Samba de Amigo: Party Central does not require impeccable execution and perfect pitch, nor highly developed reflexes (more or less). The word "Party" in the name is a real declaration of intent, a message to revelers who can go wild with their friends, training alone or, even better, in online mode. Regardless of the length of post-launch support reserved for the title, SEGA has created a light experience, with some sagging in the recording phase of low notes and in terms of frame rate, but absolutely capable of giving hours of entertainment.

Ultimately, with Daymare 1994 Invader Studios has taken a step forward, treasuring the experience accumulated during the development of the progenitor of the series. Some perplexities remain relating to the script, which starts from solid foundations and then gets lost in the final stages, as well as some ingenuity in the gameplay formula, which in any case has managed to demonstrate the validity of the Frost Grip on several occasions. With a greater variety of threats and instruments of death, this visually striking nightmare journey could have gone even further: however the Roman team has shown us his talent, once again.

Mediterranea Inferno offers an effective blend of history, artistic direction and characterization, accompanied by a valuable sound sector. This visual novel - essential to say the least on the playful front - is able to tell the exciting story of three friends, in which it is difficult not to identify. Also for this reason, going beyond the end of the first run and dedicating ourselves to discovering the various endings of this journey seemed to us a natural choice, as proof of the talent shown by the insiders.

The emerging narrative of Under the Waves will accompany you while you are underwater and then will make you desire to re-embrace the surface: Stan is a man who hides his past, he wanted to bury it, but he has to deal with it, especially at night . The title of Parallel Studio certainly does not offer a layered playful component, but its engaging story - linked to a credible and multifaceted protagonist - will certainly push you to fully experience this journey consisting of 7 chapters.

Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case tells a good story starring the detective Hercule Poirot, who although younger than his moustached and experienced version is equally shrewd, intelligent and charismatic. The supporting actors and the plot work, brought to life in various and detailed locations by a valuable visual and artistic presentation, net of cutscenes that are not as well cared for. Unfortunately it is precisely in the playful dimension and in the rhythm that the experience loses some points, because sometimes it dilutes the progress too much with lots of backtracking and puzzles with a not exactly intuitive solution. In any case, the title of Blazin Griffin has what it takes to make the fans of the iconic character born from the beloved mystery writer happy.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is an excellent starting point for the series, which after so many not very successful chapters had been missing from the scene for an entire decade. At first glance, the well above average difficulty rate may seem excessive, but the study of the opponent and the guessed tweaks that the FromSoftware guys have made to the playful formula, without neglecting the unparalleled level of customization that has always been offered by franchise, this time they know how to give a stimulating and revolutionary experience. However, the great replayability of the product is counterbalanced by a narrative framework that is anything but memorable and too conservative from a structural point of view. The future of the saga, whose return was by no means obvious, therefore appears promising and bright.

Fort Solis offers a cinematic experience that unfortunately creaks due to a writing without particular flashes. Exploring the space station in search of recordings and documents that shed light on the events of the story proves to be not very exciting. However, the developers of Fallen Leaf have built an admirable graphic framework in Unreal Engine 5, with richly detailed scenarios and realistic lighting (there is no shortage of frame rate fluctuations). To counterbalance, at least in part, the uncertainties of the narrative we find the excellent interpretations of Troy Baker, Roger Clark and Julia Brown, who make every exchange plausible with a variety of expressions worthy of much larger productions than this first work, which in any case should have dared a little more.

Net of a series of technical problems that we sincerely hope can be mitigated by the next patches, Immortals of Aveum is a convincing first-person magic shooter, which can be played with transport from start to finish. Although belonging to the shooter genre, the Ascendant Studio title is profoundly different from its colleagues and the predominant action component, combined with the presence of many tools to counter the opponents, makes every single battle exciting and spectacular. The complex lore at the base of the experience accompanies a valid plot, not without some less effective junctures, but sometimes capable of surprising the player, and certainly able to push him to complete Jak's journey.

Ride 5 is the first episode designed and developed for current generation consoles: a few kilometers on the track are enough to appreciate its simulation cut and commitment to accessibility (the neural aids work). Compared to Ride 4, the differences are not so marked: Milestone worked above all with a chisel to clean up and refine his most ambitious work. In terms of content, there is nothing to complain about: the proposed virtual dealership offers everything a two-wheel enthusiast could wish for. On the visual front, the volumetric clouds are a welcome addition, the bikes remain beautiful, the circuit park is truly extensive. The career mode has made some steps forward compared to the previous iteration, but has not reached the levels we had hoped for. In short, the team has not failed to further improve the gaming experience but has chosen the path of continuity for this fifth episode: we expected a little more.

Blasphemous 2 presents itself to players as a significant step forward in almost all aspects already appreciated in the original chapter. It is not a sequel that reinvents the mechanics of the saga but is more the result of the team's precise desire to give fans a level metroidvania experience. Some uncertainties regarding collisions and the boss fights not always able to provide the challenge we were looking for, don't be deceived: the layered playful recipe and the excellent artistic direction manage to keep the player glued to the screen for the duration of the countryside. If you are looking for a peculiar title, thanks to its themes that travel on the border between the sacred and the profane, you should give it a chance: the second crusade of the Penitent is an experience you will not forget.

Ultimately Baldur's Gate 3 is, in no uncertain terms, a shining jewel of design and programming, so deep, layered and sumptuous that it can be considered the new golden standard of the genre: a benchmark of prodigious magnitude that will be a real nightmare for anyone want to embark, in the future, on the development of titles belonging to the same category. Where many would have crashed to the ground by replicating the myth of Icarus and the Sun, Larian Studios triumphs and brings a sequel to PC that in many ways even surpasses its illustrious predecessors. In short, the throne of the best RPG of the generation has just been claimed.

Gord is a fascinating product, both thanks to its imagination and thanks to the playful elements that characterize it. What initially might appear as a rather basic real-time strategy game is actually a sort of colony simulator, which calls for you to face adverse events decisively and to use the available resources wisely. The leading role reserved for micromanagement could be very intriguing for those more accustomed to the genre, less so for newbies. Gord can be exhausting at times, but he certainly offers a unique experience.

Atlas Fallen manages to mix its constituent elements with a certain harmony. Its sandy world is pleasant to explore and contains a secondary offering that - while not straying from what we have seen in other exponents of the open world genre - expands the hour count in an uncontrived way. The clashes at the center of the experience are satisfying, thanks to the well-constructed combat system. Together with the ups and downs of performance and in terms of artistic direction, the narrative scaffolding is the most sore point of the production, which, net of its rough edges, however, is capable of genuinely entertaining.

F1 Manager 2023 is definitely a good product, but the improvements compared to the previous chapter have been more timid than we would have hoped. After laying the foundations with the debut chapter, Frontier has dedicated itself above all to polishing the edges, improving the general quality of life of the experience. The result is a solid title, similar to its predecessor, for better or for worse. The Race Replay and Scenario modes offer an interesting career alternative, but a "my team" mode, a multiplayer sector and the minor playable categories are still missing. That said, the management simulation of F1 Manager 2023 is deep enough and is easily able to give dozens and dozens of hours of fun to all aspiring team principals.

Unfortunately, Unholy is a video game that just doesn't work. The plot is short and underdeveloped, focused on an uninteresting protagonist and told in poor quality footage. The gameplay is dated and repetitive, a simple alternation of bland exploration, very simple puzzles and stealth where hiding is useless, because the pursuers never represent a danger. At least on the artistic front, the title is more inspired and technically it is quite stable, but it is not enough. Perhaps out of inexperience, Duality Games debuts with insipid horror action, difficult to recommend even to the most indulgent fans of the genre since it's not even scary.

While lacking its own personality in aesthetics and game mechanics, Arena Breakout is an extraction shooter that offers enough content to keep the user busy for dozens of hours. The only real problem of Tencent's free to play is its being trapped in that cage which is the mobile platform, where for trivial technical reasons it is unable to express itself at its best. We hope that in the future the control system will benefit from the necessary interventions, because at that point the gaming experience would be much more attractive.

Noob: The Factionless is a production afflicted by too many problems for it to be valid entertainment even for the young audience to which it is addressed. Under its surface of appreciable simplicity, which partially forgives a little challenging and little wriggling gameplay, it hides a banality and even discouraging neglect. The operation of trying to take intellectual property outside its borders through a video game certainly made sense, but it crashes loudly on the rocks of mediocrity.

Disney Illusion Island is a good family entertainment title, with the addition of up to four player co-op making the experience even more immersive. On the other hand, the basic repetitiveness is very evident in the first part of the adventure, except to recover in the second part, at the end of the entire journey. The playful flatness of the four characters, net of the pleasant visual differentiations, weakens the inventiveness of a smooth and pleasant gameplay. With a little forethought and added depth, Disney Illusion Island could have been so much more magical.

On balance, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons captured us with its playful system halfway between tradition and innovation and was able to give us several hours of carefree fun. It is not a perfect title and perhaps it will not reach the heights reached by the fourth chapter of Streets of Rage but it is still nice to see such an important series rise from its ashes offering both newbies and historical fans the opportunity to return to impersonate the Lee brothers and their companions. If you are a fan of the scrolling beat 'em up genre, you should definitely give it a shot.

With Remnant 2 the developers have not yet found the perfect formula, but they have certainly made good steps forward. Net of a fluctuating artistic direction and some technical defects, this shooter with procedural elements offers a level of replayability that only very few exponents of the genre can boast, to the point of being able to amaze even after several completed games. If you love big challenges, especially in co-op, make it yours.

Exoprimal is a cooperative shooter characterized by a great gameplay, but which desperately needs more content due to excessive repetitiveness of the matches. It takes very little to see everything that Capcom production has to offer. In other words, at the moment it is perfect for playing a few matches in the company of friends, especially if you are an Xbox Game Pass subscriber. Those who, on the other hand, hoped to invest hours and hours to watch the final video of the campaign, may find themselves faced with an insufficiently stimulating package.

In the same interview quoted at the beginning, Shigeru Miyamoto guaranteed: "The Pikmin teams are always busy with the next chapter". We hope that with this fourth episode, the Nintendo series will finally reach a large audience in Europe as well. Obviously, the genre it belongs to makes Pikmin an IP far from the commercial potential of other Kyoto giants, such as Mario or The Legend of Zelda, but for our part we can't wait to find out what Pikmin 5 will come up with.

Viewfinder thrives on games of perspectives, encounters between photographs and three dimensions, and does not disappoint. The lively graphic style and its playful recipe designed to tease our creativity make it a valid production, perfect for indulging in a not too demanding leisure. The difficulty of the experience is calibrated downwards, yet the four or five hours offered by the exploration of his scenarios - thanks to the joys of the Polaroid - manage to fascinate and surprise.

With its vibrant pops of color and excellent use of eye tracking in managing telekinesis, Synapse stands out as one of the productions that make the most of the potential and unique features of PlayStation VR 2. Despite the general lack of variety, the nDreams game remains a roguelite shooter with explosive gameplay and an excellently calibrated progression system, able to keep the user's interest alive thanks to a good level of challenge and the possibility of experimenting with different fighting styles. The presence of famous voice actors such as David Hayter and Jennifer Hale adds a special touch, not so much for the quality of the plot, but for the care and attention with which the entire experience has been packaged, comparable to what one might to expect from a first party title.

The long test to which we subjected Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg unfortunately confirmed the reservations we had towards the product. The one created by Gust Corporation is a mere 1:1 scale remake of the title originally published in 1997 and only renews its graphic design, leaving its serious playful and narrative gaps unchanged. Although the introduction of the Unlimited Mode removes the annoying temporal limitations of the original Atelier Marie, today as then the story is in fact weak and far from engaging, and the side characters are mere archetypes. Bearing in mind that even the longevity is really insufficient by the standards of the genre, we suggest the purchase only to the most die-hard fans of the series, who in order to discover its origins may be willing to pass over its many flaws and the expensive ticket admission (€50). We are therefore of the opinion that producing a 1:1 scale remake of such an obsolete title was not the most sensible way to feed the progenitor of the saga to the new generations, which on the contrary deserved to be re-imagined in almost every aspect .

Testament The Order of High Human is an experience with ups and downs. The plot never really manages to intrigue but the game world offers several interesting settings and exploration remains pleasant thanks to the fun parkour sections. The combat system is quite simple, yet it does not fail to give magical blows worthy of the name and various ways to make the protagonist more lethal. At the same time, and unfortunately also applies to the bosses, the movements of the enemies turned out to be a bit spartan and unable to match the quality of what has been confirmed as a good visual presentation. If you are looking for an adventure that is not too long, focused on challenging gameplay and made by people with an obvious passion for action RPGs, you will overlook the flaws and enjoy yourself.

The hours spent trying to end the civil war in Grand Chien have only confirmed how much the guys at Haemimont Games have listened to the players. In Jagged Alliance 3 we found many of the ingredients that made the brand legendary 25 years ago, showcased by the undisputed technical and artistic skills of the developers. The major criticalities are found in the monotony of a rather cumbersome management phase, which clashes with the excellent beating heart of the experience: its engaging and unpredictable fights. Some courageous game design choices could divide fans, but anyone looking for a valid turn-based strategy game will find bread for their teeth in the immense replay value of a title that does not forgive mistakes of a tactical nature.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is a well-crafted graphic adventure that we would like to recommend to anyone, especially to those who have had the opportunity to appreciate the first chapter. Trapped in a story with mysterious and paranormal connotations, the protagonists of the game are credible and multifaceted, to the advantage of the effectiveness of the story and the dialogues with the supporting actors. The title does not have the innovative charge of the progenitor and perhaps does not exploit some good ideas as it could have but offers an exciting experience with a well-chosen setting, which you should not miss.