TheSixthAxis
HomepageTheSixthAxis's Reviews
Hot Wheels Unleashed puts the brand to perfect use, marrying bright and bold toy car racing with powerful track creation.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a great palette cleanser, not just in terms of tone but the way it's carefully designed. Well-paced and beautiful to behold with plenty to see and do, Ember Lab has well and truly captured the spirit of the 3D platformers many of us grew up adoring.
Strap a baby to your chest, lob some grenades made of out your own urine, deliver a pizza, zipline across America, laugh, cry, die, and then take a nice dip in a hot spring that helps your bowel movements. It’s nuts and it’s still brilliant, but with 60fps and a new gun or two.
Sable is a truly wondrous and serene experience at times, but lift the mask and you find it's also one that has its flaws and inconveniences. If you can see past its weaknesses, this is a journey of pure and innocent discovery that's well worth taking.
While I really enjoyed Lost Judgment, the mishandling of some of the core, and incredibly sensitive themes really did reduce the experience. I still think it's a good game, but my feelings about it have definitely diminished since the opening hours, which I'm rather disappointed about. Still, if you like the Yakuza series and its spin-off games in general, you'll probably love this.
As a game Eldest Souls does not hide the fact it is a tough game but it is trying to outshine in a genre that has had better examples, and better bosses over the years. Eldest Souls is by no means a bad game but it does rely on players having luck on their side a little bit too much, and that can make it a frustrating experience rather than a fun or engaging one.
SkateBIRD is a charming game with fun writing and a great soundtrack, but can't strike a good balance between offering precision boarding and silly physics chaos.
Ultimately, Bus Simulator 21 does a good job - it gets the blend of driving simulator and management simulator pretty much spot on, even if both of those individual parts have room for improvement.
Young Souls isn't just one of the best indie games on Stadia, it's one of the best indie games of 2021. A pitch-perfect side scroller that barely puts a foot wrong, this is one game you don't want to miss out on.
I can't imagine anybody was clamouring for it, but I'm still happy El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron was ported to PC. It's a shame when games are lost to time, and even though this one has some clunky combat and repetitive gameplay, it's still one of the most artistically inventive and stunningly original games of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era.
Deathloop is the kind of game that will get in your head and stay there even when you're not playing. Colt is a great protagonist, the intricate environmental design is a dream to explore, and the loop system keeps things fresh and offers so much replayability. Simply put, Deathloop is fantastic.
Lost in Random is a beautiful Burton-esque fantasy that comes close to evoking the same levels of craft and character as its obvious inspirations. It doesn't quite sustain the wonder from start to finish, but it remains an easy recommendation.
Filled with the same style of ridiculous surgical antics as the original, Surgeon Simulator 2 does a remarkably good job of expanding it into an inventive puzzle game. The "simulator" genre's brand of obtuse controls and fussy physics objects starts to feel like a chore as you get a few levels in, but share the experience with some friends and there's a good time to be had.
War for Wakanda is an exotic expansion that serves up more than just a bonus character to play as. The painstaking detail and passion that has gone into building this corner of the Avengers universe is clear to see, the game being in a much better state since launch. However, for those who simply couldn't gel with the game's multiplayer mission structure or emphasis on loot, this is one battle the Black Panther is unlikely to win.
War for Wakanda is an exotic expansion that serves up more than just a bonus character to play as. The painstaking detail and passion that has gone into building this corner of the Avengers universe is clear to see, the game being in a much better state since launch. However, for those who simply couldn't gel with the game's multiplayer mission structure or emphasis on loot, this is one battle the Black Panther is unlikely to win.
Life Is Strange: True Colors is an incredible new addition to the series. It brings perhaps the most likeable protagonist yet, the absolutely gorgeous Haven Springs, and an excellent supporting cast together for an intensely emotional but hopeful tale. With enough gorgeous sweeping cinematic shots to put an indie film to shame, and some absolutely incredible writing, Alex's journey is something you must experience.
Tales of Arise reinvigorates the magic of the long-running series. A franchise that long rested on its established laurels has been refreshingly upgraded and reinvented, resulting in one of the most polished and jaw-dropping JRPGs I've played in a long time. It's an exciting new chapter for the Tales series that won't be soon forgotten.
WarioWare: Get It Together! gets back to basics. It throws out the controller gimmicks of old, but brings in the added layer of quirky character abilities that brilliantly manage to work with every single one of the moreish microgame mayhem that this series is so well known for. Oh, and it makes for a great party game too!
Jupiter Hell is a tactical roguelike that is sure to find its fans, but will turn others away with its high difficulty and overly random reeling to each run. The lack of iterative improvements between runs made every failure feel overly punishing, though that's common in the with roguelikes. The end result is a game that I can appreciate, but didn't really enjoy. Your mileage may vary of course, and if the idea of a fusion of Doom and XCOM appeals, then this may well be the game for you.
F.I.S.T. offers a rock-solid Metroidvania experience that I enjoyed greatly. Chunky combat, glorious level design and well-hidden secrets are what gets me out of bed in the morning, and F.I.S.T provided all of that and terrifying talking bears too. Unfortunately, I can't overlook the technical issues that plague proceedings. If TiGames sort out the problems with a rapid patch then this would be a game that's much easier to recommend.