While relaxing after a hard day of adventuring, our garden tool wielding hero is knocked out by a huge drill that comes flying from the sky. Piloting it is Drill Knight (of course) who steals all your hard earned treasure and digs a massive hole in the ground to get away. So now fueled by a new vengeful goal, Shovel Knight grabs his weapon and jumps down after him.

The hole in question isn’t just a pit to a boss fight though, it’s an ever changing tunnel that takes you through different themed worlds every time you jump down it. Yes, Shovel Knight Dig is a roguelike. A roguelike that blends Spelunky, Mr Driller, and that pogo bouncing attack we all know and love to create something truly special.

The aim of each section of the tunnel is to reach the bottom, but between you and your goal there are all sorts of enemies, traps, and collectibles you’ll need to navigate. What makes this different to similar games with the goal of descending is how much dirt you’ll need to dig through to get to the bottom.

You’ll come across huge walls of dirt on pretty much every stage of Shovel Knight Dig, and by mashing your attack button downwards or sideways can dig your way through it. With explosive mines and dangerous drills packed inside though, it’s never easy to avoid being hit and losing some precious life. Even when out of the dirt you’ll find it being used to aid in the platforming. If you hit the dig button fast enough on a strip of dirt floating in the air you can use it to get over large gaps. It’s a cool mechanic that changes throughout each run as different types of dirt start to appear.

Outside of all the digging, you can swing your shovel as a weapon and hit your downward pogo strike to bounce from enemy to enemy. This mechanic is as satisfying as ever, and you’ll immediately remember why Yacht Club Games decided to base an entire franchise around it all those moons ago. The simple moveset works perfectly for a roguelike, and also means there’s plenty of room for power ups to shake things up a bit.

There are lots of different ways to make yourself stronger in Shovel Knight Dig. Secret rooms that you smash open can have anything from max HP upgrades to relics that function as a subweapon (like a bouncing fiery orb or a lance that deals extra damage with every successful strike) locked inside. Each section of the tunnel also features three cogs to collect, and at the end of the stage if you grab them all you’ll be able to pick from an accessory that offers a permanent buff or a meal to fully heal you.

As you might expect the buffs vary in how much they’ll help you. After a few runs you probably won’t really need the magnifying glass to show you where secrets are hiding, but the phoenix feather that essentially gives you an extra life will never stop being useful. It won’t take you too long to see most of the possible accessory power ups, but with a few sackfuls of gems you’ll be able to unlock more at the surface.

Between runs you can spend any gems you collect on upgrades and new accessories, so no matter how badly a run goes you’ll progress in some way. Adding more powerful items into the hole might just give you the edge on your next adventure, whereas new armour and shortcuts could change the run entirely.

If you want to get your hands on all the cool items, you’ll need to collect as many gems as possible down in the pit. There’s a real emphasis on gathering the treasure, and plenty of opportunity to do so if you’re willing to take a risky route past a trap or two. There are shops down the hole too though, so you’ll have to balance buying upgrades and health with topping up your savings.

When you realise how important cold hard cash is in Shovel Knight Dig you’ll probably try to slowly and methodically grab every last gem on your adventure. The developers knew you’d try this though, so any time you dawdle you’ll notice a bit of rumbling from above followed by a massive chainsaw that’ll ruin your day. I must admit at first I found this a little annoying, but after a few runs I got used to getting a move on and barely saw the evil blade of doom.

One thing that really helps Shovel Knight Dig stand out as a roguelike in a crowded genre is how simple it is. There’s not a lot of obscure mechanics and baffling secrets to get your head around, and every item has a description that actually explains what it does. Even the difficulty makes it more accessible. It’s by no means an easy game, but it’s probably the first roguelike I’ve ever managed to beat within six hours of playing. There are accessibility features in the settings menu too ranging from bonus health to altering the game speed itself, so you absolutely don’t need to be intimidated by the difficulty.

If you’re a fan of tough games though, don’t think there’s nothing here for you. Each world ends with a boss fight you’ll need to learn the moveset of if you want to escape with any health, and they’re just as fun here as they were in the original Shovel Knight. There’s also almost certainly a true ending to discover, with plenty of paths and secrets I couldn’t uncover on my own.

You also shouldn’t mistake the simplicity of Shovel Knight Dig with a lack of ideas, because the game is absolutely packed with varied traps, enemies and worlds. The mushroom themed area has fun bouncy mushrooms and works great as a place to learn the basics, then you’ll find yourself in a fiery hellscape or a gorgeous underground Atlantis with fish swimming up the walls. Whenever I thought I’d seen everything that Shovel Knight Dig has to offer, something new and exciting was waiting to batter me around the corner.

I’d be a fool not to mention the visuals and soundtrack of Shovel Knight Dig. As is standard for the franchise the retro aesthetic is done right, and will be a huge hit with fans of old school graphics. The soundtrack is simply chiptune mastery. Listening to every track took me back to a childhood full of Mega Man games, and I can’t praise it enough.

Shovel Knight Dig is a fantastic roguelike that won’t scare off players with its complexity or difficulty. The Shovel Knight mechanics blend beautifully with the roguelike loop, and the focus on treasure gives you something to aim for besides the final boss. If you loved Shovel Knight but have always been intimidated by roguelikes, Shovel Knight Dig is the perfect first game to get you hooked on the genre.

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South of the Circle | A link to the past

The narrative of South of the Circle revolves around the main protagonist Peter, who is a Cambridge academic, and the setting is the 1960s in the backdrop of the Cold War. He’s on an expedition to the Antarctic when his plane crashes and he must now look for rescue in the frigid, unforgiving wastes. Interspersed with exploration are flashbacks to key moments in Peter’s life. The main thread of these revolves around Clara, another academic from Cambridge with whom Peter becomes increasingly romantically involved. Other flashbacks include conversations with others around the university, including peers and your professor, as well as also going right back to Peter’s childhood.

The gameplay aspects are rather stripped back. You control Peter as he explores Antarctica, moving him around as he discovers various buildings or landmarks to help with his rescue. Some of the flashbacks also have some movement and interactions with the environment that you control. The main inputs for you as a player revolve around your reactions to conversations. You can choose to respond in certain ways to other characters. Different emotional responses appear as different icons above Peter’s head, and you highlight and select which one to go with. This allows a little bit of tailoring in Peter’s approach to conversation, but critically it doesn’t dramatically change the flow or thrust of the story.

And this is important to understand before going into South of the Circle. It has a story to tell that you as the player have very little influence over. What it does allow State of Play to do is focus on how it wants to deliver that story with the impact and nuance that it deserves. Various themes are explored, including war and patriotism, love, gender roles and stereotypes that were very much of the time. It’s impactful because it doesn’t deviate because of a player’s choice. The beats consistently land because you see and experience everything you are supposed to.

Smooth transition

Alongside the story is a visual style that, whilst simplistic in approach, means the pastel, almost grainy character models remain consistent. The style allows for dramatic use of light and dark to add to the atmosphere of the scenes you experience. The transitions between Peter’s current Antarctic crisis into flashbacks are also incredibly considered and well done. Some are sharp and blunt for dramatic effect, whereas others are more soft and nuanced, invoking different emotions, depending on the setting, and it helps you adjust to the new chapter in the way the developers want you to, to land the story well.

It helps that the story is so well written and tugs at your emotional heartstrings throughout. You’ll feel fear, hope, sadness, consternation, and anger as well as that warm fuzziness you get from watching two people fall in love. There’s strong voice acting from the cast, with the relationship between Clara and Peter being a particular highlight. The soundtrack that sweeps over the story as a whole adds appropriate punctuation and drama, further reinforcing the action on screen.

South of the Circle is an excellent example of how to create and tell a well-crafted narrative that is thought-provoking and impactful. It ultimately comes down to how much credibility players put on experiencing a story vs feeling like they are a part of it. You don’t take decisions that sway outcomes or scenes that you see; you are consuming an intended story and nothing more. But the standard of that story is high and will leave a mark and indeed a moment of reflection after the credits roll. A passive experience it may be, but one still well worth experiencing.

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With a bonkers plot about experiments with dinosaurs gone awry, the presentation is fantastic, with well-designed hand-drawn characters and enemies, that belter of a theme song, and a funny plot. Gameplay is very much in keeping with the developer’s experiences helming a Contra game and feels instantly familiar to anyone that has dipped into the Konami franchise. You run, you gun, you climb walls and hang from platforms and stuff just like Bill and Lance.

Unlike that iconic duo, Spidersaurs protagonists have different abilities in terms of their weapon loadouts. Punk rocker Victoria wields a guitar which when strummed dishes out a laser that can pierce through walls, or operate as a Contra-esque spread gun. Despite having a dull name, Adrian gets to play with a beefy flamethrower and a gun that splits into multi-directional shrapnel on impact. Both guns can be switched on the fly, and upgraded with the power ups dropped by baddies.

Each of the six stages is also conveniently split into two sections with a midpoint, giving you the opportunity, ostensibly, to switch between the two to get a level crushed. Also unlike its forebears, you get a bit of breathing space with an energy bar, allowing three hits before you die. How I could have done with that as I raged my young self through Hard Corps on the Mega Drive.

Completing each stage by defeating one of the imaginative, impressive bosses will grant you a new ability, such as enabling climbing of walls, or a double jump. Given how short the game is, it feels like these should have probably been included from the start. It was originally released as a mobile title for Apple Arcade, so the brevity is understandable, but it is a shame that the game hasn’t been fleshed out a little more for consoles.

You get the ability to play through from the start with all the unlockables once you have finished the game, but that is about it. The difficulty level is nowhere near as hostile and hardcore as the games that inspired it, and any fan of the genre worth their salt should breeze through it pretty quickly. Shattered Soldier, it ain’t. But it is loveable, looks fantastic, and by jove I would watch that Spidersaurs cartoon.

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Once you’ve created your Spirit Scout avatar you arrive at Cozy Grove, a lush forest island inhabited entirely by animal ghosts. You’ll soon be given your task of helping to soothe these spirits, and alongside with your campfire friend Flamey will need to gather and craft different items as you go. It’s a fairly simple loop that you’ll get used to over the next couple of real time months of your life.

Cozy Grove review: charming ghosts

The ghosts that you help throughout your time in Cozy Grove have their own unique charm. Other than a Fox shopkeeper, they’re all bears with wildly different personalities. There’s a blacksmith bear, a postie bear and even a salty old sea captain bear. My favourite was a wood effect bear who communicates with trees, and the personalities just get more wild as you upgrade your campfire and meet more well written characters.

Helping your grizzly new friends is usually pretty straight forward. They’ll ask you to find an item somewhere on the island, and give you a clue to its whereabouts. Then it’s up to you to wander the forests and beaches to check behind trees and rocks for missing packages or ketchup for a red velvet cake. This would probably be easier if the island wasn’t black and white until you’ve made a spirit happy, and didn’t change the location of landmarks every new day. If you’re struggling you can spend your hard earned coin for a hint or two, but it’ll mean you’ve got less to spend in the store.

Time to craft

As well as finding items, some quests see you needing to craft the items you need. There’s plenty of food, shells and plant life to be found on the island, and you’ll be helpfully guided on how to find what you need to complete a daily task. Crafting is overly simple, and involves throwing items on your campfire and getting something in return. There’s also the blacksmith, but that’s used more to make some tools to help you gather more bits.

With an array of shovels, axes and rods at your disposal, you’ll soon be lining your inventory with valuables you can sell or hand in to the captain’s collection (which is definitely not a museum). Every day there’s something new to find, so it’s worth combing the beaches and casting out the rod each day. You’ll need to be fishing anyway, because you always need an excessive amount of fish.

Although the main drive to help these bears is the story, you’ll also be incentivised to do so every day with a bunch of furniture. Each piece of furniture can be used to spruce up your campsite – although as it’s just a flat bit of land as opposed to a house, it can end up looking like a bit of a junkyard. Each item you place has different keywords attached to it, which is important if you want to keep any plants and pets happy.

Cozy Grove review: sim life

The first thing I bought in Cozy Grove was an adorable green bird, before realising it wouldn’t be truly happy (and provide me with valuable essence) without a nice environment. I quickly gathered enough rustic furniture for this picky little fella, and fed and pet him relentlessly. This all becomes more complex as you gather more friends with different tastes in decor.

It’s important to mention that similarly to some other life sim games, there is a limit to how much you can really do in each day of Cosy Grove. You’ll get maybe 30-60 minutes of playtime daily, depending on how hard you fish and gather. It works out pretty well because the gameplay isn’t exactly thrilling, but it’s nice to spend some time in the incredibly beautiful world with your new friends regularly.

If you’ve played games like Cozy Grove before, you’ll likely know how much mileage you’ll get out of it. Some will love the carefree daily check ins, others will find the fairly repetitive loop lacking. I sit somewhere in the middle, but can’t deny that I was taken in by the charms of its beautiful world and animal cast along the way.

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JORJ is a big fella, who wants to make his way up Grindstone mountain. Unfortunately for him, all manner of monsters and jerks make this mountain their home, and the only way to journey to the top is by carving his way through their fleshy bodies. With the help of his trusty sword and an assortment of power-ups, you’ll need to help JORJ charge through coloured enemies to carve his way to the exit.

Each level takes place on a square grid, packed full of colourful enemies. JORJ can slice through baddies of the same colour in a straight line, turning them into piles of perfectly square meat. Chaining more than 10 together drops a Grindstone onto the field, which if you collect allows you to switch the colour of enemy you can kill. This then leads to some incredible screen-clearing chains, that help you reach the goal number of enemies dispatched to beat a level.

JORJ isn’t the only aggressive character on the mountain though, and the longer you take to finish a stage the more enemies will get angry. A worked up monster will attack all adjacent squares to it, so it’s best to end each attack chain on a tile away from potential damage. It won’t be long until you’ll be faced with screens full of aggressive little beasties, and you’ll need to make sure you finish a turn surrounded by previously sliced foes.

It can be worth sticking around once you’ve unlocked the door to the next level, with plenty of precious loot and Grindstones still up for grabs. Killing baddies and breaking items littered about a stage will sometimes drop crafting materials, and since they count as any colour they can even help you pull off some impressive combos.

Between stages, you can spend your hard-earned stone at the Inn to recover health and craft items and clothing. There are dozens of handy tools to create, each able to help out in a sticky situation. Shields block damage for a turn, bows can kill a single enemy that interrupts a combo, and single-use potions can heal you or even teleport you to any square you want. You’ll unlock more blueprints as you make your way up the mountain, which gives a really nice sense of progression.

You’ll need to be well equipped for the tougher foes that reside on the mountain. Each with their own unique attacks, this nasty lot can only be taken down by building up a combo stronger than their toughness. Despite the potential danger these jerks bring, beating one means you can switch colour. There’s simply nothing more satisfying than chaining together a room full of tougher enemies in one deadly path.

The action of Grindstone is made all the more enjoyable thanks to the delightful art style Capybara have used. All the weird and wonderful creatures that lurk on the mountain give off serious Cartoon Network vibes, and watching JORJ carve them into chunks is a feast for the eyes thanks to some exceptional character animations.

There’s no shortage of content in Grindstone, with hundreds of levels spanning multiple worlds all with their own obstacles. With additional secret worlds, a daily challenge and tons of optional objects, there’s almost as much content to devour here than in your favourite open-world game.

To unlock all the levels and equipment you desire you’ll need to do more than just slice your through to the exit gate. Each level has a chest that drops once the door is open, which you’ll need to find a key from a basic enemy to unlock. There’s also a Royal Slob that spawns in every level, granting a crown to anyone who can take them down using only their colour.

Grindstone has so many interwoven elements that you’ll unlock as you play through the game, but they are introduced at such a perfect pace that you never feel overwhelmed. The added complexity as you progress also prevents the fairly simple gameplay from ever feeling stale.

Grindstone is simply sublime. Its gameplay is easy to learn but hard to master, and the amount of content available is incredible. Clearing out full screens of jerks never ceases to be satisfying, and the constantly changing cast of baddies in your path means it never gets stale.

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There is a clever contrast between Alba herself and the surroundings/environment she is inextricably linked to. You watch her progress through her life from a baby to a teenager. It captures this lovingly centered theme of youth and contrasts that to her environmental journey. At a young age, it can be easy to lose yourself and not really appreciate what’s around you. As you look around and spot your life covered in litter and the remains of captured animals, you wonder how far you must go to preserve it before it’s too late.

This being said, Alba doesn’t feel performative or needless, and it tells a tale of humans and their very essence. When a dolphin washes up ashore covered in litter, everyone unquestionably jumps to help. It doesn’t aim to guilt individuals as it’s not as malicious as that. It’s hard to track the damage that small acts can do and it knows that. It treats humans in a kind light with the results of careless actions. 

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure itself is not careless. It has great emotional flourishes that feel earned. The music swells, the visuals gleam and the story comes together well. This music plays into this idea well: it is personal and joyful. There’s nothing synthetic about the soundtrack. With just a guitar, a pan flute, bass, ukulele, some sparse vocals, and an odd bell you have this lovely warm soundtrack enveloped in the sounds of the land. As it is a part of the game itself, the environment is just as much a part of the soundtrack. The sounds of the sea and animal noises work to an almost ambient effect, feeling like a low drone accompanying the world. 

The titular Alba is tasked with taking pictures around a town with a phone given to her by her grandparents. After making your way to the wildlife sanctuary, you are greeted with the news that its fall into disrepair means the town has opted to turn it into a hotel. You must acquire signatures, help out friends and take as many pictures as possible until you have to go home – don’t worry though, the game isn’t on a strict timer.

You investigate sick squirrels and find out pesticides from a nearby orange farm are making them sick. When you talk to the man who sells the oranges, he lends an empathetic ear, exclaiming that it’s awful the squirrels got sick and he’s glad they’re fixed now – without ever being made aware that his oranges are a part of what caused the damage. This is something the game deals with in a surprisingly mature way. It understands that fifty moving parts might be the cause of an issue, but that each part believes it’s doing the right thing. 

You enter the rather idyllic Mediterranean town believing this big bad hotel is the issue, until you realise the town is already failing. The wildlife has been driven off, roads filled with litter. It posits this one issue as the main problem until you realise you’re dealing with the direct result of hundreds of bad decisions. Alba is reformative, Alba is rehabilitative. It treats itself with little pretence and doesn’t feel overly judgy. This is a great tool for children and stubborn adults alike. 

It helps that the visuals are so lovely and the gameplay stays both engaging yet fun throughout the handful of hours Alba: A Wildlife Adventure lasts. There is something blocky about the visuals, feeling somewhat similar to 2019’s The Touryst. That’s not the only similarity this holds, either. There’s a similar intrigue to wandering around the island, solving little issues and working your way up to bigger ones.

Alba is given a small notebook that functions as a checklist throughout her week on the island. You overhear conversations or get a call on your phone, activating a new little quest to do. There is constantly something new to do or a new goal to work towards. Once you’ve helped a sick animal, you might need to save another trapped one. Once this is done, you might need to clean up rubbish stopping animals from feeding. In the short term, you fix whatever small issues you can. In the long term, you want to fix the island and the wildlife sanctuary with it. 

The sad thing is that the existence of a wildlife sanctuary left in disrepair implies that this never used to be. Single acts don’t lay at the centre of this story. This is a fight that is consistent and never lets up. Alba attempts to deal with the spinning plates that are the environment but knows that is fleeting. Like that summer spent watching animals and cleaning up the town in Alba’s youth, this is a struggle that gets further away with every day. This is a fight that lasts longer than the handful of hours it will take you to finish. Alba is just one of many who fight this fight, and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure showcases this very well.

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After your success in the original game, the titular Gungeon is falling apart. Instead of exploring floors for loot and delving deeper into its bullet filled corridors, you’ll now be frantically rushing upwards and out of this crumbling structure. After a brief tutorial on how to survive the threats ahead of you from one of many charming and funny NPCs, you’ll be thrown into countless failing runs as you attempt to Exit the Gungeon.

In Enter the Gungeon, dodge rolling was the key to dodging the walls of incoming bullets and staying healthy. The handy skill makes its return here, but with a vertical twist. Jumping is considered a “Vertical Dodge Roll”, which means that any time you spend in the air you are completely invulnerable to damage. It’s an ingenious way to make the incoming projectiles feel less overwhelming, but you’ll need to make sure you have a safe area in mind for landing when you become vulnerable again.

Each stage is generally a single platform where you’ll fight off foes while being propelled toward the Gungeon’s exit. As an elevator or train carriage barrels through the ruins, you’ll need to dispatch the enemies in the mini arena while avoiding the hazards of each area. One stage sees you riding a platform held up by balloons, which regularly get popped destroying parts of the environment. Another elevator ride can be controlled horizontally by switches, enabling you to dodge floating mines that release extra bullets if you collide with them.

In the standard “Blessed” mode, your weapon is empowered by a deity and will randomly transform into a different weapon. One minute you’ll be firing from afar with a machine gun, then in a flash you’ll have a Blunderbuss equipped that is useless unless you’re pressed up against an enemy. When you kill enemies your combo meter will build, and as long as you don’t take damage will continue to rise. The higher your combo, the better the random weapons you get will be. This makes the whole affair feel much more arcadey, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Since you can’t control what guns you’ll be using, it’s important to spend your money sensibly between stages. The shop stocks all sorts of passive buff items (which can also be found in smaller optional rooms in the same hub area) as well as health, armour, and blanks that wipe the screen of projectiles. The various items can make all the difference during a tough stage, and range from simple health upgrades to jump height boosts.

Although each time you die you’ll have to start again, there is a level of permanence in Exit the Gungeon. Any characters you rescue from prisons throughout the Gungeon will take residence in the hub you visit between runs, offering a variety of services. Any bosses you beat drop credits that you also retain, which can be spent to add new guns to the random pool, or even items that’ll turn up at the shop.

The new Arsenal mode added to Exit the Gungeon in the Hello to Arms update changes the game in a huge way. Although you still have your usual randomly cycling weapon, you’ll also find un-blessed guns as you go. These guns can be swapped to any time your random gun isn’t the right tool for the job, but they only have a limited amount of ammo. Whenever you have an un-blessed weapon equipped, you can also see what your random gun transforms into so you don’t miss out on a powerful weapon.

The guns in Exit the Gungeon are truly creative and really fun to use. Although there are a decent number of firearms that you’ll recognise from a standard shooter, the vast majority are off-the-wall and amusing. There’s the Directional Pad that fires bullets out of each of it’s directions, the Lower Case r that fires the letters that spell BULLET, and my personal favourite – a Mario brick that fires green, red and blue shells that have the properties they do in Mario Kart. Getting to know how each gun works is essential if you want to survive when it’s thrust into your hand.

The enemies you find in the Gungeon are just as interesting as the weapons, and are all gun themed. There are basic enemies that are bullets, shells and sniper rounds, which all fire their respective weapons at you. The bosses especially are particularly creative, and this is summed up perfectly by the newly added terror that is The Gloctopus. With a gun in each of his 8 tentacles, anyone but the most experienced Gungeoneers will perish to his mollusc might.

Although I really enjoyed my time with Exit the Gungeon, I did have occasional frame rate issues in the more hectic areas. In such a precise game these frame drops were fairly off-putting, but fortunately, they aren’t particularly frequent.

Exit the Gungeon is an absolute blast, packed full of charm, challenge, and arcade action. The unique midair immunity mechanic means the dodge based gameplay is incredibly satisfying, and quite unlike anything I’ve ever played. The framerate issues might occasionally frustrate, but the sheer amount of delightful Roguelike content (especially with the Hello to Arms update) makes Exit the Dungeon well worth a purchase.

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You never stop putting and swinging, but what you’re actually putting and swinging with changes a lot. The controls are as simple as they come: aim and swing. Even outside of the levels, you’re hitting the golf ball around the weird laboratory that takes you from one course to the next. What makes What the Golf? so unique is the different ways it allows you to play. Sometimes you’re driving a car and others you’re throwing yourself down the green. The ball may become a box, wine bottle, spaceship, or a blob of slime, and with each one the mechanics change.

To get from the putting green to the hole, you may be required to aim in the direction you want your bicycle to go, and then power up and “swing” to choose how fast you want it to go. Sometimes the courses have obstacles to overcome, such as exploding fuel drums, security cameras, and pesky children, and with each one you must do your best to avoid them to get to the hole. Most of them aren’t overly challenging, but you may find the odd course becomes an Achilles heel. There’re tons of levels, each taking on a particular theme, and whilst a lot of levels feature normal golfing mechanics, some of them are completely ridiculous.

You’ll be a cowboy standing from a distance to hit the flag, a runner carrying a torch, or a horse racing down the course. The Nintendo Switch’s motion controls are even utilised, as some holes require you to play in handheld, opting for a first-person approach. They are stupid, but in the best way possible. If you’re willing to enjoy the silliness, then What the Golf? will give you a damn good time. Triband has not only thought long and hard about the design of each level; they’ve spent a considerable amount of time looking back through the history of video games, and wondering how they could incorporate weird mechanics into their own game.

Perhaps the best courses in What the Golf? are the ones that take you by surprise, feeding you courses based on games such as Super Mario Bros., Portal, and Metal Gear Solid. One set of holes uses the mechanics seen in Superhot, sharing the same aesthetics as SUPERHOT Teams’ unique shooter. You’ll use a Portal gun, race through a course as a Flappy Bird, and even play a ‘level’ of Guitar Hero. It’s fan service you never expect, and even when you’ve completed these holes, a small amount of text pops up providing you with a chuckle or two.

There’re tons of courses in What the Golf?, and although it can be finished in a few hours, there’s more than enough reason to go back and play through it. Each course has two additional challenges. One will see you hitting par on each one, and the other earns you a crown. These can be completely different to the original course, giving you even more content. You can earn trophies for collecting so many crowns, and whilst they aren’t vastly difficult, they flesh out the overall game.

Along with the main story of What the Golf?, there’re other modes you can enjoy, both alone and with friends: local multiplayer and an ‘Impossible Challenge’ provide you with more golf-but-not-golf to enjoy. There’s so much to love about What the Golf? that it keeps you hooked, and I have played through almost all of the courses at least twice. It’s a physics puzzler that continually surprises and entertains, whilst pushing you to keep playing.

Triband has crafted a loving tribute to the game of golf without actually being about golf. The physics work wonderfully, and the courses are so diverse and entertaining. Despite there being a few duds in the rough, and some being a tad frustrating, you’ll get a lot of enjoyment from it. It’s packed with humour, tight gameplay, and more courses for you to shake (or throw) your stick at. What the Golf? is a cracking indie game made by developers who may not know anything about golf, however, they make up for it in every other department.

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You wake up as one of a few survivors (with their own talents) on a ship called Hope. While there is a story and narrative here with some nice voice acting and designs, I really enjoyed the gameplay, atmosphere, and music a lot more. I like how your decisions when you talk to people you meet will affect whether they join you or not. The ship is full of various enemy types that are gradually introduced and some of them hit really hard.

On paper, having all these systems in place shouldn’t work well, but Zen Studios executes it all almost perfectly. The only area I feel Dread Nautical lacks is in the on-boarding (no pun intended). Some of the tutorials are a bit vague when it comes to controls and initial game flow. You end up learning from experience here for the most part.

The core gameplay loop has you exploring rooms for any scrap you can find and trying to survive. Movement is grid-based and if you move into the field of view or go near enemies, combat is initiated. During combat, you use your action points to move or attack. The UI at the bottom showcases all your items and weapons with their durability. There are tons of weapons here and it is always worth reading the information blurbs for them to ensure you don’t waste items.

Your aim is to gather materials, find more survivors, upgrade your hub and gear, and progress. The structure of the ship is procedurally generated so no run is the same and each outing from the hub will throw new objectives at you. Finding a survivor is great, but if you don’t make the correct dialogue choice, they may not join you.

Dread Nautical can be a bit daunting if you’ve never played a tactical RPG before since it has more than just turn-based combat. There are multiple difficulty options available with Normal being the lowest one. I’d recommend sticking to this if you’re not familiar with the genre. This game can get really hard later on. Avoiding encounters is something you will need to learn because your gear has finite uses before it needs to be repaired and you don’t have a ton of healing either.

When games that exist on mobile come to Nintendo Switch, I’m often left disappointed by how they transition when it comes to controls. Dread Nautical does things right here by allowing you to play with both touch and button control. The touch controls setup works just like the touch control on iPhone and you even have a UI scale option. Button controls work well but I vastly prefer playing this with touch. Being able to pan the camera with touch is also great. I can’t imagine playing this just with a controller after how well it works with just touch or a combination of buttons and touch.

Visually, Dread Nautical has a simple cartoony aesthetic, but the environments look gorgeous when the camera pans during finishers and cutscenes. There are also some nice depth of field and blur effects during gameplay. Sadly, performance is a bit erratic and load times can get pretty bad on Switch. The visuals contribute a lot to the atmosphere, but I love the audio design. Voice acting is very good for the cast and the music is a nice mix of more ambient music with some good melodies.

The Nintendo Switch version of Dread Nautical is very good when it comes to how the game uses the Switch hardware, but it has some technical issues. I played Dread Nautical on an iPhone 11, Nintendo Switch, and iPad Pro from a few years ago. The Nintendo Switch version has the longest load times by far and it also has some performance issues. This gameplay doesn’t really suffer given the turn-based nature, but hopefully these issues can be fixed in future updates.

Overall, Dread Nautical does a lot of things well, but it feels a bit unpolished technically on Nintendo Switch. If you have the option, play it on Apple Arcade on a modern iOS device over the Switch version. If you’ve been craving a new turn-based tactical RPG and enjoy survival and roguelike elements, Dread Nautical is worth your time.

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Space Rangers Jim and Barret crash land on an unknown world, while investigating a distress beacon. Jim wakes up to find his partner missing and goes off to investigate, finding a sprawling industrial complex that, it turns out, is a little bothered by mutant creatures that occasionally enjoy snacking on humans. It explains the lack of people around the complex, not to mention the distress beacon.

Upon finding his partner, the reunited Jim and Barret begin searching for the source of the distress beacon and any survivors along the way. Some of these are merchants and scavengers, from whom you can pick up technology and weapons that can be repaired and added to your arsenal. Other survivors are part of a team sent to this planet as part of some mysterious mission, making them ideal candidates to join your growing squad as you continue to explore and investigate the planet.

Exploring comes mainly in the form of an overworld map, with a mostly linear path that extends with each mission completed. It’s in these missions where Spaceland really shines. As I said earlier, both Starcraft and XCOM seem to be influences on developer Tortuga Team, with the isometric viewpoint, colour palette and almost stumpy, stocky character designs instantly conjuring images of Starcraft’s Terran units. The gameplay however, is undoubtedly influenced by Firaxis’ fantastic, modern XCOM games. It’s not a straight rip or anything, more an homage, as Spaceland has a more bite-sized mission structure, with some interesting conservation strategy required.

Usually only allowing a three-person squad, with that rule occasionally relaxed during certain story missions, you enter each environment on a grid of squares. Each character can move a certain amount before their turn is over, then the mutant/alien creatures get their turn. There are green and grey movement squares, and moving to a green square still allows the character to use an ability or fire their weapon, whereas moving to grey squares exhausts the ability to do any secondary action. If you’ve played XCOM (or even Mario + Rabbids) then you’ll be instantly at home here.

Unlike those games however, Spaceland’s characters only have a limited number of shots for each mission. You can’t just take out every enemy and calmly reload whenever your clip runs dry. If you run out of ammo, the only option is to restock using the one-use crates that are sometimes dotted around the map. This adds to the strategic element, having to decide whether to save your shots or risk running into a stronger enemy with an empty gun. Yes, that happened to me. No, the character didn’t survive. Luckily, unlike XCOM, death isn’t necessarily the end for your characters. They’re simply gone for the rest of that mission, unless the objective specifically requires the survival of a certain character. Otherwise, you’ll simply be penalised at the end of the mission. Or, occasionally, when a character’s questionable pathfinding leads them into a mine, for no reason whatsoever.

Upon completing a mission, you’ll be awarded coins and salvage depending on how well you did. Did everyone survive? Did you get to the exit within a set number of turns? Did you discover the level’s secrets? Do those things and you’ll be able to afford upgrades for both weaponry and equipment, which can be very handy the further into the game you are. Jim’s ability to dash behind enemies is excellent, and upgrading Terra’s healing ability is well worth the spend, not to mention better weapons and increased ammo capacity.

Whereas XCOM 2 doubled down on the difficulty of Enemy Unknown, Spaceland offers a more fun, less brutal experience. Not that you won’t be savaged if you make too many mistakes, but the penalties are much more forgiving. Some hardcore types will probably think it’s too easy, but I found it refreshing. It’s also a great option on the Switch, looking and playing brilliantly in either docked or handheld modes, plus the bite-sized missions are excellent for preserving the ol’ battery life.

If you like your turn-based strategy games and you don’t mind it a little less brutal, I can’t recommend Spaceland enough. It’s fun to play, doesn’t take up too much of your time if you fancy just dipping in for a mission or two, and its lighthearted characters are delightful as they bicker amongst themselves. Spaceland’s mixture of Starcraft’s colourful visuals and XCOM’s turn-based strategy really is a treat.

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Things take a turn however, when one of them gets a job abroad. Both put on a brave face over it all, and have entertaining text chats whenever they can, but the strain begins to show. In between the text chats, our characters begin to think about what has just been said, sometimes getting lost in their own thoughts as they worry about what to say next and how they feel about their current predicament. Text unfolds across the screen, giving voice to the thoughts of loneliness and isolation that makes a person’s thoughts get twisted up and lost in the silence when there’s nobody to talk to. They get lost in the fantastical world within their minds, which has them stranded on platforms with no route forward. This is where the puzzle gameplay comes in.

As your character wanders through interlocking scenes, pasted on top of one another like a collage, you’ll come across these seemingly impassable scenes. Using the right stick (when played with a controller), you fold the picture in on itself, creating bridges as you attempt to get through each thought. The goal is to reach the star, which will paste on a new image that you can walk into and progress the story. The more you play, the more difficult it can be to reach that star. The darker the character’s mood, the harder it feels to move past that scene. It’s an interesting concept that works really well.

The whole folding mechanic is great, with new features added as the game goes on. You might have to flip the image around first, revealing a new image on the reverse, then fold yourself onto that side of the paper. You might have to fold things multiple times, bringing a platform closer to you, or even rotate an image so that you can drop down to where you need to be. Other puzzles require a block to climb up to the star, sometimes needing you to fold it down from elsewhere or drop it from above somehow. Careful thought is needed but it never feels unfair.

The climbing does highlight a pacing issue with A Fold Apart, though. It’s not a long game, nor does it need to be, but sometimes it does feel unnecessarily slow. Movement can stop multiple times as the character processes their current thoughts, or take time to send a text, and although it might sound picky, sometimes you just want to get on with it. Where I don’t believe it is picky however, is in its climbing animations. It’s painfully slow. Sometimes you’re forced to climb over a moveable block in order to push it the other way, so you sit and you watch them climb slowly and deliberately onto the block, then slowly and deliberately climb down the other side, before pushing the block and then slowly and deliberately climb back onto the block and then slowly and deliberately up to the star. There are even moments outside of puzzles where you’re forced to climb like this, and it feels like it’s dragging things out. I found myself rolling my eyes, during these moments.

Despite all this, plus one or two issues with the folding controls during later puzzles, A Fold Apart is a solid little puzzle game with a simple yet deep story of love and the struggles of maintaining a long distance relationship. It will sometimes make you frown, but it will also make you smile and feel that warmth in your heart as you follow your chosen couple’s path.

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You are Agent 8, a robotic undercover spider who has to save the world one crazy, unbelievable mission at a time. You’ll be navigating submarines, satellites, fast-moving trains, and even missiles themselves to stop the evil SIN corporation from achieving their dastardly ends. Your small stature is actually an advantage, allowing you to move around unnoticed, as well as fit into the various nooks and crannies of surrounding machinery and wreak havoc.

As Spyder is out on mobile devices, movement is managed through touchscreen inputs. You move by using the bottom left of the screen as your virtual analogue stick and swipe around with two fingers to move the camera for a better perspective. It works reasonably well, in that these controls feel responsive, but the decision to map the camera to two fingers means you can’t really move and manipulate the PoV as freely as you’d like. Often I’d stop moving to adjust the camera and then proceed, otherwise my hands were all over the screen, distracting me. As such, Spyder is much better when played with a controller, where the camera is mapped to the right stick, for much more free-flowing control.

As a robot spider, you can attach yourself to most surfaces with relative ease, and for the most part, can ignore the drag of gravity. This means you can shimmy up vertical climbs and even hang upside down on the underneath of surfaces as you crawl around the world towards your next objective. This allows for plenty of perspective-shifting traversals as you might be scuttling along winding pipes or up table legs to get to a new area. Pretty much any visible surface, apart from shiny ones where Agent 8 slips off, can be climbed, allowing for plenty of free-roaming exploration as well as clever use of intertwining level design to aid in your movement.

Being such a small robot instantly adds a sense of scale to proceedings as everything is much bigger by comparison, giving off a sort of 3D Micro Machines vibe. It also looks lovely as well, both in terms of the close-up environments and detailed backgrounds. As you move around the world, the camera does a pretty decent job of following you around, swooping in and around the various areas, adding to the grandeur of the world around you. Generally, the camera isn’t a nuisance although there were a couple of occasions where it would seem to get stuck and almost lose Agent 8 for a moment, making movement a little tricky.

Moving around feels fairly responsive with Agent 8 scurrying about with a satisfying amount of control. There’s even clever use of momentum in a few places where you need to think a little harder and use the environment to your advantage. There were a couple of occasions where a mixture of the moving camera and curved surfaces made moving in the desired direction a little tricky, but after a bit of trial and error, you are soon on your way again. And these moments are far outweighed by large swathes of the game where the movement works so well, it almost goes unnoticed.

Aside from plenty of traversal options, Agent 8 also has a few gadgets up his sleeve, like any true spy. He can shoot at far off switches, as well as grab or grapple to far away objects. At various points in missions, he can even shoot a red-hot laser which burns through metal, or become a makeshift screwdriver to open up new passages. Whilst a lot of these mechanics are simple puzzle-solution ideas, the various chirrups coming from Agent 8 as he does them and the smooth animation during each one means they’re all well integrated into the experience.

For the most part, Spyder is a 3D platformer, where going to your nearest objective is most of the challenge. Occasionally though this is interrupted with some simple puzzle elements. None will tax you for very long, either through trial and error or because, to put it bluntly, they never really get out of second gear. Often the puzzles that take the longest are those that require you to find something hidden in the surrounding area that you need to progress. The rest are pretty obvious solutions, and many gamers will simply be going through the motions to move on to the next part of the mission.

And with only six missions in total before the credits roll, and a total run time of about two hours it does feel a little short. Coupled with the simple puzzles, some of you may feel Spyder could have offered a little more. But, Sumo Digital has packed that two hours with some stylish music, almost comical settings and enough variety to keep you entertained, if not really challenged. And if anything, the fact that I was left wanting more is really a testament to my overall enjoyment.

Spyder is definitely a simple idea, but proof that one that is well-executed can still be a lot of fun. It’s packed full of style and a decent dose of charm too and is well worth investigating. If you go in not expecting a grey matter workout, you’ll likely find yourself appreciating other aspects such as the level design and other clever little ideas it weaves into its missions. Like Agent 8 itself, Spyder is small in size but has plenty of tricks hidden under its shiny carapace.

Edit (May 3, 2020): Thanks to its latest update, Spyder now has a new control scheme for touch screen users. You now control Agent 8 with the left side of the screen, and the camera with the right side. This is much more user-friendly, and improves the flow of the game.

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Starting with the Wi-Fi system, there are multiple dlink solutions for what is called “whole home Wi-Fi”. Whether you’re trying to get better signal in the toilet for Twitter browsing; upstairs for kids gaming, or the shed so you can get on the internet on your laptop for some quiet time, dlink suggested first the COVR AC1200 mesh system, which we had a look at but didn’t find quite ideal for my setup – instead, we went for the COVR AC2200 Tri-Band system, which does exactly what you’d hope for.

Initially, setting it up is simple as pie. You take one of the two units and power it with the included plug, and then use the included Ethernet cable to connect to your existing router. Once done, you use the SmartPhone app to set up a new network, call it whatever you want, and you then just have to plug the second access point in at the location you want to get a good strong Wi-Fi signal.

The only snag I ran into was with online gaming. Using the AC2200 as a router connected to your existing router is absolutely fine for most people, but you will likely get Double NAT on Xbox One and PS4 – this means you will have issues connecting to other people on the internet. Simply setting the COVR to work in Bridge Mode instead of Modem Mode sorted this and Double NAT was gone for good. You can still have this as a second network, but the speeds are so good, and the signal so strong, you might abandon your router’s original network for the dlink one.

We’re on 500mbit and we are able to get 300mbit plus (as with all speed tests it’s dependent on time of day, traffic use, etc) on the further point I could get from the original access point and the full upload speed, too. It’s claimed by dlink that it can work up to 550sqm, but I don’t live in a mansion, so it worked for me absolutely brilliantly. Very occasionally in our months of testing it would suddenly drop speeds, but a reboot (and there’s a button on the back to do this) of the first COVR point will sort you out. Like any modem or router, it does sometimes need a quick restart.

When all is said and done, there are cheaper models out there, but the C1203 model just didn’t cut it for me as I wanted to reach the very boundaries of my home. The 2202 Tri-Band works brilliantly, and even looks pretty snazzy. You can change the LED on the front so that it doesn’t display a white light, but if it’s not obtrusive I’d leave it on as you will instantly know from the colour if there’s an issue.

The only issue with the system isn’t actually with the hardware, but the software. The iOS app (used with iPhone XS) is just, well… it’s fine. You can do basic things like set up parental controls, check devices, but it’s not going to let you go too deep. I also found it unreliable with both the 2202 and 1200 series of COVR products. Most of the time it’ll register you’re connected, but sometimes it just won’t acknowledge you are already on the required network to access controls. A quick restart of the app usually fixes this, but the dlink apps, generally, aren’t as good as you’d hope for.

This brings me onto the DCS-2802 camera system. At around £270, this isn’t a cheap setup, but it is very, very good. Once again, this is an easy system to setup, but you’ll have to get the drill out. In the box is two cameras (you can buy more) and a hub. While the title of this product includes the words “Wire-Free”, it’s referring to the cameras, not the hub which, obviously, requires power and an ethernet cable into a router/modem. With the wired parts out of the way, you just have to mount the two cameras wherever you want. There are more than enough mount included to have optional brackets setup for moving of the camera, too, which is a nice touch. The mounts themselves are based on magnets, so you’ll want them either inside behind a locked door, or high enough that it’s hard for thieves to pinch them easily. Rotating the angle is easy, too, because of the magnet mount system.

Once all the setup is done, the app will guide you through naming your cameras, setting up notifications (you can have them trigger a specific phone number when set off, if you want) and adjusting them, tailoring to your needs. For example, you can turn night vision on and off, adjust sensitivity, turn the LEDs on or off to hide them from prying eyes. I found that a low sensitivity worked better, because these cameras genuinely are very good and can pick up leaves blowing around near them on high sensitivity. That’s fine, of course, but it means you’ll drain the batteries.

Night vision is excellent, and triggers automatically when needed, too. I’ve tended to need to charge them once a month, which isn’t a problem. If you’re smart, you’ll set them to go to private mode (turn them off, basically) at set times you know people are home, thereby eliminating the accidental use of them constantly picking people up in high traffic areas and draining the batteries quicker.

The cloud subscription service means it’ll automatically store captures when movement is picked up and you can take photos from the camera, save to your phone, and there’s even two way chat possible so you can make people jump when they’re stood nearby if you’re that way inclined.

Really, the only issues with the mydlink Pro camera kit is, again, the app can be finicky. Sometimes it just loads forever, but a quick restart of the app fixes it. I don’t know why this happens, if it’s device specific or not, but given that this has happened with all the dlink apps I’ve used, it suggest a software update might be needed.

App issues aside, the hardware on offer here is excellent. The Wi-Fi system has made my network feel stronger than ever and actually gives an added layer of protection by being a separate network itself, while the cameras add security to the areas you need it – even if it’s just watching a pet while you’re out. You’ll need to tweak the cameras to fit your needs, whether it’s sensitivity, or just the fact you don’t want notifications for every leaf moving (paranoia can set in with these things otherwise), but honestly, despite not being the cheapest devices, my experience with dlink tech has been exemplary.

Ultimately, if you don’t need a massive amount of space covered, you’ll get by with the COVR 1200 series for your network, but the 2200 has gotten rid of the two black-spots I had in my house, which is ace. On top of that, the cameras have made me feel safer. The thing is, if someone is going to rob you, they act as a deterrent but won’t stop it happening (a proper security system from ADT, etc, is what you want, there), but it’s good to know that you can catch someone in the act and, hey, maybe you’ll even lower your insurance premiums if you tell them there’s a camera system set up. Overall, then, thoroughly impressed with dlink, but would like the company to put a little bit of work into the app development.

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The kingdom of Felingard and the Lupus Empire are both headed by evil rulers, and the real kings (our heroes) have been brought together to retake their thrones and free their respective lands from tyranny. Like the original game, the story is fairly simple but serves to push the action along purr-fectly. Alongside this overarching plot, there are lots of challenging and entertaining side quests, all with multiple parts and plenty of humour. On top of all these quests, you’re free to explore the two massive maps, taking in the various sights and battling the different creatures that attempt to block your progress. There are villages, towns and cities to visit, as well as caves, temples and dungeons to loot, sometimes featuring wave-based challenges that yield powerful rewards.

The general gameplay hasn’t actually changed much, to the point that, at first, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is simply an expansion for Cat Quest, but the little changes that The Gentlebros have made really do offer a different way to play. Two characters make for even more frenetic battles, whether played alone or in local co-op. When played solo, the AI of your paw-tner (alright, I’ll stop) can be a little stupid, running directly into attacks and traps, but otherwise they’ll do their part to fight back against the increased number of enemies to accommodate the extra fighter on your side.

You can vary up the fighting styles of your duo too, thanks to the addition of new weapon types. Magic wands allow for ranged combat as you sling balls of elemental energy (such as fire, ice and lightning, depending on the wand type), while the other new addition of two-handed weapons let you deal more damage at the cost of some speed. I had my cat casting spells from afar, while my dog went rushing in with whichever blade or hammer did the most damage, and they made a fairly effective team. If one falls in battle however, all is not lost. You can revive your comrade and live to fight another day, and you can even heal them when you’ve unlocked the relevant spell. It’s surprisingly relaxed, with no time limit on reviving your companion. The Cat Quest games really are just about having fun, which you absolutely will.

Combat is as simple or complex as you make it, using one button for regular attacks and the shoulder buttons (I played using my Xbox One controller) for up to four different magic spells, the mana for which is gained through landing hits on your enemies. You also have a dodge roll, so when you see a red symbol appear beneath a creature, you best get used to rolling away from it to avoid harm. The roll can even be upgraded, as can almost everything in Cat Quest II, so that it causes damage when you roll through an enemy. That one was a lifesaver on many an occasion. There’s something quite cathartic about mashing away at the X button to throw balls of lightning, before hitting the left bumper to unleash a firestorm as you roll through a monster, damaging it even more as you escape its claws. That amounts to most of my time with the game when I wasn’t wandering the massive maps, and I honestly can’t fault it when it’s just as fun as it ever was.

When I was wandering the two maps, I loved exploring every dungeon and cave that I could. Before entering, you can see the level required to take on each dungeon, so you don’t accidentally walk into the wrong neighbourhood. The same goes for starting any quest, as you will be told the level of difficulty before going in, and you can activate one of the tomes that appear once you begin a quest, should you wish to back out. Couple this with how quickly you level up and you can see that Cat Quest II is designed to be as accessible as possible. This makes even more sense when you realise that the game was also launched on Apple Arcade last week.

There is so much to love about Cat Quest II. From its simple and rewarding gameplay to its gorgeously animated visuals. Whether its the charming characters or witty humour, and all of those wonderful puns. It’s a game that feels immediately familiar, but it also feels fresh thanks to the addition of a second playable character and local co-op. Some may complain at how similar it is to the original game, but when you’re having so much fun that you find yourself grinning from ear to ear, who cares?

Put simply: Cat’s Quest II is the dog’s boll…you get the idea.

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