Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a well-presented RPG with engaging combat and gameplay. However, it suffers from poorly paced tutorials and repetitive dialogue that greatly overstays its welcome. In terms of presentation, the game is clearly a cut above with its animations and cinematics, but with the game needing to hold your hand after every segment, it makes for a cruise that you want to get out of than enjoying the ride.
Metal Slug Tactics may be considered a hidden gem given how it hasn’t been advertised enough, despite being a pretty good game. Roguelite games are generally known for their replayability and Metal Slug Tactics is a prime example of that, where it combines roguelite elements and strategy gameplay that’ll have you keep playing for hours. With engaging gameplay, great pixelated visuals, and infinite replayability, the game is an absolute steal for the fun factor at the price it’s offered at.
Albatroz is an interesting game about a journey of self-discovery, meeting new people, and appreciating good views. It has a lot going for it with its adventure survival gameplay, as it’s more engaging than other walking simulators out there. However, don’t expect an actual, realistic hiking experience. It’s really an RPG built around the foundation of a more lighthearted survival game and basic resource management.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the result of BioWare learning from their lesson on fully investing into the action in an action RPG. The prior installment tried to balance its old identity of being both a strategy RPG and an action RPG, this time they went full on with the latter design. Veilguard delivers on its action-packed gameplay, enhanced by new mechanics, tighter level design, and a faster pace. Coupled with great audiovisual presentation, a compelling narrative, and so much side content to explore and finish, Dragon Age has definitely made a comeback worthy of your time.
SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS is the best of both worlds, where you can re-experience the greatness of Sonic Generations while being able to play a new game focused on Shadow the Hedgehog. It’s a great audiovisual experience as well, as the graphics have been upgraded and feature more of the franchise’s adrenaline-pumping soundtrack. Other than remastering an already great game in its own right, it adds more story content and introduces more gameplay mechanics for our favorite anti-hero, which we definitely need more of.
TMNT Mutants Unleashed is a decent 3D beat ‘em up that has its hits and misses. It has a surprisingly unique progression system that works since it builds up on existing characters while building the world around the main cast. However, its gameplay problems, missed opportunities, and not-so-great voice acting do more harm than good. It’s quite clear that the target audience is for the younger generation similar to the film, and not a lot of people might appreciate its simple gameplay, stylistic and cartoony visuals, and snarky dialogue.
Super Mario Party Jamboree accomplishes its goal in showing new ways for you to enjoy the chaos that is Mario Party. The new mechanics in the main Party Mode introduce more variance to the already unpredictable game. However, some of these additions are a classic case of quantity over quality. The game has over a hundred different mini games included in it, but not all of them are hits. To add to this, the standalone games are other examples of what should’ve been in the main game mode, while some feel unfinished or need to be tweaked a little more.
Blazing Strike is an okay fighting game but is held back by a ton of dated game design choices. Regardless if it was intentional or not, the game just simply lacks content to appeal to potential players. It may have been a great game a few years or even decades ago. Even if the game looks amazing in terms of visuals, players will definitely lose interest quickly since there’s not much to do in the game.
After seventeen long years, we finally got a new Dragon Ball game in the spirit of Budokai Tenkaichi, which honestly puts all the other arena battlers to shame. DRAGON BALL Sparking! ZERO is the culmination of all of the franchise into one big video game, with the presentation turned up to eleven. With a massive amount of playable characters, stunning visuals, and several scenarios to explore and complete, this is the best Dragon Ball game we’ve had in ages, and nothing comes close.
Capcom continues their hot streak of remakes and remasters with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, as it’s able to reintroduce itself without reinventing the whole game. The enhanced graphics and quality-of-life (QoL) improvements really revived this game and reminded everyone that the original game was a certified classic. There are a few flaws here and there, especially noticeable by die-hard fans of the series. But other than its expensive price tag and a few nitpicks, the game is absolutely worth your time to spend more than 3 days for.
Enotria The Last Song is a game that has deep mechanics and amazing art direction that are bogged down by classic indie jank. It’s clear that the game needs polish, but regardless it delivers on amazing visuals and an innovative class system. There are clear positives and negatives in the game, and the latter are more of an outcome of being the indie studio’s first try at a soulslike. While there’s much to be desired, this isn’t a bad first attempt for Jyamma Games. If anything, I’m very much looking forward to their future releases in the genre.
Funko Fusion is an interesting case of having too much while doing too little. Even with the numerous levels, it’s a shame that not all of the IPs, or even half of them, were treated the same way. On top of that, the dull and repetitive gameplay loop doesn’t help its case even if the shooting mechanics are pretty good. While the graphics are pretty good, everything else sums up the game as a whole: an uninspired and mediocre experience.
Marvel vs Capcom returns in style! It’s amazing enough that Capcom decided to re-release these older titles for modern consoles, but to make a collection out of them while adding quality-of-life improvements was the icing on the cake. It’s seven games all packaged in one collection, while having tons of gallery items available for the player to view and unlock. It’s more Marvel; what more could you ask for?
Wild Bastards is best described as a comic book story in video game form, where you take control of the action. It has gorgeous visuals, amazing characters, and some interesting world-building when it comes to the banter between the gang. While the game’s combat does have its moments, it could also be its weakest aspect. The barebones first-person shooting mechanics make combat a drag despite having a good variety of enemy types. It’s a decent roguelike game, but as with all roguelikes, luck is one of the factors when it comes to the enjoyment of the gameplay.
Spectre Divide has big potential. It offers something new and fresh to the tactical first-person shooter (FPS) scene that’s been dominated by the same games for the past few years. Duality is a great way to change up the genre, but a multitude of issues are definitely holding the game back. It has a steep and uphill climb just to get noticed in the competitive scene, but the developers seem willing to support this game in the long run. This game definitely flew under the radar for most FPS fans, and I’m interested to see if they can catch a wave soon or even a few months down the road.
Astro Bot is, without a shadow of a doubt, this year’s best platforming game. Hell, it could even be a contender for Game of the Year (GOTY) because of how complete the game is as a whole package. The game is visually stunning, has great sound design, has simple yet fun gameplay, makes use of the exclusive PlayStation controls, and, most importantly, has a ton of content. Sony and Team ASOBI have knocked it out of the park with this game, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this game is regarded as one of Sony’s best releases to date.
Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 easily captures what it feels like to be a Space Marine. The brutality and intensity of the combat are unmatched and are supplemented by the game’s audiovisual experience. To top it off, the game has an amazing multiplayer experience that can function both in the campaign and in its other PvE mode. While the gameplay is the game’s biggest draw, it also has a few flaws. Some of which are its demanding performance and its intended difficulty. Nevertheless, the game is a near-perfect representation of what it means to be a zealous Space Marine under the Empire of Man and is an amazing sequel to the 2011 third-person shooter.
Squirrel With A Gun is a solid comedic experience that comes with a pretty decent 3D action shooter platformer experience. It has a good variety of different tools at your disposal to get through the game’s multiple levels, while having a good number of collectibles to keep you interested during your playthrough. It does have a bit of a problem of being a bit too repetitive after a few hours though, which makes the game a lot less interesting. It’s not the most compelling or most demanding game out there as a platformer, but it does get an award for being one of the funnier ones.
Crypt Custodian is an amazing isometric metroidvania that does everything quite well. It has a great art style, atmospheric music, simple-to-follow gameplay, and a compelling story to boot. It’s a gem of an indie game that deserves every bit of attention, and I can attest that you won’t be disappointed. It’s perfect for those looking to play a metroidvania like Hollow Knight to take their minds off of Silksong, and even better for those looking for a great metroidvania to play.
In a year full of different action RPGs, Black Myth: Wukong lives up to the hype, as it plays to its strengths quite well. It’s able to differentiate itself from the countless games in the same genre with its unique setting, engaging gameplay, and breathtaking visuals. It’s not a perfect game, however, as it has a few flaws that become apparent with its narrative and not-so-interesting level design. Nevertheless, Black Myth: Wukong is an amazing entry to kick off a series, and if they’re going to make sequels, you can expect us to play them as well.