Gaming Nexus
HomepageGaming Nexus's Reviews
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown strikes a harmonious balance between combat, puzzles, and exploration, providing a satisfying blend for players. The shadow of the deluxe edition looms, introducing cosmetic items and early access at a questionable price point. Despite this, the core game experience remains untarnished, making the deluxe edition an optional, albeit somewhat disappointing, add-on. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a delightful journey, offering a well-paced adventure that managed to keep me engaged from start to finish.
Cookie Cutter is a good Metroidvania, elevated by some pretty stellar graphics. Don't expect to walk through this one - the game raises the difficulty in response to your character powering up. A lot of value here for the asking price.
Towers and Powers is an excellent example of how virtual reality can enhance certain genres. I've played tower defense games before, but what I didn't know until now is that VR is the definitive way to enjoy them. Towers and Powers convinced me of that, making it an easy game to recommend on PS VR2.
TEVI is an enjoyable game with a great art style, fun dialogue, and a combat system that can somehow be both simple and complex at the same time. The Metroidvania-style gameplay isn't quite as strict as others in the genre and most of the bullet hell scenarios take place during the boss fights which require a good amount of patience and strategy. If you enjoy the demo, I definitely recommend checking out the full version.
It's rare to see such a massive VR game, especially on a mobile platform. Asgard's Wrath 2 delivers a ton of gameplay and a mountain of content. Minor issues aside, this game has it all for VR owners and is a great sequel to the Quest 2 game.
While I eventually began having fun with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the game was a very difficult nut to crack. Rather than being open to the way I wanted to play it, Avatar pushed me to find the way it wanted to be played, and then kinda punished me for doing so. Frontiers of Pandora should feel free and flowing, but I've found a lot of the experience to be restrictive and near-punitive. Once I pushed through the game's many barriers to entry, I started having a good time, but don't expect to just jump in and have fun. Like Jake Sully, it's going to take a while to find your Avatar-legs.
Despite its flaws, Gothic II remains a fascinating relic, a testament to the ambition and innovation of early open-world RPGs. While its clunky controls, outdated mechanics, and fetch-quest-heavy narrative might not resonate with modern players, its intricate world-building, hidden secrets, and surprisingly complex player agency shine through even today. It's a game that demands patience, but rewards exploration with a sense of discovery and genuine joy in overcoming its challenges. Ultimately, Gothic II's legacy lies not in its polish but in its pioneering spirit. It helped lay the groundwork for the genre we know and love, and for that, it deserves our respect, even if I ultimately choose to leave its clunky controls and endless errands in the past.
Arizona Sunshine 2 might not be the groundbreaking landmark the first game was, but improved gunplay, a fun companion, and rapid-fire jokes make this a ride well worth taking. Often tense, always fun, and sometimes emotionally impactful, Arizona Sunshine feels like big-budget entertainment. Just play by yourself the first time so your friend doesn't chatter through all the good stuff.
Sanabi is a secret masterpiece. I don't know why it's a secret, but it is. It's a platforming clinic, with extremely tight controls, and the story hit me in the center of my heart. You'll probably play it one more time to speed run it, but I wont. Some games are better left one and done. This is one of those games. Unbelievable.
Without a ton of bells and whistles, Pickleball One delivers a streamlined Pickleball experience that feels great. Pickleball One will teach you how to play Pickleball, train you to get better at it, and allow you to take those skills to the community that has gathered around the game. It ain't fancy, but it certainly gets the job done.
Lego Bricktales VR pulls of an amazing trick, allowing you to play with gorgeous Lego sets floating around in your own home through the magic of mixed reality. Detailed and beautiful, while still being a fun and challenging game, I can't think of a better way to show off VR to stubborn non-believers. The potential of what is on display here is limitless.
Despite minor complaints about the story's pacing, the overall experience of Persona 5 Tactica is rewarding. Engaging combat dynamics and a strategic depth that is hidden at the game's slower-than-I-wanted start kept me invested in the tactical twists. Persona 5 Tactica successfully delivers a compelling inter-quel that stands on its own within the beloved franchise. Persona 5 Tactica is a solid, enjoyable tactics game that still feels like a Persona game despite not being a true RPG. It successfully blends the Persona universe with a tactical RPG gameplay style. This one can be enjoyed by Persona 5 fans and tactics fans alike.
Forest Grove is very short and a little rough around the edges but it's a decent mystery story that kept me interested throughout and made me want to keep playing to find every piece of evidence I could to complete the story.
I enjoyed Astral Ascent when it was in Early Access and I still enjoy it after it's official release. Multiple characters, spells, and abilities along with procedurally generated areas and some fun and interesting boss fights against the Zodiacs give Astral Ascent plenty of replayability. If these kinds of games are up your alley, you'll get plenty of gameplay out of Astral Ascent.
Can torturing prisoners in a secret underground laboratory be kinda boring? The Kindeman Remedy shows that it can. Essentially a time management game, The Kindeman Remedy has players putting an evil doctor and his nun assistant through the paces of dark experiments in a way that ends up feeling a lot like a repetitive day of work. Some cheap kicks to be had from the not-so-violent violence, but the shock value is short-lived. Not a prison I would want to spend any significant amount of time in.
Teardown is one of the most fun games I have played this year. The combination of destructible environments and timed heists never gets old. Not quite mindless, Teardown is still a great way to turn your brain off and just blow stuff up. It is packed with so much content that you likely won't get bored of anytime soon.
Slay the Princess is my first visual novel in my roughly thirty-five years as a gamer and I enjoyed every minute of it. With so many dialogue options to choose from, no two runs of the story are the same, and even when you get to the story's finale there are still a few different ways it can ultimately end. The voice acting and soundtrack ties everything together beautifully and for someone who never got into visual novels, I can't recommend this one enough. If you're looking for a psychological horror story with quite a bit of comedic dialogue thrown in, then definitely prepare to Slay the Princess…that kind of came out weird.
Jusant is one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2023. The rock-climbing gameplay is simple yet extremely satisfying to play, and it's masterfully interwoven with the narrative and lore of the world. It's a surprisingly quaint, emotional story that packs a punch despite having zero spoken dialogue, which is a testament to the narrative chops of Don't Nod. I still find myself thinking about Jusant days after staring a meditative hole through its ending credits.
Though not as groundbreaking as the original, the VR remake of The 7th Guest is still a pretty good time. Delivering a corny/spooky story and a big pile of cleverly designed puzzles, this is a fun VR reinterpretation of the classic, with just enough crossover with the original to elicit pleased gasps from fans. While the VR implementation struggles at times, those issues don't completely hamper the overall sense of fun and mystery.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged has improved and expanded every aspect of the original game, and smoothed out some of the difficulty spikes that entranced/enraged me the first time around. Though the new story is mostly kid stuff, the actual racing is still challenging and wildly exciting. Crushingly good graphics, fun mechanics, and the obsessive collection of amazing toys once again combine to create a fantastic must-play racer.