Latest Reviews
Mini Review Arizona Sunshine Remake (PS5) - More Remaster Than Remake
Killing zombies never gets old
Just a year after its brilliant sequel, Arizona Sunshine Remake arrives on PSVR2 as a graphically revamped version of the 2016 original. However, it isn't just a graphical glow-up that Vertigo Games has in mind, as it's also bringing its far more advanced (and satisfying) reload mechanic back from the sequel. The base...
Review Unknown 9: Awakening (PS5) - Brand New IP Shows Plenty of Promise
Step into the Unknown
Unknown 9: Awakening is the debut game from studio Reflector Entertainment but not the first entry into the Unknown universe; so far there are novels, comics, and even a dramatised podcast. Thankfully, Awakening is a standalone experience and so you don’t need to delve into any of the other cross-media releases to understand...
Mini Review Transformers: Galactic Trials (PS5) - A Nice Idea Gone Awry
Less than meets the eye
Transformers: Galactic Trials is not a bad idea at all – in fact, it’s a pretty good one. This is an arcade racing game where you’re occasionally required to transform into your chosen character’s robot form in order to work through simple shooting galleries. In principle, it has all of the elements you’d expect...
Mini Review Neva (PS5) - A Stunning Masterwork of Art and Animation
Time to stock up on tissues
GRIS made waves in 2018 for its stunning, painting-like visual style and story, and when it came to PS4 a year later, we thought it was great. Now Nomada Studio is back with Neva, a game that builds upon the strong parts of GRIS and vastly improves the other areas to create a gorgeous, emotional, and captivating tale of...
Review Undisputed (PS5) - Spirited Boxing Sim Is on the Path to Greatness
A contender
Sports games are outrageously difficult to create, so you’ve got to give credit to Sheffield-based studio Steel City Interactive for having the guts to step into the ring. EA Sports defined generations with its Fight Night franchise, but lagging sales mean it’s moved on to the more lucrative UFC license. Undisputed swings for the...
Zero hour
Close to two decades after its release, beloved PS2 arena fighter Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has been handed a sequel in all but name. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a throwback of epic proportions — the kind of all-out, franchise-encompassing brawler that's been sorely missed beyond the Naruto Ninja Storm series. Zero's biggest...
Review Throne and Liberty (PS5) - Beginner MMO Is Plagued with Technical Issues
Not grindy, but not great either
Throne and Liberty is a fantasy MMORPG that debuted in Korea last December. Since its global launch the free-to-play game has dominated Steam's concurrent players and top-sellers charts. While it's certainly popular, a long list of technical issues and uninspired mechanics cast doubts over its longevity. You take up...
Mini Review Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports (PS5) - Arcade Effort Doesn't Feel Great
That's all, folks
The problem with Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is it doesn’t feel fun to move. Characters like Road Runner should be a joy to nimbly navigate around a cartoon football field, but he’s as slow and unwieldy as Elmer Fudd – in fact, it doesn’t matter whether you’re Yosemite Sam or Sylvester the Cat, there’s a tardy...
The same old blood Rush with a new touch
We’ve had more fun with EA Sports FC 25 than we have with any soccer sim for quite some time. Perhaps that’s because, outside of the review period, we largely abandoned EA Sports FC 24 – or perhaps, whisper it quietly, it’s because the footie franchise is in a good place. Either way, a ton of...
Mini Review Kill Knight (PS5) - An Unrelenting Arcade Nightmare
Stress test
If you took the modern DOOM games and boiled them down to a pure, score attack, twin-stick action game, Kill Knight feels like the result. Playing as a bloodthirsty, undead warrior, the game is simply about killing hordes of demonic creatures as they swarm you in alarming numbers, while each stage shifts and changes around you. The odds...
Mini Review Parcel Corps (PS5) - A Speedy Dispatch, Not a Special Delivery
Fragile Express
Delivery games vary drastically from simple delivery driver simulators to more complex titles such as Death Stranding, where you traverse treacherous terrain to complete your daily drops. However, Parcel Corps, the cel-shaded, extreme sports delivery game from Billy Goat Entertainment, sticks to a more familiar concept, providing the...
Angel fleeced
The life of a sports game reviewer can be a miserable one, but while much of Visual Concepts’ culturally colossal NBA 2K series is recycled year-on-year, it rarely settles for raw iteration. This is a developer that, for all its faults, genuinely appears committed to creating the best sports sim on the market – and it tends to lap...
Review Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5) - Brilliant, Memorable RPG Is One of Atlus' Finest Works
More than meets the eye
Spearheaded by a trio of veteran developers best known for their outstanding work on the Persona series, Metaphor: ReFantazio is the dawn of a brand new IP from Atlus. In its structure and mechanics, it feels comfortingly familiar, but in its fantastical setting and bold style — both in terms of visuals and audio — it...
Review Until Dawn (PS5) - Killer Teen Slasher Snags a Pricey New-Gen Remake
Graveyard shift
Ballistic Moon’s remake of Until Dawn is proving one of our most difficult review assignments of the year. Here’s the rub: Supermassive Games’ cult interactive movie is still very much one of the best examples of the genre you can find on any console, and we highly recommend you play it. However, the PS4 version is just...
Review Silent Hill 2 (PS5) - The Horror Great Remains So in This Excellent Remake
It's always like this
Silent Hill always has been and forever will be considered one of the greatest horror franchises ever made, but ask anyone under the age of 20 nowadays what game Pyramid Head is from and they’re perhaps more likely to name Dead by Daylight than the series’ legendary second entry. A few dire side games (PS3’s Downpour and...
Mini Review SUNSOFT Is Back! Retro Game Selection (PS5) - Archaic But Interesting 80s Bundle
The sun always shines brighter
Before you shell out for the SUNSOFT Is Back! Retro Game Selection, you need to understand exactly what you’re getting. This trio of archaic 8-bit adventures has never been officially localised in English before, so it carries inherent value for that reason alone. But it’s worth noting that these titles are...
Mini Review Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns (PS5) – DLC Add-On Is Mostly Unfunny and Overpriced
Back in the Havik
For those who missed it, following the bloody finale of Mortal Kombat 1's story, which saw Liu Kang and the gang dispatch the Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, a version of PS2-era jobber Havik discovered that not only do other timelines exist, but that they could all use a little more chaos. This brings us to the new...
Mini Review Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition (PS5) - Still a Series Highlight 25 Years Later
Garden warfare
Despite countless sequels, Team 17's turn-based strategy series has struggled to better 1999's Worms Armageddon. The developer knows it, too; Worms WMD is based on the fan-favourite game's source code, and the Steam release of Armageddon has been consistently updated, most recently with a major patch in 2020. Now, Worms Armageddon:...
Mystery mayhem
Spike Chunshoft is known for its incredible work on the Danganronpa series, a collection of visual novels that saw critical acclaim for its interesting characters and dark yet comedic writing. Following on from such success is a difficult feat, yet in June last year, the release of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code on Nintendo...
A kingdom with heart
Once upon a time, legendary game director Warren Spector asked Disney to help him make a science fiction game. The house of mouse wasn't interested in his pitch, but it gave him the keys to the forgotten magic kingdom instead. Spector's Junction Point Studios was given unfettered access to archival materials and tasked with...
Mini Review Reynatis (PS5) - Beautiful Action RPG Is Far Too Repetitive
Shibuya showdown
Reynatis is an action RPG set in the vibrant ward of Shibuya, Tokyo, but it’s a very different place to the one we know. In this version, magic is real, very dangerous, and feared by the non-magical population. Magic users either hide their abilities or join a government organisation called M.E.A. to hunt down rogue witches and...
Mini Review Mister Mosquito (PS2) - Sony Classic Sucks in All the Right Ways
Buzzin'
You only need to press the start button to know Mister Mosquito graduated from an era of PlayStation that’s long been lost. As the camera pans around the densely detailed exterior of the Yamada family’s estate, a dramatic voice over does its best David Attenborough impression, describing the precarious lifecycle of a mosquito. Your goal...
The G.O.A.T.
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a sacred text in the history of point-and-click adventure games, and new remaster Reforged is the best version of the game that's ever been released. Quality-of-life improvements mean players who just want to enjoy the story without too much lateral thinking can do so, while veterans of the genre...
Mini Review Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP (PS5) - A Sweet Return with a Bittersweet Bite
Burst bubble
Let’s get one thing straight: Lollipop Chainsaw is amazing. This seminal, subversive monstrosity from the minds of legendary developer Suda51 and Hollywood big-shot James Gunn (in his PG Porn era, no less) is as amusing today as it was over a decade ago; it’s outrageous, ridiculous, obnoxious, garish – we absolutely love it, and...
Mini Review Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis (PS5) - Expensive Expansion Is a Flawed Affair
SEES the day
Episode Aigis is an epilogue to Persona 3 Reload — a remake of the additional scenario that first appeared in Persona 3 FES on the PS2. Much like Reload itself, this expansion is pretty much a one-to-one recreation in terms of core narrative and structure, but it's bolstered by all of the remake's quality of life and combat system...
Review The Plucky Squire (PS5) - Joyful, Inventive Adventure on Every Page of PS Plus Gem
Jot what the doctor ordered
The Plucky Squire leapt out at us from the very first moment we saw its debut trailer, teasing the dimension-hopping capabilities of its central storybook hero. We're pleased to say the full game delivers on this core premise handsomely; Jot's journey across the pages of his book and beyond is full of unique moments and...
Review Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (PS5) - Capcom Classic Still Shines 18 Years Later
Being Frank
There’s a certain charm to the Capcom of the PS3 generation; a time when its releases were just as likely to land as they were to heavily miss. For every Devil May Cry 4 or Dragon’s Dogma, there was a Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City to set it back to square one. Nowadays, those extreme gulfs in quality have been reduced to...
Review Train Sim World 5 (PS5) - A Solid Update Stuck on Familiar Tracks
Chugging along
If you’ll forgive a veteran virtual train driver a moment of indulgence, Train Sim World is one of the few series this writer has returned to over and over again. There’s something deeply soothing about commandeering a hunk of metal through an otherwise uneventful afternoon, making passenger stops as you soak up the scenery...
Mini Review Funko Fusion (PS5) - Bland, Cryptic Nostalgia Bait Lacks LEGO's Charm
Pop! your card back in your wallet
We figured Funko Fusion could have been fun — or even a surprise gem. Except Funko Fusion isn’t either of those things. Much like the figurines the game is based on, it feels soulless and a poor approximation of the pop culture it's trying to represent. The main point of comparison with Funko Fusion is the...
Mini Review Caravan SandWitch (PS5) - A Delightfully Relaxed, Atmospheric Adventure
Life's a witch
If you're on the market for a relatively stress-free adventure with a focus on exploration — and a surprisingly engaging story — then Caravan SandWitch may be the game for you. Set on a mostly deserted planet, protagonist Sauge returns to the place she once called home in order to track down her older sister, who's been presumed...
