Author: Chris Scullion

Chris Scullion is a Scottish video games journalist who's been covering video games professionally for 16 years. For the first six years of his career he worked at the Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK, then became the Games Editor of CVG before its untimely end. After setting up his own site, Tired Old Hack, Chris then joined Video Games Chronicle (VGC) where he is currently Features Editor. He has a passion for retro games and cataloguing their history, hence his ongoing series of console encyclopedia books (search his name on Amazon).

Labo Toy-Con 03: Vehicle Kit (Switch) review

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Nintendo / Nintendo EPD
Nintendo Switch

Dark Souls? Easy. Cuphead? No problem. Bloodborne? Pfft, didn’t even break a sweat.

No, friends, the hardest challenge in gaming today is finding three spare hours to build a cardboard steering wheel when you have a 10-week-old baby in the house.

But find that time I did: yer man Scullion’s been spending the past week and a half utterly rinsing the newest Labo kit, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it’s the most ‘game-like’ package so far. Continue reading “Labo Toy-Con 03: Vehicle Kit (Switch) review” →

Ten great gaming ideas that failed

Published on by Chris Scullion7 Comments

Over the years, the world of gaming has seen an endless supply of failures.

The vast majority of these failed because they were fundamentally flawed. They may have been created with the best of intentions but the likes of the Virtual Boy, Kinect and the Atari Jaguar died on their arse because they simply weren’t very good.

On rare occasions, however, something will fail even if it works well and the concept is solid. For whatever reason – bad marketing, a lack of developer support, even just being ahead of its time – some genuinely good ideas have found themselves unceremoniously dumped in the reject pile.

I know what you’re thinking: I SMELL A LIST FEATURE.

Sure enough, dear reader, here is a list of ideas I genuinely liked but which ultimately didn’t find the success they may have deserved, and were eventually consigned to history’s Big Book Of Broken Dreams. Continue reading “Ten great gaming ideas that failed” →

Review round-up: Pool Panic, Picross S2, Miles & Kilo, F1 2018, Disney Heroes

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It’s time for another review round-up, in which I give my thoughts on the games I’ve managed to squeeze in during baby naps.

In this round-up yer man Scullion:

• Plays with some balls in Pool Panic
• Attempts another square meal in Picross S2
• Finally gets the joke in Miles & Kilo
• Is grateful to have a halo in F1 2018
• Gets down to some free-to-play fighting in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode
Continue reading “Review round-up: Pool Panic, Picross S2, Miles & Kilo, F1 2018, Disney Heroes” →

Kartography #2 – Garfield Kart

Published on by Chris Scullion7 Comments

Kartography is my regular series in which I look at licensed kart racers throughout gaming history, and figure out where they fit on my all-time kart game leaderboard.

For more information on my scoring policy for Kartography, check out this introductory article.

Microids / Artefacts Studios
PC, 3DS, iOS, Android (PC version covered)

After kicking off Kartography last week with the mediocre Hello Kitty Kruisers (which scored 13/40), it’s time for game two to drive up to the… um, judging chamber. Or something.

Shortly after I posted the first Kartography I was informed that Garfield Kart was available for a dirt cheap price on Steam (it isn’t any more, but it’s still only £3.99).

Since it seems to have some sort of internet buzz around it at the moment as the alleged “worst game ever” (presumably by meme kids who’ve never experienced the joys of Wheelspin, Ninjabread Man, Rise Of The Robots or Superman 64), I decided to cover it next.

Although it was also released on mobile and 3DS (where it reportedly looks horrendous), today I’m looking at the version on Steam, where it currently has a suspicious 9/10 rating. You pesky meme kids.

TO THE JUDGING CHAMBER WITH THEE, GARFIELD KART. Continue reading “Kartography #2 – Garfield Kart” →

Kartography #1 – Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends

Published on by Chris Scullion9 Comments

Kartography is my regular series in which I look at licensed kart racers throughout gaming history, and figure out where they fit on my all-time kart game leaderboard.

For more information on my scoring policy for Kartography, check out this introductory article.

Rising Star Games / Scarab Entertainment
Switch, Wii U, iOS (Switch version covered)

For the first instalment of Kartography I’ve decided to look at the most recent karting game I played.

Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends – to give the game its full name – originally launched on the Wii U back in March 2014, where it was released in such limited numbers that it’s become one of the system’s rarest games (in America, at least: you can still get it fairly cheaply in the UK).

Just a few months back, it was ported to the Switch and published by Rising Star Games. I recorded a First Play video at the time, but have since completed it.

Because it’s fresh in my mind, then, it’s the first game to get the Kartography treatment. Continue reading “Kartography #1 – Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends” →

New regular feature: Kartography

Published on by Chris Scullion8 Comments

I’ve always been fascinated by karting games.

Ever since I got the original Super Mario Kart 26 years ago, I’ve always been tickled by the idea of countless developers and publishers imitating the formula with any group of licensed characters they can get their hands on.

What makes it interesting to me is that the karting genre – maybe more than any other – has continued to stick to a solid set of rules that’s almost always the same across the board.

Cups consisting of four or five races. Boost starts. Weapons, some going forwards, some going back, some homing. Maybe a power slide or drift mechanic. Unlockable tracks or characters. The vast majority of karting games tick all those boxes.

What intrigues me, then, is seeing how developers take a wide variety of licensed IPs and try to pour each one into this rigid mould, with the success of the resulting creation varying wildly.

Every time a new karting game comes out, then, I can’t help being interested to try it out. Even though the vast majority are utter piss, I’m always curious to see how each IP is treated and how the developers managed to shoehorn it into strict karting game guidelines.

Sometimes it’s a hit: Star Wars Episode I Racer was a no-brainer. And sometimes – most of the time, actually – it doesn’t work quite so well (step forward, Crazy Frog Racer).

Kartography, then, is my new regular series dedicated to mapping out the world of karting games over the past three decades. Continue reading “New regular feature: Kartography” →

Go Vacation (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
Nintendo / Bandai Namco
Switch, Wii (Switch version reviewed)

The year was 2011. Yer man Scullion was Games Editor at the Official Nintendo Magazine, and was about to review yet another mini-game collection for the Wii.

You’d have forgiven me at the time for being far from excited. As everyone who owned a Wii knew at the time, the popularity of the console meant that every shitmuncher publisher and developer was trying to capitalise on its success with cheap and nasty shovelware games.

More often than not, these took the form of mini-game collections, in an attempt to appeal to all the families who bought their Wii primarily for Wii Sports.

As ONM’s main reviewer, this meant I’d spent the past five years suffering my way through countless half-arsed money grabs. To this day I still occasionally wake up in cold sweats thinking about Carnival Games, Big Beach Sports and the unfortunately named Water Sports.

Go Vacation, then, didn’t exactly have me soiling myself with excitement when the disc came into the office, a fact I’m sure my colleagues welcomed. And yet, I was curious. Developed by (what was then) Namco Bandai and published by Nintendo itself, it seemed that there was a lot of confidence around this one.

Sure enough, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I gave the game 80%, and warned readers not to follow my lead. “Don’t fall into the same trap so many others will,” I advised. “Don’t take one look at Go Vacation and pass it off as shovelware. It’s not.”

This isn’t a retrospective rewriting of history either, mind you. You can see my full original ONM review at the bottom of this very page, and my 30 Best Wii Games article on Tired Old Hack has none other than Go Vacation nestled comfortably in the list.

Now it’s been granted a surprise re-release on Switch, and it’s just as entertaining as I remember it being seven years ago. Continue reading “Go Vacation (Switch) review” →

Review round-up: Sonic Mania Plus, Sanrio Picross, Agony, Pocket Rumble, Lumines Remastered

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Louise and I had our first daughter three weeks ago, so that’s why there’s been a relative lack of updates on the site. That doesn’t mean I haven’t managed to squeeze in some gaming though, so here’s my takes on what I’ve been playing.

In this round-up yer man Scullion:

• Jumps back in for a second helping of retro goodness in Sonic Mania Plus
• Decides whether Lumines Remastered is back with another one of those block-dropping feats
• Enjoys some 8-bit scrapping in Pocket Rumble
• Embraces his inner Japanese schoolgirl in Sanrio Characters Picross
• Discovers that Agony is appropriately named
Continue reading “Review round-up: Sonic Mania Plus, Sanrio Picross, Agony, Pocket Rumble, Lumines Remastered” →