Ronan Price

1 week ago | independent.ie | Ronan Price

Games are not like movies in that old favourites often can’t be played on newer consoles due to the inexorable march of technology. Yet a remaster is no little undertaking and so publishers must have a strategy as to which to give the makeover. Is it based on enduring popularity or the need for a marketing assist? Capcom’s Japanese hack’n’slash franchise Onimusha shone briefly in the early 2000s with four entries in the series selling well.

2 weeks ago | independent.ie | Ronan Price

MKW has far more competition from previously released and upgraded Switch titles (eg, the two recent Zeldas) or ports from other platforms (such as Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077). Nonetheless, if you want one Switch 2-only title that demonstrates the potential of the new platform, MKW fits the bill with a riotous combination of kart races featuring up to 24 competitors at a time and a voluminous open world. Oh, and it costs an eyeraising €90.

2 weeks ago | independent.ie | Ronan Price

Having sold 150 million units of the delightful original Switch in eight years, the Japanese company decided on pumping steroids into the existing design for the sequel – resulting in a more muscular yet more refined Switch 2. The name intends to suggest that everything within is bigger and better. But the inflation also extends to the price – at €470, it costs 42pc more than Switch 1 did at launch in 2017.

3 weeks ago | independent.ie | Ronan Price

It involves an unorthodox kind of animal rescue, the sort where the felines crewing a spaceship have been captured by raiders and you’re the righteous infiltrator who sneaks aboard to set them free. From this whimsical set-up, Californian developer Blendo Games constructs a series of freeform puzzles in which you improvise on the fly to stealthily scout the ship, dodge the pirates, and escape with the hostages.

1 month ago | independent.ie | Ronan Price

Brisbane-based Witch Beam impressed us in 2021’s Unpacking, a thoughtful synthesis of Tetris-esque puzzles with poignant storytelling about moving house. Tempopo dials back the sentiment, foregrounds the soundtrack and weds it to a set of 3D puzzles that echo the influential Lemmings or the more recent Humanity from 2023. Each level contains a handful of flowers to be collected, obstacles to be avoided and a mazy 3D structure with an exit as your final goal.