I don’t know how it happened, but I played Red Dead Redemption on Xbox 360 back in the day, got about 90 minutes in and dropped it entirely. I wish I could explain why, but I just don’t know. When the Switch port came along though, I thought it might be an opportunity to give this game another try – I like the Wild West as a setting, it’s got action, politics, human stories and some real depth to explore that I might appreciate more now than I did a decade ago.

After finally playing through Red Dead Redemption in its new Switch version, what I’ve found is a technically-strong port of a game from 2010, with all the baggage that comes from a game that’s now thirteen years old. It’s one I’m glad I finally got around to playing, but that wasn’t without its issues.

Red Dead Redemption drops you right into the declining American frontier of 1911. The Wild West idea is still alive, but is threatened by a looming ‘federal government’ and industrialisation. The feds have asked our protagonist and ex criminal gang member, John Marston, to hunt and kill the gang mates of his past life in exchange for the safety of his wife and child. As John, you’re unleashed onto the expansive open world of America amidst a time of great change, where cars and factories are changing the world.

While the game’s Grand Theft Auto DNA is immediately apparent in the way characters move and the mission-centric structure to its open world – Red Dead’s setting lends it quite a different feel to its modern forebears. The overall play area is fairly vast, being set near what is now the USA-Mexico border and allowing you to explore a pretty sizeable (especially for the time) area full of towns, cities and other locations of interest.

The feel of actually playing Redemption though is the first hint that this ground-breaking game from 2010 is beginning to show its age. Moving John feels rather clunky, he has a certain heft to him that makes small movements feel overly heavy. His animations (and those of pretty much every human in the game) look positively wooden by modern standards. Movement on a horse feels a bit more natural, but when combat is mixed in can become a bit messy. Combat generally is fairly imprecise, though this is helped out massively by the generous auto-aim which is on by default. It’s nothing bad enough to kill my enjoyment of the game, just something to get used to.

Redemption’s story was a little all over the place for me. I quite liked John Marston as a character. He’s ineffably cool in any situation and willing to do what must be done to complete his mission and ensure the safety of his family. The open nature of the story can introduce some real strange dissonance in his character, however. A major part of the story involves two warring factions in Mexico, a group of revolutionaries and a military force they oppose. RDR has John helping them both out – it’s a little bizarre to go from one mission helping the revolutionaries fight their oppressors and build relationships with important people in the revolution, but then the very next mission start murdering the very revolutionaries you were helping a moment ago without the slightest acknowledgement by the game of how utterly strange this is.

The overall arc of the game’s core characters is damned compelling though. The main antagonists especially get a chance to shine as people who made a name for themselves in a world that is rapidly disappearing. Seeing giants of the old west manage their identity through the death throes of the way of life that defined them is a highlight.

I found myself getting pleasantly lost in Redemption’s rendition of the American frontier. It’s an intriguing setting that allows larger-than-life characters to shine and show how they either adapted to a changing world or were left behind by it. Riding across vast deserts, helping people in distress, assaulting gang compounds and just taking in the beautiful environments of America and Mexico was great fun.

Even with this vast environment to explore, I found the Switch port never missed a beat performance-wise. It’s a 30-frames-per-second presentation, but that 30FPS felt solid and consistent throughout, making gameplay pleasantly smooth and responsive as a result. I did encounter occasional bugs that forced me to close and re-open the game to progress, which is disappointing, but a generous auto save meant I never lost too much time.

The post Red Dead Redemption (Switch) Review – Once Upon A Time in the West appeared first on Press Start.

Along with their ability to earnestly tackle grave subject matter, one thing that has always grabbed me about the catalogue from Deconstructeam is how concise, to-the-point, and economical they are in telling their stories. Although they might dance about to fill in the periphery of the main conflict, the way they’re effectively one-act stage plays grabs my attention. The Red Strings Clubs had its eponymous bar, the thrilling Gods Will Be Watching served a number of one-scene scenarios, and their latest title, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is set almost entirely upon an asteroid in the lonesome void of space. 

This isn’t a sisterhood of the travelling pants variety, what we’re presented in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a witches’ coven on the verge of a leadership spill. You play as Fortuna, who has been relieved of her Tarot deck and condemned to the outer reaches of space for millennia. Early in the piece, and restless from serving a couple of centuries of her sentence, Fortuna breaks Magical Law to summon Abramar, an all-powerful Behemoth, to her beck and call. And like a spoiled brat, inconsiderate of the cost, she signs a pact with the Behemoth and is granted the faculties to craft a deck of her own and peer behind fate’s curtain once more. 

It wouldn’t be a Deconstructeam game if it didn’t have something to say, and Cosmic Wheel’s big themes include identity, living with a community, and, of course, the destructive results that trail in the wake of those irresponsible with their power. Framing all of that within the context of a witches’ coven makes for an ingenious premise that I couldn’t get enough of. Further to that, as witches are inherently women the cast is refreshingly made up almost entirely of strong, literally powerful, women even if a few take unconventional, mythical forms like the deer folk and the coven’s eldest who is an actual tree.

I always love how hands-on and personal the game mechanics feel in a Deconstructeam title. They never for a second feel at odds with the often-deeply private conversations that serve as the foundation for the game’s narrative and core loop. In fact, it’s often specifically entwined.

This time, instead of mixing drinks and hand-moulding implants out of genetic clay, you’re crafting, card-by-card, a new divination deck. By combining a number of pre-designed elements like backgrounds and arcana, you can create some truly unique designs that can bring on feelings of confrontation, confoundment, and all things in between. The game will spit out a charming title for your card along with a vague horoscope that stitches together the elements used to create something that feels forbidden and yours. Each of the pieces has a cost attached that, when placed, will draw from the four elements of magic held close in your grimoire: air, water, fire, and earth.

Although time becomes another “currency” you spend in the game’s last act, think of your grimoire as your magical bank balance. You can withdraw from the power source to devise new cards, and make deposits through readings with the many visitors that darken your door. Eventually, as you grow more powerful and are gifted more ominous arcana, you’ll be able to dispel old cards at your cauldron. Think of this function as a respec that returns all spent points back to your kitty, which I think is great because you’re never stifled by a lack of resources to hop in and create a new card. 

Creating a deck is just one part of the puzzle, it’s ultimately worthless without susceptible folk to give hope to. Fortunately, Abramar’s pact grants visitor privileges to Fortuna to soften the remaining cycles of exile she faces and, as such, serves her with a lot of opportunities to practice her art. Old friends, arbiters, and familiar faces from Fortuna’s pre-ascension years, all witches alike, interchangeably cross the cosmos to visit your little pit stop to talk shop and get a glimpse at the future that awaits them.

Like is so often the case, the conversations feel like the centerpiece of the experience. They’re really esoteric exchanges that lean full-weighted on philosophical ponderings about big concepts like defining the self, power abuse, Spider-Man’s great ethos about responsibility that’s even referenced tongue-in-cheek in-game, and, in the last act especially, communal politics. 

It was hard not to adore the insightful dialogue and writing in Cosmic Wheel, it’s brilliant and clever and never misses its mark with the message it’s hammering home. During the last act, as the pre-election campaigning to replace the coven’s figurehead rages on, all of the chatter is framed with the limits of a ticking clock that corners the player into a brief bout of time management that feels like an odd departure compared to the rest of the game’s chill pace.

For a narrative reason I won’t spoil, the implied stress of managing these resources is kind of artificial which does undercut the intended tension. It feels like a cut scene from Gods Will Be Watching, which does all of the things the last act tries to do but better. 

Of all the interpretations we’ve had of witches in popular culture, I do wholeheartedly think The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood’s take is the most quirky and special I’ve perhaps ever seen. They don’t entirely do away with the pointy hats and bubbling cauldron, but having the story be a centuries-spanning tale told largely aboard an asteroid roving against a star-speckled backdrop felt note-perfect and grand in a way most supernatural stories don’t.

I’m certainly glad the team didn’t do away with their signature art style for this game. In fact, keen-eyed players will notice several nods to the team’s back catalogue whether it’s the Red Strings Club itself or the elderly gardener from Essays on Empathy. While the cards we’re able to make in-game feel like they’re limitless in terms of creative potential, it’s impressive that the game’s established universe can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with just about anything I could conjure up. 

More than any of Deconstructeam’s other titles, I feel as though lore is packed into, and realised through beautiful pixel art, every inch of space here and it’s a story simply bursting with originality. 

The post The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood Review – Fresh From The Coven appeared first on Press Start.

The original Moving Out was not only one of the more successful and charming runs at the “chaotic co-op sim” crown worn at the time by the likes of Overcooked, but it was a neat little Aussie success story with the folks at SMG Studio behind the wheel of the world’s hardest-working removalist truck. Fast forward three years and the team is back with a full-on sequel, revisiting the concept with an itemised list of new ideas and an already-solid foundation to build on and around.

As someone who’s just done the end-of-lease moving dance, a journey I had the distinct privilege of paying what might have been the world’s worst professional movers to accompany me on, I was excited to jump back into Moving Out to prove that I could have done an infinitely better job at it myself. Forgetting, of course, that the poor folks at Smooth Moves Inc. have a lot more to deal with than millennials with too many overpriced gaming collectibles to fret over.

Moving Out 2 opens with an excellent animated intro that perfectly captures the vibe of its 80s setting, before launching into its sizeable campaign. The team at Smooth Moves has run into a spot of bother after their boss, a sentient cardboard-box-person, accidentally rips open the fabric of time and space during an attempt to boost company efficiency by 90% with 90% less employees – a classic workplace caper. With the town of Packmore sporting some fresh new gaping portals into alternate universes, it’s up to you and the Smooth Moves crew to put everything back in its rightful place and restore order to the moververse, one truckload at a time.

The game’s campaign follows a pretty similar structure to before with a handful of “worlds” containing multiple levels (over 50 in total this time around) to play through, gradually unlocked as you complete objectives and raise your F.A.R.T. (Furniture Arrangement and Relocation Technician) ranking.

Each level presents its own spin on the task of loading up your truck with the correct bits of furniture, appliance and decor within a time limit. Like last time, what starts out as a mad dash to get everything in the truck as fast as possible while fighting intentionally-wobbly physics and physical conundrums in early stages quickly becomes so much more with out-of-this-world levels adding new opportunities and challenges outside of the realm of good customer service.

One level might see you and your team attempt to sort magical baubles onto their corresponding freight trains, or use drones to carve out new paths or cross chasms, there are even levels designed around moving in which challenge players to put items from the truck into their correct places within a building. Without spoiling too much, the situations in Moving Out 2 get a lot more wacky a lot faster than in the original, almost to a fault. There were times when I’d be flinging giant candies into basketball hoops with a slingshot or jumping through magical portals and wished I was just hilariously trying to drag an L-shaped couch through a narrow hallway or flex my Tetris skills to fix the horrendous packing job my partner had done on the truck.

It’s ultimately a good problem to have though, as the majority of Moving Out 2’s gimmicks make for a perfect blend of problem solving, teamwork and laugh-out-loud catastrophe when playing with others – which remains the undisputed best way to play this game. Whether you’re playing in couch co-op or (for the first time in this sequel) cross-platform online with up to three others, the game does a great job of scaling the challenge of its frankly loopy concepts for all team sizes and skills. I did find that a few levels veer wildly into overly punishing or absurdly easy territory seemingly at random, but with so many on offer a couple of duds doesn’t hurt too much.

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There are also some great assist options on-hand to help smooth things out if the team isn’t gelling or on even ground in terms of capabilities, like extended time limits, lighter items or even the ability to have objects disappear into the ether once they’re on the truck to make packing easier. I can’t speak so much to the actual accessibility of the experience but the settings there are fairly basic. With increased gameplay and visual complexity in the sequel it might still present some insurmountable hurdles, but the assists are definitely a welcome feature. The game manages to get a pass on some frustratingly inconsistent control and collision stuff as well, purely by virtue of frustrating inconsistency being its whole schtick, but it does wear a bit for anyone genuinely trying to achieve those Pro times and extra challenges.

SMG has absolutely nailed the presentation though, building on the visual blueprint set out by its predecessor and polishing it up to a sheen to be much more lush, vibrant and dynamic. It feels much stronger in its identity too, coming across as an overall more high-quality production. It looks nicer, but also more cohesive, and far richer. There’s plenty to unlock again as a reward for completing a litany of optional objectives in levels as well as discovering hidden secrets, including challenging new Arcade levels and over 30 characters to play as once you’ve unlocked them all.

Massive props has to go to Moving Out 2’s writers, who’ve really out-punned themselves in this effort. In fact, I reckon this game probably has the highest per-page saturation of puns in a video game to date, and the dialogue as a whole is thoroughly entertaining at every step of the way.

The post Moving Out 2 Review – Boxed Office Smash appeared first on Press Start.

Once known as Chorus, Stray Gods is the ambitious debut title from Summerfall Studios, a new independent studio spearheaded by David Gaider, who cut his teeth in the industry taking the lead writing a number of BioWare games. The fashion in which it tells a fantastical story within a regular, urban setting reminded me a bit of Fables—the graphic novel on which The Wolf Among Us is based. However, it remains a novel experience by delivering much of its story through song. 

We’ve seen television veer into musical theatre from time to time, as shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Scrubs have produced big, lavish episodes brimming with catchy songs and dance numbers. The results often speak for themselves, but they’re a creative, light-hearted departure from the main story arcs. I’ve not played every game ever so I won’t confidently declare Stray Gods to be a trailblazing first. However, given the team at the helm, it’s undoubtedly the highest-profile title to make the jump from game to musical. 

After the idol Calliope is unceremoniously killed under mysterious circumstances, her eidolon, the essence of an idol’s godlike powers, passes to Grace following a chance encounter the pair share during the latter’s band auditions. Calliope’s death becomes the subject of Grace’s trial at the hands of Athena and you’re tasked with proving your innocence before your trial and likely execution. I think the story is clever, especially the way it presents these gods within the context of a mortal world, and how the fatigue of their constant transmigration weighs heavily on them. 

Though it’s a big cast, with the likes of Laura Bailey and Troy Baker in the lead roles of Grace and Apollo respectively, you’d be forgiven for thinking Stray Gods is top-heavy in terms of talent. I’d argue that the game has a deep bench in terms of voice talent, even if they’re not as capable on the microphone as the leads—Rahul Kohli, who plays a bashful and bumbling Minotaur, remains a baffling choice as his singing chops are non-existent, leaving his comedic timing as his singular attribute in this particular performance. Similar deficiencies can be heard during harmonies, or in any of the many call-and-response phrasings involving more than one singer. There’s a lack of confidence that is audible from certain performers, whether it’s the material itself or their own hesitance; it does stick out like a sore thumb.

It’s evident that representation was a focus when pulling the ensemble together, the team even went as far as to reflect their actor in their god, where appropriate. For example, voiced by Erika Ishii, Hermes is presented as a gentle, genderfluid emissary, while Apollo is a shirtless surfer bro—so perhaps they’re not all one-for-one. It feels like an ensemble of angsty millennials, except the dialogue isn’t remotely as exhausting as that makes it sound. 

Though it is billed as a roleplaying musical, Stray Gods delivers more on the latter than the former. While you shouldn’t expect skill trees and stat distribution, your choices, and how you attempt to curry favour with the gods, can branch the narrative off in some significant ways which should come as no surprise for anyone familiar with Gaider’s work on Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic. Rather than accruing stats or having your choices ultimately unlock dialogue options, you’ll choose from a few proficiencies to carry with you throughout. I opted for charm and, later on when the option presented itself, I went for a more abrasive, ‘kick ass’ attitude adjustment. Like a lot of other narrative-driven, choose-your-own adventure-likes, these choices will open up dialogue options that, without providing much story craft, fill out the narrative’s flavour.

Stray Gods is also a very horny game. In fact, my biggest takeaway was that these idols have likely spent their era-spanning existence on the mount and the invitation is definitely extended in bulk, and accepted by, in my instance, Grace throughout her investigation. That said, pursuing these romantic interests didn’t really feel earned during my play through and felt like something of an afterthought and a means to fog the windows up a bit.

Another area where choices can create a bit of flavour is within the songs themselves. During a bunch of the numbers, Grace is able to interject or steer the arrangement in a particular direction, whether that’s an aggressive or passive path is up to the player. Not only does this provide a replay value, but it’s also a neat feature to offer a bit of agency over how a song pans out. I can’t help but feel that the songwriters might have been spread a bit thin considering every permutation, however. Except for a select few, the songs in Stray Gods don’t get their hooks in and are fast forgotten as you advance the plot. I do think the songs they choose to reprise and use as motifs throughout are well-picked, particularly Grace’s first solo which features prominently throughout. 

The game’s story unfolds similarly to a visual novel, serving the player with beautiful, hand-drawn frames that have small flourishes of expression to help make the cast feel alive. Excluding the few that don’t reside among mortals, the design of these idols remains pretty grounded throughout, though I would say their appearance reflects their personalities. One touch I loved was how the aspect ratio shifts to letterboxed for any of the musical numbers, it gives it a cinematic quality that flouts its low-cost presentation.

I also feel like Stray Gods aimed to present itself as a non-linear game all about choice but fails to deliver a compelling way to get from place to place. Picking whether to visit Apollo or Persephone from an over world map, for example, isn’t exactly an exciting transition. In fact, this game’s strengths from a visual design perspective definitely do not extend to the UI and UX, which is rather drab and had me wishing the team managed to implement a more appealing means to present the player with choice. 

The most damning thing I can say about Stray Gods is that it’s a musical with very few memorable tracks. Otherwise, it’s well-written and offers up a novel way to experience the gods among us trope. 

The post Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical Review – A Pitchy Performance appeared first on Press Start.

Venba, from a structural sense, reminds me a lot of Florence, a melancholic little mobile experience out of Melbourne’s own studio Mountains. It’s a fleeting, at times mournful, slice of life depiction of ordinary people living out relatively ordinary experiences. In a story that touches on cultural assimilation, identity in the face of harrowing bigotry, and relational memory through something as simple as cooking, it does an exceptional job blending these themes into a seventy minute vignette that cuts through to the core like a warm knife through butter. 

After immigrating to Canada with her beau, the eponymous Venba falls pregnant leaving the pair weighing up a shift back home to their native India rather than resign themselves to an unfulfilling life, full of failed ambition and struggle, in what would be a land of opportunity for their child. With hopeful naivety they opt to stick it out, struggling for steady work in their fields of expertise while raising a young son who immerses himself less and less in their family’s culture. As a parent, to have an unbridgeable rift form sounds like a nightmare and it’s a devastating scenario that Venba posits, but it does so through a lens that’s foreign to me and I think there’s valuable learning in that.

While it definitely speaks to interpersonal challenges, it makes them right through the commonalities that do come with heritage. It’s a solemn reminder that, whoever you are, life is just one-take. It’s their relationship with Kavin, their son, that reminded me of a sad fact I’d heard recently that suggests a majority of the time a parent will ever spend with their children is, for obvious reasons, in their first eighteen years of living. You imprint yourself on them, impart all you can, and then they’re gone. For the most part, at least. 

And in an hour and change, I feel like Venba serves as a lesson to make the most of those moments and memories and it does this, to great effect, through its singular gameplay mechanic of cooking. Just as Coffee Talk had its exchange of thoughts and ideas revolve around a hot pour, Venba expresses plenty through food—how it reflects culture, provides comfort, and how it can form and remain the basis of core memories so that all you’d need is a hint of cardamom to have a life lived come flooding back to you.

The act of cooking in Venba is pretty uncomplicated, it’s a simple and relaxing exercise of combination, just as soon as the method is pulled from memory. During the early chapters, Venba relies on her mother’s recipes which you’ll find etched in Tamil, although readable to us players in English, within a small, red journal. Oftentimes, steps will be obscured by a spill or a torn page so it’ll take a bit of experimentation to uncover the order of things. I do like how the game handles the exploratory side of cooking and how it doesn’t punish missteps. A ruined meal might go down the disposal at home, whereas Venba returns you to step one. 

There’s a saying that suggests food for the body isn’t enough, and that food must nourish the soul, as well. As someone who’s learned this first-hand, dabbling with the slow cooker in these winter months, Venba also hammers home the generational, inheritable qualities of the cooked meal which, while not so much in ours, is a massive part of South Asian cultures.

To say there’s a lot to Venba would be disingenuous. It’s stripped back and minimalistic in its approach to gameplay, but it’s clear from the offset that the mechanics serve their narrative purpose, creating a tangible link between mother and son that culminates by the game’s close. As I’ve mentioned, the game is short, totalling just seventy-five minutes. For a game like Florence, that runtime matched the gold-coin asking price, whereas Venba is a hair steeper, therefore making it a harder sell. 

Venba, as an era-spanning narrative game, does a great job of depicting the character’s lives throughout what is, by the end, a life shared for three decades. There’s a warmth in the game’s colour palette that calls to mind a curry on a cold day, and I adore the noticeable ageing of the characters, the technology of the eighties—which is where Venba’s journey begins—gradually informing their modern contemporaries, it’s so full of little touches that help Venba’s small world feel real. There’s also an authenticity that emanates from both the cuisine and score, which made me hungry and merry respectively.

Although I found Venba to be a moving and frankly educational vignette that sheds light on a culture and a people I know staggeringly little about, it is a tough sell at its price point given its length. But even though it doesn’t stick around nearly long enough to break the skin, we all know from the fruit and veg we eat each day that the skin is where the good stuff is.

The post Venba Review – Food For The Soul appeared first on Press Start.

I’m genuinely not sure why Mickey Mouse hasn’t been the star of more video games of late, given Disney’s ongoing love of a bit o’ cash and the world’s most recognisable rodent being a massive draw, but the list of titles he has starred in over the years actually has some certified bangers. The Epic Mickey games wound up being a highlight in the Nintendo Wii’s catalogue, for example, and if we’re counting Kingdom Hearts, well, there’s no argument there.

If you’re old enough (like I am) though, it’s the “Illusion” brand of Disney/Mickey games that are the most memorable with some entries considered among the best platformers of the 8/16-bit generation. Dlala Studios’ Switch-exclusive Disney Illusion Island isn’t strictly a part of the loose series of Illusion titles but it’s definitely a de facto spiritual successor and instantly brings to mind memories of playing those games (for me, it was often at one of those combination cafe/indoor playground places where the controllers regularly had bite marks and the screens were smeared with buttered 100s & 1000s).

This new adventure sees Mickey Mouse, along with Minnie, Donald and Goofy, travel to the mysterious island of Monoth for the purpose of what’s meant to be a relaxing picnic. The gang quickly realises they’ve been called to Monoth for a purpose though, with its adorable residents requesting their help in locating three stolen, magical tomes from the three distinct biomes of Monoth in order to restore some semblance of peace. It’s a simple enough setup with some (incredibly predictable) twists but it’s entertaining enough thanks to great dialogue and attractive cutscenes moving the action along.

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In a move I maybe wouldn’t have expected from a family-friendly Disney mascot platformer, Illusion Island is essentially a metroidvania. That’s to say it’s set in a single, open map marked by distinct biomes that has players explore further and deeper as they gain new abilities with which to overcome once-insurmountable obstacles. It’s probably a bit closer to a My First Metroidvania though, as it’s completely free of combat and remains rather simple throughout its brisk, six-to-eight hour runtime. It definitely gets a little tougher in the later areas and you can set your own difficulty in a way by choosing how many “hearts” you start with as a base, but it’s pretty easy-going overall.

There are enemies dotted across the map, but they serve more as mobile obstacles and can’t be directly contended with (can I coin the term “avoidvania” or is that cringe?). Even the handful of boss-type encounters you’ll wind up in are more about flexing newfound traversal abilities than dealing direct damage, a choice that I can respect but that makes them rather toothless and unexciting. It’s a good thing then that moving about this 2D world is a heap of fun and gets progressively more so as you gain new skills like gliding, swinging and wall jumping, as is seeking out and collecting all the different bits and baubles tucked in every nook.

Co-op is where the game really shines though, especially if you’re someone more experienced playing with young children or infrequent gamers. Rather than just let players bounce around the world in unison and call it a day, Dlala has implemented a number of added features that make co-op play for up to four players on a single screen feel more constructive and collaborative. New abilities are opened up when more players join in, like being able to hug another player for a health boost or drop a rope from any platform to give them a leg up, which instantly makes for a great way to help younger kids play through the game or introduce less seasoned gamers to the genre.

Although the game can be knocked over in just shy of half a dozen hours, there’s enough reason to stick around and explore more of the secrets the sizeable map has to offer thanks to a bunch of different collectibles and “Accomplishments” to unlock, many of which dive into Mickey and Friends history to give players a veritable museum of neat throwbacks and curios to pore over.

Something that Disney Illusion Island has in spades is style, perfectly capturing the essence of Mickey and Friends history while also giving Dlala the chance to put their own stamp on things. Character designs are very reminiscent of the modern Mickey shorts, with exaggerated lines and simple colours given life through incredibly energetic animation. I adore the way that each character gets their own bespoke ability designs and animations to make them look unique from each other even if they’re mechanically identical. It also makes for some amusing story moments when Donald typically gets the worst-looking equipment among the crew.

My only gripe, which is really only because of how otherwise superb the game’s animation work is, is that player characters often look quite tiny on screen. It’s likely a necessary evil when it comes to accommodating four players across every area but it makes it harder to appreciate how fantastic a job the studio has done. I hadn’t realised before doing some quick Googling about Dlala that they were behind the recent Battletoads reboot but it makes perfect sense – they’ve clearly mastered the art of translating the quintessential Saturday morning cartoon animation into a playable format.

The game’s various biomes echo that idea with a noticeably flat and bold look to platforming elements against understated but rich backgrounds. Each major section of the map is distinct and abstract in a way that makes them enjoyable to look at and has each stand out nicely with its own palette and motifs.

The animated cutscenes sprinkled throughout the adventure are a definite highlight as well, and shockingly they’ve been crafted by the studio itself in-house – I’d absolutely watch a Dlala-led Mickey series if it existed. The proper voice cast is along for the ride too, which is great, although it’s a touch disappointing they’re not utilised outside of cutscenes. Instead we get regular ol’ text boxes peppered by the occasional cry or quip.

The post Disney Illusion Island Review – A Moderately Magical Mickeyvania appeared first on Press Start.

It doesn’t feel good to mention this, but it’s been almost a decade since Pikmin 3 was released. I can’t believe it. But while Pikmin’s releases have been sporadic, each game has scratched a different itch for fans. Now, with Pikmin 4, Nintendo has put its best foot forward in practically every aspect to offer one of the best Pikmin experiences ever. No, it’s not as challenging or unforgiving as the first game was, but it’s still just as engaging and charming twenty years on.

Not too keen to deviate from the tried and true narrative, Pikmin 4 once again opens with Captain Olimar crash-landing on an unknown planet and activating a distress signal to be rescued. You play as the newest recruit of the Rescue Corps, but in a continuing comedy of errors, your crew finds themselves also shipwrecked on the planet they need to rescue Olimar from. Your team is scattered across the planet, and it’s up to you to collect them and find Olimar. Again. Of course, there’s a little bit more to it, and while it’s hardly the most gripping of stories, it is one of the better Pikmin tales we’ve heard so far.

Pikmin 4 is hard to categorise. At its core, the franchise is Nintendo’s take on a real-time strategy game, but with puzzles thrown in to keep things interesting. The focus is on your horde of Pikmin that you can control. They’re plant-like creatures who can be directed to collect items, destroy obstacles and fight the hostile creatures you’ll encounter. Commanding your Pikmin is satisfying but harrowing – losing them is especially sad. This might sound a bit absurd, but Pikmin is one of the most potent games I’ve played about war that isn’t explicitly about war.

Bizarrely, every Pikmin game thus far has had a different focus, so opinions are diverse as to which one is the best. Pikmin 4 is different from other Pikmin games – it attempts to leverage the best bits of the last three games to offer the most complete Pikmin experience yet. Diehard fans will no doubt find disappointment in the statement that, yes, Pikmin 4 isn’t as challenging as the original Pikmin was. But the tension and difficulty escalate in a way that feels fair and appropriate and, as a result, much more forgiving without being insultingly easy.

Enter Oatchi. He’s a space dog found by the player when they first land on the planet and, without a doubt, the star of Pikmin 4. Oatchi can do it all – behave like a second squad leader or act like a supercharged Pikmin. He’s incredibly powerful, able to carry Pikmin over certain bodies of water or inflict massive damage against the hostile creatures you’ll encounter. His immense strength means he can hold items like a Pikmin can, and with certain upgrades, he can even resist the elements. He’s absolutely adorable and one of my favourite things about the game, though he does trivialize a lot of the difficulty in the opening areas of the game.

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Thankfully, as you progress through the story, the tendency to lean on Oatchi as a crutch becomes less tempting. Enemies will learn new tricks that will render Oatchi useless in certain situations or areas and will purposefully split you and your Pikmin away from him to get you to work harder for your wins. Make no mistake – Pikmin 4 can still be a challenging game; I had essentially halved my total Pikmin population as the credits rolled following some of the more intense battles the game offers.

Pikmin 4 is structured similarly to previous games. You have a hub area where you can upgrade Oatchi and decide where to explore for the day. The levels you’ll explore are more open-ended than in other Pikmin games – there’s rarely a linear path through them like in Pikmin 3. Pikmin 4 instead throws you onto a map and asks you to collect treasure, complete activities, and explore caves to earn enough resources to explore other areas of the planet. Each level is the biggest in series history, so there’s much to do in each. More encouragingly, they’re not just typical locales plucked from nature either; there are some new ideas explored here too.

This translates to a more open-ended experience. Pikmin 4 doesn’t have you separated from your crew and using days to catch up with them. Instead, you’re given free rein to explore each of these levels and bring back as much treasure to the ship as possible. The game splits them into four categories – Surface Exploration, Dandori Battles, Dandori Challenges and Caves.

Caves have made a long-awaited return from Pikmin 2 and a triumphant one. Easily the highlight of Pikmin 4, these caves are handmade content with a theme and puzzles and bosses to match them. Gone are the randomly generated caves from Pikmin 2. Instead, we have mini dungeons split into sub-levels that are a joy to explore. In each one, you’ll have to leverage the different Pikmin types to solve puzzles and harvest as much treasure from the dungeons as you can.

Other activities are a blast too. Dandori Challenges are designed to test how efficient you can be with a pre-determined party of Pikmin. Dandori Battles are even more hectic – pitting you against another character as you compete to collect the most treasure in an area. These battles work similarly to the Bingo Battles from Pikmin 3 and can be played with another player locally when not playing in the Story mode. They’re a fun and intense distraction with which I had more fun than I’d ever anticipated.

Sadly, the strength of the multiplayer offerings ends there. Besides these battles, Pikmin 4 does allow a second player to pick up a joy-con and throw pebbles at the screen. It’s a weird inclusion – but throwing pebbles at Pikmin will speed them up, while throwing them at enemies will whittle down their health. It breaks the balance of an already easy game and honestly feels like an afterthought. I recognize that the story doesn’t suit itself well to the robust co-op we’ve seen in Pikmin 3. However, even having a second player control Oatchi might’ve been more fun than what we got here. It just feels like a missed opportunity.

The other significant new addition is the nighttime expeditions, where the now classic feeling of tension you get from Pikmin games is found. There are ten to fifteen of them, and each has you defending mounds of glow sap from waves of aggressive enemies. As these challenges become more and more intense, you’ll have to assign Oatchi to protect specific points while you harvest Glow Pikmin (a special type of Pikmin unique to these expeditions) to build up your forces to defend yourself. They get very tense and are some of the more significant challenges in the game.

I mentioned before that Pikmin 4 feels like the most complete Pikmin experience thus far, owing to how much this game is packed. There are hundreds of enemies to encounter, over twenty caves to explore and even some other surprises that I won’t talk about. But more importantly – it’s all engaging. It’s a joy to complete and the first time in series history that I’ve 100%ed a Pikmin game on my first run without returning to it later. You’d think that making Pikmin more open-world and less story-driven would make the pacing suffer, but it doesn’t. Pikmin 4’s thirty-hour odyssey is engaging from beginning to end.

And, of course, we can’t ignore the game’s stellar presentation. Without a doubt, this is the best-looking game in the series. Not only from a technical standpoint but an artistic one too. I went back to all the Pikmin games before finishing Pikmin 4, and yes, Pikmin 4 is just a much better-executed visual feast than the games that came before it. It’s a more colourful and brighter world that’s a joy to explore. It’s also one of the best-performing games on the Switch I’ve played in recent years, which is always a pleasant surprise this late into a generation.

The post Pikmin 4 Review – The Cream Of The Crop appeared first on Press Start.

Everybody 1-2 Switch has a bit of a weird history. Its predecessor was one of the Switch’s earliest first-party titles that, while doing a great job of showcasing the capabilities of the Joy-Con controllers, was relegated to Expensive Tech Demo Hell pretty quickly. Then in 2022, Fanbyte reported that a sequel to 1-2 Switch was secretly tucked away inside Nintendo’s vaults, having performed so poorly in player testing that the company wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it.

Fast forward almost exactly a year, and Everybody 1-2 Switch has finally materialised and, somewhat surprisingly, it seems to be more or less exactly the game that Fanbyte’s report described and originally had playtesters less than enthused. After getting to spend some time with the game at a Nintendo-held event with a couple other dozen journalists and content creators, and then playing a bunch more in the comfort (and privacy) of my own home, I can say that while I absolutely wish there was more content and variety here, Everybody 1-2 Switch is a half-decent follow-up to a game that I’m still prone to whipping out at gatherings to this day.

Booting up the game, you’re presented with a choice of either playing with Joy-Con controllers or smart devices – one of the big distinctions between this new title and the last one. From there you’re given the option of playing one of three different lengths of contests, either 20, 40 or 60 minutes with each a points-scoring competition set across a semi-random selection of mini-games. You’ll need to play the game this way initially, as playing each mini-game at least once is the only way to unlock them for on-demand play later on. Led by Horace, a man in a rubber horse mask acting as the game’s mascot and presenter, it’s all nicely presented but immediately quite barebones.

The important thing though, is the selection of games to play, and Everybody 1-2 Switch has 17 of them to choose from with just 13 being playable using a single Joy-Con for each player (up to a total of 8). Splitting however many players there are into two teams, the Joy-Con based games are simple, mostly quite physical affairs that ring true of what was in the last collection, things like Jump Rope, Hip Bump, Squats and Musical Chairs that are sure to get a giggle out of those participating and watching.

Some of the quirkier ones, like Kitchen Timer or UFOs, feel almost like the highlights of the original 1-2 Switch and its selection of games designed to sell what the Joy-Cons were being touted for at the time, but across the board there’s a bit of a lack of the truly special features like HD Rumble and the IR sensors being used – it’s pretty much all just basic motion-control stuff that most of the time doesn’t even demand a great deal of accuracy.

Nintendo was clearly inspired by Jackbox with some of the other gameplay concepts it’s brought to the table here, with a selection of games that can be optionally – or mandatorily – played with smart devices instead of Joy-Con controllers. The huge advantage is that, either in-person or via online servers you’ll be able to play some of the games with up to 100 players. Then, there are also a handful of games strictly playable with a smart device, and while some of these work and could actually be a ton of fun to see played out over web streams or on Discord hang-outs they’re definitely not all created equal.

Colour Shoot for instance, is a genius idea and a blast to play. It tasks two teams of players to match a colour displayed on-screen with something in the real world by taking a photo of it with their smart device camera, which in both the group session I attended and at home led to some great moments of discovery and more than a few giggles. It might be a bit wanky to say but having a game force me to properly break away and observe my surroundings, paying attention to something I’d normally take for granted like colour, felt genuinely fresh and inventive in a very Nintendo way. I also had a heap of fun with Ice Cream Parlour, flexing my mental muscles, listening skills and teamwork to record scoop orders at an ice cream store.

But for every Colour Shoot or Ice Cream Parlour, you get Bingo. Which is… bingo. Or Quiz Show, which is a very simple true or false competition where teams attempt to buzz in answers to basic trivia questions as fast as possible. It really doesn’t exemplify the kind creativity or chaos I’d expect from a Nintendo party, but the saving grace in Quiz Show is a custom question mode that would really suit tightly-knit social gatherings like weddings or showers with a more personal touch.

Similarly straddling the fence between creative and banal is Auction, which initially was a ton of fun with two opposing teams battling to outbid each other on different items worth specific point values. The rub lies in the fact that the items are worth different point values to either team, and those values are kept secret between teams, so strategy comes in feigning interest or disinterest in each article in order to trick your opponents into bidding high and burning through their pool of funds. With an on-device interface that lets you secretly chat amongst your fellow auction attendees and celebrate devious plays it’s very well thought-out, but the length of time it takes to figure out how to best work as a team and win is exactly how long it takes for the gimmick to get old.

I’ll avoid going into detail on absolutely every game that’s included here, for fear of spending more time writing about Everybody 1-2 Switch than it took for the game to go from official reveal to release, but what I’ve described so far should be taken as an indication of the overall quality of the package here – it’s a bit of a mixed bag. For every riotously fun party game, there’s one that doesn’t work, or one that does but gets old far too quickly. When the collection consists of 17 games in total (with some extra variations on most, to be fair) that doesn’t work out to great odds.

Something worth calling out is how easy that the smart device stuff is to set up for quick play in groups, taking the Jackbox philosophy of just handing out players a server-based room code (via a QR code or URL) to join in a game without having to deal with any sign-in rigmarole. It’s super painless, and each player gets to assign themselves a profile name, photo and send little chat messages and emotes during downtime which is cute. Plus, it really is a blast with large groups of people in a way that I’ve not yet experience when it comes to mini-game compilations.

Much like the original 1-2 Switch, at the end of the day Everybody 1-2 Switch is a decent little Switch title to have tucked away in a cupboard for your next drunken or family-oriented gathering. It’s a great way to get people moving, laughing and – in probably the biggest green tick for the sequel – playing and bonding as a team. I’d argue it actually offers a little more value than your average Jackbox Party Pack at $49.95 AUD, but it’s still missing the kind of creative spark I’d want from Nintendo. Presentation-wise it’s another combination of clean, high-res videos of actors doing the motions on-screen and VFX with stylised cut-outs and the like. It’s definitely got a bit more pizazz and seemingly higher production values than the previous game though, which is a plus.

At the end of the day, Everybody 1-2 Switch attempts to shake up the formula of its predecessor by introducing second-screen games and upping the potential player count considerably, and it does a decent enough job of it. Even at a cheaper price of entry than the last game was at launch though, the issue of longevity comes with the mixed quality of its 17 included mini-games and threatens to limit the potential fun.

The post Everybody 1-2 Switch Is A Slim But Genuinely Amusing Package appeared first on Press Start.

Being a detective is hard work. I would know, I’ve played so much Ace Attorney, Batman and LA Noire. Surely that counts for something. But despite all this experience with all these different kinds of detective games, I’ve never seen something like Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. It’s a zany and kooky take on a formula that I’m very familiar with, but it does things differently enough that it enthralled me from beginning to end.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code takes place in the Kanai Ward, a city overtaken by the ominous and authoritarian Amaterasu Corporation. The population is more or less dominated by the weight of the corporation’s power, with people not being allowed to leave the city. They’re everywhere, too – almost all goods and services are provided by Amaterasu, but rumours suggest they’re responsible for the rain that never stops pouring in Kanai. It’s an almost perfect setting for a dark but kooky detective drama, and that’s capitalised on pretty well with the story in Rain Code.

You play as Yuma Kokohead, a detective who awakens onboard an Amaterasu-owned train with no memory of who he was or is now. All he knows is that he’s bonded with Shinigami, a cheerful death god with a twisted sense of humour who haunts him as part of a pact made before Yuma lost his memory. To make matters worse, he’s been accused of murdering everyone on the train. To clear his name, he must prove his innocence to the Amaterasu Corp’s ironically named Peacemakers unit.

Of course, there’s more to it. As you begin to work with other detectives in the area to solve crimes, you’ll not only find mysteries to uncover but that Amaterasu is perhaps more of a presence in the city than they’re letting on. It’s an engaging story from beginning to end, and while there’s nothing too outlandish about the individual cases of each chapter, the overarching story can get pretty wild and goes in some unexpected places. Regardless, the most important thing with a game of this ilk is getting the story and pay-off right, and Master Detective Archive absolutely nails it. 

You’d expect nothing less from the minds that brought us games like Danganronpa and Zero Escape. Master Detective Archive feels like a natural progression of those games – a visual novel with more interactivity that lends the experience a more interesting and engaging style. Imagine if Ace Attorney and Danganronpa (somehow) had a child, and the Persona team dressed it. That’s what Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is. It’s equal parts mystery and adventure dripping in a style that, while liberally borrowing from Persona, is a joy to play. You’ll move from area to area to collect clues and eventually solve crimes and mysteries, but it’s the way Rain Code carries itself that separates it from the rest.

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In each chapter, Yuma and Shinigami are paired up with a detective from the agency and given a case to investigate. As you progress, Shinigami will file all of your evidence as “solution keys”, which will be helpful later. You’ll speak to people involved in the case, investigate the crime scene and chat with your assistant to work out theories about what happened. While these sequences are the most typical of the whole experience, they’re never too tiring and feel appropriate in length.

The city itself is explorable from the get-go, though it’s not quite as open or sprawling as other open worlds players are probably accustomed to. At first, I wasn’t even sure it was necessary, but I realised something after time. Just physically controlling Yuma as he explores the city and uncovers clues is much more engaging than running through dialogue, menus and static background images like other games do. Hearing Shinigami or Yuma speak about their own thoughts on the case while they do so is also a nice touch.

Your investigations are often aided by a partner with a “Forte” that they’ve honed since becoming a master detective. These are all kinds of whacky abilities – someone can summon the soul of a dead person, but only if they’re wearing that person’s clothes. Others can see how the scene of the crime looked when it was first discovered by the first witness. One can even turn back time, but only once. Not all these powers get equal amounts of screen time (and you’ll see why once you play), but they add a nice twist to the investigations.

See, these powers aren’t used actively, per se. Instead, each of the powers provides a twisted sense of logic you’ll have to learn and accept to make deductions about each case. For example, Halara Nightmare’s ability only allows you to return the crime scene to how it looked when first discovered. You don’t actively use this ability, but you incorporate your knowledge of how it works into making your deductions and working out who actually saw the crime scene first based on interviews and such. It’s an abstract way to keep things interesting – as each case is underpinned by logic determined by the powers your assistant has access to – and it never gets old.

Even more unexpectedly, you do most of your deductions in the mystery labyrinth. At key points throughout the story, you’ll be able to enter the mystery labyrinth for your case and finally unravel the mystery posed to you. It’s like a metaphysical world where the investigation process is turned into a dungeon of sorts – each line of questioning is represented by a different corridor to travel down in the labyrinth. You’ll also run into phantom versions of people in the real world hindering your case and engage in Reasoning Death Match with them. You’ll have to load your weapon with the solution keys discussed earlier to strike down their arguments as they literally spit them at you to defeat them in battle.

It’s a whacky way to present what would typically be a courtroom or trial situation in this type of game, but it pays off. While similar in visual style, every labyrinth has a mix of minigames and objectives thrown into each one to keep things interesting. Some are as simple as QTEs; others require you to choose an option out of three, with only one leading to the next room. There’s a lot done in the labyrinths to keep the unravelling of the mysteries fascinating, and every one of them even plays with the expectations set by them before, offering up the variety that would otherwise stagnate this format.

Being a story-based game, there’s not much to do once the credits roll. But that doesn’t matter – Master Detective Archive’s thirty-hour-plus runtime is more than satisfying to experience and doesn’t leave you feeling shortchanged. There are optional collectibles to find through clues given to you in the Kanai Ward that unlocks conversation scenes between Yuma and the other detectives, further fleshing out the game world. But beyond that, it’s a one-and-done affair.

Of course, we can’t talk about a Switch game without speaking about performance. Unfortunately, Master Detective Archive does not buck the trend. Running on Unreal Engine, you probably know what to expect from any game that looks this good running on the Switch. Lots of shimmering and lots of framerate drops are apparent here. It’s a bit fortunate that Master Detective Archive is so immaculately presented. The art direction, affectionately coined “psychopop” by its creator, is equally horrifying and colourful. It’s a really good looking game constrained by the aging hardware of the Switch, but such strong and distinctive art direction gets it over the finish line for me.

Similarly, the game’s audio presentation is also stellar. For one, I’d estimate over 90% of the dialogue is voiced and voiced well. Some dramatic scenes towards the end of the game are just perfectly played out. To have a game of the scope and scale of something like Danganronpa or Ace Attorney, but fully voiced, is honestly so impressive. But to have the entire cast turn in great performances with such a large cast with individual quirks and idiosyncrasies is even more so. Shinigami is easily the standout here. She’s equal parts horny and aggressive and I adore the way she brings so much levity to some of the darker scenes. She’s the gem in this already shining crown of voice actors.

The score matches the eclectic nature of the game’s presentation, making a melding of rock, techno and jazz that perfectly complements the drama of the game’s lengthy cutscenes. My only gripe here is that I feel like too many tracks are used too repetitiously, but otherwise, it’s a strong soundtrack and one that absolutely gets the heart beating during the more intense moments of the story.

The post Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Review – A Cheeky Engaging Mystery appeared first on Press Start.

As someone who primarily watches the McMahon-Helmsley federation, because who could resist that Bloodline story arc, my familiarity with All Elite Wrestling is limited to an all-too arrogant-champion whose dedication to kayfabe knows no bounds, buckets of blood, and a little bit of the bubbly. When I heard that the upstart wanted to create a video game to recapture the feel of Nintendo 64-era games like WWF No Mercy, rather than compete with their 2K contemporaries, my ears pricked up. And then when I heard they managed to jag Hideyuki Iwashita to direct, I began to believe.

Almost immediately, AEW: Fight Forever captures the spirit of those AKI games I used to adore. It features the same arcade framework, and feels like No Mercy’s classic engine made new again. However, emulating a quarter-century old game can tend to expose a few gaps in budget and feature-suite, no matter how good the game’s feel is.

The wrestling itself feels very much like No Mercy or Wrestlemania 2000, mixing both regular or strong strikes and grapples to wear your opponent down. In a system that mirrors even modern wrestling games, the aim is to wear opponents down, causing limbic damage, while building enough momentum to perform your signature and finisher moves. In an effort to modernise its aged systems, action and passive skills can be assigned similarly to stat points, giving a variety of buffs that can help turn the tide of a match—desperation kick outs, kip ups, and first-strike buffs all add a strategic layer to the classic No Mercy formula. 

I also feel as though the way momentum is handled can lead to unbalanced experiences, from time to time. Unlike finishers, signature moves don’t seem to drain momentum which led to me giving out Stunners as though they were charitable donations. Similarly, I feel like frustration when playing is set to stem less from the difficulty itself and more from all-too-common cheap losses in the game’s bigger four-way matches. 

Although there are a good amount of match types, Road to Elite will be the main draw for people wanting some form of structure and story, a term I use loosely. It’s digestible and crafted with replay value in mind, and I’d sooner liken it to Mortal Kombat’s Tower than its story mode. With either a created or rostered superstar, you’ll progress through one year of AEW programming broken up into four blocks full of weekly shows leading up to the brand’s quarterly marquee events.

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Even if it’s largely forgettable to play, it’s the moments of history peppered throughout Road to Elite that make it feel special. It’s not exactly their rival’s seventy-some years of history they’re drawing from, but it’s nice to see all of the company’s defining moments across four years touched on, from the brand’s formation, to Jericho’s inaugural reign as champion, to CM Punk’s debut. It’s all framed within this weird, jet-setting adventure that highlights all of the lesser-thought of parts of the business—meet and greets, enjoying local cuisines, and even lifting weights. It all ties into the mode’s management busy work which lurks on the periphery of the fun stuff.

Though there are other superstars on the way courtesy of a season pass, Fight Forever’s roster of around fifty is pretty comprehensive. There’s one or two omissions I am a tad curious about, but it’s hard to fault the selection. It’s definitely big of those making the call to keep Cody Rhodes in the game in spite of his defection back to WWE to “finish the story”. His place in the startup’s history is assured, so it was nice to see. Similarly, the match types that are on offer cover off on everything the brand is known for, the most extreme being the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch which is as nuts as it sounds—I can’t believe it’s a real match type. 

In one of the more unexpected twists, Fight Forever has a small selection of Pokémon Stadium-like mini-games to really hammer home that absurd, arcade feel the game has. Although the list of challenges alludes to more being added post-launch, the three we’ve got so far are a bit of fun. As a sucker for trivia, my favourite of the bunch is certainly the pop quiz full of deep cuts only fans could appreciate.

In addition to its season pass, Fight Forever has some other “live service” features like challenges, including both dailies and weeklies, that’ll line your pockets with credits to buy things like superstars, arena decor, and taunts from the shop. Some moves and taunts walk the line of trademark infringement, with Brock Lesnar’s devastating F5 featuring under the tongue-in-cheek name “Diverticulitis” while Roman Reigns’ lock and load taunt serves as acknowledgement of The Tribal Chief. As I’ve already unlocked a decent portion of what’s available, I look forward to seeing how often the shop’s stock is refreshed, if at all.

Because it’s a first effort, I didn’t want to be too critical of the game’s creation suites. I mean, you’re not going to see big communities emerge for created superstars in Fight Forever, and stitching together entrances using other star’s music and moves feels appropriately dated, given it’s something I recall doing back in No Mercy. Though I couldn’t manage to find anyone else playing pre-launch, I expect the game’s classic and largely accessible systems will breed a pretty fun and competitive space for people to enjoy wrestling without all of the deck-building nonsense its contemporaries have forced into the mainstream.

Through cartoonish, chonky character models, Fight Forever carves out a fun niche right beside the realistic presentation of the WWE titles. Chris Jericho’s keg-chest and CM Punk’s “most punchable face in wrestling” are both realised with comical accuracy, with all the roster looking the part aside from a couple of so-so renders. I wish I could say the presentation was spectacular throughout, though when you’re chasing the past’s glory as Fight Forever does, graphics ends up being an area where corners can be cut. Long, flashy entrances make way for truncated strolls, and blood spatter—as cool as it is to have a serial-bleeder like Moxley leaking claret like he was born to do—looks like a stamp that appears on the canvas, without any semblance of dynamic at all.

There are a lot of known graphical hitches that I’m sure will be ironed out by launch, including a lot of clipping and render issues. Though, that same cheapness extends to the voiceover efforts which are basically reserved for owner Tony Khan. Beyond that, the written word does the heavy lifting of the oddball drivel that comes out of other superstar’s mouths. A few gimmicks land within the scope of Road to Elite’s script, though it’s a bit of a mess considering I saw Kenny Omega referring to others as Kenny when cutting promos. 

It’s that kind of oddity that sums up the Fight Forever experience. For every bloody perfect thing it delivers from the vintage No Mercy experience, it serves up something you wish was left in the 64-bit age.

The post AEW: Fight Forever Review – Old, Elite Wrestling appeared first on Press Start.

I’m a sucker for a good arcade racer, and even more of a sucker for anything LEGO, so when LEGO 2K Drive was announced I knew I was all in from the get-go, even if I’ve never been a huge fan of developer Visual Concepts usual output – largely the NBA 2K and WWE 2K franchises. Still, I was pinning a lot of my hopes for a worthy successor to the classic LEGO Racers games, and thankfully this has delivered in ways I hadn’t even expected.

Accompanied by the legendary Clutch Racington and his robotic assistant, S.T.U.D., you play LEGO 2K Drive as a voiceless driver of your choosing, on a path to winning the coveted Sky Cup Grand Prix Trophy. The core of the game’s single-player offering is a hefty adventure through four distinct, open zones in pursuit entry into this ultimate race where you’ll find yourself completing quests, earning experience and taking on a series of entertainingly unique rivals across 24 main races – each with their own quirks to contend with on the track. It’s a bold mix of ideas plucked from open-world racers and LEGO platformers where your avatar is less the minifigure behind the wheel and more the brick-built vehicle surrounding it.

Whether it’s burning miniature rubber on the two dozen well-designed tracks or roaming free across the four maps that they exist within, the simple act of driving in LEGO 2K Drive is an absolute joy at all times. No other open-world driving game can boast the kind of freedom that exists here thanks to the combination of transforming vehicles and highly-destructible environments. The roads here are barely more than suggestions, with every point-of-interest a completely straight shot away if you’re creative enough. When you’re not screaming across the map you can just as easily move with the precision of a platformer using the dedicated jump and quick turn buttons, making navigation feel super approachable even for those less familiar with driving games.

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The real feat is that, despite possessing the traversal chops of an open-world action game when the situation calls, the actual act of racing feels as tight and skilled as the best arcade racers out there. Vehicles handle superbly no matter what form they take, with the nuances coming from a combination of how they’re built, the stats they possess and any added perks. Even before factoring in the ability to build new rides from scratch using hundreds of different LEGO pieces, there’s a heap of variety on offer to unlock and custom loadouts let you preset different trios of street, off-road and water vehicles for different situations.

You’ll race across these three different surface types in LEGO 2K Drive, with the game automatically switching you between your three preset vehicles for each situation. It took a hot minute to get used to seeing my ride rebuild itself into another form each time the ground beneath me changed, but it’s genuinely impressive to witness and makes the racing and action feel impressively dynamic. It’s not an understatement to say that the folks at Visual Concepts have nailed how this game feels to play in just about every moment. Even when you’re driving around in a giant hamburger, or some ridiculous creation of your own design that you spent hours building brick-by-brick to look utterly hilarious, it always works and always feels fantastic.

If you want to, you can really hone in on the brick-building aspect as well and carefully craft an arsenal of different builds for every need. Whether it’s gearing your vehicles to be more offensive or defensive in races, or specifically suited to certain types of open-world challenges, LEGO 2K Drive throws up a huge amount of different gameplay scenarios and you can tackle them with as much or as little engineering as you’d like. It’s a perfect match to the fun of LEGO itself, especially so when combined with the fact that your vehicles fall to their individual pieces with damage – and driving through all of the destructible LEGO bits throughout the world adds pieces back on.

It quickly becomes something more akin to an open-world adventure/RPG than a pure driving game, throwing new and more challenging obstacles your way through its series of quests that can be overcome with pure skill or navigated with thoughtful vehicle building. The world itself can even change in ways that affect races, like being rewarded a lawn mower in an optional side quest that can clear out patches of weeds across each map so they’re not in the way during races. There are a handful of “minigame” type main quests that are nowhere near as fun as the regular races and so feel a bit overused by the third time you’ve been forced to do each, but it’s a minor mark on an otherwise excellent 8-10-hour main run of missions.

Completing just the primary stuff still leaves about 80% of the game incomplete though, with LEGO 2K Drive stuffed to the gills with challenges, optional missions and a plethora of collectibles all offering up experience and cash to get even more out of the customisability of your LEGO rides. The primary way to get new drivers, LEGO pieces and vehicle perks is to complete more of the game, but there’s also the ever-present “Unkie’s Emporium” premium store beckoning at every garage stop. Being a 2K title it’s perhaps not surprising, but 2K Drive features an enormous catalogue of drivers, vehicles, LEGO pieces and decorations that can only be purchased using an in-game currency that’s drip-fed for free but buyable in bulk with real cash.

So far, so expected for just about any modern game, and it’s ultimately not all that intrusive on the fun of the game as a whole. This is a full-priced title though, one that’s already being supported by a paid season pass model, and yet a huge chunk of the coolest stuff is locked behind in-game purchases. By the time I’d completed every main and side quest in the game I’d earned enough currency to buy maybe three or four of the roughly 200 items on offer. Some younger players with enough time and patience might be able to grind out the bucks they need to get a good portion of it, but the rest are very likely to succumb to Unkie Monkey’s in-your-face salesmanship, which feels grubby.

[Note: The 2K team has reached out to inform us since this review was published to say that they’ve made some adjustments post-release, significantly increasing the payout of in-game currency from story progression and races. I’d already completed the vast majority of everything in the game by the time these came into effect so it’s difficult to test out how impactful this change is, but it’s worth highlighting that a change has been made.]

Putting the 2K-ness of it all aside, this is still a game built for pure joy, and that never lets up. It’s all superbly put together as well, with a well-realised aesthetic combining the plastic and organic worlds to great effect alongside flawless and fluid performance – at least as far as the PS5 version that I played. It’s easily the best-looking LEGO game that I’ve encountered, and by far one of the best-looking arcade racers around, with huge and detailed environments and massive amounts of LEGO-based destruction. Particularly impressive are the real-time cutscenes that use the same stop-motion style character animations as the excellent LEGO Movie, making me wish that TT Games had adopted something similar for its recent entries.

Oddly, the audio side of things in LEGO 2K Drive is a bit of a mess. I don’t know enough to know if it’s a low bitrate thing – the game’s paltry 8GB download on PS5 might suggest it is – but all of the voice work in the game sounds tinny and awful. It’s not just the sound quality either but the mix itself with volume issues in abundance that ruin the otherwise-great sound effects and mostly-good music. The trademark LEGO humour still manages to shine through though, with gloriously bad puns, visual gags and slapstick comedy in a relentless abundance that kept a stupid grin on my face the entire time.

So there’s a whole lot to love in LEGO 2K Drive, and I’ve not even touched on all of the multiplayer potential with the entire campaign playable in online co-op and all 24 superb races available to play locally or online in single race and cup configurations. It’s a fully-fledged adventure game and a top-notch multiplayer kart racer combined that easily trumps the likes of Mario Kart a run for its money as far as its content offering and variety goes, while also being shockingly competitive when it comes to the quality of the racing itself. This could’ve been a half-bricked grab at the LEGO crowd and still somewhat landed, but instead it’s thoroughly impressed me in just about every way.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an adventure that’s best experienced blind and organically. This review contains zero story spoilers beyond anything revealed in officially released trailers.

I didn’t like Breath of the Wild as much as most others seemed to. That much was obvious to anyone who knows me. I still think it’s a great game for what it is, but it missed the mark for me as a Zelda title, eschewing so much of what made the previous entries memorable for me. It was a sad time – I’d thought my interest in a series that played such a strong role in my formative years had long dwindled – until now. Six years later, everything has changed. And I hate being wrong.

The truth is that I can’t remember the last time that I played my Switch or even a video game with as much fervent intensity as I have with Tears of the Kingdom. It’s the potential I saw in Breath of the Wild but almost perfectly realised, balancing the new and the old to fill the void of what I was missing about Zelda.

Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel to Breath of the Wild in many ways. You’ll play as Link once more as he sees himself in conflict with a new threat to Hyrule. As mentioned above, I won’t talk about the plot as it’s best experienced as it unfolds through the game, but it’s certainly engaging. The structure is similar to Breath of the Wild, told through non-linear flashbacks that you can easily piece together as you find them.

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Despite being structured similarly to Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom’s plot is much more engrossing this time around. It rights so many wrongs of Breath of the Wild – one of which includes incorporating a villain with presence. Some opportunity has been left on the table, I feel. Zelda’s characterisation definitely feels like a step back from her appearance in Breath of the Wild, for example. Despite this, I found the overarching storyline and the beats connecting it captivating and enjoyable.

Tears of the Kingdom looks and plays like Breath of the Wild at first glance. So many characters and locations from the original are here. But what the game does differently from its predecessor makes it stand apart. Whether it be the dramatic inclusion of two new maps in the Sky and Depths or the improvements to the systems underpinning their exploration, it’s deceptively different to the widely adored game that came before it.

While a highlight in the game’s marketing, the Sky plays a surprisingly more minor role than expected. A selection of islands hovering above the main map, these can be hard to reach but almost always reward players with something special. So many of them invite exploration and discovery, often daring players to solve the simple goal of reaching them. Some serve as locations with hidden treasures, while others as perfect jumping-off points to access the areas below. This means you can line up a jump that takes you from the Sky, through Hyrule and into its Depths if you wish with no load times, which can be an astounding feat to pull off.

The biggest surprise for me has come from the Depths. It’s almost as big as the main Hyrule map and is a dark and sprawling location underneath it. It’s unlike anything Zelda has done before – a dark, lonely, isolated place that’s equally frightening and inviting. As you descend, you can illuminate your pitch-black path with equipment while activating checkpoint-like Lightroots that provide greater illumination. Breath of the Wild was about that authentic sense of discovery – and Tears of the Kingdom doubles down on this with just how much is hidden under Hyrule in the Depths.

The Depths are my favourite new inclusion, but they almost certainly feel like a de-facto hard mode. You don’t know where you’re going, getting hit by enemies down there reduces your maximum health (temporarily), and longer journeys are fruitful but challenging. The gear you discover in the Depths is almost always more helpful than on the surface and the resources are integral in fuelling some of the new powers that Link has at his disposal.

At first, I’d thought it was brave for the team to throw away the powers from Breath of the Wild in favour of these new ones, but they serve similar functions and, in some cases, more function than the runes. There are five powers that Link has access to, and while simple at first glance, their versatility fundamentally changes the way you approach and think about both combat and puzzles. Each of the powers is also used in exploration and combat, so you’ll utilise them all fairly regularly.

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The most significant new inclusion is Ultrahand, along with Autobuild. They’re intuitive powers that favour creativity but don’t necessarily require it. With Ultrahand, you can make the most haphazardly put-together structure or vehicle, and it will probably work to do what you need. Autobuild is even more essential – it allows you to save your favourite creations to create later using parts lying around or out of thin air (for a cost). Both are great tools, though Autobuild has prebuilt schematics to pull from if you can’t be bothered creating your own vehicles and structures to mess around with.

Link’s new powers and the well-designed puzzles come together to support the one concept that makes Tears of the Kingdom so special. If you can think to do it, it’ll probably work. This approach to design means that the Sky is the limit when it comes to the puzzles you encounter or the situations you’re challenged by across the game’s lengthy runtime. This complexity means that how well you do in Tears of the Kingdom depends on your problem-solving skills, which is arguably less accessible than what was presented in Breath of the Wild. But the options are so limitless that I struggle to fathom a situation where somebody would be genuinely stuck. It’s a robust game held together by such intuitive systems.

Once again, Tears of the Kingdom builds on Breath of the Wild to offer greater variety to the player. It builds on a solid foundation – offering a tweaked map that makes Hyrule feel fresh despite being so familiar. Similarly, there’s a great breadth of enemies to battle with, too – and without ruining things, anybody who had issues with the lack of enemy variety in the previous game will be happy with what’s on offer in Tears of the Kingdom.

Such variety in the enemy types dovetails beautifully with the combat system, which is supplemented well with the new Fuse ability. Allowing you to attach two items together and wield them as a weapon, Fuse allows you to increase a weapon’s power, reach or elemental properties at the press of a button. I was one of those naysayers regarding weapon degradation in Breath of the Wild, and while it’s still here in Tears of the Kingdom, the new Fuse system is an ingenious and elegant solution to that problem. Previously, in Breath of the Wild, I’d finish an encounter and have whittled through most of my weapon stocks. Now, in Tears of the Kingdom, I’d have done the same, but all the enemy parts I’d have gathered would allow me to craft newer and probably better weapons.

Even better, Divine Beasts are now replaced with thematic dungeons. They’re not traditional lock-and-key structures like in previous Zelda games, but instead, more openly designed areas that have you exploring to unlock a central structure that leads to a boss. It’s a more simplified format, leveraging an intelligent compromise between the openness of the new era of Zelda with the situational theming of classic dungeons. They’re all most certainly better than the Divine Beasts, but they’re not as complex as “traditional” dungeons of past games. Still, having unique aesthetics tied around a unique boss battle will be enough for most fans, which is what Tears of the Kingdom offers.

And yes, they’re proper bosses again. Each boss is tangentially attached to the story of the area you’re playing through and often requires you to utilise specific mechanics to take them down. They’re admittedly uneven in their design – some are better than others – but they’re once again better than the Blights in the previous game. There are even more fun optional bosses to encounter in the overworld too, but I won’t spoil them for the sake of preserving surprises.

There’s still much to engage in when you’re not completing the main story. There are over 150 shrines to complete, which feel more involved this time. There are also more than 200 side quests, over half of which have intriguing stories and even more worthwhile rewards. There’s a nice variety of activities on offer here. Even after seventy hours in this world, I wasn’t getting bored. Open-world fatigue is a genuine phenomenon at this point in the generation, so for Tears of the Kingdom to somehow sidestep that is nothing short of a testament to the strength of its design.

Of course, with a game this vast and ambitious on a system like the Switch, it’s important to mention performance. Tears of the Kingdom invariably performs better than Breath of the Wild. It also looks better than most games on the system, owing to a fantastically-realised sense of artistic direction. But it’s still a Nintendo Switch game at the end of the day, and strong artistic direction can only carry you so far. Luckily, I was fortunate not to notice much slowdown beyond the occasional moments where I’d be moving through a heavily populated group of enemies. It’s not the most solidly-performing of games, but it certainly fares a whole lot better than most of the games I’ve played on Switch over the last twelve months.

So much sets Tears of the Kingdom apart from other Zelda games. It’s a rare chance for the series to play with a direct sequel – embracing its changes, building upon them and offering something newer while continuing what worked. It’s a genuinely enthralling open world, an inviting playground that encourages exploration with a genuine sense of discovery that you don’t find in other contemporary games with much, much larger budgets. I struggle to find little wrong with its approach. It’s distracting in all the best ways and rewards that distraction consistently. It’s just a joy to lose yourself in.

The post The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Review – A Sequel That Defies Expectation appeared first on Press Start.

Strayed Lights is a game that came out of nowhere to land on my radar, but it landed hard. I’m a massive sucker for a simple, stylish indie adventure that can be blown over in an afternoon and straight out of the gate I can tell you that this game has all that and then some.

French studio Embers’ first outing casts players as a being born of light, taking them on a journey from birth to ascendance in a dreamlike world where they’ll need to battle their inner demons to bring about peace and a balance of energy. It’s a wordless and esoteric narrative that, at least as far as my own experience goes, serves primarily to offer up a cool-looking world and contextualise some inventive and exciting combat mechanics.

As you make your way through this mysterious world, split into two hubs of interconnected biomes, you’ll happen across its less-than-friendly denizens. Rather than a traditional blow-by-blow combat system, Strayed Lights’ is one of an exchanging of energies. You can certainly take swipes at them, but the true tactic is to carefully party every blow they send your way until you’ve successfully absorbed all of their energy meter into your own, at which point you can end things at the touch of a button.

The added complexity in all this is a colour-based system that rewards you for switching the ethereal glow of your body between orange or blue to match that of your enemy at the moment of parry. Parrying as the correct colour is how you’ll successfully absorb energy (and regain health) while getting the timing right but the colour wrong will still negate any damage but without the other benefits. It’s simple enough but deceptively engaging, as you’re not only learning each enemy type’s attack patterns but memorising which colour they’ll be at key points in their combos, including a third, purple colour signifying an unblockable attack that you’ll need to dodge instead.

This comes together wonderfully during the game’s marquee boss battles, which up the scale of your foes significantly while giving them unique extra mechanics to contend with. These are unanimously great fights that feel increasingly satisfying as you hone your partying and dodging skills against the regular enemies in the lead-up. There aren’t all that many encounters across the game’s four-hour runtime, maybe a dozen for each of the major areas, making them all feel like crucial steps in your journey.

The one concern I do have with Strayed Lights’ otherwise-commendable take on enemy encounters is that there’s a bit of built-in exclusion that comes from the colour aspect. With no settings to tweak how these are displayed or alternative method of delivering the information needed, those who struggle with colour vision could find themselves at a huge disadvantage, doubly so given there are no difficulty settings to speak of either.

Outside of combat, Strayed Lights’ loose exploration serves well enough as a stroll through its oneiric landscapes. There are some collectibles to be found off the beaten path that add towards character progression, and a smattering of abilities to upgrade as you go, but it’s otherwise fairly basic stuff. The positive there is it makes this an easy game to slip into and vibe with minimal interruption, and it keeps things nice and succinct. Upon finishing the game I was a little stung to find that it’s not possible to go back to the pre-climax state and search out anything I missed along the way – the game simply throws players back to the main menu with only “New Game” as an option to dive back in.

I’d happily take the plunge again though, not least because Strayed Lights is a beautiful experience. From the breathtaking environments and their abstract-but-endearing inhabitants to the awe inspiring boss designs and anime-as-hell set pieces tussles you’ll have with them, this is a very handsome title indeed. The music, dreamt up by Austin Wintory (Journey, ABZÛ), is equally gorgeous even if the games overall audio mix is a bit dull throughout.

It’s not out to shake up the indie video game space, but thanks to a uniquely engaging combat system and a consistent stream of wonderous sights and sounds, Strayed Lights is a worthwhile little journey that makes for a great lazy afternoon play. It’s unfortunate that the user experience has suffered an oversight or two, especially in areas of accessibility, but mainly because it’s a quiet gem of a game that absolutely deserves to be played.

The post Strayed Lights Mini Review – Colour Me Impressed appeared first on Press Start.

After an unexpected two-year delay, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is finally here. The collection was long looked forward to by fans who fell in love with the Advance Wars series when it launched over two decades ago. Now, while Fire Emblem has arguably overtaken its spot in the cultural zeitgeist, Advance War makes a return and in a big way too. But while Re-Boot Camp is an earnest attempt at a modern update, there are a few things left on the table that could help the package reach its full potential.

Re-Boot Camp includes brand new from-the-ground-up remakes of the original Advance Wars and its sequel. Initially released for the Game Boy Advance, these two games are narratively two sides of the same coin, so it makes sense to include them together. It makes even more sense given that, from a gameplay perspective, both games play pretty similarly, with little difference between them. Both titles have had a visual makeover and sport other gameplay-related improvements that make them more approachable and streamlined.

From a narrative perspective, things are pretty simple but take a surprising turn. Advance Wars sees you playing as leaders of the state’s military on a fictional continent. You are the Orange Star and the game opens with you being at war with the Blue Moon. These two nations have been in conflict for years, but when another two countries enter the fray – the Yellow Comet and the Green Earth – and accuse the Orange Star of starting a war between the other nations, things get a bit dicey. I won’t spoil how it plays out, but it’s an intriguing, simple, engaging story.

Fans of Fire Emblem have a lot to owe to Advance Wars. Developed by the same team, these games are turn-based strategy affairs. You and an opponent take turns defeating each other in war. A selection of different units are available to you with differing roles in battle. Some are better for simply scouting out the battlefield, and others can attack from afar. Some can transport other units greater distances than they could themselves. Your goal is to destroy all enemy units or capture the enemy HQ.

It’s a simple premise, but it requires some thinking. While released over two decades ago, Advance Wars still packs a punch with difficulty. You must think through every turn to come out on top, and the enemy AI can be relentless. I’m keen on this strong challenge, even if it took some getting used to, but I acknowledge other players might not be, and it might be a bit off-putting or overwhelming.

Re-Boot Camp thusly includes a new casual mode, but it feels like a poorly thought-out inclusion. This is the only issue I have with Re-Boot Camp. Both the original difficulty and the casual difficulty lack that Goldilocks principle. They’re tuned to occupy both ends of the difficulty curve with nothing in the middle to cater to the average player. I’d have loved to have seen a middle difficulty introduced, as both the provided options will alienate some players.

That’s my only major complaint about Re-Boot Camp which might seem a little controversial. Everything has been improved for the better. Bringing together both games under the same banner, the quality-of-life changes implemented here are integral. So many of these additions feel simple enough but impact the game’s flow dramatically. You can now fast-forward enemy turns and battle animations. You can reset your turn if you make a mistake, so long as you don’t end that turn. You can even attack an enemy outright by selecting them – which might sound like a small change – but any design choice that removes button presses to achieve the same result is a UX win.

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There are other aspects that are similarly fantastic – tutorials are now streamlined into the campaign, introduced to you more gradually rather than forcing you through some simpler uninteresting missions like the original game did. Even better, though these tutorials are embedded in the main missions now, they’re skippable for people who know what they’re doing. I appreciate good onboarding more than anyone, but also respecting returning players by allowing them to skip these elements that would otherwise bore them is, once again, a win for the player.

But putting all of those opening moments aside, both Advance Wars games still play as well as they did back then. The campaigns each gradually introduce the key concepts until you’re eventually faced with challenging gauntlets and a story that’s simple but intriguing enough to keep you going. It can be demotivating to spend fifteen to twenty minutes on a battle only to lose and start again, but that’s the nature of the beast with a game like this. However, the quality-of-life improvements mentioned earlier carry a lot of weight in alleviating this pain.

It boggles my mind to think that Fire Emblem fans who began their journey with that franchise on the 3DS might never have played an Advance Wars game. But given the shared DNA between the two, there’s most certainly some crossover in appeal, though it depends on what you enjoy Fire Emblem for. Today, Fire Emblem is just as much about taking your prospective waifu to a euphemistic tea party as it is about the solid strategic battle elements. Advance Wars feels ironically and oddly refreshing in that the gameplay takes centre stage first behind the characters and story. Your mileage will almost certainly vary, but I enjoyed playing a strategy game solely grounded in the strategy.

Of course, bundling together two games represents tremendous value for money. Both of the adventures included within will take most players upwards of forty hours to complete, and that’s before you might even try to attempt the high-difficulty campaigns on offer. There are also other modes to jump into as well. A level designer allows players to make their own missions while War Room pits the player against tough odds in even more brutal battles. Both are nice touches that add more value to Re-Boot Camps overall package, but I’m not so sure about the implementation of multiplayer.

Multiplayer was always contentious when it comes to Re-Boot Camp. I won’t beat around the bush – it’s a somewhat limited offering. I can appreciate that there is still support for a local four-player versus mode, but offering only a two-player online mode feels like a missed opportunity. Similarly, given games like Wargroove have popularised the notion of an asynchronous multiplayer mode – where you and others can play your turn at your own leisure rather than be stuck in a live game – to not see something like that implemented here also feels like a bit of a letdown. Of course, having online in a game that is ostensibly twenty years old is still a great addition, but given the current climate of these games, it still feels a bit simplistic in its offerings.

Perhaps even more controversial is the art style, however. Everything to do with Re-Boot Camp’s artistic direction is purely up to your personal tastes. On one hand, I miss the sprite-based look of the original game and could love to see what an art style like HD-2D could do for a game like this. On the other, while the fully rendered style does admittedly look cheaper and more generic, it does look more like plastic toys battling each other on the battlefield. I’m still determining which look I prefer overall, but the action that played out while units exchanged fire was definitely more interesting to look at than whatever is served up here.

On the other hand, the remake brings voice work that does a good job of breathing life into characters we’d previously never heard from. The cast does a great job at turning in some hammy performances that perfectly suit the tone of both games. The music, on the other hand, while good at first, can get grating during more extended missions. The developers were aware of this, I’m sure, as there is an option to turn it off, but it is most definitely worth mentioning.

While Re-Boot Camp doesn’t capitalise on its potential, it’s by far a much more accessible version of the original game it is based on. Your gripes with it will no doubt be purely based on personal factors. Still, there’s no denying that underneath it is a solid selection of strategy games that are well worth a look.

The post Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Review – An All-Round Improvement appeared first on Press Start.

With the inherent success of Minecraft, we were always going to get plenty of spin-offs of all kinds that explore a diverse array of genres and experiences within the IP. 2015’s Minecraft: Story Mode and 2020’s Minecraft Dungeons have marked the beginning of this with varying levels of success, but there’s no denying their originality in comparison with vanilla Minecraft. The next title in this slew of spin-offs is Minecraft Legends, a self-described action strategy game that’s most comparable to the Dragon Quest Builders series, with a unique Minecraft flavor.

After my brief hands-on preview with the game in Tokyo, I mentioned that I’d had a good time with Legends, despite being worried about game length and how it would keep things fresh throughout its runtime, and that my brief hands-on with the multiplayer mode was a blast. After spending much more time with both of these modes, it’s clear that the preview I played had barely scratched the surface of what Legends has to offer. The end result is the best Minecraft spin-off yet that, despite some niggling issues, offers a satisfying and moreish gameplay loop and an intensely engaging versus mode.

The narrative here is about as deep as you’d expect from a Minecraft experience, but it is positively bursting at the seams with the charm the IP is known for. A dangerous threat from the Nether known as the Piglins have been spilling over into the overworld with plans of conquest and domination. Their bases poison the natural landscape with noxious gasses and Netherrack creeps further out as more Piglins pour in from protected Nether Portals found within each bastion. It falls to you to expunge the Piglin threat and send the three distinct factions back to the Nether.

Overall, it’s a feel-good narrative that employs plenty of slapstick humor and Minecraft trademarks to get you onboard. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t chuckle at a few of the visual gags, and the cutscenes on offer here have incredibly high production values that expand the sense of scope within Legends and mythos of Minecraft. It’s ultimately a good time, one that kids will likely get more of a kick out of, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing here for older fans.

Gameplay is where Minecraft Legends differs the most from its source material, offering the same core tenets of mining and crafting, in an entirely different format. Everything you do in Minecraft Legends comes back to the Allays, which are your main tool for gathering materials and building structures. A quick button combination can send these little guys out to harvest resources like wood, stone, coal, and more. Gathered materials can then be used by Builder Allays to form structures, mechanisms, and much more.

It’s a more passive way to engage with what’s effectively the core loop of Minecraft, but this is only to make room for all the extra stuff Legends brings with it. It’s through the gathering and utilization of these resources that you can push back the Piglin threat. From setting up defences around liberated villages to constructing a Redstone Launcher to blow open the gates of a Piglin base, everything eventually comes back to mining and building.

This core loop of gathering resources in order to bolster your own defensive and offensive capabilities is incredibly moreish. Where flexibility isn’t afforded in the structures you create, it is in the way you place them, the way they interact with each other, and in the way you pick and choose how best to use certain materials when trying to overthrow a particularly difficult Piglin base. It helps greatly that there’s an immense variety of things to build here that steadily unlock over the course of the campaign, constantly offering up new strategies and game plans to employ against the Piglins.

Your main method of siege comes in the form of Golems. These little guys can be amassed from crafted spawners, and brought along with you to tackle Piglin outposts. Each one specializes in different abilities, from healing and de-buff cleansing to stunning enemies or bringing down structures. You have to consider what kinds of Golems you want to bring with you on a siege given the obstacles, and that’s without talking about the ability to employ hallmark mobs.

Creepers, Skeletons, and Zombies are here in full force, united against the Piglin threat. You can also spawn these mobs alongside Golems, each one costing a little bit more in terms of resources in trade-off for extra power. The Skeletons, for example, excel at ranged combat and taking out enemy units, where Creepers make incredibly short work of enemy structures, making them useful in a pinch if you need a last ditch assault to bring down a Piglin base. While your army is initially limited to a total of 20 units, you can expand that number further, and simple commands can be issued in combat to have them focus on particular enemies or structures.

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Clearing Piglin outposts and liberating villages rewards you with Prismarine, a resource that’s key to upgrading your capabilities, resource capacity, and total army count. Prismarine is doled out often enough that there’s always something new to invest in upon returning to the Well of Fate, which almost always leads to meaningful player progression. It’ll have you constantly eyeing your Prismarine count so you know when you can get your next upgrade.

The general flow and progression of the campaign is also something I really enjoyed. After a brief tutorial and some opening objectives to get you to grips with the many systems of Minecraft Legends, you’re let loose to tackle the Piglin threat as you see fit. Three unique factions have setup three bases throughout the overworld, each one varying in difficulty and rewards. You’re encouraged to tackle the easy ones first, but there’s nothing stopping you from knocking on the doors of the most fortified of forts if you really want the challenge.

It’s this non-linear structure in combination with some extra-curricular open world activities that makes Legends so easy to play. You’ll stumble across mob outposts that have been taken over by Piglins, abandoned towers that can be deconstructed and tucked away for later use, and huge golems that’ll join you in your fight should they be resurrected. There’s always incentive and reward to explore outside of just gathering resources.

It comes to a head when all three of a faction’s bastions have been felled, and one final outpost makes itself known. These provide some of the best strategy Minecraft Legends has to offer, and are punctuated with explosive boss fights that test every skill you’ve learned during the campaign. It makes for a solid difficulty curve if you tackle bases in the right order, though I’m sure you can circumvent that order with some cheeky tactics and ample use of the game’s more powerful structures and minions.

Another thing to consider is the way that Piglins will launch attacks on allied villages when night falls, incentivizing you to build up defences around each one once liberated. You’re always warned in advance which village is going to be attacked, and it’s rewarding to see all your efforts pay off when a village successfully pushes back the Piglins without your help. One irk I had with this, though, is that if a village does fall, you have to retake it from the Piglins, which got tiresome in the second half of the game, especially when it means rebuilding defences.

While the campaign mode is able to be played in co-op, where I think Minecraft Legends is really going to take off, is in its versus mode. It’s a simple 4 versus 4 affair with either team trying to siege the other’s base and destroy their Fountain. All of the systems from the campaign are intact here, from Prismarine progression and Piglin outposts to resource harvesting – it’s all here in full force, and is of great importance.

While you could absolutely band together and launch an all out assault on the enemy base, there’s just as much value in spending time gathering resources and Prismarine to gain access to more structures. I can’t begin to fathom the kinds of long-winded matches that will come out of this mode once players jump into it. It has a MOBA-esque quality to it that instils an inherent tension in the experience, and it’s easily some of the most fun I’ve had with Minecraft Legends so far. While it’s a great time with friends, the mode does struggle with the inherent limited communication brought by matchmade games, as a lot of the enjoyment comes from planning and collaborating with allies.

As mentioned in my hands-on preview, everyone knows what they’re getting into when it comes to the visual presentation of anything related to Minecraft. Legends doesn’t shock or surprise in this regard, offering a tried-and-true art style that’s bolstered by a diverse range of biomes and some snazzy particle effects that tie the whole experience together. There’s plenty of new stuff to see here in the broad scope of Minecraft and the game always looks great, but don’t expect Legends to reinvent the wheel in this regard.

Performance on PC is similarly reliable, and I experienced very few technical issues aside from one notable audio bug. I’m not sure if it was something to do with the mixing, but some sound effects and dialogue lines were extremely quiet during my time with the game. This made it hard to get properly invested in cutscenes and did create a bit of a disconnect in battle as my sword swipes didn’t yield much feedback. It wasn’t enough to rip me out of the experience entirely, but the absence is notable enough to mention it here.

I’ve come away from my time with Minecraft Legends pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The campaign is a tightly paced jaunt through a new Minecraft experience that doesn’t outstay its welcome and offers a fresh spin on the strategy genre with a distinct Minecraft flavour. Despite having my fill of the campaign, I have no doubt I’ll be returning to Legends over the coming months to play its outrageously fun versus mode with friends, and I can’t recommend enough that you check it out to do the same.

The post Minecraft Legends Review – Building A New Kind of Strategy appeared first on Press Start.

I’ve long considered Tron to basically be The Wizard of Oz for software nerds, as its ‘stranger in a strange land’ trope depicts a mouthwatering battle of light and dark bits that’d have the interest of most sci-fi aficionados piqued. There have been several attempts to make Tron radical again throughout the decades, and it’s only now through Mike Bithell’s lens that I’m paying attention.

As Bithell’s games have always been, Tron Identity is rather simple conceptually. Where one might expect a light-cycle Road Rash clone, Bithell delivers a visual novel rich with mystery, tension, and corporate intrigue that, above all else, delivers a tantalising glimpse into Tron’s expanded universe. Like Bithell’s John Wick Hex before this, Tron Identity is a franchise tie-in that does make sense within its established world, it’s merely a shame that despite its broad concepts and themes, the lone and basic game loop at the heart of Identity, both in terms of gameplay and theme, is middling and forgettable.

Set within its own little Grid, forgotten by its creator and not dictated by user intervention, Tron: Identity justifies its narrative existence not by leaning heavily on the film’s lore, but rather expanding upon it. Once you press through the thickets of proper nouns that make the pacy story a bit of a whirlwind to navigate, what exists is a pretty sound thriller. It’s very layered and, as with most visual novels, it has a number of endings to seek out. For a game about following one’s programming, to have any sense of agency at all, which is something often missing from these quasi-choose-your-own adventure games, feels nice. 

The cast of programs you’ll encounter is certainly concentrated, with only a handful you’ll encounter at the Repository—a live-in FireCuda that serves as storage for the Grid’s most valuable data, and the scene of an expected breach which serves as the catalyst of your investigation. Regardless of any given character’s role within the network, they feel right in line with what one might expect from Tron. Bithell’s writing hits on all of the expected existential technobabble and musings, and the dilemmas you’ll face and where you place your trust and allegiances carry considerable weight.

A standard “run” of the game’s story is likely to last just a couple of hours, but if you’re the type to explore every outcome there’s enough replay value to justify the twenty-dollar price tag. 

Outside of the agonising choices you’ll be forced to make, Tron: Identity’s lone hand lies in defragging other programs’ identity discs. Unfortunately, and somewhat antithetical to how cool Tron is, this isn’t as fun as it sounds on paper. They take the form of a fairly basic card-matching puzzle where the aim is to rid of as many cards as possible by pairing them with either an equal suit or value. I’d hardly consider the varying conditions the game hurls at you drip fed, as the game is so fleeting, though they don’t do a lot to make it harder either. 

Making this singular gameplay beat available through superfluous endless mode outside of the story might be the single-most unappealing thing this game offers up. The player-character Query himself even begrudges the game’s hook, declaring that even he’d had enough for one night. 

Though not necessarily verified for it at this point, I did enjoy this game on the Steam Deck. As you’d expect, its brevity truly suits a handheld setting and the game did perform marvellously well on it. That said, it’s likely due in part to Tron being the draw it once was, therefore Bithell’s take on the franchise screams shoestring budget throughout its presentation.

It does capture the style and essence of Tron as blue and orange hues warm the game’s world, though it is depicted effectively through seemingly breathing concept art slides. 

Although it’s suggested there are more of these on the way, I can’t help but feel like a visual novel is an interesting choice for Tron. It is held tenuously together by Mike Bithell’s note-perfect script, character work, and creative vision in terms of what it achieves narratively, it’s unfortunate that it all unravels at the first sign of the arguably unnecessary gamification that continually distracts and detracts from the game’s clear strength. 

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Citizen Sleeper was, and still remains, one of my favourite releases of last year. It had one glaring problem though, at least on a personal level – it wasn’t available on PlayStation. My patience in waiting for all three of its free DLC episodes to launch before diving back into the game has paid off though, with the release of the final episode, Purge, coinciding with the game’s debut on PS5 and PS4.

I’m going to abstain from re-explaining what Citizen Sleeper is – you can read my full review of the game’s original release right underneath this write-up – and speak strictly to the new stuff, namely the PlayStation release and the full run of story DLC.

The long and short of it all is this; If you’re a PlayStation player and haven’t played Citizen Sleeper yet, please do. It’s an intoxicating mix of sci-fi flavoured capitalism critique aboard a diverse and characterful space station, tabletop mechanics, time management and branching narrative that’s deceptively simple with a powerful mechanical underbelly. There’s not much to say about the game’s port to PS5 and PS4 specifically, it’s by and large the same game available on other platforms, but it’s (hopefully) a whole new community of players given the chance to experience this indie masterpiece.

Returning as someone who’d played the game on another platform, I did find Citizen Sleeper a lot less daunting this time around, and felt a lot more confident in my ability to establish myself on the Eye and game its systems to pull myself out of poverty. I’m not sure that’s the right angle of attack for this game, but I kind of appreciated it.

The other side of the coin here, of course, is the availability of the three episodes making up Citizen Sleeper’s DLC sequence, which sees players navigate a spot of turmoil as a flotilla of interstellar refugees arrives at Erlin’s Eye, the station’s proprietors at Havenage unwilling to take a few thousand new souls into the already-struggling ecosystem. This trio of chapters arrives toward Citizen Sleeper’s “late game” with a simple item exchange requiring some degree of progress acting as a gate to entry, and definitely brought me back down to Earth (heh) when it came to my confidence as a veteran Sleeper.

The first episode, titled Flux, introduces players to Eshe and Peake, two new arrivals along with the refugee ships that act as a catalyst of sorts for the player, as the titular Sleeper, to understand that the plights of these people mirror much of your own. It’s an interesting shift in perspective after having worked and scraped and sacrificed everything to make a place for yourself on the Eye, only for thousands more to arrive looking to you to help them do the same. This 1-2 hour first chapter is a stressful one too, giving players a tight window of time to achieve quite a few tasks to make sneaking the refugee ships through quarantine and onto the Eye possible.

The next episode, Refuge, turns the attention to the flotilla itself and the three subgroups of people aboard its ships. Hailing from three different moons of a larger, inhabited planet, these groups have come from a three-way political tension to wind up displaced in unison. Thus, most of this episode focuses on getting to know each of the groups’ leaders and the individual needs of their crews to establish some degree of understanding. It’s a far more relaxed and text-heavy chapter, with plenty of new and well-written characters to get to know.

The final of these DLC episodes, Purge, is a special one and it’d be remiss of me to spoil just about any of it, suffice to say the tension and time critical panic of Flux returns here, and culminates in a hell of an ending, using all of the groundwork and character building established in the previous two episodes to great effect and tying up a bundle of threads from the base game in the process. I came away feeling the best I’ve felt about any of Citizen Sleeper’s prior possible resolutions, and I would absolutely urge anyone that’s played the main story portion to come back and play through all three new episodes.

Read my full review of the game’s original release below:

It was right around the point that I made the choice to go foraging for rare mushrooms over helping a stranded father and daughter get their one shot at a fresh start, that I realised Citizen Sleeper had made an arsehole out of me. I don’t know what it is about tabletop or tabletop-like games that does it, perhaps it’s the combination of high stakes and low odds that triggers a certain response, but I wind up looking out for me and myself alone. The dozens of names and faces aboard the doomed company-town-on-a-space-station-turned-intergalactic-refuge, Erlin’s Eye, became little more than stepping stones on my path to freedom but now that I’m on the outside I can’t say I care to look back in.

How did we get here, though? That’s the blank chapter in Citizen Sleeper’s slice-of-life narrative that you’ll be filling in. This bold new title from In Other Waters developer Jump Over The Age (Gareth Damien Martin) casts you as a ‘Sleeper’, a digital copy of a human consciousness in an artificial body, that has escaped the clutches of corporate ownership and found themselves aboard the Eye without so much as a plan to hang onto life let alone start a new one. Thanks to a built-in planned obsolescence, time is ticking before your physical form falls apart and so every moment and every decision counts as you explore the station, make allies and enemies and do what you must to survive, thrive or leave alive.

To say I fell in love with the world this game presents would be an understatement – I’m obsessed. Here’s a genuine sci-fi adventure game packed with intrigue, drama and challenge, but one that eschews putting a stick in your hand in favour of putting the world in your mind. Or is it your mind in the world? Citizen Sleeper tackles the heady subject matter of the coalescence of biological and synthetic life and the blurring of the lines between nature and data. Then it imagines how we might fuck even that up in the name of greed, putting your synthetic arse to work for scraps in the shell of a corporate space station like the data-digging equivalent of a hard-rock miner in a company town.

All of this is put together through the lens of a tabletop RPG, the world around you barely more than a top-down map of Erlin’s Eye adorned with icons representing places, people and tasks. The game plays out in Cycles that represent the passage of time – within a Cycle, you’re able to explore the Eye and take various actions, most of which require a roll of a dice to perform and determine their level of success. The number of dice you have at your disposal each Cycle depends on the current condition of your physical form, which degrades as your progress time and also as a result of work done. You’ll be able to take measures to ensure your energy levels stay high and your condition gets better before it gets worse, but it’s a careful balancing act between keeping yourself alive and using your time constructively.

The actions you’ll take aboard the Eye, things like undertaking work in a scrapyard, extracting data from terminals or navigating tricky social interactions, are all means to fulfil your Drives. Drives are your goals, they unlock as you meet new people and uncover new mysteries and they’re what will eventually see your story through to some kind of conclusion. Some can be treated with a certain degree of leisure, but others are at the mercy of Clocks – meters that count up as you perform certain actions or simply as Cycles pass. Between trying to achieve your Drives and manage the various Clocks around Erline’s Eye it almost feels like juggling pins and spinning plates at the same time. The juggling part is fine on its own, but those plates are a constant, looming threat to your ability to keep the pins up in the air. Also some of the plates will cause intergalactic bounty hunters to come and shoot you in the face if they stop spinning.

The result though is a game that hinges on two things – hard choices and bold risks. Not only will you need to gripe with your own time management, forethought and conscience when deciding what to focus your limited efforts on each Cycle, but even once you’ve formulated a plan there’s an element of chance that can completely undo everything. Actions that work on a dice roll can have positive, neutral or negative outcomes that are dictated by both the value of the dice you choose to play for it and your character’s own affinities. At the beginning of the game you’ll be asked to choose one of three classes with their own stats and unique buffs that can then be augmented with upgrade points earned from completing Drives.

The way that all of these different systems interweave and feed into the vast many narrative possibilities is an incredibly slick feat of design, especially once you get over the initial sense of being overwhelmed by them and start to understand how to focus on the outcomes you genuinely want to see. After that it’s just a matter of praying things work out – if you’re anything like me trying to leverage my Interface skill to score a job on a colony ship as a Junior Tech you’ll learn that part the hard way. It can all be quite stressful initially, but also just forgiving enough in the early hours that your failings feel more like new forks on your road to success than genuine disasters.

Citizen Sleeper is also a game that feels genuinely replayable. It can easily be finished in around five hours or less if you can stomach leaving friends, enemies and answers behind for a quick getaway. Or you can push yourself, play the long game, explore deeper and deeper into the Eye and seek out everything the game has to offer. Luckily, finishing the game creates a return point right beforehand so you can easily go back and forge an alternate path ahead should you want to, but it’s just as rewarding to start completely fresh and see how differently it can all go.

Life aboard Erlin’s Eye is presented with a clean and stylish aesthetic that works far harder than its combination of mostly static environments and text-based narrative would imply. For starters, the character portraits from acclaimed comic book artist Guillaume Singelin that accompany story beats are gorgeous and add incredible dimension to the game’s already-fantastic writing. When it kicks in, the game’s soundtrack from returning composer Amos Roddy swings deftly between ‘illicit underground fetish club in the year 2090’ and ‘metaphysical contemplations on a Korg MS20’ and it honestly slaps fucking ass. For a game where the most important bits are delivered mostly in text and numbers, Citizen Sleeper is an absolute vibe

The post Citizen Sleeper (Complete) Review – A Sleeper Hit Made Even Better appeared first on Press Start.

If a game offers a fishing mini-game, I tend to seek it out. Ever since Ocarina of Time introduced me to the concept of the trophy catch, games have been a convenient avenue to take part in a pastime I’ve never gravitated towards despite my late-grandad’s wishes. The exception is Dredge. It’s all fishing and dragging the waters in search of secrets that lurk in the undercurrent. And quite frankly, it’s a bloody riveting video game. 

Something that’s inevitable every calendar year is the handful of independent games that come as if from nowhere and ultimately feature heavily during end-year commendations. Celeste, Hades, Disco Elysium, and even last year’s Cult of the Lamb. All of these went on to transform the teams behind them into household names overnight.

I feel that Dredge has that special something that might see it cause ripples for the team at Black Salt Games across the pond in New Zealand.

Dredge is a pretty simple sell in terms of its darkly spun story, as you’re cast ashore by a fierce storm and come to capsize in the quaint, seaside village of Greater Marrow, the nucleus in this particular archipelago. You trade favours for a replacement vessel to get your sea legs back under you, only to discover the islands—as well as those who dwell there mostly in isolation—harbour some twisted, nasty surprises.

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One way you pick yourself up by your bootstraps is to ply your trade as a fisherman, collecting all manner of ocean life and selling it back to the town fishmonger for the right price, throughout your travels you’ll be able to dredge the sea floor for both trinkets and salvageable materials that, in turn, can be used to refine your boat like the Ship of Theseus—until its every part, from the lantern to trawl net, is better than before. There are several little systems at play that all interlink to make Dredge a surprisingly complete, and fun, fishing game. 

Rather than struggling against a tense line by mashing buttons, fishing in Dredge is a mostly peaceful test of timing. Depending on the magnitude of the catch, you’ll either deal with up to a couple of spinning rings with broken paths that you’ll hop between or a singular ring peppered with prompts to speed up the angling. Time is of the essence after all, as the clock ticks over quicker when you’re luring a shoal and you don’t want to get caught out at night—at least at first. 

Another of the game’s mild challenges come with its Resident Evil-like inventory management. Everything consumes space, from your boat’s components—although they become more compact the more you spend on refinements—to the fish you haul in. It’s a game within a game as each catch has a peculiar shape, it almost becomes a game of Tetris trying to wedge that last cod onboard. 

Whether it’s recovering mysterious artefacts for an enigmatic “collector” or assembling a mortar to help a marooned pilot, you’re given a lot of varied objectives to keep you occupied throughout the game’s ten hour story. Dredge’s showpiece, however, is absolutely the fishing. Mastering the day and night conditions and acquiring the perfect equipment depending on where you’re dropping a line are two key pieces of the puzzle when it comes to filling out your journal like it’s a National Geographic guide for the cruellest of seas. 

I’m delighted at just how much Dredge feels like a Pokémon game at times, and how much joy I felt trying to catch them all.

Aside from the regular cod, mackerel, eels, and sharks, nightfall brings a particularly macabre twist as aberrations of these fish are pulled up from the briny depths. I kind of see this as the Dredge equivalent of shiny Pokémon, even if they’re eye-catching in a different way. Slick with grime rather than a glittering sheen, the distorted monstrosities are the prize catches that’ll net you both renown and a handsome payday.

Nighttime fishing is a perilous endeavour however, as the untameable beasts of the deep tend to wreak havoc if you stay out after sundown. This is wonderfully juxtaposed by how peaceful fishing can be under the safeguard of the sun’s rays, although the tension and danger is ultimately undercut by the game’s end as you’re granted protection spells from the aforementioned “collector” that’ll let you temporarily ward off any danger, overload the boat’s engines with a burst of speed, or even simply instantly transmit yourself back to the safety of his manor-side dock.

In certain areas of the archipelago, these spells are a must. Frustratingly, and perhaps it’s an effort to not directly gate progress, if you find yourself in the Twisted Strand early on, you’ll quickly find it was a journey wasted—and it is a good day’s trip with an undercooked vessel. It’s commendable that the entire map is open from the jump, but discovering through sheer trial and error that the road through lies elsewhere can be a drag.

Dredge’s presentation is absolutely lovely, from its simple and readable UI to the game’s positively eldritch art direction that truly encapsulates the sinister scariness of the unknown that comes with a vast, open ocean. While it is a strong direction, certain things are clearly hampered by a shoestring budget—although none ultimately hamper the fun.

Character’s avatars are voiceless drawn stills and the comical animation of the truck-sized angler fish that can wreck your boat undercuts the terror to a degree, but it matters not when you’re teetering on sanity’s edge after a dangerous, sleepless night at sea and your mind plays spectacular tricks on you. Beautiful waves of light dance atop the still water, stunningly destructive whirlwinds blow through, and woes of fog cover cause jagged rocks to appear out of nowhere.

Dredge is a fresh take on the collect ‘em all trope and I particularly adore its eldritch dressing. I’m one who’s particularly petrified of the unknown, with the ocean and outer space being specific triggers of this in different ways. While not as infinitely vast as space, a fine case for the crushing scariness of the ocean is made by Dredge and you’ll long for the warm-glowing lantern, dangling like a beacon for safety on the dock in the distance.

Dredge will be a contender this year. And that’s not limited to the indie scene either, as I expect it’ll make waves and be Game of the Year bait in its own right.

Dredge is out on March 30th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

The post Dredge Review – A Trophy Catch appeared first on Press Start.

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a pleasant surprise. Released mere months after Bayonetta 3, the game offers a pseudo origin story for the coquettish witch. It does so differently but similarly to the games that came before it. I wrote at length about how the game’s opening chapters felt simplistic but held high hope that it would turn around as the game progressed. Now, having finished the entirety of the experience, I’m pleasantly surprised. Yes, Cereza and the Lost Demon is a different experience from the Bayonetta games as we know them, but it’s a direction that I wouldn’t mind seeing more games borrow from in the future.

Definitively, Cereza and the Lost Demon takes place before the events of the original Bayonetta. You play as Cereza, an Umbran Witch in training, who sees her mother locked up by the coven for cavorting with a Lumen Sage. Cereza is thus raised by Morgana, a strict teacher who only wants the best for her pupil. Following visions coming to her in a dream, Cereza heads into the mysterious Avalon Forest, looking for power to save her mother. Simultaneously, she summons a demon named Cheshire, who needs something in the forest to find his way home. The two head off into the woods and form an unlikely alliance.

While this is a prequel to the trio of games that came before it, Bayonetta Origins does a great job of adding much-needed context to the events of Bayonetta 3. There are many references to the other games and characters directly referenced between the two. Putting that aside, the game exists as a standalone experience too. Regardless of what you know about Bayonetta, in Cereza and the Lost Demon, it’s a joy to see Cereza start off lacking confidence and eventually become the Bayonetta we know today. Cheshire is similarly a fun foil to Cereza’s inexperienced nature. I was surprised to find myself caring so much about both of them towards the end of the game’s story.

As you’d probably know by now, Cereza and the Lost Demon isn’t a typical Bayonetta game. Instead, it plays most like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. A third-person game presented from an overlooking camera, each of the thumbsticks controls Cereza and Cheshire independently. Cereza can use her entry-level magic to interact with elements of the forest and temporarily debuff enemies. Cheshire is the primary damage dealer and can utilise a wealth of abilities to protect himself and Cereza from damage. It doesn’t sound straightforward, but it comes together relatively intuitively.

When you’re not exploring the many areas of the Avalon Forest, you’ll be in combat. During combat, Cereza can use her magic to bind enemies – slowing them down or bringing them to a halt entirely. On the other hand, Cheshire can attack with melee attacks and even perform flashy combos if he’s attacking enemies already bound by Cereza. It can get a bit intense, but it’s a serviceable combat system that perfectly complements the simplistic nature of the adventure. I spent most of the time in combat watching Cheshire, so you won’t always feel overwhelmed having to control both characters in battle.

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But as you progress through the game, more abilities are doled out to the duo that keeps things interesting. Without ruining anything, Cheshire gains abilities associated with the elements such as projectiles or heavy hitting slam attacks. Cereza also gets more abilities, which I won’t ruin here, but the brunt of the combat focus is on Cheshire. He has a nice range of abilities to unlock, and a surprisingly large and detailed skill tree helps unlock more abilities for both Cereza and Cheshire.

What surprised me even more about Cereza and the Lost Demon was the breadth of enemy types you encounter and even the boss battles. While they’re not as numerous as Bayonetta or as bombastic, they come close. Some of the set pieces feel closer to the first three games than anything else in terms of their action and intensity. It’s almost intentional that as Cereza progresses through the story and starts to resemble Bayonetta from a skill perspective, the game she’s in begins to resemble the games she will be in.

But outside of combat, Cereza and Cheshire can use their abilities, often together, to navigate the forest. A semi-open world, the forest is filled with collectibles that enhance abilities or health and many of them can be found after unlocking a new upgrade for the pair. Cereza can throw Cheshire to others areas as a miniature doll to open up new areas. Cheshire can use his water form to move around bodies of water while his fire form melts ice. There’s more, too, and the puzzles you encounter are by no means complex. However, it’s still satisfying to backtrack and find a new area to explore after obtaining something new.

If you’re connecting the dots, then you’ll probably think that Cereza and the Lost Demon borrows a bit from Metroid. And it does. The Avalon Forest and its surrounding areas can all be freely roamed to find collectibles and eventually unlock costumes for the duo after completing the game. “Sanctuaries” act as little spots for Cereza to rest but also as save and fast travel points. It’s a semi-open world that invites you to explore it if you wish, mainly to improve abilities and stats, but you can be engaged with as much or as little as you want to.

However, things get a bit more involved with the Tír na nÓg areas. These are otherworldly locales that are peppered throughout the map. Some are essential to continue, and others are optional. They’re essentially puzzle trials that Cereza and Cheshire must complete to “purify” the area and highlight other activities near the Tír na nÓg. Sometimes they’re combat trials, similar to the Alfheims from the original Bayonetta. Overall, they’re a great break from exploration and combat to offer a more honed puzzle experience.

Putting this all together, Cereza and the Lost Demon is a comprehensive action-adventure title. There’s a wealth of accessibility options if you’re struggling, but I’d estimate most players could get at least twelve to fifteen hours out of the adventure. Upon finishing, there’s still more to find in the forest and even a secondary story to unlock and play through. My only real complaint, and even then it’s not a huge one, is that this could’ve benefitted from some co-op functionality in some way, though it’s by no means a deal breaker. My first impression of this game was that it might be one-and-done, but with so much to unlock and see, Cereza and the Lost Demon is anything but phoned-in.

This notion can especially be applied to the game’s presentation. Most of the story is told through a mix of lore-filled collectibles and storybook-style cutscenes that, while static in their approach, are meticulously voiced by a strong cast of actors. Combine this with an artistic style that looks like a hand-painted watercolour painting, and you have something distinct and special. Performance-wise, the game runs close to sixty frames while docked and closer to thirty frames while portable. It’s by no means the worst running game on the Switch, but it’s not the best, either. It sits firmly in the middle.

The post Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon Review – A Bewitching Tale appeared first on Press Start.

Having not indulged in the first Figment game, to which this is a sequel, Creed Valley feels very much like another relapse within a disturbed mind. It tells its own contained story, complete with teaching moments. It does feel more like Dreamworks than Disney in its ability to deliver characters and dialogue to help stitch the gorgeous, hand painted world together, but it’s ultimately tough to fault this little indie that could.

You play as an elvish lad named Dusty, the embodiment of courage itself within the mind palace that Figment’s story takes place in. With Piper, his avian aid, he’s tasked with achieving peace inside of a headspace still plagued by nightmares. A day inside the mind is realised creatively, not only do you rhythmically dispatch nightmares but you wade between open-minded and closed-mindedness to converse with anthropomorphic, and quite frankly shaggy to an adorable degree, Opinions—which range from some profoundly important things like self-help to inane topics such as how to leave the toilet seat. 

Which is down, by the way.

There’s a meta story that exists beyond Dusty’s perception, as the nightmares he wrestles with serve as manifestations of external stresses that concern our hero’s owner. It’s not exactly Inside Out in terms of delivery, and it’s kind of just there—it’s doled out in between major story beats and in conjunction with the game’s sole collectible. 

Figment plays kind of like a game jam version of Bastion had it been mashed together with the concepts behind Psychonauts. It’s ultimately an isometric action game that incorporates environmental problem-solving, a small amount of detective work, and some humour to break up the action. 

That’s where the game does experience a few hang-ups. While it’s apt for what it is, Figment’s combat is rather one note. Where a game like Bastion has many weapons on top of many systems to give the gameplay a bit of heft, Figment arms you with a lone wooden sword that can attack lightly, slightly less lightly following a roll, or deflect comically drawn rockets that fire from the periphery of the mind’s defences.

It is simple, which will suit its intended audience, which I’m guessing is younger teens. But if you’re hoping for a rollicking action game with meat on the bone, this one is certainly style being favoured over substance. 

Figment’s marketing certainly promised a musical adventure and I feel like the game does ace this in a few key areas. Music is simply present everywhere in different forms, whether it’s a bridge made of piano ivories or boss fights dressed up as full blown musical numbers. Figment is certainly a theatrical game, and I couldn’t wipe the grin off of my face during any of the handful of original compositions. 

As far as ads go, the enemy variety is rather sparse too. Reflecting now, I can recall perhaps three or four enemies that’ll aim to cause you grief. While this’d spell trouble in a twelve hour game, Figment’s brevity serves it well here, ensuring that neither its limited mechanics and cast of villains overstay their welcome. If nothing else, Figment delivers a brief adventure fitting of its budget price.

The game’s art direction is one of its strongest points, without doubt. While mindset, which as I established there’s two to hop between, can guarantee varying moods, there’s a lovely assortment of colours this game leans on to deliver its oil paint on canvas aesthetic. I actually adored the imperfections too, especially the unevenly dried globs of paint. I feel like it has an almost rushed look that, in tandem with a particular scenic vista near the endgame, speaks to the inability of Dusty’s surrogate to slow down enough to smell the roses and ultimately embrace joy. 

I encountered only one game-halting bug in my handful of hours, but fortunately due to the rather short chapters, I was simply able to restart and quickly catch up. The game performed well otherwise, save for a few moments of slow down when one of the bigger skirmishes took place.

Figment 2: Creed Valley is a quaint game that’ll warm a lot of hearts. There’s nothing it does particularly wrong, in fact it’s quite capable in all facets of what a game can be. It’s simply a case of where less isn’t more, it’s just less. The combat is fun, but one-note and there aren’t enough enemy types to warrant strategic thought. Fortunately, the moxie of Dusty, the gleeful exuberance of the world itself, and the big showman-like show tunes from the roided-out baddies would make our Hugh blush.

It’s a fun romp, you’ve just gotta put your mind to it.

The post Figment 2: Creed Valley Review – In One Ear And Out The Other appeared first on Press Start.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land marked a turning point for Kirby when it released on the Wii in 2011. Previous entries had mostly deviated from the traditional formula fans had come to expect, and tended to vary in quality from title to title. Return to Dream Land brought the series back to its fundamentals, eventually paving the way to the fantastic Kirby: Triple Deluxe, and its spiritual sequel Kirby: Planet Robobot.

Kirby’s come a long way since, with its first fully 3D entry in the form of Kirby and the Forgotten Land launching last year on the Switch. With a successful transition to the third dimension, and a relatively underwhelming 2D entry in Star Allies, it feels all too right for Return to Dream Land to receive the deluxe treatment. While the value proposition is questionable for those looking to double-dip, the end result is a content-packed experience that’s as timeless as it is charming, and one worth jumping into for any new fans of the franchise.

After watching an interdimensional ship known as the Lor Starcutter crash on planet Popstar, Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Bandana Dee go to investigate. The pilot of the ship, Magalor, reveals to the gang that parts of the ship have been scattered across Popstar, and he can’t return home until the Starcutter is repaired. Selfless as ever, Kirby and co. set off to find the missing pieces in exchange for a trip to Magalor’s home world of Halcandra.

It’s a standard Kirby plot that any fan of the series can predict from the outset, but that doesn’t stop it from being a heartwarming little adventure across Popstar. It largely serves as the backdrop for the gameplay, but it’s cool to see Kirby’s mainstay villains set aside their differences to help Magalor. Throw in some revamped cutscenes and a few late-game story beats to keep things moving, and you end up with a cute little adventure about friendship and camaraderie that feels right at home in a Kirby game.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is largely the same experience as the original when it comes to the main story, with a few new bells and whistles to boot. It’s a very traditional 2D Kirby game, with a heap of Copy Abilities, collectibles to hunt down, bosses to battle, and platforming challenges to overcome. It’s a bit of mindless fun when playing solo that never overstays its welcome, but the game really excels in cooperative play, where all manner of chaos unfolds as you move through levels that introduce new mechanics and ideas that keeps you on your toes.

The Copy Abilities are where Return to Dream Land really shines. There’s a truckload of them to play with here, some of them new to the Deluxe version, but each one feels unique and fleshed out. It keeps the level to level progression varied, and it feels like there’s always something new to learn with each new ability you encounter. It all comes to a head with Super Abilities, where swallowing Super enemies grants Kirby temporary Copy Abilities that are vastly stronger than usual, allowing you to completely decimate enemies with attacks that fill the screen in glorious fashion.

While Kirby has never been about difficulty, Return to Dream Land has a noticeably flat difficulty curve throughout the main story, that only picks up a little bit towards the end. Part of this is due to the Super Abilities, but Return to Dream Land doesn’t go out of its way to challenge you in general, even when it comes down to hunting the Energy Spheres hiding in each level. There is decent incentive for collecting these, though, as they unlock doors on the Lor Starcutter that grant access to Copy Ability rooms and most notably – Copy Ability Challenges.

These are short and sweet platforming challenges that really test your aptitude with individual Copy Abilities. The idea is to make it to the goal with as many points as possible, through defeating enemies, collecting coins, and avoiding damage. It’s easy enough to get bronze and silver rankings for these, but the real chase comes from hunting down the gold ranks. The need for efficient use of Copy Abilities and precise platforming kept me coming back attempt after attempt so I could reach the ever-tantalising gold ranks for each challenge.

The two biggest inclusions in this package, come in the form of Helper Magalor and the Magalor Epilogue. The former serves as a helper mode where Magalor can double Kirby’s health, prevent him from falling into bottomless pits, as well as providing Copy Abilities during boss fights. Helper Magalor is an entirely optional inclusion, but one that’s much appreciated, and will no doubt help those who make use of it. The Magalor Epilogue is where a bulk of the new content lies, and unlocks upon completion of the main story.

The Magalor Epilogue is a thoroughly enjoyable 2-3 hours that Kirby fans are bound to love. Set after the events of the main story, Magalor wakes up in a realm between dimensions without his powers. You’ll traverse bite-sized levels and collect Magic Points that can be used to further upgrade Magalor’s abilities. Similar to the Copy Ability Challenges, each level in the Magalor Epilogue is ranked based on the amount of Magic Points you accrue in each level. You’ll find hitting higher ranks quite difficult early on, but as you progress through the worlds and unlock new abilities for Magalor, you can return to these stages to go after even higher scores.

There’s quite a bit to upgrade here, and the wide selection of abilities you can improve lends some player choice to the experience. Running through to the credits is fun enough as is, but it can’t be understated how satisfying it is to return to prior stages to get better rankings. You’ll rack up high combo counts that yield more Magic Points, gain access to powerful new abilities, and wipe the floor with bosses who initially proved more difficult the first time around due to Magalor’s limited skill-set. It’s a great inclusion with a decent chunk of playtime if you look to get the highest ranks on each stage, and also ties up the narrative quite nicely by the end of it all.

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A Kirby game isn’t a Kirby game without all the extra modes and subgames to play around with as well. Return to Dream Land Deluxe does not disappoint in this regard, with the series staple Arena Mode, Extra Mode, and a collection of simple yet entertaining Subgames to play with friends. Arena is the same as ever, giving players the opportunity to go up against a gauntlet of all the bosses in the game with any Copy Ability at your disposal. Extra Mode also adds some value for completionists, offering a more difficult version of the main story that unlocks the True Arena upon completion.

The Subgames are a particular standout in Return to Dream Land Deluxe. A lot of them are returning, with only two new ones accounted for in this package, but the quality standard here is quite high. They’re all small in scope and only take a few minutes to see through, but each offer a fun little distraction to play with friends aside from the main story. All of these are set within Merry Magoland which touts countless challenges to complete for cosmetic goodies, serving as a whimsical backdrop to the carnival-like nature of the Subgames.

While most of the Deluxe treatments typically upscale visuals to the Switch’s HD resolutions, Return to Dreamland Deluxe seems to have received some extra TLC. This game is gorgeous, and fits right at home on the Switch. All of the worlds feel distinct and varied with bright, energetic colour palettes and a striking art style that is always easy on the eyes. Special mention should go to the reworked backgrounds, which are so packed with detail and sense of place, it’s hard not to gawk at them each time you see a new one. This is coupled with rock-solid performance in both handheld and docked modes, making for an all-round smooth and fluid experience.

While Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a no brainer recommendation to those who’ve yet to jump in, it’s a bit more complex for those who’ve experienced it before. The new stuff here is fantastic, there just isn’t all that much of it, so whether or not the enhanced visuals and the Magalor Epilogue can justify the price is up to you. If you do take the plunge, you’ll be greeted with one of Kirby’s best 2D adventures, made even better.

The post Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe Review – A Quintessential Kirby Package appeared first on Press Start.

The first Octopath Traveler was a great game, but I felt it was often misunderstood. It’s deliciously old school presentation set the scene for the game players wanted it to be – a fresh modern take on the RPG that still managed to look like it came from the golden years of the genre. Underneath it’s shiny veneer was some fantastic gameplay bolstered by a flexible job and party system. Now, Octopath Traveler II attempts to address the criticisms levelled at its predecessor to offer a more intertwined story. And while it’s not necessarily the direction I think the series needed to head in, it offers up more of what players loved five years ago.

The new game takes place in a new continent called Solistia. It’s different to Osterra from the previous game, sporting a much more modern setting. Solistia is in the midst of an industrial and trade revolution, so it feels like a time of great prosperity in the world. The story follows eight characters, each with their own stories and motivations. Some want to be the best in their field, others want to capitalise on the boom in trade. The story eventually converges, but like the original game, it really is all about the individual stories.

I adored Octopath Traveler but I feel like the concept is already starting to wear a little thin. So much of Octopath Traveler II feels lifted directly from the predecessor to the point that it can feel like  a retread at times. Where the original game lacked meaningful interactions between the party, Octopath Traveler II attempts to remedy this by incorporating new stories that usually intertwine two characters, complete with sub-chapters. While I feel like this is the right direction to move in, there were still moments overall where my main character would just stand there in silence while cutscenes centering on other characters played out.

It would be a logistical nightmare to accurately predict the order players obtain their party members and adjust dialogue and interactions accordingly. But I can’t help but feel that, with a little bit more linearity, a party with synergy at both a story and gameplay level could easily be developed. I admire the attempts to bring things closer together, even if that wasn’t the intention of the original game, but overall it feels like more of a half step towards that goal more than anything else.

But underneath the plot, there’s a fantastic game here too. Like the original, it’s a turn-based RPG that feels fast paced but still has enough depth to it that makes it fun to master. As mentioned previously, you’ll explore Solistia while following the individual stories of eight characters. The world itself is beautiful – presented in a unique 2D-HD style that the original game pioneered. But is Octopath Traveler II just a typical RPG with a nostalgic look art direction? It’s honestly so much more.

The battle system is just as strong as in the original game. A typical turn-based system with the Break and Boost mechanics returning. Each turn, each character gains a BP, which can then be used to increase your attacks or power in the same turn. Using this system to target an enemy’s weakness can “break” them, stunning them and, if planned correctly, prevent them from attacking and open them up to more damage. It’s hard to explain – and I implore you to try the demo – but it’s a satisfying combat system that rewards those who think about each turn and how they’ll flow into one another.

Octopath Traveler II does introduce a few new aspects to the combat. Latent powers are the most obvious. These are available to each character and are usable after filling a gauge that fills from either taking damage or breaking an enemy. Each power has a different effect, allowing you to focus a group-targeting spell onto a single enemy for extra damage or even buffing your party depending on the time of day. They’re a nice touch that adds an extra layer of strategizing to battle, but they’re also not essential enough that I found myself using them a whole lot.

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A little bit more essential is the robust jobs system that underpins the combat. Each of the playable characters has a primary job that denotes what abilities and weapons they can wield. Secondary jobs can be assigned to fill gaps in that character’s loadout. I’m a huge fan of a good job system in RPGs, and Octopath Traveler II has what I consider to be some genre-best execution of the concept. It’s so much fun to experiment with different combinations to build your perfect party, and almost mandatory to overcome the games later trickier chapters.

Outside of battles, the changes are more obvious. Path actions return, which allow you to interact with NPCs in different ways. You can rob them, convince them to follow you into battle or even bribe them for secrets. It’s always been a cool idea. Octopath Traveler II gives each character two path actions, dependent on the time of day. But in the original game, these actions often came in pairs, with one being superior to the other. One character can steal, for example, while another can still steal but only after battling the person. It felt a bit padded out in the original game, and by almost doubling the path actions in this game, it feels especially so.

I’ve talked a lot about who time of day affects so much in Octopath Traveler II, and that’s one of the cooler new aspects of the game. With the press of a button, the setting you’re in will change from day to night. Some path actions only work depending on the time of day and stronger enemies come out at night to do battle. You’ll even encounter different NPCs at night. It’s a bit gimmicky, but visually impressive to see the world change instantly in front of you. The music changes too – from flourishing orchestral tracks during the day to more subdued and relaxed pieces of the same music at night.

Other aspects are introduced that weren’t in the original, though aren’t as game changing as I’d have hoped. The party eventually gains access to a ship that allows them to travel between the two halves of Solistia. The “open sea” aspect of Octopath Traveler II is really just like a glorified world map. I appreciate the variety on offer here, but it feels like it’s being touted as a feature when it’s really something most older RPGs have had in the past.

But speaking of the past, there are times where I felt that Octopath Traveler II was perhaps living too far into it. With the advent of so many other RPGs incorporating time saving measures, there were too manty times where I’d spend so much time in Octopath Traveler II just grinding. Not even grinding to gain levels, mind you, just running between areas to heal at an inn so I could make progress in the story. So much of Octopath Traveler II feels old school your characters who are benched are still needed to be levelled up, especially if you want to tackle the optional final chapters.

It might sound asinine to complain about an RPG having a long runtime. But given how many other games in the genre have included time saving elements like quick battles or fast forward it feels especially egregious. Octopath Traveler II does let you double the battle speed and advance its cutscenes quickly, but these are surface level. The design fundamentals underpinning it, like the aforementioned levelling of benched characters and constant need to heal do not respect the players time.

Without a doubt, though, Octopath Traveler II is the best-looking rendition of 2D-HD yet. Not only does the game leverage the unique style to create a world much more modern than the previous game, but stunning camera work and frame composition leads to some pretty epic moments throughout the story. It all feels a lot higher budget than previously. Other small touches, like adding animations for attacking enemies, makes a great case for 2D-HD as an art direction not losing any of its lustre.

And the music. Oh, the music! Yasunori Nishiki returns to compose for Octopath Traveler II and it’s one of the most beautiful soundtracks I’ve ever borne witness (or listened) to. The soundtrack does not disappoint in any aspect. The voice work is similarly pretty strong, with both English and Japanese voice tracks being selectable. Some of the deliveries are still a little bit melodramatic, but otherwise the whole experience feels well produced and presented.

The post Octopath Traveler II Review – An Iterative Improvement appeared first on Press Start.

For as long as I’ve been a devout fan of the Final Fantasy franchise (and it’s been a while) I’ve been in love with the soundtracks – as I’m sure just about every other fan is. So when Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was first introduced to the world via the 3DS in 2012, I was in heaven. One of my fondest memories is rocking up way too early to one of the Distant Worlds Final Fantasy symphony orchestra productions with a group of my friends and all sitting around in a circle with our 3DSes jamming out to song after song.

Now, nearly a decade after the last entry, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is bringing the music back in a big way in both handheld and home console form via the Nintendo Switch and PS4.

For a series that has no shame in flirting with excess, it’s no surprise that the third major entry in its rhythm spin-off series blows the wheels off what the previous games had to offer in terms of content. Curtain Call was already impressive with over 200 tracks to play in the base game, but Final Bar Line ups that number to a ridiculous 385 songs – and again that’s before including any of its already-exhaustive list of DLC tracks.

Oddly enough, to accommodate this swelling setlist Final Bar Line actually trims some of the fat of the previous titles by keeping things somewhat simple in the mode selection. You get the Series Quest mode, a free play Music Stage mode, online Multi Battles and that’s it. 

The first, Series Quest, does away with any kind of story or overworld map stuff in lieu of just letting you pick the Final Fantasy game of your choice and playing through its included songs in a general order. It’s the meat and potatoes of the game, being the main driver of progression and also the core way to unlock songs to play at your leisure in Music Stages. That detail did rub me the wrong way a little, not just for the inconvenience of having to play through 385 songs to unlock them all but because you’re initially locked out of the majority of the Final Fantasy titles and have to play far enough through others to earn “keys” to open the rest. I can appreciate that a sense of progressing through something is important, but not being able to dive straight into the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack from the get-go was a frustration.

Luckily, the Theatrhythm series has the distinct advantage of being packed to the rafters with fantastic music, so even when you’re engaging with a game in the series that ranks low on a personal level it’s almost never a bad time. If a rhythm game lives or dies by its soundtrack then Final Bar Line is immortal. Not only has the team curated some iconic bangers from the mainling games I through XV, but there’s stuff here from spin-off games, remix and special event albums and other neat, deep cuts. If you’ve ever enjoyed a Final Fantasy game or soundtrack, you’ll absolutely find some gold here among the stacked playlist.

Bargain Guide – Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

There’s also a ton of DLC in the pipeline, from another 27 bonus tracks in the game’s Digital Deluxe Edition (which can be upgraded to from the standard digital or physical copy, thankfully) to a planned calendar of added tracks from other notable Square Enix franchises. Normally I’d scoff at the thought of a litany of paid DLC being laid out so emphatically at a game’s launch but given the sheer volume of content already included and the fact that the extra stuff will be coming from franchises like NieR, LIVE A LIVE, Chrono Trigger, Octopath Traveler, The World Ends With You and more I’m completely on board with the idea.

One of the big questions hanging over this new Theatrhythm game has been that of the controls. After all, the previous two titles have existed solely on platforms with some form of touchscreen and took full advantage of that by having players tap and swipe along to their music. On the PS4 where I played the game for review, there isn’t that facility, so everything has been moved to button presses and analog stick pushes. I wasn’t sure at first if it was going to work as well this way, but I’ve happily been proven wrong. 

Whichever specific “mode” of song gameplay you’re in, be it battle, field or event, the idea is still to follow along with rhythm prompts scrolling across the screen and hit them at the correct time. Instead of tapping or swiping, your standard “notes” can be activated with just about any button on the controller and the directional ones require a quick flick of either of the analogue sticks at the correct angle. Variations come in the form of button holds and double-ups that task you to use both sticks or press (again, basically any) two buttons, but that’s about as deep as it goes. That doesn’t mean you won’t be challenged, with varying difficulty levels offering up some absolutely cursed charts at the high end that I don’t think I could ever hope of nailing, but the barrier of entry even for non-rhythm savvy fans is nice and low.

Square Enix and indieszero clearly understand that their audience is comprised largely of JRPG nerds, so there are a ton of systems built-in to make this feel like a bit of a genre crossover. Anyone who’s played these games in the past will know generally what to expect – you’ll build your party of characters as you unlock them from across the many games, level them up by playing to unlock new abilities and give yourself an edge in stages, and collect “Rhythmia” and CollectaCards among other things.

Like Curtain Call before it, the RPG/character progression systems are fun but largely superfluous. It certainly helps to have some extra HP or saving grace abilities to fall back on if you’re doing particularly badly in a music stage, but as long as you’re doing the rhythm game thing of pressing the right buttons at the right time then you don’t really need to worry about your character builds or party make-up.

Still, there’s a giddy compulsion to boosting your party, calling on familiar summons, picking up collectible tat and movies/music to enjoy in the game’s Museum, and watching a bunch of different numbers continuously tick over as you play. I’ve already pumped decent hours into Final Bar Line in the short time I’ve had it and I can imagine I’ll spend so many more in the months to come. Sure, the formula is maybe starting to wear thin at this point but things were so bright to begin with that even a little lost shine can’t bring the experience down.

On the visual front, what you’re getting here isn’t all that different from the 3DS entries with your party of cute, chibi-fied Final Fantasy protagonists squaring off against equally adorable monsters and villains from the games. It all suits the big screen surprisingly well with bright, sharp art and plenty of real estate to work with. The only real issue I have here is that, more than likely just due to the massive number of tracks included, the stage backgrounds and enemies that you’ll encounter in a lot of songs don’t match their source material. It’s by no means a deal-breaker but playing along to the Balamb Garden theme song while walking through a high fantasy castle interior, for example, can feel like a bit of a let-down.

The only thing I haven’t been able to try out yet, but one that I doubt will have affected my enjoyment of the game in either direction, is the Multi Battle mode which pits you against up to three other players online in a point-scoring competition that features no fail state but awards each competitor an increasing shot at rewards as they score above their opponents. Head-to-head rhythm gaming can be a great time and I appreciate that everyone will technically walk away a winner, but I have doubts about the longevity or even initial popularity of the mode.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line releases on February 16th for PS4 and Switch. Amazon currently has the cheapest price at $74 with free shipping.

The post Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Review – A Big Score appeared first on Press Start.

With the success of Nintendo Switch and the pulling in of many lapsed gamers, so many classic instalments in classic franchises have had their moments and made returns to Nintendo’s gargantuanly successful platform. Everything you’ve loved before – including Pokemon Snap, Link’s Awakening or even classics that most of the buying public skipped on Wii U – made a reappearance on the Nintendo Switch. But one franchise has been left in the dark.

It’s been a long time since Metroid and Samus were heard from in any capacity. Metroid Prime 4 was first announced for the Switch in 2017. Six years ago. It’s since changed developers and rebooted development. We’ve even had a new Metroid game, Metroid Dread, the fifth game in the mainline series; and in that time, we’ve still had to wait to see what Metroid Prime 4 could look like.

But now, Nintendo has shifted focus to arguably one of the most critically well-received games in their lineup from one of the most commercially underappreciated series they hold. Metroid Prime Remastered feels like a triumph for both Nintendo and fans. For Nintendo, it’s a triumph in bringing back a classic game that not enough people have experienced. For fans, it’s the beginning of a long overdue acknowledgement that, finally, Metroid Prime is being given the treatment it deserves.

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As expected, the plot of Metroid Prime remains untouched in this remaster. The Prime series takes place between the events of the second and third games. Samus has crash-landed on Tallon IV while investigating an energy disturbance that she’s traced back to the Space Pirates. While trying to escape the planet, she uncovers yet another plot involving them and the titular Metroids. She attempts to eradicate them once more while escaping from Tallon IV.

I’ll get the obvious out of the way here, then. Metroid Prime Remastered is, without a doubt, the best way to experience Metroid Prime. It feels like one of the better examples of a remaster in games – artistically similar to the game it’s based on but with multiple new touches that help it feel modern, perhaps even feel just like you remembered it. But a lot has changed visually. On top of this, the controls have been reworked to offer modem dual-stick options too, though if you prefer the original control scheme, that’s here too, along with a slew of sensitivity options.

Those who have yet to play Metroid Prime would be left to wonder what’s so special about it. At the time, and even today, Metroid Prime was always an innovative take on the first-person shooter genre. It combines strong elements of action, exploration and puzzle solving to offer an authentic Metroid experience, but in 3D.

But what does that mean, exactly? Until Prime hit, the Metroid games were completely two-dimensional. Metroid Prime expanded that concept monstrously, offering a large interconnected world to explore with multiple paths through it. It’s a fun world to explore and incredibly satisfying to discover new pathways through. Every time you get a new power-up, you can explore new areas and start thinking about areas you’ve passed that were previously locked that you can now explore.

It’s a gameplay loop rooted deeply in backtracking, but that’s the charm of Metroid, and for the most part of Prime, it’s mostly satisfying.

Perfectly leveraging the jump to first person when it first debuted, Samus also gains access to visors for her helmet that can change how she interacts with the world. The scan visor is the main one you’ll be using, worldbuilding by giving you tidbits of info while also providing assistance to players who might be stuck. The thermal and x-ray visors she finds also provide her with different ways to interact with puzzles and track enemies. It’s a great system, though some players may still find an issue with how much stopping and scanning you might have to do.

Though it’s not all about exploration either. Samus is armed with various arm cannons to help her deal with the hostile fauna of Tallon IV and the Space Pirates overrunning it. The combat in Metroid Prime still feels snappy, owing greatly to a functional lock-on system. The enemy variety on offer here is similarly fantastic; the boss battles are especially sights to behold. So many of them are memorable setpieces that really test your mettle and are some of the most epic moments of Metroid Prime.

While the word “remaster” might insinuate a simple up-res, Metroid Prime Remastered is anything but and so much more. Practically every visual element has been remodelled or recreated in higher resolution with more detail than the original as playable on the Gamecube and Wii. It’s an incredible, high-effort remaster that absolutely nails the tone and atmosphere that the game is going for.

And the atmosphere is really where Metroid Prime shines. The game’s atmosphere is absolutely dripping; Tallon IV is a beautifully realised alien world filled with diverse biomes decorated with otherworldly landscapes. Though, Metroid Prime Remastered goes beyond just improving the world’s visuals. The lighting has been completely reworked to offer a greater ambience than in the original release.

I can’t overstate how these lighting improvements work to create a superior experience. They’re simple adjustments that make a huge difference. Just switching on a hologram system, only to see the glow of that hologram fill the room with light, is a level of attention to detail and fidelity that we don’t see on the Switch. It all comes together to make the world feel alive and real.

The stellar atmosphere is similarly amplified by a fantastic soundtrack. The original score by series composer Kenji Yamamoto does a great job of creating a unique sense of isolation and tension. New players will be able to look forward to hearing the epic and cinematic soundtrack the first time they visit locations like Magmoor Caverns and Phendrana Drifts. At the same time, returning fans will be reminded of the strength of the soundtrack.

I’ve played Metroid Prime multiple times, sometimes even with enhancements that only the modding community and dedicated fans could bring to it. But even though the Switch is objectively less powerful than a PC, Metroid Prime Remastered’s visual improvements more than makeup for it. Make no mistakes; this is undoubtedly one of the best-looking and smoothest-running games I’ve ever played on the Switch.

But despite how much Metroid Prime gets right, a few aspects still don’t sit right with me. While I’ve alluded that backtracking is a core design element of the series, Prime throws a quest at you towards the end of the game that requires you to do so in large amounts. It’s done in such a way that, while more straightforward on repeat playthroughs, it brings the story’s pacing to a halt towards the end.

All in all, though, this is a minor blemish on an otherwise lustrous package.

The post Metroid Prime Remastered Review – A Remasterpiece appeared first on Press Start.

Nostalgia sells. And in few places is that more true than the video game market. Whether it’s remakes, remasters, cheap ports or new ideas spun from old IP, nostalgia remains a potent force that’s often wielded with reckless abandon. 

When THQ Nordic first teamed up with Purple Lamp Studio to capitalise on their hold of the rights to the beloved PS2 platformer, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, it resulted in a surprisingly good trip down memory lane – one that no doubt resulted in the kind of easy money that would make Mr. Krabs swell in his shell. Purple Lamp clearly proved itself too, because it wasn’t long before it was handed the reins to develop an original 3D platformer based on the franchise – albeit one still largely powered by nostalgia. Enter, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake.

If there’s one thing modern popular media, especially in things like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s that the quickest and easiest way to tap into nostalgia and fandom is with a multiverse storyline. How better to squeeze a metric ton of references and cameos in than whisking our heroes through a bunch of mashed up and barely-connected realms? That’s where The Cosmic Shake comes in, sending SpongeBob and Patrick on a world-hopping journey through several “WishWorlds” based on iconic locales and events from the Hillenburg-led first couple of seasons of the show.

That’s this game’s biggest drawcard too – if you were a fan of the yellow sponge in his earliest outings, you’ll instantly recognise the vast majority of the gags and situations here, and no doubt appreciate that they’re all wrapped up in a fresh story about a deceptive mermaid witch named Cassandra tricking SpongeBob and Patrick into tearing apart the fabric of Bikini Bottom and all delivered by the entire original voice cast.

It’s important that you enjoy that stuff going into The Cosmic Shake, too, because everything around it is about as bog-standard as it comes. As a 3D platformer it feels less like an iteration on what was delivered in Battle for Bikini Bottom and more like a direct continuation of that 2003 release. That’s not necessarily a bad thing on all fronts, but it’s an expectation that begs setting because it’s definitely a far cry from what one would expect from most modern platformers. 

As a licensed tie-in game based on a Nickelodeon property, it’s honestly still a cut above, though. For the budget price of entry, you’re getting an 8-10 hour adventure set across seven worlds and a sizable hub with tons of collectibles to find and easter eggs to do the Leo DiCaprio pointing gif at. Each world sees SpongeBob don a throwback costume and endeavour to rescue one of his friends from their own twisted wishes with Patrick in tow as a helpful, airborne balloon (there’s a reason for that) on hand to point him in the right direction or drop a fresh pair of health undies in a pinch.

Clocking in at anywhere up to an hour in length, each of these worlds represents a decent jaunt with a good amount of gameplay variety switching between precision platforming, light combat, minigames and the obligatory SpongeBob sliding sections. I can’t say I found the actual level design anything close to inspired, but if you enjoyed what BFBB had to offer, Purple Lamp has clearly set out to replicate the same simple, no-frills vibe that would definitely go down well with younger audiences who are less likely to baulk at its flaws. There are some interesting enough new wrinkles, like SpongeBob’s bubble attack that traps enemies in place or his karate kick, which is routinely combined with jumping and gliding to make for some pretty engaging platforming sections. 

There’s a lot that feels rehashed from the last game, for better or worse, but I feel it’s important to stress that I absolutely did have fun playing through this new adventure as a fan of collectathon 3D platformers. It’s not going to have an moustachioed Italians lining up to renew their plumber’s certification but it’s a far sight better than most of the licenced junk aimed at kids and parents out there.

It’s really the joy of the SpongeBob property and its cast of characters that carries The Cosmic Shake, a fact that I’m sure doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s here that Purple Lamp has really nailed the assignment, giving fans an enjoyable new story that’s positively stuffed with nostalgia for the earliest era of the cartoon. Only now it’s all presented through some genuinely attractive cutscenes backed up by brand-new voice work from the show’s cast. Despite being relatively simple, the in-game visuals build on what worked for Battle for Bikini Bottom and look perfectly pleasant, plus the 30+ unlockable costumes are a riot.

It’s tough to complain about a game like this with the context of its place in the landscape, but there are definitely some gripes I had that felt warranted. Enemy variety is just okay, with less than 10 different jelly-based bad guy types, but SpongeBob’s limited combat prowess makes them feel even more repetitive to fight. And you’ll do it a lot as you return to each world looking for collectibles with nearly no method of tracking beyond a number total, making constant backtracking a reality.

The post SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake Review – A Decent Bit Of F.U.N. appeared first on Press Start.

It feels like yesterday that 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses took the world by storm, quickly becoming the franchise’s best selling entry by a large margin, and propelling the series to new heights and popularity. It’s an entirely different style of Fire Emblem, bucking many of the trends and trappings that the series has heralded for so many years. It’s with this context that the pivot back to more traditional Fire Emblem in Fire Emblem Engage is a relatively strange one, omitting many of the changes and ideas brought to the table by Three Houses.

In a lot of ways, though, Fire Emblem Engage is exactly what series veterans have wanted more of since 2012’s incredible Fire Emblem Awakening. With a linear narrative, an amalgamation of new and old mechanics, and a premise that celebrates the franchise’s rich history, Engage is another addictively satisfying entry into this legendary series despite some glaring flaws.

Fire Emblem Engage sees players stepping into the shoes of Alear, a male or female protagonist who also happens to be a Divine Dragon. Destined to thwart the opposing Fell Dragon’s plans of conquest and war, Alear must set out across the land of Elyos to gather the all-powerful Emblem Rings, and build up an army strong enough to take on Sombron and his army of corrupted foes.

I mentioned in my hands-on preview that the first third of the narrative wasn’t doing much for me, both in regards to its characters and plot beats. Unfortunately, this trend continued well into the second half of the game, with predictable twists, underdeveloped characters, and a cast of villains that felt somewhat forced and uninteresting. In spite of all this, though, the middle stretch of Engage eventually gives way to a third act that’s filled with unexpected revelations, meaningful character development, and heightened stakes that reinforce the core themes and ideas at the heart of Engage’s story.

Villains who I’d initially found underwhelming presented more layers of depth to their characterisations and motives, Alear and their relationships with the Emblems and supporting cast became more profound, and there were moments of tension and emotion that had me hanging on every word. While it absolutely takes far too long to get going, I have no doubt that it’ll be Engage’s mostly excellent third act I remember its narrative by, not all the middling stuff that led up to it.

The inconsistent writing of the core narrative also extends to the support conversations between characters. For every eye-opening discussion between royalty of rivalling kingdoms, there’s another that lacks the same depth and thematic messaging. It often leaves the cast feeling uneven in terms of development and quality, making it easy to pick favourites as opposed to umming and ahhing over who to deepen your bond with next.

This is felt most sorely in the bond conversations with Emblem Rings, which are simple, two to three line exchanges that add nothing of substance to either character. It’s a shame given the legacy of these figures, and seeing them have at least one meaningful support relationship to develop between one of Engage’s new characters would’ve gone a long way to providing new perspectives and growth to established characterisations.

The turn-based tactics of Fire Emblem is where Engage excels the most, combining the franchise’s staple gameplay systems with new mechanics that further expand strategic depth and customisation. It feels most comparable to Awakening and some of the older titles as opposed to Fates or Three Houses, but I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing. Most of this is thanks to the return of the Weapon Triangle, a focus on individual units, and efforts to make each class viable in the grand schemes of battle.

The Weapon Triangle’s return isn’t a tit-for-tat recreation, though. Fire Emblem Engage places a premium on exploiting enemy weaknesses through the Break system, where winning a matchup in the Weapon Triangle can Break an enemy’s stance. This prevents any further counter-attacks when engaged in battle, and makes the enemy unit more susceptible to damage. You can also inflict Break through smashing enemies into other units or terrain through heavy Smash attacks, which hit hard, but always act last.

These two systems alone add incentive to spend time planning before battles, deliberating over what units to bring with you into a fight, and where to place them on the map. Similarly, the Break and Smash systems incentivise smart play to get the most out of their inherent bonuses, forcing you to think about positioning, and turn order in a way that hasn’t been this present since Awakening. It echoes old-school Fire Emblem with some modern trimmings that feel like a natural progression of ideas synonymous with Fire Emblem’s strategy.

Where Fire Emblem Engage separates itself most, is with the titular Engage system. As you collect the Emblem Rings throughout the story, you can sync them with units in your army. Each Emblem Ring is tied to a legendary hero from Fire Emblem’s past, including fan favourites like Marth, Ike, and Corrin, as well as lesser known characters like Micaiah, Leif, and Eirika. Every mainline FE game is accounted for here, making for a game that feels like a true celebration of the franchise’s storied history.

Pairing Emblem Rings with units is no small decision, as these units gain access to passive skills, abilities, and increased stats that can all turn the tide of a battle if used properly. Ike, for example, is a defensive powerhouse, making him an ideal choice for any unit that specialises in defense. Likewise, Micaiah excels at healing and holy magic, making her perfectly suited for a healer/mage class hybrid. Each Emblem has a unique identity in the broad scope of Engage, and fits in well with the context of their roles in their original games.

Each unit paired with an Emblem Ring can Engage in battle, assuming a more powerful fusion form between the unit and the Emblem. Not only does this boost stats, but also grants access to a skill that can be used once per Engage. These skills vary greatly from Emblem to Emblem, and have unique applications within combat. Micaiah’s Engage Skill allows you to perform a team-wide heal at the cost of her health, where Roy’s unleashes a mighty attack that sets nearby terrain on fire. While you can refill the Engage meter in battle, you’ll often only ever Engage once or twice in any given encounter, making these skills incredibly valuable.

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As characters deepen their bonds with paired Emblem Rings, you’ll gain SP to spend on inheriting the skills they provide. While these skills are always active when paired, spending SP to inherit them means that units can gain the passive benefits without being paired to that specific Emblem Ring. This incentivises moving Emblem Rings between units regularly to get the most out of your army, giving strong passive skills to units that otherwise wouldn’t have access to them.

The other form of progression tied to Emblem Rings is through Bond Rings. As you complete achievements, progress through the narrative, and generally play the game, you’ll earn Bond Fragments. You can spend 100 Bond Fragments to create one random Bond Ring, or 1000 for 10 Bond Rings, each one boosting the stats of that Emblem Ring. Each Bond Ring is related to a character from that Emblem’s Fire Emblem title, and different rarities of rings grant greater stat increases. It works as a sort of gacha system that never feels so necessary as to make the RNG frustrating, but not totally useless to the point where it takes away from the thrill of creating new rings. Duplicate Bond Rings can also be melded to create higher rarity rings, so there’s a little bad luck protection in that regard.

Class progression for your units is similarly in-depth and customisable as you progress through Engage’s narrative. Unlike Three Houses, you won’t be moving through a class tree to reach the highest level of class. Once you reach level 20 on a base class, you can spend a Master Seal to move onto an advanced class, and a Secondary Seal to make any changes to another class down the track. The depth comes from the ability to expand a unit’s weapon proficiencies through Emblem Rings, allowing them to move into any class tied to those weapon types.

General use of Emblem Rings and the Engage system will lead to paired units gaining weapon proficiencies for that Emblem’s available weapon types, providing more incentive to regularly switch up your Emblem Ring setup. Gaining these proficiencies is what allows units to move into classes they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, which means while every unit has an inherent class path to follow by default, you can also branch out, mixing and matching intrinsic abilities to create combinations you usually wouldn’t see. It makes for class progression that seems less non-linear than what’s present in Three Houses, but eventually opens up to a similar level of customisation.

If that all sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Fire Emblem Engage throws the kitchen sink at you in terms of systems and mechanics to interact with, and that’s without talking about the Somniel. While Engage is a return to old-school Fire Emblem in a lot of ways, the trend of social aspects in RPGs set by Persona is in full-force here. While I’m usually partial to these systems or enjoy them as much as the core strategy, Engage’s implementation of them were exhausting more than they were addictive – especially coming from Three Houses.

The problem is the sheer number of things you can do, and how often you can do them. While you don’t have to engage with all of them at every opportunity, I felt obligated to in order to make the most out of progression. While there’s a traditional Fire Emblem world map, the Somniel serves as a hub between skirmishes for almost everything you could possibly need in terms of progression.

You can participate in training mini-games for temporary stat boosts, partake in fishing, train units in arena battles, share meals with allies, and pick up numerous shiny items to use in cooking and crafting. While most of this stuff is fine at first, it very quickly wears out its welcome as you realise rewards for these activities refresh after every single battle, not just chapter concluding fights, but also the side skirmishes you’ll engage with for extra resources and EXP. It’s a perpetually tiring cycle that only ever lets up on one or two occasions, and I grew to dread returning to the Somniel as a result.

One part of the Somniel that I am quite fond of, is the Tower of Trials. The Tower of Trials is a completely optional set of trials that you can participate in to gain resources that strengthen Engage weapons. While that probably sounds entirely necessary – it really isn’t, and a lot of the Trials feel designed to be post-game content. There’s three unique Trial types to play with, though, each one bringing something different to the table.

Tempest Trials are offline only, consecutive battles where you gain rewards and EXP after clearing a set number of maps. Relay Trials serve as a sort of asynchronous multiplayer mode, where players take turns ala a relay race in order to try and clear a map. Lastly, and most interesting, are the Outrealm Trials, where you can create a map, place units, and upload that configuration for other players to challenge online. Each one has provided fun and challenging ways to engage with the Fire Emblem formula outside of the traditional single player format, and I suspect that series veterans will find a lot of value in these modes after the credits roll.

Needless to say, there’s a heap of progression systems and mechanics to interact with here across the many chapters of Fire Emblem Engage, and this unfortunately led to a relatively stress-free experience on the normal difficulty. A base level understanding of the Weapon Triangle and smart use of Engage Skills can make short work of these battles, and some units can get so overpowered towards the late game that they could probably carry your entire team to victory alone. It’s disappointing given Fire Emblem’s reputation for difficulty, and long-time fans looking for a challenge should undoubtedly play the game on hard.

When you aren’t spending time in the Somniel or progressing through the narrative, you’ll spend time on the world map, taking part in optional battles for resources and completing Paralogues, which are effectively small side stories expanding on characters. A vast majority of the Paralogues in Engage focus on the Emblems, and reliving pivotal battles from their pasts. It’s a fun way to revisit these moments or experience them for the first time, and the extra bond levels they unlock are a nice incentive to tackle each and every one of them. These are also noticeably harder than the main story, and provide a nice challenge in contrast to regular battles.

One area where Fire Emblem Engage is an undisputed improvement over Three Houses, is in its presentation. There’s a clear effort made here for deeper visual fidelity despite the Switch’s aging hardware. The pixel-ridden edges of the models in Three Houses are nowhere to be found here, with much improved battle animations and a fantastic soundtrack to boot. Performance is similarly sharp, and those glorious CG anime cutscenes return in all of their beauty.

While I don’t think Three Houses looks inherently bad, it opts for a much more gritty and muted color palette, one that runs in tandem with the narrative themes and plot beats quite nicely. Engage is similarly aligned with its own overall tone, positively bursting at the seams with color and expressive character designs that while outlandish and eye-catching, rarely reach the point of absurdity. It’s a far cry from the Fire Emblem designs of old, but I think that Engage retains all the more identity as a result. There’s also a clear effort for more inclusivity here, with characters from all walks of life, with Timerra, Fogado, and Rosado as standout examples.

I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion over whether or not Fire Emblem Engage surpasses the lofty bar set by its predecessor, but I don’t know if that’s an entirely fair comparison. While it does pull from a number of its successes, Engage is a fundamentally different experience that’s clearly more inspired by classic Fire Emblem. It certainly doesn’t all land, but I think it does where it counts, with enticingly addictive strategy and in-depth customisation that makes for a celebration worth partaking in for fans both new, and old.

The post Fire Emblem Engage Review – An Imperfect But Worthy Celebration appeared first on Press Start.

With 11 mainline entries, countless spin-offs, and worldwide success, there are few franchises with a legacy similar to that of Dragon Quest’s. More than 35 years after the original’s release in Japan, Dragon Quest Treasures is more proof that the series is far from dead, presenting an experience that while far less complex than its predecessors,  echoes the inherent comfort and tantalizing allure of a Dragon Quest game. It’s a markedly different experience in comparison to anything that’s come before, with a stark focus on treasure hunting and spending time with your monster buddies in what can only be described as fantasy bliss.

Serving as a prequel to Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, Dragon Quest Treasures follows fan favorite character Erik, and his younger sister Mia as they seek to satiate their thirsts for adventure after running from the Vikings that took them in as their own. Their escapades see the pair encountering a pair of magical creatures, and are shortly whisked away to a mythical land known as Draconia. Much to their surprise, Draconia is positively stuffed with legendary treasure to find, so the two decide to partake in the adventure they so desperately crave while trying to find a way back home.

After being bestowed with a pair of magical Dragon Daggers, you set out across Draconia to hunt down the seven legendary Dragon Stones while building up your own faction of treasure hunters. It’s a remarkably simple yet heartwarming premise that never jumps the shark in ambition or stakes. It makes for a straightforward plot that despite lacking tons of depth, more than makes up for it in providing a cozy adventure that’s reminiscent of fantasies you’d make up in your head as a child. This is perhaps intentional given some of the narrative implications surrounding the true nature of Draconia, but to spoil that here would be a shame for those who love Erik as a character.

The gameplay loop is similarly straightforward, lacking the depth and complexity typically found underneath the surface of a mainline game, poising itself as less of an RPG and more of an exploration game. After a relatively slow opening few hours of tutorials, you’re let loose on the five islands of Draconia with the main objective of hunting for the seven Dragon Stones. You’re given a hint for each one at the outset, but these are cryptic and confusing by nature, and you’ll quickly find out that you’ll collect them over the course of the game as you learn more about their locations.

This means that for those who really want the thrill of hunting treasure with only the slightest hint of direction, you can comb through every nook and cranny of Draconia, looking for similarities between the landscape and clues you’re given. Otherwise, growing your base, collecting more treasure, and expanding your gang will lead to new levels of the Snarl being unearthed. The Snarl is a dungeon within your base of operations that give you a more specific idea as to the location of the Dragon Stones upon clearing combat challenges on each of its floors. It’s a genius way to go about the main treasure hunt at large, and ensures that the player is always in control.

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While everything built around the hunt for the Dragon Stones seems tangential at first, its slowly revealed that every system at play in Dragon Quest Treasures loops back into that core objective. Things like finding treasure in the wild, befriending monsters to bring with you on expeditions, or restoring the Trans-Draconic Railway Company to its former glory all contribute to the larger goal of expanding your faction’s reach. It means that whenever you set out on an expedition, there’s always something for you to do that has a meaningful impact on core objectives, making for an addictive “just one more thing” style of gameplay loop that makes Treasures very hard to put down.

A large part of this also comes down to how easy it is to engage in treasure hunting. When you set out on an expedition from home base, the Treasure Forecast gives you an idea on the likelihood of finding treasure on any given island. The party of monsters you bring with you will detect hidden treasure when you’re close to it, pointing you in the right direction via the compass. Once in the immediate area, you can scan again to get a snapshot of the treasure’s location from each of your monsters, and it’s down to you to find and unearth it. Each monster can only carry a certain amount of treasure, so each expedition is limited by carry capacities.

The longer you spend in the field, though, the more you put yourself at risk both inside and outside of combat. Higher level enemies will not hesitate to make quick work of your team, and Erik falling in battle results in a total loss of all collected treasure. You’ll also eventually be introduced to Rival Gangs, who attack your team and attempt to steal your treasure. There’s plenty of tools you can use to avoid both of these things, but proper party management, and understanding when to head back to base is of paramount importance, and makes for an exciting degree of risk versus reward. The reward? Watching the value of your vault go up as a multi-million dollar treasure gets appraised in complete euphoria.

Curating a party to take with you on an expedition isn’t such a straightforward process either, as each one offers unique stats, elemental affinities, and most importantly – Fortes. Fortes are traversal abilities that make exploring the islands of Draconia much more manageable, from things like springing off of a Slime to hanging off of the bottom of a Dracky. There are more Fortes than there are party slots, though, so thinking about what types of traversal you’ll need to effectively get around is a fun bit of strategy and organization to think about before you depart.

Recruiting new monsters then becomes an equally important part of the game outside of expeditions. As you fight monsters in combat, there’s a chance they’ll be impressed by your abilities and head to your base of operations for recruitment. Providing the necessary materials will have that monster join your barracks as an option to include in your party going forward.

One disappointing aspect of this system is that there’s a decidedly slim roster of monsters to choose from here. While all in all there’s a large number of “unique” monsters, a vast majority of these are recolored variants, with a grand total that amounts to only 16 truly unique monster types. Given the short length of the game, this isn’t a problem that devolves into repetition or monotony, but given Dragon Quest’s expansive roster of creatures, it’s hard not to feel like there should be more here.

Combat itself is also another pain-point due to its overly simplistic and repetitive nature. You only ever have direct control over Mia and Erik, with limited commands to issue to your actual party, that for the most part, fight autonomously and will often get hit by area-of-effect attacks despite your best efforts to pull them away. As Erik or Mia, you have access to a simple dagger combo, the slingshot-like catapult, and Dragon Attacks, meaning there isn’t much flexibility in terms of approaching combat encounters.

You’ll often just hack away at enemies, throw out the occasional screen-wiping Dragon Attack, and fire off some pellets for good measure. There is a bit of choice in the way you can use different pellets to exploit elemental weaknesses, but that’s the full extent of it. Combat is at its best in the few boss encounters Dragon Quest Treasures throws at you, where you also have to consider environmental hazards and more overbearing attacks as you dodge and weave through strikes to find an opening. While these encounters serve up a nice break from general combat, they make up a very small portion of the experience overall.

Between expeditions, you’ll spend time at your home base where you can swap between Erik and Mia as playable characters, explore the Snarl, and engage with numerous facilities. Aside from monster recruiting, you can also buy and craft catapult pellets, create food to use in the field for buffs, and send out parties of unused monsters to search for resources and treasure while you’re out on your own. Perhaps most important, is the vault room, where you can display your most valuable treasure on plinths, showing off the riches you’ve amassed from Draconia. It’s a space that feels lived in and real, and it’s always a joy to return to the quirky monsters that inhabit it.

As a Switch exclusive, Dragon Quest Treasures doesn’t have the same visual allure of Dragon Quest XI, or even Builders for that matter. It’s by no means bad, a lot of the monsters and character models are nicely detailed and brought to life with personality-fuelled animation, but a lot of the environmental design is held back by muddied texture work. Fortunately, performance was incredibly consistent across my roughly 9 hour playthrough, but it certainly would’ve been nice to get further lost in this world with more defined and immersive visual fidelity, especially with how varied each island of Draconia is.

While Dragon Quest Treasures might not reach the same heights as the Builders series, there’s a distinct identity and unique experience on offer here that any fan of Dragon Quest should look into. It retains the same comfort and nostalgia of a mainline entry with an adventure that’s as wholesome as it is simple in premise. It’s a shame that the franchise’s legacy with combat and monster variety isn’t translated here, but Dragon Quest Treasures offers a relaxing and enticing adventure in its own way.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Dragon Quest Treasures Review – A Hidden Gem appeared first on Press Start.

After playing through the already-excellent Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for a third time in its newly-refreshed and revitalised form in Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion, one fact rang true throughout – this is a proper remaster. More than just a simple upscale or even a new coat of paint, it’s a carefully reconstructed and retooled product that wonderfully modernises a 14-year-old handheld game without any sacrifices to the core of the original. In short, it’s both the best way to play Crisis Core and a great new release in its own right.

Some context for those who’ve not played Crisis Core before, though: In this prequel set seven years before the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, players take on the role of Zack Fair, a Shinra SOLDIER operative that becomes embroiled in the fallout after his mentor, Angeal, and another SOLDIER 1st Class named Genesis seemingly turn on Shinra for reasons later explained. Set to the backdrop of a war with Wutai and the rapid takeover of Shinra and its clamour for the world’s precious resources, the game’s narrative ultimate leads players to a deeper look into the origins of Final Fantasy VII’s star players from Cloud and Sephiroth to Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie and many more.

Over the course of the 15-30 hour experience on offer, Crisis Core was an occasionally messy but ultimately clever prequel that quickly became the highlight of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII media blowout of the 2000s that also gave us the likes of the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children film. Back then, it was an exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld console, where it impressed with production values beyond what anyone was used to in such a small format and a compelling gameplay loop that included a unique, real-time combat system.

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Fast forward to today, and Final Fantasy VII is seeing something of a renaissance thanks to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake kicking off a trilogy set to explore the original’s story and setting anew. Where that game was a wholly new take on the early portion of the main Final Fantasy VII game, Crisis Core Reunion is closer to a “remaster” of the PSP prequel, updating the presentation and crucial gameplay elements but leaving the core of the game largely intact. It makes a lot of sense too, where the PS1 original’s old-school JRPG sensibilities were due for an update in the remake, Crisis Core’s action-oriented gameplay and snappy pacing still hold up fairly well.

The biggest and most immediate changes in Crisis Core’s move to modern platforms nearly all stem from the vast gulf in functionality between the PSP’s restrictive button layouts and the controllers available to players on home consoles and PC. The simple addition of camera control with a right stick has a transformative impact on how the game is presented and how Zack handles in the moment, but the team at Square Enix has risen to this new challenge admirably by both ensuring players have stuff to look at outside of the confines of the original perspective and also taking the bulk of its combat gameplay back to the drawing board to rethink how it should work in the new format.

I mentioned a lot of what’s changed in my earlier preview impressions of the game, but the crux of it is that combat in Reunion feels vastly more fast-paced and reactive than in the PSP version of Crisis Core. Gone is the clunky, scrolling menu that bound all of your actions including basic attacks and magic, and now everything is mapped to the multitude of face and shoulder buttons available instead. With full, immediate control of Zack’s actions and a freely-adjustable camera, fights feel much closer to something like Final Fantasy VII Remake or even Kingdom Hearts.

All of the neat little wrinkles and ideas that made combat in Crisis Core unique and interesting the first time are still here, mind, like the compelling and unpredictable DMW system, the way Materia is incorporated into the flow of the action and the need to think hard about your equipment layout when facing down the game’s toughest foes, it’s all just a lot more manageable in the moment. Some new tweaks have been implemented to take advantage of Zack’s enhanced playability as well, such as the ability to cancel powerful foes’ ultimate attacks by pummelling them with strong abilities. In its new form, I’d almost be bold enough to suggest it’s one of my favourite takes on real-time combat that the Final Fantasy franchise has dabbled in thus far, despite a noticeable lack of challenge even on the Hard difficulty setting.

Outside of combat, the general gameplay and structure of Crisis Core is a lot more recognisable and true to the handheld original, although again the addition of full camera control does give everything a different feel. There are times where it’s more noticeable, in fact some of the late-game set pieces and minigames seemingly had to be modified to fit, but for the most part it’s the same game. That means what’s here is a mostly-linear jaunt through 10 distinct chapters where you’ll trek through a few key locales while occasionally being afforded the opportunity to wander sections of Midgar and other places of your own accord and pick up side content. Funnily enough, anyone coming to this game from Final Fantasy VII Remake will feel right at home with how everything is laid out, albeit of a much smaller scope here.

The one quirk of Crisis Core’s that might come out as a bit of a rub with new players is its reliance on bite-sized, self-contained “Missions” to pad out its gameplay offering. There are 300 of the bloody things, and while they were a fantastic way to offer PSP players short bursts of gameplay that they could knock out on a commute or during a bathroom break, they make less sense here. Each one is a barely minutes-long endeavour where you’re dropped into one of only a small selection of environments to navigate, picking up treasures and engaging in combat encounters on the way to take down a predetermined foe. 

These missions aren’t not fun, largely thanks to how good Reunion’s revamped combat is, but they get grindy real quick and they’re unfortunately quite essential to obtaining the game’s most useful items and abilities and keeping Zack levelled up to meet the challenge of the main content. At the end of the day there’s no getting around the fact that they’re a core component of the game and something returning fans will have already accepted, but new players might question what they’ve gotten themselves into after around the 150th mission.

Elsewhere, some very welcome quality-of-life improvements do go a long way to alleviating any frustration or tedium that might arise from the original’s design. All fights can be instantly restarted upon dying, for example, also offering players the opportunity to tweak their character build before going back for a second beating. Throw in auto-saves, increased checkpointing amongst multi-stage encounters and a vastly improved UI that pretty closely resembles Final Fantasy VII Remake’s menus and there’s much to appreciate about how Square Enix has considered where it presents Crisis Core warts-and-all and where it smooths off any rough edges.

Of course another huge selling point for Crisis Core Reunion is the massive upgrade to its visual and audio treatment. Built from the ground-up in Unreal Engine 4, it’s pretty well night-and-day compared to the PSP version, with model, texture and effect work that feels on par with the gorgeous Final Fantasy VII Remake. There are definitely some obvious holdovers from its origins, environments for example are packed with tons more detail but they’re still built on the same compact, basic layouts. Likewise character models are gorgeously-rendered with sharp texture work and new geometry but they’re placed on the existing rigs which means they animate like it’s still 2008, which can be awkward at times.

It’s still an enormous glow-up overall though, all of the new assets and effects combined with the razor-sharp resolutions and fluid performance afforded by new platforms make it an impressively new-feeling iteration that goes well beyond what’s expected from a modern remaster. It doesn’t stop at in-game visuals either, with Square Enix using a combination of AI-upscaled and edited original CG animations and some completely new content (gorgeous new summon sequences being a great example) to tie everything together.

There’s also the small matter of the game’s voice work which, shockingly, has been completely redone with the voice cast updated to match the Remake more closely and voice acting added to all of the previously text-only dialogue. It’s a pretty big deal and another stark example of just how much work has gone into updating Crisis Core beyond the expected new bells and whistles. It’s seriously impressive stuff, and the new cast does a great job overall, especially when it comes to characters who had zero voiced lines the first time around. What’s more, Crisis Core’s original composer, Takeharu Ishimoto, is back with brand-new arrangements, making Reunion just as much an updated aural experience as a visual and mechanical one.

To be frank, assessing this “remaster” as a whole is a difficult task, as anyone’s enjoyment of it will largely come down to what Crisis Core means to them. Devout fans who played it on PSP are going to see an old favourite in an entirely new light through well-considered updates designed to delight returning players, but those coming into it having missed the game in 2008 or entering fresh off of Final Fantasy VII Remake may find it a jarring transition. That said, critiquing it purely on the merits of the work done to enhance the base game it’s a stellar effort and a commendable commitment to producing something worthy of Final Fantasy VII fans’ love for this world and its characters.

The post Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion Review – Absolutely Worth A Revisit appeared first on Press Start.

Although they’re not short of wins with the terrific Spider-Man games, after the underwhelming response to ensemble-led misfire that was Marvel’s Avengers, it feels as though Marvel Games would be hungry for a win in the guise of a big, exciting team-up. On paper, Firaxis is the studio you’d put in charge of bringing a turn-based strategy flavour to one of the comic giant’s many properties. However, as fascinating a brood as the Midnight Suns are, this game’s strongest features are totally eclipsed by plenty of jank, a lot of cringy and uninteresting hangouts at home base, and presentation that doesn’t feel even remotely current.

The game’s most interesting ideas posited revolve around the turbulent peace treaty between the sides of might and magic in the Avengers and the Midnight Suns as they band together under one roof to put a stop to Lilith. As her reanimated progeny, “Hunter”—an imaginative name and occupation double—you’ll be recruited by the group to unlock the dormant memories that helped you fall mother dearest the first time around. I think it’s the attempt to do so much that sees Midnight Suns come up short in telling a focused, engaging story front-to-back. The relationships between the game’s several characters tie it all together, but there’s no belief behind any of them. The game might be crammed full of wall-to-wall heroes and villains and yet a meaningful arc never really emerges.

Midnight Suns is a toxic marriage between two ideas that, in theory, should work. Firaxis’ ability to iterate on their distinguished brand of turn-based strategy, through the implementation of free movement and a deck system, is undeniable and clearly is this particular game’s strength. But as with their last game, XCOM: Chimera Squad, their want to place the interpersonal ties on equal footing comes up short as pretty much any second spent on the Abbey grounds—which serves as both Hunter’s once resting place and the base of operations for the mission to take down Lilith—feels like a waste of time.

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Although the combat bonuses granted can be handy, building these relationships up through inane hangouts and jaw sessions is painfully lifeless. With dialogue and line delivery fit for a ham sandwich, I dreaded any moments of forced conversation.

Just as I think there are simply too many awkward pleasantries shared in the Abbey’s halls, I feel like Midnight Suns lobs a few too many ideas into the mix as far as upgrading your heroes goes. A few of the ideas, including rolling two identical cards into a souped up “+” variant and visiting Tony’s forge, work for me, though I fast gave up on sending heroes out on solo ops and other seemingly inconsequential things. 

Thankfully, the meat and bones of Midnight Suns’ squad-based strategic combat feels like Firaxis firing on all cylinders. Although I miss the easily quantifiable rules of grid-based movement, there’s certainly a cinematic feel to having the likes of Captain America, Captain Marvel, or Blade freely moving around the play space. Managing your heroism level, which can tick up or down based on cards played, is certainly the most strategic part of the fray, even it feels a bit random given the unpredictable nature of the draw. Of course, on the middling difficulty I played on, Midnight Suns is rather forgiving—when a character is downed in combat, you’re likely to be dealt a revive card, so the fall of the cards can fit the circumstance you’re in. 

Despite there not being a heap of variety within Hydra’s ranks, there’s enough going on per fight that you’ll need to keep your wits about you. After a while, already toppled bosses can pop up to mix things up and turn fairly standard battles into pressure cookers. The boss fights themselves have a big feel and are this game at its most “Marvel”. 

I feel like Midnight Suns’ presentation is several rungs below what should have been expected, and it’s even well below Marvel’s Avengers which, despite its undoubtedly larger budget, is still years older now. To say Midnight Suns is hamstrung graphically by its support of older tech is an understatement, which is a shame because its art direction isn’t bad. There are unfortunate masked loads like passing through a portal in Limbo which is every time backed up with a literal loading screen, it stutters, and on Steam Deck—which in fairness isn’t an optimised platform yet—it crashes after nearly every operation. The transitions between Hunter’s sleeping and waking existence are cumbersome and clunky, it feels as though the entire game is at times a stitched together Frankenstein’s monster. 

Outside of the aforementioned cringe line delivery pretty much across the board, Midnight Suns has pretty great sound design and an original score that’s suitably epic. 

Marvel’s Midnight Suns feels like proof that, at some point, Firaxis will perfect this formula they’re going for. Their handle for turn-based combat is top notch, it’s just all of the role-playing lite elements that ultimately hampers the experience. It has its share of issues but Midnight Suns is an easy enough recommendation for both strategy enthusiasts and those swept up by the Marvel machine. 

The post Marvel’s Midnight Suns Review – A Total Eclipse appeared first on Press Start.

While playing Pokémon games as a kid was pure and unadulterated bliss, there was always a part of me that longed for a Pokémon game that conveyed the same sense of scale and adventure as the anime. More than 10 years on from the days of sinking hours into Pokémon Pearl after school, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet look to break the mold of a traditional mainline Pokémon title.

While other recent entries such as Sun and Moon have sought to rework the long-established framework of the gym challenge, Scarlet and Violet make much more substantial changes to the broader foundations of Pokémon. Despite some stumbles on the path to a more modern and refined Pokémon formula, Scarlet and Violet offer a tantalizing look into the future of Pokémon, and how this series can go so much further when letting go of its legacy.

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Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set in the Paldea Region, primarily inspired by the Iberian Peninsula, specifically countries like Spain and Portugal. In a twist on the typical world setup, you play as a student freshly enrolled at Naranja (Scarlet) or Uva (Violet) Academy, coincidentally around the time that the Academy’s annual Treasure Hunt takes place. After a brief introductory segment, you’re thrust into the open world of Paldea with one goal in mind – to find your treasure. What entails is a somewhat non-linear romp through three unique narratives; Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends.

It goes without saying that this is a structure that’s in stark contrast with its predecessors. Where previous entries had carefully curated linear paths to follow, Scarlet and Violet let you loose on all that Paldea has to offer, making for an unprecedented freedom not found in other Pokémon games. Each of the three narratives have their own cast of characters, ideas, and themes at play, and the ability to – mostly – bounce between them as you see fit does wonders for pacing and variation in gameplay.

While Victory Road is a standard fare gym challenge, Starfall Street and Path of Legends are what stuck with me the most after the credits rolled. Without getting into spoiler territory, these narratives explore aspects of the Pokémon world not previously tapped into by other games, with Starfall Street focusing on the impact bullying has on educational communities, while Path of Legends leans into the idea of mortality in Pokémon, and how they’re ultimately just as vulnerable as any other living creature. Although I wouldn’t say either of these stories are profoundly deep or head scratching in their messages and meanings, I did find myself invested enough in their characters and narrative developments to progress them whenever the opportunity arose.

The way you move between each of these narratives is through Koraidon or Miraidon, depending on your game version. The new flagship legendary Pokémon are mountable, similar to the rideable Pokémon found in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. As you progress through the game, new traversal abilities are unlocked, allowing you to more seamlessly access hard to reach areas of Paldea and streamlining traversal further. It’s a fun idea that fits the theme of adventure and slots into the shift to open-world quite nicely.

Despite fundamentally reworked foundations in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the core appeal of catching cute critters to build out your team as you venture through unknown lands is here in full-force. The roster of new monsters is a wildly varied bag of interesting type combinations and striking new designs, both good and bad. The good far outweighs the bad, though, and some of the highs are exceptionally high, with the likes of Armarouge and Ceruledge standing out in particular. One weird omission is that the ability to catch these critters like you could in Pokémon Legends: Arceus is nowhere to be found, returning to the comparatively archaic and sluggish ways of battling a Pokémon in order to catch it.

Once you pick your starter Pokémon from the new trio of Quaxly, Sprigatito, and Fuecoco, you’ll set off into the Paldea Region in search of your very own treasure. Victory Road primarily functions as a typical gym challenge from previous games, though the offering feels bare-bones in comparison. Each gym requires you to complete a gym test before challenging the gym leader, and while they’re inoffensive and simple in nature, they pale in comparison to the gym challenges of old. Actual fights with gym leaders are appropriately atmospheric, though, with crowds gathering around to watch your match unfold as the music swells up to grand heights.

Path of Legends on the other hand sees you helping fellow student Arven hunt down Herba Mystica and the abnormally sized Titan Pokémon that guard them. These encounters boil down to tracking down a Titan Pokémon within any given area, and battling it with Arven to force it to retreat. Instead of typical wild encounters, these battles are closer to the likes of a boss fight, as each Titan Pokémon has buffed up stats and health pools, and while they’re simple in nature, they offer a bit of spectacle and variation in comparison to typical encounters.

Starfall Street is by far the most unique storyline in the context of gameplay, as you attempt to dismantle a rebellious group of students known as Team Star. You’ll storm different Team Star bases across Paldea and send out your Pokémon to auto battle Team Stars own. Each one culminates in a battle with the base leader that’s most comparable to battling a gym leader. Again, these bases are straightforward but serve as a great way to break up pacing and open-world exploration.

Although you can technically battle any of the 5 Titans, 8 Gyms, and 5 Starfall bases in any order, fixed levels for each encounter means that there is a degree of linearity and structure to the order in which you complete them. This wouldn’t be such an issue if the difficulty curve didn’t feel so uneven as a result. There were multiple occasions where I encountered gyms and Titan Pokémon that I wanted to engage with, but couldn’t because of level differences. Getting on the right track is as simple as heading to the Pokémon Center and asking for advice on where to go next, but true non-linearity isn’t here as expected, and that’s disappointing.

One new inclusion that somewhat remedies this issue is the aforementioned auto-battle feature, where you can send out Pokémon to battle autonomously while you explore your surroundings. While I initially shrugged this mechanic off outside of mandatory use, it quickly became my main method to grind experience points and level up my Pokémon. It’s a simple addition that takes out a lot of the mundanity and grinding that you’d otherwise have to go through to meet certain challenges.

It also feeds into the excellent new TM Crafting system where you can create TMs using materials obtained from the overworld. The ability to create new TMs if you use one is a safety net that allows you to experiment with moves on Pokémon you typically wouldn’t without having to worry about wasting the TM. You also have the ability to remember any move your Pokémon has previously learnt, taking uncertainty out of the equation when it comes to building out your team.

If there’s one aspect of Pokémon games that have remained almost entirely unaltered, it’s the core battle system, and much the same can be said for Scarlet and Violet. More iterative than it is innovative, Scarlet and Violet opt to play it safe by adding a bevy of new moves that feel suitably useful in the broader scope of Pokémon moves, as well as the ability to Terastallize Pokémon in battle. Terastallization is a phenomenon only found in Paldea where Pokémon are crystalized in a gem-like casing, shifting their type to whatever their Tera type is, and boosting the power of that types respective moves.

While I was initially led to believe that Terastallization is a one-stop shop for a quick power boost, I quickly realized otherwise. Having Pokémon with Tera types that differ to their base types provides a level of strategy and thought that hasn’t been present in these kind of mechanics since X and Y’s Mega Evolution. The visual designs leave a lot to be desired, and the room for strategic use of Terastallizing within the main story is pretty slim, it’s clear that this is a mechanic that’s going to fundamentally shift how Pokémon is played at a competitive level.

Between dealing with Gyms, Titan Pokémon, and Team Star, you can also partake in trainer battles, and Tera Raids within the open-world. One key difference with trainer battles is that they have to be triggered by the player, making for more flexible and risk-free exploration especially if you’re running low on healing items as you race towards the next Pokémon Centre. Tera Raids are effectively Max Raid Battles from Sword and Shield, with the promise of Pokémon with unique Tera types that you typically wouldn’t find in the wild. These are quite the visual spectacle and I suspect undertaking high level Tera Raids will be very alluring for some in the post-game. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to try this or cooperative play during the review window, as online services were disabled.

Exploring Paldea itself is enticing in the sense you never know what Pokémon might be waiting for you around the corner, and there are a few mysteries to be solved during your journeys. Aside from this, though, it feels like something of an afterthought, lacking in any sort meaningful content to make you wonder about what might come next. The majority of the towns of Paldea are similarly underwhelming, as only a few have palpable identities and a sense of place within the world. It’s by no means bad, but these towns didn’t invoke any emotional response outside of a select few.

One area Pokémon has consistently underdelivered in since Sword and Shield (bar remakes), is in their presentation, visual fidelity, and performance. Unfortunately, Scarlet and Violet don’t entirely buck the trend, despite some small improvements. For starters, interior environments are vastly improved, and character models in general are more detailed and eye-catching. Environments are only marginally better than what was offered in previous entries, and the performance simply isn’t consistent enough to justify it, with regular slow-down and frame drops interrupting the experience. While there’s no doubt that the Switch is aging hardware, it’s painful to see Pokémon struggle with this yet again, while other titles manage to achieve much more with the same specs.

The post Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Review – A Tantalising Lens Into The Future appeared first on Press Start.

How do you even begin to talk about a game like Goat Simulator 3? I could sit here and write all the crazy things that happened to my Goat and me during my time with it, but that would spoil so much. Despite having finished it and seeing the credits roll, I can’t tell you what the game is about. But while the concept undoubtedly baffles my old man brain, there is one thing I do know about Goat Simulator 3. It’s really stupid but really fun. And isn’t that enough?

Despite the title, Goat Simulator 3 is the second mainline Goat Simulator game. Setting the tone for the game’s humour, creative director Santiago Ferrero reckons it was named that because “God of War: Ragnarok was already taken”. Putting that unfortunate situation aside, Goat Simulator 3 does a fantastic job of building upon the foundations of the first game. As you’d expect, you play as a goat. As you might not expect, you’re thrown into the world on the back of a trailer in a sequence that mimics the opening to Skyrim. So yeah, Goat Simulator 3 is trying to be funny.

This time, your playground is San Angora, which is a bit different from the previous game. It’s bigger, though not as big as the open worlds most players would be accustomed to today. Goat Simulator 3 makes up for this with the sheer density of the map. It’s a real playground and a joy to mess around in. The general goal of the game is to wreak havoc to see how it plays out. After all, a lot of the original game’s notoriety came from the virality of the moments. Goat Simulator 3 is bound to see the same type of attention.

But there’s an admirable effort here to try and make Goat Simulator 3 more of a game with some structure. The open world is still there to play around in, but San Angora is peppered with activities called “Events” to complete. Each of them is usually a joke – help a Swedish person build some flatpacked furniture, kick some tree-hugging hippies off trees to help them grow, play the imperial march on church bells. There’s a nice variety of activities to do here that, more often than not, have funny punchlines.

But there are, of course, some moments where it can get a little bit cringe, though I’d be lying if I didn’t say that Goat Simulator 3 made me laugh on more than one occasion. To tell you everything I enjoyed about this game would be neglectful and irresponsible – the absurdity of these situations is in and of itself funny. But just know that no matter what type of gamer you are, whether you played Wolfenstein to Counter-Strike to Fortnite, Goat Simulator 3 no doubt does a good job at playing to a wide audience.

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Besides events, there are hundreds of “Instincts” to complete, too, though these aren’t mandatory to unlock anything or finish the story. Instead, completing them unlocks currency that can be exchanged for gear. Many of these Instincts feel closer to what was on offer in the first game – hit ten people with a specific item or drive a certain distance in a particular vehicle. They’re menial tasks and busy work. But they help make Goat Simulator 3 feel more fleshed out as a game.

Continuing this theme, Goat Simulator 3 rewards completion of Events with rankings that determine how high up in the Illuminati you are. Each rank you’re in expands your home base, similar to the castle from the first game. Finishing all the grades leads to the game’s final “boss” battle. I really appreciate the intention to better flesh out Goat Simulator 3 and give it more structure, but it doesn’t quite do as much with the concept as it could.

For one, I can’t help but feel that Goat Simulator 3 has become the thing that it’s satirising at points. The structure is like any open-world game of the last decade. Climb some towers, reveal some activities, complete some checklists and fill some progress meters to do it all again. Thankfully, Goat Simulator 3’s ridiculous physics and gameplay keep the game fun even if it doesn’t do everything it sets out to.

So much of Goat Simulator 3 is centered around unlocking gear, and for a good reason. So much of the gear can make your Goat fabulous and change form completely. Eventually, you can play as a giraffe, human, or shark. So much of the gear also comes with unique abilities designed to facilitate your goal of wreaking havoc and causing chaos. Rocket boots, laser beams, pizza launchers, magic beanstalk seeds; you name it, it’s probably in Goat Simulator 3 as a wearable. While I loved the huge slew of equipment and abilities, I often wished they were utilised more in the puzzles during the events.

Besides Events and Instincts, Goat Simulator 3 also features many minigames to jump into with friends. Accessible from the map, each of them allows up to four goats to battle it out in all kinds of precarious situations. Soccer, king of the hill, racing, demolition derbies. There’s a lot to do here, and the physics and gameplay upon which Goat Simulator 3 is built only make each of them funnier than it has any right to be.

More impressively, Goat Simulator 3 also supports both online and split-screen multiplayer. Online is missing the oft-included crossplay options, but including split-screen is a fantastic touch. While doing so drops the framerate down to an (apparently controversial) thirty frames per second, it was pretty impressive to see how much crazy shit I and three friends could conjure up without the game crashing. Splitscreen is oft forgotten as games have grown more complex, but for Goat Simulator 3 to both have a mode and one that works is to be commended.

So while you’ll be done with Goat Simulator 3’s simplistic story mode in about six or so hours, everything that remains after the credits have finished rolling make it stand out. A dense and fun open playground to mess around in with hundreds of items. With friends, either online or off, the sheer stupidity and chaotic nature of everything is bound to make you smile. And isn’t that what games should be about?

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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I can’t help but feel for Sonic Frontiers. At a glance, it’s almost too easily categorised as Sonic Team’s attempt at Breath of the Wild, a comparison point the team has been quite doggedly avoiding during preview coverage of the game. This is, partly, kind of absurd given how obvious the comparison point is. Sonic Frontiers plops the titular blue blur into large, open-zone environments in which ancient technology has broken down and nature has largely returned to claim its land. Mysteries abound, friends must be rescued and existential questions answered. But Sonic Frontiers is so much more than its surface. It’s deeply strange, often throwing conflicting ideas at the player at breakneck speed, and ultimately not entirely successful. But it makes a bold and earnest attempt at the genre and despite losing a few rings along the way, still clears a comfortable A grade.

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Sonic Frontiers sees Sonic and friends thrust into one of the series’ more touching tales. Eggman has meddled with forces far greater than even his genius and inadvertently trapped himself, and Sonic’s best mates, in a digital realm known as Cyber Space. Here, memories are warped by Godly AI processing power and rendered into explorable manifestations (in this case old Sonic levels and subtext-packed cutscenes). With the Chaos Emeralds and his loveable roster of friends and foes trapped on Starfall Islands, Sonic must venture forth into the unknown and explore a series of loosely connected open-zones, solving puzzles, completing levels and generally being a snarky little hero.

These islands arguably serve as Sonic Frontiers’ biggest formula shift since the series’ jump to 3D back in the late 90s. Massive in scale and crammed full of small activities to complete, these spaces are borderline seamless playgrounds designed to push Sonic’s speed and your platforming skills to new limits. Equipped with the divisive Boost mechanic on the right trigger, Sonic is effectively encouraged to tear arse through the five available islands, utilising a simple but engaging loop of momentum, combat and exploration geared toward constantly rewarding the player. To complement the speed of the Boost, Sonic is also able to create whimsical trails of light with the new Cyloop ability that has you hold down a button and draw a loop in any shape you can muster. This is often used to activate puzzles, lower enemy defences or uncover rings and other useful items.

The five islands are an amalgamation of gameplay ideas that individually function quite well but collectively can wear a little thin. There is great fun to be had in simple exploration with approachable momentum-based platforming and rail building for convenient traversal ala Death Stranding. The overworld is littered with springs, platforms and rails to bounce between, offering some form of collectable as a reward for the thirty or so seconds it might take you to complete them. It all works, managing to blend fixed and free camera work in a split second and realising the best of Sonic’s movement. Those collectable rewards are also directly impactful of your progression, as Sonic will need to gather up a surprising number of resources to move the story forward and unlock new things to do.

Cyber Space levels, the game’s small but gorgeously rendered line-up of classic Sonic platforming levels, need to be unlocked using gears that you can nab from harder combat encounters. These levels are all themed around old-school Sonic aesthetics and while not the biggest roster of influences has been drawn from, what’s here is some of the most fun you can have in Sonic Frontiers. Depending on how well you complete each level you’ll be rewarded with keys (one for finishing, S rank time, red coin collection and ring numbers) which are in turn used to unlock Chaos Emerald vaults.

There are also friendship tokens that are given liberally and used to unlock cutscenes with your mates, and some fishing coins you should absolutely keep an eye out for. The game’s fishing economy is wonderfully broken, allowing you to effectively buy your way through an island if you wish, all while chilling with Big and catching random junk as a goof. Along with the skill points to earn, attack and defence tokens to uncover, and the admittedly wonderful Kocos to collect, Sonic Frontiers can often feel a bit much. The tone of the open-zone is so deliberately serene and begs a flowstate from the player but the game’s overarching systems can harsh the vibe as it were, even if they’re relatively harmless individually.

As Sonic Frontiers begins to expand its adventure and you push from five to ten to the roughly twenty or so hours it takes for a first pass, these systems lose some shine. The back end of the game increasingly wrestles camera control away from you in unforgiving platforming sections while the level design itself begins to constrict your speed potential, effectively snuffing out a lot of the fun. There is also the game’s severe pop-in problem that can sometimes snap a new rail into existence mere meters away from you. The speed at which Sonic moves through these environments means I can empathise with the difficulty of rendering it all at once but when you need to be making split-second directional choices, it can be immensely frustrating to not know what might pop in next.

Given the shift to freestyle adventuring, Sonic is also forced to engage in combat more directly than ever before. Sonic Frontiers certainly understands the need for style and flair, often making you feel like a badarse with its flurry of hyper-speed, vibrant animations as Sonic lobs energy balls and booms at foes. Better still that all of this can be achieved in a remarkably approachable way, whether actively through basic button combinations or passively through the auto-skill ability you can toggle on and off once unlocked. Like exploration, combat just feels good to use, and just like exploration, it can wear thin over the game’s run.   

You’ll be unlocking high-level skills quite late in the game, though these are just additional button combinations to add to your roster, combat itself only fundamentally evolves based on what you’re fighting. Sonic Frontiers’ roster of robotic foes is largely a delight, a hobbled-together assortment of vaguely humanoid/animal creatures that require slightly different approaches to defeat without incident. The islands are also home to several larger-scale fights that utilise platforming and tighter timing to take down, often serving as a nice precursor to the game’s exceptionally cool major boss fights, the Titans.

Sonic Frontier’s Titan bosses are a standout of the game and are best experienced firsthand for a multitude of reasons. The first of these fights, Giganto, has been featured in marketing so I’m at least comfortable enough to talk about this walking anime cutscene of a monster. The Titans tower over the islands, using that scale to implement platforming segments before and sometimes during moment-to-moment, intensely cinematic combat sequences. All of this towering scale kicks off with unique, pop-rock tracks that bellow earnest lyrics about hope and new horizons while you effectively fight mecha-God. It rules so incredibly hard and I’m glad we have creators in the AAA space willing to be this dorky.

It’s a sense of style the rest of the game largely carries too, with a vibrant, if sensible, art direction and a general understanding of the power of going really fast through well lit-environments. The islands themselves aren’t anywhere near as varied as I would have liked though, with the initial greenery of Kronos dominating the palette for much. Ares was my favourite play space, with its harsh topography and small oasis pockets to discover in the arid deserts, but Chaos’ volcanic slopes and fragmented land mass left me a little cold. The final two islands, one of which is more of a gimmick, do lean back into forestation but the last one is a wonderful spot that made me wistful to be wrapping up.

Sonic Frontiers presents its story in a rather odd way though, which is especially sad given that the narrative beats and character interactions are all fairly compelling and fun. In an attempt to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Eggman has made himself a daughter in the form of an AI project named Sage. As Sonic races against time to save his trapped friends, Sage will frequently show up to observe or interact with the gang and their impact on her is not inconsiderable. It’s a simple tale but ends with surprising weight, made all the more impactful by the game’s background narrative that doesn’t shy away from some pretty heavy stuff.

The game’s final moments had me cheering a little, and the cut to credits is shockingly poignant (even with the mid and post-credits scenes evening out the tone a little). The moment-to-moment writing is clumsily pronounced but again in an endearing way—Sage’s ruminations on what a “real” family is, Knuckles lamenting his life of service, Amy pondering love and Tails fighting imposter syndrome. The only one without a clear arc is Sonic but he works as a mirror to the cast in many ways and is more of an observer to the game’s true story. Which is all wonderful and good, but pacing issues and obfuscation dull its best qualities. There are some great Sonic lore elements at play here but you wouldn’t know it from what the main story gives you alone, instead, you’ll need to dive into menus and memos to find out.  

All of these disparate systems and uneven feelings can’t fully derail this ride though and despite my many small grievances, I still look back fondly on my time with Sonic Frontiers. Its open-world adolescence is awkward, yes, but endearingly so— you can feel how badly this game wants to impress and that carries it far further than I imagined it could. Its moment to moment gameplay remains fun from start to finish and while the middle section slumps somewhat, it pulls up just in time to deliver a gorgeous and absurd final act. At some point in the story Sage observes Sonic trying to help his friends and shakes her head, “He never stops. Clarification, he never gives up”. And yeah, Sonic Frontiers stumbles often, but just like its titular hero, it never gives up.

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It was a bit touch and go for Bayonetta, wasn’t it? Not only was there a considerable wait between announcement and release, but Platinum had a slate of games that weren’t up to their usual standard in that time. Then, the first trailers hit, and I wasn’t feeling it. Something was off. But now, five years since its reveal, and in the time that Babylon’s Fall both was revealed and announced to be shut down, Bayonetta 3 is finally here. And while many argue PlatinumGames are a shell of their former self, Bayonetta 3 firmly cements itself as one of Platinum’s best.

Bayonetta 3 follows the titular witch once more as she battles a new threat. Where you fought angels and demons in the previous two games, the danger in Bayonetta 3 is human-made. Calling themselves the Homunculi, they’re bioweapons led by a shadowy figure who only calls himself Singularity. Even worse, Singularity doesn’t just want to destroy the world that Bayonetta inhabits but the other worlds that exist at the same time. That’s right, Bayonetta 3 is doing the multiverse schtick. But it’s done so well that I can’t be mad at how cliché it is.

I’ve never been one for the story of the Bayonetta games, but Bayonetta 3 has the most engaging story of the three so far. Both the origin of the new enemies and newcomer Viola are endearing, while the sheer excitement of which multiverse Bayonetta you’ll see next keeps the game engaging. It’s all still nonsense, mind you. The reveals that are presented as ground-breaking revelations are often seen coming from a mile away. However, having an exciting and engaging story in a game like this is still lovely.

 Of course, Bayonetta 3 is an action game through and through, and it delivers in spades. It continues to carry the design philosophy of the previous games – namely having both a high skill ceiling with a low skill floor – but makes a few changes to the formula to up the action factor even more. After Devil May Cry 5, I wasn’t sure a game could ever top that in terms of pure and ridiculous action. But Bayonetta 3 does a pretty good job, even if it’s an entirely different beast of a game.

For one, the way Bayonetta uses weapons has changed. No longer can you equip weapons to her legs or arms independently. Instead, you’ll be equipping weapons to fight with in addition to demons to summon. More on the demons later – but each weapon is imbued with the spirit of said demon. This allows Bayonetta to transform into said demon to pull off flashy attacks and finishers. This is what the game calls the Demon Masquerade abilities. Their flashiness and bombastic nature perfectly matches the vibe of the other Bayonetta staples you’ve come to know and love – like Wicked Weaves, Torture Attacks and of course, the almighty Climax.

But the more considerable change with Bayonetta 3 is using infernal demons during combat rather than as flashy finishers. For most of the game, a shoulder button can be held that summons a demon which can then be commanded to carry out attacks. While these demons don’t have the same breadth of abilities as Bayonetta herself, they all have unique movesets that can serve different purposes in battle. Some are harder hitting and can shatter armour, while others can buff or debuff enemies too. The catch is that, for most of the game, Bayonetta can’t move while she commands these demons. So you can either hold the summon button and input commands or tap the button at specific points of a combo to summon the demon in for a quick attack.

This is a great new system, and one that I was worried would be a little bit gimmicky when I first saw it detailed. But it works genuinely well, and the game’s wide range of very different demons to summon (there are at least nine, possibly more) means that almost anybody can fill out their equipped set of three to suit their style. The only drawback to this approach is that Bayonetta 3 takes place in many wide-open areas with larger enemies, so those who enjoyed battling Jeanne in the first game or other human-like characters in the second might be disappointed. Still, it does make the battles with smaller characters more impactful.

Similarly, Viola is a new playable character who lands much better than Loki from the previous game. She fights solely with a katana, which can be thrown to summon her own demon named Cheshire. Unlike Bayonetta, her demon will fight independently of her when called too. Viola is only playable for about three or so chapters in the entire game, so she’s not too intrusive on the pacing of things, but everytime she rolled around I wasn’t dreading it – but rather appreciated her different, parry-focused gameplay style when compared to Bayonetta.

Of course, the move to more open environments means that there’s still a lot to find in each level. Besides the obvious magic and health upgrades, there are also crystals that, when found, allow you to replay an area of that level with remixed abilities and characters. There are still portals to Niflheim to find too, which offer set challenges that reward upgrades upon completion. But now there are even portals to the worlds of the first two games, summoning those enemies and even music from the original games to provide a quick hit of nostalgia. When you’re done with the game’s fifteen-hour story, there’s still a lot to do and see.

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But Bayonetta 3 does feel like it’s been created to be incredibly replayable. The game offers over eighteen different weapons and demons to play around with – so replaying other difficulties never gets as old as you’d expect. Similarly, getting a better score on individual battles on an otherwise terrible run will also update those battles in your ranking for the score-chasing crowd. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes Bayonetta 3 less of a slog to replay, especially if you’re trying to get the best ranking.

Some other missions to play aren’t the standard action game variety, though; these can be of variable quality. The Jeanne side missions are fantastic and never overstay their welcome – they are side-scrolling, stealthy adventures that see Jeanne infiltrating facilities to help out Bayonetta. They’re short and inoffensive. However, some of the other boss battles see you playing as a massive kaiju-like demon against another larger enemy. They’re a fantastic example of how Bayonetta 3 wants to up the stakes, action-wise, but they control so slowly that they’re rarely enjoyable and can be tedius. I understand what they were going for here, but they were never as fun as they could be every time I was subjected to one.

That being said, Bayonetta 3 is immaculately presented on the Switch. It’s arduous to even get games looking this good on hardware that is undoubtedly aging. But Platinum has done its best to get the most out of the Switch both on a technical and artistic level. The presentation, on the whole, scraps the garish Tim Burton-esque user interface for something much more refined and modern. Believe me when I say that scene transitions in Bayonetta 3 are easily the slickest on the Switch. Of course, there are some moments where things slow down, but they’re such batshit insane sequences that I’m sure neither Platinum nor I certainly didn’t care.

The worlds you’ll be exploring are, on a whole, pretty standard, however. Bayonetta 3 takes place in the real world this time around, so many locations are modelled after real-life ones. While I appreciate the necessity to do this from a story perspective, nothing is ever as visually enthralling or exotic as Paradiso or Inferno from the first two games.

The phenomenal soundtrack adds to the game’s very high feel of polish, which once again feels like a step above the previous games. Using the classic swing ballad Moonlight Serenade as the base for most of its music, it’s a fun and upbeat soundtrack to fight to. The boss themes, in particular, really stand out, employing a full orchestra and operatic chanting similar to the music of games like Nier. All in all, it’s a fantastic score.

As we all know, this time, Jennifer Hale replaces Hellena Taylor as Bayonetta’s voice. While it’s slightly different, it’s still just as charming – and her range does wonders for introducing the different Bayonettas found throughout the story.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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It’s no secret that for a long stretch of the last console generation, Telltale Games and their brand of point-and-click adventure was a real mainstay in the zeitgeist. Of course, their fall is also well documented, but there’s no denying that, at the height of their powers, they told some tremendous stories that put player choice—or at least the illusion of it—at the heart of the experience. Tales from the Borderlands, through it all, reigned supreme as my favourite IP they tackled, and now Gearbox Quebec has resurrected the brand with a spiritual successor of their own making. 

New Tales from the Borderlands certainly recaptures the essence of what made the original enjoyable, and while it does circumvent some of the pitfalls that ultimately saw Telltale fail, it does careen headfirst into others.

As has always been the case, New Tales from the Borderlands is delivered across five roughly two-hour long episodes. Fortunately, all of the episodes are launching simultaneously, so there will be no poorly-cadenced release schedule for the season. The pacing felt a bit disjointed and for a Borderlands title, the game’s events felt less bombastic than I had expected. The finale, for example, for all of its reflective, existential ruminating, is a drag for much of its runtime. It has considerable heart and does manage to close out some character arcs in a satisfying manner, but it ultimately fell a bit short of the heights the original hit. 

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The lure of these ‘choose your own adventure’ games is the lure to return and explore the many narrative permutations but that lure simply isn’t there for me with New Tales. 

The three leads—Anu, her brother Octavio, and ‘fro yo’ slinger Fran—build up a fun camaraderie throughout the season, although I found their in-jokes to be very hit or miss. Louie, Octavio’s assassination bot of choice, is very much a tangential character and gets sidelined far too often. He’s absolutely the funniest part of New Tales, and never has a running gag about learning people’s full names dished up repeated yucks.

One thing New Tales does well is tie itself back to the franchise at large. Showing a small slice of life on Promethea, a slumly planet introduced in the series’ third mainline instalment, it really ramps up the conflict between Atlas and Tediore. Somehow, it feels like the most grounded Borderlands game of the lot, but it certainly has its moments of absurdity. 

Obviously, New Tales serves as Gearbox Quebec’s first venture into the genre Telltale lived and died by. Despite the opportunity to analyse where it stopped working for them and really carve out a unique interpretation on the well exhausted ideas we’re so used to, New Tales feels far too familiar and doesn’t manage to innovate at all on the genre’s tired concepts.

As you’d expect, the gameplay loop in New Tales is a balance of dialogue-heavy conversational pieces and free-roam areas where you’re able to explore, take in the environmental storytelling before arriving at the objective to push things along. I can’t fault the game’s ability to manufacture tension through the dialogue trees, throwing in a mix of scarily brief opportunities to respond and quick-time events, but the free-roam portions felt a bit like filler. They’re not exactly dense for lore to uncover, there’s a shit load of inexplicably ‘hidden’ cash money haphazardly stored in crates throughout the world, and the collectible Vaultlander figurines—despite being another very enjoyable recurring joke—weren’t exactly off the beaten path and felt like cheap busywork. Where settlements in Telltale’s The Walking Dead felt lived in and had lore in most corners, it doesn’t feel as though the same consideration went into the open areas of New Tales. 

I did truly admire the team’s commitment to accessibility, which should be a standard and not something that requires lauding but until that’s the case I’ll continue to pay credit where it’s due. They’ve provided a wealth of options to make things more enjoyable for those who might struggle with quick-time events and quick-reflex inputs. 

New Tales absolutely nails the Borderlands aesthetic with the cel-shaded world, and the characters that inhabit it, standing out as one of the game’s real highlights. The presentation, as a whole, is pretty great. Each episode opens with an opening credits montage set to a playlist of banger rock tunes. It felt like a bit of a spiritual extension of that infamous first Borderlands trailer set to Cage the Elephant. One thing I’m thankful for is how well it runs. Obviously, it isn’t being funnelled through the Telltale engine—which got flogged to within an inch of its life for a generation without much iteration—but for it to hold a solid frame rate, render properly, and have swift loading times is a refreshing marvel in its own right.

Although New Tales does some things right, I can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity to really take the bull by the horns and create something that feels unique in this space. Instead, New Tales feels dated and of a time that’s now far gone. 

I expect fans will still glean a few belly laughs from it and ultimately rally around Louie, who absolutely needs his own spin-off.

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When we talk about sequels in games, there’s often an expectation to do more of the same, but better and with a decent amount of innovation or improvements. Players want to play what they loved to begin with, expanded with new ideas, mechanics, and system that broaden the overall scope of the original appeal. From this perspective, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope had its work cut out for it after Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle surprised everyone when it released in 2017 with remarkably robust turn-based combat, enthralling strategy, and a seemingly weird fusion of two worlds that was ultimately endearing and charming.

After around 25 hours with Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, it’s clear to me that Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris didn’t want to just make a sequel, they wanted to create a game that leaves an indelible mark on the genre, one that inspires others to follow in its footsteps. This is a markedly different game from its predecessor, but still retains that core appeal, where instead of following in the footsteps of something like XCOM, it forges its own path to deliver something wholly original and endlessly captivating.

Sometime after the events of Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, a peaceful day in the Mushroom Kingdom is suddenly interrupted by a malevolent entity known as Cursa. Cursa’s galactic conquest is fueled by the desire to consume the energy of what are known as Sparks, an unexpected fusion between Lumas and Rabbids, and she plans to destroy all who dare to stand in her way. To save the galaxy from Cursa’s influence, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom team up with the Rabbids once again and set out on a journey to free those within Cursa’s grasp.

If Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle tells a story similar to that of a standard Mario game, Sparks of Hope is most comparable to the galaxy games. As you progress through the story, you’ll visit five unique planets that have all been twisted by Cursa’s power, and solving each of their plights is key to moving closer to Cursa, and saving the Sparks.

While it’s another charming adventure that’s sold by expressive and entertaining cutscenes, it falls a little short of its predecessor because of the strange decision to have Rabbids talk. It’s a change that I couldn’t warm up to after all these years, one that’s in direct contrast with the core appeal of the Rabbids. What’s even more jarring is that they still act like Rabbids, that is to say crazy and unhinged, making it even harder to get around this change. It by no means ruins the experience, and is still an enjoyable narrative to watch unfold, it just loses a little bit of the appeal in the process.

Where Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is most different, though is in its gameplay systems, stepping into more of a turn-based/real-time hybrid combat system with an emphasis on movement and build-crafting. Each turn is comprised of Movement, Free Actions, and Action Point Abilities, and making the most of all these things in any given combat encounter is pivotal to victory.

Movement boils down to moving within your character’s movement range, making use of dash attacks, and using Team Jumps to reach advantageous positions against the enemy. Gone is the restrictive grid based system of old, allowing for more free-flowing mobility to get into position for other abilities. Action Point Abilities refer to the abilities like weapon attacks, use Hero/Spark Powers and consume items, with each one consuming one of two action points.

The stuff that makes its return from Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is relatively unchanged here, and that’s because its Hero Powers and Spark Powers that change up the way you engage the enemy. Hero Powers are character-specific abilities that inform their playstyle and how you might build them. Mario’s, for example, is called Hero Sight, effectively functioning as an Overwatch ability, where he’ll shoot any enemy who moves within his line of sight, whereas Peach’s Hero Power shields nearby allies from all damage for a number of hits on the next turn. There’s a whopping nine playable heroes to choose from in your battle line-up of three, so there’s plenty of options to mix and match here.

Sparks, on the other hand, behave similarly but can be equipped and moved between heroes as you see fit. Some of them might enhance weapon attacks with an elemental effect, while others might provide some sort of passive benefit like damage reduction or life-steal. Sparks play a pivotal role in triggering Super Effects, which are essentially status ailments that are inflicted on an enemy when you exploit their weakness. Each hero can eventually have two Sparks equipped during battle, so there’s no shortage of options during each turn. You can also spend Star Bits to level up Sparks, increasing the potency of their active and passive skills.

On top of that, each character can invest in skill trees as they level up, enhancing movement capabilities, Hero Powers, weapon damage, and more. These skill trees also lend more to character identity, with each character having a clear role and game plan that compliments other Heroes and certain Sparks. Newcomer Edge, for example, is all about high-movement and hitting multiple targets hard and fast, where Rabbid Luigi focuses on weakening enemies and chaining elemental attacks through his weapon attack that bounces between targets. Every character feels valuable in the grand-scheme of things, and understanding who is suited to deal with particular enemy types/encounter designs keeps things fresh and engaging.

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It isn’t an overstatement to say that Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope gives you a near-endless toybox of options to play around with inside of battle, maybe a little too many. Take combining Mario’s upgraded Hero Sight ability, which resets it on kill, and combine that with the Glitter Spark on either Edge, or Rabbid Mario, which draws all enemies in range to that Hero’s location. For anything that isn’t annihilated by Mario as they move, Dash attacks also knock enemies up and trigger Hero Sight. Throw an elemental Spark on Mario for good measure, and you’re clearing swathes of enemies out in one fell swoop.

It’s a bit of a double-edged sword in the sense that it’s ridiculously fun to build out characters and experiment with different archetypes, but there’s way more Hero/Spark combinations than the one mentioned above that are downright broken and can trivialize certain encounters. It’s nice to be rewarded for thinking outside of the box and finding unique synergies between certain Heroes and Sparks, but they can often mitigate some of the strategy, even in certain boss fights and major encounters. This is still an extremely flexible and customizable combat system, though, and I think the game is ultimately better for it.

Speaking of which, a lot of the difficulty in any given battle is informed by the type of encounter you’re engaged in. Each battle is preceded by a pre-battle screen, where you can spend any unused Skill Prisms, fine tune loadouts, and tweak the difficulty if you’re finding anything too easy or hard. You can see the general layout of the arena and what enemies you’ll be fighting, as well as any environmental objects you can use to gain an advantage. It’s a great way to get an idea of which heroes are going to work best against that group of enemies, and is a handy tool for those who get wrapped up in exploration and forget to invest resources to improve Heroes or Sparks.

There’s three main types of encounters, overworld, Darkmess Puddles, and boss fights. Overworld encounters are as you’d expect, enemies roaming the overworld that you can choose to avoid or fight. These arenas and enemy combinations are randomly generated, and can usually be dealt with very quickly, which leaves them feeling more like filler as opposed to engaging and thought-out battles. Darkmess Puddles, left behind by Cursa and her minions, are much more in-depth. Designed to take multiple turns and with unique objectives, each one brings something new to the table and make up a bulk of the battles here. Boss fights on the other hand are few and far between, but much like the first game, offer even more unique objectives and nail-biting skirmishes. Even the ones that are made easier by overpowered builds still require you to be aware of your surroundings and their unique abilities.

While battling takes up a solid chunk of the game time here, there’s also a lot to do outside of it. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope shifts to a more free-form style of exploration and level design, with optional enemy encounters, hidden secrets, collectibles, side quests and so much more. Each planet is jam-packed with worthwhile content, not only because the rewards are great, but also because they’re genuinely fun to engage with.

Some of the side quests are quite entertaining in nature, for example, a quest on the third planet, Palette Prime, where a woodsman Rabbid’s precious axe has been stolen and employs the team’s help to track down the culprit. They’re sent on a wild goose chase across Palette Prime to catch the suspect, and while the culprit is glaringly obvious for the player, it’s fun to watch the cast try to unravel it for themselves.

Completing side quests, optional activities, and puzzles will award you with Planet Medals, which can be spent on cosmetic weapon skins, Memories which serve as data entries, and the key to that planet’s Secret Zone. Each Secret Zone is a self-contained puzzle box that will award you with a Spark upon first completion, and a weapon skin on second completion if you can finish it within the allotted time.

Each planet also has a secret boss, which requires a certain amount of Sparks to be unlocked before you challenge them. More often than not, these secret bosses are more difficult than the story bosses, but award you with Gold Prisms, that can unlock a powerful 4th skill tree for each Hero, that focuses on boosting the overall efficacy and power of Sparks, which makes them well-worth the challenge. It’s the inclusion of all these overworld activities that keeps Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’s pacing tight, affording players enough breathing room between mandatory battles so as to not inundate and exhaust you with endless combat.

While the Nintendo Switch’s aging hardware seems to hold back other titles, there are some developers besides Nintendo that manage to squeeze out every ounce of power that the machine has, and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is one such title. This is a gorgeous game both in and outside of battle, with some great spectacle fights that really deliver on a sense of scale and grandeur. A lot of this can be contributed to the stellar art direction and animation design on show here, it simply oozes the kind of polish and sheen that you’d expect from a first-party Nintendo title.

Unfortunately, the Switch can struggle at times with Sparks of Hope, often buckling under the weight of hectic fights where large explosions and multiple Super Effects are being triggered at once. While it didn’t drastically effect my overall experience, especially given the turn-based nature of combat, it reared its head often enough to warrant mentioning. I did also run into a few bugs such as where characters would lock up for 10 or so seconds after selecting an ability, and I had one hard crash back the Switch home screen. While these technical hiccups were few and far between, I suspect many players will suffer similar issues until a patch can be rolled out.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is another resounding success in this whacky collaboration of two long-standing IP, one that feels much more defining and original than its predecessor. That isn’t to say Kingdom Battle fell short of expectations, but more so that Sparks of Hope is a clear and confident showcase that there’s so much untapped potential within this genre, and a lot of it has been capitalized on here. This game is a definitive labor of love from Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris, one that you owe it to yourself to play if you own a Switch, or are a fan of strategy games.

THE SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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When I first reviewed NieR Automata, I opened my review with surprise that the game even existed. Now that the series has a global audience, I get to be surprised about something else. Yes, six years on, I relive that feeling as the series finally makes its debut on the Nintendo Switch with NieR Automata. But while the surprise of this project existing is what you’d expect, what really has surprised me with NieR Automata is just how competent of a port it is. Sure, it has some caveats, the usual that come with any Switch port, but it’s almost just as good a way to experience Automata.

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While Automata is the second NieR game, you don’t need to have played the previous game to understand what’s going on. Taking place years after the original, in a future where machines have forced humanity to flee to the moon, the world is in a dark place. Desperate to reclaim the planet, humankind devises a plan to send androids to do the task for them. It sounds batshit and even a bit simple, but the places it goes will successfully demonstrate why the games in the NieR series leave such a lasting impression.

As with the previous games, the story is told in a very non-traditional way. Fully taking advantage of its video game form, repeat playthroughs will result in different endings and give greater context to the world’s events. I like the NieR games because you can get just enough from the plot to be satiated from a single playthrough. But multiple playthroughs are rewarded in droves, adding many layers to a world as complex and deep as ever.

Like the original game, Automata takes place in a semi-open world, not unlike games such as Darksiders and Zelda. You start your journey as 2B, one of the androids who can be equipped with an arsenal of weapons to defend herself. Also, like the original game, Automata employs a range of gameplay styles to offer a unique experience. You’ll get the best bits of an action game primarily, but there are elements of sidescrolling platformers and shoot-em-ups peppered throughout. Throw in some side quest design that feels plucked straight from an open-world game like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, and you’ve got a rather eclectic mix of genres on display here.

While the original game was slightly dated to play, though later improved with a fantastic remake, Automata plays just as it did six years ago on the Switch. This is hardly a bad thing – PlatinumGames was tapped for this sequel for their action expertise, and they most certainly brought their A-game here. Your character fights with a main weapon and a projectile-based pod and can alternate between one another to create some killer combos. It’s just as smooth as before, with great variety to take down enemies.

New to the Nintendo Switch edition is motion controls. These map your two types of attacks to motion on the joy-con and……work just how you’d expect them to. In a game as fast-paced as Automata, they simply feel like an afterthought rather than a genuine implementation of a new way to play. I swiftly disabled them after trying it out for about an hour.

I’d previously thought that Automata was too easy of an action game, especially coming from a team like PlatinumGames, and that thought still stands. A much more lenient action game, on the whole, it’s an excellent game for people to jump into if they’ve previously been intimidated by the likes of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. It’s still a bit of a challenge, but the skill floor is much lower than its contemporaries without sacrificing the satisfaction you feel from clearing an intense battle.

Besides weapons and your pods, your android can be customised with chipsets. Each chip will take up a certain number of slots – so a HP Increase Chip might take up 2 slots while one that improves attack power might take up 5. Such a system allows you to build your android the way you want to – making them a powerhouse that prioritises attack power over health (perfect for those who rarely get hit). Others might build their android to have high defense and HP, dedicating slots that could otherwise be used to improve attack power.

It sounds cliché, but chips are a fantastic way to curb the difficulty for players who might struggle with NieR: Automata and feel like a great way to eschew the traditional level-up system. There is still a level-up system, but the chip system means you don’t necessarily have to grind to improve your stats. Weapons and pods can also be upgraded using salvage from enemies and funds – giving players a wealth of customisation options for their character.

The Nintendo Switch version, called the End of YoRHa Edition, combines everything from the original game and all released downloadable content. The main game will see most players taking around twenty or so hours to complete, but finishing off every ending plus the wave-based survival DLC will easily catapult that to sixty hours. I rarely talk about price in reviews, but given the precedence set for late ports coming to Nintendo Switch, NieR: Automata offers all of this content at a very modest price point, which is to be commended.

When it was announced earlier this year, I was sceptical about whether Automata, a PlayStation 4 game, could look good and play well enough on the Switch. It does, though it’s not without compromise. In my original review, I lamented that the open world was vast but bare, but this has played to great advantage for the Switch version. The port runs at thirty frames per second (half the original) and still slows down in some late-game areas, but overall looks and runs pretty well, even if artistically, it is a bit sparse. Still, it’s hard to notice or even care when everything is moving fast in the heat of battle.

The atmosphere is foreboding and melancholy, too, achieved through a potent mix of great art direction and a unique yet haunting score. Fans of the original will be surprised to find that, despite such a futuristic setting, the industrial vibe of the original game is still intact and more effective in Automata.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Monkey Island, and its clumsy conquest by Guybrush Threepwood, has a storied history that’s as old as me, give or take a year. It’s rooted in an era when adventuring was a point-and-click soirée, although its genetics have endured through Ron Gilbert’s Terrible Toybox, who until now are best known for Thimbleweed Park. Although it’s a series that has seen a handful of entries to this point, Return to Monkey Island—the sixth instalment ushering in the return of series creator Ron Gilbert—seeks to resolve the controversial ending of LeChuck’s Revenge while serving up a swashbuckling caper that manages to be both nostalgic and industry-leading in all areas of concern for point-and-click adventuring.

Return to Monkey Island picks up right where LeChuck’s Revenge leaves off, with a tiny Guybrush and “Chuckie” being ejected from the inner-workings of a fairground attraction. It was a twist that, at the time, pulled back the veil of Guybrush piracy pursuit and cast it into an odd uncertainty. Where other sequels refused to address the cliffhanger, Gilbert deftly resolves it in ingenious fashion, clearing the slate for another glorious Caribbean campaign for Guybrush, his bride Elaine, and a whole host of familiar faces from the series’ glory days. And that’s kind of what Return to Monkey Island is all about.

Bruce Springsteen sang about them, but Guybrush’s glory days are something he fondly clings to and Monkey Island’s long-sought ‘secret’ fuels his foolish gambits. Return to Monkey Island sees him boast of his age-old triumphs to piracy’s indifferent new wave, burn bridges quicker than he can build them, all in the pursuit for the island’s secret which, to him, means relevance. As charming as Guybrush is throughout—and it is terrific to hear Dominic Armato back in the role—there’s a certain melancholy to his return. It’s nostalgic and tackles the same notions of ‘greatness versus simplicity’ that Nathan Drake’s last chapter did.

It’d serve nobody to delve into the game’s story beats or puzzles, but I do believe Return to Monkey Island, as a direct result of Gilbert’s wit and creativity, is absolutely a worthy successor to LeChuck’s Revenge. With that said, Return to Monkey Island—as its predecessor did—ends rather abruptly and dramatically. It, too, is oddly open to interpretation, I can see it creating a gulf in the fan base although I quite liked the contemplative nature of the closing moments.

Return to Monkey Island very much follows the blueprint of past games, it’s a charming point-and-click puzzler that’ll do plenty to challenge even the most lateral of thinkers. I don’t believe there’s anything quite as obscure as the infamous “monkey wrench” quandary, but it can demand a bit of out of the box thinking. One thing in Return to Monkey Island that really impressed me was how accessible they sought to make it.

There’s a casual mode that delivers simpler puzzle paths, as well as a slightly harder option that’ll add an extra step to most tasks. On top of this, Terrible Toybox introduced an elegant hint system unlike anything I’ve seen in the genre. Presented through a magical tome whose pages hold all of the answers, it’s sure to negate the need of seeking out Neoseeker. There’s no limit to its use, so you could spam it breeze through the game’s brain teasers comfortably. I feel as though Return to Monkey Island’s casual difficulty still feels rewarding while respecting your time, so opt for that if the regular game seems taxing.

Although I’d be curious to know how the handheld version of Return to Monkey Island plays, for the purpose of this critique I made my way through the adventure on PC. It’s in the name, point-and-click games are at home on keyboard and mouse and this legacy sequel is no different. Navigating inventories is quick and efficient, as is moving Threepwood from scene to scene, there’s something quaint about how simple and uncomplicated these games can feel for the player, even if there’s a lot going on with the back end.

There’s so much fan service packed into Return to Monkey Island. As soon as the merry and all-too-familiar theme accompanies the title card, I felt a merriment that had me floating buoyantly like a cloud. And although the new faces of Melee Island and the surrounding high seas serve their purpose, much of the game’s nostalgia is built on the back of the plentiful cameos from the likes of eccentric salesman Stan S. Stanman and Murray, the disembodied skull. The game’s open world is littered with trivia cards that, once collected, grant the player a chance at a question that plumbs the depths of Monkey Island lore—a fun distraction, to say the least.

The main source of negativity I expect to hear surrounding Return to Monkey Island is the grand departure in terms of its art direction. While it’s far from conventional and a far cry from the game’s iconic pixel art beginnings, I found that the colourful palette and charming animation quickly endeared itself to me. It won’t be for everybody, but I think a cartoonish front is apt for a game full of such hijinx and buffoonery.

Return to Monkey Island is a refreshing return for one of the medium’s most storied franchises. It’s a rich adventure, steeped in nostalgic whimsy that’s matched by a cute art direction that’s silly and charming and all things in between. I particularly loved how Gilbert and the team innovated on genre norms, introducing something as novel as an integrated hint system.

The post Return To Monkey Island Review – A Nostalgic Swashbuckling Caper appeared first on Press Start.

I don’t think I’m alone in being more conscious of time these days. These past couple of years haven’t been our collective best, a daily reminder that very little can be taken for granted. Likewise, we have witnessed our national healthcare system pushed to the limit and then some, another unavoidable example of who we are and what we stand to lose. What this nationwide freefall has left me with is a keen awareness of time and the indispensable nature of human kindness. Wayward Strand is a game that fundamentally understands this too. The ways we use and waste time, the passage of it, the warmth of memory and the pain of an old wound. It achieves this vision while being earnestly Australian too, with a familiar vibe that encompasses this simple but effective narrative experience.  

Wayward Strand sees you fill the shoes of Casey Beaumaris, a young teenager trying to make the most of her school holidays in the summer of 1978, Australia. Bored and restless, Casey has thrown herself into her writing and is looking to pen the ultimate expose for the school paper. Her subject is the magnificent airborne hospital that floats gently above the red earth, filling the blue skies with its lavish and omnipresent design. Joining her mother for the long weekend aboard the ship, Casey must use the three days to both investigate the ship and try to help the elderly patients who occupy its aesthetically rich halls.

Melbourne based developers Ghost Pattern have been open about the intentional limitations of Wayward Strand’s narrative design. Aboard the ship are over a dozen folks to interact with, but as Casey’s three days march forward, she won’t have time to discover everyone’s stories. The game wants you to make choices and make your peace with what you may miss, a built-in hook for replayability and a nice mechanical riff on the game’s thesis on time itself. To help you keep track of all these threads, Casey comes equipped with a journal for noting routine times, locations and points of interest. You can also be quickly directed toward a resident by clicking on their portrait in the journal and following an arrow.

Guiding Casey through the ship is a smooth experience, requiring no more than basic inputs to move about and interact with the game’s many friendly faces. Using simple arrows at the bottom of the screen, Casey will either walk or jog left or right, stopping to allow contextual options like going up or down stairs, entering a patient’s room or talking to a passerby. Casey can also be a bit of a snoop, hiding behind walls to eavesdrop on conversations and overhear clues or hints as to where to go next. It’s all very open, a freeform experience that allows the player to dictate their own path and pace.

Once you’ve chosen who you’d like to spend some precious time with, Casey enters into a charming conversation wheel system with them. Baseline options usually allow you to start a chat with branching dialogue, have a bit of a nosey around their belongings, leave or simply sit a while and allow the air to settle. Which of these you lean toward will vary based on the person you’re trying to talk with. Some patients prefer a slower-paced conversation, the silence you leave allowing them to bring up topics of their own choosing. Others will gleefully answer your questions, even if it’s with polite bemusement. Others still will tell you to bugger off if they’re too tired.

Wayward Strand does a terrific job of situating you in Casey’s reality thanks to its writing. Every single one of the people you can meet on the good ship feels unique and fully realised. By the end of my first day onboard I had already fallen in love with the kindly, slow talking Mr. Pruess, and promptly decided to walk the other way when Esther Fitzgerald would be moseying down the hall. You’ll undoubtedly find your own favourites, your own stories and worlds that appeal to you and make you compelled to spend your time in your own manner. The collision of the game’s Australian nature and its gorgeous writing results in a feeling not too dissimilar to visiting your grandparents when you were a child. A luxury so few of us have these days.

The writing is in turn elevated by Wayward Strand’s amazing cast of voice actors who bring their respective quirky characters to life. Nancy Curtis plays Casey with pitch-perfect youthful earnestness, a layered portrait of a young woman confused, intrigued and frustrated by the world around her. Elsewhere a litany of Australian stars grace the halls, including familiar faces from iconic shows such as Neighbours, Blue Heelers and more. All of these performances go a long way to realising Wayward Strand’s unique Aussie world, a place that manages to capture the light, and grit, of people just trying their best.

Wayward Strand is also obviously a game with things on its mind. The heightened reality of its airborne hospital is something of a cosy trap. A warm and vaguely familiar glow obscures some deeply meditative words on medicine as a system, the power of people, war, and of course, death. Ghost Pattern’s public decrying of crunch culture in game development feels of a piece with the commentary in the game. A definitive and gently amusing riff on how certain systems can steamroll good people and the damage caused in turn. It never shies away from the harsher truths of the human condition but is always ready to offer a shoulder when it all feels a bit overwhelming.  

While the game is a visual delight and a moving meditation on emotional subjects, it can sometimes waver in its ability to grasp the player. Wayward Strand is a strikingly slow experience in ways I often adored but its pacing being player-driven can lead to some slumps. The inability to save is the real killer here, as the game only autosaves after the completion of a full day at the hospital, approximately an hour and a half in real time. I can appreciate that this is done to avoid save scumming the narrative but in practice, it can lead to some tiring pushes or even lost progress.  

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2017’s Splatoon 2 was a pivotal moment for one of Nintendo’s newest IP. Where the first game was a strong proof-of-concept with a dedicated player base, the hit sequel doubled down on everything that made the first game so great, with an excellent campaign and wave-based survival mode to boot.

If Splatoon 2 was the franchise finding its footing and evolving the core concept, Splatoon 3 is a more iterative and focused entry into the series. Opting to refine and hone the elements introduced in 2 to a fine polish. The end result is a game that isn’t the same radical step forward as its predecessor, yet delivers the most addictive and refined splatting experience thus far.

Splatoon 2’s campaign was arguably the best new inclusion in comparison to the first game, with laser-focused level design that introduces new mechanics and ideas and tossing them away before they get boring. The trend was continued and further bolstered by the Octo Expansion, so it only makes sense that Splatoon 3 would set out to reach similar heights with its own single-player experience – Return of the Mammalians.

Return of the Mammalians is an engaging hybrid of Splatoon 2’s campaign, and the Octo Expansion. Short and sweet levels that push the core idea of Splatoon to its limits, and it does so with resounding success. After creating your Inkling or Octoling who’s brand new to the Splatlands, you’ll find yourself lost in a world called Alterna, as you seek out Splatsville’s kidnapped Great Zapfish.

Things aren’t as they should be, though, the Octarians have returned, mutated with brown fur and purple eyes. Fuzzy Ooze coats the landscape of Alterna, and it falls to you, Agent 3, to find out the truth behind Alterna and the rampant fuzz. The truth is slowly revealed as you progress through the six zones of Alterna, unlocking logs that slowly peel back the layers that shroud the truth.

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It’s a relatively straightforward and simple narrative with an endearing cast of new and old characters. What was most surprising to me came in the form of the Alterna Logs, which are deciphered as you complete levels in each zone. Without spoiling too much, I suspect that hardcore Splatoon fans will get a real kick out of what’s explored in these, and clearing each zone was made more exciting by the prospect of new information.

In gameplay, Alterna serves as a sort of hub world for the numerous levels you’ll play across the 5-6 hour campaign. Much like the Octo Expansion, a vast majority of these levels can be completed in any order, and are optional, meaning if a level is proving to be too difficult, you can move forward onto something else. This coupled with the ability to pick from different weapon types at the beginning of each level, means that there’s a degree of flexibility and player choice present within Return of the Mammalians only found in Octo Expansion.

To make up for the non-linear nature of Return of the Mammalians, progression is gated by Fuzzy Ooze that can only be cleared by using a required amount of Power Eggs gained from clearing levels and defeated enemies. This means you’ll have to make smart decisions on what patches of Fuzzy Ooze you want to clear if you want to streamline progression, or look for secrets hidden throughout Alterna. These secrets range from collectibles to items you can use to unlock new skills and abilities to bolster your arsenal in future levels. Things like increasing your ink capacity, movement speed, and more. It adds an extra wrinkle and element of exploration to the hub world that would otherwise simply serve as a place to be as you move between levels.

Much like previous entries there’s a strong focus on levels that are unique and distinct from one another, each one focusing on an idea that’s pushed to its extreme and tossed away before it can get boring. It makes for a tightly paced and constantly creative experience that’s punctuated by engaging puzzle-like boss fights.

With the Splatlands being so separated from the rest of squid-kind, all kinds of tools and weapons have been developed. From the brand new melee weapon, the Splatana Wiper that excels at close range, to the Tri-Stringer which effectively functions as a bow with explosive arrows filled with paint. This doesn’t even scratch the service as there’s also a slew of new Specials including the mobile Crab Tank, and the ink-slinging Zipcaster.

You’re also accompanied by Smallfry, a small salmonid that helps you on your adventures in Alterna. Smallfry can be used to deal damage to enemies, solve puzzles, clear Fuzzy Ooze, and more. It’s a novel concept that feels underutilized for a vast majority of the levels, and only reveals its true potential in the last hour or so. There’s also the Squid Surge and Squid Roll, two movement abilities that encourage you to stay mobile both in multiplayer and throughout Alterna.

Those who’ve played previous entries will feel right at home with Splatoon 3’s suite of multiplayer offerings. Turf War makes a triumphant return with fantastic new and old maps that are ripe for opportunities to use the new movement mechanics, and all other game modes from Splatoon 2 are also reprised here. Although this is a relatively feature complete, and content-rich multiplayer mode, it’s a bit strange that there’s no new game modes present at release, aside from the inclusion of a reworked ranked mode in the form of Anarchy Battles.

Splatfests also make a return, but come with a rework that freshens up their overall pace and how they function. Splatfests are now split into three teams to choose from, with each battle consisting of 2 halves. The first of which is a 4v4 Turf War, and the second half is a tri-color Turf War, where the 2 losing teams are put up against the winning team as they desperately try to defend their previous victory. It’s a truly hectic and well-rounded experience that stands out even further from the core playlist of game modes, even if it’s sometimes tricky to keep track of.

As always, you can customize the look of your Inkling/Octoling with clothes you can buy and unlock as you play the game. Each one has a small set of skills that enhance certain abilities, incentivizing smart build crafting to suit your playstyle. One new inclusion is the ability to create loadouts for your clothing, making way for an easy method to swap between different kits. You can even visit the returning Murch, to configure abilities even further, making sure that you look stylish first and foremost with abilities that still work for you in combat.

Weapon loadouts are unfortunately no different from previous games, where you’re locked into a certain Special Weapon and Sub Weapon depending on your primary weapon of choice. It’s frustrating to be forced to use a particular Sub Weapon or Special Weapon because you gravitate towards a particular gun. There are multiple variations of core weapon types, meaning there is some flexibility, but the ability to build it all out from scratch is still sorely lacking here.

Salmon Run returns in the form of Salmon Run Next Wave, and is now a permanent part of Splatoon 3, meaning players can jump into the wave-based survival mode at any time. It still invokes the same sense of chaos with 4 players frantically scrambling to deliver enough golden eggs before your shift is up. With the same core gameplay loop and some great new inclusions that really improve the experience, Salmon Run Next Wave is a standout game mode in Splatoon 3.

For starters there’s a bunch of new boss Salmonids to contend with, all of which require unique strategies to take down. The Flipper-Flopper, for example, is a dolphin that’ll dive in and out of ink, leaving a small circle of ink on the ground for each new diving spot. Inking the circle will  leave the Flipper-Flopper smashing head first into the floor, exposing it to damage. The amount of boss Salmonids thrown at you ensure that you work with your teammates, and stay ever-flexible on the job.

Another small improvement is the ability to throw the all important Golden Eggs, streamlining the experience that little bit further in a great way. You’ll also occasionally come across an extra wave of work where King Salmonid Cohozuna will take to the battlefield, serving as a thrilling final boss fight of sorts before returning to Splatsville. It’s also been announced that there’s going to be Big Run events, where Salmonids overrun Splatsville and need to be fought back. While these are set to happen every few months, we didn’t get to experience it during the review window, but I have no doubt that they’ll be looked forward to in the way Splatfests are.

Between game modes, you can spend time exploring Splatsville, messing around with guns in the lobby/Grizzco Break Room, or play Table Turf Battle, an all new card game introduced in Splatoon 3. While not super in-depth, Table Turf Battle is a fun little distraction to play when you need a break from all the splatting.  It plays like a table top version of Turf War, where you use cards to take squares on a board. Whoever has the most turf and the end of the game, wins. You’ll collect card packs as you play that’ll expand your deck further, making for a nice extra layer of progression on top of all the multiplayer stuff.

I’m always shocked out how Nintendo are able to wring out every drop of power from the Switch to create a game that both looks and runs beautifully. Splatoon 3 is a real showcase for the OLED, with all the bright neon paint splattered over the terrain and high quality particle effects on show here. That isn’t to say that the game struggles when docked, because it’s similarly remarkable with rock solid performance across all modes. It’s a slick and smooth experience from start to finish, and one so visually appealing that it’s simply too hard to take your eyes off of.

The post Splatoon 3 Review – A Splattin’ Good Time appeared first on Press Start.

It’s been a long time since mascot platformers dominated the gaming landscape. 20 years ago when the original Pac-Man World was released platform games were king of home consoles, and the king of arcades wanted in on that action. For better and for worse, playing Pac-Man World RePac took me right back to my weekends playing random platformers I rented from the video shop on my PlayStation back then. I

t feels dated in level design and general gameplay but as someone who enjoyed games like these growing up I definitely developed a soft spot for the way it so faithfully recreated a style of game that isn’t much in fashion anymore.

RePac opens with Pac Man returning home to a party in his honour, only to find that his entire cast of family and friends have gone missing. So begins our spherical hero’s quest across a bunch of themed platforming worlds to collect letters, waka-waka some pellets and defeat the forces of Toc-Man to save his friends. It’s not exactly an inventive story, but it only really ever intends to be set dressing for the main focus of the kid-friendly platforming so I won’t hold it to too high a standard.

The platform gameplay on offer feels pretty ancient, which makes perfect sense when you consider the original game that forms the mechanical basis for this one is over 20 years old. The platform game was on top of the world, but was still very much designed the way it had been in the 2D age – just with some extra depth to play with.

Pac-Man World RePac faithfully recreates these old worlds with a layer of modern paint, without changing the way it plays in any significant way. You’ll need to play through a series of mostly side scrolling levels, maneuvering your way to the end of the level using Pac-Man’s jumps, butt bounces and charge moves, dodging or dispatching of enemies to progress. A range of optional collectibles add a fun and necessary twist to the otherwise pretty dull A to B.

Collecting fruit adds to your score and can unlock some doors, finding floating letters to spell P-A-C-M-A-N unlocks a bonus round after the level, and you can even find special classic style Pac-Man mazes which give some extra variety to play. Collecting all of these things will require some back tracking to doors that are now unlocked. None of it feels particularly interesting, but I will admit that it tickled the collector in me. Knowing there’s an A sitting somewhere in the level that I’ve missed was enough to make me want to explore every crevice of the levels to find it even if it felt like a cheap way to extend your time in a level sometimes.

Boss levels add some welcome variety to proceedings, as well. It’s a relic of the past where games seemed to pack in seemingly random gameplay one-offs but much appreciated here. Cute touches like a Galaxian-esque shooter boss and a grand prix kart race against a line-up of circus clowns are surprisingly fun. Fleshed out just enough to be fun for their quick one-time levels, they make for a nice break from the regular platforming levels.

While the game plays very much like the PlayStation original did, the presentational overhaul makes a huge difference for the game and brings it much closer to modern expectations. Everything is presented in lovely high resolution graphics, environment and character models completely overhauled while staying mostly faithful to the original game. Visual design stays pretty similar as well and as a result looks really nice at times (the beach area comes to mind) but can be horribly garish at others like the Funhouse area. I found the funhouse maze levels particularly bad, the garish colours and unclear design made it difficult to see what was a maze wall and what wasn’t.

Music too has been fully re-created and for better and worse is fully based on the original compositions. Expect some very short repetitive loops that will, if you’re anything like me, slowly drive you batty.

The PS5 version if this game was played for the purpose of this review.

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How interactive does a video game need to be, to be considered a video game? That’s a loaded and probably completely unnecessary question, with an answer that probably lies somewhere between “who cares?” and “anything can be a video game” but it’s one that found itself curled up in the noodles of my brain during the entirety of We Are OFK. Helmed by Teddy Dief of Hyper Light Drifter fame, We Are OFK is an episodic narrative that shines as a cross-media, interactive animated series and pop EP but might be a touch too passive for those looking for the traditional notion of a game.

We Are OFK is a largely an origin story, one that chronicles the coming-together of four friends, old and new, amongst the cutthroat Los Angeles scene to produce the EP of their dreams. It’s essentially a music biopic that simultaneously launches the virtual musicians that it depicts, while also acting as a self-contained slice-of-life story of friendships, relationships, grief, love and trauma in a modern setting. Releasing episodically over four weeks, it’s a roughly five-hour narrative experience presented through gorgeous, stylised visuals and choice-driven dialogue.

If it reads like I’m skirting around a lot of what actually happens in We Are OFK, I am. Not least because the game is releasing on an episodic schedule with only the first two episodes available this week, so there’s a lot I’d be loath to spoil. More than that though, it’s less the broad strokes of the game’s slow burn of a narrative that are noteworthy and more how it’s all put together. The core beats of OFK’s band origin story aren’t new or surprising by any stretch, but they’re presented through some incredibly snappy and natural-feeling dialogue and convincing character writing. Itsumi and co. come across perfectly as young creatives navigating their goals and relationships in LA, whether it’s in-person or through the game’s frequent text message conversations (finally, a game that accurately portrays the overwhelmingly large percentage of my interactions being in text form). 

We Are OFK’s writers have also done a bang-up job of portraying the same creative industries that birthed the game itself and how they fit within the societal and cultural positions of its characters, whether it’s Itsu’s run-ins with burnout and discrimination at the Riot-esque Leviathan or Jey’s inner conflicts between her parents approval and her creative freedom. It’s also unflinchingly queer in a way that feels genuine and a product of a diverse team. After rolling the credits on the fifth and final episode I came away unsurprised with its conclusion but absolutely hungry for more of OFK themselves. All throughout I couldn’t help thinking that this could very well work as an ongoing project, a Gorillaz moment for the video game world, where musical output is buoyed by visual art and thematic context in a way that wouldn’t otherwise exist. I don’t think it’ll happen, but I’d love to see it.

Of course, given its musical stylings it’s no surprise that the audio experience in We Are OFK is fantastic. For starters, the voice cast do a fantastic job across the board at delivering the already-well written dialogue, and LA musician omniboi kills it with the game’s broad musical score. Most importantly though, the five-track EP from the titular OFK that the game serves as a basis for absolutely slaps. Even if you’ve no desire to play or watch someone play the game itself, there’s no reason you shouldn’t jump on your favourite music streaming service and give these tracks a listen. Follow/Unfollow has been doing the rounds for a while now, but I’ve been (impatiently) waiting since finishing all five episodes for the releases of Fool’s Gold and Infuriata – those are both going straight into regular rotation.

As much as We Are OFK excels in its storytelling and presentation though, I’m not entirely convinced of how it interacts with its players. Or rather, how much interaction it gives players. The game asks that you keep your controller in hand throughout but gives you little more to do with it than occasionally press a button to advance a scene or make semi-frequent dialogue choices. The latter definitely adds to the experience thanks to the strong writing, but also rarely has any major bearing on how everything plays out. 

I’ve no business trying to define how much or how little direct engagement a video game should have with its players, especially in something that is billed front-and-centre as an “interactive EP” before it’s a game, but I couldn’t shake the feeling during my time with it that I’d have much preferred the option to simply watch it play out. It feels as though the interactive aspects don’t add enough to the overall experience to justify its method of delivery. It’s exactly the kind of gorgeous, contemplative slice-of-life story and audiovisual aesthetic that I’d love to lay back and zone out to, but I can’t, because I have to make sure I’m ready to press X whenever Itsumi gets a text message.

There are some more “game-y” bits, to be fair. A couple of neat interactive portions that riff heavily on classic text adventures and JRPGs are a particular highlight, and then there are the music videos for OFK’s five-track EP that feature across each episode. These playable sequences don’t really ask a lot and feel more like digital toys than any sort of gameplay challenge, but that idea fits nicely with the overall vibe of the game and makes the best case for We Are OFK’s blending of mediums. Interactive music videos are a neat idea in general, as is launching a virtual band through a tactile platform, even if this particular go of it feels at odds with the environment it’s positioned in. It feels simultaneously bigger and smaller than the home video game console ecosystem, especially as a musical project that could genuinely stand on its own.

The post We Are OFK Review – A Band In Hope appeared first on Press Start.

Massive Monster’s Cult of the Lamb has all the makings to emerge as the Death’s Door of this year. It has an anthropomorphic animal lead and dynamite combat that, in a lot of ways, feels like an homage of sorts to a title of old. But Cult of the Lamb also feels like a game of two very distinct halves, and they’re halves that are exceptional individually but never seemed to complement each other throughout twelve wholly enjoyable hours of preaching and plying my trade as a false idol to an impressionable flock.

Cult of the Lamb casts you as the titular lamb, sacrificed by bishops of an old, ancient faith in an effort to thwart a tired prophecy that told of a woollen warrior that might overturn the status quo and free the grim spectre known as “The One Who Waits” from his exile. In exchange for a second chance at life, you must build a cult in his name and crusade against countless eldritch nightmares and rival cults. Cult of the Lamb divides your time pretty much straight down the middle between crawling through dank dungeons and tending to your twisted settlement, which really is like a cute Animal Crossing village plagued by shit, sickness, and ritual sacrifice.

I’m not one to gravitate toward the micromanagement of erecting a settlement and pandering to the every need of your devoted followers, but Cult of the Lamb keeps things engaging and chugging forward by tying everything under together under the guise of a Midsommar-like murder cult full of woodland critters. With the flock at your disposal, often monotonous busywork, like gardening and custodial services, can be streamlined through delegation, leaving you to focus on the more enjoyable things on offer.

Whether you’re putting the finishing touches on your temple, or declaring doctrines to help you further exploit the cult’s devotees, Cult of the Lamb’s upgrade paths and economies are all accessible and straightforward—though they’re all driven by maintaining the faith of your flock. If their belief in you wavers, it could be a bit of a slog to see all of the game’s more imaginative rituals—which range from Pagan bonfires and group psychedelic trips to marriage and a barbaric bloodsport that sees followers battle to the death—unless you’re a merciful idol.

Your gathered resources aside, managing your flock and the moral decisions made don’t ever really seem to have an impact on your holy crusade. It really does, at times, feel like two separate games.

Not only does Cult of the Lamb borrow its cutesy juxtaposition of sweet and savagery from The Binding of Isaac, much of its roguelike combat feels inspired by it too. While Binding of Isaac is for all intents and purposes a shooter, Cult of the Lamb feels more like Death’s Door or Hollow Knight, opting for an up close and personal brand of combat that emphasises timing and dodging. It’s tight and well-crafted, it’s hard to fault the game’s grittier portion. Similar to Inscryption, you carve out a path through four or five levels, opting for either physical challenges or levels that might offer a cache of resources or even a would-be follower in need of rescuing.

Each crusade begins with a random weapon and curse—a supernatural secondary fire that often deals area of effect damage. Throughout a run you’ll pick up tarot cards that buff your lamb’s powers, which further emphasises the game’s roguelike prowess and keeps each crusade feeling relatively fresh. Cult of the Lamb has four distinct areas, each with its own theme, safeguarded by a pious bishop. Before you meet them, you’ll need to run any given area four times and leave all heretics in your wake.

The side content is ultimately limited by the game’s indie sensibilities. With only a couple of worthwhile extracurricular activities in fishing and Knucklebones—a surprisingly riveting game of chance—it doesn’t always seem worthwhile veering from the main path to venture out and spelunk Midas’ golden caves or trudge through the mushroom grotto. With plenty to unlock, including gaudy decorations for your village and wearable fleeces that toggle modifiers, the game does a fine job to encourage replayability. My village is full of flower arches, all that’s missing is Florence Pugh’s triumphant grin in the face of death.

Cult of the Lamb’s art direction is certainly one of its great triumphs. It’s so bright and exuberant, delivering the same blinding brand of daylight horror as seen in Ari Aster’s subversive film. Of course, it’s even more disarming to see a cute bunny sacrificed to the gods, but that’s what is so clever and memorable about Cult of the Lamb. The game’s world is presented almost like a pop-up book, it really is a sickly sweet diorama of hand-crafted critters. While it can be ethereal and moody when required, River Boy’s score can be a bit of a bop.

The theme for “Knucklebones” is an earworm. Despite there only being four adversaries, I couldn’t help returning from time to time to toss them bones and jam along to a tune that’s Darren Korb-like—which I feel is decent praise given his body of work.

Ultimately, I think Cult of the Lamb is a great example of flipping the power fantasy concept on its head, framing that thrilling pursuit of all-conquering omnipotence through the eyes of a once-hapless lamb is a stroke of genius. The dissonance I felt between its colony simulation and dungeon-crawling halves is unfortunate, though it doesn’t keep said halves from being brilliant in their own right. You’re getting an exceptional roguelike hack-and-slasher and an adorably dark and dramatic settlement-builder that will test your moral compass more than once.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW

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Two Point Studios made a name for itself when it came careening into the emergency ward with 2018’s Two Point Hospital. That game did incredibly well by recapturing sim fans’ love for the Theme Hospitals of old while injecting its own prescription dosage of charm with tongue-in-cheek humour and making things super-accessible for curious newcomers. Now comes Two Point Campus, a follow-up effort with an entirely new hook that puts players in the virtual shoes of an omnipotent university administrator with a goal of offering the finest and highest education that money can buy. And hopefully that’s a lot of money.

If you’ve played a management sim game in the vein of Theme Park or Planet Zoo or certainly Two Point Hospital, you’ll pretty much know the score here. It’s your job to take the bare bones of a functioning campus and grow it into something spectacular via careful management of your space, your staff, your incoming and outgoing funds and most importantly your students. Where this game differs from a lot of what’s out there is that last bit – the students. Rather than paying customers frequenting your park/zoo/hospital, these people are here for a good time and a long time. Retaining them, catering to their base needs and ensuring they have the support to score high marks is key to getting the best financial return and increasing the prestige of your school to attract even more new students.

It’s this new twist on the management sim formula that’s the most interesting and compelling part of Two Point Campus. On a surface level it’s all relatively simple and accessible but, as you’ll grow to learn throughout its dozen or so campaign levels that throw in all manner of unique twists, spinning the right plates at the right time takes a particularly humanistic approach. Yes, your campus needs to look good and you need to be turning a regular profit, but if you’re not properly taking care of your student body and campus faculty you’re going to wind up fighting an incredibly uphill battle. Creating spaces for people to live, to relax, to seek support and to socialise is just as important as creating ones to learn but as we all know full well there’s little money to be made in looking after people. So what you end up with is a very tight balance between your reputation, your results and your coffers, and it’s an intoxicating challenge if there ever was one.

The best place to start in Two Point Campus is in its campaign, which takes you across a spread of bespoke scenarios in which you’ll take over established or semi-established campuses with their own hurdles or idiosyncrasies to navigate. The first few are basic enough and mostly there to show you the ropes, but eventually you’ll be doing things like helping rebuild a copyright-skirting wizard school after it’s been attacked by an angry witch, trying to strike rich at an archaeological campus built amongst ancient ruins or selling your students’ souls to a creepy orb-obsessed cult at an arts school that otherwise doesn’t charge tuition fees. It’s a great mix that’ll see you spend at least 10-12 hours just bringing your campuses up to a one-star rating with plenty to do and improve beyond that.

Once you’re done with being gently told what to do in the campaign, you can also delve into the game’s Sandbox mode which comes complete with multiple ways to play. You’re able to fire up a standard-difficulty game on any map of your choosing, challenge yourself to a harder mode with fewer starting resources, customise your own difficulty or just go for broke in a creative mode with everything open and free for the taking. Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any ties to your campaign progress in terms of which maps you have access to, you’ll just need to re-unlock any in-game items or research per map. As fun as the campaign is, Sandbox is a great way to give yourself room to really sink your teeth into the nitty-gritty of campus management without being semi-directed by level goals. There’s a lot to get into and tweak beneath the surface level so hardcore sim fans should get a lot out of the game in the long term.

If it wasn’t already obvious, part of Two Point Campus’ appeal is its tongue-in-cheek approach to its subject matter and general air of silliness. With course offerings like Knighthood, Virtual Normality and something called “Money Wangling” this is far from serious stuff, and the background noise of Two Point Radio serving up nonsense talkback and irreverent advertising further drives the point home. Best of all, the flippancy of its attitude towards any degree of success means that even the most dire situations you’ll find yourself in are routinely hilarious. Case in point, the time that I blew all of my reserve funds on decorating my campus before the school year (and thus, tuition income) had even started. That resulted in me falling so far behind that I wound up selling my school’s fancy fountain to pay for a start-of-the-year student party, which I used to keep everyone occupied while I quickly spent their fees on my unfinished lecture halls.

For all the good that Two Point Campus does I do have some reservations. For a wacky game about the joys of higher education there are relatively few antics to witness. Students from rival schools will occasionally “invade” your campus until your staff run them out, and your own flock are prone to the odd sweeping craze, but it’s all pretty tame. There’s also a notable lack of fanfare for anyone’s individual achievements bar a basic slideshow that plays after each school year.

More genuinely frustrating were a bunch of issues that plagued my time with the game on a PlayStation 5. The control layout itself is mostly okay, an achievement in itself given the very controller-unfriendly genre, but there are a few specific menus and situations where things become finicky or too easy to mess up – especially when building rooms. Worse than that were a host of bugs that brought the experience down, things like inputs not responding or menus getting stuck to the screen, and an especially annoying issue where items I placed would report their positions as invalid until I picked them up and set them down again in the exact same spot. Hopefully these things are ironed out either at launch or shortly after, though.

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Xenoblade Chronicles has been on a bit of a roll on Switch. The Wii and Wii U somewhat limited the audience for the series in the past, but Switch being the sales behemoth it is has helped propel Xenoblade to a much wider audience. I enjoyed Chronicles 2, but truly fell in love with the series with Xenoblade Chronicles Remastered. It’s expansive worlds, light-hearted characters and engaging combat mechanics hooked me for the long haul. While I don’t think it quite hits the highs of XC Remastered for me, Monolith Soft’s third game on Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (XC3) is another fantastic action RPG romp.

First things first – the story in XC3 is way darker in tone than I expected. While the series has never shied from conflict, XC3 shows us a world locked in a never-ending war. People are born to fight as young adults, and either die in battle or reach ten years of life and expire. The two sides of the conflict are each split up into various colonies, each fighting to kill as many of the other side as possible to fill their Flame Clock. This in turn determines their rank among other colonies and the kinds of support, resources and food they’ll recieve from higher-ups. Something seems off about this situation immediately, and the story really begins with our characters questioning this status quo. It’s a compelling premise, and one that kept me wanting to play to find out where the story will go next.

For me at least, the characters in a Xenoblade Chronicles game are a huge factor in whether I enjoy the game overall. Given the more serious tone of the story then, it maybe makes sense that the characters you’ll accompany on your journey are themselves a little less easy-going than you might be used to from other entries. I found myself missing the happy-go-lucky mindset of Shulk and pals, but Noah, Mio and the rest of your crew in XC3 do develop interesting relationships over time. It’s just a bit more of a slow burn.

Much like the story and characters, the visuals of XC3 are probably a bit gloomier than you might expect from the series. There are patches of light and colour to be found but a huge amount of your time will be spent in grey battlefields and brown deserts. It’s missing a certain liveliness that I missed from previous entries. Technically though, XC3 still looks fantastic. Character models are sharp and detailed, well animated (including lip sync for the English voice track which is nice!) and battles are as flashy as ever. Resolution takes a noticeable hit in handheld mode with everything becoming visibly blurry, especially as things move further from the camera. It’s not a huge hassle and in fact I played most of the game handheld – but it’s an issue the series has had all along on Switch and still a bit of a shame the system can’t keep up with the scale of world XC3 wants to present without lowered detail.

You’ll mostly be spending your time in XC3’s world doing two main things – exploring and fighting. The world to explore is suitably massive, and exploration is rewarded with items, special enemy encounters and side quests. The game gives you a line to follow if you want to go straight to the next story objective, but I always found myself exploring to find cool new items and enemies to fight – a sign of an engaging world in my opinion. The combat system will be familiar to anyone who has played a Xenoblade Chronicles game before, but has it’s own flavour to differentiate itself from the rest of the series.

You have six core party members to assign classes and equip with accessories, skills and special moves. On top of those you will often have a seventh party member that can be dictated by the story situation or sometimes freely changeable. Classes are split into Attackers, Defenders and Healers which broadly decides their role in battle – however there are so many different classes within each of these roles that you’ll find countless ways to customise your team to fit your preference, playstyle or situation. During battle you directly control one party member, while the rest are competently controlled by the game’s AI. Depending on the role you control you might need to focus on positioning for maximum damage, drawing attention away from your attackers or healing your team when they need it. The scope for building your team is immense, and being able to play any of these roles means you get heaps of variety if you want it in battles. Big damage comes from using certain attack types in order (for example Break, Topple then Daze) and the AI companions are smart enough to participate in these combos when the time is right.

Combat gets even more interesting the further you progress in the game. Giving away as little story as I’m able, characters are able to fuse together temporarily into strange, Evangelion-looking forms to use more powerful moves without a cooldown timer. This form has it’s own skill tree which can be customised as you progress. There are also Chain Attacks which are crucial to doing massive damage to bosses. In this attack your characters take turns to perform actions which build up a tactics meter, do this smartly and you can keep attacking over and over to rack up huge damage and even further special attacks. It’s a combat system with a lot of complex moving parts, but the game is good at explaining it’s systems and giving you opportunities to confirm your understanding through training drills. It’s a great combat system that looks super slick and is great fun to play with.

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Simply put, you haven’t played a game like Live A Live, though you might have played some games that have inspired it. Initially released for the Super Nintendo in 1994, almost thirty years ago, the game never made it outside Japan. To make matters worse, it was met with poor commercial performance upon its original release. Now, Square Enix has committed to bringing the game to a more expansive and modern audience. While it plays almost exactly as it did nearly three decades ago, Live A Live is still just as an inventive RPG as it was.

Acting as a sort of spiritual predecessor to Octopath Traveler, Live A Live has you taking on the role of eight different characters throughout key time periods. Each narrative has the same underlying mechanics – including a turn-based battle system and an equipment system you’d find in any other RPG. It’s where the scenarios differ that makes Live A Live truly special. Octopath more or less had you playing the same game from eight different perspectives. On the other hand, Live A Live has such variation in each of its scenarios that sometimes each feels like a different game.

These differences can be pretty stark. The present-day chapter is relatively short and consists entirely of battles as a fighter embarks on a quest to become the best fighter in the world. The prehistory chapter has you playing as a caveman who saves a girl from ritual sacrifice – but is told entirely through animations and emoticons as there was no speech during those times. The far future has you playing a support bot with no battles while channeling games like Alien Isolation. These aren’t all the scenarios you’ll encounter in Live A Live, but it gives an idea of the breadth of experiences you’ll be treated to when you play it and even better, none of them outstay their welcome.

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The battle system is shared between them all. It’s a turn-based system that’s fought on a 7×7 grid. Characters can move freely and attack with unique abilities without worrying about MP. To balance this, certain moves take longer to charge. Even moving a square will let your opponents grow closer to attacking, so while there is a degree of freedom in how you move, some thought must be put into how you approach each battle. The usual bells and whistles of an RPG are here, too – new abilities are (mostly) learned by levelling up, and items can be equipped to buff yourself or to heal. I’d have loved to have some kind of fast-forward function to assist grinders in speeding up the animations of attacks, but otherwise, it’s a unique battle system that carves out its own niche against its contemporaries.

The difference with Live A Live, compared to other RPGs, is that it feels like a game where the story comes first. The entire game being an RPG feels like a bit of an afterthought – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean that in Live A Live, most battles matter. They are integral to telling the story the game wants to tell, and when you have to grind (which isn’t very often, if ever), these moments are well justified with the story. It’s a weird thing to appreciate, but it does mean that Live A Live doesn’t bog you down with unnecessary filler that many RPGs do. It’s keen to be short if the narrative justifies it, and it’s why I think it’s one of the most unique RPGs to come out of Square Enix in a long time.

Of course, much like with Octopath Traveler, you might be disappointed to hear that there’s not a lot of interactions between the leaders of each chapter in Live A Live. This time around, it makes sense – these characters are all playing in their own respective timelines – but the way it all comes together makes Live A Live really special. Throughout each chapter, the game feeds you a trail of breadcrumbs to hint at how these things come together later. I won’t ruin it here (though you could quickly look it up, given this game is from so long ago), but it is incredibly satisfying.

As a remake, Live A Live does its best to stay true to the original game, for better or worse. A lot of the game remains the same – though a new minimap directs you where to go next if you’re completely lost. The internal logic and flow of the game feel lifted straight out of games from the 90s – where you’d have to interact with a random NPC before being able to move the story on. Previously, the game wouldn’t indicate what you would have to do next, so modern players would need to play the game with a guide open. The remake adding waypoints, though optional, is a nice touch that alleviates some of this “old” feeling of game design.

I mentioned it previously, but many of the RPG mechanics feel there for the sake of being there. It’s almost as if Square were too scared to put their name on a game that didn’t have basic RPG mechanics after their success with Final Fantasy. I say this because Live A Live isn’t a challenging game – there was never a time when I had to go back and level up or improve my equipment, leading me to wonder why it’s even included. This is a clear side effect of a game designed from a narrative perspective first – but one that might put off those who love to level up their character to crazy heights. Given the length of the chapters and the difficulty of the combat, it just feels unnecessary to in Live A Live.

I mentioned the brevity of the chapters before, but that doesn’t mean that Live A Live is a super short game. It’s bizarrely paced – some chapters take less than an hour while others take three. The final one feels as long as half the game that came before it. You can expect to get about twenty-five hours out of Live A Live. I appreciated the length of the game as it serves the story well, though those looking for an epic as long as Octopath or Xenoblade may be disappointed. There’s a whole bunch of hidden, optional super bosses to uncover in each chapter, too, though you’ll almost certainly need a guide to find some of them.

Of course, the most significant improvement here is the visuals. Bringing depth and life to the flatter visuals of the original SNES game, Live A Live utilises the HD-2D visuals previously seen in Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy to great effect. It’s even more impressive here because each of the timelines you travel through is exceptionally varied – from the lush bamboo forests of China to the quiet and isolated hallways of a spaceship. It’s genuinely one of the best showcases for HD-2D on the Switch.

Similarly, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The sheer variety here is fantastic, as with the rest of the game. Each of the unique tracks, composed by Yoko Shimomura, who would later compose tracks for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV, brings a great atmosphere to the world. Megalomania, in particular, is one of, if not the best boss battle track I’ve ever heard in an RPG. But not all is great, as while Live A Live goes the extra mile by voicing dialogue that was previously unheard, it’s a rather low-quality dub. It all feels rather cliché, forced, and overacted almost all the time.

Live A Live is an interesting game. You can see why Square wouldn’t have bothered to localise it so many years ago, given its much smaller scale than their flagship franchises. But it’s a testament to how good it is that, despite an immense visual polish being the only major upgrade, it still offers fantastically inventive storytelling almost three decades on with no changes to the script.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Capcom Fighting Collection brings together ten titles from the arcades between 1994 and 2003. Each game is brought together with arcade-perfect parity and other features of modern fighting games like training modes, spectator modes, and rollback style online play. It’s a collection of firsts for the Japanese publisher. The first time Capcom has touched Darkstalkers in almost ten years, the first time that the RPG-tinged Red Earth has been released on home consoles, and the first time the entirety of the Darkstalkers games have been made available outside of Japan.

Much like the Street Fighter collection before it, Capcom has made an effort to ensure this is a collection that fans will appreciate. These games have all been modernised to be playable today – including with the aforementioned online play – and a slew of extras are included as well. Every game has save state support, which is nice, but also a heap of concept art and design documents to pore over. It’s interesting stuff, especially if you’re into game development, with some of these materials having never seen the light of day. It’s always interesting to see how a game begins and how it comes out at the end of development.

The games are all largely fantastic – though this is arguably a Darkstalkers collection with five extra games thrown in. Besides the five Darkstalkers games, you also get Red Earth, Cyberbots, Hyper Street Fighter II, Super Puzzle Fighter II and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix. Besides Puzzle Fighter, all the other games are fighting games with distinctly different styles.

The crux of the package is dedicated to Darkstalkers, and for a fantastic reason. The series has always been in the shadow of Street Fighter despite offering a faster and more fluid flow to combat and a, by comparison, even zanier cast. I’d often thought that these games were just Street Fighter but gothic. The latter might be accurate, but these games feel more like precursors to the more fast and frenetic games like Marvel vs. Capcom. They still play as smooth as ever today, and I’m kicking myself for not having dived into them sooner.

Besides the Darkstalkers games, the other arguable standout here is Red Earth. First released over two decades ago in arcades, it has you picking one of four heroes to battle a gauntlet of eight bosses. The twist here is that your character gains experience with each hit to level up and discover new moves. A password system saves your progress (much like it did in the arcade), and each character has multiple endings. It’s a simpler game than others – especially with such a small playable roster – but it’s one of the stronger single-player offerings from this era of fighting games, and the sprite work is just gorgeous.

The other three games are great but not ones I rush to play. Hyper Street Fighter II is a souped-up port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but easily the best-looking Street Fighter II version that wasn’t included in the anniversary collection from 2018. Cyberbots is interesting – it has you choosing a pilot and a mech and then doing battle – but lacks the personality or the thrill of the other games in the collection. Puzzle Fighter feels like Capcom’s take on Puyo-Puyo, similar to Tetris and games like Columns. Super Gem Fighter is great fun, if a little ridiculous, and sees chibi versions of Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters battling it out.

Online modes are included and are fantastically implemented. Each game has casual and ranked matches available to players, but you can also switch which games you want to find while matchmaking rather than just matchmaking for a single game. It’s more minor touches like these that help contribute to the online health of a game. However, other more significant missteps like the lack of crossplay seem like a major missed opportunity here. Thankfully, the online works fantastically despite all of this, though I still hope there’s some way to make things crossplay in the future.

There’s also a bit of an issue with the Darkstalkers games. There isn’t a single game that features all eighteen characters playable. Instead, the full roster is scattered across the three later games in the collection that players will have to jump between. It seems like something unreasonable to complain about but a definitive version of the latest Darkstalkers game with all characters already exists. The home port of Darkstalkers 3 for the original PlayStation was originally released in 1998 with the full roster, so the choice to exclude this more “definitive” port over dedication to arcade perfect emulation irks me a little. Still, the menus are snappy, and it’s quick to get around the collection, which somewhat makes up for this.

Besides the slick menus, an excellent level of production value holds this collection together. You can adjust the size of the screen and the background surrounding the screen and apply filters that alter the game to look like the screens you might have played these games on back at the arcade. Viewability aside, the sprite work on many of these games is still fantastic. Red Earth is easily the standout here – though the character that each of the Darkstalkers characters has with their expressive and over-the-top animations is genuinely something to behold. These games don’t look photorealistic, but they’ve aged fantastically over two decades.

Capcom Fighters Collection brings together some great games you couldn’t play until now – the cornerstone of a good collection. They play fantastically, the online functionality is more than welcome, and they all still hold up visually. Despite there being no crossplay and no singular definitive Darkstalkers game, it’s still a well-rounded package that any self-respecting fighting game fan should try.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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While Monster Hunter has been on a different trajectory since World’s release in 2018, you can always count on CAPCOM to deliver quality hunting no matter what platform you play on. After the success of World’s enormous expansion, Iceborne, Sunbreak feels like an inevitable addition to an already meaty game, but never one that feels out of place. It’s not perfect, a few of Rise’s core issues are still present here, new ones rear their heads, and others have been fixed, but what Sunbreak does have to offer is bound to please anyone who enjoyed the base game, and especially series veterans.

Set after the tumultuous events of Monster Hunter Rise, Sunbreak sees our hunters called to Elgado Outpost after the unexpected appearance of a foreign monster in the Shrine Ruins. You’ll quickly find out that Kamura isn’t the only territory being invaded by violent monsters from the Kingdom, and you team up with new character Fiorayne and the Knights of the Royal Order to uncover what’s happening.

What Sunbreak lacks in narrative unpredictability, it makes up for in its characters and setting. Elgado Outpost and by extension, the Kingdom are locales unlike any other in the series, more regal and medieval in design. There’s also a stronger focus on characters, and while it’s far from revolutionary for typical Monster Hunter standards, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a little fond of the likes of Fiorayne and Admiral Galleus. It’s a story with a tried and true formula that’s saved from stagnation thanks to its characters and fresh setting, giving Sunbreak its own distinct identity within the series.

Everyone knows that narrative isn’t the draw for Monster Hunter, though, its the thrill of the hunt, experiencing a roster of brand new monsters, deadly variants, and returning favorites. In this regard, Sunbreak is a true home-run. While monster preferences will always be subjective, I believe that Sunbreak has one of the best rosters of any mainline Monster Hunter game.

From the return of Gore Magala to the chilling introduction of Lunagaron and the vampiric Malzeno, every monster here feels like it has purpose, in some cases topping the fights from their original games. A special shoutout should go to Frontier fan-favorite Espinas, who’s unrelenting aggression and ability to inflict two status effects make for a fight that’s thrilling regardless of how many you’ve bested in your hunts.

Much like Iceborne did for World, Sunbreak brings along Master Rank for Rise, the highest difficulty of hunts that are meant to test any hunter’s mettle. While there’s a definite step up here from the relative ease of Rise’s High Rank hunts, it doesn’t quite reach the caliber of past games. That might be great news for some, but I constantly found myself craving the heightened challenge present in older titles, which lends more ferocity and intimidation to each monster you go up against.

With increased difficulty and new monsters, comes new tools, and Sunbreak brings plenty of new toys to play with. For starters, each weapon type has a plethora of new Switch Skills, allowing hunters to further customize and deepen their playstyle. The addition of Switch Skill Swapping, allows you to bring in two sets of Switch Skills into any given hunt, letting you swap them at will with a simple button combination. This can lead to some nasty combos that are as satisfying to execute as they are flashy to look at, and also creates room for further build crafting and loadout-tailoring for each hunt.

There’s also new Endemic Life found in both the new and old areas, and while they seem simple and surface level at first, it quickly becomes apparent that they’re much more than that. The Marionette Spider, for example, allows you to attach a Silkbind Strand to a monster and yank it in a particular direction, causing it to collide with a wall or even another monster as they get knocked to the ground. Wall-mounted wildlife changes the way you engage with Wyvern-Riding, as smashing into walls with these critters present can earn you extra damage or even a status effect.

Arguably the best aspect of these new Endemic Life is that they feel completely seamless within gameplay, never interrupting the flow of the hunt, while still introducing new ways you can engage with monsters and the environments you hunt them in. There’s a constant incentive to look for these critters as you move through an area towards a monster or as you give chase, further lending to that feeling of being in a living, breathing world that was established in the base game.

As we’ve moved on from the struggles of Kamura, Sunbreak doesn’t bring with it any new Rampages or Apex Monsters to hunt, and instead introduces Follower Quests and Support Surveys. Follower Quests are hunts you’ll go on with the supporting cast, as you work towards deepening their bonds so you can bring them along with you on Support Surveys. This includes characters from Kamura, as well, so you’ll be able to accompany the likes of Elder Fugen and Master Utsushi.

While they no doubt makes hunts easier as they split the aggression of the monster, they offer a sense of spectacle and camaraderie with the supporting characters that hasn’t been seen before in Monster Hunter. Nothing will match the rush I experienced when Fiorayne disappeared from the fight, only to return mounted on a Barioth to deliver unsuspected punishment to the unfortunate Lunagaron we had in our sights. You can even choose from a selection of weapons for followers to use on Support Surveys, allowing you to have them use something that compliments your own loadout.

To keep things spoiler free, there’s more monsters for you to experience once the credits roll, and a post-game progression system that is good in theory, but falls a bit flat in execution. Without getting into specifics, certain post-game hunts take far too long to complete, to the point of mundanity. I’m unsure how these play with more than one person, but I can only suspect the difficulty scales up. Thankfully, this isn’t the only form of post-game, but is absolutely something players will want to engage with if they’re into build crafting and maximizing stats, and it’s a shame they don’t deliver on their core concept.

Sunbreak’s brand new locale is the Citadel, and brings with it a more vertically designed return of the Jungle from past games. It’s nice to have new areas that are smaller in scale than those from the base game, yet still maintaining unique color palettes and design set pieces that help them to stand out amongst the rest. Rise is now a true melding pot of all the best areas a Monster Hunter game needs, with a bit of its own flourish for good measure.

The new hub, Elgado Outpost, is a refreshingly small and dense hub area that drops Kamura’s peace and quiet for a steampunk-style hustle and bustle. It’s tonally unique and a joy to explore for the first time when you eventually reach the Kingdom, and it’s nice to able to move between the NPCs you visit regularly for your pre-hunt rituals without having to sit through loading screens.

While we didn’t review the PC port of Monster Hunter Rise, Sunbreak was played via the PC version, and it goes without saying that much like the base game, Sunbreak performs incredibly well from a technical standpoint. In the roughly 30 or so hours I’ve spent with it, I’ve encountered zero technical issues, and only ever had the pleasure of buttery smooth framerates, which is especially remarkable with the context that base Rise was built for the Switch.

All of it is really brought to life by stellar monster designs, and continuing the trend of introducing slick new weapons and armor. While it might not be quite the looker in the same way World is in terms of sheer detail, I still think that Rise is the best middle ground of old and new in terms of environment design and color palette, retaining that classic feel of the old games with some of the modern sheen brought with World.

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Few video game franchises have endured as long as Sonic the Hedgehog, but those that have typically haven’t had as rocky an existence as our spiky, blue friend. Where his rivals have gone from strength to strength, Sonic’s catalogue of releases has become more and more mixed over time. It makes sense then, that SEGA is keen to continue reviving and re-selling Sonic’s earliest outings. Sonic Origins is the latest example of those efforts, and it’s a surprisingly decent package overall.

Sonic Origins serves up the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis versions of the original three Sonic the Hedgehog games as well as Sonic CD, all recreated in the same “Retro Engine” used to power 2017’s Sonic Mania. On top of the games themselves, there are a handful of extra modes and a museum of unlockables spanning the blue blur’s most historic years. It’s not quite the all-encompassing collection that we’ve seen in the past, omitting games like Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast, but the trade-off is these are faithful and pristine ports. Each game also has its own animated intro and ending sequences, which look fantastic.

There are also multiple new ways to play the four included games, with everything tied into a central ecosystem of collectible coins. You can play the games in their original, 4:3 forms in Classic Mode if you like, but the new Anniversary/Story modes are where it’s at. Playing any of the titles in Anniversary Mode gets you essentially the same game, but with widescreen support and the ability to choose Sonic, Tails or Knuckles as the playable character (no Lock-On technology needed!) as well as the removal of lives. Yep, no game over screens here – with unlimited lives everything instantly becomes a lot more accessible than before. 

Story Mode, on the other hand, puts all four games and the new animated sequences in chronological order (Sonic 1, Sonic CD, 2 and then 3) in one long run with Sonic as the only playable character. Then there’s also a Boss Rush option available for each game as well as a Mission Mode that offers up a series of objective-based versions of levels where you’ll need to meet goals in order to unlock harder missions and earn plenty of the all-important coins.

Those coins, which you earn across the extra modes as well as Anniversary/Story in place of life pick-ups and are carried across every game, are useful for two things. Firstly they’re used to unlock everything in the Museum, which is stacked full of a bunch of pretty cool memorabilia from covers to manuals, never-before-seen art and documents and of course a ton of music. More useful though is the ability to cash them in to restart any of the bonus stages across the games, which have always been a bit of a pain point given they’re incredibly easy to fail and crucial to seeing the true endings of each game. If you’re keen to finish all of the titles in Sonic Origins you’ll definitely want to hang onto your coins for that purpose.

All said, this is a decent little package with a few neat wrinkles to make playing these games more enjoyable than ever, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with the way it’s all presented. The games themselves look razor sharp and run impeccably, though it’s a bit disappointing that there aren’t any extra visual options or filters made available given these have been rebuilt from scratch. I also really wish a “rewind” feature not unlike those included with previous emulated Sonic collections was available in at least the Classic mode to further mitigate frustration. The front end menu, which presents each game as a gorgeously-rendered 3D island, is totally unnecessary but looks great, and you can even zoom into and inspect each one – provided you paid for the privilege.

Yep, the one real blight on this whole collection is that SEGA has seen fit to nickel-and-dime fans out of a bizarre selection of extras that are locked to its “Digital Deluxe Edition”. While only $7 or so more expensive than the base version, the fact that the more expensive version contains stuff like camera controls and animations in Sonic Origins’ menus feels a bit gross. It’s also a touch jarring to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles with what’s seemingly a very early iteration of its soundtrack, included here in place of what’s long been suggested was a soundtrack composed in collaboration with Michael Jackson, but that likely couldn’t have been helped if there’s any truth to those rumours.

We’ve had plenty of retro Sonic compilations before, and the cynic in me wants so badly to see this as just another in a long line of nostalgia grabs amid the continued futile attempts at modern franchise entries. The thing is, for the first time in ages this feels like a genuine celebration of the blue blur’s beginnings, made with care and a reverence for the source material. Weird Deluxe Edition choices aside, anyway.

The post Sonic Origins Review – A Blast (Process) From The Past appeared first on Press Start.

There’s a lot of expectation associated with Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes in a few ways. For starters, Fire Emblem: Three Houses – the very game it’s based on – is one of the strongest Fire Emblem games in the franchise, beloved by many as a return to form for the series while also including all the best elements of the 3DS entries. There’s also the weight brought along by the success of 2019’s excellent Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which set a new standard for what Musou spin-offs could achieve.

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While Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes mostly succeeds on delivering an alternate take on Three Houses, it’s hard not to feel like some of the ideas here just don’t fit into the kind of formula Musou games are rooted in. That’s not to say it’s bad – there’s plenty here for fans of Three Houses, even more so for those who get deeply invested into the content these Warriors games offer, but there are elements of the overall experience that suffer once the repetition sets in.

Serving as an alternate take on Three Houses, Three Hopes has a narrative that is mostly similar in structure and narrative beats to what is found in Three Houses. After completing a short tutorial battle, the player character, Shez, falls into an unexpected situation at Garrag Mach Monastery. With Shez looking to pickup the pieces and uncover the truth behind a being only they can communicate with known as Arval, you’ll pick one of the three houses to enroll into at Garrag Mach.

One of the best elements Three Houses brought to Fire Emblem was the ability to grow your relationship with the students at Garrag Mach, and Three Hopes is no different. While most of these characters initially come across as surface level or stereotypical, it’s these deeper dives into their personalities and who they are that fleshes them out and makes them such a fantastic cast to engage with.

It’s clear that they all have different lineages and come from all walks of life, and even though I’d spent countless hours with them already in Three Houses, the new stuff brought along in Three Hopes was just as alluring, and always had me looking forward to the next support threshold. It’s a true treat to be back with this cast of characters again, and is easily one of the best aspects of Three Hopes.

I mentioned in my preview for Three Hopes that the overall narrative wasn’t doing a whole lot for me, but that I’d suspected it would quickly improve as the pace picked up towards the second half of the game. While there definitely was some improvement, there are a myriad of questions left unanswered after rolling credits on the Black Eagles route relating to Arval, Shez, and Byleth in particular.

There’s no doubt that the player is incentivized to replay Three Hopes multiple times in order to uncover all the answers, and to also view the conflict from a different perspective. The problem, is that Musou games don’t lend themselves particularly well to subsequent play-throughs, especially at the length of 20 or so hours long.

Because the bulk of the narrative is one that treads ground similar to that of which is found in Three Houses, I was ultimately left feeling underwhelmed in regards to the actual plot. While I’m sure it picks up if you’re willing to commit the time, Three Hopes simply isn’t designed for it when it feels like the first playthrough already overstays its welcome.

Much like Age of Calamity, Three Hopes looks to translate a lot of the mechanics and gameplay systems from Three Houses into a Musou framework, to varying degrees of success. The class system, for example, sees units progress down a non-linear tree of potential classes they unlock as they participate in class certification exams. This means the player is afforded a lot of flexibility into what each unit can do, but also means there’s less individuality between units. Move sets and the way characters play are defined by their class, not the character themselves.

This system is a joy to experiment with on a first playthrough, because it essentially means you can customize your army exactly how you want to. Specializing into particular classes with particular units, watching them grow in power, expanding their move sets as they progress further down the tree.

Where it suffers, though, is in the fact it effectively means all three routes play almost identically from a move set perspective, in a game where a lot of the core appeal comes from the power fantasy of playing suped-up versions of these characters. While not a bad system on its own, it painfully highlights the potential repetition towards the end of the game, which killed a lot of my motivation to dive right back in for another run.

That isn’t to say that your first play through is a bad one, though. While it gets off to a bit of a slow start, it eventually evolves into a more fully-realized Musou/strategy hybrid in-comparison to 2017’s Fire Emblem Warriors. It’s satisfying to appropriately pair up units via the Adjutant system and issue commands to them as you take to the fight with another character, as you switch and swap between your chosen units to accomplish objectives.

Battle itself is standard Warriors stuff, but where it really gets interesting is once you start delving into deeper classes, and look to synergize unit abilities and Adjutants together. The hack n’ slash stuff here is all well and good, but battle is at its most engaging when you’re thinking about which units need to go where in order to take advantage of weaknesses and enemy formations. Three Hopes gives you more control over AI units than ever, and even though they’re relatively useless when they aren’t given something to do, it accentuates the idea you’re commanding a small army.

Weaknesses are something I was also a big fan of in Three Hopes. Enemies are weak to particular weapon types depending on which class they are similar to Three Houses, as opposed to the typical Fire Emblem weapons triangle. It forces you to not only bring a wide array of units to cover all of your bases, but to also think outside the box when challenged by a tough enemy with multiple weaknesses.  Do you want to commit your whole team to bring it down as fast as you can? Or is it maybe better to cycle units in and out to retain focus on other parts of the battlefield. This is all stuff I never got tired of, and it was a refreshing break from the endless hack n’ slashing.

Each chapter takes place within a smaller region of Fódlan, broken up into even smaller battlefields. Every one has a main conflict you’ll work towards to reach the next chapter, but these can only be undertaken when surrounding land is seized via the Side Missions they offer, battles that are smaller in-scale, but often net rewards.

The number of Side Missions in each chapter steadily goes up as the game progresses, but there’s a nice degree of flexibility here for those who want it. Do you forge a path straight to the main conflict and do only the necessary Side Missions, or do you spend the time to complete all of them to earn extra rewards, bolstering your army and progression further? You can even unlock special bonuses to aid you in that chapter’s main conflict, or weapons that you normally wouldn’t come across, making them almost always worthwhile, but never forced thanks to the other tools Three Hopes has in regards to character progression.

One thing Three Houses was almost universally praised for was the social sim elements and the way that they directly impact gameplay. Three Hopes converts much of the same efforts, where between battles you can spend time with other students to improve support levels with Shez or other students, increasing their support capabilities when paired up as an Adjutant. The catch, though, is that there’s a limited number of actions per chapter, and you’ll always have to pick and choose between who you want to see grow.

It provides a little more decision making between battles, and by no means makes other units arbitrary or useless. In-fact, you also gain a certain number of training actions that can be used to improve class proficiency on units you don’t use as much. You can also spend gold to gain levels up to where Shez is currently at, meaning you can constantly try out new units and class setups as long as you have the resources. My only real gripe with these systems is that they function almost identically to how they do in Three Houses, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it rings true here.

Unfortunately, one area where Three Hopes really struggles is in its production values. Aside from having an excellent soundtrack, killer CG cutscenes, and some nice character models, it doesn’t have much else going for it. The environments for the most part are bland and lacking in detail, with muddy textures and overly sharp edges drawing your attention away from the action.

Performance is similarly frustrating, where handheld mode tends to hold around 30 frames per second, with docked trying to target a higher 60, but hardly ever reaching it. It goes without saying that playing in coop only worsens these conditions, which is a shame, because none of these Warriors games have taken advantage of such a strong idea.

The post Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Review – A Mostly Worthy Spin-Off appeared first on Press Start.

The God of Citywide Beatings and Bin Chicken Dinners smiled upon me recently. He arranged it so that I might smash through the entirety of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge in its intended form—with a party, dudes. Crowded around one TV as a six-some, my turtle powered posse and I kicked things up to Gnarly difficulty. Then, we gave the titular Tin Grin absolute shell.

What followed was basically one of the best side-scrolling brawlers I’ve ever experienced. This is high praise coming from an ’80s kid who’s more or less beaten ’em all (up).

Anyone familiar with Dotemu’s pedigree won’t be too shell-shocked to hear that the bar of quality has been reset to Turtle Blimp heights in Shredder’s Revenge. This small publisher is known for championing a number of exemplary 2D game remakes. One pertinent example being the studio’s stellar efforts on Streets of Rage 4 (2020) and its dream of a DLC, Mr. X’s Nightmare.

Within Dotemu’s small stable of studios, the collective understanding of the beat ’em up genre is second to none. Their ability to capture the essence of a classic formula— while also tastefully ‘roiding it up with clever twists and modern creature comforts— is a special technique that few others possess.

Speaking of authenticity, it’s also worth noting this game bears the full endorsement of Nickelodeon, holder of the TV series rights. Any OG who grew up with the first batch of late ’80s Turtles (plus the ’90s films) will recognise the telltale OCD detailings of a bunch of super fans let loose. One gets the unmistakable impression Shredder’s Revenge was a dream project for the team at Tribute Games.

There’s no secret to the ooze that’s been smeared all over this. It’s love.

And do you know what represents the extra jellybeans on this pepperoni pizza? All of the original voice actors have returned to quip up a storm as Leo, Raph, Mikey and Don. The other playable characters—Splinter, April and the unlockable Casey Jones—don’t sound too far off what your crusty old ears remember, too.

In terms of plot and purpose, this is an original adventure which smartly cherry picks and mutates the best moments and mechanics from Konami’s watershed TMNT arcade cabinets. Via a top-down overworld reminiscent of the (vastly inferior) Ultra Games turtle titles, you’ll hop around a super deformed NYC and Dimension X. The basic gist: stop Krang, Shred-head and more or less every major antagonist in the show, from taking a bite out of the Big Apple.

To thwart them, you must once again hew through mobs of enemies in an ever rightward push to an end boss, followed by a modest pattern memorisation test. There is of course the odd palate cleanse here and there— environmental dangers to dash or leap over, radical hoverboard sections, etc. That said, for the most part you’re here to ruin more Foot than a work experience podiatrist.

On the lowest difficulty in Story Mode, these fisticuffs can be pedestrian enough to let anybody reach the final cutscene within 2 and a half hours. Credits are endless in Story, and your stock of individual lives are generous (and will even reset to “full” for every level attempt). Honestly, smashing through this way is a decent training montage to (mostly) grind your fave characters up for a serious run on Gnarly difficulty. It’s also the best way to tick off the trickier mini-cheevos in each level, which typically ask you to kill a set amount of foes with certain techniques.

Be that as it may, the Finish The Level Without Getting [Hit/Knocked Over By Obstacle X] challenges are clearly aimed at very skillful soloists. Because if you’re playing as a group, one turtle’s screw up is applied to all. I appreciate that the loners have something difficult to shoot for that will require many a restart and likely gobble up additional hours like a Mouser does rodents.

When it comes to kicking shell, Shredder’s Revenge clearly has way more depth than the mashy arcade titles that inspired it. However, it’s not quite as layered as the likes of the almost “side-scrolling Street Fighter” complexity of Streets of Rage 4.

The first thing that becomes apparent is the effort Tribute put into making each turtles look and feel unique. With a simple rating system on the character select screen you can quickly gauge who excels in Power, Speed or Range, not to mention who’s a good all-rounder.

Hit the mean streets and you’ll quickly spot a bunch of other nuances for these amphibians. Subtle differences bubble up in their various basic moves—like a flashier jump attack, a swifter evade animation, a faster charging ‘heavy’ attack, or a dash slide that goes farther or trips Foot…uh, feet harder.

This individuality bleeds across into the Special attack maneuvers. These Y button techniques grant you momentary invincibility and crowd control benefits, providing you’ve punched your way into earning a full ‘Special Bar’ for their use. Depending on the character selected, some of these might flare out with a greater diameter, last slightly longer or allow you to pivot yourself about, like some sort of roaming sai tornado.

Better yet, a few new special techniques (and more health/lives) can be earned through diligent play. The game tracks each character’s kills across multiple playthroughs, with a modest supply of perks and new mechanics unlocking every 200 murders or so. Max out at 2000, and you’ll be a fully fledged ninja master with 5 lives, a larger HP bar, a trebled Super bar and access to these frankly OP slam dunk and dash Specials.

Oh, and you can earn a Radical state which gives you a bodacious afterglow effect and the ability to deal shellacious damage for a time. It’s very much as advertised.

Marry the above with the ability to grab enemies—then either smash them into the pavement, hurl them at their mates or “out of the screen” entirely as a one-hit KO – and yeah, Shredder’s Revenge is reasonably complex and tons of fun.

While I certainly enjoyed my run through as “no bros” Leonardo, the game shines brightest as a multi affair. In my 4-player and 6-player playthroughs, communication and collaboration were imperative. In the roiling madness of limbs and technicolour explosions you will often need to ask an ally to run interference as you spam Taunt to replenishing your Special bar faster. As you’d imagine, talking smack for two seconds draws serious AI aggro.

The Foot also love to stomp anybody holding LB to revive a fully downed mate. They also interfere when you tap LB to high-five two points of your own life across to a weakened bro. Cool, camaraderie-enhancing mechanics both.

These moments of goodwill and skill elevate Shredder’s Revenge from a good beat ’em up to a great all for one, one for all hoedown. However, that’s purely the local expectation you should have, where everybody is within physical punching distance. Your experience may vary in an online setting where you’re forced to lobby in two distant friends or *shudder* two Internet randos. I predict the needless pizza theft is going to be off the scale.

Beyond those infuriating moments, I’m confident Shredder’s Revenge will attract a new generation of fans while also delivering the classic sights and sounds expected of sore eyes. As with all Tribute titles, you’re getting apex level pixel art and animations teeming with references to the wackiest TV ep plots. It’s clear that they’ve mined the toy line figures/vehicles for gold, too.

Soundwise, this is an aural injection of sheer, unadulterated Nineties. We’re talking bodaciously boisterous rock anthems and even the odd ninja rap for good measure (quick props to Wu Tang). That’s all complemented by some satisfying thwack effects, authentic Turtle boy bantz and those triumphant special move shrieks which used to dominate arcade halls and lure in lunch money like a Siren’s song.

Even today, Konami’s Ninja Turtles beat ’em ups are revered, replayed and resold in ridiculous numbers as 1UP branded cabinets. With Shredder’s Revenge, Tribute has studied the blueprints of the best titles this genre produced and expanded and improved upon them in every conceivable metric.

Not to turtle wax lyrical, but I reckon you owe it to yourself to have this turtle celebration waiting in your collection for when friends (of any age group) drop by. This has the universal appeal of pizza and can be partially consumed in sixteen ten-minute slices at a time. More likely, you’ll scarf it all in one binge, multiple times. Possibly as you seek all seven endings. Maybe to get your amhibian arses kicked as you chase the Arcade clear on Gnarly that’s harder than a Rock Soldier’s abs.

The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review – Love-Letter Has Dimension X-Factor appeared first on Press Start.

I’m a big fan of Mario Sports games, but Mario Strikers is the one that has eluded me, until this iteration in Mario Strikers: Battle League Football. Similar to the other sports titles, it’s a game that’s big on local multiplayer but has an even bigger reliance on the online community it hopes to build.

At its core, Mario Strikers: Battle League is a very competent soccer game that features teams of five (one being the goalie). The game is easy to pickup and play, albeit frantic, but a lot actually goes into mastering it, with perfect passes and shots playing a big part, and through balls also being an option to totally control where you’re passing the ball.

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Without all the Mario craziness, this could be compared to the likes of FIFA Street, but the Mario items that have been introduced, such as the Red Shell and Bob-omb ensure that there’s literally never a dull moment in the four minute matches. Whilst literally anything goes including the ability to tackle any opponent even when they don’t have the ball, Nintendo has been clever in awarding the opposing team with items if they’re unfairly tackled without the ball. If you go too overboard, a star will be awarded to that team which is pretty much a free passage to the goal.

Another big part of this game are Hyper Strikes, which in the earlier stages, feel like an automatic passage to a two point goal. Every now and then a Super Smash Bros like orb will appear on the field and the first team to touch it will have a small amount of time to enact a Hyper Strike quick time event in their own goal. If you stop the marker within two spots, you’ll get an instant two point goal. If your timing is off, the opponent will have to mash a button to stop it from going in.

In the earlier stages, where the CPU was quite easy, I felt the Hyper Strikes got really repetitive, but once you were playing against more aggressive opponents and online opponents, the Hyper Strikes became nearly impossible to pull off, requiring immense strategy to even get the time to be able to shoot your shot, and that’s a good thing as they felt a lot less gimmicky and more strategy based.

Initially, I’ll admit that I felt overwhelmed by everything going on in Strikers, but as time went on, and I progressively played better opponents in the Cup Battles, I realised that the items and Hyper Strikes actually play really well into the strategy and go a long way to dictating whether you want to play hugely offensively (even without the ball) which will result in your opponent getting massive amounts of items, or if you really just want to play the most direct path to the goal in a more traditional soccer style.

My only critique at the craziness that ensues is that it can be hard at times to tell where the ball is and also to determine in the moment which of the players are actually on your team. I think once things get really serious online, this could decide matches which could be a problem, but hopefully Nintendo work to make players more visible.

One thing that can’t be understated is just how much personality this game has. Every character has so many different win/loss/goal scoring animations and everything from smashing your opponent into the wall to the charming noises they make as they pass the ball is just so wonderful.

Just like with other recent Nintendo games such as Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Tennis Aces, the days of unlocking things locally is near non-existent in Nintendo games and that’s very much the same here. Beyond the cups that can be played locally (which don’t really provide any unlocks), you’ll want to take your game online into the Strikers Club.

Now admittedly, all of my online games ran flawlessly so far, but they were just online quick battles with other reviewers and I haven’t had a chance to experience Strikers Club yet. I kind of like the idea but worry that it’s a very “Nintendo” execution. At first glance, I thought it was very similar to FIFA’s seasons with divisions, and it is that on the surface, but instead of having your own progession, you seem to be tied to a club with up to 20 other players, who can either be friends or complete randoms. Your movement across divisions is tied to your entire clubs success, so for instance you’ll want to be playing with the maximum amount of people in your club as it’s based on how many games have been won across your entire club.

I think the idea is cool, but I feel that when I’m playing online in a ranked type mode, I don’t really want other people’s performance dictating how I go, in a game that can be played solo. I really do like to see Nintendo trying out new things in the online space though, and I didn’t have a single hiccup in any of my online matches beside the odd frame drop.

Customisation is a big part of Mario Strikers: Battle League. Unlocking parts allows you to change your characters attributes, so you might turn Bowser into a more agile player than he initially is, or you might give Toad less speed but make him a better shooter. It’s a nice addition, but feels more about cosmetics than anything else which is totally fine.

Super Mario: Strikers Battle League got more fun as I put more time into it. It feels just right in terms of being basic enough that anyone can pick up but still really requiring skill and having a lot of depth. It feels like Nintendo is still discovering how to navigate creating a game that is both a great single player experience whilst also providing depth online, but things are definitely improving with every release.

The post Mario Strikers: Battle League Football Review – Full Of Personality appeared first on Press Start.

If Devolver Digital published the single-best card game last year with Daniel Mullins’ Inscryption, they’re currently on track to publish the single-best game about cards with Card Shark. It might be entirely about the theatricality and deception leveraged by con-men and tricksters, but the game never once has you actively play cards, nor does it clarify what game is being played. It instead places a spotlight on both the art of grifting while telling a satirical tale of a mute bar-back who gets swept up in a black comedic web of royal intrigue during the Age of Enlightenment in 18th century France.

As an adventure game, Uncharted constantly overwrote history with a fantastical retelling of the events. While it isn’t Sir Francis Drake on this occasion, King Henry VIII finds himself embroiled in controversy throughout Card Shark’s absurd dramatisation.  Card Shark’s story unravels like a period mystery, with lies and secrets unspooling throughout its several acts. The twists and turns are satisfying, and the game does have a very wicked sense of humour. I think the story it tells and its ideas would easily translate to other periods and settings, such as Las Vegas’ seedy underbelly which was an idea kicked about during pre-production. 

The whole of Card Shark is inspired by the manipulation and obfuscation that comes with sleight of hand card trickery. Under the watchful eye of Comte de Saint-Germain, another of history’s slightly-skewed miscreants, you’ll inherit a war chest of tricks to cheat your way to both money and untold secrets. Whether it’s copping an over-the-shoulder glance of the Comte’s mark’s cards and wiping the table down in a counter-clockwise fashion, or playing the role of dealer in Card Shark’s mishmash nondescript card game only to stack the deck with a number of shady shuffles, all of the deceptions taught to you are based on real-world techniques. 

The developers have done a wonderful job of not only transforming these tricks into fun, tense mini-games that’ll test your memory and reflexes, but they’ve also made them progressively complex to really give a sense of progression and expertise to the player. It also helps establish stakes in some incredibly tense scenes where Comte’s mark grows increasingly suspicious as you “exchange wine bottles” in the dry store. The speed at which your target cottons on to your antics will depend on the difficulty you’re playing on, but the game balances beautifully the pulsating tension of performing these feats of falsity beneath your mark’s nose while the Comte mutters red herrings and other fanciful misdirections. 

I did run into a few occasions where the game would soft-lock in the middle of a cut-scene, process the exchange of coins as though the hand was over but then keep everyone sat at the table in perpetuity. One instance was game-breaking and forced a complete restart, and although they’ve patched this for the PC version, I don’t believe a fix has arrived for the Switch version yet. 

Beyond these mini-games dressed up as deceitful dealings, Card Shark almost plays like a classic point-and-click adventure. In fact, with the lavish garments, powder wigs and sense of humour, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to the Monkey Island games, although Card Shark’s oil-painted aesthetic is clearly a far cry from the pixel-art look of yore. Like a slick of vibrant colour across the screen, Card Shark’s roaming band of con-artists and the France they call home are all realised gorgeously. It’s like someone framed a stage play, courtesy of the theatrical way that Card Shark’s set pieces, acts, and plot play out. 

Like the remainder of the game’s tone, Card Shark’s orchestral score is a jovial trip back in time that, more often than not, really captures the mischief and whimsy of the hero’s journey. Although there’s no voice performance, which is a shame given the game’s tremendous writing, I think the arrangement from Andrea Boccadoro more than fills the spaces between hands. 

There’s so much to adore about Card Shark. The setting and heat of the moment tends to challenge the player more than the mechanics themselves do, and the delightfully twisted take on French society and its willingness to succumb to the seemingly supernatural performance art of card trickery serves as a memorable launching pad for what will be one of the indie darlings of the year. 

Card Shark is out on Nintendo Switch and PC tomorrow.

The post Card Shark Review – A Jovial Trip Back In Time appeared first on Press Start.

As something of a platformer aficionado, I’m surprised that it’s taken me this long to play a Kao the Kangaroo game. The series first found life on home consoles with the Dreamcast original in 2000 before seeing a sequel on the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, but neither game or any subsequent spin-offs did particularly well with critics or audiences. It’s interesting then that some 20-odd years later we’re getting a brand new Kao game thanks to Polish studio Tate Multimedia, but unfortunately it seems Kao is destined to live in obscurity a little longer.

Kao the Kangaroo starts off much like any of its genre peers – a dark power has invaded Kao’s (pronounced K-O) world and spirited away a loved one, in this case his sister, Kaia. Armed with a pair of magical boxing gloves inherited from his equally-lost father, Kao decides it’s up to him to go and rescue Kaia and bring peace back to his world. I’ll admit, that’s about as much as I remember of this game’s plot despite how simple it is in theory, and that’s because as soon as the game’s events kick in it stops making any sense at all.

It’s probably a bit much to ask of a B-grade platformer to have any kind of compelling narrative, but Kao the Kangaroo’s writing is frankly dreadful. Plot points are introduced and dropped without warning or context, and at no point did I feel like I knew exactly what Kao was actually meant to be doing. Dialogue wavers between nonsensical and woefully unfunny, relying on borderline offensive stereotypes and punchlines based on horribly outdated memes. Worse still, in a world populated by kangaroos, koalas and plenty of cheap Australiana there isn’t a single Aussie accent to be heard.

All of this would be easily forgiven if Kao’s platforming was more interesting than its world or story, but gameplay here is unfortunately just as derivative and uninspired. Kao controls well enough and the game at least attempts to create a point-of-difference with its melee combat that grants its hero a scant few combos and a finishing move but it’s all bound to tepid level designs with annoyingly missable collectibles and boring puzzles. Kao’s gloves can be powered up with three different elements (fire, ice and wind) that allow him to manipulate different parts of the environment but every single one of the game’s puzzle sequences simply throws the necessary elemental power-up at you as it’s needed which takes away any and all challenge.

That’s not to say I never enjoyed the 7-8 hours I spent completing everything that Kao the Kangaroo has to offer, it’s still a classically-styled collectathon platformer so it’s sure to please long time fans of the genre even if it does nothing surprising. This is definitely a game better suited to young children who might want a Crash Bandicoot-inspired experience without so much challenge and who won’t balk at the middling boss fights and forgettable characters. Each of the 15 levels and 4 hub worlds at least looks nice as well, with plenty of striking and lush environments to explore. The game’s voice acting and music on the other hand are… decidedly average, and so I wound up switching them off in lieu of listening to my own music while I played.

Less forgivable are the constant bugs I experienced, everything from getting stuck in geometry to objects not disappearing, enemies wigging out, audio playing incorrectly, sound effects looping and UI elements lingering on screen. I didn’t experience anything that broke the game entirely or halted my experience but there were far too many times where I got stuck and wasn’t sure if I was doing the wrong thing or the game was behaving incorrectly. Usually it was the latter.

One particular issue, which isn’t a bug but as the game’s developers told me directly is intentional design, is that the game has no option to invert its camera controls. Such a basic feature being omitted with no plans to add it in after the fact is downright bewildering and sure to alienate a whole bunch of players – as an inverter myself I had to push on for the purpose of this review but I struggled with the camera throughout my entire playthrough.

The post Kao the Kangaroo Review – A Mediocre Blast From The Past appeared first on Press Start.

It’s no surprise that, after Old Man’s Journey, Broken Rules would search for a real cause to fuse their blend of subtle, heartrending storytelling with. Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is a sweet, environmentally-minded vignette that paints a picture of life for gibbons, from their singsong nature to the dangers they face on a daily basis through deforestation and things as frivolous as palm oil. It’s fleeting, short-lived, and doesn’t amount to more than a brief bout of brachiation, but its message is booming. 

Gibbon casts you as one of the titular primates, revealed after the fact to be named Pink. Beyond the Trees is a white-knuckled race through a South-Asian jungle as your family pack of gibbons is exposed to man, with all that means in any given context. Gigantic earthmovers soon replace the game’s stunningly hand-painted jungle views and serve as a sobering reminder of how many animals would be displaced by these practices. If threats to habitat weren’t enough, poachers chase Pink and her kind from their jungle to ours—trading the wilds for stone. 

Gibbon manages to capture the emotional resonance that more polished games like Ori have achieved, in part because what we’re seeing is a reality. It’s a shame it doesn’t rise to meet the same standard of platforming, but it’s presumably a fraction of the budget. What remains is a fast-paced jungle jaunt that, while feeling at times spectacular and acrobatic, feels rather rudimentary and hangs its hat on a simple premise that grows tiresome at points. There’s definite tedium that sets in once you leave the jungle’s safety and find that shimmying along rooftops and power lines is your only thru-road. It could very well be a deliberate case of illustrating the loss of freedoms, translated through movement that simply isn’t as fun as what came before, but I’d say that’s a long bow to draw.

Gibbon is a very mechanically simple experience and places its central focus on the art of brachiation—the act of moving from branch to branch. While there’s no real consequence to speak of, Gibbon is very much a game where momentum is king, and using the jungle layout to your advantage is key. As Pink, you’re able to run uphill, swing, slide down mossy trees, and execute mid-air acrobatics that serve as boosts to her speed as she chains all of her abilities together. It might be basic, but it’s also satisfying when at full flight, and Pink moves from each of the environment’s elements very intuitively. 

Pink’s journey lasts all of an hour and her ten chapters will comfortably be handled in one sitting, but it’s a whirlwind ride that doesn’t seem to let up. The pacing and stakes are impeccably established, while the action is seamless as each scenario bleeds into the next. Unfortunately, the performance on the Switch (granted, I am still running a base model) doesn’t always measure up to what Beyond the Trees tries to achieve in terms of its free flow action with stuttering and screen-tearing a regularity.

Not having to be laser-focused on the game’s gameplay loop also provides ample opportunity to take in the game’s scenic and gorgeously hand-painted vistas. For such a short game, the artists do a phenomenal job of showing us almost a timelapse of how these forests respond under duress once touched by deforestation, fire, and industry—perhaps the most crippling of the lot. Its presentation as a one-take vignette is often punctuated by close-up set pieces that advance Pink’s story—these give us our best look at these unexpectedly adorable apes. Despite its performance hang-ups on my original Switch, Gibbon also wonderfully captures the quick, free-form travel of these primates with some really smooth animation. 

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is another mechanically simple but heartfelt tale from a small studio that, on this occasion, definitely had something to say. And I think it’s that message, coupled with seeing these animals displaced from their colour-rich element, that makes this game hit surprisingly hard. I wouldn’t say that the Switch version is the optimal way to experience Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, but its brevity lends itself well to a handheld.  

The post Gibbon: Beyond The Trees Review – A Small Ape Escape appeared first on Press Start.

I’ll be honest in saying that critically, this is probably one of the hardest reviews I’ve had to write. I’ve probably played Wii Sports more than any game in history, as I’m sure is the same for many people who owned a Wii and had the experience of playing this game with friends and family at every gathering for months and years following launch.

If I were to look at Wii Sports critically, with the content on offer and the basic mechanics, it’d probably be a very different experience from the hundreds of hours of fun and bonding that the game brought me, especially when you look at the fact that it was a free pack-in game.

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Mechanically, Nintendo Switch Sports is fairly similar to Wii Sports, which is probably its greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. Whilst Wii Sports Resort tried to do too much with the formula, and overcomplicated it, which worked for some sports and not so much for others, I think that whilst it was probably a better game, it probably was less accessible in the same way that Wii Sports could be played by anyone that picked up a Wiimote.

Nintendo Switch Sports goes back-to-basics meaning that anybody that picks up a Joy-Con will be able to play all six sports in offers. What this means is that sports such as Tennis and Bowling end up feeling really familiar. Outside of the obvious graphical enhancements, there are not a lot of changes, and at first, I felt a little disappointed by that, but as I played more and more with my partner and other family members that aren’t gamers, I realised that this was a good thing. It was still insanely fun, and there was literally no introduction necessary, meaning that everyone stood a chance and didn’t feel intimidated by picking up a controller.

Some smart improvements have been made. In Tennis, you can now more accurately hit the ball with topspin or slice the ball as well as lob in, and every so often, you’ll have the opportunity to smash the ball. Likewise with Bowling, which is a very similar experience, but there’s now a great addition where you can bowl simultaneously as the person next to you. This probably won’t always suit a group situation, but if you’re just playing one-on-one against someone, it’s a great way to keep it going quickly.

Outside of Tennis and Bowling, there are four other sports available at launch. With Golf still to be added in a later update, the balance does seem a bit off, despite all of the sports being fun. For instance, Badminton, whilst having some differences in the sense that it’s more directional-based when compared to Tennis, which is timing-based, it’s hard to ignore the fact that they are very similar sports.

Chambara and Volleyball, whilst very fun initially, just don’t seem to have the staying power that Bowling and Tennis do. The real hero here in my opinion is Soccer, or Football in other territories. Whilst there’s a penalty shootout mode that makes use of the leg strap, the main core experience on offer here is the three-minute matchups that mimic Rocket League matches in the best way possible.

The Soccer experience essentially has you going against one other person, or as part of a team of four, with the objective being to get a giant Soccer ball into the opposing goal. The main difference to every other sport on offer is that you have full control of your character, meaning you have a full range of movement and can kick the ball in any direction with clever motion controls. You can pull off brilliant headers and there’s even a stamina bar straight from Breath of the Wild.

It feels really accessible, but also feels like it has enough depth to it when playing against other skilled players or online. My only wish is for a 2v2 mode just like Rocket League, I feel that’s where this particular sport would really shine.

I’ve now spent quite a bit of hours with the online portion of the game, and it’s very clear that this is where all of depth is. All progression is tied to playing others online, with both the local modes as well as the online mode where you play against friends not providing any unlocks, points towards unlocks or even any kind of tallies to keep tabs against the people that you’re playing with.

Whilst this is a very odd decision, and one that I think Nintendo could have avoided by just having the entire game connect to the online and give you points based on whichever mode you’re playing, the good news is that what is on offer in the global online mode is really good. You can play any of the sports online, although Nintendo has custom tailored each sport with its own mode. For instance, bowling is a knock out mode, whilst Tennis is a tiebreak. Sadly, Soccer is a four on four mode, so you’ll be playing with random players which honestly is quite sufferable to what would have been an incredible 1v1 or 2v2 mode online.

After playing each online mode, and you’ll play A.I opponents if nobody is found online, which makes the former point about earning no points in the local mode even more silly, you’ll get points which will go towards unlocking a new outfit, tennis/badminton racket or title at random, with these being rotated out every few weeks or so. I really like the way that Nintendo awards you extra points for things such as scoring extra goals in Soccer, or hitting multiple fast serves in Tennis.

Things really get interesting in the Pro League, which you unlock for each sport after winning a few matches against real opponents. From here, there are 12 rankings that you can get through by beating opponents in similar rankings. Whilst I get the appeal of this, I do worry about what happens when there’s not enough players to feel servers for certain sports, and I still don’t think that forcing people to play this mode by putting all unlocks and progession behind it is the right idea, or enough to keep it going long term but we’ll see.

I think Nintendo Switch Sport’s online component shows that Nintendo is learning and still figuring things out. There’s definitely some weird decisions as mentioned, and things such as voice chat are still locked behind the app, but the connection was stable and even though you don’t earn anything whilst playing with friends, the lobby and how you select games is a huge improvement on what we’ve seen in most other Nintendo games, so hopefully they improve this as time goes on.

What I am very sure of though is that Nintendo Switch Sports is a game that should belong in absolutely every Nintendo Switch collection. I’m very confident in saying that even if you pull this game out when you’ve got friends or family over, it will still draw the same attention that it did in Christmas 2006. It’s still loads of fun, and whilst it might not be a game you pull out every day, it’s definitely one that you’ll get a hankering to play every so often at the very least.

The post Nintendo Switch Sports Review – Still A Fun Time appeared first on Press Start.

Growing up my family didn’t have much disposable cash to spend on entertainment, let alone video games, so when I did eventually come to possess a PlayStation console it was by way of a hand-me-down from a relative. This particular PlayStation happened to be modified too, so it came with a bunch of highly questionable copies of games ready for me to play. This instant inherited library was what kickstarted my love for JRPGs and where I discovered my favourite game of all time in Final Fantasy VIII. Little did I know though that I’d also been blessed with access to a ton of games that were never actually released in Australia or other PAL regions. Games like Chrono Cross, the highly-regarded follow up to the SNES classic Chrono Trigger, and a game that’s never been (legally) available outside of Japan and the US before now.

That all changes with the release of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, which not only plants the game firmly in the hands of gamers the world over and on a multitude of platforms but updates it with modern visuals and a few extra features to sweeten the deal.

The original version of Chrono Cross released to critical acclaim back in 2000, and with good reason. Rather than rehash what had come before in Chrono Trigger, the PlayStation sequel brought entirely new gameplay systems along with a compelling and well-told story that stood triumphantly on its own. By some black magic, the team managed to pull together 40-plus playable and swappable characters amongst a parallel-world plot with all of the bespoke dialogue and scenarios that involved and still come out with an end product that worked. It didn’t hurt either that it continued Square’s penchant for gorgeous visuals and CG cutscenes in its PS1 releases and came complete with one of gaming’s all-time great soundtracks thanks to Yasunori Mitsuda.

The game’s gameplay and battle systems were equally praised for bucking convention in the turn-based JRPG space. Combat deftly combined a risk-reward attack mechanic that balanced hit percentages and stamina with a meta where characters would receive buffs when the field of battle filled with an element they favoured. It also eschewed the idea of invisible random battles as well as employing a rudimentary point-and-click style of item interaction, all things that made it stand out against its contemporaries as the plucky and slightly experimental cousin to Final Fantasy. Of course there’s not much I can say about Chrono Cross itself that hasn’t been said many times over (and better) in the last 22 years. What I’m really here for is to break down what’s changed in the Radical Dreamers Edition and whether that makes it worth your time and money to play the game again or for the first time.

The biggest difference in Chrono Cross on modern consoles is obviously the HD graphical upgrade and this is probably the Radical Dreamers Edition’s most contentious change. See, it’s great to be able to play the game in much more modern resolutions but due to this being an upscaling of the source content and not a full-scale rebuild the results are a mixed bag. Much like Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, it’s a case of the updated character models and UI elements looking markedly better than their original counterparts while everything around them somehow looks slightly worse. The re-done 3D elements are sharp and new character models remain faithful to the originals while being given a tasteful update that still feels in step with the time, and the new character art in menus and text boxes is fairly nice across the board as well.

What’s most disappointing is the vaseline-smear filter applied aggressively over every pre-rendered background making them even less cohesive with the other visual elements. You’re able to switch back to ‘Classic’ visuals if you really can’t stand it, but only from the main menu and only with all the other HD updates turned off as well. Factor in as well the inconsistent frame rates and there’s a roughness that just doesn’t feel right in a modern HD re-release of such a revered title. It checks out given this release is an emulation as opposed to a full-on rebuild but it still sucks that more couldn’t be/hasn’t been done to make this the best way to play Chrono Cross. Hell, fans have done an excellent job with this on their own in the past.

It’s in the quality-of-life updates to the battle system that returning fans will likely find the most joy in replaying the game with this version. For starters you can turn battles off entirely which is a godsend during exploration, especially given that grinding battles isn’t really a viable way to progress in Chrono Cross anyway. When you do get into a fight you’re able to switch on an auto-battle that lets the game handle everything for you, as well as toggle on what is essentially an invincibility mode that causes every enemy attack to miss your party. Combined with a fast-forward toggle, this can really help with monotony out of fighting basic monster parties if you’re comfortable with breezing through everything. 

Not everyone will be compelled to tap into these options all the time but there are definite moments where they take the edge off of some of the game’s pain points. Dealing with that frustrating horse-feeding minigame in Viper Manor? Just switch on slow-motion mode and show those horses who’s boss (it’s them, they’re being fed literally hundreds of times in one night). The fast-forward and slow toggles are actually a holdover from the original but they’re available right away now, as opposed to unlocked after completing the game, and they really come in handy for the impatient among us. I just wish there was a quick save/load option outside of the occasional auto-saving, it seems like such an obvious inclusion for a title such as this.

So far, so very much like every other HD port that Square Enix has brought to modern machines in recent years. One very cool point of difference here though is the inclusion of Radical Dreamers, a text-based adventure that predates Chrono Cross itself and was never officially translated to English before now thanks to its existence on the Japan-only Satellaview device for the Super Famicom.

As a kind of a side-story/parallel to Chrono Cross, Radical Dreamers follows Serge, Kid and Magil in a heist attempt at Viper Manor that would later go on to inform one of the main game’s early missions. It’s hardly essential playing/reading over its 3-4 hour runtime but definitely an interesting look into the attitude of the franchise’s creators heading into Chrono Cross, while also offering a unique take on text adventure gameplay with its choice-based combat scenarios, timed events and light relationship building. It also feels quite dark and violent in comparison to the main game in ways I hadn’t expected. Overall, it’s just nice to see it finally translated and released in an official capacity (and the translation work isn’t half bad, either!)

With the inclusion of Radical Dreamers and the handy quality-of-life stuff, there’s definitely good reason to check out this re-release of Chrono Cross if you’re a longtime fan or curious JRPG enjoyer. It’s not all good, the visual update swings wildly between pleasant and puke-inducing for one, but the more available this game is the better I reckon.

The post Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Review – A Welcome Bit Of History appeared first on Press Start.

In my household, the expectations for this LEGO game have been built up. Bigger than a UCS Millennium Falcon #75192. My two sons, Luke and Ben, are budding master builders of actual physical bricks and TT Games’ full catalog. And when it comes to Star Wars, well, they were sired by a Sith who covertly manipulated events to get them named after his favourite Force users. By the time anybody caught on, it was way too late.

So yeah, we’re a triumvirate of veterans who really wanted LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga to be a new hope, not another half-baked clone. You can imagine our surprise, then, when we played a fully armed and operational reimagining that represents a Force-jump in evolution for this franchise.

It’s important to manage expectations on Skywalker Saga from the get go, however. For starters, it’s not simply an up-rezzed, level-for-level remake of 2007’s LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga. Obviously, that game only covered six films as opposed to the full complement of nine movies here. And though you’ll spot a tiny handful of similar gameplay sections and reused cutscene gags, this is very much a page one rewrite of the greatest Star Wars piss-take this side of Spaceballs.

For seconds, you’re getting full VO this time around (calm down, there’s a mumble mode for you purists). With a few exceptions, the soundalike actors they went with are excellent. They nail the little inflections your brain expects when hearing those classic movie lines for the umpteenth time.

Lastly, when we talk of mechanical upgrades, what’s been done isn’t the equivalent C3PO getting a red arm after ten years—somebody has taken a serious hydrospanner to the combat and class systems. They’ve even bolted on a universe scale sandbox—24 planets with three or so settlement areas apiece, orbit arenas encircling each world, and an absolute bantha load of collectables.

Honestly, what’s here makes the 2000s games look like LEGO DUPLO Star Wars.

If you’ve somehow never played one of TT Games’ titles, you should know that they’re best consumed in 2P split-screen co-op. (Online would have been nice, but it’s somehow gotten the saber chop.) Play this (Han) solo or with “another” as a Force-dyad, and the experience will be relatively the same: slapstick melee/pew-pew combat, mass destruction of property, some class-specific puzzling and simplified jumpy-jump platforming. However, with two people, you can have these emergent, low-stakes frenemy fights along the way.

Understanding that everybody Stans a particular trilogy, TT has wisely opted to let you kick off at the three generational entry points of Phantom Menace, A New Hope or The Force Awakens. If you stick to the breadcrumbed objectives markers and ignore the many, many opportunities to go off track, you can clock a single movie in roughly an hour and a bit.

That runtime is roughly in line with the prequel and OG LEGO Star Wars titles which spun their respective trilogies out into four hour campaigns each. Mind you, when you consider we got a 6-hour story from a single film, LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens, Skywalker Saga feels like it’s paced like a pod race.

On a more positive note, there are the many enhancements I alluded to earlier. There’s now a four-button combo system that thwarts button mashers while monetarily rewarding speed, consistency and timely counter presses. Gunplay includes a cover system, body part damage, gun crate “trade-up” weaponry, and a third-person cam that requires some recoil control. Though it has to be said that the latter frequently reduces you to squinting through an X-rayed version of your avatar to get a good shot off.

As you’d expect, your fisticuff capabilities are determined by the unique class-type of your current minifig—Jedi, Hero, Scavenger, Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter, Villain, Dark Side, Astromech, Protocol or ‘Extra’. Including DLCs there are 380 characters, each of them offering a means to circumvent specific environmental obstacles, decipher new quests or just fold in a cool combat skill. Case in point: using Jedi to fully possess enemies.

Oh, and it’s also worth mentioning that there’s a sprinkle of stealth in here, too. You can slowly acquire stormtrooper armour to go incognito or stay out of enemy vision cones in these My First Metal Gear sections. Like most of the game, there’s not a huge amount of depth or challenge to any of it, but TT earns solid points for mixing it up.

If your pants piece ever gets tired of legging it everywhere, you can always whip out your holoprojector and take to the stars. While this game is no danger of being mistaken for Rogue Squadron IV or a mini No Man’s Sky, the dogfighting and level of freedom impressed me quicker than the mishap had in the droid assembly line level.

You can get nice little space battles going with your favourite starship, each of them with the ability to roll, boost and lock on with homing torpedoes. The orbit areas around every planet are decently populated with asteroid fields, multi-ship dogfights, spawning aces, Capital ships to board, and stud comets to vaporise.

Even though I had to finish this on a deadline tighter than a mynock’s embrace, I got led astray by the side-opportunities in Skywalker Saga. Let’s do this by the numbers: if you want to earn the mysterious 100% completion reward, you need to tick off 225 minikits, 135 level challenges, 140 side missions, 731 puzzles, 38 trials and 10 challenges. One of the latter is my personal favourite, a Wandering Wookie who repeatedly Where’s Wallys his furry butt around this colossal universe.

Double—possibly triple-digit—hours of quality gameplay aside, Skywalker Saga isn’t without some misses. In the movie retellings, some barely significant parts in the series are given altogether too much screen time. Quick example: you have to physically hop in an X-wing after exploding Jabba to fly into orbit, go through a light speed load, land on Dagobah, and do an uneventful slog through the swamp to Yoda’s place to watch him die. Level complete.

Conversely, some cracking setpiece moments in the films can get lip-service in a cutscene, even though they’re fertile ground (read: a nice flat green piece) for gameplay. Quick example: the TIE escape with Poe and Finn gets a five second nod. That was a 10-minute affair in LEGO The Force Awakens.

It also has to be said that the new upgrades system is thicker than a Hutt but roughly about as useless in places. The four odd perks for every class are heavily weighted towards making the incredibly simple combat even easier. I honestly forgot all about it until the end credits of Rise of Skywalker. You’ll probably invest in the perks that reward you with extra studs for doing [class-specific menial task here], then ignore the rest.

Oh, and if you’re playing co-op, may I suggest you quickly secure the significantly higher ground that is your first controller. Often will be the time when a climactic 1v1 boss battle reduces player two to that of an awkward extra. Typically that’ll be a droid who’s about as useful as a poodoo-flavoured lollipop.

Be that as it may, the positives more than outweigh the negatives with this game. Genuinely humorous games are in painfully short supply in our medium, and Skywalker Saga is one of the rare few that can make you chortle like Salacious Crumb on red cordial. When it comes to mission titling and Easter Eggs in the sandbox, this game has clearly been made by a bunch of super nerds whose meme game is utterly on point.

Likewise, the slapstick antics in the mid-mission movies are brilliant. Quick example: Han telling his co-pilot to punch it, whereupon Chewie misinterprets and hauls off into C3PO’s face. We’ve all wanted to do it at some point. Let’s be honest.

The good times elevate even more when you factor in the stupid fun of co-op, particularly if you do literally Force lift your friend over a chasm and let them drop. Even better, there are a host of ludicrous bonus modes to chase, like “pew pew” sound effects, baguette sabers and a universe-wide rave dance. These are the rewards that make the blue milk worth the massive bantha squeeze.

THE PS5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Review – Feel The Co-Op Within You appeared first on Press Start.

I’ve always enjoyed playing Kirby games, but it’s easy to feel that they’ve become stagnant in recent times, with HAL relying on gimmicks that incorporate one or two new mechanics to change things up whilst still relying on the classic Kirby copy functions.

It was very clear since its reveal that Kirby and the Forgotten Land would attempt to push the series to new heights, and I’d say that it’s mostly succeeded in this mission. Firstly, I’d say that it’s done well to really retain the core mechanics of what makes a Kirby game great with great copy abilities that don’t feel gimmicky and all have a good amount of uniqueness where none overshadow the next.

I’d also say for the most part, the 3D nature of the gameplay as well as the fact that levels are much more open, really allows for Kirby to shine, given he has great reach both vertically and horizontally, and the levels not only make for great platforming and action, but also the amount of puzzles that are hidden within each level, without ever feeling cheap.

In my preview of the game, I likened Kirby to that of Super Mario 3D World in the sense that it does break away from the traditional 2D gameplay, whilst still retaining the core Mario platforming mechanics, but without going full blown into Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Odyssey territory, and I’d say that my thoughts remained the same throughout.

But for me it always felt a little bit below the likes of Super Mario 3D World, and I can’t quite put my finger on why it didn’t come together quite as well. Maybe it’s the fact that Kirby’s gameplay has a lot more variety thanks to the fact that the gameplay relies on a huge variety of abilities, without Kirby having any core ones himself. There’s a lot more variety at play, which works well, but also leaves more room for things not to hit as well as other certain mechanics do, and that was definitely my experience here.

One of the biggest parts of the game’s marketing has relied on Mouthful Mode, the new mechanic that allows Kirby to swallow everyday items such as cars, and this is a big part of the game. For the most part, these moments in levels are linked to puzzles or needing to take out larger enemies, and I thought it did a really great job to provide variety in gameplay, but then also bordered into gimmicky territory. For instance, the car starts out as a way to break through certain areas, but during the middle of the game is used in time trial races in the middle of levels, and it was hard to feel that it didn’t break the flow at times.

I think it’s to be commended though how many different abilities both in regular enemy copy attacks and Mouthful mode. If that wasn’t enough, each copy abilities can also be upgraded at the Waddle Dee Shop to have even more power than it did before. This was easily one of my favourite parts of the game, and some of the newer attacks were to be likened to the most insane Ratchet and Clank weapons. These are upgraded by collecting special stars that are unlocked in Treasure Road levels, which are essentially time trials that challenge you to use a recently acquired ability.

Whilst the majority of the game is just going from one level to the next before a boss battle, similar to that of 3D World, you’ll need to find a certain number of Waddle Dees in each level before you can proceed to the boss, and this was also something I really appreciated. The fact that these challenges really entice you to explore levels, and go back and accomplish the most random quests in these levels, rather than just burn straight through them. These challenges aside, I found the game to be extremely easy, even when there’s a normal difficulty and an easy mode, I just never felt challenged in normal mode to the point that I actually can’t remember dying at all.

What’s extremely clear is how much love has been put into this game, with the team wanting to pack as much as humanly possible. Back at Waddle Dee Town, there’s so many different areas that you unlock such as Cinemas, a Gotcha Machine, a Cafe where you can buy items to use in levels, Kirby’s house, a Colosseum that acts as a boss rush mode including the likes of Meta Knight and even mini games such as Waddle Dee Cafe: Help Wanted which is essentially an Overcooked clone. Whilst these at often feel a little bit separated from the main gameplay experience, they do provide pause in the level-to-level gameplay that could become repetitive without these areas to visit.

Honestly though, all-in-all, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a lot of fun and coming off some extremely involved open world games, it’s come at the perfect time and is a great breath of fresh air.

The post Kirby And The Forgotten Land Review – A Decent Step Forward appeared first on Press Start.

Much like Octopath Traveler before it, Triangle Strategy started out as a silly sounding codename that just ended up sticking, and even after playing all the way through it still strikes me as a strange name. Is it about the chain of strengths and weaknesses of unit types? Maybe it’s referring to the three powers vying for control of the land? It could be many things, but of one thing I am certain. Regardless of what the triangle is, Triangle Strategy is an utterly compelling strategy RPG that manages to toe the line between challenging and approachable in a way that made it hard to put down.

Triangle Strategy places you into the furred jacket of Serenoa Wolffort, heir to House Wolffort and loyal ally to the kingdom of Glenbrook. Glenbrook is one of the three kingdoms in the greater land of Norzelia in a time of seemingly lasting peace – but as you might guess, the peace in this realm is not a lasting one.

When the fight begins, Triangle Strategy places you in direct command of your chosen group of combatants, placed onto an isometric grid-based combat area, tasked to outwit and outlast the opponent in pursuit of victory. Triangle’s battle system is eminently approachable, but can be deceptively deep. The rules of this system are many but easy to understand. You’ll need to contend with attack directions, weather conditions, terrain effects and the like – complexity comes when all of these rules are mashed together in combat situations. While playing you will gradually learn about weaknesses in your strategy through momentary mistakes or sometimes full-on defeats, but I never felt that Triangle Strategy crossed the line into punishing territory.

There is no permanent death for characters for one, they simply retreat from battle ready for the next. Even a total loss is a gain of sorts since any experience your characters earned in the battle remains for your next attempt. More often than not, between retrying battles with slightly stronger characters and adjusting my strategy based on my experience with how it went last time I never found myself feeling overwhelmed by a challenge that felt insurmountable. It’s a fantastic balance that leaves room for demanding tactical challenge, while making each attempt naturally a little easier than the last without doing anything as crude as suggesting you turn the difficulty down. It’s a super smart balancing system that made triumph feel like it’s own reward. That said, there are difficulty modes you can choose from at the beginning of the adventure, and are free to change throughout the game without consequence if you want to tailor your starting point.

The cast of characters fighting alongside you and existing in the world around you are worthy of note. Each feels fleshed out with their own motives and personalities, their own deeply held convictions about what they want to do for themselves and the people that matter to them. They have each had their own experiences of the world and their own pre-existing relationships. It feels like my character’s story is taking place in a fully realised world, alongside people with deeply felt justifications for their convictions.

The path Triangle’s story takes is largely directed by decisions made by not only you, but your group as a whole. House Wolffort is staunchly democratic which leads to one of the most interesting aspects of Triangle Strategy – all major decisions made by your group are made by majority vote. You as a player cannot directly decide the direction your house will take, but when a major decision needs to be made you are given an opportunity to gather information and talk with your companions to attempt to convince them to see things the way you do. You have no guarantee that they will come around to your perspective, and it will entirely depend on whether you make an argument that is convincing to them in particular. It all cumulates in a vote where your group’s future will be decided.

I found this decision making process utterly captivating. Most of the decisions you need to collectively make will be difficult – there are rarely easy answers here. You will have to wrangle with yours and your group’s existing allegiances, consider risky proposals, and even your own personal convictions to arrive at a decision. At times characters even convinced me to change my mind after I tried to change theirs, presenting a new viewpoint I hadn’t properly considered until then. The process of gathering information beforehand and making an argument feels almost like a lite version of an investigative visual novel, and made an already engaging story full of unexpected twists and turns feel even more personal. This story can go off in wildly different directions based on your collective decisions. Having to think carefully and fight to convince your group of your viewpoint made the voting process nerve racking and the outcome genuinely impactful.

This story of kingdoms in turmoil unfolds against a striking visual backdrop. Utilising the same 2D-HD style as Octopath Traveler before it, Triangle Strategy is both an homage to past strategy RPGs and a contemporary technical showpiece. Battle situations are easy to read at a glance owing to the simple look while effects like lighting and depth of field make the game look unmistakably modern. The only drawback I found visually was what seemed like a particularly aggressive resolution scaling system, which during relatively static story scenes could give the sharp edged characters and environment textures a strange scaling look which can be a bit distracting if you notice. Triangle’s music is worth mentioning as well. Like the visuals it toes a line between resembling music from RPGs of another era while sounding beautifully contemporary with it’s instrumentation.

The post Triangle Strategy Review – A Strategic Achievement appeared first on Press Start.

When you talk about kart racers and which have stood the test of time, not many that would disagree – Mario Kart is king. But growing up – there were so many imitators that it was hard to keep track. South Park Rally, Konami Krazy Racers, and Diddy Kong Racing were all games I adored growing up too. But I never really got into Chocobo Racing, and I’ve no idea why. Regardless, in an era where Mario Kart is still undisputedly the king of the genre, can Chocobo GP do things different enough to warrant your attention? It’s a solid kart racer, but the short answer is no.

As you’d probably expect, Chocobo GP is a kart racing game that features a cast picked from recurring characters in the Final Fantasy series. A sequel to 1999’s Chocobo Racing of sorts, the game’s roster focuses more on the side characters like the Chocobo and Moogles that appear throughout the series’ illustrious thirty-five-year run. The game itself is what it sounds like – a Mario Kart clone – though it does a few things differently that differentiates it from it’s contemporaries, for better or for worse.

At its core, Chocobo GP is equal parts fun and straightforward. It’s got the same mechanics you’d expect to find in a kart racer. There are drifting mechanics for those who are a little more well-versed in these kinds of games. There are even power-ups to find on each track that are cleverly themed after spells from the Final Fantasy games. As an example, collecting more of the same even upgrades the spells – Fire turns into Fira and then Firaga. It’s a tried-and-true system that’s worked before in games like Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing, so it’s encouraging to see Chocobo GP doesn’t mess with that aspect too much.

But what really lets Chocobo GP down is everything else surrounding it. If you’d told me that Chocobo GP began life or will eventually become a free-to-play mobile game, I’d believe you. So much of the game is geared towards unlocking currency which, in turn, allows you to unlock content that it feels like a bit of a grind. I could perhaps empathize with this design choice in any other game, but in a game like Chocobo GP, not being able to access all of the content after bringing it home to a party or group to play feels like a huge misstep.

The crux of the content can be unlocked through the game’s story mode, mind you, though even that is bound to disappoint. Channelling similar energy to the original game, the story mode sees characters from the world of Final Fantasy talking to one another in static dialogue screens before racing each other to solve their problems. It’s got better production values than I expected (though my expectations were relatively low), but it also feels like a four to six-hour grind that disguises the lack of content the game has.

In a game that could quickly be celebrating the rich history of Final Fantasy, it’s disappointing to discover that Chocobo GP falls short of most expectations. On the one hand, I found it rather impressive that the roster was over twenty or so characters, each with a unique ability to use mid-race. On the other hand, it was disappointing to discover that while the roster was diverse, series stalwarts like Cloud and Squall not making launch (and one being paid) feel questionable. Some of the characters who actually made it in have only appeared in a single Final Fantasy game, so to see them make it into the base roster over those two feels strange.

Particularly egregious is the selection of courses on offer and where they come from. Bizarrely small, especially when compared to similarly priced games in the same genre, Chocobo GP offers up just eight tracks to choose from. Even more bizarrely, these are pulled from Final Fantasy V, VI, VII, and IX and no other games. The first five or so are also quite simple in their design – with no interesting gimmicks or design choices to keep things interesting. It feels remarkably barebones for a package that admittedly has so much polish.

I thought at first that I was being a bit too hard on Chocobo GP for not celebrating Final Fantasy as well as it could. After all, it is a Chocobo game, not a Final Fantasy one. But the moment that we start bringing in characters and worlds from the Final Fantasy games and not the Chocobo ones, the expectation has been set. That’s perhaps the overriding issue I have with Chocobo GP; it can’t decide if it wants to be a sequel to Chocobo Racing or Final Fantasy’s answer to Mario Kart. Unfortunately, in its pursuit of both, it comes up as neither.

Even more disappointing is the progression. Rather than unlocking characters and their vehicles, you open the opportunity to purchase them from the shop. There are three currencies in Chocobo GP, and you’ll have to sift through them to buy most of the characters and vehicles you want – though, of course, one of them can be purchased with real money. Your main currency, the tickets, is earned by replaying races and finishing them in certain times. It can just be tedious to get everything you want when so little content is on offer to play around with.

Otherwise, the usual modes are here – both local and online multiplayer modes are supported. There’s a time attack mode and a custom mode that allows you to adjust aspects like the frequency of items. The most unique mode on offer is the Chocobo GP mode, which allows up to sixty-four players to compete online in an elimination tournament-style mode. Placing fourth or better on each race gets you through to the next. It’s a novel idea, though we were unable to properly test it during the pre-launch period.

I mentioned before that Chocobo GP has polish, and that’s certainly clear when it comes to the presentation. The game is incredibly colourful and runs at a smooth framerate for the most part. So much has been pulled from so many different games, yet the art direction feels strong and consistent. Similarly, the soundtrack is pretty fantastic too. I’ve always had a soft spot for Final Fantasy IX, so to be able to race through Alexandria while a happy hardcore remix of Melodies of Life plays is fanservice at its finest.

Perhaps that’s the thing that will save Chocobo GP for most people – fanservice. It’s clearly got something to offer for Final Fantasy fans – though whether it has enough is the question. For this avid Final Fantasy fan, it doesn’t.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Chocobo GP Review – A Steady Ride With A Slow Start appeared first on Press Start.

Although Skate is a franchise on the mend thanks to the revitalising powers of an EA realising the potential their dormant IP holds, OlliOlli has been the last decade’s most enduring skating franchise. Although it maintains the series’ accessible and fun control scheme, OlliOlli World enjoys a totally rad coat of paint that serves to completely reinvent the game’s visual identity and attitude in fitting with what most stereotypically think of when they consider skater culture.

There’s plenty of lingo, baggy shorts, big grinds, and even bigger slams. And although the game can be hard to a hazardous degree, especially if you’re trying to clock every level’s toughest challenges, OlliOlli World doesn’t demand it of you. In fact, you’re able to experience as difficult a game as you choose as the pass mark, in most cases, is simply beating the level. In that sense, and coupled with its easy-to-pick-up controls, OlliOlli World pretty deliberately feels carefree and a perfect representation of that cruisy, laid-back skateboarding ethos that’s all-inclusive, non-competitive, and promotes growth at a steady pace. 

The point of OlliOlli World is to determine whether you, through your gnashing and shredding mastery, and with the help of a ragtag group of friends, are capable of easing Chiffon into retirement by taking over her nebulous, and apparently godlike, role as a ‘Skate Wizard’ of Radlandia. It’s an absurd premise that serves as a pretty outlandish backdrop for the game’s main event: good old-fashioned skating. 

Impressing the other, positively cartoonish, deities of Radlandia’s handful of regions is a towering task and requires you to skate through somewhere in the range of fifty levels that do certainly get tougher as the journey nears its end. Like previous entries, OlliOlli World’s levels play out in a side-scrolling fashion and require a certain aptitude for rhythm to chain together combos throughout the many obstacles you’ll face. The level design is layered, offering multiple paths that often lead to ‘gnarly routes’ that house the tougher tasks doled out by Mike, the brick shithouse dullard of the group. As they always have, OlliOlli’s controls borrow from the Skate playbook more than Tony Hawk’s. A controlled flick of the right stick determines the flip trick, grab, or grind you’ll pull off, while triggers control your skater’s rotation—a must for keeping those combos alive, along with wall rides and manuals. Quarter pipes are a new addition to OlliOlli World and, while they’re great for catching air and changing lanes, they create a certain unreadability to the level and, through constantly switching between left and right movement, makes the way forward harder to anticipate. 

Straying from the main course is a great way to unearth the side quests on offer, most of which involve tracking down the strangest of people who call Radlandia home. Although reaching them can be tricky, there’s a certain, disarming charm that comes from chatting with a buff, roided out seagull. 

While joining the Skate Wizard ranks and reaching Gnarvana is your skater’s ultimate goal, it serves as a bit of an endgame for those who reach it. Players who vibe with the chill, aimless act of skating can opt into the Gnarvana Portal and enjoy levels generated by certain parameters, like difficulty and length, by the player. It’s ultimately pointless and doesn’t quite hit like proper user-created levels might, but serves as a good means of practice. Each generated instance is given a postcode that players can share, creating a kind of competitive aspect to an otherwise meaningless aside. 

The Gnarvana League, on the other hand, could be the beginnings of a more durable reason to return to OlliOlli after the credits roll. Although it’s in its infancy and feels rather bare-bones, existing only as a daily challenge at the moment with a rudimentary ranking system, I feel as though it could evolve into something pretty cool. Being able to watch the table-topping runs through a replay is a good way to learn a trick or two. 

OlliOlli is like a rainbow-coloured fruit, now rich in colour and personality having shed its pixel art rind. As far as reinventions go, it’s hard to fault the game’s new direction. It’s a gorgeous hand-drawn approach that feels like it’s pulled from the pages of some coming of age, summery graphic novel—almost as if Bryan Lee O’Malley tried his hand at an Adventure Time, except it’s full of backwards caps and anthropomorphic ice-cream cones. The game’s soundtrack, a curated selection of warm and welcoming house music, fits the mood like a glove, including ‘Darling Gardens’ from Melbourne’s own Midflite. 

I’d go so far as to call OlliOlli World a feel-good game and it’s one that’ll catch a lot of people off guard, despite the franchise’s more than confident beginnings. I hope, through a bit of post-launch support, it continues to grow, especially when it comes to the lighter competitive aspects of Gnarvana. 

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WERE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post OlliOlli World Review – Skate Or Die appeared first on Press Start.

The fact that Dying Light 2 Stay Human is even finished feels like a miracle. The game felt like it was in development hell for so long that I’d thought it’d ironically gone the same way as Dead Island 2. Now, almost six years after Dying Light, Dying Light 2 Stay Human has not only seen the light but come out swinging. And while its primary new focus – its story – falls flat, everything else about Dying Light 2 is a triumph.

Dying Light 2 takes place sometime after the events of the original. You play as Aiden, an infected survivor in a world infected by a new virus variant from the original game. Aiden is lucky – he has some kind of resistance to the virus – allowing him to remain human under the right conditions. The game follows him on a quest to find his sister in the oddly non-specific “City”, while also looking to shed light on events in his past that could explain his immunity. It’s a more personal story than Dying Light ever was, but such a story comes with a significant caveat.

That caveat is pretty damning – the overarching plot of Dying Light 2 just isn’t engaging. So many times, I’d find myself quite bluntly uninterested in Aiden’s personal quest to find his sister. It’s a shame, given that this is the most significant area that the game is trying to improve upon, but it falls flat. Techland has gone on record to say that there’s so much dialogue in this game, presumably to illustrate how seriously they’re taking the story. But given how meandering the plot is, I can’t help but wonder – what’s the point?

Much like how I felt about Dying Light, the ho-hum plot is mitigated by a core gameplay loop that is the strongest that the developer has ever put out. At its core, Dying Light 2 is a first-person open-world game. The core difference between Dying Light and its contemporaries is the parkour mechanics, which dovetail beautifully with the zombie chase mechanics. Thanks to these mechanics, Aiden can run, jump, and climb across almost any surface in the game world. They’re well developed when compared to the original Dying Light.

Dying Light 2 also replaces the City of Harran and the countryside of its expansion with a completely new setting in “The City”, a non-specific European locale that’s split into two distinct regions. The first region feels similar to Harran in the original Dying Light. The second region feels more unique and more akin to a proper city – tall skyscrapers and the like create a true concrete jungle where Dying Light 2 really finds its stride.

Tools such as the grappling hook and UV light return from previous games, but the paraglider is brand new. Perfectly adapted for the new setting, it allows you to use wind currents to glide from building to building. Throwing the paraglider into the mix with the parkour mechanics gives you a lot of flexibility in how you reach your locations, bolstering Dying Light 2’s already robust traversal mechanics.

Combat has also been tweaked but still feels satisfying. There are no more guns in abundant supply, so most action is relegated to rudimentary bows and crafted melee weapons. Single-use shotguns are craftable too, but otherwise, you’ll be beating zombies senseless with your creations. Combat in Dying Light 2 feels just right – the weight and heft of your weapons feel appropriate. Quite simply, it’ll never get old to send a zombie flying with a heavy weapon.

Yes, weapons have durability and will eventually break, but resources are so numerous that it nary becomes an issue in the game. But yes, the rumours are true; the weapons in Dying Light 2 can’t be repaired – so don’t go getting attached to anything.

Weapons can be bolstered with modifications carried over from Dying Light that make them behave differently, too. Some add poisoning effects, others are given more physical blowback, and some even freeze enemies in place. It’s rather goofy but feels like a nice callback to the cheeky tone Dead Island and Dying Light had.

With a game of this breadth and size, you’d expect to see the quality of the quests falter. The main quests are filled with some fantastic and tense gameplay moments, though the final act did grow tiresome and felt like it should’ve wrapped up a few battles earlier. Similarly, while there are many side quests on offer, none of them feel like throwaways, with production values (often but not always) on par with the main ones.

Putting quests aside, there’s also a heap of activities to distract you in the City. While these peppering across the map feels a little dated, the sheer variety here really saves things. There are climbing puzzles in the form of radio towers, water towers, and windmills. There are even quarantined areas that you enter from the top, descending deeper and deeper as you open shortcuts like a small self-contained rogue-like dungeon.

The most notable are the electricity stations and water towers. Both allow you to reroute resources to a settlement. Electricity stations, in particular, are fun puzzles that require you to connect two power sources with a cable, having to find the shortest distance between them to join them. Completing either of these locations will allow you to alter the world – rerouting to the military faction creates more traps and weapons in the open world. In contrast, the other faction places more components in the world to facilitate your parkour. Think more jump pads, ziplines, and air vents for your glider.

I’ve never quite seen an open-world game reward the player by changing the world they exist in so much, and while it doesn’t quite have the far-reaching consequences you’d expect on a story level, on a gameplay level, it’s a nice touch to be able to mould the City in the way that best suits your play style.

The day-night cycle in the original game was both unique and integral, so it only feels fitting that it be improved upon here. Where you’d previously have darted for a safe house at the first sign of night, Dying Light 2 makes an earnest effort to incentivise you to stay out. Chases themselves are now tiered similar to wanted levels in Grand Theft Auto, giving a better idea of when to bail yourself out. New indoor locales are also better explored at night – as the infected won’t be inside them at night but rather on the streets. Finally, some missions can only be completed at night.

While I enjoyed the nights of Dying Light, there was little reason to stay around for too long when the sun disappeared. Dying Light 2 does a great job of rectifying that issue rather well.

That being said, there are still a few things Dying Light 2 doesn’t get right. I’ve already detailed how the story is lacking, but the dialogue system it borrows from games like Mass Effect, and later Assassin’s Creed games lack any meaningful sense of consequence. Typically, tough choices rarely branch out too much and are often met with responses that almost always can be reduced to “that’s annoying to me, but I understand why you did it!” and the story just moving on. I understand what the team was aiming for here, but it feels glaringly inconsequential with how it’s presented here.

Much has been said about just how much content there is in the game. I’d estimate my first run easily took around twenty or so hours to finish. Doing absolutely everything the game offers could easily balloon that time to over a hundred or so hours. But I struggle to see just how someone could pull the much talked about five hundred or so hours out of Dying Light 2. Thankfully, if you’re really keen to know how the story progresses, joining another players game in co-op would let you do so without having to play the game all over again (as it’s just not worth it, honestly, to do it all again yourself)

From a presentation standpoint, Dying Light 2 offers three visual options. Resolution and quality options feel like a bit of a sore point where – they feel like they run at the same level of fidelity and performance as the original Dying Light did on base hardware of last generations consoles. My personal choice – performance mode – runs flawlessly. Everything looks crisp with some breathtaking locales and buttery smooth framerates that allow Dying Light 2 to put it’s best step forward both figuratively and literally. It just lends itself better to the game’s fast platforming and pacing.

The original score is similarly uneven. Sometimes it sounds like the media it’s doing a great job of emulating – with grim orchestral pieces akin to John Murphy’s work on films like 28 Days Later. There’s enough dark synth here to similarly give the game a futuristic yet desolate feeling that it’s gunning for. But the upbeat ones feel remarkably out of place – so many of these tracks feel like they were made for a different game.

The voice work is similarly mixed, and I was surprised to find Aiden’s voice actor wasn’t the same as Kyle’s from the original game. Surprisingly, Rosario Dawson steals the show here as Lawan. While I’ve made it quite clear how much I didn’t enjoy the story, every scene she was in was bizarrely compelling to watch. She does well here, even if the script sometimes gets a bit tawdry.

It might sound like I’m being harsh on Dying Light 2, but at the end of the day, it’s a fairly remarkable game and infinitely more enjoyable than Dying Light. It’s easily, without a doubt, greater than the sum of its parts.

THE PLAYSTATION 5  AND XBOX SERIES X VERSIONS WERE PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. DIGITAL COPIES OF THE GAMES WERE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Dying Light 2 Stay Human Review – A Fluid & Frenetic Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

Since the Switch’s launch almost five years ago in 2017, we’ve seen almost all of Nintendo’s flagship franchises receive substantial shakeups in some way. I say almost because Pokémon is yet to receive the same treatment, and its no secret that fans are clamouring for a new and innovative entry, that will push the series forward in the same way Breath of the Wild did for Zelda. That all changes now with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a title that seeks to buck the trends and trappings that we’ve become so familiar with over the years, and while the end result might not be of the same caliber as Nintendo’s recent reinventions, there’s a lot that it does right, making for one of the best new Pokémon games in recent years.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes place in an ancient Sinnoh known as the Hisui region, in a world and time where little is known about Pokémon and their origins. They’re treated more like wildlife as opposed to potential friends, and there’s a palpable sense of fear surrounding these creatures, and it’s your job as a Team Galactic Corps member to demystify the stigma surrounding Pokémon and fill out the Pokédex. Over time, though, it becomes apparent that there’s more going on in Hisui than meets the eye, as the all-important Noble Pokémon are becoming frenzied and out of control, causing damage to the environment, the people close to them, and themselves.

There’s no denying that the core plot of Arceus isn’t too far from something you’d find in a Monster Hunter game, but what it lacks in originality, it makes up for with heart. While this isn’t quite the level of storytelling found in games like Pokémon Black and White, Arceus poses some interesting questions about what it means to catch Pokémon, and how they fit into the broader world. The idea of warring clans that have inherently different beliefs rooted in the same God is something that’s never been touched on in Pokémon before, and it makes sense here in Arceus given the setting and exploration of Sinnoh’s origins. Relationships between these clans and Team Galactic start off fragile at best, but you’ll slowly help build bridges between the cultural differences and beliefs that each faction harbors. None of this would’ve been possible without a diverse and likeable cast of characters to act as a lens into each of these clans, and while I wouldn’t describe them as deep or intricately written, it’s satisfying to watch them grow and evolve past their misconceptions to unite against a greater threat.

If you’re going into Arceus thinking that it’s just Breath of the Wild, but Pokémon, then you’re in for a rude shock. Firstly, Arceus isn’t truly open world. As you’ll progress, you’ll unlock zones to explore, each of them home to different species of Pokémon and Noble Pokémon. Each one is relatively sizeable, but not to the point that it feels like a chore to explore or traverse their environments. These areas are made even easier to explore with the addition of new base camps you can fast travel to, and the brand-new mountable Pokémon you’ll unlock over the course of the story. Whether it be the ability to mount Wyrdeer as you bolt across the landscape, or gliding through the open skies with a Hisuian Braviary, each one adds something unique to the gameplay loop, and flipping between them on a dime makes traversal seamless and satisfying.

While it’s freeing to be able to explore these open areas at your own pace, it’s a shame that there isn’t really a whole lot to see as you do it. Aside from the swathes of wild Pokémon to catch and battle, the number of times I saw something that piqued my interest can be counted on one hand. There’s just not a whole lot going on here, leaving the areas feeling relatively uninteresting and mundane. It fails to capitalize on the core allure of open world games and leaves these areas feeling somewhat unfinished.

Fortunately, while exploration is lacking, it’s hard to deny that catching and battling Pokémon while you fill up the Pokédex is the most addictive it’s ever been, which is largely thanks to the research system. As you catch and battle Pokémon, you’ll complete Research Tasks to fill out the dex entry for that specific Pokémon. Whether it be seeing them use a specific move, defeating them with a certain type, or just catching them, you’re always making progress on Research Levels as you play. It leaves every expedition feeling like it was worthwhile, even if you spend all your time catching random Pokémon and collecting crafting materials. Speaking of which, the ability to craft items is something that’s wholly new to Arceus, and it’s more than a surface level inclusion. A lot of the resources you’ll collect when you go on expeditions can be used to craft different types of Pokéballs, medicines, and much more. Not only does this save you money that you’ll no doubt need for other goods, but also provides a real sense of self-sustainability as you explore the world.

A lot of what makes filling out the Pokédex so satisfying is the simple act of catching Pokémon, which behaves quite differently in Arceus. While you can still catch Pokémon in the cathartic ways of old in battle, Arceus also allows you to throw Pokéballs outside of battle to catch them. Much like a third person shooter, you take aim and throw, with hits from behind having a higher catch rate than other throws. You can use stealth to manipulate this to your advantage, and different kind of balls incentivize different positioning and throw arcs to make the most out of them. Something like the Leaden Ball travels much shorter than the Feather Ball but has a higher catch rate overall. You can also use other thrown items to stun Pokémon, or even lure them closer to you with certain foods and berries. It’s a surprisingly robust and flexible system that incentivizes taking things slowly, while also understanding what you can do with your items at any given time.

Battling is mostly similar to other games in the franchise, with one key difference – the addition of Agile and Strong Style move variations. Once a Pokémon masters any given move, they can be used in an Agile or Strong format, costing extra PP, but modifying how they behave in battle. Agile Style typically does less damage but moves the casting Pokémon forward in the turn order, while Strong Style does more damage, but moves Pokémon back in the turn order. Some moves also gain accuracy benefits alongside the speed and power that’s inherit to each respective style. A lot of the early game battles are quite easy if you manage your items properly due to the EXP Share, but it was refreshing to find that the game got progressively more challenging as my party grew in power. Because enemy Pokémon can also make use of styles, it’s important to know which style is advantageous to you at any given time.

As you complete the main story, you’ll battle the frenzied Noble Pokémon in what could be considered boss fights. These encounters will have you dodging for your life in a mad rush, as you constantly look for openings to weaken these Pokémon down with throwable food, eventually opening themselves up to attack by your own Pokémon. Each one of these encounters is unique from the last, providing a much needed change of pace, and serving up some of the best moments Arceus has to offer.

In terms of actual content, there’s quite a bit here to sink your teeth into. Aside from the roughly 20-hour main story, there’s a plethora of side-quests to engage with. Most of them just boil down to bringing someone a certain Pokémon or item, but there’s a few standouts here and there that expand upon the world and characters you interact with between expeditions. There’s also the ever- present allure of filling out your Pokédex, and without spoiling anything, Arceus offers an end-game victory lap around Hisui that culminates in a fantastic final encounter.

One thing that Arceus undeniably fumbles is its visuals, detail, texture work, and overall visual polish. For the most part, character models, buildings, battle animations, and new Pokémon designs look great, but everything surrounding it is lifeless, muddy, and flat to look at. While there’s some visual variety in each of the explorable areas, the textures used to create the landscapes are completely lacking in detail. Couple this with a few weird visual quirks and inconsistent performance in docked mode, and it’s easy to feel like a lot of the game’s potential is hamstrung because of these shortcomings. The Switch definitely isn’t as powerful as other current hardware, but that isn’t an excuse when you have lookers like Metroid Dread and Super Mario Odyssey on the same console. Thankfully, it runs remarkably well in handheld mode, and the OLED screen helps a bit in bringing some of the duller textures to life.

THE SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Pokémon Legends: Arceus Review – The Evolution We’ve Been Waiting For appeared first on Press Start.

Majority of the remakes and remasters that release today don’t hold a lot of weight with me as I am a younger gamer that likely didn’t play the originals, but that was definitely not the case with Pokémon Diamond & Pearl.  As my first foray into the Pokémon franchise, Diamond and Pearl are games that are near and dear to my heart. To say I was nervous about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl would be an understatement, but after a few hours with Shining Pearl, all of those worries washed away as I was swept up in a nostalgia fueled trip back to the Sinnoh region that reminded me of why I fell in love with this franchise in the first place. It’s not without its missteps, but Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are bound to please long-time fans, and offer a traditional Pokémon experience for newcomers, making for one of the best offerings the franchise has had for a long time.

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are set in the Sinnoh region, an ancient, mountainous region that holds stark significance within the world of Pokémon. Ruins scatter the lands, Mount Coronet looms in the distance, and town elders are constantly referencing higher powers, evolution, and the creation of all Pokémon. There’s a palpable mysticism present across all aspects of Sinnoh as a region and that’s undoubtedly what makes it so memorable.

Not all is calm in the Sinnoh region, though, you’ll often run into Team Galactic during your journey to collect all eight gym badges and they’re almost always up to no good. Their leader, Cyrus, wants to exploit the powers of legendary Pokémon to rebuild the universe in his image with him at the center of it. They’re far from the most interesting antagonistic force we’ve seen in a Pokémon game, but I found they’ve always given off a campy Saturday morning cartoon vibe that’s quite entertaining. It’s an interesting enough plot that mainly serves as set dressing for the gameplay, but the environmental story telling is where the stories of Sinnoh are really told.

One of the best parts of playing a new Pokémon game is picking and choosing who you want to bring with you on your journey to the top, and Sinnoh has a great selection of potential party members. From the excellent choice of starters to now series staples like Garchomp and Lucario, it feels like you can never make a bad decision. This is further reinforced by the new HM system, where using HMs simply calls on a Pokémon from the wild or in your PC, meaning you’ll no longer have to dedicate a party slot to the likes of Bidoof just so you can use Cut and Rock Smash. It’s a simple, yet welcome change that adds a little extra flexibility to teambuilding.

The core gameplay loop is mostly unchanged here, you move from town to town, battling trainers, catching Pokémon, taking on gyms, and thwarting Team Galactic’s plans when the need arises. While it’s a tried-and-true formula, it feels refreshing to return to a format that we haven’t seen for a long, long time. While Gamefreak have been trying to push the series forward with new ideas, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl almost feel like comfort food, instantly familiar to long time fans while still holding appeal for series newcomers. Aside from the introduction of Ramanas Park, the post-game is also relatively untouched, which unfortunately means that these versions lack the Battle Frontier, and is devoid of any other content exclusive to Platinum, which is a weird choice considering past remakes always included stuff from those third games.

Difficulty has always been a weird point for Pokémon because it’s almost never consistent. I’ve always seen the DS era of Pokémon as quite challenging in comparison to the easier recent entries. I regularly struggled with Diamond and Pearl as a kid, but I found Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to be a cakewalk. I had no trouble right up until the end of the game, which is no doubt due to the party wide EXP Share that’s always on. I’m all for accessibility for players who need it, but it would’ve been nice to be able to disable or at least revert the EXP Share to its original functionality.

biggest new additions to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and they’re inextricably linked when you reach post-game. Early on in your journey, you’ll unlock the ability to visit The Grand Underground; a vast network of tunnels underneath Sinnoh, where you can setup your own secret base, mine, and catch Pokémon. Mining sees you engaging in the same mini game as the originals, slowly tapping away at the screen to unearth valuable items and Spheres that can be used to trade for TMs and other hard to get goodies. The Pokémon you’ll find are almost always rarer than what you’ll find on the surface, and I quickly got addicted to visiting each room of The Grand Underground to see what I could catch. When you mine, you can also find statues of certain Pokémon, and placing these statues in your base will increase the chances of other Pokémon of the same type appearing. It’s a consistently rewarding and streamlined process that kept me coming back, and then I unlocked Ramanas Park.

Unlocking Ramanas Park is done by filling all entries in the Sinnoh Regional Pokédex and serves as a means for you to catch legendary Pokémon from different regions. Once unlocked, you can mine for Mysterious Shards in The Grand Underground, which can then be traded for slates. These one time use slates are used to trigger encounters with these legendary Pokémon of the past which makes for an immediately satisfying and addictive post-game loop of exploring The Grand Underground, returning to Ramanas Park, catching a legendary,  rinse and repeat. It’s this back and forth that feels like a natural extension of The Underground in the original game, and it captures that same magic that I felt as a kid, which I think is a remarkable achievement.

All the little exclusive things you remember from generation 4 are here as well. The Pokétch can be brought up by tapping R, which has all of the same tools and widgets as you remember. Pastoria City Marsh, the Contest Hall in Hearthome City, and the ability to make Poffins for your Pokémon are all here in full force, giving you plenty of optional content to engage with if you so wish. One small new thing included in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are Ball Capsules. Ball Capsules allow you to place stickers on your Pokéballs, with little effects going off as you throw your partners into battle. It’s a very simple and cute system that has quite a deep level of customization to it and is a welcome addition to make your experience that little bit more personal. Needless to say, Sinnoh was and still is chock full of content to engage with and can no doubt keep you playing for hours on end if you want to experience everything it has to offer.

The most large-scale change, of course, comes in the form of the visual overhaul Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl bring to the Switch. I’ll admit that I wasn’t sold on the art style at first, and to be honest, I don’t know what I was expecting out of it. As more trailers and footage started coming out, I warmed up to it quickly, and after playing the game for roughly 20 hours on the OLED, I’m very happy with how it turned out. This new art tyle really captures the original chibi aesthetics of Diamond and Pearl, mixed with high resolution and mostly detailed Pokémon models found in other recent entries. Exploring the world is a joy – from the always bustling Jubilife City to the quiet and quaint Floarama Town, there’s always something new around the corner, and I always looked forward to seeing how my favorite towns had translated to the Switch.

The real standout for me, was actually the battle arenas. When outdoor and exploring routes, it really feels like you’re battling it out in the wild as Mount Coronet hangs overhead. Team Galactic battles take place in a suitably space-like arena filled with hazy purples and blacks that lend their encounters an otherworldly feel. The best that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have to offer in this regard are undoubtedly the gym battles, but I won’t spoil anything here, because they’re best experienced blind. Couple this with the excellent soundtrack, and the end result is a remake that captures the essence and aesthetics of the originals, with the kind of polish and presentation you’d expect from a first party Nintendo game. Not everything is perfect, though. Some Pokémon fair better than others in the transition to this kind of art style, and some of the battle animations can look pretty underwhelming at points.

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My fellow GTA fans must be feeling like the “What Year Is It?” Jumanji meme today. Firstly, because it’s like we’re all laying virginal eyes on the cities of Liberty, Vice and the grand state of San Andreas again. Secondly, because these three iconic games seem to be hot button topics once more. Controversy, it seems, doesn’t have a used-by-date.

Fortunately, what’s being energetically debated isn’t too big a deal – nobody’s thinking of the children and yanking this Definitive Edition from store shelves. A hacker hasn’t discovered a Hot Coffee 2.0. [Edit: hilariously, this has come to pass since publishing the original in-progress review – Rockstar has reuploaded a sanitized version to servers]

That said, everybody seems to have a fiery opinion on a few other things. The rights of unofficial, currently being litigated modders is one. What’s to be visually and aurally expected from a “definitive” product being the other.

Frankly, we’re just going to have let the Ken Rosenbergs of the world figure out the former in court. I’d much rather spend what little space I have today dissecting the latter. More specifically: you’re getting an honest, opening hours appraisal from a middle-aged-cheese who lived and breathed these titles on day of release.

Grand Theft Auto III Definitive Edition

Straight off the (practically useless melee weapon that is the) bat, I can admit to feeling a sandbox load-in “wow” moment. 2001-me would’ve never dared to hope for this sort of to-the-horizon draw distance, object crispness, readable sign textures, dynamic lighting or frames per second.

If you gave him that back then, it’d be like handing fairy floss to a caveman. His mind would have exploded.

This will be taken for granted and lost on you younger gaming brethren, but watching stuff reflect off the duco of one’s Banshee is way more impressive than it should be. Grove Street Games has also massaged in some extra polygons here and there to make the car models less boxier than I recall. Don’t expect too much from that statement. I’m talking small degrees. Like transitioning from 1980s DUPLO to a modern LEGO set.

Like that first inhale of SPANK, I became hooked on the admittedly simplistic campaign of being a voiceless (and at the time nameless) criminal errand boy. While it’d be weird to call this “My First Mob Job” experience quaint, that’s exactly what it feels like now. Mission difficulty and complexity is low, to the point where over half the game feels like an extended tutorial mission.

Part of that is due to a lack of modern systems, though GSG has made a valiant effort to update that old, borderline unusable aiming system. You’re now getting a weapon wheel that slows time to allow tactical gun swaps, lock on aiming with better target outlining and free/strafe aiming that’s like a rudimentary version of how GTA V gets down. The downside: some heavy weapons still arbitrarily root you to the ground and throw you into a gun-less first-person mode.

While we’re on cameras: it feels amazing to have San Andreas-like free cam as you’re driving around Liberty. GTA III had this bloody awful “press a shoulder to look 90 degrees” solution that’s now gone the way of the dodo. (Note: I’m not referencing The Dodo here – that piece of crap, non-flying plane still features.)

Is combat and driving vastly improved? Absolutely. Is it frustration free? Certainly not. Weapons are still incredibly short range, they sound like coughing typewriters, you have to tactically reload them by awkwardly flicking about the weapon wheel and “directional” drive-bys require a press of a face button. I’m still having way more fun than the OG version, but absolute newbies to these games had best curb their enthusiasm. There’s still some residual jank to forgive.

This is particularly true in the frame rate stakes (on PS5 at least). Early on, I had to swap from Fidelity to Performance mode to escape some jarring hitches. Even then I wasn’t free of the occasional chug when the screen was (literally) exploding in a heated car race, vigilante mission or desperate five star last stand.

All of that — along with the odd floating car glitch — is pretty isolated, intermittent stuff that won’t really impede your grand thieving or autoing. However, GTG’s “new and enhanced” rain effect probably will — it’s distracting and sometimes clips weirdly through covered areas. Patch, please.

Last but not least, I would like to praise be to the person who thought to shoehorn a map into the pause screen. Back in the day, we had to unfold a physical paper one. Like some sort of clueless, Clark Griswold tourist.

GTA: Vice City Definitive Edition

Vice City is the entry in this trilogy that I have the fondest memories of. That lush, neon soaked ’80s aesthetic, the brilliant soundtrack, helis, motorcycles and an actual voiced protagonist (!!!) who waded into sexy, Scarface-esque adventures.

Mercifully, the look and feel of the era in question has not only been preserved, but chromatically enhanced. I love that GSG has gone a little nuts with the coloured lighting – cars, streets and peds wearing just as garishly coloured clothing get bathed in hot pinks and electric blues. But, once again, those low-level frame rate issues persist (though definitely not as bad as it is in GTA III).

Vice City is also noticeably more cutscene heavy compared to the previous title, which serves to bring these “improved” player models into more regular and closer proximity. Honestly, the results are pretty up and down. While polys have been added and textures have been improved – most notably in the now-fingered hands and slightly more expressive faces – more work was needed.

It’s also obvious that not all digital actors were recreated equal here. Main characters and secondary mission-giving folk look ok, albeit cartoonish – kinda like a bunch of Disney Infinity figurines come to life with criminal intent. However, the faces of tertiary characters, scene extras and peds can look like they’ve been run through some sort of Mii updater algorithm.

Interestingly, while old details can be depressingly lost on the textures wrapped around humanoids, a lot of the store signs look sharp as hell, but probably shouldn’t be. Now that we can actually read stuff, a number of typos are clear as day. The fact that they’re mostly in Comic Sans doesn’t really add much to the visual feast either.

Here’s a loose list of some other random things I took note of. Vice City is a larger playspace, so the trilogy-wide inclusion of a “restart mission” function saves a lot of backtracking hassle. I had a false memory that Tommy could swim a little – he (and Claude Speed) really, really can’t. So don’t get your hopes up there.

Basically, the biggest stand out thing for me is the alterations to the soundtrack. I’ve played the mobile versions and endured some painful cuts already, but it’s sad to know that my hope for the reinstatement of some key tracks has been in vain. Which piece of music you’ll miss is going to be subjective. But yeah, I think we can all agree that this package loses something iconic with the removal of Michael Jackson’s work.

Before we move on, I should say that I hit a number of weird bugs on the mean streets of VC. Genuinely amusing stuff like AI cars accelerating to ludicrous speeds, and one time a poor ped spawned inside a bridge instead of on top of it. Nothing truly game-breaking, but it sure wasn’t immersion-enhancing.

GTA: SAN ANDREAS DEFINITIVE EDITION

Let me be clear on this from the outset, the off the beaten track / wilderness areas in San Andreas Definitive look pretty amazing. Rockstar has done a noticeable amount of work on the old trees and lower lying vegetations. That aforementioned increase in draw distance can be fully appreciated so much more outside of those urban box factories.

Some other things I immediately appreciated include the GTA V-style drive-by targeting. It’s a shame that GTA III and Vice City don’t share in said upgrade, though I daresay it’d be so effective in those games it’d destroy all challenge.

In no time at all, I renewed my vows and fell in love with the Boyz n the Hood love letter that is CJ’s story. Since playing this as an adolescent, I’ve managed to visit LA a bunch of times and now have a better appreciation of the tone Rockstar managed to capture in its Los Santos.

It’s great to get back to some RPG-lite elements that really should have featured in every subsequent sequel. Being able to get buff in the gym (or big-boned in your local Cluckin’ Bell) is such a cool little cosmetic wrinkle.

Much like it happened 17 years ago, I got fully invested in the Respect system that gives you prop boosts based on your hairstyle, tattoos and clothing. I also caught myself going out of my way to be rolling in a self-modified whip that boosts sex appeal stat. A player’s gotta play, after all.

Mind you, after meeting one of CJ’s early prospective girlfriends – Denise Robinson– I felt less than amorous. Sadly, she’s become a victim of the aforementioned “tertiary characters neglect”. Her endearing, bad-ass bitch style has been replaced by a bug-eyed, expression lacking stranger. Heart container: broken.

As for downsides, there are a few. I don’t know who pulled the wrong lever during this reissuing, but for some reason the actor characters in a cutscene can get run over or beaten up by marauding AI who are not in the scene. It happened to me once, and caused a mission fail. I’ve also had mates comment on similar incidents as well.

THE PACKAGE SUMMED UP

I’m a diehard fan of the GTA series, but I’m of two minds about this up and down port to the Unreal 4 Engine. The initial wow-factor of the visual upgrade is undeniable, but the more you play it, the more cracks appear in that pretty veneer. Some of those are legacy fissures that have not been repaired. Others are eyesore imperfections wrought by a new team of less-than-master craftspeople.

Make no mistake: every game in this package remains a touchstone moment in gaming. These are time capsules which deserve to be experienced by a new audience, and I still think there’s more than enough merit for an open-minded modern gamer to do so. Likewise, they should obviously be revisited by older fans who yearn for a version that plays and looks like what they remember (or rather the visuals their brains half-filled in with imagination). There are reasons why these masterpieces were money-earning behemoths on the best-selling console gaming ever saw (PS2). Those reasons mostly persist in Definitive Edition, despite it being a tepid celebration of yesteryear.

If you do partake, know that you’ll have fun while also being nagged by a thought more persistent than any 6-star level SWAT team — this could have been done better. These GTAs not getting the full reverence they’re owed, ultimately, feels a little criminal

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME HAS BEEN TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

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Shin Megami Tensei V was one of the first games revealed for the Switch, and it felt like it was never coming. In that time, we’ve had a whole new Persona game, its revision, and a pseudo-sequel in Strikers. It felt like Atlus had forgotten about it. But now, four years on, Shin Megami Tensei V is finished, and it represents some of the best the series has to offer. It’s, of course, not without its issues, but it is one of the strongest RPGs both from Atlus and on the Switch.

Shin Megami Tensei V opens with a silent main character leaving a school they’ve recently transferred to. There have been strange happenings around the school, so you’re encouraged to walk home in groups to get home safely. Halfway home, you’re stuck in a tunnel and buried unconscious before waking up in a wasteland, a post-apocalyptic version of your homeland. Fast forward a few conversations, and you’re surrounded by demons, defeated in battle and revived by merging with a demonic entity to imbue yourself with godlike powers. So, standard Shin Megami Tensei fare.

Suppose you’ve played other games from Atlus, like Persona, or other RPGs on your Switch like Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Chronicles. In that case, you’re probably used to more straightforward and obvious narrative beats. If you’ve played a Shin Megami Tensei game before, even the remaster of the third from six months ago, you’ll know these games don’t play it anywhere near as simple.

Rooting its drama and intent in wide-reaching philosophical quandaries, Shin Megami Tensei V tries to come across as more relatable but still feels abstract. It gets even more ridiculous as you reach the conclusion too. Despite having multiple endings, it feels as linear (in terms of plot progression) as ever. But in short – the plot is edgy as hell and barely ever light-hearted – and stays true to the general vibe of the series thus far.

Shin Megami Tensei V feels like a typical RPG – it’s got you travelling from area to area, defeating enemies, and levelling up to learn new skills. Like I’ve alluded to previously, it also shares a lot of DNA with the Shin Megami Tensei games that came before it and the Persona games, which were spun off of this. Many of the abilities and demons you encounter will be familiar, offering a perfect opportunity to jump into Shin Megami Tensei if you’ve only played Persona up until this point.

I’ve often bemoaned the general lack of appreciation for turn-based games amongst newer audiences as being “slow.” Still, Shin Megami Tensei V keeps things interesting. Inheriting the Press-Turn system from the previous games, it’s a system that grants extra turns to participants who exploit specific weaknesses in battle. The twist is that it also takes them away if you miss or your attack is blocked. It’s simple, for sure, but it’s the simplicity that makes it so genius and a joy to indulge in.

This is twisted when you realise that your enemies are governed by the same rules too. If they exploit your specific weaknesses, they’ll crush you in a single turn just as quickly as you could with them. In so many RPGs, I’d often fall into the trap of just “brute forcing” my way through enemies with attacks that cause the most damage, but the opportunity to act twice in one turn is just too much to pass up.

Shin Megami Tensei V introduces a new system into the fold with the Magatsuhi Gauge, which can feel like a bit of a crutch to lean on for players who feel the challenge. The gauge can be filled outside of battle with collectibles or as each turn passes. Once filled, it allows yourself or your captured demons to cast a powerful skill that usually buffs the party. The first one you can cast makes all party members next action a critical hit, which works nicely with the aforementioned Press-Turn system to grant your entire party another action in each turn. It’s an excellent system that I’d often save for more intense battles. It doesn’t break the game by being available too often, either.

The emphasis on weaknesses in the battle system dovetails beautifully with the demon and essence system. Besides your player character, the entirety of your party in Shin Megami Tensei V comprises demons that you’ll collect, almost like Pokemon, rather than defeating them. Each demon has a specific personality that you’ll have to pander to in an attempt to join your cause. Some will ask for items, others will ask for a stat comparison, while some will join after just taking a beating.

While I do feel like the Shin Megami games suffer a bit by not having a strong supporting cast in your party, the subsequent lack of attachment to your demons means you’ll not be afraid to dump them for stronger ones as time goes by. I was encouraged to experiment with my party, and this is best done through the Fusion system. You can essentially combine two demons to create a more powerful one and dictate which skills will be inherited after doing so. It’s an addictive and satisfying system that I can never get enough of, even if it’s been the same in these games for so long. Similarly, the system is so robust that often I’d find myself fusing new demons to get through brutal battles rather than monotonously grinding like in other RPGs.

Your own player character can be improved through two different systems too. The Apotheosis system borrows a little bit from Shin Megami Tensei IV and sees you feeding yourself essences yielded from your own demons to teach yourself new abilities and spells. You can also collect Glory and exchange them for more passive skills. Such skills can reduce the cost of certain elemental attacks or even make it easier to negotiate with demons or fuse them.

But when you’re not battling, you’ll be exploring, and Shin Megami Tensei V does things a little bit better than its predecessors but only just. Some dungeons are nothing more than corridors filled with demons, while one felt more like a platformer than anything else. I hate to compare, but so many other RPGs have mastered the art of providing interesting dungeons to trawl, but Shin Megami Tensei V feels like it’s still lagging behind in that respect. Similarly, the oversimplified world map (which is more or less the “real world” version of Tokyo) is still the same type as Shin Megami Tensei III, a game made almost two decades ago. It is in dire need of a refresh.

All in all, though, Shin Megami Tensei V still feels like an earnest entry in the series. The series has had a stellar reputation for being one of the more challenging series in the genre, and V is no exception. That being said; however, there’s a whole bunch of quality-of-life improvements that make it a whole lot more accessible for newcomers. More frequent save points and a very generous fast-travel system more than often make up for any frustrating and unexpected deaths during battle. Still, there are three difficulty modes that you can choose between if you need to before embarking on Shin Megami Tensei V’s fifty-to-sixty-hour adventure.

From a presentation standpoint, there’s absolutely no question. This is the best-looking Shin Megami Tensei game thus far. Every one of the major locales you’ll explore is fantastically realised and every demon looks the best it ever has, perhaps even better than Persona in some respects. There are some obvious, almost expected issues we’ve come to expect from the Switch. Longer load times, some very obvious low-resolution shimmering, and framerate drops during more intense attack animations. But all in all, Shin Megami Tensei V is one great-looking game, artistically speaking. The soundtrack is similarly fantastic, filled with moody synths and guitars that I can never get enough of.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Though I’ve been vocally excited for Unpacking since first trying it out at the last “irl” PAX Australia back in 2019, it wasn’t until finally sitting down and playing through the finished product that I truly understood exactly how special it is. The team at Brisbane-based developer Witch Beam hadn’t been shy about the gorgeous, zen pixel art puzzle game they’d been cooking up all this time, but they sure did a good job of downplaying just how unique and unmatched a narrative experience it would be.

At its core, Unpacking tells a story that spans 21-odd years, focussing on a character as they move from place-to-place from their childhood to adult life. This story is experienced through a simple gameplay loop that has players removing the character’s possessions from their moving boxes, one by one, and placing them into each room in each new location that they move to, from single rooms to shared flats, studio apartments and whole houses. 

The gameplay mechanism for the “unpacking” part of Unpacking is devilishly simple – playing on PC is a matter of just clicking on a packing box to remove the next object and then setting it down with a second click. Objects can be rotated manually and also naturally align themselves to structures and other objects, like books standing themselves up on shelves or stacking on top of each other when laid down. Cupboards and drawers can be opened for storage and things like towels and clothes hang where they should.

At the beginning, the goal is as simple as fitting everything into the given space in a way that makes sense, but as you progress through the game and the locations become larger and more complex, your story also starts to take a more deliberate shape. Blank canvases of rooms turn to half-finished compositions, where the game’s unseen main character and their story are shown with more intent than implication. It’s here that things get a little more puzzle-like and players need to not only find a home for their possessions but satisfy some unseen conditions that can be inferred from the environmental storytelling.

There’s an unmatched cathartic joy to the simple act of freeing an object from its paper-packed prison and setting it down in the room. From the cheerful little leap it does into the cursor to the sound effects of the packing materials rustling as well as the unique sounds each thing makes when it’s placed down, including the type of surface it’s placed on. Everything clicks together in a really satisfying manner. Objects interact in all the ways you’d expect – towels hang on racks, brushes sit inside containers and so on.

Though most things can be placed with a certain degree of freedom, within the bounds of logic and reason, the odd moment where something has a more specific placement can often have the biggest narrative payoff. These ingenious sections where the game takes the reins away from the player and tasks them to puzzle out not just the placement of an item but its meaning to the moment offer some of the purest and most concentrated notions of storytelling I’ve experienced in ages.

Anyone who’s moved enough times in their life will likely appreciate the brilliant little touches that really sell the whole unpacking experience. The stories within aren’t just about the destination, each new box holds its own tale of how it was packed – the possessions inside, the order they were placed in, the rooms they belonged to – everything has the potential to be another thoughtful introspection. 

The first time I unpacked an entire room and found myself missing one shoe out of a pair had me grinning in an uncomfortably-relating kind of way. I also had a legitimate moment of crisis in an early stage, where a graduation certificate that was obviously very important to my unseen character and that they’d carried with them to their very first co-living situation suddenly had no place on any of the walls.

There’s so much to learn about this character that’s embedded in the act of unpacking – their love for video games, their favourite books, preferred brands of shampoo and tampons. The things they carry through the years and the things that slowly disappear over time, all of it paints a picture that’s far greater than the pixelated images on-screen. There was one incredibly memorable turning point for me, something as innocuous as a new pair of socks that tipped me off to an impending change in this person’s life that came almost immediately after. That was when I knew just how special this game truly was.

Indie games and pixel art are common bedfellows, but Unpacking nails its isometric aesthetic with some gorgeous, pixelised versions of recognisable objects that remain shockingly recognisable – a special mention to the blu-ray and video game covers that I spent far too long attempting to name each time. The surprisingly-robust photo mode and exportable timelapse gifs keep things fun well after the core five-ish hours are over as well.

It’d be remiss of me not to shout out the game’s music either, which is pure perfection, the chill chiptune soundtrack complementing each new scene wonderfully. There’s even an adorable vocal track in the game’s credits.

With barely any text to speak of, an easy-to-understand interface and just enough accessibility toggles to smooth out most potential progression blockers or comfort issues there’s clearly been a lot of thought put into making Unpacking a game that almost anyone can pick up and play. Any studio that’s willing to let players circumvent the inherent challenge in their game, in this case the ability to completely switch off the puzzle element of correctly placing objects, is doing the right thing in my books so it’s great to see that here as well.

The post Unpacking Review – A Pixel Tells A Thousand Words appeared first on Press Start.

Every time that there’s a new Mario party game on the horizon, I feel extremely excited, and remember why I love games. The original games represent a carefree time in my life, when I truly had nothing else to worry about except for beating my brothers, cousins and friends in Mario Party, Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64.

The fact that Mario Party Superstars focuses on boards from the three Mario Party 64 games and also the fact that we saw the release of Nintendo 64 games on Nintendo Switch Online had me feeling extra nostalgic the second I booted the game up.

Mario Party Superstars leans into that nostalgic more than ever, and I think that that is its greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. Despite the fact that the five boards and all from Mario Party 64 titles, the mini games actually span across the main 10 games in the series, which to me honestly didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

If you’re focusing heavily on those three 64 games for boards, there’s more than enough mini games from the three games to pull 100 mini games from, and that probably is the game’s greatest weakness, a lack of content but also just a general lack of direction. Whilst there’s once again only five boards, the mini games do get a little bit stale quickly and there’s only 100 of them (and they’re also unlocked from the start in free play, which I didn’t love).

The great thing about the chosen 100 mini games though is that they’re all only playable without motion controls, so there’s no gimmick here, and you can use absolutely any controller without being advantaged or disadvantaged. It does feel like Mario Party at its best in terms of you know what to expect from each mini game, without newcomers needing to constantly learn a new control technique or figure out which motion controls to use.

Playing the original Mario Party 1-3 minigames in particular felt really special in package in terms of seeing how far they’d come from their original days honestly never got old, and Nintendo really played up the nostalgic with telling you which game each minigame was from in the practise screen.

As far as the main gameplay goes, not a lot has changed. As mentioned, the boards are all from the original 64 Mario Party games, and they’ve been updated visually and with some more modern Mario Party functionality like items and the Bowser mini games. You’re now able to pause and quit boards mid-way through and come back to them later which is welcomed. Another thing I really liked is that you can now choose minigame types at the start of the game, so you might choose them based on skill or a certain console.

I can’t really put my finger on it, but something felt amiss. The game was still definitely fun playing alone or with my partner, but I don’t know if it was the lack of variety that was on offer, or the fact that it’s a compilation game, but without much direction, but it just didn’t feel to have that same charm that even Super Mario Party did (even with the lack of boards).

When it comes to progression, there’s not a lot here, and that’s probably my biggest complaint. Outside of a levelling system which just unlocks new stickers and such, there’s literally nothing to unlock as far as I can tell. There’s no unlockable characters, boards minigames, and whilst that’s great for the group that just wants to jump in and play, it doesn’t really provide any reason to keep playing alone, outside of online. You’d like to think that this game will receive meaningful DLC although we gave Super Mario Party that benefit of the doubt at launch and we all know how that turned out.

Super Mario Party’s online was downright dreadful until it got an update a few years later, and that’s mostly been fixed with Mario Party Superstars. Now admittedly, I haven’t been able to play online, but as far as functionality goes, there’s a lot more here than what there’s ever been in a Mario Party game.

You can play each and every board with random people or friends online, but even outside of that the game does a fairly decent job of interweaving online throughout all of the game’s modes, down to being able to measure minigames high scores with other players and friends.

There’s several parts of Mt Minigames (the minigame area of the game) that are solely dedicated to playing against random people. For instance Daily Challenge has you playing in three themed mini packs that change daily, in which you’ll need to beat other players to claim a star and Survival will have to going against other players for as long as possible.

I can tell Nintendo has tried to put some thought into how to bring online to the game which I appreciate, but there’s still some weird parts that just feel very Nintendo. For as much as online is apart of the whole experience, you still need to select to play online before you even get into the game, and then even need to go a step further to select whether to play with random people and friends, and it all feels a bit disjointed and convoluted, and getting around to each area in the game similarly feels a bit painful.

The online, much like a lot of the other game just feels like they came up with a tonne of ideas, which all work great individually, but together feel a bit weird as a even a compilation package.

The post Mario Party Superstars Review – Nostalgic Fun appeared first on Press Start.

When Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch OLED earlier this year, I was as confused as most as I discovered that there weren’t any performance upgrades. I was still really optimistic, as I know that gaming on an OLED screen is second to none, and I’m somebody that spends majority of my time with my Switch in handheld mode.

Picking up the console for the first time, everything feels familiar. In the hands, the Switch OLED feels almost identical apart from the fact that the back feels a lot more matte, which provides a decent amount of grip. Size wise, despite the fact that there’s a much larger screen, the Switch remains almost identical, which I’m super thankful for, because I think if it were any larger, it would have been a much tougher sell on the portability side.

This is the real gamechanger. At first glance, or looking at images of the console, you don’t get a grasp of how much that bigger screen with a much smaller bezel, will make the Switch OLED in handheld mode a much better option than it was before. Not only is the screen bigger, without the Switch gaining any size physically, that OLED display is downright gorgeous.

Here’s The Nintendo Switch OLED And OG Nintendo Switch Compared In Photos

The PlayStation VITA is probably my favourite portable console of all time thanks to its beautiful OLED, and the now the Nintendo Switch OLED takes that crown. It’s extremely easy to palm the OLED screen off as not much of an improvement, but coupled with the increased size of the screen, it makes a massive difference. The blacks are now as deep as the eye can see, which was demonstrated perfectly whilst playing Metroid Dread, which is a game that makes a lot of use of black space throughout the level design (more on that in my Metroid Dread review here).

What’s much more impressive though is the screen’s vividness, which is mostly due to a new OLED exclusive ‘Console Screen Vividness’ setting that can be turned on or off. This is hugely beneficial for Nintendo games, that really rely on vibrant colours and flatter, less realistic graphics. Everything pops more, and going back to games such as Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild made them feel new again (check out a bunch of comparison shots here).

There was a lot of the concern for the Switch OLED losing even more pixel density due to the larger screen but everything looks crisper somehow. My guess would be that Nintendo has turned up the sharpness or contrast, which makes everything look better. The best part of all of this is that there’s no messing with TV settings, what you’re getting is the best possible version of these Switch games.

It’s worth mentioning that the screen is fully glossy now (which is normal for an OLED display). This means that you might get more glare on your screen than with the older Switch, but I found that the increased brightness more than made up for this.

Another major improvement is the kickstand, and again, I believe that this improvement will have more people actively whipping their Joy-Con off and popping the Switch down on a table. Rather than the pokey little stand that was on the old Switch, the new stand goes the full length of the Switch and seems to be made of a much more durable material.

When it comes to the new Nintendo Switch dock, there’s not a lot of change here. We have the inclusion of an ethernet port which is great for increasing download speeds or ensuring you have the most stable connection whilst playing Super Smash Bros, but don’t expect any change in the way of output to your TV. In fact, you can literally use this dock with the original Switch or your old dock with the Switch OLED.

The Switch OLED has double the internal storage at 64GB, which is actually really welcomed. Nintendo has said that the Switch OLED has better acoustics resulting in better sound, but to be honest, I never had an issue with how the original sounded, and I didn’t notice too much of an improvement here.

All of these things probably aren’t must-haves for those that already own a Switch (particularly the newer model with the bigger battery), but I can guarantee that once you see a Switch OLED in person or hold one in your hands, you’ll never want to go back to the original one. You’ll have yourself wondering how you ever used the original Switch for the last four years.

The post Nintendo Switch OLED Review – The Best Portable Experience Yet appeared first on Press Start.

I’ve got to preface this review by saying that I’m not the biggest Metroid fan by any stretch. I played through Samus Returns, have played a bit of each of the 2D Metroid games on their respective platforms and Metroid Prime has sat on my pile of shame for many years. I’ve always felt like I missed the boat with this series, and whilst Dread probably was the worst possible place to start, I was pleasantly surprised from the get-go.

Metroid Dread is the long-awaited fifth and final game in this particular Metroid arc, but the game does a great job of welcoming you both in the way of an initial tutorial, tips on loading screens and by introducing new weapons and items as time goes on. The game also does a great job of getting you prepared for the story at hand, which is somewhat self contained, but obviously series veterans will get the most out of it. Whilst this game is more than accessible for series newcomers, there’s no shying away from the fact that this is one that will cater most to those that have been waiting for it for years.

I can only imagine how hard it must have been for Nintendo to create this game. How do you create a Metroid game in 2021, when the original games literally created an entire genre that still exists and is incredibly popular today. There must have been such a battle of wanting to stay true to what made the franchise so great initially, and then also learn from other Metroidvanias to innovate. At the same time, you’ve also got to think about those that have been following this story for 25 years, and those that might be playing for the first time.

Nintendo Switch OLED Review – The Best Portable Experience Yet

Metroid Dread feels familiar from the onset. Samus is stripped of all of her abilities and special suits and left with nothing but a weakened Arm Cannon. From here, Samus will gain new abilities, some familiar and some totally new in order to help her gain access to new areas, more easily take down certain enemies and progress the story forward.

The combat still feels so great all these years later, with the team doing some really good work to make controlling Samus feel a lot more fluid than we’ve seen in past games. Just like Samus Returns, Samus being able to free aim with her cannon, quickly counter enemy attacks and take them out in one swift blast really adds an extra dimension to the combat, and truthfully I never got sick of sliding around and countering enemies like an absolute badass. I think the additions that are here makes the game feel a lot more modern and much more accessible to newcomers.

One of the biggest changes to Metroid Dread is the addition of new stealth sections which are brought on by the E.M.M.I robots. These are special robotic enemies that appear at certain parts of the game, and are by far the most lethal thing you’ll come across, where your goal will be to avoid them at all costs, or face a one hit kill (aside from the small chance that you can pull off a counter). Earlier on, these were some of my favourite moments, they provided tense chases, that just felt the threat of this ship all more real.

After being stalked by them for a little while, you’ll get the opportunity to take them out with an Omega Blaster, which is a cool little over the shoulder sequence that is a still a bit of a challenge to pull off, but satisfying nonetheless. My biggest problem with the E.M.M.I is that once you’ve seen and conquered the first one, the rest of them are fairly similar in nature. They provide a great little stop point in exploration, but for a game that’s founded on expanding your arsenal and an ever-changing world. It does get to be a little bit repetitive.

Here’s The Nintendo Switch OLED And OG Nintendo Switch Compared In Photos

Outside of the E.M.M.I, the enemy design is second to none. There’s a great amount of variety in each area, and I always felt kept on my toes in terms of having to stay on top of which enemy would shoot at me from different angles and which would simply explode in my face. You will die quite frequently if not from the E.M.M.I but also the aforementioned threats, but the game isn’t too brutal with its save and checkpoint systems.

Whilst the boss battles were insanely frustrating difficulty-wise, they were definitely the highlight of the game for me. The boss battles have always felt like the pinnacle of Metroid and with the power of the Switch, it feels like a lot of the grandness that these battles deserves have been delivered upon.

Between running from the E.M.M.I, collecting new items to unlock new areas, and taking out bosses, you’ll be doing a lot of typical Metroid platforming, and that is where the game annoyed me more than a couple of times. Whilst the game has some brilliant level design, there were quite a few occasions where I found myself stuck simply because I didn’t shoot absolutely every block visible in the screen to find my way through a path. I get that it’s a Metroid staple but it felt a bit antiquated, and like it undid some brilliant game design throughout. I came very close to giving up, thinking the game had either glitched out or there was no way forward, before revisiting an area for the 5th time and finding that I just had to shoot my way through a singular block.

It’d be amiss to not talk about the Nintendo Switch OLED, with Metroid Dread being the first game that I played through on the console. The game and console obviously go hand-in-hand with the inky blanks that so often fill a lot of the screen really coming to life on the OLED. The designers have been really clever in taking advantage of this too, with parts of the world that take place in the dark and such.

I had a really great time with Metroid Dread, but it did feel like something was missing, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I don’t know if it’s the fact that we’ve seen so many Metroidvania games that do just as good of a job if not better in recent years, or it’s just purely the fact that we’ve seen games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey take classic Nintendo franchises to the next level. I’m glad this game exists for the purists, but it’s pretty clear that that was Nintendo’s primary objective with this game. I’ll be really interested to see where the Metroid series goes next.

The post Metroid Dread Review – A Fitting End appeared first on Press Start.

In the 20 years since the original release of Super Monkey Ball in arcades and on GameCube, nothing has come close to replicating the magic of the first three games. Best described as a high speed physics based platformer, Monkey Ball has always been an addictive and challenging franchise, but it’s always been hard to go back and play the original games due to platform and arcade exclusivity. Despite a few small missteps, Banana Mania provides a means to access these titles as a remastered collection that’s positively stuffed with content, accessibility options, and quality of life improvements that make this collection one of the best Monkey Ball offerings in recent times.

Needless to say, there isn’t much in the way of narrative when it comes to Super Monkey Ball, and what little there is mainly serves as a backdrop to the gameplay. Instead of remaking the original stories, though, Banana Mania serves its story through a TV show, where AiAi and crew watch the events of the original games unfold as Dr. Bad-Boon attempts to steal all the bananas on Jungle Island. It’s very surface level, but the manner in which it’s presented feels suitable for a celebration of the franchise, almost as if we’re looking back with the cast at past adventures, and it’s incredibly charming.

It’s hard to describe the allure of Monkey Ball to someone who’s never played it before. It seems really simple on a surface level, but there’s so many different aspects that contribute to a deeper, more meaningful gameplay experience than most would expect. Each level is extremely short in nature, with each one limited to a 60 second timer. Your job, is to complete each level within the timer, collecting bananas along the way. They start out relatively easy but steadily climb in challenge, eventually resulting in some of the most devious platforming you’ll ever put yourself through. It’s incredibly rewarding, but to get through each level with every banana takes a serious amount of skill and dedication.

The real fun comes after your first clears, as you attempt to collect every banana in each level, and beat your previous times. If this sounds daunting, there’s no need to worry, levels can easily be skipped over so you can move onto the next, or you can opt to enable an assist mode, where you can slow down time, and disable the 60 second timer. It’s a brilliant way to make the latter half of the game accessible to newcomers, without tossing out any of the original challenge fans know and love.

There’s a reason people constantly go back to play these original three games, and that’s because the level design here is universally fantastic. There’s so much variation and unique concepts on show that nothing is similar to anything else, which is no easy feat when the main campaign alone is comprised of 100 levels. What accentuates this further, is the tight controls that provide the level of precision needed for this kind of platforming. You never feel cheated out of a death, and there’s always ways that you can improve and find shortcuts through levels to make the challenge that little bit easier.

There’s also a slew of minigames here from Monkey Ball games new and old to choose from. All of these are multiplayer, and offer some fun party distractions to play with your friends. Monkey Bowling and Monkey Golf are as good as ever, but a few classics feel a bit off in the way they control and play, almost as if they weren’t given quite the same treatment as the core game. What’s here is still great, but it’s definitely a difficult adjustment if you’ve played plenty of the original versions of these games.

Additionally, there’s online records you can race for, challenge courses made up of levels of varying difficulties, missions to complete and more. All of these alongside the main game, grant you banana coins that you can spend in-game on new modes, characters, gallery unlocks, and visual filters. Needless to say, Banana Mania is bursting at the seems with bonuses and extra content which makes it well worth the money. Who doesn’t want to play as Sonic, Kiryu and Beat in a Monkey Ball game? SEGA and Monkey Ball fans will no doubt love a lot of the inclusions here, even if the inability to play these characters in the minigames is disappointing.

Where Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania makes the most changes, is in its production values, background visuals and textures. All of the colourful worlds and levels really pop here, and each one has eye-catching elements in the backgrounds that only get old as you move on to the next world. It really feels like RGG Studio have treated the franchise with a lot of TLC, and it leaves the experience feeling fresh and new. Additionally, performance is great, load times are sharp, the UI is cleaned up a bit and the soundtrack slaps as hard as ever.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER

The post Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania Review – Monkey Ballin’ appeared first on Press Start.

One of the big questions when thinking about remastering a game is whether it needs to change at all to be viable in the current market. For Diablo 2: Resurrected, Blizzard has stayed absolutely true to the original game while giving it a complete visual makeover.

Diablo 2: Resurrected is an action heavy RPG built around choosing from one of seven distinctly varied character classes, exploring dangerous places, slaying innumerable monsters, gathering new items and using the experience gained to improve your character’s stats and unlock new abilities so you can explore ever more dangerous places filled with ever more dangerous monsters. It’s a compelling hook – one that had me enthralled for years in it’s original form and which inspired more caffeine and sugar fueled dungeon crawling nights in my past than I can count on two hands. That hook is well and truly still here, and as potent as it ever was.

It’s important to understand exactly what kind of re-release Resurrected is. While Resurrected gives Diablo 2 a humongous graphical and audio overhaul, transforming the characters and environments into full 3D, the game running underneath it all is Diablo 2, same as it ever was. Aside from some inventory management improvements and reasonably good controller support, Resurrected plays exactly as Diablo 2 always has – evidenced by the fact you can switch back to the original visuals at any moment. Doing so was quite a shock to me. It’s hard to remember just how Diablo 2 looked twenty years back – and being able to directly compare gives a real appreciation for the remastering process here.

The graphical overhaul is quite phenomenal. It looks just how my rose tinted memories of Diablo remember it but in sharp, high fidelity. Things move at a smooth and consistent 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 (if you switch to Performance mode at least) and characters keep the late 90s 3D animation vibe while looking entirely modern at the same time – like they’ve jumped off the cover of a fantasy themed rock album of the time and on to the screen. Environments have had a complete overhaul as well, and generally stay true to the original’s aesthetic however I feel they lose some of their charm and texture. Things have become minutely detailed as is expected in the 4K era, but the punchy contrast of the past environments is sometimes lost in the transfer. It’s minor and absolutely not game breaking but I found things like paths much less clear than they used to be.

Music and audio have been revamped as well with more spacious sounding recordings that, for me, still kept the personality of the music from the original game that’s been seared into my brain for all these years. The prog-rock inspired music that accompanies your exploits in the first act is just awesome to hear in either remastered or legacy form – staying mostly ambient but always evoking the perfect mood for horror fantasy dungeon crawling.

Under the hood, Resurrected is Diablo 2 for better and for worse. Movement, combat, character building, AI – it’s all exactly as it was in 2001. I do consider Diablo 2 to be a milestone for the genre especially for it’s time but if you’re well experienced with it’s follow-up Diablo 3 you’ll definitely notice some quality of life improvements that were made there that are missing from 2.

The most impactful for me personally is the lack of couch co-op. While it’s understandable that the original Diablo 2 was made for PC where the idea of sharing a screen is nigh unheard of – I felt it’s inclusion with the console releases of Diablo 3 transformed the game by making multiplayer infinitely easier to organise. It would have been nice to have some degree of same-machine multiplayer but given it wasn’t in the original its absence is understandable. Be prepared for other challenges as well like dropping your entire inventory on death, requiring a tense unarmed dash to retrieve your stuff. Your character skills and stat bonuses are locked in the moment you choose them as well – which might come as a shock to people used to Diablo 3’s more flexible ability system. This will all be second nature to people forged in Diablo 2’s hellfire but are changes worth noting for new players.

Resurrected brings with it a full suite of online features, many of which existed as an option in the original release but which gain prominence in today’s more connected world. The default way to make a character is Online – these characters will be able to participate in online parties, join in ladders and can use cross-progression systems to play across multiple platforms. The catch being that in Online mode you’re playing on Blizzard’s servers. This won’t necessarily be a problem for everyone and the benefits of cross-progression and online multiplayer will be well worth it for many – but this all comes with the caveat that your character cannot be used without an internet connection, and playing online brings with it other issues like short pauses while buying, identifying and managing items.

During pre-release and post-release I found my game lagging behind the server regularly enough for it to become bothersome – often I’d walk into a room teeming with monsters and start dealing with them only for the game to zip me back to the entrance, surrounded by the monsters and with a good portion of my health gone. This could be improved as time goes on, but it’s a less than perfect experience currently. There is of course the option to create an offline character if you only want to play locally (on your own system or through a local network), but offline and online characters can never mix – so if you ever want to use a character online with friends then offline isn’t an option.

While I’d have loved couch co-op to find a way in to the console version and the server issues are a nuisance, to me they don’t truly mar the game underneath. The gameplay is a little dated and might be a shock to people used to Diablo 3, but the fact I still found myself mashing monsters for hours on end is testament to the compelling core gameplay hook that was present in the original and is still very much here underneath the beautiful high-resolution veneer.

The post Diablo 2: Resurrected Review – Once More Into The Den of Evil appeared first on Press Start.

Toem takes the region-trotting exploration of the mainline Pokémon titles and combines it with the two-time photography spin-off Pokémon Snap to give us something that, in the same way, Bugsnax did, feels familiar and warm like a safety blanket. 

All of the opening beats scream Pokémon as you break free from a quaint, provincial home-life to chase a singular goal. Of course, this time it isn’t to catch ‘em all, it’s to photograph Toem — a natural phenomenon that the nameless hero’s grandmother had been witness to in her younger years. With an elusive goal and a world of people and cute, adorable critters to immortalise on Polaroid, it’s hard to argue that Toem isn’t formulaic despite its clear style. 

Homelanda, the place of origin for our hero’s spark of adventure, and the final mountainous summit of Toem aside, the game features four dense regions. The goal is to complete enough menial tasks around town to receive stamps in your logbook which in turn grant you passage to the subsequent region. In my experience, a couple of the bite-sized quests did turn out to be headscratchers, although it didn’t impede my progress as the condition for passage is set low enough to not gatekeep anybody. 

The regions themselves, which range from a storied fishing village to a lively metropolis, are decently sized and, as mentioned previously, populated with all kinds of critters to log and magical people to meet, including an adorable family of balloons who doesn’t fare well against a brisk mountainous breeze. Getting around is pretty intuitive as large arrows at the edge of areas dictate the ins and outs, while you simply hop on the bus to transit between regions. 

A lot of the remarkable sights you’ll see in Toem will be through the lens of the hero’s modest camera. It’s point-and-click in a non-traditional sense, and though the game gives you specific things to snap, it’s also nice just to wander, take in the sights and fill your album up. Though it makes sense in-lore to limit the hero’s album, being able to only snap just over one hundred photos in a world where Instagram exists feels like a bizarre choice. Though derivative, I loved how Toem leaned heavily into the fetch nature of Pokémon by giving us a log of animals to snap and, in a roundabout way, collect within the world, it encourages exploration of a world that welcomes exactly that. 

Though your camera is your primary armament, it itself is equipped with a pretty useful zoom as well as a horn that can be honked with increasing hilarity to startle townsfolk into compromising situations. It adds a bit of fun and variety to what is by now, with New Pokémon Snap and Bugsnax, a fairly worn concept.

As a shutterbug, our hero can also don several garments to help him stand out and, in some cases, be granted access to places he might be bounced from otherwise. A reporter’s hat gets him backstage at a fashion show while a cool set of sunglasses, which also aid in communing with the spiritual plane, see him waved through at a woodland rave. They all tie in to the game’s problem solving and, like the horn, add a deeper layer to the experience.

Toem’s black and white, hand-drawn aesthetic is certainly pretty. It’s understated and simplistic in the same way Scribblenauts used to be, while managing to be distinct all at once. The Scandinavian-inspired landscapes all but force the player to stop and smell the roses. But as unique, quaint, and cute as the hand-drawn approach is, the monochrome take is somewhat forgettable in the end. In an attempt to honour classic adventure games, it falls short of having a personality that you’ll recall days removed. That said, there’s a moment late-game where colour is injected into the frame and it’s a surprisingly touching and affecting moment that feels earned by the end of the game’s some eight hours. 

There’s a very chill mixtape backdrop scribed in large part by Launchable Socks and Jamal Green. It’s a calming and tranquil soundtrack that feels like a reassuring arm across the shoulder as our little guy finds his way through the world at large. 

On all levels, Toem feels like an homage of sorts to the early days of Nintendo. Through the game itself, it pays respects to Pokémon, while every facet of the presentation feels like a classic touchstone, from the hand-drawn aesthetic to the inaudible warble of the world’s creatures. It’s familiar, accessible and it sets a fun, quirky tone that’ll please anyone who gives it the time. 

The post Toem: A Photo Adventure Review – Creative And Peaceful appeared first on Press Start.

My experience with Life Is Strange is tumultuous at best. I adored the first game. I found the prequel to be disappointing. I struggled to connect with Life Is Strange 2. So when I heard that the developers of the prequel, Before The Storm, were taking the lead on the next true Life Is Strange game, I was apprehensive and almost disappointed. Now, after giving Life Is Strange: True Colors the attention it deserves, I’m pretty happy to boldly proclaim it’s one of the best, if not the best in the series.

Life Is Strange: True Colors has you playing as Alex Chen. She’s been in and out of foster homes and had a troubled childhood all her life. After spending some time together, she’s invited to the idyllic mountain town of Haven Springs in Colorado by her brother Gabe. Once Alex arrives in Haven Springs, she discovers there’s more to the idyllic little town than meets the eye and must investigate a suspicious death in the process too. The kicker? Alex has a bizarre ability to not only visualise other peoples’ strong emotions but take them on and live in them to help determine their root cause.

Keeping spoilers to an absolute minimum (as perhaps surmised by my vague story summary), True Colors is one of the stronger Life Is Strange tales. From the get-go, I found Alex to be a remarkably likeable protagonist. Even though she has her fair share of issues and pathos, there was nary a time where I didn’t want to stick it out with her to the very end. With other characters in the series having a penchant for devolving into annoying caricatures, Alex felt like a real person from beginning to end in True Colors. Given that so much of True Colors and, well, most Life Is Strange games hinge on their characters, it’s a relief to find Alex to be so likeable.

The plot itself is slightly predictable but still engaging. I was disappointed to see things unfold in a direction that I’d surmised the story would take early on, but the strength of the characters and their subplots works wonders in keeping things interesting regardless. So much of Haven and its character is built by the game’s optional content exploring the side characters, and I’d argue they’re perhaps the highlight here. That being said, the main story does have one or two surprises in later chapters but otherwise feels like it’s been done-to-death in terms of the overarching structure.

Max could rewind and pause time, and Daniel could move things with his mind. So what can Alex do? She is more or less an empath – she can visualise strong feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and joy as colours and engage with them to solve problems or learn information for her use. It’s without a doubt the most interesting power that a Life Is Strange character has been given. And I can appreciate how the knowledge you’d garner from these interactions could influence the dialogue as you played. Still, it ultimately boils down to nice-looking mind reading.

True Colors central conceit feels more passive than previous games – expanding dialogue options but still resulting in what feels like an ultimately more linear experience. While I thought this was a significant step back at first, I’ve come to appreciate that this is perhaps why I like True Colors so much over previous Life Is Strange games. The relative linearity means that the writing and story are more honed than in previous games.

That’s not to say that this is a linear game by any means. There are still heaps of choices to be made throughout the story of True Colors, and so many of them have real consequences later on. So many of the choices that I’d be faced with while playing True Colors were (ironically) firmly in the grey area. I’ve never stopped to think about the consequence of my choice as much as I have during True Colors – and this is a testament to the strength of the writing. I cared, which was something I rarely discover in games recently.

However, when you’re not playing through the main story, things are a little less linear. You’re eventually given a slight free roam of the major streets of Haven Springs, and it’s here that True Colors deviates most from previous games in the series. You’ll be able to explore so many locations and engage with the townspeople to help them solve their problems. It’s not as open as games like Assassin’s Creed, but it’s undoubtedly the most open a Life Is Strange game ever has been.

Solving jobs for the townspeople or helping them out is surprisingly satisfying, though. Doing so does a great job of building the world and believability of Haven, which is so inviting and idyllic I want to pack up and move there right now. While I appreciated the inclusion of optional content, I’d have preferred a bit more of a robust side quest tracker or even a character tracker to summarize what we know as in previous games. I’d get lost early on as I was learning who everyone was – probably a personal thing, but still worth mentioning and something that never happened to me in previous games.

Speaking of previous games, True Colors is more or less the same structurally. It’s still split into five chapters, though the entire experience is available from the get-go. It lasts about the same length as the first or second game (it’s longer than Before The Storm) and has multiple endings. Even better, the various endings aren’t fed into binary choices but seem to be actual endings you work for through choices, which these games often get wrong. True Colors is also priced a bit higher than the first two games were despite being roughly the same length and scope, which might be a sticking point for some.

That being said, it’d be remiss of me not to mention that the production values for True Colors are well beyond anything you’ve seen in a Life Is Strange game. The first thing I noticed before any characters even spoke to each other was the solid and striking cinematography and the sheer improvement in visuals from the previous games. Everything looks much nicer and higher budget with smoother animation and lip-syncing. It’s a bit disappointing, then, to note that there are no high framerate modes even on the newer consoles. The whole experience is 30fps.

Such an otherwise strong attention to visual presentation is underscored with similarly strong attention to the musical score. Composed by Australian duo Angus & Julia Stone, the score is as folksy and indie as you can get – the group absolutely nail the Life Is Strange vibe while adding their unique twist to the game’s music. There’s still some excellent, licensed music sprinkled throughout the story, some of which were unexpected but perfectly punctuate the more intense moments of the story. The voice work is similarly strong, and no performances are weak or immersion-breaking.

There’s no denying that Life Is Strange: True Colors does things a little differently from previous games while retaining that signature look and feel that we’ve come to expect from the series. Overall, it’s a solid effort from Deck Nine and a considerable step up from their last take on the series, Before The Storm.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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While you can argue now that the blue blur isn’t in the best of spots, the release of Sonic Colours in 2010 marked the start of an upward trend for SEGA’s spiny mascot during its time. The problem, though, is that it was released exclusively for Nintendo platforms, making it hard to go back and experience one of the franchises best. Sonic Colours: Ultimate is seeking to fix that, serving itself up as a HD remaster with a few new bells and whistles for both new players and old. The end result is a package that might be a hard sell for returning players but is packed with value for those who’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing this classic.

By today’s standards, Colours has a narrative that’s nothing to gawk at, but that’s a good thing. Previous Sonic games tried to hard to include narratives with dark themes and ideas, more often than not, they don’t stick the landing and come off as edgy more than anything else. Colours is nothing more than a good old Sonic versus Dr. Eggman plot with sharp writing, entertaining characters and a simple premise. Seeking to right his past misdeeds, Eggman opens Dr. Eggman’s Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park and invites all to attend. Suspecting an ulterior motive, Sonic and Tails investigate the park to find out what’s really going on. It’s something akin to a kid’s movie but serves as an appropriate backdrop to the gameplay.

Sonic Colours falls into what most fans would refer to as the “Boost” formula, where Sonic has a boost gauge that he can expend to reach even higher speeds. Colours boasts a plethora of short and sweet levels that combine thrill inducing 3D sections, and 2D sections that require more precision and intent. While most levels tend to be a bit heavy on the latter, it keeps things interesting and challenging while they last. I say this because Sonic Colours is a relatively short and easy Sonic game, and most of its value can be found in replaying levels for better times, finding collectibles, and exploring routes you might’ve missed on your first run through. Ultimate doubles down on this with the Rival Rush mode, where you can go up against Metal Sonic in a rush to the goal ring. There’s only one Rival Rush per planet, making for six total, but each one feels appropriately challenging and worthwhile.

Each of the 6 planets on offer have 6 acts each, and a boss fight. None of these acts are particularly long, but its these short and sweet bite sized levels that lean into the kind of platformer that Sonic Colours is. There’s some really stellar level design on show here that emphasizes optimization and memorization to get the best times possible. Where the game stumbles a little bit is in its boss fights. Almost every one is disinteresting and to make matters worse, half of them are reskinned with a few new attacks.

Every location is visually distinct, and each one is home to a different type of Wisp that Sonic can use to traverse levels. These are mostly optional abilities that allow Sonic to explore alternative routes and hunt for collectibles. Each one is unique and offers something new to play around with, from the Green Wisp that allows Sonic to hover and chase down chains of rings, to the Purple Wisp which sends Sonic into a frenzy, destroying all in his path. New to Ultimate is the Jade Wisp, which turns Sonic into a ghost, allowing him to pass through walls to reach certain points that typically hide goodies or a new route to the goal ring.

Also new to Sonic Colours: Ultimate, is the cosmetics store, an in-game shop where you can buy clothes and effects that alter Sonic’s appearance while playing. You’re constantly rewarded with tokens for getting high ranks, exploring levels, and even completing Rival Rush races, and while it seems surface level at first, I found it quite fun to customize my Sonic in a way that was unique to me. There’s also a new pickup that has Tails swoop in and save Sonic from falling down a bottomless pit, mitigating some of the more frustrating platforming found in certain levels. As found in the base game, there’s five red rings to find and collect in each level and nabbing all of them will allow you to eventually unlock Super Sonic, which gives you plenty of incentive to chase after them.

Sonic Colours: Ultimate’s biggest changes, come in the form of its technical changes and visual improvements. On a PS5, Ultimate holds a steady 60 frames per second at 4K, and while it can’t compare to the juggernauts of today, it still looks great, far better than it did in 2010 on the Wii. There are small and smart changes made to some of the texture work to support the new vibrancy that comes with HDR, and everything really pops on screen. The soundtrack is also another killer piece of work from Sonic Team, featuring the same tracks that have been heavily remixed. It’s clear it wasn’t made to replace the original OST but stand alongside it. It has more of an upbeat, electronic jazz feel than the original, which works for almost all of the major themes except one as mentioned in my preview. One weird omission on this front, though, is that the cutscenes are seemingly untouched, leaving them with an almost compressed and blurry look to them.

Additionally, you can change controller bindings, adding a layer of accessibility that wasn’t previously there. I did run into a few problems during my roughly 12 hours with the game in the form of two hard crashes that required an application restart, and a few different visual and gameplay related bugs that I found frustrating. I wouldn’t say it’s bad enough that it drastically hurts the experience, but its something to be aware of going in.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Sonic Colours: Ultimate Review – The Brightest of Colours appeared first on Press Start.

No More Heroes is a franchise that I’ve appreciated for so many reasons. Chief among those is how protagonist Travis Touchdown has grown throughout the years. When the first game came out, I was seventeen and didn’t think there was anybody cooler. Now, almost fifteen years later, I realise he was a loser, the antithesis of what cool actually was. But across all those years, Travis has evolved, and so has No More Heroes as a franchise. With the advent of No More Heroes III, not only is Travis at his very best, but the game represents a remarkable achievement in honing everything that came before it.

No More Heroes III takes place nine years after the events of the second game and two years after the events of Travis Strikes Again. Travis Touchdown is once again the star and takes it upon himself to protect the planet as an alien ship descends on Earth. Onboard is an intergalactic alien prince known simply as FU, who has brought with him a troupe of other aliens who want to conquer the planet out of sheer boredom.

No More Heroes III continues the story of Travis Touchdown from previous games. Still, as a standalone game, it works just as well for newcomers. The history of the characters is rich – some of which spanning over a decade of games – but I wouldn’t be put off if you haven’t played the first two games or even Travis Strikes Again. Certainly, the direction that No More Heroes III takes things might seem a bit out of left field, but it naturally progresses from where Travis Strikes Again left things.

Regardless of your experience with the series, there’s no denying that No More Heroes III is a stylish affair. An endearingly potent love letter to video games, it’s clear that this is a product that auteur director Goichi Suda had every hand in creating. This isn’t just a tribute to No More Heroes as a series; it’s a celebration of Suda and his distinctly endearing style of game making. It’s self-aware and fantastically written. That being said, one or two characters definitely didn’t need to make a return and aren’t entirely developed as much as the others, but overall No More Heroes III is Suda’s stylish best, easily.

While No More Heroes III plays similar to the first game, this is hardly a bad thing. In it, you play as Travis Touchdown as he works his way up the Galactic Superhero Rankings. Essentially, you have to kill ten different bosses to save Earth from destruction. But this competition is run by the UAA, so in between missions you’ll have to scrounge the open world for jobs and money to pay for each of your ranking battles. It’s a simple premise elevated by its almost masterful execution.

Speaking of simple, the combat is both simplified and expanded from previous games. Travis will now fight with the same beam katana from beginning to end but still retains his wrestling move repertoire. In addition to this, the death drive device on his arm can now be equipped with skills that are a little bit wackier – including installing turrets, teleporting dropkicks, and telekinetic throws. These do a great job of keeping the combat fresh without completely overhauling it – though the combat in No More Heroes III is the smoothest the series has ever had.

This streamlining applies to the general game structure too. In previous games, you’d pay to enter your ranking battle and then fight through rooms of enemies before squaring off with one of the game’s many boss battles. In No More Heroes III, things have been altered ever so slightly to create a better experience. After paying for a battle, you’ll be treated to some cinematics about the boss and their relationship with FU before being thrown straight into the battle. This revised structure results in a much better-paced experience with little to no downtime – a common issue that I found with both of the previous mainline titles.

But don’t fret – this doesn’t mean there is less “game” on offer here either. Between missions, Travis can explore five districts of an open world. To progress, you’ll find preliminary qualifying battles to take place in or pick up odd jobs to make money to pay for his entry fees. The battles themselves are all single-room affairs that have you fighting all kinds of unique enemy types. These admittedly feel super game-like in how separated they are from the story, though it also, once again, means that No More Heroes III feels immaculately paced.

I say this because No More Heroes III commits to throwing new stuff at you regularly. I can probably count around ten unique enemies in the game, but mixing those battle encounters with other activities keeps things fresh right through to the very end. These other activities include collecting scorpions, shooting crocodiles off the coast, going into space to defeat flying space peacocks with a mech suit, and mowing the lawn. It’s a wide variety of activities that never force themselves onto the player excessively but also never feels like grinding if you want to go for extra resources.

But what would a No More Heroes game be without boss battles? Absolutely nothing – so it’s a boon that pretty much every single one on offer here is fantastic. Where previous games would throw ten battles at you and rely on the uniqueness of each boss to shake things up, some of these battles can even be described as genre-bending. I’m not going to ruin any of them here – that would be cruel – but each and every one of them has a uniqueness to them that can’t be understated.

Regardless of which difficulty you play on (though I warn you – hard is HARD), using extra resources allows you to improve Travis and his abilities however you want. You can invest in some pretty standard upgrades to health, damage dealt, and the like. But you can also craft chips that will improve some aspects of Travis while reducing others. I favoured wrestling moves more during the later battles, so I equipped chips that would enhance my wrestling damage while dropping damage of moves I never used. It’s a system that never feels one hundred percent necessary but is there to tinker with to get that extra edge on harder difficulties.

Depending on how much you do, most players will get twelve or so hours out of No More Heroes III, though my first run took around fourteen. But there’s so much more to it than running through and doing all the battles. All kinds of collectibles are strewn throughout the open world. While they’re unnecessary, they will help those who want to finish the more formidable difficulty modes on New Game Plus. There’s, of course, a bunch of shirts and collectibles to find too.

From a visual standpoint, No More Heroes III employs a slightly different artistic direction to its predecessors, but it still manages to look like a treat. Everything is bright and pops, with most blood effects intermingled with rainbow effects to make everything look garishly outlandish. It’s an artistically vibrant game that is never boring to look at. That being said, while performance is rock solid during combat and action, it’s incredibly average and very choppy when driving around the game’s open-world—something that’s come to be expected on the Switch, but still worth mentioning.

The soundtrack is similarly bold, brash, and vibrant on the other side of the presentation coin. An eclectic mix of electronic, industrial, and even some reggae-tinged pieces permeates every battle and every menu to give the game a vibe like no other. The voice work is similarly fantastic – and it’s such a joy to see everyone return to voice their respective characters, no matter how small their roles might be. Robin Atkin Downes is the standout here, as expected, lending Travis a cocky bravado like never seen before. Other highlights include Noshir Dalal, who voices FU with so much charm and intensity that I want to be mates with him, even if he wants to conquer my planet.

As I played No More Heroes III, I couldn’t help but be enamoured with just how engaging an experience it is. At first glance, it looks to be a retread of the things that No More Heroes has done before – a bunch of boss battles with some kooky direction and a cringe-worthy protagonist. But No More Heroes III is so much more than that – it subverts all your expectations to offer up some of Suda’s best work yet.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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I’d given up on ever playing The Great Ace Attorney. The games were both released for the 3DS in Japan almost six years ago, and Capcom had shown no signs of wanting to localise them. In the meantime, we’d received two other 3DS Ace Attorney games, but neither of them was as strong as those that came before it. Capcom has finally decided to bring The Great Ace Attorney to the West from the team who brought us the first three games. The result is something extraordinary and a treat that Ace Attorney fans will no doubt adore.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles brings both games, titled Adventure and Resolve, respectively, together in a package with a few extras like downloadable cases included. They’re both games that were released for the Nintendo 3DS three to five years ago. Until now, they were only available officially in Japanese. But while both the games were released separately and several years apart previously, bringing them together for the English release makes the most sense as they are two volumes of one story.

Previous Ace Attorney games felt a bit like a villain-of-the-week situation, where each case was largely self-contained and never referred to again. There were some exceptions, of course, but almost all the games felt this way. Both Great Ace Attorney games, on the other hand, are intricately linked. There are rarely characters that you’ll only meet once, and it would be impossible to play many of the cases without playing the ones that came before it to fully understand them. The result is a consistently intriguing story that commands your attention, even if it is a little long.

Differing from the original Ace Attorney series, Great Ace Attorney takes place near the end of the 19th century, splitting its time between Meiji era Japan and Victorian era London. You play as Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a student at a local university who is an ancestor of Phoenix Wright from the original games. Following certain events, he heads from Japan to London to further his studies in law with his assistant Susato. Eventually, the duo meets and befriends the world-famous Herlock Sholmes, and they proceed to solve crimes together.

That wasn’t a typo either – while it’s clear that Herlock Sholmes is meant to be the world-famous Sherlock Holmes, the character that’s presented here is a much more whimsical and charming fellow than Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation. In fact, most of the characters in The Great Ace Attorney are charming, and that’s perhaps owing to why it’s such a compelling story. I’ve purposefully kept things vague to preserve the experience, but the fantastic characters and interwoven plots all contribute to making The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles one of the better Ace Attorney games.

The structure remains broadly similar to previous games – you will investigate and interrogate to collect evidence on a particular crime only to later defend your client in court. Perhaps the first series to bring visual novels popularity outside of Japan, the Ace Attorney games are linear. The only real point of gameplay requires you to present the right piece of evidence at the right juncture in a testimony. They’re simply structured, but the stories told are so compelling that it’s hard to fault the game for being so linear – even if games of more recent years like Aviary Attorney have had much more open-ended cases.

When you’re in court, witnesses will be called to the stand to testify. Each testimony is broken into smaller chunks where you can ask for further clarification or present a piece of evidence that seemingly contradicts what they’ll say. Doing so will often unveil further details about the case and (hopefully) allows you to acquit your client. As I said, it’s relatively simple, but it’s presented in such a garishly dramatic way that it is easily an experience that’s greater than the sum of its parts. 

However, some things are done a little bit differently in The Great Ace Attorney to keep things a bit fresh.

Previous games had you appealing to a judge and battling against a prosecutor. The Great Ace Attorney has you appealing to a jury this time too. A panel of citizens supposedly picked from the public; there are moments in each case where they’ll have seemingly made up their minds. During these moments, you’ll have to examine their reasons for their verdict and attempt to sway them the other way in your favour. The reasons these jurors behave the way they do are often played up for comedic value to the point where they shouldn’t even be jurors, given their lack of impartiality.

So what else can you do beyond pitting them against each other? At these points, Ryunosuke must interrogate each juror and use their statements against each other to sway them to change their vote. It is mechanically identical to the witness testimonies, but having such a wide array of characters on the jury, many of which have a wild conflict of interest, keeps things feeling fresh.

As alluded to in my preview earlier in the month, the other significant addition is the Logic and Reason Spectaculars. These take place during the investigation sequences and have Herlock Sholmes deducing something about somebody who is usually hiding something. Ryunosuke then swoops in and corrects any flaws in Herlock’s observation. They’re incredible and stylishly presented and add a bit of spice to the investigation sequences that previously lacked drama compared to the courtroom sequences. 

These new additions to the formula and the already strong foundation established in previous games come together to create a remarkably well-paced experience. While it is essentially the most extended story in the franchise – spanning two whole games – The Great Ace Attorney is mainly enjoyable. I’ll admit that I found the last case of both games to drag a little bit towards the end. But the issues I’ve had with previous games, namely strange and circular logic, were nowhere near as prevalent here. Even more so, I was worried that this game being a port of a 3DS game, would age it poorly, but everything feels as tight and as polished as ever.

While some cases are a little shorter than other games, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles still feels like a complete experience. Both games will take you around sixty or so hours to complete, though if you’re someone who’s here just for the story, you can even switch the game to a mode that more or less plays itself. Some more minor cases, originally released as downloadable content, included from the get-go. All in all, it’s a well-rounded package that’s essentially got the range of two Ace Attorney games jammed into it.

From a visual standpoint, the presentation is top-notch. Like I mentioned previously, I had concerns that a 3DS game from five years ago would look dated. Thankfully that’s not the case. Like the last two Ace Attorney games, both games use fully modelled environments and characters rather than the sprites of earlier games. Every character is as animated as ever and very expressive, oozing that zany charisma that every Ace Attorney character has. Though I don’t feel any tracks ever got as adrenaline pumping as Cornered from the original games, the score is similarly dripping with personality.

All in all, The Great Ace Attorney is a worthy addition to the Ace Attorney series. While there are some minor pacing issues here and there, it’s well worth experiencing.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Review – No Objections Here appeared first on Press Start.

Skyward Sword is the Zelda game I’ve thought about most. It’s the one that I’ve always thought if I’d returned to it, my opinion would change. Until now, I’d not revisited the game since I’d played it on the Wii almost ten years ago, but I was keen to see how its controls had held up. Thinking about the game’s design, I was convinced that Skyward Sword couldn’t work on anything other than a Wii. But with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Nintendo is determined to prove me wrong. While this new version represents a new way to play the series’ origin story, I’m unsure which method is best. 

As I’ve alluded to, from a story perspective, Skyward Sword feels like the most appropriate to celebrate The Legend of Zelda as it tells the very first story in the series. While it starts typically – a boy named Link goes about his day-to-day life until his close friend Zelda goes missing – it serves as a fantastic prequel that sets up the conflicts of the entire series. Either way, the plot does an excellent job at appealing to both long-time fans and newcomers to the series, even if it takes a bit to get going.

Perhaps the most controversial of the mainline Zelda games, Skyward Sword was the first game to implement compulsory full 1:1 sword combat using the motion controls of the Wii. The result was wildly inconsistent. On the one hand (literally), the sword combat was fun. Still, it lacked the consistency to be accurate with absolutely every slash. But motion controls felt shoehorned into areas of the game where they weren’t needed – think swimming and flying – to the detriment of the entire experience.

With Skyward Sword HD, motion controls become optional. If you were a player who enjoyed them on the Wii, they’re still here, and they work just as well (if not better) than in the Wii original. If you didn’t care for them, many of the game’s motions have now been mapped to the right stick of the controller. This feels like the best way you could play Skyward Sword without motion controls, though no matter which option you choose, the learning curve is a little bit steeper than other Zelda games. But once you get used to whichever control scheme you want, the game still plays well.

The decision to build Link’s sword around this style of combat is controversial. It allows for more precise control around how Link attacks. This way allows for interesting enemy design that requires the mastery of this combat style. Conversely, it feels like every encounter in Skyward Sword can be distilled down to the same “puzzle.” Look (or perhaps I should say wait) for the right direction to slash and make your move to cause damage. It’s that waiting that I take a bit of issue with, as it feels like it’s detrimental to the pacing of the combat.

The new control scheme eschews motion controls for a more conventional scheme and takes some getting used to. With the right stick reserved entirely for the sword, there is no camera control without holding down a shoulder button. Add to this the need to sprint by holding a face button, and things feel less than intuitive. Try to visualise it on your hands or controller right now. The problem here is that neither motion controls nor stick controls feel superior to the other. I commend Nintendo for providing players with a choice, nonetheless, but I’m still not sure which way is the best to play.

It’d be remiss of me to neglect to mention that the new control scheme is a remarkable improvement on other aspects of the game. Where they felt like a gimmick in the original game, using traditional inputs to control Link while swimming or flying is a genuinely fantastic quality of life improvement. Where in the original, you would contort your wrist so unnaturally to gain speed in the skies surrounding Skyloft, here in Skyward Sword HD, it’s all done with buttons.

So much of Skyward Sword HD is trying its best to improve the game’s general flow. The opening moments of the game are still slightly longer than I’d like, but so much of the tutorials have been scaled back or simplified to get Link out into the world quicker. Even better for those who’ve played before – most major cutscenes are now skippable. For the large majority that will be replaying the game, it’s a bit of a godsend. The abbreviated tutorials do well for newer players to provide relief but not completely alleviate the slower pacing of the game’s opening moments.

Other tinier details provide a bit of relief from the monotony of the original game’s pacing. While your companion character Fi is always brimming with advice for Link, that advice is now largely optional. They will pop out when called and give you advice when you’re looking at it, but not to the point where they interrupt ad nauseum as previously. Similarly – a small but huge change – is that the text boxes can be sped up. I can’t speak enough for how this improves the flow of important scenes. Going back to the original game, these often moved at a glacial pace, so I’m enamoured to see them sped up here.

While the controls do wonders for bringing Skyward Sword to as many people as possible – the game itself is wildly inconsistent. It’s tough to talk about Skyward Sword so definitively because of this. The highs are absolutely some of the most tremendous highs – each of the dungeons is phenomenal. I’d even go as far as to say the battle with Koloktos and the entirety of the Lanaryu Desert are series-best Zelda moments. But the game has you revisiting the exact same three locations multiple times to carry out so much busywork that it’s hard to compare it to the best games in the series favourably.

That being said, there’s something oddly nostalgic about playing a Zelda game that has designed dungeons and unique bespoke items to help you get through it. Skyward Sword especially does a great job of ensuring that Links inventory is utilised in intelligent ways throughout the adventure. The ingenuity on display here with items like the Gust Bellows, the Beetle, and the Whip gives me hope we’ll see a return to these aspects with future Zelda titles.

There’s one thing that’s absolutely certain with Skyward Sword HD. That’s the fact that it absolutely pops with the increase in visual fidelity. With an art direction that’s distinctly impressionist, I can’t help but feel this is one of the best-looking Zelda games. All the colours are bright and vibrant; the characters are all incredibly animated to make the world feel like a moving painting. Similarly, unlike any other Zelda on the Switch, the game runs at a silky smooth sixty frames per second with no performance issues whatsoever. Putting everything else I’ve said aside, I’ve no reservations in saying this is the best-looking Zelda game on the Switch.

When Skyward Sword was released almost a decade ago, it’s hard to imagine that it was the first Zelda game to feature a full orchestral soundtrack. Thankfully, it still retains the vibrant and expressive tone it delivered with some remarkably composed tracks all that time ago. Each one perfectly encompasses the mood and feel of the areas you’ll visit and with such a depth that hadn’t been experienced in Zelda games up until that point. If it weren’t any clearer – the original score is great.

Skyward Sword is inconsistent, but there’s so much done here that I can’t help but walk away feeling good about it. The game is linear, and the overworld is barren. Still, the dungeon design and most of the boss battles are nothing short of spectacular. While Skyward Sword isn’t my favourite Zelda, it has so many great moments that I wouldn’t suggest any Zelda fan miss it.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Review – A Soaring Origin Story appeared first on Press Start.

Despite reviewing relatively well when it released in 2016, Monster Hunter Stories didn’t sell particularly well on the 3DS. A number of roughly 300,000 units was dwarfed in comparison to the millions that other mainline titles sell worldwide since the series took off in popularity, leaving the prospect of a sequel unlikely. Lo and behold, here we are almost five years later with CAPCOM giving the spin-off series another go in the form of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. It’s a staggeringly confident display of what you can do with a universe like Monster Hunter’s that anyone who considers themselves a fan should experience, but some big platform related caveats might sway your decision.

While it’s set in the same world as the first game, Wings of Ruin follows a mostly brand-new cast of characters on an adventure across the lands surrounding Hakolo Island, a society of Riders who befriend and bond with companion monsters adequately called “Monsties”. All sorts of strange happenings are occurring on Hakolo Island and its surrounding lands, Ratholos are disappearing, waves of red light are filling the sky, and you’ve been entrusted with an egg from Hakolo’s sacred protector who also happens to be your grandfather’s closest Monstie, Guardian Ratha. A wingless Rathalos hatches from the egg, a Rathalos that is said to grow wings that will bring ruin to the world, and it’s up to you to save Ratha from his terrible fate.

It’s a fairly typical and straightforward narrative that’ll be familiar to anyone who’s played a Monster Hunter game before, but it’s the RPG-like focus on its story and characters that lift it above the rest. It’s predictable and cheesy at times, but there’s genuine moments of sadness and triumph that really hit home thanks to some excellent cutscenes and endearing characters, It’s the same sort of uplifting tale that you’d see in a Disney or Pixar movie, just through a different lens. There’s a tangible sense of inevitability in the beginning hours of the game, that are punctuated by the story’s biggest moments, and it’s a joy to experience from start to finish. Aside from the main quest, there’s some interesting conversation on what it means to be a Rider as opposed to a Hunter, and how the two manage to coexist with each other alongside all monsters. Its aspects of this world that aren’t tackled in the mainline series, and it keeps Wings of Ruin interesting, even in its moments of downtime during the main quest.

Fans of the first game will be instantly familiar with Wings of Ruin’s gameplay loop because its largely the same, with a few new wrinkles and additions to flesh out combat, RPG elements, and Monstie growth. Main quest progression is a bit formulaic in the sense that you’ll go to a new area, help the locals out with a few problematic monsters, and then progress onto the next area. There’s side quests and optional content you can engage with off of the beaten path, but I only ever found myself engaging with it for the rewards, not because its particularly well-written or unique from what you usually do while pushing the story forward. The most addictive and arguably best part of Wings of Ruin is monster dens.

Monster dens are randomly scattered in the exploration areas, each one housing a nest and numerous monsters. Once you find the nest, you can search for eggs, each one varying in size, smell, and Monstie. The heavier and smellier the egg, the rarer the Monstie and its genes will be, which makes every single venture into a den exciting and unpredictable, especially when there’s a whopping 81 potential Monsties to hatch. Hatching your gathered eggs is akin to catching a new Pokémon, you never quite know what you’re going to get, and as you progress, you’ll find rare dens that yield rarer monsters with better genes. Every monster has a set chance to flee after you defeat them in battle which can be increased and following them to their den will always give you an egg for that particular monster. It’s the perfect mix of RNG and player agency that is further complimented by the improved Rite of Channeling system.

Every Monstie’s gene set is laid out in a 3×3 grid, with slots opening up as that Monstie levels up. Genes influence a Monstie’s inherent skills and passive abilities, lining up three genes of the same colour boost the correlated attack type for that Monstie i.e. three red genes give a 10% boost to all fire attacks. The Rite of Channeling allows you to channel a gene from one Monstie to another in any slot you wish at the cost of the channeling Monstie.

It’s a genius system that’s simple to understand and engage with but allows for endless customization and fine tuning so that you can have your party of Monsties exactly as you want them to be. It’s an addictive system that always has you striving for better Monsties and incentivizes you to continue exploring dens after you’ve hatched everything you could want. If that wasn’t enough, Dens can be tackled with friends via online co-op, meaning you can participate in battles and hunt for eggs with your friends.

Combat is where Wings of Ruin is most improved from the original in small and simple ways that build on the turn-based system further and fold more Monster Hunter flavor into the mix. For the unaware, Monster Hunter Stories is a spin-off that opts for a more thoughtful and strategic RPG combat system as opposed to the action roots of the mainline series. The core combat revolves around an attack triangle where Speed beats Power, Power beats Technical, and Technical beats Speed. If you or your Monstie attacks a target that’s targeting you, it will initiate a head-to-head where the dominant attack type wins. Winning head-to-heads builds your Kinship meter which allows you to mount your monster and perform a devastating Kinship attack. Additionally, you’ll be accompanied by AI controlled characters over the course of your journey that also help you in battle.

Where the complexity comes from, is in the form of weapon types, resistances, and part breaking. Each monster has elemental weaknesses and resistances that you’ll want to exploit in battle, both in offense and in defence. You can craft weapons and armor from monsters you’ve already battled to increase your own resistances, leaning into the core progression from the mainline titles. On top of this, monsters have parts that can be broken when sufficient damage is dealt to them, some of which can cause a topple when broken, leading to big damage.

The three main weapon types, Slash, Blunt, and Piece are effective against different monster parts, and the ability to have three weapons equipped at any given time means you can swap between them as you need in combat. It all results in a combat system that appears simple on the surface, but is incredibly rewarding to master, especially when you reach end and post-game content that have a satisfying level of challenge to them. This is all without mentioning weapon mechanics, Double Attacks, Skills, and Items which all add their own wrinkles onto an already stellar combat system. The returning inclusion of mini quick-time-events in combat, and the option to speed up animations keep it from ever getting too slow or stale.

What will potentially make or break your experience with Wings of Ruin is how you play it, and by that, I mean whether you play it on PC or on Switch. The PC version is absolutely the definitive way to play the game, while environments can be a bit flat in terms of detail and the draw distance leaves a lot to be desired, it’s gorgeously animated, has a beautiful art style, jaw-dropping models, and steady performance. Not once did I have a technical issue aside from one that I assume was related to Steam, it was a joy to play from start to finish and is the version this review is based on.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION

The Switch version, however, is a different story. In handheld mode, the game looks good enough in the overworld, and great in combat, sporting the same detailed models and striking art style. However, this is at the cost of significant slowdown and choppy framerates, especially when you’re in battle. Playing in docked mode arguably makes the game look even worse, as if it’s been upscaled to 1080p from 720p, leaving the game world looking muddy and unpolished. What’s more worrying is that performance is mostly the same in docked mode and suffers from the same slowdown and frame rate issues. While I wouldn’t call the Switch version unplayable, it’s vastly inferior to the PC version to the point where I think it hinders the experience and may affect your enjoyment depending on what you value in games.

THE PC AND SWITCH VERSIONS OF THIS GAME WERE PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. DIGITAL COPIES OF THE GAME WERE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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One of the most notable postponed events in a year full of cancellations and delays was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Pushed back due to the global pandemic, it was the first time the Games were delayed in their history – although there has been cancellations in the past. And with the delay in the Olympic Games came the delay in the video game released to celebrate the event. Initially released in Japan on July 24, 2019, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game is the first traditional Olympics video game since London 2012. Boasting a wide range of events from Track and Field to Aquatics and even competitive team events, the game brings players to the heart of Japan to compete in worldwide events for the pursuit of gold.

Before you dive into the events you’re given the opportunity to customise your very own athlete, and this exercise basically gives you a taste of things to come. I’m not the skinniest of people and tried to make my character accurate, but accidentally made him too overweight, and from there the game just got funnier. You can customise everything from facial features and hair colour to the athlete’s voice, and by earning points in the game you can unlock better skillsets for your athlete too, focusing on speed, technique or power to give yourself boosts in these areas.

In fact, the game’s customisation is an absolutely enjoyable quirk that I spent way too much time with – not only crafting athletes to look like myself or people I know, but making them look ridiculous and then hitting the field to compete. The same can be said for the outfits available too, with more points you can unlock more outfits and have some hilarious looking teams and athletes. Keep an eye out for the Sonic the Hedgehog outfit too – but whether it makes you faster or not will be in your mind. You’re not limited purely to sports outfits either; there was absolutely no way I was passing up the opportunity to have an athlete play Rugby Sevens in a space-suit.

When it comes to the events that you can participate in, not only does the game deliver when it comes to variety, but each event plays noticeably different. The simple ‘how to play’ tutorial is easy to understand, but it misses the complex button taps and tactics you can implement that will help you push for the gold medal each time. Not only that, but there is a distinct challenge for each event as well – it isn’t simply a breeze each time, and I found myself getting frustrated thinking I was hitting the right spots only to come second or last in events that I was getting good with.

The first event I started with was the 100m sprint, and I blitzed that in no time, capturing my first gold medal. My portly athlete avatar crushed the competition, and celebrated in his singlet and short shorts on top of the podium. But the glory was short lived, as I moved into competitive climbing and didn’t even make it past the qualifier despite trying three times in succession. In fact some of the events have a steep learning curve that even after a bit of practice could still mean you miss out on the gold. While that sounds frustrating, it is actually a good thing – it adds to the challenge and pushes you to get better, in the true Olympic spirit. Additionally, you can practice all of the events in training mode, and even complete challenges to test your skills against licensed players, as each nationality and team plays differently based on the athletes selected.

Playing online was mostly a breeze too. You can set up medley events or play single events, even pairing up for doubles events or team sports. For the most part there was very little lag in events making things pretty even, however there was a bit of noticeable lag in events such as Baseball between pitching selections and batter movements – and while not a game-breaking issue, made things run a bit slower and added some frustration.

The initial ‘uncanny valley’ visuals take a while to get over too – while the graphics are actually really smooth and crisp, the opening visual where real athletes turn into a cartoon-ish version of themselves running through the streets of Tokyo makes things feel a little strange, and the game follows suit with blurred lines between looking really smooth and realistic, and equally as cartoonish. After a while of playing you’ll also start to get frustrated at the audio – while upbeat and peppy, it starts to get grating and repetitive.

Fun at face-value with significant underlying depth, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game bursts off the blocks at lightning speed and doesn’t break stride, pushing for gold and delivering a fun experience along the way. With clean and crisp visuals and gameplay that’s easy to learn and more intense to master, the only jarring thing about it is seeing crowds of people huddled together in the audience – but that could be the 2020 shellshock speaking.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A PS5 FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

The post Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Game Review – Going For Gold appeared first on Press Start.

It’s almost ironic now that Persona, a series initially spun off Shin Megami Tensei, is arguably more well known amongst players today. But the Persona games are few and far between, and for those who are fans of games like it, the options are few and far between. Finally, the game that started the Atlus RPG craze, Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne, has now been given the HD Remaster treatment. But while the game is as solid as ever, it’s not quite had the shiny coat of paint it could have been.

Nocturne follows an unnamed protagonist who visits his sick teacher in hospital along with two other friends. Once your party arrives, it becomes clear that the hospital has been abandoned and that something strange is going on. Without ruining anything beyond the opening moments – the apocalypse begins, and the world ends. An enhanced demonic parasite gives your character special powers by none other than Lucifer himself, and you’re set on a quest to shape the new world.

It’s a bizarre storyline but one that I found oddly compelling. Each of the major characters finds themselves aligned with a “Reason,” which is essentially a set of principles unto which the new world will form. Each character you meet has their idea of a “Reason,” of which your alignment to them determines your ending. Each of them has its competing philosophies and mantras, which I empathised with, so none of them felt like the wrong choice. But it’s a degree of complexity to the characters that I enjoyed engaging with.

The game itself is a fairly typical RPG, however. You’ll travel from place to place, defeating enemies and bosses while levelling up and ensuring your party keeps up with the grind. Like I alluded to in my preview, the game shares many DNA with the Persona series. Many of the magic spells you’ll use share the same names, and most of the demons you’ll encounter are more or less the same too. I don’t say this as a bad thing; mind you it offers the perfect opportunity for Persona fans to jump straight in. Chances are you’ll be able to find yourself quickly comfortable with the minutiae of both battles and exploration.

Turn-based games have an unfair reputation for being slow amongst newer fans. Still, Nocturne does it’s best to keep things interesting, especially for a game released eighteen years ago. Called the “Press-Turn” system, it sees your player character and three other demons taking turns to input commands. The unique aspect here is that every time an action is performed that exploits an enemy’s weakness OR results in a critical attack, the party gains one more action. One of your attacks being blocked or missed means you’ll have one removed.

The enemies are, similarly, governed by the same rules too. This means that Nocturne is best enjoyed if you’re willing to learn your enemies’ weaknesses and exploit them properly to make the most of each turn. It’s an easy ask – so many abilities will reveal weaknesses to you – and it gives an additional layer of strategy to the battles that I enjoyed. It can be so easy to fall into the trap of just mashing buttons through battles, casting your favourite spells, and just moving on. Perhaps that’s a damning admission of my own habits as a player, but the battle system in Nocturne made me really think about what I was doing with each turn.

Another layer is delicately laid over the top of everything with the demons themselves. You’ll want to try and build up a varied team of them, and sometimes, much like Pokémon, you will want to capture them rather than defeat them. Each of the demons has a specific personality that you’ll have to pander to as an attempt to get them to join your cause. Some will ask for items; some will join straight away.

While I missed having a merry crew of characters to engage with on my journey, having demons that I didn’t care about was a boon for me. It encourages experimentation with the fusion system. Once again, in a similar fashion to Persona, demons can be fused or evolved to create more powerful ones. In addition, HD Remaster introduces more flexibility over which skills will be inherited after fusing demons. This feature alone makes it a massive improvement over the original.

But when you’re not fighting demons and messing with stats to create the very best creations, you’ll be dungeon crawling. While dungeon crawling is such an integral component of both the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games, it feels very of its time here. You can really appreciate how far the teams at Atlus have come in giving their environments some density of detail. Still, this is a pure dungeon-crawling experience that feels like a product of its time, for better or worse.

Speaking of difficulty, Nocturne is a tough game. It’s incredibly unforgiving, offering little reprieve from enemies in dungeons as well as boss battles that really, really fight to make sure you understand every aspect of their weaknesses. It’s a degree of challenge (and subsequent reward and satisfaction) that I’m used to, but it’s bound to be off-putting for the more casual player. Thankfully, with the addition of the new Merciful difficulty option, selectable at any time, it seems Atlus recognised this too. So even though Nocturne is a difficult game by design, this new difficulty makes it more than approachable for any newcomer.

Regardless of what difficulty you play, there’s still a heap to do and see in the new world. You’ll easily get at least fifty or so hours out of this, but exploring the optional dungeons and completing all side quests can easily take this to anywhere between eighty to a hundred hours. The optional content is just okay. It alleviates the grinding in a less tedious way than usual, but it gives a good option for players who want to be better without lowering the difficulty.

Unfortunately, Nocturne’s most significant shortfall is its presentation. While the demon design and art direction are top-notch, this HD Remaster feels lacking in many aspects visually. Everything looks crisper, owing to its huge resolution increase, but the game still runs at a meagre 30 frames per second. I’ve seen the argument it doesn’t need to, given that it’s a turn-based RPG, but given how sparse this game looks already, it still seems like a bizarre choice. Similarly, the cinematics are still presented in their original 4:3 aspect ratio with stylised borders, dating the whole experience quite a bit.

But one major improvement is a double-edged sword. Nocturn HD Remaster features fully voiced dialogue now. Even though I can acknowledge the monumental localisation efforts this would have taken; it’s clear the script wasn’t written for it. Characters will often skirt around other characters’ names (given that they’re customisable), and it just feels jarring. Still, the addition of voice work elevates many of the crucial scenes in the game and shouldn’t be discounted. The soundtrack is, similarly, quite good. Lots of guitars, giving it a distinctly different feel to Persona, but still great.

THE PLAYSTATION 4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A PLAYSTATION 5 FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster Review – A Not So Immaculate Conception appeared first on Press Start.

I’ve been a huge Nintendo fan for so long, but I’d never heard of or paid attention to Famicom Detective Club. They’re two games written by the same writer as Metroid that never found their way outside of Japan. Now, several years after their release on the NES, they’ve been given new life on the Nintendo Switch. While this is one of the most intense visual overhauls of a game that I’ve ever seen, the games remain the same, for better or for worse.

When you buy Famicom Detective Club, you’re getting two games. The Missing Heir, and The Girl Who Stands Behind. Both games follow the same protagonist – an unnamed teen detective (who I creatively called James) and a go-getter assistant named Ayumi Tachibana. Each of the games plays similarly, and while the story isn’t directly linked, the characters’ story arcs are explored in both games. In short, I’d recommend you play both for the complete picture, but both stand on their own rather nicely if you don’t.

The Missing Heir feels like your typical murder mystery. You’re a detective who a wealthy family employs in the Japanese countryside to determine who murdered the cold and brutal matriarch of both the family and the family business. However, the Girl Who Stands Behind feels a bit more supernatural. Not only is it a prequel to The Missing Heir, but it has you investigating both a drowning of a schoolgirl and an often talked about urban legend in the middle of a city.

Both games play like a typical visual novel. Think of it as being similar to the investigation sequences in Professor Layton or Ace Attorney, except without the courtroom or puzzles. It sounds like, then, that Famicom Detective Club guts what made those games exciting. But it doesn’t, thankfully, and the plot is engaging enough to carry your attention across both games. You’ll be able to engage with characters, speak to them, show them specific items or investigate the area in front of you. It’s relatively standard adventure game stuff.

But what I would’ve loved from Famicom Detective Club is a bit more streamlining of the progression. An example – there were two or so times where I’d be stuck and have no idea where to go. I’d move from area to area, asked everyone the same question multiple times, and tried to examine every pixel on my screen. It turns out that the only way to progress was to inquire about specific topics, topics that I’d already covered with that character. Or examine an item that hadn’t been mentioned prior.

I understand that these games, by design, always seem to suffer from some kind of bizarre logic, but Famicom Detective Club feels especially egregious with the way it carries this out. It’s not a huge dealbreaker, as I eventually found myself thinking the same way the writers think, but it will feel jarring to less experienced players. I’d often find myself mashing each topic multiple times to make sure I wasn’t getting myself stuck for no reason.

It’s a relief that, despite these issues that I have with Famicom Detective Club as games, both of the games have an incredibly engaging story. There wasn’t a moment when I was away from my console that I didn’t want to get back to the plot and find out just where things were going. Often the game would set up several red herrings before slashing them down (perhaps even literally) and establishing a few more. It’s a testament to the strong writing that it still stands up to even today.

As mentioned in my preview last month, it’s clear that there’s a huge improvement in how the game looks from a visual standpoint. Both games utilise an interesting technique that means each character looks flat but moves and animates in a way that looks completely three-dimensional. It’s probably some rotoscoping technique, but whatever it is, it gives both Famicom Detective Club games a beautifully unique look.

From an audio perspective, the game has been similarly overhauled. If you’re a purist, you can still play the games with the original NES or SNES soundtracks if you so wish, but these aspects have arguably aged the worst since the initial release. Thankfully, the rearranged soundtrack is fantastic – perfectly hammering home the tone and mood of each dramatic scene. The voice work is all in Japanese with no English options – so be ready to do a lot of reading. But the acting seems on point and hard to fault.

The question remains whether Nintendo should have bothered to bring its arguably most obscure franchise out of the vault and polish it up for international audiences. The answer is a resounding yes, without a doubt, as the engaging nature of the story alone makes me glad that I’ve experienced both. It’s just that it’s undeniably a product of its time and comes with many caveats associated with that.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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When Subnautica came out of early access for its full launch in January of 2018, it was met with widespread acclaim from numerous critics and fans of the survival genre – and for a good reason. There’s little on the market that can emulate the feeling you get from playing something like Subnautica. An undeniably alluring combination of oppressive isolation and peaceful ambience as you explore the depths of Planet 4546B. Subnautica: Below Zero relies on much of the same atmosphere and tension that made the first game special while adding an array of new additions that further strengthen the formula.

Set one year after the first game, Subnautica: Below Zero sees players taking control of Robin Ayou, trying to find what led to her sister’s sudden death on Planet 4546B. After narrowly escaping death when a stolen life pod collides with a meteor and crash lands in a frigid region of the planet, Robin is forced to adapt to the cold climate to survive and find answers. Although the story slowly unfolds as you explore new biomes and hunt for clues, you’re never really pointed in a particular direction, and the game doesn’t hold your hand along the way. Instead, most of the world-building and set dressing you’ll find comes in the form of environmental story-telling and collectibles. Recorded PDAs, research notes, abandoned bases, and information you find via scanning are all things that contribute to painting a picture of what has happened.

While the core narrative thread of finding out what happened to Sam is resolved in a relatively anti-climactic way, Below Zero’s focus shifts to another thread that links back to the first game in interesting and engaging ways that fans will adore. Ultimately, it’s a serviceable narrative that serves as a basis for the core gameplay but suffers a bit from some hit-and-miss voice acting and lacks some of the intrigue that came with the first game’s plot.

At its core, Subnautica: Below Zero is a deep-sea survival game with a heavy emphasis on exploration and base building. As you explore the different biomes, you’ll gather food, water, and materials to create tools and vehicles that allow you to go deeper for story progression, rare resources, and crafting opportunities. It’s a simple yet addictive gameplay loop that always begs you to do just one more thing before ending a play session, and that one more thing almost always snowballs into another hour of play. There’s always something to work towards in Below Zero, and that was what always kept me coming back for more. The most frustrating thing about it is the inventory and crafting UI, preventing you from crafting multiple of the same item at once and being a pain to navigate and manage in some circumstances.

Aside from keeping your food, water, and oxygen levels high at all times, there’s also all sorts of wildlife native to Planet 4546B. Some of it is completely harmless, like the adorable Penglings and the cheeky Sea Monkeys that try to steal and swim away with your items, but others are out for blood and will attack you on-site when venturing into their territories. Many of these monsters become less terrifying as you obtain better vehicles and means to circumvent them. Still, nothing will ever take away from the terror you experience when encountering leviathan class creatures. These behemoth sized beings can only be found in the deepest depths of Below Zero’s world, but the sense of awe and dread they fill you with is a feeling that is one of the best parts of Subnautica.

New to Below Zero is a heavy emphasis on land exploration as well as the regular underwater stuff. Research centers and bases dot the frozen wastelands above the ocean, with their unique predators and wildlife to encounter. While not nearly as expansive as the numerous biomes found in the sea, these areas provide a much-needed break from all the swimming and existential terror that comes with exploring the ever-expanding depths. While above water, you’ll have to find ways to keep yourself warm, whether that be through crafting a new set of gear, making smart use of the PRAWN Suit, or taking advantage of the environment. There’s a lot to think about at any given time, but that makes preparation in Below Zero feel rewarding and well worth the effort.

As you slowly unlock new tools and vehicles to fabricate, you’ll also gain the ability to create structures underwater. This means that you can build an underwater base almost anywhere as long as you have the resources. The core building system is intuitive, easy to use, and heavily customizable. For example, suppose you’re regularly using the scanner when you explore. In that case, you’ll quickly unlock new types of furniture and room layouts to use for your center of operations. It’s easy to get excited at all the potential building opportunities as you play and provides a nice break from the exploration and story if that’s what you’re looking for.

As terrifying as the ocean may be to some, it’s home to some of the most beautiful, jaw-dropping environments you could ever hope to see. Below Zero capitalizes on providing all sorts of gorgeous biomes to explore that feel visually and tonally distinct. The harsh sunlight punctuates the dark-green tinge of the Lilly Pad Islands as huge whale-like creatures swim overhead. In contrast, the Crystal Caverns are laced with purple shards, creating massive natural formations of violet that also cover the predators that lurk within its depths. Below Zero is constantly a feast for the eyes, and it’s hard not to get mesmerized by the equally beautiful soundtrack. It’s a shame that visual bugs pop up quite frequently to pull you right out of it. It’s inevitable in a game as big and expansive as this, but it’s even more noticeable when your entranced state is suddenly shattered because Robin can’t climb a ladder properly.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Subnautica: Below Zero Review – Anything But A Cold Reception appeared first on Press Start.

Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo 64 is one of my earliest gaming memories when it comes to playing through a single-player game alone. Looking back now, it was a super simple game where I got to see my favourite Pokemon living their best life, whilst taking photos of them.

New Pokemon Snap doesn’t stray too far from the simple premise of the original game but adds some mechanics we’ve seen from other games in the decades past since the original. The game has you taking to a number of courses on-rails, with the goal to take as many photos of Pokemon as you can. Many of these courses take place in similar locations to the original, which allowed me to really reminisce on my great experiences with the first game.

The brunt of the experience is controlling your camera – and I had mixed results. While you use the left analog stick to control your pointer, the right analog stick controls the camera as a whole. Gyro is also supported, though I really only found that useful for minor movements. That being said, there’s four different control schemes that I encourage you to play around with to find the one that works best for you.

While the original game only had around 60 or so Pokemon, New Pokemon Snap has almost four times as many. Not only are there many more Pokemon in each level to shoot, but each Pokemon has a more dynamic set of behaviours than seen in the original game. This time around, the Pokemon you’ll see have heaps more personality, performing a larger variety of actions during your Pokemon safari. Such an increase in attention to detail makes for a much better adventure.

The much broader range of Pokemon behaviours dovetails nicely with the way scoring now works. Each Pokemon needs to be snapped not only four times, but in four different situations. You essentially need to seek out one of each ranking, from one star to four stars. One star photos are usually reserved for simpler shots – where the Pokemon is standing still or doing nothing. Other shots, ranked from two to four stars, see them doing something interesting, or interacting with other Pokemon.

While this is my favourite change to the formula in New Pokemon Snap, it also has brings a frustrating caveat.

Just like in the original game, you can submit one photo of each Pokemon for grading at the end of each level. But in New Pokemon Snap, there were often times I’d have three photos of three different rankings for a single Pokemon, but I couldn’t submit them all to fill each rank. Instead, I had to pick one, submit it, and then run the stage again to try and get the rankings I wasn’t allowed to submit for. While I still enjoy the idea of submitting your best photo, it feels like it’s artificially lengthening the process to make me discard multiple photos of a Pokemon that I could easily submit.

Outside of the behaviour of the Pokemon you photograph, the rest of the scoring is handled a bit more complexly than in the original. Each photo is ranked based on the Pokemon’s pose, size, direction, and placement in the frame. Additionally, much like the original, you’re given more points if additional Pokemon appear in the frame too.

Something that I really enjoyed is that the photo opportunities are presented to you as challenges, with cryptic clues. This is great because if you need just one more photo of a certain Pokemon, you’re not left in the dark in how to get it, but instead have a checklist in the way of challenges to provide a bit more direction than the original game had.

Another major way that progression has changed since the last game is that you can now level up each course. Experience is earned by taking new photos of Pokemon and earning expedition points. As your research level increases, you’ll unlock new Pokemon actions to alter your runs on that course.  Each course also now has different instances (such as day and night) which change which Pokemon appear and, if there are some who appear on both, how they behave. While I like this idea, the game separates your research level by instance too, which means sometimes it can feel a little bit grindy as there’s inevitable overlap between the two.

Still, I appreciate it’s a great way to modernise the game and bring it to new audiences.

As in the original, you’ll be kitted out with all kinds of gear to play around with. Items such as the fruit and a musical attachment for your camera mimic the apples and flute from the original game. You’ll have to use your items creatively to both lure Pokemon out of their hiding or elicit a response from them to get the four differently ranked photos required. What’s a bit newer is a scanner, which reveals key areas of interest (that you can also photograph for points), and Illumina Orbs, which can be thrown at Pokemon to give them a new form. In terms of the variety of items, it feels like the right amount, keeping things simple and not overwhelming while also preventing tedium or repetition.

Where I’m a bit of an old-school Pokemon fan, the newer Pokemon that don’t resonate with me as much were still enjoyable to watch and shoot. In fact, the game as a whole is a really nice change of pace from most other games I usually play and others on the market. It’s a genuine, heart warming joy to see Pokemon looking better than ever (visually, especially) and living their best life on an island.

There are some light online elements – you can both upload your favourite photos and rate others, which I think will take the game to a whole new level. So many games today have a Photo Mode of some sort, so it’s kind of ironic to see us come full circle with New Pokemon Snap. The new Re-Snap mode even lets you add borders, stickers and filters while adjusting the brightness too. It’s a nice little tool that lets your photos go well beyond what you originally photographed.

So many Nintendo games often have the best music, so I was a bit letdown with the soundtrack here. While I acknowledge that this is perhaps a design choice, to let you listen out for the right Pokemon, the music is extremely subdued. It’s a bit of a nitpick, I’ll admit, but in a game so simple in concept I’d have loved some more interesting music for my adventures.

All-in-all, New Pokemon Snap does stay faithful to the original game. It adds some more challenge, and each course and the Pokemon within them are overflowing with personality. It’s a quite lengthy adventure, but not without a bit of padding.

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Back when I reviewed Monster Hunter World: Iceborne in 2019, I stated that it constantly found ways to surprise and entertain me well past the hundreds of hours I’d already put into the base game. Since then, CAPCOM have added numerous monsters and crossovers via free updates, from fan favorites like Alatreon and Fatalis to dangerous newcomers like Safi’Jiiva. It kept World feeling alive and fresh for the better part of its 3-year life span, and as it comes to an end, Monster Hunter Rise is stepping in to take the reins. Built exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on the RE Engine, Rise is a seamless meld of new and old Monster Hunter, maintaining all of the quality of life changes that came with World, while infusing the experience with nostalgia and new systems that just make sense within the meticulously polished foundations of its gameplay.

Where Monster Hunter Rise differentiates most from any of its predecessors, is in its setting of Kamura Village and surrounding locales. It’s clear that it takes inspiration from feudal Japan in more ways than one from the design of the village itself to the Kurosawa-like introductions of its whopping 28 different monsters. Much like World, there’s an exceptional amount on environmental storytelling on showcase here, giving the game a distinct sense of place among the franchise. Where it separates itself from World, though, is in the way it tells its narrative.

Much like older MH games, Rise splits its quests in two, offering single-player Village quests, and multiplayer Hub quests. I was shocked to have the credits roll after only around 8 or so hours with Village quests, only to find out it continues much deeper into the hub quests. It’s a typical Monster Hunter plot, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does feel somewhat unfinished and left me wanting a little bit more than the roughly 30 hours I’d spent with it, but that will no doubt come with future content. It has a much stronger focus on its core cast of characters, which puts more weight behind the main conflict Kamura has to deal with. I enjoyed it overall, but I don’t think its quite as sharp as some of the recent entries in the series, although I do expect that to change as more content is released.

Progression wise, having the main narrative split between Village and Hub quests is a genius idea for a few different reasons. First of all, the Village quests are significantly easier than that of the Hub quests, making it an ideal place for newcomers to get a grasp on how to hunt and learn the ins and outs of different weapon types. While series veterans might find the opening hours comparatively easy to other entries, the License Test quests that unlock as you progress through Village essentially skip the early Hub quests means you can jump straight into High-Rank hunts after finishing the Village portion. This means that there’s no repeat hunts when progressing through Hub, unless you really want to do them, cutting out a lot of the monotony and needless longevity that came with the Village/Hub system in previous entries.

Gameplay is where Monster Hunter Rise really flexes its muscles on World and Iceborne in ways that incorporate systems from older games to create something new and customizable. Each of the 14 weapon types still feel very distinct from one-another, offering vastly different gameplay experiences and that’s before we begin to discuss Rise’s flagship feature: the Wirebug. The Wirebug is an insect that uses silken strands as a means for traversal and new combat features while in the field. Each weapon has at least two Wirebug attacks that consume Wirebug charges, each attack dealing Silk-Bind damage to whatever monster you’re fighting. Each attack has a risk-reward element to it, incentivizing smart use, whilst also encouraging you to use them as often as possible. They become a core part of each weapons move set because Wirebug charges usually fill back up pretty quick. Dealing enough Silk-Bind damage allows you to mount that monster, either leading to a topple, or using it to rain down hell on another monster. It’s thrilling stuff that never feels necessary to completing hunts but adds another wrinkle onto an already fantastic combat loop.

If that isn’t enough to get you onboard, then Switch-Skills will certainly seal the deal. Each weapon has certain moves or abilities that can be altered via the Switch-Skill system, skills that you unlock for each weapon as you play that change the way the behave. This system is less about having a de-facto way to use a weapon, and more about customizing a move set to fit your play style or role in a hunt. The Hunting Horn, for example, can change its overhead smash to a side slap that leads into a sonic boom, trading-off stamina reduction for more stun damage which eventually leads to a knockout. Each weapon has 4 different Switch-Skills that you can unlock at your own pace, but it’s a system that works exceptionally well to get you try builds or weapons you typically wouldn’t.

The Wirebug can also be used for traversal and exploration which is a larger part of Monster Hunter Rise than you might initially think. Each of the four main locales are extremely vertical and vast, making the Wirebug an effective tool for getting to hard-to-reach places. This is handy because Rise’s areas are full of Endemic Life; insects and animals within the ecosystem that give you buffs or items to use for the rest of that quest. The new companion type, the Palamute is also handy in this regard. Palamute’s can be mounted and used as means to quickly cross terrain, while also serving as a combat buddy in hunts. Just like Palicoes, they’re very customizable and you can tweak their combat style and behavior before you go into a hunt.

Arguably the most important part of a brand-new Monster Hunter game, is of course, the roster of monsters, both new and old. As mentioned previously, Rise sports a massive 28-monster roster at launch. While plenty of fan favourites like Arzuros, Mizutsune, and Rajang make a comeback here, it’s the new monsters that steal the limelight. Whether it be the malicious Magnamalo or the icy Goss Harag, each new beast has a striking visual design and unique gameplay elements that make each and every one fun to fight. A special mention has to go out to the last few hunts in the Hub, without spoiling too much, they have an immense sense of scale and scope to them that really sells the stakes and power of these particular threats. The armor and weapon design is once again fantastic, and theory-crafting all the different kinds of builds I can make has been some of the most fun I’ve had with the game so far.

Lastly, is the horde mode introduced in Monster Hunter Rise, aptly named the Rampage. As one of the core conflicts in the narrative, The Rampage is a stampede of monsters that are trying to break into Kamura Village and lay waste to its inhabitants, and you’re the first line of defense. Rampages see you placing down defenses like automated cannons and ballistae to hold back the onslaught of monsters. While the first few are slow paced, it quickly becomes a killer combination of tower defense and classic Monster Hunter combat, as you zip around the around erecting new defenses and making uses of super weapons like the Dragonator or Wyvern shot. All Rampages come to head with a huge monster leading the charge, or in some cases, an Apex version of another monster, which offer a good deal of challenge, and are especially fun to take on in a multiplayer setting.

From a technical standpoint, Rise is largely a success with some blemishes making themselves known here and there. The game runs smoothly and looks great on the Switch, it’s not on the same level as World, but what’s been achieved here with the RE Engine deserves to be applauded. The Rampage quests in particular run near-flawlessly, which is a feat in and of itself given how much there is going on at any one time. What’s odd, though, is the certain areas can cause rampant frame drops that often hover around the mid-10s. I’m not 100% sure what causes this, but it happens most in the Flooded Forest locale. Given its only one of four areas you don’t see it very often, but it can be frustrating nonetheless when some of these fights are so fast-paced and reliant on reaction times.

THE SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time was a game that I desperately wanted to play at launch, but there was a lot going on between game releases and next-gen consoles, and I knew that there’d be a next-gen/Switch version at some point so I was happy to wait.

Going back to the game on the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, I was glad to have waited for two completely different reasons. The portability of the Switch is perfect for a game like this, and the speed of the PS5 SSDs makes playing dying a much less painful experience. One thing is clear, Crash Bandicoot 4 is great no matter where you’re playing it.

THE PS5 VERSION

The game looked fantastic on PS4 Pro, and I don’t think anyone was complaining about the visuals or the frame rate, but on PS5, it looks just that little bit crisper and everything runs a tad smoother. The triggers in the DualSense controllers add an extra element of fun as well.

The real winner here though, are the load times on the next-gen version (as well as the fact that it’s half the size of the PS4 version). The PS4 version loaded faster on the PS5 version for obvious reasons, but it’s gone to a new level here, with it taking less than 10 seconds to load into a level. For comparison sake, it was about 40 seconds on the PS4 Pro, which is a big difference.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a hard game, which makes load speeds important as you die a lot, and the PS5’s SSD is hugely beneficial for this. Dying is less frustrating as you’re back into the action in a matter of seconds. If you haven’t played the game on PS4, it’s going to be that little bit better on PS5. If you did play it on PS4, it might make getting some of those harder-to-get gems worth gong back for.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION

Obviously comparing the PS5 and Nintendo Switch versions are going to be totally opposite, but it’s fairly remarkable that this game is running as well as it does on Switch. In docked mode, you’re going to get a 720P experience, with handheld is closer to 540p.

There’s a lot of lighting effects, particle effects and other things missing from the Nintendo Switch version, but it still has that Crash look and feel. Obviously, you can play the game away from your TV screen as well, which is what I’d prefer for a game like this.

Digital Foundry have done an incredible job at looking at both the PS5 versions and Switch versions below.

ORIGINAL REVIEW BY KEIRON VERBRUGGE

If you’d told me a year ago that Activision, along with Skylanders and Spyro Reignited Trilogy developer Toys For Bob, were set to release an honest-to-goodness sequel to Crash Bandicoot: Warped in 2020 I might not have believed you. After the runaway success of the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy it was always obvious that Activision would continue the franchise in some way, but choosing to further the N.Sane Trilogy canon and gameplay and effectively overwriting the history of The Wrath of Cortex is a big move.

It’s About Time starts with Crash in a familiar position – lounging around under a beach umbrella, taking a break after having foiled the dastardly Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nefarious Tropy’s time-twisting schemes in Warped. Trapped in a timeless void with Uka Uka, the evil counterpart to Crash’s mask companion Aku Aku, the pair invariably manage to escape by tearing a rip in dimensional space and begin wreaking havoc yet again. It’s as basic a set-up as they come, and definitely not the most interesting premise the series has offered over the years, but it works in much the same way that Warped did in providing context for a romp through all manner of places and times.

It’s slightly disappointing that the narrative is fairly barebones because while a platformer like this admittedly doesn’t need to be deep or thought-provoking, Toys For Bob have done a great job on the dialogue and sight gags that are here and I’d love to see more of it. Still, there are some neat little nods and easter eggs to see throughout the levels thanks to the dimension-hopping premise, and even one or two cheeky references to past/future entries in the series.

It’s definitely a very handsome game to look at, though. Every level in It’s About Time is lively and packed full of detail, and the animation work is stellar both in and out of gameplay. It’s to be expected from Toys For Bob, who’ve always done a great job with the Skylanders series and the Spyro remasters, but this is without a doubt their best-looking product yet. The use of perspective in levels and the way they twist and turn in and out of themselves makes the space feel far more tangible than they ever have, even if perspective does often wind up being an unseen enemy in the same frustrating ways as the original games. It’s hard not to be entranced by how energetic and colourful everything is, though. Calling it one of the most beautiful platformers around wouldn’t be an exaggeration at all. What little voice acting there is sounds great too, lending cutscenes an authentic cartoon feel (though I wonder how much of that is to do with the excellent Richard Steven Horvitz as Lani-Loli).

As a continuation of the remade version of the original trilogy of Crash Bandicoot games, it makes sense that Crash Bandicoot 4 builds on the same pseudo-on-rails 3D platforming popularised by those early games. If you’ve put hours into the original trilogy, N.Sane or otherwise, you’ll feel right at home (and quite nostalgic) the moment Crash gets up from his shady nap spot and control is handed over. If you’ve never played the originals in any form, there’s not much to it – levels in It’s About Time typically involve running and jumping from the beginning to end of a mostly-linear path, avoiding hazards and attempting to fulfil a handful of extra completion objectives.

As the main playable characters, Crash and Coco Bandicoot play largely similar to how they did in the N.Sane Trilogy, albeit with a slightly tweaked range of movement and jumping physics that admittedly took some getting used to. Still, a couple levels in and I was pulling all of the same tricks from muscle memory, so Toys For Bob has done a decent job at laying a familiar foundation for fans to get acquainted with before the new ideas start rolling in.

Of these new ideas, the most immediate are the four new Quantum Masks that join Crash and Coco on their journey and give them access to brand-new powers. Lani-Loli, Akano, Kupuna-Wa and Ika Ika show up in specific sections of levels to aid the bandicoots with their unique abilities like slowing time, defying gravity and phasing objects in and out of the plane of existence. These sections are usually brief diversions that do a good job of shaking up the standard gameplay and making individual levels more memorable, especially in later areas that have a couple of different Quantum Mask sections. Akano’s tornado-like destructive form is probably the most fun (and dangerous), letting Crash or Coco take giant leaps and cut loose on baddies and crates without pause while also spelling immediate doom should they accidentally come in contact with a TNT or Nitro crate, while the late-game Ika Ika’s gravity-flipping magic makes for some mind-melting acrobatic sections.

It’s About Time also deviates from the standard template with offshoot levels that feature Cortex and returning faces Dingodile and Tawna as playable characters with their own unique spin on gameplay. Not all of these levels are mandatory in completing the main story, but they do a decent job of breaking up the standard gameplay and giving Toys For Bob some room to move in level design. Dingodile’s terrible Aussie accent and destructive vacuum weapon are a good time, heavy-stepping through his levels and tearing everything apart is just the right level of catharsis after Crash and Coco’s precision platforming. Thicc queen Tawna is equally good, with her hookshot ability letting her interact with things in the background and foreground of levels and adding an acrobatic flair that makes her incredibly fun to play. Cortex on the other hand is as much of a dud in-game as he is at being a supervillain. He’s less agile than the bandicoots and his gimmick, a weapon that turns enemies into makeshift platforms, is wasted on boring levels that are more frustrating than genuinely challenging.

The best thing about these new masks and characters is the new layers of level interaction they afford, especially when it comes to objects in the foreground or background, areas that the traditional sections mostly ignore. Toys For Bob has done a great job of lifting familiar ideas from the original trilogy while adding just enough new gameplay tricks that every stage has unique, memorable twists that set them apart both from each other and from previous games. They all share one thing in common though – a level of challenge that Crash fans will no doubt enjoy sinking their teeth into. This new game actually tweaks things slightly in its default difficulty setting, dubbed ‘Modern’, which removes the concept of limited lives and level restarts and instead challenges players to try to complete levels with less than three deaths to earn a gem. A Classic option is there too for purists who want the old-school experience.

There are some genuinely great levels in Crash 4, but they’re definitely not all winners and it’s going to be interesting to see which stages the community at large gravitate towards and which become the new Slippery Climb/High Road. They’re all quite long too, most feel somewhere between two and three times longer than what was standard in the N.Sane Trilogy. The N.Verted levels are a cool twist on the idea of mirrored stages that add a host of unique visual filters and gimmicks but again the strength of these is largely dependent on the quality of the original level (though they do at least provide extra avenues to earn gems for skins). Given their length, having an N.Verted variant of every level might honestly be overkill, but at least there’s plenty of content here to keep players going.

There are also the Flashback Tapes, another set of super-tricky bonus stages that play like extended versions of the traditional ‘bonus’ sections inside levels, where the goal is to try and destroy every crate. These are a lot more interesting because not only are they deviously tough to complete, they’re a neat little lore device framed as Crash and Coco’s childhood tapes recorded while they were raised and experimented on in Cortex’ lab. Good luck actually unlocking all of these stages though, because similar to the previous two games’ Death Routes the tapes needed to unlock them will only show up after getting through significant portions of some fairly hard levels without dying.

With hundreds of gems to collect (both regular and N.Verted), time trial relics to score, flashback badges to earn and some good old-fashioned gem routes to find there’s a lot to keep you going in It’s About Time after smashing your way through the core path’s 40+ levels. With the variety and scope in content it’s only natural that not all of it lands, and the boss battles in particular are almost universally bad, but it’s a commendable effort for a brand-new game that hopes to capture the ‘old’ Crash magic. It’s nice to be taken back to a time where bonuses were given out for surmounting the insurmountable too, with no paid unlocks in sight for the game’s plethora of included skins (save for some pre-order bonuses).

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When Bravely Default II was announced, it was an odd surprise. Not necessarily because of the game existing – the series has shipped over a million copies – but because it’s the third game in the series despite being called Bravely Default II. On the name, the series producer stated that it was because of his belief that Bravely Second, the latest game, didn’t live up to fan’s expectations. There’s a lot of pressure on Bravely Default II, then, to be a better sequel than Bravely Second – and while it is in many aspects, it doesn’t come without a few caveats.

Bravely Default II takes place in a separate world from previous games. This time, it all goes down on a continent called Excillant, divided into five distinct kingdoms. As the game begins, Holograd has begun annexing neighbourhood kingdoms to conquer the continent. You play as Seth, a sailor who has washed up on the shores of Excillant. After meeting Gloria, a princess of the ruined country Musa, the pair set off on a journey to find four elemental crystals stolen from her and stop the Holograd empire.

Yes, another story in an RPG centred around crystals, but Bravely Default II is surprisingly engaging. While the cast is unevenly spotlighted, with some commanding more development than others, though all of them as equally likeable. Without delving into spoilers, the story goes where you’d expect it to go, but that’s not to say it’s terrible, just well-trodden. Perhaps more surprisingly, the story can get dark and macabre, though this makes some of the critical moments even more memorable.

If you’ve never played Bravely Default before, you should. While Square Enix has shifted Final Fantasy into the flashier higher production fare, Bravely Default is the opposite. Taking things deftly in the opposite direction, Bravely Default is a turn-based RPG that harkens back to Final Fantasy’s classic era. If you liked any of the Final Fantasy games up until Final Fantasy X, chances are you’ll adore Bravely Default.

But first, the battle system. Bravely Default II carries over almost everything from the original game. There’s standard options available in battle, as you’d expect in a game of this ilk. The “Brave” option lets you “borrow” future turns so that you can act four times in one turn but can’t act until the turns you’ve borrowed have passed. “Default” puts your character into a defensive state but accumulates a turn for you to use with “Brave” without the penalty. The Bravely Second mechanic from previous games, where you could freeze time, is now gone. However, I’d argue that was a pointless gimmick anyway.

It’s hard to explain on paper, but I assure you it’s a game-changer in practice. Too often in older games, I’d wish I could cast two spells in one turn, and the Brave-Default system provides that flexibility. If you’ve got a boss down to their lowest level of health and want to quickly finish them before they retaliate or heal – you can do that too. It adds an incredibly dynamic risk-reward aspect to the combat. Having your enemies be able to Brave and Default means you must think about each turn more as well. It’s a great, well-balanced system that adds a significant layer of strategy to an already engaging game.

Harkening back to the first three Final Fantasy games, Bravely Default II also features an extensive job system. For the entire adventure, you’ll stick with the same four party members while being able to assign two roles to each out of a pool of over twenty different jobs. You level up both your characters and your jobs naturally as you earn experience, but levelling each individual job unlocks skills and abilities. Many of these are your standard RPG fare – mages, warriors, thieves, and the like. Others are kookier – the Arcanist is a mage with mighty magic but so powerful that it damages your party too.

The job system is a joy to play with because it rewards players savvy enough to mix roles to perfect the party’s synergy. The Arcanist’s volatile spell casting can be easily complemented by a fully levelled Spiritmaster, who’s perk heals you after each turn; or a Shield Master, who can nullify magic damage on the party for a single turn. Similarly, levelling up jobs allows you to unlock abilities applied to your character for use even when that job isn’t equipped. There’s a lot of flexibility in building your party and approaching each battle in Bravely Default II, and it’s why I enjoyed the game so much.

But an aspect I really struggled to enjoy was the dungeons. Putting aside the fact that a few of them reuse assets, too many of them were bland and too straight-forward. I could appreciate that Bravely Default II lets you wander into almost any dungeon from the get-go. But most dungeons (barring one) are only challenging because they’re long winding mazes without a map. There’s so much to enjoy about Bravely Default II, but navigating dungeons was my least favourite thing to do.

On a similar level, the optional content is very hit and miss. There’s over a hundred side quests in the game, so naturally, some would be average. The best ones are the best kinds – self-contained and well-produced stories of the land. They better flesh out the world and your characters. The worst is the kind you’d see in a game released decades ago – requiring you to go from point A to point B, only to be told to go back to point A again. Such simplistic and basic quest design is quite bluntly tedious and feels like incessant busy work.

But when you’re done with Bravely Default II, there’s still quite a bit to do after the credits roll. Without ruining anything, the game expands the job system even more, and there’s a whole new chapter to complete too. I’d argue it’s essential to complete this additional chapter to get the entire experience. However, the story feels complete enough if you can’t finish the extremely challenging post-game content.

But how long will it take you to get to that point? Bravely Default II lets you adjust battle speeds to make grinding less of a chore, and while I played at the highest speed (4x), it took me roughly 45 hours to finish the main story. To compare, it’s about on par with Bravely Default and Bravely Second but a little bit under Octopath Traveler. Still, it’s one of the better-paced RPGs that I’ve played, and it never overstayed it’s welcome. And don’t worry, there’s no tedious final act either.

From the same minds that brought us the first two games and Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default II is a looker. Adopting the first game’s pop-up picture book style, Bravely Default II does excellent work in making its key locations visually arresting. I’ve oft lamented the death of pre-rendered backgrounds in RPGs like the Playstation Final Fantasy games, but Bravely Default II’s stunning art direction gets close to nailing that look. Outside of the cities, where things are less visually impressive, it’s hard to not notice the constant slowdown when too many enemies are on-screen. Still, Bravely Default II lives up to the series illustrious visual standard, which is a blessing.

The same can be said for both the soundtrack and the voice work too. Revo, the Japanese composer who scored the original game, returns for Bravely Default II. His score does elevate the experience – perfectly channelling the nostalgic charm of the older Final Fantasy games but with an energetic twist. Perhaps that’s too vivid a description, but the soundtrack is genuinely endearing – I found myself humming the battle themes long after my Switch was turned off. The voice work is similarly strong, with most of the cast turning in some stellar performances. Seth, the protagonist, is a bit flat, but otherwise, everyone does a fine job; though if you so wish, both Japanese and English voice options are included.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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I was a big fan of Super Mario 3D World when it released on the Wii U. It successfully expanded on the formula established in 3D Land, blending fast-paced and frantic levels with other 3D Mario gameplay mechanics.

The game still holds up to this day on the Switch, but the other major part of this package is a standalone adventure called Bowser’s Fury. As I mentioned in my preview, this is entirely separate to 3D World except that it borrows power-ups from 3D world to offer something new and unique.

From a gameplay point of view, it sits closer to Super Mario Odyssey but takes the open-world idea further than previously seen in the Mario franchise. You’re dropped into Lake Lapcat alongside Bowser Jr, with the task of taking down Bowser. In the beginning, the world is relatively empty, with only a few islands to visit, but this quickly changes.

As you complete challenges that will give you Cat Shines, the islands will continue to change and expand. Each expansion opens up more challenges, with five cat shines available to collect on each island. As the game progresses further, new areas open up, and new islands are there to discover, which progress in difficulty. Overall, there are three or four main areas in the standalone game, each containing a handful of islands. Several challenges around the map aren’t apart of islands, which expands even further after completing the game.

By all definition, this is an open-world adventure and a fairly meaty one at that. A bit into the game (we weren’t able to show you in the preview), you get access to Plessie, who acts as your transport to get around this giant map. They’ll always be waiting for you in the water, so it’s a super convenient way to get around the map too.

Bowser’s Fury is similar to other 3D Mario games in the sense that you’re working towards collecting Cat Shines to go up against Bowser, which will unlock other areas in the game. Once you’ve hit a certain target, you’ll get the Giga Bell, which will allow you to take on Giant Bowser. This was fun the first time, but it’s definitely the weakest part of the game.

Having two giant characters on screen will make the camera much harder to work with, but it also gets super repetitive in the sense that you’re essentially performing the same battle over and over again without much change to the fight each time. It’s definitely a cool concept, and goes beyond the regular Mario boss battles, but doesn’t feel as polished as other areas of the game.

Bowser can also interrupt regular gameplay not only for the sake of a challenge but to open up new areas on the islands too. When you’re not dodging the flames that fall from the sky when he’s angry, you’ll be using both his fire breath and platforms he throws to access new areas. It’s a great mechanic that helps change the world of Bowser’s fury, creating a sense of urgency to get things done without totally being a nuisance.

Bowser’s Fury can also be played co-op with the other player taking control of Bowser Jr to help take down enemies and find paintings to unlock. Suppose you’re not playing with someone else. You can set how much Bowser Jr. will help you—using either the touchscreen or the gyro to point a cursor to have him attend to paintings to unlock power-ups.

This standalone adventure surprised and delighted me the whole way through and made me really excited about the future of Mario. The best parts of the game are the little things that it borrows from other games. I do not doubt that any Mario veteran or younger newcomers to the franchise will have an absolute ball with it.

Back to Super Mario 3D World, the game has aged superbly. It was not only one of the best games to launch on Wii U, but it’s the most fun that I’ve had with a Mario game, which still rings true. It’s an absolute ball to play with other people locally. I’m so glad that Nintendo has finally incorporated online to play with other people (especially with what’s going on in the world at the moment).

Everything from the cat power-up to the Tanooki suit is some of the best power-ups in any Mario game. The level design is classic Nintendo, with everything ramping up as the game goes on. If you’re a casual player wanting to breeze through the levels, you’re able to do that, but if you’re going to master each level, Nintendo has done a great job hiding some of those stars.

Nintendo has sped the game up, which helps for some of those earlier levels, where things were a little slow to kick off. The game feels much more frantic now, which is a good thing in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to visuals, everything looks a little crisper and smoother on the Switch than it did on the Wii U.

Even without Bowser’s Fury’s inclusion, there’s so much to do in mastering levels with all the different character playstyles. Not only in collecting all the stars and unlocking all the bonuses that come with finishing the game but also in going far beyond that.

This is, without doubt, a must own for any Switch owner, even if you’d already played Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U.

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When Little Nightmares hit consoles four years ago, I was intrigued by the premise. A small girl tries to escape from an abhorrent operation on a gigantic ship out of her element. It was a pleasant experience, though I felt the concept could be expanded a little, especially given where the game ends. Four years later, Little Nightmares II still isn’t overly scary, but the team at Tarsier have done their best to diversify the gameplay in many ways.

Little Nightmares II has you playing as Mono, a young boy who sheepishly wears a paper bag over his head. It’s adorable. Mono wakes up in the middle of a forest, unsure how he got there, though he knows that he doesn’t want to stay there. Mono meets up with and rescues a young girl named Six during his escape from a macabre hunter. Being the protagonist from the original game, Six helps Mono escape before investigating the Signal Tower. But why? Mono has strange reactions to the signal and hopes that whatever dark secret he uncovers there will help him learn more about who he is and why he’s where he is.

Or at least that’s what I interpreted from the plot of Little Nightmares II. Much like the first game, a lot of the story telling is implicit rather than outwardly explained. I commend Tarsier for sticking to their guns here. Less is more in almost every situation, and Little Nightmares II is no exception. From beginning to end, the plot is engaging and intriguing enough to invite you to piece it all together while the credits roll. It’s dark, it’s depressing, but it’s compelling.

But just what is Little Nightmares II? It’s a sequel to the original game, but you could easily play and enjoy it without having played the original either. Much like the original, it’s a mixture of stealth and puzzles presented from a unique perspective to frame every shot as a twisted looking dollhouse. Mono and Six are both children in this big world, so the world and objects all appear oversized. Many of the puzzles are designed around negotiating this fact.

From the get-go, it’s hard to deny that Little Nightmares II is doing an earnest job trying to one-up itself in every aspect. The setting has been expanded from a single ship to an entire city. The puzzles are more varied than ever, and there are even some light combat elements in play. It feels like a sequel in every sense of the word. I commend Tarsier for being smart enough to include combat and balance these different aspects of the gameplay so that none of them ever get old.

The gameplay’s crux involves entering a room, working out what can be interacted with, and then using said interactions to move on to the next room. The puzzles themselves are great – they’re subtle and gently guide you in the right direction and, of course, give a great sense of accomplishment when you finish them. Six is with you for most of your journey, and she tends to act as a pointer for what you need to do next, so if you’re completely lost, there are subtle cues you can look out for to make it through.

Six is one of the significant changes to Little Nightmares II’s formula, acting as a buddy of sorts to Mono. Entirely controlled by the game and not the player, she can point out objects of interest and help Mono do specific tasks that might require two people. Having a second character around means there is excellent potential to improve the puzzles too. Thankfully, developer Tarsier has capitalised on that opportunity immensely. Though Six is useful in most situations, I did run into a few issues where she’d freeze entirely and not respond to commands.

Nothing a checkpoint load didn’t fix, but still a niggle worth mentioning.

But for all the fantastically designed puzzles and the nuanced implementation of combat and self-defense, there’s one glaring issue with Little Nightmares II. It’s absolutely bogged down in trial-and-error design. So often, I’d step into a new room and be met with instant death. My death itself being the only way I’d know to avoid it on my next attempt. Some instances of these are telegraphed well, others not so much. It seems a little frustrating, though, to Little Nightmares II’s credit, there are many checkpoints to alleviate the frustration. Perhaps that in and of itself is admission to how frustrating the experience can be.

This isn’t any more evident than during the encounters with the major enemies of each section. They’re creepy, make no mistakes, but the encounters with most of the “boss” characters tend to be an intense chase sequence. The tension is high, you’ll inevitably die, and then you respawn at a checkpoint. There’s not much consequence to losing, and these moments quickly go from being tense and exciting to repetitive and annoying.

Being priced rather modestly, you can expect Little Nightmares II to last around the same amount of time as the first game. The first game took me about four hours to finish, whereas the second game took me about five or six. Keep in mind I am a bit of a slower player – I took my time to explore (to find collectibles, including adorable hats for Mono), but this is the same length as Little Nightmares but with more variety, and that’s hardly a bad thing.

Much like the original game, the presentation is one of Little Nightmare II’s strong suits. If you’ve played the first, you know what to expect. A dark and ominous world that is not only oppressive but also bleak. The whole world is clearly built for people that are bigger than you, too, making it feel not only intimidating but uninviting. The denizens of this strange world are wonderfully designed, looking like something of a nightmarish perversion of an illustration in a Roald Dahl story. The lighting is dim but perfect, and the atmosphere thick. If it’s not already obvious – Little Nightmares II is a visually strong game. Such strong imagery is only augmented by a well matched, minimalist original score.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Little Nightmares II Review – Misery Loves Company appeared first on Press Start.

Holiday/feature-length specials are a fairly common concept in the world of television, especially when it comes to series that have strong fandom followings. Whether they exist to fill in the time between seasons, to signal an end to a show or to momentarily revive one that’s long since over, they typically serve to give fans extra time with beloved characters and worlds through self-contained stories with a little more breathing room and creative liberty. Persona 5 Strikers feels like one of those TV specials. It’s a reunion story full of returning characters and locales that riffs on the same themes that made Persona 5 memorable while playing with ideas of its own over a narrative that’s wrapped up nice and neatly by the end. It’s also a musou-inspired spinoff developed in collaboration with the studio behind Dynasty Warriors, so there’s that.

First things first – as vocal as developer Atlus has been that Strikers can be enjoyed without having played and finished Persona 5 previously, I personally wouldn’t recommend it. Not only is Persona 5 bloody excellent and well worth playing to begin with, but Strikers’ narrative value lies mostly with the strength of its established characters and the chance to see how they’ve developed in the time following.

Taking place roughly six months after the conclusion of Persona 5, Strikers begins with a well-meaning reunion of the Phantom Thieves that quickly sees them dropped back into the swing of things when they’re framed for a mysterious new crop of cognitive breaks in the public of Japan. The problems are revealed to stem from a handful of high-profile public figures who possess ‘Jails’, a new Metaverse variant not unlike Persona 5’s Palaces, though slightly different in structure and purpose. While it starts in the familiar surrounds of Tokyo, Strikers eventually takes its heroes to a host of new locations all across Japan on an RV-powered road trip to investigate a string of these Jail incidents and ultimately toward uncovering the parties at the centre of it all.

Despite the (comparative) brevity and the potential for a spin-off set post game to feel tacked on, the narrative here is top notch Persona and does a decent job of challenging its protagonists’ values without undoing any of the good the base game did. The most important narrative success is that it retains the spirit of what came before, tackling real-world issues and ideas through the lens of a ton of very enjoyable, very anime batshit nonsense. By the game’s appropriately bonkers climax, it touches on everything from social media addiction and reliance on assistant AI tech to ponderisations of human desires, personal agency and moral classism while its teen protagonists shoot airsoft guns at enormous, sexy bunnies and ogle each other in the requisite beach scenes. It’s a real good time.

Persona 5 Strikers maintains a very familiar balance of real-world exploration and lengthy dialogue sequences versus infiltration and action inside of its Jails over the roughly 30-40 hour story. Each of the game’s Jails has a distinct style, both visually and in the way they’re structured. Some are more open, or more vertical while others tend to be more maze-like, and most have a unique gimmick like badly-written fantasy novel riddles or misleading portals. Jails are definitely a little more sparse and lower in detail than fans will be used to, but that’s largely down to the space and performance overheads needed to accommodate the game’s densely-populated battles. The Jails are almost all equally fun to explore though, and live up to the standard set by Persona 5’s Palaces. Pseudo-platforming and stealth elements still play a big role, even more so in some aspects, and you’ll still increase the level of security by getting yourself caught too often. In a neat touch, your chosen party members dart around on-screen with you, often highlighting nearby hiding places or ledges by using them ahead of you.

There’s a lot less anxiety in progressing through Jails too, as Strikers doesn’t penalise players for hopping out of a Jail and back to the real world to rest and recuperate. There’s no time-based penalties at all, in fact, with none of the time-based social gameplay from Persona 5 present. Whether you’re infiltrating a Jail, fusing new Personas for Joker or out seeing the sights in places like Sendai, Osaka and Sapporo time only moves forward with story progress. You’re even able to return to previously-completed Jails (for reasons we can’t divulge) and the game regularly offers up extra incentive to go back and explore them further. The only unfortunate issue is a lack of an auto-save, which could have dire consequences if regular saving doesn’t quickly become a habit.

This all leads to Persona 5 Strikers’ biggest departure from the original game. Omega Force wasn’t brought onto the scene for nothing – this game trades the series’ tradition turn-based JRPG battles for musou-inspired combat that sees the Thieves square off against literal hordes of enemies in real time. It’s built on a foundation of button-bashing hack and slash but it’s also the developer’s least recognisable crossover project, tipping the scales more toward the source material than Dynasty Warriors. Fans will recognise and appreciate the many reinterpretations of core mechanics from the use of Personas and their abilities to Baton Passes, All-Out Attacks and guns.

Of course the real treat is being able to directly control and play as (almost) the entire Phantom Thieves squad. Every Thief has their own distinct playstyle, with special attacks and abilities based on their unique Personas. It’s entirely possible to pick your favourite and roll with them 100% of the time (yes, you can run around Jails as Morgana!), but to excel in combat it pays to experiment with party setups and switch between members frequently. Your teammates do a bang-up job even under AI control though, and their constant battle cries are actually helpful a lot of the time, or at least entertaining (“Umm, how do I call my Persona again??” when someone is hit with a Forget spell is one of my favourites).

When you’re in the thick of battle, lining up Follow Up and All-Out attacks, exploiting enemy weaknesses, jumping between characters and taking advantage of contextual environment attacks all without breaking a sweat it’s an absolute thrill. Combat demands far more attention and mental dexterity than most of Omega Force’s other catalogue, and poses a nice level of challenge throughout. There’s an Easy difficulty for those that aren’t interested in learning the nuances and just want to see the story through and smack some Shadows down, but on Normal difficulty and higher sitting on one character and spamming attacks won’t get you far. There’s a nice, high skill ceiling (although we don’t talk about the post-game Merciless difficulty in this house), and it’s rewarding both to master and to see in action.

It all comes together impressively given how many disparate elements are being crammed into a fairly standard action format, making for some of the most fun I’ve had in a game like this in a while. It’s not without a few small nuisances, like a camera that doesn’t always play nice and a tendency for things to get lost in a cacophony of visual feedback when fights get hectic, but those issues rarely intrude on the fun. Any complaints quickly fade away when that same, unmistakable satisfaction of ambushing an enemy party and wiping them out in one fell swoop hits just as hard as it does in the turn-based equivalent.

From narrative to exploration and combat, there’s not a single bit of Strikers that doesn’t feel just like a direct sequel to Persona 5. This isn’t a watered-down spinoff or genre experiment, it’s a proper continuation with all of the same production values and impeccable sense of style. Fans know what to expect by now – slick and stylish presentation from top to bottom, in its characters and environments, in its dynamic UI and menus and a soundtrack that positively slaps. Plenty of characters, locations and enemies are obviously recycled from the last game but the new stuff is all just as good, especially the delightfully gaudy boss designs.

While I can’t comment on how Strikers plays on either the Switch or PC, playing the PlayStation 4 version of the game on my PS5 was a mostly-decent experience. The game offers up two visual mode choices on PS4 – one for a smoother framerate and one for better/higher fidelity visuals – though on PlayStation 5 the framerate seems to scale up anyway so it’s safe to just pick the visual option and get the best of both worlds. In either instance, it’s definitely not as sharp as Persona 5 is on PS4/5 but that’s forgivable with how much busier things get on-screen. It’s all very nicely put together though, and fans will be happy to know the original English voice cast returns, alongside the option for Japanese audio should that be a preference.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A PS5 FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Persona 5 Strikers Review – A Persona 5 Holiday Road Trip Special appeared first on Press Start.

Bereft of hope in his homeland, Lord Faraday sets sail for greener pastures with his clansmen. An icon of poor fate, a leviathan whale overturns his vessel as they’re thrown overboard, plunging into the briny deep only to awaken in the mysterious land of Terraphage. What follows is a six-hour seafarer’s tale that marries its vivid fantasy story with formulaic yet sturdy gameplay to create another unexpectedly solid Devolver published classic. 

Although it’s a straight forward and by the numbers ‘good versus evil’ plot, Olija’s plot wouldn’t feel out of place in a Guillermo del Toro film, full of dread and darkness with a haunting atmosphere to boot. I really welcomed the simplicity of the game’s story, it thrusts you into a strange world, rich with some nice lore if you’re interested enough to read into it. From the harpoon of legend that sees Faraday through his quest to the trio of hunters tasked with putting an end to the harpoon bearer’s coup, there’s an air of obscurity that keeps it interesting throughout. 

As an action-platformer, Olija doesn’t do anything particularly revolutionary, although it remains resolutely confident in what it does do. Unlike its contemporaries, it refuses to compromise its experience with overbearing difficulty or tacky gimmick. Although Faraday will enjoy the spoils of exploration in the form of a musket rifle and a trusty cutlass, Olija offers two weapons that directly tie into the game’s sense of exploration and its puzzle-solving. The legendary harpoon is deadly at range, although it also stands out as the single most interesting part of the game’s core loop. After it’s sent careening across a gap, Faraday can teleport to its position. This isn’t without condition, however, as it’ll only work when the harpoon is driven into an enemy’s chest cavity or if it’s speared into one of the many yellow orbs placed throughout the levels.

When off the beaten path, Olija offered fleeting challenges with its platforming which felt reminiscent of Celeste in a way with screens that demand more precise and near-perfect movement. With the game not being too troubling overall, these brief moments of peril come out of nowhere and I do wish the game found a better balance with how it challenged players.

There’s a simple booty-driven economy that exists at the heart of Olija. Once your settlement is up and running, merchants you free from captivity in the world set up shop. There isn’t a wide range of wares on offer, in fact, the only shop of note if a hatter who sells tricorns imbued with magic that’ll aid Faraday in combat. There are more than a handful, but the one I gravitated to granted immunity to acid. It’s a small feature that adds a small amount of depth to the game’s pretty simple overall package. Further to fleshing out the experience, Olija has some collectibles that make searching high and low an unexpected pleasure, from the impossible bottles to the music boxes that speak to the sense of romance behind the game’s love story subplot. 

Given the game’s beautifully animated promotional material, I had hoped Olija would introduce its small, focused story with something similar. Instead, the game’s design is a stripped back pixel art approach that plays it with a straight bat, not laying on hyper-stylised flourishes. It’s modest but there’s no denying that Olija’s strength rests with its art direction and design, it’s creepy and alien, lending credence to the notion that Faraday’s a stranger in a strange land. 

Olija continues the trend of Devolver titles having great sound design and soundtracks. The lo-fi soundscape uses elements of flamenco to create a docile and relaxing backdrop to the game’s brand of action. Terraphage, despite being a fictitious land, has real East Asian character and this rings true with the game’s original score which has a real Japanese flavour. I also particularly enjoyed the minimal voice acting, especially the game’s spectral villain that threatens Faraday’s crusade throughout Olija. 

Like others in Devolver’s catalogue, Olija is primarily the work of a one-man team and, as such, it isn’t terribly long at just six hours. It’s still pretty respectable for an action-platformer without a whole lot of tricks, it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome and winds up on a nice note.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Olija Review – All Above Board appeared first on Press Start.

The EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid wireless gaming earbuds excited me more than any headset that has come across my desk in a while. I’m a huge fan of wireless earbuds, using a pair of Apple AirPods quite regular for listening to music on my iPhone, but there hasn’t really been anything comparable in the gaming space, until now.

The EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid wireless earbuds can connect in two ways. It comes with a low latency dongle that can plug into your PC, Nintendo Switch or PS4/PS5 in order to transmit audio wirelessly from your console to the earbuds. You’re advised to also use the included USB-A to USB-C extension cable to ensure that there’s no interference between your PC/PS5 and the dongle.  You can also connect to your mobile phone or PC via Bluetooth (a version will also be released without the dongle if you’re just looking to use them in this way).

In terms of the pairing process, plugging the dongle in to the Nintendo Switch or PS5  resulted in them connecting instantly with volume being able to be controlled via either console. It’s worth mentioning that the microphones in these earbuds don’t work when you’re using the dongle, which actually isn’t a huge deal when using the PS5 as you can use the microphone in the controller, but it’s definitely a bit of a head scratcher as there are dual microphones inside the earbuds. It’s something I’d like to have seen and something I hope they can add in an update or future iteration.

Included in the box are four sized tips (extra small, small, medium and large) which you can use to find your perfect fit which is important with in-ear earbuds. I’m not a huge fan of in-ear earbuds normally, but these are actually really comfortable molding to the ear better than most. They’re super lightweight and don’t stick out of your ears too much, meaning you’ll forget about them being in a few a minute or two.

When it comes to audio quality the GTW 270 earbuds sounded pretty damn good. In comparison to the AirPod Pros, I’d easily put them on-par if not ahead audio quality wise. Playing games such as Call of Duty or Apex Legends, the bass was really pounding thanks to the great seal provided by the in-ear buds. Listening to music was a similar experience, with really well balanced audio coming through.

These headphones don’t have active noise cancelling, but honestly, I didn’t feel like I missed it at all. As long as you get the tip size correct, even when not playing music, my surroundings were blocked out really well. It might be a different story on a plane or such, but I wasn’t able to test this for obvious reasons.

You can expect to get roughly four hours on a charge with the earbuds, but the charging case will give you roughly 20 hours of battery life, before it needs to be recharged via USB. In terms of build quality, the earbuds and charging case are really nice. EPOS has opted for a gunmetal grey which oozes premium an both the charging case and the earbuds are the perfect size.

I’ve had a few glitches here and there with the dongles in terms of a slight crackle or them momentarily losing connection with the earbuds, but this is a new product line for EPOS so no doubt it’ll get better with software updates along the way.

When it comes to price. The GTW270 Hybrid will set you back $350 which is definitely not cheap. Really, it comes down to whether you want completely wireless in-ear headphones that are useable both with mobile as well as your gaming consoles. There’s not a lot there on the market that will provide the versatility in an in-ear format.

Another area that I feel can be improved on is the EPOS Gaming Suite software itself. It’s fairly basic compared to most other software, but I’m hopeful we’ll see improvements in that area this year.

If you’re coming from something like Apple’s AirPods, things aren’t as seamless. For instance, only the right earbud has bluetooth capability meaning you have to always have the right earbud in to connect. Obviously, you’re going to be wearing both 90% of the time, but still worth noting.

All-in-all, I’ve been using these as my daily headphones for almost everything gaming and work related over the last few weeks. It’s a really exciting product and it’s a product line that I can’t help but feel will only get better with time.

The post EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid Wireless Gaming Earbuds Review – Versatile With Great Comfort appeared first on Press Start.

Five years after IO Interactive rebooted HITMAN, HITMAN III promises to conclude the events that the original game started. It’s both a culmination of everything IO has done with the franchise thus far while being an astute subversion of all your expectations that you might have. It does try to experiment with its structure a little to keep things fresh, though to varying results.

HITMAN III follows on directly from the first two games in what feels like a conclusion to the trilogy and the series. Agent 47 and Diana are still working with Lucas Grey to bring down secretive leaders of the group Providence and end their hold on the world once and for all. The story is certainly front and centre in HITMAN III, much more so than the previous two games, to the point where the missions warp themselves to accommodate it. It’s a strange and dramatic shift to make so far into the trilogy but still helps keep things fresh.

As with the first two games, there are many ways to play HITMAN III. You could easily play through the story and quickly call it a day, but to do so would pay a disservice to the robust design that’s once again on show here. Each level is an intricate clockwork of moving parts that seamlessly create believable, living worlds. Whether it be the smaller scaled ones like Romania or the larger-scale ones like China, each of the levels of HITMAN III are genuine attractions that I didn’t want to leave even after I was done with my targets.

The previous game introduced the briefcase and the ability to hide in crowds and vegetation. The new features in HITMAN III aren’t anywhere near as numerous. Perhaps the most important one is the addition of shortcuts – pathways that, once unlocked, that stay opened permanently on repeat playthroughs. I love the idea – they’re satisfying as hell to uncover, and they aid replayability a lot. On the other hand, the camera, a new gadget that can remotely activate certain switches, feels undercooked and is barely utilised as much as it could be. A taste of what’s to come with IO’s new 007 game, perhaps, but one that doesn’t gel with the world of HITMAN.

But how does it compare to the previous games? You’d be forgiven for thinking this was just another expansion – offering another five new locales to explore using already established systems and mechanics. But that’s only half the story. HITMAN III makes a concerted effort to make sure each mission feels unique and better bridge the gap between story and gameplay. Each mission now has a gimmick of some sort that separates it from previous HITMAN games.

In the original two games, “Mission Stories” were an excellent way to focus players who found each level’s open design too overwhelming. They’re essentially paths within each mission that often leads to a unique kill or opportunity with your target. In HITMAN III, some of these mission stories have expanded dramatically – usually containing other objectives within objectives to make them feel more involved. The trade-off is that there’s considerably fewer of them in each mission. On average, most areas in HITMAN III have about three mission stories. Previous games had anywhere between eight and ten.

That’s not to say they’re bad, mind you. The main mission story in the second location has you solving the murder of a family member to secure some alone time with your target. It has you exploring an English manor for clues, interviewing family members to discover alibis, and delivering a solution to get closer to your target. I’d never thought a developer would be able to accurately capture the vibe and feel of a film like Knives Out in a video game, but IO has done a stellar job here. It’s just a bit of a shame that this massive mission story has led to only two other smaller ones being available in the mission.

Other missions don’t even have mission stories, though do their best to flip things on their head. Like I alluded to earlier, HITMAN III does it’s best to try and subvert your expectations with each mission. Some of them will have you collaborating with another agent out in the field, and another sees you hunted by other assassins. Each mission does it’s best to be something more than just another location with another set of kills. There’s a fun twist on each one that I could appreciate, even if it meant there were physically fewer ways to kill somebody on each one as a result.

While HITMAN III does it’s best to experiment within it’s missions this time around, all the interesting extra modes they tried in HITMAN 2 have unfortunately got the cut. There are no additional Sniper Assassin maps, which seemed a bit strange. There’s also no sign of the next evolution of Ghost Mode – a competitive mode in which two people race to kill the same target but get a better score. There’s……not anything extra on offer here if you liked those different modes in previous games. Of course, each level still offers a lot of replayability, but it is a glaring omission coming straight from HITMAN 2.

Three years ago, I expressed disappointment in HITMAN 2 for presenting the story using static images with voiceovers rather than full-motion cutscenes to tell a story. With such an emphasis placed on the plot in HITMAN III, that decision has reversed. From the get-go, there’s a lot of crucial moments that play out in conclusion to Agent 47 and Diana’s story, and it’s so, so fantastic that they’re told in a much more impactful way with real cinematics. While they’re not as flashy as the Square Enix co-produced cutscenes of the first game, they are still well directed and well produced. They help elevate HITMAN III to be that right conclusion, that epic cinematic feeling the series was so desperately trying to capture.

The first game to launch on next-gen platforms goes without saying that HITMAN III is a beauty. While there’s no visual options, the engine has been tweaked to offer full 4K resolution at a buttery smooth sixty frames per second on the newer consoles. While it’s not quite ray tracing, screen-space reflections and lighting have also been improved. It’s not quite cutting edge next-gen technology, but I dare you to take a walk through that grimy nightclub in the Berlin level and tell me you even cared. Each world, each sandbox you play around in during HITMAN III is an artistic triumph.

THE XBOX SERIES S|X VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Hitman 3 Review – A Tempered Conclusion appeared first on Press Start.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is one of the most cautionary tales in video game licensing. When it was released ten years ago, it was a joy to play, an earnest tribute to the series of graphic novels it drew inspiration from some of the best video games of the nineties. But four years later, it was delisted and lost to the annals of history. Now, over a decade after the original release, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game returns as a Complete Edition, and it’s just as fun as you remember.

If you haven’t seen the film or read the comic books, the plot is straightforward. Scott Pilgrim has his heart set on Ramona Flowers, a tough but free-spirited Amazon delivery girl who’s recently moved into the area. Smitten with her, Scott professes his love to Ramona, but there’s a catch – to be with her, he must defeat her seven evil exes. Thus, in the name of love, Scott embarks on a quest across Toronto to defeat Ramona’s evil exes so he and Ramona can live in peace. It’s a fun romp that you shouldn’t take too seriously, peppered with some excellent video gaming references along to way.

So what’s in this “Complete Edition”? Everything. Complete Edition includes the game and all its downloadable content wrapped up in a nice little package. You get both Knives, Chau and Wallace Wells, as playable characters on top of the already available team of four, as well as online multiplayer and a few other fun arcade-style modes. It might seem weird to have had to pay for online multiplayer eight years ago, but thankfully, it’s all here with Complete Edition. There’s nothing new here for the die-hard fan, which some might find disappointing, but the fact we’ve even got Scott Pilgrim back is to be celebrated.

The game itself is a side-scrolling beat-em-up similar to Streets of Rage and River City Ransom. Each player can select one of the game’s six characters and battle their way through seven levels, with an evil ex being a boss at the end of each one. Each character has a unique set of moves, with each of them learning more as they earn experience and level up. The only real disappointment here is the last character to bad added, Wallace, who serves only as a basic recolour of Stephen. Given that every other character has a unique set of moves, it’s a glaring dip in the roster’s quality. Otherwise, everyone plays differently enough to incentivise repeat playthroughs.

Each of the characters you’ll play can have their stats upgraded by purchasing food and vinyl records from Toronto’s many shops. It’s a simple system that could be abused a little too quickly to make the game too easy. I recognise that’s perhaps on me for grinding early in the game. Still, I suppose it’s nice that players can either indulge in or ignore the stat upgrades to adjust their game’s difficulty.

In addition to the main game, many modes offer a little bit of a different experience to the main game. Dodgeball is as it sounds, throwing balls at each other until a single winner emerges victorious. Boss Rush is, once again, as it sounds. Battle Royal lets up to four players enter the arena to fight each other, while Survival Horror is a survival mode with players fighting waves of zombies. These modes are all cool diversions from the main game that help round out Scott Pilgrim as a package, but something is annoying about all of them that feels like a bit of a letdown.

As mentioned previously, Scott Pilgrim features online multiplayer for up to four players. Ubisoft initially added it into the game with a paid downloadable content pack, but it’s included from the get-go here. What’s disappointing with Complete Edition is that the online multiplayer doesn’t apply to any extra modes. Having played a few rounds of Dodgeball and a short-lived run of Survival Horror, I was excited to be able to jump into both these modes with my mates. But you can’t – it’s only the main game that has online functionality, and that seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to correct a minor issue with the original game.

I’d be remiss also to mention that the game does feel easier than when I first played it on the Xbox 360, though maybe this is me misremembering. Still, Scott Pilgrim is better enjoyed with other people more than anyone else – so having the option to play with friends, either online or off, is appreciated.

From a presentation perspective, it’s hard to fault Scott Pilgrim. It might’ve been over a decade since the original game was released, but it’s a testament to its artistic direction, just how good it looks today. This isn’t a game that would’ve benefited from excessive increases in visual quality, so I’m glad the team saw fit to leave it as it was and not mess with it too much. My only gripe is that I wish the menus were a bit snappier, but this could very well be a stylistic choice to emulate the era this game pulls so much inspiration from.

Before I even played the original game ten years ago, the most talked-about aspect of the game is the Anamanaguchi-produced soundtrack. I had a (probably unreasonable) paranoia with the woes of licensing that this wouldn’t be brought across with the re-release in full. Thankfully, I was wrong. Given that Scott Pilgrim pays so much homage and so much love to the 8 and 16-bit eras’ best games, their chiptune laden music fits perfectly here. It’s a fun and joyous soundtrack and still, ten years later, one of the best on offer in a video game.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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If 2014’s Hyrule Warriors was a celebration of The Legend of Zelda franchise and its legacy, then Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the same for Breath of the Wild, and so much more. On the surface, it’s a simple hack and slash musou game that anyone can pick up and enjoy – especially Zelda fans – but after peeling back its numerous layers, it becomes clear that Age of Calamity is an experience entirely unique from its source material while sporting the same fantastic design philosophies and concepts that made it special.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is set 100 years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, during the infamous Great Calamity that sets the events of the game into motion. The narrative is first and foremost about Princess Zelda and her Champions of Hyrule, as they conquest against the Calamity’s forces to stop Ganon’s return. Without spoiling too much, it’s a joy to see Hyrule and the people that inhabit it in an entirely different light.

The different races have their platoons in full force, the Champions are in their prime, and the discovery of the Sheikah Slates and related technology is exciting through the lenses of younger versions of Purah and Robbie even though we’ve been exposed to it all before. Age of Calamity has an excellent sense of world-building, and a tone that’s in stark contrast to Breath of the Wild’s more dystopian and isolating feel. While you might think you know what you’re getting into, there’s a few twists and turns throughout Age of Calamity that have exciting prospects for the future of the franchise.

If you’ve played a musou title before, then you mostly know what you’re getting into with Age of Calamity. You take control of a few different characters as you charter your way through a battlefield, slaying hundreds upon hundreds of foes with over-the-top attacks. The original Hyrule Warriors did a great job of marrying the tried and true musou gameplay loop with typical Zelda conventions and hallmarks. While Age of Calamity doesn’t cover an entire franchise, it homes in and focuses on what separates Breath of the Wild from its predecessors.

Every character you unlock as you progress through Age of Calamity’s core adventure feels unique from another, and accurate to how they’re portrayed in Breath of the Wild. Each character has access to a light and heavy attack which can be combined for combos, a special attack unique to them, and a Sheikah Slate. It doesn’t seem like much at first glance, but all of these parts intertwine and connect with one another to create a satisfying and cathartic gameplay loop. The special attacks are wide and varied, from Link being able to fire off his bow in the middle of a combo, to Impa’s ability to mark enemies with Runes that she can detonate, creating a clone of herself that fights with you for each Rune detonated. Each one feels suited to their respective characters and provide a layer of complexity that keeps the game from getting stale.

The same can be said for the Sheikah Slate, which features all of the main functions from Breath of the Wild. While you can use in in and around combat like you would in BotW, the most intuitive use is being able to counter specific attacks from boss enemies. Whether you’re using Cryonis at the last second to create a wall for them to run headfirst into, freezing them with Stasis, or sending a weapon back their way with Magnesis,  it’s all incredibly satisfying and rewarding to pull off.

There’s also a few segments in the campaign where you take control of the Divine Beasts as you lay waste to thousands of Ganon’s minions and their outposts. At first, it provides a welcome break from the standard hack and slash fair, and the spectacle of it is something to behold, but they quickly grow repetitive, and awkward controls don’t help in keeping them an engaging affair. While they’re few and far between, and most of them are optional, they stick out when the rest of the experience is consistently enjoyable.

Upon completing the introductory missions, you’re greeted with a recreation of Breath of the Wild’s map screen, which fills up with activities and help requests as you progress through the campaign. Fulfilling help requests by supplying resources will unlock new combos for your characters, shops, weapons, food and more. There’s almost always something to work towards as you play, and countless challenges that you can take part in before or after you finish the main story. It might get a bit repetitive by the end of it all, but there’s a wealth of content for those who want to keep playing.

One area where Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity really struggles is on the technical side of things. Visually, the game looks gorgeous in both handheld and docked modes, it mimics the almost water-color art style of Breath of the Wild perfectly and captures all of that alongside its fast-paced action. Unfortunately, the Switch just can’t keep up with how many enemies are on-screen sometimes. The game usually runs and a stable 30 frames per second, but it’s not uncommon to see it dip well below that when it gets hectic, and it’s jarring to say the least. Hopefully, this is something that can be alleviated at launch via a day one patch, but I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker to begin with.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER. WE LOVE BRINGING YOU THE BEST GAMING AND TECH BARGAINS. WE MAY GET A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE SALE THROUGH AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS

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It’s hard to believe that 2010 was already a decade ago. Nonetheless, here we are. 

Marking the tenth anniversary of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion Games and Stellar Entertainment have once again come together, as they did for Burnout Paradise Remasteredback in 2018. Much like last time, they’ve remastered and repackaged the original game, updating the visuals for the current generation of consoles and bundling in additional DLC.

Needless to say, this feels like a bit of a stopgap. Solid an arcade racer it may be, it’s worth noting the first remaster in Need for Speed’s history comes on the precipice of the next-generation of consoles. Perhaps this is more of a pitstop, refueling for bigger and better things ahead.

Whilst I still dream about a return of the Carbon or Underground subseries — albeit with a new game and not a remaster — the Hot Pursuit games are among my favourites. Long time listeners of the Press Start Podcast might remember I played so much of Hot Pursuit 2on the PlayStation 2 that the pause screen was permanently burnt into the display.

Of course, this is a far cry from what I spent hours playing back then. As you’d expect from a remaster, the graphical fidelity is hugely improved. Going back to the original PlayStation 3 version was a shock to the system seeing how far we’ve come since then.

All the licensed cars look as good as you’d expect these days, but the surrounding environments — which are the same sections of forest, coastline, countryside, or desert on repeat — all seem rather flat and lifeless. Of course, with the cops hot on your tail, you’re not likely to be taking in the surroundings.

With only a handful of exceptions, the roster of cars is mostly the same as they originally were. With the Super Sports Pack, Lamborghini Untamed, and Porsche Unleashed, the game’s DLC, now integrated into the main career, expect more than your fair sure of Porsches and Lambos stocked into your garage.

Disappointingly, they all feel exactly the same to drive, however. Nothing feels like it handles any differently; the speed and acceleration sliders are just adjusted here and there. These are all cars designed to go fast, and that’s where the variety ends.

As far as I could tell, the soundtrack is mostly the same too. In itself, it’s a bit of a musical time capsule. Hearing ‘Opposite of Adults’ by Chiddy Bang was a throwback.

As far as the gameplay checks out ten years on, it a rather unobtrusive, easily accessible arcade racing game. True to form for Need for Speed, tracks are rather forgiving and invite you to maintain a high speed and slide around every corner. Keeping your foot down, picking the right shortcut, and refilling your boost is the key to posting the fastest times.

Here comes in to play the much-talked-about Autolog system, which features in the marketing today as much as it did back then. Capturing your fastest times and achievements, Autolog records you and your connection’s accomplishments and pits you against each other for bragging rights. At the time, I understand it was a point of difference, but is part and parcel of multiplayer racers.

Whilst I couldn’t find a race pre-launch, everything you’d come to expect from multiplayer is carried over. I appreciate that you can set up custom races for just you and your friends and split up into racers and cops. 

Of course, the fundaments of the police pursuit orientated subseries are all here. The titular mode, Hot Pursuit, sees a point to point street race thwarted by a police chase. Suddenly having to concentrate on more than holding your racing line, these chaotic modes are where the game shines. It can get quite desperate stuff, as your car’s health dwindles low and you duck and weave between traffic to scrape across the line in the first position.

Whilst the game’s slow to start, as soon as you open up the full gamut of races and modes it picks up pace. Of course, in Hot Pursuitthere are two separate careers which you can complete simultaneously: one as a Racer and the other as a Cop. I’d recommend bouncing back and forth between the two, swapping shoes every so often to break up the rather tedious time trials.

I had as much fun sabotaging races as I did evading the law.

As you unlock extra equipment races heat up even further. Not only do the Cops have an arsenal of helicopters, spike strips, and EMPs at their disposal, but the Racers also have a few tricks up their sleeves. In some of the most adrenaline-inducing modes where you have a set amount of these powerups from the jump, you’d be forgiven for confusing this with a combat racing game. 

All this aside, it’s a rather no-frills racing game. Absent is any sort of real narrative or car customisation. The former isn’t missed, but the latter is a little bit of shame. Limited only to a palette of colour options and a pretty rudimental photo mode, it’s hard to get excited about poking around the garage despite the litany of licensed vehicles.

Still, the sorest letdown of the game is the tracks and the setting. The tracks aren’t anything special, lending themselves to sprinting from A to B without giving it much thought. One alpine course with a series of hairpin turns is a notable exception, but otherwise, they’re pretty bland.

Weirdly, half the time the ‘shortcuts’ feel like a waste of time. Besides getting a little bit of refill on your boost, often it’s a short jaunt offroad that doesn’t feel like it’s closed the gap on the race leader at all.

A free roam mode is available too, which can drop you in on the map at any of the race starts. Why you’d ever bother to do this is beyond me, unless maybe you wanted to test a car or mess around with a photo mode that does afford you a few more options drive. The world’s terribly empty with no real offroad areas to poke about or collectibles to uncover.

Perhaps my biggest complaint with this remaster is how unnecessary it is. They had already remastered the better game in Burnout Paradise and this just doesn’t feel like it was necessary. Again, it feels like a stopgap. Unless you’re bored to death with Burnout or Forza Horizon 4 and have an itch to scratch, I can’t recommend what is a lesser game.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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I’ve never been the biggest Pikmin fan but thoroughly enjoyed the game on the Wii U. Looking back though, the game definitely had issues largely due to the Wii U gamepad. The game has a brand new lock-on system on Switch, which allows you to quickly lock onto enemies and move between them without fumbling around. It can still feel a bit awkward at times, but it’s a huge improvement over what it was and will make the game more accessible to so many more players.

If you feel like you can’t play Pikmin 3 without a Wiimote, you’re in luck, kind of. You can use the motion controls in the Nintendo Switch to act as a pointer. It’s nowhere near as accurate or easy to use as a Wiimote, but it definitely gets the job done.

There’s a brand new hint system in the game, which I would have really appreciated when I was playing the game on Wii U (without a lot of prior experience in the first two games). Nintendo obviously knows that with the recent boom of the Switch, there’s going to be a lot of newcomers to the series, so this is hugely appreciated.

In terms of new features, there’s local co-op for the entire main story, which is definitely a fun and frustrating experience and there’s also a series of side missions that see you take the role of either Olimar or Louie. They don’t add a huge amount to the game, but it’s nice to have some new content given this is a full-priced release.

Another reason to grab the game on Switch for those that played the original is the new Ultra-Spicy mode. The original version of the game was on the easier side, but Ultra-Spicy takes it up a notch, leaving you with less Pikmin, meaning that you’ll need to strategise a lot more than you do in the regular mode.

Another really cool addition is the Piklomedia, which tells you a bit of information about all of the creatures that you come across and gives you some pretty nifty stats. Again it’s a nice to have for fans that may have played the game on Wii U, or newcomers to the series who want to get sucked into the world.

PIKMIN 3 REVIEW ON WII U

Fans have been waiting eagerly for the past ten years for the third entry into the Pikmin franchise. Pikmin 3 begins with a crash landing on a foreign planet. You take the role of Captain Charlie, Alph and Brittany who become stranded on a planet with no means of escaping. Their only hope of survival is finding fruit to keep them alive. Alph stumbles upon the Pikmin race and learns to master them in order to uncover the hidden fruit of the planet. Olimar and Louie make a few surprise appearances and will be sure to put a smile on the face of series veterans.

Pikmin 3 does a great job in continuing the story of the franchise. Nothing feels forced and I felt a genuine excitement to explore the planet to uncover all of it’s surprises. The three new characters really help keep things fresh and having them all be so different in personality really made for an interesting dynamic that had me entertained from start to finish.

Presentation is always where Nintendo excel and Pikmin 3 is no exception. This is easily the best looking game on the Wii U and the first time that i’ve been excited for what Nintendo can achieve in the High Definition space. The game is beautiful in every way. There is so much detail put into the environments, Pikmin and even the fruit. I found myself stopping to take in the environments on multiple occasions and Nintendo even gave you an inbuilt first-person camera to take your breath taking snaps and share them around.

The boss battles are easily some of the most creative art that i’ve seen in a video game. They amount of detail that Nintendo put into each and every one is absolutely jaw dropping. I felt like I was apart of the universe whenever I came across one. Sure, there are a few left over Wii textures that tagged along from the development process however I found myself too busy looking at the beautiful planet to care.

Pikmin 3 is a very simple game in theory. You use different coloured Pikmin to get to different various areas to get through cleverly placed puzzles. You have a 15 minute time limit collect fruit in each of the 5 levels and you MUST collect fruit to stay alive in the game. You can only access a certain part of the level in the allotted time which means that you’ll be going into each level multiple times until you eventually get to the boss area. The boss battles are where the game truly shines. Never have I seen such innovative enemy design. The boss battles and enemy designs in general really give you a sense that you’re on a believable foreign planet.

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It’s entirely likely you’d remember Minit. A charming little indie game that looked a lot like a regular overworld adventure inspired by The Legend of Zelda, though it quickly subverted those expectations, throwing players into a Groundhog Day-like existence where life is lived sixty seconds at a time. Disc Room similarly upends every notion you’ll settle on during your first five minutes with it, though it looks a lot like a shmup on the surface. Like Minit before it, death plays a vital role here in descending deeper into the world of Disc Room which demands patience as well as an open mind. 

Like any good scientist, our protagonist is drawn to an alien disc-like ship orbiting the planet of Jupiter. Most would ‘nope’ it out of there but an inquisitive mind can also be a reckless one. Once inside, it’s discovered that the ship is more like a labyrinthian slaughterhouse and home to sentient saw blades that ricochet throughout each of the ship’s hundred-plus rooms. There’s a small sci-fi plot that unravels through a series of wordless comic panels as the game ticks along, though it struck me as a bit abstruse. That’s not to say there isn’t a fascinating subsurface well of lore that unfolds through other means, be it the reverent rooms adorned in gold that suggest these discs are subject to forces greater than simple motion or the data logs that mark each new, strange discovery, written by our scientist whose mind is being rapidly unstitched by madness. There’s an understated allure and a want to understand in Disc Room I’ve not felt since Fez. 

Simply put, there isn’t much to the gameplay experience of Disc Room. Picture the evasive ballet of Geometry Wars coupled with the frantic bullet hell that is basically any shmup game on the market. Though our scientist starts out like any regular explorer, special abilities are gifted through death at the teeth of particular saws which offers a strange, speculative twist on the whole game. To be searching for discs of interest in the hopes they’ll unlock dormant powers and pave the way forward, all the while panicking to survive, adds a small layer to Disc Room’s progression that isn’t obvious at first. And like everything else left to player-experimentation, when it clicks it’s a great feeling.

The entire game can be played using one button in addition to the directional keys, with the one-button being bound to whichever of the handful of abilities you’ve opted for. That said, the game is still terribly difficult during its late-run and death will visit you regularly. Instead of letting that gate out certain players, the developers have included a wonderful range of sliders that will let people tailor their experience to their capabilities.

I thought I’d seen it all as I rolled credits the first time on Disc Room but like its contemporaries, a hard mode unlocks and presents not only an even greater challenge but far greater value. The game isn’t terribly pricey considering it offers about one hundred unique rooms separated into biomes with starkly differing conditions as well as a lot of replay value through the leaderboards. Not to mention there are extra hardcore challenges for the certifiably mad and those who think they can smash through Disc Room in fifteen minutes.

Like other Devolver properties, Disc Room’s aesthetic is certainly unique. It isn’t hand-drawn in the same painstaking way Cuphead is, it looks cheap, crude and has a real ‘this art assignment is due tomorrow morning’ vibe that actually gives it a heap of soul and personality. The family tree of discs has many branches as well, with just over sixty to discover. They range from a disc you’d see spinning on your dad’s drop saw to toothy abominations made up of flesh and innards, though they all look terrific as the titular stars of Disc Room, of course. Enter the Gungeon alum Doseone lends his brand of thumping electronica to the game’s soundtrack and it makes for one of the catchier synth-wave scores I’ve heard this year, it’s as experimental as it is pulsating. In fact, the sound design, in general, is stellar in Disc Room, the uncomfortable murmurs of a ship that’s clearly alive in some capacity are unnerving to no end. 

Disc Room seems so commonplace on paper, though when you sieve it through the minds of those behind Minit it becomes something exceptional. The farther it veers from conventional design, it becomes an all-consuming, bloody pursuit for answers that I’ve still not fully come to understand and I’m not sure I ever will. All I know is that Disc Room is an intelligent subversion of player expectation. 

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED FOR BY THE PUBLISHER.

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When discussing the indie scene and how it’s grown over the years in gaming, you’d be hard-pressed to find a conversation that doesn’t mention Supergiant Games. It’s clear that all of their titles have a palpable amount of love and care poured into them, and their latest venture, Hades, is no different in this regard. Where it is different, however, is that Hades has been in early access for the last year and a half, taking in community feedback and criticism to develop and evolve the roguelike over time. Having followed the game through this timeline, the end result is a hallmark Supergiant experience that’s arguably their best work yet.

The player is placed in the shoes of Zagreus, Hades’ son, who’s decided he’s had enough of his father’s realm of the dead and wants out. Hades doesn’t feel similarly and employs the forces of the Underworld to stop Zag from escaping at all costs. It goes without saying that the plot goes much deeper than this, and most of the narrative is told across the numerous attempts you’ll undergo to make it to the surface. It’s a captivating way to have a narrative unfold, and to see it in its entirety requires ten successful escape attempts, which provides a stark sense of longevity and adventure as you play.

You’ll interact with a myriad of Greek mythological legends including Hades, the Furies of the Underworld, and countless Greek Gods. As you interact with these characters you further deepen their bonds with Zagreus and you also find out more about the state of the world and how everyone is entangled in a web of family drama. It’s this slow, drip-fed style of narrative that kept me coming back to Hades for new runs, even after unlocking the true ending.

While story and characters are what make Supergiant’s titles special, they always back it up with interesting, engaging gameplay that is unique from their other titles. In true roguelike fashion, Hades asks you to die again and again to improve, as you gain resources and experience with each run, regardless of whether you succeed. As you clear arenas, Zagreus will receive Boons from the numerous Gods of Olympus, with each God providing unique advantages. Some modify attacks, provide damage over time, or even just flat out buffs to your attack and defense.  You can also opt for rewards like Obol, the game’s currency, or even Darkness, which is the main required resource to upgrade Zagreus’ stats.  This means that no two runs will be the same, the sheer number of combinations and builds that you can curate as you play is staggering and provides a commendable amount of replay value.

As you unlock the various permanent and impermanent currencies, you can unlock new weapons for Zagreus to equip and use in future runs. These six weapons, called Infernal Arms, all provide unique styles of play, both melee and ranged. From Zagreus’ trademark Stygian Blade to a full-size Rail Cannon, each one feels great to use, and while some are definitely stronger than others, there’s a multitude of ways to build around them to complement what they’re good at. Each archetype has a light attack, special attack, and dash attack, with the Boons alternating and augmenting the way that each of these abilities behaves. Zagreus also has a cast attack, which allows him to fire a projectile at an enemy that stays lodged in them until they’re slain. It’s a simple, yet satisfying combat system that’s further deepened by the systems surrounding it. As you progress further into the game, you’ll unlock even more variants of these weapons that behave slightly differently, providing even more replay value and player customisation.

Additionally, you can gift certain items you find in the world to the game’s non-playable characters, netting you Keepsakes that provide you with passive bonuses, and small morsels of info and world-building. As you play, you build your relationships with these characters and learn more about the world, leaving the narrative and world, feeling as if they evolve and change as Zagreus grows closer and closer to escaping from the Underworld. It’s brilliant stuff, and even though I’d be well approaching over 100 escape attempts now, I’ve yet to see half of the interactions you unlock from deepening your relationships with the folk of Olympus and the Underworld.

The Pact of Punishment system, which unlocks after your first successful run, allows you to change the difficulty of a run by fiddling with various modifiers, substantially improving the challenge, if you want it to, but also providing you with more rewards. There’s a total of fifteen different conditions that you can modify, and you can mix and match to your heart’s content. It enables a plethora of challenge runs to be attempted in-game, and they come just as Zagreus feels like he’s getting a little too strong for regular runs. The resources you acquire from these higher difficulties are extremely valuable, making the challenge all the more enticing.

Over the years, Supergiant Games have been honing a very particular art style across their titles. They almost always flaunt superbly detailed backgrounds and environments alongside 3D character models which really pop amongst all the other visual bliss. Hades is much the same, but arguably offers the most vivid and varied scenery than any other title from the studio. It’s clear that there’s a lot of love and pride poured into the presentation of Hades, and there’s no doubt that the time spent in early access has fine-tuned the experience to a tee. It performs excellently and is impeccably well polished, to the point where I experienced no bugs or crashes during my time with the final version of the game.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PURCHASED BY THE WRITER DIRECT.

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Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit takes one of the most popular video game franchises of all time and completely reinvents it in a unique and innovative way. Fact of the matter is, I can tell you just how much I loved playing Mario Kart Live, but similarly to picking up a Wiimote for the first time to play Wii Sports, this is something that you have to experience to understand just how special it is. Hopefully, the video below can help demonstrate some of what makes it so special.

The kart is a lot bigger than I expected, but still small enough that it can fit under my couch and other objects around my house. The pairing process is simple, after downloading the game from the Nintendo eShop, you boot into the software and scan a QR code using the camera in your kart. You’re then free to set the kart down and drive around your house, and this is where the magic happens.

Obviously, if you’ve watched any trailer, you know what to expect from a gameplay point of view, but this kart is so much better than I expected. Whilst the camera isn’t the best (it does more than good enough to see where you’re going), the speed, responsiveness and turning circle of the kart is fantastic. I thought I’d have a hard time in my fairly smallish dining room/living area, but thanks to how well the kart can turn, I was able to zip around tight areas no worries.

Before we speak about the game itself, I need to talk about the insane fact that the Kart actually responds to whatever is happening in-game. If you use a mushroom, your physical kart goes faster, if you are playing on a level with a sandstorm, your kart will physically sway from side to side. If you drift and get a speed boost, it’s noticeable right in front of you. This kart has a great sense of speed and provides an AR experience unlike any other.

When it comes to battery life, I got close to two hours before needing a charge (which can be done by the included USB-C cable). The only other point that’s worth bringing up was range for the Kart was a little bit hit and miss at times. At worst, it would drop out for a second on my screen, when I got to a certain distance away from my Switch, before popping back in, so it didn’t hugely affect my experience.

The core gameplay feels familiar with some new twists. The game comes with four gates and two directional signs which feel like LABO, but are built with ease and pack down quite easily. Nintendo recommends a 3.5 x 3.5m area, but I had a little bit less and it worked just fine. The gates act as your checkpoints that you must drive through to get around the course (I believe you can miss one in GP mode) whilst the arrows light up in game and are supposed to guide you to those gates. Creating a course is easy, you just put the gates and directional signs down, and drive through them.

Something that’s new to the Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is the fact that you can change the gates (which normally have item boxes) to things such as magnets that pulls you back on course, or a speed boost or even a P block that lays coins in front of you, among other things. It added an extra level of variety that I’d love to see in other Mario Kart games.

When you’re ready to stop aimlessly driving around and get stuck into some races, you’ll spend most of your time in Grand Prix mode, where there’s eight different cups and three levels within each. You have access to 50cc and 100cc initially with the ability to go for 150cc and even 200cc as you unlock more trophies (again your physical kart will go a different speed based on which speed class you choose).

On the surface, the levels all look the same, this is primarily because the background will be your house. Where things are changed up are by effects such as an being underwater, or being in an 8-Bit world. These are reflected by obstacles on screen and also by obstacles and classic Mario enemies that hang from the gates to cause havoc.

When it comes to unlockables, the game has a better sense of progression than any Mario Kart that has come before it. You have to work your way to unlocking a number of environments, gate types, outfits, karts and horns. The game also has a radio, in which you can unlock tracks such as the classic Moo Moo Farm theme for. Another little touch, but one that’s much appreciated.

Long term, the downfall for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit might come from the lack of online, and also lack of multiplayer unless you fork out $150 for another kart (which I’d definitely recommend if you have someone to play with). I can’t see a huge amount of reason to keep coming back after you’ve played through Gran Prix a few times and unlocked everything. That definitely shouldn’t deter you from picking this up as for $150, I think it’s really well priced.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A RETAIL KIT WAS SENT BY NINTENDO. ANY SCREENSHOTS/GAMEPLAY USED IN THIS REVIEW WAS CAPTURED BY AN EXTERNAL CAPTURE DEVICE AND NOT FROM THE NINTENDO SWITCH DIRECTLY. AFFILIATE LINKS MAY BE INCLUDED IN THIS POST.

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Battlegrounds sees 2K hand the reins over to Saber Interactive for their first time in the ring. Straight off the bat you may recognize a similar art style to another sports franchise that Saber have recently twisted in a more arcade approach, the NBA Playgrounds series and honestly the comparison continued to jump out at me while playing the various modes of Battlegrounds, for better or worse. With more than a handful of larger than life characters it is disappointing that the roster of superstars have ended up looking rather homogenized, wrestlers who are meant to personify beasts look and play not all that differently to your more bog standard athletic competitor which is a massive missed opportunity to make the game more fun to play. Visuals on the Switch aren’t fantastic and the presentation generally looks like a budget title. Effects are generally generic with lots of sparks and fire but not much in the way of unique flair for each character.

Now down to the meat and potatoes, gameplay boils down to your standard brawling. Punch, kick, throw, you get the idea. Your standard health and stamina bars playing into things like you would expect. Your special moves are built up through generating heat with your opponent and the crowd. Listen to what the crowd wants to see and you will build up to your special moves and power ups quicker, unlike other wrestling games which can make this a fun way to structure a well paced entertaining match in this case it’s just a random request that can sometimes be frustrating, especially if they want your beefcake road train to put on a submission or throw a series of kicks.

You can select 3 powerups to use during a match with a huge assortment on offer if you spend the time unlocking them in the story mode. These are used for everything from restoring some health, making signature moves more devastating or even ensuring your attacks can’t be blocked. Combos feel nice to settle into but blocking and countering can change the tide of a match in an instant. Bigger moves have nice animations but tend to lean on jumping high in the air with the odd aura of fire here and there rather than evoking something more memorable. If you’ve played other brawlers you likely won’t find the depth on offer here. Well timed use of signature moves and power ups tend to be the most successful strategy. The Battlegrounds gimmick lets you grab weapons from under the ring which don’t have much impact or use to be honest and being able to smash the ring with a well placed jump from a helicopter is definitely entertaining the first time at least.

If you want access to all the powerups you have to work your way through the the story campaign which follows a bunch of up and coming wrestlers put through their paces out in the world against WWE superstars. Comic book style panels tell the story in between matches where you can unlock powerups and new wrestlers to use in the rest of the modes. It’s a perfectly fine way to unlock content but nothing you can’t get in just straight up exhibition matches for the most part. It blocks a huge amount of content from being used in online or local multiplayer matches until you grind your way through the campaign. This is in addition to Superstars being available for purchase using points that you earn during matches or cold hard micro transaction cash.

Wrestlers also have cosmetic outfits available for purchase of course. The fact that the vast majority of wrestlers are locked away is absolutely insane for what is meant to be a fun pick up and play brawler. I cannot believe they went with this decision rather than focus the micro transactions on just the cosmetic items, especially when that side of things is so sparse compared to other games. You can also create your own character and run them through challenge mode, which again is just your standard match types but it’s better than nothing.

The rest of the presentation again feels short changed. The sound effects basic and none of the music is memorable. Performance on the Switch is decidedly average despite the underwhelming visuals. Load times are straight up bad and plentiful. It’s fantastic that you have both local and online multiplayer but it feels like low praise considering the rest of the package fails to excite enough to draw people into make a regular habit of playing online together.

While it’s nice to have a break from the typical WWE 2k yearly entry, Battlegrounds feels and plays like a game that was rushed out as a reaction to the poor release of last years title rather than a long planned revival of the old school brawler games that were so popular long ago. If 2K can give Saber a bigger budget and a longer development cycle we could see another title up to the standard of a WWE All-Stars but unfortunately that game is not Battlegrounds.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Despite being anachronistic in most ways a game can be, all of the stars had aligned for the series known as Serious Sam. The successes of both 2016’s Doom and Devolver Digital as a publisher in recent years left the window ajar for this bravado-soaked action hero to, on attempt number four, become a household name at last while denying yet another alien advance. Unfortunately, “Serious” Sam Stone is such an outrageous shitheel, it’s impossible to find him or his crusade the least bit enjoyable. 

Because he’s at least respectable of the women he encounters during his campaign, Sam doesn’t quite plunge into Duke Nukem levels of degeneracy. With a pair of gas station sunglasses, a Henley shirt as well as a combo of daggy jeans and red sneakers, Sam isn’t the king of cool the game sells him as. He’s a rapid-fire punchline merchant and his humour relies on one-liners, puns and dad jokes to match his fashion. Even putting Sam aside, the game’s eight-hour campaign is a tepid push through Europe and serves to bridge the gap between the second and third games. The whole thing plays out like some alternate-universe Indiana Jones film starring Arnie where it’s aliens instead of Nazis and the biblical artefact is the key to saving everyone. I don’t expect this particular, poorly-paced lost chapter of Serious Sam is one that’s been long sought after. Not only does it feel inconsequential it’s also staggeringly dumb. 

Serious Sam 4 plays a bit like the reinvented Doom, only without the verticality and arena variety. It’s a slick, highly-responsive shooter that feels exceptional in hand and the game offers a constant drip-feed of new weapons to reduce the alien forces to gibs with—though it also inexplicably strips Sam of his arsenal mid-game and once again nearer the endgame in some feeble attempt to neuter our hero, almost as if we’d been given too much too soon. Many of the game’s arenas are flat and one-dimensional, leaving most of the enemy forces on one plain, relatively easy pickings despite their vast numbers. It’s this lack of variety that sees the gloss of Serious Sam wear off after only a couple of hours. There’s still a tremendous sense of scale that developer Croteam has managed to achieve, whether it’s the relentless, magical rendering of what felt like hundreds of on-screen enemies at once or the behemoth boss encounters that, context-be-damned, managed to spice up the ludicrous, over-the-top campaign on offer. 

The army that opposes Sam balloons in numbers just as quickly as his arsenal does, it feels as though the game introduces a new thing to kill every other minute. The problem is, except for one or two variants that demand a shred of tact, holding down the mouse button is as much finesse as you need to absolutely liquify everything on the screen.

The game might not propagate strategy through combat, though it does encourage exploration to a degree as it offers several optional objectives as Sam ground and pounds his way through Europe. They’re often the same, brief bouts of wave defense that numb the mind during the mainline quest, though instead of a simple, sweet escape to the next level, Sam is gifted even bigger gadgets to use such as a literal black hole that, like a Chux wipe, leaves the warzone spotless. The game isn’t afraid to go to some insane places and I do applaud it for that, it reminded me a lot of Saints Row in that regard. There’s also an upgrade tree that is bound to embolden Sam throughout the fifteen missions and it’s surprisingly not tied to the amassing of XP. Instead, it’s bound to collectibles found in the world—a fleeting classic touch. 

A fairly unremarkable score aside, there isn’t an aspect of Serious Sam 4’s presentation that isn’t offensive. The character models are expression-free and the animation feels half-baked, it’s hard to see Sam as some force of change when he walks as though he’s in desperate need of relief only Triple B cream can provide. There’s some value in the game’s environments as the beautiful, sweeping farmlands of Rome and France look delightful though the game’s action-packed campaign even takes us to the heart of Italy, to spill blood on the Colosseum which is realised in surprising detail. Looking at it, it’s hard to believe this game was in development for eight years, though I expect there were a few creative reboots in there, I can’t help but feel it could have at one point been a pisstake of id’s Doom because a large part of Hell’s cast feature here. Everybody knows what they say about imitation, but these similarities feel a tad egregious. 

Given Doom’s success, I think it’s clear that Serious Sam had a directional shift that put it more in line with id’s reboot. It got little right in this transition and though there are things that seriously impress me about Serious Sam 4—its steadfast performance under the duress of a full-scale alien invasion being one of them—it’s the things it gets wrong that most will remember. 

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Serious Sam 4 Review – Let The Past Stay Dead appeared first on Press Start.

Ever since there were whispers that a 3D Super Mario collection could be on the way, it’s been my most anticipated title of 2020. All three of these games are among my favourites of all time, coming into my life at different times and defining a console generation. When the collection was announced a couple of weeks ago, my initial excitement went to disappointment fairly quickly due to the fact that Super Mario 64 didn’t look like it had been given the love that it deserves. But after spending the better part of two weeks with the title, I’m pretty happy to say that the concerns I had faded away fairly quickly.

Starting with Super Mario 64, it definitely does stick out like a sore thumb. The game hasn’t been given the widescreen treatment, and I can definitely see either side of the argument, but when you actually go back and compare it to the original and how that looked visually, it does look a lot better than it did all those years ago.

Everyone has played at the first few levels of Super Mario 64 at least a dozen times, but I actually took the time to play it through almost to completion and had a massive ball with it. The camera is definitely a little bit frustrating and that’s another thing that could have used a bit of an improvement, but I don’t think it was out of laziness, but rather staying true to the original game, which literally created the 3D platformer genre.

I think I would have also liked some kind of reference to Super Mario 64 DS. A lot of people forget just how different and equally great that game was. You had multiple players (with different abilities), 30 new stars, and a bunch of great mini-games.

Moving onto Super Mario Sunshine, it’s the game that’s most divisive, but it’s definitely the game that benefits most from the collection The game ran at 480i on the Gamecube and runs at 1080p on the Nintendo Switch. The visuals are so much clearer, everything is that little bit brighter and more colorful and you can actually take everything in that’s going on around you.

There is one little annoyance, and that’s that the game still runs at 30 FPS. Whilst I’m not a super technical person, I’m guessing it’s due to the fact that these games are literally running on emulators for their respective console (which sounds lazy but would have been a lot of work to create an entirely new, official emulator for one game). It didn’t affect my experience, but it’s definitely would have been nice to have a 60 FPS bump.

Moving onto Super Mario Galaxy, and again, it looks absolutely gorgeous in 1080p whilst running at 60 FPS. The game is obviously still great and was most likely the most challenging to bring over just because it did rely so heavily on the Wii Remote and its pointer when it released.

Nintendo has tackled this with varying degrees of success. Whilst playing in handheld, you need to use the touch screen to collect bits and press on the touch screen to shoot them. This doesn’t work all that well, given you very much need both of your hands to play Super Mario Galaxy.

However, the way they’ve incorporated the gyroscope in both the Joy-Con and Pro Controller to be able to maintain some of that waggle that made the Wii so successful is definitely clever and it works fairly well. Obviously, it’s not a one to one reflection of how it worked on the Wii as that used a very different technology, but it works well enough. There’s also a co-op mode, which allows someone to take control of another Joy-Con in order to help you collect bits and take down enemies.

When it comes down to it, the problem with Super Mario 3D All-Stars isn’t the games, or even how the games do or don’t run, but rather the lack of fan service that surrounds them. This is a full-priced, first-party release, which is fair given the three games, but this collection is supposed to celebrate Mario’s 35th Anniversary and it doesn’t really do that successfully.

The only way that Nintendo has celebrated the franchise is through the inclusion of a music player, which lets you play through the soundtracks of all three games. It’s nice to have, but it would have been even better to have an art gallery or some kind of behind the scenes look to better bring together the three games and franchise as a whole. I know it feels weird to talk about the packaging in a review, but even the physical edition of the game doesn’t come with any extras as we’ve seen in the past.

All-in-all, these are three great games, but I’d love to have seen them celebrated a bit more.

The post Super Mario 3D All-Stars Review – Timeless Classics appeared first on Press Start.

Windbound sees you take the role of Kara, a young woman left stranded on a group of islands following a vicious storm. With nothing following the tumultuous event, Kara must use raw materials to build herself a new boat and further explore the islands and their mysterious first inhabitants. It’s a very “show don’t tell” style of storytelling very much drawing inspirations from games like Breath of the Wild and Shadow of the Colossus. However, it does feel like a simplistic way to provide context to what is essentially a very lovely looking crafting sandbox.

I say that because Windbound attempts to “own the intersection” between survival-crafting games and open-world adventure ones, but it ultimately feels like more of the former rather than the latter. Trying to riff off the minimalistic approach of Breath of the Wild while doubling down on all the aspects of that game you probably didn’t like. That is, the story takes a back seat to the action and really doesn’t serve as a motivating backdrop to the pillaging and crafting.

Windbound is, at its core, a crafting-survival game. It retains all the hallmarks of this type of game that you’d expect – lots of collected materials, heaps of gear to create, and a hunger system that is continually on your shoulder. The general gameplay loop is much like you’d expect too. With each new area, you enter having new components that can then be used to build up your equipment and weapons to improve yourself.

The big twist here is that you’re on a series of islands, so a lot of the travelling you’ll be doing is by boat, which you also build up. The cynical Zelda fan in me finds it hard to not compare this whole experience to The Wind Waker, albeit with Breath of the Wild “survival” sensibilities. And that’s really what Windbound is.

But the biggest problem here is that Windbound doesn’t feel like an open-world adventure despite how inviting it was. I was so keen to jump into this world, go sailing, and explore what these mysterious islands had to offer. Instead, I found myself continually being frustrated by how limiting the survival aspects of the game were.

Even playing on the “Story” mode, where survival aspects are toned down, the game was still nagging me, making sure Kara remains satiated. Couple this with a procedurally generated world – where the randomly generated islands you come across might not even have food on them, and Windbound gets frustrating fast.

This feeling of frustration quickly becomes demotivating as the systems begin to turn on you in literal minutes. If Kara is hungry, she won’t become less efficient, she literally loses health until she dies. Subsequently, dying in the game destroys the boat you might’ve spent hours building, though your inventory is retained when playing in “Story” mode. I fully acknowledge that given how the procedurally generated world is handled, that another player might have a much more positive experience, but Windbound kept throwing curveballs at me that I was fed up with after several hours.

I persisted, though, because I was confident that the other half of this concept, the “open-world adventure,” half would see an eventual pay-off. But it didn’t. The crux of the adventure has you navigating an area, looking for three beacons, before activating a portal to move to the next one. It’s a very simplistic gameplay loop that feels like it was shoehorned into the game after the crafting and survival mechanics were – as not only is it simple, but it’s also repetitive.

But I did appreciate that Windbound has zero waypoints, hence encouraging you to explore. But the survival component of the game stops you from doing it at your own leisure, instead hurriedly pushing you from island to island in desperate search of food and nourishment. I understand that’s kind of the whole point of games that utilise survival mechanics, but it just seems so at odds at the otherwise pleasant and tranquil atmosphere of the game.

Sailing is your primary mode of transportation and feels very inconsistent. Drawing obvious inspiration from games like The Wind Waker and Oceanhorn, the direction of the wind provides a good indication of where to pitch your sail to get a smooth motion going. But the wind is so inconsistent that there’ll be times where you ship will be stuck, and no movement or tightening of the sail will get things going again.

Sailing does feel at it’s best when you’re being propelled through the encounters that occur between each portal. In them, you are presented with ancient glyphs that tell the story of the people who once inhabited this archipelago and then must make chase across a fast-paced wave of obstacles. They’re some of the “biggest budget” moments in Windbound and are the main times when you’ll come into contact with some of the more otherworldly creatures of the seas. They’re wonderful moments if a bit samey, coupled with some exhilarating music.

This is perhaps the biggest issue with Windbound – it fails to recognise what made the games it’s inspired by so engaging. Instead, sailing feels great and freeing when you get it right, but utterly frustrating while you wait for the wind to change the direction you want it to go. It can be utterly maddening to be stuck out at sea, waiting for the wind to change and then falling victim to the hunger system before being able to get to shore. You could prepare by bringing food with you onto the boat, but Windbound ensures that anyone trying to improvise on-the-fly suffers.

If you’re playing through the game on Story Mode, you can expect Windbound to be an appropriate length. There are so many factors at play, affecting just how long it takes you to get through Windbound, but with my horrible misfortune, the affair took around eight to nine hours. Mind you, it might’ve taken less if I didn’t fall victim to the survival mechanics so many times, but overall, it feels just right when it comes to length.

There is one thing that I cannot deny about Windbound, however, and that’s the fact that it is an absolutely gorgeous game. From the opening scenes to the moments where you step onto your first ancient ruins, it’s obvious that a lot of love and care has gone into crafting this bizarre and isolated world. Sure, it’s definitely reminiscent of other games that you’ve played before, but none have been rendered quite at the fidelity that Windbound offers.

Similarly, the game has some fantastic audio design, with some uniquely beautiful music acting as the perfect serene backdrop to the exploration. Cleverly playing when you’re either in combat or out in the open sea, the music does a great job selling the lone and isolated atmosphere of this mysterious archipelago. But, when you first land on a new island, it’s dead silent, which (perhaps unintentionally) heightens the tension of these unique locales that you’re discovering.

Which is really what stings the most about Windbound. It looks absolutely fantastic, on par with some AAA releases in terms of artistic flair and creative direction. But as a game, it doesn’t really do much, and it’s systems are at war with themselves to be something truly unique. Writers hate clichés, but it’s that old adage of “jack of all trades, master of none” that applies here.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER FOR THIS REVIEW.

The post Windbound Review – An Ambitious, Confused Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

No Straight Roads is a game with proud roots in a few things. The power of rock acts as the driving force for this debut, in an age where the world’s most prolific artists have forgotten the feel of wood and string. It’s also a proudly Malaysian developed independent, and it’s this devotion to raising the devil horns with a beautiful cultural panache that’s only possible with a developer in its infancy and prepared to take a few creative risks. No Straight Roads, if nothing else, pays homage to those who’ve come before and it gets more right than it doesn’t, misfiring in only a few areas.

The game focuses on the aspirations of Bunk Bed Junction, an indie rock duo trying to kickstart the heart of rock and roll in Vinyl City, an authoritarian music capital under the iron thumb of electronic dance music. After failing to impress Tatiana, the ruthless CEO of the No Straight Roads label, as well as the label’s superstar roster of artists, Mayday and Zuke, the band’s hotheaded guitarist and chilled drummer respectively, plot to overthrow the regime one district at a time and return rock music to the futuristic metropolis. 

Although No Straight Roads is a by the numbers affair, there’s a lot of heart in the game’s message and it’s abundantly clear that a lot of love has gone into crafting a real identity for the game and its characters. There’s an inescapable sense of humour that reminded me a lot of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World without the relentless pop-culture parody. 

Traversing the grooves and streets of Vinyl City is reminiscent to Jet Set Radio and it’s clear there’s a lot of inspiration there. Sadly, these cursory slices of city life in between each of the concerts Bunk Bed Junction have to hijack to claim back districts feel undercooked. There’s very little that incites exploration, although stopping to chat with the Vinyl City natives is most of the fun as they’re all super colourful and amusing encounters. No Straight Roads is marketed as a mishmash between a traditional action-platformer and a rhythm game, though the music-based gameplay is baked into the combat. Though the game tries to teach listening for audio cues, I found that several overlapping layers muddied the soundscape. Even with a pulsing, phenomenal soundtrack, this left observation as the simplest route to learning attack patterns. So if you’re after a ‘rhythm-violence’ game that is as inherently married to its concept like Thumper you won’t necessarily find that here. 

Although the initial hacking stage creates a path into each of the concerts that becomes a mind-numbing task of simply rushing beat-bouncing bots and airborne turrets for several waves, once you’re at the mercy of these all-powerful, near cosmic chart-topping artists, No Straight Roads becomes something special. Being able to switch freely between Mayday and Zuke gives the player a lot of freedom in tackling all of the game’s handful of bosses. Both characters have a distinct playstyle that leans into their instrument of choice, Mayday swings her guitar like the colloquial axe it is whereas Zuke’s focus lies in chaining together combos with his drumsticks, creating a drumline of hurt. After crashing a concert, Bunk Bed Junction will win over fans — the amount of which is determined by your rank. These fans can be spent on a trio of robust skill trees spanning both Mayday and Zuke’s individual performance as well as a shared tree which lets the band air dash among other things. It adds a rather lite roleplay feel that pads out the experience somewhat, but ultimately No Straight Roads lives and dies by its spectacular boss encounters. 

There’s a real Persona vibe to the game’s extravagant boss fights, they’re the definition of the word spectacle. The first concert you crash belongs to a DJ named Subatomic Supernova, a deep disco loving keeper of the cosmos, and it sets the tone straight away. Fortunately, once a district’s platinum disc is obtained by rocking their world, there’s massive replayability in hijacking the concerts again in a new light. Aside from the obvious hope of ranking up and gaining a greater windfall of fans, you’re also able to mix-and-match the encounter by taking one boss to another’s signature soundtrack. This flips the experience on its head and welcomes the player back for repeat visits. 

The art direction in No Straight Roads might be its greatest strength when it’s all said and done. It’s said to draw inspiration from certain mangas as well as Steven Universe, while one can see small touches here and there I’d say the world of Vinyl City forges its own identity early on. There’s a largely non-traditional, fantastical approach to character design, with exaggerated features like Mayday’s saucer eyes, this place exists outside of the regular human experience. Far from muted, No Straight Roads has a vibrant and otherworldly colour palette that draws the eye, I could absolutely picture this game existing as a graphic novel much like Scott Pilgrim, a book this game attempts to emulate in ways.

Though it doesn’t always succeed at being integral to the game’s rhythm-based combat due to its many layers, the soundtrack in No Straight Roads perfectly rounds out the game’s top-shelf presentation. It’s certainly catchy and it should come as no surprise that the artists behind the score, known as Funk Fiction, have worked together several times in the past. The game presents a very diverse cast, Su Ling Chan’s Mayday is full of beans and indefatigable while Steven Bones plays Zuke much like Nigel Planer played Neil in The Young Ones, relaxed and a little vague. 

No Straight Roads delivers on a lot of its promises. It’s a capable platformer with a memorable soundtrack, though it falls short in melding those two areas in a truly meaningful way. It is nevertheless one of the better indie games I’ve played this year, it’s equal parts Jet Set Radio, Psychonauts and Brutal Legend and it’s an utter delight.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post No Straight Roads Review – An Indie Chart Topper appeared first on Press Start.

As a television period drama, Peaky Blinders achieves a great many things. It’s a spectacularly violent gangster epic that, at present, spans five series as much as it is a rumination of life as the Birmingham working-class in the aftermath of World War I, as well as the terrible invisible war that rages between the ears of the shell shocked. Though there’s a small hint at these themes in Mastermind, a prequel video game tie-in for the series, it exists more as a testament to Thomas Shelby’s rapier-like acumen as the pseudo-head of his own criminal household. Like John Wick: Hex played more to the titular character’s cool calm so too does Mastermind as careful planning takes the spotlight from what is regularly a Shelby slaughter. 

As a prequel to Steven Knight’s tremendously popular series, Mastermind tells a brief but succinct standalone story that centers on the Shelby family unearthing a plot to bring their empire to its knees. It’s a little predictable and the stakes aren’t exactly palpable thanks to the prequel paradox but it’s a tight narrative that explores even more of Tommy’s neuroses after his service in France as well as expanding the family unit with never before seen characters. As a nod to Tommy’s complex, lateral thinking, the game works for the most part, although there are plenty of scenarios throughout the game’s five-hour, ten-mission campaign where he’s missing, forcing Arthur, Ada and John to press on without him, and none of this model planning goes out the window. The game’s built around an idea that becomes narratively inconsequential, though it certainly doesn’t impair the fun of it all.  

“The soldier’s minute: in a battle, that’s all you get. One minute of everything at once.”

Mastermind is built around Tommy Shelby’s concept of ‘a soldier’s minute’ and with his pocket watch acting as such a visual motif within the game, it’s no surprise that managing the synchronicities of several timelines actually works pretty well here, making for an apt, if at times challenging, puzzle game. The timeline of the stage exists on an adjustable track that can be rewound and replayed throughout as much trial and error as it takes for you to navigate the level. Each member of the Shelby clan has a unique ability, and whether it’s Arthur’s brutish ability to kick doors down or it’s Polly’s bribery and lock-picking, the game’s many challenges are posited so that you’ll need to have them all work in concert to succeed. It’s tactical and requires a bit of quick-thinking, and though it’s just trial and error with no true fail-state because, of course, you can just thumb back through the timeline to fix where it all went haywire, it’s still satisfying to sidestep the peril with a bit of considered troubleshooting. 

There are some frustrations that come hand in hand with how the Mastermind experience is constructed. In stumbling across the correct path through the level’s problem, I often found myself on the precipice, seconds from checking the box for the win condition only to exhaust the timeline and fulfill the level’s fail state instead. To make up the extra seconds, I’d have to rewind through several minutes and do things minutely quicker which was a source of some frustration given I’d clearly solved it and merely needed to do busywork to free up a spare second. What’s more frustrating is that a particular level broke itself more than once for me as John, the family arson and head-knocker, didn’t spawn outside of the Garrison, leaving me marooned in the street with no way forward. It corrected itself in time after a few reboots, although I worry some might waste more time than necessary searching for a nonexistent solution to what is essentially a bug. 

The game’s isometric camera angle gives the player an omnipotent viewpoint that lets them cast a wider gaze and understand the mechanical requirements of the game’s level, as knowing who to send where is the essence of problem-solving in Mastermind. This all-seeing, eye in the sky look does obfuscate the lead’s character models to an extent, which all look to be accurate depictions despite the game’s ever so slight caricatured aesthetic. All of the show’s actors have lent their likeness to the tie-in, though it’s certainly a shame that none could lend their services in a voiceover capacity to further legitimise Mastermind as an official part of the Peaky Blinders canon. This lack of performance placed a bit of pressure on the game’s soundtrack, written and performed by Feverist, who cut their teeth scoring the show’s first series, which of course acts as a terrific foil to the game’s fast-paced lawlessness.  

From one small screen to another, Peaky Blinders’ jump into the videogame world is an unexpectedly unique and enjoyable stomp through the blue-collar streets of Birmingham. Like the family central to the series, the game isn’t without its problem areas, Mastermind does a fine job of adapting Tommy Shelby’s distinctive trait as a great thinker, even if it loses sight of that idea only a handful of missions in. 

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Peaky Blinders: Mastermind Review – Fast-Paced Lawlessness appeared first on Press Start.

Carrion is described on paper as a ‘reverse-horror’ game where, rather than jumping at shadows and orchestral stings, it’s you that goes bump in the night. As an amorphous lab experiment gone wrong, you slither and writhe through a clinical testing ground of secret doings, exacting unstirred revenge on those who inhabit the facility, from the prodding scientists to the militia that hope to secure the base and prevent your freedom march. It’s certainly a fun premise and it’s a game that certainly fits the Devolver model. Like most in their roster, Carrion is even more fun in practicality. 

To get the buzzword on everybody’s hot lips out of the way, Carrion falls into the mishmash genre known as Metroidvania though it only borrows a few of the elements, not all. Though the facility is made up of several interconnected biomes for you to dismantle during your great escape, there is no conventional map to speak of. This makes the twisting, labyrinthian vents and corridors a genuine test of memory and it, in context, makes a lot of sense. This monster, though sentient by our hand, does not need to map his trail of destruction like a misshapen Magellan. That isn’t to say that Carrion doesn’t encourage exploration, it’s at the epicentre of the experience and Phobia Game Studios do a superb job of establishing the game’s early power struggle that, throughout the game’s all-too-brief four-hour run, evolves alongside its titular mass of carrion. 

The game’s story is far from straight-forward on the surface and it feels as though much of it goes unexplained, though the mystery feels inconsequential to the monster’s quest. The very nature of the game’s world goes largely untouched as we’re never made aware of just how an underground, top-secret lab came to specialise in genetic mutation with an army at its disposal, though this intrigue subsides with your prisonbreak taking centre stage.    

Given how beautifully the game handles with a mouse and keyboard, it’s hard to imagine it performing as well elsewhere. Unlike other precise platformers where movement is balletic and graceful, Carrion is akin to a shark, thrashing and ensnaring its prey—effective, but ugly. Using the left click to control the monster’s movement and the right to arm its tentacles and drag bodies into its open maw, there isn’t a platformer like Carrion that marries its movement and combat together in such visceral yet satisfying splendour. Although there are a handful of trying combat encounters that are bound to take you down a peg here and there, the game excels at delivering on the promise of power. It’s particularly exceptional nearer the endgame, once your final form is unlocked and you have an assortment of abilities at your disposal that you feel irresistible. 

Like others in the genre, Carrion gates off portions of its map in anticipation that you’ll learn the skills needed to advance. From stealth-cloaking to bypass sensors, to reducing the monster’s composition into a pack of writhing eels to cram through underwater ducts, Carrion is a best-of when it comes to high-concept sci-fi creativity. With only four skills hot-keyed at one time and dictated by form, there are goop pools in which you’re able to deposit ‘biomass’ to decrease in size. As you’d expect, this leads to a lot of clever puzzles that’ll confound at times and force a bit of lateral thinking. It also offers more possibilities in conflict resolution than you’d expect from a game about causing as much wanton destruction as possible, every so often framing the covert option as the more attractive. 

There’s an air of confidence to how the artists behind Carrion utilise pixel-art with a complete mastery of lighting and using darkness as a weapon to set a mood that permeates the entire game. On face value, the game looks terrific though it’s easy to take for granted the effort spent perfecting the debris that chip away from every surface the monster flounders into. There’s a creepy, eldritch dread that accompanies every moment of this blood and guts show and it’s thanks in large part to Cris Velasco’s unsettling score that captures the alien essence of the monster. It reminded me of moments in the score from Alex Garland’s Annihilation, a siren song of unknown origin beckoning players deeper into the facility’s bunker.

Although it’s short-lived, tearing through what I’ve seen described as a mean-spirited interpretation of the ending of Playdead’s Inside is a unique experience. This monster mash is a show of force from a developer with a terrific handle on how to craft an arcane setting, deliver a sense of intoxicating might and stand out in one of the medium’s most overpopulated genres.  

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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I’ve played most of the Paper Mario games, but they’ve never really resonated me to the point that I’ve found myself laughing, and wanting to explore every nook and cranny. That all changed with Paper Mario: The Origami King.

The game’s story is one of Mario’s best. It starts out in Princess Peach’s castle with King Olly and Bowser’s army, who he has turned into Folded Soldiers, turning the entire world into origami. This starts with Princess Peach, and permeates through the entire world, leaving Mario and Olivia, Olly’s sister, to solve the mystery and return the world to normal.

It sounds insane and that’s because it is, Paper Mario: The Origami King has the most bizarre Mario story in the best possible way. Right from the get-go, there are quips and jabs at Nintendo and their other gaming franchises and it doesn’t stop until the very end. Characters that we’ve come to know and love over the 35 years of Mario’s history are all seen in a new light and it’s hard not to love. Characters such as Dry Bones and Monty Mole are given much larger roles than we’re used to and they all come into their own.

The gameplay follows a familiar loop to other Paper Mario game with some key twists. The game has you filling ‘Not-Bottomless Holes’ around the map with confetti that you pick up from smashing trees, killing enemies, and finding confetti sacks. These holes give you items, allow you to access new areas, and fill your pockets with coins. You’ve got a confetti meter in the top left of your screen which you’ll need to ensure is filled up. The game also places a huge emphasis on finding Toads that have been squashed up, are being used as props by origami enemies, or have been turned into other forms of origami. These serve as a pretty cool collectible.

The other major twist is in the form of the 1,000 Fold Arms technique, which you use to extend Mario’s arms to reach new areas, reveal strips off walls, and generally push the plot forward. It does feel a little bit gimmicky at times, especially when you’re playing in handheld mode with motion controls turned on, but it does serve the story well.

The art style of Paper Mario: The Origami King might just be my favourite of any Switch game. Just like the game’s story, the art oozes personality. It’s vibrant, colourful and the mix of origami and paper characters, enemies and objects are all great to look at. This art style in particular really suits the Switch in handheld mode, where games can often look worse than they do on television. Similarly, the music is absolutely incredible from the moment you boot up the game, providing a nice backdrop to exploring the open-world and filling holes with confetti.

Unfortunately, it’s the battles that let the game down severely, to the point that the game would have scored a lot higher if they weren’t there. General battles work in a similar way to the last few Paper Mario games, but with a few twists. You’ll find enemies around the open-world, that you can hit with your hammer or jump on to get the first move in, but this is kind of where the fun ends. At the start of each battle, you have to line enemies up around a circle by either spinning around or sliding up or down in order to increase your bonus attack before a timer runs out.

You can also call in the Toads that you have collected using coins to give you a bit of extra health, attack enemies, and also align enemies for you. This is neat at first, but gets old very quickly and feels like it only gets in the way of the things that the game does extremely well. These battles serve absolutely no purpose There’s no leveling system in the game, and you earn no experience from these battles. You get paid out in coins, which can be used to buy items to use in battle, so the whole thing feels like an unnecessary way of padding out the game.

I often found myself trying to avoid enemies altogether or trying to run from battles once in them. This would often fail, leading to the battles lasting even longer. There are also battles that take place in the overworld, such as taking out large enemies through the use of timing, and other enemies that require a bit of puzzle-solving to take out and these are much, much better and feel like they don’t take you out of the action. I wish Nintendo opted for more of these and less of the standard Paper Mario battles. Boss battles also use a similar ring technique to that of the main battles, but they are all extremely unique and creative but never feel like a chore. I completely understand why you need regular battles in a role-playing game, but I also feel like they’re here just to serve that purpose and nothing else.

The game also has a lot of unnecessary hand-holding that is unskippable for the first two to three hours, banging you over the head with text box after text box during a battle that will be obvious to most people. It really felt unnecessary, even for the most casual of gamers. There’s a lot to do in this world.

The game provides an extensive world map, which encourages you to complete things like filling every hole, finding every Toad, and finding question boxes, and there’s also a number of trophies, art, soundtracks, and other collectibles that you can look at in the museum.

I was at odds whilst playing this game. I absolutely loved everything about it and the game sucked me in, but I was dreading running into battles, which definitely hurt my time with it.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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