Alex Santa Maria's Reviews
Carrion is a superb actioner staring an alien mass.
Fight Crab's insane crab combat surprisingly works.
Rocket Arena offers fun that's fit for all ages.
Keen has simple puzzle action and excess presentation.
Neon Abyss has perfected the Binding of Isaac formula, but its lack of creative energy and problems with similar locales drag it down considerably.
Not only does Huntdown perfect what's been done in 2D shooters, it offers several new ways forward for the genre. A retro-minded tour-de-force that feels right at home in 2020.
Thanks to a moody atmosphere and precise mechanics, West of Dead perfectly wraps the tense feeling of cover shooting around a solid roguelike core.
Disintegration's meaty shooter campaign invites players into a unique world that's well worth exploring, but quirks in its gameplay and storytelling hold it back from true greatness.
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath's story expansion and new characters add the cherry on top of NetherRealm's fighting game sundae.
There's no game that makes you feel like a shark quite as well as Maneater, but a shoddy open world structure and repetitive missions make it little more than a quick rush of adrenaline.
You won't be spending many Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, but you'll find a few memorable episodes of interactive TV in this FMV success story.
I feel like no one will be happy with this end result outside of the most dedicated Flemoid hunters.
Setting a new standard for what a beat 'em up can be in 2020, Streets of Rage 4 captures the past and brings it up to speed with beautiful graphics and immaculate combat.
On the gameplay front, Gears Tactics nails the transition from high octane shooter to tactical strategy. You'll be hooked even as you grind through an overlong campaign filled with repetitive missions.
Pong Quest brings back fond memories of Atari's roots, but this simplistic package doesn't have the depth or complexity to stun modern audiences.
Roundguard's genre innovations are novel, but they fail to distract from poor roguelike progression and a general lack of depth. It's a whimsical arcadey diversion, but not much more than that.
Bloodroots presents an amazing combat sandbox and then forces players into rote memorization of the developer's set path. No amount of Samurai Jack styling can make that fun.
The Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle brings a lot of novelty with its new NES translations, but the retro games on offer will hold little value to anyone not already familiar with the Technōs catalog.
For the sole purpose of preserving this PlayStation classic, this remaster succeeds.
Darwin Project isn’t an also-ran, it’s a trendsetter, and anyone still interesting in dropping in hot should take notice.