September2015

  • Review Flame Over (PS4)

    Burn baby burn

    Flame Over's hot stuff for two reasons: it's got an eye for terribad puns and if you invest the effort it's actually a lot of fun. Laughing Jackal's self-described pyroguelike launched on the PlayStation Vita earlier in the year, offering the fiercest fire fighting foray on PlayStation since Konami's forgotten third-person douser...

March2015

  • Review Flame Over (PlayStation Vita)

    Prepare to fry

    Real world fire fighting requires perseverance, and Flame Over, a PlayStation Vita roguelike from British indie Laughing Jackal, demands a similar level of dedication. You control the ironically named Blaze, a London-based fireman with a big hat and a bushy moustache. Your objective is to work your way through the various randomly...

July2013

  • Review OMG HD Zombies! (PlayStation Vita)

    Do you have the deadication?

    After some zombie target practice as a PlayStation Minis title, the addictive OMG-Z is back as a full PlayStation Vita game, with Trophies, leaderboards, and a fresh lick of paint. OMG HD Zombies takes the original release's compelling mechanics, and gives them a good old polish, prompting you to venture deeper down the...

March2013

  • Review Hungry Giraffe (PlayStation Vita)

    Head and shoulders above the rest

    Originally launching over a year ago as a free PlayStation Mini with PlayStation Plus, Hungry Giraffe is the latest game to make the jump from watered-down budget piece to fully-fledged PlayStation Vita title. But while we enjoyed Mr. Giraffe’s original outing, do the new features in this upgraded version warrant...

February2012

  • Review Hungry Giraffe (PlayStation Minis)

    Good grub

    If gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, then Hungry Giraffe is heading straight to the pits of hell. The game’s titular greedy ungulate has a serious scoffing addiction that’s accentuated by the host of snacks left lingering in the sky. Laughing Jackal’s latest PlayStation Mini isn’t going to win any awards for its fiction,...

December2011

  • Review Orbit (PlayStation Minis)

    As with all of Laughing Jackal's releases, Orbit is easy to pick up but impossible to put down

    Laughing Jackal is the master of carrot dangling. Its previous PlayStation Mini — the gloriously stylish OMG-Z — hooked you into its underlying "one more go" philosophy by rewarding you with new upgrades at every opportunity. The British...

August2011

  • Review Fighting Fantasy: Talisman Of Death (PlayStation Minis)

    Fans of the fiction will lap up Fighting Fantasy: Talisman Of Death, but though finely executed, it's also a niche proposition

    In an era when video games such as The Elder Scrolls seemed as mythical as their subject matter, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's series of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks took geek culture by storm. Promising worlds filled...

  • Review Cubixx HD (PlayStation 3)

    A competent upgrade of an already stellar PlayStation Mini, Cubixx HD might be rooted in the same core principles as its predecessor but it is still essential for fans of intense, action-heavy puzzle titles

    In the hazy days of 2010, we described Laughing Jackal's debut PlayStation Mini, Cubixx, as a "surprisingly brilliant reworking of 80's...

April2011

  • Review Duael Invaders (PlayStation Minis)

    Duael Invaders adopts an unusual mechanic that's difficult to master but extremely rewarding

    Duael Invaders is a little bit like the video game equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach. It takes an immense amount of concentration to master, but when everything clicks, it makes you feel like the greatest human being alive. If you...

January2010

  • Review Cubixx (PlayStation Minis)

    Cubixx is a surprisingly brilliant reworking of the 80's classic Qix

    The presentation and soundtrack make for an intense, futuristic experience that can be enjoyed in short, sporadic bursts. As the name hints, Cubixx's twist on the classic Qix formula, is to have you cutting out the surface of pulsating polygonal cube. The cube pounds with the beat...