Tuesday, 4 March 2025

PAC-MAN 45th Anniversary Celebrations Detailed

Celebrating 45 Years of ImPACt (get it?), Bandai Namco’s PAC-MAN is celebrating 45 years of chasing GHOSTS, chomping Dots, and influencing gaming and pop culture this year.

Originally released on May 22, 1980, PAC-MAN gained a following as an innovative and fun classic arcade game, quickly rising to pop culture fame and achieving notable brand recognition worldwide.

On that note, this anniversary celebration will include opportunities focused on making and creating an “imPACt,” falling into the gaming, food, lifestyle and community niches. 

Some of the highlights include the following:

  • A PAC-MAN™ cookbook filled with tasty recipes will be released by Insight Editions later this year.
  • A new game is set to launch this year titled SHADOW LABYRINTH™, a 2D action platformer with a genre-twisting alternate take on the PAC-MAN IP
  • Sports fans will be excited to see Club América take part in the anniversary celebration by offering a limited number of PAC-MAN-branded soccer jerseys followed by themed stadium events.
  • PAC-MAN will also get a special display showcased at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle from April 30 through June 4.

Directed by Miles Cable of Bodega Virtual and produced by LEFT, get a taste of things to come with the PAC-MAN 45th Anniversary trailer below:

PAC-MAN: 45 Years of ImPACt

Feeling social? Be sure to check out the official PAC-MAN Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok social media channels.

Source: Press Release

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Acclaimed Acclaim Publishier Making its Return

A legendary video game publisher known for its groundbreaking titles, Acclaim is making its triumphant return with a focus on supporting independent studios and original IP, all while rekindling beloved classics for a new generation.

One of the main priorities of Acclaim’s relaunch is to resurrect and revitalize its beloved portfolio of classic IP that have previously been enjoyed by millions of players. 

Acclaim’s advisory board is made up of top industry leaders and innovators, guiding the organization to ensure these classic franchises evolve for a new generation of gamers. 

Acclaim’s growth strategy will also be supported by key partners Russell Binder at Striker Entertainment, Mark Caplan at Ridge Partners, and Jeff Jarrett at Global Force Entertainment.

Acclaim’s growth strategy will also be further supported by key partners Phil Toronto, Partner at VaynerFund, and Eric Vogel, Partner at JET Management. 

Jeff Jarrett said the following:

“For more than three decades, I’ve had the privilege to have been a part of both the wrestling and gaming universes, and I’m thrilled to now be a partner in the revival of Acclaim, an iconic publisher known for releasing some of the most legendary games of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

From my early involvement with the publisher’s hit 16-bit WWF titles to my experience helping shape the TNA Wrestling series, which spawned the first video game wrestler to become a full-time roster member in the Squared Circle, I’ve seen firsthand the type of impact great games can have on players and fans. 

Resurrecting Acclaim is an opportunity to impart the same degree of passion and love to a new generation, and I’m excited to be involved.”

Helping to spearhead the relaunch and growth of Acclaim as CEO is games industry veteran Alex Josef. 

Josef brings with him more than two decades of experience marketing, previously publishing hundreds of games across PC, console, and mobile.

Alex Josef, CEO, said the following:

“It’s an absolute honor and pleasure to be leading the charge in bringing Acclaim back to the forefront of the games industry

We’re fortunate that we have an extremely talented team and that we’ve already signed some incredible indie titles, which we’ll be revealing soon.”

Source: Press Release

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Split Fiction Review

Announced just three months ago, Hazelight Games’ Split Fiction is here at a hectic time in the game industry.

Can this co-op adventure compete with heavy hitters like Monster Hunter Wilds? Check out our review to find out.

Split Fiction Honest Review

Split Fiction follows the story of Zoe and Mio, two unpublished authors looking to get their big break. Answering a recruitment ad for a publishing agency promising to make their words a reality, they both go to check it out.

This process proves to be a little fishy, as it requires one to put a whole-body suit on and enter a simulation.

Zoe willingly enters, but Mio tries to leave before being pushed into Zoe’s simulation with her; thus, Split Fiction is born.

As it turns out, Zoe is a fantasy writer and Mio is a sci-fi writer – this makes for some truly wild rides and ideas.

Once inside, the group teams up to find a way to escape. While the pair agreed to give one story to this publisher, the simulation is taking all of their ideas – even ones they forgot.

If Zoe and Mio can find the glitches and make the system unstable, they can escape. While this sounds simple enough, the guys on the outside would rather have you die inside than reveal their secret. One will have to team up and bust out before getting erased.

Split Fiction has players finding these glitches through living withing stories in Zoe and Mio’s heads.

Each level of Split Fiction has players traverseing either a fantasy or sci-fi world, giving each character new abilities to try out.

Both are required to solve most puzzles; for instance, the first mission involves players assuming the role of cyber ninjas. One has a sword that shifts gravity, so one can walk on walls and the ceiling. Meanwhile, the other has an energy whip that enables one to throw items and grapple. When switching levels in Split Fiction, it takes a minute to get used to your new skills.

As it turns out, all of Split Fiction’s levels are fun to play.

While Split Fiction has some combat, it’s mostly a puzzle platformer. On that note, Split Fiction is one of the best puzzle platformers I’ve played in years.

For one, Split Fiction’s platforming is flawless, to the point that a new Mario should launch next year if it wants to win Best Platformer at The Game Awards.

Split Fiction’s platforming is quick, easy, intuitive, seamless, and – most importantly – fun.

We’re even confident a child could pick Split Fiction us and play with little to no practice. That being said, the deaths in this game are pretty savage, so I’m not sure if Split Fiction would make for a good kid game.

Puzzles in Split Fiction are fantastic. One WILL get stumped, but that is the point.

Split Fiction gives players everything one needs to solve the challenge in your head. There was one moment when the game wanted both players to spam R2 – or so we thought. We tried a couple of times and failed, wondering what happened.

Instead, we did back-to-back: I’d hit R2, then my co-op partner would hit, then back to me, and it worked. Nothing needed to be looked up; no hour-long YouTube video was required, just using our heads to try new things.

That’s just one example out of dozens that make Split Fiction truly shine.

While the main crux of each Split Fiction’s mission is either fantasy or sci-fi, there are side stories that sometimes switch things up.

Early on in a Sci-fi level, we did a side story for Zoe where we became super pigs. This allowed us to fly via farting, or alternatively turn into a springboard pig to access higher spots.

It was wacky, sure, but also a good time!

Split Fiction gives players a new tool or skill to use as mentioned before, bu each level also has multiple boss battles where one needs to use those skills.

One will need to worry about one’s own hide during the fight, but each one always requires both players to do maximum damage. Split Fiction’s combo attacks are just as creative as its worlds and puzzles.

However, said boss battles are home to one of our main issues.

Split Fiction has very generous checkpoints, but also terrible spawn points. As a result, one will spawn in a boss fight as a laser or flame is coming and just die again. It happens so often that it can be compared to Call of Duty, like a grenade was at our feet once spawned.

Split Fiction can also be jarring to swap from one ability to a new one in a different world. Do note there is also no online matchmaking, but this does require players to communicate – always a good thing.

Split Fiction is truly a blast to play and is one of the only games this year that I recommend to everyone. Needless to say, 2025’s Game of the Year discussion just got even more complicated with Split Fiction.

Split Fiction Review

Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 (A digital code was provided)
Release Date: March 6, 2025
MSRP: 49.99
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC
Developer: Hazelight
Publisher: EA
Aggregate Scores: Metacritic, CriticDB, OpenCritic

Review Policy | Scoring Policy

Knights in Tight Spaces Review

Announced last year, Ground Shatter and Raw Fury’s Knights in Tight Spaces is bringing the fight this March. Find out if deckbuilding fans should head back to medieval times in our review. Knights in Tight Spaces Review Knights in Tight Spaces starts with access to the brawler, rogue, and fighter classes, with more unlockable as…

Continue Reading Knights in Tight Spaces Review

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Knights in Tight Spaces Review

Announced last year, Ground Shatter and Raw Fury’s Knights in Tight Spaces is bringing the fight this March. Find out if deckbuilding fans should head back to medieval times in our review.

Knights in Tight Spaces Review

Knights in Tight Spaces starts with access to the brawler, rogue, and fighter classes, with more unlockable as one progresses.

No matter the choice, players will start at a tavern – where one has a bit of a reputation. Last night, you gambled and won, so you now get to pick your reward. Once chosen, the bar is attacked, and players will have to fight off some bandits. As it turns out, these troublemakers have been kidnapping people in the area, and it’s up to players to find out why.

After tracking down the bandit boss, he reveals they were looking for people with certain abilities. Since you aren’t into kidnapping, you decline the offer and head back home.

Back at the bar, one of the King’s men recruits you to help find out why someone is trying to get all of these people. Since it could be a threat to the whole realm, you accept and set out to find some allies and find out who is really doing all the kidnapping.

Since thugs overrun the realm, you will have a lot of fights.

Knights in Tight Spaces has one of the best deck-builder combat systems I’ve played, with some absolutely stellar animations.

At the start of each turn, players will draw cards from one’s deck. From there, players use momentum points to act. Generally, one point is used to move and then a couple to attack.

However, combat isn’t just smacking something until it is dead; it is more tactical than that.

Mostly playing as the grappler, Knights in Tight Spaces lets players control the battlefield by moving enemies around it, putting them in the line of fire of their allies – letting them kill each other.

Alternatively, one can move foes in front of a doorway and kick them through it, killing the baddie instantly – don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

Our character also had a head bash that would slam a skull into a wall – literally cracking skulls.

Another favorite is the chokeslam, which leaves them prone and unable to attack. It might sound like it could get stale, but Knights in Tight Spaces’ progression system stops it from stagnating.

Knights in Tight Spaces is a roguelike, giving players a specific deck at the start of each run. One can also create a custom deck from certain cards, but we didn’t use that too much.

Players will get additional cards at the end of each fight, changing one’s strategy change bit by bit. On top of that, one can get new armor and weapons for certain classes that provide even more buffs.

Gold is easy to come by, but even easier to spend. Do you want a more powerful weapon, or do you want to upgrade your cards further?

Decisions decisions.

As for the meta progression, players get EXP and levels depending on how well they do each run. As players get more levels, they’ll unlock more cards that can be purchased during a game. This also lets you choose from more cards if you make a custom deck.

The other big thing you get by leveling up is new classes. Right now, they have eight classes to choose from, each featuring a different deck, skill, and stats. While grappler was my main, we also dabbled with the sorcerer.

Outside of the story, Knights in Tight Spaces also features a couple of other modes.

Daily Play consists of a map with modifiers like more damage, or only use a certain class. This mode also has leaderboards for those interested in taking on friends.

Also included in Knights in Tight Spaces is Endless Mode, which is what it sounds like: fighting enemies until you can’t fight anymore. This mode is a great way to learn a new class.

Unfortunately, since Knights in Tight Spaces is so combat-heavy, players will face the same enemies over and over again. While good for learning new tactics, it can also be a bit much.

In addition, Knights in Tight Spaces will have players visiting the same areas multiple times; we’ve seen the basement of the tavern more times than we can count. Outside of that, only random rag doll bugs made their appearance.

Knights in Tight Spaces is a perfect blend of roguelike and deck builder, providing impactful combat and engaging gameplay. Fans of either genre will feel right at home playing the game.

Knights in Tight Spaces Review

Reviewed On: PC (A digital code was provided)
Release Date: March 4, 2025
MSRP: ???
Platforms: PC
Developer: Ground Shatter
Publisher: Raw Fury
Aggregate Scores: Metacritic, CriticDB, OpenCritic

Review Policy | Scoring Policy

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Monday, 3 March 2025

ZPF Interview: Gryzor Talks Design, Kickstarter Success, and Sound Style

Taking inspiration from shmup legends like Lords of Thunder, Elemental Master, and the ThunderForce series, players will be able to take to the skies in style with the release of Mega Cat Studios’ ZPF this year.

Gamers Heroes recently spoke with Gryzor about ZPF’s design, incredible Kickstarter success, and sweet, sweet music – learn more with our interview.

ZPF Interview: Gryzor Talks Design, Kickstarter Success, and Sound Style

Gamers Heroes:

As somebody whose first system was the SEGA Genesis, you’re after my heart with ZPF! What make you want to pursue a horizontal shmup?

Gryzor:

I have strong, fond memories of playing games like Gradius, SCAT and Abadox on NES as well as Super NES classics like U.N. Squadron, Super R-Type and Gradius III so I had been well familar with the genre even before I had started my own Megadrive/Genesis collection years later and finally sunk my teeth into legendary series like ThunderForce.

I’ve worked on several horizontals since I started tinkering with gamedev back in 2008. ZPF is the culmination and combination of most of those early ideas. I’m quite thrifty when it comes to keeping things I’ve made and making sure they find use somewhere. At least 2 of the new game’s major bosses were originally drawn via Wiimote.

Gamers Heroes:

I saw that ZPF absolutely crushed its Kickstarter funding goals, raising $204,670 and being over 1,000% funded! What’s it been like working with the community?

Gryzor:

It’s just been fantastic to feel the touch of success and feel your efforts pay off after such a long, long, LONG gestation.

I’m very happy at the response it’s recieved. For all the times stuck in the doldrums it felt like we’d never get this thing out of the door, especially in ’20, ’21 and ’22,  it feels really good.

Gamers Heroes:

How are you building upon what you’ve learned from previous titles like the vertical shmup Super XYX for this release?

Gryzor:

All of my games are mixed together and built on top of each other in some ways. Super XYX is similar in that it shares, accumulates and combines elements from my oldest projects from ’08 and ’09.

My Game Maker projects nearly all share scripts, fonts, graphical effects, sounds as well as little mechanical details. This one was such a radical shift in having to learn totally different workflows and approaches to make things work on the system that it was nearly like going back to zero in some regards. Going from PC games to Megadrive/Genesis is quite a trip!

The biggest change was probably in building the stages. SXYX, like my older games just uses long single tracks where everything mostly stays the same aside from some key background changes to give the player a sense of progress and where they are. Due to mostly technical circumstances for making ZPF, we had to construct them out of little stitched together ‘scenes’, which was totally new to my process. Making simple visual setpieces, transitions and boss specific areas came naturally from that.

Gamers Heroes:

Jamie Vance is doing incredible work with ZPF’s soundtrack! What has it been like refining ZPF’s signature sound style and working with him?

Gryzor: 

I’ve known Jamie since I was a kid and seeing his tenacity working with NES tracker music on an earlier project (Cavity Destroyer), I knew he’d be well up the challenge.

Actually, he was totally unfamiliar with the system’s sound capabilities when we started. It’s been mostly just him figuring things out as he learned, both in terms of the technical process and what he wanted to get out of it in general. The only creative guidance I’ve given is sharing some sample songs I like…. maybe one from Elemental Master, one from Lightening Force, one from Devilish, Gauntlet IV, Castlevania Bloodlines, those sorts.

The uniqueness and quality that resulted is really all on him and his skill.

My entire approach working with others creatively is to leave them be and let them figure things out at their own pace and I think that really paid off here. It was a long time before we had enough music to fill everything out; but placing the tracks was also one of the last things we did before having to hammer out other final details.

Gamers Heroes:

One of the things I love about ZPF is its emphasis on lore – I especially enjoyed “Story Time With Quibley!” What went to designing this title’s worldbuilding?

Gryzor:

Funnily there really was no “lore” for the longest time, only very loose ideas of how things connected. A lot of the original PC assets had been there a long time and I definitely wasn’t thinking about it back then, just ensuring that the different themed elements matched well enough in style. While finally fleshing out and finishing the stages, I had to think about how sections should intuitively flow into each other, what type of baddies and background details made sense to be in these places, etc. but  not much more than that. On that basic level, I’m happiest with the Fantasy stages in how they present that world with little micro sized scenes taking place.

We obviously needed to help produce extra promotion-ready material for the sake of our publisher Megacat; but a lot of it came around the time I needed to make the character specific endings. I ended up with a huge matrix of who got what depending on what the player did and I suddenly had *a lot* of text to fill out and thinking about story to do!

Quibley, by the way, is also entirely Jamie’s creation. It was originally just an old unused sprite from an unfinished Space Harrier style game project. I had slated to re-use it among a few others and he just gave it it’s own life starting with the early KS materials he helped make.

ZPF is set to release on the SEGA Genesis/SEGA Mega Drive, along with the PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

For those looking to get a headstart on things, one can wishlist ZPF via its official Steam page.

Those looking to chat all things Mega Cat Studios can also check out the official Discord channel, and follow their official Twitter/X social media account.

One can also check out the official Mega Cat Studios website.

Thank you to PR for arranging this interview, and Gryzor for his time!

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“Awesome Console” Indie-Focused Showcase Airing October 28

Airing right after the ID@Xbox Showcase, the Awesome Console indie game showcase will air tomorrow, October 28, at 11am PT. Following both ...