Qualbert.com's Reviews
Fowl Damage is a strong contender for best puzzle-platformer this year. The thoughtful puzzles will challenge you throughout your entire journey, while keeping things light by limiting stages mostly to one screen and featuring instant respawns. While the narrative is inconsequential, the landscapes the story takes you through are wonderfully crafted and varied.
Team Bloober have somehow managed to increase the tension that the original Team Silent founded down all those years ago. Carefully editing out the most frustrating parts and upgrading it to suit modern audiences whilst still giving returning fans something new to encounter. Some sequences and puzzles may feel slow or deliberately cumbersome but there are great accessibility options for all types of players to help makes things easier. This is the ultimate way to play a Silent Hill game for everyone and whatever comes next in this series will find that the Silent Hill 2 Remake is a tough act to follow.
Europa’s dream-like atmosphere and gorgeous visuals make it stand out among anything else out right now. Despite its brief length, its emotional narrative is certain to connect with anyone that plays it. While the game’s low stakes and overly simplistic puzzles may turn some away, those who venture into the world of Europa are bound for a transcendent, meditative experience.
Visions of Mana is a great return to form for the Mana series. Although it starts off a little slow after the first couple of chapters, it definitely picks up the pace. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, uncomplicated action RPG. It would be a good game to use to introduce new people to the pleasures of this genre as well. It isn’t winning any game of the year awards, but it might just be what you’re looking for.
Starfield: Shattered Space is an overpriced, disappointing expansion that adds little to the game aside from some neat weapons. There’s too much talking, not enough shooting, and an underwhelming amount of content for its asking price of $29.99 USD. It’s a serious drop in quality from what Bethesda was able to do more than a decade ago.
Epic Mickey Rebrushed is a great time. It carefully revives Epic Mickey with great quality of life changes to the control scheme and tasteful visual upgrades that preserve the original style. The darker twisted storyline is a delight to experience and feels decidedly taboo given the properties at play so it’s really worth experiencing for Mickey or Disney fans.
If you can look past the often frustrating and confusing gameplay design, Emio – The Smiling Man will blow you away with a dark, gripping tale full of major twists and tragic turns. The game’s great character writing coupled with immersive audio-visual design combines to make a moreish mystery you’ll hesitate to put down.
I went into Metaphor: ReFantazio not knowing what to expect, but one thing I didn’t expect was to be so intrigued that I’d let it be all I’d play for weeks on end. For a game to have a gripping story, combat that’s easy to learn and hard to master, characters I care about, and no performance issues truly covers all my bases and makes this a great entry point to anyone so inclined from its trailers.
Melobot – A Last Song is an approachable rhythm title with a clear environmental message that I appreciated. Working its series of momentary melodies into an entertaining albeit repetitive experience, the game may disappoint players looking for more complex musical mechanics. Melobot makes itself as accessible as possible with simple UI design and a comprehensive map, coupled with limited difficulty and lenient punishment when failing.
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc is a fun little game that does exactly what it set out to achieve. There is one singular focus and one single arena but it’s well crafted that has a tremendous and sometimes fairly deep set of Fairy Tail characters from across its full anime roster. Seeing some truly perfect and bizarre match-ups smack each other around is quite rewarding for fans of the anime, however, with a limited set of unlockables and short form content it may not have wider reaching appeal. A real “I have 5 minutes” title that you can quickly jump in and out of.
Despite its drawbacks, I will say I still had hours of fun in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. There’s something to be said about learning how a game functions and overcoming its faults, but if the flaws are insurmountable, it’s a detriment to the entire experience. Fans of the original should do their research before shelling out $50 USD for the remaster.
The Plucky Squire’s creative approach to puzzles, not just from within but also outside of Jot’s storybook, makes for a unique experience that everyone can partake in. An approachable story and witty writing throughout, while not groundbreaking, is lighthearted enough for both kids and adults to enjoy. The game’s immensely strong art direction and visual identity makes it immediately appealing, and only continues to be so throughout Jot’s journey. While some elements of the game aren’t challenging as the game holds your hand a little too much, it would be remiss of anyone to sleep on this wonderful game.
Caravan SandWitch is a strange amalgamation of genres but somehow it’s charm, cartoon style and fun gameplay makes it all work. Whilst the intriguing story sets the scene, the real wholesome parts of the game lie with the many side quests for the distinctive characters that require your assistance. The world building surrounding the story is even more fascinating and makes you get back in the van in order to uncover hidden details about this devastated planet. With calm music, bountiful exploration and endearing individuals, this is a cosy game with the soul of adventure.
Bounty Hunter is still an incredible bit of Star Wars media, officially part of the canon story it tells a compelling ,if light, story that cements Jango as a badass. Though it can be a bit clunky and old fashioned to actually play, it does have some great depth and naturally puts choices in the players hands. The game is definitively a product of the era in which it released and yet it feels like a breath of fresh air with its tight platforming, focus on actual bounty hunting and frantic combat. Just be aware that it’s not easy to beat with it’s unforgiving life system. A must have for any Star Wars completionist and a fantastic addition to Aspyr’s Star Wars catalogue!
Arranger crafts a charming puzzler that feels smaller than it deserves due to its fleeting puzzle elements. Its serviceable narrative coupled with a brief game length may turn away some gamers. However, with its accessible difficulty curve, lack of fail state, and option to skip almost all puzzles, players will rarely feel at odds with the cerebral parts of the game, making it enjoyable for all.
It’s been 5 years of the PlayStation 5 and Astro’s second outing on this console is brimming with charm. Whilst the 10-12 hour story is bare bones and the PlayStation theme borders on overbearing, the endearing little Bots more than make up for these slight negatives. Astro Bot feels like a direct continuation rather than a sequel, but this doesn’t subtract from the glorious visuals, smooth gameplay and crisp audio. If you played Astro’s Playroom then you may feel like this is slightly less original, but regardless, the hunt for iconic characters to feel that sense of nostalgia and the special additional levels are a joy for PlayStation fans of all ages!
I’ll keep riding this wave of nostalgia if the end result is a great game, and Akimbot is just that. Developed over three years in spare time, Evil Raptor knew their target audience and have a solid title to offer here. With just some nitpicks here and there, no glaring issues are present in Akimbot. It’s the total package, with a decent game length and has enough going on to keep players hooked.
Stellar Blade isn’t a perfect game. But in my view it is a great one, particularly as a first major ‘AAA’ release, and the first release for the studio on any console. Sony definitely did the right thing in snapping up Shift Up Corporation to bring them into the Sony Studios family, and I am looking forward to see what they come up with next!
It pains me to not easily recommend Star Wars Outlaws, as it’s got so much Star Wars DNA and a competent formula for the most part. If the stealth felt more like being sneaky and less like moving like a snake to avoid sightlines, and the combat rewarded skill in your ability to overcome enemies instead of just spawning more and more, this would be a home run. What’s really here is unpolished, tiresome fighting that makes up most of your gameplay amidst the rest of the pieces of the pie that are strong.
Despite The Crush House’s flaws with characterization and storytelling, I can’t deny that I was strongly compelled by its narrative. While parts of the core gameplay feel dissonant from the premise of the game, it rarely spoiled the fun I was having whilst playing. If you’re looking for something a little different this year, you could certainly do a lot worse.