Death end re;Quest 2 Review
The original Death end re;Quest was an interesting experience. At its core, it was a horror story about an unfortunate situation and a wide variety of awful outcomes. It was just presented with largely hopeful and mysterious elements to drive the core gameplay loop forward. Things are similar in...
Mortal Shell Review
Arguably the biggest impact the Soulsborne titles have had is developers approaching their game a different way. Instead of sticking to hack and slash experiences or just giving weapons a realistic feel, there has been a desire to actively push measured gameplay. It isn’t enough to have power or...
Othercide Review
Replayability and skill have been something of an important talking point in the gaming community. As a result, the roguelike and rogue-lite genres have really come into their own. Both offering different takes on ever-changing and constantly engaging mechanics, the typically esoteric and...
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Review
There was a lot of hype for Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout before release. A lot of people viewed it as an interesting take on the recent battle royale phenomenon, with others seeing it as a charming indie experience. With the news it would be offered on release with PlayStation Plus, it certainly...
Skully Review
Perhaps the best part of the digital age is how it allows more niche experiences to exist. This makes it a lot easier to justify investing in this experience or potentially funding that one when it doesn’t have to rely on retail sales. Skully falls in a weird place, but benefits greatly from...
Skater XL Review
The skateboarding genre exploded in popularity when the first Tony Hawk video game came out way back in 1999. After that, we received a ton of other Tony Hawk games which were released annually by Activision. As we headed into the new millennium, the Tony Hawk franchise started to die out and...
Fairy Tail Review
Anime and manga-based games have a lot of advantages, but they come with a lot of disadvantages. No matter what developers do, it’s hard to capture the same experience of reading or watching a series. Shorter series handle this far better than longer ones and extremely popular series like Naruto...
Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS. Maxi Boost ON Review
One way to subvert problems typically associated with licensed proprieties is to focus on what fans want. Games like Injustice work really well, simply because people just want to have heroes fight and it works. This is also where things like Mobile Suit Gundam benefits from the countless stories...
Cuphead (PS4) Review
Over the past couple of years, I can’t think of many games that have as interesting of an arc as Cuphead. Initially, it was simply that Xbox One and PC exclusive that had the unique art style, a fact that was enough to get it plenty of attention, ultimately finding success despite being...
Hellpoint Review
Despite being very different games, Monster Hunter and the Soulsborne titles have one thing in common, a lot of people compare titles to them and all fall short. Be it The Surge or Code Vein, a lot of developers want to make their own entry in this genre, yet most fall short for one reason or...
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break Review
I’m always happy to see weird and niche games return because it gives them another opportunity to either find an audience or further refine the concept. More often than not, the core idea is fine, it’s smaller things like execution or not anticipating smaller problems that cause problems. That...
void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium Review
Over the past couple of years, a wide number of games have tried to use gameplay as a way to enhance the narrative. Some did this very well, resulting in some of the most important and critically successful titles to date and others managed to fail in both regards. Void Terrarium attempts to make...
CrossCode Review
One thing I love about smaller games is how much fun they can be. Even if they’ll never reach the heights of The Last of Us Part II or Final Fantasy VII Remake, they take simple concepts and try to make them as much fun as possible. This is CrossCode’s greatest strength. With stunning pixel...
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris Review
Ironically, it’s actually fairly difficult to make a game set in the world of Sword Art Online. On the surface that seems illogical, it’s literally a story set in a virtual world that begins with the protagonist, Kirito, being stuck in a VRMMORPG (virtual reality massively multiplayer online...
Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood Review
Prior to playing Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood I had a conversation with a friend about how out of place the expansion was. Nothing about it really felt like Borderlands, yet it was set to add a new experience at a time when patches were set to change a lot. Now that we’ve played it, does it...
Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 Review
Some games and experiences are timeless, which is why a select handful of games remain timeless even 20+ years after release. Among the most notable are things Namco released, which includes titles like Pac-Man and Dig Dug, which has stood the test of time. Despite releasing several times in the...
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 Review
Some games and experiences are timeless, which is why a select handful of games remain timeless even 20+ years after release. Among the most notable are things Namco released, which includes titles like Pac-Man and Dig Dug, which has stood the test of time. Despite releasing several times in the...
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade Review
As we see more beloved games from the past make their way to current generation consoles, they’re both a testament to how far we’ve come and the power of good gameplay. For many, Darius was the game that got them into bullet hell games, a genre that attempts to overwhelm players in the hope...
Darius Cozmic Collection Console Review
As we see more beloved games from the past make their way to current generation consoles, they’re both a testament to how far we’ve come and the power of good gameplay. For many, Darius was the game that got them into bullet hell games, a genre that attempts to overwhelm players in the hope...
Disintegration Review
As games increase in popularity, it’s harder to come up with a unique or different concept. Often times games that attempt this either fall short or run into rather fundamental problems that stem from either being first or other developers having the forethought to avoid such concepts for the...
Warborn Review
A struggle for any new franchise is finding a way to make it stand out. Sometimes it’s concept, other times story but in almost every case the experience lives and dies off how well this is done. Warborn attempts to make a turn-based strategy RPG out of mechs, an idea that has worked well for...
Ys: Memories of Celceta Review
Some of the hardest series to get into are the ones that span multiple generations. Not only is it harder to play more restrictive, simple, and different versions of experiences you love, there are situations where the game changes radically over time. For this reason, enhanced ports have been...
Moonlighter: Between Dimensions Review
Arguably one of the best things about late DLC is that the experience isn’t limited to the content you buy. It’s a chance to reevaluate the original experience, get an idea of how things have progressed, and, in a lot of cases, see a wide variety of improvements. This wasn’t really needed...