It's late, I'm sleepy and I need something to give my brain a jolt, "Spectra, READY TO PLAY" shouts my Xbox at me just as I slowly dip into my third coffee of the night. I'm instantaneously wide awake, as not only have I been waiting for this for a while, but the colours are so bright my eyes light up in an almost arcade fashion.


Hailing straight out of Gateway Interactive via the beautiful people at Mastertronic, Spectra is an 8-bit trip full of speed, twitch steering and an utterly genius soundtrack which would keep any nightclub running way into the next day. It looks like stepping back into the 80's (which I saw little of, being a tenderly 25 years old), it sounds like stepping back into the 80's (I can only imagine Bon Jovi wasn't the only thing around), and it screams nostalgia to its very core.

Spectra is simple. Race. You race to the beat of a chiptune soundtrack ever so gracefully created by Chipzel, the lovely young lady who created the soundtrack for the rage inducing Super Hexagon. Now let me tell you, the soundtrack is amazing. Simply amazing. What usually starts off as a soft induction into the track normally ends up with sweaty palms and the ever increasing need to get off the sofa and jump around (won't promise I didn't).




Spectras race tracks are procedurally generated to the music, so the faster the tune gets, the harder the track becomes, and let me tell you some of these tracks are no laughing matter at all. The game has 2 modes, a normal and a hardcore mode, which pretty much speak for themselves. The normal mode starts slow and speeds up as time goes on, however hardcore mode IS INSANE. Now caps isn't something I use often in reviews but trust me, INSANE is the only word for it. The hardcore tracks start fast and do not let up, at times feeling sightly unfair in the later sections as bumpers become back to back with boost pads in front. Twitch gameplay completely dominates these sections as split seconds can make the difference between finishing a track and screaming obscenities at the TV (in my case towards the end, sadly a lot of the latter).




Do not let this put you off. The reward for finishing a track is matched only by finishing some of the hardest challenges and games out there, the euphoric feeling of punching the air with joy becomes something that Spectra keeps you coming back for. During my time with it, Spectra has become one of my favourite indie games available to date, and I won't be putting it down any time soon.

If you're after a copy of this heart-pounding, 8-bit journey through fun, you can put it into your Xbox queue right here and if you want to tell me all about your fun, find me on Twitter here.

Le Tour De France! Cycling at its finest, every year 22 teams go head to head in a gruelling 21 stage ride across the French countryside to find out which team are the ultimate cycling champions! But does this carry over well onto my wonderful Xbox One? Well, I set my gears to max and headed off to find out!

Coming out of Cyanide Studios, who are already well known for their previous outings into the cycling world and other sport based activities (Blood Bowl, anyone?), this title is the second Cycling game onto the new gen consoles (the other, being Le Tour De France 2014). With a recent spat of AAA titles being released into the wild, I can't help but feel that this may of been the wrong time for this to be released, but with its almost niche selling point, I'm also unsure that any other time would of been right.

I jumped straight in, the tutorial is relatively simple which was a breathe of fresh air for someone who can barely remember how to ride a bike (however, its said that it never leaves, I'm willing to test that theory), with a voice over explaining the different terms for non-cyclists and what each appropriate button to press to perform said actions. When climbing, hammering the A button gives the cyclist a attack boost to go up the hill, and when coming back down (my favourite part), the player can adopt an aerodynamic position to gain that extra couple of feet on the opposition. In the flat sections a button can be held to follow an opposition player or a team member, which basically just auto-pilots until you want to take over again or said leader decides to attack and race for the sunset. On top of all this, choosing when to devour some tasty drinks or gels to keep your energy high is also an important part to play (hitting the wall is never fun, in any aspect of life).

At any point when not attacking, the player has a team communications option where you're able to give commands to fellow team mates or take their tiny bodies over completely and ride for them. I feel this is a good move from Cyanide, as holding a button purely to follow an AI for 3-4 minutes on the flat sections can become all rather boring. On top of this, sadly Le Tour De France doesn't look all that appealing, with what felt like huge frame rate hits at times and generally a lacklustre resolution and polish.

There are a few other games modes but not many, with a Pro Team section which is more of the management side, earning money as you participate in your team so that more riders of higher calibre can be hired, ensuring that your managed team are balanced so every situation can be handled. Along with this is a Challenge mode, which is exactly as it sounds, race to the finish as fast as possible.

Overall, if you're into cycling then I've no doubt that this is right up your street, however for anyone who has no real interest in cycling will sadly fall off quite fast, as its repetitive nature and almost grinding from the start feeling didn't leave too much of a mark on my memory. A good continuation for Cyanide, but I can't see it being attractive enough to bring in a wider audience.

If you like my little writings here, you can find me on Twitter right here and if you'd like to put this in your Xbox download queue, you can do so right here.

NB. Sorry there are no pictures with this one, my Xbox One's OneDrive did not want to play fair, sorry!