From noted Japanese game director Shinji Mikami comes Vanquish. The fourth game in the collaboration between development team Platinum Games and distributor Sega is a sci-fi, third-person shooter, which despite looking generic in screenshots is actually miles apart from its genre-packed competition. Clever ideas mean that it retains a strong identity of its own. Vanquish is a gamer's game demanding to be played and mastered thoroughly. A title that always makes its action feel fresh and exciting,...

Game Dev Story (GDS) is a sleeper hit in every sense of the word. Word of mouth quickly generated enough publicity to encourage potential purchasers to download a game about making games. On paper it is a premise that doesn’t initially seem to make sense. You start a videogame company and you make games. Right then. GDS takes this concept and fleshes it out to become one of the most complete experiences on the iDevice platforms and it is one that succeeds not only on the strength of its parody...

There’s a line to be drawn, but where do you draw it? When a game shamelessly re-uses content from another game is it always bad, or is it okay if there’s some tenuous link between the two games?

Back in 2001, Compile’s Guru Logic Champ was released unto the world. It’s perhaps the greatest puzzle game on the GameBoy Advance, and certainly in the top three.
In it, you had to solve puzzles by rotating a grid of squares and shooting a limited number of blocks before sucking them ...

Here are some basic translations to help players deal with the menus in the new Monster Hunter 4 on Nintendo 3DS. Basic Yes/No: 決定 - Confirm 戻る - Return Name - Gender Skin colour - Inner (style/colour) Face - Make up Eye colour - Hairstyle Voice Room Service Gallery Download Contents Item Box Store Item Take item Item set Combine/sell item(s) Change/sell equipment Equipment sets Change body (i.e. reconfigure base body) Take item ...

So the background first. The Homestar systems are portable planetarium projectors made by SEGA, intended for domestic use, and retail for around 20-25'000yen. The main restriction with gadgets like that will always be how brightly they can project over an average size room. Homestar Portable for the PlayStation Portable doesn't have this problem.
It's not a game, but an astronomy tool for the PSP generation. The view of the heavens depends on the position of the observer on the Earth. This ...

If Namco’s original Splatterhouse is indebted to Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday 13th in any way, it’s clearly the protagonist's penchant for winter sports headgear. It’s all very well setting a scrolling beat-em-up in a grisly mansion populated with the un-dead, but exacting gory revenge with a metal pipe wouldn’t be half as pleasing without offering that old slasher movie axiom: the mask.
Back in 1988, Namco used Jason Vorhees’ iconic hockey mask to separate Splatterhouse from its forbe...

Having cemented its position as the de facto console for shmups this generation, Japanese developers have flocked to the Xbox 360 and released some genuine classics for the platform, including Mushihime-sama Futari 1.5. and Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi EXTRA. Even smaller boutique developers have joined the fray with the likes of the quirky but splendid Shooting Love 200X making an appearance on the platform. Now MileStone attempts to draw some interest their way with the release of Radirgy Noa Massive. ...

The First Five Hours

Hour One You can look forward to spending a bit of quality time with another leisure pursuit because, if you choose the suggested install (after the day one patch installs and you have cleared enough space from your HDD), you will be waiting for at least 45 minutes, despite the clock timer indicating that you will only have to sit around for 20 minutes. Bring a book, a handheld system or a cup and ball to entertain you. The last quarter of an hour will be spe...

DoDonPachi Saidaioujou marks the final entry in Cave's now venerable bullet hell shooter series. It's a vertically scrolling 2D game with an emphasis on explosions and mayhem, and attempts to up the ante of the superb Dai-Fukkatsu/Resurrection release from a couple of years back, whilst also delivering a rather different gameplay focus and art aesthetic.
The scoring system is simple enough - as you shoot enemies a hit counter rises, which in turn increases the value of the items they drop ...

Set in a Mech-ravaged future where clear, blue skies and summer sunshine still prevail, Enslaved’s day-glo art-style offers a welcome contrast from standard post-apocalyptic settings and impresses from its very first scene. Towering skyscrapers stand engulfed by vibrant plant-life, sky-blue stretches of sea remain untouched by radiation, and titanic robot ruins form the backdrop for intense brawling. Enslaved is a treat for the eyes that consistently rewards the player with imaginative vistas...