Cubed3's Reviews
The level of detail means that Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is an idealised portrayal of having a successful green thumb. The customisation for building style and colour may be limited, but since the focus is on planting and flower care rather than architecture, dozens of options aren't needed. There are styles of tools to suit all tastes, with a mode for those who don't care for the story and want to focus on only the gardening. Let's hope a sequel is in the works with bigger gardens and new features.
Lemon Cake displays the best of indie gaming, using a surprisingly detailed interface that manages to remain easy to grasp from the start. It has the highest level of charm and fits perfectly in the Nintendo Switch library.
As far as remakes go, Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 is the absolute best case scenario. It's faithful where it counts, yet introduces plenty of new tricks and ideas that justify itself. The expanded content, replay value, and additional endings make it the ultimate way to reexperience a classic story. The visuals are stunning, and perhaps even a bit too ambitious, as the Xbox Series X|S version had to make a few minor compromises to hit its performance goals. The classic Silent Hill 2 is one of the best survival horror games of its time, and this remake carries on its legacy and serves as a worthy alternative for anyone who can't play the original.
A marked improvement on the first Falconeer game, Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles is a creative and slick "city" builder, giving players all of the tools needed for complex relationships and resource management while succeeding in the goal of making a very simple control scheme. It's possible the game won't win over everyone with its basic systems, and it may not be played for a particularly long time, but for those it clicks with, it is an addictive experience. With its unique atmosphere and setting, this is the Falconeer game to get.
The premature conclusion to Lapin is disappointing, as the combination of an appealing art style, fluid gameplay, and rabbits with unique skills who solve puzzles made it a near excellent title for PlayStation 5. One can only hope the game-freezing error gets fixed in later updates, allowing discovery of what happens in the end rather than the lettuce lovers remaining in limbo for eternity.
RPG maniacs who missed out on Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered due to the language barrier can finally check it out. International is the same remaster with identical QOL features, but now with additional language options to make it easier than ever for any Western gamer to enjoy this grossly overlooked, open-ended PlayStation 2 RPG.
Let it Die: Inferno is a gorgeous and highly stylised game that can’t stop tripping over itself. Combat is frustrating and unfair instead of challenging, exploration and item collection are made negligible by timers and resets, and certain characters and music are weakened by AI “enhancements” that don’t enhance the game in any way. Inferno itself is solid, and there aren’t many bugs or glitches, but the game on offer is one that is trying to appeal to a niche of players who certainly can find a lot of fun in its gameplay loop, but working through the design flaws and constant resets will prove as much of a challenge as the combat and exploration of a soulslike are meant to be.
Octopath Traveler 0 is a massive game, with an abundance of content and exploration available. It relies heavily on a more strategic style of turn-based combat than previous entries, with interesting stories and characters in a nostalgic graphical style. However, there are times where the story becomes a touch too cliché and predictable. It certainly doesn't lack in polish, though, with a fantastic soundtrack and delightful HD-2D visuals and, apart from a few hiccups, it runs without issue. This is the perfect title to get lost in for hours and hours.
Log Away aims for calm cabin-building bliss and reaches it…only to lose it minutes later. While its cosy vibes have some charm, with no pressure to do anything besides crafting the tiny retreat of your dreams, the experience is dragged down by poor optimisation, a lack of settings, and shallow, highly limited building options. With nothing to do after quick completion and no world to explore, relaxation soon turns into boredom.
Picross S: Capcom Classics Edition delivers what is promised: puzzles full of classic Capcom games and characters, with beautiful artwork and a soundtrack to set the scene. Thanks to the different modes, hours of gameplay await both experienced and new players. Train your brain and relive the classic Capcom era!
Baseless' main mechanic takes getting used to. There is no way around that. Anyone who plays it on its own terms and learns to harness the physics will find it rewarding. Most of the time, using a high-powered space gun to control movement feels like trying to tame a wild beast. It's understandably unwieldy, yet mastering it under one's dominion is a euphoric rush.
Dragon Ruins II neatly builds on the first game’s foundation, delivering a more varied, engaging, and refined dungeon-crawling experience. For fans of simple but addictive RPG loops, it’s one of Kemco’s stronger efforts in recent years — a sequel that respects its roots while confidently raising the bar for possible sequels.
Dispatch is an absolute whale of a time. The superhero workplace shenanigans are compelling, funny, beautifully written and brought to life by exceptional performances and some of the finest writing the medium can offer. The branching narrative and impactful choices are always felt, even if some of the outcomes are a little predictable or slightly too black and white. Still, this is a narrative adventure that Telltale fans will not want to miss — in fact, Dispatch establishes itself at the pinnacle of the genre.
While The Drifter mostly succeeds as an immersive interactive novel, the experience, although solid and well paced, never quite evolves into something more than a moody two-evening adventure. What’s really a shame with Powerhoof’s creation is that while it’s a finely crafted point-and-click with great art direction and dark atmosphere, its shift from noir character drama and tense thriller to sprawling sci-fi conspiracy pulp is ultimately a disservice to the emotional potential of its arresting opening chapters.
Playing Hitman: Absolution on Switch is a great way to replay it or give it a second chance. The gyro aiming improves the playability dramatically and may get veteran naysayers to accept the game on its own terms. It's a flawed and sometimes dumb experience with situations that make no sense, but still manages to be one of the better third-person action-adventure games, and a lot of it has to do with the gritty signature Hitman ambiance, presentation, and 47's impossibly cool dialogue and wit. He's a fun character, and getting any chance to be him is worth a few instances of sloppy design.
A personal penchant for SNK’s works will be one of the biggest factors in purchasing Picross S: SNK Classics & Neo Geo Edition, but with the amount of content on offer, with hundreds of puzzles of varying difficulties crammed into one package, this latest iteration can be recommended to any Picross fan.
The move to a 3D presentation came out well for R-Type Delta, and it looks great all these years later in this revamped format. An excellent soundtrack makes every stage more exciting, and the variety of spacecraft to choose from keeps playthroughs fresh. Like most shoot ‘em ups, this is a tough game, but it is one that sits right up there in the genre. That said, more features, unlockables and screen filters could have really elevated R-Type Delta: HD Boosted.
Cosy games really don’t get much better than PowerWash Simulator 2. The premise is perfect, the execution is simple but inspired, and the satisfaction of clearing away grime never gets old. There’s some fairly expansive level variety on offer despite the one-note formula, and the inclusion of split-screen multiplayer sweetens the deal even further. If you fancy some simple, turn-off-your-brain fun at the end of a long day (or can’t get enough of your real-life chores), PowerWash Simulator 2 is for you.
A good third-person shooter but a bad Tomb Raider game; that’s what Crystal Dynamics’ reboot for Lara Croft boils down to. When you ignore the inconsistencies between the story and gameplay, as well as the annoying characters and poor writing, Lara’s survival adventure on Yamatai is a worthwhile distraction that plays smoothly and has plenty to do. The great price that others could learn from means this is well within impulse-buy territory too.
With its boost‑and‑drift mechanics and chaotic action, the concept may take some time to fully click. Once it does, Kirby Air Riders becomes an exhilarating, stylish racer with plenty of depth. Road Trip brings real longevity, the returning modes are better than ever, and the wealth of unlockables keeps the momentum high. It’s a colourful, technically impressive showcase and a passionate revival of a cult favourite. Kirby Air Riders is a Nintendo Switch 2 essential, built with passion and unbound fun at its core.