Phantom Fury is a classic FPS that manages to engage and entertain. It is a simple but well-finished evolution of its predecessor, to whom it owes a lot and which can still be an excellent yardstick in the panorama of boomer shooters. The new production, while not shining for originality, knows how to be a remarkable follow-up.

Botany Manor is a dense and emotionally charged work, designed to bring the player to live in the shoes of Arabella, a young woman who rediscovers her career, finding her own affections. It is a well-crafted and time-conscious production, with well-thought-out and satisfying puzzles. In short, a really convincing test.

A light and light-hearted but no less interesting ARPG, Sand Land. It doesn't have deep gameplay nor the slightest revolutionary ambition, several game elements are so canonical that they make it appear flat to those who are more accustomed to it, yet it can still be played with a certain gusto. The vehicles give an extra something to the journey of Beelzebub and his companions, not only from the point of view of traveling in an unfortunately unexciting open world. The rest is taken care of by the pleasant touch of the late artist who many of us, from an early age, have learned to consider as a loved one.

Stellar Blade is a video game that simply takes the best of many works, expanding the concepts in its own way. It's a warm and long-lived production, satisfying and with real action, which could certainly do its best with a second chapter. SHIFT UP Corporation, carefully packaging its work, has given life to a new series and created a character that could surprise in the future.

With TopSpin 2K25 Hangar 13 did a good job there where it was needed, in recreating a realistic but not frustrating tennis experience, very technical but at the same time challenging and fun. The content is canonical and technically there is still some work to be done, but if you love "non-televised" tennis and believe that with the right training you could beat even Federer, it's time to give it a try ... at least on a virtual tennis court.

Let's be frank: an evolution of Lunar Lander must do Lunar Lander's job, and Lunar Lander Beyond fulfills its task. Do you find the gameplay too simple and repetitive? This is a 1979 game repurposed in a deliberately faithful manner, for better or worse, adding some features typical of modern productions but aiming above all to preserve the spirit of the original. Nothing to object to in this respect then, but more effort could have been made in terms of aesthetics, with some elements looking too amateurish that almost makes you regret the vector graphics of the old arcade.

Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes is a good, deliberately old-fashioned JRPG with all the pros and cons. As a love letter to Suikoden it hits the mark despite some uncertainties, but the biggest problem at the moment are the bugs we encountered during the review, some very serious and impossible to ignore. Wait patiently for the bugfixes.

One could easily define Lotus Lantern: Rescue Mother as a reskin of Hades set in Chinese mythology, and trash it upon seeing that it does not touch the qualitative heights reached by Supergiant Games' work. The gameplay, however, is captivating, and the roguelite structure coupled with a good handling of the difficulty curve entices you to jump into another run to field test the newly achieved perks and the new character build. Each enemy has its own movement and attack pattern to learn, and the bosses are challenging enough. It doesn't innovate the genre, but it gets the job done.

A VERY particular adventure, both in aesthetic and narrative terms. The story starts slowly and with very little explanation, but as the game progresses it becomes more and more interesting and does not disdain touching important chords. The mechanics are the classic ones of a graphic adventure but the gameplay presents a few too many rough edges due to a bit of "dirt" in the code. Finally, the total lack of localization in Italian could represent a significant obstacle given that the tone of the dialogues is well above classic school English.

Headquarters World War 2 is a seemingly poor strategy game, which opens up to beautiful gameplay as soon as you start a new game. A title to try if you love games similar to XCOM.

Broken Roads looks from Australian shores toward some even recent classics of the CRPG genre and reworks a rather known formula through the lens of philosophy. The juxtaposition is a not so obvious success: in fact, philosophy is not used as a mere label to offer a re-brand of something already seen, but a g that moves both the game mechanics and the narrative progression.

Turbo Kid could have played dirty and stuffed in an endless barrage of citations for their own sake without caring too much about the content, sure to win over a large audience of nostalgic gamers anyway. Instead, it has been created with a genuine love for the metroidvania genre, adding to the typical skills such as jumping, crouching and climbing, also a large set of stunts typical of the BMX world, with a level design that takes full advantage of them. The result is interesting and successfully distracts from a look that has been seen many times before and from a main quest that adds nothing new.

The production, which tells of a world governed by megacorporations, involves and strikes in an unexpected way, leveraging complex themes and situations, while expertly detailing the story of Ayana, a young woman in difficulty on a razor's edge. Eraban: Shadow Legacy, a story characterized by many positive elements, is a work that does its job, committing itself to creating good gameplay.

Children of the Sun is a puzzle game disguised as a first person shooter, in which it seems that the protagonist is The Girl when in fact it is The Bullet. The difficulty of the levels increases gently, without placing insurmountable barriers on the players, but it is unfair not to have a complete overview of the situation from the beginning, which usually happens in this genre of games. Exploding the heads of enemies in super slow motion guarantees double satisfaction, first of all because a kill is always a kill, secondly because it is proof that our strategy works. The pulp atmosphere and the tragic story greatly increase the charm of the game.

A fluid and dynamic action-platformer with great potential, flawed by a too rigid structure, limited longevity and some annoying bugs that spoil the experience. A metroidvania with these dynamics could give an eventual sequel the breathing room this project needed.

Truly, a game of paradox (pun intended). The concept of Ages is exciting but the way it is implemented forces players into science-focused gameplay. The system of resources is meant for hardcore player, but others like diplomacy and international economy are half-baked to say the least. This game wasn’t ready for release.

Death Noodle Delivery is a fascinating project in theory but the magic ends after a couple of hours of completing the game. Few mechanics, a constant vulgarity in the script and a general feeling of having an incomplete game in your hands.

Open Roads is an extremely classic narrative adventure that nevertheless offers a mature and passionate story. The game design focuses on the key engines of the many productions of this type and succeeds in the complex attempt to prove pleasant and surprising. A production that, without a doubt, has its own personality. Exactly like that of Annapurna Interactive, one might say.

What if during the jump from mobile to PC you lose some attractiveness and do not try to remedy it in any way? Slice & Dice's formula, perfect on smartphones, is a bit poor on the desktop, and there is nothing to do but decide which dice to roll and which enemy to attack, hoping for an interesting drop or the arrival of a stronger character. The strategic component would be interesting, thanks to gameplay that allows us to know the moves of monsters in advance, but it is all too simple and too tied to luck. The multiple options and situations make it a good game, but not the expected masterpiece.

Terra Memoria confirms itself to be neither more nor less than what the trailers and images suggest: a truly cozy Western JRPG. It's an RPG with a modern feel that is an ode to the great classics of the past and, at the same time, to the importance of the journey even before the destination, a cute and cuddly indie work just like its furry protagonists.

One Last Breath is a puzzle platformer with a very good narrative idea and a satisfying realization. Unfortunately the puzzles are very banal and some maps are made with very little care.

MLB The Show 24 could almost be called 23 ½. The new features are more quantitative than qualitative, with a gameplay that follows the path of the last edition without the slightest deviation. What changes are mainly the contents, among which the excellent second season dedicated to the Negro League and the section starring Derek Jeter stand out. Little to report on Road To The Show, Franchise and Diamond Dynasty, which remain at fair/good levels without the addition of extra details that have a considerable impact on the gaming experience. No particular flaw in the graphics/sounds, which however would require some global cleaning and modernization, with particular attention to the player models.

Horizon Forbidden West for PC is the best adventure starring Aloy, even on not the most powerful configurations. All the magic of Guerrilla Games' game has been delivered uncompromisingly and will engage you for several hours as you explore, fight and experience a beautifully narrated and wonderfully portrayed story, accompanied by a soundtrack worthy of a top-notch film production. By forgoing some detail, which is moreover compensated by the smaller screen size, even Steam Deck – or similar consoles – owners will enjoy this excellent production.

Highwater is an effective and essential video game, well written and with a confident plot and a context capable of hitting the mark. It is a prequel that manages to fit uniquely into the experiences of the past, with the team having embraced a turn-based combat system that is excellently implemented but not so deep. It is a dynamic adventure that bases its total focus on narrative.

Empty Shell is a twin stick shooter with a horror-themed top down view, similar in gameplay to Hotline Miami but with a less frantic pace and a completely different look, here entirely in grayscale with various filters to simulate the nowadays ancient CRT monitors. The variety of weapons and enemies is quite good, and when life points begin to run low there is a definite anxiety in opening the next door without knowing what we will be fighting. The gameplay is simple and the story takes up the classic experiment where everything went wrong, yet the dark, claustrophobic atmosphere will manage to catch even the most demanding players.

Despite appearances, Bears In Space is an FPS that knows what it's doing. Bullet hell and platforming, weapons to upgrade and secrets to find, madness galore, infernal boss fights and gameplay deviations, there really is a bit of everything in this bizarre Australian title which may not be perfect, but where it is written that a video game necessarly have to be one to be fun?

Rise of the Ronin is a sort of amusement park for samurai, an open world adventure with an excellent combat system, in which the abundance of activities could distract you from a compelling and well-told plot. It's closer to an Assassin's Creed than a Souls-like or one of Team Ninja's previous games and could have been even better if it had been less technically problematic.

Princess Peach gives proof of great transforming talent in this her second "solo" adventure. Ten transformations take turns in levels filled with mini-games and secrets. A colorful and fun game marked by a low level of difficulty, which penalizes longevity and targets it mainly at a very young or novice audience.