Brian, Author at Thumb Culture

14Aug

By BrianNo Comments

Cuphead – Don’t Deal with the Devil

Cuphead is the first and only game developed and published by the Canadian indie developers StudioMDHR. Founders and brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer tried to make a game like Cuphead in 2000 but lacked the tools to do so. Following the success of indie game Super Meat Boy in 2010, the brothers decided to give it another go and so development on Cuphead had begun. It was first announced in 2014 and gained instant fandom and admiration for its difficulty and art style. Cuphead was released 3 years later on Xbox One and PC. It later appeared on Switch, and now it's on PS4, despite StudioMDHR saying "there will be no PS4 version". Cuphead is certainly a novel looking game, does it feel as old as its 1930s aesthetic? Gameplay The story, in a nutshell, is that two happy little cu...

Destroy All Humans! – One Giant Step On Mankind!

28Jul

By BrianNo Comments

PlayStation Reviews

Destroy All Humans! – One Giant Step On Mankind!

Right now, you are thinking one of three things. You are either thinking "is this the latest game about a particular epidemic", "Destroy All Humans! - hmm, where have I heard that before", or you are thinking "oh my god, DESTROY ALL HUMANS! - they finally remade the game". If you're thinking the third option, then you are dead right with the game being released on 28/07/2020 on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Google Stadia. Destroy All Humans! it's a remake, not a remaster, of the cult classic game of the same name released in 2005. The original game was developed by the now-defunct Pandemic Studios, so development has been handed over to a team of 60 people over at Black Forest Games who are noted for their work on the Giana Sisters games. THQ Nordic have taken the publishing reigns again since...

Sega Celebrates Big, But Keeps It Small With The Astro City Mini

7Jul

By BrianNo Comments

News & Updates

Sega Celebrates Big, But Keeps It Small With The Astro City Mini

It looks like Sega are continuing their 60th anniversary celebrations, but sticking with the micro theme. You may remember earlier in the year, Sega announced the Game Gear Micro which is being released on October 6th this year, exactly 30 years to the day after the release of the original Game Gear, Sega's 8-bit handheld system. So far the system is only available in Japan, and like so, the Astro City Mini is said to be no different with no confirmation of a western release. What do we know so far? The Astro City Mini is set to release at the end of the year in Japan costing ¥12,800 (around $120 or £94) and will feature 36 arcade games. So far, the only conformed titles we have are: Alien Syndrome Alien Storm Altered Beast Columns II Dark Edge Fantasy Zo...

Darius Cozmic Collection Console Review – Unforgiving, Relentless Fun!

29Jun

By Brian1 Comment

PlayStation Reviews, Retrogaming Corner

Darius Cozmic Collection Console Review – Unforgiving, Relentless Fun!

In the current generation of gaming, we are no stranger to a remaster or a remake of previously popular games. This isn’t too dissimilar from the early days, where companies would port their popular arcade games (remember those?) to home consoles to bring the experience into your bedroom and milk you for some more of your hard-earned pocket money. Some of those coin-op conversions were a little bit, shall we say…shaky (I’m looking at you Pac-Man for the Atari 2600). Thankfully, Darius is not one of those game series. Darius started life out as your typical coin guzzling side-scrolling shoot ‘em up developed and published by Taito in 1987, but what set this apart from regular “shmups” was the non-linear level design and multiple endings (if you ever got there). The Darius Cozmic Coll...