SmashPad's Reviews
At the end of the day, Star Fox’s biggest strength and most fatal flaw are one in the same: It’s just Star Fox 64 again. On hand, that’s why it’s so much fun to play. It is a pretty good remake of a borderline perfect video game. But it also has to measure up to a borderline perfect video game, which it simply doesn’t in some important regards. I’m satisfied with what I’ve played, but also beyond ready for an actual new Star Fox game.
As a Filipino-American, one of my biggest issues with Afterimages was that it didn’t feel Filipino. Aside from actually mentioning the Philippines and using Tagalog words (and having the UI immediately translate them), I just felt like the game’s setting was generic, and while I can understand making a game that’ll appeal to more people, Until Then isn’t that kind of game.
I’d recommend and Roger to anybody looking for a captivating story about relationships with loved ones and empathizing with issues both physical and mental. The way the game moves the story forward with such simple gameplay mechanics should be considered a triumph, and I’d love to see the people I love play through the experience as well.
It has the charm, looks, and challenge that the genre thrives on, but its presentation and systems set it apart in ways that fans of this type of game need to check out. The full game is chugging toward a late 2026 release, and I’m excited to see where this indie team takes it.
For raw action roguelite enjoyment, there are better games for sure. As it stands, this is a solid experiment from ArcSys with a beloved franchise. Where does River City Saga go next? Hopefully, the team has some cool ideas for us.
It’s a good thing that we hadn’t reviewed the game so quickly, too, because we just learned that new missions are on the way in the form of DLC, and I can’t wait to get back into Bond’s shoes. If you’re even remotely a fan of James Bond or secret agent flicks, you owe it to yourself to play 007 First Light. This game made me a fan, and now I’m considering exploring all of the 007 media to see if there’s anything I can predict, now that this game has set a new standard for future Bond experiences.
R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos gives you two full games and an Epilogue to sink your teeth into. It presents a narrative that, at first, may seem like a simple “Repel the Alien Threat”- style story, but quickly turns into something far darker and much more poignant. The game doesn’t hold your hand; it expects you to learn from both reference material and trial and error. But it will reward you with an excellent tactical experience, and one hell of a gut-punch.
NBA THE RUN is a classic instance of style over substance, but that’s not to say it’s totally bereft of the latter. There’s a lot of game to wrap your palm around, it’s just stuck behind the same online infrastructure that so many other games are. Generally, it’s fine, and Play By Play have such a good opportunity to fill it out more with a solid launch and attentive follow-up to make these issues worth the trouble. I’ll return to it as much as I want, but I’ll need to see the value and reasoning for doing so.
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is hard to knock. There are some hiccups, but generally, the game is a fantastic way to celebrate the impact of Batman in another way. Blending the movies was a smart move to tell a familiar but somewhat new story. The combat is familiar yet fresh. It’s the perfect balance of fun and broodiness that a LEGO Batman game should be.
The retelling of the story is great, the production value (even from a Switch 2 standpoint) is phenomenal, and you can tell a lot of love went into the game's development. It is undoubtedly filled to the brim with content for you to enjoy, but at the same time, it's hard to ignore the fact that it doesn't feel like the game actually cares about all the hours you poured into it. These newer versions of the game sort of scratch the surface of addressing that problem by offering Streamlined Progression and the ability to unlock unlimited MP and HP modifiers to make things less challenging, and that's all well and great if you wanna get through the game quickly, as we wait for news on the game's conclusion.
Spinera, like the two Civilization Revolution games, is a nice, easy game for when you don’t have time to sit down for a full-on game of Civilization.
This is another Nickelodeon dud in the video game space in 2026. While the tennis can be fun at times, the overall execution falls short. There’s not enough content, the music is horrible, and some of the gameplay can feel awkward while returning shots. The power-ups are cool for the most part, but it doesn’t save Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis: Next! from mediocrity.
Yacht Club has exceeded all my expectations. You can add Mina the Hollower to this generation and this year’s list of modern classics.
R-Type Dimensions III is an excellent remake of an absolute classic shmup. It presents the original in its best form, while also improving upon it in several ways. While I would have liked more attention paid to accessibility, the modes here do a decent enough job of letting me enjoy the game. That said, the improvements to the presentation and the two-player co-op mode are really compelling reasons to give this game a try.
Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is like poop in a baby's diaper. It's significantly ugly, outdated in its gameplay offerings, and genuinely frustrating, with a gallery of glitches. While some of the minigames can be fun overall, most are outdated and shouldn't have been re-released. It is a decent flash in the past and great for preservation, on the other hand.
Even with some repetition issues, Table Flip Simulator packs quite a bit for its $14.99 price tag. If you’d like to have a cozy type of game that lets you cause a scene, not too dissimilar from Untitled Goose Game or a pared-down Goat Simulator, this is a solid value. There’s good fun to be had, as it genuinely got me chuckling for what I could take down along the way.
Bubsy 4D is a great 3D platformer that’s a little on the short side but still gives a lot of respect to a character who deserved more love than he ever got. It’s charming, funny, challenging, and shows that it’s paw-sible to make a wonderful Bubsy game.
Bluey's Quest for The Gold Pen is a genuinely fun game with a lot to do. I found the platforming genuinely engaging and, at times, challenging. I'd imagine this is also a solid one to put kids in front of so they can meander around. However, the game should be a consistent, playable experience across all platforms. If you have the means to play on Switch, I'd recommend it. But if you are limited to PlayStation, I'd recommend waiting for a confirmed patch to fix a bad progression bug before giving it a shot.
Just like with the last couple of games, I found myself drawn into this ordinary yet fantastical world, with its ordinary and fantastical inhabitants. Admittedly, I wasn't too sure going in, but Coffee Talk Tokyo represents everything I love about the series and more.
STARBITES has a lot going for it. The combat is fun, easily the most consistent and entertaining aspect of the game, as it should be. The story is serviceable, carried by cool, funny characters and a decent, gradual upscaling of stakes relative to them. The things that bothered me with this game were not fundamental enough to keep me from playing to the very end, and that makes for an overall, convincing win. It has ample charisma, a good message, and plenty of heart.