Latest Reviews
Hades 2
Supergiant Games put itself in an unenviable position when Hades 2 was announced. To that point, this was an indie studio that always had a new story to tell. It had never put out a sequel to any of its previous games. Imagine the pressure on this developer when it...
Mine is a Mario Party household. Over the years my wife and child have enjoyed many nights of minigame-fueled board game chaos. Things always got heated, especially as we taught our young one to handle things not going his way. The grown-ups needed a refresher on those lessons as well,...
In Ezo, Japan, beneath the shadow of Mount Yotei, order is crumbling. A band of warriors known as the Yotei Six acts with impunity, taking what they want and consolidating their power. The Snake, the Oni, the Kitsune, the Spider, and the Dragon, led by the evil Lord Saito, have...
Atelier, Gust’s long-running item synthesis RPG series, reached new heights with the debut of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout in 2019. Gust used that momentum to sincerely attempt to reinvent what Atelier is in systems and scale, leading to the massive and successful Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist...
Re-releasing a classic game isn’t as easy as you might think. People talk about preservation, but that’s largely solved. You can just download a ROM. Hell, Final Fantasy Tactics, subject of longtime fan demand, was a ROM you could pay for if you had a PlayStation device, for years. But...
As I pushed my way through Baby Steps over 11 or so of god’s own hours, I asked myself a few questions. What does it mean to feel accomplished in a game? What value is there in pushing beyond one’s own perceived limits for the sake of finishing something? Can...
Whether you’re looking at the making Hollow Knight: Silksong or the many patient fans that have been waiting, this has been a long time coming. And in the end, it was worthwhile to open this up, let it breathe, and take in all the notes, because not only is Hollow...
The PlayStation Portable was an iconic homestead for niche RPGs, cementing the likes of Nippon Ichi Software as small but permanent fixtures of video games. Cladun started there, a series that combined retro gaming aesthetics with the enduring fixtures of contemporary, premium handheld gaming. Cladun struggled a bit to survive...
Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario have had a good-natured rivalry for over three decades. While Mario Kart is the household name when it comes to mascot racing games, Sonic has carved his own place in the genre over the years. Sega's latest racer brings the Sonic crew back together for...
The zombie apocalypse continues in Dying Light: The Beast, and this time you’ll be traversing the idyllic hills of a large European mountain town overrun with infected. Much of the game is an evolution of what’s made the series work in previous installments, with some notable new additions that spice...
Sometimes a game simply says what it is on the box, delivers on its premise, and gets the heck out of Dodge. That was my exact experience with LEGO Voyagers, a new co-op puzzle adventure from Annapurna Interactive and Light Brick Studio. It’s short and sweet, sticking around just as...
