Cubed3's Reviews
Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia takes some of the best elements from classic 2.5D platformers (like Donkey Kong Country Returns and Rayman Legends) and uses them to craft a wonderful experience that's filled to the brim with colorful environments, catchy music, fast-paced gameplay, and impeccable level design. Only a criminally short duration and some occasional clunky controls are its only real shortcomings. This is a game that everybody should try, from young children who are looking to get into gaming to die-hard fans of the platforming genre.
Just Dance: Decades of Hits works where it matters. At the end of the day it’s a fun workout game that allows for a lot of flexibility when it comes to the song choice. It has an annoying but ultimately unobtrusive way of asking you to spend more money, but if you find the main game is worth it, who's to say the extras aren’t worth it to you, too?
In isolation, Resident Evil 3 is a decent third-person action game with some monsters and excellent audio-visual design. However, Resident Evil 3 stands on the shoulders of a giant and fails to live up to its flawed but deserved legacy. It’s too short and speeds through parts that spark the imagination, often coming across more like it should have been a DLC scenario for the Resident Evil 2 remake. This should have been a great, unrelenting thrill ride. Instead, it’s merely an adequate distraction to complement the other RE Engine Resident Evil titles on the Nintendo Switch 2. A pointless side quest that lacks the gravitas of the original and mistakenly strips away its soul.
As a remake of one of the most renowned third-person shooter classics of all time, this remake of Resident Evil 4 doesn’t do too much different from what came before besides improved controls and gameplay scenarios, and a gorgeously detailed visual revamp. There are some changes to various bits of story that keep things fresh, and characters are more genuine than ever. Gyro controls are welcome, and extra modes like The Mercenaries extract more from the combat while delivering tons more replay value. It can feel overly familiar, but Resident Evil 4 has always been a blast to run through again, and it’s no different in this remake.
This is a stellar porting effort, and while it won't rock any boats, it is a great way to experience the Resident Evil 2 remake, which is an absolutely fantastic horror game. Somehow Capcom has found the magic "make our older games easy to port" button, and it's been marvellous so far. Though the game isn't perfect, it is pretty much a perfect portable rendition of the title. Recommended to all fans who missed out on this generation of modern Resident Evil titles.
Astra Hunter Zosma is one of the best free retro-style RPGs that can be found on Steam, with fast-paced battles, different themes for each dungeon portion, and strangely catchy music. It's worth the 10 or so hours to reach the top!
Hellraiser: Revival is one of the better movie tie-in games, almost on par with greats like Terminator: Resistance and RoboCop: Rogue City. Fans of Outlast and Resident Evil 7 will get their kicks with this one, but the Nintendo Switch 2 version is held back by egregious input delay. Revival stands out as the best Hellraiser media since the original movie, though as a game it has a few minor drawbacks: its overly linear, stop-and-go pacing. The rich world-building is engaging enough to entice newcomers to check out the first couple of films, adding depth that elevates the otherwise standard first-person gameplay.
Whether or not this sits at a firm 8/10 will be a real matter of what is being looked for. On the one hand, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition could be seen as a dated format that went out of the window as long ago as the rings themselves were forged. However, going in with the mindset of a simple, fun game with huge quality of life features added for maximum enjoyment, a lot of fun will be had here. Tolkien fans will lap up the book adjacent lore and hopefully with a successful release, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition will pave the way for some of the more well regarded classics to be tweaked and re-released.
Garfield: Escape from Monday is in many regards a great game. The level design is phenomenal, the controls are smooth, and the game gives the player a lot of freedom. However, it stumbles on too many small obstacles to be recommendable to anyone not already into Garfield. The worst part is that, instead of spreading out the level designs, it sticks with one gimmick for ten levels straight. Lasagna is made of lasagna plates, bechamel sauce, and bolognese. This doesn't mean serving lasagna plates as a starter, bechamel sauce as the main course, and bolognese as dessert.
While the skills Little Problems aims to help players practice are some of the most important one can learn - and it does a good job of teaching them - the lack of carrots to keep players moving sadly keeps it from feeling like more than a budget puzzle book. It does its job, but more focus on developing the characters to make them more memorable and make the player care about solving their problems could have gone a long way to making this good puzzle game a great one. For those with the patience and willingness to learn logic, Little Problems is a great place to start. For parents looking for a game to get their child to care about this topic, though, it does nothing.
Here’s the thing: with everything said, this is simply one of the best Lego games ever created. Frankly, if the conversation is "Top 10 Batman Video Games", it needs to be included there as well. A slick and wonderful exploration of the history of Batman and crew that has some rough edges, but is ultimately so smart and well created that it’s hard not to smile the whole time it’s on.
The Room Four: Old Sins on Nintendo Switch has a great story, fantastic puzzles and really cool setting. Diving in and out of the dollhouse to solve puzzles in each room and uncovering the truth behind everything provides a great adventure for puzzle lovers.
The Room Three on Nintendo Switch stays true to what previous entries in the series established: mystery, puzzles and hours of concentration. A bit difficult to play in handheld mode, but there is no question about the well-rounded experience created here for puzzle lovers.
Despite countless reworked systems, EA Sports FC 27 is more of the same. There are only slight graphic and audio improvements, the AI changes sometimes hinder the player rather than help them, and lastly, but not least, there are still countless pointless microtransactions.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is an absolute treat of a racing game. The rogue-like element feels fresh in the genre, even if they aren’t the first to ever adopt it. The campaign mode and characters are genuinely great to watch, sprinkled with surprises and Easter eggs for fans. Racing itself is a masterpiece; grappling with handling and acceleration makes for an awesome learning curve and the audio experience is incredibly enthralling. This is probably the very best time to be a Star Wars gaming fan and Galactic Racer deserves a lot more hype than it received pre-launch. Don’t sit on the fence, Star Wars: Galactic Racer is exceptional and a must have.
The Berlin Apartment is a lovely and cosy title, with an intriguing story (or stories!), although there could be some improvements in gameplay mechanics to make playing a bit smoother. This is one of those titles that is hard to put down once started, with interesting characters and stories that pull on the heartstrings.
Fallen Tear: The Ascension is a huge Metroidvania with plenty to explore and find, and an unusual Bond system that gives progression a different feel. The map tools are excellent for keeping track of areas that need to be revisited, including a photo system similar to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Its beautiful hand-drawn animation is a strength, but inconsistent boss difficulty, including some damage sponges, frustrating 100% completion requirements, a subpar camera, and poor visibility in darker areas keep it from reaching its full potential.
For one of Nintendo’s longest-running franchises, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave feels remarkably fresh. Each and every gameplay mechanic and system requires some strategic thought and investment, from the calendarised social sim aspect to the tremendous turn-based battles. This is cohesion in its finest form, even if it occasionally feels a little too staggering in its ambition. Players are rewarded for pushing through any initial sense of being overwhelmed and sticking with it to the climactic end, although some late-game pacing issues do disappoint somewhat. Nevertheless, turn-based lovers and social sim enthusiasts will find plenty to love in what feels like the perfect evolution from Three Houses.
Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle is a good game. It has a fun narrative that fits its genre perfectly, alongside simple yet surprisingly immersive gameplay systems. While the visual quality is a bit imbalanced in places, the overall design remains rather compelling. As a solid first entry, it lays a strong foundation for a future series and is a great find for fans of narrative-focused games. For fans of story driven experiences, this is quite a find!
The soft colour palette enhances the fairytale vibe of How To Take Off Your Mask Remastered; a near perfect engaging adventure. It is all but impossible to compare it to the original since that hasn’t been played for this review, but the enchanting graphics bring this dramatic visual novel to life. A strong story, with a range and frequency of danger is truly gripping, and a plot that's the opposite of predictable. There is another tale set in the same universe, How To Fool A Liar King, starring some of the characters but not Lilia, which may offer a different perspective to the luccretia.