Underdog Detective is a brand new live action FMV game charting the adventures of Du Xun, an amateur detective and antique dealer of charmingly questionable repute. He's spent his whole life in Underdog Dwelling, Shendu's (now Luoyang's) 7th Century human rubbish dump, a place where the unlucky or unfavoured wash up against their will and … Continue reading Review: Underdog Detective
Category: _Adventure
The mobile police at home
The Super Famicom's rather plainly titled Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor game, um, Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor (from the same development team later responsible for the Saturn's Gundam Side Story trilogy) defies neat description. Much like the source material it's a game filled with enormous mechs more than capable of punching each other to bits yet fighting isn't always the answer, a game … Continue reading The mobile police at home
Students, statistics, and bloodthirsty beasts
In 1945 a mysterious black moon appeared in the sky and waves of mythical beasts - goblins, gorgons, naga, and worse - began to roam the land, their only goal to kill, without malice or anger, every human they could before they expired. It's now 1999. Humans have been erased from entire continents and the situation is … Continue reading Students, statistics, and bloodthirsty beasts
A city with one street
Over the past few days I've been replaying my way through Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3, the PSP exclusive sequel to Irem's great but questionably localised (and now sadly expensive) Raw Danger. It's a playable disaster adventure shot through with an unexpected dose of chilling realism, the game's opening transitioning from a conspicuously ordinary bus ride into the city … Continue reading A city with one street
A link to the past
This Super Famicom exclusive has the distinction of being the first to be directed by Eiji Aonuma, a name you may remember from his work on another little Nintendo series called... oh, what was it? Ah! The Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time onwards, as I'm sure you already know). Marvelous: Mouhitotsu no Takarajima is at heart … Continue reading A link to the past
A bug’s life
One of the joys of buying strange little Japanese PlayStation games in particular is that you never quite know what you're going to get: Maybe you'll end up owning an(other) adventure game or train driving sim, or maybe you'll end up riding hot air balloons over impossible landscapes or blasting away in zodiac themed tunnel … Continue reading A bug’s life
Dungeons & Dice
Crimson Shroud owes its existence to Level 5's "Guild" initiative; an unusual idea to give three famous game developers and one comedian a modest budget and then let them create whatever they wished for the 3DS in any theme and in any style, the end result a joyously unpredictable collection bundled together as Guild 01, bursting with … Continue reading Dungeons & Dice
Pocket-sized panics
The WonderSwan exclusive "Novel Theatre" game Terrors 2 offers users three unrelated but hopefully spooky stories to choose from once the standard-issue creepy laughter's died down on the title screen, with a shorter fourth, final, and equally disconnected tale unlocked after you've cleared them (and made sure you've saved too). This bonus piece isn't a … Continue reading Pocket-sized panics
Gotta hack ’em all!
For an adventure game with such impressive development talent behind it - that'll be Red Entertainment (Sakura Wars, Galaxy Fraulein Yuna) and Creatures Inc. (Mother 3, manymanymanymany very good Pokémon spin-offs) - Japanese DS exclusive Project Hacker: Kakusei failed to do much more on release than exist in as unremarkably and inoffensively a manner as possible, quietly coming and going … Continue reading Gotta hack ’em all!
The horrors of the mind
deSPIRIA's scrappy survivalist future of deadly secrets and grisly monsters, a setting where people try to eke out a life for themselves amongst the decay as androids play the roles of shop assistants and murderers while a powerful religion oversees all, is something of a spiritual sequel to the supremely atmospheric PlayStation title Dark Messiah. … Continue reading The horrors of the mind