May The Fourth Be With You
No sooner has Alien Day come and gone than the next sci-fi movie themed day arrives. Both the Alien and Star Wars franchises are very dear to me, with Star […]
Mobile Game Review: Fighting Fantasy Classics
Version Played: Android – Price: Free (Bloodbones included, other books available as in-app purchases) When I covered the Steam version of Fighting Fantasy Gamebook Appointment With F.E.A.R., I mentioned how much the series meant to me. With very little money in the mid- to late-80s, Fighting Fantasy books provided me with interactive, imaginative and exciting fun at a much more […]
Kickstarter Campaign: Commander ’85
Currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign – and around 40% funded with 27 days to go as of the time of writing – Commander ’85 is an adventure game for PC and consoles, with release planned for Autumn 2020. Capitalising on the currently very widespread nostalgia for the 80s, it’s a game that’s absolutely loaded from top to […]
Review: Hyper Parasite
Available on: PS4, Steam, Switch, Xbox One – Version Played: XBox One – By: Troglobytes Games When a body snatching alien parasite invades Earth in an alternate, straight-to-video 1980s world, the badass, eyepatch wearing US President – who curses and takes no crap from anyone – declares open season on the invader. Normally, a neon drenched, B-movie style twin stick […]
Review: Appointment with F.E.A.R.
Version Played: Steam (also available on Android and iOS) To say that I was obsessed with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy books as a kid is the understatement of the century. I absolutely lived and breathed them; though I couldn’t afford to buy them new most of the time, I would borrow any I found in my local […]
Film Review: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Following the ‘Spock Trilogy’ of movies (beginning with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, continuing with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and ending with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), the status quo of Star Trek had been reset somewhat, story-wise. With Kirk demoted to Captain, back in charge of the Enterprise with his regular crew, it’s […]
Film Review: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
The fourth film in the Star Trek movie series concluded a tightly knit trilogy of stories, continuity-wise. Though The Voyage Home does diverge in tone and content to the previous two films, it nonetheless picks up right after the climax of The Search for Spock – with our crew still on Vulcan, manning a Klingon Bird of Prey rather than […]
Comic Book Review: Star Trek Annual (Vol. 1) #3 (1988)
Though I’m not overly familiar with Star Trek comics, it seems to me that the Peter David-written Annual #3, published in 1988, is a bit of an oddity – given that it focuses so strongly on Scotty, a prominent and popular character, but not one who often gets to be the sole focus of a story. What’s also unusual is […]
Happy Mario Day!
Seeing as MAR 10 is Mario Day, I thought I’d take the opportunity to once more cover my experience with the very first Super Mario Bros game I ever played […]
Film Review: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
Though the Star Trek movies got off to a shaky start with the first film – The Motion Picture, which I reviewed here – the second film was an absolutely spectacular romp, full of high stakes action, superb writing and excellent character development. It ended on a pseudo-cliffhanger too, with the death of Spock. Despite Leonard Nimoy’s apparent desire for […]
Film Review: Depeche Mode: Spirits in the Forest
I’m a bit weird when it comes to music. I struggle with most songs that have lyrics, mostly because I find them so hard to ‘hear’ unless I know what’s […]
Film Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Note: My review of the first film in the Star Trek series (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) can be found here. There’s an absolutely fascinating history behind the second Star Trek movie (it’s far too long to recount at length here, but I’d urge you to check out the film’s Wikipedia page even if you’re not a Trek fan – […]
Board Game Review: Centipede
Having owned an Atari 2600 as a kid – and playing it well into the late 80s, given that games could easily and regularly found for pennies at car boot […]
Film Review: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Until recently, it had been a very long time since I’d last seen Frank Oz’s movie version of stage musical Little Shop of Horrors. The musical, based on a Roger […]
TV Review: Worzel Gummidge
For British readers of a certain age, Worzel Gummidge is forever entwined with the image of Jon Pertwee as the eponymous scarecrow. It’s so iconic that, even today – 40 […]
Book Review: Florin’s ZX Spectrum Haul of Games
Much like Paul Davies, the author of Florin’s ZX Spectrum Haul of Games, I grew up in the 80s. Also like Paul Davies, I have limited recollection of ‘important’ experiences […]
