Category: Review

September 9, 2025

Raimais

Taito’s 1986 Arkanoid was an update of Atari’s brick-breaker Breakout, adding elements like power-ups and enemies. The designer, Akira Fujita, …

Review

September 6, 2025

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Broken Sword

How much can change in a few years. While it had never really died, the adventure game genre experienced a …

Review

September 3, 2025

Dragon Quest Wars

This entry is part 16 of 18 in the series Dragon Quest

In a long-running series known for its sense of familiarity, Dragon Quest Wars stands out as a curious and unexpected …

Review

August 27, 2025

Fhey Area

Lunar: The Silver Star was meant to be the big Mega CD RPG in Japan, but it wouldn’t be released …

Review

August 23, 2025

Thief, the Witch, the Toad, and the Mushroom, The

As an evolution from books, visual novels don’t tend to revisit their roots the way other games do. It makes …

Feature Japanese Obscurities

August 18, 2025

Missland

Missland / Missland 2 (ミスランド) Developer: Altron Release Date: 1995 Platforms: PlayStation If you’ve ever played one of those “Spot …

Review

August 17, 2025

Bomberman World

This entry is part 31 of 37 in the series Bomberman

With all the innovation happening on the Game Boy and Sega Saturn, you’d think that Bomberman’s PlayStation debut would be …

Review

August 14, 2025

Gradius Origins

This entry is part 16 of 17 in the series Gradius

Gradius Origins is a compilation of Konami’s classic arcade shoot-em-up series, developed by emulation wizards M2 as part of their …

Review

August 12, 2025

Salamander III

This entry is part 17 of 17 in the series Gradius

While M2 is largely known for their compilations, they also specialize in developing original retro-style remakes and sequels, like Fantasy …

Review

August 11, 2025

Vay

Thousands of years in the past, a powerful suit of armor fell from outer space onto an inhabited planet. Possessing …

Review

July 22, 2025

Eschatos

Eschatos is a game that boils down shoot-em-up gameplay to its bare essentials: shoot enemies, dodge bullets, battle bosses, score …

Review

July 20, 2025

Griffin

Griffin is the name of the tank that was created by a genius scientist. He’s been kidnapped by an enemy …

Review

July 17, 2025

Giga Wing

This entry is part 2 of 1 in the series Giga Wing

Takumi was one of the companies assembled from the wake of Toaplan, who went bankrupt in 1994. Their first game …

Review

July 13, 2025

Rogue Flight

Different eras of gaming are defined by very particular types of game design. Early 1980s games were mostly “beat your …