Marvel MaXimum Collection is a decent little package, as far as compilations of old ROMs go. There are a couple of genuine classics and even the lower quality stuff is historically interesting enough to be worth a look.

As entertaining as Toxic Commando can be, I dare say the next time I want to replay a Horde Shooter I’ll go back to something with a proper structure like WWZ or even Aliens: Fireteam Elite. In fact, my enthusiasm for replaying it is petering out already and that’s a real shame. The shooting and driving feel really nice while the bigger battles are genuinely great, but they’re framed in an overall package that fails to stand out, has no real identity, and few compelling reasons to keep returning. A classic case of being equal parts good and forgettable.

This is exactly the kind of adorable, sweet natured, and engrossing experience Pokémon should always strive for. It’s completely revitalized the series’ waning magic and I’m unbelievably happy it exists.

More than even the remakes, Resident Evil 9 celebrates the series’ legacy in its full breadth, and does so exquisitely.

I’m willing to bet High on Life 2 does not reflect whatever Squanch envisioned for it. I could practically smell the cutbacks and downscaling as I traipsed through a world that promised much more than it delivered, unraveling a story full of setpieces that didn’t come close to reaching their potential. It has funny moments, some great concepts, and it's better than the original in a few key areas, but the substance is in short supply. It's a step forward for something that's a step back.

Crisol: Theater of Idols excels as a lower budget horror with high ambitions. It's got its foibles and I can nitpick all day, but so much style and effort has been poured into it that I just have to come away impressed. Fantastic visual and audio direction does a lot of the heavy lifting, taking this from a solid little homage to something more special. Creepy, intriguing, and with enough mechanical gimmickry to feel more different than it actually is, I’m certainly very glad I played it...Also, it’s stunningly cheap to buy for what it is. These days, that’s one of the most remarkable things anything can be.

What we have here is a bare bones remaster of Fighting Force and its crummy sequel, featuring only the most obligatory of modern conveniences. The paltry options menu, meager archive material, and total lack of border imagery demonstrates little of the love shown to other Limited Run releases. Fighting Force itself still has something to offer a very niche audience, but as a member of that audience I already have a version of Fighting Force, one with more options for fine tuning and without a $19.99 MSRP

The dreadful studio that brought you Quantum Error has delivered a game very much in line with its library of shameless trash. It is legitimately sad that not enough people knew of its lineage before Code Violet benefited from a whole lot of ill-gotten hype.

Octopath Traveler 0 is, in my opinion as a series fan, the best installment so far. With its gripping plot points, astounding villains, and a litany of gameplay improvements, I’ve been hooked on this game to a major degree. While the town building could have been better, it’s far from bad and just adds to a game that’d be stellar without it. An excellent RPG, through and through.

Blood: Refreshed Supply is Blood with a bit more Blood, and I’ve always got time for Blood. I’m happy to see it on console, but that feeling’s been tempered by the introduction of significant bugs and a questionable value prospect. It’s a shame I can’t be completely positive because there are welcome improvements. With some patching up and marking down, this could be the definitive experience Nightdive wants it to be.

At $29.99, the price is frigging obscene for just how little you get, and how little of that is enjoyable....Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a short, flimsy, and overpriced beat ‘em up that offers so much less than its contemporaries in the genre. Skating by on brand recognition, it’s amazing how tired of it you become despite being able to finish the dire campaign in almost no time at all. The game’s barely done wiping its feet on the mat before outstaying its welcome, and it’s ready to leave soon after. Awful shite.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition does a basic job of presenting the 2013 classic on Nintendo’s latest hardware, but expecting anything more than that will lead to disappointment. In fact, expecting exactly that may still be a letdown if you think it’ll look anywhere near as nice as it should. This is a game being pushed on how wonderful it looks, but it just doesn’t look good on the Switch 2 at all.

When it comes down what truly matters, I can be a dingus mushroom and wear an eggshell for a hat. That alone makes Kirby Air Riders one of the best spin-off games a platformer’s ever had.

I take no pleasure in admonishing this remaster. Sacred 2 occupies a small but precious space in my heart, and I’m shocked to see how disastrously this has turned out. There’s still fun to be salvaged from the wreckage, but I can’t ignore the fact that Sacred 2: Remaster qualifies as a defective product. I have so many questions about how this came out in the state it’s in, but one query stands above them all.

Enjoyment can be finely sliced off of ARC Raiders like edible shreds from a doner kebab smeared in shit. That these slivers are entirely dependent on its players is hardly a triumph of the base experience, which is generally boring, flavorless, and lacking much of a point. If not for one intensely fragile hook, this is a sub-mundane peashooting box breacher that, despite a lack of originality or quality gameplay, still needed help from an algorithm.

The word “slop” has recently been overused to the point of death, and that’s a shame, because I’d very much like to call Double Dragon Revive slop. It baffles me how you can put out something this ugly and unenjoyable without attaching an apology to it instead of a price tag, but that's videogames for you.

The Painkiller of 2025 is not the purist’s Painkiller. It’s nonetheless a great time and it absolutely relishes in exactly the kind of straight shooting chaos I’d want from such a game. Weapons are so pleasingly tumescent that I’ve consistently had fun in the face of flaws and irritating dialogue. I only hope 3D Realms can populate Purgatory with a few more hooks, because I don’t want to see what’s currently there fizzle out too quickly.

Combining a block breaker with a survive ‘em up is brilliant, the pinball city building is a giggle, and the inventiveness that runs throughout the entire production is utterly brilliant...It’s a whole load of balls and I love it.

If you took out the branding and populated it with generic creatures instead of marketable pocket monsters, Pokémon Legends: Z-A would be rightly seen as a sub-mediocre and sloppy RPG, the kind with 115 "mostly negative" user reviews on Steam. Game Freak knows how much grace the public affords Pokémon and has taken the absolute piss with it, churning out a cheap budget game with a premium price, expensive DLC, and a ten buck markup to get a decent framerate...The audacity of this exploitative cash-in is honestly quite disgusting. At least Ekans is in it.

I love Ghost of Yōtei. I adore the classic mold of Atsu’s revenge tale - it’s the kind of story for which “formulaic” is more compliment than criticism. I appreciate how rich a toybox has been provided in its combat. I give it immense credit for the transformative way it uses passive enhancements to so strongly influence a player’s active playstyle...It’s a beautiful production full of mechanically enriching treats that can make a player feel like the sports car of assassins. Seriously, when is Sucker Punch going to make a John Wick game? All told, I’d say this is some of the sleekest, tastiest action I’ve seen from the big budget space in a long, long time.

Hades II isn’t Hades, and it’s the only thing keeping Hades II from being as remarkable as Hades. While it can’t surprise players in quite the same way, this game’s bottle contains so much duplicated lightning that only a player with unrealistic expectations could be disappointed. It’s an engrossing audiovisual treat that’s structured beautifully and boasts gameplay I struggle to keep away from...In all honesty, I wasn’t sure if Supergiant could make a sequel that did such an impressive game as Hades justice. I had doubts that any developer could match such an insurmountable creation. Hades II isn’t more than a match, but it's absolutely worthy of standing alongside it.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a great little game. As well as availing itself of as many genre features as it could carry, it’s quite possibly the smoothest kart racer I’ve played and certainly one of the nicest to handle. With a cute set of gimmicks and solid customization options, its biggest problem is lacking enough modes and maps to quite cover a significant unlock grind.

Dying Light: The Beast benefits from a more focused approach than the series usually has. Its obligatory suite of repetitive jobs still wears thin during extended play, but overall I enjoyed this one more than the prior outings. It’s a leaner game with a better story and some nice touches. Some of the series’ long running flaws still need ironing out, and without them we could have a legitimately great game. On a personal note, it’s really nice to see this series improve as it has over time. Despite being a vocal critic of its shortcomings, I want to love Dying Light, and if this represents where future games are going, I may just get what I’m hoping for.

We’re on the fourth game and series fatigue has kicked in, that much is true. We have four games maintaining the same consistent pitch and tone, with the same structure, the same feel, the same missions. I can still play Dynasty Warriors and stay awake, so my getting tired of this routine should be a pretty strong indictment...Borderlands could have done with a shakeup, but a substandard grappling hook and an obscene number of fetch quests in which players take luggage for walkies isn’t it. Such banality permeates what is otherwise a decent enough shooter, impacting so many other elements that it wrecks things. Adding to that is a one-note tone and huge technical difficulties, making Borderlands 4 a far from “premium” game.

Cronos: The New Dawn is far and away the best work Bloober Team’s put out and a splendid survival horror game in its own right. What starts as a post-pandemic Dead Space cover version becomes its own brand of scary that conditions paranoia into its players with undeniable expertise. There's a great script to go with the A-grade psychological puppeteering, and the whole package deserves to be seen as a genre classic...I am truly impressed.

I can’t fault the work that’s gone into making the collection, but it is a collection of clapped out garbage. They put in way too much effort to make the videogame equivalent of those novelty VHS tapes in the 90s that nobody was ever really expected to watch but got as gag gifts on Christmas. That’s all Bubsy is if we’re brutally honest - a fucking prank.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a very well put together game. Slick presentation, watertight controls, and clever level design combine in a wonderful return for Joe Musashi. It might not be enough of a challenge for some, and it has some issues with upping its ante, but overall? Quality stuff.

Metal Gear Solid Delta might be the least necessary remake ever produced, but it might be my favorite remake for exactly that reason. It’s just Snake Eater with modern graphics and controls, and that’s actually more than I’ve come to expect from the industry these days. By being such a faithful reissue, Delta has secured its place as the definitive way I play MGS3 - I can’t say that about any of the more imaginative remakes we’ve seen in recent years.