Curious Expedition 2 has a really great ‘choose your own adventure’ vibe to it. Although not a fan or the combat in the game, it intrigued me enough to keep playing for many hours and I can see myself going back to play more of it in the near future.

A very different card game than I was used to or expecting, if you were a fan of Slay The Spire, you’ll most likely quite enjoy Roguebook for its polished and unique take of the genre. I don’t really have much negative to say at all once you’ve figured out its intricacies and built some solid strategic foundations. Generally when I’m done a review I delete and move onto the next, but I’ve kept Roguebook installed and keep going back to it for a few more runs now and then, which speaks volumes for its addictiveness.

Elden Ring rewards your curiosity in many ways, be it items, runes or a pathway to another area, but mostly it’s a story to tell your friends when you are sharing tales around the bonfire. It does not force feed tutorials down your throat, but instead it leans far the opposite way by not telling you much at all and lets you explore and find things out on your own. There is no true quest log, no points of interest on a map or no arrows pointing you in the right direction, so there is a good chance you’ll miss some of the best caves and areas of the game. Because of all of this, Elden Ring is forcing me to find all of that out on my own and it is one of the most rewarding games I have ever played. I will continue to explore the Land Between for many hours to come. I’m just not in a hurry.

Despite being a very minimalistic game visually, I found The Last Cube to feel full and dynamic. Using various colours for each level, corresponding to the sticker colour you are learning to use, helped fuel the feeling of progression as well. I love puzzle games and have played so many as to think I’d seen every mechanic possible until I met The Last Cube. I didn’t anticipate enjoying it as much as I did. It was well paced, had good layers of complexity and a sense of accomplishment tied to it. It was colourful and although didn’t really have much of a story, I developed a sort of attachment to my little cube, wandering through the universe alone. Since completing the main campaign I’ve thought about the little baby lore cubes I’ve left behind in levels and I can see myself going back to collect them to unlock further bonus levels as well.

It’s clear that Will You Snail was a passion project and it shows with the final product full of creativity and hilarity. It might seem a little steep at its regular $15 price point initially, there’s a ton of replayability and extra collectables to find to challenge even the best platformer fans. If you simply want to see the credits roll you can easily make that happen in a few hours, but trying to beat the game on Easy will add a much larger time commitment. Yes it’s hard, yes you’re a snail trying to outsmart a hilarious AI and yes I died a few hundred times, but I enjoyed it throughout. The only question left is, Will You Snail?

Rugby 22 is a slight improvement from Rugby 20 and is clearly the best choice for a simulation of the sport that’s recent, but it won’t compare to the FIFA’s, NHL or NBA games in any way for realism, though I doubt developers Eko Software had anywhere near the same budget to be fair. With some friends to play against, Rugby 22 could have some shelf life, but for others, the serious lack of licensing makes it feel stuck in a ruck.

I can’t say enough good things about Submerged: Hidden Depths. For me, I’m going to stay in the hidden depths and keep exploring and you’re more than welcome to join me. I’ll be sailing the open sea and your journey has yet to start. You hopping aboard?

I’d wager that there may not be a cuter bird than the kiwi, and while I may be a little bias because my wife is from New Zealand and I love the country, KeyWe is an adorable co-op game that was a fun experience throughout, never really frustrating due to the game design. Find a partner to play with and you’ll have a great time laughing or swearing at one another depending on your communication skills. Being a delightful co-op game, I’d butt slam the recommended button if I was a small kiwi bird.

If I’m being honest, I was completely expecting another run of the mill 2D platformer before playing. Even within its opening moments, I found myself smiling from its humorous dialogue and I loved every moment I got to see the kid and Everett chat and interact. By the time the credits rolled, I was fully invested with its characters and wish there was more story to unfold. Lasting just the right length, I came away more than impressed with a completely satisfying platform puzzler full of laughs that also had a worthwhile narrative.

Over the years I have been such a fan of the WWE and everything they have brought to their fans, I have played many versions of their videogames, and up to this point I have enjoyed, but not really loved, to continue going back to the older games as I get discouraged by the more previous iterations. But all hail the WWE 2K22, because I do believe that this is the best version we have ever seen so far. I hope that 2K continue on this path of improvement and continue to blow my mind further every year with as many improvements as this had. The control system and playability have become more easily understood and better controlled overall, which I found to be a big bonus because I often get discouraged from playing if it doesn't have a well laid out and easy to understand button layout.

With the mainstream race-type choices and cool car selection, I don't think Super Toy Cars Offroad is a total bust, but it's not quite making me fall off my chair with excitement either. Some say Super Toy Cars Offroad is a great and fun little race game with challenges, but I didn't find it overly challenging. Buckle your tiny seatbelt and give it a try, if you don't agree with me that's fine too. See you on the tracks.

I was quite fond of the physics based puzzles that never became frustrating, but became actually invested at trying to save Adam from a lifetime in a wheelchair, attempting to change the past and hoping it wouldn’t make things worse in the new present. Puzzles are fun to complete and the story gives you enough motivation to see it to completion. Time Loader may be short but sweet, but I’m glad to have taken the trip back in time to the 90’s, just like how I remember it.

It’s an above-average experience, and one that is worth checking out if you’re a fan of arcade racers. The driving is fast, frenetic and fun, and there’s quite a bit of content to be found within. It also attempts to build on every aspect of the 2019 reboot, though I admittedly got into and enjoyed that game more.

More a fancy visualizer with some light gameplay elements, Music Racer: Ultimate won’t impress with its basic and bland gameplay without much inspiration behind it besides being a visual smorgasbord overload. Since I spent well over an hour unable to get my own musical libraries working with Music Racer: Ultimate, I was unable to access its most important feature until an alternate fix came later on, one that isn't user friendly by any means. While it’s hard to fault a game when its asking price is quite low and fair, sitting around 7 bucks, it becomes apparent quite quickly that Music Racer: Ultimate is all style and no substance.

With a unique Synergy system and Breeding, Monster Crown differentiates itself from being a simple Pokemon clone. Sure there are a ton of similarities, and while it is a shorter affair, the monster variety was what kept me wanting to play, more so than the narrative itself.

The base of a good game is there but it was ruined by the puzzles that were poorly delivered. I really liked the premise of the game, just not the execution.

If it wasn’t apparent, I really liked Dying Light 2, and I think it has improved on the first game, but now for the things that weren’t great from my experience playing. There were a lot of bugs for me in the game. This is one of the main reasons it took as long as it has to get this review out if I’m being honest. A few game breaking bugs that meant I couldn’t progress the main story. They were fixed with a patch, but the biggest problem for me was a pretty massive issue with audio bugs.

Depending on how quick you catch on to the game, and how many mistakes you make, you can finish the game in about 2 hours. It's a quick jaunt, but A Musical Story was a surprise and a delight for me, a solid and confident debut game from Glee-Cheese studio and I will definitely be grabbing the soundtrack to listen to once it’s available.

Beat Souls adds some interesting twists but ultimately will be forgotten by the time you’ve gotten all of its achievements due to the lack of online play. Sure you could reach for online leaderboards if that’s your thing, but aside from that reason alone, something just felt ‘missing’. I truly love rhythm games and am always excited to try a new one when they release, and Beat Souls was no different, but I doubt I’ll go back to play anytime soon unless showing someone for a very specific reason.

While there’s a steep learning curve to reach high level play and a ton of content, there’s something for KOF beginners and veterans alike. The King of Fighters XV has a massive roster of 39 characters in the core game before any DLC, and with a healthy amount of mechanics to learn and master, it will take some patience, time and dedication to find your ideal trio to prove that you’re the true King of Fighters.

OlliOlli World is the perfect evolution of what is already a fantastic series, and it has plenty to do for both newcomers and veterans. It rides the line between hard and accessible, making it very welcoming to newcomers while still being true to the high difficulty that the series is known for. I really enjoyed my time with it and look forward to replaying the completed levels to go for high scores and completing all of the optional objectives.

While some gamers will find the game tedious or menial or won’t capture their attention, I found it to be the opposite. I couldn’t stop playing it. Like I mentioned early in this review, I loved Prideful Sloths first game, Yonder, and Grow: Song of the Evertree was exactly what I wanted it to be; Familiar, but more refined and unique. For friends I talk to frequently while reviewing games, they’ll tell you I wouldn’t stop talking about this one. It was exactly what I needed, and those two lines I mentioned in the opening of this review hit me in a way I didn’t expect, and I loved it.

Rainbow Six Extraction’s ‘fun’ is almost solely going to be based on if you have a three person squad with some friends and how effective your communication and strategy is. Another reviewer friend that was playing wasn’t enjoying Extraction nearly as much due to playing solo, but once I found two friends and gained out a handful of levels and Operators, it starts to fall into place and the fun begins, even if it does become repetitious later on. As to the longevity, that will depend on if you enjoy Extraction’s very challenging endgame and what content will be released in the future.

I honestly didn’t think I was going to enjoy Infernax as much as I did, as I was unable to put it down once I got the hang of its challenging gameplay. Sure it frustrated at times with numerous deaths, but I learned. It’s obvious when a game is made as a passion project, as it simply has that ‘something special’, and Infernax is one such game. Pucker up buttercup because it’s about to get gory.

In conclusion, Cake Invaders was cute, nostalgic and an achievement hunters dream. Really quick to get the 1000 gamerscore, if that is something you like to do. At the time of writing, Cake Invaders was on sale for just over $6 CAD, and I think it’s a fair price for it. Now off to find some cake.

Overall, I have really enjoyed the overall challenge and experience of playing Vangante. With the ever-changing levels I often have felt frustrated every time I die and have to restart from scratch again, but the bonus is that you earn XP and level up each time, slowly making overall progress. So while you may feel like it's one step forward and two back, there is a great sense of accomplishment as you progress, even if it's quite slow at times. Vagante will be on my recommendation list to anyone who loves a good challenge and enjoys the fact that no two runs are the same.

The animations were great with a fantastic cartoony feel to them. This gives the game a more family friendly feeling in my opinion and can be enjoyed by a variety of ages. Music didn’t stand out as anything special, but it’s a puzzle game and the soundtrack is a simple backdrop to the puzzles. It didn’t stand out as being out of place. MouseCraft’s simple aesthetic, and somewhat generic name hide a really polished and highly enjoyable puzzle game that had a sort of magic hold on me. Maybe the mad scientist cat is smarter and more influential than I originally thought.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a great tactics style game that I couldn’t put down, but Reverie Knights Tactics did just that, having me wanting to play ‘just one more battle’. While not the most unique SRPG out there, it’s a solid experience overall and even leaves itself up for a hopeful sequel down the road even if its ending happens abruptly.