Two years ago, Sackboy: A Big Adventure proved Sumo Digital was more than capable of creating its own unique vision of Media Molecule's banner Little Big Planet series. Now in 2022, as I write this while listening to the game’s choral remix of Material Girl, I can’t help but be excited for what is next for weird potential of future Sackboy games. People should go back and play this game, just not on PC.

Soccer is a game all about teamwork; which is fitting for Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, a title where the multiplayer and co-op features shine the brightest. However, when it comes to single-player features, like the game's Journey mode and figuring out the soccer gameplay mechanics, you're better off benching those aspects.

MindSeize isn’t necessarily a Metroidvania that brings anything new to the genre, but it is a fun and overall enjoyable experience that has a lot of potential. Interested players just might want to wait until the game receives another patch or two before giving it a go, unless you’re willing to deal with its current technical issues.

The only thing that Liberated needs to be liberated from is its lackluster game design and bland story.

Its compelling early story beats can’t save it from its repetitive battle system and lack of meaningful connections, and I came away from my experience feeling like this was a rare miss for a company that is usually so consistent. It’s certainly a weird choice for a remaster.

There are parts of this game that are highly relatable. You can scroll through social media and see what are essentially Tweets (or Posts, thanks Elon), mostly about the impending meteor impact, that capture Twitter (sure, X) culture with hilarious accuracy. The third act also shines, with tensions between characters finally bubbling over and leading to huge blowouts that feel very true to the nature of teenage friendships. Fang’s relationship to their parents and brother Naser also feel very complex, more than any other relationship they have with the other characters. But none of this is enough to carry the weight of the game’s slow first acts or make up for the game’s unrealised thematic potential, and that’s a shame. What could’ve been a meaningful meditation on the importance of community turned out half-baked. The seeds of something great were there, but it never quite had the payoff it deserved.

The Complex has some good ideas and solid acting, but for an interactive movie, there's not enough going on here that makes it more worthwhile than just watching something on Netflix.

As it stands right now, The Captain Is Dead is an interesting take on the strategy genre, but I feel like it boldly goes too far in being a frustrating, teeth-grinding, mind-numbing exercise in futility.

There is still some fun to be had in the game’s single-player challenge modes, including things like controlling two characters in a race at once with the two separate Joy-Cons, which is far more difficult than it sounds. Must Dash Amigos is a good enough family game for those with younger players. But ultimately, Must Dash Amigos is likely not one of the games that will fall into my regular rotation of weekend couch party games.

Gungrave Gore is repetitive, there’s no question about that, but like most arcade games – racers, sports, shmups – there can be great enjoyment to be had from something so fully of itself. Gungrave is Gungrave, and if you play it, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Whether its simplistic, repetitive nature will appeal for the price you pay is another question. Maybe wait for the inevitable discounts – or just play it on Game Pass.

The charm of Art of Rally is in its free roam mode, especially after unlocking all of the vehicles and tracks. Zooming around the game’s colorful, beautifully designed environments with the easy tunes of the soundtrack is a surprisingly great way for me to zone out after a stressful day. If the controls, especially for a hand-held controller, can be tightened up even just a little bit, Art of Rally could become a title that I play every day - whether it be during a warm-up session before a night of gaming, or as a way to close out a long day.

I like the idea of creating a title that feels like a less complicated version of Civilization, but it seems easy to create a game that dumbs things down too much. It was hard for me to get immersed in ruling my kingdom in Conqueror 940 AD since the gameplay was so barebones. At times, it almost felt like I was feeling out a spreadsheet rather than ruling a kingdom. It's possible to take something like Crusader Kings 3 and make it more accessible for a general audience, but Conquerer 940 AD's buttons and toggles don't make for an exciting game of political intrigue.

Crime O’Clock feels like wasted potential. As a hidden object game, it has the foundations of something decent, with its lively scenes and impressive worldbuilding offering up just enough pixel-clicking for fans of the genre to get a few cheap thrills out of it. But instead of leaning any further into its time-bending angle and becoming a truly impressive puzzler, it’s happy to sit and throw a few naff minigames at you, hoping it’s enough to distract from the severe lack of any actual substance.

This is not the penultimate chapter in Destiny's decade-long story anyone wanted, but even without everything weighing on its shoulders, Lightfall still disappoints.

Its visuals can be striking, but that's about all I can remember about my time with it. At this point, I've played plenty of Soulslikes. The ones that I did enjoy tried to play around with the formula in some way. But Shattered doesn't reinvent the wheel or even try to gussy it up. It's just a so-so Soulslike that tries to stand out by having the same aesthetic as The Corpse Bride. And that's simply not enough.

Harmony: Fall of the Reverie is too connected to its core concept of steering the future based on fate and factions, and this idea means players must abandon both the choice and the narrative in this choice-based narrative game. It's not exactly a formula for success. Despite some interesting designs and a potentially compelling tale at its heart, there's nothing harmonious about Harmony.

Giant mech battles are nothing new to the gaming scene. Unfortunately, also not new is that the genre has few examples of quality mech-battling gameplay. Override 2: Super Mech League recently added its name to the fray, bringing hectic arena combat to PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Although fun at times, it’s ultimately hard to recommend this particular arena fighter over other fighting games that are also available right now, unless you REALLY like mechs. After saving the planet from an intergalactic threat, giant mechs battle it out in arenas for the pleasure of the people they saved. These giant robots - controlled by a human pilot - vary in size and stature, ranging in everything from beefy and strong to smaller and elusive. You’re the newbie on the mech-fighting circuit, seeking to make a name for yourself as you rise through the ranks and gain influence and rewards in various Mech Leagues. via Modus Override 2’s career campaign has everything you need to experience the game’s various game modes. 1v1, 2v2, 4v4 free-for-all… even a King of the Hill mode is available to you as you duke it out as one of the game’s 20 different robots. Each mech has a handful of different moves while having a special Ultimate ability available to them once their special meter bar is full. Of course, just because your Ultimate is ready, it doesn’t mean an automatic hit. Therein lies part of the game’s frustrations: the controls. Related: Hitman 3 Review - Slick, Stylish, Smooth I never expect a mech game to have the tightest of controls. They are giant mechanical robots, after all. However, I feel like Override 2: Super Mech League just isn’t sure what kind of game it’s trying to be. I’d love to say that this game feels like a legitimate, heavy-geared robot fighting game, but it just doesn’t. There are times when controlling your robot feels great - like you’re behind the wheel, levers, or whatever it is that you use to control a giant mech. Then, there are times when the hand-to-hand combat - which rewards combo attacks - is fun and exciting. But there’s never a good mix of the two mechanics. Often, this results in you attempting to make some sort of offensive attack, but the wonkiness of the robot’s controls causing your robot to veer off in the wrong direction. As such, there is a lot of button-mashing that takes place, which really doesn’t work well from a strategy standpoint. via Modus Battles also include weapons that randomly drop around the arena, such as laser blasters and giant melee weapons. Weapons are limited-use items that eventually disappear. That said, some of the melee weapons well outstay their welcome. I have won multiple matches from trapping my opponent in a loop of being hit with my melee weapon, with them being unable to escape. For some reason, the weapon’s limited usage is greatly extended, allowing me to take full advantage. It’s an incredibly cheap way to win, and an even worse way to lose (speaking from experience). Not a great mechanic for any fighting game to have. This extends into the game’s online multiplayer component, which features the same game modes that are available offline. Online matches can be fun and more challenging than single-player mode, but actually connecting to an online match can take a very long time, that is if you’re even able to connect. There just aren’t enough players playing the game, leaving much to be desired in terms of replayability. https://youtu.be/cIWzzAzmUxU The main selling point of Override 2: Super Mech League is its playable robots. If you’re a fan of kaiju or large-scale mech battles, you’ll likely enjoy this game. This is especially true with the game’s DLC character of Ultraman. Override 2 offers plenty of fun characters to play as in the base game, but Ultraman shines as one of the most enjoyable characters to play as. It’s a shame that Ultraman is locked behind a paywall (in the form of coming with the Deluxe Edition of the game), as he should really be a major selling point for the game. Ultimately, your Override 2: Super Mech League experience will boil down to one simple factor: if you’re playing the game for its take on giant mecha/kaiju arena combat, you’re probably going to enjoy Override 2. Unfortunately, with its control woes and small online player base, Override 2: Super Mech League just doesn’t really have anything else to offer for fans of the fighting genre in general.

I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, despite its many flaws. The vehicle gameplay feels great, and it’s the main pull for me – I didn’t mind that the side quests were pointless and the open world samey, because I had an incredibly powerful tank that could blow up small groups of enemies in two seconds. But if you’re hoping that this game will be the best adaptation of Toriyama’s manga series, you’re out of luck. I’d just watch the anime instead.

In attempting to emulate the cinematic aesthetic of many narrative-driven triple-A games, Deliver Us Mars lost a lot of what made Deliver Us The Moon work. Instead of a charming indie, we’re left with a disappointing wannabe. There’s an interesting story in here that’s able to shine through the dust occasionally, alongside some gorgeous vistas and wonderful sci-fi imagery, but if we get a third entry in the series, I hope it returns to its roots instead of trying to be something it’s not. Bigger isn’t always better.

If you're feeling the need to have your concept of reality stretched a bit, then spending some time in this world should stimulate the same parts of your brain as a designer drug. But in the end, Wattam feels like a bunch of toys playing themselves rather than a cohesive game.

Tails: The Backbone Preludes is a beautiful game with an intriguing plot and some absolutely fantastic puzzle mechanics, but it does itself the disservice of playing second fiddle to its predecessor. It’s too brief and leaves too much unsaid to feel like a game in its own right. It’s as though it aimed too low and decided to settle for being a teaser or demo that’s made to tempt players to jump into the full story of Backbone, rather than take on a role of a fully-fledged game in its own right.

The gameplay is nothing special, and it isn't particularly trying to be. It exists as a framework to tell a story, and plenty of games have excelled with that mindset. But all it has to say is that pollution is bad and it's all your fault. It doesn't inspire change, it doesn't shock, it doesn't even highlight the plight of the animals we share this world with, becoming too wrapped up in casual visual metaphor than with showcasing the harsh reality of what we have done to this world. The bees are dying, but so is my patience.

I don't hate The Falconeer. I don't even think it's a particularly terrible game. There are great ideas here, and in the aesthetic department, it's a resounding success. However, it just needs more. It needs more polish, more reason to keep playing, and more reliable controls to navigate its interesting setting in. I would love to revisit this world at some point, and I hope that the dev can find a way to keep me more engaged next time.

They say form is temporary, class is permanent. And there is a baseline class to Top Spin, a great-feeling tennis game underneath any of the other complaints. But it's in very poor form, making unforced errors, double-faulting, and missing volleys. It's hard to recommend Top Spin 2K25 when there are so many simple features missing and a sour-tasting battle pass, but it's hard not to recommend Top Spin 2K25 when it's the best rally to rally tennis game I've ever played.

A Plague Tale: Requiem is relentless in its depiction of misery. It imparts the troubling message that no matter how hard we try, we can’t change the future, and trying to do so only invites more pain and suffering than willingly submitting to our eventual demise. A series about two children losing their innocence and being corrupted by the evils of the world is one I welcome, but not when it teaches us to give up instead of fighting for a future all our own. The world may seem hopeless right now, but if we give in to the despair we’re choosing doom, and I’d rather go down slinging.

It's not at all that Henry Halfhead is bad. It's good enough fun for the two hour runtime it offers. But it feels like the sort of game you'd play for 15 minutes, say 'wow, this will never get old!' and then 45 minutes later you're kind of thinking maybe you were wrong. If it committed more to being silly than to reminding you how fun silliness is by taking it away, then it would get old a lot slower, and would likely sustain itself for said two hours. Unfortunately, like Henry himself, it gets old a bit too fast to leave much of an impression.

Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is a good enough first step if the end goal is to revitalize and reintroduce the Bakugan franchise to a new generation. Would the exact same game still work if the Bakugan name weren’t attached to it? I’d lean towards no. There are a lot of great ideas in Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, but ultimately, none of them really hit the mark - at least in terms of what I was expecting from my first-look at the game.

Cradle Games at least tried to make something that was somewhat original in its tone and presentation, which is commendable. It doesn't do anything truly awful, and there are some unique features that aren't present in a lot of these titles. Plus, this has now made me desperately want a split-screen co-op Dark Souls game. Beyond that, Hellpoint is simply another Soulslike that might be an alright diversion if you can't wait for Elden Ring to finally materialize but is otherwise forgettable.

It's creative, but it's also a bit of a mess. Lego 2K Drive mixes Forza Horizon and Mario Kart together, but it's not as good as either of them, and doesn't bring much new to the table either. There are building blocks here for Lego to use for future IP-less games, but this doesn't quite put them all together in a way that will interest anyone who isn’t still in primary school.

This is a competent survival game, adding nothing to a formula long since perfected by games like Subnautica, games that it falls far short of. It relies on the pull of Tolkien to keep players pushing through, otherwise it would be all too easy to give up on your mission and do something else, anything but mining. There are moments of magic, like when your team of dwarves begin to sing, deep harmonies echoing off the cavernous walls. But these moments are too few and far between, and the lore can only take you so far. As a space to hang out with fantasy-minded friends, Return to Moria is a nice jaunt. I just wish there was something more to do than swing this damn pickaxe at another damn wall.

It's not especially original, and at this point seeing any piece of media where someone quits their job, magically overcomes all their debt, and runs off to write poetry in the woods is something worthy of eye rolls and tongue clicks. It doesn't help that the game controls like a hapless man in his late twenties who can barely muster the energy to move his spinely legs.

It's a shame that The Callisto Protocol is so uninteresting at its core. Though it looks gorgeous on the surface, a dozen hours of nothing special can have a clarifying effect. Like a monstrous two-headed enemy banging Jacob's head into the ground until it collapses, the game's tedium forces you to reckon with the fact that there just isn't much once the facade splatters away.

You’ll probably get something out of Spy x Anya if you’re a massive fan of the show, but even if you're fairly enthusiastic about it like myself, you’ll find it lacking. It’s extremely faithful to the show in both humor and aesthetic, but it requires a prohibitively high tolerance for repetitiveness. There’s fun to be had, but it’s locked behind hours of taking photos, lackluster conversations, and repetitive busywork. It’s nowhere near the quality of a must-play title for a Spy x Family fan, and you can probably get as much satisfaction from rewatching the show.

Someday You’ll Return feels like an amalgamation of every loosely-defined action/adventure horror title on Steam. The developers may well have tried to put their own spin on things—the game’s authentically marked, genuinely gorgeous hiking trails and thrilling, psychological, at times gory, grotesque later sections do stand out—but it’s hard to recommend this over any of the dozens of similar titles available on any other platform. Plus, with an asking price of thirty dollars, it’s best to steer clear of this one for now.

Tasomachi: Behind The Twilight doesn't have anything that would make it worth playing over any of the much better 3D platformers available right now. Hopefully, the developer releases the soundtrack online so I can listen to these tunes without having to perform any more menial tasks for fog-ridden feline folk.

Thanks to uneven difficulty, grating writing, and a general lack of polish in every other area, its appeal is only skin-deep, and quickly outstayed its welcome.

The most unique thing that Clive ‘N’ Wrench has going for it is its focus on speed and its wider pool of moves, which doesn’t feel like a defining feature. How much that bothers you is going to depend on what you go into Clive ‘N’ Wrench expecting. If you’re hoping that it’s going to revolutionise or build upon the collect-a-thon platforming genre, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re just looking for a simple, nostalgic adventure that calls back to the platforming days of old, then you’ll Clive ‘N’ Wrench might be worth grabbing a backpack for, but its dated design makes it a tough recommendation for anyone other than the genre diehards.

Pine feels like an early proof of concept that misses the mark in all the key components that should otherwise keep players engaged.

I didn’t hate Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaague, but that’s only because it’s hard to feel anything too strongly about a game like this. This might be the most rinse and repeat a game of this stature has ever rinsed and repeated, and the fact it delivers good interpretations (though not Arkham accurate) of established characters is its only saving grace. With each new bundle of content likely to be low on narrative and chock full of the same missions (probably with a new name that play exactly the same way), it feels like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is only going to get worse from here.

As it stands, this one is strictly for the diehards and those with a tolerance for rather repetitive side content.

Not enough time is spent with characters to sympathise with their plight, while the narrative itself discordantly jumps between several themes without committing to a singular vision. It’s not helped by a middling combat system and exploration that is too simplistic and predictable for its own good. As a queer woman, I’m delighted that games like this exist, but I can’t bring myself to ignore the fatal flaws that hold this passionate effort back from greatness.

Radiant Tale - Fanfare! handles its romance well, but the game leaves me wanting more engagement. I enjoy visual novels, but I hoped for some sort of mini-game or higher narrative stakes. The lack of real friends for Tifalia rings hollow as well, making it difficult to latch onto anyone. Radiant Tale - Fanfare! is a colorful adventure, but one that falls short of delivering a memorable experience.

Super Chicken Catchers is a fun break from the monotony that often is regular sports games. It's not something many will sit and play for hours, but is a terrific title to play with friends. The lack of players to match with online right now is frustrating, but not a deal-breaker. If enough people give the game a try and have fun doing so, hopefully, that issue will fix itself as time passes.

Sometimes, you just want to kick back and relax on a SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, with a game that doesn’t require much thought. If that is the aim of Monster Jam Steel Titans - now available for the Nintendo Switch - then mission accomplished. However, regardless of whether or not that is, in fact, the game’s goal, it’s still probably not worth your time, unless you’re insanely passionate about monster trucks. No Need For Earplugs Monster Jam Steel Titans puts players in the driver’s seat of a monster truck, competing in races and various stunt challenges taking place in arenas and outdoor tracks. There are a handful of other modes available, such as Freestyle, Rhythm, Two-Wheel Skills, and Destruction, as well as a local split-screen mode. Unfortunately, online multiplayer is not an option, which seems like a major missed opportunity for what is, essentially, a racing game. Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start now Related: House Of Golf Review: Putting For Par Generally, in other off-road racers, I enjoy the races that feature courses with rhythm sections. There’s something incredibly satisfying about having the perfect amount of speed and elevation to smoothly run through the peaks and valleys of the rhythm section. Monster Jam Steel Titans never really had that though, even in the Rhythm game mode. I was never able to effectively glide through the sections. Instead, I found myself bouncing off the tops of the ramp plateaus. Maybe it was due to user error, or maybe that’s just how it’s supposed to be in monster truck races. I am certainly no expert, but I was disappointed. Monster Jam Steel Titans has a lot of unlockables, which speaks to the game's replayability. Trucks can also be customized using the points earned from races and challenges. That said, at least in terms of races, it never really felt like any of the customizations or upgrades provided much of an impact against the other trucks. As long as I was able to stay on course and limit my mistakes, it was relatively easy to come out on top. Attitude For Altitude There’s nothing incredibly special about the visuals in Monster Jam Steel Titans. Really, the game looks and plays like a PlayStation 2 title similar to other racing games of the time, such ATV Offroad Fury. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (I personally loved ATV Offroad Fury). Unfortunately, the physics of Monster Jam Steel Titans feel a little exaggerated. Trucks don’t need much speed to be sent flying high into the air after hitting a ramp. My enjoyment of Monster Jam Steel Titans primarily came from the untimed freeride sessions in which I just laid on the gas and let the ramps and gravity do the rest. It was surprisingly easy to zone out and lose track of time doing this, made even easier by the portability of the Nintendo Switch. Ultimately, Monster Jam Steel Titans is definitely a game for monster truck fans. Most other players may just want to steer clear.

If I were to use a single word to describe Strobophagia, it would be “confusing.” With good music and puzzle mechanics, there’s a solid foundation for what the game is trying to be. It just feels too disconnected to stand on its own as a single cohesive unit.

Atomic Heart is the result of 15 years of thoughtful world-building and storytelling, but fails to live up to any of it. Individual parts work well, and would fair far better if the padding was stripped away, but those who enjoy combat for its own sake will be happy with the amount on offer. I’ve never encountered a world that was simultaneously so intriguing and so off-putting. Every system implemented to pad out the playtime is the antithesis of fun, yet I’m still drawn to the more bespoke parts of Facility 3826. Atomic Heart is three times too big and beats erratically, but its more confident components prevent it from flatlining.

Godfall is the quintessential launch game. This gilded PS5 exclusive shows off the power of the new hardware with its intricate, reflective halls of gold and obsidian, bioluminescent plant life, and enemies who explode in a shower of particles. “Next-gen is here,” it shouts, in a scream that’s barely perceptible over the whistle of high-speed steel. Underneath all of that sheen and noise, though, there’s nothing new at all.

I imagine there are some big fans of the Blacksad stories that will get more out of this game than I did. But for everyone else, it'll only remind you how sad it is that we'll never get a sequel to Telltale's The Wolf Among Us.

It's worth diving into for visuals alone. The chibi art style is adorable and certainly elevated the visuals beyond the typical cheery Unreal Engine 4 vibe to something much more, and the variety of costumes, while the amount makes it a huge game of hit-or-miss, brings a new level of diversity to the character themselves.

At the end of the day, taking inspiration from other well-known games is not enough for Atlas Fallen to stand on its own feet, and while the game is aesthetically pleasing and the combat has enormous potential, the experience as a whole is immediately forgettable as soon as you close it.

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a game of two halves. You have the village management where you’re decorating empty spaces and making numbers go up - this is the half that’s generic and shallow. The other half is a more-than-decent action-adventure populated with a pretty great cast. The gameplay cycle keeps you flipping between these two halves often enough to keep you interested and distracted, but when you look at Azuma with a few steps taken back, it’s not the prettiest sight.

The goal of Cover Your Eyes was to be a "16-bit love letter towards survival horror past and present," and I think it made a dang valiant effort to do so. I was quite happy to turn a blind eye (so to speak) to small-scale bugs which will hopefully be squashed before its official release. However, lacking character portrayals and other more fundamental sources of frustration will likely still hold the game back from reaching its full potential.

With some godly patchwork, Gods Will Fall could reach new heights. As it stands, though, it falls long before its eponymous gods ever truly have a chance to.

Black Legend feels and looks like it could be at least ten years older than it is. The environments are all nearly identical, almost every attack has the same animation no matter how it’s actually described in the tooltip, the only tutorial is a 15-page menu you read at the start, and there’s an entire adrenaline system that I’m pretty sure is never explained anywhere. To say the game is unpolished would be generous, but I can’t lie, I really liked it. It apes Bloodborne’s atmosphere all the way down to NPCs you can talk to by knocking on doors that have a light on, and I have to admit I’m a total sucker for it. I loved coming up with ways to build a well-rounded party, even if it felt like I could probably breeze through combat without trying nearly as hard as I did. I’m the same guy that put 40 hours into Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics and loved every second of it, and I know I’m not the only one. If you’ve got the same passion for old-school tactics games, and I mean that in every sense of the word, Black Legend is just as infectious as the classics. It’s not for everyone, but the things it does well, it does really well.

The Everwar between Lucium and Rasharn reminds me of what it feels like to play Immortals of Aveum, a game that feels perpetually at war with itself. Its jokey tone is at odds with its high stakes and the world it wants you to care about. Its movement-focused arena design is at odds with the precision it would require to make it start to sing. Its magical flavor is at odds with how bland its combat is. Its name may suggest something that will last forever, but I doubt I'll remember much about it by the end of next week.

While I got some enjoyment out of the combat, it doesn't offer enough variation and isn't as polished as other titans of the roguelike genre like Dead Cells or Hades. Running through the dungeons began to feel like genuine work, which is suitable considering the subject matter but not what I want from a game.

If you enjoyed the first Red Solstice game, then perhaps this will be a satisfying sequel that continues the saga. But unless you got a bunch of buddies who are all itching to furiously click mutated aliens to death, you'll probably have a better time loading up another game of XCOM than trying to survive in the Martian wasteland of Red Solstice 2.

Now that most gamers have plenty of time on our hands, they could do a lot worse than snagging Ego Protocol: Remastered on the Switch for its $4.99 price tag. It’s a great price considering the amount of levels available, so long as you are willing to experience a glorified mobile game on the Switch.

Kao the Kangaroo’s core mechanics are solid and some of the things it adds to the series, like the elemental gloves, help keep things interesting, but it’s nothing that the genre hasn’t seen before, and some of those changes end up actively taking away from the experience. There’s good to be found here, but it’s weighed down by so much jank and a lack of innovation that it doesn’t feel like the welcome back that Kao deserves.

With a tighter script and more polish, this could've been a fantastic game that paralleled the trauma of child loss to the evil enterprise of colonial expansion. Instead, it's one that insincerely mines trauma from a colonizer's perspective... then asks you to do a half-hearted physics puzzle.

Ignition is a lot of fun in short bursts, which is great. The problem is that doesn't tend to be what people look for in a game that is supposed to accurately represent a real sport. While it might not be all that healthy to sit in front of a screen for hours on end, isn't that what tends to happen when you play a really good sports game? Doing so well on FIFA that you can't help but start up another match as soon as the last one has finished. Riding the high of a pole position in F1 and having no other choice but to start the next race weekend. The problem with Ignition is the next race weekend is the same as the last. After three or four you'll probably need a break. If you're looking for a fun and simple racing that doesn't require a deeper knowledge of the sport or its cars' inner workings then Ignition is perfect. If you're looking for a sports game that is going to occupy the bulk of your gaming time for the next 12 months, then probably not so much.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is, at best, a serviceable Souls-like. If you enjoy Nioh and Sekiro, it’s a fun bit of filler, but it’s derivative and bloated, serving as a highlight reel of previous Souls-likes while missing the point of what made its inspirations, and even predecessors, unique to begin with.

Lost Soul Aside is not good, but it does serve as a vehicle for exciting, fast-paced boss fights and an entertaining, in-depth combat system. If you can stomach some truly abysmal writing, unlikable characters, and a painfully generic sci-fi/fantasy setting, then you could get something out of it, but for the most part, Lost Soul Aside is nowhere near the savior of the hack ‘n’ slash genre that I was really hoping it would be.

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about Dragon Quest Treasures. It’s a perfectly serviceable game that accomplishes what it sets out to do in creating a laidback gameplay loop of treasure hunting and monster collecting, but it’s also a shallow experience that feels like too big a departure from the Dragon Quest formula. It’s missing too many things that make these games so compelling - the severe lack of monster variety being the biggest disappointment. While Treasures has high points, the low points outweigh them and leave the game a middling experience.

Picklock isn’t a bad game, and - despite some localization woes - is actually packed with some great ideas. They just don’t quite make the connection for me, at least not on Nintendo Switch.

It's fun, but it never feels like something special. At $5, it's priced right for what it is, but it's hard not to think that the developers could have found a way to make a game that feels more cohesive and consequential - or at very least, found a way to do more than mash different types of classic gameplay together and call it a day.

Tron: Catalyst’s fatal flaw is that it plays everything overly safe, and never rises too far above ‘fine’. It’s terrified of you getting lost in an excellent world that could have been ripe for exploring, and its systems aren’t developed enough to make combat or looping ever feel engaging. It never quite shakes off the feeling of being a budget Hades; it’s, at the very least, a fine way to kill a few hours, even if you forget about it immediately after.

Like a good book that you simply can’t put down, Storyteller will charm you with its whimsical and inventive gameplay, so much so you’ll finish it in one sitting. But therein also lies its biggest flaw. While Storyteller has a superb foundation and core idea, the puzzle mechanics aren’t challenging, and the gameplay is too short and lacks variety, so you’ll breeze through it in no time at all.

From the gorgeously animated visuals to the expansive open world filled with mystery, there really is a lot to love about Windbound. Although bogged down by some rather technical gaffes, there’s a satisfaction that comes from exploring each area, scavenging for resources, and building an awesome sailboat to take you between islands. A little tightening up would take Windbound into the realm of open-world survival games that it’s trying to be a part of, but as it stands, it’s doing its best to stay afloat.

Heaven’s Vault is a game that was made with love and passion, that much is clear. This is a fascinatingly unique concept for a game, and the Ancient text must have taken a team months upon months of planning and work to put in place, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a fun or engaging experience when stretched out into hours of vague and unsatisfying puzzling.

It’s a nine-year-old formula running on six-year-old hardware, and neither of them can elevate the other. One of them must change, and Giants is probably the one who needs to blink first if it hopes to pull off another portable Farming Simulator in 2025.

If you're simply looking for some quick jump-scares, then Those Who Remain is an adequate choice, but there are likely dozens of games on Steam or Itch.io that are better and less expensive than this.

Ultimately, Gundam Evolution fulfills the promise of letting you impersonate one of the many Mobile Suits that have been showcased across the decades, and fans of the beloved series will have the time of their lives, at least for a bit. But in doing so, it just presents another attempt to emulate the Overwatch formula that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Dragon Quest of the Stars is just another Square Enix gacha game that pimps out one of its beloved properties in the name of money. It follows the bare minimum of what is required to be a video game and nothing more. It's designed to keep the player interested for brief instances of time during a commute or during a quieter moment at school/work and it does fill that role, but it's a poor entry in one of the best video game franchises of all time.

There’s a tendency to recommend bad games to the most devoted fans, but I think fans of Drizzt and Co. will hate this game even more than the uninitiated. The saving grace is that Dark Alliance is included with Game Pass, so it won’t cost you anything to check back in from time to time and see how it’s doing. There is an enjoyable game buried here, I just wouldn’t expect to see it anytime soon.

A realistic take on the Nidhogg formula does sound intriguing. However, after spending some time with Griefhelm, I would much rather go back to the outlandishly gross-out world of Nidhogg 2 than hang around this bland, grim-dark setting.

Monster Menu is a competent game at best. It emulates the Rogue experience decently and does something very interesting with its food-based mechanics, but it doesn’t stretch far. There’s enjoyment to be had in the high-difficulty and grindy aspects- if that’s your thing, but you won’t find much depth or complexity here. More McDonalds than Michelin, you’ll wish that you’d opted for something more flavourful.

For older fans wanting a hit of nostalgia, plenty of these games don’t hold up to revisits almost 25 years later. With none of the usual gubbins we’ve come to expect from retro anthologies, all you’re getting out of Early Days Collection is having your rose-tinted glasses stamped on. Lacking in games, lacking in upgrades, and lacking in content, this feels more like a slightly heftier update for Nintendo Switch Online than a full ode to Yu-Gi-Oh!’s golden era.

There’s no doubt that this is an incredibly fun way to play Capcom arcade classics - better than throwing all of your loose change at a game you’ll never actually finish, at least - but the selection available here hasn’t left me feeling inspired. The games in this collection feel like the last options, the games that could never be sold individually. Cult classics like Darkstalkers and every other version of Street Fighter are entirely missing - instead we have a bunch of Capcom arcade games that, for the most part, weren’t deserving of sequels, or any other recognition this far removed from their release. It sounds harsh, but these are the rejects, propped up by Street Fighter 2 and Ghosts ‘N Goblins. There’s fun to be had here, but without nostalgia you probably won’t find much to love.

There’s no point to anything in Tron: Identity. It took a magnificent sci-fi world and gave us an hour of closed-off, inconsequential guff to fill the space. Its additions to the Tron mythos are interesting but underused, the characters are flat functions for a deceptively shallow adventure, and you’ll be walking away from the Repository with the vague feeling that you’d just wasted your time.

While My Hero One's Justice 2 definitely "went beyond" the foundation My Hero One's Justice laid down two years ago, the developers certainly still have a ways to go before they figure out a video game formula that can be classified as "plus ultra!"

Balloon Flight has struck on a rare thing - a good idea - but failed to execute it. At the end of the day, even if you can get past the steep learning curve of the controls and the physics, there simply isn’t enough content to give you a reason to continue. Only the most stubborn gamers would read the challenge ‘See how far you can get!’ and devote any length of time to this game; besides, they’re all kept busy learning rhythm games or speedrunning something. More likely, players will spend six-odd dollars on this game, fall to their death as cheerful music serenades them, and never return again.

Even for the niche audience that this game is aimed at, I imagine this will be too unintuitive and exhausting. With a better user interface and some quality of life improvements, I could see how this game could be enjoyable for everyone and not just history buffs. As it is right now, Port Royale 4 is great for those who love crunching numbers, but probably won't be much for those who want to play a video game.

I want to like Steelrising, I really do, but it just won’t let me. Every aspect of the game feels like a barrier to the one thing I enjoyed: combat. Even that got boring. The characters are bland, the story is dull, the setting is derivative, and the finished product is too buggy and bloated to truly enjoy. It needed a few more turns of the key to go the distance and keep on ticking smoothly.

Crime Boss is a game at war with itself. All three modes offer something, but none of them does their specific thing that well. Meanwhile, the characters and writing that surround these missions feel painfully stuck in 2011. And customisation is either limited or random in a way that makes it feel like you never quite have control of your loadout.

It doesn’t provide anything new, or even the basics of what people want from an ambitious pirate adventure, being overshadowed by Ubisoft’s own game 11 years older. Even with the solid naval combat mechanics we’ve seen in multiple games over the last decade, it’s just not enough to carry the promise of a pirate’s life on its own.

Despite having the most absurd premise a game could have, Orangeblood is utterly forgettable.

Much of my experience was salvaged by the beautiful visuals, heavily reminiscent of Night in the Woods, and the very endearing cast of characters that Finley gets to know duringver his time at Porcupine. I loved walking to work every day, chatting with the owner of the local pub, checking in with the woman who fished by the sewer, and dropping by the flower shop to see how my friend, the florist, was doing. I enjoyed bumping into patients on the street and seeing how much they’d improved. Every character had a distinct personality and felt alive, and helping them out in between shifts coloured the world in and made the experience fun, instead of just tolerable. But there’s only so much that can do to buoy a game so bogged down with inconsistencies and bugs.

If you love Crash Bandicoot and you've been waiting years for what once was Wumpa League, there's probably just enough there to convince you that this is a good game. But it's not. It's a bad game. They shouldn't have made Crash Bandicoot into this thing, and deep down all of us know it.

Rusty Rabbit is a serviceable Metroidvania at best, which just isn’t enough to warrant a recommendation. If you love rabbits, or Takaya Kuroda, then you might get a few laughs out of this game, but chances are you won’t actually enjoy playing it that much. It’s a shame: a great concept, some half-decent writing in places, let down by shoddy controls and gameplay.

Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory demands you be happy and obedient, but you're more likely to be bored and upset that you didn't play something else.

Exoprimal is a prehistoric relic of its own making, and a harsh but necessary lesson for a developer who has been sitting atop the pile for far too long. Future seasons could salvage the flashes of excellence on display here, but I doubt players will stick around long enough for that to become a reality. And to think we could have had a new Dino Crisis instead.

Nom Nom Apocalypse is an unfulfilling snack of a game that offers very little to sink your teeth into.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? - Infinite Combate asks a question that the protagonist deems to be of the utmost importance. But when it comes to the actual question of whether or not to buy this game, you're better off leaving the dungeons, the story, and (of course) the girls alone.

what is currently available feels like a prototype for something better. If the campaign were just longer, tighter, more refined, then Hellbound would be an easy recommendation. Saibot created something that feels solid in the hands but doesn't quite stick the landing. You can only play the campaign so many times before you've seen it all and Hellbound simply doesn't deliver much else.

Unfortunately, while Skellboy has its enjoyable moments, there is simply too much going against it to make the game worthwhile. If the game were more focused in its design, either towards exploration or linear gameplay, and if the system of taking the power of opponents were more thoroughly developed, and if the technical issues were non-existent, then Skellboy would be great. As it stands, it’s simply alright, lacking in areas that cannot be tolerated in today’s market with so many high-quality titles available.

Shadows of Rose is a shorter, worse version of Resident Evil Village. It’s so committed to recreating a micro-version of Village and following it beat-for-beat that it even copies its major flaws. It concludes in the same location with the same info-dump of lore that quickly wraps up all the loose threads. It ends with the same boss fight (somehow even clunkier and more frustrating this time), and unbelievably, also ends with the exact same cutscene. The scene where Rose visits her father’s grave at the end of Village isn’t the start of Shadows of Rose - it’s the end of it. There’s no new context that makes this scene more meaningful, and in fact, that weird line where the driver calls her Eveline is an even more bizarre thing to say after these events. Capcom is quickly running out of Resident Evil games to remake, and this expansion didn’t give me a lot of hope for the future.

For people looking for a ridiculous game to play with friends for an hour or earn Youtube views with, this may suffice. But even by that small metric, Totally Reliable Delivery Service feels like a completely inadequate video game.