The game looks great with its dark and brooding visuals. While each level has a menacing, dark-ish style, they are uniquely themed such as a forest, living train or even shooting the undead on the Moon. Enemy design, while a bit repetitive, is top-notch and creepy. Bosses are big and grotesque creations fun to challenge. The soundtrack is a high octave hard rock score to get your blood pumping as you shred The Meat’s armies. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Iron Meat aside from the fact that unlocked characters doesn’t offer any variety in terms of gameplay and the fact that given its old school inspiration, the gameplay is limited. When clearing the game, you can replay it and choose which level to play. Whether you’re looking for an old school inspired challenge or some quick fun, Iron Meat is an absolute must play. The gameplay is addictive, easy to pick up and play and some classic co-op action. While the gameplay is limited, the levels and challenge is very fun and addictive. Even after clearing the game, you’ll find yourself replaying levels to hone to skills or just as a stress relief. Iron Meat is a must buy. Don’t miss out.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is definitely going to be in the game of the year conversation. Time management nuisance aside, the game has it all; great environments/locale, enjoyable cast of characters, addictive combat system thanks to its combination of real-time and turn based; not to mention the Archetypes mechanics. Gamers looking for something diverse that will keep them busy for the foreseeable future absolutely need to get their hands on Atlus’ latest opus.
8 Bit Adventures 2 is a great addition to the RPG genre and a great to homage to classic games from the NES era; from the pixelated visuals to the turn based gameplay. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it adds its own few twists on a proven formula. That being said, 8 Bit Adventures 2 is absolutely worth your time and money; whether or not you’re an RPG fan or not.
Even in 2024, Chainsaw Lollipop RePOP is just big, dumb fun. The story, while existing, is there to give a premise to all of this, but the gameplay of running around and comboing enemies is the meat of the matter. Combat is surprisingly deep, especially as you purchase new skills; easier to learn, hard to master. But it does show its age; janky camera, messed up auto-aim, 2012 visuals. If you never played it and looking for big stupid fun or if you previously enjoyed it, it’s worth revisiting. Just not at that price.
The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is a great collection of games that is wildly different than the typical shooter or adventure. And also a great way for fans of the Ace Attorney series to experience an official localized version of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit. This bundle offers a very lenghty experience, especially without a walkthrough. While entertaining, reading a game on TV isn’t ideal and not necessarily the best type of game for long gaming sessions. If you’re looking for something new and quirky, Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is a must play
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is actually a decent and fun gaming experience. Easy to pick up and play, but hard to master thanks to its surprisingly deep combat system, RPG like mechanics and replay value. While character movement can feel a bit slow and the crazy difficulty spike 1/4 of the way in, it’ll easily fill your beat’em up void. But given its steep price tag for something that can be finished in about a 2 hour single sitting, might wanna wait for a sale.
Gori Cuddly Carnage is definitely one of 2024’s most obvious hidden gem. It’s a fun, hilarious, addictive 3D action platformer. The combat, while simplistic, mixed with regular and special attacks, is fun to use. The levels are all fun to explore and the action is top notch. Despite its shortcomings such as the repetitive nature of certain sequences, you can definitely do worst than Gori. If you’re looking for a fun and challenge action game, Gori Cuddly Carnage is a must-play.
Do I recommend Shadow of the Ninja Reborn? Well it depends. While they did make a few good improvements like the variety of sub-items, they made levels too long, with an unforgiving checkpoint/continue system, and forces players, as ninjas, to take it slow. Bottom line is if you played the original and loved it, this will feel like a completely unnecessary re-imaging. But if you haven’t played the original, this is a decent action game if you can get around its flaws.
Aspyr did a good job bringing Star Wars Bounty Hunter to a new generation of gamers, but unfortunately, they couldn’t address the core mechanics of the game such as the navigational aspect of it, the clunky lock-on system. If, like me, you are curious to try to 2002 classic or want to relive it for nostalgia, this remaster is worth (re)visiting, but if you’re too familiar and reliant on more recent gaming features such as checkpoints and map/objective tracker, you might feel more frustrated than anything else.
Unless you’re into mundane and boring gaming experience, Musashi vs Cthulhu will be right up your alley. While the idea of combining combat with rhythm based gameplay sounds like a novel idea, not having the proper soundtrack to give the game life (so to speak) is a huge miss. I can’t same a single redeeming feature for this game; there’s so many better action games, Musashi vs Cthulhu gets an A for effort but it’s an easy pass.
While I’m all for game preservation, it’s hard to justify this one. Ratalaika and other indie publishers make questionable decision when it comes to re-releasing older, lesser known games. Rider’s Spirits is a prime example of a game that has not aged well. At all. Barely any gameplay options, controls feel off and it’s boring. It’s baffling that this game released TWO years after Nintendo’s classic kart racer and it’s this bad. Unless you have a sentimental attachment to the 1994 original, this is an easy pass.
Zombies, Aliens and Guns is a surprisingly fun and enjoyable little twin-stick shooter. Especially with a friend. Sure, it does have its shortcomings; your short range weapon against enemies’ long range one is annoying. Also having to wait for your ammo/health to refill when there’s about 20-30 enemies waiting to be wrecked does feel a bit like Frogger by dodging everything. If you need a fun little game that can be played in short bursts, you can do worse than Zombies, Aliens and Guns.
Oh my. What a waste of potential. Panzer Paladin could’ve been something special. While I’m a fan of the genre and visuals, the gameplay falls flat due to too many annoyances. The sluggish movement, clunky checkpoint system, useless upgrades, ineffective dodging mechanic, levels that feel way too long (especially if you can’t use the checkpoints); it’s just more frustration than anything else. If I can say good things about this game is bosses are challenging and fun and the overall presentation felt like playing a true old school game. The rest? It can get in the bin. Unless you want to torture yourself, this is a pass.
While not a fan of the genre, Adam Wolfe really caught me by surprise. As you get older, you have less and less time to play, and having a Hint option allows players to get through this in a reasonable amount of time. The story is interesting, mini-games and puzzles are actually, for the most part, enjoyable to play. That being said, the P&C genre is not ideal with a controller and the developer did miss an opportunity here to make the game more lively by even making the combat point & click. Adam Wolfe is the ideal game to jump in the genre while long time fans have something new to chew on.
Phantom Fury is a fun throwback to classic shooters from the 1990s. It’s action packed with a decent variety of weapons at the player’s disposal to create a bit of chaos. While the core gameplay is enjoyable, it’s the few things around it such as the piss-poor weapon wheel, lack of aiming and the true to the classic formula: where do I go type of gameplay. If you can get over these like quirks, you’ll find a fun, challenging and fast paced shooter.
I’m all for game preservation and am happy to see games like this being revived especially after they were on a failed console that 95% of gamers never touched, let alone saw in person. But PO’ed Definitive Edition is one of those that should have remained in the past. While the premise is unique compared to typical war-themed first person shooters, this is barely playable. I can vouch for a Limited Run Games physical version for all the collectors out there, but buying this digitally to play it is just like setting money on fire. Unless your morbid curiosity gets the better of you, don’t even bother.
Not only has playing this game filled my brain with vivid and fond visuals of being a kid in the 90s, but it has also brought me core memories with my 6-year-old son. Being able to play split screen with him and laugh and spend quality time with him whilst having the best fun, is what Hypercharge Unboxed is all about. Digital Cybercherries has managed to tear my child away from the domination of Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft and he now craves time on this with his Dad and “just one more game” before bed. I can’t thank the team enough for bringing this to consoles and making it accessible to those without a PC. So, I have to grant Hypercharge Unboxed with the perfect score and I have several reasons for this. It sits on the pedestal of indie greatness that very few achieve alongside stunners like Cuphead and Vampire Survivors. In the three quality weeks I have had to review this, I have racked up over 50 hours of gameplay and I’m nowhere near done. It is a game that will be cemented to my hard drive for years to come because it will now be the couch co-op go-to game of choice and the closest feel to the best shooters on old-generation machines, a salute to classics like Timesplitters and the early Halo titles. If you don’t purchase this game at a very reasonable price point, you’re missing out on one of the best games to come to Xbox in 2024.
Horizon Chase 2 is definitely a must-play. It’s the best arcade racer since… well… its predecessor. It’s easy to pick up and play and can be hard to put down. Lots of content to unlock whether it be new rides or visuals styles. Whenever you need a change from racing sims or looking to give the racing genre a shot, Horizon Chase 2 is your best bet. Don’t miss out.
Nightmare Reaper is a fun, albeit frustrating addition to the FPS (or horror) genre. The shooting is solid and the environments are well done and creepy to explore, but the damage output from some enemies will lead to a quick death, especially when trying to figure out where they are shooting you from. The weapon diversity is surprisingly deep and it makes you want to keep playing to see what you can find. Fans of roguelites will enjoy this entry of the genre. However, if you’re not a fan of the genre, Nightmare Reaper won’t change your stance.
To be honest, when I saw Ratalaika Games pop up on screen, I tempered my expectations, but when I starting playing the game, I discovered one of the most boring, tedious, games I’ve ever played. The fact that you can’t control when you shoot is a giant red flag leaving no control to the player. Trying to kill bigger enemies or figuring how to complete certain objectives (such as the Meat tower thing) is borderline as possible. This is the pure definition of shovelware. Pass.