James Cunningham's Reviews
Full Metal Schoolgirl is an action-roguelike where the company Meternity Jobz has angered a couple of Japanese schoolgirls.
As a collectathon platformer, the goal of Yooka-Replaylee is to hoover up every item in the entire game, from the endless coins to scarcer book pages.
Little Rocket Lab is about as cozy an introduction to automation as could be imagined, with a cast of likable characters in a run-down, charming town.
Cladun X3 is the kind of action RPG that hides its complexity and depth of content behind a deceptively straightforward concept.
Fresh Tracks is a music game that reimagines the standard note track as a cross-country ski trail, with a series of obstacles synced to the beat.
The most important thing to keep in mind about Gex Trilogy isn't about how good the games are in 2025, but rather seeing their place in history.
Like SnowRunner before it, RoadCraft is a game of slow construction-machinery satisfaction rather than adrenaline-fueled action.
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a fully 3D open-world Metroidvania, where each new upgrade opens up new paths to useful resources in the earlier areas
I, Robot is an incredible sequel to a lost arcade classic, instantly playable by fans of the original but with new gameplay hooks to stand on its own.
Rusty Rabbit is a story-focused, level-based Metroidvania, which admitted isn't really how Metroidvanias tend to work.
Crashlands 2's crafting, building, exploration, story and even the combat all come together to make a ridiculously fun adventure.
Each level ups the stakes until the fight is an explosion of attacks, effects, purple danger zones, support heroes and carefully-managed chaos.
Everhood 2 is all over the place with changing art styles, a unique combat system and a plot that somehow makes more sense as it's getting weirder.
3D Don't Die Mr Robot is a ridiculously-playable arcade game that feels great whether just making things explode or chasing after a new score.
Techtonica is more story-oriented than most games of its type, but it's still an automation game with a good hundred hours of assembly and debugging.
Shady Knight's first-person action is as much about movement as it is hitting things, and both features are used in multiple ways.
The thing that sets Enotria: The Last Song apart from other games in its genre is that it's set in a theater-fantasy version of Italy.
In a game with the scope and polish of Satisfactory one hundred hours can be just the beginning of building the industrial powerhouse of your dreams.
Core Keeper is a strong survival game that can easily chew through the hours, providing a great balance between adventure and homesteading. There's a sense that no idea was left out, whether that be a constant pet companion or minecart rail lines, and while these may not get fully fleshed out, this is a rare occasion where quantity manages to make up for depth. The pet levels up and sometimes enemies drop treats that give it a nice experience boost, and that's all it needs to do. Minecart goes on tracks, riding it beats walking and maybe it doesn't need a complicated system of switches and sidings to get the job done. The underground world of Core Keeper stretches on for functionally forever, filled with chasms, monsters, resources beyond measure and even an underground sea. There's a huge amount of ways to play with it all and sometimes that's more than enough.
Race to get better. Race for self-improvement. Race to understand how knocking a few hundredths of a second off a best time can feel like victory.