You are Alfre ‘Frey’ Holland. A lost teen on the mean streets of New York city doing whatever it takes to survive.

But young Frey (Ella Balinska), who’s parents are a mystery and was raised in foster homes, has gotten in with a bad crowd.

Living alone, with a stray cat she adopted, Frey has been planning her escape from the life she lives, after a recent brush with the law.

Things don’t go as planned. Frey soon finds herself alone, hungry, lost and homeless. Desperate… until fate steps in.

Finding a golden snake like cuff in an abandoned store Frey’s world literally changes forever.

Forpsoken is an ambitious and epic RPG set in a fantasy realm called Althia. A place that Frey was transported to once adorning the cuff.

There are, in fact, two characters in one. Frey and cuff, who’s powers you rely on to survive.

Cuff, or Vambrace as he prefers to be called has sass, a dry sense of humour and a well-to-do accent.

Throughout your entire play there will be chatter between cuff and Frey. At times vital, other times helpful and other’s annoying. but you can toggle the chat option to your liking.

The world of Athia is huge. Exploration is a must. There are literally so many goodies, hidden secrets and loot to be found.

Your enemies vary from beasts to zombies to larger than screen dragons and more.

As mentioned, your cuff (or Vambrace) is your unlikely best friend, albeit an annoying one.

It gives you the magical powers to parkour up vertical surfaces, quick dash out of harm’s way, fire upon baddies and more and can be upgraded.

Forspoken uses a skill tree much like many other RPG’s. It’s real simple to use and as you likely guessed it, as you gain Experience you will Level up and increase your skills and / or offense and defense.

There’s a lot to do in Forspoken. Asides from your main quest you may pick up side gigs here and there and you will end up in an unexpected brawl, especially if you’re exploring (which I fully recommend you do).

In villages or areas that have abandoned buildings you will come across crafting benches. It’s here that you can mix and build from components and plants that you’ve picked up throughout your play across the vast terrain.

Increase the defense and abilities of your cloak. Up your health stats and concoct life saving health remedies that you’ll most definitely need later.

Your main objective is to save the people of Athia, even if they are suspicious of you, an outsider.

Sometimes aided and other times impeded by NPC’s Frey’s journey as a hero and self discovery is an ever engrossing narrative that, for me, compelled me to play on.

From encounters with the Tanta’s, the overseers of Althia that are just as corrupt as the corruption they are spreading throughout the world, through to some adrenaline fueled parkour moments lifting you to a point of a breathtaking vista of the lands and surroundings.

In Forspoken, if you can see it in the distance, you can get there and explore.

RPG’s are my fav genre and this can make me critical of some that don’t quite tick all boxes. Forspoken is not one of those. There’s enough going on to keep you in game for a lot longer than you’d realize.

If, like me, you love a good RPG, one that gives you the freedom to play how you want, get back to the main story when you’re ready and has so much to do within the gameplay’s rich story, Forspoken is a must.

The post Forspoken (PlayStation 5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Pistol whip, slash with a katana or haul out your big guns, do whatever it takes to bring down the mighty dragon and rescue Orochi Zilla.

Shadow Warriors 3 is a cheesey humor filled first person action gore fest filled with demons, larger than life foes and even oversized mutant bunnies.

Things kick off with Lo Wang (yes I see the joke here) lamenting over his failures from the past, destroying all civilization and it’s not too long that you’re on a mission to rescue your former fiend now friend Orochi Zilla who gets trapped by residual energy held inside Hoji’s mask.

The two must now set out to find a witch that may be able to free Orochi Zilla. But it’s going to be one hell of a ride getting there.

The post Shadow Warrior 3 (PlayStation 5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Brush up on your Rock, Paper, Scissors as Alex Kidd is back to save Miracle World all over again and this time he is dressed up real fancy.

Back in the late 80s, the days of perm-death in games, Sega was the king of home console (Nintendo gamers may dispute that though) and really made their mark in the homes of eager cartridge gamers with the Master System II.

Depending on the region a built-in game came with the console and that was Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

With it’s catchy soundtrack the 8BIT wonder became the delight and frustration of the time.

You are Alex on a mission to save the lands from the evil Janken.

Maze like Levels, varied gameplay, from platform adventure through to swimming, motorbike riding and helicopter flying… and boss fights with brutal and fierce, er, Rock, Paper, Scissors bouts.

Smash bricks, collect cash to buy in-game items, kill your varied foes with a massive punch or time-limited weapons and try not to die, which you will. A lot.

Stepping out of the 80s and time travelling to present day, Janken Team and Merge Games have released the remastered version.

With smooth near cell-shaded graphics and a remixed soundtrack of the originals, it’s the Alex Kidd for a new generation.

If you were a wide eyed kid gripping your three button Master System II controller back in the day and long for those pixeled 8BIT visuals, you’re in luck.

You can transition from the new version to the old school on the fly during gameplay.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX has been creatively and lovingly restored and re-worked not just by a development studio but from those that also loved the original and it shows.

A remaster I was both looking forward to but equally nervous that it would be ruined by a remake, it couldn’t have been remade any better.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is a challenge I’m up for and loving again some 30+ years later.

The post Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Better late than never, we check out Sega’s Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game.

Originally released in Japan only in 2019 on PS4 and Switch, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game was a victim of COVID-19 just like its namesake. It’s still probably the safest way to partake in the Tokyo Olympic games, which start later this month.

The game features 18 events that range from mini-games to almost fully featured sports titles in themselves. From the title screen, there are a few options, the casual Olympic Games, Ranked Games, and Practice. Here players can also customise their athletes and select outfits as well as check rankings and records.

The Olympic Games events can be played individually, from qualifying through to semi-finals and then the finals, or as preset or custom event medleys. Event competitions can be played solo, two-player local multiplayer,or with up to three other players online (including one local).

The Ranked Games offer a more formal online competition that allows players to compete with others online in a set event schedule. Success improves players’ global and regional ranking.

Whilst the game doesn’t feature all the disciplines of the real Tokyo Olympics, but it does feature a good selection. The new event of sports climbing is in the game, but sadly no skateboarding. Baseball, Japan’s national sport, which last featured back in the 2008 Beijing Games is included in the game.

The athletics events should sate players yearnings for Konami’s coin-op Track and Field/Hyper Olympics. The running and jumping events: 100m, 110m hurdles, 400m relay, and long jump, involve repeatedly pressing the X button to run with an additional button pressed for boost, jumps and baton passes.The hammer throw has players rotating the thumbstick and releasing the hammer at the right time.

The 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley swimming events have players timing thumbstick swipes with each stroke. The X button is used to get the swimmer up to speed. The rhythm and direction of the swipes depend on the style of stroke. The developers have added a bit of variety in the controls of these events, rather than stick with the button hammering.

Sports climbing involves careful of timing thumbstick moves and the direction of handholds. Another more extreme event, BMX, involves pedaling away by pumping the X button, whilst timing jumps, as you race against eight other competitors.

Team events are OK, but players used to more fully-featured Baseball, Basketball, and Football (soccer) games like The Show and FIFA may find them a little too simplistic.

They play OK as casual games, though.

Of the team games, rugby sevens was a favourite of mine. Tokyo 2020 has distilled the sport into a fast-paced game of tackles passes and runs.

I actually found beach volleyball, tennis, and table-tennis to be the most enjoyable events. They play as well as some dedicated sports titles.

The last two events, judo and boxing, do a good job of translating fights into easy to pick up bouts. Judo is more about timing and pummeling buttons, whereas boxing is all about blocking and hitting.

The game does a good job of representing the events in a manner that easy to play and yet offers enough of a challenge to still be interesting. They are designed to be fun to play, casual experiences rather than technically demanding.

The visuals are OK.

Ditching realism for a stylised casual look works for the game. What could have been a dry, yet half-baked jack of all trades, master of none, is instead a rather charming party game.

A lot of effort has been put into character customisation, allowing players to select not only their country, from 80 national teams but also the style kit worn by each of the players’ teams, including the player’s own character, for each event.

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020is a pretty good effort. The game has plenty of variety. It works best when played with others, preferably friends playing locally. As a single-player game, some of the less well-formed events get a bit tiresome.

But with friends, the game really fosters the spirit of competition and makes for a great party game.

The post Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game (PS4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

From villages to cityscapes and futuristic labs Ryu Hayabusa is back in a trilogy that originally defined Ninja action.

From Team Ninja comes the collection of Ninja Gaiden, remastered for current-gen consoles, bringing both the nostalgia to us who played the original back in the mid 2000s to the last entry in the series – Ninja Gaiden 3.

Over the top and non-stop Ninja Gaiden follows a lone Master Ninja Ryu Hayabusa as he originally tries to save his village then sets out on a path of revenge… which then kinda becomes a bit, well, SciFi.

Armed with the legendary Dragon Blade a weapon so powerful that it eventually begins to consume him.

Ninja Gaiden games also have an RPG element, while basic.

Collecting up Essence from your foes or throughout the environment will enable you to purchase additional melee and projectile weapons aswell as upgrading, or rather ‘strengthening’ your existing ones.

Finding Gold Scarab Beetles reaps even better rewards.

You will also learn new moves – this can vary a bit via the game you’re playing but ultimately these can be learned through new scrolls you will acquire.

Then you have a super move by venting all of your frustration and might via Ninpo. You’ll also play as differing characters as the narrative allows. They too have their own skills and weapons.

While none of the three games are open world, there are many areas that are worth exploring – and explore you should as there can be goodness just around the corner.

The Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, if you hadn’t gathered by now, has all three games; Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden II and III.

Arcade action at its finest – you get ranked on how well you did (or didn’t) do at the conclusion of every Level.

Perhaps showing it’s age, playthrough of the games is short, around 6 to 8 hours per game, but given that you have all three titles in one bundle there’s more than enough Dragon Blade slicing and wall running to keep marathoning through.

Replayability is a bit light. Once you’re done. You’re done.

The only replayability factor is to replay on a harder difficulty. This will gain you more Achievements or Trophies, if you’re a trophy hunter.

In all the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection is a satisfying play and for gamers like me who played the at the time groundbreaking Ninja Gaiden on the first Xbox it’s a series you should smash your way through.

The post Ninja Gaiden Collection (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Rise once again Knight Arthur, it’s time to save the Princess all over again.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Resurrection from Capcom and designed and directed by Ghosts ‘n Goblins series creator Tokuro Fujiwara pits you against hordes of ghouls, ghosts, monsters, demons and end of Level Bosses in a 2.5D side scrolling multi-tier levelled game that hearkens back to the original series.

In a story book based narrative, Arthur, the Princess and the Kingdom are enjoying a time of peace and tranquility. As Arthur strips off his gears down to his undies to enjoy a well deserved lie down in the afternoon sun a dark shadow envelopes the land.

Suddenly the Castle is in flames and the Princess stolen. The sacred Umbral Tree is almost destroyed and your adventure begins to take down the Demon Lord and his minions.

Paths through the Demon Realm can be two fold and I do recommend tackling both paths when they occur.

Arthur has eight different weapons to slay and slice with. The Lance, Spiked Balls, Daggers, Hammer as well as some very amusing magic. Turn all of your foes on screen in to frogs, harness the power of angry weather and wield a thunderstorm and alot more.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Resurrection has a simple RPG feel to it. You can store up your skills and differing weaponry, all selectable via a key on the PS4 controller. New skills are gained by collecting up the floating Umbral creatures that you find in each Level. These will be housed back in to their tree where you get to spend your Umbral tally from a literal skill tree.

There are secrets galore and of course no shortage of respawning monsters for you to take out… or take you out.

And they will.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Resurrection difficulty settings usher you into the game. There’s a Practice mode where you are immortal and will respawn to continue the adventure. But Practice mode is not where you’ll get the full game.

It’s a the first handful of Levels, a taster and about an hours worth of play to completion.

Squire, Knight, and Legendary are on offer each having a clock timer and ramping up the difficulty a zillion fold.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Resurrection is not an easy walk in the shadowy underworld.

But hey, you’re the legendary Knight Arthur. With your armour, your inventory of weapons and magic skills you don’t have any fear and nothing can take you down… right?

If you want to share the fun, you can. For the first time on a Ghosts ‘n Goblins game you can buddy up with a mate in local co-op.

A simple game that’s built off a decades old franchise and one of my personal favourites, Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Resurrection is a challenging, satisfying spooktacular homage to the prior editions that you should have a stab at.

The post GHOSTS ‘N GOBLINS – Resurrection (PS4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Hostiles are everywhere. Take them out or be taken out in the revamp of everyone’s favorite ‘worst’ game Postal, in the new Postal Redux.

This remaster sees you against the world in differing areas filled with cops, military, civilians and ostriches.

Going from semi to full birds-eye view you with an arsenal of guns and explosives cause carnage across two continents, U.S. and Japan.

Postal Redux infact takes the best bits of past Postal games and mixes them up in one hell of a shooter fest.

Gameplay is simple. Run, gun, explore and make it to the exit. Play how you want, be strategic or be bold. In some Levels, being bold is likely to get you killed though.

You have one automatic gun with endless bullets and eventually will pick up others such as a pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, flame thrower, grenades and more.

The narrative of Postal Redux is a bit, well, not really there. You are the ‘dude’ a dark and brooding individual who has beef with authority, law and society going ‘postal’ in public places with a requirement of taking out up to 90% of all ‘hostiles’.

The dark humour is a bit tongue in cheek, the game knows what it is and doesn’t take itself too seriously (and neither should you), other than the darker side of your character who between Levels the game indicates that he is falling deeper and deeper in to a psychoses.

Postal Redux also offers up a Rampage mode.

Kill or be killed, last the distance, clear the area with increasing difficulty. Rampage is exactly that, a bullet, explosive marathon. Oddly, Rampage mode is also a good practice play before you take on the harder Levels. Not that Rampage is exactly easy in itself.

A game that is quick to finish.

This will be a downer for most due to the length of play of the entire game. If you get real good clearing an area you’ll move through the differing environments at a lightning pace clearing the entire game in less than 6 to 7 hours. Postal Redux’s savior from being a play once and forget is the mentioned Rampage mode.

A controversial series that has seen it’s earlier predecessors banned in many countries, Postal Redux may test morals for some players but is still high on the playability factor and a game that, again, is not meant to be taken seriously.

The post Postal REDUX (PlayStation 4/5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

You can’t keep a good zombie down.

Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse has been resurrected from 2005.

Originally being an exclusive Xbox Classic game from former Halo devs you take on the role of Stubbs, an undead chap who falls the ‘futuristic’ 1950’s town big shots wife.

Your goal is to win the heart of the most beautiful lady you’ve ever laid your dead eyes on and to do this you’ll eat brains, create you’re very own brainless zombie horde, hurl pieces of you as projectiles and fart your way around differing areas of the expansive town called Punchbowl.

In life Edward Stubblefield was a door to door salesman in the 1930s. After falling for the wrong girl he is murdered and his body dumped out in the wilderness. Some 20 years on Stubblefield returns to find love once again.

Played in third person you’ll shuffle or shuffle run around encountering the townsfolk including police with guns.

Filled with innuendos, dark humour and despite its age, excellent gameplay.

The ported version has had it’s in-game graphics ramped up to be up to play with the equivalent of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but the FMVs which break up each Level are the originals and they have not aged too well.

Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse is one of three games that I’d always hoped would get a remaster (the other two; Voodoo Vince which was remastered last year and Skullmonkeys – still not remastered… yet).

If you missed what was a ground breaking game 16 years ago I fully recommend giving this some playtime.

Become the ultimate undead, Stubbs, a mild mannered zombie with a big (rotting) heart.

The post Stubbs the Zombie (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Little Nightmares was a strange little delight.

A cleverly built puzzle platforming game that was as charming as it was creepy as you navigated the yellow raincoat wearing Six around this terrifying and massive world.

Now we get to visit the nightmares again in Little Nightmares 2 from developers Tarsier Studios, and they have gone, well, even more nightmarish.

I’ll come out and say it, I am a complete and utter wuss.

When my wife says we should watch a scary movie, I say nope. Sure once upon a time I cowered whilst pretending to be a stereotypical man type watching the movie that would give me the willies for months, but now I straight out say nope. When it comes to games, I am even more of a wuss, but there was something about Little Nightmares that had me curious.

The first game had a lot of creepy imagery and an atmosphere that got under your skin, but in an interesting way, not a scary one. The second game did something similar but managed to push it that little bit further.

This game has you running around a world as the young boy Mono.

He quickly encounters Six and the two make their ways through the world. The first Level initially feels like an interesting change as you are in a forest exploring.

This immediately feels less claustrophobic than the world of the first game which was always inside the big boat. This feeling doesn’t last long as you enter a building and… well it goes from unnerving location to unnerving location.

A lot of the tenseness has been dialled up for this game as well.

There is a long level that reminded me of the creepy nurses from Silent Hill that properly got under my skin. I had to turn the sound down and charge through the Level as quickly as possible to get through it. Again, I am a wuss, but it has definitely been dialled up.

The gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game which is generally good but a little bit janky at times. There were timed button prompts that didn’t quite line up to what I was doing and deaths felt unfair, but it was minor.

The key to whether or not you will enjoy this is whether or not you want more of the original Little Nightmares.  For the most part the game doesn’t improve on the first Little Nightmares so much as it carries it on into a new setting.

The post Little Nightmares 2 (PlayStation 4/5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Before World of Warcraft and Diablo there was The Lost Vikings, Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing and Blackthorne.

A small game development studio called Blizzard burst out memorable 16Bit games in 1993, setting the path to the mega Triple AAA titles they are known for now.

To commemorate how far they have come Blizzard have finely remastered while retaining the original gameplay, visuals and audio their three foundation games in Blizzard Arcade.

Blackthorne, a sci-fi 2D platformer was hailed as ahead of its time due to the fluidity in character motion, achieved by use of rotoscoping (tracing over scenes of actual human movement).

An adventure action game you’re reclaiming your world as you knew it from the tyrannical clutches of Ka’dra’suul and freeing your fellow man along the way.

Run, gun and get yourself a bit lost in the maze-like multi sequenced Levels.

Blizzard keen to cover all genres at the time released a diagonal view racing title to the soundtrack of some head-banging rock and roll tunes.

Apparently set in the 30th Century, some of the vehicles tend to look more like R.C. Cars or buggies than say, a ride from the distant future.

Nonetheless gameplay is still as tricky as it ever was as you try to avoid on-track hazards, gain boosts and weaponry pickups.

There is even a track editor for you to build your own – this was very forward thinking at the time.

Then there was The Lost Vikings.

A personal fav of mine from the Sega Megadrive / Genesis days and well ahead of its time.

Eric the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and Olaf the Stout set out on a quest of their lives, across land, time and space.

With all three characters for you to control, the gameplay was a mix of action, adventure, strategy and puzzle.

As their namesake each of the Vikings have their own set of skills and you’ll need to swap between them in order to get through each Level.

Still as epic, challenging and a lot of fun to play even now.

Blizzard Arcade also has a lot of Easter egg options for you to experience the studios merger beginnings.

Outtakes, original concept art, advertisements, game boxes and more through to video interviews with original game creators and even a music player so you can rock out to game soundtracks from the early 90s.

Each game has the original SNES and Megadrive / Genesis versions and Definitive version which combines the features of both consoles in to one. Blackthorne (a game I’d love to see remade for next-gen) also has the 32Bit release.

Blizzard Arcade is a small trilogy of nostalgic gaming goodness being an excellent title for those that remember these titles when they first released.

Screen ratio can be toggled with or without borders or full screen.

I highly to any retro gaming fan or those that want to (and should) experience the early beginnings of console and arcade gaming in all of it’s pixelated playable splendour.

The post Blizzard Arcade Collection (PlayStation 4/5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.