Honest Reviews
Every score comes with 8+ hours logged and a clear buy / wait / skip verdict. New reviews drop Tuesdays and Fridays, 9am AEST.
Melbourne · Est. 1987 vibes
Press Start On Your Next Obsession
Neon-soaked reviews, RPG deep dives and frame-perfect speedrun guides — written by players who still remember the hum of a mall arcade at midnight.
Tips line: +61 3 9642 4339 · 58 Hardware Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
12 yrs
Covering the scene
2,400+
Games reviewed
190K
Monthly readers
Zero
Paid-for scores
What we publish
Four Ways We Level You Up
Fresh drops every week, no fluff, no filler — just the coverage that actually helps you play better.
RPG Deep Dives
Build calculators, lore breakdowns and spoiler-safe questlines for the JRPGs and CRPGs worth the 80-hour commitment.
Speedrun Labs
Frame-data tables, route maps and glitch tutorials built with the local Melbourne any% community. Skill floor: none.
Retro Rewind
Cabinet histories, CRT mod guides and interviews with the people who kept the Hardware Lane arcades alive after hours.
The crew
Players Behind The Bylines
A tiny Melbourne editorial team that argues about tier lists more than it should.
Dana Kowalczyk
Editor-in-Chief · Reviews
Ex-QA tester, RPG completionist, refuses to score anything she hasn't finished.
Marcus Pham
Speedrun Lead
Holds two regional any% records and can explain frame perfection without the jargon.
Priya Nair
RPG & Lore
Turns 200-hour save files into readable build guides. Owns too many strategy books.
Toby Fielding
Retro & Hardware
Restores CRT cabinets on weekends and writes the Retro Rewind column between solder jobs.
Reader buzz
What The Community Says
★★★★★
"Their speedrun route for Chrono Vault knocked four minutes off my personal best. The frame tables are gold."
★★★★★
"Finally a review site that says 'wait for a sale' when it means it. Saved me from two full-price mistakes this year."
★★★★★
"The Retro Rewind piece on the Hardware Lane arcades made me tear up. Proper local gaming history, done right."
Membership
Back The Blog, Ditch The Ads
Reading is always free. Members get early drops, no ads and the monthly build-guide PDF.
Player+
PopularA$7/mo
Everything free, plus:
- Ad-free reading
- 48-hour early review access
- Monthly build-guide PDF
Legend
A$15/mo
Everything in Player+, plus:
- Private Discord speedrun channel
- Quarterly retro print zine
- Name in the credits page
Contact
Got A Tip Or A Hot Take?
Pitch a guide, flag a correction or just tell us your all-time GOTY. We read every message.
- Phone
- +61 3 9642 4339
- [email protected]
- Studio
- 58 Hardware Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
- Hours
- Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm AEST