(Here is my original review of the game back when I played it on PS4: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Shamaboy11/review/923206/)

Having played so many great games this year and my honeymoon phase being gone. I was concerned that The Cosmic Shake would fall behind so hard, but having replayed the game fully with the recent native PS5 version this week.

I'm happy to say that the game outside of tedious 100% completion & the finale feeling so anticlimactic is still a delightful 3D platformer that is a love letter to the Spongebob franchise without feeling like a cash grab.

It's also nice to play this at smooth 60fps, fast loading times, and the photo mode while being basic was fun to use to take snapshots of my journey through the creative themes and did make the costumes feel a bit more rewarding to unlock.

Once again, if you are a Spongebob fan & look for a very fun 3D platformer. This is an easy recommendation especially costing at a budgeted price.

It feels great going back to the Yakuza series after I dived into it for the first time with Yakuza 0 last year and experiencing peak.

While Yakuza Kiwami doesn’t reach the same highs as Yakuza 0, I was still having mostly a delightful time outside of a few obnoxious boss fights, combat being restrictive at the beginning, and Dragon-style combat not being well implemented.

Aside from those complaints. The combat does start to click for me once I got a decent amount of upgrades, Reviting Kamurocho felt both familiar & fresh enough to not feel I'm going through the motions due to these entertaining sub-stories and implementation of Majima Everywhere.

However, the main thing that made the overall package worth experiencing was the story. Some of these moments either give me the biggest grin on my face or break my heart and playing Yakuza 0 first pays off in terms of making me care further for the cast of characters and the ones introduced in Kiwami are pretty great too for the most part.

I'm excited to see where this direction is gonna go and I'm overall happy to become further in love with this series now that I have played 2 games. I still have a long way to go, but I'm on board with it. So yeah, I strongly recommend Yakuza Kiwami.

Aside from uninspired boss fights and a troubling co-op camera. Super Mario Wonder is a big step forward for 2D Mario in the same way that Super Mario Galaxy or Odyssey was a big step forward for 3D Mario.

Mario games that are both tightly designed and oozing so much personality are very rare moments in this franchise that makes it extra special to me like Super Mario Galaxy, Yoshi’s Island, Paper Mario 64, or Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. I’m happy to say that Super Mario Wonder sits alongside these games due to the visuals that have so much personality whether its the characters being very expressive or detailed backgrounds that are so eye-candy to look at.

Fortunately, it is not just all style over substance because the level design & gameplay across the board are very engaging too due to the new power-ups or new roster of enemies that shake things up to feel fresh compared to the NSMB games, not to the main new attraction which is the Wonder Flowers that completely effects pretty much everything at your surroundings and that mechanic showcases how nearly everything in this game comes together so well with the visuals, level design, and music to create such an unforgettable experience.

If this is the future of 2D Mario, I’m so excited for it and I strongly recommend Super Mario Wonder!

At first glance, I thought Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was gonna be more of the same as the previous games when I first saw gameplay footage, but having fully 100% the game & getting the platinum trophy. I wasn’t prepared for how much of a transformation it is from previous games and its so many little improvements that I consistently noticed that it eventually morphs into a refined sequel that feels familiar but doesn’t sit on its ass and barely improves on anything like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (in my opinion).

Traversal movement feels so much faster than Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 that it looks like slow motion in comparison due to new moves like a slingshot, loop-de-loop, or corner tether which makes web swinging so satisfying to do, and web wing is also a nice addition that I was worried about outshining the web-swinging mechanics, but they thankfully balanced it because just using the web wing is so slow that I needed to use web-swinging mechanics if I want to main decent speed or flow. I can confidently say that this is my favorite traversal movement in any Spider-Man game.

The combat was something that I wasn’t anticipating to see such a big glow up. I love the combat flow in Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4, but everything else surrounding it such as the difficulty, enemy variety, or bosses was pretty easy or lacking even when the spectacles looked impressive. At first, I assumed Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was gonna do more of the same, but I was proven dead wrong. The combat is so much more aggressive with the difficulty ramping up, enemy variety is much better, boss fights feel like actual boss fights, and having the new parry mechanic has made me finally have to pay attention to what I’m doing instead of mashing buttons to win.

Lastly, the side activities feel so much more personal this time instead of feeling like I’m checking off a list. Don’t get me wrong, what you are doing is nothing mind-blowing, but each side mission as I dig through it becomes less about me getting the rewards and rather me wanting to see how each of the stories wraps up and most of them have a satisfying pay-off. I want to say as little as possible because they are so worth going through if you fall in love with Insomniac’s take on the Spider-Man universe in terms of the narrative & characters.

These 3 key pillars of the mechanics or content that I wanted to highlight have made me so happy that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 despite having a similar structure & familiar map is so much more fresh & refined compared to Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 or Miles Morales game than I was expecting when just looking at it. I didn’t even mention other things like much better pacing, non-Spiderman sections not making me depressed, or the skill tree being more rewarding to fill up.

The game isn’t perfect. Despite many improvements that I have noticed, the stealth unfortunately feels left behind because it is still so half-baked or pointless like the previous games. The new gadgets are just so lame compared to Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 & wall-crawling still feels so sluggish.

For the story, I’m mostly satisfied with it. However, I do feel most of the returning villains get shafted too quickly compared to the new ones appearing in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for the first time that do get enough screen time or dialogues for me to care about then when a big moment happens to then, it feels impactful to me. It isn’t as effective as when they pull the same card with returning villains except for one or two. I wouldn’t complain about this much if they already had a decent impact in Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4, but most of them didn’t and the sequel didn’t do anything to make me care about them this time.

Overall, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is an incredible experience that I wasn’t expecting to grab me this much since it looked more of the same at the surface level. I thought that luster would vanish for me eventually like I felt with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but Insomniac games have proven me wrong. I strongly recommend it if you want to play an engaging superhero game

Sonic Superstars is a game that I wish I could see the utter blandness that many other folks are experiencing with it right now, but something about this game is clicking for me during my experience, and came around to enjoying at the end of it despite the bosses not being very fun (though I’m not too surprised since I never found bosses in this franchise to be engaging) and a soundtrack that half the time sounds wonderful, other half sounding like coming back to Sonic 4. I’m saying all of this as someone who thinks Mania isn’t the second coming of Christ.

However, this game costing full price is just not acceptable. Even if I overall enjoyed it, it doesn’t deserve its premium price tag that you can surely spend on better experiences. Wait for a sale with this one if you aren’t a Sonic maniac.

Guacamelee years later still stands out in the seas that are the Metroidvania genre with integrating the platforming & combat so well and still evolve the challenge further as I unlock new abilities which the game pushes me to use in order to progress through the level design or boss fights, it makes the difficulty curve in this game as smooth as butters. Top it all with charming characters & stellar art direction, you have a game that I had a delightful time with.

It isn’t perfect though, I find the whole enemy shields thing to be obnoxious to deal with sometimes, especially when the game loves to make me fight wave after wave of enemies all at once. I also think the rewards are a mixed bag with purchasing cosmetics or leveling up my attack abilities being so underwhelming compared to finding pieces of stamina & heart or unlocking new abilities that the game makes me constantly use. My final minor gripe is the lack of enemy variety which makes combat just a little bit repetitive by the end of it.

Either way, these complaints are minor because I really had a wonderful time with Guacamelee and I strongly recommend it if you are looking for a decently challenging Metroidvania game.

Before the Final Horizon update comes out, I think now is a good time to talk about this game after I decided to replay it from scratch recently without any of the new game plus stuff this week.

With that being said, this game is the most fun I ever had with a janky game in recent memory. I can complain about how blatantly unpolished it is, the unacceptable pop-in, and the original finale being one of the most underwhelming climaxes in the entire series (please age poorly with the final update), etc.

I can easily see why people don’t vibe with this game at all. However, I can’t for the life of me because blazing through the open zone to collect or complete stuff at a consistent speed is such an addictive gameplay loop that I didn’t expect to enjoy so much, listening to an amazing soundtrack that tells it to own little story or tone, enjoying most of character interactions, and titan fights for as spectacle heavy as they are being franchise highlights.

This game despite how duct-taped together it feels reminded me why I love the Sonic franchise despite the bumpy roads it had to go through for god knows how long at this point I’m just not in the mood to spell it out. Regardless, Sonic Frontiers did enough for me personally to enjoy the overall package and it makes me optimistic for the future of the series.

Payday 3 at launch is like walking into a burger restaurant and instead of asking for the usual burger that they have improved & refined for years known as Payday 2, I wanna try the new burger that they just put on their menu recently which is Payday 3.

The chefs are getting it ready for me and after taking my first bite out of it. I’m stunned at how good it is & find it very delicious even if I’m sure that some sauces are missing known as smaller, but appropriate features from Payday 2.

Still, it doesn’t distract me enough from the fact that the new burger left me wanting to eat more of it. However, the waiter known as the server just grabs the new burger from my hands and throws it away, leaving me completely shocked and getting a bit mad. Now imagine this scenario but happening constantly and that is Payday 3 in a nutshell for me.

A very good game that the chefs known as the game devs should be proud of it, but they seriously need to fucking sort out their waiters known as the servers, and let me fully finish their damn new burger that I enjoy when the waiter isn’t being an asshole

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a love letter to the Dreamcast that somehow transcends into its own thing. I can tell because I’m not very nostalgic for the Sega Dreamcast or never played Jet Set Radio myself, it just looked like a cool stylized game that completely delivers on the stellar art direction that oozes everywhere with a soundtrack that makes my body move.

The story surprised me a lot even if the characters are one note, but that isn’t an issue when each of them is so charming and the plot itself was interesting enough to hook me.

The traversal movement though in this game, I haven’t enjoyed moving around this much since like Spider-Man 2 video game. Boost meter being so well balanced with having to do tricks to fill it up will open up opportunities to either use your pack boost or use regular boost while doing a manual, but at the cost of that meter depleting slowly.

The cherry on top is the few hidden techniques like holding the manual button that reduces your jump height or while you are grinding on rails that you can do hard corners depending on the direction that will give you an extra boost automatically and fill up your boost meter way faster.

This is all to say that the traversal movement in this game requires effort to pull off satisfying flow instead of holding down a single button to get the same result and they balanced every mechanic around it. It feels so earned to have such a seamless flow that I haven’t felt for a game that focuses on traversal movement even with the good ones. Spider-Man 2 video game is the last I could think of that, but even that game had its jank that Bomb Rush thankfully doesn’t have.

My only notable complaint with this game is the combat. It's just kind of there, I appreciate the enemy variety, and when I started to understand the mechanics. It didn’t completely halt the otherwise amazing flow this game has, but it is just really weak compared to most other elements of this game.


Overall, I was expecting to have a decent time with this game, but I wasn’t anticipating this game to be one of my favorite modern games in recent memory and it is certainly becoming my 2nd favorite game of 2023 right behind Armored Core 6. I can’t recommend this game enough.

As someone who has never played a From Software game before, something about this newest Armored Core entry intrigued me way more compared to their previous games despite these being critically acclaimed especially Elden Ring. I just think a badass mech game with deep customization and not being very lengthy made it more interesting to me.

I was expecting to play a great game knowing From Software’s reputation, but I didn’t expect to walk away from this being my GOTY and one of the strongest games that I have played in recent memory. The main 3 things that make the game work so well together are mission design, mech customization, and boss encounters/difficulty.

I want to start with mission design. It's pretty impressive how consistently they shake things up without completely changing the simple gameplay loop of destroying anything that is in your way or finding stuff whether it the varied environments, having AI partners with you sometimes, level design utilizing its vertically a lot, or set pieces that makes these missions so memorable to go through and witness. The cherry on top is the pacing just being near perfect with each mission knowing when to end.

The second key ingredient is mech customization, as you complete missions or progress through each chapter. You consistently unlock new parts for your 4 weapon slots (2 on the back and the other 2 on the front), heads, cores, arms, legs, etc. I’m gonna honest, even after beating the game. The amount of different parts that I can create for my ideal mech builds overwhelmed me as a novice to AC, but I will give it credit for making each part useful & distinctive to where it is constantly rewarding getting new parts, and it is very generous of the game to let me sell any parts that I won’t use for a while for the same value as when I purchased it.

That seriously makes experimenting with different builds or parts so much more encouraging because you don’t lose much. It's like seasoning your chicken with infinite use of different herbs & spices that don’t run out and you can just sell it back for a specific type of herb or spice you want to put on your chicken to season it (I’m so sorry if that comparison made you feel hungry)


The final ingredient that makes previously 2 key elements that I have gushed about already just coming together to complete this package is boss encounters. It’s no secret that From Software games are fucking hard from what I know, with that being said. Most of the regular missions in AC6 are pretty easy, but that's because the boss encounters are where this game pushes you hard and some are going to call this a weird difficulty curve. I think it's brilliantly designed because this game handles you with so many tools constantly from completing missions that putting together ideal builds against the bosses that suit you feels so satisfying to pull through with this combat puzzle element that isn’t even the only solution. I have seen a decent amount of different builds from other people winning against the same boss fights. It shows that boss encounters don’t feel like you are smacking your head into the wall without knowing if it was worth your time or not.

All of these 3 key elements make the general gameplay loop of AC6 so engaging from start to finish. This all elevates further with a stellar presentation that is both very moody & unique to tell its tone with the art direction. A very strong plot & lore that made me attached to the journey despite barely seeing the characters themselves & making the setting of Rubicon 3 way more interesting than I anticipated. I also want to give a serious shoutout to the amazing audio with the sound design & music being music to my ears to make the overall package standout.

If there is anything that I have to complain about this game genuinely is that dying takes way too long to get over with and I wish the menu to restart was loaded way quicker to not break the pacing too much when I die constantly from boss fights. Besides that, I hardly have anything else to complain about with this game.

It's no secret by now that I find this game to be an incredible experience that I want to sink my teeth into further and luckily with a new game plus that even unlocks more stuff without spoiling anything. This game even has strong replayability with the cherry on top and how much I find the gameplay loop to be addictive, I will 1000% be replaying it right away. This is my GOTY and I would be shocked if any other game this year tops it.

TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge has made me have second thoughts on Beaten Em Up genre, maybe willing to give it more chances because this game is so much fun to playthrough from start to finish due to its very simple but effective combat that is satisfying to pull off and looks visually stunning because of their amazing pixel art that is so vibrant & gives each character so much personality. The presentation across the board is amazing and the soundtrack by Tee Lopes is just the icing on the cake

This game isn’t very long, but with having multiple playable characters or optional challenges & requests to complete in each stage, plus the multiplayer that is both couch or online for up to 6 players and old-school arcade mode for diehard fans of that genre. The overall package has strong replayability and I’m honestly in the mood to replay it as a different character or have fun in the hectic multiplayer. This is a strong recommendation if you are into Beat Em Ups or if you are a TMNT fan.

I could genuinely go into details on why this new PVE invasion is aggressively boring, but considering it is less than 2 hours long. Why should I bother wasting my time on making a long review on something that is so proud of being this mediocre when I could recommend you countless other games like Deep Rock Galactic or Remnant 2 that are actual fulfilling PVE experiences, which are worth your time with buddies instead of Invasion, which costs 15 dollars alone already feels like a robbery. Please use that money to support an indie dev instead of this snooze fest

I have a soft spot for open worlds that focus on traversal movement that you will use to move from A to B even if the activities that you are doing are pretty standard. I enjoyed a lot of them such as Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, Solar Ash, and even Sonic Frontiers.

Looking at Forspoken, the movement looks fluent, but playing it is a completely different story. Regular movement is so slow, it feels like I’m on gravity 24/7 especially when the game wants you to jump over anything that isn’t barren empty fields and it’s so sluggish. It has the complete opposite problem of Sonic Frontiers where that game’s animations are stiff as hell, but moving around feels way smoother than I anticipated it and you go fast unlike Forspoken that does have smooth animations, but controlling the character doesn’t feel good or fun at all.

Unfortunately, the magic parkour doesn’t fix this. It creates even more problems because trying to grapple on certain highlighted rocks that launch you higher makes the camera freak out by keep going down automatically whenever I use that focus aim and it annoyed me so much that I avoided using them because the game’s camera is terrible due to having a hard time aiming to keep my flow going to do any basic parkour. This was done better in Solar Ash with slow-motion & free camera in first person that was more responsive when using that focus aim.

I know that I’m harping on the movement so much, but for a game that is focusing on that aspect consistently to move around the open world from my experience. If the core fundamental movement isn’t fun at all to control, the game completely feels apart for me because it then really highlights other aspects like the open world or combat are just painfully generic or tedious to do.

I would be singing the same tune about Marvel’s Spider-Man if the web swinging wasn’t fun to use at all, but it is, and that made the game very fun for me to do activities even if they are pretty standard because that gives me more excuses to web swing around the open world & it never gets old for me. Same with Sonic in Sonic Frontiers, boosting through the open zones to collect stuff, beating up enemies, or going to the piss easy puzzles is just very fun even if they are nothing special at all. Going from my marked waypoint to another one in both of these games is so smooth & fun that I barely used the fast travel system in either game, which tells me that they did something right. I don’t feel that with Forspoken whatsoever during my experience, I wanted to use fast travel at every opportunity that I could.

Overall, after several hours. I just gave up on this game and not having the energy to keep going due to how boring the overall package is and having character movement that doesn’t feel good or fun to use across the board. Just play these other games that I compared to this slog, especially Solar Ash.

Gravity Circuit is certainly one of my biggest surprises of 2023 so far with such smooth controls & flow that playing it never gets tiring, which helps by the solid level design that isn’t a breeze to go through, but you feel like a badass when you get through it with barely any scratches helped by the satisfying melee combat.

Double that with the chips & techniques that you can purchase when rescuing bots around each level that makes exploration feel very rewarding since most of them are pretty useful to get for levels or bosses. My only nitpick is that the lack of loadout slots makes switching to different chips & techniques take a bit too long and ruins the otherwise perfect fast-paced flow that the game exceeds.

Speaking of bosses, most of them are very engaging & surprisingly well balanced that even fully upgrading Kai won’t make all the boss fights a complete joke, especially at the finale, which outside of the obnoxious boss rush is a pretty satisfying finale both gameplay & where the story started to somewhat be interesting.

The overall story is the weakest aspect of the game. Until the finale rolls, I just found the plot to be pretty standard which I would’ve been fine with if the characters had cool or entertaining interactions, but it unfortunately lacks that. Kernel & one other character that I can’t spoil are only two that had a few memorable moments, but everyone else is unfortunately a blur to me. It's not the end of the world because outside of Mega Man Zero games, this kind of game tends to not focus on the stories. So if you don’t care about it, you won’t be affected by this too much unlike me.

The last few things I wanna highlight are the visuals & soundtrack. The pixel art in this is stunning due to the use of different color palettes that makes each level look distinctive, slick portraits that give it so much personality, and the overall UI is beautifully stylized. The soundtrack overall is full of energy I never got tired of listening to it.

Overall, this package is superb and one of the best modern action platformers that I have played in recent memory. I come back to replaying it, especially since it offers New game plus & Circuit mode that I want to give a try. For a game that costs under $20, this is a steal that I would recommend to anyone who is in the mood for an engaging action-platformer.