VGChartz's Reviews
Despite the lack of 2010's Rocket Knight, the Re-Sparked collection is a video game anthology worthy of the hero Sparkster. It pulls together three noteworthy fourth-gen action-platformers — one of them, Rocket Knight Adventures, among the best of its kind — makes them more accessible than ever before thanks to save states and rewind, and surrounds them with bonus features.
There's a lot to love here, and if you're a fan of strategy titles, roguelite elements, or ideally both, you'd really be doing yourself a disservice by not trying it.
Its Campaign Mode is a letdown, and the lack of online multiplayer hurts its longevity, but NeoSprint is an overall okay arcade racer suitable for both solo play and game night with friends.
Although Cosmonaut Studios' temporal narrative adventure doesn't capture the true gameplay potential of its trippy concept, the storytelling still makes it worth your time.
Wuthering Waves is a fairly good alternative to Genshin Impact, but gameplay improvements are needed.
Banana Rumble doesn't unseat the original Super Monkey Ball or its sequel, but it gets closer than you'd think.
Leave it to Ubisoft to craft a hero shooter in as boring a fashion as its weaker open worlds.
There were several different ways Midboss could've approached this sequel, likely all of which would've been better than Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER.
Between atmosphere, mechanics, and storytelling, Crow Country gets caw-fully close to bonafide classic status in the survival-horror pantheon.
The driving is snappy and satisfying, the light simulation elements add a touch of strategy, and the Mode 7 experience goes a long way. A lack of backdrop variety is a bummer, as is the screen-hogging rear-view mirror, but the pros outnumber the cons in this spirited racing game.
The idea of an under-equipped cat roaming the underworld in search for her owner is a great one, but it never makes the transition from page to screen. Because everything is designed around the abilities of a simple house cat, stage designs are far too simple and boss battles are disappointingly monotonous.
MultiVersus is by no means irredeemable; there’s potential here for a competent Smash-like fighter and real effort to be found in elements like the characters and stages, but this is its second shot at living up to that potential and it seems to have actually taken more steps backward than forward.
It retains the spirit of the groundbreaking 1981 Apple II game and makes it more approachable, less exhausting, and far more glamorous than ever before. Sometimes it hews too closely to the original, resulting in tedious, taxing gameplay, but in general it delivers a dungeon-crawler worthy of the Wizardry name.
Surgent Studios' debut title is a tale of two extremes: enthusiasm for this heartfelt story about grief and apathy for the Metroidvania around it.
The creative fun of Super Mario Odyssey blends with the beauty of Ori to create one of this year’s indie gems.
With its closest inspirations at the forefront (Playdead & Studio Ghibil), Wishfully's debut makes great strides in honoring them both, despite also retreating back to safe design tropes too often.
Judged only on the hybrid version, Aggro Crab's underwater adventure is a choppy, unsightly mess that veers briefly into unplayable territory in the Unfathom, potentially due to memory leaks. If you're a Souls-like addict, Another Crab's Treasure is worth checking out — as long as it's on a platform other than Switch.
While some gameplay limitations dampen its mechanical & narrative potential, Loretta remains a harrowing & surreal ride through a twisted psyche.
Although Rauniot is shy on its lore and narrative, it still excels at captivating the player with an eerie, haunting world and incredibly tough riddles.
While it's impossible to ignore the surfeit of launch-window technical issues, Abstraction Games recaptures the mechanics & magic that places Gigantic among the best multiplayer games of the past decade.