Shadows of Adam comes close to being great. It is hampered by its excessive influences from Final Fantasy VI and requires its own voice to convey a more original and profound story. The combat system is also too restrictive due to the small party size and lack of customisation for most of the game. All the elements are present for an incredible RPG: the art, music, and a fun, easy-to-pick-up battle system. It just needs more of an X-factor and a bit of fearlessness from the developers.
Pillars of Dust isn't a bad game; it's just not good enough to play. For very young gamers who are learning to read and getting to grips with turn-based gameplay, it's a fine choice. For anyone else, there are far better and more worthwhile retro-inspired RPGs out there - from the same developer, no less.
Anyone who's already played the prior versions of Dementium: The Ward won't find any new content or substantial features to warrant this upgrade. An extra chapter would have been appreciated since the game ends rather abruptly, and there are no new modes or levels. This is still a perfectly competent and polished horror game and sometimes still manages to be creepy despite how sparse it is. Hopefully, the sequel can get an equally polished redux and there can finally be a proverbial Dementium 3.
Perhaps The Fall didn't need to be a trilogy. Part 2 falls short of the first’s aspirations, and while it’s commendable that it aims for a grander vision, the execution couldn’t be worse. All of Unbound's shortcomings are magnified by the sloppiness of the porting onto Nintendo Switch, resulting in a choppy and ugly-looking game that already didn't look that great to begin with.
Blood: Refreshed Supply on Nintendo Switch 2 is the most complete and polished way to experience Caleb’s macabre revenge story today. It tastefully modernises the gameplay with quality-of-life features while preserving the dark atmosphere, challenging difficulty, and pitch-black humour that made the original so beloved. This is the ultimate Blood experience that's jam-packed with features and content that will please newcomers and veterans alike, and taps into every gamer's inner goth kid.
The Great Circle is, by far, the best Indiana Jones media since The Last Crusade. While its story plays things a bit too safe, it's probably for the best after the last two contentious films (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny). Indy works best when he's a young escapist character that men wish they could be. He shouldn't ever be depicted as old and tired, which has been a trend with many legacy characters lately. While Gina sucks as a deuteragonist, the overall adventure is so wonderful that it's easy to forget she spoils the puzzles. The gameplay is tight and well polished, offering classic action-adventure fun packed with puzzles, stealth, and battles to keep things fresh, all wrapped up in some of the cleanest, slickest production values out there. It's an absolute technical marvel on Nintendo Switch 2, and the gyro-aim options make it more enjoyable to play than on other consoles.
The nicest thing that can be said about Mixtape is that it has imaginative visuals and that the animation quality is pretty good. Adventure game fans won't find much intrigue or excitement because the experience is suffocatingly automated, and all the set-pieces offer no challenge. The biggest sin Mixtape commits is that it's ultimately insufferably boring and pretentious.
For its modest price, Easy Delivery Co. uhh... delivers on its promise and then some. It's a fine blend of relaxing and eerie mystique that drives the intrigue forward while having a simplistic yet addictive loop. The handling and driving mechanics, combined with the object physics, add a nice layer of depth. After all, it’s cool as hell and satisfying to drift with a stack of boxes in the trunk. There really isn't a single aspect to point to that doesn't work. It's the perfect kind of game to wind down to after work on a rainy night.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a bold and captivating puzzle game that stands out for its dedication to truly challenging the player. Not everything works; the story is pretentious and hard to care about, with the constant stream of puzzles to work on. It doesn’t help that the big reveal is pretty mundane, not particularly engaging, and veers toward cliché. What makes Lorelei and the Laser Eyes so cool is its distinctive audio-visual style, the open-ended nature of its puzzles, the dreamlike atmosphere, and the sheer boldness of some of its more obtuse puzzle designs that demand admiration.
OneShot: World Machine Edition is an unbelievable triumph of video game storytelling and adventure game design. It's simple enough that anyone can pick it up and figure it out, but it has enough depth to keep it interesting. Its strength lies in its atmosphere, storytelling, and the emotional connection players have with the characters, especially Niko. It’s an incredible experience that takes around five hours to complete, with even more time for those who explore the alternate endings, all for just a few dollars and often available on sale.
Sayonara Wild Hearts is a beautiful-looking and sonically dazzling work of art, yes...but like most arty games, it lacks a compelling hook. The very bare mechanics can be generously called "gameplay", in that there is moving a character on a screen and pressing button prompts, but there's no substance at all. Doing a perfect run and not making mistakes for a flawless music video should be a reward. It shouldn't have been given away to just anyone. Overcoming a "broken heart" is not easy in real life, and that should have been reflected in the gameplay.
Rogue Incursion can be an excellent Nintendo Switch 2 game if it gets a patch or two to address its technical hiccups. Mouse mode is completely broken and unusable, but the gyro-aim is effective and plays into the game's VR roots. Alien: Rogue Incursion - Evolved Edition is a pretty solid horror game despite its hang-ups and lack of originality. For its modest price, you can expect about five hours of thrills, and it’s solid enough to inspire hope for part two whenever that releases. If anything, a semi-episodic model like this, where a game is released in cheaper yet substantial chunks, shows that the approach can work, letting players enjoy a mostly complete experience without waiting years for a sequel.
For a low-budget indie 3D platformer on the original Nintendo Switch, Crosak impresses with its visuals and style. If it were a real Nintendo 64 platformer, its controls and gameplay would fall short of classics like Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64, but it would still outperform most of the weaker 3D platformers on the system. It's less of a hassle to play than the vanilla release of Yooka-Laylee, but not as polished as Replaylee. It’s way better than Tail of the Sun, and when it comes to caveman 3D platformers, nothing tops Crosak.
Starfield combines Bethesda’s signature storytelling, full of rich dialogue, moral dilemmas and intricate side quests, with sci-fi elements like exploration, the mysteries of the unknown, questions of legacy, and the search for humanity’s place in the vast cosmos. It’s more grounded and personal than many epic space operas like Warhammer 40K, focusing instead on the industrialisation of humanity and the commodification of life. There's no escaping Bethesda's signature jank. It's still here, and some NPCs can look like they crawled out of a Walmart on a Friday night, but for the most part...it just works!
If Breath of Fire IV had better timing for its release, it probably could have given Final Fantasy a run for its money. This was the last installment to truly capture the feel of a classic JRPG, as later games took more experimental and polarising directions. The original PlayStation era delivered some of the finest examples of the genre, and even now, it’s hard to top what was available then. The fact that Breath of Fire IV still holds up is unsurprising, but it also deserved a bit more care put into its Steam debut.
South of Midnight shines as an atmospheric platformer adventure game with puzzles. The combat needs improvement, as it is constrained to plain, open arenas for every battle with the same handful of enemy types and limited abilities. The story is adequate and has some admittedly impressive imagery and imagination, but Hazel's character is another dime-a-dozen smartass who blurts the obvious when it makes no sense. Most of its shortcomings are magnified due to the roughness of the port on Nintendo Switch 2. Maybe it’s better somewhere else, but there’s no escaping its foundation.
Resident Evil 2 on Steam is definitely worth the time for long-time fans or anyone willing to adapt to tank controls. It's still gripping and manages to be more cinematic than its remake counterpart, thanks to the stylish flair of the camera angles and enthralling music that ranges from forebodingly ominous to pulse-pounding excitement. It would have been great if the Steam version included new features or added more options, rather than relying on the modding community. However, as it is, this version still offers an excellent way to experience one of the best and most replayable horror games of all time.
Monster Hunter Stories 3 is a monstrously huge JRPG packed with epic scenes and powerful emotional moments. There's so much to explore and experience in a stunning world set to inspiring music. Missing multiplayer is definitely a blow, and for some, a potential dealbreaker, but what’s here is an outstanding, incredibly fun experience that feels like the start of a lasting legacy. Capcom should take note of what this team has pulled off; the future looks bright, and Twisted Reflection sends a clear message: this spin-off could potentially supplant the main series.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Aiko's Choice are exceptional strategy games held back by some unusual design choices. They're both still solid without any RPG mechanics, but being able to exploit the quick-save in a way that trivialises the experience was a mistake. It would have been nice to have bespoke checkpoints, though that might have impacted the large-scale, open-ended maps. The foundation for engrossing tactical planning and execution is top-notch, yet the story and character motivations end up being the most gripping aspect of the entire package between Blades of the Shogun and Aiko's Choice.
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit should have been more than a Mega Man knock-off with fewer features. It aims unbearably low and is content to dangle member berries to past episodes of a YouTube series that has become past due. A true successor to The Angry Video Game Nerd: I & II Deluxe should have been bolder and mixed genres or even gone full 3D. The only claim to fame 8-bit will ever have is that it's functionally a lost episode to the series due to the original footage used for the FMVs.