Recent reviews by CueZero

A perfectly simple and casual asymmetrical top-down party brawler that is also infinitely addictive. Bossgard is an endless boss-mode arena where one human player gets to fill the role of the big-bad evil boss, and five other human players fill the roles of various Viking warriors to take advantage of their unique abilities to take the boss player down.

Obviously, being the boss is probably the most bad ass part of the game here. The idea of being a big hulking behemoth with tank-y health taking on five puny human warriors is just so much more appealing than the alternative, though the teamwork involved in taking down a powerful boss opponent is definitely a whole different experience worth trying. There's also the fact that Boss player's get a much larger pool of skills given to them, including the ability to trigger devastating environmental traps within the arena to really screw with your miniscule human opponents.

Boss player's also clearly have the sweetest selection of characters to choose from, aesthetically from a seriously weird oversized piece of demonic toast, a possessed toilet plunger to a deadly dice-like cube of rolling death, and even a massive fortress of walls and guns to control and smash the measley human opponents with. That doesn't mean the Viking players don't have their own incredibly unique set of international heroes to choose from, they do, and each with their own insanely useful personal ability to boot.

Innes the French archer viking comes with a ferocious saber tooth tiger to deploy in combat, Asha our sweet and sassy caramel Canadian Viking is an engineer with the ability to place turrets, and Duke the bodacious brolicious American Viking can hop on his trusty surfboard to deliver some pain with a side of freedom. Also included are a sweet old British Necromancer lady Viking, a Japanese martial-arts Viking with a gatling gun, and even a Rastafarian Viking with.. deployable shrooms (Happy 420?).

With a simple click of the attack button players are lobbing projectiles and slashing their way at bosses without much complication to worry about. It's so simple anyone can pick it up, but the addition of unique skills make a bit of strategy and unison mandatory to take down a skilled boss player. Aside from each character's unique personal skill of devastating power, players can choose between a variety of power increasing team auras, life draining poison shots, or Boss-slowing tethers for those particularly agile titans.

The low-poly yet high-detail and lusciously colorful visuals here are mouth-watering for fans of more cartoon-y aesthetics, and the selection of zany off-the-wall stages fully utilizes this awesome-ly slick and playful presentation. You have the more traditional Valhalla arena but eventually find yourself battling in the far-reaches of space on some intergalactic starship or even in the midst of a modern day rave in a club. Oh, and my favorite; a plush toy world filled with teddy-bears and other cutesy stuffed animals.


Bossgard is easily the most approachable and accessible party game and brawler/fighter hybrid I've played in recent days, with 5v1 matches that last anywhere from 5-10 minutes each. Despite the short length of matches I haven't had a session that didn't go on for at least an hour, simply because of the sheer amount of interesting characters and abilities to try and the fact that everyone wants a turn at trying out each of the massively bad ass bosses the game has to offer.

This is obviously a game that shines its brightest in multiplayer, and luckily it offers pretty solid matchmaking and lobbies. So far in the early days of Bossgard I've had no trouble finding a lobby, which usually fill up quickly, but as we all know the fate of indie multiplayer games can be short so hop on this one while the getting is good. Absolutely recommended for party-game brawlers who long for the days of madcap arena action such as Power Stone 2.

This review made possible through the consideration and contribution of the developer/publisher. Email electrickeishock@gmail.com for requests & promotions

An abstract and meditative journey that's meant to be played in small daily doses, Ritual of the Moon is like a surreal and trippy cosmic advent calendar. The full game-cyle persists throughout the lunar cycle; For 28 separate days.

This is a daily exercise in celestial practice, a chance to be the savior or even the destroyer of planets but also a chance to learn about your own state of mind in the face of solitude. Each day/session lasts no more than a few minutes but every decision ends up becoming more profound than the last, as the fate of a world spins further and further out of your control with each passing phase.

I'm only on my second day of personal introspective story and already by the end of each day I'm left in awe and wonder for what the next phase of the moon may bring. Each small interactive and "game-y" section of rune drawing or symbol memorization leaves a personal mark in this isolated planet's history for each player and leads to an important fate-changing choice to make at the end of the day.

The visuals for Ritual of the Moon are astounding and unique, and clearly where the developers have spent the larger portion of their time. Using a combination of real-world materials and parts with stop-motion animation the artistic quality is something more akin to experimental film-making than anything I've seen in the medium of gaming, like a space-age mixture of Brothers Quay stop-motion strangeness and indie game Shelter's paper-like beauty.


I still obviously have much more to see and am only in the first days of my own Ritual, but I'm already completely hooked and hanging onto every poetic word generated by my day's decisions and eager to see what's in store or where my personal story brings me. This is absolutely a worthy experience for those looking for such thing; An experience.

It's very far from what the definitions of a "Game" may be and sometimes that's exactly the kind of breath of fresh air we need, this is for those who could stand to use a little artistic introspection in-between heavier gaming sessions. Expect to hear more from me on this strange and beautiful journey as I complete it.

Everything about Paper Doll's presentation feels comfy and welcoming in an esoteric sort of way, the strong hints of Eastern occultism and the haunting off-kilter plucking of traditional stringed instruments clue you in instantly; This is genuine Chinese horror.

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The gameplay is an interesting and expected mix of unique adventure game style item-combining puzzles and tense stealth bits, where antique artifacts within the environment are used to hide inside and escape the sights of vengeful old spirits. There's a strong emphasis on the usage of light and saving of matches to light up dimly hidden landmarks or objectives, and to light the incense in rooms of divinity that grant you safety from the roaming spirits outside.

The shock factor here relies heavily on jump scares, yes, and if that's not your thing you should probably turn back now. However, Paper Dolls feels very different from your usual horror drivel by way of its historical value and the sheer authenticity in its folklore and roots. Everything from the style of clothing on various apparitions, to the traditional yet broken and spooky music, and the emotional narrative of paternal struggle told through a specific lens of Chinese culture and eventually darker sides of occultism.


The fact that horror stories like these, Horror stories of occultism and supernatural apparitions such as ghosts, are not allowed to be published by way of Chinese government laws makes the whole thing even more appealing and just that much more of a novelty when it comes to owning for the collection. There's definitely a bit of that authenticity lost in translation, however, as some of the sentences are quite a bit off.

Similarly, I'd love to see an option to play the game in an actual Chinese voiceover (unless it's already an option and I just missed it) as the English dub is rather... awful. It very much detracts from the harrowing story of paternal loss and the search by a mentally unstable father for his separated daughter, which is otherwise told quite well.

This review made possible through the consideration and contribution of the developer/publisher. Email electrickeishock@gmail.com for requests & promotions

God's Trigger delivers bloody top-down hack'n'slash and run'n'gun chaos with an over-the-top action cinema styling, and all with a side-helping of rock and roll. Using a blend of lightning-fast melee and technical gunplay combat, players will switch between the roles of an angel and demon (co-op players will fill one or the other) to kill their way up from the fire-y halls of purgatory up to the pearly gates of heaven.

With the tongue-in-cheek brutality of a classic Japanese gore romp and the stylish fountain-of-blood executions of a Tarantino flick, God's Trigger offers a serious heaping of slick crimson red blood-letting twin-stick combat. Game play-wise the split-second reaction times needed to clear a room without being wiped clean by a single strike or projectile make the reflex-based action here feel like some kind of Hotline Miami from Hell.

The game isn't nearly as simplified as the twin-stick masterpieces of the past, however, which sort of bogs the pacing down in a way in my opinion but definitely serves to spice up the mundane formula of run-n-gun game play seen in the genre. Between the well-placed teleportations, mindful character switching (in singleplayer), enemy mind-control, stealth-kills, door-swinging knockouts and other forms of environmental traps for your enemies there's a whole lot more to think about and many more ways to dispatch your enemies before heading into a room than something of a more arcade-y nature.


Obviously everything works much more smoothly in a co-op setting with a buddy on the couch, and each player picking their role of angel or demon gets you way more drawn into the character you're playing and their specific game-changing abilities which work in tandem with the other's. This is couch co-op at its best and if you can find someone to play with locally, this goes from being a quite good twin-stick to a must play. The style alone makes this a trip worth taking.

This review made possible through the consideration and contribution of the developer/publisher. Email electrickeishock@gmail.com for requests & promotions

Follows the rule of bigger is better in every way, delivering more of the fast-and-furious two-button martial arts action fans of the cult classic crave. It isn't just a double-dose of content but a doubling-down on the audio-visual hysteria that captivates the player's vision, there's a whole lot more craziness to the presentation and it makes the viscerally brutal combat just that much more compelling.

This is a no-brainer for anyone who loved the reflex-based action and zen-like simplicity of the original. Silver Dollar Games' magnum opus finally has its proper follow-up and it's a whole lot flashier and even more slick and professional in its presentation.

For more unique, abstract, arcadey and retro indie game recommendations check out Cue Indie Review, the indie game Cue-rator

Tormental is the latest top-down spin-off in the infamous FPS series of Serious Sam, and it comes with the same procedural roguelike packaging that you'd expect from an indie action title of the times. A 3D view with a classic vantage point give this roguelite a particularly stylish feel, but the mechanics remain familiar.

There isn't too much to say about Tormental as a roguelike, everything follows the formula of procedural level design and progressively crazy randomized weapon upgrades to a tee. Though where Tormental excels is just its genuinely engaging pacing and quick, addictive action. It doesn't try to pull anything new, convoluted, or fancy, and just focuses on what genre fans want; Obscenely good content, and lots of it.

The secondary guns all feel incredibly good to use and there's a whole lot of them to find and experiment with. The stages similarly hit you in quick, exciting dosages that never overstay their welcome seamlessly pushing you through new environments with all kinds of new upgrades to make you feel perpetually stronger and more like a badass. Essentially, this is all I could ask for in a simple top-down roguelike.

Difficulty and challenge here is accessible, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Generally killing comes fast, easy, and is very enjoyable on the shoot-y side of things but dying is just as quick and unpredictable. The dodge mechanic keeps the action fast and the reflexes lightning-quick, and the jumping mechanics spice up the top-down style with some unique roguelike platforming that occasionally pops up in a dungeon floor.

The upgrades found between floors to your main weapon feel very meat-y and actually make a pretty big impact, never leaving you feeling disappointed with a choice. Similarly, the secondary weapons that rely on an ammo resource that drops from enemies all come with ridiculously unique and clever execution, with an array of interesting bullet patterns and ranges to play with.

Just like the classic Serious Sam titles there's an awesomely zany and colorful cast of enemies to fight through here, and the bosses especially come with some seriously dazzling bullet patterns to dodge and jump over while focusing your fire. The presentation is top-notch indie fare, with the same style of attitude and humor Serious Sam veterans will instantly feel comfy and nostalgic with. Visuals are crisp and vibrantly colorful, with an almost last-gen 3D appearance that would make the game feel at home on a modern handheld console. Overall this has a very pleasant yet very casual sort of a feel to its sleek packaging.


Tormental is a particularly solid roguelite, and it doesn't really do anything new or bring anything fresh to the table. And it doesn't need to because its a roguelite that fleshes out and builds on the mechanics that make the genre so addictive.

For more unique, abstract, arcadey and retro indie game recommendations check out Cue Indie Review, the indie game Cue-rator

Arcade racing with a touch of futurist flair; Xenon Racer takes the classic style of Ridge Racer and other traditional arcade racers and pushes it to insanity with ludicrous speeds and slick futuristic aesthetic. Race through Tokyo, through Miami, and the forests of Canada in Campaign and Online modes with this high-octane sci-fi racer.

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Xenon Racer is a futuristic racer with all the right atmosphere for the genre, but doesn't play in the way you probably think it does. Gone is the the Wipeout and FZero-style of twisting tubes and anti-grav tracks that rotate to impossible degrees that's so popular in titles like GRIP or Distance, traded for a more traditionally Arcade racing approach; Think Ridge Racer but kicked into ludicrous speeds and topped off with a slick and clean futuristic urban setting across real world locations.

Though the Campaign does a fine job of carrying you through the various tracks and locations to get you used to the layout of each one, the difficulty of the game can feel a bit wonky. AI of opponents in each race start out insanely easy, and genuinely trail far behind you even with mistakes. This quickly changes with skilled racers who seem to never crash or have to respawn, meaning one wrong move can lead to a frustrating and unfair disadvantage. This does, admittedly, lead to very satisfying victories. Luckily, there's online multiplayer for when the player is ready for a more balanced and competitive experience.

Handling is as smooth as butter depending on your vehicle, as one would hope automobiles in the future do handle, and the drifting is seamlessly quick and easy to employ. At almost Mario Kart levels of simplicity, drifting is boiled down to a simple release of the acceleration or a quick flick of the brakes while turning into corners. The real difference here and what really separates Xenon Racer in its time chasing challenge from the rest of the racers is the pure speed and adrenaline that comes with its futuristic aesthetic. As simple, easy, and good feeling the drifts are to pull off it won't save you from the endless twists and turns coming at you at over 150 mph.

Just like the nitro boost in so many of those arcade classics, the player chooses wisely when to trigger their ERS boost system (an energy-based replacement to the classic nitro boost) to avoid careening into a corner or wall. These ludicrous boosts provide a serious blast of speed, and depending on which equipment you bring with you into the track can either have a long lasting boost effect or a quick and powerful one. Damage from mishaps does accumulate, and enough crashes into the wall will have you reset at a huge expense of your time. Don't let all that power and speed get to your head; Drive responsibly!

One aspect that does make Xenon Racer feel at home with the other future-racers of modern times is the customization features, with bright neon futuristic vehicle masks and terrestrial looking body parts that glow with unearthly finishes. There's some seriously cool (and weird) looking vehicles here, and the amount of hands-on creativity you can put into personalizing each one gives a certain level of attachment to your electric Xenon car.


Xenon Racer is the slickest and fastest arcade racer around, and it luckily has plenty of content to play through with a full racing package you'd expect from a AAA racing title. A full campaign mode is here to carry you through the triumph of rising through the circuits and working your way through each track, earning and editing handfuls of awesome new vehicles as you go.

More competitive racers will be happy to find a healthy and active online multiplayer racing community, especially in these early stages of the games' life. There's time trials for those with something to prove, and endurance races to hold your lead in the pack. Xenon Racer looks good, it feels good, and you could easily lose hours and hours training your control over the over-the-top levels of speed attained.

This review made possible through the consideration and contribution of Review Experts(REXnetwork) and the developer/publisher. Email contact@dnbmedia.co for requests & promotions

I'm no rider myself but I'm certainly old enough to remember the nostalgic joys of coasting the curved hills of the classic Microsoft Motocross and flying over long stretches of the map busting out endless tricks before ragdolling stupendously into the dirt.

Monster Energy Supercross 2 has a much more competitive edge to it than the sandbox motocross sims of the past, and now the biggest obstacle between you, the dirt, and the finish line is the constant threat of two-wheeled opponents on every side of you vying for that first place.

Featuring a nice wealth of playable tracks from across the Nation, be it rugged outdoor natural loops or the loud crowd-heavy excitement of an indoor arena, I was pleased as could be to see my hometown arena of the Oakland Coliseum listed prominently on the West Coast circuits while starting my career in Monster Supercross 2.

The graphical fidelity across all types of arenas and tracks is superb, and completely in-line with what you'd expect from Milestone's excellent catalogue of two-wheeled racing titles. Don't let the generic branding throw you off, this is as much a racing classic as any of this companies previous endeavors, with the realism and excitement of Ride but with just a bit more action, stunts, and destruction.

This review made possible through the consideration and contribution of Review Experts(REXnetwork) and the developer/publisher. Email contact@dnbmedia.co for requests & promotions

Factory Town is so addictively simple to jump into, it eases players so seamlessly into its winding and fantastically mesmerizing series of belts and conveyors with a blissfully engaging progression that will tap right into your oldest RTS nostalgia. The game just has so many ways to alter and optimize your output of resources, and every method is equally as fun to set up as it is to watch in motion.

If you've played Asmussen's previous addictive title you know this is a man who delights in the simple complexities of visual aesthetic. The villagers all have that lovable and simple blobform to them, which works for the gameplay in keeping the soon-to-be hundreds of little workers visible and easy to track on the screen.

Aside from the cute and simple appearance of the people, the surrounding landscape and serene nature setting is of a grander and much more graphically intensive quality. The trees are thick and full, with flowing rivers and rolling hills cutting through your quaint village as it spirals into a complex system of resource routes.

The soundtrack is as serene, relaxing, and peaceful as the earthly visuals surrounding your town. There's clearly some hired professional help here working on the soundtrack, and the folk-y acoustic band sound is incredibly impressive. Anyone coming from the Age of Empires era of townbuilders knows a good RTS needs a classic soundtrack, and there's plenty of that here.

Factory Town is probably the most genuine fun you're gonna have with a real-time production line simulation, especially when it comes to all ages and demographics. For someone like me who hasn't yet discovered the joys of plunking down 100+ hours into Factorio to witness the deeper complexities of the genre, this is an incredibly perfect jump-off point for anyone who takes one look at the complicated series of belts and feels to hesitant to get started on these rewarding games.

The freedom to take it all in at your own pace is especially fresh as you can play at a relaxing and steady momentum, or if you're really a mechanical wiz you can get right to work on intensive and insane networks of conveyor belts, wagons, and a booming economy.

For more unique, abstract, arcadey and retro indie game recommendations check out Cue Indie Review, the indie game Cue-rator

A digital prison encompasses us all more and more everyday. Human beings defeated by the tedium of the real world turn their attention eagerly to a future dominated by virtual worlds and manufactured idols tailored to their every desire and fantasy.

The Caligula Effect: Overdose asks the harder questions of this oppressive and man made new reality, a virtual world named Mobius, showing the ease with which our captors can manipulate our opinions, thoughts, and our very minds through the hypnotizing power of entertainment. A brave group of free-thinking students dubbed the Go-Home Club have become self-aware to the point that they've awoken to this exquisite form of mind-control.

Now the special students of the Go-Home Club will use their newfound powers of free-will to locate the devious songstress Mu, destroy her and break the grip she has over reality all while breaking the control over as many of your fellow classmates along the way as you can. Do you have the power to think for yourself and cut through this false paradise?


The combat in Caligula Effect is in a traditional turn-based jRPG format where attacks, skills, and items are doled out between members, though there's a whole lot more action per turn to look forward to here. Each member of the party is given up to three movements in each of their turns, allowing for maximum positioning and then execution of devastating chains. A brief glimpse into the future allows the player to foresee the chances of success, or the 'Imaginary Chain' of how chosen actions will play out before committing to them. Every attack type has its own useful mechanic, where ranged attacks can be utilized to counter foreseeable attacks dead in their tracks and powerful strikes can be employed to disable shields ahead of a series of killing blows.

Starting your adventure in the confines of the high-school hallways, Caligula Effect has a very social slice-of-life aspect to its darker overall story. Hundreds of students with their own personality and problems roam these halls as you search for answers to locating the captor of your world, the idol Mu. These easily influential vessels for Mu's reality altering melody are traceable on the expansive Causality Link menu, where you can track the percentage of Mu's influence over 500 different student bodies. Battling students with over 50% corruption can help free these peers, but many are shy or unwilling and will require closer friendships and other completed tasks to help free.

This gamified social world is another aspect, along with the stylish and Goth-ier side of the visual flair, that makes Caligula feel similar to the Persona series. There's also the little fact that the music was written by former Megami Tensei series composer Tsukasa Masuko and the story written by Persona veteran Tadashi Satomi. Considering the lack of any Persona anything on PC, Caligula Effect feels like a close bargain that ends up having quite a bit of its own interesting personality by way of interesting social commentary on the Vocaloid phenomenon. Even better are all the new bells and whistles NISA have thrown in for the re-release, with higher resolutions and clearer visuals, a new female protagonist to play as with her own story, and plenty of new scenarios, questlines, and endings.


Caligula Trigger definitely has a last-gen look and that's because it is a last-gen game, and if you spent a lot of time gaming through the Vita days that won't bother you. In fact it's probably a little nostalgic, and what's important here are the outstanding character designs of the main protagonists. Most of the early game can be expected to include lots of previously mentioned slice-of-life aesthetic with lots of high-school imagery, school uniforms, cubeform classrooms, and some Japanese modernism. However, the minions of Mu and the designs of her mind-controlled pupils become progressively more otherworldly the further you fight on with some seriously twisted and celestial beastly designs of bosses later on being particularly impressive.

With a thematic setting centered around Vocaloids you can expect a good amount of pop music here during battles. The veteran talent from Megami Tensei composers does a good job of mixing up the OST, with some stylishly groovy beats and electronic rhythms carrying darker overtones. Mostly though the main pop-y overture seems to dominate here while roaming the school halls, soaring into full vocalized lyrics when entering a battle with the corrupted Digiheads. This gets a bit grating if you're not a big J-pop fan, and though its a decent theme I'd love to hear a wider variety of Masuko's compositions mixed in here.

Speaking of grating; The voice of Aria, Mu's chibi android assistant who follows you throughout the game, is a high enough pitch to cause glass to break. Perhaps I'm not the exact demographic for that sort of thing, but holy hell, I had to mute the game on these parts. Everything else was fine.


The Caligula Effect: Overdose isn't quite as subversive or "fringe" in its reality bending storyline so don't go in expecting some sort of Suda51 romp, but all the elements of a thought-provoking psychological narrative are here. The game has a long tutorial sequence and a bit of a slow start, but when it gets going it really gets going and all modern digital intrusion topics are investigated here from social media mob mentality to electronic manipulation to internet surveillance.

The pacing of the combat is a breath of fresh air for a traditional genre of turn-based combat, with each character firing their volley of attacks, counters, and skills in triples every turn is a visual feat to look forward to once the attacks are committed and executed. The mix of positioning between ranged and melee attacks to allow for dodging of devastating attacks and the set-up of powerful combos keeps the flow constantly interesting, and sets a new standard for jRPG battle pacing.

The Caligula Effect is stylish, the story is mysterious and engaging, and though its a bit slow to start its an incredible rewarding tale with a whole lot of extra content by way of 500 corrupted students to tackle for the completionists. Overdose offers a whole lot of new modern options, a new way to see the story with a new protagonist, and everything else you'd want for a perfect Steam package.

This review made possible through the consideration and contribution of Review Experts(REXnetwork) and the developer/publisher. Email contact@dnbmedia.co for requests & promotions