Twinworld Game Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘Ratalaika Games’

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games and Meridian4 join forces with Indie developer R_Games to announce the forthcoming release of Replikator, a challenging, eventful and addictive overhead shooter. Launching on  PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One,  Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch on May 26th 2023, this roguelite presentation combines fast gameplay in an ongoing experience of discovering a mystery of a deadly saga  of what occurred at a research complex.

Death Walks Beside you

Replikator offers shooter fans a sci-fi setting where gameplay centres around exploring the intricate labyrinths of space stations and fighting with hordes of enemies. Dozens of weapons and implants (passive skills) help the player but a sharp eye and evasive movement are also required to avoid hail of bullets and monsters that lurk. If the player’s character dies, then he will be reborn at the very beginning, but thanks to the resources found, he will be able to buy permanent improvements that will help him move forward in the next run.

Disaster Strikes

It appears that an accident occurred at the classified research complex, which led to the death of all personnel but all is not quite clear. A group of mercenaries led by the smuggler Khan will have to find out the reason for what happened.

To keep explosive action ‘unpredictably’  challenging, station mazes and items in them are generated procedurally, so each attempt is essentially unique. Gradually, the player will find blueprints of new items as well as finding entries from the crew of the complex which will  reveal what happened here. At the same time, the player has the main goal – to get to the Replicator and defeat it.

• Dynamic battles. You will have to constantly move and aim well to survive!
• Danger at every turn. Many different enemies and traps will not let you get bored.
• Dozens of upgrade items. Explore stations looking for new upgrades for your character.
• Meta progression. In this game, each death will only make you stronger, because after death you will be able to buy permanent improvements for your character and the hub ship.
• Procedural generation! The location of rooms, enemies and traps, as well as weapons and all items, are generated procedurally.
• Space raccoon! and three more playable characters. All of them differ in starting characteristics, preferred weapons and special techniques.
• Intriguing story. Explore the abandoned science complex and find out what happened here!

The player needs to complete 12 levels, including 5 bosses and as the player progresses the challenge becomes harder so many attempts may be required! Constant battles with ‘bosses’  with new attacks and moves as they become stronger will have to be faced!  During the exploration of the stations, the player will find nanocubes that remain with him after death.

They can be spent on the purchase of permanent improvements – for example, you can increase the maximum supply of ammunition or open access to a new workbench to improve weapons.

Replikator delivers masses of new content as the game progresses,  and action is unashamedly fast, precise and deadly!

This twin stick shooter is red hot with hordes of crazy and blood thirsty enemies out to get you or one of the playable characters you select – of which there are 4! Top down action has never been so demanding, so can you win out?

‘The game is designed for one player. Approx 8-9 hours will be enough to defeat the last boss, however, it may take 30 or more hours to study all the content’ , R_Games.

Replikator offers a full package of challenges, settings & atmosphere!

Source: PR Email

Thursday 11th May, 2023: Indie publisher Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden  are excited to announce the forthcoming release of Cyber Citizen Shockman, an iconic title previously released on PC Engine in Japan but never before released in the West. Due for release and launching on  PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One,  Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch on May 19  2023, this retro arcade action platformer starring two characters (boy and girl), with a number of improvements, captures the excitement and appeal that made it a genre favourite.

‘Cyber Citizen Shockman marks the beginning of the release of the entire Shockman’s titles that will be  presented  to retro game fans over the year for the first time which will be available for home consoles (except Shockman 2), which is the only one that was ever officially released’.

The Backdrop Story

Cyber Citizen Shockman is the story of two Japanese school kids named Tasuke and Kyapiko, who are in fact androids built by a mad scientist known only as Doc, who built Tasuke and Kyapiko with the ability to morph into armoured superheroes known as Shockman. Their plight is to battle the evil forces of Dark Skull.  Doc’s first attempt at a cybernetic organism who went rogue and established a gang of goons called the Skull Force. The Skull Force is trying to take over the city and have captured civilians in various locations. As Shockman, you must take back the city, one building at a time, rescue the hostages, and defeat Dark Skull and his gang.

The premise of  what Cyber Citizen Shockman offers is a fairly straightforward, hack and slash experience as you fight through 18 stages, collecting rewards – healing, gold, etc. before you face the obligatory boss in the guise of a mecca or three headed dragon. As you progress, more powerful rewards and upgrades will be presented to you and a challenging experience with fluid movement and precise actions is well presented!

FEATURES/FACTS

• Action platformer starring 2 characters (boy and girl), 18 exciting platforming stages with multiple routes to explore
• A plethora of upgrades to unlock
• Added image gallery from hand-made scans
• Rewind/FF functions
• Brand new english translation, plus old JP Original
• Complete EN and JP user interface!
• Save states
• CRT Filter
• Suu Urabe, famous mangaka, created the character design and the main illustrations of the game

Shockingly coming soon for the first time in the West!

Source: PR Email

Friday 28th of April, 2023 – Indie publisher Ratalaika Games, together with Indie developer Route 5 Games, has the pleasure today of releasing the action puzzle extravaganza, Gematombe. Coming on Sony PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One,  Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, this is one of the games that doesn’t date and you will be playing for years!

Blast from the Past

Gematombe draws inspiration from many titles, including Arkanoid, Puzzle Bobble, Breakout, Puyo-Puy, Touhou and many  others   but creates its own unique puzzle game mixture true to this genre.

Features/Facts:

• Cast of six characters, each with unique abilities
• Vs console or friend
• Progression Line
• 60 levels
• Multi modes
• Six campaigns
• Humorous cut scenes

Gematombe – a challenge that will have you always coming back for more!

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games has joined forces with Brazil Indie developer, Gold Skull, Studios and today release their retro, compact, RPG survival title Ultra Pixel Survive on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

What’s it about?

Ultra Pixel Survive is best described as an action RPG survival game presented with pixel art together with various characters and unique abilities, along with a very pleasing story! Its simple presentation, intuitive menu system and interface are aimed to please both the experienced gamer as well as novice!

And………….

The goal of the game is to face monsters and bosses while trying to survive as long as possible by collecting resources and building tools and structures to defend oneself. Straight forward…..combining elements of action, RPG, and survival. Ultra Pixel Survive. offers a challenging and exciting experience for players seeking a new challenge.

Features:

• Real-time combat
• Hunger system
• Structure building
• Farming
• Boss battles
• Character evolution
• Characters with unique abilities and stats

Unpretentious & Unmissable!

Fact – 500,000 Android mobile downloads, aside from 100s of top marks

Fact – Now on console for gamers to play

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games has joined forces with Brazil Indie developer, Gold Skull Studios, to announce the up and coming retro, compact, RPG survival Ultra Pixel Survive. Releasing on 14th April 2023 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, this fun and engaging game is one worth checking out; especially with the added fact that already the released mobile android version has an amazing top 500,000 downloads together with some great reviews!

Put Simply!

Ultra Pixel Survive is best described as an action RPG survival game presented with pixel art together with various characters and unique abilities, along with a very pleasing story! Its simple presentation, intuitive menu system and interface are aimed to please both the experienced gamer as well as novice!

Essentially!

The goal of the game is to face monsters and bosses while trying to survive as long as possible by collecting resources and building tools and structures to defend oneself. Straight forward…..combining elements of action, RPG, and survival.Ultra Pixel Survive. offers a challenging and exciting experience for players seeking a new challenge.

Next!

As you progress in the game, days go by and every time you face monsters, your character will level up and earn experience points that allow you to evolve skills and stats based on the player’s choice. It is up to the player to decide what to do, but the main objective is to level up their chosen character and defeat the game’s five bosses.

Where, What, Why?

There are three regions in the game: the open forest, the beach, and the cave, all with varied enemies, ranging from small slimes to vampires and orcs. The player can build defensive structures such as barricades to prevent enemies from passing through, spikes to damage those who step on them, and turrets to fight enemies, as well as upgrade all these structures using collected resources.

Danger!

The most important items in the game are the food items, which not only satisfy the character’s hunger, but also restore their health. Food should be a priority for the player, and it can be found in bushes, obtained by hunting animals, or even grown in gardens.

Features:

• Real-time combat
• Hunger system
• Structure building
• Farming
• Boss battles
• Character evolution
• Characters with unique abilities and stats

Plain & Simple, But Oh So Moreish!!!!

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games, in partnership with Brazil Indie developer, Viridino Studios, is delighted to announce Steel Defier, a specially created stand alone title – a release spanning multiple platform – PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch is out now!

Steel Defier is primarily focused on fast-paced gameplay, and the overall backdrop story is that you play as the sole survivor of a disastrous malfunction in the defence system of a giant spaceship that works as a prison for all sorts of lawbreakers. It appears everyone has been killed aboard, except you!

To Boldly Go

The main objective is to locate the landing site, where the player can steal a smaller spaceship and escape from prison. However, the big spaceship is quite a maze with many rooms and a fully operational defence system that’s constantly hunting down the player with different traps, so it’s essential for the player to locate suit upgrades and increase survivability rate.

Big, Bigger and Wow!

The spaceship has exactly 40 rooms and each one of them has a different combination of traps. In some rooms the traps are faster or slower, in other rooms there might be a power outage that limits the player’s field of view, etc. In very special cases, the player might stumble upon a suit upgrade that will grant it a completely new and unique skill, like the ability of slowing down time for a short amount of time. In theory the suit upgrades are optional, but searching for and collecting them will make the player’s journey much easier. Exploring, finding, searching, seeking out is a pleasing experience as you progress through the challenging environment!

Features:

Every single room has a different combination of traps, with different speed multipliers and even environmental conditions, like the power outage that limits the player’s field of view and produces a quite scary alarm sound.

Each trap moves at a different speed, covers a different amount of walkable area and sometimes even follows the player or explodes after a short delay. To counter them, the player is advised to collect as many suit upgrades as possible, like the ability to slow down time, dash through traps and even double jump.

Every item in the game will grant a different ability to the player, allowing them to enhance their dodging capabilities in unique ways. Some suit upgrades even have “secret” usages, for example: the dash ability is mainly used to traverse the environment faster, but you can also use it to go through traps without being harmed.

The player isn’t able to directly fight the spaceship’s defence system, as he’s not equipped with a gun. However, the game is still packed with action, since the player will always be surrounded by increasingly more aggressive traps. Also, with every suit upgrade the player will become more powerful and capable of overcoming any challenge.

Plus lots more……………………

Steel Defier’s difficulty increases as the player gets further from their prison cell, with more and more traps showing up after each visited room. With clever designing of the spaceship exploring never becomes boring or a linear path but a rewarding and satisfying experience.

Viridino Studios,”We divided the spaceship’s interior into three interconnected lanes, allowing the player to explore in different ways or completely skipping rooms in case they’re performing a speedrun.”

A charming and functional presentation with a combination of low poly models and pixel art textures to achieve the final look makes seeing, finding and playing the game, more intuitive and easier to spot what you are looking for, plus giving a more open and non cluttered environment an important consideration adopted by the developer! Music is also delightfully managed with an “alien” feel to match the spaceship and environment.

Can You – the Last Survivor… Survive?

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games,in conjunction with developer Rasul Mono today, March 17th, sees the release The Guise, a stylish and dark Metroidvania fairytale about a boy trapped in the body of a monster on Sony PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch.

The Guise is a distinguished looking game in which ‘evil’ has apparently already won the day. In the world, where the player is taken, there is almost no light and no hope for anything good.

Features/Elements and there is more…

• Beastly Abilities
• Cool Battles
• Great Challenges
• Monsters!
• Eye candy Graphics
• Atmospheric Music
• Exploring
• Delightful Story
• Combat
• Gorgeous settings
• Rewards
• Side Quests

Experience a really monster time in this eerie Metroidvania offering!

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games, together with talented developer Rasul Mono, is delighted to announce The Guise, a stylish and dark Metroidvania fairytale about a boy trapped in the body of a monster! Coming on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch it is due to hit digital stores with a release date of 17th March.

Setting the Scene

The Guise is a distinguished looking game in which ‘evil’ has apparently already won the day. In the world, where the player is taken, there is almost no light and no hope for anything good. Dying settlements, dark forests, winding dungeons, and deadly valleys full of demons are abundant.

The action begins in a children’s home, perhaps the only bright and warm place in the game. It is there in the room of the owner of the orphanage that a boy named Ogden finds a strange mask that turns him into a monster. The game is based on Ogden’s new appearance, his new abilities, and his relationships with the unfriendly world that surrounds him. The goal of the frightened and bewildered Ogden, who has become a monster, is to regain his human form. The player’s goal is to get the most out of the monster’s appearance.

An ancient conspiracy of local gods prevents Ogden from turning back into a human, and almost everything alive and inanimate is against him staying in the monster’s skin. The player must get used to his new body, master new abilities, and try not to lose the remnants of his humanity.

Winning Takes All

You, the player, assume the role of Ogden, our hero, who has animal agility, monstrous strength, and abilities that are not available to ordinary people. You will have to learn various skills, such as running on the ceiling, finishing moves, acid spitting, bomb belching and a lot more As in any ‘metroidvania’, to obtain a new ability, the player will have to defeat a certain boss. For example, after Priscilla, the rat queen, dies, we will be able to climb walls and run on the ceiling, which will open up access to new locations.

Venture Forth

There are a number of exciting and challenging side quests, some of which are related to the life of the orphanage (although Ogden has become a monster, the children in the orphanage still see him as a friend). For example, one quest is to help a mad cultist who wants to destroy the remaining angels in the world.

The world of The Guise consists of seven large regions, each with 10-20 interconnected locations. Some locations have multiple paths thanks to forks, multiple entrances, and exits. All closed exits can be unlocked by obtaining a certain ability (for example, after getting the “Spider Legs” ability, the player can overcome a water-filled gap by simply running along the ceiling above the gap). Secrets, hidden passages, and secret rooms containing various treasures are scattered throughout the world.

Features/Elements:

• Beastly Abilities
• Cool Battles
• Great Challenges
• Monsters!
• Appealing Graphics
• Atmospheric Music

Finders Keepers

Exploring the game world, the player will gain access to resources that strengthen the protagonist. Thus, in hidden chests or as a reward for side quests, the player will find amulets that complement his combat abilities (for example, he can stink up the area, causing damage to those around him). And the reward for defeating enemies will be their eyeballs – the local currency – which can be spent on improving the abilities obtained from the Eye Collector.

In this hostile world, almost everything is out to get you!

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games, together with developer Conradical Games, is delighted to announce Lootbox Lyfe+ a cross genre – Metroidvania/Hardcore Platformer experience is out today 24th February for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Nice ‘in game’ features include:

• A shadowy cave housing a lootbox addiction experimentation site.
• A pink fungal wasteland
• Interdimensional structures housing powerful lootbox rewards
• A snowy mining outpost based around extracting materials to make lootboxes
• Goodies to fine.
• Challenges to solve.
• Moves to learn.
• Speedrun mode
• Nonlinear World.
• Customizations.
• Different Ways to play.
• Much much more…

Source: PR Email

Indie publisher Ratalaika Games, together with developer Conradical Games, is delighted to announce Lootbox Lyfe+ a cross genre – Metroidvania/Hardcore Platformer experience that will be welcomed by avid gamers. Coming on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch it is due to hit digital stores with release date of 24th February 2023.

Lootbox Lyfe is ruled by the evil “Shadowleaf Irvine”. They’re a strange being who introduced Lootboxes to the Xoobotls, a species of round creatures who can be found in the world of Lootbox Lyfe. Over time, Xoobotls stopped spending money on items essential to life such as food, and water. It was soon after that bodies started dropping. Is there a way to bring the species back to its past glory? Or is this world forever in ruins due to Shadowleaf’s monopolistic endeavour?

The player will assume the role of Liam Cappello, the last Xoobotl in existence – a species of round creatures that live in the world of Lootbox Lyfe. Waking up from a long slumber only to see the world you once lived in is in ruins. The culprits of this calamity are Lootboxes.

Starting off with no powers, slowly you will gain more through opening lootboxes. Liam doesn’t even start with the ability to move, so you even have to get a lootbox for that! The basic objective is to save your species through delving into interconnected worlds riddles whilst platforming obstacles and unlocking new areas as you obtain new movement options.

The world of Lootbox Lyfe+ is vast just like any Metroidvania, but a key difference that makes it stand out is it has no individual enemies. The world is your enemy, you’ve got to dodge spikes, platform over rivers, and avoid traps to make it far in the game. Throughout you’ll unlock many abilities such as dashing, slamming, becoming a lootbox, and more, and you’ll need to use these tools all the time.

As you progress, platforming naturally gets harder. However, you unlock new abilities through finding lootboxes, which will allow you to approach challenges in various ways. If you get stuck, you can even buy hints with coins you obtain through exploration that point you to the nearest lootbox with a movement ability. You can also find lootboxes with quick travel functionality throughout the world to make backtracking a breeze!

More for your boot

Lootbox Lyfe+ encompasses many interesting features, as well as lack of enemies, allowing you to approach platforming challenges in a calculated manner, and encourages you to test out many movement ability combinations, there are movement abilities: As you unlock move abilities, you’ll be able to traverse through the world more and more seamlessly. This makes backtracking a breeze, and you’ll be able to feel like a real speed demon if you apply your learned skills to the built-in speedrunning mode.Open exploration: Past the start area, there is no set path forwards in Lootbox Lyfe – you can approach the different areas in different.

Orders. This ensures you never get lost because a stray path leads to another core part of the game!

Key areas to explore which include:

• A shadowy cave housing a lootbox addiction experimentation site.
• A pink fungal wasteland
• Interdimensional structures housing powerful lootbox rewards
• A snowy mining outpost based around extracting materials to make lootboxes

Source: PR Email