Author: Danny Neleman

While Sega seems busier than ever, with major releases and projects such as Yakuza, Persona, Stranger than Heaven and the recently announced Alien: Isolation 2, the company has finally started to show tangible results from its Legacy Revival initiative. During The Game Awards 2023, Sega revealed that new entries in Shinobi, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage and Crazy Taxi were all in development. At the time, the reveal trailer gave the impression that at least some of these projects might arrive as early as 2024. In reality, development appears to have taken longer than many expected. The…

Many times I postponed creating this review, to the point that it is now way overdue. Mainly because it never really managed to pull me in, while Haunted Lands, developed by Alevgor, appeals to me as a concept in more ways than one. I keep coming back to it because I always feel the tipping point, the moment where it finally clicks, is just within reach. Dangerous Dave homage First of all, Haunted Lands is a straight up homage to Carmack and Romero’s Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion. There are the EGA-style graphics, which fondly take me back to…

Amidst series like Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Gradius or Truxton, R-Type surely held its own during the fourth generation of console gaming as a pure-bred arcade experience that didn’t back off for sake of the more casual home audience. Both Super R-Type and R-Type III: The Third Lightning were hard, relentless even, with limited continues to spend. Like Capcom, Irem never compromised on the coin-guzzling tactics of the arcade games these titles were derived from, even though the subject of todays review, R-Type III, was never released in arcades, it still carries the arcade pedigree fully. I really loved the highly…

Where many retro game enthusiasts hailed the newly announced Neo Geo AES+ as a liberation of the platform, some collectors deeply invested in the original AES ecosystem seem genuinely threatened by the idea of PLAION relaunching the platform as if it were a current-generation product. With only a handful of exceptions, original AES games circulate within the collector market for prices ranging from roughly €400 to well over €12,000. As a result, the niche has effectively become accessible only to a small group of collectors willing to make substantial investments and, in some cases, rely on the long-term value of…

As a 1989 PC Engine original based on the popular manga and anime series, City Hunter feels like one of the earliest console action-platformers to seriously experiment with narrative progression as part of the gameplay itself. At the time, storytelling mechanics of this kind were still mostly reserved for RPGs and adventure games. Games like Ninja Gaiden pushed cinematic storytelling through cutscenes, but City Hunter goes a step further by tying progression directly to clue gathering, NPC interaction and exploration. The 37-year-old City Hunter you are Ryo Saeba, better known as City Hunter, a detective tasked with solving three cases.…

While the global SNK-fanbase is still recovering from the news of the Neo GEO AES+ announcement, SNK Corporation has quitely also released World Heroes Perfect on Steam. They are bringing the 1995 NEOGEO fighter back with a set of modern upgrades. The re-release is part of the NEOGEO Premium Selection line, which focuses on updating classic arcade titles for current platforms. The game sticks to its original structure: a 2D fighting game featuring 19 characters, many loosely based on historical figures. Fighters compete across a series of matches to claim the title of the world’s strongest, with the original mechanics…

It has been in the works for -what feels like- ages. The title Fallen Tear: The Ascension first popped up back in 2020. Not that the game was halted or stuck in development hell, as far as I know. It appears that throughout this period, Filipino developer Winter Crew Studio kept pivoting toward new features and ideas. Six years later, their Metroidvania has finally entered early access. Traditional Metroidvania In PR communication, Winter Crew Studio explicitly defines the game as a Metroidvania and after playing a couple of hours, it does feel like a fairly old-school, or rather traditional, take…

In the early years of 3D action-adventure games, Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain series positioned itself as a titles that pushed narrative quite a lot in a 3D action games of the time. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver became the breakout hit, arriving at a time when the genre was still moving away from rigid tank controls toward something closer to what we now consider standard. Its movement and world design helped nudge that transition forward. While Soul Reaver brought the series into wider recognition, it began with Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. That first entry already…

‘Minishoot Adventures’… it may have a very understated video game name and the cover art might come off as a bit ‘mobile game-y’, too. The way it presents itself in digital storefronts can feel somewhat underwhelming. What Minishoot Adventures really is, only becomes apparent once you boot it up and see what French indie developer SoulGame Studio has come up with: something fresh that mixes good ol’ 2D action-adventure with twin-stick shooter mechanics. Fifteen seconds in… Once you boot it, its mechanics are so glaringly self-explanatory that its intent lands within about fifteen seconds. The clean and simple, lusciously coloured…

Blaze Entertainment has announced its sixth hardware release for the Evercade platform in as many years: the Evercade Nexus. Pre-orders are now open via the official Evercade website and selected retail partners. A limited Evercade Nexus 64 Edition will follow, with pre-orders going live on April 1, 2026 for €200/$200/£170. The console The Nexus is the largest handheld in the Evercade lineup so far. It features an almost 6-inch 16:9 display with a brightness of up to 500 nits. For the first time on an Evercade device, the system includes both a left and right thumbstick, addressing a long-standing request…