Nathan Birch
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WCCFtech Latest Reviews
Pokémon spinoffs have plunged into a lot of different genres and styles of gameplay over the years, but the recently-released Pokémon Pokopia gloms onto several things at once, adding Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders, and Animal Crossing to the pot along with some new ideas and, of course, plenty of cute critters. It's one of those "Why didn’t they think of this before?" kind of ideas, but just because a game sounds promising on paper doesn't mean it works in execution.
The Resident Evil series has largely gone from strength to strength in recent years, with Capcom serving up a number of distinct takes on the series, from the hardcore horror of Resident Evil 7 to the intense action and zingers of the Resident Evil 4 remake. And now, Capcom is preparing to roll out Resident Evil Requiem, a game that promises to combine a lot of what they’ve been doing with the series recently into one terrifying concoction.
Mario Tennis has become one of Nintendo's most predictable franchises, showing up relatively early in the lifespan of all of the company's recent platforms, and sure enough, Mario Tennis Fever is being served up within the Nintendo Switch 2's first year on the market. Promising more characters and modes than ever before, as well as a wide array of new gameplay-altering "Fever Rackets," this may well be the most feature-rich Mario Tennis to date.
The journey to get here has been as long, challenging, and convoluted as many of Samus Aran’s own adventures. The last original release in the Metroid Prime series came out over 18 years ago, with the fourth entry in the series being announced in 2017 when the Switch was in its infancy. A complete development reboot, which saw original series creators Retro Studios taking back control of the project, followed, and numerous delays got stacked on top of that, so it’s honestly hard to believe Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches this week. No, really. It’s happening.
Kart racing fans have been eating hearty in 2025, with the arrival of the ambitious Mario Kart World and solidly-entertaining Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and now they have a chance to end the feast in an unexpected fashion with Kirby Air Riders. Released on the Gamecube back in 2003, the original Kirby Air Ride wasn’t exactly a smash hit, critically or commercially, but series creator Masahiro Sakurai has seen his star rise precipitously thanks to another Smash (Bros.) hit – enough so that he’s managed to make Kirby Air Riders happen after two decades of series dormancy.
Hyrule Warriors has grown from a spinoff to a full-fledged series in its own right relatively quickly, with the soon-to-be-released Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment being the third Zelda-themed Musou game to arrive in roughly a decade. Age of Imprisonment once again serves up a hearty helping of Dynasty-Warriors-style hack ‘n’ slash action while promising to fill in some key details of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s backstory.
In recent years, the trend for core Pokémon RPGs has been to push for ever-larger sandboxes, with the recent Pokémon Scarlet and Violet offering a full-on Breath-of-the-Wild-style open world. The newly-released Pokémon Legends: Z-A bucks that particular trend, instead restricting the critter catching to a single relatively compact city map, while introducing a number of other tweaks to the Pokémon blueprint.
The Little Nightmares franchise has been a bit of a surprise hit, moving over 20 million units to date, so it’s not surprising that publisher Bandai Namco has opted to continue on with a third entry even though series creators Tarsier Studios has decided to move on. Little Nightmares III instead comes to us from the horror specialists at Supermassive Games, who have made a clear effort to recreate the look and feel of previous entries in the series.
Sonic may not need a car to get around, but a hedgehog has to rest his feet from time to time, and Sega's mascot has amassed a fairly hearty collection of racing games over the years. While most of these racers have struggled to escape the shadow of a certain mustachioed rival's racing efforts, a few have managed to stand on their own and carve out respectable fanbases. Now, only a few months after the big release of Mario Kart World, the blue guy is also hitting the asphalt again in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
New Nintendo consoles tend to launch with a mix of heavy-hitters, like Mario and Zelda, and smaller, quirkier projects designed to show off the system’s unique features. So far, the Nintendo Switch 2 has offered plenty of the former with big games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, but, surprisingly, not really any of those oddball experimental titles. That's about to change with the release of Drag x Drive, a sci-fi-flavored arcade sports game that closely resembles wheelchair basketball and makes use of the mouse functionality and motion controls of the new Joy-Con 2 controllers in ways only Nintendo could dream up.