Recent reviews by The Space Ferret

Not useful at all, but I have to admit that the new boards sure look mighty lovely. I love the new sounds and visuals, especially fall as it's my favourite season. It's a good thing to buy if you want to support the devs.

This is a cute game centered around the Big Bad Wolf who decided to give up demoltion work to run his own fancy restaurant, but he has only a week to get the place running smoothly, and that is more than enough time for the Three Pigs to put a big dent in his business plans.

That's pretty much the gist of this game. It's basically a Choose Your Own Adventure where up to two players (as the wolf and/or the pigs) take turns each week to either help your business (as the wolf) or to ruin it (as the pigs). Each area (lake, neighbourhood, etc) helps, or hinders, each side with various choices that you ultimately have to choose from. After seven days, the game ends in a form of a short story that shows the end results of your actions. Whether The Wolf's Bite succeeds or fails depends on you did (or not do).

The adorable artwork and story will make you want to choose every single choice when they come up, just to see what happens next. I will even pick what I know are bad choices, just to see the (often) hilarious result. According to the store blurb, there's over 350-ish choices/paths/whatever, so that's a lot of replayability right there. With that many results though, you will encounter the same ones quite often long before you exhaust them all. The outcomes of the choices (what you pick) never change though. There's also 'over 20' different endings too so it's fun to try to see them all.

I like how the game is obviously in favour of the wolf and he is seen in quite a heroic (most of the time anyway) light compared to the pigs, who vandalize, hangs out with tough gangs, and basically wreck havoc in the city just to frame, or sabotage the wolf from achieving his dream. The media often portrays wolves badly, so it's nice to see a good wolf for once because it's not very common.

I would recommend this game to anyone who likes fairy tales, animals, cute/funny stories, and 'quickie' games. Each round only lasts roughly 15 mins. It's also cheap too, especially with the launch discount. I'm sure it will be very fun to play with your friends. If you're solo, like me, you can play against the AI.

P.S. The wolf looks super cute in the artwork.

I'd like to point out though that there is no online MP, only local, which is unfortunate.
You also can't save at this point in time. It shouldn't be much of an issue though, as each round is short. Just don't return to the menu before you finish.

Great game. They don't make games like this anymore. There's sooo many products you can make/manufacture in this game that you're going to feel overwhelmed, but that's what makes it fun. You could concentrate on just a specific sector (eg agriculture) or spread out and make a bunch of different products, which can be anything. Apples, guitars, cars, telephones, teddy bears, tricycles, preserved meat, raincoats, nylon toothbrushes, wine, handbags and shoes are just one of the 200+ products you can make. Think of it as the industrial side of Transport Giant. You get more industries and less vehicles. There's a load of maps you can choose from to build your empire, and the UI is easy to understand.

If your dream job is to make garden gnomes and sell them, then here's your chance.

Yes, there has been issues for some people when starting the game, myself included, but a recent patch fixed it for most. Unlike Transport Giant on Steam, which apparently has loads of issues, Industry Giant II works fine. If you really want to play TG, you should get the Gamersgate version at http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-TG/transport-giant-gold-edition-2012
It runs absolutely fine.

I want to get something out of the way first. I HAVE PLAYED THIS GAME MUCH LONGER THAN THE STEAM PLAYTIME.

Like another reviewer said, this is like a cross between FTL and Jules Verne. Lead a famous explorer (and his/her hired help) through strange new lands to meet (and potentially anger) the natives, battle wild animals and find enough treasure to gain the fame you need to become the greatest explorer the world has ever known.

The map is procedurally so you're going to have a new adventure every time, and the pixel artwork is really charming. In order to survive all six expeditions, you need to make sure you have all the right tools (rope, torches, food, etc) for the job, but you also need room in your inventory to fit all the fabulous treasure you've discovered. It's a fine balancing act between survival and fame/fortune.

Like all rogue-likes, lots of very bad things can happen to you. Shrines that hold the treasures could contain some nasty booby traps, like ever-widening chasms, or the great ball of nothingness, so do you risk getting that sold gold llama statue and thus potentially incur the wrath of the natives/deity/whatever? You won't know what will happen until you take it! Take care of your sanity meter and don't let it get to zero, or bad stuff will definitely happen to you. Crewmembers may fight, turn cannibal or wander off into the dark, never to be seen again.

I've been playing this game since Alpha 10 and even in Alpha status this game is 100% playable and nothing feels 'missing.' The devs have put out numerous additions and bugs every few weeks and this is one of the best rogue-likes I've ever played. It's a very unique spin on the genre, taking place in the 19th century as opposed to generic dungeons and space travels. You're going to feel like you're Indy as you play, except there's no Nazis. Have you got what it takes to become the greatest explorer?

Although it's still EA, Claustrophobia has lots of content already, and well worth a purchase if you enjoy rogue-likes. I think it may be my favourite in the genre. Yes, it may be even better than Dungeons of Dredmor!

Simple and easy to understand UI, several classes, loads of items/weapons/armour, good music and randomly generated dungeons means there's lots of replayability.

Yes, you could get killed right on the first floor!

The best zoo-tycoon game in my opinion. The WP series features heavily on realism, unlike the Zoo Tycoon series, although that series is good too. Animals look realistic, as are their AI behavior. It takes a while for babies to be born, unlike ZT where it apparently happens instantly. Food don't magically appear out of thin air to feed your animals. like in ZT. You need to place the proper facilities to make the food.

WP 2 also focuses more on those rare/unknown animals, unlike ZT where they feature mostly well known/popular animals. I like this idea, because it lets people who play this game learn about animals they've never seen/or read about before. For example, there's the frilled sharks from the marine expansion. I doubt many people who aren't shark fans would know what they are.

The map isn't really set up like a grid (ZT again). You simply 'paint' the paths along the ground for your customers to walk on, which makes your zoo look more realistic if you're using stone or dirt paths for instance.

One thing I do like in ZT over WP2 though is setting up your habitats for marine animals. It's very easy to do in ZT but I find it frustrating to do the same in WP2.

Both zoo series are good, but if you want more realism in a zoo game, then WP2 is the way to go. With 150+ animals, realistic AI, along with loads of plants and attractions, etc, however, you should buy it anyway.

Really nice game. Open world sand-boxy space exploration game with a ton of different areas to go to. It is lacking in content right now, but it has a lot of potential and the devs are going to add a lot of stuff to it. Definitely playable right now if you want to start your career as a trader, pirate, pirate hunter or a miner.

The UI needs work, but the devs are going to give it a big overhaul in the next update. The tutorial is also barebones and I figured out how to do all the stuff the tutorial didn't mention. It doesn't have a steep learning curve.

The following review is for the VITA PSM version, but it also applies to the PC version.


Being more of a dog fan, my first thought upon hearing this game was "It should be called Aqua Doggies," but little did I know how utterly -cute- this game was going to be.

Although arcade-y games such as Aqua Kitty really have no need for a plot, I feel like I must mention the plot to this one. Basically what happened is that far in the future, the world's milk supply has ran out. To a cat, it probably amounted to pure torture. Ironically however, real cats can be lactose intolerant. Go fig. At any rate, all was not lost, for the cat scientists (yes, there are cat scientists!) have discovered that the ocean floor is actually bursting with milk. Who would've thunk it, huh? All the cats have to do is overcome their fear of water, swim down to the ocean bottom in scuba suits, and start drilling away for free flowing milk.

Sound really easy and simple, yes? Well, no. It turns out that the ocean is a very dangerous place, especially for kittehs, and they don't seem to want intruders in their watery domain. What's more, ocean dwelling aliens want to beam these miner kittehs up in their spaceships (that also acts like a sub apparently) and whisk them off to space to put in their intergalatic zoos. Okay, so I lied about the zoos, but at least I didn't say they were beamed up to be skinned alive and eaten. The morality rate for these space kittehs must be abysmally small, but hey, -somebody- has to do it, for THE MILK MUST FLOW!

So that's pretty much the plot. Isn't it the most weirdest, most inventive story anyone has ever come up with? The plot may be weird, but the gameplay sure isn't.

You star as the tough, one-eyed patch-wearing cat piloting a submarine as you defend the miner cats from the denizens of the deep. You move left and right in a wrap-around screen, and can switch directions on the fly. Blast everything that moves, but be sure to be on the lookout for special critters that will attempt to capture a poor kitteh and whisk it off to space while you're busy trying to keep yourself alive. If it manages to escape, then the mining station it was attending to explodes. If all the kittehs are captured, or you get blown up, then it's game over.

If all this sounds awfully familiar to you, then it should. Aqua Kitty is actually an updated version of an old classic arcade game called Defender, which was made by Williams Electronics in 1980, and it was you you in a spaceship protecting the astronauts from aliens.

In essence, if you loved Defender, I don't see how you could possibly hate Aqua Kitty. The gameplay is the same, but with cats and water. The developers, Tikipod LTD, chose to use a graphical style similar to Amiga games of yore. All of you may be too young to remember the Amiga, but it was a brand of computers by Commodore in the 80's and 90s. I've never owned an Amiga, but man, some of its games sure had really colourful sprites. Aqua Kitty successfully captures the look of a classic Amiga game. Every sprite looks rich with colours and detail. The cats look so adorable as well, especially when blown up, like the below screenshot shows:

The backdrops show a remarkable sense of 'alien-ness' when you see the stuff lying there at the ocean bottom. Strange plants dominate the landscape which seem to indicate the game takes place on an alien planet or a seriously mutated Earth. You may also see deserted cities that look like they've been bombarded upon. There's a whole backstory here that will forever remain a mystery.

The creatures that the submarine tough cat has to face aren't your ordinary ocean critters, oh no. These are mechanical critters. Are they aliens, or normal ocean dwellers? Who knows. All you need to know is that you need to blast them. They come in many shapes and sizes, and most have the ability to shoot back at you from the front and behind, so you need to be careful. They come in waves, and in order to win the level, you must destroy every single one of them. You can see they all are from the convenient map situated at the top. Red dots signify the ones you really need to watch out for, for these jellyfish-type creatures are the ones who want to steal your fellow kittehs away. Make these your top priority. Although you can still win the level without saving all your fellow cats (you need to save at least one), how can you possibly live with yourself, knowing full well that you let your feline friends get abducted to spend the rest of their lives in some hideous intergalatic zoo? For shame!!!

Your main blaster is what you'll be using most often. You also have a Turbo gun that fires faster and is more powerful. It has its own meter however so if it runs dry, you must wait until it powers up again. As you go through the stages, the meter gets increasingly larger so you can use it more often. It's perfect against the vertical purple enemies which have higher defenses than other enemies. There are three power ups you can acquire to increase your chances for survival. They appear has an enemy that you must shoot to gain them. One gives you a pod of 2 additional cats that lets you shoot more beams. The 2nd powerup drops a bomb. Run into it and it explodes, killing everything in its range. The third is a heart that refills part of your life bar. What powerup you get depends on how high (or low) the enemy is when defeated so plan your shot accordingly.

There's two modes of play in Aqua Kitty. The main mode is a series of interconnected levels. Make it to the end and defeat the big boss to win. The other mode is more of a survival-type thing called Endless, where it's just you against an ever-increasing horde of enemies. There are no miner cats to save in this mode, which is disappointing because I miss having them around.

The music is really nice and full of pumping tunes that keeps you coming back for more.

There are two cons to this game, however. The first few stages are easy enough, but the further you go, the harder it becomes. By the last few stages, you're literally swamped with enemies and you'd be hard pressed to destroy them all while also keeping track of the jellyfish to save the miners. It's fast, frantic and incredibly difficult to save all the kittehs, but it is not impossible. Whether that is considered a con depends on the individual. Some people love the challenge and old arcade games, like Defender which this game emulates, often are difficult to begin with. Other people may not like the difficulty spike and will consider it a con.

The other con isn't really a con and it's not the games' fault, but as the Vita version was the first version that the game came out on, it doesn't have all the new features that the later platforms have (PC, 360, etc). The new features included a Gradius-style survival mode but with miner kitties, 2 player co op, more weapons, tweaked graphics, etc. I've played the PC version and the new additions make the game even better. It's a shame the Vita version will never get the updated version.

As it stands, Aqua Kitty is a great throwback to the classic arcade games of old, with pleasing music, eye-popping art and good, fast paced gameplay. It is also my favourite PSM game on the Vita. You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't buy it NAO.

PROS
Easy controls
Successfully captures spirit of classic arcade games
Wonderful sprite work that resembles an Amiga game
Great tunes
Good gameplay
Imaginative story

CONS
May be too hard for some
Doesn't have the new additions from other platforms
No dogs in it

It's the best pirate game I've ever played. It's also one of the very few pirate games I've ever played, so I dunno if my review will count for much.

Surprisingly addicting open-world pirate game where you can go out and do random stuff, like rescue your family from this villain, go treasure hunting, attack other ships and/or settlements, acquire goods from one port and selling it at another port (trading), and even wooing (and eventually marrying) a random daughter of a govenor. There's fun mini games (although lots of people hate the dancing one) and you basically play until you grow too old to continue pirating. Keep watch of the morale of your crew at sea or they may end up deserting you!

Only bad thing I found with the game is that the main character whom you play as doesn't look manly enough for my liking, and while I like the dancing mini-games, it tends to go on for too long. If it was a shorter mini-game, it would've been much better.

I normally don't care for anything 'Sonic,' having grown up with Mario, and I don't care much for cart racers also but man, this game is awesome. Loads better than Mario Kart, in my opinion, with better design, flow, weapons, track layouts, presentation, etc. Don't really like the boat parts, but the car and plane parts is really fun. No cheap ass weapons like MK's stupid blue shells.

I don't really know any of these characters besides the PC exclusive ones and Sonic ones (obviously), but that doesn't stop me from having a blast with this game. This is a must buy for cart racers, even if you hate Sonic and/or cart racers.