A Plague Tale: Innocence answers the hour old question of, “How good could a semi-historical fiction game about a sister and brother surviving a supernatural rat plague as they traverse famine-torn France be?” The answer is… surprisingly optimistic, much unlike the setting. Plague Tale is one of those story-driven, stealth-crafting hybrid games, and one of the better looking ones at that. And if there’s one thing to compliment about the game it’s its visuals. For a studio I’ve never heard of who’s claim to fame is gaming titans like Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, it’s extremely impressive how good the lighting, landscapes, and faces are here. The gothic architecture in particular was so darkly ethereal on its own, doubly so when overrun with mountains of plague-infected rats. Seeing how they would newly present those nasty forces of nature was a sight I never got tired of seeing, and rats or not rats I’m already excited to see how the sequel looks.

The same praises can be sung of the game’s combat and stealth. I went in expecting to tire of the whole babysitting dynamic they set up in the introduction section. So color me presently surprised when it was a quite inoffensive mechanic throughout. The crafting ingredients were well spaced out as well, by the end I had nearly every upgrade, or at least the ones that I wanted. Much like the visuals, the rats take center stage in this portion of the game, creating some neat light-based puzzle segments. Now even with the rats, the gameplay should be very familiar to anyone who’s played a puzzle game for more than five minutes, but I’ll be damned if it’s not entertaining. Especially with how weighty and supremely satisfying my trusty slingshot feels. The two main boss fights were fun with the upgrades to the traditional arsenal, but be careful when fighting the first one, there’s a glitch I encountered that forced me to restart the chapter. Just make sure when you summon the rats to only summon one mound before you move to the next one.

Regrettably, the game is not perfect. I won’t spoil the story here, but by far its weakest aspect is the characters. The brother-sister duo did a good job with portraying that dynamic, the supporting cast on the other hand felt very much like checking a box, with the exception of Lukas. I see what they were trying to do, making a merry-band of young adult misfits in a harsh world. Sadly the writing and characters weren't as fleshed out as the concept. The motivations, and definitely the payoffs, felt rushed and flat for me. Too many of the deaths felt unearned for me to feel their weight. That’s another thing I’m curious about how the sequel improves upon, seeing as it’s one of the few mediocre elements of an otherwise fantastic game.

While not without its negatives, I can see why Infamous is as… famous as it is. There’s some classic PS3-isms that’ll remind you of the era you’re in, but it comes off more charming than grating to me. Most of the time that is. On that same train of thought, let’s get the infamous out of the way before we talk about why it’s famous.

Infamous is one of the many games of its generation to try its hand at the karma system, and it’s not the greatest. To its credit but primarily its detriment, it’s very on the nose with its choices. The total lack of nuance makes it very obvious the moral path that you’re going down, yet it also prevents any hard-choices or depth of choice. When your options are as starkly different as kill hungry civilians or save a hospital, it becomes much too easy to make a choice. And even with how satisfying the combat system is, I can’t see an argument to play the game through twice. There’s really one unique ability per alignment, and it’s no game changer either way. I think an alignment system can be great but the entire infrastructure has to be built around it intelligently, which is not the case here. Granted this is really a half-gripe, because I don’t think it takes away that much from the main game, except in the sense that the resources put towards it could have been put elsewhere. Still worth noting though.

My other gripe is with the characters. Growing up and watching my older brother play this game, I never really picked up on how naggy, backstabby, or just downright annoying almost everyone is here. After actually playing completely through Cole was pretty much the only person I wasn’t pissed at by the end. But hey, I know Zeke is much more likable in the sequel so at least I have that to look forward to. My last and most major issue I have is with the NPC generation, both the civilians and enemies. There are way too many at any given moment, in the immersive and gameplay sense. A healthy mix of NPCs are necessary for a world to feel lived in, it’s just literally every corner in Infamous is filled to the brim with people, to the point where civilian death is nearly a guarantee with how stupidly they run right in front of you while trying to zap some bad guys. And I’m sorry but there are SO many bad guys just strewn throughout the quarantined hellhole that is Empire City, that after a while I just ignored them to travel to my next mission. Some regulation of NPC count would have made the world not feel so cluttered.

In terms of pure gameplay, infamous is very refined for its first outing. A diverse array of offensive options, traversal enhancers, and even a permanent electro-shield all made for a veritable playground at any firefight. The ultimate ability and nade-spamming one being my personal favorites to unleash on some poor unsuspecting fool. Kudos also to the electrical line and train-tracks traversal, each were very smart and rewarding methods of travel. Same goes for the parkour, which felt very Assassin’s Creed-y, if made infinitely more relaxed. If any building exists in Infamous, as long as it has even the smallest lip jutting out, you can climb it, and I respect that greatly.

Not just suited for function, the aesthetics, power-wise and cityscape wise, were tip-top here as well. Using nearby generators, cars, and antennas to siphon energy for grenade blasts and hands-zaps emphasized how utterly badass playing as a superhero in a superheroless world could be. Along with using sewer substations to make yourself a literal conduit the game was A+ at making you feel awesome. I won’t get into the story here, I’ll just say it does have a pretty major twist unveiled at the end. I’m not sure it was necessary, and many people despise the supposed bait-and-switch they pulled, but I was honestly fairly lukewarm on it. Definitely the most interesting part of the narrative, so I suppose I’m cool with it. It certainly sets up the next game to be truly epic. On a last note about the story, I absolutely love the comic art cinematics they used to cap off mission completions. It was probably for budget purposes, however the art was positively striking, and I can see why they made a comic series in the same style after the fact.

All that to say, Infamous is a fun time. As long as you’re keeping a brisk pace and you can be patient with the video-game equivalent of your slightly older, ever-so-slightly backwards cousin, you’ll have a good time here. And you should, because I think Infamous holds up well despite its flaws.

Let's start with the negatives, because there’s a refreshingly small amount in Fallen Order. Besides a single element of the story I felt was rushed, there’s only one major drawback to speak of: the technical issues. Even after playing years after the release and with a brand new RTX 4070 the game had some pretty major frame rate and render hiccups. Kasshykk especially was downright horrendous at times in areas of high detail foliage or large amounts of enemies. It never broke or crashed the game but it definitely took the winds out of my sails at times, with it undercutting tense scenes or would-be epic battles. Luckily It got better in the later portions and planets but was never fully gone. Which is a shame, because ignoring that the game is gorgeous, responsive, and has the best lightsaber combat I’ve experienced thus far.

On that topic, let’s talk more about the combat. I can definitely see some Dark Souls influences all over it, with some added force powers as a bonus. However, parrying in Fallen Order is far better than dodging when you can help it. And I know they expand on the moveset in the second game, yet even just with what’s here I’m as giddy as I was back when I used to swing a broom around the backyard pretending I was a Jedi. Of course by back then I mean yesterday, but nevermind that. Being able to force push into a lightsaber throw into force pull into a double-bladed wombo combo was peak badassery. With every game that offers multiple movesets I always try to incorporate a decent variety. Both to play the game as intended and to experience all that it offers. Some games are better designed for varied combat, and others you learn very quickly to only rely on the fundamentals. With Fallen Order it fell thankfully and completely into the first camp. It never discouraged trying out new methods, and I loved testing the limits with each new encounter. And that’s with playing on Jedi Master difficulty, which is no cake-walk by any means.

Still, I enjoy a good challenge, and mastering Sifu was more than adequate as a prerequisite to feel confident in that choice. Just like Sifu, parry timing is key in this game, and I am grateful to have long ago honed that. And honestly, after finishing Fallen Order I actually think Jedi Master should be the default difficulty for everyone but the greenest gamers. The hit speed and damage felt like it perfectly struck that sweet spot of requiring you to slightly improve your timing with every new enemy and making hits something to avoid rather than shrug off. The health system was not quite what I expected, even so I dig it. Like many parts of the game it’s very RPG-like. I was really hoping for an ability to regain some health on special takedowns, but the replenishable stims and respawning enemies system worked just fine on their own. For one it makes grinding a breeze if that suits your playstyle, though this game doesn’t really ask that of you, and I did just fine getting nearly every ability by the end without doing that. It’s also good practice if you feel less confident facing certain enemies and need to run a fight back.

Besides the timing quirks the only other element to get down is when to use the double-blade and when to lock on. The game helps you with the former dilemma by straight up telling you how to use it, though I would caveat that the double sided blade can also be good for single enemies when they have a fast recovery or hit speed. For the latter question, generally it’s best to lock on when all enemies can be seen on screen at once, or when there’s only one or two enemies to worry about. As a last note about the combat, I’ve heard a lot of disappointment that the game doesn’t offer more violence, as in no dismemberment, decapitations, or bisections. While it is a limiting factor and perhaps not the most realistic, I’m kind of indifferent to the idea. I wouldn’t protest some scarce limb and head removals, but I WOULD be outright against bisections in anything that’s not a dark-side focused title. Nevertheless, I’m perfectly content with just the scorch marks we were given to denote damage.

The story and its planet-hopping consequences were a great chance to see more of the galaxy in game form. Seeing Order 66, Dathomir, and Kashyyyk gave me a painful desire to see team Respawn do a hundred more planets and situations in their unique to Star Wars Metroidvania style. I also liked just about everyone, even if they fit a little snugly into their archetypal boxes. They all had succinct arcs, and even gave me some warm fuzzies by the end when they all became closer. Hey, I’ll admit I’m a hopeless sucker for found family dynamics when I care about the characters. My only complaint in that department is that Merrin joining the Mantis crew was way too rushed. Going from trying to kill you to becoming an eager flight companion was welcome if comically jarring. But whatever, I just need her and Cal to make some sweet Jedi Witch babies, stat.

Straddling the line that Fallen Order had to is far from enviable. It had to cover a well-documented and relatively common period of the galaxy while still adding new enemies, challenges, and important missions so as to make it distinct in its significance. At the same time it had to be self-contained enough so as not to step on the toes of the Original Trilogy. Despite those unique obstacles, I think the game nails the landing and offers a good excuse as to why Cal wasn’t leading the charge for the Rebel Alliance. He’s a strong fighter, but as can be seen with his encounter with Vader, he’s nowhere near ready to shoulder the responsibilities for the fate of the galaxy at this point, emotionally or physically. What a great subverted sequence that Vader one was by the way. I’m still not 100% sold on the idea of Inquisitors as a whole, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say they have drip for days and a presence that elevates the boss fights to a level near epic. If you have even a passing interest in Star Wars I would implore you to pick up this game when it goes on sale for dirt cheap, as it often does.

I’m gonna offer a bit of a different opinion on the franchise’s 2006 start. Having played this game many years after its initial release, I can plainly see some cracks in the facade that I think make it age worse than it could have. First let me preface, for the time this game was a milestone of gaming no doubt. The graphics and advanced cover system were the most fleshed out than previously seen in older games. My problems with the game are more apparent after the passage of time, when innovative graphics can no longer make up for other issues. Gears of War, as it exists today, is a fundamentally derivative game that offers some mild amusement from its gratuitous blood and bullets gameplay.

To begin, the story blows chunks. You don’t have to be an elitist to not care for the overplayed macho, grittycore aesthetic that permeates this game like year old milk. If anything that alone is perhaps the biggest marker of age for this game. It’s every apocalyptic military story ever told, just done infinitely more boring with characters I cringed at everytime they talked. There does exist a sweet spot between embarrassingly bad and charmingly stupid, it’s just this game gets nowhere near it. And it’s not to say I have a vendetta against the era of stupid action shooters of the mid and late 2000s. I used to terminally binge the Army of Two games on the PS3, and believe me when I say those were not getting any writing achievements.

I couldn’t find an ounce of humor, intrigue, or heart anywhere near Fenix and pals. All that matters is that you’re generic badass number 49028, you have a voice to rival pounded gravel, and are tasked with saving the world from aliens by planting bombs in a bunch of random places. All the while you have to babysit some goofball squad members freshly picked up from your local MW2 Lan party. Actually that makes it sound more fun than it is. It’s more like a squad of robots who were made to act like what they thought frat boys acted like. And babysit is the right word, because no matter the difficulty your squad mates insist on sharing a single brain, and will go down quicker than you can roll your eyes in annoyance. It’s like I’m back playing COD zombies with my younger cousin with how often I have to go pick them up.

Now despite my exaggerated frustration this is not an indictment on the game as a whole. I’ve dealt with more than my fair share of stinker stories. If I tune out the dialogue it’s really not so offensively bad. It’s digestible and provides the barebones pretext for why you’re blowing up everything in sight. What really matters here is the gameplay, everything else is more cosmetic than anything in a game like this. And I’m….. lukewarm on the combat.

The cover system is a lot like the general movement of the game. It has a very heavy weight to it. And it is most certainly not up for debate as to whether you’ll use it a lot. If you don’t liberally use cover you will go down startlingly quick, even on the easiest difficulty. Add on that every enemy is a bullet sponge and you’ll be spending most of your time playing whack-a-mole with the enemies as you go from cover to cover. As bad as that sounds It only really becomes a slog when you die and have to do a section all over again. Still, for such an emphasized mechanic I wish they touched up the cover system a little more before calling it a day. For one thing a way to go around a corner in cover without leaving it would have been welcome.

Oddly enough, the very idea of such a heavily emphasized cover system goes a bit against the design philosophy of the rest of the game if you ask me. We’re these roided badasses and we have to constantly hide and take potshots? Screw that, give me some dynamite and a minigun and let me go ham. But hey, It’s a novel gimmick and the deepest use of it I’ve seen so far, so I won’t complain too much. Heck, I even started to kind of dig the cover system when I wasn’t being shot at from thirty different directions. It just takes a bit to get used to the heft of your character. The bosses are okay, but I hated the vehicle sections. Unneeded and unpolished vehicle sections are something that ought to be left in the past. I mean who creates a vehicle that can only power driving OR the light turret? Bad engineers, that's who.

To recap, Gears of War’s story, world, and characters were enormously lame while its gameplay and cover system grew on me ever so slightly. Sure, I still wish the cover wasn’t so pivotal or momentum breaking at times, but I can be more forgiving for the first entry in the franchise. For 2006 this is a great looking action title that no doubt influenced a great deal of games in its wake. While I find it hard to believe anyone can utterly adore this game and not be drowning in nostalgia, I’ll give respect where it’s earned.

The first point-and-click mobile game I’ve picked up, Paper Bride is a Chinese horror-puzzle title with five distinct acts. The main premise is that it’s your wedding day when suddenly things go awry. Your wife-to-be suddenly disappears and you are soon stalked by a woman in white identical to her, along with paper people that look lifelike. Your job is to figure out what’s going on by examining your bride’s mysterious family history and to save her from the malevolent powers afoot. First things first, for being a translation the game’s dialogue is respectably clear. There’s some spotty grammar here and there, yet on the whole it’s coherent in its narrative and never felt superfluous in its exposition. Which is thankful, as good luck finding a summary of the game online. The story was even a little sweet once you got the whole picture of the situation.

In terms of the ratio of intuitive to confounding, I’d say Paper Bride sits comfortably in the 3:1 ratio on that front. Most of the traditional puzzles like lock combinations and clock configurations were run-of-the-mill and quaint. The latter ratio figure mostly consisted of some semi-complex crafting tasks, some of which had some very specific orderings. Unsurprisingly and not unwelcomely, this free-to-play puzzle game has a token system to give hints or to outright skip sections. I never skipped sections but I did employ the hints system at least a handful of times. Granted you can always use the tried and true method of randomly clicking on the screen, but be careful because the game will occasionally ding you for pressing on a random spot every now and then. And if you do that more than 5 times you’ll need to purchase or earn more “energy”.

This is the only part of the game I would call downright predatory, as it pretty much forces you to watch an ad or purchase tokens to continue at some point. Whatever, I was fine with spending a dollar or two to make sure I wasn’t too inundated with ads. Still, I will say the random ad breaks during the later chapters of the game started to border on annoying, but If you can muster up a chunk of patience, Paper Brides is a reasonable choice of vice for a few hours, replete with some creepy ambient chimes to give you that nice oxymoronic feeling of cozy dread. Plus I can’t say I didn’t learn a thing or two about Taoism from its story.

The black sheep of the 2D super Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros 2 does a lot right, and some that I don’t mind falling to the wayside forever. For one thing, you now have four different characters to choose from for every level. There’s Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, each with a trait that sets them apart. Mario is your standard fair with no special ability, Luigi is a fluttery fellow with a high jump, Toad is quick as picking things up but has a low jump, and the princess can float horizontally across short distances at the cost of a slow item pickup time. I really like this character selection idea, and question why it took them so long to see a return of this mechanic much later. Naturally, some characters are better suited for certain tasks than others. As a general rule Toadstool and Toad are probably your best bet in most instances, but I love the ability to switch things up, and you’re never screwed by accidentally picking a certain character for any level. Which is good because you don’t really know who’s the best for the level until you play it.

The boss fights are a huge step up from the first game. Each world’s first and penultimate level has a Birdo boss fight that’s actually quite similar to the Bowser fights in the original, just more interesting. Instead of reaching an ax at the back you’re made to catch her eggs and throw them back at her. Like the Bowser fights they can get repetitive, but every fight adds some new modifier to slightly change the encounter, like added fireballs, platforms, or limited items.

The last level of each world has unique boss fights with timeless classics like Mouser, Fryguy, and Clawglip (that can’t possibly be the intended spelling), all never to be seen again. All the fights are throwing based and pretty simple, but a measurable step up from the first game in flavor and strategy. And I’ll forgive them for reusing Mouser for two fights, as he is quite the charismatic mouse and a relic of the game’s original roots, which we’ll talk about soon. The final boss is Wart, a fat frog and the villain of Subcon, the dream-world that the game takes place in. He’s also the only boss I had real trouble with. Having to time the vegetable catching and hitting him 6 times required more than a couple restarts on my part.

To speak more broadly, the source of Super Mario Bros 2’s wild divergence from the first game and the reason many of its mechanics didn’t stick is because of it being a port of another game, Doki Doki Panic. Besides the main characters matching our beautiful Mario world, nearly every other aspect was lifted from the original Japanese game, including our beloved Mouser. The largest change in my opinion is the swap from defeating enemies by stomping on them to having to lift them and throw them at other enemies to kill them, or throw vegetables at them. It was a nice change of pace and once again something I think should have been polished in future titles. Having to pick up every enemy isn’t ideal, but a fusion of the mainline Mario stomp and throw would actually be the best scenario. Having certain enemies be felled by singular stomps while others require throwing either at them or with them would make for some nice variety in such a basic formula.

You also have a health meter instead of a single hitpoint when not powered up by a mushroom in the first game, yet another change I like. The health doesn’t carry over from level to level, but finding health upgrades is so much more rewarding when you do. Of course I miss the iconic upgrades like the fireball and mushroom. For just a single game we can survive without them though. On the gamecrafting side again, I think retaining the powerups system and having health be tied to your reduced size form would be the best combination of the classic style with this new style. Contrarily, one thing I didn’t like was the infinitely respawning enemies. It made some sections downright annoying to get through. For the parts where it was necessary, like when you had to fly on a albatoss to get across gaps that’s fine. When you’re trying to take a breather and the shyguys continue popping out like popcorn it can get a little obnoxious. Not the end of the world but it made it apparent why having an actual health bar can be so clutch at times.

As a last note an underdog blessing for this game was the removal of the awful timer. I forgot to mention it in my review of the first game, but the timer they used in that one was NOT based on seconds, making you feel like you had more time than you really did. Not usually a problem, however certain levels had to be played pretty briskly to not die from running out of time. I’m super glad a timer was nowhere to be seen for this one, even if they added it right back in the next title. To be clear though my problem isn’t with having a timer, it’s just the fact that the timer usually feels unclear in how it’s ticking. If you assume it’s counting in seconds, which who doesn’t, you’re bound to go a lot slower then you could really get away with.

I can understand why Super Mario Bros 2 doesn’t appeal to everyone. The underlying cause for the game’s mechanic changes may not be original or important in retrospect, but I really believe that there was a lot to be learned from it. If anything, with how well the drastic differences from the mainline franchise actually work, this game shows that some tinkering with the template isn’t always sacrilege. Do I think this is the best 2D Mario? Definitely not. What I do think is that it’s a game unfairly maligned that should have been refined.

Coming from the minds of Klei Entertainment, who gave us the wonderful Don’t Starve games, I’m not sure how they could fumble the bag this hard when it comes to bringing everyone’s childhood fantasy of the floor is lava to life. Hot Lava is what you get when the powers that be decide we need another soulless platformer with half-baked concepts. You have grocery stores, arcades, schools, and houses to monkey-bar swing through, slide by, and jump on as you collect cards and finish races. I originally intended to 100% the game but before I got halfway through I realized I couldn’t. Conceptually the game does everything right, it’s when you get into the details that its mediocrity starts to become apparent.

For one thing, you’re restricted to choosing only one special jump ability at a time. Why? I cannot fathom why. Even with the jetpack and pogo stick levels this game is extremely short-lived in how much it will entertain you. This game needs about three times as many abilities as it has, because a jump and a swing just doesn’t cut it when you get past the intro world. The easiest one that trivializes a lot is probably the double jump, but they all have their niches. It doesn’t matter though because only one ability at a time for you mister. Can’t be getting too crazy with it. It’s like the lay-up was right there for them. Just add a little more. They didn’t even change the worlds themselves to include new platforming challenges. The settings change yet the set pieces remain the same, making it feel real samey after a too-short time.

This is another one of those customize your character and earn little trinkets kind of game. A choice I question when again, this game does little to refine platforming past the year 2000. I legitimately wonder how anyone could get sucked into this game to be invested enough to try to complete their passes. If I were a little kid again I think I would just prefer to stick to real life fantasies. There might not be a double jump in real life, but I can promise you there’s so much more challenge and excitement there than this game could ever bring. Hopefully Hot Lava doesn’t stop us from one day getting a real contender for best new platformer using the novel concept it’s based on. I know I’m being harsher than it deserves, it’s just this game is almost comically boring and safe.

Fall Guys is a A+ party game with just three inputs: move forward, jump, and grab. It’s like a massive Wipeout circuit if it were populated by silly little bean guys, all dialed up to 11 with how colorful and playful it is. In competing to win first place there’s Race, Survival, Hunt, and Final level types, with Final usually just being a smaller race or survival variant. With how many different levels and participants in any given match there are, it’s clear to see where Fall Guys' strengths are in the elimination style gameplay. But as someone who has played the game off-and-on for over a year I’m not sure why they retire so many levels.

The strength of Fall Guys is having a simple base that literally anyone could play with the low challenge barrier, with variety and fun being provided by the large number of slightly different maps there are and the endorphin release of surviving another elimination wave. If you look it up though you can see how many maps have been retired. I would assume it's because of seasonal events and whatnot, but if you ask me they should really look into re-adding some. It helps keep it fresh when the RNG decides to give you the same 3 different maps back to back in a single session. And I know this is unpopular, but I kind of miss the Team mode. I realize it’s frustrating when your team is not up to snuff. I’d reckon that’s a part of the excitement of random chance. Sometimes you get a good team, sometimes you don’t. Rarely is it a single player’s fault for failure. Besides, Fall Guys is way too casual to take seriously.

It also has a really aggressive battle-pass/monetization system a la Fortnite. There are SO MANY licensed skins, title cards, and nameplates. If the game clicks for you it’s easy to see how that would be appealing when a license you like comes around. For me, it’s a fun game to pick up for half an hour every so often when I have a little time to kill and don’t want to be overly challenged or invested for too long. So that kind of system would never woo me, but your mileage may vary. Also like Fortnite, the game has a very active and constantly updating system with seasonal modes, events, and challenges, giving you an extra push just to see what they got every few months. And credit where credits due, they usually nail the seasonal aesthetic they’re going for.

They also added a course creator that I only tinkered with for about 5 minutes just to see what it’s about, and it’s thoroughly fleshed out. I can see someone really going to town with how much they let you play behind the curtain here. Hopefully they still maintain their own steady rhythm of new content to bite into, but maybe some oh so tiny modification to existing modes and RNG would help tenfold. I know it’s the easiest mode to make, but perhaps taking some of the Race match spots should be another equally straightforward mode, or even a carve-out for legacy courses. Fall Guys is a legitimately entertaining game scientifically crafted to thrive in casual play, Co-op or alone. While you’re unlikely to become a hardcore Fall Guy guy, it’s a terrific game to add to the rotation when you need something to palate cleanse or just vibe to.

A game made in the heart of the seventh generation’s life, Dead Rising 2 takes many notes from the first title in the franchise. In place of a small-town homely mall you’re instead given a much larger and more adult gambling haven to traipse around in. I’ll admit some bias on my part, as I played this game extensively growing up, but I have so many memories playing this over and over, finding hidden secrets or new things to do. Right off the bat you’ll notice it’s full of minigames, taking after its Las Vegas inspirations. Some are luck-based, and others dependent on QTEs. They’re all worth at least one try, and in totality, they mark a lighter direction for the franchise.

The first game had plenty of more silly moments and gags, but Dead Rising 2 takes that to a new level. The story is still as serious as it can be, it’s everything else around it that has a newly donned coat of parody. There’s a lot of silliness in the game, in both slapstick and adult humor. I think it straddles the line in a fun way, but I can understand it’s not for everybody. It's very B-movie in its presentation, replete with some really creative and out-there psychopath boss fights. Maybe this is the nostalgia talking but I really liked this spin, even if it’s as crazy as the franchise gets in terms of visual design and ratio of humor to horror. In all my life I’ve probably played this game around 8 or 9 times. And a big reason for that is another staple that was first introduced in Dead Rising 2, that being combo weapons.

These extra XP yielding weapons allow you to unleash some potential in some items that you would otherwise never pick up or use beyond once out of novelty. Combining two distinct items either marked by combo cards or found through traditional discovery gives you an amped up weapon that is either badass or utterly silly, but all a joy to find and melt zombies with. Add on the unique weapons you’ll find throughout the mall and there’s no shortage of carnage to be sown. You even have a sweet Humvee to go joyriding down the strip in. As I said before, the basic structure of the first game, with timed missions, rescue tasks, and boss fights remains the same. A relief, as this game proves that formula provides a wonderful foundation. While the timed missions do make it very hard to complete every mission in time, it’s such an important piece of adding urgency and giving Dead Rising an edge to it’s sheen. The rescue missions aren’t the most exciting missions in the world, but I had little trouble escorting people back with the generous health and run speed they typically give the other survivors, and that sweet boost of XP made sure I kept it up.

Solidifying its status as the first game on acid, Dead Rising 2 also gives us a Terror is Reality mode on top of the main game. Your main guy Chuck Greene is a contestant on the TIR show, which involves racing against others to kill the most zombies to win cash, both in-universe and in-game. The intro to the game has you compete in such a race. Beyond that there’s another outside of story option that lets you compete against other players to win cash you can use in the main game. Truth be told it’s better than it has any right to be, and can be a good source of distraction if the main entertainment starts to wear on you. On the main game, let's talk about the story briefly before I wrap this up.

The story was …ok. Chuck Greene is stiffer than I remember him being, but his relationship with his daughter partly makes up for that. I’ll never stop snickering like a child when he rattles off the stupidest puns known to man after offing some crazy. Perhaps a bit more playfulness like that or some more distinct traits for Chuck would have been a good idea. I say this liking the guy more than most, as I have a bit of a soft spot for him. The actual chronology and events are pretty cool, if a tad derivative of the first game in the later half. After playing Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, an alternative version of the game with Frank at the helm instead, I kind of wish they took most of the elements from Off the Record’s story, sans comically evil Stacey. But that might just be my fondness for Rebecca shining through.

Overall Dead Rising 2 is a much lighter stepping stone in the franchise’s catalog, and I think it makes the most of that fact. Be it with a friend in the Co-op mode or on your lonesome journeying out on the zombified strip, the game is a real boon for those that want options and a sandbox to thrive in. Not only is it a great action title, it’s an essential for those that love zombie games.

My Friend Pedro reminds me of a lot of early 2010s flash games, just with a lot more polish and a good bit more meat to it. It’s got some platforming, some solid Adult Swim humor, and a healthy scoop of Max Payne-esque shooting, only in a 2D plane now. And I’ve got to say, it’s a better time than I expected. Each of the 40 levels is around 5 mins or less, perfect for short gaming sessions. Along with regularly introduced guns and platforming mechanics like levers and lasers, it helped the game from becoming stale. Though not wildly differing I liked to switch up my choice of weapon now and again, aided by a healthy share of ammo the game offers.

It’s pretty easy on normal difficulty. You almost have to try to die unless you never use your dodge or slow motion, though higher difficulties offer a healthy dose of challenge for those who want it. Plus if your aim isn’t horrible you can pretty much use slow motion permanently as long as there’s an enemy around to shoot. Speaking of, the spotlight of My Friend Pedro is how fun the movement combined with the slow motion is here. It has its derpy moments, but by and large the movement is very reactive and smooth.

The slow motion front flips, akimbo rope descents, and hilarious monkey-ball method of rolling around were a great mix of funny and cool. Skateboards, frying pans, and explosive barrels were there to break up monotony as well. I’ve heard others criticize the game for being too repetitive or basic; I respectfully can’t disagree more. Sure, it’s not winning any GOTY awards, but successfully combining an irreverent flying banana razzing you while you channel your inner action hero is more than I would’ve expected from a small pick-up-and-play game. There’s no million different methods to beat the game, except it was never advertised as such. Maybe it’s because I didn’t marathon it that I didn’t ever feel like it was dragging. I went into it lukewarm thinking the premise would expire before the game did, but I’m happy to report that was not the case. My Friend Pedro adheres to the “what you see is what you get” adage. And speaking personally, I’m quite happy with what I got.

A fantastic rogue-like card-builder with elements of mystery, nostalgia, dark comedy, and an ever present undertone of unease. I’ll mirror what everyone else who’s played Inscryption says and recommend that you go into this game blind. Knowing as little as possible makes every twist that much sweeter. That out of the way, let's get into some mild spoilers if you’re not convinced yet and give a general overview of the game.

The game is spread into three distinct acts. They all feature the basic structure of a 1 vs 1 card game but implement unique mechanics and art styles. The first act very much reminded me of a Jumanji/D&D/Yugioh mashup, where you traverse a game board at the behest of gamemaster Leshy, choosing paths and facing off against bosses as you do your best to learn the mechanics and build the best deck you can. This is the absolute peak of Inscryption for me. Listening to an immersed narrator guide you through your meta expedition with both humor and unease in equal parts is a truly fun experience. It helps that the card game is addictive and easy to grasp. While initially challenging, I began to like how the restrictive spaces really force you to maximize where you can in strategy and deck. Each gamemaster’s gimmick was fun to learn and they weaved them together very well, with multiple cards working best in a hybrid deck. Which becomes more prominent later in the game.

In both the first and third act you’re able to get up from the table and explore the room. It’s here where you’ll also be introduced to the wider narrative. Talking cards and secrets throughout the cabin are the first hints that there’s something more than an overly-passionate gamemaster to be understood here. Along with the captivating, retro glitchcore music scored by Jonah Senzel I felt super invested in learning more. You’ll most certainly fail a few times before you really get the hang of the game, but each run you do a bit better. Helped by the introduction of death cards, a way to create a custom powerful card to help you stack the deck in your favor. If you really know what you’re doing and with a little bit of luck you can even create the optimal deck by stacking sigil effects to build an infinitely recycling card with stacking damage. Which can be oh so satisfying when all the pieces fall into your lap.

If you’re still undecided, just a word of warning, I’m now going to get into some major spoilers. Soon after the first act you’ll find that you’re actually playing as Luke Carder, a youtuber and gamer that found the only known copy of Inscryption on a floppy disk, as revealed in short live action videos made to resemble candid found footage. And I've got to give props, the actor for Luke did really well at nailing the youtuber mannerisms, and the ARG itself was quite intriguing. I usually find them too cheesy to participate in but something about it clicked for me here. Plus Inscryption knew when to pull back the curtains and not show too much too quickly.

Talking about the separate acts, here’s where most people would say that the game falls off swiftly after the first act. I would fight against that notion though. What I will admit is that the first part is indeed the strongest, and my preferred art style for the game. The 2D old-school look was cool in the second act, yet beyond making the retro connection just a little bit stronger I’m not sure it did too much here. Maybe if they changed up the gameplay a bit more, sort of like a more archaic version of the game, but it really was just the same thing on a more charming background. I still enjoyed it, I just would have preferred playing with the fuzzy PS3 era look that the first one had. It’s not like my suspension of disbelief would not have been broken by maintaining that. That said, props to the second act for trying a more traditional deck-building setup. It was a hoot to really experiment with what worked and what didn’t with little punishment for choosing wrong.

The third act is a return to form, just slightly modified. Instead of Leshy’s cabin you’re in P03’s factory, with dead and defunct replacing dreary and funky. I actually adored this section almost as much as the first one. The new traits like permanent progression, bounties, refilling items, an items store and 5 line combat make for a different enough time to warrant its existence. The one thing I will say is it did go on a little long, maybe a handful of encounters could have been cut here, especially seeing as a good chunk of them were very quick and very easy. Even that being so, Act 3 had the best boss fights of the game, only rivaled by that of Leshy’s fight in Act 1. I was always on the edge of my seat to see what they would throw at me next in the special encounters, and they never disappointed me on that.

For such a foreboding game it has quite the bittersweet end, with just a dash of WTF. While some parts of the game are better than others it never felt like a slog to get through. I really can’t recommend it enough. Even if you don’t love high-strategy card games, Inscryption will most certainly flip your perception of what an indie title can be using just some ambience and a few tabletop rules. Some added good news for those who wanted more like the first act: you can always play Kaycee’s Mod, an expansion based on that part of the game. But who knows, there’s a large chance you’ll love Inscryption as much as I did even without the expansion.

Ori starts off deceptively saccharine, borderline reminiscent of Up’s beginning scene. Giving a glimpse into the overarching theme of healing nature and restoring peace. A quaint enough premise. Make no mistake though, Ori and the Blind Forest can be a tough game. If you are set on playing it already I would strongly recommend sticking to the Definitive Edition of the game. Not only is the price hike not so painful after all these years but it gives some really nice QoL changes that I definitely noticed. Primarily, it adds a couple new abilities like a dash and the ability to teleport at spirit wells, which was a huge boon in saving time backtracking.

Beyond its flashy, mystical art style, there’s a few things they added to really differentiate Ori from the generic platformer crowd. For instance, saves are done through creating mystical orbs in the environment, which also act as a conduit to spend upgrade points. If you don’t have enough energy, you can't make a save point. It’s not as bad as it sounds, as this is circumvented by finding more energy cells so you’ll never realistically run out before you get more. It only becomes a nuisance when you forget to create one after a good while and ALL your progress has been undone. It’s not a particularly rare occurrence either. There’s no shortage of one-hit or half-health damaging obstacles. Just be mindful of unexplored areas and save liberally anytime you make a good chunk of progress.

With over 10 abilities and 7 main sections Ori is a good little Metroidvania with a lot of agency on how you get around. A lot of areas can be accessed in multiple different ways, both a blessing and a curse. The game has a great rhythm and I always found the necessary abilities naturally, but sometimes using them was easier said than done. A button remapping option would have been really welcome here, especially considering most of the 10 abilities only use three total buttons. Time significantly helped overcome muscle memory, but every now and again I would accidentally press the wrong button and get a different ability than I hoped for.

It’s your standard indie fanfare in terms of having a bubbly, sweet narrative. It starts strong and maintains a consistent tone, but Ori has what I like to call a frozen dinner quality of a story. It’s there, it’s simple, it’s just sorta shallow and not really filling. That might be a bit harsh, I think I’ve just seen this story too many times to be moved by it. That notwithstanding, the game really is extremely polished. If you can get used to the controls you can do some gnarly platforming tricks. Each main mission area uses puzzle gimmicks to their fullest extent and can get really fun with how it makes you think outside the box sometimes. While not without its twists and turns, Ori is very accessible and worthy of its praise. And one more positive about the Definitive Edition: you can always adjust the difficulty if you have too much trouble with the game.

I first heard about this game when the sequel was announced at the 2023 State of Play. To be honest I was surprised it flew under my radar at all. Maybe subconsciously my first impression before playing was that it seemed like yet another platformer game trying to reinvent the wheel. What caught my attention though was the combat, and motivated me to buy it during the steam summer sale. The first thing you learn is that Ghostrunner is a high octane bullet timing platformer where the focus is on how you secure the kill, letting you get creative with it. Everyone besides bosses are one-hit kills, including yourself. And with a well balanced checkpoint system this doesn’t cause too much frustration except on rare occasions. Of course I wouldn’t have balked had they made the player 2 hits, especially for the more cluttered areas. But no, I think it works for what they’re going for here. It makes it all the more satisfying once you get the hang of the movement and bullet timings and start slicing through enemies like butter.

Ghostrunner is very tight-knit, much like the tower you traverse throughout the game. Your main tools are your wall-running and your grappling hook to get to higher elevations, with more things like zip lines introduced later. By the way, this is a bit of a deep cut but does the grappling hook remind anyone of the electro-whip that the assassin class had in Lawbreakers, the failed Overwatch clone? Just me? Alright. In addition to that you have four main abilities on top of your basic slice such as an energy wave that shoots out horizontally or a wind pulse that kills enemies in close proximity. With around 17 or so levels the game is very good at keeping things feeling fresh with some levels very short and some a tad longer. You’re never stagnant, whether you’re unlocking a new ability, being introduced to a new parkour element, or enemies are gaining a new ability. There's always something for you to improve on and adapt to.

Being someone who likes to get a taste of everything I’m happy to say each skill has its place here and I really enjoyed being able to freely swap out abilities at any point for what the situation called for without being penalized. I would say it got repetitive if not for the stellar design that knew when to give you platforming and when to give you enemies. Any time you face a gauntlet of enemies you’ll be back to zipping around like a mad monkey right after. It’s really hard to say which one I preferred, they both have their moments of oh-so-sweet sweet endorphin releases. Besides normal platforming there’s also Cybervoid sections which consist of puzzles in a highly stylized digital world. They annoyed me at first but then started to grow on me after a while. They’re all very derivative of puzzles you’ve likely seen many times before, but still. They get the old noggin working and really shouldn’t be doing anything else.

There’s no traditional swordplay here. Your main move is just a simple slash, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling like a badass as you rely on auxiliary flourishes and listen to an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that I’m listening to right now as I review the game. If you get nothing from this review then at the very least go listen to the soundtrack as soon as you can. Daniel Deluxe really brought life to the already gorgeous visuals, be it in trippy Cybervoid or striking-neon Dharma Tower. I understand the game won’t appeal to those that expected more technical swordwork, but I’d really encourage those on the fence to give it a try when possible.

As the franchise that established foundational game design as we know it, it goes without saying that the original Super Mario Bros is paramount in permanently shaping the gaming landscape. I’d go so far to say that it was the bridge that gapped the distance between arcade ventures and modern home consoles, ushering the start of the multi-billion dollar video games industry. More on that at a later date. For now let’s focus on the actual game itself. By now mostly everyone should be familiar with the iconic Mario blueprint. What many people might not realize is how much of the franchise was established in the first game. Enemy types that would become mainstays like the Goombas and Koopas, powerups like the Fire Flower and Starman, and long-time mechanics like using flagstaffs to end levels.

The original Super Mario Bros is naturally a very pick-up-and-play game, being split up into 8 different worlds with 4 stages each. Along the way to save the Mushroom Kingdom Princess from Bowser you have to platform across basic structures, avoid projectiles, fight enemies, and gain powerups to boost your abilities and health. The four primary level types are underground, castle, underwater, and aboveground levels. Add in some warp pipes that let you skip certain stages and that’s really all there is to it. Not just owing to its age, Super Mario Bros is the fundamental distillation of what a platformer is. Part of what makes it so successful is the ability for anyone to jump in, understand, and have some fun with the decently challenging game. And don’t be fooled, it can be quite challenging.

This leads us to my one real gripe with the game. The limited lives is fine, but It feels like Mario is walking on ice the entire time. It’s way too hard to control for precise jumps or while you’re in the air at all. If you can somehow overcome that, the game is actually pretty easy otherwise. But man, I lost way too many lives by Mario getting a mind of his own and walking off the map. In light of that I’d advise you to just take it a bit slower than you would normally. It’s not a long game after all, don’t sweat taking your time with certain platform sections. Past that not much more can be said. The original Mario often gets overshadowed by future titles, and probably rightfully so. It’s an OG classic that holds up fantastically compared to its age, but beyond nostalgic or historic value there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done better or more in-depth in later games.