Alex Donaldson's Reviews
A brilliant core mechanic and clever design twists make Bananza a delightfully sticky 3D platform adventure topped off with a sweet central character relationship.
In the end, it all works - it’s just very different. The subtle whiff of compromise in order to launch the game far and wide is there - but compromise is just fine if the end result works. It does.
Every now and then, a game comes along that just full-on surprises you. I love the Indiana Jones movies (at least, the first three) and so always had an interest in this game. I ultimately sort of expected a fun bit of inconsequential blockbuster, though. The sort of thing you play over the Christmas season and promptly forget about. The best thing I can say about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is that I know I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time yet.
In that sense, Avowed is perfect proof of a great proof in all game design and in the execution of all art: you sometimes don’t need to pitch a revolution. Instead, you just need to have something to say, and then use the established tools and concepts to say it well.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is full of heart and soul. It’s also got some great ideas. Conversely, many of those ideas feel like they struggle to get out of first gear - and those that do find it harder still to make it to third. Sometimes the cleverest ideas are undermined by other systems or decisions. Simultaneously feeling polished to within an inch of its life in places and utterly half-baked in others, it’s as baffling as it is engaging; as frustrating as it is fascinating.
All told, this feels like a solid offering from Sega and Sonic Team. Generations remains a perfect history lesson for younger fans, while Shadow’s new narrative provides a tantalizing introduction to the character before he hits the Hollywood big time just before Christmas. It’s one of Sonic’s better recent outings made just that little bit better - and you can’t really complain about that.
The result is a game that is the definition of a truly mixed experience - but if you take the rough and under-developed with the smooth and innovative, there’s a lot of fun to be had. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is perhaps a victim of being part of a series that has one of the highest batting averages of any franchise out there - what is ‘good’ by Zelda standards is great to many other franchises and publishers. This is by no means the earth-shaker that some Zelda games are - but it sits up there with many other classic 2D Zeldas just fine. I just wish Zelda herself felt a bit more defined and present throughout, given this is her first true playable debut.
A smart choice of game to remake - it deserves it. Smartly designed, smartly pitched - arguably smartly-placed, dropped here, towards the end of the Switch’s lifespan, a victory lap for a classic from generations past. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a richly-deserved, lovingly-crafted redo of a classic. It takes one of Mario’s finest spin-offs and does just enough to refresh it while retaining everything that made it beloved in the first place. I only hope this leads to more Paper Mario games in this vein.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is wickedly clever, tightly designed, self-aware in all the right ways, and refreshingly unconcerned with whatever the latest trends are.
For better and worse alike, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the most impressively ambitious game Square has made since FF’s golden age. It’s glorious, in spite of painful little flaws.
At a certain point you have to step back and judge a game for what it is rather than what it isn’t. After all, if you want the female protagonist there’s Portable, and if you want the epilogue there’s FES. But as a stand-alone thing – as a convenient, modern, and attractive way to experience a truly great RPG classic – Persona 3 Reload is a wonderful offering.
Though it can be a little easy, the Super Mario RPG remake scratches all the right itches – even a few decades on.
Your mileage with WarioWare: Move It will inevitably vary. What do you want from this game? If you want the classic microgames experience, it isn’t really here. If you want a killer multiplayer game to play with the family over the holiday season (assuming everyone is able-bodied), it’ll be ideal. I can’t wait to play this more with friends. But I don’t see any reason to boot it on my own again any time soon.
This is an excellent sequel, and an exciting foundation for what I’m sure will be a bright, addition-packed future.
Within the understood parameters of what 2D Mario can be, this has to be the single best entry since Super Mario World - and is the perfect first game to launch a new era of Mario games with his new-found elevation to movie star status.
In its core mission, Sonic Superstars is successful. It recreates the foundation of 2D Sonic – some of the finest platformers ever made – well. Unfortunately, the new elements layered atop that are rather hit-or-miss. I personally don’t think this is anywhere near as good as Mania. But it’s good. In fact, it’s good enough that I expect fan debate about which game is superior to be fairly heated – which is a sure-fire sign that Sega is on the right track.
Phantom Liberty itself is an all-time great expansion, taking all of the best elements of Cyberpunk 2077 and cranking them all up to eleven.
Starfield is wider, wilder, and more ambitious than I expected - but also shows surprising restraint in many areas. More than the sum of its parts, it's the best game of this type Bethesda has delivered.
That mood is one that brings together both established and new ideas to create a Pikmin that is, I think, absolutely the most well-rounded title in the series. It takes a series that for its second and third entries I appreciated but didn’t love - and brings back that adoration. It’s a revitalizing sequel - though also exactly the sort of entry that’ll be difficult to follow.
But it’s not that simple. It never is. In FF16, Clive, Cid, and the others ultimately derive their power from the same mysterious origins as the crystals themselves. To complete their objective, they need the very thing they seek to destroy. And so too does FF16 need that history, those traditions, leveraging some even as it drives a dagger through others. That is the duality of the game. A dichotomy at the heart of its structure, its triumphs, and its failures alike. It’s a fascinating piece of work, a wholly imperfect but nevertheless enthralling experience.