CrossKrush (REVIEW)

Imagine if you will retiring at an old age in a house that's smack dab in the middle of a busy intersection. A long awaited vacation home situated supposedly far away from the hustle and bustle of a life left behind. Within this humble abode you finally have the time available to spend with your loving wife. After having spent most of your life dealing with your kids, and their drama you get to make good those vows you spoke so long ago. You choose to spend your retirement days alongside your dearly beloved listening to an old radio, and watching the news on an old tube style television. In your spare time you also dance the time away with your wife to an old record player that contains that one record with that one song which means the most to you, and her. A song that commemorates your first date, and the many anniversaries thereafter. 

Now imagine all those wonderful things stolen away by the noisy traffic that constantly collects not far from your newfound home. What do you do? Well, in the case of CrossKrush you get off of your soggy bottom, and take care of business. You've had enough of those young whipper snappers and their noisy vehicles, so you pack some explosives, and carry your cane out to the crossroads to deal some geriatric street justice. Blowing up cars, and beating them with your cane until they blow the f**k up! BOOM!!!

GROOD (REVIEW)

The machines have invaded so you built GROOD. That's about as deep as the story goes with this trippy shoot 'em up. Thankfully the game's mechanics, and brutal difficulty offer the player much more than just that one line introduction. In what could best be described as the rise of Skynet versus 'Batteries Not Included' we get a cute 'em up that has it's own unique damage taken, and damage dealt mechanics. All with a flying tube television that has a rocket booster, and a gatling gun strapped to it. Thus is GROOD ...

As GROOD you will basically be flying left to right blasting the fool out of mechanical enemies while dodging hazards, and avoiding death by repeated hits. Damage not only changes your lights from green to yellow, and finally to red as you take in the hits, but also breaks the fourth wall by putting cracks in your television screen. Obscuring your already impeded vision. In the process of screen shattering the game creates a visual color distortion that mirrors that of a real television malfunction. Going from dark, to rainbow colored, to grey scale, and even blurred. In the way of combat things are fairly straightforward, given the addition of a slowdown mechanic, and the weapon power-up/weapon upgrade system. 

9th Dawn III (REVIEW)

Dubbed a "Collect-A-Thon" this sequel that is "9th Dawn III" harbors content from various RPG genres. Coming at you as an action rpg or dungeon crawler with mmo missions, monster collecting, crafting, and it's own card game it aims to impress on many different fronts. Though simplistic in design with it's top-down pixel constructed elements the town of Ashwick, the surrounding world, and it's would be hero come to the forefront offering up a grand adventure the likes of which is rarely seen, especially from an indie game. 

WARSAW (REVIEW)

The date is August 1st, 1944. The last of the Polish resistance faces insurmountable odds from both the Nazis, and the Soviets. Each of which are closing in from both sides. In a last ditch attempt to defy the seemingly inevitable outcome they plan, and execute an underground uprising. Looting supplies, hitting targets, and fighting back while trying to maintain morale, and survive the war ...

Keeping true to the nature of the real world war that this game is based on Crunching Koalas, and their developers, through gameplay mechanics, emphasize that each choice made holds a potential dire consequence if not managed properly. Maintaining a tone of seriousness respectful of the source material. Strategy is king in Warsaw of 1944, and the stake is 952,000 innocent lives which decline each day that the war wages on. Can you lead the resistance to victory?