Trophy knows what it’s trying to be, nothing more, nothing less, and it succeeds in every way. Is it going to be for everyone? No, but for those that enjoy classic 8-bit gaming and enjoy that retro gameplay or wants some nostalgia, Trophy fits the bill. While it may be a Mega Man clone at its core, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.

I have to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect by fusing an RPG and a Golf game together, yet somehow KEMCO not only made it work, but also made it an entertaining experience as well. Sure the premise is completely out there and it doesn’t take itself seriously, but that’s where its charm comes from. While the asking price of $38.99 is quite steep and slightly overpriced in my opinion, there is actually a decent amount of gameplay to be had if you want to experience everything RPGolf Legends has to offer. While not quite a Hole In One, wait Fore a sale and you’ll enjoy this odd genre mashup.

It’s rare that a game finds a way to fully explore the weight is choices and consequences, and even more so to find a debut game to that. Lacuna does a fantastic job in that regard. Coming in at around 4-5 hours for a playthrough, it is well paced, doesn’t have a lot of filler and keeps the story front and centre. Take it from this dame; it doesn’t take a gumshoe to tell you to investigate this narrative driven noir game and not let this prime suspect slip through your fingers.

Even without playing the predecessor of Beyond, I found myself engaged in the story and am interested in going back and finding the first one now. I think that’s a good sign for a game. While I’m not sure if it was worth the 27 year wait for the sequel, as I hadn’t played the first, it’s easy to recommend this game if you are interested in a laid back story driven game with puzzles. I enjoyed the narrative, and even with a few minor graphical bugs, I thought it looked and played great on the Series X.

Tunnel of Doom is hard to recommend for Tower Defense fans, and for Roguelike followers there’s nothing new here to excite you either, so it falls into this kind of ‘meh’ category. Not bad by any means, but nothing excited me either, even when I finally faced and defeated the final boss.

While I do think the asking price is a bit steep, there’s more beneath the surface than I initially expected, well worth the time investment if you’re a fan of the fast-food horror genre, if that’s a thing. Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is best experienced if you go into it completely blind, and while the controls frustrate and never feel great, it’s a genuinely interesting story with an extremely odd and creepy aesthetic.

If you are a regular player of the yearly MXGP titles, you most likely already have your opinions about the series. I did have to give MXGP 2021 a solid couple of weeks to figure out how to control the bike properly, and at least a dozen races before I began to have a good understanding of what I needed to do to win, so if you love a good challengem, MXGP 2021 - The Official Motocross Videogame is a great value for the price. If you get frustrated easily and are less likely to complete the effort needed to begin to win races, then I suggest you keep looking. I have enjoyed the challenge and will continue to work to get better to make that podium finish.

Even with Aspire: Ina’s Tale being a simple and beautiful 2D game, don’t expect the story to be a happy one. It had an overwhelmingly melancholy tone. The ending may not have been the biggest surprise to me, but the journey was well worth it. With no collectibles and a short run time of about 5 hours, there is no need to revisit once completed. This may seem like a bad thing, but it isn’t. The game provides a focused gaming experience that achieves what it sets out to do. Aspire - Ina's Tale told a story, captured the imagination, and left me a variety of mixed emotions. It also seemed to know how to wrap things up before it outstayed its welcome and started to run too long, something a lot of games don’t seem to understand. If you’re a fan of 2D platformers, I recommend checking this one out.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of gameplay. Evil Genius 2: World Domination would be a game for you if you are a player that is willing to invest their time and effort in learning how to play efficiently. There’s a way to be an evil genius and if you’re going to do it, so you had better do it right. It’s a bit of a grind at the start, but I guarantee you, your evil dreams will come true and you’ll become the best and richest Evil Genius the world has ever known.

Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! was fun for the first two chapters, then I realized I had to sit through another four of the same button spamming. Normally I’m all for length in games if it has a purpose and is entertaining, but Slap Them All definitely overstayed its welcome and I made myself finish it simply for review purposes. Asterix & Obelix fans will no doubt enjoy its authentic look and feel, but the steep price tag is unlikely to warrant a purchase from brawler fans.

With a new version in the works and coming out shortly, Rune Factory 4 Special is a great introduction to the series for newcomers and a great trip down memory lane for returning players, complete with a few new things to experience. It may feel dated at times, but it can be quite relaxing to farm one day and dungeon delve the next, all while giving gifts to your love interest.

Chorus is a fantastic space shooter that is woven together by a story that is great on paper but lacks proper execution. Its overall plot is very interesting, but the dialog and cutscenes didn’t do much to pull me in. That being said, Chorus is the most fun I’ve had in a very long time with a space shooter. With a packed holiday season, I found myself doing the impossible; I delayed playing more Halo Infinite and I died on purpose in Chorus to replay some sequences because they were that much fun. The abilities, the weapons, and the lightning-fast combat make it a joy to play. There is a lot to explore in the world, and I am hoping that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Nara and Forsaken.

Before we leave is a pleasant little distraction to while away some time. If you like the idea of city building and management, without the conflict that a lot of this style of game have, it’s worth a look. Just don’t look for a definitive goal line to move towards. Also... Space Whales.

Fans of the series will know exactly what to expect; tons of guns, aliens and terrible one-liners. Like a cult movie with a dedicated following, fans will simply get it while everyone else won’t understand; Serious Sam 4 will most likely fall under this type as well, appealing to longtime fans but new players wondering what the hell is going on. Serious Sam 4 is absolutely outdated in its design and mechanics but can be fun in very short bursts for those times you want to turn off your brain and blast away some aliens.

With a game so heavily invested into its narrative and lore, there’s a mountain of text to get through, great for those that love to read novels, not so much for those that want to simply play and progress the story. Undungeon can become punishingly difficult at times, especially when you aren’t focused and hit a bad streak of deaths in a row, yet there was always something bringing me back, wanting to give Herald one more go to fix the shattered universe, especially once you unlock a new character to play as.

The market for Rubber Bandits is clearly those who love similar games like Gang Beasts or Fall Guys, but it doesn’t really hold up against those. It was fun, I had a few laughs and I liked the premise, but it simply had too many technical issues for me to stick with it for very long.

Lasting an hour or two tops, you’ll get everything you need from it within that amount of time, even the full list of achievements. While you can play again, there’s not really much else left to do once you’ve seen it all and destroyed everything in the city. DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is absolutely bonkers at every chance it gets. The graphics are terrible, controls even worse, yet I wasn’t able to put it down until I got all of the achievements. It has that weird charm to it, like a terrible movie that you love for some reason.

Sadly developers have yet to solve the inaccessibility for newcomers, as the learning curve is a sheer cliff to overcome. Still a niche genre, Farming Simulator 22 is a complex and accurate representation of real world farming, and while virtual farmers will no doubt spend over a thousand hours once again in the latest version, newcomers are still going to be left wondering how others could find the monotonous grind entertaining. Those that know, know, so let the good times grow.

With a song selection limited to 30 included songs, I have to admit that the longevity did wear off after a few days. Sure there were a handful of songs I quite enjoyed, but there’s only so many times I can sing Backstreet Boys - "Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)" before growing tired of it. Again, musical taste is completely subjective and I have a feeling that your purchase decision is going to almost solely be based on what you feel towards the track listing that’s included more than anything else.

For how much I enjoyed my unique and memorable journey with Exo One, aside from achievement hunting, there’s little reason to go back and play through again unless you just want to chill out and have some ambiance. The gameplay mechanics are very intuitive and feel satisfying, captivating in its own special way. Exo One is a very beautiful and unique gaming experience, one that I’m glad to have explored.

While I can’t recommend Jurassic World Evolution 2 based on it being a park management sim, its real draw are the dinosaurs which are undeniably intriguing and captivating. The large variety of them kept me looking for more species to unlock through expeditions and gene splicing. The Chaos Mode was enjoyable as a fan of the Jurassic Park movies with ‘What If’ type scenarios, but Sandbox mode left me wanting more from the game. I would say this was more geared to fans of the Jurassic Park movies as opposed to fans of park management sims, and there are much better ones out there. For fans of the movies and dinosaurs, you’d be hard pressed to find a game more in line with the franchise.

Just like the first Season, it’s clear that a lot of love and care went into making Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space - Remastered the best game it could possibly be without changing what made it so great and memorable in the first place. While I truly enjoyed my trip down memory lane, I hope that these Remasters help find a new audience for the Sam & Max series, as their humor is perfectly on point throughout.

Overall, I think this might be the game that has come the closest to the real-life re-creation of fishing tournaments I have played to date. It certainly has the best tutorial explanation of what to do, easing you into the experience. Aside from the few glitches that I ended up having fun with, like yelling at drunk fish to straighten their lives out, this game is simple to learn and just a little bit more than your next boring fishing game. Don’t get me wrong, I still might nap while playing, but I’ll still have fun!

For such a minimalistic game, Circle Infinity is probably one of the more challenging ones you’ll play, requiring dedication and a whole lot of concentration if you want to make any meaningful progress across its 50 levels. I suspect it will frustrate many, if not most, but finally making to the end of a level feels ever so satisfying after dying repeatedly, provided you have the mettle to stick with it.

Playable on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Streaming and even via Game Pass, there’s virtually no borders to prevent you from playing Halo Infinite and experiencing this evolution of the series. I absolutely enjoyed my time stepping back into Chief’s shoes, and I wasn’t sure how connected or how much I would care about new characters, The Pilot and The Weapon, but by the time the credits rolled, I really quite enjoyed The Weapon, making for a fine replacement for Cortana in her own right. As a Halo campaign, this is easily my favorite since Reach and right up there with the best of the series. Get your favorite weapon and finish the fight, Chief.

Well executed level design and mechanics, an adorable animation style, and interesting mechanics kept me engaged for the entirety of the game. Achievement bugs were my only real complaint about Tandem, and they were addressed by the team is a relatively quick manner. The story was a bit twisted, dark, and left me wanting more, but I think that is also a good thing. I would recommend trying out Tandem if you enjoy puzzle platformers and want to try something a bit different than some of the others out there.

Out of curiosity I went online to see what a physical cartridge copy of Gynoug and Wings of Wor are currently going for. Needless to say I was quite surprised, and the mere $6 CAD to play this digital version is a minor fraction of the cost to get a physical copy. I really enjoy finding old classics that I never got to play growing up, and I hope that the trend continues with weird and unique games like Gynoug.

While I enjoyed my time with Howard, unravelling the case before me, I’ll admit, it won me over early on simply for being based in my home town. Seeing a familiar yet strange version of my city was exciting, and while most won’t have the same connection, that’s what drew me to Backbone initially. While some might question the latter half of the narrative, I’m still glad to have experienced it, and since it’s currently available on Game Pass, you can do so too with little barriers.