I have much in common with this game; I'm also not as good as Batman. Each of the four playable Batman sidekicks is remarkably less capable than their mentor. There's also no incentive to play as a particular character, so once you've picked one, you undoubtedly won't bother switching. Enemies become such massive damage sponges that I dropped the difficulty to Easy in the last chapter. It wouldn't be an issue if you engaged in the numerous copy-and-paste missions on the city map. While I believe that RPG elements make games more interesting, this was the exception to the rule.

Trading guns for magic, you play as one of the special few who can wield all three colours of the arcane. You are armed with Blue (a Rifle), Red (a Shotgun), and Green (a Machine Gun) to mow down your foes. The writing is fun, and the voice acting is good. Although, you might struggle to find a character you actually like, as they are all different shades of asshole. The game claims you can build your character to fit your playstyle, focusing on powering up one colour or evenly spreading your points across all three. However, it then throws you encounters that require specific colours to defeat enemies, spitting in the face of those claims. Sometimes, a game can simply be "good". They don't have to all be masterpieces.

Every fibre of my being wanted to love this, and in many ways, I do. However, I often felt weary of some aspects of the game. Some of the zones you travel to are very cumbersome, making it a pain to complete the numerous and dull side activities. That being said, the best parts were the linear parts that follow the main story, which hit unbelievably hard. The worst part of the whole thing is that it feels like no minigame idea was turned down. Some of which are mandatory, and some have weapons behind them. If you are a completionist like me, you'll have a rough time seeing everything the game offers.

Probably the best iteration in this long-standing series. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio never disappoints in delivering the perfect blend of seriousness and zaniness while showcasing some of the best visuals. Changing the location from Japan to Hawaii is a breath of fresh air, which goes a long way. The combat is much improved from the previous game, which raised the bar for turn-based RPGs. It's a shame they kept the mechanic of getting a game over if the main character is knocked out. The only downside is that I wasn't personally a fan of the main side activity. Still, none of that detracts from its overall quality. No one makes me smile as much as Ichiban Kasuga.

It has shades of the recent God of War games but is average in all aspects. The environments and enemies look amazing, but the overall graphical quality gives the impression that it's a few years older than it is. The combat is very satisfying, but the encounters continuously feel like an unfair assortment of vampiric creatures are thrown at you. Luckily, you are given a wide range of overpowered tools, fuelled with lightning and gunpowder, to dispatch them. Even if some of them take a few attempts to get through. Redfall wishes it was this good.

Unless you like your monster-catching games full of grind and devoid of heart and soul, I'd avoid Dragon Quest's attempt at Pokémon. However, they did manage to emulate Pokémon's recent frame rate drops and added their own awful voice acting and excessive loading screens. As for the creatures you'll be adding to your four-person squad, you'll change your members so regularly that it'll be hard to get attached to any of them. This is because monsters are separated into in-game tiers, with higher tiers eclipsing the lower ones in viability. This also has the horrible side effect that even if you find a creature you are fond of, you won't be able to keep it in your party for long. You know it's poorly planned when the default names of some monsters are longer than the character limit for names, causing them to cut off.

After playing the first game only a month prior, I was sceptical about all the accolades it received. At first, this didn't shift until a certain point in the game, when I experienced something that blew me away. There are two protagonists in the story, and after a moment, you can swap between them in safe areas with minimal impact on the story and each other. This is because they are in different locations, different planes of existence. Each character and their side of the story plays slightly differently, one more investigative and the other more puzzle-solving. Both were satisfying to play in their own way. The music and sound are top-tier, with killer music and music that sounds like something will kill you. While there are minor jump scares, it doesn't rely on them like most games in the genre. Instead, it makes you feel an overarching sense of dread as you navigate the dark areas armed with a gun and a flashlight.

Initially released in 1996, it's gotten a new lick of paint this year. It's excellent, albeit quite basic, but that's not surprising considering when it was first made. It's one of those situations where developers have built on this game's foundation. It's the same affair as the original, with Triple Attacks and Super Enemies added to spice things up. The Triple Attack is an Ultimate Attack unleashed once you've filled a meter, whose effect depends on your party composition. The Super Enemies are stronger enemy versions that sometimes appear in random encounters. This is an excellent way to break up the monotony. The game is definitely easy, but that's sometimes a good thing. It's a little strange having such cheerful battle music, though.

Most of the game takes place in Sotonbori, somewhere many series fans will know and love. With the events occurring within the same timeframe as Like a Dragon 7, it feels more like a proper ending for Kiryu than Yakuza 6. The game itself delivers the same over-the-top fights, side stories and mini-games galore. The side stories don't hit the same highs as previous instalments, though, and rather than encountering them throughout the city, they are dispensed by a central agent. At the end of the day, the games play fantastic, look fantastic and know how to give you an emotional gut punch that felt like it was delivered by Kiryu personally.

The creators of this were smoking and eating something, probably simultaneously. The gameplay is non-existent, with trivial platforming and constantly moving right, holding down the dedicated Shred button. What you are treated to, though, is an absolute deluge of sights and sounds. There are regular sections in the game where you must follow button prompts, but luckily, these don't require rhythmic timing. You never know what to expect or how everything will react to your sci-fi riffs from the space opera of your soul.