X8 gets unfairly lumped in with X7, but as a result of this collection (and the previous X collection on PS2 and GameCube) it can make its mark on history again.

A compilation of four of the greatest platformers of all time, and in the case of the original that kicked off the entire X universe, possibly the greatest.

I had a hell of a time with Horizon Chase Turbo. Of all of the retro revival games that have come out over the past few years, it is near the top of my personal list of favourites. I can’t get enough of it.

I would have to nitpick to come up with anything else. I suppose The Lion’s Song isn’t what you’d traditionally call a “game,” but it works as an engrossing experience that you’re bound to relate to in one way or another.

Tanzia's disparate parts are held together with the chewed gum of love put into the project which manages to do just enough to keep it all from falling apart.

Everything about Captain Toad is overwhelmingly charming.

While this DLC has the kind of silliness I'd like to see the Far Cry series confidently embrace and it mostly sounds good on paper, the end result is bare-bones. Lost on Mars feels like a middle-of-the-road effort when it could've been so much more substantial and imaginative. The premise deserves better.

There are some odd and annoying design decisions, and it can feel frustrating to rarely get to really let loose with the gun creations, but damn if I don't keep coming back to go through a few ships and see what destruction I can cause.

Danger Zone 2 isn’t a bad game, but it falls apart under the weight of its technical issues. If there wasn’t already a better version of this game by the same devs (disregarding the Burnout series), I might be more forgiving of some of these flaws. I simply can’t ignore the shortcomings, though.

Octopath Traveler is a small triumph in that it mostly delivers on its promise to give us eight stories worth seeing through.

Bomb Chicken kind of came out of nowhere, and I completely lost track of time after my first session with it.

If this were on mobile I'd have deleted it after my first trip to Avocado Roller. As it's a PS4 game, I was holding to hope there'd be something, anything, I could grasp on to here that would signify it as a quality kart racer for the platform. There isn't.

It’s a beautiful game, but that beauty can’t hide the fact Pocket Rumble still needs a bit of work. When playing with friends locally the game is an absolute blast. That's when it's at its best.

For five bucks as a digital upgrade all of these Sonic Mania Plus additions are a no-brainer. Sure, encore and maybe the multiplayer updates would have been added as free DLC in some circles, but the new characters and the package as a whole props up one of the best platformers of 2017 for a more than reasonable price.

The Spectrum Retreat has a tragic story about a family cast aside by the American health care system. That much becomes apparent early on, but the finer details are hidden behind too many consecutive puzzles. There's a narrative worth hearing here, but the cadence at which it's told is just a little bit off. That, mixed with the good-but-not-outstanding puzzle design, keeps The Spectrum Retreat from being a truly great stay.

The combination of the roguelike and card genre seems like a match made in heaven and Slay the Spire uses that match to craft something amazing even while in Early Access. I do wonder why it took so long for someone to bring these two genres together in such a well-done manner but that matters not because it's here now and roguelike and card game fans are better off for it. [Early Access]

Hopefully, some patches bring this remaster up to par, because it would be unforgivable to have Guerrilla fail a second time due to a rushed port.

I called dibs on Grab the Bottle because it looked kind of silly, and figured at worst it'd be a fun little distraction. It definitely hit those points, but wound up being something I legitimately enjoyed for some quick, on-the-go puzzle solving. And with a story that wound up having minimalist heft to it, I think this is a nice little excursion from your typical gaming experience well worth hitting the sauce for.

As long as more companies like Panic Button figure out the secret sauce of how to distill 44.55GB (PS4) files into 21.8 GB (Switch) while keeping the gameplay intact, the Switch has a bright future ahead of it.

I think the developers made the right call by branching out with planes and boats and going for a more approachable play-what-you-like format.

On many other occasions they'll simply augment the existing experience, and your mileage may vary depending on how strong the core is.

Lumines didn’t need to reinvent the wheel for its remaster as it already had its base down pat.

Mario Tennis Aces has a chance at being a great game down the road. Right now, it's simply good. The gameplay is as addictive as ever and the Adventure Mode is a great way to educate people on the ins and outs of Mario Tennis. It's just missing features that, while small, make a world of difference when it comes to the longevity of the game. I want to play Aces for the rest of the Switch lifecycle, but right now it's not giving me much of a reason to keep booting it up.

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit functionally serves as a playable teaser for the sequel to Life is Strange. Because of this, we never get real resolution to Chris' story. It ends on a gratuitous cliffhanger, and that's so predictably frustrating. But Captain Spirit uses its two hours well to craft a narrative that leaves us wanting more. That was the whole point. Chris may be a superhero but he's also an underdog. Everyone loves a good underdog story.

Unworthy falls just a bit short. Not much can be done about the level design, but a few key tweaks to item management and difficulty balancing could lead to this becoming a hidden gem. If nothing else, it scratches the itch for more Souls that From has left.

It's quite good for a licensed product, and can be fun for a couple of kids to play together, or for a parent to play with their child. It just isn't anything special, and in a game all about being Incredible, that's kind of a letdown.

After playing over fifty hours of Evolution, I still certainly had my fair share of fun. The dinosaurs are absolutely the star of the show here and surprisingly enough, the controller support for Evolution is spot on and really intuitive. But if you're looking for a solid dinosaur-themed tycoon or business sim, then you might wanna keep looking.

A nostalgic joke taken too far. Though there are postivies in the presentation, the gameplay is laborious, even draining. Shaq Fu outstays its welcome, despite its meagre run-time, which is far more offensive than its juvenile attempts at "edgy" comedy. Shaq should've known better than to put his name to this, and everyone should've known better than to put money into its creation.