Vandal's Scores

  • Games
For 6,582 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 69% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 24% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 77
Highest review score: 100 Bayonetta 2
Lowest review score: 10 Make it indie!
Score distribution:
6586 game reviews
    • 88 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Animal Well captivates players with its intricate puzzle-solving and exploration, drawing inspiration from titles like Fez and Tunic. Despite repetitive puzzle mechanics, its deep and enchanting world, coupled with its satisfying controls and clever design decisions, make it a magical and engaging experience, appealing to fans of puzzle games and metroidvanias alike.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Political Machine 2024 offers a humorous take on the serious subject of politics, allowing players to choose from caricatured versions of real-life candidates and engage in a strategic race for the presidency. Despite its deep gameplay and accurate portrayal of political trends, the game suffers from a chaotic interface and lacks a dynamic tutorial, making it less accessible for newcomers.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    While MotoGP 24 improves on gameplay and remains a solid choice for motorcycle racing fans, it lacks significant updates compared to MotoGP 23 and shows minimal graphical and audio advancements, leading to a sense of it being more of an incremental update than a substantial upgrade for regular players.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Thousand-Year Door is a beautiful remake of one of the best Mario RPGs. It isn’t particularly ambitious beyond its new graphics and a couple of nice surprises, but if you haven’t played the original or simply fancy rediscovering this GameCube classic, it is a fantastic choice for Switch players.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Hellblade 2 reaches new heights in audiovisual quality while developing Senua’s story. Even if it isn’t revolutionary, it improves on many aspects of its predecessor to deliver a spectacular adventure beautifully paced.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The indie horror game, Jack Holmes: Master of Puppets, adds a personal touch to the Resident Evil formula by incorporating a unique amusement park setting with a mix of traditional exploration and varied mini-games. While its macabre atmosphere and diverse gameplay are strengths, the game suffers from some technical issues and lackluster combat mechanics, but overall delivers an unexpectedly enjoyable and entertaining horror experience.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    In Heading Out, the journey matters more than the destination. It combines narrative adventure, driving arcade, and management elements with a unique art style. While it lacks depth in its driving gameplay compared to other arcade racers, it complements the narrative experience well, offering moral choices and a roguelite-like structure.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Baladins offers a simple yet complex mechanic where players must satisfy the consuming dragon Colobra by completing missions within a six-week time limit, showcasing colorful visuals reminiscent of Paper Mario. While enjoyable for newcomers, it lacks decision variety and suffers occasional technical issues, yet remains a recommended choice for quick narrative entertainment, especially for those fluent in English.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Inspired by classic survival horror games like the early Resident Evil titles, Crow Country offers exploration, puzzles, and optional combat set in a creepy amusement park, with its standout feature being the ability to freely explore the 3D-rendered environments in real-time. Although it relies heavily on notes for storytelling, its well-designed puzzles and authentic gameplay mechanics make it a must-play for fans of classic survival horror.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Slow Bros.' game combines charming claymation and meticulous craftsmanship with a bold, yet potentially divisive gameplay approach that reflects its protagonist's mundane life and emphasizes narrative over action. Despite losing its focus and reducing interactivity over time, its captivating characters and thought-provoking themes create an unforgettable audiovisual experience for some, while others may find it tedious.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The game offers engaging space battles with complex formations and strategic depth, yet suffers from a predictable narrative, unimpressive cinematics, and reactive AI. The campaign missions are varied and enjoyable, but the multiplayer content is lacking, and the game requires performance optimization.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Footgun: Underground offers an interesting blend of football and roguelike elements with enjoyable boss battles, yet its repetitive level design and limited enemy variety hinder its overall potential, making it feel static and predictable quickly.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Little Kitty, Big City offers a delightful, charming adventure with sandbox elements and a cute protagonist, marred only by technical issues and repetitive dialogue, making it an enjoyable and refreshing open-world experience.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This climbing roguelike features procedurally generated levels and creative challenges that leverage physics for a fun and engaging experience, despite its unintuitive controls and occasional frustrating bugs. The whimsical visual style and humorous design add charm, but the game is more suited for solo play rather than cooperative sessions.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    While Sand Land offers an entertaining universe and characters true to Akira Toriyama's original work, the new content falls short. The game features interesting ideas like vehicle customization but suffers from underdeveloped mechanics, monotonous travel, and simple combat, ultimately making the gameplay experience feel disjointed and less engaging than reading the original story.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This game features stunning hand-drawn art and a compelling, unconventional narrative, but suffers from a lack of clear structure that loses player interest. While the unique artistic direction and intriguing story elements stand out, the frustrating gameplay mechanics and poorly paced difficulty spikes hinder the overall experience.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Odd Meter's Indika offers a unique, narrative-driven experience set in 19th-century Russia, focusing on a young nun's mission. Despite its lack of surprising gameplay, the game excels in story, atmosphere, and artistic execution, with impressive graphics and voice acting, though it could benefit from better optimization and more innovative mechanics.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Endless Ocean Luminous offers a relaxing, beautiful underwater exploration experience, ideal for short sessions with no specific goals in mind. Despite its monotonous structure and lack of variety in procedural elements, its online multiplayer mode enhances the gameplay, making it more enjoyable by promoting cooperation.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    While the game offers enjoyable, deep, and varied combat mechanics, the story and character development take a backseat, and the exploration elements are simplistic, affecting the overall immersion. The artistic design and soundtrack are commendable, but the lack of dynamic maps and versatile animations, combined with the absence of a Spanish translation, may detract from the experience for some players.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The excellent PS5 adaptation of Sea of Thieves maintains its charm and extensive content, despite occasional bugs. It’s a great multiplayer adventure with cross-play, enhanced by DualSense features, but it requires long-term dedication and social interaction to fully enjoy.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    The game combines the creativity of its improvisation mechanics and challenging soulslike combat in a humorous underwater world, though it sometimes lacks enemy design refinement. Its accessibility options enhance playability and the artistic design is rich in detail, making the overall experience engaging and unique.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Stellar Blade is a game that ambitiously attempts various elements, but not all of them hit the mark equally. Its shining moments come in the form of exhilarating combat, action-packed levels, and epic boss battles. However, its narrative delivery, open-world segments, and secondary missions falter, leaving some ideas underdeveloped, such as underutilized platforming mechanics and a neglected equipment system. Despite its flaws, it ultimately offers an enjoyable, diverse, and entertaining adventure, especially for those seeking straightforward action. While it falls short of its full potential, Stellar Blade remains a title worth considering for its fun factor alone.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Outward: Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch maintains the depth of the original RPG with survival mechanics, offering freedom to explore and engage in various quests. However, visual sacrifices are noticeable, affecting textures and overall graphical fidelity, making it a less immersive experience compared to other platforms. Despite its flaws, it remains a compelling option for RPG enthusiasts on the Switch.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Turbo Kid blends nostalgia with fresh mechanics in this outstanding metroidvania, offering a post-apocalyptic world filled with engaging challenges and memorable characters. Its synthwave soundtrack and diverse gameplay, including bike riding and intense combat, make it a standout experience. However, its old-school save system may frustrate some players, but overall, Turbo Kid delivers a compelling adventure that captures the essence of the cult film it's based on.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tales of Kenzera: ZAU offers a potent narrative journey through grief and African mythology within a metroidvania framework. While the story and atmosphere shine, the gameplay lacks depth, with simplistic platforming and combat mechanics, ultimately delivering an experience more focused on storytelling than gameplay challenge.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    TopSpin 2K25 delivers top-notch gameplay, featuring fast-paced, thrilling matches and a solid roster of current and classic tennis players. While it excels in gameplay, its lackluster visuals and presentation hold it back. However, with continued support and updates promised by 2K and Hangar 13, there's potential for this to become a yearly or biennial franchise offering a more polished experience.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes successfully pays homage to classic JRPGs with its deep storytelling and engaging combat, reminiscent of Suikoden. While its retro-inspired graphics charm, technical issues and lack of optimization somewhat tarnish the experience, it remains a must-play for fans of the genre.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fun and engaging in cooperative play, Ready, Steady, Ship! offers good ideas and entertaining moments, but its mission design and occasional bugs detract from the overall experience.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Children of the Sun offers a unique "puzzle shooter" experience where players control a character seeking revenge against a cult, using strategic shooting mechanics to clear levels with a single bullet. While it provides an enjoyable and innovative gameplay loop, it suffers from pacing issues and ends abruptly, leaving players wanting more.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Biomorph offers a visually appealing aesthetic with strong character design, but its narrative falls flat and its soundtrack lacks originality. Despite solid gameplay mechanics, including an interesting enemy transformation feature, the game struggles with repetitive level design and contradictory gameplay elements. Biomorph may appeal to hardcore fans of the metroidvania genre, but it fails to fully capitalize on its potential.

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