Although few titles in the collection can honestly still entertain today - in the meantime we have become accustomed to much more - rediscovering Jeff Minter's "woolly" games was a fun and very, very intriguing journey. Added to the nostalgia is the possibility of knowing completely unpublished details of the development, and this collection, very well done in terms of quantity and quality of the material proposed, has an indisputable historical value. A journey that is willingly retraced by reading, listening and playing. Especially playing.
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The art direction can truly be misleading: behind poor animations, seemingly cheap drawings and some technical constraints you'll find an excellent, intriguing and well-designed graphical adventure based on a trilogy of fantasy novels, penned by the little known Sebastiano Brocchi. The slow pace, the richness of the lore and the emphasis on the story will definitely please the hardcore fans of the genre.
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Exit Limbo: Opening is a violent, charismatic and gore-ish beat 'em up which is not only a videogame, but also an heavy metal band. Just what you need to kiss any pent-up sense of frustration goodbye, for example after a tought day at work or, even worse, of domestic captivity during the lockdown. Immersing yourself in its bloody ultraviolence is somehow liberating and it does not matter if proceeding, at first, will be tough: once you get the hang of the complex control system and the wide range of moves available, dismembering all the enemies will be really fun.
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Black Jewel is a game designed for gamers that spent their childhood watching the loading screen of the Commodore 64, with its simple gameplay and a soundtrack that sounds exactly like a SID tune. In order to appreciate it, though, you need to get back to the 8-bit era, and forget everything that came after it. The fact that it costs only 2 euros is the cherry on top.
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Odium is a small but well crafted game, full of pressing music and high difficulty. The very hard challenge and the heavy rhythm of techno music could be frustrating for some players.
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Helheim is a simple yet engaging video game, and it's pretty hard too.
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Redout: Space Assault is an aestetically brilliant rail shooter, with a casual-gamer oriented gameplay but a lot of sci-fi appeal. Pleasant graphics, good sountrack and low price.
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If you liked Schizm and its sequel, you will simply love Nemezis as well. However, 15 years later, we'd expect something more, with a slightly enhanced gameplay, while Nemezis is just a harder, shorter "more of the same" of Schizm 2.
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Foreclosed manages to condense in a single game a decent shooter, a basic role-playing game and, why not, even a bit of science fiction thriller, which doesn't hurt. The problem, however, is who exactly this game is meant for: it is too light as an FPS, too basic as an RPG, and the puzzles aren't deep enough for an adventure. It needs someone who wants to simply live a cyberpunk experience, as long as your expectations aren't set too high.
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I didn't start out with the best of expectations, but The Smufs Mission Villeaf turned out to be a nice little game! For a few hours it brought me back to the age when I hastily dined to leave my parents to their sad newsreel, and went to watch the Smurfs on the TV in my room. The graphic rendering of the characters is commendable (certainly more rounded than that of the two recent films) and the soundtrack a small masterpiece.
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The Awakened is worth more for what it represents than for the game itself. Between graphics and gameplay it tastes old even if it is new, but it knows how to be a completely independent remake of the 2006 inspirer of the same name.
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The gameplay of Pathologic 2 is very barebones in favor of a story pretty difficult to understand. It's a very complex game, barely passable on the technical front, but with a great atmosphere.
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The world of Metamorphosis is surprising, imaginative, intriguing and full of color, although a certain poverty of the 3D models and textures betrays the independent nature of the project. All in all, a very interesting twist on Franz Kafka's novel.
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Joy, cheerfulness and the gleeful sounds of carnage accompany us in the carefree fragfest that is every battle, but still Serious Sam 4 feels old: it's like going back to the nineties without anything having changed. In its simplicity, Serious Sam 4 is the very essence of old school shooters, condensed into a dozen hours of gameplay. It represents first person shooters as they were in the beginning, in the fabulous beauty of their original sin: a bloodthirsty naivety made of exaggerated weapons, alien bits and frenetic battles against unreal hordes of enemies.
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Scintillatron 4096 seems to have come straight out of an elucubration by Jeff Minter, and this is perhaps the best compliment that I can make. Frantic and fun, at times frustrating, but also endowed with an unexpected strategic depth, this game seems to have come here directly from an arcade of the 80s.
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Lust from Beyond is a more-than-average first person adventure dealing with difficult topics, such as psychiatric diseases, sexuality and the very idea of a cult based exclusively on physical pleasure. It does so by building an almost convincing narrative structure, without skimping on the crude representation of sex and violence, managing to maintain a difficult balance with all the other components of the game. The technical quality, however, is fluctuating, with 3D models that seem to come out of some game 20 years ago, animations at the limit of decency and sudden "coughs" of the script.
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Bannermen is the ideal choice for those in search for a pretty straightforward RTS, even if the game might seem a bit vintage in its gameplay and technical aspects.
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Let's Sing 2020 has a good selection of songs, a series of fun challenges and good evaluation skills. However, the game has crashed repeatedly and its music videos seem to come from a VHS.
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Nippon Marathon is a positively wacky, completely deranged party game, but it's also very repetitive.
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There is no middle ground for BPM: either you love it, or you hate it. Personally, I feel this game crosses the line between challenge and frustration, offering a learning curve that is almost impossible to climb if you are not a true FPS lover. The soundtrack is excellent and the bundle with it is worth your money, but if you're not a very, very patient person with lightning-fast reflexes and an excellent sense of rhythm, you better look somewhere else.
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