Matthew Pollesel

Ottawa

298 games reviewed
72.0 average score
75 median score
47.0% of games recommended
7.5 / 10.0 - Captain Blood
May 8, 2025

Really, it’s just worth playing if you want a love letter to late 2000s action games – or, I guess, if you want a time capsule from the same era that never saw the light of day due to a confluence of crazy factors. Either way, if that applies to your very specific gaming interests (and, weirdly, it does mine), then Captain Blood is a game you need to play.

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May 6, 2025

As a piece of video game history, Jaleco Sports: Bases Loaded is a pretty interesting time capsule. It offers a glimpse at how baseball games looked and played in the infancy of the medium – and probably gives a renewed appreciation for MLB The Show for anyone (myself included) for whom Sony’s series has felt like it’s treading water in recent years. I don’t know that Jaleco Sports: Bases Loaded is necessary for anyone other than video game historians and baseball diehards, but I’m still glad it exists.

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7 / 10.0 - SpellRogue
May 2, 2025

Because SpellRogue is structured and plays out in a way that’s so similar to Slay the Spire – you get three dice rolls (more if you get the right charms), you move your way up a board that features enemies, shops, havens in which to rest, and lots of random encounters –it’s hard to say that SpellRogue comes out on top when you make that obvious comparison. There’s a little too much grinding to go through for not a lot of reward, and while some people may love the challenge, it makes for a less addictive experience.

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Apr 28, 2025

Obviously, the match-3 genre isn’t known for producing a lot of innovation – unless you count finding new ways to get people addicted innovative. But Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is a clear exception to that rule. It’s addictive, sure, but it’s also interesting, and fleshed-out, and funny. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or someone who usually can’t stand it, you owe it to yourself to check this game out.

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9 / 10.0 - Critter Cafe
Apr 22, 2025

It’s a cozy, wholesome game about running a café and collecting weird creatures, and it’s got to be the most chill game imaginable. There are no real timers, no pressing objectives, nothing that could cause you stress in any way. It’s wonderful.

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Apr 21, 2025

Even if there’s some good there (specifically, the artwork), that’s balanced out by design decisions that make the game a lot more annoying than it should be.

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7 / 10.0 - Kaya's Prophecy
Apr 15, 2025

It bills itself as a mash-up of Slay the Spire and Stacklands, but it doesn’t really add anything to either of those games beyond a tribal motif.

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Apr 11, 2025

Everyone’s specific experiences with Peppered will differ, but taken as a whole, I have to imagine that anyone who like platformers will find themselves well-rewarded by this game.

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6 / 10.0 - Star Overdrive
Apr 10, 2025

Star Overdrive is another example of a game where a cool reveal didn’t live up to the end result. Whatever inspiration there was to be found in last year’s trailer didn’t make it to the finished product, and there’s little here to make the game worth recommending.

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7.5 / 10.0 - Two Point Museum
Apr 8, 2025

This entry in the Two Point series definitely represents a slight turn towards being (slightly) more serious and (slightly) more demanding – and while that may not be the worst thing in the world, it’s definitely not what I look to the series for, personally.

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Mar 31, 2025

Obviously, if Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered hits your nostalgia just right, none of that matters, and you’ll enjoy getting the chance to play some old favourites again on modern hardware. But without that sense of nostalgia, you’ll be left with a trio of games that weren’t all that good first time around, and it’s hard to imagine you’ll find them very worthwhile.

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Mar 26, 2025

Wyrmhall is a rare bird: a cozy game that doesn’t try to hide how repetitive it is at its core, but finds a way to make that gameplay loop surprisingly addictive. If you’re looking for something to knock out in a sitting, it’s worth checking out.

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7 / 10.0 - MLB The Show 25
Mar 24, 2025

It’s quite possible that Sony don’t think they need MLB The Show 25 to be a huge departure – after two years of adding in some cool new features, this may be the year they decided to coast a little. And, I mean, why not? Even a forgettable version of MLB The Show still delivers a best-in-class baseball experience. It makes it hard to recommend if you picked up the last few years’ editions, but if you’ve taken a year or two off, it might be time to jump back in.

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7.5 / 10.0 - Atomfall
Mar 21, 2025

If you want a traditional, linear experience with clear goals and objectives, Atomfall probably isn’t what you’re after. It’s very much a player-directed experience – for better and for worse, depending on your perspective. However, if you’re the type who wants a game to give you the freedom to play however you want, then you owe it to yourself to check out Atomfall.

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6.5 / 10.0 - Rise of the Ronin
Mar 17, 2025

No matter how fun the gameplay is, that doesn’t matter if the game doesn’t consistently work, and I don’t think anyone could realistically say that Rise of the Ronin works as it should on PC.

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8.5 / 10.0 - Expelled!
Mar 13, 2025

With a story that keeps you engaged and guessing to the end (whichever end you uncover), Expelled! is a worthy successor to inkle’s previous glories, and it’s the kind of game that every mystery fan needs to play.

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6.5 / 10.0 - Petit Island
Mar 6, 2025

Petit Island borrows a lot of well-established ideas without doing enough to make any of them feel like its own, and as a result, you’ll come away from the game wishing you could play some of those other games instead.

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8.5 / 10.0 - Split Fiction
Mar 4, 2025

Regardless of whether you want to play with someone else in-person or online, Split Fiction is well worth your time. It’s an excellent co-op adventure, and it’s easy to imagine the game garnering the same kind of following – and accolades – as It Takes Two.

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9 / 10.0 - Rolando Deluxe
Feb 27, 2025

Rolando was a triumph of mobile gaming on its first release, and Rolando Deluxe shows that it’s every bit as great now.

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Feb 25, 2025

If you’re a fan of old-school shooters – or even if you just like games where you don’t have to think much and you can fire away at everything that moves – you should definitely check out Forgive Me Father 2. It doesn’t break new ground, but with weapons and action this fun, it doesn’t need to.

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