Spider-Man is one of my favorite games of all-time, but this was my first time playing the remastered version. The remaster honestly makes the original game better with graphic updates and I felt the game ran a bit smoother on PS5 than on PS4. Everything about this game just screams masterpiece to me. It absolutely nailed the combat as Spider-Man with really agile maneuvers, web gadgets, skills, and the additional moves you can do. Swinging also feels excellent and being in this epic interpretation of NYC is amazing. It's unfortunately the home of the Rangers and Islanders, but it's the setting of this awesome game so silver linings! The story is also the greatest film/game adaptation we've seen for the character, with basically every detail being handled perfectly. I just love this game so much, and I can't wait to finally play Spider-Man 2!!

TLDR: Clone of better games, clunky combat, repetitive, but still pretty fun and a good experience for Mad Max fans. It has its pros and cons, but in the end it's a good enough time.

With Furiosa out now I thought I'd play the Mad Max game for the first time, and it was an experience I both really liked and...didn't. Some things I really liked here was how it absolutely nailed the atmosphere of the movies. Not to sound like IGN, but it really makes you feel like you're in the Mad Max universe. Sure, The Wasteland can look extremely barren and boring but it's a wasteland. It's supposed to. That's what Mad Max is. I found it fun to drive through the world, and what made it fun was how awesome the Magnum Opus is. It's so much fun to upgrade this car and constantly find ways to change it to fit certain missions. You also aren't limited to how you have to improve it which was cool. But what's ironic is how much freedom you have in the car upgrades but how little in everything else.

I felt that Max himself was restricted in what he can do. He isn't a very good jumper and I felt that the shotgun could've been used more. His movements just feel limited to where you can't jump to places and it can make it a pain to get around. I like upgrading him with the Griffa tokens and the upgrades like you do with the car, but again I think there could've been more to do with him. Despite that, I still found the combat to be fun. I think it's a clunky, cheaper version than Batman Arkham but it was still fun enough. Evading and parrying wasn't always responsive and he'd sometimes punch the wrong guy, but overall combat was fine. I liked finding weapons lying around to use for a bit. And Max's Fury is so cool.

But after a while the game gets super repetitive. 90% of the missions are beating up a small array of enemies or car combat. That obviously is Mad Max in the movies, but I wanted more variety out of this game. I also thought the story was lacking and the game forces hours of repetitive side missions to fill the gaps of what it chose not to do in its already weak story. There are emotional moments towards the end that got me and the ending scene wraps this up perfectly, but the story is worse than Beyond Thunderdome's.

I also noticed as soon as I got in the game it's very reminiscent of Uncharted, Batman Arkham, and Borderlands. It feels like a cheap, worse version of all three of these games. Is this game suitable? Yes. Is it good for Mad Max fans? Yes. Does it appear like a clone of those that's worse than all? Yes.

So in the end there were quite a few things I enjoyed in this game. Collectibles, scrap hunting, the atmosphere, upgrading the car, and being Max were all highlights. The problem is that the overall repetitiveness and weak story is a huge drawback and the presentation of a worse version of Uncharted and Batman Arkham. It's good enough, but I wouldn't return to it.

I haven't actually beaten a game in a long time (and thus haven't been on backloggd in months), but I forgot to log this back over Christmas. Astro's Playroom is surprising for what it is. I thought it would just be a PS5 controller tutorial disguised as a platformer, but it was more than that. It definitely shows off what the PS5 controller can do, but instead of doing a generic tutorial builds a clever platform game that utilizes every single one of these controls. It's a perfect introduction to the PS5 system at a great length. As a platformer it's nothing mind-blowing. Everything in this is pretty solid, but not a platforming highlight. But what makes it unique and fun is what it does with the new features of the PS5. It's great for what it is and it's fun to go for all the collectibles. Also Astro you are amazing and I want a funko pop of you. Or just every piece of merch I can get for you. You are goated Astro!

👌63%

I've had this game for a long time but never got around to playing it until now. Wall-E is one of my all-time favorite films, so I was excited to play this game. Licensed games, especially Pixar ones, can be really bland but I actually had a fun time with this one. It isn't a great game as its own, but being in this world is a lot of fun and spending time with these characters is always a plus. Missions can feel a little repetitive at times and EVE can be a nightmare to control, but nevertheless I enjoyed the video game version of Wall-E! Not offensively bad like other Pixar games, but something suitable and a good few hours.

✅76%

LittleBigPlanet is a unique little platformer. It's style, look, and level design are different from any other platformer I've played, and that adds refreshment to this game. While not having a direct threat but instead a few villains per world, its narrative of travelling through this little big planet is engaging and grabs the player into wanting to see more. Its look is really cool with this crafty look, and the color is so good to look at. Visually, this game is great. The problems lie in the controls and the up and down level design. The controls are more floaty than a cloud. Sometimes the game would get the best of me, but a lot of deaths were unnecessarily caused by the controls. The level design would also go from great to really generic to frustrating. Most levels landed in the good design tier, but man some were just evil like The Bunker and Collector's Lair. Despite these flaws, I still really liked LittleBigPlanet. It's uniqueness and style carries to make it an interesting playthrough. Is the platforming special? No, but it's different, and that's what counts.

Is NASCAR 15 a GOTY worthy game? Absolutely not. But man the nostalgia I have of playing this game and the fact that it holds up pretty well (especially with the Heat games being...something) brings this up to a 5. I also love seeing the old roster, and how much it's changed from them to now. Kaulig, Trackhouse, and 23XI don't exist. But BK Racing, LiveFast, Phil Parsons, MWR, all there. It's just so much fun going back to this old roster and having 5 of my all-time favorites in the same game: Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney. Tony Stewart is awesome too! It may not be the best NASCAR game ever but I have so much nostalgia for 15 and it's just a blast to play!

Such a surprising game. Gameloft is the studio behind that crappy Disney Magic Kingdom mobile game, so I had some concerns going into a Gameloft produced Disney life-sim. But honestly, after 20+ hours on it I have been having so much fun and playing non-stop. It's just so addicting. It grabs you and you don't want to leave. As a massive Disney fan, a game like this is everything I could ask for. While buggy, glitchy, and sometimes unresponsive controls, Dreamlight Valley supplies endless fun. A great alternative to Animal Crossing for Disney fans!

🏅94%

Super Mario Odyssey brings the mainline series back to the heights of World, 64, and Galaxy. While I found 3D World to be amazing, the games in the early 2010s before it were in kind of a lull. Galaxy 2 and 3D Land were fun, but the New Super Mario games kept coming out and never really did anything unique. Odyssey comes in here full force bringing an open-world 3D Mario game back. It never stops trying something new and creates a masterful experience.

You are first thrown into the Cap Kingdom which is the perfect introduction to the game. It has an eerie atmosphere creating mystery that begs multiple questions. What is this place? What is happening? What did Bowser do? What are these cap people? What is the Odyssey? It immediately lets you learn all of the basic controls in an open environment that is so much fun to go through. Then it takes it to a new level in every kingdom after that, with improvements in every kingdom. Some create a high energy environment like New Donk City and the Luncheon Kingdom, but you also have more desolate areas begging for more subtle exploration like the Cascade Kingdom and the opening segment of the Snow Kingdom. Whatever this game throws at you in the kingdoms is perfect and you are constantly anticipating what's next, while also enjoying what amazing things are in the kingdom you are in.

One of the major highlights in this game was New Donk City. There's so much to do in just this one kingdom. You can interact with city life, stuff taken for granted in the real world just feels so much fun like the jump rope game and city exploration. The energy here is unmatched with the boss fight, the festival, and the atmosphere created. The whole festival sequence where it goes 2D in a Donkey Kong tribute and you have Jump Up, Super Star! playing is one of the best parts of any game I've played. Odyssey knocks it out of the park at a visual and music standpoint, and just that one part is able to showcase that. The colors, the objects, everything looks amazing. But that also brings me to one small complaint. The whole game, whether it is the NPCs, objects, landscaping, it all has such an animated feel, yet I feel like some of the things in here look a little too realistic and takes away from that. I loved playing as the dinosaur in Cascade Kingdom, but it looked a bit too real taking away from the visual style in my opinion.

There is one other complaint, and that is the moons. Now you may be thinking, how did you love this game but hate the moons? I don't hate the moons. I loved them. I don't like the amount and placement. Some moons were way too easy and obvious. I feel like it takes away the reward when you find some of the harder ones. In Mario 64 and Galaxy, when you found a star it felt rewarding for the player, while here even when it was the same difficulty as a Mario 64 star, the feeling wasn't quite matched just from how easy some of the moons are. Getting multi-moons though, that had the same feeling.

Odyssey is one of Mario's best 3D entries. The gameplay is excellent here, and Galaxy is the only one that beats it. It doesn't match the gameplay of Galaxy, but does any game? Super Mario Odyssey nails everything it goes for and brings the Mario franchise back to the great heights it has reached. It took me almost 6 years to get around to this, but this first playthrough was excellent. I absolutely loved Super Mario Odyssey.

✅75%

Toy Story 3 is one of my all-time favorite movies, and this adaptation was honestly a surprise. I remember when I was younger I couldn't get past the train section at the beginning. Oh how my skills have grown. The train section was the perfect way for this game to start off not only because that's how the movie opens, but because it has "high stakes" action for a kids/family game and introduces the mechanics really well. After that, it sends you in two directions: the story mode and toy box mode. Story mode was the toys retelling the events of Toy Story 3 and the before and after in bits and pieces, and I'd say it has a lot of memorable things. You get to play through the opening of Toy Story 2 which is a heck of a lot of fun and there's also the junkyard portion which brings all the mechanics and characters into a great penultimate mission. Sometimes it can feel like it's steering off track of the main movie mission with an extended portion of playing in Bonnie's room, but all of the missions are really fun and provide something unique. There isn't anything super notable in the gameplay, but what it does to respect the IP and provide a story mode that doesn't actually suck gives it points.

Then we get to Toy Box mode which made the inner Disney Infinity geek want to scream. I didn't know how much Infinity borrowed from Toy Box mode before I played this, and I truly see the inspiration. The music, sound effects, mechanics, set pieces, controls, and gameplay are all transferred from Toy Box mode to Disney Infinity. The race beacon is even the same! I'm not discrediting Infinity for borrowing too much, but it made me find more stuff in the Toy Box mode to do. The Toy Box mode is basically a Disney Infinity playset but if it was in Infinity I'd consider it one of the better ones. You get to hang out in Woody's Roundup's western town with a big mine, but there's so much else to do. You go through a haunted Sid's house, Lotso's enchated garden, and Zurg's space station. All of these use unique mechanics that are so fun. Woody with a laser gun? Ok! Woody riding a dragon? Awesome! The Toy Box has a lot of repetitive missions of just dressing up townspeople and buildings, but there are so many standouts in the Toy Box. The final main mission can feel a little underwhelming, but it gives you a fun cutscene to end it all off.

Toy Story 3 The Video Game isn't special by any means, but for inspiring Disney Infinity, respecting the Toy Story IP so well and giving great missions like the Buzz Lightyear video game and the Toy Box mode as a whole, it gives an incredible experience for Toy Story fans. Easily one of the better movie to game adaptations!

⚠️46%

This was the bare minimum a Gravity Falls game could be. The gameplay is extremely repetitive with 75% of the game being the exact same thing. Nothing is new at all except the enemies which are just variants. It was just find artifacts for Stan to unlock a boss fight for a gemulet, and every single boss fight was the same. The first time it wasn't terrible, but every fight, even the final boss, had the exact same moves.

They couldn't really try much because the combat system is terrible. Only one move. The game isn't entirely focused on combat, but you have to fight quite often and you only use one move. I wish they could've incorporated Dipper's flashlight and Mabel's grappling hook into the combat more. The platforming has so much potential but it becomes lackluster. They have hidden places, but they are so blatant. It tries to feel expansive but it comes just short. I also feel like this game didn't know if it wanted to be single player or co-op, because there are so many moments where it feels like a co-op game, but you're constantly backtracking because it isn't. I think it should've had both single player and co-op options.

What the game does get right is that it looks really good and maintains the style of the show. The dialogue may be weak in areas but they do get the humor right and the characters do feel like their original versions. It gets the environments right too, even if the level design itself isn't as good as it should've been. This whole game feels like a first draft of what could've been, but it just wanted to make a buck. Legend of the Gnome Gemulets gets only a few things right, but in reality is just a repetitive, lackluster Gravity Falls game.