Innehållsförteckning för #61 från Wireframe Magazine

Having already proved their love for all things arcade with the likes of Xeno Crisis and Battle Axe, Bitmap Bureau’s Mike Tucker and Matt Cope are once again looking to the coin-op era with another modernised homage to a classic genre: the beat-’em-up. Take one look at Final Vendetta and it’s easy to see the DNA of Capcom’s seminal Final Fight in every frame. From the chunkiness of the character sprites to the thumping dance-inspired soundtrack, nods to Final Fight abound and are wholly intentional. According to the duo of 2D game development veterans, working on such a project has been a passion since childhood. “I was a big fan of Final Fight and Streets of Rage,” reveals Tucker. “And yeah, I’ve just always wanted to make a beat-’em-up and…

01. On Deck Valve Software officially entered the portable PC gaming space with its first wave of Steam Deck units entering the hands of early adopters. Impressions were mostly positive, with people fawning over the ability to instantly have their existing Steam library to hand and finally being able to play such power-pushing titles as Elden Ring, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Control on the go. However, many have also noted some early teething issues like the less-than-ideal battery drain during long play sessions, and lack of curation in terms of Deck-compatible games on day one. Even so, we’d say it’s full steam ahead. 02. Infinite Access Hosted online by co-creators Steven Spohn and Alanah Pearce, the second annual Video Game Accessibility Awards saw various developers awarded for their willingness to…

Limbo Let’s begin with the granddaddy of them all: Playdead’s debut 2D platformer helped turn the dimly lit Limbo into its very own sub-genre. Itself heavily inspired by the cinematic nature of cult classic side-scrollers like 1991’s Another World, Limbo oozes style and atmosphere at almost every turn. It casts you as a nameless boy who must navigate the many traps and dangerous obstacles of a black-and-white world – and a big reason why it works so well is thanks to an almost complete lack of context. Who are you? How did you get here? Does the game’s title provide a hint as to the grey place you find yourself in? We’re still puzzling over such questions over a decade later. In the meantime, take it from us: beware the…

One looked like a depressed monkey. Another like a bloated, horribly confused zombie. A third appeared to have melted entirely, leaving only a jumble of multi-coloured voxels scattered around a grassy backdrop. It was 26 February 2022, and for those who’d spent thousands of pounds of their own money on buying Pixelmon NFTs, it was a day they’re unlikely to forget in a hurry. A couple of weeks earlier, hundreds of eager investors bought what amounted to a digital egg (or several eggs, if they’d purchased more than one) at auction for over £7000 each. In theory, these investors had the inside track on what purported to be the next big thing in online gaming: an MMO that mixed the monstercatching and training of Pokémon with the voxel world and…

For decades, tall grass was where you went to catch Pokémon as they randomly appeared. That random factor isn’t in Pokémon Legends: Arceus as Pokémon are all visible in the wild, but still, the tall grass has an important use: sneak up behind one of those unsuspecting critters and throw a Poké Ball, and more often than not, you’ll catch them just like that. Stealth is often added to a game to show how it’s ‘modernised’ its mechanics, but it genuinely works wonders here. Returning to the series’ core ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ concept undoubtedly stems from the enormously popular Pokémon GO as well as the Let’s Go remakes of Pokémon Yellow, though Arceus goes even further back to a time before things like gyms, trainers, or tournaments. In the…

Strange Horticulture occupies an unusual position within a burgeoning niche (approaches to it are so varied it would be misleading to use the term ‘genre’): games revolving around the minutiae of highly specialised professions. Bad Viking’s latest is as obsessed with the nittygritty of its serene craft – the seeds, leaves, and petals of the plants you identify, catalogue, and systematically arrange for your quaint little shop – as the latest instalment of Car Mechanic Simulator is with tyre sizes and gearbox ratios. At the same time, the fantastical circumstances that embroil you in the rather more pressing business of saving its idyllic corner of the world (or damning it, if you’re so inclined) recall the more exotic careers of interplanetary archaeology in Heaven’s Vault and dystopian psychiatry in Mind…

The games for… BIG ADVENTURES Elden Ring / Bandai Namco / 95% (Issue 61) Assassin’s Creed Odyssey / Ubisoft / 93% (Issue 1) Yakuza: Like a Dragon / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / 90% (Issue 45) Amnesia: Rebirth / Frictional Games / 87% (Issue 46) Death’s Door / Acid Nerve / 87% (Issue 55) The Last Campfire / Hello Games / 86% (Issue 47) Resident Evil 2 / Capcom / 86% (Issue 7) Journey to the Savage Planet / Typhoon Studios / 84% (Issue 33) The Outer Worlds / Obsidian Entertainment / 84% (Issue 28) Eastward / Pixpil / 84% (Issue 57) The games for… REPEATED PLAY Hades / Supergiant Games / 94% (Issue 44) They Are Billions / Numantian Games / 88% (Issue 20) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice /…

Istarted Octopath Traveler on Christmas Day, an ideal time for a turn-based JRPG. Christmases, sick days, and empty Sundays – that’s when they shine the most. Ever since I first chipped through Phantasy Star with a friend one school holiday, enjoying a JRPG has been about having the wind-down time to dozily soak in a fantasy land, meander around dungeons, and battle beasts with no concern for timing or position. Match their weaknesses to your strengths and watch numbers spill like blood from their wounds. I played Octopath steadily for three days, then stopped when there were other things to do. Occasionally I slide back into its groove, then slip out again, happy enough. It’s tailored for such treatment, I think, because it’s so modular, neatly sliced into eight stories,…

MONOLITH PRODUCTIONS / 2014 / PS3, PS4, XB 360, XBO, PC If ever there was a “killer feature” from the early PS4/Xbox One generation of consoles primed to change the way we think about open-world games forever, you’d struggle to find one with more promise than Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system. We say promise because, for the most part, it turned out to be a rather ingenious gameplay mechanic that went mostly untapped outside of Monolith’s Middle-earth-based 2014 game that introduced it. Other than its direct sequel, that is. Limited application aside, however, it says a lot that the act of being defeated by an enemy NPC (a foul-mouthed orc, no less), only to have them then rise up through the ranks and persistently taunt you until you can claim…

Whenever the concept of mythology springs to mind, odds are most of us remain guilty of skipping straight to Norse or Greek. After all, the stories of Odin, Zeus, and the inter-familial disputes of both are something that video games (and wider pop culture) have been obsessed with for decades. Fortunately, though, Red Stage Entertainment is a small, six-person Finnish studio trying to change that, developing a 3D action-adventure based on a culture that many of us will likely have never heard of; that of the Sámi people. Skábma – Snowfall launches on PC later this year, hoping to shed light on this otherwise under-represented group of indigenous people who first originated in Northern Europe, using a mixture of platforming, environmental puzzles, and folk-like storytelling. “To me it was something…

Turbo Overkill Few things go together as well as non-stop shooting and neon-drenched visuals. Turbo Overkill is the latest FPS throwback to prove this, letting you destroy enemies using a generous arsenal in a fantastically frenetic fashion. Backed up by a chugging heavy metal score, you’ll be blasting your way across cyberpunk landscapes – trying to take down a rogue AI – in no time. LumbearJack The pun-tastic title alone would have been enough to make LumbearJack an anthropomorphic indie adventure to watch. That said, there’s something very tactile about taking an axe, golf-club, or even chainsaw to the various man-made objects around you in the name of “recycling”. Evil corporations beware… Countless slicing and dicing awaits! Salt and Sacrifice The sequel to Ska Studios’ 2016 sleeper hit looks about…

8BitDo Pro 2 Find out more at www.8bitdo.com/pro2/ Free 8BitDo Pro 2 Bluetooth controller with a 12-month subscription to Wireframe WORTH £39 Those lovely, lovely people over at 8BitDo are offering a FREE Pro 2 controller for UK subscribers. Simply take out a twelve-month subscription to Wireframe magazine and you’ll receive one of these fabulous Bluetooth pads, compatible with Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, Android, Raspberry Pi, and Steam devices. With custom profile switching, an ultracomfortable design, and a rechargeable battery that will last for 20 hours, the 8BitDo Pro 2 is a versatile controller for gamers of all kinds. Here’s all those specs in more detail: Two Pro-level back paddle buttons Custom Profile switch button, three profiles, switch on the fly Mode switch button (Switch, Android, D-input, X-input) Ultimate Software…

READ MORE turn to page 16 As you’ll have seen in our preview on page 16, XEL is an action-adventure firmly in the Zelda mould. But rather than taking place in a fantastical world like Hyrule, its story unfolds on a mysterious planet (the titular XEL) whose high-tech civilisation has long since vanished. For its visual style, the team at German studio, Tiny Roar, looked to the bold colours and shapes of modern anime, explains XEL art director Robert Koch. “We don’t want to be dark and gritty; instead, we use vibrant colours and exaggerated shapes that make the world pop,” he tells us. “Details, realistic textures, or realism weren’t important to us; instead, we want to keep it stylised in every regard and focus on the important parts of…

The 3 March 2017 will go down in history as the day Nintendo was forced to risk it all. Battered from Wii U’s wobbling sales, the House of Mario’s only remaining option was to go back to the drawing board, rethink its place in the market, and return with something so magical that it would forever silence its nay-sayers. Five years since that risk was taken, we can safely say that the Switch has done exactly that. Not only has it helped cement the Japanese publisher’s relevance at a time when other consoles prioritised souped-up SSDs and power-pushing graphics processors, but it has since gone on to sell more than 103 million units worldwide. Switching up the strategy has paid off, it turns out. A lot of promises were made…

In terms of wider popularity, Nigeria’s game scene truly got going in the early 2000s, when ‘hybrid gaming centres’ began to appear in a variety of urban locations. These centres could be found in, say, a barber’s salon, and with one or two gaming consoles available, they soon became a place for eager young teens and adults to pay as little as ten naira (roughly the equivalent of 2p) to play all kinds of games, ranging from sports titles to arcade brawlers. It was during this period that Olabode Otolorin, a culture and music journalist, had his first brush with video games. “In primary school, I’d heard stories from my siblings and yearned to one day try out the games they talked about,” he tells us. “Eventually, in secondary school,…

When it comes to difficult games, the second boss is often the true test. In Sifu, that boss is Sean, a martial artist who comes at you aggressively with fast attacks from his polearm. When I finally landed the killing blow after many agonising attempts, it wasn’t followed by a celebratory punch of the air, but despair that I’d have to do it again, only better. That’s because by the end of my fight, my young kung fu master had transformed into a bearded old man, destined to snuff it for good on his next defeat. Let’s back up a bit, though. Sifu (literally ‘teacher, or ‘master’) takes place in an interpretation of China that magpies from the iconography of cultures and cinema from across the Asian continent that has…

For long stretches of FAR: Changing Tides, there’s little to do except sit back and enjoy the view. Impossible cliffs sweep past as you drift from left to right. Rusted, half-submerged wrecks loom out of the waves. Mysterious machinery of unknown purpose teeters at precarious angles. Left to think, your mind starts to wander. Who lived here? What happened? This world has been devastated by floods, destroyed by a cataclysm of biblical proportions. No one is left, just you and your strange ship. Occasionally there are signs of life. A moose appears with its calf, watches you for a spell, then gallops away. A seagull journeys with you momentarily. A whale even makes a memorable cameo, gracefully drifting past, unconcerned. I absent-mindedly adjust the sails to catch the wind, with…

1 Elden Ring / 95% (Issue 61) A game of massive scale, packed with intelligence and mystery. A towering achievement. 2 Disco Elysium / 94% (Issue 28) Smarter and deeper than anything else; truly an RPG in a class completely of its own. 3 Hades / 94% (Issue 44) Proving ‘roguelike’ isn’t a dirty word, learningand-dying is a joy from start to finish. 4 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey / 93% (Issue 1) The point where Ubisoft realised over-the-top adventures were the right direction. 5 Telling Lies / 92% (Issue 24) This FMV mystery asks more of the player than most, with rewards to match. 6 If Found / 92% (Issue 44) A compelling and beautifully illustrated narrative, as moving as it is memorable. 7 Yakuza: Like a Dragon / 90% (Issue 45) A…

There aren’t enough indie games these days that pull direct inspiration from the Game Boy Advance era of consoles. There, I said it. You get plenty of 8- and 16-bit throwbacks, sure, but I’ve always felt that Nintendo’s soupedup handheld always boasted its own unique type of pixelated aesthetic – despite mostly working within the same 32-bit confines as contemporary hardware found elsewhere. This chibified, unapologetically colourful look is one that’s been perfectly captured in Grapple Dog, a high-flying 2D platforming adventure with plenty of charm and creative ideas that’s kept me engaged for many a minuscule play session. It’s the first title released as part of Super Rare Games’ new digital publishing arm, and the team has certainly come out swinging (literally). On the surface, the core conceit behind…

Cold. Confused. Trapped. Even felt individually, just one of these emotions would be enough to make the average person’s spine tingle. How unfortunate, then, that not only does the diver at the heart of Silt begin the game experiencing a combination of all three, but they do so while they’re submerged deep within the bowels of an inky ocean. If exploring this oppressive environment sounds like an ordeal, that’s likely because it’s meant to be. First-time development duo Spiral Circus wants to throw you into the bleak unknown. They’ve been kind enough to give you one important tool, however, which is crucial to successfully navigating the murk. Silt’s luckless diver has the ability to send out his consciousness like a curling whip, which can then be used to connect and…

German developer Tiny Roar clearly isn’t interested in making life easy for itself. When it first began work on its upcoming Zelda-like, XEL (pronounced ‘k-sell’) a couple of years ago, the studio spent five months working on a prototype – only to throw the whole thing away and start again from scratch. “We all love action games and we all love Zelda, but we’d never worked on a Zelda-like,” explains studio co-founder and game director Maurice Hagelstein. “So we needed to make all the mistakes we could when making a game like this, and then we applied those learnings and condensed it down to, ‘What’s the core of XEL? How can we make it fun?’… It felt like, ‘OK, we need to start from scratch.’” As Hagelstein readily admits, throwing…

When José ‘Jotego’ Tejada arrives home from work, he doesn’t kick off his shoes and head for the sofa for a well-earned rest. Instead, he sits at another desk and resumes working, this time on his latest passion: creating ‘cores’ for the hardware-based system called MiSTer. “I’m spending close to 40 hours a week on the project,” he says. “On workdays, I’ll put in maybe four hours, and at the weekends, I’ll create cores for twelve hours a day. When I have holidays, I’m probably working on MiSTer for ten hours a day.” Does he moan? Quite the opposite: he loves every second of it. Tejada is one of a number of people spending their spare time helping the rest of us enjoy classic games from the 1980s and 1990s.…

GAME Final Vendetta DEVELOPER Bitmap Bureau RELEASE May 2022 WEBSITE wfmag.cc/vendetta For Final Vendetta to feel like a true love letter to nineties beat-’emups, it was important for developer Bitmap Bureau to embrace the genre’s pixel art stylings. The allure of using hand-drawn or a more cartoon-like aesthetic was always there, but the final product speaks for itself in terms of how closely characters and stages mimic the look of, say, Final Fight or Streets of Rage. Sprite artist Jabir Grant was key to accomplishing this lofty goal, fleshing out and conceptualising Final Vendetta’s punkish attitude through his art over a period of two years. “He’s up in Scotland,” says design director Mike Tucker. “And yeah, he was finally someone who is prolific and skilful enough to make this art.”…

For better or worse, 2021 was the year non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, entered the video gaming mainstream. Multiple studios began to embrace blockchain technology, many of them assuring gamers that non-fungible tokens would revolutionise the medium. With gamers spending increasing amounts of their lives in online worlds, the opportunity to share ‘ownership’ of those spaces might, the thinking goes, seem appealing. In reality, however, a sizeable subset of gamers – perhaps wearied by years of loot boxes and pay-to-win business models – have reacted with suspicion and even hostility to NFTs. While the response in the indie sector has been somewhat different, the triple-A gaming space has witnessed a furious revolt from players, in part because early implementations of the technology have more than a whiff of microtransactions 2.0 about…

It’s extremely unusual for the first entry in a new franchise to nail its character, environmental, and mechanical design as confidently as Horizon Zero Dawn did back in 2017. After finally being let off the Killzone leash, developer Guerrilla Games somehow managed to achieve a surprising level of greatness and authorship in Aloy’s debut adventure, creating a sweeping world that was fun to explore, alongside a genuinely unique approach to third-person combat that felt simultaneously thrilling yet strategic. It’s not too surprising, therefore, to learn that the same trick couldn’t be replicated in the sequel. After all, this post-post-apocalyptic version of America sets you on (mostly) familiar ground now, slightly dampening the sheen on this otherwise admirable follow-up. Picking up a couple of months after the previous game, Horizon Forbidden…

Playing Elden Ring feels a bit like attempting to solve a Where’s Wally? puzzle. Except, in this case, you’re inside the Where’s Wally? puzzle and have no idea how far it stretches beyond the imitators in red-and-white shirts in your immediate vicinity. I have spent 65 hours inside FromSoftware’s action RPG and I still have a hard time understanding, let alone communicating, the contours of its seemingly endless open world. It is big. It is also, gobsmackingly, as intricately designed as anything the Dark Souls developer has made before. At some point, I may finish this game. It’s hard to imagine that there is a point where it ever ends, but I have heard that it does. Wally is out there somewhere. As in Dark Souls, Elden Ring casts you…

What’s your favourite game of all time? And what is it specifically about that game that chimes with you so much? The game I have the most love for is probably Phantasy Star III on Mega Drive. I spent months playing it. The series made me fall in love with JRPGs. I wanted to explore every storyline element, complete every side quest, and I adored the characters. I still feel waves of nostalgia hearing the soundtrack. The game I spent most time in, however, is definitely Quake III Arena. My goodness, I’m glad I’ve no way to know how many hundreds of hours I spent in that game. It was my favourite for LAN parties and my way to relax. I would be lost in it for hours each evening…

Bookworm brawl The beat-’em-up genre is one that’s been having a bit of a comeback of late. Streets of Rage 4 recently reinvigorated the classic series with a fresh, hand-drawn art style alongside all-new characters, of course, and even Battletoads got a second shot at side-scrolling stardom by way of a reboot for PC and Xbox. Heck, one of our most anticipated May releases, Bitmap Bureau’s Final Vendetta (see page 12), is a modernised love letter to the days when Capcom’s Final Fight dominated in arcades. That’s why having Bitmap Books’ latest coffee table publication drop through my door this month couldn’t have happened at a better time. Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’em-ups by Dave Cook aims to catalogue pretty much every single genre entry since its…