There aren’t enough fungal protagonists in games. Besides Toad, who’s only had one solo adventure to his name, fungi don’t get much love as potential main characters in games. Untame’s Mushroom 11 hopes to redress the balance, casting you as a replicating green fungal growth, who must go on a…

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is the most ambitious Trine game yet. Developer Frozenbyte has made the jump from 2D to 3D with Trine 3 and this both opens the game up in terms of design and increases the burden on the developers. Has this new ambition paid off?…

The Fall is a modern take on an ageing genre, the good old point-and-click adventure game. It’s not the first game to attempt to breathe new life into this ancient game type, with Stick it to the Man and The Cave coming to mind as the most successful attempts to…

Channelling other animal mascots like Sonic and Donkey Kong, Tembo the Badass Elephant attempts to burst into the platformer pantheon by rolling, jumping and splashing his way through hordes of baddies. Is Tembo as badass as his name suggests, or is he blowing his own trumpet? Let’s start off with…

If you believe the sheer amount of doomsday fiction that has been produced, the world will fall into an apocalyptic state in one way or another. Nippon Ichi Software have decided to offer their take on this prediction with htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, a puzzle platformer that shares similar traits…

You’ve got to feel bad for game developers who come up with a great concept for a game, only to have a similar looking, but much more high profile game launch just before they do. Show any Xbox gamer the trailer to Aaru’s Awakening and they will likely respond with…

Funk of Titans is, on paper, one of the stupidest ideas every conceived by mankind. God I love stupid ideas. Based loosely on Greek mythology, and I say loosely based on like the movie Noah was loosely based on the story from the Bible, Funk of Titans sees you step…

Probably the best game based around the Iñupiat people of Alaska that you’ll play this year…probably. Never Alone is an important and encouraging sign for video gaming as an art-form. Developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people, Never Alone retells and reimagines several Iñupiat stories. Told through…

If you didn’t fund the project on KickStarter, Freedom Planet is a nostalgia inspired throwback to the mascot platformers that filled the video game market in the 1990’s. It follows the adventures of three young freedom fighters who are attempting to bring peace to their shattered home world that has been…

Teslagrad is the first singleplayer game produced by Rain Games, following the tale of a young boy who must adventure through an ancient tower and harness the powers of electricity and magnetism to escape. Is it an attractive proposition, or is it one that will repel you? The game takes…

In an attempt to capture the essence of 8-bit platformers from the NES era, the team at Yacht Club Games has dug up many of the genre’s tropes and reworked them, trying to add design elements from the modern era to spice up this aging game style. However, is the…

One of the key themes that seems to be running through indie games recently is the importance of family. Whether it be finding them in Gone Home, or working to save your father in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Monochroma continues this trend, by placing you in a precarious…

When I was growing up in the Nineties, I watched 2D develop into 3D and with that, Platformers took on an entirely new kind of challenge. Instead of making a background for your character to run in front of, entire worlds needed to be created. Thinking back to classics such as…

Short films and video games are forms of art that are rarely connected, but Suda 51 and Grasshopper Interactive, whose previous games include Lollipop Chainsaw and No More Heroes, have broken this tradition. Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day is a combination of an action-based video game, and four pieces…

After the success of Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii and Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has once again asked Retro Studios to make an all-new entry in the jungle-based platform adventure series. Deciding to take full advantage of their latest home console, Retro has released Tropical Freeze, which adds all-new…

Originally released on PC in 2012, Dustforce has now come to consoles. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions update the game with new features; most notable is the inclusion of an online component to the multiplayer, which is almost a shameless love-letter to Super Smash Bros. Dustforce is a 2D…

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood comes from a strange cross of Limbo-esque gameplay mixed with the artistic style of a Pixar movie. Oh and a big magic pen, throw that in there too. Created by Press Play, a Danish studio recently acquired by Microsoft, Max is a 2.5D platformer and…

Contrast is a game which oozes style from every pore. Noir visuals and a smooth jazz soundtrack do much to set this game apart from grey power-fantasy shooters and colourful indie hits. Letting you hop from a 3D platformer to a 2D side-scroller at a whim, Contrast has a lot…

Spongebob Squarepants and the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom have been popular enough to be on TV for well over a decade, and with that came the inevitable game adaptations. While the most memorable of them have been well received platformers, the latest title is a co-op adventure for up to…

Sonic The Hedgehog. A franchise that has seen the best and worst of what the industry has to offer. Since 2010, the series has gone from strength to strength with titles like Sonic Colours and Sonic Generations bringing the series out of its rut. Sonic Lost World is the first…

In 1990, SEGA created a quaint and enjoyable platformer starring the indomitable Mickey Mouse. Castle of Illusion is fondly looked back upon by gamers who grew up in the 90s, and along with Sonic helped to define the Mega Drive/ Genesis console, and the genre. Featuring quirky levels and a…