Stevo's Bargain Bin

METROIDVANIA is one of my favorite types of games, and I've played a decent number of them by this point. Not all of them have lived up to the excellence of the two series the genre stemmed from - but many have come close. I'm pleased to say that in my opinion, Axiom Verge absolutely does. The game, by Thomas Happ, had been on my list for a long while before I picked it up in a sale just before Christmas. In the intro, we see a scientist called Trace buried under a mountain of rubble following an explosion in his lab, after which he awakens in a strange alien world with plenty of questions and a voice urging him onward. Starting as an unarmed, confused fish out of water, Trace quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with as he collects all manner of weapons and abilities in his quest for answers. So how does Axiom Verge stack up to the greats? First of all, it feels great. The controls are solid and responsive, plus your many abilities are mapped to the buttons (i...

Before 2016's Inside, an emotional rollercoaster of a puzzle platformer, developer Playdead had already crafted a fantastic and atmospheric side-scrolling adventure named Limbo. I first bought it as part of a three-game pack on the Xbox 360. It came with Trials HD and Splosion Man. While the other two titles were good, Limbo was the real reason I'd bought it and the reason I kept it. I now also own it on PS4 and that was the version I played to refresh my memory. Limbo is instantly recognisable to this day thanks to its somber monochrome art style, which Playdead uses to paint a picture of a bleak and dangerous world. You take control of a small child and within the first 60 seconds or so Limbo makes clear just how fragile this boy is. Pretty much everything is lethal in this world and the boy can take only one hit - often perishing in the most brutal of ways. Like its successor Inside, this game doesn't bury you with plot or reams of background text. You jus...

I've yet to play a bad   Mario game, at least in the main set of platforming titles. In the 3d series things pretty much seem to have become better and better, from the rock-solid foundation on the Nintendo 64 right up to the superb and beautiful Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. Each of those games brought something new. Some new mechanic, some new twist which kept evolving and building on the core experience. However the same can't be said, in my opinion , for the New Super Mario Bros (NSMB) games which began on the Nintendo DS in 2006. Back then, I excitedly picked up my copy of the first installment (bottom left in the pic below - don't ask where the case got to though) and had a great time with it. It boasted gorgeous visuals and a catchy soundtrack, all while maintaining that classic Mario action. The mix of old and new, coupled with the portability of the DS, made it made it one of my favorite platformers of that time. In the years to follo...

We've all wanted to swing at breakneck speeds between giant hot dog sausages and spinning pizza slices at some point in our lives, right? Actually... probably not. But we should - it's damn fun! Verlet Swing was on sale on the Nintendo Switch for just over £3 and one look at the trailer told me all I needed to know before I hit purchase. This first-person swinging experience makes you feel like a superhero inside some kind of bizarre hallucination. The premise is simple; get from the start to the goal. How you do that is largely up to you. It starts off easy, with the first 10 or so levels gradually introducing the mechanics. With the trigger buttons you launch a sort of energy hookshot which instantly tethers you to your target (not all objects can be hooked though). Time it right and gravity will give you a great deal of momentum as you swing,  un-tether and launch yourself madly towards your next target. You can also control your direction with the analogue ...

I'm always on the lookout for Metroidvania style games.  A while back I picked up Xeodrifter (by Renegade Kid) for less than £1 if I recall, and have kept it aside for a rainy day. Such a day came up recently, so how does it compare to the rest of this cracking genre? The game puts you in control of an "interstellar drifter" whose ship is hit by an asteroid, damaging his warp core. He scans four nearby planets and discovers they each have materials which may be used to make repairs. From there you're free to visit any of the four planets you choose and begin your search for the materials. As you begin to fill in each of the planet's maps in that classic Metroidvania way, you'll come across upgrade points to customise your weapon and bosses which bestow all kinds of new abilities. These include, for example, a submarine to explore underwater, a rocket jump to launch yourself skywards and many more. With each ability you earn, new paths become a...

I do like a good slice of grim, dark entertainment now and then. There's something I find really appealing about hauntingly bleak settings and stories for some reason. Imagine my intrigue when such an offer came up in a horror/puzzle platformer of all things, and it was in a recent Nintendo Switch sale too! Tamashii, created by Vikintor , set me back less than £5 if I recall, but I don't think it's too expensive when it's full price either. First things first, the most striking thing about this title is the art style. It's disturbing in a lot of areas to say the least. The game's description states it is "inspired by obscure Japanese games from the 90s and late 80s." I'm not familiar with the particular obscure games it draws inspiration from, but I did feel the influence of HP Lovecraft and HR Giger in some areas. At a glance the story seems simple enough. You play as an "unnamed soul" and you have been summoned by an anci...

My gaming goal for 2019 is to experience more classic games. I grew up with a Megadrive, and I'd say I've experienced a decent number of excellent titles from that era onward. But there are so many others out there that I haven't - particularly from the generations before (and titles from the platforms I didn't have but now have the chance to revisit). With that in mind, I downloaded a triple pack of arcade titles in a PS4 sale before Christmas. It contained Galaga, Pac-Man and Dig Dug. And while they might not reflect the true arcade experience, I've been really enjoying them! Out of the three I've developed a bit of an odd addiction to Galaga, which originally came out in the early 1980s. I'd never played it before, but when opening it up I was immediately familiar with the style of the gameplay. You control a spaceship which can move horizontally at the bottom of the screen and you shoot waves of enemies at the top of the screen. Sound fami...