Chris Compendio's Reviews
First-person adventure Falcon Age was built with love but has some oddities more noticeable when not played with the PSVR headset.
Until Dawn follow-up Man of Medan has amazing ideas in the cooperative space but collapses under the weights of performance issues.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet takes the familiar trappings of the mainline series and overextends them while supporting its structure and foundation with duct tape and silly putty. Scarlet and Violet promises to add more to the core Pokémon formula, but all it truly adds is more square footage. It’s a game that invites unflattering comparisons to other open-world video games, current and past, and even ones from Nintendo itself.
There can still be fun gained from playing Marvel’s Avengers, but it may give you a headache — existential or otherwise — long before you reach that point.
Regardless, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl serves as an example of how surgical marketing can be, feeding competitive players with specific bullet points while trying to cast a wide net with its popular IP. Playing it may certainly make you smile, and moments of hype can follow. But in the end, it’s an extended meme at best and a monument to capitalistic cynicism at worst.
On paper, the concepts of Morphies Law sound original and creative, but once you dive into the game, you'll find a more shallow experience than you were expecting. And that's disappointing—while it may sound like I'm harping on the game for copying others, I love all of the games that inspired it and was hoping that this would be another unexpected indie darling for my beloved Nintendo Switch. But ultimately, Morphies Law ended up being less like Splatoon, and more like the game's namesake, Murphy's Law—a lot of things could have gone wrong with this game, and they did.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix is an anachronism of a video game, looking like it came from the 2000s while including characters from recent television shows. The first Nickelodeon Kart Racers, from 2018, was soulless and cynical, but I can say that the sequel is twice the game its predecessor was. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much, as the first game set the bar so low that it’s below even Rock Bottom.
Children, if you are somehow reading this, make sure that your parents do not get Nickelodeon Kart Racers for you. This game is a cruel punishment, and while I don't know you, I'm sure you do not deserve it. If you are gifted this game, tell whoever gave it to you to return it—that itself is a gift to them. If you cannot get rid of it, then get rid of it. Bury the game case in your backyard. Give it to your local Pagan to use it for their next Wiccan burning ritual. Go on a profound journey across the land and toss it into the nearest volcano. Nickelodeon Kart Racers is a sin masquerading as a video game, and now we must all wish for forgiveness.