VGC's Reviews
With few standout multiplayer challenges and little compelling solo content, Bellabel Park feels overpriced and inessential next to the excellent original Switch 1 game.
Mixtape is a tribute to "the best years of your life." It combines authentic nostalgia for being young, with witty commentary on how life doesn't actually end just because you didn't have a Hollywood-style last night in town. The game's use of music is pitch perfect, and heavily contributes to Mixtape being one of the best coming-of-age games of the modern era.
Vampire Crawlers’ deck-building gameplay is incredibly smart, and the runs never feel like they stretch for too long. It takes every smart decision made in Vampire Survivors and translates it beautifully to a new style of gameplay. Even if you’re not usually a fan of roguelites or deck-builders, you need to try Vampire Crawlers.
Saros is a bold, confident realisation of 30 years of Housemarque. It builds on the mystery and exceptional gameplay of Returnal with an excellent lead performance, and changes to the formula mean even more players will come to realise that Housemarque is PlayStation's secret weapon.
For now, Masters of Albion in early access represents a solid start from the wayward creator of some of the greatest games to have been born on these sceptered isles. It’s premature to be rolling out crack-addled 90 per cent scores in this day and age, but when the AI-pocalypse comes and gaming magazines make a comeback - as surely they will - I can see Masters of Albion being deserving of more than a few accolades.
Like its predecessors, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is an entertaining collection of ridiculously random set-pieces, tied together in an easy-to-play life sim. It does start getting repetitive after a few weeks, but the exceptionally localised dialogue and the scope for heavy customisation makes it a game the entire family can enjoy regardless.
Pragmata feels like a game from a simpler time. There's no live service fluff, no needless bloat, and no sense that Capcom is hopping on a trend. It's a rock solid action game that isn't great on length, but delivers little filler, fast combat, and some charming story moments.
Raccoin is a deeply dangerous game. Full of personality, deep, addictive gameplay, and a great visual style, it's a game I'll revisit for years. Some early game resistiveness doesn't dampen an experience that sits comfortably alongside Balatro and Vampire Survivors.
Despite the tumultuous landscape of live-service games around it, Marathon firmly carves its own place in the extraction shooter genre with an unmatched presentation and breakneck rhythm.
While its battle system is going to divide some players, the monster hatching and raising is some of the best in the business. Monster Hunter Stories 3 might be the best turn-based Monster Hunter yet, and shouldn’t be ignored by fans of Capcom’s larger-than-life series.
WWE 2K26 offers another net gain over its predecessor, ensuring the series continues to evolve in a positive direction. While its new reversal system will initially divide players and the spectre of microtransactions continues to loom over MyFaction, the overall package introduces more quality-of-life features to ensure each of its numerous modes is better than it was last time.
Pokémon Pokopia is an excellent life simulation game that takes the best bits from the champions of the genre and evolves into something that Pokémon fans, and cozy game fans will love. Late-game grinding doesn't dull an adventure that's as full of discovery at 100 hours as it was at 1
When taken in isolation, Resident Evil: Requiem is fantastic, and a genuinely brilliant entry into the mainline series. It’s still straddling that line between fear and power, and while Grace might not have Leon’s roundhouse kicks and one-liners, she can always fall back on the Requiem. It’s a game designed to challenge you, not pull your last precious hairs from your head (unless you try Insanity difficulty). Capcom has once again delivered a polished and beautiful Resident Evil game, it’s just not quite amongst the best.
Mario Tennis Fever is another solid enough sports game from Camelot, but a disappointingly short single-player offering and a real risk of imbalance – whether using Fever Rackets or not – means what could have been fantastic will have to settle for simply being good.
Romeo is a Dead Man is Grasshopper Manufacture at its most confident and its least conformist. It's got its fair share of rough edges, but the combat is satisfying – offering a challenge without being frustrating – and the sheer inventiveness in its myriad art styles and its bizarre plot ensure this is an adventure you won't have seen before. Anyone with an interest in wandering off the beaten track of familiar third-person action adventure games should check this one out.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a sad microcosm of the state of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio: a developer spinning its wheels, no longer caring for quality, content to chew up old assets and discard what made the original special in order to spit out a yearly release that cashes in on love for what the series used to be.
Nioh 3 feels like the summation of Team Ninja's efforts from the last decade. Its combat is varied and tight, much like its level design, and it's a fantastic adventure. Storytelling could use some work, but the action is flawless.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feels like a game stuck between two worlds. When it’s emulating the series’ past, Beyond is an entertaining, if overly conservative, sequel. However, as the shadowy corridors make way for open-world fetch quests, and Halo-style expeditions with AI companions, it’s left feeling like a diluted experience that doesn’t fully deliver on the spirit of earlier entries.
Dispatch is more of a TV show than a video game, and while some of its parts feel disjointed and forced, an endearing cast of characters and an uncommon comedy tone manage to glue everything together.
Kirby Air Riders really didn't need a combined 107 minutes of Nintendo Direct presentations to sell players on its merits, because it only takes a few races to see how fun it can be. Road Trip mode's imbalanced win conditions will divide players, but the brilliantly diverse Road Trip (which is built with multiple playthroughs in mind) and the hefty 750-mission Checklist ensure solo players have plenty to do.