Recent reviews by Shingo

Against the Storm is an incredibly compelling mix of city-building and roguelite mechanics, with tons of interesting ideas and a great aesthetic to boot. Personally, I've been longing for a game that managed to get me hooked this bad, and this might be finally it.

The Mummy Demastered is a retro-inspired Metroidvania (loosely) based on the 2017 movie "The Mummy". You take control of an unnamed agent and shoot your way through a variety of locations while chasing your main target, Mummy Princess Ahmanet.

I got this game from a bundle recently. To be honest I couldn't care less about the movie, but the high quality pixel art piqued my interest.


This is the weakest aspect of this game for sure. While the presentation is nice at first glance, you quickly realize that there wasn't a lot of effort involved in designing the actual game.

The character movement and shooting mechanics are basically copy-pasted from Contra, with slightly more weight to it. Not a big deal per se, but most enemies take way too many bullets before dying, even after finding better weapons later on.

The overall pace greatly suffers from this, making the basic act of clearing a room feel like a slog. I found myself running past the enemies instead of killing them after a while, which is not a good sign.

Speaking of rooms, the level design is very uninspired and lazy. Good Metroidvania games, while still having their "filler" rooms, tend to use them sparingly while giving more importance to memorable places and landmarks. You won't find any of that here most of the time. Enemy placement also feels kinda obtuse, not a small issue since it takes so long to clear the way.

Last but not least, character progression is a crucial part of the genre, but in The Mummy Demastered it's linear and boring, both mechanically and visually. The majority of the upgrades you get strictly change some basic values (HP, ammo, jump height or running speed), with the more visually "interesting" being stuff like the ability to hang from the ceiling or equipping a different weapon.

This further confirms the feeling that the game's design took the smallest cut of the budget.


The good part, kinda. As I said before, the pixel art was the main draw for me and it's masterfully crafted. There's not a lot of enemy variety and the locations feel kinda generic (or copied straight from Castlevania), but what's there is very well done, including the animation work.

The main character could've been something more interesting than a nameless soldier, but that's what you get I guess.

UI and menus feel like an afterthought and don't really match the high quality pixel art, most people likely won't notice though.

Lastly, the soundtrack is fine, though I'm not sure why they went for an '80s synthwave vibe, it doesn't really fit sometimes.


The biggest issue I had was being forced to cap the game's framerate to 60fps, because anything higher than that will speed up the game. You've been warned!


Honestly, I think you could spend your money and time on better games. You don't even have to look too far, since WayForward has a lot of great Metroidvania games under their belt, like the Shantae franchise.

It's possible that games based on a movie license imply a lot of compromises during development, and I can understand that. I can't recommend this though, as it gets boring pretty fast.

Should anyone tell you this game is bad:

THAT IS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ BLAZING

Pretty fun game to play with your friends locally or via online multiplayer.

Aseprite is a pretty neat piece of software which really helps you get in the mood for some pixel art making.

Features like layers, onion skinning, sprite sheet importing/exporting, tool-assisted shading/dithering/tiling and RotSprite support definitely speed up your workflow; plus, it's still being regularly updated with new features and bug fixes.

The UI replicates the retro look of classic image editing software (ex. Deluxe Paint), which might feel a bit strange at first, especially if you're accustomed to modern applications like Photoshop, but will in time show its strengths. Pixel art is basically based on doing more with less and Aseprite reflects that approach.

Custom skins are also supported, if you really can't stand the low-res styled UI, anyway.

At a 14,99€ price tag (often discounted too) I can only recommend it to both newcomers and pros.

Star Drift is a top-down racing game that may resemble other titles like Absolute Drift at first, but in reality it offers a quite different approach, with a big focus on online multi-player matches.


Driving in Star Drift is fairly unique and requires a bit of practice to fully grasp it. It is definitely arcade-y, although it displays a fair amount of depth.

Drifting, as the name suggests, is the main game mechanic that has to be mastered to acquire a competitive edge. A vast selection of cars, each with their own stats, paired with 100 tracks or so, really leaves much to experiment with. My advice is to spot which car works best for you first, then explore other options when racing on more advanced terrains like snow and ice.

The single-player campaign can help in that regard, by presenting a pseudo-sandbox map filled with races and events, each with a list of secondary objectives that add some deal of replay value.

However, the core of the game is clearly based upon online multi-player. Up to 20 players can compete simultaneously and I can confirm it works pretty well. Lobbies are easily customizable and offer some useful options like disabling collision between cars and adding a handicap feature that levels out the playfield.


The game's presentation is pretty clean, with low-poly, colorful flat-shaded graphics. There's a bit of a discrepancy between the 3D models of the playable cars, which look more detailed overall, and the rest of the enviroment. It's not that big of an issue though, and you won't notice most of the time as you're rushing through the tracks.


I personally never encountered any game-breaking bug or performance issues. Everything runs pretty smoothly, even during online matches. There are some minor graphical glitches here and there, but nothing that a patch can't solve.


Yes! The difficulty curve is a bit steep at first, but finding the right ride for the job and sticking with what works best really helps. Star Drift requires some dedication at first, but certainly pays off once you get the hang of it and shove your mad skills in your opponents' faces!

AdvertCity is a "tycoon" kind of game, which puts the player in charge of an advertising company in a cyberpunk-esque city. The main goal is to expand the company's area of influence by investing on its advertising business on behalf of different megacorps, until it takes over their territory and owns them.


After clicking on "New Game", a new city is generated and everything quickly starts with a really bland and short tutorial, which doesn't really explain anything. The player is left wondering what to do next as the debts with the bank increase and the funds don't seem to keep up. Unfortunately this is not supported by the UI and general camera navigation, which are not easy to get comfortable with. However, underneath this cryptic surface, there's a series of real time events and developments that affect the city's growth. In short, the player must get into the cycle of providing an advertising service to one of the megacorps, increase influence until a new technology is available and then start building cash to expand his/her company's empire. This can be achieved by switching between physical (meatspace) and digital (cyberspace) advert.


The cyberpunk atmosphere is successfully delivered, and the variations in the background music when you switch between meatspace and cyberspace are a nice little touch. However, the overall look could benefit from a bit of polishing and some improvements in the readability of the buildings that populate the city.


The game's engine doesn't offer many options to tinker with, but should run smoothly on any system. I encountered an issue with windowed mode, where my cursor would keep going upwards until I switched back to fullscreen. Also, it's possible to select the font size, but it doesn't scale too well at the highest settings and doesn't affect the messages you receive in your activity log.


I can recommend this game only to who really likes the genre and doesn't care too much about presentation/user friendly interfaces. If the developer will listen to player feedback and work towards addressing the noticeable usability issues, the experience could be much more enjoyable. Maybe get it during a sale, as the price tag is pretty high in my opinion.

Pharaoh Rebirth+ takes the classic Japanese action/platform games from the 16/32-bit era and adds a "metroidvania" flair to it.

The player takes control of Jonathan Banfield, an archaeologist that was cursed and turned into a silly rabbit.

I stumbled upon this game just a few weeks before release and I was baffled by the overall lack of publicity and awareness of its existence. It's really a shame because there's so much care put into this work that might get overshadowed by tons of pointless "retro" platformers which come out every day.


Mechanics-wise, the game is pretty solid. There are various moves that can be executed from the start and others to be unlocked. Overall, combat works as intended and every enemy or boss has a dinstinct pattern that often intersects nicely with the level layouts.

Player progression is not based on elements borrowed from RPG's like experience points or equipment, but instead rewards exploring and collecting the different, unique treasures scattered through the ruins and temples of Egypt.

Instead of presenting itself with one, massive area that blocks your progress whenever you don't possess the right ability to get through, the game has a standard, stage-based structure. This helps in limiting both the backtracking factor and the typical "fake sense of freedom" of the genre.

I found the level design to be quite clever, as it encourages exploration by showing the player unaccessible routes right from the start, but never requires to backtrack to a previous stage to get to the next. This means freedom of choosing to get on with the story OR to go back and replay a chapter to get all the extra stuff which could come in handy, without being forced to revisit some old areas to get a mandatory powerup.

The classic stage-based structure also makes it easier to carry out more action-oriented set pieces, like a helicopter pursuit or a mine car ride.


Technically speaking, Pharaoh Rebirth+ looks and sounds great. The high-res (640x480) nicely crafted and animated pixel art is matched by an upbeat, memorable soundrack which features an obvious Egyptian vibe. However, digitally painted character portraits that show up during radio chatter fall a bit short, as they look detached from the overall style and don't really match its quality.

I recommend playing the game using its original 4:3 ratio, as stretching 2D art is a crime, especially when it's done so well.


As of today, screen resolution selection and VSync have been fixed, so I don't have anything else to report at this time.


YES, you should. If you love action platformers, the metroidvania genre or just appreciate tightly designed games.

Astebreed is simply one of the best modern japanese shoot 'em ups available on Steam.

Coming from Edelweiss, makers of Ether Vapor Remaster and Fairy Bloom Freesia, this action-packed SHMUP is definetly a big leap forward, offering an overall more polished experience than their past works.

The first thing you'll notice is that, even if this is still a doujin game, its presentation compares to full-fledged retail shooters, especially the soundtrack.

The game takes advantage of its 3D engine as you'll be constantly changing perspective, from horizontal to third person/vertical scrolling. Its difficulty ramp is not too steep, making it playable even if you're not an expert.

A must have for every SHMUP fan.

Deadly Premonition is a unique experience that every videogame enthusiast should play.

The game obviously looks a bit rough around the edges and surely doesn't have the tightest controls, but once you get used to it, it will suck you in and never let go until you get to the end.

Its setting is heavily inspired by David Lynch's Twin Peaks, which may be a plus (it is for me), however as the story progresses you realize that it stands on its own and it's actually pretty interesting.

Every character you'll meet has some peculiarity that makes him or her different from the others, and you will likely get attached to York, the protagonist, one of the best playable characters of the last gen, IMHO.

Things I didn't like are basically related to the bad PC port: long loading times even on an SSD, crashes and some problems with getting my gamepad to work.

It was worth the trouble anyway.

Buy this game, you won't get to play anything like this for some time.