Wild Card Football plays more like NFL Street with Mario Kart-style power-ups in the form of wild cards. Every down before a play, the offense and defense can play wild cards with several effects ranging from but not limited to increasing/decreasing the speed or stamina of the whole team or specific players, instantly gaining extra yards, having the next tackle force a turnover, increase/decrease fumble/interception odds, blocking the opponent's cards, turning the team or ball carrier invisible, placing oil slicks on the field, giving the ball carrier a rotating bumper or electron (similar to the triple shell Mario Kart power-up), etc.

Wild cards can also be turned off (in Season and Quick Play only) for a traditional 7-on-7 arcade style football game, akin to a toned-down, but serviceable version of NFL Street. Gameplay is generally okay and feels fun, but spinning, hurdling, showboating, and calling audibles aren't present. A one button QTE pops up every time you hand the ball off to your running back for a running play, or when you attempt to break through the offensive line, which takes getting used to. You can stiff arm, use turbo and juke, though the AI has a tendency to stop you from running more than 2 yards. Passing mostly works, though manual catching has a tendency to cause your receiver to stop dead in his tracks for a moment, while the AI will frequently jump and swat your many pass attempts.

Game modes only consist of Quick Play, a shortened Season Mode, and Dream Team. No depth charts, stat tracking, drive summaries, roster management (aside from building your Dream Team), or anything in-depth exists. Dream Team is the main go to mode where you play the "Tour" option and play through games (some include objectives like first to score wins, play with no wild cards, stop the opponent from scoring in one drive, etc.) with your 49 Overall team, earning packs (lootboxes) to earn better cards, players, and customization options while leveling up your players by winning games. Inside of Dream Mode is an online league mode that acts as the ranked/competitive mode, where you play against online players Dream Teams to climb the division ranks to earn tickets. Tickets are another currency that can be used to instantly purchase any card (wild card, player or cosmetic) through an in-game shop. Cards you own can also be traded up for better or different cards. While this sounds microtransaction driven, at the time of this review 3 days after the games release, no microtransactions or option to buy premium currency exists.

The big issue with Wild Card Football is that for an arcade style sports game, the pace is quite a slog as games take a while to get through. A number of unnecessary celebrations, cut scenes, and animations play in between plays, making a standard 2-minute quarter game end up taking between 30-40 minutes. Add in playing against an online opponent with having to wait for them to choose their plays and cards, and you're looking at the same time or even longer just to finish one online game. Compare this to the classic NFL Blitz and NFL Street games where you could play through a game between 10-20 minutes.

Wild Card Football feels like a better arcade like attempt at replicating a sport over Saber's previous NBA 2K Playgrounds and WWE 2K Playgrounds offerings, but the slow pace, grindy unlock approach, and lack of long term content make it a game that is very hard to recommend - unless you're dying for an arcade football game and have no way to play NFL Blitz, Street or similar titles from the past generations. It's nice having another arcade sports game in a saturated market filled with sports simulation titles, but this game definitely needed more training and preparation before hitting the competition on the market.

Largely the same as Super Mega Baseball 3, for better or for worse. The new (optional) Shuffle Draft option at the start of Franchise mode lets you pick from a pool of players to build your dream team. With real-life MLB legends now in the game, you can have a full Legends Franchise, a mix, or a classic Franchise of fictional SMB players. The new player traits are a welcome bonus that makes gameplay a bit more dynamic. Most players now have traits (abilities) that can be positive or negative. These range from increased pitching stats when pitching a 0-0 count, higher contact hitting when batting with 2 strikes, increased chance of dropping caught balls, increased running speed when stealing a base, etc. Traits fall under different chemistry categories, which adds some strategy in developing your team.

After some games, loyalty moments pop up which will affect a players loyalty (basically, a random question such as "You played a great game today, who had the best performance?), and picking between one of the two pre-selected players will increase their loyalty. Some instances pop up where you will end up decreasing player loyalty. At the end of a season, you can resign or release your players (loyalty comes into play here as more loyal players will be willing to stay for a lower salary and less loyal players will ask for a higher salary), in addition to signing free agents in the off-season. Sadly, no player trades are present. Training players works the same as in SMB3, but with much more opportunities along with random chances that can give pitchers a new pitch, and chances to gain or lose certain player traits.

Graphically, the game looks somewhat better. Player models look a bit worse as faces are more cartoony and for some reason, most players are fat or stocky.

The UI could use some work as some options such as substituting pitchers and navigating players in free agency menus require extra button presses.

The soundtrack is decent, mostly made up of songs and instrumentals probably created by local, no-name bands and music artists. The sound effects are a bit too zany and over-the-top, and some of the umpires come off as very energetic and enthusiastic in their strike call outs.

The Legends implementation feels lazy. It's nice having them there, though they mostly look like a step above the in-game created players.

Lastly, customization is pretty much the same. Some new player faces and models exist along with a boatload of player names for the announcer to call out during at-bat/pitch situations but expect the same level of SMB3's creation mode.

Some issues can probably be fixed in later updates as Super Mega Baseball 4 just released, but this entry is a decent improvement over its predecessor. 

Hi-Fi Rush is best described as a linear 3D character action beat-em up with rhythm game combat sequences, a Sunset Overdrive aesthetic, a comic book feel with a bit of a Persona 5-lite look, and the visual presentation and story of a Saturday Morning Cartoon.


While Hi-Fi Rush has the standard combat action gameplay with light platforming sections, light and heavy attacks along with a dodge button, collectible items to upgrade your health and special meters, data pads with information about the lore of the game world and gears to use to purchase more attacks and abilities, Hi-Fi Rush adds a gimmick to its combat. Everything in the game from the soundtrack to the environment pulses to the rhythm. Pressing the attack button at the right moment (or on-beat as the game refers to it) will give you a damage boost in combat. The game doesn't penalize you for attacking offbeat as this just gives you a damage boost in certain instances, so the game can be played perfectly fine like a normal action game. Though, there are cues and accessibility options to make attacking on-beat much easier.


Combat also includes a Devil May Cry-like letter grading system based on attacking, parrying, and landing attacks on beat. With multiple difficulties between Easy and Very Hard, this provides a good level of replayability for anyone wanting to chase after high scores.


Throughout the game, Chai will meet new characters in his quest to take down Spectra. These characters can be used in combat as extra tools in Chai's arsenal, and will also be used while moving and platforming through levels to solve mostly straightforward rhythm puzzles, hit switches, and break down walls and barriers along with stunning enemies and breaking their shields.


Between tracks (levels and missions), Chai can roam around a hideout that acts as a central hub. This small hub allows Chai to chat with the few friends he meets during the story (nothing Bioware-like, simply picking a few options), check and purchase upgrades, view found graffiti and collectibles, and even participate in pretty feature-rich training simulator mode akin to the practice modes in many modern day fighting games.


Boss battles are highly entertaining as every boss has different phases which can take the form of a typical 3D action battle, a timed mini-game, or a short Guitar Hero-esque rhythm section. As a bonus, dying during boss battles only puts you back to the beginning of the last phase you completed, so no having to play the entire battle all over again upon death.


As far as issues go, my only real (albeit minor) complaint with Hi-Fi Rush is that the combat lacks the ability to lock onto enemies. Combat works very well and you eventually gain the ability to launch yourself directly toward an enemy you're facing for direct combos, but a lock-on option would have been a handy utility with how frantic and hyperactive combat sections can get.


Microsoft not only did a good job shadow-dropping this game at the start of the year but also shadow-dropping an exclusive title bustling with flash, substance, style, and flashiness with 8s, 9s, and 10s across the board. For people who have a low tolerance for or dislike timed/rhythm-based button inputs and quick time events, Hi-Fi Rush may offer more frustration and difficulty than fun. Otherwise, fans of Devil May Cry, pre-reboot God of War, Bayonetta, and similar games may find Hi-Fi Rush to be a very worthy contender.

There are some good ideas in The Chant, surrounded by a bit of unpolish. The Chant is a survival horror action game set on a spiritual remote island retreat, where you play as a young woman (Jess) recovering from past trauma. Something on this island goes awry and cultists, beasts, and all hell are soon thrown into the mix.

Jess has 3 meters: Mentality, Heart, and Spirit. Heart acts as Jess' health bar. Mentality will decrease under different circumstances and cause Jess to have a panic attack, forcing her to run away from combat for a bit while being unable to attack for a brief moment. The Spirit meter allows Jess to slowly meditate, transferring whatever power is available in her Spirit meter to her Health and Mentality. Spirit also doubles as Jess' skill meter, allowing her to utilize skills to further help in combat. If either her Health or Mentality reaches zero, Jess dies.

Standard gameplay for the most part. Jess can pick up and read pages about the island retreat lore, pick up herbs to increase her mind/body/spirit meters, collect crystals to upgrade abilities, find old film tapes to view in projectors that show clips to further explain the story, etc. Puzzles involve finding items, and keys, moving lights into the correct sequence, etc. These start off fairly simple and slowly get more involved (but never frustrating or overly complicated) while utilizing the spiritual theme of the game quite well. Throughout the game, Jess will approach colored glooms to progress to various areas. These glooms act as nightmarish like fields, where being inside of these will slowly drain Jess' Mentality meter, causing her to panic and run away if it fully depletes. It's an interesting exploration/backtracking system, as, throughout the game, Jess earns colored prism necklaces that allow her to enter respective glooms pertaining to the colored prisms she has collected so far.

Combat ditches guns for a more melee, almost beat 'em-up approach. Instead of guns and standard melee weapons, Jess uses sticks to attack enemies using light and heavy attacks. Different sticks have different properties (fire, sage, occult), which are weaker/stronger against specific enemies. A few different throwable items such as essential oils and salt can be crafted and thrown at enemies, while skills with cooldowns can be used to stun, damage, and incapacitate enemies. Dodge somewhat works, as Jess will fall down and stumble giving her ample room to dodge attacks. Her dodge does become an issue when surrounded by a group of enemies or backed into a corner. Combat does feel clunky, even with notes taken from the action beat 'em-up genre.

Some issues I have with The Chant are a lack of manual saves. The game autosaves at some points, but not after every key action. Some parts reloaded me at least 5 minutes back, which was manageable, but annoying in a way. Boss fights, while not particularly challenging, can be won quite easily. While the game runs at 60 fps on Xbox Series S, it does slightly drop in some moments when climbing a ladder, entering a new area or in a boss battle when a lot of action is happening at once. Character faces look last gen and the voice acting is mostly serviceable, though the lip syncing isn't up to par.

There is some incentive for replayability as the game has 3 different endings and a Resident Evil-like achievement/trophy for completing the game in under 4 hours. My final playthrough clocked in at just over 6 hours.

Even with the clunkyness and lack of polish in some areas, I enjoyed The Chant from start to finish. It's one of those games that started out interesting and got better all the way through. While I wouldn't call it a hidden gem, it's worth checking out for a different take on a survival horror game.

A simple all-female wrestling game with sexy vixens, ruined by a confusing, frustrating unlock system and a lack of content. What Rumble Roses XX gets right is its character system. Though there are only 10 or so playable characters, every fighter (or Rose) has a face and a heel version, totaling up to 20 characters. In addition, a Superstar version of each Rose can also be unlocked. As this is a Mature rated wrestling game with only women, nearly every Roses’ gimmick caters to the typical male fantasy. You have a nurse named Anesthesia, a punk rocker with pigtails named Candy Cane, and a sexy cop named Sgt. Clements. The list goes on from there.


Superstar characters come into play with the popularity system. After a match, a Roses’ popularity will rise or fall. If it rises above 80, that you can choose a Superstar version of that Rose which is a super version with more powerful moves. If the popularity of said Rose falls below 80, the Superstar version is gone and must be raised above 80 to unlock again. Even though this may sound like a bad system, it makes sense when you consider how popularity works in professional wrestling and sports entertainment.


The gameplay is a dumbed-down, less complex version of SmackDown vs. Raw 2007. However, that’s not bad as the controls are very simple and easy to pick up and learn. The only issue is that controls are only found through a tutorial icon on the main menu. Pausing the game doesn’t give you a list of controls, and the only contextual controls that pop up on screen are a button for pins when the opponent is on the mat and a button for performing finishers when the situation calls for them.


Don’t expect a Story, Career, Season, or Tournament mode as there is no real single-player mode. Instead, the main menu acts as a hub (similar to an overworld map like in Virtua Fighter 5's Quest Mode or Def Jam Fight For New York's Story Mode) where you can select between exhibition mode (allowing you to pick the match option and your opponent), match icons that randomly pair you up with an opponent, an in-game shop, and a settings option. Aside from singles, tag, triple threat, four ways, and handicap matches, Street Fights and Queen’s Matches are the only gimmick matches. Street Fight plays like a watered-down fighting game where pins and submissions are disabled. Queen’s Match is basically a 1-on-1 match, except the Roses wear swimsuits and fight in a ring on the beach. The objective is the win, so the loser has to perform a humiliating act. It’s an interesting idea as you can choose what action the loser has to do upon selecting this match (yoga, dancing, limbo, doing a pose), but the post-match action is really only a cutscene and nothing spectacular.


Unlocking content is terrible and as a 2006 game, almost makes current-gen game unlock systems run for the hills. The achievements, while not difficult, are super time-consuming and take well over several hundred hours. To win a championship, you have to defeat all 9 default Roses once, win 15 singles matches, and win a few matches consecutively. Only then, a Champ icon will pop up, allowing you to fight for the title. Now if you want to unlock a Roses’ alter ego, you must do the exact same thing, with the rest of the 9 Roses, then defeat a Rose to unlock the alter ego. The problem is that the game gives no indication of ranking or stats outside of hours and the number of matches played. You also cannot simply play Exhibition matches and must choose one of the icons on the map, often forcing you to back in and out of the settings option just to have that one Rose you haven’t beaten show up.


The in-ring gameplay is mostly okay as it plays like a stripped down, yet workable version of SmackDown vs Raw 2006. Submissions seem to be an important factor since when one is performed, a camera icon pops up on the screen and you can rotate the thumbsticks to get a better view of the quote, unquote “action.” The amount of moves isn't massive, so expect to see your entire Roses moveset after playing a match for a few minutes. Every Rose has a Killer move, a Lethal move, and a Humiliation move. Killer moves are performed if your opponent is standing, while Lethal and Humiliation moves are position-dependent. Killer moves are glorified finishers, Lethal moves are more painful finishers and Humiliation moves are finishers/submissions that result in an instant win once performed. Unlike the WWE games, finishers are played out in a cinematic fashion similar to fighting games, so you can technically be attacked and perform your finisher while being hit in an animation.


The controls are great, and while the action happens at a brisk pace, it can feel a bit sluggish at times with somewhat slow movement and the odd hit detection. I guess it also doesn’t help that the camera view perspective is on the turnbuckle, versus the traditional ringside view. The A.I. is not the best. They put up a decent fight, but even on Easy, they tend to counter a lot of attacks.


There is a Create a Wrestler mode, although it is extremely limited. Very few options for hair and facial features exist and while you can unlock a select few costumes in the shop, they come as sets and do not allow you to really mix and match or individualize parts. To put it shortly, you won't be able to create anyone near the level of say, any WWE games’ Create a Wrestler mode.


I will give Rumble Roses XX credit since it is a unique, fun wrestling game that has a fair bit of personality with an interesting persona system. It just needed the content on the level of the SmackDown games and fewer grindy unlock requirements. This feels more like a director's cut rather than a sequel to the PS2 original. Playing this game with friends will provide some entertainment, but going into the ring along with Rumble Roses XX provides fun along with a match-up against confusion, annoyance, and frustration.

Edengate looks like a psychological survival horror game at first, but it's a walking simulator where you interact with items. You play as Mia Lorenson, a young woman who wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and discovers she is alone and isolated in the world. Story was a mixed bag, it didn't make a whole lot of sense and I couldn't fully understand what was going on. Throughout the game, Mia interacts with glowing items (memories, which show well-voiced cutscenes with slowly moving concept art), and randomly starts remembering how and what happened? I was left with more questions than answers when the game ended.

No combat is present. Progression is very linear and straightforward on a set path. Some areas may be a small bit more open than others, but arrows and some signs will guide the way and tell you where to go. Puzzles that mostly involve codes to unlock doors, moving an item in the right spot, and hitting switches in the correct order, are easy. Clues lying around will give the answer to these. Graphically, Edengate is decent. It doesn't look very 2022-ish in terms of visuals and looks more like a 2015-dated indie game. The world and environments look very similar to Resident Evil 3 Remake, though some areas such as the school and street seem to reuse the same layouts and design aspects.

Edengate is not a bad game at all, but can be classified as "Baby's First Walking Simulator." For the $7 price and the 1-2 and a half hour time it takes to play through the game, Edengate does offer somewhat of a fun experience. If you played other narrative adventure/walking sims before, this one may not do much to captivate you. Otherwise, it's worth a new experience.

.skate is a simulation take on skateboarding that adopts a flick-it control scheme (very similar to Fight Night's analog stick punch system) where the right stick is used to make your skater ollie/jump and perform various flips and tricks. Buttons are used to push and pump out of ramps to gain air while the triggers are used for grabs and air tricks. The learning curve is a bit steep, but very rewarding once you get the controls down. Tutorials also do a great job of easing into the control scheme and gameplay.

Story is basic but works for .skate. You create a skater and meet up with other skaters that give various challenges such as performing certain tricks, grinds, grabs, timed street contests, very contests and own the stop (where you much beat a preset score on a certain landmark) along with various other challenges. .skate is set on an open world city with various locations involving different landmarks that offer various spots for skating and completing challenges.

As the game name implies, you create a skater (male only, no female skater creation option, which for its time is a very limited feature that does offer a good variety of real life skateboard clothing brands and items) and go. No skills, upgrades and stats are here. Just you, your skater, skateboard and an open world skating playground literally at your fingertips.

.skate's biggest issue is that you cannot get off your board, which can make traversing and trying to get to certain spots quite frustrating and annoying. Thankfully, this feature was added in the sequels.

The art style and UI are very Sk8r-esque with grunge splashes and a magazine look that make you feel like you are watching someone skateboard. It also draws you in due to the fact that the camera is placed near the ground, following your skater at a fish eye lens perspective.

EA's 2007 .skate is a solid entry that pushed forward a new take on the skateboarding video game genre. Some aspects of the game feel dated compared to Skate 2 and 3, but .skate is a fun trip down memory lane.

Despite the comparisons to Rocket League, this is more of a kart racing game with a golf objective thrown in. Since the matches are set on golf courses, there are hazards you have to deal with including bunkers that slow you down, out of bounds areas, trees, and obstacles in the way, etc. For added fun, boost pads exist that charge your turbo meter and give a burst of speed. There are no strokes, it's all about trying to get the ball in the hole as fast as possible.

The only single player mode is a series of courses with different layouts that act as time trials. Scoring within a certain time rewards you one, two or three stars. More courses are unlocked as you earn stars, and cores can even be unlocked. These are active and passive bonuses that can be equipped such as making the ball larger, freezing the ball in place, sending out a wave to move the ball some distance, etc. Nice variation here that does add some strategy and a tad bit of depth.

Multiplayer is basic, but fun. It's a short burst of 3 holes of golf (or rounds) where you compete against other opponents where the goal is to get your ball in the hole first. You can't run into opponents or hit their balls as they appear as ghosts; however, shield and missile pickups are available for Mario Kart style attack and defense. One hole can last from 20 seconds to two minutes depending on the course and your skill or luck, so this makes online matches go by in a matter of minutes.

You earn gears (in-game currency) from completing matches and daily challenges, which are used to buy cosmetics from a rotating daily shop to customize the look of your car and ball. At the moment, there are no microtransactions as all cosmetics (very okay to average looking by the way) are purchased with gears.

This is an Early Access/Game Preview title so at the moment, it's light on content and nowhere near as feature rich as Rocket League. Matchmaking can take up to 30 seconds to a minute or so, usually placing you in a game against one or two other people rather than a full lobby of 4 or 5 other opponents. Very fun game but it needs more polish and features. Difficult to say what the future of Turbo Golf Racing will have in store, but still, perfect to just pick up and play in short bursts.

It's like Tetris 99, but with Arkanoid. Eternal Battle has a decent amount of modes. The titled Eternal Battle is a 25-player battle royale last-person-standing mode. Versus mode allows the game to be played with a total of 4 (either human or AI controlled) players. Neo is a modern take on the classic Arkanoid game with new powerups. Finally, even the arcade version is present in a Retro titled mode.

Controls are fine. Using the D-Pad and Thumbstick isn't the same as using a trackball in the arcade, but serviceable. The Eternal Battle 25-person multiplayer mode was pretty much dead, even playing it on launch and a few days after. Even with crossplay turned on, I was only ever matched against 3 or 4 other human players at the most while the rest were just AI opponents.

Arkanoid Eternal Battle launched at $30 and seems to have a very nonexistent online payer presence. Perhaps releasing it as a free-to-play game would have been better. I wouldn't recommend Eternal Battle as plenty of other options for Arkanoid exist. Wait for a deep discount, or pick up Shatter Remastered Deluxe, which is a fresh new take on the classic Breakout/Arkanoid game. Things with Arkanoid Eternal Battle may change in the future depending on when or if the developer gives it support and updates, but as of now, I'm rating this game 2 stars out of 5.

Potionomics has to be the most original and interesting game I played all year. The DNA of Potionomics blends different gameplay genres and aspects together. It's a deckbuilder, visual novel, alchemy/potion creator, lite-RPG, shopkeeping simulator hybrid. Not every aspect is super deep, but everything that is present feels fleshed out and works very well.


Gameplay loop has you play as potion-maker Sylvia, who runs a shop specializing in selling potions. Potion selling is played out like a deck-building game, where cards are played to haggle the price of your potions to earn more gold. Instead of dying and getting a game over, customers have patience which counts down and if it reaches zero before closing the deal, they walk away without you making the potion sale. Time limits are present like the earlier Atelier games, where going to shops, visiting friends and brewing potions takes up parts of the day. As the days progress, the game introduces you to new friends providing various services such as ingredients, the ability to increase potion prices, better equipment for brewing and selling potions, etc. Some companions can even be sent out to locations, which will result in more and sometimes rarer ingredients, depending on how far they go in their expeditions with whatever potions you equip them with. You can even hang out with friends, give them gifts, and level them up, which will provide you with more cards to strategize your deck along with discounts when buying items.


Every 10 in-game days, a competition takes place and on the first calendar day, you are given 3 potions to create for the competition. Competitions play out in the same fashion as the potion selling deck-building battles, except the difficulty is increased. Played out in a “Best 2 out of 3 Rounds” format, if your potion is of higher quality and value than the opponent, you win that round automatically. If it is not, you will enter a deck-building battle and have to haggle the price up in order to win the competition.


As far as negatives go, this is not an easy game. Completion took 13 hours and 45 minutes according to my in-game save file, but my Steam profile has an 18 hour and 50 minute playtime due to me having to restart the game after a pre-update, difficult first competition boss battle. It may seem more chill with the colorful, cutesy graphics and orchestral musical score, but the time limit aspect along with the high difficulty at the start of the game means a lot of planning, time management, and attention to detail is needed when playing Potionomics. Stress is also a factor that comes into play during battles, where some customers and even competition bosses will debuff Sylvia and decrease her chances of raising interest when selling potions. Things do get much more manageable after the first two competitions as some updates have ironed out a few issues, but the management aspect still requires attention. Potionomics looks gorgeous visually and even runs perfectly fine, though some of the animations could have been smoother. Dialogue is great as are the Disney-looking cutscenes, but with everything being through text, I kept wishing there were actual voices like most modern-day visual novels. Once you complete the game, there is no New Game+ or option to continue playing. The only option is to start a new game or load a previous save. Fortunately, the game autosaves after every day, making it easy to jump back in at any point in game time. That last point could change in a future patch or update, but this still stands.


Potionomics is a great, unique hybrid of games that is worth playing for anyone wanting a different spin on visual novels, deckbuilding and potion/alchemy brewing.

Microsoft's premier racing/driving game franchise on the Xbox One. That's not to say other racers available on the Xbox aren't great, but Forza Horizon 4 is definitely something special.

The Horizon line of Forza games can best be described as a lite hybrid of Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham Racing and Test Drive Unlimited. Take the car selection of Forza with more casual driving physics, Project Gotham Racing's kudos style system for skill points, and Test Drive Unlimited's open world style and avatar system, and you have the DNA for Forza Horizon. Over hundreds of cars are available from real life manufacturers that can be customized, upgraded, downgraded and tuned to anyone's preference.

Story is barely existent in Horizon. It is there in the sense that you arrive at a festival and compete in various races, stunts, championships and other events, but there isn't a consistent narrative you'd find like in the Need for Speed games.

Seasons are the gimmick in this 4th installment in the Forza Horizon line. Every several days (in real actual time), the map will cycle from one of four actual seasons. Nice touch being able to drive in the shining summer, fall autumn or snowy winter. Though, as fun as it was driving in the snow, it can be a bit of a pain trying to complete certain stunts and challenges due to the different terrain.

Tons of events exist in a fictional wide open world set in Great Britain including but not limited to: street races, dirt races, cross country races, speed zone stunts, jump stunts, speed trap stunts, drift zone stunts, championships, etc. Stories even occasionally pop up which are their set of own missions that can act as drift challenges, time trials, taxi missions, and so on. The game can be tailored to your liking at any time and right before a race with several difficulties to set the driver difficulty from New Racer, to several settings in between, all the way up to Unbeatable for the customizable challenge. Like the Forza Motorsport games, several driving assists even exist that can be turned on and off if you prefer more arcade style, assisted or simulation handling.

I really can't think of any huge negatives Forza Horizon 4 has. It would be a nice addition of cars could be customized to have Nitrous, which was a fun feature that the Forza Horizon 2 Fast and Furious standalone game had. I was not a fan of wheelspins having cosmetic items that you can use to customize the look of your driver. I admit, it is a cool feature that does add some personality and feels like an evolution of Test Drive Unlimited, but I barely touched the drivatar customization aspect. Many people have complained that the game doesn't have real progression as the game hands out cars like candy. I love this laid back casual aspect, but can understand the handholdy complaints of winning a Lamborghini from a wheelspin after only playing the game for two hours.

Forza Horizon 4 (or really any previous entry) is something I would recommend to anyone who loves racing and driving games, no matter the the skill level. It isn't really a game you complete or beat as there is no ending, but with over 80 hours of game time, Forza Horizon 4 is a game that stays in my currently playing lineup. It's casual enough to pick up and play, yet serious enough to really dive into and play for long sessions.

Mix Jet Set Radio’s grinding and movement, Crackdown’s jumping and verticality, a grungy apocalyptic Saints Row with self-aware story elements, and you get Sunset Overdrive. I originally played this game on my Xbox One in 2015, but stopped playing it due to a number of reasons. Now, I have finished the PC Game Pass version.

I can’t comment much on Sunset Overdrive’s story. It begins with a cutscene showing your created character working as a janitor at a pre-release concert party for Fizzco’s new energy drink “Overcharge.” Things get out of hand when everyone who consumes this new drink gets turned into mutants, causing mayhem and a near apocalypse in the city. Plot doesn’t seem consistent and feels disjointed throughout the game, though the dialogue is slightly enjoyable with self-aware humor that knows it is a video game.

Structure is quite different. Although it has the formula of an open world, third-person shooter, some gameplay elements are different. No driveable vehicles, pedestrians, cops or wanted levels exist. You’ll spend your time zip-lining, air-dashing, grinding, wall-running, bouncing atop buildings, vehicles and structures to traverse through Sunset City. No cover system means heavy emphasis is placed on always moving. Collectibles are scattered throughout the map, which feel fun to collect and never a chore due to the fluid, fun traversal system. Money earned in game can be used to purchase character customization items from shops, while overcharge energy drinks are used to purchase collectible maps (revealing collectibles in certain regions), amps that are perks slotted into weapons, overdrives which are abilities that give you buffs and bonuses in combat. Instead of typical weapons, you'll gain access to several different weapons that shoot acid, freeze enemies, burn foes, stun enemies, and shield you among various other ones.

Character customization is more than very serviceable. Creating a male or female character (who is referred to as just “Player:” in cutscenes) gives no advanced options for face morphing outside of selecting different facial structure parts, preset faces, eye color, and hair. Clothing selection also isn't as robust as say Saints Row 3 or 4, but feels more along the lines of the Tony Hawk Underground games. Considering the zany theme of the game, lots of wacky clothing items exist to make an interesting character.

While the main missions are fun, these mostly consist of going to an area, killing a group of enemies, going to another area, defending against a wave of enemies, escorting someone or an item, and repeating the cycle. Side missions consist of the same structure. Thankfully, the engaging movement system does make the missions more enjoyable even if they can suffer from repetition at times. Challenges do exist in the form of different activities like dashing through rings, killing enemies in different ways, delivering bombs within a time limit, and collecting points or destroying as many items as possible in an allotted time. A few main missions in particular were very luck based, like the Pigeon burning mission which requires you to burn a high number of barely spawning pigeons in a short time limit. Annoying missions like these did not pop up frequently, but the few that came up in an already repetitive mission structure made me want some variety.

Sunset Overdrive is also a short game, clocking in around 10 hours and 15 minutes (according to my in-game play time after the credits rolled.) Your game time may vary depending on your completionist and side mission focus. I could have seen this being a negative during the time when the Xbox One didn't have many exclusives and longer games were on the rise. On the other hand, playing this game in 2022 when almost every game under the sun is a lengthy experience was a welcome change of pace.

Sunset Overdrive is definitely a game that not only deserves to be played, but is highly in need of a sequel!

Project CARS in name only. Project CARS 3 is much more arcade-style than its simulation predecessors. Not full-on arcade like Burnout or most Need for Speed titles, but closer to GRID and Need for Speed Shift.

The way of unlocking cars and leveling up basically kills all the fun of the game. Money is not earned from completing races, but by leveling up your profile with XP, which is earned from completing races and objectives within them. It takes so long to earn money, there's a high chance most players will get bored before even buying another new car. Worse, certain career events will lock you out of playing them if your vehicle isn't a specific class, All-Wheel Drive, a certain make, model, or year, etc. Prepare to sell your vehicle, compete in countless races to earn money for a new one, and repeat the cycle again just to get the vehicle you sold back.

Such a shame, as there are tons of Career Mode events and races, but everything is locked behind an insane grind. Graphics and visuals are fine. Not as good as Project CARS 1 or 2, but serviceable for an arcade racing game. The A.I. drivers are also not the best, and end up being easy to lap once you end up mastering the handling and gameplay.

On the positive side, all vehicles are unlocked for use in Quick Race modes, but isn't as fun due to the lack of progression with everything being unlocked.

To sum it up, this is basically Need for Speed Shift 3, but whereas Shift was a fun sim-cade racer series, Project CARS 3 is worse in almost every way imaginable.

Stylish, challenging, frustrating beat 'em up with an isometric Diablo camera perspective and a twin stick control scheme.

About 30 levels in, Midnight Fight Express has quite the fun, yet flawed gameplay. You can attack, grab enemies, parry/block, dodge roll, use and throw guns/weapons (speaking of weapons, these are scattered just about everywhere for your disposal).

40 Levels exist, taking anywhere from 2-5 or so minutes. Score is based off of several performance factors. Completing levels rewards money, which can be used to buy in-game items to customize and outfit your character, and even buy enemy/boss skins to further set the appearance of your character. A skill and upgrade tree also exists for further developing attack, defense, grab and other combat abilities. Upgrades and skills are quite basic and don't go as deep as other 3D beat 'em ups or hack-n-slash games. I'd even go as far to say the most of the skills lacked impact or any real advantage over the few that really mattered. For an indie title, customization is quite deep with a fair amount of options.

Since the game is played in an isometric 3D format, there is more freedom on movement instead of just walking left to right. But levels are linear for the most part. Secrets and unlockables can be found in levels as well. Combat is fun if quite simplistic, but can become quite challenging and even a bit button mashy as levels progress. A lot of dodge rolling and parrying is involved, especially in middle and later levels where some cheap difficulty spikes occur. You'll be swarmed by enemies, some of which have weapons and attacks capable of either taking chunks of your health or one-hit-killing you, making sections require you to die an annoying amount of deaths before you get lucky enough to pass them. In this case, the game at several points ends up revolving around luck rather than your skill. This was all under my Normal mode difficulty playthrough, which is the default and easiest difficulty in the game. A few extra settings do exist to somewhat remedy this issue like setting your health higher and decreasing enemy aggressiveness, but it doesn't necessarily make the experience noticeably easier.

Achievements also exist, which is a very welcome addition for the Switch version seeing that most Switch games are void of achievements. With a statistics page, a best score/rank/time challenge for every level and different optional objectives per level (albeit difficult objectives), replayability and challenge is definitely there in Midnight Fight Express.

Graphics and Audio look and sound just fine. Visuals have a clean HD, 3D polygon style (like a PS1 or N64 game with full blown remade textures) and the music has an EDM techno, dubstep rock sound going on while bashing thugs up and down the various levels. No multiplayer or co-op is present. The only multiplayer aspect available are leaderboards for chasing after high scores. A training mode also exists to practice your skills against enemies with a decent amount of options available. Very smooth gameplay in handheld mode on Switch, with very few framerate drops at small instances.

Midnight Fight Express has the DNA and design of a well designed, creative 3D beat 'em up. However, the difficulty spikes that frequently pop up quite early in the game dragged down the enjoyment I had with this one. Have read that a patch has been deployed for the Steam version that has not made it's way to consoles yet. Unscored for now, but maybe when the patch released on Switch and I finish the final 10 levels, final thoughts may change.

Slap Them All! really does nothing new for the beat ‘em up genre. It doesn't add in any interesting gameplay elements like other competitors in its market such as Streets of Rage 4, Shredder's Revenge, and Mayhem Brawler.

Like typical side-scrolling brawler fashion, you have an attack button that can be combined into a blitz move (forward, forward + attack), an offensive/defensive desperation special attack, a block button and a grab button used for holding and throwing enemies.

With such a limited move set available at your disposal, Slap Them All! quickly becomes a boring slog. Variation between acts and missions (basically, levels and stages) is nonexistent outside of different backgrounds, meaning every level is a walk to the right defeating enemies until you reach a boss or end mob of enemies. Mobs of enemies swarm you on most sections of stages. Enemies and bosses do not have health bars, which causes the action to become even more tedious. It is true that different enemies exist, but the strategy for defeating them does not differ beyond just spamming the attack button. Rinse and repeat.

Graphics and presentation are extremely well done. Characters and animations are presented in that Asterix comic book style, and just ooze color and vibrance. Single panel comic style cutscenes between stages and after clearing certain sections of enemies on stages help to tell the story.

As far as co-op goes, I can't speak on that aspect as I did not have someone to play the game with, but the option is there. If you play solo, you can switch between Asterix and Obelix with a press of a button. Without any character attributes, health bars or extra moves, it was hard to tell if there was any real difference between the two playable characters (though I would just assume Asterix to be the weaker, faster one due to his small size, and Obelix as the larger one being slow but more powerful).

It's disappointing how boring and plain Asterix and Obelix: Slap Them All is, because it looks very gorgeous with its visual art style and comic-like presentation. The only reason I would recommend this game is for a young kid or as someone's first ever beat ‘em up. Even then, there are likely way better options available in those two situations.