A gameplay upgrade in every way is let down by a slow start, uneven graphics and awful story.

Going through the city has never felt so good with the inclusion of the wing suit. It made a mostly recycled city from the first game feel new. The brawling felt concise, but not dumbed down from the first game. You can still pull off stylish combos for days and it feels impactful. Even the dreaded stealth missions feel better with the removal of instadeath scenarios. The gameplay is top tier, which is why I am so let down by the missions.

In the first few hours the game is a slog. The design for most of these (especially Miles parts) was shoving a lesson first and fun second. The game greatly picks up when the Kraven plot intersects with the symbiote. From there the story is interesting with Kraven hunting reformed supervillains and Peter acquiring the suit in a life or death scenario. It is a nice twist on the whole symbiote saga until the end. The Gears of War scenario is awful and profoundly stupid. I get they want to get MJ in the spotlight but the way its done here is abhorrent. At least come up with a bullshit reason to keep a bit of symbiote in her and not make a human who took some lessons fight an army of superhuman creatures. At least the stupidity is cut by the awesome portray of Venom and the Spider duo fighting it. Graphically its amazing every second the characters have their suits on. Every character thats not Peter or Miles look like a melted claymation error.

Heres hoping the third entry concentrates more on the comic book side of the Spider-man mythos because I think Insoniac got lucky with the first game's character relationships and story.

A massive surge in quality compared to Metroid Fusion and Samus Returns. Dread finds a great middle ground between exploration, cinematics and objectives. The first hours feel restrictive but the well designed, secret filled map opens up and feels like a joy to explore. This is in part to the sublime controls. Samus feels amazing to control with the right response, weight and momentum. The game provides good, challenging difficulty with plenty of checkpoints to keep the frustration in check. Fortunately, the games progression to turn you into a unstoppable badass at the end is paced amazingly. Dread also has the best boss battles in the series history.

Its not perfect though, the EMMI robots, while providing a horror experience, can be frustrating with their one hit kills. Mini bosses repeat too often at the end. The grappling hook straight up sucks, but fortunately you barely use it in game.

Metroid Dread is the best game in the series since 2007's Corruption. A straight up classic and a must have on a Switch library.

For all the praising this game gets for its movement, its leagues below a typical 3D Mario. I do not expect to reach those highs but I also do not want a 3D platformer with such stiff, slow and sometimes unresponsive running. If you want any type of speed you need to spam that jump. Level design borrows from 32 bit games or more famously, Super Mario 3D World in a tepid manner since exploring the levels is not very rewarding nor interesting. I can see speed runners getting the most enjoyment out of going fast, ignoring most what the level is trying to offer and comboing the various dashes available. The best part of the game is jumping into dash to wheel or swing in a fast manner.

The presentation is a candy vomit artstyle that thinks a high color vibrance is a substitute for personality. Character designs do not fare better with their "we have quirky PS1/Saturn designs at home" aesthetics. The music gets a lot better past the first world with its Sonic infused melodies. It baffles me that the introductory track is pure annoying and embarrassing bloops made by a sugar abusing fiend.

Performance is great at 4K with a steady 120fps but this game came out under cooked with the multiple amounts of visual glitches and instances of getting stuck in terrain. A massive disappointment after Sonic Mania.

Stray's most impressive feat is capturing the perspective of being a cat. It never feels like a gimmick. It tells a compelling story throughout from a unique perspective. Surprisingly, its strange, post apocalyptic, world feels complete, varied and inspired despite its small scale. Stray is more of a puzzle adventure with limited movement options. Platforming is semi automatic, with a prompt telling you where you can jump.

This robs platforming of all challenge or fun, keeping the game from true greatness. Even a Sly Cooper / Infamous system of platforming, which is magnetic to rails and small points would've gone a long way. As it is, Stray is a good game that will undoubtedly be considered a cult classic and one of the best of 2022. Its just not the classic it could've been. 8/10

Bomb Rush is an unique blend of Tony Hawk and the coolest part of Japan's late 90's counter culture. Its a must play.

Developer Team Reptile achieved the insane job of creating a worthy spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio and Future by combining the best aspects of both. The cool vibes and unique style are represented amazingly in its gameplay graphics and music. This feels like a labor of love.

They liked Jet Set Radio so much it inherited its problems too on top of newer ones. Camera problems, cut scenes that take forever to skip, weak bosses and an abysmal melee system drag the experience down a bit from classic status.

Still, these complaints never kept me from enjoying this game immensely.

A game that needed a good editor. The gorgeous graphics and scene direction cannot mask the glut of cinemas, talking sequences and automatic climbing. The pacing of the game is all over the place and theres way too much time between gameplay and cutscene. A good story would justify it, but the one here is mediocre melodrama with nice looking but mindless action set pieces. Even then, the shooting and stealth sequences are not fun or well designed to be more than a "just fine" experience.

Play the vastly superior Uncharted 2 or Lost Legacy if you want a better paced, fun time.

Back 4 Blood's saving grace is its great shooting mechanics and interesting card system. Shooting feels satisfying, even though the gore effect is not reflected well on the zombies. The card system lets you create many different classes and gives the game a needed boost in the replay department.

But this game has the shadow of the vastly superior Left 4 Dead 2 over it for good reason. The level design is mediocre at best and it recycles its setting a lot, making you slog through the same areas at a different time of day. The AI director just spams zombies instead of providing a good challenge with the special infected working with each other. The best part of the game was done better in the Concert scenario in Left 4 Dead 2.

Back 4 Blood hits the right price as a Gamepass title. It can be fun with friends but it never even comes close to matching its contemporary.

A prime example of a product half stuck in the past. This means this is a PSP game, prettied up for a new generation but stuck in the past in terms of design. Level and world design is small and overtly simplistic, giving the game a claustrophobic sense of space and just got me wondering why the entire game isint just a save point where you choose missions. The battle system is the only thing that saves this game from being downright awful. It a action RPG with Offense, Magic and Defense options with a roulette wheel that can give you buffs. Its fun and responsive but its repetitive nature is not enough to carry an entire game.

If only the story and dialogue were good. This script is awful, full of anime cliches and the line deliveries are amateurish. Metal Gear Solid in 1998 had better acting.

This game will be loved by the nostalgia blind or FF7 diehards. The more sane will understand this is just a nice looking 15 year old PSP game and level expectations accordingly.

An incredible premise bogged down by hand holding and weak enemy AI.

Deathloop's premise sounds more complicated than it really is. All the talk of being stock in a loop and figuring out how to kill 8 people in one day is relegated to mission objectives that spoil the solution instead letting the player solve the puzzle.

Fortunately, the shooting, using magic and sneaking around feels great. It is fun to play around messing with the enemies and thinking of different ways to mess with them. It also feels satisfying to get more powerful by killing the bosses in every loop. Though, in my playthrough I just found 2 out of the 7 powers to be truly useful to finish the game.

Good gameplay, an enjoyable story and superb voice acting form a game that almost reaches greatness. It just fails because Deathloop's developer, Arcane had to over simplify their vision in favor of a mass market approach.

A fantastic 3-D platformer. Tinykin pays tribute to the of the best old school era with superb controls, fantastic level design and an art style that makes it standout. It introduces Pikmin esque mechanics to differentiate it from its piers.

Still, the Pikmin parts bring out its biggest flaw, its easy difficulty. Every puzzle consists of gathering enough Kins to go to the context sensitive puzzle and throw the little creatures at it. The one exception is the green kin, the best one in the game, that makes ladders for you on the surface of anything big enough to support it.

That aside, Tinykin's greatness comes from the level design and tight controls. Every nook and cranny you explore in these Honey I Shunk the Kids inspired levels makes you achieve meaningful progress towards your objectives while opening useful shortcuts along the way. The levels are constructed from household everyday items transformed into a society run by critters. Its truly inspired.

Its a no brainer to get if you have an affinity for the genre. Tinykin is one of the most fun titles released this year.