Paul Hunter's Reviews
From the very first suplex all the way to the explosive boss-gauntlet final stage, I had a blast playing Cannon Dancer - Osman. It's such an amazing game and I have no idea how this game slipped past me in the arcades in the '90s, but I'm glad I got to experience this gem on my PS5.
Cosmic Chaos' high quality hit me like a batarang out of nowhere. I was expecting a modestly fun, competent action-adventure game for kids but instead, we got a thrilling and engaging superhero romp that DC comic book fans of all ages need to play. Easily one of the 2023's biggest surprise hits so far.
Peppa Pig: World Adventures is an easy recommendation for parents that have kids into this popular series. Its wonderful presentation will have your young ones thinking they're playing an interactive TV show featuring their favourite loveable pig family.
The Resident Evil 4 remake is a phenomenal experience that simply has to be played by everyone that has a PlayStation, Xbox or PC. Quality is through the roof, whether it's the snappy gameplay, gorgeous graphics, smartly remixed campaign or the many quality-of-life improvements. The game sits next to the original RE4 as the two greatest entries of this storied franchise.
Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is a glorious mash-up of two incredible franchises and it's simply sublime. Whether you're a long-time fan of Dead Cells or a newcomer like me, this is a meaty Castlevania expansion you can really sink your teeth into.
Scars Above really embraces its sci-fi and soulslike themes, offering an atmospheric game with a good balance between exploration, puzzle-solving and battles. It's a bit janky but palatable when you consider the game comes at a budget price. If you're looking for something different than the mainstream cooker cutter offering, Scars Above is worth the time and effort.
Following Team Ninja's excellent Nioh games, the studio once again proves its unmatched mastery of the action-RPG genre with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. It offers rock-solid gameplay and excellent accessibility while still providing a good challenge.
Go! Go! PogoGirl is a fantastic homage to classic platformers that fans of Sonic the Hedgehog or DuckTales will surely love. It offers top-notch level design, a charming aesthetic and a nice mix of platforming challenges and puzzle-solving to get through each stage. It's the perfect length, too, and encourages replayability.
Wanted: Dead is a hard game to review considering nearly every aspect has positives and flaws. The gameplay can be extremely satisfying when you get into a good rhythm, but the limited enemy variety and spongy health make every mission feel the same. The story and characters have wacky charm, at times being incredibly funny yet far too frequently becoming a head-scratcher. The cutscene voice acting is bad, but the anime flashbacks are superb. I could go on and on but the bottom line is this game is unique—for better or for worse—and probably just as many people will love it as those who don't.
Metroid Prime Remastered is an exceptional upgraded version of one of Nintendo's greatest games ever. Anyone that enjoyed Metroid Dread or plays action-adventure games in general needs to get this title which stands tall among the Switch's crowded library of triple-A first-party bangers. Gaming doesn't get much better than this.
For a game based on such a non-exciting task, PowerWash Simulator is way, way more fun than it ought to be. That mainly comes to down the game embracing its silliness, putting you the perpetually dirty Muckingham and tasking you with washing ridiculous places like a giant shoe home or a washroom with decades of baked-on piss stains. Once you settle into the game's zen-cleaning state, you'll easily melt the hours away obsessively cleaning objects until they look brand spanking new.
Dead Space remake pays full tribute to the original game and adds exciting new features and improvements, making it a brilliant and terrifying survival horror experience. EA Motive clearly saw what Capcom was doing with their Resident Evil remakes and managed to hit a quality bar on par with those efforts.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake delivers exactly what I'd hope for: a fun-filled new SpongeBob adventure that takes the gameplay, graphics and vibe of Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated to the next level.
Season - A Letter to the Future is a joyous experience unlike any I've played in recent memory. It's a calming, cathartic game where you'll end up learning just as much about yourself as you do this interesting and unusual world. The scope narrows in the second half of the game, which was a slight disappointment, but the overall journey was still rewarding making it an easy recommendation.
Going into Forspoken I had cautious optimism, but I walked away happy with the experience. The gameplay is the real winner here: from the hyper-fast traversal to the deep magical combat there's a lot to appreciate. Yes, Frey and Cuff's dialogue often made my eyes roll but at least the game's lore is intriguing and worth exploring to its fullest.
Trenches is a bold first-person survival horror game that delivers chilling jump scares in a unique war-torn environment. The audio design is the real winner here, and playing the game with headphones on is a must. The visuals wear thin after one playthrough and there's not much incentive to reply this short game, but at ten bucks it offers a couple of hours of intense scares that are worth experiencing if you're a big horror buff.
If you enjoy classic horror games from yesteryear, this game is ready to give you an earful of scares.
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider kicks off 2023 in the best way possible with an immaculate retro platforming title delivering tight gameplay, gorgeous visuals, great enemy variety and intense boss fights. Anyone who enjoys classics like Contra or Shinobi should have this game on their radar.
Jitsu Squad is pure brawling awesomeness. The gameplay is buttery smooth, lightning-fast and thoroughly satisfying—exactly what you'd want from a beat 'em up. Mix in the eye-popping hand-drawn cartoon graphics, finessed animations and a thumping soundtrack and this game delivers the goods. It's a shame then that in its current state the content is a bit lacking, but hopefully, the Kickstarter stretch goals get rolled out soon as they'd make the game an unqualified recommendation.
The Callisto Protocol is an impressive first release from Striking Distance Studios with sublime visuals and immersive 3D audio, all set in a captivating new game world I just have to see more of. The performance on PS5 is exceptional: buttery-smooth frame rates, crisp 4K resolution and one of best implementations of ray tracing and DualSense features I've seen yet. If only the combat was better this would be a near-perfect outing, but alas that aspect needs some major reworking.