Category: Classic

Koei Tecmo’s Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake revisits one of the most revered entries in Japanese horror gaming, rebuilding it for modern hardware while attempting to preserve the suffocating dread that defined the original. Set in the abandoned Minakami Village, the story follows twin sisters Mio and Mayu as they become trapped in a ritualistic nightmare shaped by loss, memory, and lingering spirits. The narrative remains one of the series’ strongest assets, weaving emotional vulnerability into its horror, though its deliberately slow pacing and cryptic storytelling can occasionally distance players who prefer more direct exposition. Continue reading “Fatal Frame II – Crimson Butterfly Remake review (PS5)”

Originally released in 2010 as a quirky side project from Telltale Games, Poker Night at the Inventory was always something of an oddity – a crossover comedy where characters from different corners of gaming culture gathered around a poker table for an evening of banter and bluffing. Now remastered by Skunkape Games, a studio formed by former Telltale developers, the game returns with a fresh coat of paint and a new console audience. The premise remains as delightfully simple as ever: you sit down in a mysterious underground club to play Texas Hold’em against a strange mix of personalities – Max from Sam & Max, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, Tycho from Penny Arcade, and the Heavy from Team Fortress 2. What follows isn’t a story-driven adventure but a conversational card game where the true entertainment comes from the personalities around the table rather than the stakes in the pot. Continue reading “Poker Night at the Inventory review (PS5)”

Crystal Dynamics’ Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is, at its core, a love letter to a cult classic that spent nearly a quarter of a century languishing in technical purgatory. Where the original 2003 release was hampered by fixed cameras, dated controls and a pacing more rooted in the early 2000s than in 2026, this remaster aims – and largely succeeds – at reconciling the game’s ambitious narrative and gothic world with a modern console sensibility without betraying what made it distinctive in the first place. Continue reading “Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered review (PS5)”

Three and a half decades after its original release, City Hunter’s return on modern hardware feels less like a triumphant rebirth and more like an invitation to an era that no longer exists. Anchored in the familiar milieu of Ryo Saeba – the self-styled “sweeper” of Shinjuku – the game places players squarely into a retro run-and-gun framework with light narrative dressing. Its premise, while faithful to the spirit of the manga and anime, hardly evolves beyond a sequence of text-driven vignettes that set up each of the four core cases Ryo tackles. There’s an earnestness in seeing familiar characters like Kaori and Umibozu appear, but the storytelling rarely goes deeper than functional exposition. For players who grew up with the franchise, these moments evoke nostalgia; for new players, they can feel perfunctory at best. Continue reading “City Hunter review (PS5)”

Nearly three decades after their original arcade outings, the Raiden Fighters trilogy returns on modern consoles in Raiden Fighters Remix Collection, a celebration of Seibu Kaihatsu’s blisteringly paced vertical shooters that lands somewhere between reverent homage and a touch of frustrating missed potential. On PlayStation 5 this collection brings Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2, and Raiden Fighters Jet together – each in both Japanese and international variants – alongside a suite of quality-of-life features and a remixed soundtrack intended to modernize the experience without drowning out its arcade DNA. Continue reading “Raiden Fighters Remix Collection review (PS5)”