It nails the run-and-gun feel of Metal Slug, and somehow transforms that into a tactics game, and that’s a hell of an accomplishment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an itch, and the only salve is another run.
All told, The Fear Business is a pretty solid homage to the horror games of yesteryear. It’s not particularly original, but the PS1 aesthetic, sharp design of Solomon Manor, and compelling puzzles work well enough to make up for its annoyances. It’s not a long game (your first playthrough will probably take between 3 and 5 hours), but there are several difficulties to complete and secrets to find, and it seems ripe for speedrunning. I just wish it controlled better and dealing with Goat Face wasn’t so bloody annoying. But if you’re looking for a horror game to spend an evening with, you could do a lot worse. Just… you know, try to be smarter than Sarah the next time you’re investigating mysterious disappearances, yeah? If a dude had offered me a ride to a cult-infested mansion, I would have just gone home.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 plays it safe but is otherwise exactly what Call of Duty multiplayer should be: fast, fun, and a little on the ridiculous side. An excellent string of missions that offer variety and flexibility come together to make Black Ops 6 the best Call of Duty campaign in many, many years. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode is absurd and campy fun in all the right ways, with two interesting maps and a welcome return to round-based gameplay. [OpenCritic note: IGN separately reviewed the multiplayer (8), single player (9), and zombies (8) game mode. Their scores have been averaged.]
MechWarrior 5: Clans has some bugs it needs to work out, but this is still an excellent campaign carried by a thoughtful story, fantastic mech combat, and all of the customization you could want.
I went into The Axis Unseen hoping it would be my jam, and it was. It even made me okay with not having a map (well, after a while), and as someone who has a terrible sense of direction on their best day, that’s no mean feat. I just wanted to explore its world, fight new monsters, and see what I could find. Mostly, though, I think about the stories I got to tell while playing it, like that bit with the Elder Horned Beast I told you about at the beginning here. A little while after I got the fire arrows, I realized I could probably kill a Tree Golem with them, and when I finally ran into one, I finally took it down. It was incredible. And there are so many stories like that in The Axis Unseen. I hope the technical issues get fixed, but even with them, I think Just Purkey Games has made something special. Just... be careful if you venture into this realm between realms? You’re off the edge of the map. Here be dragons. But if you play it right, the scariest thing in this world might just be you.
Street Rumble isn’t terrible, but it’s not good either. Sure, it looks good, but the music is boring, the gameplay is bog standard, it has serious design flaws, and in a lot of cases, it just isn’t interesting. Yeah, there’s an arcade mode, boss rush, and so on, but you need to beat the story mode to unlock them, and if I hadn’t been playing this for review, I would have stopped around thirty minutes in. Beat ‘em up fans deserve better. Licensed games deserve better. And The Karate Kid deserves better than to be resurrected as a coat of paint used to gussy up a mediocre beat ‘em up.
When you’re flying around the pitch, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions can be a blast, but there just isn’t much off of it to keep you playing long-term.
Ultimately, Black Myth: Wukong is what I like to call “Peak Fine.” It’s great when it finally opens up and lets you play it, and has a number of memorable bosses to fight.
There are a lot of on-field improvements to like in Madden NFL 25, but most were long overdue, and they don't offset all the same problems that weren't addressed elsewhere.
It is rare for a game to be about something, to work its themes into every fiber of its being, to ask us to think about the world around us and reflect on who we are, the world we live in, and the things we’ve done to make it what it is. Dustborn does that, and it's special because of it. It doesn’t always work, but what it gets wrong pales in comparison to what it does right. It is a reminder that what we say and do matters. That, to quote Hemingway, “The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.” That a better world is possible, if only we have the courage to build it, if we can find the right words to speak it into existence. Let there be light.
Its stability issues are minor qualms compared to everything Trinity Fusion does right. It looks good, plays well, has a great combat system, and nails the little things you need to get right to make a good, modern roguelite. And it runs well on the Switch, something nobody should take for granted given how old this hardware is, in this or any multiverse. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got to get back to it. Those enemies aren't going to air combo themselves.
College Football 25 nails the on-field action with a dynamic feel, stellar graphics, and tons of smart gameplay tweaks. However, so much of what's off the field feels unfinished, with UI issues and barebones modes that seem like they are waiting for a rebuild next season.
Ultimately, how much you vibe with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin will come down to how willing you are to put up with the limitations imposed on you by playing it on a controller, how much you vibe with the save system, and how much you like its level design. There's a very good, incredibly ambitious shooter here if you're willing to overlook some unfortunate flaws, but it's not Quake, and nothing likely ever will be again.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is like a two-dollar slice of pizza you pick up while you’re walking home after a night out in New York City. It’s tasty in the moment, but it will leave you wanting a lot more.
The irony is that Aspyr has done a nice job with remastering the visuals in both games and we enjoyed seeing the results. But the reality is that these games often feel old, they're extremely buggy, and the online play is hit-and-miss. This should have been a slam dunk. Instead, playing Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection made us feel sad. If Aspyr can fix the slew of technical issues, this might one day be worth picking up on Switch. Until that happens, though, the Force isn't with this one.
Rise of the Ronin marries a cool setting, Team Ninja’s mastery of tough-but-fair combat, and smart RPG design, even when map clutter and junk loot can get in its way.
Helldivers 2's combat feels fantastic, its missions stay fresh and interesting, and its smart progression system doesn’t nickel and dime you.
Grime is a beautiful, well-designed, challenging game with a ton of content, but it runs extremely poorly on Switch, to the extent that it's hard to recommend this version of the game if you can get it on another platform. It's disappointing, because Grime does so much right, and developer Clover Bite has clearly put a lot of love into it over the years. But all of that love can't save an action game that just doesn't run well. In this genre, that's a deal-breaker. It's a shame Grime's Switch debut is so rocky, because playing as a rock creature with a black hole doubling as its cranium is really cool. Don't get us wrong: Grime is playable on Switch, but until (or if) things get ironed out with updates, this brutal world is one you might want to avoid.
Despite crashes and some issues with its difficulty curve, The Talos Principle 2's ability to explore both interesting puzzle design and deep philosophy simultaneously is incredibly impressive.
Star Trek: Infinite does a great job of capturing the look and feel of Star Trek, but those enticing bones splinter under the weight of its bugs and glitches.