The game is a love letter to Alice in wonderland. A girl gets sucked through a mirror and goes on a dangerous, action adventure through a wonderland inspired world with lots of boss fights and a cool art style. It’s a fun and quick game, good for newcomers or someone looking for a light game to playthrough.

🎮 For gameplay, you’re getting an action RPG of sorts where you hack and slash your way through enemies and earn XP and abilities along the way. Swinging your sword almost feels a little janky as you can stun lock most regular enemies just by spamming the attack button. I will say, despite this, it’s fun to have a game that feels old school in the sense that you aren’t animation locked when you attack. You can spam that sword as much as you want! You’ll also get a few abilities that you can use on your adventure and they’re actually pretty helpful… maybe too helpful?

🧀 There are lots of boss fights but most of them can be won the same cheesy way. You can run away from them, use your ice spell ability, maybe go in for a couple hits and repeat until done. Rarely are the boss fights configured any differently. There are a couple boss fights that add phases and change it up but not many. Run, ice spell, hit 2-3 times, repeat.

☝️ If you do find you’re having trouble, you could also grind out levels to easily destroy everything but it’s not really all that necessary as long as you remember to upgrade after boss fights and grabbing the heart emblems.

🎥 The worst part of the boss fights, and something grinding can’t help with, is you don’t have full control of the camera. You can swing it about 60% left and right but if most bosses get too close to the front of the stage where the camera is located, you can’t swing it around to see where the boss actually is. The boss basically disappears from view. Very Annoying! If you want to see the boss, you have to lure it away from the front and risk being hit because you can’t see where it is or what it’s doing. This was a very odd design decision.

🎨 The art style is unique as it’s a mix of voxel and regular 3d geometry. Most of the actual character models are voxel style but are plastered with vibrant colors and textures, giving the game a bright and fun feel. This might sound like a nitpick but the main girls face never seems to change and because of that, it’s a bit creepy. Also, she is wearing some jean shorts with pockets and the pockets stretch down as she runs and it looks very unnatural and strange. Because the camera is aimed behind her the whole time, this was hard to ignore.

😹 As far as characters go, the main girl is… a girl. The dialog from her is always so polite and milk toast that I found it unnecessary to read as there was no personality. Finn the white rabbit is really the closest you’ll get to a friend or a recurring character. There are a lot of strange and fun characters throughout the game but you don’t get to spend too much time with them, so it’s hard to form too much of a relationship with any of them. There’s also no voice acting, so it’s not like they’ll stand out with a unique voice either.

🏁 While there are a few annoyances within the game, I had a fun time with it. This game is really meant to just be a quick, throwback adventure that you don’t think too much about. If I had to guess, I probably spent 4-5 hours in it and I got all the achievements. I think if any longer though, then it might’ve overstayed it’s welcome.

The pink puff, or as most of us know him “The most powerful video game character of all time!” is back and he is in a new game! Actually, it’s a remake of a Wii release but either way, it’s more Kirby! I’m a fan of Kirby myself and I was looking forward to this game as I somehow missed out on the original release of Return to Dream Land.

😎 Return to Dream Land doesn’t necessarily do anything new or revolutionary but it does the Kirby formula well. You’ll enjoy 2d platforming in several different settings. You’ll float around and find fun secrets. You’ll suck up enemies to get cool abilities and you’ll fight bosses aplenty.

🤖 From what I understand there are a couple of new abilities that you can get from enemies, like the Robo Mech Suit (is that what it’s called?) where Kirby wears some, mech armor and can shoot bullets and mortar style projectiles. I thought this suit was super fun to use and was a good addition.

🤩 The whole time you’re playing, you are in a cute, vibrant and quite beautiful world. As easy as it may or may not be to remake a Wii game, they really made this game look nice.

➕ One of the other features of the game that I really liked were these super powerful abilities you get every so often from bigger enemies. For example, you might come across a powerful swordsman who then gives you a GIGANTIC sword when you absorb his ability. You’ll then use this huge sword on enemies and big ropes to get through the rest of the level. There are other super abilities too and they’re always a good time.

💫 Depending on how much you like Kirby, there is a lot of replay value here. There is a huge batch of mini games available that you can play single or multiplayer. There is a Boss Rush Mode too. There is also an extra mode where you can play through the game again but it's much more difficult.

✨ But the most exciting piece of content to play through after the main game is a brand new chapter they added in called Magolor Epilogue. I played through this and I didn’t care for it as much as the main game but it was still fun. You get to play as the villain from the main game as he tries to get himself together after what happened to him. You will play through many shorter levels and upgrade Magolor as you approach, what I would consider, the toughest boss in the game.

🤷Thought I had fun, I would’ve liked the ability to play as any of Kirby’s friends, like Waddle Dee or King Dedede but they only let you do this in the boss rush mode that you unlock when you complete the game. Odd.

😔 Something else I did want to point out is that Forgotten Land had only just come out about a year before this remake and it’s a shame that none of the advancements or updates from that game carried over or made an appearance here or at least in the Epilogue that was added. It would’ve been cool to have some parts of the epilogue in a 3D world.

🗈 Also, it was interesting to me that Nintendo choose to remake Return to Dream Land amongst all of the other Kirby games that are available. The cynical part of me wants to suggest that this was just an easy port for them to have ready to release from the Wii, but considering they did add a whole Epilogue to it, it’s much more than what they did with New Super Mario Bros Wii U Deluxe or whatever it was called.

👍Anyway, I would’ve liked a few other tweaks in this remake but overall, it’s another fun Kirby game you can play on the Switch, which is not a bad thing at all.

I've been a huge fan of Ratchet and Clank since the first game came out on PS2, so I may be a bit biased in my review. I will say that I haven't played the first game since the PS2 days, so I have no memory on the original story beats and what could be different in this remake, but my memories of how fun the series is has always stuck with me. I also had the joy of playing this remake on a PS5 with the 60 FPS update, which is the way I would recommend playing it -- and I DO recommend playing it.

😃 The graphics are beautiful. It's hard to believe that this came out in 2016 as playing it on PS5, this game looks better than many of the games coming out today. Of course, it does have the :3D Platforming cutesy aesthetic: but considering the varied look of all the different worlds you visit and all of the beautiful colors and effects that are used, the game can be quite stunning.

😃 The gameplay is just as fun as it ever was! This was one of the first games to successfully combine platforming with guns and it still holds up all these years later. There are many different types of enemies and a good variety of guns to take them out with (more on that in a second). Levels are paced in a such a way that they never outstay their welcome and they offer a lot of secrets to find and variety in missions. From gunfights, to hover board races, to rail grinding, to puzzles, to Dog Fighting in your ship, there is a lot to do!

🦄 What makes R&C truly unique though is the weapon system. You collect weapons, you can upgrade weapons simply by using them. Then you can upgrade them again with a certain rare collectable as each weapon has its own hex grid chart where you can buy spots on the chart that improve your weapon. Then in challenge mode, if you've collected the right cards through the game, you can upgrade the guns again to another more powerful version. It sounds like a lot, but once you see the system in action, it fits so well in the game that it feels like second nature.

😐 The story and writing are probably where the game suffers most. It's not even that it's bad, but it can be corny at times, even if that is what they're going for. I can see this turning some players off. However, the pacing of the story is perfect.

🔥 I hope they also get to updating Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal. For now I plan to play through the rest of Challenge Mode and then jump to Rift Apart very soon!

I decided to give this one a go before it was removed from Game Pass. While I liked the character designs and the art style, the game itself is sort of all over the place.

The game starts off pretty slow because there is a lot of story and dialog to get through first. And not all of it is interesting or felt worth the time. While the story is fine enough, the worst part of this truly is the dialog.

The twins are very annoying. There were several times in the game where I just rolled my eyes at what they were saying and when you have a ton of dialog in a game, that's not a good sign. I did not care about the twins in the least and, for me, they just became a vessel to experience the gameplay.

It takes a bit for this game to get you into the normal gameplay loop/flow of take on a dungeon, collect stuff, equip/sell/upgrade and do it again. But when it does, there is a pocket of this game that is really fun. Especially when they start introducing the abilities you can use. It's fun to see what they all do.

Also, the secret dungeon stuff is a highlight here. Finding goodies by chance just by heading into an area you haven't before was a joy.

While the overall beat-em-up gameplay is fun, it also wears out its welcome after a while. And when you get to the point where the combat is a bit boring and the dialog is annoying you, it's a bit of a slog to get through the last bit of it.

This one started off really strong but then I lost interest as it went on. The game is a strange mix of vibrant and kid friendly silliness mixed with adult issues and body horror. I'm not sure it meshes very well, but it's a very interesting game nonetheless.

You catch Bugsnax and basically talk to other vibrant muppet type characters (grumpus's I think it was?) and solve their issues. These issues have a wide range too. From anything like marriage woes to "OMG I want to get buff" to "I want to eat a Fryder, go get me one." It's kind of jarring going from solving relationship and communication issues between folks to then just grabbing a silly Bugsnak for them to eat.

Then on top of that, as you collect Bugsnax, you find out that it changes the way all these muppet people look. You can change their arms, hands, legs, feet, ears and eventually even their body. AND THEY LOOK HORRIFIC! Having a guy walk around with potato chip ears and a sushi body was just...ugh.

No spoilers but I feel like if I saw the final boss of this game when I was a kid, I would've had nightmares. It's like the cutest foody-hellraiser inspired enemy you'll ever see. YIKES!

Anyway, the reason it gets old after a while is because after a few hours, it feels like you're just going through the motions. Catch a Bugsnak, solve an issue, feed them, repeat.

Also, the dialog at times goes on and on and on and on and on. And it's not really clever, it just feels like talking for talkings sake some times.

I hate stealth games. Most of the time I find them tense, tedious and just unenjoyable. However, I played the first Plague Tale through because it was leaving Game Pass last year and a friend told me I should check it out. I'm so glad that I did because it was such a great experience!

Fast forward to Requiem and I had high hopes for it and it definitely delivered! The game basically takes everything that made the first game great and enhanced it.

Stealth areas are bigger. There are more enemy types. Huge scale puzzles. Bigger characters with a lot of depth and great voice work. Fun parts of exploration. And of course, SUPER OVER THE TOP RAT SEQUENCES! It's the whole package.

The story picks up where the first left off and it keeps building to so many huge moments. It's almost a sci-fi meets fantasy type story that I'm not sure I have experienced before.

This is a game though that is just down right oppressive. There is hardly any joy in it and I could only play a mission a night when I had the chance because some missions I would finish and just feel awful.

Now, I knocked off a star for this game because of the optimization. I started this game when it came out in 2022 on Game Pass. I downloaded it on my PC and I was able to enjoy the first couple of levels but then the real chugging/lagging began.

I refused to play this game at lower than 60 fps. Call me a snob, but I couldn't do it. I actually uninstalled it and waited till I got a new PC recently to play through it (I was already planning on getting a new PC anyway, so not a huge deal).

However, the point of all this is that this game is not very well optimized unless you have a master PC. It's 30 fps on Series X and PS5 and on older PCs, it's just below 60 no matter how much you fiddle with the settings. I even put them at their lowest potato settings and it was still hitting maybe 50.

Anyway, amazing game. It's oppressive at times. It's wonderous at times. It's gorgeous, even if that comes at the sacrifice of bad optimization. It made me cry. Full Rec from me.

I've been playing the 2D Sonic games since I was a kid with the Genesis and the Game Gear and I think Sonic Mania is the best of them all!

The game incorporates levels from all the past Genesis games and kind of does a "best of" mixed with a few new levels and worlds. You may start in a level and it all feels familiar but then it changes a bit from what you remember. You could say it's been remixed and that's kind of the theme in this game. It's everything you already love about the franchise but it's been remixed and improved. The levels, the moves, the characters, the enemies... everything you remember is here but it's either improved or made to a grander scale. All the while, it plays in glorious widescreen and looks gorgeous and colorful!

One of the stand out new worlds is Studiopolis Zone, which puts Sonic and crew into a movie/tv studio type setting, which, as odd as it sounds, seems to fit right in.

The game has also kept a lot of the music I like from the past games (which I still find myself humming now and then) and includes, you guessed it, remixed versions of them.

One critique I will give the game is that a couple of the bosses didn't seem to fit too well with the Sonic flow of things. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this game.

Just as a bonus, I wanted to point out how much I like the art style for the opening cinematic too. It's VERY 90s Sonic and that is all that matters.

I really hope we get a sequel to this soon!

I played this while it was on Game Pass. This remake really shows that a lot of what was created back when it was first released is still a lot of fun today. The silly dialog, the crazy devices, the destruction... it's just a ton of fun. Also, updated graphics that kind of make the game look like how we remember it!

There are still some areas of the game that feel a bit dated and janky though. When switching between devices and remembering what buttons do what in certain situations can be a little cumbersome when you're in a heated battle or trying your best to stealth through a section.

Otherwise, this one is a lot of fun!

I absolutely love this game. The Forza Horizon series has become my go-to racing series since Burnout stopped. I know many players have said that this isn't as good as previous entries in the series but I still love it and have spent a lot of time in this one.

The amount of events and extra activities to do in this game promises that you'll be here for a while if you're looking for racing plus other shenanigans.

I've technically completed it but I always jump back in for a little racing now and then. AND I'm still trying to get that Chicken Dinner win!

I played this on Game Pass before it was removed and I have to say, this game is kind of all over the place. While there are some overall interesting situations in the game (like the larping scenario for example) too much of the game is either unbelievable or unrelatable from a character perspective.

Why would this person do that? Why does no one care about that? Why would this person react this way in that situation? I was asking these questions a lot through the game.

I can take the unbelievable sci-fi super power stuff but the characters and overall story needed more work...