Reviews

Daymare: 1998 Review: Revisiting 1990s Survival Horror

Reviewed on PS4 If the recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 are an indication of anything, it’s that old school survival horror is still rad. Both of those games delivered ‘90s-styled survival horror with all of the tweaks and refinements you’d expect out of a modern game, making them among the best in the genre. Daymare: […]

Treachery in Beatdown City Review: Beat ‘Em Up and Level Up

Reviewed on PC At first glance, Treachery in Beatdown City looks like a straight-up beat ‘em up. While it does feature some of that classic style of gameplay, the game also incorporates a really cool menu-based RPG battle system. The end result is a game that blends Double Dragon with Final Fantasy and even mixes in some wrestling moves. It’s […]

Resident Evil 3 Review: A Beautiful, Terrifying Experience

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 In Stanley Kubrick’s film rendition of The Shining, Jack Torrance famously said, “You set ‘em up, and I’ll knock ‘em back, Capcom.” Okay, so he didn’t quite direct his comment toward Capcom — it was a ghost bartender named Lloyd — but he very well could have if he was a Resident Evil fan in 2020. […]

Lenna’s Inception Review: A Little Co-Op and Random Maps in Your Zelda-Like?

Reviewed on PC Not too long ago, an unassuming Zelda-like titled Lenna’s Inception launched on PC. The game came out in January, to be specific, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about just how… magical the whole thing really is. Mechanically, it works really well and is a lot of fun to play. But it’s the un-Zelda-like qualities […]

Freedom Finger Review: A Foul-Mouthed, Middle-Fingered Good Time

Reviewed on Xbox One There’s something great about a game that knows exactly what it is. Freedom Finger from Wide Right Games is a 2D arcade shoot ‘em up that takes cues from R-Type and Gradius. That said, it’s more than just a game inspired by classic space shooters. It’s also a funny, irreverent, foul-mouthed adventure that would feel right […]

Wunderling Review: The Life of a Goon Is Tough but Fun

Reviewed on PC Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be a Goomba in Super Mario? Or a Waddle Dee in Kirby? Those guys are the lowest of the low — the most expendable fodder for our platformer heroes. You see them, and you don’t even sweat it. The threat these enemies pose is minimal, laughable almost. Wunderling, developed […]

Music Racer Review: A Really Nice Screensaver

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 Sometimes you’ll see a game that looks like it’ll be your jam. Maybe the aesthetics catch your attention, or you see a gameplay trailer and say to yourself, “Oh yeah, that looks pretty cool.” I thought I was going to get a kick out of Music Racer. The game seemed exactly like the type of thing […]

Hardcore Mecha Review: Smash, Shoot, Destroy

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 High-octane mech games have traditionally been third-person experiences. They’re pretty much shooters, but instead of a limber space marine, you play as a massive, hulking robot. Hardcore Mecha is the rare exception to the rule, providing that same kind of action-packed adventure but set on a 2D plane — and it works. The game was developed […]

Super Crush KO Review: A Hyper Stylish Arcade Brawler

Reviewed on PC What lengths would you go to if you had to save your kitten from the clutches of an alien invader? Would you travel great distances, take down all of her goons, and even fight giant robots? These are the all-important, real-world, moral questions that Super Crush KO asks. Created by Vertex Pop, who previously released the bright […]

Orangeblood Review: A Future-90s Hip Hop RPG

Reviewed on PC The ’80s have seen a resurgence the past few years with TV shows and movies taking place in the iconic decade, and some even creating alternate versions of it. But what about the ’90s? Those were great times, man! Orangeblood from developer Grayfax Software celebrates 1990s hip hop culture while taking you to an alternate reality set […]

Gunlord X Review: Arcade Is Not Dead

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 One look at Gunlord X and you’d think it was released on Neo Geo in the early ’90s. Well, you’d only be half wrong, as the game was originally released for Neo Geo… back in 2012, though. The game also received an unofficial release on Dreamcast. Created by German developer NG:DEV.TEAM, the original Gunlord was a […]

Story of a Gladiator Review: Not an Epic, but Still a Bloody Fun Time

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 When you think of the days of the gladiator, you think of big, epic battles. You think of a chiseled warrior covered in battle scars taking down equally chiseled warriors with equally gnarly scars and maybe even a ferocious tiger or two. Story of a Gladiator is based around exactly that: the battles that took place […]

Sparklite Review: A Charming Adventure That Makes Up for a Lack of Depth with Pure Heart

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 One look at Sparklite from Red Blue Games, and it’s easy to instantly fall for its charm. Don’t let the beautiful pixel art and cute characters fool you, though. Sparklite is a tough little action-adventure game that wears its retro inspiration on its sleeve. It’s a lot of fun, and though the game’s pieces don’t always […]

Dark Devotion Review: Test Your Faith, Test Your Mettle

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 Faith is a powerful thing. It can move mountains. It can restore dead lands. It can— aw, crap, I’m dead. Dark Devotion from Hibernian Workshop is a bastard-tough 2D action-adventure with some very specific inspirations, but the game carves its own path of death and despair, and it ultimately provides a thrilling experience worthy of its […]

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince Review: A Masterpiece in Puzzle-Platforming

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 As we get closer and closer to the end of 2019, it’s probably time we start thinking about our favorite games of the year. For me, there are some strong contenders including Apex Legends, My Friend Pedro, Ape Out, Sekiro, Neo Cab, and Heave Ho, just to name a few. Well, I’m adding Trine 4: The […]

Neo Cab Review: An Earnest, Heartfelt Narrative

Reviewed on PC People go through life and interact with hundreds, no, thousands of people. There’s your family, your group of friends, the people you grow up with, your pals, and then there are the folks you just sort of meet along the way. These are people you cross paths with and have a few words with. Maybe you didn’t […]

Worse Than Death Review: Good Scares in a Hitchcockian World

10/30/2019 Update from the author: On Sunday, October 27, developer Benjamin Rivers reached out to me to inform me that he had released a worldwide update designed to fix a bug that was causing Worse Than Death to crash on PlayStation 4. After playing through the game a second time following the patch, I can confirm that the update indeed […]

Heave Ho Review: Get These Hands

Reviewed on PC I’m fighting the urge to make this a one-sentence review and ask you, politely, to go and round up a group of four friends (yourself included) and just play Heave Ho. That said, it would be a shame if I didn’t sing the praises of Le Cartel Studio and its incredible couch co-op game. I honestly can’t […]

Darksiders 3: Keepers of the Void DLC Review

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 Darksiders 3 was a bit of a departure for the apocalyptic action-adventure franchise that won over audiences back in 2010. When the first game launched nearly a decade ago, it drew comparisons to Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series. The latest entry was more akin to From Software’s Souls games, but it was a winner in its […]

The Surge 2 Review: This Dystopian Future Has Soul(s)

Reviewed on PlayStation 4 It becomes quite obvious pretty early on while playing The Surge 2 that Deck13 Interactive isn’t out to reinvent the wheel. That’s okay, though, because sometimes games don’t need to revolutionize a genre to create something within that genre that’s absolutely fun and badass in its own right. The Surge 2 isn’t revolutionary or evolutionary, but […]