Forbes's Reviews
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is probably one of the best remakes I’ve ever played. Doubly so, as it nails what made the original game so special.
Overall, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a good game but not a great one. The echoes setup is certainly cerebral, but the lack of basic combat moves outside of the Swordfighter Form is jarring and only emphasized further at the end of the game. Here’s hoping that the next time Zelda ventures out into the wild world of Hyrule, someone remembers to give her a sword.
Yes, this is “more Starfield,” a game I liked, but I am very disappointed in the way it has barely evolved a year later, and the best thing about is Bethesda going back to a Bethesda-like zone structure. That’s good, but also feels very inauthentic to what the game was supposed to be. This is not going to convert anyone, nor may it satisfy many veterans. I did get some pretty screenshots, though.
Overall, Shadow of the Ninja Reborn is much more than a remake. This is an all-new and lovingly crafted game that is both refreshingly technical and gorgeous to look at. Whatever they are feeding the team at Tengo Project is clearly very special. I just hope the powers that be get out of the way and let them make more games as good as this.
Madden 25 is the most complete version of the series in more than a decade. Failing to recognize the improvements essentially gives in to reflex hate more than evaluating each version's merits. The gameplay is tighter, customization has seen a significant boost, and each mode has depth. If you buy a version of Madden every five years, it should be this one.
When I heard EA was bringing college football back, I was fully prepared to play a game of Madden with college uniforms. In all honesty, I would have played it and been mildly satisfied. EA delivered a much deeper experience that easily carves its own identity in every way possible. Once EA learns its way around the restrictions of the NIL situation, the series will go to an even higher level.
Overall, Ace Combat 7 on Switch is as good as it was back in 2019. The performance of the game is also surprisingly good and it plays pretty much identically. You get a few extra DLC trinkets in this release too, but nothing beats unlocking and flying the mighty X-02S Strike Wyvern into the thick of combat.
Overally, Megaton Musashi W: Wired is a belated release of a game that didn’t really work that well back in 2021. The role-playing game framework is done well, but breaks the mecha combat by rendering it redundant through levelling. The mecha combat is also very repetitive and the camera and controls still need finetuning. The game also failed to land its sole remit; to prop up what could have been a cogent super robot series and that is the saddest part of all.
This is as close to perfect as a Destiny expansion can get. If my biggest complaint is “I don’t love the new shader icons” and “the Ritual Pathfinder system should be tweaked,” I think we’re doing well. Instead, The Final Shape represents a stunning finale for a plot arc a decade long that’s not just a huge event for Destiny itself, but the entire industry, as I simply do not think that has another comparison point in the history of gaming, provided you’ve been on this ride for this long. Bungie left everything on the field and delivered on all fronts.
I enjoyed many parts of Hellblade 2, and there are some environmental/music sequences in particular, one near the beginning, the other nearer to the middle, that are going to stay with me a while due to the absolute crushing, horrifying, intense atmosphere paired with amazing audio. But as a game? Something I enjoyed playing? Generally speaking, no, it wasn’t really for me.
Overall, Rainbow Cotton is a very faithful HD remaster of the original Dreamcast game. That means it suffers from the same functional shortcomings that game did. So unless you are a diehard fan of the Cotton series, you can give this one a miss.
Overall, this is the same game from 2011 that felt very dated and awkward but is now available on the Switch. The narrative premise is also delivered in a way that makes very little sense and is visually pretentious, to the point of being overly jarring. If you really want to play a stylish action game with a fixed camera and Biblical narrative influences, then just pick up the original Devil May Cry, it plays a lot better.
Stellar Blade is a good game, not a (don’t say stellar) fantastic one. Its peers do a lot of the things it does but better, though that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable in its own right. Don’t go in expecting a revolution, but this may be the start of a solid series and could make Eve a Bayonetta/2B-esque star. The ensuing discourse about this game is going to be exhausting, as it has been already, but divorced from that, the game itself is solid, and that’s what matters the most.
While you might not always get what you give, Harold Halibut has its moments, and at their highest highs, they’ll make you question things in ways you probably never have before. The overall game might not be so memorable in a few months, but some things about it will stick with you forever–and if Slow Bros learns from its missteps, a direct or spiritual follow-up could well earn the studio GOTY status.
Open Roads is a lovely way to spend 90 minutes or so. All of the elements by and large come together harmoniously in service of a story that had me hooked just enough, and the two strong central performances elevate the entire piece. I can’t ask for much more than that. Like all good road trips, though, it’s more about the journey than the destination.
Overall, Unicorn Overlord is one of the best tactical role-playing games I’ve played in a good while. The tactical complexity is also carefully introduced in a fairly gentle and intuitive way. With its wonderful visuals cementing this as a definitive game in the genre and one everyone should check out.
Seedy Eye Software might’ve taken over 30 years to right past wrongs and nearly perfect the imperfectable, but Arzette is a triumph: a best-in-class game for a worst-in-class genre, and hopefully the start of a series that will continue to take things to new heights–even if it needs to be shackled to stupidity to achieve it.
Overall, this is a good PC port of the first Dragon Quest Builders but has some weird design changes taken from the second game that take away from what originally made this game so special. If you have no other option than to pick up the PC version, you will definitely enjoy yourself, but it’s sadly not as good as the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions.
Overall though The Legend of Steel Empire is a solid release and visually updates a classic steampunk shmup that pretty much everyone loves. Even if you never played the original, this is still a lot of fun and perfectly suited to something like the Switch.
Overall, Custom Mech Wars is a mediocre mecha game that gets the customization somewhat right but fails on dealing with how the combat should work. While the Earth Defense Force games have their low budget infused charm, they are at least fun to play. Custom Mech Wars sadly lacks this redeeming feature and is just an arduous chore.