The Games Machine

Islets is a compact, very nice metroidvania, full of ideas and adorable characters. A beautiful, hand-drawn world divided into six parts to be put together, rebuilt, setting off on an adventure that is as crazy as it is epic.

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Sunday Gold is a successful mix of a point and click adventure and a turn-based combat game, with a bit of role-playing. Taken individually, these three components would not be that memorable: puzzles can be solved by trial and error, shooting is not very varied, and character builds are quite simple. Combined, however, they represent a successful alchemy capable of transmuting not so precious metals into gold. Flaws become less visible, limitations appear more distant, and one of the most difficult gameplay genres to innovate could find a new youth.

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Metal: Hellsinger is an interesting hybrid between FPS and rhythm game that sounds like a real Love Letter to the great classics like Doom. Its gameplay and music come together in a combination of violence and adrenaline in which it is easy to get lost.

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By focusing on surprising customization but not on a deep combat system or gameplay, LEGO Brawls is a decent digital hobby for LEGO collectors rather than a stimulating brawler game for competitive gamers.

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Splatoon 3 is a rock solid and greatly entertaining "more of the same" that lives up to expectations and spice up the multiplayer formula with an original and engaging single-player slice.

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Steelrising confirms the golden age of Spiders' team, with a solid and compelling soulslike. Nothing new, but a complete, funny and rewarding game.

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I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a storm of punches that hits straight in the stomach. It's a video game that monopolized my free time and that I'll continue to dissect well beyond my (current) fourth playthrough. It's a game that has crept between my mind and my heart, something that I'll hardly be able to chase away from there. Not that I'd want to, to be honest. Northway Games has managed to create something that transcends genres, a video game that I'd like to be enjoyed by as many people as humanly possible.

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Green Hell VR is a great survival game also in virtual reality for PC, certainly one of the best. The interactions are less accurate and responsive than those in the excellent version for Quest 2, but overall the audiovisual impact balances these differences and offers one of the most vivid "wilderness" settings ever seen in VR.

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Madden NFL 22 is like a roller coaster". That's what I wrote last year in my review. 365 days after, I must repeat myself, going from NFL 22 to 23. Madden NFL 23 is a game that can be compared to a roller coaster. You go up with FieldSENSE, you go down with a problematic AI. You go up with new features in almost all game modes, you go down after experiencing bugs and glitches. There are steps forward made since the last videogame, and the direction taken by the developers is the right one, but there is still work to do to reach levels of excellence.

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We would have preferred a proper sequel, but the gigantic roster gives JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R that encyclopedic value that will keep Hiroiko Araki's fans busy for a long time. The partly revamped audio-visual presentation still holds up well against the weight of years, and the variety of characters is put at the service of a sufficiently complex and satisfying combat system. Too bad about the lack of rollback, but never say never.

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Scathe is definitely not flawless. The bosses aren't great, optimization could use some work, and the music, while good, lacks variety. But traversing the infernal labirint and slaughtering dozens of demons is good fun, the guns feel satysfying to use, and the game definitely knows how to keep you on your toes.

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The remake of The Last of US Part I on PlayStation 5 brings the beloved Naughty Dog classic to the same level of technical quality as its sequel and other flagship titles of this new generation Sony.

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Gundam Battle Alliance was indeed a nice surprise: an encyclopedic collector's list of the most famous series dedicated to Tomino's creature, told through a combat system that is easy to assimilate and deep enough. However, the simplicity of the game scheme and its repetitive nature do not make it suitable for everyone, making it a niche game for those who like to waste hours on games like Monster Hunter.

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A solid management game that finally let us play as the Team Principal of our favourite F1 team. There are plenty of meaningful decisions to take, both on and off track, but sometimes all the numbers risk to feel overwhelming.

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The Cowabunga Collection is a masterful work of preservation, and the best way to contemplate the rise of the Turtles in Konami's heyday while contextualising it within a historical framework created with the taste and expertise that only Digital Eclipse can boast.

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I had forgotten that feeling of joy mixed with curiosity related to the unexpected arrival of a new cabinet in the arcade. Arcade Paradise made me relive this. I really liked a lot of the video games, while others, despite being quite good, simply weren't my cup of tea. But if you love retro/hyper-casual genre you will surely find at least a dozen of games that you will want to keep on playing, no matter if you already completed their quests. The managerial section, despite being an original part of the game, is the least developed feature; this is a video game for players who love more action and less thinking.

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Krypto is back... well, not the original one but an all-in-one clone that this time must face the KGB menace. This second adventure is better than the previous one, thanks to wider levels, new powers and a better mission design.

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Pac is back with its first PlayStation adventure. This time the yellow fellow must save his family across six worlds, full of danger and (obviously) ghosts. A nice platform game for young and nostalgic players.

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Timothy and the Tower of Mu is a declaration of love for the NES carved in pixels. It's an hard but not frustrating platformer, with lot of contents and secrets to discover. It is unfortunately penalized by an imprecise control system and the lack of configuration options does not help. Players used to jump with precision and timing will ignore these shortcomings, but less experienced players may be put off by the difficulty and be unable to fully enjoy everything Kibou Entertainment created.

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Saints Row turned out to be a worthy reboot of the saga, a product capable of looking back to draw eagerly to the soul of the franchise, but also of looking forward to the future, creating a perfect starting point for everything that, potentially, will come. Volition has done its best both on the content and on the technical front, and the result is an open world that has nothing, or almost nothing, to envy to the competitors.

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