SmashPad's Reviews
If, dear reader, you intend to do anything productive for the foreseeable future, do not play Titanium Court! Its blend of tested mechanics, wit, and creativity, combined into a truly whimsical, clever, and heartfelt package, takes you on a long, involved, and worthwhile journey. Titanium Court is not a game for those seeking quick gratification. It is one for those who favor substance over superficiality.
poncle's done it again. Vampire Crawlers is a wickedly crafted, addicting, original game with enough potential depth to rival the Mariana Trench. If, or hopefully when, DLC is added to this game, it's only going to expand the possibilities even more.
While Dosa Divas has a lot of cool things going for it, namely in its story, especially as someone who truly appreciates the role food has in the lives of people in the ANHPI community, as well as a funky soundtrack and colorful visuals, there just wasn’t enough here to completely envelop me into the experience.
I would definitely recommend The Day I Became a Bird to families. It’s a simple, sweet, and pretty experience that I’m glad I played. It’s not the most deep or interesting game in the world, but it’s a great breather between some of the heavy gameplay and storytelling we see on consoles and PC nowadays.
I’m definitely recommending this game. I love noir, I love the golden age of animation, I love old shooters, and I love games that can surprise me with their depth. This one has all three. A lot of love went into this title, and you should savor every bit of it. You know, like a good cheese.
I think Pragmata is the crowning jewel of all their amassed talent and good decisions, ideas, and creativity so far in the 2020s. It's really that good.
Marathon is not an easy sell, but it is a bold one. It is stylish, mechanically sharp, and much more interesting than its surface-level pitch suggests. If Bungie can do a better job of helping players see the world, the story, and the reasons to care before the friction pushes them away, it may have something special on its hands. For now, it feels like a strong, ambitious swing that does not always make the cleanest first impression, but rewards the players willing to stay with it.
Cleaning Up! is a solid casual game that owns the vibes it brings to the table. The visuals are cute, the sounds are punchy, and controlling your little worker gives off all the Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley vibes. It can be a good way to unwind from your actual cleaning. You won’t find a ton of depth or complication, but you’ll get just enough of this to make it worth the gig.
MINOS is a valued toolbox of devious joy and wracking despair that’s pretty easy to look at, play with, and understand even as it gets more complicated and complex. Ultimately, you’re in control, for better or worse, and any game that gives you this level of freedom and personal expression is one that should be pedestaled like a bronzed Greek god for all to see. Give in to your darker side and see what its walls reveal to you.
Samson is an awful game packed with poor gameplay at every avenue. There is almost no fun to be had here unless you just want to gawk at how miserable everything is. It’s honestly impressive to me just how badly nearly every aspect of this game was flubbed, and I deeply regret the time I spent with it. If you enjoy absolute trainwrecks, you may get some laughs out of it, but anyone with any standard for game quality will want to steer very clear of it. Hopefully, your steering is more functional than the game’s.
I really liked People of Note, and I hope Iridium Studios can get a bigger budget for their next game because if they decide to stick with this kind of JRPG-inspired game in the future, it could be a real banger. This is a solid first try, but I think the difficulty of the puzzles and overly drawn-out boss battles will make people quit, even if you can skip almost anything remotely difficult. If I didn't have to review this game, I would've abandoned it because I felt like the game didn't respect my time.
ChainStaff rips, no doubt. It has supreme action, nice difficulty, and the only thing more beautiful than its movement is its resplendent landscapes. It ain’t perfect, but it’s perfect for me at this moment, and I hope you try it and find something to love with it as well.
The House of Hikmah is an enjoyable window into Islamic history, with puzzles that let you experiment with different forms of matter as you progress through a coming-of-age story about grief and not letting loss completely weigh you down. It’s a game with fantastic ideas that struggles with mechanical issues that inhibit the gameplay experience.
At the end of the day, I do think Marvel Maximum Collection is worth your money, but you should know the only truly great title in here is the X-Men arcade game. If you’re okay with that–with the rest of the titles being mid–and with the addition features feeling barebones, then throw down the cash. If you expected more, then wait for a sale.
For some, it’s business as usual; others, a massive missed opportunity to resurrect a much-loved franchise into the current generation. In that regard, I am privileged in the sense that at least my disappointment only lasted a weekend. “Vae victis” to all who purchased this game hoping for the best. You deserve better, Kain raisers.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park does a good job of showing the value of upgrading to the Switch 2 edition of this game. With a good amount of new multiplayer-focused content, you can get some extra enjoyment out of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it if you didn’t have friends or family to play it with, unless you really want to play as Rosalina, but this is one of the few Switch 2 editions that offers a good amount of value and is worth the cost if you already have the base edition of the game.
Fishbowl was a real pleasure to experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. While a low number of people will be eager to think back to the lockdowns and the pandemic, the simple gameplay and personal narrative within the game really opened my eyes to how the human mood works.
MLB The Show 26 is just a great game of baseball that is the wokest sports game around that I’ll keep playing for far too long until it gets in the way of my other duties.
Homura Hime isn’t perfect, as it can be repetitive at points, but it is certainly a lot of fun to play despite the indie budget you can detect.
If you feel burned by false promises of long-running franchises going “back to basics,” it’s comforting to know that Virtua Fighter never left its fundamentals behind, and it is all the better for that. The 3D fighting world may finally be healing, and it’s only fitting that the game that started it all is the one to start turning things around.