Hookshot Inc. is a website about downloadable video games that cost $15 or less. We patrol a wild and hectic new frontier in video games, taking aim at the titles that deserve attention – and pulling them directly into the lives of busy players.
Hookshot Podcast #9: LAUGH

Hookshot Podcast #9: LAUGH

The Hookshot Podcast finally returns, bearing the gift of humour. Well, bearing the gift of a discussion about videogame humour anyway.

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Hookshot Podcast #8: PREDICT

Hookshot Podcast #8: PREDICT

In this week's episode the Hookshot Inc. team lays down its predictions for 2013.

Handsome Keith Stuart guides the team through some of his ideas of what to expect, and the rest of the team pull them apart.

Can we expect indie horror to enjoy an upsurge this year? Will Kickstarter be found out? And if so, how on earth will Keith get 'Maths Bugger 2' funded?

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Hookshot Podcast #7: REFLECT

Hookshot Podcast #7: REFLECT

It's the end of 2012, the year of Hookshot Inc.'s birth and what better time to subject oneselves to the WarioWare imperative: REFLECT!

In this the seventh episode, Will, Keith, Christian and Simon discuss eight of their favourite downloadable games of the year, unpicking the likes of Fez, New Star Soccer, Letterpress, The Walking Dead amongst others.

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Hookshot Inc. Podcast #6: PRESS

Hookshot Inc. Podcast #6: PRESS

This week the Hookshot Inc. team sits down to discuss 'Press'.

We ask what may have been gained or lost in video gaming's move away from physical buttons in recent times with the advent of virtual joysticks and motion controls.

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Hookshot Podcast #5: DIE

Hookshot Podcast #5: DIE

This week the Hookshot Inc. team turns up to the studio in black clothes and with ashen faces to discuss that most morbid of subjects: death (in video games).

Settle down with a stiff drink and a reflective soul as we stare the end full in the face and come away invigorated.

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Hookshot Podcast #4: FIGHT

Hookshot Podcast #4: FIGHT

This week the Hookshot Inc. crew take the subject of fighting in video games and give it a good seeing to.

Or, at least, the best seeing to that four mildly fey men who have spent most of their adult lives playing video games and not working out can muster.

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Latest entries

Wrecked – Hookshot’s internal politics revealed by Mashed successor

Wrecked - Hookshot’s internal politics revealed by Mashed successor
“Sorry!” says Christian, as his red machine-gun toting car belts over a clifftop backwards. “Sorry!” he repeats when I bash a thumbstick to nose him into the mountainside. “I really am sorry about that” he rabbits after securing a lock-on with his roof-rack rocket launcher and leaving my vehicle a smoking wreck.

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Snuggle Truck added to Android Humble Bundle

Snuggle Truck added to Android Humble Bundle
Cuddly toy drive ‘em up Snuggle Truck, one of Hookshot Inc’s favourite indie games of the past 12 months, has been added to the Android Humble Bundle, a collection of games available in a ‘pay what you want’ download.

Parkin looks at why that matters.

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The Fun Forecast: 26th March – 2nd April

The Fun Forecast: 26th March – 2nd April
Greetings friends. I am Alternate Michael Fish from the 1970s. In the past week Slightly Fuzzy John Kettley travelled back in time to warn me what I would become, and the havoc I would wreak on my fellow Weathermen. Here is this week’s Fun Forecast.

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A treatise on Draw Something, while it’s still awesome.

A treatise on Draw Something, while it's still awesome.
I’ve been having a think. You know how great Draw Something is, and how you’ve currently got about ten people lined up to show you their squiggles? How does that work when, in truth, Pictionary is a bit shit?

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Hotshot: Zombie Panic In Wonderland Plus

Hotshot: Zombie Panic In Wonderland Plus
Akaoni Studio’s ninja + guns + fairytales + zombies WiiWare title lands on iOS in a strong and impressive port.

Hookshot Inc. takes a look at one of the most technically-impressive free downloads currently on the App Store.

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Hot Shot: Yeti Hunter

Hot Shot: Yeti Hunter
Cripes, Vlambeer makes the best games. What's more, the Dutch micro-studio increasingly makes the most varied games, too. If you roll up to the team's latest expecting the knockabout cartoon thrills of Super Crate Box or the scrappy overkill of Radical Fishing, you're in for a shock.

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Paranoid Android

Paranoid Android
Google Android OS has taken a few knocks from its beloved developers in the past few weeks, many claiming the fragmentation of game stores and devices is making development increasingly tough.

Should we care?

And if we should, what might be done to change attitudes?

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In defence of Dr Mario

In defence of Dr Mario
Listen, Dr Mario for the Game Boy is out on the 3DS Virtual Console this week, and I've been hearing backchat from people who don't think it's very good.

These people are wrong, and you shouldn't listen to them.

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Madcoaster Review: The Midnight Meat Wagon

Madcoaster Review: The Midnight Meat Wagon
Chillingo's latest is both a slick little autorunner and a feisty treatise on the pleasures of animal murder.

Madcoaster encourages you to power your little rollercoaster as far along the tracks as it will go, while also taking out any wildlife you encounter along the way.

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Angry Birds: my journey. My journey into SPACE.

Angry Birds: my journey. My journey into SPACE.
I first discovered my hatred of the pigs on April 27th 2010. I was about to get on the Eurostar for a journalist trip to Paris, and I was wearing new shoes. I was quite proud of them. They’re all scuffed up now. My first foray with Angry Birds made a strong imprint, you see.

It was a nice man called Rich Jenkins, who then worked for Nuts magazine, who first showed me the pigs once we’d stopped talking about boobs and some of the people who have them...

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Minecraft XBLA release date announced + more!

Minecraft XBLA release date announced + more!

Microsoft has come to the rescue of Minecraft fanatics everywhere and revealed the release date for its excellent Xbox Live Arcade edition. The game will be released as part of Microsoft's Arcade NEXT season, which kicks off with the equally brilliant Trials Evolution, then takes in Bloodforge and Fable Heroes.

What a line-up!

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Hotshot: Lap Uranus

Hotshot: Lap Uranus
Last night in a Glasgow pub, a bearded man pulled out his iPhone to demand we all have a game of Lap Uranus, a game that was surely developed on the strength of its titular pun.

Parkin takes a look at the rise of the pub-based multiplayer game.

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