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3 years ago
The “Not a Metroidvania” bundle includes 4 great Metroidvanias
If only you could have heard the RPS treehouse chat a few months ago, during the great Metroidvania debate of 2017. Battle lines were drawn. On the one side: John, insisting that of course Dead Cells isn't a Metroidvania. On the other side: everyone else, calling John an old fogey for insisting on overly strict and out-dated genre boundaries. On the other other side: the…
If you go on Twitter, where every second image is of a dog being cuddled, rated, or dressed up as a Star Wars character, it's a reasonable assumption that every year is the year of the dog - however Valve, not to mention the ancient Chinese zodiac, are here to tell you that's not the case. As of today, it legitimately is the year of…
Feature: Castleprime
The Metroidvania is perhaps one of the more tricky genres to nail down. With its very name coming from an amalgamation of two actually quite different Nintendo-based game series - Metroid and Castlevania - quite what qualifies is always up for debate. Hence, we suspect this could be one of the more controversial lists, when it leaves out a favourite game that someone else might…
4 years ago
Feature: A cold, dark and gentle place
I finally completed Dark Souls III [official site] last week, a world that I have been dipping in and out of between bouts of listlessness since its release in April last year. It didn’t grip me like the first revered Dark Souls, but it still made me sad to know it was all over. Where could I go now for my Souls fix? The answer,…
5 years ago
Feature: Sincerest form of flattery, etc
Salt & Sanctuary: A 2D Dark Souls That Doesn’t Feel Enough Like Dark Souls
Everything I love about Dark Souls is everything that makes me want to scream in Salt and Sanctuary [official site].
We're not even at the halfway point and 2016 is already one of the best years for PC gaming that I can remember. XCOM 2 and Darkest Dungeon already seem like distant memories, and this month alone we've had Kathy Rain, Stellaris, DOOM, Salt and Sanctuary, Overwatch and Total War: Warhammer. Today there's another Hitman episode incoming and after the joy of Sapienza, I can't…
I realise that Dark Souls comparisons are now overused to the point of near-meaninglessness but Salt and Sanctuary [official site] is, like, really Dark Souls-y. It's a hand-drawn 2D side-on platformer, sure, but does so many Souls-y things from all its parrying and rolling down to needing to go reclaim your souls salt after you die. From what I've heard, it sounds great? Following its…
Salt and Sanctuary [official site] is a gorgeous 2D Dark Souls kinda thing that can be played in either singleplayer or co-op. It's already available on Sony's Drakestation 4 and will be coming to PC. Hopefully that'll happen sooner rather than later, and developers Ska Studios reckon they might well ready to announce the release date later this month. I'm extremely excited about this one,…
You can tell Ska Studios' Salt and Sanctuary [official site] is a bit Dark Souls-y, because it's got that Souls UI. Just as a gurning mug on an FPS's UI in the '90s let players know they were in for something a wee bit Wolfenstein-y, those red and green bars and that style of font say this is a grim game with plenty of mystery,…
6 years ago
We skipped over Salt & Sanctuary when it was announced at a PlayStation event last year, but now I've seen a swish video demonstrating its 2D take on Dark Souls-y monster-mashing, I've gone back and noticed oh! It's coming to PC too! That's welcome news, as it seems to smoosh Souls ideas of careful combat, risk management, and needing to pay attention oh no that's…
