ComicBook

As a longtime farming and life sim enthusiast, I felt right at home, but I could see some fans yearning for simpler times. For me, though, this is everything I wanted In the Jungle to be and more, taking what I love about Dave the Diver and pulling in even more cozy gaming classics to level it up a step further.

Square Enix’s love letter to old-school adventure games is a genuine delight to play, especially for players with a soft spot for the older days of the Legend of Zelda franchise. There’s an impressive mix of natural worldbuilding, impressive art design, and tight gameplay that encourages exploration – both with actually checking out the overworld for secrets and playing with the wide array of weapons and magic made available to the player. While the story may not be as impressive as the rest of the product, Adventures of Elliot is a genuine accomplishment by Square Enix that makes for one of the year’s most enjoyable adventures yet.

The limited game modes and the tanky controls put a damper on the experience. Especially as an online sandbox where players can face off with bigger guns and larger explosions, there’s a lot of potential for growth and expansion. Being a live-service game like this will come in handy, and future expansions and updates could help remedy some of the problems that currently create a barrier of entry. While the game is a solid free-to-play title and the premium model means there is plenty of room to grow, World of Tanks: HEAT has some work to do before it can really overtake the competition. Especially if you’re looking for a different kind of shooter, this is the game to play.

While the overall game isn’t the longest in the world — a full playthrough only takes a couple of hours — the surprisingly emotional ending will leave you wanting more. While gamers who find point-and-click games may balk at some of the more traditional aspects of the underlying mechanics, there’s enough fresh blood in the game to keep players engaged. Constantly inventive and consistently hilarious, Crushed in Time may rely heavily on the core gameplay mechanics of the familiar point-and-click genre, but it does enough with the classical mechanics to stand out even from the rest of the games made by Draw Me A Pixel.

In all, Witchspire is off to a promising start in Early Access. It looks good, runs well, and has the bones of a solid cozy survival game. There is certainly room for improvement, but that’s kind of the point of dropping a game in Early Access. Even if I hope to see a few things added over time, I think that gamers who’ve been waiting on Witchspire will be happy with what they find when they jump into the game in Early Access. [Early Access Score = 70]

It would have been expected for IOI to stick to its Silverballers and immediately pump out another Hitman, yet the team swerved by making a Bond game with its own take on the classic British agent. This willingness to take a different path has led to a fresh 007 experience that beautifully marries the liberating sandbox elements of the Hitman series with explosive set pieces typically found in more linear action games.

The resulting product doesn’t just make for one of the best Batman games over the past decade, but is an experience that virtually every Bat-fan will love.

As with many platformers from the era of the original Bubsy games, mechanical issues with the camera and controls can disrupt the smoother moment-to-moment gameplay. The snarky sense of comedy is likewise hit or miss, scratching a nostalgia itch while never fully escaping the drawbacks of this style of game. Bubsy 4D is a flawed but fun retro title that, at its best, makes a good case for 3D platforming’s modern applicability. The stronger moments of the game’s refined platforming deliver some solid fun and make a good case for Bubsy’s modern revival. If you like older platformers, this is a short, sweet, and imperfect example of that genre. Hopefully, the team behind the game gets another opportunity to continue sharpening the gameplay and addressing the drawbacks of the genre so that Bubsy can truly step out of the past and into a brighter future.

There aren’t many games that can go from a thrilling boss battle that floods the screen with an uncountable amount of projectiles to a scene with a giant cat-like, blade-headed character with a thick Irish accent who painfully regales the cruelty of the world, but that’s what makes Luna Abyss such a distinct experience.

For a seasoned platformer player who grew up with Yoshi and Mario, this is a fun but pretty easy game to complete. There are a good number of tasks for completionist runs, but the story itself is quick and straightforward to complete. It feels pretty clearly aimed at a younger audience, with plenty of built-in helpful tips to ensure newer gamers don’t get too frustrated… while still offering a bit of a challenge. The game even saves files based on your Nintendo profiles, so it’s easily shared between a whole family of Yoshi fans using the same console. If you enjoy platformers and want that Yoshi nostalgia or have a young one at home you’d like to introduce to the genre, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will certainly fit the bill.