Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 isn’t a groundbreaking revolution one may have hoped for or one may have expected for the Switch edition but there’s more than enough here that it does well rather than retreading the same formula. The series has moved into a new direction with the addition of a delightful Story Mode and the ‘Tokyo 1964’ mode is an inspired addition, which will warm the heart of any stone cold adult just looking to relive his youth once again.
These console versions – at least the PS4 Pro Enhanced version I’ve been reviewing – have been heavily struggling under its mighty weight, and perhaps needed a little more optimisation before it launched out in the world of the sofa dwelling controller types.
Chalk down Hexagroove: Tactical DJ as one of the year's biggest surprises. A wholly unique take on the rhythm genre, it's challenging and enormously rewarding. The feeling of creating your own music for a virtual crowd to respond to is addicting, and while the multiplayer ultimately offers very little to the package, the single-player and the seemingly endless Freestyle mode will have you coming back to best those scores again and again. This is definitely one for headphones or a very loudspeaker system, and a must for rhythm action fans.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is one of the biggest surprises of the year and an absolute must-play. Rare are back. Wait. Playtonic have arrived. There we are.
It’s quintessentially pinball, and whether or not that appeals to you effectively means you’re either in or out before you’ve even seen a trailer. But what’s on offer here is beyond anything I was expecting, and Zen Studios’ previous iterations of their pinball mastery to shame. The sheer detail and love that’s gone into Star Wars Pinball is unparalleled, and as a Star Wars fan those little moments that they’ve added just to make people like me smile has really elevated this entire game. This entire pinball game.
You’re never going to find it easy, and there’s far more exciting Switch puzzlers out there and on the horizon, but if you’re looking for something that’s going to either infuriate or grab your attention through originality and utterly bizarre mechanics that you rarely see elsewhere. Well, you could do worse.
Bulletstorm lives and dies on its campaign and the Switch version has absolutely smashed it out of the park. It’s a crying shame the planned sequel was cancelled due to the poor sales of the original release possibly in relation to launching so close to Gears of War which was considerably more successful. The madness of this game warrants a second outing, the tremendous Skillshot system still unrivalled to this day.
Erica is a genuinely terrific achievement. As far as the ‘PlayLink’ aspect goes – even if the game is not officially part of Sony’s range – there’s nothing better out here. Technically it feels solid as a rock, with gloriously smooth transitions from gameplay back to FMV cut-scenes. You immediately feel part of the world and it never really gets old. You want to do right by Erica the moment you meet her and there’s very few games that offer this level of interaction, even if as a whole, the game is about the journey rather than the destination.
It’s easy to pick up, it’s difficult to master and offers badass bosses at the end of each world whilst sword-fighting robot viruses intent on taking over an old lady’s computer to a synthwave soundtrack blasting over beautifully designed neon-infused levels.
The human experience of being drawn into a cult full of deep, dark secrets and the emotional toll it weighs upon you is front and centre in Sagebrush and that’s what made this two-hour experience stand out to me. The slow pace is entirely purposeful, allowing you to soak up each moment and learn more about those who believed in Father James room to be understood, to be heard and ultimately, to be mourned.
Aside from the vastly eclectic endings, the gameplay just isn’t enough to sustain it through several attempts to find them all. The gameplay never deviates from avoiding vision cones and knocking some people out if necessary. And as the game is encouraging you to experience it over and over again, it really needed a compelling reason to work your way to another ending. The premise and the endings are the clear standouts. It’s the bit in-between that makes it feel like The Church in The Darkness is a squandered opportunity.
The strengths of Wargroove come from the visuals and the gameplay, relegating the story to second place but that’s absolutely no problem for me. In order to get the most out of this game I really had to fall into it and I’m glad I did. There’s plenty to love about Wargroove.
The narrative and visual issues aside, the ultimate draw of this game is the complex, wonderful level designs and the intricate puzzles and they mountain over any serious concern I had with the game. Keep your head down and you should be able to crack Etherborn in around 3-4 hours, which is more than enough of this kind of gravity-puzzler for me.
Kay battles alone, and I just really wish the game allowed her story to be told a little more delicately, with more emotion and less force.
The game has so much potential to be something really quite special. The setting and the characters, the Lovecraft Cthulhu-inspired imagination of the world of Oakmont and Charles Reed’s search for his own sanity is really quite interesting. There’s definitely something here, it just all feels half-baked. Each critical narrative moment should have the power to knock the player on the ass falls flat, leaving you wanting more but it never arriving.
My Friend Pedro has more than lived up to my expectations and I’m absolutely thrilled that there’s yet another utterly brilliant Devolver Digital title out there in the world. It’s hilarious, ridiculous and has a fair number of ‘punch-the-air’ moments that very few games can pull of with the same style as My Friend Pedro.
American Fugitive is solid, it does what it does well without really picking a lane and allowing the character of Will Riley to shine through. What feels like a story arc that is justifiable (you see Will not commit the crime he’s in prison for, after all), it’s soon forgotten for murderous mayhem and whilst I’ve complained about it somewhat, what’s on offer is really good fun. It’s an easy game to recommend, but I think more so than usual it’s important to know what the game is before you jump in. It’s fun and frantic and a nice love letter to that which its inspired by.
It’s intense, searing with tension and absolutely nerve-shredding, whilst telling a hugely powerful story that hit me hard a few times over. There’s a tremendous depth in this game that I wasn’t expecting, but I’m so glad it’s there. It makes you care for this brother and sister duo who are doing everything they can to stay alive in impossible circumstances, and given everything you’ve had to put them through to reach some kind of other side, you want to see them succeed. Every free moment I had was given to this game, I had to know how it all ended. Amicia and Hugo deserved my time.
Snooker 19 brings a fully licensed simulator back to players and does so in some style.
Katana Zero is simply a very easy recommendation. From the utterly perfect mechanics tweaked to an inch of their life to the visuals, the overarching story and inner conflict of your highly skilled protagonist and his external relationships with the world around him, counteracting with the hyper-violence he calls his work, the game finds a delicate balance between ridiculously stylish action and the more subtle downbeat moments that really bring out some wonderful character development.