Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion - Review

Warning: This game displays warning message about being scary...

For as long as you remember, legends have been told about the derelict mansion on the mountain. Being a history buff you decide to explore and find out what secrets the mansion holds. . 

The game boots up with Old SNES game music and intro options screen which is a nice touch. It begins with meeting the character of Spooky, who presumably owns the mansion you will play as! The game portrays as a cartoony ‘Doom’ with brick walls and long corridors. The challenge to get through all one thousand rooms begins. 
 
Standard FPS controls are used ‘WASD’ keys and mouse. 
The rooms are randomly generated allowing for multiple different game plays. The first rooms are empty to raise suspense, while the music adds to this; with rumbles in the background and the sound of creaky doors. 
The rooms are mainly the same few corridor shapes. The music certainly makes you feel unnerved. Moving into room 13 and the music changes, the suspense continues. Choices are made by the player as some rooms have multiple doors to exit through. Empty rooms with loan chairs in the corner feel rather ‘Blair Witch’. In addition, a combination of weird pictures and large windows add to the eerie feel. 
Colours change in the room indicating something is about to happen…. Room 25 and still the suspense is growing. 

 Room 26 and a pumpkin sprang out from the wall. Looking ridiculously cute, the scary noise and speed at which it moves made me jump! This effect is repeated in a number of rooms, and although I’ve already experienced this ‘jump’ reaction, I continue to be surprised (and squeal like a girl!). The music adding to the suspense and making you feel like something awful is going to happen. 

Another note is found in Room 50 indicating the person who left it feels trapped in a never ending maze of similar rooms. Feeling very thirsty and running out of ink with which to leave these notes... a sense of trepidation overcomes me!! 
Interacting with a cross allows the user to save the game. This makes every 50th room a safe house where you can take a quick breather in which to compose yourself before setting out again.  

Entering a lift, we go down to the next level where the music gets even more spooky. A variety of side rooms are viewed…. some look rather like cells. 
Health and stamina bars in the top corner of the screen are a constant reminder that I am more than likely to meet something… Room 59 leads me into a maze of paths to follow. One wrong step and I will plunge into a bottomless pit!
The messages continue though the game, sounding like the writer is slowly becoming more insane.

Suddenly, a monster appears in the room, it begins to follow me. I run, however, need to be careful to maintain my stamina. Although I am constrained to follow the paths so as not to fall to my death, the creature is not! He slowly floats across any gaps in order to catch up with me. Closed doors do not stop it, he continues. The green slime on the floor slows me down when trying to escape, thus allowing the creature to close the gap.   
As long as you get away from the spooky entity, you will get your health back slowly, however, let it touch you and a few hits will finish you off.

Music changes as I enter room 70, continued freaky pictures adorn the room. The rooms are all similar in their design, but as they are small and short it isn’t boring. There is always the threat that something is following you. Computer found in room which gives details about the various specimens housed in the building. It reads as though the building is some form of experiment, using the creatures to examine how the test subjects cope. Guess I am the latest subject.  
One of the specimens shows as an ‘error’. This invokes a feeling of unease as you do not know what to expect. The computers have established I am being tested and the creatures have been placed there to see how I fare. 
Room 89 portrays as a lab with a brain in a glass jar. Seems harmless enough… for now.
Green patches on the floor now become more frequent. This combined with ramped up music gives the feeling of imminent threat. 
Lurking in a room, while I wrote this review, a spectre crept up and savagely killed me!
 

To sum up, Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion is a fantastic horror experience, even more so due to the fact the game is completely free and can be downloaded from Steam. This will be a game I am sure to revisit, hopefully getting past room 100. Turns out ‘safe rooms’ aren’t that safe after all!

The Secret Monster Society - Review

Have you ever wondered where your dreams come from and why you dream the specific things you dream of…? This game begins by introducing the player to a world where monsters create dreams.

Playing as the overly happy Blythe Dalrich, hand drawn graphics introduce you to the world of the Secret Monster Society. It is a point and click adventure in the style of the old Lucas Arts Games. The game is fully voice acted with Blythe thinking out loud every step of the way. These thoughts are also displayed as on screen text.

As in old school point and click games, the mouse is used to interact with items and to move around the environment. Items can be easily dragged from inventory to where they are to be used.

From the start, the game tries to be funny, however, quickly becomes a little grating. Jokes and puzzles have been done before, using soap to create an impression of a key to open a locked chest for example.

After travelling to school via the toilet, Blythe begins to interact with a range of other characters which is more engaging than the inanimate objects from the introduction. Many of the objects in the environment have eyes (clocks, books, mirrors etc) which would probably appeal to a young audience.

The imagined world of monsters does have a little bit of a whiff of ‘Monsters Inc’ but some of the lore is pretty unique. Early in the game you get the manual for entering dreams, hinting at what is to come.

Human dreams and regulations.

Once inside human dreams, protocol 8972 must be followed. Fight all or any nightmare creatures they encounter, maintain the link between mind and heart and wash hands upon exiting a dream. During an emergency, all persons must escape to the nearest exit point. Anyone under the age of 234 will be banished to the swamp of perpetual hope.  

When interacting with other characters, the player is given a choice of possible questions / replies to use via on screen text, thus giving the player ownership of the direction the game will go in.

Blythe has a history of exaggerating experiences, so friends don’t believe him when he explains he saw lights falling from the sky during the introduction of the game. Adults think he is wasting their time and wont indulge this train of thought.

This game has a slow pace and wasn’t a gripping play. Didn’t feel the desire to find out what is going on and was more a forced play.

A wide range of environments are encountered and the graphics for each of these are the same high standard.

From the start of the game there is a fair amount of backtracking to complete additional requests from characters he meets. This is exaggerated due to the slow movement speed of the character. A quicker pace in these early sections would have made the game more enjoyable and it would have felt like you were achieving more.

Music is a little repetitive but does change depending on location so never too long is spent with the same tune.

The voice acted characters are a nice touch for an indie game and did help bring the characters to life.

To sum up, if you have a craving for a point and click adventure definitely give it a look, however, unfortunately it doesn’t quite hit the highs of ‘Monkey Island’. As an introduction to the genre for a younger audience, the vibrant colours and fun characters would certainly appeal and spark curiosity and imagination.

The Secret Monster Society: Chapter One is available on steam for £4.95 

This review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel PS4 Review

Courtesy of Marvelous, Nitroplus Blasterz has arrived in Europe! Nitroplus is an All-Girl 2D Fighter from the talented team at Examu, developers of the Arcana Hearts series of fighters which have been gracing our shores for a number of years now.

To tell you the truth the Arcana series hadn’t particulary grabbed me, and my interest in 2D Anime style fighters had been beginning to wain. I could see the potential in the Arcana Hearts series of games but they didn’t do enough to re-ignite my passion for the genre.

So we come to this latest offering and we have the familiar all female ensemble present. The girls here are lifted from various Nitroplus Visual Novels, none of which I’m familiar with, other than the character ‘Saber’ from the Fate/Stay Night series, which I only know because she’s appeared in other fighters I’ve played, and she’s got a big sword, which is cool.

You may or may not be familiar with the characters but what can’t be argued with is the variety which is on offer here. There are 14 playable characters in total (two of which need to be unlocked), including several more who appear as support characters bringing the number up to 32 characters in total.

Each character is very unique and come equipped with swords, guns, demon powers, web-slinging abilities and even cats…

The game brims with personality, the presentation firstly is top notch. The intro sequence sets the tone for the game and is suitably exhilarating and very Japanese, but not generically so, Nitroplus has it’s own unique flavor. The characters are colorful and imaginative and most tastes and playstyles seem well catered for.

The game has several modes on offer including Story, Another Story (which unlocks after you’ve completed Story mode with one character) Score Attack, Training, and various muli-player options. Offline play included of course. There’s also a Gallery where you can view various unlockables, such as artwork.

It’s a fairly robust selection of modes, although I do miss the likes of Team Battles, a staple of Tekken and Soul Calibur, although this is a minor gripe, especially when the gameplay is this good.

If I could compare Nitroplus to anything it would probably be the Marvel Vs. Capcom series, however Nitroplus manages to be more technical and rewarding than the aforementioned series. The gameplay is very tight, very fast and incredibly responsive with an emphasis on air-dashing and combos.

As far as new systems go, Nitroplus has a few. There’s a Blast Attack, which powers up your character for a limited time. An Escape Action button is also present, which allows you to perform evasive maneuvers as well as a Heavy Action button, which allows you push the opponent back. In addition to these you have the regular Super Move meter which gives you access to Super Moves of course, as well as Lethal Blazes, which are this game’s ultimate attacks and are suitably and satisfyingly over the top for the most part. Of course there’s also the support characters who you can pick 2 of and sit comfortably on the L1 and L2 buttons and are available at timed intervals during the fight, there’s a lot of creativity present in the nature of these attacks also.

In practice this all works wonderfully together to deliver one of the most enjoyable fighting experiences I’ve had in quite some time. Matches are fast, explosive affairs which manage to remain tactical at the same time. One of the strengths of the game is it’s accessibility. In a short amount of time the game becomes very familiar and comfortable to play, allowing you to pull of all sorts of crazy moves. A lot of commands will be familiar to anyone with any previous experience of 2D fighters and what’s new here doesn’t take very long to learn.

The game’s difficulty also favours newcomers and feels fair throughout, even when you come across the games final boss, which can be suitably annoying, you always feel it’s possible to beat her and the experience is all the more satisfying for that.

The game however isn’t without it’s problems, although there isn’t really much here to complain about. The game’s levels or fighting arenas aren’t particularly interesting, they’re all static and bland for the most part, a little animation in the backgrounds would have helped to bring them to life more. Perhaps this was a conscious decision on the developers part so not to interfere with the foreground action, but they just come off as a bit lazy in comparison to everything else.

For me ‘Another Story’ mode is a bit of let-down. It’s easier than the regular Story but unlike that mode which is light on the Story part, Another Story is a full on read-a-thon. Sadly I couldn’t really get into the story, perhaps I didn’t give it much of a chance, but it’s confusingly written and may as well of been in Japanese for all I know.

Score Attack is also a slightly strangely named mode for what it is, it’s effectively an Arcade mode, although at first I was expecting it to be more of a survival mode, an option that isn’t available in Nitroplus at all.

These are all minor gripes though, in short Nitroplus is excellent. I say this as a fighting fan who had become disillusioned with the Japanese 2D fighter. They’d become generic to me, the gameplay either wasn’t interesting enough or was full of confusing new mechanics. Nitroplus has won me over with it’s accessibility, it’s great characters and hidden depths of strategy. I’ve honestly had as much fun with this as I have with Street Fighter V, probably more. Nitroplus is also a budget title, with an RRP of around £30 and is certainly more fully featured than it’s competition.

If you’re into fighters, you owe it to yourself to pick up this game. If you’re a newcomer to the genre or just love anything Japanese, I imagine you’ll also come away fulfilled from this title. I have personally discovered an all-time favourite of the genre.

Reviewed by Tom Parry (Toodlebug500)

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel is available NOW for both PS3 and PS4 formats.

Unfair Jousting Fair Review

Unfair Jousting Fair is a jousting game that's played at the fair where the game is unfair... unless you know what you're doing.

Developed by Rodaja the game is set at a you guessed it, a fair. Selecting from a verity of characters with plenty of weapons and unlockables to be gained by playing the game.

Controls are very straight forward, left and right keys learn your player forward or back and in turn keeps your players balance, you are jousting on a unicycle after all! Up and down moves the height of your weapon and talking of weapons you'll soon notice that some items aren't your normal choice of objects that are used for a joust.

First player to touch the other player with the end of their weapon wins the round. Easy as that sounds, just by balancing your player alone can win you the round but skilled players will soon get to grips with the mechanics and timing is the key to victory.

If you've already got a Steam box setup in the living room or have the space to have a few friends around the monitor, Unfair Jousting Fair is a hilarious, exciting and oddly enough, addicting game.

Unfair Jousting Fair is currently priced at £3.99 and is available on Windows via Steam.

Checkout a gameplay trailer below and we'll be posting some Let's Play videos over on our YouTube channel!

Mike Davies

Founder/Video Mastermind

Mike is our main go-to-guy for videos. Former 4Kings member and one of the original founders of BlastProcess.com, Mike has been here since the beginning.

The main driving force of the website, Mike loves indie games and apps. So get in touch if you want your game/app featured here!

Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours Review

The 1990’s were a magical place for video game lovers. The 16-bit generation ushered in an era of seeming arcade perfect ports of some of the greatest games of all time. For a fan of Shooters, it meant that finally games like R-type, Gradius and Darius were finally able to be played in the comfort of your own home. All for the low, low price of around £50 a cart! Imagine that! No more trips to the arcade to throw your hard earned 20 pence pieces into arcade slots, you could play through the game’s 5 or 6 stages without every having to pay again to continue! 

If you managed to get a copy of one of these gems for Christmas or a birthday, then it was certainly a good time to be alive.

Unfortunately, times changed. We experienced the rise of 3D Graphics, the arcades died and with them, the Shmup declined in popularity. Fans of the Vic Viper and the Silver Hawk were forced to pay ridiculous import charges for Japanese only releases, cry over articles detailing Japan’s still bustling arcade scene, all between hunting high and low for the few games that got a European localisation.

Then slowly but surely, the increased presence of digital distribution allowed the shooter to finally find a way to reach the West. A lot of these titles were priced to move, with games like Radiant Silver Gun & Ikaruga coming in hot at a bargain basement cost of around a tenner. Again, it was good time to be a gamer. 

However, it is the issue of price that has skewed the view of the modern gamer and when Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours’ price was announced for the PS4, Vita and PC, the casual player of the Shmup cried fowl. I’m here to tell you that you can put down your torches and pitchfork, because if there’s one game in this current era of broken releases and lazy ports worth paying the entry price for, then it’s this one.

Some will already be familiar with the Darius series, Taito’s classic arcade game famed for it’s shooting of space fish and it’s behemoth arcade cabinets with dual monitors. Others will know the cries of Warning a huge battleship is approaching under the name of Sagaia, a title given to some titles here in The West. But regardless of what you’re used to calling it, know the Darius name’s promise of high octane shooting and giant bosses are the core of Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviour.

The Dariusburst series started life on the PSP, before migrating to the arcade in Dariusburst: Another Chronicle. While there have been subsequent arcade releases and even a mobile title called Dariusburst Second Prologue, Dariusburst: CS is the first of the games to receive a home console release. The burst mentioned in the title is a reference to one of the core gameplay mechanics, as the score-attack nature of a shooter encourages players to shoot as many enemies as possible. In doing so, the player builds a burst meter, which can be unleashed at any time to cause devastating damage to enemies.

What’s most surprising about this release is it’s actually two games in one, as for the cost of entry players will get to experience not only the exclusive CS mode, but also a version of the pre-mentioned Dariusburst: Another Chronicle, called AC mode.

CS Mode sees the player playing through a Darius campaign with branching paths of progression. In my time with the game, I experienced a surpassingly amount of variety here. While the various stages naturally re-use the impressively large selection of ships and backgrounds, developer Pyramid have gone to great lengths in order to ensure that CS Modes 200 levels don’t get incredibly repetitive. They achieve this in a number of interesting ways, from simple variants in your ships set up, to removing power ups and limiting clear times. 

CS mode also will have you focusing on your score, as points mean prizes! After clearing a stage, players are awarded with points based on their score, that can be spent on various customisable ships from the Darius series. Each of these ships has a can be customised to the player’s choosing and can really give you the edge in some of the later levels.

Naturally, the game’s bosses are the series’ biggest draw. While classic enemies appear with a new lick of paint like King Fossil and Great Thing, the game is packed with new crustaceans to conquer and bigger fish to fry. These new entries not only tap into the classic shooter formula of pattern memorisation, but some even tap into the genre’s evolution and go a little bullet hell. Brightly Stare stands out as a particular highlight of my time with the game, and feels like one of the most unique boss fights I’ve had in a shooter since the SNES.

It’s also worth noting that there is also a Darius Odyssey mode, which lets you see a large variety of the games artwork, including the bosses with no unlocking required, however it’s unfortunately not translated from Japanese.

There is a story tying all of these levels together, but as it’s little more than a few lines text on screen, it didn’t immerse me at all. The game’s music however is another story, as it covers such a large variety of genres, it’s going to have something for everyone. From electronica, to J-pop to Akira-like chanting between levels, it’s really an eclectic mix of song choices, but it surprisingly works well with the game.

However, where the game’s true value shines through in it’s AC mode. On starting the game, the player is assigned to a cabinet. The more the player plays the cabinet, the more levels are unlocked for the rest of the community. This idea of working together is something that was originally in the arcade release, where arcades across Japan worked together to unlock the games mind boggling high, 3,000 unique levels. The game also features up to 4 player co-op play, which can be a little overwhelming at times when the screen is jam packed with enemies, but provides a truly exciting experience that I’d never had with a console Shmup before.

Unfortunately as attractive as an offering as this is, AC mode isn’t without it’s issues. For starters, the community driven nature of why a player is assigned to a cabinet isn’t really explained at all from the get go. The game also shows both of monitors from the arcade screen at once, making the home experience feel like it’s in widescreen. This especially feels like an issue while playing co-op, as it becomes very hard to see.

Also once in the cabinet, it seems the only way to get out is to close the game and reopen it, as any button press I could think of only led me to the top line of the cabinet’s menus and not the title screen. If this is the case, then it should be fixed as soon as possible, as while it isn’t a huge hassle, the potential to turn off players to cabinet mode is high. It also

All in all however, Dariusburst: CS is solid experience that certainly warrants its price tag. While it may seem costly, the game offers a lot of variety and will provide hours of entertainment for even the most casual of Shooter fans. There is an incredibly surprising amount of depth of offer, with it’s level structure seemingly able to facilitate not only those looking for a hardcore shooter to pour hours into, but also those looking for a casual time killer. If you’re looking for a shooter experience to get you through the holidays and most of the following year, you don’t have to look any further than Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviour. While a lot may have changed since the 90’s, the game is living proof that a strong shooter still makes for an incredible experience.

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You can download the game through Steam, right here.

This review was written by Mat and you can catch up with him on his weekly podcast!

Tom + Mat Attack

Take one Englishman and Welshman. Put them in Denmark. Get them to create a podcast about games.

Every week Tom and Mat discuss what they've been buying and playing. Retro, last gen, current gen...everything goes on this popular videogame podcast!

Until Dawn - Every action has terrifying consequences

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Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?

Will saying something now spark a heated argument in an hours time?

Can one tiny action ultimately lead to a horrific series of deaths?

The Butterfly Effect, as explained by everyone's favourite chaotician Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, is the concept that each and every action and decision you make can have massive repercussions via a chain of events that you could not have possibly seen at the moment of action. The Butterfly Effect is the driving force behind Supermassive Games' terrifying horror story Until Dawn

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A year after a cruel teenage prank went horrifically wrong, 8 friends end up spending the night at the scene of the tragedy - a remote cabin in the mountains. When things take a turn for the worst, they are left frantically fighting for their lives and hoping to survive until dawn...

I don't want to give away too much about the plot, as it really is one of those games that you need to play with as little prior knowledge as you can. Needless to say, if you are a fan of horror films then you will enjoy the ride. Influences touch on everything from Saw to Scream and even The Descent paired with a finely crafted atmosphere and sense of dread. Jump scares will cause your heart to jump out of your chest, but it's the tangible terror around every shadowy corner and that makes you want to hold your breath and steel yourself for what is to come.

Regulars will know that I'm a huge fan of horror games, and I rank Outlast as one of my favourite games this generation, but Until Dawn is probably one of the scariest games I have played for a long time!

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Suermassive have done excellent things with this PS4 exclusive, the facial animations in particular are phenomenal! While still not completely lifelike, at times they get very close - and the uncanny valley effect of these computer drawn emotions pays off in particular with the character of Doctor Hill, a psychiatrist who periodically probes your mental state throughout the cause of the game. Equal parts creepy and intriguing, he has probably the best facial animation I've seen in a game.

The score is also great, with strings jangling the nerves and adding to the whole interactive movie experience. It hits the beats perfectly and manages to replicate the kinds of soundtracks heard in the films this game drawns so many of its ideas from.

Voice acting is mostly top notch, a few misses but the majority of the cast (Including Hayden Panettiere from Heroes and Brett Dalton from Marvel's Agents of Shield) manage to tap into the slasher movie genre and create characters that seem realistic, some likable, some you just want to punch in the face. This mix of character types creates some of the difficult choices created by the Butterfly Effect System

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What could have been a retread of the type of gameplay seen is Heavy Rain is given more substance through the much hyped Butterfly Effect System. The game will track what decisions and choices you make over the course of the game, and each of these will play out differently depending on what you do. Do you follow a path cautiously taking the safe route rather than rushing ahead blinding? Do you sneak a peak at someone else's phone? Do you sacrifice your life to save someone else? Would you kill a friend in order to save another? These are all choices you will have to make and will all alter the story that unfolds.

On my playthrough I managed to finish the game with 5 of the initial 8 friends alive. Not a great run through but each agonizing decision made me want to save them all, even those who annoyed me, and felt genuine regret when I made the wrong choice! It's like having to face one of Jigsaw's games, and sadistically you will want to carry on to see it through to its conclusion. Next time I'm going to try and save them all, next time I wont make the same mistakes! While not the longest game in the world, clocking in at about 10 hours, it does have lots of replayability to try and see each and every possible outcome and find all of the hidden clues. I genuinely believe that each person who plays this will do things different and get a unique experience. Each chapter consists of an hour of the companions night, playing out between different characters until that hour is over. These are preceded by TV Series style "Last time on Until Dawn" segments that keep you up to date with what decisions have been made so far.

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If you have a PS4 and are a fan of horror then you really need to pick this game up! I finished it in two sittings, with the game drawing me into its world as the hours flew by, and at the end of it I already wanted to go digging into other corners to see what was down paths of fate i didn't take. Yes, it is QTE and talking heavy, and its probably more an interactive story than a true game, and this is something that will not appeal to everyone, but it is something that has to be experienced! I give it a spooky Buy it Now award!

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Until Dawn by Supermassive Games is out now for PS4

Keebles Review

Welcome to the world of Keebles; a fun and addictive physics-based puzzle game, Keebles you say? Yes, Keebles; these small but cute creatures need your help, and something to do with a whale! Need I say more?

The idea of the game is to create a vehicle that will carry your 'Bobble' around the level, upon touching a Keeble it will jump aboard your vehicle, taking them to safety at the end of each level and in return you'll earn a Star rating out of 5. This rating will depend on how many Keebles you rescue, time taken to do so and parts used to build the vehicle.

Now onto the workshop where you begin to create your master plan to save all the Keebles, well at least try (thinking caps required). Design, alter, improve the 3 simple steps into saving them all. The workshop itself is very straight forward, within 10 minutes and a few clicks, you'll be creating a whole bunch of creative vehicles to help save the Keebles. Now as the game is physics based, a lot of trial and error is needed but thankfully the game has zero loads times so switching between the levels, restarting or heading back to the Workshop is only a button press.

The game displays clean and nice looking graphics with a soundtrack that will keep you calm despite the occasional frustration, but thats the whole enjoyment of Keebles. You'll look forward to seeing your vehicle move through the levels or fly in my case. Picking up new tools like parachutes, faster wheels and rockets as you progress, a new challenge is always ahead. It's just down to your imagination to create the perfect vehicle to do the job.

So much fun is to be had with Keebles, you've just got to create it and let the good times roll.

Developed by Burnt Fuse and released March 27th on Steam for £6.99, better yet with Greenman Gaming you can receive a 20% discount with a pre-purchase and 4 extra games free of charge.

Friday The 13th Special: Zombie Kittens

As part of our Friday The 13th special I found the strangest yet cutest horror game to be seen. And we have...Zombie Kittens

So you play as a American civil war style character, armed only with a gun in a graveyard filled with zombie kittens dressed as soldiers. The evil rat king has stolen your beloved fiancée (?) and you need to rescue her, repeatedly! Every so often she will run through the hordes of zombies towards you, forcing you to move to intercept her- the only way to rescue her. Also other random hostages will flee, and if you successfully run into them they (unlike your fiancée) they will follow you, firing at the zombies on your behalf, as long as you don't accidentally shoot them dead!

The controls are a little tricky. Firing is easy - just tap the screen anywhere and you will fire straight ahead. To move you need to use the red circle on the bottom right hand corner.

The big red button you use much like other touch screen circle pads but it's a little jumpy, and can be a bit difficult to play whilst you are getting used to all the controls. I'd also prefer it to be on the other side, I just think it would be more natural!

Overall it's a bizarre but funny little game which I have really enjoyed!

You can find it on the Apple App Store and on Google play. If you like a little zombie kitten war that is!

Over and out!

Mel

Friday The 13th Special: Horror Escape

As part of our Friday the 13th week I have dug out some fun free horror apps to tantilise your tastebuds! First of these is...Horror Escape. by Trapped who also have created games such as Scary Escape, Pirate Escape and War escape.

A curious puzzle game full of twist and turns, with no easy to follow click here panels. It's just your eyes and the game...what you see (or don't see for that matter). I played through all the free levels, the first one had helpful hints from the evil creator of this creepy escape route.

It's basically a point and click puzzle creation, you click on anything that interests you to try and progress the game. Something's are more obvious, like a key or padlock, whilst others require following patterns and logic (especially the last two - they are really difficult). They do provide walkthroughs if you're really stuck, and they link through to youtube but if you can resist the urge the sense of accomplishment is immense. Some puzzles are similar but that doesn't detract at all form the game as they are cleverly disguised with different ideas and tactics to solve it all - TOP TIP if you see any numbers anywhere, they're important.

I won't say too much more about it other than the fact I really enjoyed the challenge of these puzzles, they were different to any other point and click I had played before, and I would definetly recommend these!

Find it on android HERE It's also available on the Apple App Store.

Over and out!

Mel

MagNets - More bot netting fun than you can shake a stick at!

Poor Park Ranger Faraday! Minding his own business one day when the Polarity Park MagNetPets go missing! Oh no!! And to make matters worse, the Bloxbots have gone properly mental and started trashing everything of value!

The Ranger, as head of Bloxbot maintenance is tasked by his rather pushy boss with the job of bringing order back to Polarity City.

This isn't done with guns, brute strength or magic! Park Ranger Faraday has got something niftier than all those! He's armed with nothing more than a Electromagnetic Net better known as a "MagNet" and must use skill and agility to capture the misbehaving bots in order to turn them into scrap! With the fragments of scrap he can use handy Recycletrons scattered around each stage in order to get important items to advance his progress throughout the level! But he needs to watch out, as Bloxbots are not the most friendly things in the world and the poor ranger may find himself quickly overwhelmed! While looking out for himself, he also needs to keep an eye on anything else in the stage getting attacked - If he's not careful the Bloxbots may destroy them and cause him to fail that stage!

We first came across MagNets when Richard and the team introduced it to us at the Gadget Show last year, and it immediately seemed like a fun and novel idea with lashings of of old school gaming love rather than the generic brown shooters everyone seems to be playing these days! I was, to be fair, a bit rubbish at it - as you may have seen from the below video!

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCUMzDfldcA[/embed]

I think in the preview build the bad guys hit you for more damage - thankfully the release version is more forgiving! That's not to say the game isn't challenging however, there's much pleasure to be had in juggling the task of collecting enough scrap and solving the puzzles while defending the areas that are being attacked!

The game is great fun to play, with the netting mechanic working really well, and this is boosted by the visuals and music! The look of the game is great with some awesome artwork by Phil Corbett who has also done stuff for Nickelodeon and Disney! The vibrant colours and fun characters really lead themselves to the game and scream personality! Check out some of his concept art below!

Likewise, the sound is great with some amazing music that nails the vibe of the game with some suitably retro sounding tunes spliced with a dance beat!

While the general aim of each stage is the same, the game slowly introduces new concepts and abilities that mix up the collect-em-um happenings! This ensures that things do not get tired while not overloading the player all at once! The difficulty also gradually ramps up from a few enemies to swarms of vicious bots out to get you! The environments are also varied, with everything from a robot concert in the park to more sci-fi locations! To spice things up a bit there are also boss battles, the first of which being a rather angry looking robotic bunny!

I would highly recommend picking up the game if you want something a bit different than everything else out there, the netting mechanic is great and there's a huge sense of achievement when you finally finish a stage flawlessly! One minor criticism I have is the game isn't the easiest to play o a keyboard, and really needs a gamepad for full enjoyment - Hopefully we see the game come to consoles, as it really is something that would be great for a quick blast of in the comfort of the living room!

And so we're please to award MagNets our first Buy It Now award!

MagNets is out now and can be bought here for £7.99

Addicting Apps

Recently whilst hunting through our twitter I came across a cool website called addictingapps.org who have created some fun indie apps, I'm going to take a quick look at just two of them.The first of the three is aptly names Chickuns To The Moon...

You play as a poor chicken strapped to a rocket hurtling into space diving to catching as many floating coins as you possibly can. As a welcome relief from all the tapping game craze you keep your finger on rocket at all times, moving left and right to collect all the coins in your path. You need to collect coins to get a new pump before your current pump runs out - if it runs out you plummet to the ground.

A cute little game but the instructions are a bit tricky to follow, it took me a little while to work out how to get a new pump and how not to die!

The second game in the collection is called Balloon Destroyer...

An easy game to follow, destroy the balloons by popping them before they leave the screen, starting off slow and quickly increasing to challenge the player. You have 99 lives which is pretty high, but you lose a life every time a balloon escapes you which does mount up when you're not looking. You also have the added option of blowing all the balloons on the screen with your sticks of dynamite (but you only have three).

I really like this one, not too complicated and rather addictive (as the website suggests!) as you pop the balloons, I just wish they started a bit faster as it seems to take ages for them to speed up to a challenge level.

The apps are good fun and show great potential for even better games in the future so I would definetly keep my eyes on these creators -find them online or on twitter as @addicting_apps

Over and out!

Mel

Foody fun with Video Game Bread

There's a game currently in design which is accumulating crazy levels of support over every media outlet going, it's been a while in the making and what is you might ask this eagerly anticipated story?Making a sandwich. Realistically mind you - that's why it's taking so long, on various posts the creator have stated they want it to be as realistic as they can make it from the way it falls to the ground and every other aspect of simply making sandwiches. Intrigued, I stopped by to ask a few questions.

First of all, what was your inspiration for creating a game about bread? Why making sandwiches?

The idea came on a lark. The original idea for this game was much smaller & limited. It was gonna be a game where you'd play out the life of a sandwich until it's untimely demise.

What has been the easiest and most difficult aspects of creating the game so far?

The easiest part is making all the art. The hardest part is programming, I'm trying to learn how to code so that's the hardest obstacle haha.

What gaming platform are you planning to release it on when it's complete?

I'm currently aiming for PC, but I'm considering other platforms too.

Have you created any other video games apart from Video Game Bread?

Well. I've worked on a couple of games for game jams, but they're not that great lmao.

Finally, when do you think it will be released?

That's really hard to say. I'd like for there to be something done some time this year.

With over 30,000 followers on Video Game Bread on Tumblrthe mere idea of this currently unfinished game is taking the indie gamers by storm, after all, who doesn't love a good sandwich?

Over and out, Mel

Christmas Kickstarter: Shadows of Esteren

Shadows of Esteren: Occultism There I was just trundling around Kickstarter, when I came across hands down the most beautiful game I have ever seen. Forget the block-like graphics of Minecraft, the pixelated Mario or the almost realism of Red Dead Redemption, Shadows of Esteren is smooth and soft like a painting. This is a dark, gothic, medieval role playing game with strong influences from Tim Burton (the moment you look at the game it screams Burtonesque design) with an interesting flowing movement between painted scenes.

The colours are muted and unusual, giving the game a mysterious and tense feel as you watch the drama unfold. There are various factions to chose, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, with terrible beasts to battle, mostly taken from Celtic folklore to keep it fresh and intriguing.

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It's a French company and it has been released previously in French, just now making its transition over to English and that just shows from the over 200% of money being contributed already and as it stands there's still over 30 days left to back it. The company describes the game as "somewhere between Ravenloft, Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu."

Check it out over on Kickstarter and get your hands on some of the amazing merchandise, including haunting CDs of the soundtrack, bookmarks and more!

Over and out Mel

I P-p-picked Up Pokemon!

So...a Friday night well spent!So you are now Orlando- thrown back into the world of pokemon with a crash. Someone needs your help and there's a new silver haired sidekick who calls upon you to save pokemon from the evil team that is on the hunt for mega evolving pokemon. We have Team Aqua ready to flatten us -but wait! Who should appear in the caves to challenge us but Team Magma themselves. Twice the grunts, twice the battles right? I certainly hope so. It's only a demo: a few pokemon to tickle the taste buds, a battle to fire you up, old enemies revamped with new outfits, old pokemon with new mega evolutions. Bit of old and a bit of new all mixed it together.

Although I will say that blasted BuzzNav on your bottom screen is infuriating - it had better not be there constantly when the game comes out else my 3DS will end up out of the window! Constant flickering and scrolling text that distracts you incessantly, recapping the very basics of the game, a never ending news report with an ever annoying news reporter. However, the set up looks good. An interesting tweak on the game we love, I don't think they will let us down- not yet anyway.

Over and out! Mel

P-p-pick Up A Pokemon!

I've got a demo code for pokemon!I'm so excited I can barely conceal it. I love Pokemon more than I love any other game (WOW and Spyro a close second and third). It's Friday night and I should be out partying...ahh who am I kidding? Saturday nights party night and Fridays is all about ME! And the only thing better than watching Pokemon on Netflix is playing it! Woop!

Pokemon, GOTTA CATCH EM ALL! Over and out! Mel

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Mike Plays OlliOlli on PS4

OlliOlli is a skating boarding game from Roll7 that boosts over a 100 tricks, lots of game modes and leaderboards.

You can download OlliOlli on the Playstation Vita, PS3 and PS4 from the PSN store.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Fe_fuymmk&w=560&h=315]

Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run Run Run

A cute (yet deadly) game that's been hitting my screen is an internet based mini game by the name of Rabbit. You're in control of a white rabbit rushing around a field catching carrots but dodging dynamite. The aim if the game is simple: run across grass (automatically like Temple Run) moving up and down to catch as many carrots as you can - whilst avoiding dynamite at all costs! White carrots are worth the least with gold carrots rocking up more points, just be sure to not get blown up and made into rabbit pie. Why is this game getting so much screen time? I'm not quite sure. The controls are simple, games are quick and easy but it's not in the addictiveness league of Temple Run or Ninja Up. If you're looking for a free game to fill up a few minutes definitely give it a shot by looking here let us know what you think!

Over and out! Mel

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Training Lair Let's Play

While the UK release date of the new turtles movie isn't till October the 17th. We got a chance to play the latest turtles game that was released for free in the US to help celebrate the movie, and as it happens it's a kinect game!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvPU-8SKaJQ&w=560&h=315]