XboxEra's Reviews
Lil Guardsman is funny, occasionally heartwarming, and a ton of fun. It takes a simple premise and builds it into a unique and excellent video game.
"From cute visuals to the occasional brow-furrowing object hunt, Hidden Through Time 2 is a mostly relaxing object hunting game. Lots of levels to take on that’ll keep you busy for some hours. Though the time mechanism isn’t all that and the single-looping songs might get a bit unpleasant, it shouldn’t stop you from getting a warm feeling of finding a well-hidden book."
It’s not often that I’ll sit down and enjoy a game throughout the entirety of my playthrough. Even the best reviewed games will have parts of it that exist simply to extend the games length for no real reason (I’m looking at you, GTAV). Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth opens 2024 with a bang, showcasing the best of what the series has to offer and more.
Barring a middling ‘middle’ entry, The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy brings a set of great games from a series I love to the big screen. There’s no beating the bush around this one: this collection does Apollo Justice.
Hellblade is simply a great experience, and after finishing it for the very first time recently, I am even more excited for Hellblade II. The game is available on Game Pass, so if you haven’t taken the journey to Hellheim yet or want a quick refresher before the sequel releases on May 21st, it’s a game I fully recommend.
Turnip Boy Robs A Bank is a damned good time, that is just as long as it needs to be. Whether you’ve played the first game or not it is well worth checking out on Game Pass. Good looks, fun gameplay, and excellent music make it another solid addition to the platform.
The translation to VR, while commendable, doesn’t translate into an enjoyable gameplay experience. Combine that with a game that hasn’t aged well, and constant crashing on both PC and Quest 3, especially at $40, is not something I can recommend.
Resident Evil 2 is a fantastic get for Game Pass, and the new port on the Microsoft Store is excellent. It’s Play Anywhere, terrifying, and well worth checking out for anyone looking to clap some zombie cheeks.
Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is an instant classic. Full of reverie for the series it takes it to new heights with a damned near-perfect mix of action-platforming goodness. It’s the best type of Metroidvania. One that knows how to pace out the power ups and I hope this is the start of a series of similar titles for the franchise.
"... I still came back to METRO QUESTER again and again over the week. I feel that all its systems mesh together really well and it’s definitely a unique RPG experience you’ll not often find on consoles."
Short, sweet, and a solid yarn. Close to the Sun takes an interesting alt-history setting and is pretty enough to put up with occasionally clunky gameplay. It’s short at only 3 hours for a full playthrough, so it’s worth giving it a try if you have any interest in the premise.
TEVI is a fantastic 2D Metroidvania. One that is fun to play for just about all levels of gaming ability, but it’s also a replayable one and has plenty of content you can run through, backgrounded by beautiful visuals and fun music. An easy recommendation for the action platformer fan and then some.
Asgard’s Wrath 2 is an epic action RPG, worthy of being Meta’s must-have game. It looks and runs great, plays fantastically, and has more high-quality content than most RPGs I’ve played before.
A delight for fans of Avatar, this game is so damned good that even one apathetic to the IP like me couldn’t help but fall in love with it.
SteamWorld Build is a city-builder with heart that successfully mixes various genres. It is also accessible to players who don’t put hundreds of hours into Cities Skylines and for players who have played many games in the genre it is a cute palate cleanser that can be played through in one weekend. The game offers various maps, but the replayability is what’s going to hold this title back.
With big boss fights, fun combat systems, and a charming story featuring justice and righteousness, ASTLIBRA Revision is a great 2D action RPG and well worth the time investment.
Gangs of Sherwood was fun for 15 minutes. Every second after that was a dreadful monotony that I cannot recommend to anyone living or dead.
The big question I asked myself when it came to writing a review was this: Is this just a low-effort cash grab, or is it worthy of the fantastic show? I’m pleased to say, I feel they’ve landed firmly in the latter camp. The usually impeccably imparted ‘lesson’ each episode of the show delivers arrives here in the game exactly where it should be, heart and warmth intact.
Though Sociable Soccer 24 offers fun arcade football action (and with a lot of teams to boot), its slower speed and poor AI makes matches feel samey very quickly. This impacts the progression more than I would have liked, making climbing the ranks very uninteresting. But there’s a solid arcade game in here and I hope to see improvements made to the core gameplay overtime.
At this point, I can only hope that, under Microsoft management, Activision will reorganize its Call of Duty cycle a bit and avoid releasing such painfully rushed and disappointing entries in the future – especially considering the last time they shipped a polished, feature-complete Call of Duty day one without enormous cuts in some areas dates back to 2017, six whole games ago.