Karl Smart's Reviews
Squirrel with a Gun is one of those games which is a streamer's dream. A lot of references to other media can be found around every corner, there is a challenge in the level design, and the guns are a lot of fun. However, with no objective marker or quest log, you do spend far too much time wandering around looking for fun instead of having fun, some of the level designs become frustrating to have to do the same thing over and over in order to get to a single objective, only to fall off something and have to climb forever all over again.
Funko Fusion is much like the Pop Vinyl brand that it represents: A lot of brands on board with a lot of potential for fun to be had with the product, but ultimately most of the time this game will sit on a shelf gathering dust because of cheap production on the product and nothing much to do with it once it is out of the box.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is one of those remasters that offers nothing more than updating the graphics to a more modern level. However, graphics can’t sell games alone. Capcom should have given this game a proper remastering with some new content, or just left it dead and buried.
NBA 2K25 is a good game when you can find it. The mechanics are solid, even if you do need to be retrained to understand the changes and play the game in the way it wants you to play. However, NBA 2K25 is so bogged down with microtransaction bullshit that it spoils any goodwill that the game comes to the court with. 2K has shown that they care more about pushing Pro Passes and VC purchases rather than giving gamers value for money.
World of Warcraft: The War Within gave us a promise of the best story that Chris Metzen has come up with that will draw back all the players who left because of the boredom of Shadowlands and Dragonflight, but ultimately under-delivers on that promise with a short story, a focus on anyone but the player, and changing bad gameplay mechanic names to hide repeated content.
Hypercharge: Unboxed is a game that is going to fall under its own greatness. The gameplay is solid and a lot of fun, but there is little left for the game once you have unlocked everything except to play for the sake of it. A lack of DLC plans from the developer/publisher means this great game is going to die under the weight of its own promise.
WWE 2K24 is a fun game with some of the best graphics in a wrestling game ever made. However, the game is too bloated with game modes, many of which you are forced to play in order to unlock content you already paid for. 2K Games needs to stop nickel and dimeing players after the fact and refocus on giving players the best experience for their dollar.
Tekken 8 is a solid outing for the Unreal 5 engine, using it to improve the already impressive graphics we had with Tekken 7. The gameplay is solid with a lot of modes for you to play for hours on end. However, PC users should be warned that their version may have frame rate issues. If these issues are patched, then Tekken 8 will be the best fighting game on the market.
Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a bare-bones collection featuring the early days of Jurassic Park games. While there are some minimal quality-of-life enhancements added to the overall product, it's the same we expect from all retro collections these days and does nothing to stand out like other offerings have. Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is good for people who don't have the time or money to track down the consoles and games themselves and just want to play the games on modern hardware.
Robocop: Rogue City brings the world of Old Detroit back to life with a slightly populated slum of a city while keeping the soul of the Robocop franchise intact. Placing Robocop: Rogue City between Robocop 2 and Robocop 3 was a risky move that paid off for Teyon. If nothing else, you deserve to give Robocop: Rogue City a try in a world where nothing else from the 1980s seems to be allowed to be revived and enjoyed.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 could have been up there with the best retro collections published in the last few years, however, Konami has shown that all they care about by releasing a quick cash grab with no decent extras or even the best versions of the games included in the collection. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is an example of how NOT to treat beloved franchises that could still draw money by the name value alone… I hope Silent Hill isn't next.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a good game, a solid outing for Spider-Man fans. However, there are some issues under the hood of this game that really need to be addressed in patches over time, or just let Insomniac do the Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales 2 that they really want to do instead of pushing them to keep doing Peter Parker Spider-Man stories that they clearly no longer want to do… I hope they make it up to Venom fans with some good DLC.
Mortal Kombat 1 brings the idea of a whole new universe into light with an amazing, but really fast-paced, story mode. However, the rest of the game feels like Mortal Kombat as a franchise has stagnated in terms of gameplay with nothing really innovating things outside of the cameo fighter system. Then we have the impending microtransaction additions that you know are coming, and I hate those with a passion.
Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways should be shown to all developers as to how to do DLC going forward. Not only do we get a great campaign that almost rivals the main game, but it’s done at a cheap/affordable price point. The story of Ada gives us some more questions as to what is going on with the future of the Resident Evil remake franchise while keeping its own story relevant and interesting.
NBA 2K24 shows that there is a bigger problem with gaming today. While you can get a good game out there if you decide to make it into a “games as a service” model with the main goal being purchased over skill, the game itself gets lost under an avalanche of hate because of corporate greed. NBA 2K24 is the game that shows this to be true. As a game, NBA 2K24 is the same great game it always is, but the hard push for you to open your wallet hurt the game too much overall… And Michael Jordan is the GOAT.
WrestleQuest does a good job of taking something that you wouldn't think would fit as an RPG game and makes it work. The world is amazing, the characters, and cameos are really going to invoke the golden era of Professional Wrestling. However, once you rip that nostalgia away you are left with a very bare-bones RPG experience that gets boring very quickly.
AEW: Fight Forever brings me back to the "glory days" of wrestling video games with its easy-to-learn but hard-to-master controls, fun and entertaining graphics, and a KISS match selection that gives you just enough of a taste of what All Elite Wrestling is about. AEW: Fight Forever might not have the complex simulation look and feel that we've come to accept because of WWE video games over the last 20 years, but it's FUN, something that the WWE games tend to forget about.
LEGO 2K Drive is a great racing game. The world that is built using a combination of LEGO bricks and real-world objects is stunning and looks like some kid or LEGO hobbyist, made this world in their own home. However, once the game tries to do something that is not racing using a racing control system, that's when the wheels fall off this particular LEGO racer.
Resident Evil 4 improves on the original by changing the story just enough to keep players guessing, and adding new details that help with bringing the game more in line with the remakes of the previous two games, leading into the newer games in the series like Resident Evil VII and Resident Evil: Village. However, there are times when you can see the age of the original creep in, and some lazy asset use too, not to mention there are some bad graphical glitches in the review copies that I pray are fixed with the day one patch. Taking my personal bias out of this was hard, but I still couldn't see it as the masterpiece everyone else will be calling it.
WWE 2K23 takes everything that was considered an improvement in WWE 2K22 and just copy/pastes it over and expects people to buy it for 2 things: A Cena showcase mode and one new match type. While WWE 2K23 is still a solid game, you can feel that there just wasn't enough of that drive that made WWE 2K22 such a good game after WWE 2K20 almost tanked the franchise. WWE 2K23 could do much more than just be a roster update of a game, if only they didn't rely so heavily on the past.