Like a long Family Guy skit or an Asylum movie, it’s not even the quality of the humor itself – it’s the sheer audacity of coming up with this stuff and committing to it in a finished product. Priest Simulator: Vampire Show is not a balanced, polished or ambitious videogame, but the sheer absurdity of the humor and player freedom make it a fun experience – even though the actual gameplay is pretty damn janky and repetitive.
Bus Bound, to me, is the kind of game that proves that a bus driving simulation game can be fun, rewarding, and enjoyable, even if the act of slowly maneuvering such a vehicle is not something that excites you in the slightest. But a satisfying yet relaxing driving model, precise yet somewhat forgiving rules of the road, and a very lively and great-looking town to explore and evolve to your liking turn the game into a very enjoyable experience. Not a massive amount of content as of today, but with a lot of player agency and even a 4-player online co-op mode, it’s definitely one of the finest vehicle simulation games I’ve ever played.
A fun driving model, a deep and incredibly rewarding vehicle-building system, with plenty of challenging content to play for dozens of hours. It has a few balance issues, and it may lack the ludicrous depths of some of the best bullet-hell games, but its unique gameplay loop and deep build variety make TerraTech Legion pretty much a must-play for fans of the genre.
While not as groundbreaking of an evolution as last year’s game, MotoGP 26 pretty much does everything right. It tweaks both the simulation and arcade riding styles, it adds more options to career and multiplayer modes alike, and offers plenty of content and customization options. It has a few technical issues that are atypical for this series, and it may still lack the incredible depth and variety of the licensed F1 games. Yet, MotoGP 26 is a fine step forward for an already excellent racer, even if its iterative nature makes it a less essential upgrade than last year’s game.
Vampire Crawlers is one of the best roguelike deck-builders on the market right now. It’s fast, charming, addictive and tremendously well-crafted. Poncle has done it again.
The golden era of track-based arcade racers may be behind us, but that didn’t stop Milestone from developing a marvellous one in this day and age. This reboot of Screamer has all the core elements of a modern classic: a meaty single player campaign with a rich story, a fantastic sense of style, a snappy arcade-style driving model with a high skill ceiling, and plenty of content to enjoy in both local and online play. Screamer is bold, exciting, but most importantly, incredibly fun, and it may just be one of the finest arcade racers in years. If you miss the good old days of fantastic arcade racers with personality, do yourself a favour and buy Screamer.
Is Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! a stellar shooter? Not really. In fact, it doesn’t even touch the heights of Auroch Digital‘s own Boltgun. But this Starship Troopers tie-in is respectful to the source material, and the giant battles against bugs with retro shooter vibes is both fun and nostalgic. Not a ton of depth or variety to boot, and the lack of any form of multiplayer is a missed opportunity, but this all-out war between humans and bugs can be quite a riot at times.
Marathon is a hugely inconsistent game. Some marvelous vistas and stylistic choices, yet the world feels void of interesting events and feels small, with only a few small, static and repetitive maps. Some great shooting is accompanied by a crazy low TTK that encourages playing as passively as possible.
iRacing Arcade is a good time, but it comes short of true greatness. The presentation is cute, and the driving model makes for a solid arcade romp to waste some time on. But the snappy controls make faster cars not very pleasant to drive, which heavily impacts its viability as a “serious” arcade racer. A shame, because it boasts a fairly impressive list of tracks, a solid online suite and leaderboards, as well, on top of being tremendously well optimized.
POOLS is quite literally a walking game. No story, progression, dialogue or clear message to speak of – it’s all about vibes and interpretation, despite having some sort of an endign that’s open to interpretation. It’s a short but fascinating ride, even though there is barely any gameplay, which may turn away some people.
Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition is how such remasters should be done. All versions, all the content you could imagine, tons of modern emulation tricks, a never before available playable prototype, and a brilliant new documentary to boot. It’s even priced well, at 19.99 USD/EUR! Now… can we please get a similar treatment for the Rayman sequels?
What we’re left with is a mostly competent, not particularly memorable arcade racer with a handful of highs, but some baffling lows as well.
It took six entries, but the RIDE franchise has finally graduated. What used to be promising, enjoyable, but ultimately not particularly remarkable motorcycle racers, now gave way to RIDE 6 – a legitimately great bike racing game.
Carmageddon: Rogue Shift is a mechanically satisfying destruction-based racer, offering high-octane and chaotic races combining bold weapons, lots of zombies and lots of crunching metal.
Don’t Stop, Girlypop! presents a brilliant audiovisual experience, combining over-the-top “girly” Y2K aesthetics with one of the fastest FPS modules on the market. If you’re a fan of the 2000’s pop culture, the high-energy female vocaled pop music of the era and have been dying to dazzle your weapons in a shooter, this game is for you. Those searching for an Ultrakill-tier boomer shooter, however, might walk away disappointed, as underneath it all is a slightly clunky, not particularly memorable sequence of arenas with big hordes of enemies and weak platforming on the side.
Ultimately, like many licensed games based on pre-school programs, Dora: Rainforest Rescue is not a deep or innovative platformer. It is, however, very loyal to the Dora IP, it is bright and colourful and incredibly accessible for even young players’ first videogame ever. It could have used some more inventive or variety, but it’s a great Christmas gift for young Dora fans. Especially now that it’s 50% off!
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is an absolute riot. It's not afraid to rely on copious amounts of nostalgia, while also pushing the series forward in the most logical direction. Treyarch have looked back at Black Ops 2 and 3 for inspiration, and have delivered a fantastic Call of Duty, full to the brim of incredible content.
RENNSPORT has all the core elements in place to be an engaging and accessible racing simulation. A handling that feels solid even a controller, a more welcoming approach than most hardcore sims have, and a lot of solid ideas to have great racing going at all times – against the AI and online alike. Yet, with only 12+2 tracks, a limited selection of cars, a lack of polish in many areas, various missing features and a confusing microtransaction model, it needs more time in the oven to truly become an essential racing simulation.
Let Them Come: Onslaught is a quality bullet heaven experience. It offers a lovely art style, an exciting soundtrack and an intense difficulty with well-designed level progression. It is, however, a bit on the short side, with only 4 levels, 2 characters and not a huge build variety.
XENOTILT: HOSTILE PINBALL ACTION is a great evolution of DEMON’S TILT sensational digital pinball formula. A table that looks and plays even better, various new modes and ideas, even though the general feel of the game has not changed much. Eye-popping 16-bit visuals, a banging 16-bit soundtrack and a brilliant gameplay loop.