Giant Bomb

Saros is still a good game. I will never dislike a game that looks this good and plays this well. But the lessons that Housemarque learned from Returnal resulted in a game that is less than the sum of its parts.

Invincible VS is clearly a game by the FGC for the FGC, which results in a double-edged sword. It serves as an incredibly fun and satisfying tool for competition, featuring just enough of that modern fighting game sanding of edges to welcome in new players, while also offering plenty of depth through playing chicken with the combo meter and a combo breaker-esque system of Heroic Strikes, Counter Tags, and Assist Breakers. Disappointingly, this focus on creating a game for tournament players seems to be what has caused the single-player offerings to suffer. The presentation is brilliantly flashy the whole way through, but after playing through a mediocre “episode” of the show and reaching disappointing arcade mode endings, the casual audience is left with little to do in the game other than rematching the CPU in standard matches over and over.

t may fall short if you’re looking for a deep city builder or life sim, but as a piece of absurdist Dada comedy I absolutely love Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Every day I look forward to booting it up, making a Mii or two, seeing what unlikely friendships are forming, and watching ludicrous vignettes play out. I’ll boot up Stardew Valley or Pokopia if I’m looking for something mechanically deeper, but I know I can count on a good laugh whenever I check in on Kayfabe Island.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire shows a deep love for animation of the era, but the gameplay and script lack the same level of care. A Gouda attempt, but nothing bleu me away. Cheesy in all the wrong ways.

It’s rare we get a new IP from a big publisher like Capcom these days, especially one with production values like this. It’s a risk when you could just keep pumping out Resident Evil remakes and sequels while making guaranteed money. Well, this risk pays off. Pragmata is exhilarating, emotional, and … some other word that starts with “e.” Engaging? Engaging!

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a frustrating title - a truly new game in the series has finally made its way to us after decades away, but the choice to retcon the story, coupled with the absolute whiffs in gameplay, leaves it feeling like little more than a flimsy footnote in the series overall. There’s a ton of love here for the story of Legacy of Kain, but its changes and contributions to the lore make it feel more like fan fiction than a true prequel. I wanted this to be the triumphant return of Kain, Raziel, and the strange, dark world of Nosgoth, but what arrived instead was something draped in the series’ skin - not an evolution, but an uninspired reinvention.

I may have been left pining for more of what I saw from each approach, but there’s no denying that I had an excellent time with Requiem. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a mainline Resident Evil game in 20 years. As good as 7 and Village were, I have to admit it was nice to go back to some series mainstays rather than continuing along with the narrative detour of the Moldman Chronicles. Grace’s chapters had me holding my breath and running for my life during late night sessions with the game, and the bombast and doofiness of Leon had me laughing out loud. Resident Evil Requiem is an excellent culmination of everything Capcom has learned during 30 years of making this franchise, and it serves as a tantalizing glimpse of what its future may hold.

Mario Tennis Fever has me worried for Nintendo’s sports games on Switch 2. It’s not worse than any of the sports games on Switch 1, but it’s also not any better. The trouble is that it commits almost all of the same sins: the mechanics are solid, but nothing outside of the core tennis gameplay is that much fun.

BIG HOPS succeeds because of the developers’ understanding of momentum, accessibility, and expression through movement: its systems constantly invite wacky experimentation with generous restarts, rather than punishing the player for failing, all of which reinforces a core philosophy of playful improvisation.

As a huge fan of Terminator 2 and the 16-bit era of sidescrolling action games, I certainly found plenty of things to appreciate about this faithful throwback from Bitmap Bureau. If you see NO FATE on sale for $10 and have the same nostalgia that I have for its inspirations, I’d give it a hearty recommendation. It becomes much harder to recommend a $30 purchase for a 45-minute long experience. But then again, it did remind me of that scene where Arnold kneels on the hood of a semi truck and unloads a full assault rifle clip into the T-1000. So it can’t be THAT bad.