Denshattack! is about commuter trains doing skateboard tricks, and it takes many of its stylistic and narrative cues from the likes of Jet Set Radio.
Velan Studios has turned Star Fox 64 into a graphical stunner, bringing it up to code with a more photoreal art design, and top-to-bottom script rewrite for cutscenes and mid-mission banter. For the most part, these are all improvements, making Fox’s mission more meaningful, and his crew feel more, well, human.
But being a highly trained super-spy should feel more intricate than being Nathan Drake does, and every time that First Light tries to be that, it feels half-hearted.
The Dark Knight’s legacy goes extremely deep here, and it’s certainly not a bad thing that the developers want to make sure every player gets the most out of it before leaving them to their own devices.
Mixtape frequently makes that flight not just fully interactive but literal—youthful freedom lighting up the world with a euphoric player-controlled fireworks display while sailing through the air in a caravan of convertibles.
This is the type of game that used to be Capcom’s bread and butter.
Imitating cartoons from the early 20th century, even with all our current technology, is no easy feat. (Ask the makers of Cuphead about that struggle.) But Mouse: P.I.’s strengths as a piece of hyperreal noir are a breathtaking wallpaper over a fairly linear, basic FPS that still demands that we take everything about it seriously. It’s a game trying to have its cheese and eat it too.
It’s strange to want to call a game as pointedly grim and gory as Requiem a good time, but that’s exactly the vibe it delivers, bathed in blood and polished to a high scarlet shine. Despite the suspense and terror, there’s still a playfully self-aware spring in Requiem’s step.
The game does everything it says on the tin, not much more or less.
This is Lumines in its most perfect, evolved form.
There’s so little value in making this series feel like Yet Another Bethesda RPG, and zero in making the player carry water for capitalism in 2025. This is mechanical prowess in service of a galaxy that’s not worth saving.
It’s captivating to behold how Ishii so empathetically switches back to a mode of glorious hate and venom at the drop of a hat without making it seem incongruous. It’s a star-making turn worthy of Atsu’s legacy.
Combined with a narrative that feels like all the worst tendencies of YA manga playing out as po-faced as possible, even the stellar art direction and sound design can’t stop the game from feeling wasteful.
Even with the additional depth that it brings to the Shinobi experience, this is a game that doesn’t let you forget that it’s about ninjas being chased around by fighter jets, surfing the high seas and jumping over mines, and being hunted by demonic skulls in the desert.
Compared to the finger-twisting meticulousness of, say, Grand Theft Auto V, this game is almost charming in its simplicity.
Even with all of Kojima’s peculiarities and deficiencies as a storyteller on full display, the energy, heart, and soul of Death Stranding 2 are undeniable.
Ultimately, there’s too much work involved for not nearly enough reward from the world or the narrative, despite the occasional interesting twist and turn.
South of Midnight’s hero’s journey is ultimately an adventure in search of the reasons why those things are important, why we need communion and community, and more specifically how people of color have always built that sense of community when they needed it and always will.
Despite capitalism rearing its ugly head, WWE 2K25, like the WWE itself, is in a stable place, a leader worth acknowledging.
In the end, Split Fiction is, against the odds, a smile-inducing charmer. But it’s for that exact reason that it deserved a script that put its best face forward. Split Fiction offers up a meticulously crafted playground, but it’s disappointing that the framework around it feels like it was fashioned by the 10-year-olds who’d play there.