Gunbrella has a wonderful chaotic energy that translates to truly satisfying combat and platforming moments, helping to facilitate an unorthodox, yet compelling story. The difficulty can trip some people up and a few sections do border on frustrating by making you re-fight through several screens to get back your progress. However, the challenge is mostly enjoyable, there’s some great writing in here, and it all comes together in a well-presented, finely tuned package that you’ll find really hard to put down.
Wargroove 2 is the perfect example of how to do a sequel. Stick with what worked the first time, logically add in new mechanics and ideas that add to the experience, offer a whole new mode that will keep you playing past the campaign, all while offering robust tools to expand your own experience and share with the world. There’s a few teething issues here and there, but nothing to detract from one of the better turn-based strategy games in recent memory.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage has gone right back to stealth-focused basics which seems destined to split the AC community down the middle. It’s as close to a remake as we may ever get for the original and sometimes it’s to a fault. Despite its stunning visuals and seamless parkour, the combat is really iffy, the environments soon become samey and mechanic repetition set in pretty quickly. While it’s welcome to see the hard-focused return on stealth and the Assassin’s Contracts actually make you feel like an Assassin again, the change in pace between games is really breakneck and it’s probably not going to be to everyone’s tastes.
Gargoyles Remastered is an absolutely incredible reinvention of 1995 aesthetics with a beautiful style that feels like it’s been ripped out of the original cartoon and a stunningly recomposed soundtrack that tugs at those nostalgia strings. Unfortunately, it does still feel like a game trapped in time with clunky controls, sharp difficulty spikes and underwhelming boss battles. It’s also a bit limited in new features for this remaster, but at a fairly attractive price, the mechanics offer something a bit different from other games of this era and the style and setting has an atmosphere most platformers can only dream of.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 1 comes complete with the same world class, incredible games but sadly doesn’t feel like a worthy collection of this world-class franchise. The presentation causes unnecessary confusion and the preservation is surprisingly lacking across all the featured titles. There’s some great optional extras in here, such as screenplays for all games, a compilation for the franchise and a fan-dream of being able to play the different MGS 1 territorial variations along with playing some games on respective platforms for the first time. But nothing has moved on for MGS 2 and 3 since the HD Collection and without Twin Snakes or any major, noticeable tweaks to MGS1, there feels like a lack of desire to really maximise the potential of today’s platforms. This should have been a huge moment, bringing the original trilogy together like this, but you can’t help thinking this could and should have been more.