Sammy Barker's Reviews
If you're nostalgic for the 90s and genuinely enjoy minigame compilations, Arcade Paradise is utterly essential. The title's tongue-in-cheek tycoon gameplay and simulator window dressing serve as the backdrop for dozens upon dozens of video game parodies, spanning a GTA-style Pac-Man clone through to an OutRun-inspired futuristic racer. Not every idea shines, but the sheer density of content alone means you'll never get bored. And with an addictive progression system that's forever tempting you with something shiny on the horizon, this release actually lives up to its name: it's truly an arcade paradise.
The crossover between Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium and last month's Capcom Fighting Collection is bizarre, but there's more than enough additional content in this compilation to justify a double-dip. While we wish the publisher would have integrated more social features to make the pursuit of high scores more fulfilling, the reality is that retro game enthusiasts will want to revisit much of what this package has to offer.
Syphon Filter's unwieldy controls make it difficult to play today, but Bend Studio helped pioneer the third-person shooter genre with this memorable 1999 outing. A globe-trotting campaign with large open-ended levels make many of Gabe Logan's missions memorable, and while the story errs on the side of airport fiction with its ludicrous double-crosses and ham-fisted voice acting, there still aren't many games that make you feel like James Bond quite like this one does.
Matchpoint: Tennis Championships gives you the tools to play realistic tennis rallies, and it feels pretty good on the pad overall. The problem is that a real lack of enthusiasm on court pairs with a stodgy career mode to sap your enthusiasm. There's fun to be had here, and a large animation library allows the gameplay to look relatively realistic from afar, but tennis fans will still have to wait for a real winner to topple the legendary Top Spin 4.
As an accessible, arcade sports game, Hot Shots Tennis is a winner. However, the game is basic and bare bones, and was ultimately surpassed by its superior PSP successor, Hot Shots Tennis Portable. If you go in with the right expectations then you won't be disappointed with the fare on offer here – but for Clap Hanz, it's a clear case of its second service of tennis being the true ace.
Hot Shots Golf has hardly changed in the years since it released, and that's because Camelot hit the sweet spot with its very first swing. While later entries refined the gameplay and ultimately made it more forgiving, the series' sickly sweet centre is still present and correct in this inaugural instalment. Importantly, it'd go on to form the foundation for dozens upon dozens of arcade golf games afterwards – including, perhaps most notably, the many Mario Golf titles.
Cycling enthusiasts may find something to enjoy in the unique, tactical gameplay, which is all about picking your moments and pedalling like there’s no tomorrow.
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined's ability to seamlessly segue from what seems like a simple remaster into a full-blown remake is brave – and it does it beautifully, too. This looks and sounds like you remember the Super Nintendo release, but is bursting with vibrant flourishes that elevate it beyond mere nostalgia. For purists, it'll no doubt be perfect – but newcomers may scoff at the archaic control scheme, which purposefully limits your capabilities and leads to significant pain.
Atari, in its current incarnation, seems setup solely to profit from its past classics. Gravitar: Recharged, though, actually does justice to the original – and even if you weren’t around in the 80s, there’s fun to be found in this sprightly shmup at the right price.
Final Vendetta wears its heart on its biceps: it’s a burly and brutal beat-‘em-up that serves as a love-letter to the 16-bit greats from a bygone era. Ass whoopins have never felt quite this good.
Overall, this is a handful of games and a legal settlement away from being comprehensive, but it undoubtedly gives you a flavour for Pac-Man’s storied career – and between the ups-and-downs, there’s plenty to chew on.
Sniper Elite 5 knows exactly who it's aimed at, and Rebellion is on target as always. The developer's dense French sandboxes are hugely replayable, and look fantastic to boot. There are some sloppy gameplay mechanics, like the climbing and twitchy camera, but these are easy to forgive. A wide array of difficulty options mean both super-agents and rookies can eke something out of this title, and with the release accommodating so many different play styles, it represents a real bullet to our heart – or should that be balls?
It’s a valiant effort, and an impressively authentic recreation all-in-all, but it just doesn’t hold up from a modern perspective – especially without a lightgun in-hand.
It'd probably be reductive to describe many of MLB The Show 22's improvements as the kind of thing you'd expect to find in patch notes, but it's still somewhat true. The gameplay feels great as always, and we really like the additions to March to October as well as the Mini Seasons mode in Diamond Dynasty. But while this is undoubtedly a streamlined, enhanced version of the already excellent MLB The Show 21, casual players will struggle to spot the difference – and, frankly, some aspects of the series are really beginning to tire.
The gameplay feels great, with those aforementioned 90-degree drifts requiring you to dance on the analogue sticks delicately, and there’s a lightning fast pace to the action which is trance-inducing. The core course design isn’t particularly inspired – you’re either sliding or going straight, with little variation in between – but the tracks here aren’t supposed to rival the Nurburgring: this is pure nostalgia, with scorching synthesisers and optional scanlines. It’s a tantalising ode to a timeless era of arcade racers, and one we reckon even Yu Suzuki himself would be proud to put his name on.
GTA 5 is beginning to show its age, but it's a testament to Rockstar's original vision that Los Santos still stacks up. The improvements to image quality and framerate give this sunny sandbox a new lease of life, and while some of the single player gags may not hit as hard as they did in 2013, there are still plenty of memorable missions across the release's 30 or so hour running-time. Meanwhile, GTA Online's freeroaming multiplayer lobbies remain unmatched, and while newcomers may find the learning curve borderline impenetrable, if you can overcome its idiosyncrasies there's nothing quite like the crime caper on offer here.
Windjammers 2 is an almost perfect revival of a classic 90s franchise. The sequel strikes an immaculate balance between new and old ideas, and presents the classic sports gameplay so vibrantly that it's hard not to be captivated by it all. There could, admittedly, be more meat on its bones – but it's online, with the gameplay's high skill ceiling, where the longevity will be found. We still want to spend a little more time testing this component, but our early impressions of the rollback netcode are positive to say the least.
If you yearn for the days of, say, Camelot’s Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color, then the fusion of sports and statistics may hold your attention here. But it’s best enjoyed in short bursts, as the tedium sets in quick, and will take a slice at your interest.
Not all of the gameplay translates perfectly to the DualSense, as it’s clearly been designed around either touchscreens or mouse-and-keyboards. It’s not a big deal, though, and once you find a good lobby with a friendly group this is one of the better party games you’ll find on the PS5. It’s just finding said people can be a bit of an exercise in trial-and-error, so be aware that you will be at the mercy of the release’s unchecked community unless you have a guaranteed group of pals to play with.
The biggest downside, then, is just the underlying lack of budget: cricket is popular enough, but it’s not baseball, and it’s clear that Big Ant Studios just didn’t have the resources to nail key gameplay mechanics, like fielding, which feels flat and unrealistic due to the limited selection of animation cycles in its library.