Slender: The Eight Pages was a fantastic game, but since it was free, it wasn’t a very big game. Slender: The Arrival is a sequel which builds upon the original in every way (although, unlike its prequel, it is not free.)

The game follows several different characters who are investigating strange goings on in a small mining town. At first you’re exploring the house of a woman who disappeared and you go on from there into the nearby woods. You end up exploring all kinds of different places, like the mountains and the mine itself and all of them are very eerie locations. The whole time you have the persistent risk supernatural horrors lurking in the shadows. Many of the locations are very beautiful too, calming even, which perhaps makes the horrific things that happen even more potent.

Like the previous game, everything you see and do is through the perspective of “found footage” which helps to make the whole experience much more real and immersive. Many of the game’s locations are really dark too and all you have to light your way is your torch – the limited visibility ends up making things even more tense.

One thing I’ve not really drawn enough attention to is how frightening this game is. I’ve honestly never consumed a piece of media which frightened me more – and I love that! The combination of the cryptic story, the perfect sound direction and horrifying surprises help to create an amazing piece of horror fiction. There’s a particular scene in a church which I found especially scary, but obviously I don’t want to spoil it.

You might think that you shouldn’t play this game without first playing Slender: The Eight Pages, but actually there’s a segment of the game which is essentially a remake of it and since everything in this game is better than its predecessor, you’re not missing out on anything by jumping straight in with this one. As it’s quite cheap and a really great game, you should download it next time you’re looking for a new game. The only downside is that, while longer than the first Slender game, it still felt too short.

Rating: 9/10

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The Slenderman was always something which I found very interesting: an evil entity that looks like creepily proportioned tall and thin man in a suit with no face and a mysterious origin… how could you not be intrigued? I loved reading the stories about Slenderman and I loved looking at the images people had created. So as I’m sure you can guess, I was very excited when a Slenderman game was created!

Slender: The Eight Pages is quite a basic game, but it does a good job of creating a rather spooky experience. You are a random person who’s out in the woods and investigating Slenderman. The story is never really delved into very far, but there are eight pages scattered throughout the forest which you need to find – each of them has some kind of creepy Slenderman related sketch on it. What makes finding them hard is that Slenderman hunts you the whole time…

The game is shown through the camera footage of the person who headed into the forest (and who presumably wanted to capture Slenderman on video) and this helps you to feel quite immersed. It’s the middle of the night and the forest is very dark, you can only see with the help of a torch, but the longer you take to complete your task, the higher the chances of your torch power being drained! Your torch can and will run out and then you’ll be left in almost total darkness – when you know Slenderman is near, this is very unnerving.

When the game starts, all you hear is the sound of your footsteps and the wind, but music slowly builds up in the background as Slenderman beings to pursue you more and more aggressively and it becomes rather intense as you get more and more pages! Then there’s also the fact that Slenderman causes the camera to make weird, screeching noises, meaning you get a creepy warning whenever he’s near. It all adds up to make a very creepy little game.

Overall, it’s really fun to play, especially late at night, in the dark, with your headphones, but it isn’t a hugely comprehensive title. I can’t rate it too highly, because it is essentially just one “thing” but what it is, is very good and since it’s free, I can’t really complain.

Rating: 8/10

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Kirby’s Dream Land is an excellent little Game Boy game and the one which introduced us all to Kirby. The only downside to Kirby’s Dreamland is that it’s a very short game and Kirby’s Adventure takes the building blocks of Kirby’s Dream Land and turns it into a full game.

Like the last game, it’s a regular 2D side-scrolling platformer game – it’s not too hard and quite pleasant and relaxing to play. There’s a nice soundtrack and a lovely magical tone to the game. What’s most exciting, however, is that Kirby has a new ability: after eating his enemies, he can the steal their abilities. There’s a ball creature that shoots lasers and if you eat it, Kirby can fire laser beams from his hands. There’s a little flying saucer enemy which turns Kirby into a flying saucer when he swallows it – using these abilities and choosing which ones to keep and which to discard adds a fun element of strategy to the game. I also found it exciting whenever I found new enemies, because I always looked forward to seeing what new powers they’d yield.

Story-wise, I’m quite impressed too. You don’t expect very much at all in terms of a storyline from an 8-bit platformer, but there’s quite an unexpected twist towards the end of Kirby’s Adventure. We’re also introduced to Meta Knight, who has since become one of the icons of the Kirby series. He, along with King Dedede, help to make the story quite interesting.

But while there is a lot to like about this game, it does have a few problems. Firstly, while there are a couple of new additions and features, it does feel a little too similar to Kirby’s Dream Land to me. I also think that the game starts to get a little boring before you get to the end, because it just starts to feel a little stale. I think they needed to introduce a few new things as the game went along. The first game may have been too short, but this actually feels too long (and it’s not even that long, so that’s bad.)

Nonetheless, Kirby’s Adventure is a fun little game and definitely worth a try for fans of platformers, Nintendo or Kirby. A solid second entry which is just as good as the first, but that’s potentially a little disappointing, as it could have improved.

Rating: 7.4/10

Buy it here.

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