Jordan Campbell's Reviews
Blightbound for the most part ticks every box for the genre. With its Pokemon-esque approach of unlocking heroes and levelling them up at your own pace, it is a grinder’s dream. There are minor annoyances here and there and the AI bots could do with some work to make them easier to handle. You’ll be best suited to understand that this experience has been designed with co-op gameplay with friends or random players as the main focus.
I’m going to go ahead and say that I enjoyed TEN so much more than I thought I was going to. Whilst it can be a short few hours for some of the most experienced players, it can be a long endurance for those who whack that difficulty option higher. Whilst longevity and replayability are there for those who’d like to try and hack it on a harder run-through, once you’ve completed it the first time, you’ve seen it all.
Kao the Kangaroo is certainly up there with the best of the 3D platforming world in terms of its core mechanics. The revival of the franchise from Tate Multimedia is a solid comeback, but for me, it just wasn’t challenging enough to become one of the more memorable games in the pile.
Endzone – A World Apart quickly established itself as one of my favourite strategy games on a console. The game comes as a breath of fresh air when the genre is quite limited in terms of selection and watered down options of other titles. I’ve poured in excess of 30 hours into this title within a week and I have barely scratched the surface and this is without engaging with any of the scenario options.
Ayo The Clown impressed me much more than I thought was possible. The game is mechanically solid and provides a stimulating challenge for gamers of all ages.
If you haven’t played the Yakuza games then I guess you may have been hiding under a rock. Either that or you simply haven’t stumbled upon the series just yet. Judgement is essentially a spin-off of the Yakuza series and an excellent place to start for newcomers to this genre of game. Judgement was originally released way back in 2019 for the Playstation 4 and has now found its way to other platforms.
Not a lot of people in the gaming industry know that my day job is currently on the railway. So when I saw Train Station Renovation was releasing on Xbox I had to jump at the chance of playing it. It’s no secret that the railway network in the UK isn’t the best in terms of infrastructure and speed. Delays galore in built-up areas and signalling problems in the more challenging rural areas of the country. The truth is that the railway takes complex logistics to run. It is almost like a giant jigsaw puzzle, if one piece goes missing or wrong then the remainder is in a sticky situation.
If you placed a Tony Hawk title and the cars from Rocket league into a blender and mixed them together what do you think the end product would be? Well, I have the answer, that would be REKT: High Octane Stunts! Developed by Little Chicken Game Company and published by No Gravity Games, the game is available across several platforms. Starting its life on the mobile gaming scene, REKT: High Octane Stunts is also on Steam and Nintendo Switch. For the purpose of this review, I’ll be playing the game on Xbox Series X.
I first played Super Bomberman R Online back in September 2020 when it became a “First to Stadia” exclusive. My experience with the game was exceptional back then but I was left wondering whether it would arrive on other platforms at some stage. Fast forward to 27th May 2021 and we see the introduction of the game to Xbox (including Series S/X), Playstation 4/5, Steam and Nintendo Switch. The great news is that Super Bomberman R online features crossplay. This means we can expect to see busy servers and super quick matchmaking.
Two Parsecs From Earth has landed on Xbox and pushes itself as a simple 2D platformer. What I love about Ratalaika Games is the fact they publish some truly unique indie titles. You genuinely don’t know what to expect, and that is the beauty of choosing a game with their name branded on it. In Two Parsecs From Earth, you play as robot Z3-L1. He has had some truly terrible luck when his ship makes a crash landing on planet Dimidium. His ship smashed to absolute pieces and the contents are spread across the planet. I’m sure you’ll know where this is heading, but it is your job to locate all the missing parts and collect them. Collecting the parts is going to be the goal in order to rebuild your ship and get back to your mission at hand.
Admittedly I was sceptical about what Knockout City would be like looking from the outside in. As an adult, it is difficult to take games with cartoon-style graphics seriously sometimes, I’m looking at you Fortnite. The truth is when titles like this are developed properly and pushed in the right direction they can be a massive success. Being old enough to recall the 2004 hit movie Dodgeball (which was hilarious by the way), I often wondered how well this ideology would transition to a video game.
I think most of us can agree that none of us like a nightmare in our routine of sleep. However, some of us might all enjoy a point and click game that mimics a bad dream. Bad Dream: Coma has been on the scene for quite some time originally launching way back on 9th March 2017. Bad Dream: Coma was developed by Desert Fox and published by Ultimate Games. Finally, the title makes its mark on the Xbox family of consoles. For the purpose of this review, I’ll be playing using an Xbox Series X.
When I see Kalypso Media stamped onto a game, I immediately think of strategy titles such as Tropico, Port Royale, Dungeons and Commandos 2. They have a huge catalogue of amazing RTS experiences which span several years so I was delighted when Starbase Startopia emerged onto the scene. Developed by Realmforge Studios and launched at the back end of March 2021, you can acquire the game on PC, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch.
If you’re a fan of titles such as Yakuza and Shenmue then there is a great chance you may just enjoy The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa. Developed and published by yeo, The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa is an existential open-world beat ’em up with some school sim elements.
There’s a wide spectrum of old-school retro-style games out on the market that are waiting to be discovered. Being a gamer with thirty years of experience has taught me that graphics don’t always make a game and that some of the classics remain fun even today.