Category PS5

Ratalaika Games have restored two iterations of Cyber Citizen Shockman and brought them to consoles but do they capture the essence?

Cyber Citizen Shockman has returned, with the second game in the series having not seen since 1992 and both given a new lease on life by Ratalaika games. Both games follow Tasuke and Kyapiko, two teens that have the ability to transform into Shockman. They are beset by evil robots and monsters that appear as a cross between organic creature and machine. The first boss in the sequel is a prime example of this.

The saving is a save state system that can be forced at any time. You had a couple lucky hits and dodged the attacks? Save. Know the next fight kicked your ass one too many times? Save often to make it easier and guarantee success. Doing this on the fly makes these difficult games extremely easy.

Both games look and feel like playing classic Mega-Man titles but without the ready to swap out weapons in the early game. Graphically it takes me right back, another win for the nostalgia masters at Ratalaika. The controls on the other hand are where this game falls short. To be clear I never played the original versions of the game so this could be carried over from that and may not be a failing in the games. Now with that disclaimer out of the way I felt the controls were clunky and at times downright sticky. Multiple moves required hitting the stick a couple times or holding it for a second or two before Shockman would move. This made for sloppy combat that made it more difficult to enjoy and play long term.

Rockfish Games returns to the galaxy of Everspace with the direct sequel but does it hold up to the predecessor?

The first Everspace game created one of the best space flight simulators I have ever experienced, better even than the recent Star War Squadrons. Was Rockfish Games able to do it again? With both games you play a clone of Adam Roslin who is a skilled pilot himself. The end of the first game resolved issues with the clone DNA sequence and allowed them to continue on to live their own lives. Playing one of these clones you are hired to protect a mining crew as they strip raw materials from the mine location. As expected you are beset by pirates and must eliminate them before they kill the miners. This is very similar to the introduction to the first game, I sense a formula at work.

With the predecessor it was the most detailed game based in space so my expectations were high. The level of detail far exceeded those expectations. For most of the game it even exceeds that of the latest AAA title, Starfield. Rockfish proves once again that independents can do better with less and that’s all due to the talent and passion they bring. Controls are fluid and gameplay is engaging. They took their first game, which was fantastic and evolved it into this diamond that I did not see coming.

Gastro Force is a retro first person shooter from Ratalaika Games that focuses on eliminating aliens from the inside out.

The masters of rereleases and retro style gaming at Ratalaika Games are back with another port for consoles with Gastro Force. The game was originally released on PC in 2022 and again on consoles in September of 2023. The game focuses on the last soldier set to defend the galaxy again aliens from an eldritch nebula. Basically this means that you will be facing monsters full of tentacles and some that are very bug-like.

The game looks and feels like I’m playing my memories of the original Blake Stone from the PC. Both games you run around killing a ton of aliens but with one big difference- GF gives you a map. The map makes traversing the similar hallways much easier because it not only shows the layout but shows the areas you’ve walked. That means if you get turned around it’s easy to orientate yourself again. Graphics are on par with the 90s shooters I grew up with. Controls are smooth and take little effort to master. I had a lot of fun with this one, kept telling myself I’d put it down after just one more level and eventually realized hours had passed before closing the game.

Ugly is a game about a less than attractive nobleman dealing with an existential crisis and reliving his memories.

The folks at Graffiti Games provided us with a copy of their newest title, Ugly. It follows a nobleman dealing with his past using mirror mechanics. On their own site, they refer to the game as a “psycho-dark fairy tale about a nobleman, a mirror, puzzles and huge bosses”. I don’t have the words to explain this game any better than that. Talk about truth in advertising. Holy hell did they nail it. The only thing they left out of the description is that it’s a platformer, an ingenious platformer but still a platformer.

Visually the game art is modeled after a child’s cartoon drawing of a rough life and mixed with the dark world around the character. This leaves the player using these drawings to piece together the nobleman’s life and all of the problems he had to deal with along the way. When I started the game I was shocked by how repulsive the main character was. It was obvious from the start of the game that the game’s name was not just a comment on his appearance though but more on the rough life he had to get him to this point.

What makes this game truly stand out are the controls and mechanics. The ability to make a mirror image of yourself and then switch places with the image is truly something I had never experienced in a game prior and it was done flawlessly. You move left and your image moves right. You both move up and down together but the image passes through walls and objects like they aren’t there and with the tap of a button you and the image swap places. This allows you to do things like climbing a ladder on the right of the screen and your image climb air to reach the platform you want, swap places and now you’re on the platform. You can absorb the image instantly if no longer needed. This makes for some truly unique puzzles. Add the captivating story where I wanted to know all the ways our character was hurt and you have a game that if I were to score with get a near perfect 9.5/10. I only had a single complaint- I like my achievement score to remain divisible by 5s and this game employs some 13s that left me grumbling but I enjoyed the game enough that it’s a non-issue because I intend to complete every bit of this game until I have a perfect gamerscore.

Sneakybox and Atari team up to bring a tactics roguelite game with Days of Doom to consoles!

The last tactics styled game I remember playing before Days of Doom was another playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics. FFT was the gold standard in Tactics gaming. No other team has been able to capture the magic of a world and the ease of gameplay as well. Sneakybox built the original version of this game for mobile devices but under a new team has rebuilt the game, saving mostly a few characters and maps, and released it to consoles. This was with publishing assistance from Atari.

The game focuses on the world after the zombie apocalypse is here, like in the movies, comics and other games, you must venture out and collect supplies and fight to live. Gameplay follows the classic tactics format where the area of the stage is laid out on a grid and you move your characters like a tabletop game. With my obsession with tabletop gaming it’s pretty obvious why this style appeals to me. visually the game is vibrant and looks like it jumped right off a page from a comic or graphic novel. The controls are easy to learn and feel natural with the gameplay. Overall I had a ton of fun and the game appeals to me on so many levels- tactics and zombies just to name the two big ones. This game is well worth the play and I look forward to playing again.

Ashina: The Red Witch is part of the same world of My Big Sister from Ratalaika Games but is it’s own title.

In Ashina: The Red Witch, from Ratalaika Games, you play as Ash, a young woman who wishes for something new while clinging onto the loss of her mother. The game starts as you make dinner for you and your sister, talking some trash as siblings do and enjoying the home-cooked meal. After the sister leaves for the night, you awake to the sound of someone in the other room and find a yokai making food and almost starting a fire. He steals a keepsake of your mother’s and runs. Chasing him leads you to arriving in the afterlife and a world full of yokai. Here you must track down the item, with the help of the thief and his friends.

The dialogue in this game is great. The banter between the two sisters alone is worth playing for. I legit laughed out loud while playing through making dinner during the game’s intro. I honestly can’t say the last time I laughed that often just during the opening, never before in an RPG/JRPG game either. Visually the game and animations are clean, despite being made in a retro style, very similar to SNES titles from back in the day. With the amount of laughing I’d done during my first two hours of gameplay is anything to go by I expect the rest of the game to be funny as hell and a great deal of fun.

The folks at Atari are back with another Recharged title, giving it a much needed facelift and marketing it towards newer players. That game is Quantum: Recharged.

Atari have redesigned quite a few of their games under the Recharged label, the latest of which is Quantum: Recharged. You fly a ship with a tail of sorts that leaves a trace behind you and if you cross the trace, creating a loop, it creates a destructive void that will destroy enemy ships. Additionally the game comes with a mission mode that challenges and refines your skills as your progress.

The controls are smooth as hell. I’ve never played a game before where your control of the ship was so well defined you could literally thread a needle with it. This is the first. Can’t tell you how many close calls I had that thanks to the controls I was able to avoid danger. The ships and powerups were quite simple in appearance but the overlay or HUD for the game was incredibly crisp. This game is another example of why you shouldn’t be sleeping on Atari’s Recharged titles. Now if only I could actually get good at the game, then I might make it to the end. It’s time to practice some more.

Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is not the first title from Chibig to feature the world of Mara and I suspect it won’t be the last.

Mara is the name of the ocean surround the islands where each story takes place from the many games that Chibig have released. Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is the latest of these titles. You play as Koa as she arrives on one of the islands, following a summons for help against pirates. After arriving you quickly learn that the things the pirates have taken are to be used in a contest of champions styled event involving racing and platforming and more.

Visually the graphics are clean and coupled with fluid controls it looks and feels like I’m playing not just a AAA title but akin to Super Mario 3D World. Controls feel like those classic adventure world games like the more recent Mario titles or Banjo-Kazooie and others like that. The story could be more engaging but is about on par the other mentioned adventure titles and feels like the perfect complexity for younger players. This would be a great title for the little ones to play or to watch as you played. Overall I had a blast and was quite impressed with the quality of the game.

Ratalaika Games have ported over another game that was originally a PC release, this time with Sephonie, a gem developed by Analgesic Productions.

Sephonie follows three scientists from all over the world as they head to the island of the same name. As they approach the island they are greeted by a wave of energy, distorting their signals and washing them up on shore. A chaotic way to start the adventure for sure. The goal of your trio is to research the odd behavior in the local wildlife and immediately learn that it is happening to the bacteria as well when a member of the team begins having a strange reaction to an injury caused by coral.

The game focuses on pushing these researchers to their limits by testing them with physical challenges as well as twisting their dreams against them. Analgesic and Ratalaika have made this a near perfect port as controls are fluid and easy to learn. The platforming aspect of the game is pretty simple to grasp early on but increase in complexity as you progress. Visuals are clean as is the audio but I would have preferred if there were some voices for the characters- you can get so much more out of a character’s emotions or feelings by listening to them. Listening sure beats reading a ton of dialogue, especially when you’re a little tired. Curious to see where the story goes but I hope it’s not as dialogue heavy as the start of the game was.

Where the game shines most is the puzzle system. You play Tetris-like game mode to learn about different things in nature where you place various shapes made of blocks together. When you run out of pieces to place or run out of room to place them you have every set of blocks that touch that are the same color, as long as there are at least three, vanish and fill up the bar. Your goal is to completely fill the bar to complete your task. Trying to plan ahead and fill the bar leads to an engaging experience that makes the game worth playing for this alone.

Known for both new titles and revitalizing old ones, Ziggurat have brought another game back from the vaults- Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition.

Terminal Velocity is a flight simulator where combat and tunnel maneuvering are the main focus. Using the Infernal Engine, Ziggurat have not only restored the classic but expanded on the mechanics as well. In what feels like the spiritual lovechild between Starfox 64 and Descent, players fly a high speed craft through tunnels and over the surface in search of targets.

It has been more than a few years since I played a flight simulator of any sort and this one stood apart from those I had played. There isn’t must story to speak of and the visuals were mediocre by today’s standards. That is to say that they didn’t receive much improvement if any to the graphics for this game. Controls were fluid and intuitive.

I would have liked to see improved graphics instead of a title that looked like it was already on the low end during Windows 95 and some sort of story involving voice actors so you didn’t need to look away from the action. With the perfection that were the controls, fast paced gameplay and engaging gameplay though I had a good amount of fun and would absolutely play this again, even with it’s many failings.