Steve C
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TheSixthAxis Latest Reviews
In the realm of gaming auteurs, Swery and Suda51 are synonymous with incredible and outlandish presentation. The likes of Deadly Premonition, Killer 7, No More Heroes, and many more all share a style DNA whilst managing to retain their own identity. If you’re a fan of these creators then you’ll be well used to zany dialogue, weird moments, and a requisite amount of jank. Hotel Barcelona feels like the perfect distillation of this collaboration as it oozes style, but requires some perseverance to overcome the initial limitations.
Way back when it was announced, Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee attracted a huge amount of excitement and anticipation, promising to bring back the lost art of the collectathon 3D platformer. With ex-Rare devs leading the way, and their former employer subject to the whims of Microsoft’s inner workings, fans were hoping that the lizard and bat combination would resurrect the golden age of Banjo-Kazooie et al. The end result was one of the biggest disappointments in gaming memory. Yooka-Laylee wasn’t a complete disaster but felt unfinished and strangely empty, especially in the later levels. The 2D spin-off Impossible Lair was far more complete and therefore better received but it was clear that Playtonic felt that there was unfinished business with the first game. Enter Yooka-Replaylee.
Back in the ancient past of the late 20th century there was a real push towards games emulating animated films. While this was generally more a matter of marketing spiel than anything substantial, the true pioneer of this approach was the classic (albeit terrible) Dragon’s Lair, a game which used the beautiful animation of Don Bluth to stitch together gameplay that was more akin to a lengthy QTE than anything else. The timeless nature of this approach means that the original game still holds up visually to this day. Modern gaming has taken a turn towards hyper-realism with the increase in processing power, so Bye Sweet Carole stands out as much as Dragon’s Lair did, for different reasons.
The original Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is one of the best broken games you’ll ever play. I’m old enough to have been working in Game when it was released and it was one of the most refunded games I can remember, thanks to the retail release being utterly bug-ridden and borderline unplayable. Years later and after numerous fan patches and improvements, though, it’s been transformed into a masterpiece of Gothic RPG storytelling. The long wait for a sequel has been almost as uncomfortable as that original release, with a change of developer to The Chinese Room and many delays surrounding it, but the wait is finally over. Having spent 20 hours stalking the streets of Seattle, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is good, but the modern day smoothing down of rough gameplay edges has led to a more streamlined, but less unique game.
The development history of Lost Soul Aside reads like an epic fantasy in and of itself. Originally the dream project of a solo developer, Yang Bing, it was revealed in 2016 before being picked up as part of Sony’s China Hero Project. Between 2016 and 2025, however, the game went through various different teams and visions, finally being released as a weird fusion of Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, and an Anime 101 storytelling guidebook. The end result is a fascinating mess that isn’t a complete disaster but instead manages to be almost the dictionary definition of mediocre.
Bloober Team has always been synonymous with horror, from their earliest days with Layers of Fear through to the high profile Silent Hill 2 remake. It has, however, been nearly 5 years since their last original title, the somewhat divisive The Medium, so the pressure on Cronos: The New Dawn to deliver is heightened. Can the Polish developers follow up on the success of their work on Konami’s legendary series in a story of their own devising? To do so, Cronos takes clear influences from the usual survival horror mainstays of Silent Hill and Resident Evil but there is also a large slice of Dead Space, from character design to gameplay mechanics.
Kirby has always been a second-string Nintendo property in the West, relatively well known and appreciated, but never on the level of the likes of Mario or Zelda. In recent years, however, the little pink glutton has become far more recognised with the merchandising in particular being ubiquitous. Kirby’s appearances in Smash Bros were a big part of this, but his 3D platforming debut four years ago really put him on the radar. We loved it in our original review, with Stefan praising the ‘vibrantly styled decaying world’ and the joy to be had in Kirby’s many transformations. This new Switch 2 Edition updates the performance and brings with it a host of new features and levels, but is it worth remembering for those who played the original?
While it wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, RoboCop: Rogue City was a real breakthrough hit for developers Teyon. Having followed the dev team since the wonderfully awful Rambo game, and rather enjoying Terminator: Resistance, it’s great to see their progress being rewarded. While I enjoyed Rogue City a lot more than my erstwhile colleague, there were clear issues with pacing in that title as the beat cop aspects felt a little over represented. Unfinished Business feels like a direct response to that criticism as it is a far more focused and better paced adventure.
The long-running debate over video games as art is fortunately mostly a thing of the past, though it’s often up to indie games to help prop up any arguments that still rage. Obviously what makes a game – or any piece of media – art is a complex and largely subjective issue. You might point to the aesthetic approach, the narrative, or the interplay between presentation and mechanics. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes ticks all of these boxes and is perhaps the closest you’ll get to arthouse cinema in modern gaming.
I went into Autopsy Simulator with expectations and hopes for a game that confronted the messy realities of mortality and gave an insight into the neglected world of the mortuary. However, the game at present is so preoccupied with telling a hackneyed story that it is difficult to recommend. Hopefully the promised autopsy only mode will remedy this.