GamesHub's Reviews
Breath of the Wild reinvented The Legend of Zelda. Tears of the Kingdom reimagines it once more, as a somehow more ambitious, freeform and creative game, with even greater highs – literally and figuratively. It’s a staggeringly eye-opening game that expertly cultivates the joy of exploration, discovery and believing in your own abilities.
At times, the game devolves into weirdness, but that’s part of its charm. As a colourful and creative entry in the racing game genre, it’s bursting with fresh ideas that keep its engine humming with every boost-powered turn.
Street Fighter 6 is an exceedingly good fighting game. But more than that, it’s an excellent training tool. It’s a fulfilling adventure. It’s a lively community gathering place. It’s an endearingly idealistic and inspiring world of appreciation for martial arts and friendly competition, exceptionally executed in every respect.
By paying the 1994 original the utmost respect – retaining core systems, quirks and all, while changing on peripheral aspects entirely for the better – Nightdive Studios has rebuilt a classic game into something significantly better.
Like Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick asks you to fight hard for what’s right, to find justice in an unjust world, to cut through all the cynicism and the bullshit to find happiness and salvation. On this playthrough, I found Ghost Trick deeply touching. This is an earnest, uncynical game where you can make good things happen for people who deserve a win.
Stray Gods might not have told me how to get over a quarter-life crisis – unless I can turn into a God sometime soon – but it was an enchanting, emotionally affecting journey nonetheless.
It’s pure magic to bring up a quest line or character, and realise that you, and you alone, have stumbled onto their path by chance. It’s magic to realise just how far the game’s plot can stretch, and how it can account for even the smallest choices made along your path. In the same way Dungeons & Dragons allows you to live out a self-guided fantasy, Larian Studios has managed to capture and bottle a slice of that magic, in rare video game form.
Armored Core 6 is an unsympathetic and cold-blooded game. It's a cup of bitter, black coffee – and thankfully, that suits my palate perfectly. It's full of moments that make you feel very powerful – in both effortless and hard-fought ways – and moments that make you very, very small. In the face of it all, you're pushed to overcome the impossible. And you'll come out on the other end wearing an exhausted, wry smile.
Lies of P is a sublime Souls-like experience that has studied every lesson taught by the genre, and then iterated on them all. It’s an earnest, existential, but optimistic take on an old classic fairy tale, in a nightmarish world that’s a dream to play in.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is built on an abundance of whimsical surprises, and the delight that each new one brings will keep you smiling from beginning to end. It’s a significant, impeccably refined creative leap that resoundingly demonstrates that there is still a lot that can be done to a near 40-year-old idea, and one that continues to spark a fulfilling sense of newfound joy through play.
As a sequel to one of the most impressive games of its era, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was weighed down by expectations. But Insomniac Games has turned these expectations on their head, spinning a Spider-story that brims with confidence, style, and most importantly – an essential human touch.
Alan Wake 2 almost feels mad in its approach, with an overwhelming array of threads in the tale that threaten to collapse under pressure at any moment. Yet with clear and incisive logic, matched with a devotion to delightful absurdity, the team at Remedy has managed to craft a breathtaking story – one that plays out in clever, fascinating, and horrifying ways.
Monster Hunter Rise is an enjoyable, well-crafted game with some compelling innovations that make it a wonderful addition to the Monster Hunter franchise.
At essentially every opportunity throughout my roughly four-hour playthrough of the game, Webbed chose joy, whilst never sacrificing sharp puzzle design nor the fundamentals of platforming and web-swinging that make it a pleasure to play.
If this is the future of the franchise, it’s a very welcome change – and while the game is certainly in need of some visual improvements, there’s promise and excitement here that shines through every pore.
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters’ Clash is satisfying in its straightforwardness, and manages to really bring out the action in collectable card games. It’s a game that absolutely warrants being back in the conversation in 2022, and seeing a stack of familiar faces again is a lovely bonus.
The game’s all-encompassing tension, infrequent story beats, and exciting systems all add up to an experience that effectively satisfies the challenging RPG niche that Shin Megami Tensei first carved out in the late 90s.
Even after dozens of hours, the dance of movement and gunplay still feels wonderful to perform. It’s not a revolutionary redo of Halo’s principles, but rather, a refreshing revival that’s come at the perfect time.
A beautiful game of movement, momentum, and emotional weight, Exo One is a deeply satisfying sci-fi experience.
It’s sadly prescient of the world we actually live in, and maybe that’s why Road 96’s message of survival and perseverance make the impact it does, at least the first time around.