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Last reviewed: Mina the Hollower · 6 days ago
Luna Abyss is a AA shooter that holds its own against some of the elite of the genre. Its enticing and ominous sci-fi world is a delight to look at artistically, even if its muddy graphics let it down on closer inspection. Its story is fine, but a slick sense of progression keeps its action and platforming interesting from start to finish.
Planet Zoo is, ironically, a relatively toothless park building game. It doesn't have the delicious chaos of the Jurassic World Evolution games or the thrills of building your own rollercoaster and then hoping it'll stay on the tracks in Planet Coaster. But it's a pleasant and charming game. There's an airy joy in creating a peaceful home for animals to live in, and the earnest conservationist slant of Planet Zoo is hard to fault.
By expanding on the explode-'em-up gameplay we know and love, Danger Zone 2 makes some nifty improvements to the formula. The new locations and more vivid art style vastly improve the game's looks, while the extended run ups add a little extra challenge to the levels. Performance can be a little choppy and vehicle handling lands on the wrong side of generous, but overall, the game still delivers on its promise of a Crash mode experience.
Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered presents a great opportunity for those who have already played it and those who haven't. For the former, it's a chance to experience its explosive, imperfect glory in a higher framerate and with better visuals. For the latter, it's a chance to play one of the cult classics of last generation at its peak.
All-Star Fruit Racing is a relatively fun kart racer that has some good ideas, but it all goes a bit pear-shaped. Though it provides a decent amount of content both in single and multiplayer, the wavering performance, some iffy design choices, and a general lack of polish may spoil your appetite. If you're hungry for a simple kart racing experience on PS4, this may give you a bite of the cherry, but it'll sadly never be top banana.
The Spectrum Retreat is a pleasant surprise. The colour coded puzzles are intelligently designed and present a decent challenge, while the Penrose hotel is an absorbing backdrop that creates an unsettling atmosphere. While it's a shame more isn't made of this setting, the game's storytelling, design, and puzzle solving is a compelling mix, and for less than a tenner, provides a unique experience across its six-hour runtime.
On the surface, Shining Resonance Refrain is a largely unremarkable Japanese RPG, but dig a little deeper and fans of the genre will find an accessible adventure that comes together surprisingly well. Cliche characters and predictable plot elements prevent the story from really taking off, but there's an endearing quality to how the game presents itself. Combat's fun, progression is straightforward and rewarding, and dating sim elements add a certain charm. Refrain's like a quick and easy summer anime -- it's certainly not a classic, but it's good fun while it lasts.
Online-only play taints Next Up Hero and obviously puts off potential players, but this bright and colourful world can be enjoyable at times. Repetitive gameplay prevents the release from becoming a standout indie title, but it may have enough charm to entice a few aspiring heroes for at least a few hours.
Saying that Milestone need to take a step back with its dirt bike games and rework everything is becoming as tired a statement as saying Telltale needs to use a new engine. But it remains true yet again with MXGP Pro. A very slight improvement over MXGP 3, but a noticeable step back from Monster Energy Supercross, MXGP Pro is largely a spectacular disaster. It gets a couple things right, and offers a new slate of tracks to race on, but you'll be too busy slamming your head into a wall to really notice.
Salary Man Escape is a competent puzzler that has a decent amount of fun to offer when things are going your way, but when that enjoyment partly relies on physics outside of your control, it's easy for frustration to creep in when the going gets tough. Add that to the fact that the game lacks a definitive control method thanks to flaws in both motion and the traditional controller, and you can't be blamed for looking for an alternative experience.
While it's disappointing to see The Crew 2 fall into some of the same pitfalls as its predecessor, its open world remains one of the most impressive playgrounds, in terms of scale, out there. Sure, there's very little reason to explore its vast road networks outside of its visual appeal, but the sheer variety of different events, from nerve racking aerial races to coast-to-coast endurance runs, will still get your heart racing.
Lumines Remastered is a loving, wonderfully polished return of one of the best rhythm games of these past years. A couple irritating technical issues and a slightly archaic song unlock system aren't enough to stand in the way of the wildly entertaining, timeless gameplay.
Despite a couple of flaws, Super Bomberman R is a strong entry into a long-running franchise. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but offers enough variation to the gameplay to keep veterans of the series on their toes, while also helping newcomers ease into the format. It's a shame that online battles seem to be such a mess at the moment, because with that up and running to its full potential this would easily be the definitive Bomberman game.
With the ups and downs of the many licensed LEGO titles having been well documented by now, you'll know exactly what you're getting with LEGO The Incredibles. Even knowing full well you'll be contending with dodgy controls, and occasionally repetitive gameplay, you'll somehow find yourself propelled through the story by an overwhelming compulsion to pick up literally millions of studs along the way. Even stretching The Incredibles source material close to breaking point doesn't put too much of a dampener on your time with the Parr family, and while it doesn't come close the best the LEGO games have offered over the years, there's just enough here to make you reach for your super suit.
Rainbow Skies is an epic adventure with a much improved narrative when compared to its predecessor. Its addictive gameplay makes it an absolute joy to explore every inch of the world, and with a huge amount of customisation options and an abundance of side quests, this superior sequel is sure to keep you enthralled for many, many hours.
New Gundam Breaker is a disaster. A near broken mess of an action game, even Gundam maniacs will struggle to stomach its many, many flaws. Its visual novel elements are so obnoxiously cliche that you'll have to stop your eyes from rolling our of their sockets, and the gameplay is a mix of clunky controls and unfathomable chaos. Add some unbelievably poor technical performance to the mix, and you have a Gundam game that's not even fit to be mobile suit scrap orbiting the Earth.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit thoughtfully examines a troubled childhood through the eyes of the 10-year-old living it. This non-linear episode encourages you to explore, refraining from beating you over the head with its difficult subject matter. It's building into something, and it's hard to determine exactly what that is with DONTNOD being so coy about its plans for the sequel. You need to really dig into this to get anything out of it, and while we found the backstories of the small cast to be well thought out, it's hard to know what purpose they will serve yet.