Author: Danny Neleman

Square Enix’s HD-2D series has quietly become the go-to treatment for reviving classic JRPGs while keeping their soul intact. With Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake the studio finishes the Erdrick arc started by last year’s Dragon Quest III remake, and packages the first two adventures into a single modern release. That means players can now experience the origin stories and the early worldbuilding of the franchise in a single sitting, with visuals, UI and some mechanical upgrades designed for contemporary play. Start at the beginning If you got introduced to the Dragon Quest franchise later on, say with…

Ever since the release of Season 1, the anime adaptation of the manga series, Demon Slayer has been the flag carrier for anime culture. It also stands as Japan’s bastion of hope on the backdrop of the worldwide popularity rise of South Korean pop culture. Juggernaut of Japanese pop culture In just a few years, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has grown into a cultural juggernaut. The manga has sold over 220 million copies worldwide. Of these, 164 million were sold in Japan and 56 million overseas. That places it among the best-selling manga of all time. In 2021, Aniplex,…

Mattel and Limited Run Games revealed a new He-Man title today. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction is being developed by Mike and the team, and it aims to blend the characters and settings of the 1980s cartoon with hand crafted combat, large sprites and arcade style action. The pitch is straightforward. You take control of Eternia’s heroes; He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms and others, and face off against Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and the cultists bent on completing an ancient ritual. The ritual revolves around the Dragon Pearl, a plot device that threatens to plunge Eternia into darkness…

Developer Chorus Worldwide announced Aggelos 2 this week, positioning it as the upcoming sequel to the retro‑styled 2D Metroidvania Aggelos. The new entry is targeting a 2026 release across PC and console platforms. The original Aggelos delivered tight pixel artwork, side-scrolling exploration, and layered progression across maps. Aggelos 2 appears set to expand the scope of the first game with more traversal upgrades, a deeper narrative ar, and richer world connectivity. The early visuals released by Chorus showcase enhanced tile lighting, character animation with subtle shading, and smoother transitions between regional biomes. Gameplay promises complex element puzzles integrated into combat…

In 2020 Piko Interactive and Qubyte struck a strategic alliance to bring Piko’s large 200 plus game license collection to consoles. Over the last five years we have seen a steady stream of retro titles resurrected from Piko’s vault. Qubyte handled porting and publishing for single titles like Rage of the Dragons NEO. Most releases, however, arrived in collections such as Breakers Collection, Top Racer Collection and the VISCO Collection. For the Qubyte Classics Beat’em Collection, Piko and Qubyte took a number of misfit titles that did not fit the usual strategy of bundling by original developer or franchise, and…

This Yasha Legends of the Demon Blade review has been tested and played on Nintendo Switch 2. Priced at $29.99 US (€29,99), it is available digitally on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. It takes some courage to take on the competition in the overly crowded roguelike genre. We seem to mention competition every time a roguelike review key ends up in our mailbox. Its not a factor to ignore though, as the genre, when done well and creatively, can add much to the video game landscape but has much more chance to land flat on its face. Let’s find…

Nintendo has rolled out a new display option for its Switch 2 Classics app: a CRT-style filter now available for SNES, NES and N64 titles included in the Expansion Pack. The filter aims to bring game visuals closer to how they originally appeared on analog hardware. The new CRT setting introduces scanlines, softened interlacing, and a slight blur all aimed to give off a more authentic retro experience. The CRT filter can be toggled on or off in the app’s settings menu. It’s been optimized for the Switch 2 display, where the effect feels most balanced. Original Switch owners will…

What if your dad is Count Dracula and, of all things, he’s taken up gardening? Whenever he’s off on his nightly vampire errands, his kids, Flora and Fang, stay behind to defend his precious crops. Between swarms of bees and waves of pests, the siblings must work together on platforms to keep every pumpkin intact. Like other Flynn’s Arcade titles, an unlikely premise is turned into a focused single-screen platform puzzler. Flora and Fang: Guardians of the Vampire Garden arrives on Nintendo Switch July 10. That sounds familiar Anyone who’s played other Flynn’s Arcade titles before and liked them, will…

Dutch YouTuber Dosgamert and developer Lethal Guitar have been working on remastering Apogee’s cult classic BioMenace for some time. On July 11th, they released the BioMenace Remastered demo on Steam. This demo shows the efforts put in to the project that should revive Apogee’s 1993 platform shooter and provides an early look at the remaster in progress. Updates and Improvements The remaster runs on an updated engine with support for modern resolutions. Controls are refined for smoother movement and jumping. Asset upgrades include redrawn sprites and background art that stay true to the original style. Players can freely switch between…

Indie studio Decemberborn Interactive has lifted the veil on its upcoming prequel, Cathedral: Crow’s Curse, set to take players back into the dark, foreboding world first introduced in their 2019 action-adventure title, Cathedral. This time the spotlight falls on Crow, a Shade Sentinel whose brief but pivotal appearance in the original game left fans eager to learn more about his story. Crow’s Curse combines 16-bit pixel art with modern features such as dynamic lighting and refined animations. This is a departure from the NES-style graphics from the first Cathedral game. These enhancements update the visual presentation without altering the sprite-based…