Whispering Willows - Fright Night on the Ouya Bus

Whispering Willows is a rather odd title. Not because of its genre, adventure games are not exactly a rarity after all and nor is it because of the theme of the game, horror being a rather frequent popup title on the likes of Steam. Instead its odd because of its origins, being released originally as a Ouya title, then ported across to the PC because it wasn't making a bit of money there. I call it odd simply because the Ouya presence still seeps within the game itself... This isn't exactly a bad thing however...

I say that because if there is one thing that the Ouya did try and be a beacon for was for original gaming, games that usually wouldn't have been given a second look on more traditional platforms such as baby hiding simulators, couch-multiplayer arena games (something that's having a resurgence it seems across consoles and PC) and then there's this.

Type:Rider - Flipping the Script Around

Type:Rider is an odd little concept of a game. Made by a Franco-German TV group that pushes art and design above most else, there's this game, a platformer created to try and teach players about typefaces and text techniques throughout the ages. Its definitely a tall and rather obscure idea to try out but is it one that actually works?

Ratchet and Clank 2 - The Sophomore Slump

With the first Ratchet and Clank game out of the way, its straight over to the second one and with that I quickly realized why, when people talk about how they loved the original games, they usually talk exclusively about the first or third game. Yeah this one isn't great.

Ratchet and Clank - Back to the Beginning

Recently theres been the release of Ratchet and Clank, a remake of the original Ps2 title, released onto the Ps4 in line with a (quite derided) movie and after watching some friends play through this, it got me thinking and wanting to play the original trilogy through again and then maybe even continue onto the Ratchet and Clank titles I haven't tried out. So with this in mind, I went forth to play the Ps3 versions of the games as they were on sale at the time, what did I find?

Papo & Yo - My Froggy Favela

The Playstation Plus 'Instant Games Collection' is a bit of a weird area with a rather combustible membership group. It seems like everyone waits near the end of each month for information on whats going to be free with Playstation Plus next, all making outlandish predictions and then when news of the games finally does arrive, its followed by a comment wave of 'OH MY GOD. RUBBISH INDIES' by childish members which causes certain titles to be lost in the discussion and Papo & Yo sadly seemed to be one of these lost titles. Its a bit of a shame that this is the case as this title fits the Playstation Plus collection to a tee... which is both a good and bad thing at exactly the same time...

Bird Assassin - Braindead Birdbrains

Bird Assassin is one of the many games which fled the 'XBLA' service to try and find sales on PC. In fact there's quite a few of these trying to compete to get into steam but somehow this one managed to worm its way across onto steam and sadly it isn't a good one. The entire game first off feels cheap and nasty thanks to a really limited graphics set and Xbox button inputs spread across the screens without any regard to what control you are actually using.

Unemployment Quest - Pass the Preachy

I know this is a bit of a weird game for me to be reviewing, especially right after I made a post detailing me searching for work and finding it tough. That said that probably makes good FOR actually reviewing this game, a kickstarter funded RPG-Maker title, made specifically to tackle the issue of people who are having trouble just finding work, dealing with the stress, worry and nervousness of jobsearching in general.

 

Inescapable - THAT was the ending? F**k this.

This game has all the potential to be decent enough but lacks any exploration, any real challenge and is incredibly short to the point of irritation (finished in well under an hour), the game ending randomly in the middle of everything and since the developers couldn't be bothered to make an actual full game, I'm not going to bother to make a full review. Fin.

Hotel & Crystals of Time - Casual Crash

Im not feeling too smart. Ive had these two hanging in drafts for ages and had forgotten to publish them. Whats the answer to me being stupid this way? A two for one post, thats what! Its just as well that its a two-for-one post though as both of these games manage to crash and burn in similar ways, just one managing to do so in a much more spectacular fashion than the other... Where shall we start then... Hotel?

Cinders - Happily Ever After?

For some reason 'Fairytale' films and TV seems to be something that is 'In fashion' at the moment, from dark and blood-soaked versions of old tales (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) to backstory explanation (Maleficent) to large TV drama series (Grimm, Once Upon a Time). With all this in mind comes Cinders, a re-telling of the old Cinderella story set up as a Visual Novel.

Fez - Pixel Logic

Before I even begin this review, I have to start stating facts. Will I be talking about the notorious Phil Fish here? Answer: No. This is about Fez as a game and that's that. Anyway with that quick note out of the way, how exactly does this weird pixel 2D/3D-ish platformer fare?

Real Horror Stories: Ultimate Edition - They Snooze, We Lose

I paid 15 pence for this and I still feel ripped off. What is this? Its a selection of flash pictures, there are things you can click, some things that you cant. The game is never clear what does what, or even why clicking certain things does stuff. Instead you'll spend most of the time hammering the 'tab' to highlight clickable areas, hammering said clickable areas till a blurry and badly animated random thing pops in the screen, yawn and repeat till done. Just leave this stinker alone.

Marlow Briggs: The Mask of Death - God of what now?

Marlow Briggs: The Mask of Death makes no bones about what its supposed to be, it quite clearly is an indie-ish take on God of War, a budget price attached along with it too. In all honestly, I was expecting a rather 'eh' game that either was a little dull, or a game that would try too hard to be wacky and silly. Instead, I got this incredibly fun gem of a game.

7th Guest - Feeeling Lonely?

FMV gaming was a weird little thing that happened around the early to mid-nineties where suddenly gaming wanted real actors and a feeling of a TV show and/or film to accompany their gaming experience. Overall however FMV gaming in my eyes has aged badly and overall was a bit of a failed attempt at bringing movie-like film techniques to games, this is down to poor acting, low budgets and cheesy storylines and nothing really showcases all of this (and more) than one of the games that really kickstarted this off, the adventure title '7th Guest' by Trilobyte software.

Unhack - Everyone do the Worm!

Unhack is an odd little title that centres around 'Unhacking' computers and systems. Aka: Removing viruses from them. To do this you have to speed around various levels, avoiding dangers, ten levels and full voice acting is present and a lot of effort has gone into the game... So why, after finishing it, do I feel let down?

Eldritch - Don't Blink...

Eldritch is a rather interesting little title... Based off various mythos, the game chucks you head-first into randomly generated dungeons where the main objective is to try and get out of each one alive. Its basically first person Spelunky. Does it work? Hm... That's a debatable question there...

Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart - Back and Forth and Back and Forth Again...

Hidden Object titles can really vary in quality. Some don't put in any at all and just paste pictures on top of pictures, placing in the minimum of music and hope that nobody notices. Some others on the other hand actually try and put work into their titles with clear plots and well-made graphics. So where does this game fall quality-wise then?

Marvins Mittens - Cute Cute and Double Cute

Marvin's Mittens is a rather cute little platformer where you, as Marvin, explores the forests, cliffs and caves around your house in order to find a lost mitten. Its not on steam yet but it has been greenlit so its worth giving a good look-over at this game and maybe, just maybe I can convince you to try and pick it up.

Magical Diary - Pass the Walkthrough Please

Magical Diary is one of those sorts of games which under normal circumstances, I would run in the opposite direction of and if it wasn't for bundles, its usually the sort of game I wouldn't have even touched, let alone played through properly. Magical Diary is essentially a mix of two different Japanese genres, the visual novel and the raising sim. Visual novels being where you follow a story, going off in different paths and reaching the ending. Meanwhile 'Raising Sims' follow a different approach, where the story changes more depending on what skills and areas of expertise you have chosen to follow.

Anyway, lets jump right in shall we?

KRUNCH - Go Speed Racer Go!

KRUNCH is an interesting little title, its not really a platformer as there's no real platforming involved, yet it has a lot in common with the likes of Super Meat Boy and its ilk. At the same time its not really a racing title, yet there's a large emphasis on speed, each level pushing you through to the end at fast speeds. Yep... theres no clear genre here for this game... but who cares?