t suck). Anyways, onwards and upwards: let’s see what they do with Resident Evil 5.