Category computer

Planet of Lana is a side-scrolling adventure featuring playing hide and seek with robots that have no qualms about ending you!

The folks at Thunderful Games have delivered a side-scrolling adventure, full of hand painted environments. That game is Planet of Lana where the focus isn’t on just fighting, I mean there is some of that, but it features a plethora of puzzles to solve to reach your destination. Some of these puzzles or effectively games of cat and mouse, where others manipulate the environment around you to help you escape. The studio under Thunderful that developed the game was developed in 2018 and this is their first published title.

You play as a young girl who watches as her friend and village are abducted by robots. She must save both herself and the world while avoiding the dangers of the robots. Who sent them? Why are they capturing and likely enslaving the populace? What’s their end goal? Hopefully these questions get answered as you progress the story but so far they have not.

Visually the game is captivating and the attention to detail is quite impressive. When running through the fields and climbing the mountain you can see the wind blowing through individual blades of grass that are all hand painted. It feels like you are playing in a living painting, that is until the robots come. The beauty of the art draws you in and the story keeps you playing. Overall this was a great experience that leaves me wanting to get back to it to see where the story leads me next.

Replikator is a twin stick shooter from the folks at Ratalaika Games and posits that death is only the beginning of the story.

Ratalaika Games how been kind enough to share a copy of their latest twin stick shooter, Replikator. The game places you as a mercenary aboard an, until recently, abandoned scientific facility in space. Your role is to explore the facility and learn the secrets of the Replikator device. The first time you are killed by the denizens of the facility you learn that the device be able to make duplicates of any item, including yourself when you die. Like most twin stick shooters the game provides an isometric view that looks like feels like JRPGs from the SNES era.

Unlike most games of this style there is a limited amount of ammunition for your guns so aiming is essential. The good news is if you do run out you have a powerful melee attack you can use. Most enemies will have consistent attack patterns making both easier if you are patient. Trying to speed through the map is one of the easiest ways to end up dead. Along the way you will find dozens if not hundreds of weapons to use and items to improve your skills. Remember to explore everything and be patient. Did I mention, be patient? My impatience resulted in my death more than any single foe.

Visually the game felt like I was returning to some of my favorite titles from the early 90s and matches the level of quality we are used to seeing from Ratalaika. Overall I found the game engaging and at the same time frustrating. I have terrible aim and with limited ammunition some of the map sections were harder than they should have been. That is entirely a reflection of my skill and not of the gameplay quality. At $10USD the price is quite reasonable for the hours of gameplay you’ll find and I have played some garbage titles with higher price tags too. Once again I find myself looking forward to seeing what Ratalika comes out with next.

World Championship Boxing Manager has returned from Mega Cat Studios, do you have what it takes to take your gym to the top?

Mega Cat Studios have come back with the sequel to what is called “THE G.O.A.T. BOXING MANAGEMENT SIM RETURNS” with World Championship Boxing Manager 2. The game follows as you take on the role of Jake, a gym owner and promoter who is trying to make a name for himself. The game starts with the opening of his gym that is below the standards of most boxers.

Having never played the original and not being a fan of boxing I went into this game with low expectations. The game very much feels like a SIM game where you are micromanaging the actions and training of your fighters. This leads you to your scheduled fight nights. Each month you have matches that you must have at least one fighter participate in. This is where you earn money for your gym. You can even schedule additional fights any day of the month you would like. If you so choose you could even push your fighter to the breaking point by never allowing them to rest.

Using downtime between the matches you can assign different trainings and designated resting periods for the fighter. The game becomes a balance between training your fighter quickly to improve skills and stats and keeping them fighting to keep that money coming in. As the game progresses you add additional fighters to your roster and the balance becomes both easier and harder. Easier in that you can keep someone fighting every day but harder because you are having to balance their training on top of it.

The game far exceeded my expectations with how well the management and scheduling systems are built. Simply put the mechanics were interesting and engaging but where it really shines is the fights themselves. At the start of each round you give the fighter some basic instructions like choosing their fight style. One round you can choose to be defensive and the next can be wildly aggressive. There are about six choices from the start and each has their uses. More often than not I had my fighters choose the aggressive option with the water bottle. The water bottle adds stamina where the bandage recovers health.

During the fights the game was focused on tactics from the side of the ring where most other boxing games focuses on the speed and combos used by the players as the fighter. In small doses the game was enjoyable but in a longer stretch it became repetitive and dull.

Space Gladiators from Thomas Gervraud was first released on Steam in 2021 and has finally been released on consoles!

Space Gladiators is a side scrolling game where you must run through a gauntlet to reach an arena where you fight a boss wave. Each wave gives you options of prizes like extra gold or new abilities to choose to determine what foe or foes you’ll face. The tutorial you start with covers the full range of controls quite thoroughly and does it in a way that is simple to follow without neglecting any of them. The only thing missed is to tell you what the importance of the blue butterflies are- I still haven’t figured that out for myself. My guess is that they feed some of your abilities and help you charge them up faster.

The art style reminds me of the early works from The Behemoth and their later Battle Block Theater but without the chicken they are so fond of. Thomas Gervraud is known for Brotato, Space Gladiators, Lost Potato and Potato Tactics. This game includes a space potato as well. I feel like there is an underlying obsession with potatoes going on here. Thanks to a well made tutorial and smooth controls the game is easy to play but due to my own panic I still died. A lot. Overall I found the game chaotic, but in a fair amount of challenge kind of way, and a great deal of fun. The $14.99 price tag is a little on the steep side but not unreasonable either.

Gematombe is an Action-Puzzle-Versus game from Ratalaika Games that is a hybrid of several classic puzzle titles.

What happens when you take a fighter like Street Fighter Puzzle Fighter and blend in controls from Bubble Bobble? You get Gematombe from Ratalaika Games. Controlling one of six Greek entities, referred to as the daemons along with a hidden seventh character. Working alongside Pandora you are sent to help capture all of the evils in the world.

The game plays like Bubble Bobble in terms of controls and stage layout but with a slight twist. In BB you would shoot bubbles of a specific color to pop similarly colored bubbles that were already there or add additional colors to existing ones. With Gematombe, the bubbles you shoot hit and bounce off of different bubbles or blocks and as long as you hit two or more it will pop all connected bubbles of the same color. Each stage is a battle between you and one of the evils. Winning is done by either clearing your board OR banking enough combos to generate extra bubbles for the evil you’re facing to deal with.

Conceptually the game is quite simple as are the controls. Quickly planning combos though is where the real skill lies and I don’t have it. I was fast enough to clear my board on each level but could never bank the high points and deal damage effectively. The game is a fun game that is easy to play in small doses or longer runs. I feel like most games these days strive to increase the time needed to play a single level and draw out that conclusion. This is definitely not one of those games. In a matter of 10-15 minutes, tops, I was able to complete the first two stages. This game is perfect for my wife who is great at recognizing patterns quickly and I am excited to see how well she fares.

Cannon Dancer is a side scrolling action fighter from ININ Games and has taken 30 years to make it to consoles!

The original creator of Strider had a very unique style and applied that to at least one other game- Cannon Dancer. The game has made a resurgence thanks to the efforts of ININ Games. Even better is that they not only ported the game to consoles but also added additional features to it. Those features include customizable controller mapping or vibration settings along with adding double jump.

Strider was one of my favorite games to play when it came out and the game looks and feels exactly like I remember Strider playing was. The game feels insanely difficult, not from a gameplay or controller perspective but in terms of the actual difficulty against enemies. I can’t help but feel that if I was more patient with my actions though it would become much easier.

Visually it feels like returning home to one of my favorite classics but due to an unintuitive menu system it leaves much to be desired. Once you get the game started though the controls are much easier to master, if only my patience was better. Overall if you are looking to replay this classic than jump right in but if you are looking for a proper Strider experience then I would suggest going to the remake they did a few years ago.

Dogfight: A Sausage Bomber Story is a side-scrolling aerial combat game by Houndpicked Games and is a pun filled battle full of food.

Do you like puns? Do you like fast paced action? Do you like food based jokes? Do you enjoy explosions? If you said yes to any of those questions then you should take a look at the latest game we had the pleasure to review from Houndpicked Games– Dogfight: A Sausage Bomber Story. The game is a pun filled side scroller full of over the top bosses and weapons. The enemies range from single shot jets to massive tanks full of turrets and many variations in between.

Visually the game is crisp with each sprite hand drawn and it really shows. Controls are quite simple to learn but as the screen gets closer to being overwhelmed panic may ensure which results in the wrong attack button being hit on occasion. Myself and my family are connoisseurs of puns and loved the abundance contained within the game. Overall we had a great time and look forward to trying some of the levels again to try to score the full five stars on them.

Ultra Pixel Survive is a two dimensional side scroller that looks and plays more like Minecraft than it does Terraria.

Ratalaika Games brings us Ultra Pixel Survive, a game about crafting and survival. When most people think of games like Minecraft they typically think of Terraria. Terraria is also two dimensional but has always felt like it was more about the survival aspect than the building a world. This game is more of a happy medium between the two. Unlike these two titles though your tools never break.

Players choose between one of close to two dozen characters, each with their own abilities. You must unlock almost all of these characters though. You unlock them by purchasing them with red gems which are earned by opening chests. Chests in this game were the bane of my existence, at first. You see, there is an achievement related to opening one that I was trying to get since the beginning. The trick here lies in the house you have. STAY OUT of the house. This resets the period of time you must survive to earn the daily chest. That means you have to stay outside and remain there for 24 in game hours straight to have the chest appear. When it does appear though it is almost always offscreen.

Graphically the game is quite simple, leaning into the traditional 8-bit look and feel. Controls are quite simple and feel organic. I loved the simplicity of the game and had an absolute blast playing. I want to see what some of these other characters are capable of too. My only complaint is on the chest mechanic; I feel that going into the house should only pause the time and not reset it, other than that, the game was great.

HEROish is a tower defense game from Sunblink Entertainment that features six epic heroes and card that summon troops to defeat your foes.

In the world of HEROish players control a champion and a handful of cards. Each card holds a power or a troop unit and can be upgraded to make them more effective. Sunblink Entertainment are the masterminds behind this tower defense game and were kind enough to share it with us. You start the game with a set number of points and each card you use is worth a set number of points. The main objective of the game is to save the kingdom and defeat enemy heroes. Each hero has a deck of cards to use and depending on how many points they save then put them into sending waves of troops at the other.

Multiplayer can be done with with bots and gets quite hectic as your opponents send waves after waves of troops after you. You will still earn rewards for your fight if it’s only against the bots but that doesn’t mean they are going to go easy on you. They made me work hard for that win.

The graphics are crisp and look like a very similar style to either the Skylanders games or Disney Infinity. The controls are quite simple to learn and feel natural. The game is full of jokes and over the top characters making this perfect for me. I had a great time playing it and spent many more hours than I expected killing everything I could. If you like a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and art that pops like a comic book then you’ll find something to like with this game.

Atari has given another classic the Recharged treatment with Caverns of Mars where you fly ever deeper into the core of the red planet.

Originally developed by Greg Christensen, Caverns of Mars was the first vertical scrolling game and a smash hit on Atari. Prior to receiving the Recharged treatment I had only heard of the title but never played. The concept of the game is that you are rapidly flying towards the center of Mars and ammo is limited. You must defeat your foes and reach the reactor before your fuel and ammo run out. Conceptually it’s quite simple. The gameplay is less so.

While it is a vertical scrolling game you don’t have much control on the vertical movement other than slowing it with firing your guns. You do have control over your horizontal movement though. As you descend further in to the planet there are more and more enemies and obstacles to avoid. In short time it will become quite chaotic.

Visually the game is crisp and highly detailed for the world around you and the world can be blown away to clear you a path but a slight shift in direction can spell your doom. The game is easily played in short spurts and a hell of a lot of fun despite the frequent dying.