The whole team weigh in on Insomniac's mighty Marvel triumph, Spider-Man.
If there’s one type of game I never thought I’d be praising to the high heavens in 2018, it’s a 2D Metroidvania-esque puzzle pinball platformer featuring a Dung Beetle as its protagonist. Even those words written together make very little sense to me, and on paper Yoku’s Island Express should be an absolute trainwreck. Keeping as many genre balls the air as developer Villa Gorilla are doing here Yoku feels like somewhat of a herculean task, and yet here we are. Yoku’s Island Express is my favourite platformer of 2018 so far, and I’m not even sure it’s a platformer at all.
F1 2018 then is another damn near spot on recreation of the worlds biggest motoring sport. It looks absolutely divine, is loaded with fan service and presented like a gift-wrapped set of car keys to a world that’s going to test your metal if you give yourself up to the absurdly detailed depth this game offers seasoned players. If you master F1 2018 and every single corner of its intricacies there’s every chance you could probably run your own F1 team in real life.
Semblance is yet another Switch title that’s easy to recommend. The excellent level design, the ‘platformer-is-a-mechanic’ headline lives up to its promise and then some, with a wondrous visual style and a heartbeat throughout which pumps the blood of a revitalised genre through every vein of its code.
After several hours of dying and dying again the game gives you reason to think it’s all over before it just isn’t, and this could throw some people off. It certainly did me, whilst it’s no bother at all to keep playing The Messenger the pacing felt a little strange in the closing moments, and there’s a fair amount of backtracking to be getting on with. Fortunately this allows you to head back to old levels that have a 16-bit remix that you wouldn’t have seen before, which makes it worthwhile all the more.
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.
Just when it begins to become nearly too overwhelming, though, it’s all over. GRIS is undoubtedly a compact experience, but one that needs to be experienced, either on Switch or PC (though it’s worth mentioning whilst it looks terrific in handheld mode, GRIS really should be experienced docked on a big screen). Whether it be the spectacular soundtrack or well, the spectacular visuals, GRIS tells a story that is tragic and uplifting, emotionally fuelled and near-perfect in its execution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There’s a glorious amount of fun to be had with What The Golf? and I’m delighted it’s finally on Switch, in particular. It’s a perfect blend of game and console, something I’ve said in various Switch reviews beforehand. When a game lands on Switch and feels completely at home, it’s well worth investing in.
It’s one of those games I never really knew I needed until it came along and thankfully, exploring the story of Alice through her headphones was as cleansing and as wondrous as I had hoped it would be. The music is wonderful, the art style is remarkable and the story wants me to keep going back and discovering what may happen if I chose the left option instead of the right. Did I do right by that character? Was I listening correctly when I made *that* choice? Across the Grooves is stacked full of decisions that leave question marks on your conscience.
A breath of fresh, bright and breezy air after a summer of hard-hitting AAA’s, Fall Guys cements itself as an essential addition to your party library. Believe the hype.
his Season Update experiment makes you wonder why this hasn’t been the norm for football games for years. If this is the future of the genre, sign me up. EA should be looking over their shoulder. PES has retaken the crown.
An absolutely barnstorming return to the main stage for Harmonix, who have seemingly taken everything they’ve learned from eighteen years in the genre to create a fantastically creative, inventive and hands-stuck-to-the-controller levels of addictive rhythm video game, the kind of which has been sorely missed.
Planet Coaster arrives on consoles in scintillating form, offering up near-unlimited options to create the theme park of your dreams with ease. If there’s a hidden gem in the PS5 launch line-up, this is it.
The Witch Queen is a terrific addition to the Destiny 2 canon, finally balancing the combat and the story to near perfect levels. There’s so much here to enjoy, breathing new life into Destiny as a whole. Absolutely brilliant.