“Imagine what Minecraft might be like if it had been made with pixel art sprites and released in the Super Nintendo era. That sums up the overall vibe of Terraria pretty well. This devious little indie sandbox game borrows so many ideas that it essentially is Minecraft in 2D, but it also beefs up the familiar gameplay in exciting ways. There’s a lot more creepy-crawly stuff to kill, and the staggering number of deadly doodads you can MacGyver together to slay them with is mouth-watering. There’s some gnarly fun to be had in these uncharted depths.”
Check out my review of the console versions of Terraria, including a snazzy video review, here at IGN.
“Poised to carve out its spot as one of the most adorable and enchanting point-and-click puzzle adventures of the year, Fetch spins a lighthearted storybook tale of a boy and his search to recover his best pal, a peppy dog named Bear. This charming, science fiction-tinged adventure packs plenty of pooches, perils, and puzzles to pursue, and its kid-friendly vibe makes it a good pick for a game to play with the family.”
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again until your eyes roll right out of their sockets and your fingers are raw from the pain of mashing the restart button hundreds of times in a single sitting. That’s seemingly Alien Spidy’s ill-conceived motto. This cutesy momentum-based platformer has a dark side that doesn’t fully manifest until you realize you’ve just spent several hours replaying the same 60-second stage to the point where you’ve memorized every obstacle, jump, and danger in your path–yet you’ve still made no actual progress.”
“On paper, Krater: Shadows Over Solside is a mouthwatering mash-up. It spreads its Diablo-esque hacking-and-slashing evenly across a party of crazed warriors instead of focusing on one lone explorer, and the many dank caves and hardscrabble towns you explore are nestled snugly into the foothills of a post-apocalyptic landscape reminiscent of Borderlands’ Pandora or the irradiated wastes of the Fallout series. But while the first leg of this indie action-RPG trilogy picks up on elements from some excellent games, it fumbles them so badly at times that the grind rarely feels worth the effort you have to put into it.”
“A deceptive little beast of a puzzler, Triple Town lures you close and sinks its teeth in before demanding you feed it more of your hard-earned cash. This clever hybrid of match-three puzzles and settlement planning gameplay from Spry Fox is insidiously addictive, but poorly conceived micro-transactions soon suck all the joy out of the experience.”
“When you’re trapped atop a lofty spire, surrounded by killer robots that have just slaughtered every other living being on the planet, it’s not a matter of if you’ll survive the onslaught but how long you can stave off the inevitable. Such is the thrill of Ziggurat, an iPhone and iPad game that’s all about taking out as many of the mechanical jerks as you can before they inevitably rip you to shreds.”
Nathan Meunier - Freelance Writer / Author / Indie Game Developer 