Following Doom in 2017, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is the next Bethesda shooter to make its way to Nintendo Switch. It’s a bit strange to see The New Colossus on a new platform before its predecessor, The New Order, but jumping in for a second playthrough is a nice excuse to try it out on different hardware. Unfortunately, The […]
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After 30 hours, The Crew 2 has left me with a lot of wonderful memories. They aren’t filled with the kind of emergent stories you get from exploring an open world and its systems, nor are they moments that involve goofing around with strangers–The Crew 2 is lacking in both those aspects. Instead, my memories are filled […]
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Nintendo has all but cornered the market on streamlined, cute adventures for all ages. While Captain Toad made his first appearance in Super Mario Galaxy, he’s since been spun off into his own puzzle-platforming series based on a very different type of design philosophy than you may be used to. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker debuted on the Wii […]
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From the opening title’s splash screen, Sonic Mania’s presentation is intoxicating. Its colorful, retro 2D graphics and vibrant ’90s-inspired pop soundtrack is enough to make any Sega Genesis fan squeal in excitement. In this jointly developed game, Sega and members of the Sonic fan-hack community have created a loving homage to the blue hedgehog’s glory days. […]
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Layers upon layers. Fighting EX Layer is a one-one-one fighting game that’s built for a very specific audience. There’s no tutorial, no story mode, not even a basic arcade mode yet. However, the resulting game is built purely on competitive fighting with focused efforts on making the brawling as satisfying and engaging as possible. And to […]
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Random rockman. 20XX wears its influences on its sleeve. If you’re familiar with Mega Man X, then slipping into the metallic bodies of 20XX’s two core protagonists–the gunner Nina and the swordsman Ace–will feel like coming home again. Both characters are satisfying to control, and executing combinations of dashes, wall jumps, and attacks is an intuitive process […]
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Guns, lots of guns. Mothergunship wastes little time in throwing you head-first into its fast-paced and over-the-top bullet-hell experience. As the spiritual successor to indie roguelike FPS Tower of Guns, this homage to ’90s action games balances a number of clever mechanics throughout its pulse-pounding jaunt through the inner depths of alien ships. As you’re dodging hundreds […]
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Bend to your will Semblance is a game that relies on your enjoyment of the satisfying feeling that comes with the act of reshaping objects and environments. The game’s world and its unnamed blobby protagonist are as malleable as playdough, and it’s up to you to restore this world after it is infected by another harder, […]
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Leave it for dead. It’d be easy to dismiss Earthfall as nothing more than a Left 4 Dead clone, and you wouldn’t be wrong to do so. Despite riffing on well-known and beloved source material, Earthfall drags, with unremarkable missions and mediocre gunplay weighing down almost every action-packed setup. Any potential it shows is ultimately undercut by one thing […]
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Be a hero and a Zero. Mega Man and Mega Man X are related, but only just. Whereas Mega Man is plucky and wholesome, Mega Man X is often melodramatic and grim. The two series are joined by some loose themes and for being peak action-platforming in the ’90s when competition was fierce, but Mega Man X has […]
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Fly high Note: Care has been taken to avoid major specific spoilers for The Banner Saga 1 and 2. The broad narrative setup for The Banner Saga 3 is discussed. The Banner Saga 3 begins just like the last installment did: by throwing you into the middle of the series’ ongoing story, Chapter 16, specifically. It […]
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As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. The Metal Gear series has always delivered complex plots, with unexpected twists and revelations altering your perception of people and events you thought you understood. Though Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain continues this tradition, the majority of its plot focuses […]
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Disintegration smashes first-person-shooting and real-time tactics together to create a wild, crazy thrill ride of a strategy game with a few rough edges. Critics and fans throw around the term “tactical shooter” to represent any kind of game that somehow mandates that you think about how you shoot. Disintegration is one of the few that literally blends […]
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Valorant hooks you match after match with tight, tactical gameplay, albeit in rather barebones fashion. Think Counter-Strike with hero elements. That’s the elevator pitch for Valorant, Riot Games’ debut on the competitive first-person shooter scene. I say that not to disparage Valorant, though. In fact, that’s what I love most about it, especially since it executes on the […]
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West of Dead brings some interesting ideas to the well-trod Rogue-lite scene, but lots of technical and design flaws make it hard to enjoy them. here are a lot of reasons to take a look at West of Dead. Cowboys and Wild West aesthetics are hot in games right now, in the wake of Red Dead […]
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