Everything good from the first game is even better here and in far greater supply. More lightsaber stances, more lightsaber boss fights, more exploration, more customisation, more lore and more satisfying, kickass action in general.

Customisation is completely yoked here. I gave Cal the scrapper hair with full beard and realised I made him too hot. So then I gave him the Top Gun mustache and it made cutscenes hard to take seriously.
But my, does he look fly when it's paired with his pink poncho.

Props to Respawn for having fun with the player base by dropping in little memes and in joke references. Spawn of Oggdo was a nice surprise (nice is used very loosely here) Rick the Door Technician or the previously mentioned hot pink poncho.

You really feel like you're making a big change to Koboh for the better, making new friends, tidying the saloon, solving problems out on the frontier and defending it, it provides a true Jedi experience down to the bare bones.

And also, Cal and Merrin smooch, and I squeed so much.
Story as a whole I found interesting to an extent. They actually managed to do something cool with the High Republic era. There are some odd hiccups and weird choices, but it's overall another solid story of heavy themes and heartbreak, with tender emotional moments in the mix. Though not quite as refined as Fallen Order's story.

Random thoughts:
Rancors can eat shit, those unblockable grab moves are awful.
Loved seeing some Clankers again.
Blaster saber stance seems like a downgrade compared to standard single blade, but if you upgrade it a bit and stick with it, it's very satisfying to use.
So many hot women all over Koboh....Cal shoulda formed a harem, he has the rizz to spare.
Skoova.

Those holo matches were fun to begin, but when you start losing again and again to harder opponents....and the announcer guy won't shut the fuck up with his obnoxious ass voice....ooooohhhhhh I came close to snapping.
Luckily I figured out the best setup. Use the Skriton and place a Purge Trooper Commander behind him. If you don't have enough points for a Skriton, use a DT Sentry Droid. Basically, any large opponent with a PTC behind it will usually win you a round.

I don't have much more to say. Just another banger Star Wars game. Respawn can do no wrong. Here's hoping they go three for three with the next one.
Now to see whether Ubisoft can make a stand with Outlaws.



Btw, everyone said the Darth Vader boss fight was difficult, but I beat it in one go on Jedi Master difficulty, whereas I got stomped by Bode and Dagen Gera three times each in their final fights. Just saying, of all the main boss fights, he was way easier to beat, though that might be mainly down to Cere being more powerful than Cal.
Who's to say, really.

Well, 2K you lucky sum bitches. You've done it again. Another fucking solid WWE game.

It's like they're finally giving a shit about getting better every year now which I love. Everything great from last year is here with a lot of new epic stuff too.

And the added realism is so cool. Wrestlers ' face paints coming off during matches showing how goofy my CAW looks underneath is something I didn't know I needed.

Casket Match! YEP! Ambulance Match! AHHHH! Special Referee! FUCK YES! So glad we got Casket and Special Referee back. Just praying we get Buried Alive next year. And all three matches play great! I'm actually enjoying being a Special Referee online more than just wrestling. It's so much fun.

Showcase this year is....kinda wonky. I get why they did the 40 Years of WrestleMania but....not every WrestleMania is there. And it really suffers due to a lot of great wrestlers that were at WrestleMania are now in AEW and can't be in the game (Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, Edge just to name a few.) Seriously, guys. Make some sort of deal between the two companies to get these guys in future games. We miss them!

Also, the cut from gameplay to the actual match is kinda annoying this time. Mainly due to all the blurs in the archive footage. It really takes me out of it. Some of them being really unnecessary. Though I find it funny that Vince McMahon is blurred out in one cut-scene and yet is fully visible in another.

Yeah. Less said about him the better considering what's happened.

MyRise is fun again! Doesn't feel as gimmicky as the last year and feels more like a genuine storyline like Road to WrestleMania was in the Smackdown vs RAW series. I'm enjoying that so far.

Online however? It is so fucking broken. The servers are so laggy and getting a stable session is a real chore. Please fix it ASAP, 2K. Even Community Creations feels broken this year.

But overall, this game is fantastic. And it's another solid entry. 2K have outdone themselves over the last three years. Let's hope they keep this up for years to come. Wrestling games have never felt more enjoyable.

F for AEW Fight Forever. That game ain't doing so well.

Oh boy... this is going to be quite a disappointing review to have to make. Mortal Kombat 1, the little game that could've but so far definitely hasn't. When this game was announced I was most interested in how it's based around the new timeline created by Fire God Liu Kang at the end of MK11 Aftermath. I'm all about alternate interpretation stuff and 'what if' scenarios are especially interesting, the premise for this game seemed right up my alley! How is it? ...I already used the word disappointing. So that's probably a tell. Even more of a tell is how unmotivated I felt to actually make this review even after sitting down to start it (for reference this began around the time of Peacemaker's delay and is only NOW being picked back up after the Ermac trailer dropped!)

Beginning with some positives, I guess. I quite like the gameplay here even if it's not too hugely different from your typical Mortal Kombat approach, but the addition of Kameo fighters makes it feel that little extra bit fresher. Getting to mix-and-match fighter moves alongside Kameo options gives the game a huge level of versatility to it even if some characters naturally pair together much better than others. For someone like me who just enjoys having fun with the game rather than sweating over tiers, though, it's very enjoyable to hop-in with different combinations and find pairings that I enjoy most. Graphically, this game is pretty good although some of the character faces hit that 'uncanny valley' effect where they're realistic but something is quite obviously still off about them. But for the most part this game has some nice visuals, and I say 'for the most part' as it all blends together very nicely in motion but in stills and less action-packed moments you can see more of the cracks in the art-style. Nothing I'll deduct much credit for though. Last point of praise I'll give the game is the roster, which although divisive I'd say I like a fair amount of? You've got the must-haves alongside fan faves and obscurer 3D-era picks who haven't seen the light of day in years so there's a good amount of visual and characteristic variety, alongside just about everyone feeling distinct from one another in a good way. Combine this with the unique feels among the Kameos and you can pair most characters together in quite the satisfying manner.

And that's quite honestly all the positivity I can muster for this one because holy moly is the rest of this game a huge nothingburger. It's quite unfortunate as well how this game continued to the worst trend of the previous NRS-era games by having DLC announced prior to the game's release, not only offering a fan favorite as a pre-order incentive but having a full pass planned and announced before the game would come out. Except unlike previously, the DLC was announced quite ahead of schedule; with MKX at least (I'll be damned if I remember anything from MK11, I tapped-out during that gmae's pre-release) it was only around a month before the game launched. But with MK1, we knew about every upcoming DLC character/Kameo before we knew much about the game itself which I hopefully don't have to go into detail about why this is such a bad thing? This pursuit of financial greed extends to the in-game economy, or rather what may as well be a lack of it. This game is such a charmer that you not only have to grind for the funny fake currency that gets you fancy-looking skins, but said funny fake currency is actually not infinitely obtainable... unless you pony-up cash to buy more from the shop, for fucking real. But it's also announcer packs and even low-quality bonus fatalities! So unless you paid too much for the special editions that came with bonus currency or are willing to pay money for more after already dipping what was likely full-price on the base game, you have to manage your currency carefully like some broke ass college student. Whilst this is lucky for me- someone who doesn't give a hoot about skinconomies at all, nevermind in fighting games -the practice is undeniably shitty regardless. It's not targeting me and won't work on me but that's not even the point of it all, because the point here is that they seriously implemented this system to begin with. You can instead dip the shitty "free" currency into a gacha system to POSSIBLY unlock certain cosmetic rewards that way though, except most of the time you're more likely to get concept art for stage NPCs and other guff. So god forbid you have impulses related to gambling because this is really going to be a tough game to stomach, in fact I'll say right now that you should actively avoid this game if you know you're likely to fall for predatory microtransaction garbage like this.

The monetization is crap but that's only part of the game, sure. I'd debate it's problematic enough to be a bigger part of the game than most will admit though, between locking-behind story important characters as DLC (one of them is even day one DLC because NRS are that stupid) and forcing you to pay a considerable amount of money to get extra costumes in a full-price game. This is a practice that really makes Street Fighter 6 look flawless, except I can at least say that game (will get to covering it eventually... probably) had a good amount of base game content to chew on. Whilst that doesn't stop the microtransaction system from being needlessly greedy and a notable blight on an otherwise excellent title, there is at least a good amount of stuff in the game to do without paying for extra shit. MK1? We get "World Of Light at home", the very contentious Invasions mode. I'll be real, at first I didn't understand why this mode was getting lots of crap thrown its way because the introductory stage of Cage Mansion was a lot of fun! And then I completed it and was sent off to the actual 'season' of the mode and boy oh fucking BOY did it fall apart quickly. I already made the World Of Light comparison but it rings so true that it's kind of insulting to the original mode. World Of Light was never said to be anything like a huge adventure mode despite the theatric reveal trailer it got, whilst a lot of hype was placed on Invasions only for it to be "go and uppercut Lv.1 CPUs until you have to fight a boss who you will either cheese with items or get steamrolled by LOL repeat a few times". Invasions is where you get a third type of currency used to unlock temporarily available skins themed around the current 'season', each season itself being tied to a certain existing MK character and themed around them. This is, in theory, an awesome idea! ...but they put the bare minimum effort possible into the cosmetics for this mode, with some characters eating super well and others barely having anything worthwhile. You can unlock even more simple cosmetic shit through playing the mode but just like the ones you have to pay for, they're incredibly hit-or-miss and rarely worth anything (hence them dumping so many on you and leaving the more detailed things locked behind premium currency). This currency is actually given out at an insulting high rate too, to the point I had way more than I wanted or needed by complete accident! But if you want to actually finish a season of Invasions, it feels like a very sluggish grind that never really improves as they have continually removed ways of speeding-up the grind despite previously claiming "those are features". The best season so far has been the cryomancer season, because it bugged-out and let me unlock everything without playing the actual mode so I didn't have to do jack fucking shit.

But speaking of GRIND, I hope you love to GRIND because this game is full of GRIND. Gotta grind your account level to unlock Kameos, gotta grind each individual character level to unlock more recolours specific to them as well as some gear pieces, grind both to unlock banner pieces related to that character, then you also have to grind each Kameo to unlock their own cosmetics and banner pieces, oh and make sure you keep GRINDING those characters and Kameos to unlock the ability to read their fucking movelist in-game (not the ability to use those moves, just to see the inputs in-game). Grind, grind, grind, griiiiiiind... this game is one huge grind and does not respect your time as a player; it sees you as a payer instead, either sinking extra cash or all of your time into this bland, live-service game in hopes of you sticking around to enjoy what little content there actually is to play with. I think the breaking point of this grind for me came in two parts: Okay, so like most EXP systems the requirements go up the higher your level. Sure, fine, whatever, but this game really took that concept and ran with it way too much because the climb becomes very steep very quickly. So this incentivises swapping characters and Kameos around often, right? No, because eventually those characters will also reach the steep point in the grind leaving you at a bit of a stand-still. Whilst your reward for getting a character up to "mastery" is a small helping of premium currency (except none of the DLC characters do that because NRS can go fuck themselves) the grind did not feel worth it to me ONCE, as in I only did it once and didn't feel like doing it again after realizing I wasted my time playing Omni-Man since he wasn't hiding any magic crystals up his ass. If this was only half of my breaking point though, what was the other half? EXP is not gained in local matches. The grind is fucking terrible already and even when playing on a Discord call to have people to talk with I was finding myself quitting partway through to play something else instead, but I can't even progress ANY of this grindy shit whilst playing with my friends? Actually inept. Whilst this is, once again, a cosmetic structure I don't care for the idea that they disabled EXP gain for local matches is very stupid. Fighting games are best enjoyed with friends, the online play community for MK in particular is incredibly uninviting, but my options here are to grind the shitty solo modes or grind the online modes that I don't find fun. Yaaaaaaaayyyy...

I haven't even mentioned story mode and I'm surprisingly less angry about it than one might expect from my previous uses of strong words. The story mode is forgettable and disappointing despite having a cool idea. It just doesn't really do anything at all with what they decide to set-up, trying to force-in all the characters they can even when they have nothing much to do in the grand scheme of things. Leading to some very pathetic-looking matchups that make should-be strong, intimidating characters a problem to be theoretically circumvented. The writing is pretty buns but that's honestly to be expected at this point, it ain't like either of the previous games (nor Aftermath) were known for their stellar writing. Story mode is repetitive and just kind of 'there', but it's over very quickly and has a fun final chapter at least. I can't really go into any details without spoiling said final chapter's gimmick but it does add to the disappointment of Invasions, having all these extra NPCs they could be using instead of pitting me against the same few recoloured fighters and giving them generic names. Story mode is a mediocre one-and-done mode in the grand scheme of things which is far less offensive than being a painfully terrible grind, plus you at least get to unlock Havik for getting through it the first time. The final chapter once held some replay value during the game's early days when everyone was discovering how deep the chapter went, but nowadays it's all really well documented. Oh well, it's still a fun novelty to think back on.

I could complain a bit more about how the DLC Kameos eat so much better than the base game Kameos, but that short statement alone kind of speaks for itself; base game Kameos still have their uses but the DLC ones so far have had a LOT more put into them, making them far more appealing options. I only have a limited amount of DLC to-hand since I'm basically taking the scraps my brother has purchased. In fact he's kind of the only reason I have this game at all, I was about to skip out on it until both his girlfriend and our parents got him MK1 for his birthday. So I pretty much got a free game that day, and whenever he's bought DLC I've been able to get that through console sharing. Yet even as someone who has not only gotten this game for free, but also been able to enjoy the pre-order bonus for free AND been able to use some of the DLC characters and Kameos for free, I would not recommend this game in its current form. I would go further as to never recommend it in any form if you're especially vulnerable to predatory microsanction practices. MK1 is a game that had, maybe still has, a lot of potential and it's been squandered by what is most certainly a rush development cycle that has been made to instead focus on getting as much cash from players as possible. The worst part is I will still say that the DLC trailers they create all look super hype, the marketing team for these games always know how to push their products well but I am long past the point of buying into it. I'll happily take a fast-paced fighter with less single player content to grind out online rounds because the gameplay there is far more engaging and rewarding, whereas even with the reworks to the gameplay here MK1 is still not the kind of game I'll be playing by myself. Hell, I haven't even brought it out to play locally with friends since January. Perhaps in a few years when they've done all the expensive DLC and you can buy the game as a truly complete package for a couple of bucks, this is a game that'll be closer to something I can recommend getting. But unless you are an absolute Mortal Kombat diehard I don't think you'll get much from this one. Disappointing game turned into an experience ruined by the push for a live-service grind and emphasizing microtransactions, not that it comes as a huge surprise these days. Maybe I'll come back some day, though I currently don't even care enough to think about trying this game again.