HIGH The karakuri system adds a fresh, welcome twist to combat and exploration.

LOW I’m not in love with most of the crafted armor set designs.

WTF Japanese words scattered throughout the translation at random. Sou desu ne?

A few years ago, a nifty little hunting title known as Wild Hearts was released on most modern platforms, back before the Switch 2 was a thing. Released under the EA Originals banner, reportedly poor PC performance and quickly losing support meant that it never got the recognition I feel it deserved as a lovingly-crafted Monster Hunter-style adventure with a fresh tool-building twist intelligently grafted on to it.

Over the years I’ve made no secret of the fact that I thought Wild Hearts kicked ass. Now it’s back for another shot on Switch 2, dropping the EA umbrella and coming in hot with all previous DLC from the Karakuri Edition and post-release updates included as standard at launch.

Taking place in the gorgeously portrayed feudal Japan-themed Azuma across large hunting areas based on the four seasons, a critical imbalance in nature is causing gigantic monstrosities known as Kemono to venture outside of their usual territory and clash with the woefully-unprepared humans around the besieged hunter stronghold of Minato. It’s a story that delicately examines the subtle interpersonal relationship between man and nature, eventually coming to one inevitable conclusion — nature needs to get kicked right back into its hole, one squad of hunters at a time. Ooo-rah!

That said, while players will have to kill the vicious troublemakers endangering the lives of everyone in Minato, I knew I was going to love Wild Hearts almost immediately during one of the tutorial sequences where players are encouraged to stealthily sneak up behind a docile, passive animal and… pet the absolute hell out of it. Who’s a beautiful little abomination of nature? Is it you? Yes, it’s you! Awww, lookit your cute little face!

Rampaging monsters the size of a house trying to chew villagers in half don’t get off so lucky though, so it’s a good thing players have plenty of awesome weaponry to unlock and utilize against them whilst playing through the story. There’s a total of eight weapon types on offer, which are varied, effective and almost uniformly cool as hell.

For instance, the seemingly traditional Katana transforms into a ridiculously awesome bladed murderwhip threshing machine capable of whittling unfortunate kemono to bits at the touch of a button, and the Claw Blades allow hunters to hook into their target before dancing through the air, swooping in and out of range to avoid attacks while tearing into enemies with the same casual disregard for gravity usually seen in something like House of Flying Daggers. Even the Bow, rather than being a slow and precise single shot ranged option, is instead a relentless artillery machine capable of embedding dozens of arrows into hapless enemies before a charged shot detonates the lot at once.

Having been infused with a karakuri device at the start of the adventure, players are also able to use various resources to conjure up wonderful contraptions that make hunting more convenient and enjoyable. From permanent ziplines ferrying hunters up sheer cliff faces and across canyons, to gliders and launchpads helping them soar towards distant targets, various skills unlocked along the way make getting around each area a breeze.

Even better, there’s a wide range of camp amenities to help players mould the world of Azuma to their advantage. Tents can be placed to allow fast travel anywhere the player desires. Forges let players tinker with their equipment while away from headquarters. My own favorite camp was located on a lovely sandy beach where I had set up a kitchen to refine meals while passively harvesting fish from the sea nearby. It lends the world a sense of ownership not seen in many competing titles.

The karakuri aren’t just handy for getting around, though. Usually while fighting a boss for the first time, players will be struck by inspiration towards the latter stages of the battle, with an onscreen prompt flashing up to introduce a new tactic for overcoming deadly attacks or exploiting a weaknesses. The first time a giant boar performs its stampede attack only to be comically flipped fifty feet into the air by a hastily conjured bulwark is a gaming moment I’ll forever treasure.

There are a lot of these tactically-beneficial constructions to discover, from anti-air firework artillery blowing enemies out of the sky, to giant mallets smashing kemono sniping perches. They’re not necessary to succeed during hunts, but they certainly make things easier and are incredibly gratifying when used properly. By the end of the adventure some truly insane devices are at players’ disposal. Special mention goes to the Celestial Cannon, which is complete overkill in some circumstances but never fails to raise a grin.

As expected, the selection of beasts in Wild Hearts S gets more menacing as players progress. Initial encounters with giant rats and boars give way to gigantic lava-infused monkeys, glacial wolves and colossal tigers. There are a number of reskinned fights scattered across the four main lands of Azuma, but the variety seen in the enemy roster is still pretty decent.

Successful hunts naturally mean harvesting parts from these giant bosses in order to make new gear — and here’s where Wild Hearts S disappoints a little.

While the new equipment is undoubtedly useful, most of the armor sets look middling on a visual level. This led to me using the wooden ninja skin originally included in the Karakuri Edition from the start of the campaign all the way to the end. That one looks pretty awesome, unlike most of the craftable sets. Still, the stat boosts and bonus skills naturally make crafting worthwhile, conferring abilities like more effective healing, physical and elemental protections and various tweaks to stamina usage, evasion and special attacks.

Performance on the Switch 2 is generally decent. It’s not a locked 60fps, but it holds up better than I was expecting given the performance complaints leveled at the original on every platform. For what it’s worth, I thought it ran perfectly well on the Series X and this Switch 2 version didn’t have me balk at the comparison, so that’s a positive outcome for this port.

Wild Hearts S is a welcome and surprisingly capable port of what I always considered to be a truly fantastic and criminally underappreciated title when it launched a few years ago. EA may have dropped support for Wilds Hearts in a hurry, but I’d absolutely love if Omega Force continued to forge ahead with this IP independently. Azuma ain’t gonna save itself, after all, and it’s far too charming a world to leave to its own devices.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo America. It is currently available on Switch 2, with a very similar original release on XBX/S/PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch 2.

Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed, alongside three full playthrough and hundreds of hours on the Series X version. 6 hours of play were spent in multiplayer in this version, with two entire playthroughs spent alongside friends on the previous platform.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Users Interact, Use of Alcohol and Violence. The official description reads: This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of a character that hunts down demonic creatures. As players traverse a fantasy world, they can complete quests, interact with characters, and battle large fantastical creatures (e.g., giant rats, demonic boars, ice wolves) in melee-style combat. Players use swords, claw blades, hand cannons, and bows to kill enemy creatures in fast-paced combat. Battles are accompanied by impact sounds, slashing and particle effects, and cries of pain. The game contains references to alcohol in the dialogue (e.g., “I’ve got some sake with your name on it”; “It’s a strong spirit that brings inebriation with a single sip”; “Drunk again”), and a handful of scenes depict characters drinking sake.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.  It should be noted that the accessibility settings found in Wild Hearts / S are extremely comprehensive, with a wide range of options to suit.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized. The only thing I’d say Deaf players might have an issue with is locating hidden Tsukumo by their unique clacking sound. However, a later upgrade to the hunting towers allow for their locations to be revealed on the map screen, so this is a temporary issue.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Wild Hearts S Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It’s Tail Time.

LOW It’s Tail Time.

WTF It’s Tail Time.

When I asked to review the remastered Gex Trilogy, I knew it would be a massive undertaking, the likes of which no one has seen before — and it is not possible to overstate how sarcastic I am being here.

Debuting back in 1994, Gex is a ‘beloved’ character mascot that the big bosses at Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix wheeled out for four years despite owning the IP for nearly two decades overall, and neither studio doing much of anything with it in all that time. 

After playing through this trilogy, it’s not surprising why.

Gex is not a compelling character, and the titles where he is featured are equally uninteresting. It’s clear that he was meant to compete with the plethora of 3D platforming mascots that came out in the late ’90s, such as Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot. However, comparing Gex to the brighter stars of the time is like pitting a toddler against a bulldozer. 

Gex’s whole personality is that he’s an anthropomorphic gecko obsessed with television. It’s a shoddy connection at best, but his whole mission across the three games is that he must tackle various villains in the Media Dimension, where he gets sucked into a TV and plays through levels based on TV show tropes and genres.

This is also, for better or worse, where he gets his humor. Gex is not the typical naive protagonist, working to save his home world from an evil threat. Instead, he behaves like a friend of a friend that you don’t really hang out with.

He’s jaded. He makes half-jokes that never land about movie stars that are no longer on the silver screen. Perhaps the most annoying part of the entire character is that every other sentence is either “It’s Tail Time” or “That’s what I call getting some tail.” The tail ‘jokes’, if one could even call them that, never stopped. It was agonizing. Maybe it was funny at one point, but I don’t think that point exists in the present day.

For this review, I played through portions of the original Gex (1995) and Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999), and played through all of Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998).

The 1995 title is a fairly standard 2D platformer. The action, as is the level design and visuals. However, it’s difficult to focus on those when Gex’s story is devoid of purpose — his mission lacks a driving force to keep him going other than the fact that he’s just stuck in the Media Dimension.

It’s common with all the Gex games, but the main villain of all three titles, Rez, shows up at the beginning of each adventure, only to disappear until the very end. Therefore, none of the enemies seem connected with the overall plot, and are just there to be dealt with. There are TV remotes to collect in each level, but it never felt like I was progressing to an ending of any kind. 

The 3D platformers weren’t much better. Enter the Gecko (1998) was the title I spent the most time with, and it felt devoid of any life or spirit.

The same can be said for Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999). A part of the reason for this was the overall TV-theming — when a title like Gex chooses to use TV as the through-line between every world and also chooses to license no recognizable properties, it feels generic. I played through a bland, yet borderline racist ninja level. I played through a generic Jurassic Park-esque dinosaur level. Even the “Circuit” levels, which seemed like something straight out of Tron, were just not memorable. 

Story and bad character design aside, the 3D games are serviceable in terms of mechanics. The 3D platforming is solid, and the setpieces are interesting enough. Frankly, it’s remarkable that the Limited Run team could bring these games back from the ’90s and make them playable today in the 2020s. 

At the end of the day, I think the main lesson to take away from the Gex Trilogy is that just because a title has a serviceable design foundation and decent gameplay mechanics, it doesn’t mean that’s enough. If the experience relies on a mascot character to stand out from the pack and that character is annoying as all hell, it’s doomed from the start.

Out of all of the nearly-forgotten games to bring forward into the 2020s, I’m not sure why Limited Run chose Gex — it’s such an absurdist concept that I have to laugh at it now, but while playing Gex in the moment, I despised it. 

Rating: 3 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Limited Run Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 11 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is rated T by the ESRB for Blood, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language and Sexual Themes. Gex will make crude, sometimes sexual jokes like “Don’t drink the punch at Jerry Garcia’s,” and “I’m lost in Dick Dale’s colon.” The extent of the crude language is a statement like “Damn this pesky gravity to hell!” when Gex falls into a pit. The combat is fairly cartoony but there are a few sections with animated blood such as in the ninja levels.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Dear & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no subtitles for dialogue. This game is not accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game’s controls are fully remappable.

The post Gex Trilogy Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Exploring an open world that was made with passion and densely packed with content.

LOW Some bugs, old and new, rear their ugly heads.

WTF Why are the atronachs so hot?

I was born 30 years ago, and for four of those years, I have reviewed titles here at GameCritics — but during all that time, I have never played the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

That admission is perhaps a bit surprising, since I’ve played every singleplayer Elder Scrolls RPG that has come out after 2006, which is… just Skyrim, but also every Bethesda Fallout, and these are essentially post-apocalyptic versions Elder Scrolls, for better or worse.

In any case, I enjoy open-world games greatly when done right, and what better excuse is there to check off a game from my backlog than a fresh remaster? I’ll begin with items specific to the remastered version.

The most obvious changes are visual. An incredible level of detail has been added to textures and lighting throughout, which can look impressive on hardware capable of rendering the higher-level settings. Even at low settings, many details from the 2006 version have been modernized, from the rigging of facial models to the (seemingly obligatory) desaturation of colors from the original.

As for performance, I played on two different setups.

On the Steam Deck, it held an average framerate of ~40fps on low settings and struggled to hit 30fps consistently on medium settings, with heavily forested areas hitting the system especially hard. On my PC, running with a 2080, it managed a steady 60 in most situations with a mix of medium/high settings. I only experienced one crash during nearly 30 hours of play — one freeze on a loading screen.

Bugs were not too common, but they were… present. Most of the ones I encountered were visual, but one did affect a main quest and effectively froze progress until I looked up what I was supposed to do next –this specific bug was apparently present in the original. Besides these few bumps, I had a fairly smooth experience that let me become engrossed in the world, easily losing track of time.

For those who want more than the lowdown on the performance bump, Oblivion opens with the player trapped in a prison cell, being goaded by a fellow inmate. The player then gets to make their avatar, who is fully customizable thanks to a fairly robust character creator with many choices, both visual and with those that pertain to gameplay, such as various racial options, each offering different boons and drawbacks.

The introduction plays out with an escape through the sewers as the player fights everything from rats to elite mage-assassins. At the end of this tutorial, the player is released into the world and told very explicitly that they can pursue the main quest or whatever else they want, and the adventure’s design embraces and supports this player freedom.

For example, dungeons and ruins are almost never linear paths, but instead winding labyrinths that can be completed via multiple routes. The experience system encourages players to find their playstyle by rewarding them based on the skills they use. If one uses bladed weapons, then the Blade skill will level up, and so forth. Many skills not tied directly to moment-to-moment action-oriented gameplay, such as lockpicking or speech, offer engaging interfaces that ‘gamify’ the experience.

I did discover some oddities during my time with Oblivion. Shopkeepers have a listed supply of gold (much like in Bethesda’s other RPGs) but the number does not change no matter how much I buy/sell, and I am under the impression their gold supplies are infinite. Followers have limited behavior options and sometimes choose odd pathfinding or will arbitrarily decide to wait at a location and need to be found and told to follow again. I am unsure if these are instances of bugs or perhaps idiosyncratic NPC behavior, but things like this did not substantially impact my experience.

In fact, that sort of oddness found in these characters and the larger world around them are incredibly charming. The world is densely packed with things to do and places to explore, unique quests were easy to come by, and if I ever saw a place and thought “that looks interesting,” I could go there and find out that it usually was.

This fresh version of a beloved adventure from the 2000’s is as good as it ever was, and those (like me) who have yet to make the journey will find it well worth the time, even all these years later.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Buy ES IV Oblivion Remastered – PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game was developed Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is currently available on PS5, XBO/X/S, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC and Steam Deck. Approximately 27 hours were devoted to the game, and it was not completed. This is a single-player-only title.

Parents: This game has received an M rating from the ESRB and contains Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, and Violence. From the ESRB: “This is a role-playing game in which players assume the role of an escaped prisoner navigating the world of Tamriel. As players explore open-world environments, they can perform various quests that guide and impact their character’s storyline. Players use swords, arrows, and magic attacks (e.g., fireballs, blasts of ice) to kill various enemies (e.g., rats, monsters, human soldiers and bandits). Combat is highlighted by cries of pain and frequent blood-splatter effects. One sequence depicts a room with assorted limbs, torsos, organs, and heads among blood-splattered walls/floors. Dialogue and game text contain some sexual material (e.g., “It was no secret that they were all prostitutes, and after the March and the Flower Festival that evening, they would be available for more intimate business;” “She…raped their men as cruelly as [he] had ravished her;” “Remember when you thought [he]…was hiding being every tree with lewd intent, intent on making you…into his personal sex slave?”).”

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles are available for all dialogue and the text can be resized. There are some sound cues during a few puzzles and combat that have no other tells, visual or otherwise. This means that this game is not fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are fully remappable.

The post The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The latest Virtua Fighter 5 edition, with rollback, finally available on Steam.

LOW The single player component is pretty barebones.

WTF Kage’s flying headbutt down attack looks absolutely lethal — to himself.

Rejoice, ye faithful, for the grand Virtua Fighter resurgence is nigh! Hooray!

For those who missed the recent news, Virtua Fighter 6 has finally been announced after almost two decades of waiting, so what better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than for Sega to release a new version of Virtua Fighter 5 on Steam — along with some swanky new rollback netcode, a new intro song by legendary Sega vocalist Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and assorted balance changes? It may not be a brand new game, but still — nice.

Despite being based on a title that’s almost two decades old at this point, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. looks amazing. Stage design in particular is downright spectacular, offering sweeping grasslands, vibrant rain-slick cityscapes and a raft that carries players past soaring pillars of rock as players attempt to dunk their opponent into the drink. Characters are large, well-defined and sharply rendered to take advantage of modern 4K displays.

In fact, the presentation is generally great overall with big, colorful menus that hew closely to PlayStation’s Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown release from three and a half years back. It pops just a little more vibrantly, however, and seeing the main menu screen rolling continuous high level matches that can be enlarged at the touch of a button is as fantastic a feature now as it was back then, as a great way for new or learning players to see how certain characters can operate in skilled hands.

Speaking of characters, there’s a roster of nineteen playable characters, all with distinct and viable martial arts styles on offer. From MMA and Jeet Kun Do to Bajiquan and Drunken Kung Fu, there’s a style to suit nearly every taste. Though, let’s be honest — anyone who isn’t using Vanessa Lewis is probably doing it wrong, as her grapple-based beatdowns are poetry in motion.

The beauty of Virtua Fighter is that all of these fighting styles somehow feel reasonably authentic to their source material, even when someone’s being uppercut six feet into the air and punched five times before they hit the floor. It just works and feels strangely realistic, though arguably filtered through the lens of a Hong Kong kung fu movie.

Additionally, there’s a purity to R.E.V.O.‘s pugilism that’s downright refreshing at this point. In a genre where progress seems to be trending towards tacking on as many Supers, Rage Arts, Drive Rushes and Heat Gauges as possible, it turns out that there’s a lot to be said for simply focusing on the fundamentals. It’s all easy to understand on a visual level too, with no lingering hurtboxes or similar idiosyncrasies throwing players for a loop. Controls are simple – a punch button, a kick button, a guard button and various combinations thereof are all that are needed to delve into an extremely precise fighting and technical experience.

If I had to summarize Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. ‘s matches in a single word, it would be ‘explosive’. It’s not a game that rewards all-out aggression, but when fighters do clash their health gauges can be stripped down in astonishingly short order. However, there’s less of a focus on rushdown than in some competing games as defensive options are strong, most non-specialized attacks won’t hurt downed opponents, and maneuvering around the arena is also incredibly important. A huge lead doesn’t mean much if a player gets sloppy and winds up being tossed out of the ring.

As for the balance changes, they’re subtle. Weight classes have been tweaked so Taka Arashi’s a little more vulnerable than he used to be, and Eileen isn’t such a temptingly lightweight target. Some older moves have been returned to a character’s repertoire, and it’s all just a little more balanced than ever. Not that it was badly tuned before — quite the opposite — but nearly twenty years of digging away at a game’s core will often result in uncovering a few rough edges.

While it’s an excellent offering overall, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.‘s biggest weaknesses tend to occur outside the fighting. Namely, as a modern fighting package, it’s lacking in extras needed to lure in casual players. Not everyone wants to spend all their time online, and aside from a training and arcade mode, there’s not much else for solo players other than watching high-level matches stream in through the main menu. There’s nothing here on par with the extensive single-player offerings seen in recent titles such as Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and recent Mortal Kombat titles, and even character customization options have been pared back significantly since the days of the original Virtua Fighter 5 release.

Worse, though, for a title that focuses so much on online competitive play, there’s no cross-platform play with the PlayStation version of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, which has already been updated to maintain balance parity with R.E.V.O. Steam may be a huge platform, but with an older game like this Sega really should be casting the net as far and wide as it’ll go — and that includes an Xbox release too. Get everyone in on this party, dammit.

With those foibles noted, Virtua Fighter 5 is still a peerless fighter even after all this time, resulting in a game that’s still a joy to play. It’s the best version of a legendary fighting experience, and even if it doesn’t check all the expected boxes of a modern fighting game package, it still kicks ass.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It is currently available on PC. A similar version is available on PS4 and PS5, but is missing certain new additions such as rollback netcode. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download before a key was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with multiple characters. 7 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes. Furthermore, I’ve played a lot of VF5 over the years in its various forms.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence.  The official description reads as follows: This is a fighting game in which players choose from a large cast of international fighters to compete against others in one-on-one matches. Players punch, kick, and throw opponents as they attempt to drain their health bars. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and brief replay sequences of knockouts. These replays are shown from various camera angles, some of which are slightly zoomed in. Some female characters are designed with revealing costumes (e.g., deep cleavage, bikini-like tops); one character is depicted in a mannequin-like style with nipple-less breasts and buttocks. One character is described as using “Drunken Kung-fu” as his fighting style and can be seen drinking from a gourd during fights; some of his moves reference his drinking, letting players know how many drinks are needed to perform those attacks.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. Characters have a few intro and win quotes delivered in various languages, none of which are necessary to enjoy the game or story. After all, there is no story aside from the background lore. Some audio cues can help discern certain moves, such as a swooshing noise signifying that sidestepping certain attacks isn’t possible, but there’s no need to rely on them. It’s a very visual game.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Snow Bros. finally gets a successor!

LOW Camera controls are severely lacking.

WTF The final gauntlet…

Those with an affinity for spending coins at their local arcade back in the day will certainly rejoice to see likenesses of Nick and Tom (actually, their offspring) in a brand-new Snow Bros. title — it’s been a long wait since the 1990 original! As one of those fans, I was immediately hit by a warm wave of nostalgia upon learning that Wonderland existed.

The original Snow Bros. was a 2D action-platformer featuring co-op play where snowmen avoid baddies before taking them out with well-timed snowballs that roll down platforms and engulf anyone in their path. It had a perfect philosophy, a hefty dose of challenge, and — most importantly — a masterfully designed set of levels.

Fast forward to the end of 2024, and we have Snow Bros. Wonderland, a title that aesthetically continues the theme of two snowmen stopping a villain’s plans to turn the world into a lava land.

Our heroes Nick Jr. and Tom Jr. (sons of the original duo) are now in 3D and possess their parents’ ability to throw an unlimited supply of snowballs into foes, quickly turning them into giant rolling balls. Once that’s accomplished, players can find the best use for these enlarged snowballs, whether it be simply kicking one into other foes, riding it to reach higher elevations, or throwing it like a basketball to hit a distant pressure plate.

Snow Bros. Wonderland is framed like a fairytale and told via short animations that play out between each of its worlds in which we steadily clear out a set of stages and end with a boss fight. Unfortunately, Wonderland‘s setting and approach to storytelling leave a lot to be desired, due in equal parts to the lack of clever plot twists and lack of characterization.

Aside from the titular duo, only Winda – the mandatory “waify-material” character (unlocked as a playable skin at the end of the campaign) makes regular appearances, though not the substantive kind. Also, the aforementioned cutscenes after bosses are presented in a bafflingly meek manner. They’re animated stills where only the characters’ lips move in accordance with voiceover, and nothing interesting happens regardless. I’m not sure why they were even included. However, Snow Bros. has never been about story or worldbuilding, so it’s not that big an issue.

Of course, this leads me to gameplay. Pelting an enemy with snowballs turns the foe into a large snow boulder with a reticule showing which direction the ball would rush if I was to kick it. I was satisfied with this inclusion, as it clearly displays an understanding of the original Snow Bros. mechanics. Being able to track where exactly the ball will roll in a 3D world is essential, and upon giving it the boot, it acted just as I hoped — it does indeed flatten the nearest enemies and eventually sends them off into outer space.

I was curious to see where the devs would take this awesome idea next and how much further they could evolve it, but there was no such luck. What soon dawned on me was that the mechanic of engulfing enemies in snow and using them against their brethren is actually not the core of the Snow Bros. Wonderland experience. Instead, what we have is something more similar to a standard 3D platformer along the lines of the modern Super Mario games. Unfortunately, the content can’t meet that standard, and also suffers from some bewilderingly outdated choices that negate the rose-colored affection I have for the original. 

Primarily, proper camera and controls for 3D platformers like Snow Bros. Wonderland are crucial. Nearly thirty-year-old titles like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie got it right and led the way, but Wonderland’s camera controls are nonexistent. The available view provides an acceptable perspective most of the time, but it’s also prone to letting moving platforms obscure the player’s view. 

Also, while I did beat the game, I was never at ease with the finicky platforming and never felt particularly ‘in control’ of anything. Worse was when camera and controls both worked in concert to increase the difficulty — tasking the player with jumping to a platform at the deep end of the screen while level geometry makes gauging the distance a pure guess is not a good experience.

Moreover, there’s a hidden timer present throughout each level. While the original punished players for not being able to defeat all enemies in a given time by spawning an unbeatable reaper-like character, it was perfectly acceptable back then given its 2D nature and the ability to observe the entire screen at once. In contrast, Wonderland features much larger 3D stages whose plains and elevations enjoy overlapping each other, and being cornered by a ‘punishment’ entity like a reaper who can one-shot players who weren’t able to make it through a given course of dastardly jumping challenges quickly enough — well, it’s not exactly cool. (Pun intended.) 

Luckily, dying doesn’t carry many negative consequences, as we merely lose a small portion of accumulated currency that’s used to unlock upgrades like being able to run slightly faster or to kick a ball further away than before — all aspects that are mostly helpful, yet Wonderland’s combat won’t be a thorn in anyone’s side, even without them.  

Progression-wise, Wonderland introduces new moves (like a mid-air twirl attack reminiscent of a certain Italian plumber) and new types of obstacles with each new biome — things like lighting strikes or floods that limit the player’s movements or trap them, contributing to a palpable spike in difficulty. While none of this sounds bad on paper, what’s readily apparent is Wonderland’s inept execution. 

For example, many of the levels task the player with transferring a snowball across significant space while riding on a platform big enough for both of them only if the player were to stand on top of the ball. Since running on top of the ball is a learned skill here, the catch is to get in position while figuring out how to keep the ball frozen during the entire trip. Easier said than done as the character’s weight makes the ball move ever so slightly, immediately causing a fall? Worse, this movement is inconsistent — it sometimes happens but not always. Once the player manages to finally get it done, they’ve likely wasted so much time that the reaper appears, adding insult to injury.

Such a wide range of inconsistencies results in an experience that never feels right — Snow Bros Wonderland is ultimately a game that’s on par with trying to squeeze a marshmallow through a keyhole. Even if one succeeds in doing so, it’s definitely not worth the trouble in the end. 

Rating: 5.0 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game was developed by TATSUJIN Co., Ltd., Toaplan and Bitwave AB, and published by TATSUJIN Co., Ltd., Clear River Games, Toaplan and Toaplan Co., Ltd. It is available on Switch, PS4/5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the game, and it was completed. The game supports co-op multiplayer for up to four players. 

Parents: This game has received an E rating from the ESRB and contains Fantasy Violence. The game features cartoony characters and snow-day aesthetics, while the focus is mostly on platforming challenges rather than combat encounters.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue in this game is shown via textboxes, so they’re easy to keep track of at all times. All enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed on-screen with enemies signaling when they will strike next and in which general direction. No audio cues are necessary. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram and there are two control presets to swap between.

The post Snow Bros. Wonderland Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Original creature ideas, interesting blend of action/RTS, quality-of-life updates.

LOW Monotonous level design, bland color palette, awkward menus and dated animations.

WTF Guy who says “we’re screwed!” then “it’s alright, I’m OK” a second later.

20 years after the release of the 1982 cult classic film, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Computer Artworks’ eponymous videogame served as an example of what the medium can do to both honor the source material and expand on it with an immersive experience for fans as they confront the same ancient horror that stalked an isolated Antarctica lab onscreen. More than 20 years after that release, Nightdive Studios has put out a remastered version with modernized graphics and quality-of-life updates.

The gameplay is best described as a third-person squad shooter, allowing the player to order squadmates to hold positions and carry out tasks while blasting enemies with a diverse arsenal of weapons and items. Since the player controls the leader, their decisions and actions have consequences that affect others — in this case, their levels of fear and trust.

Early on, the player is taught this mechanic and given a stun gun to use on a NPC as an example of how characters will become distrusting whenever the player hits or shoots them. The player must also take the sanity of characters into account, which is most often affected by enemies, but also the sight of blood and gore. The only way to restore their sanity is to give them shots of adrenaline, which are few and far between.

My first impressions were good. I had just rewatched the film before I started playing the game, so I was more than ready to explore the now-familiar locales and various references while giving it space to stand on its own — and it did just that, albeit with mixed results.

It began with a cutscene of my character and his squadmates who were dropped in with orders to eliminate whatever caused the deaths of the scientists featured in the film. The dialogue was rife with expletives and manly-sounding voice actors, as if the writers were trying to impress teenage boys with raunchy asides and constant ribbing. However, this did feel consistent with the film, as well as countless other ‘80s action-horror flicks.

That said, much of the writing felt cliché to the point that I tuned out during almost every cutscene, even when a squadmate or NPC died. During play, I never learned anything about them as people, just that they were scared, crazed or both. Unfortunately, the psychological element of managing these aspects never amounted to much, so it all just became a nuisance.

The graphics mostly hold up thanks in part to Nightdive’s facelift — but speaking of faces, some of the animations (and the facial expressions of fear-stricken soldiers in particular) are downright comical. I understand that there’s only so much that can be done without remaking a game from the ground up, but I wish Nightdive had done more to improve the soldiers’ puttylike faces and hideous, flappy mouth animations.

The levels were consistently atmospheric, although there’s not a ton of variety. Scenes go between desolate outdoor areas (where the cold will eventually force the team to find shelter or suffer damage) and claustrophobic indoor areas. The viewpoint can be varied between third-person and first-person, although I saw no benefit to either beyond personal preference.

Ordering teammates to complete certain tasks reminded me of action-RTS games like Pikmin, but unlike others in this genre that mainly focus on giving orders, The Thing also asks the player to manage several things for each soldier including ammo and, as previously mentioned, their level of trust/fear and sanity. The wheel menus used to make teammates do things, assume different positions, swap weapons and use items feel clunky and unintuitive. There were also unnecessary submenus, like one just for using keys.

The Thing itself doesn’t appear for a while, which builds up suspense leading to the first encounter, and this tension is supported by worldbuilding like bodies scattered throughout the labs and seeing sections of the world that were devastated by events from the film.

Once the player reaches the part of the campaign that takes place in a new location, a Norwegian lab, things start to heat up and the team’s resolve will be truly tested as they start to get paranoid about their friends and comrades becoming the Thing due to the creature’s ability to mimic other life forms — one soldier goes so far as to make everyone take blood tests lest they get a taste of his flamethrower, just as Mac (Kurt Russell) did in the film.

As readers who have seen the film will know, the Thing was originally unearthed and researched by the Norwegian scientists, so it follows that it would have had more time to evolve there without needing to conceal itself. As a result, both the difficulty and volume of enemies increased considerably, but there were issues.

I didn’t try combat in first-person so I can only speak for third — it’s not the most fluid, but otherwise fairly standard for a shooter as the player has a reticle which can be controlled with the right stick while strafing with the left and wheel menus for weapons and items. On the plus side, the developers graciously allow the player to auto-lock as they lay into enemies with shotguns, SMGs and pistols. On the other hand, the devs seemed to have some blindspots in other areas.

For example, the pacing of enemy waves. In some areas enemies would stop coming for a while until, all of a sudden, the next wave would be triggered as soon as I went out and re-entered a room, almost like a switch flipping. Similarly, enemies would sometimes go completely still and I could easily pick them off until I moved toward them just a little, reactivating their enemy AI and triggering them to attack again.

Pacing and AI aside, I appreciated that whoever was responsible for creature design on the original development team didn’t just rely on the film for ideas. I encountered a plethora of horrifying enemies, the highlight of which was the fleshy, wet-looking Rupture boss. The fight itself was also a highlight for me, as the towering beast had a wide array of lightning-fast attacks that were difficult to evade, but I soon remembered that — just as in the film — it was especially vulnerable to fire.

However, after that high point I was disappointed to find that the next area was as visually indistinct as much of what came before — gray was the dominant color inside the labs, and outdoor areas were primarily blue and white. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem (it is set in Antarctica, after all) if it weren’t for the fact that many of the labs were structured in a similar way, leading me to ask myself: “Haven’t I been here before?“

Honestly, the most challenging about The Thing for me was knowing where to go, and it began to feel like a chore by the time I got further in… I was opening cookie-cutter doors in cookie-cutter areas only to find items that I didn’t need, eventually losing motivation to find a way forward.

Ultimately, The Thing: Remastered is mostly successful in recapturing the essence of the film, but it just didn’t give me good reasons to care about the characters, nor did it offer gameplay that was engaging enough for me to want to spend more time in such a dreary world without Kurt Russell there to fire things up. Even after being remastered, The Thing may have been better off left in the ice.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game was developed by Nightdive Studios and Computer Artworks and published by Nightdive Studios. The game was obtained via publisher and it is currently available on PC, PS4/5 and XBO/X/S. It was obtained via publisher and reviewed for PC. Approximately 8 hours were devoted to the campaign mode. The game was not finished. There is no multiplayer mode.

Parents: This game is rated M by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Language and Violence. The official description reads as follows: This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of a rescue team leader investigating the deaths of a science team in Antarctica. As players search for clues and survivors, they use machine guns, explosives, and flamethrowers to battle enemies (e.g., aliens, enemy soldiers). Combat is highlighted by realistic gunfire, explosions, screams of pain, and blood-splatter effects. Grenade blasts can result in enemies blowing up into chunks of flesh; some scenes depict mutilated corpses lying amid splatters of blood. One cutscene depicts a character shooting himself in the head. The words “sh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game features subtitles for dialogue during both cutscenes and gameplay, but there are no visual cues to accompany incoming enemy attacks. Therefore, it is ultimately not fully accessible.

Remappable controls: The controls can be remapped.

The post The Thing: Remastered Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Brutal artisanal arcade action. Dense, lush pixel art.

LOW Desperately needs a proper practice mode.

WTF A ninja with a shotgun just feels wrong (but also kinda right?)

Tengo Project is a team of three industry veterans devoted to keeping arcade culture alive in a world that has mostly forgotten it, but they occupy a wholly unique place even within that niche — they’re not restoring and preserving classics like the arch-archivists at M2, nor are they general workmanlike preservationists a la Hamster. Instead, Tengo Project returns to old arcade or console titles and completely re-envisions them.

As such, it’s easy to reach for the term “remake,” but Tengo’s title are remakes only in the sense that a butterfly is a remake of a caterpillar. Each piece from them carries forward the life force of its inspiration, but transformed into something new and striking. Their latest, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn, may be the most ornate expression of their process yet.

Reborn has its roots in an NES title called — you guessed it — Shadow of the Ninja, a late-era 2D NES action-platformer in the vein of classics like Ninja Gaiden, and Reborn could still be described as such. You can sense the NES texture underneath, now enriched with an elegant suite of deepened mechanics, all of which are honed to fine points that the game will happily skewer players on. The difficulty here? Well it’s pungent, intense, and bracing — it’s an heir to (and evolution of) the kind of brutal things that Ghosts ‘n Goblins and the early Castlevanias were doing.

Player characters Hayate and Kaede are ninja, so they’re not as stiff-jointed as Arthur or the Belmonts, but neither are they lightning-fast. Their moveset is nuanced and powerful, but also laden with recovery frames and balancing drawbacks. As is always the case with experiences of this ilk, engaging with the possibilities and limitations of the moveset is the first step on the long road to mastery. The two core verbs are a sword attack which fans out in front of the character and can destroy some projectiles, and a long-range kusarigama attack, which can be aimed in both orthogonal and diagonal directions.

Then there’s the item system, which is baroque, wild, and wooly. Crates throughout each level contain items that can be swapped between and used like sub-weapons. There are a gobsmacking 53 different items altogether, including a tea kettle, a butcher saw, a pirate ship cannon, a tonfa, and even a suite of decidedly un-ninjalike military hardware like a minigun or a pump-action shotgun. There’s a lot of functional overlap between items in a general sense (lots of big clubs, lots of projectile weapons, etc.) but there’s nuance too — the blunderbuss fires a wild mess of pellets, for instance, while the pump-action keeps its spread much tighter.

Superplayers will probably establish a meta for which items are best, but all the ones I’ve found have felt extremely powerful and are a satisfying way to tip the odds in the player’s favor. A good thing, because there’s a bristling bestiary standing between these little ninja and the credits. There are hench-gorillas, onmyoji riding magical waterspouts, gun-toting mecha, lava monsters… and that’s before taking the bosses into account, each of which is a rich course of brutality on its own, with complex, demanding attack patterns.

It’s a testament to the mechanical richness on display in Reborn that I have gone this long without discussing the incredible visuals. This is pixel work from true artists, and I love the Tengo Project house style — it’s multilayered and lush, with a particular eye to color and shadow to create depth, backgrounds that teem with movement, and buttery-smooth animations that are detailed, but never cumbersome. Reborn may be Tengo’s most impressive work to date purely from a visual perspective, and just being able to see what the next screen looks like, the next enemy, the next boss, is as much a reward as the conquering of the obstacles themselves.

In a larger sense, Reborn is fashioned from arcade-style philosophies. It’s meant to be played over and over… to be mastered, cleared from start to finish without dying, and played for speed. That’s going to take some time for all but the Chosen Ones. I’m a long-time arcade player (I have 1ccs under my belt) but I still haven’t finished Reborn’s six stages. It’s a beast from the start, and by the time players reach stage three the gloves are off — and there wasn’t much glove to begin with. Practice is key.

Sadly, that process is made more difficult than it needs to be due to the lack of a proper practice mode. This is something that dogs other Tengo Project releases, but it’s an even bigger problem with Reborn because each sub-section of a stage is really a level unto itself — there’s no way to jump into a specific section without playing through the portions of the level that precede it. Reborn is a test for serious arcade players, and Tengo Project surely knows that. Seeing them continue to hold back on features that are quickly becoming standard in this style of game is disappointing to say the least.

Each Tengo Project release is a handcrafted monument to a type of experience and particular strain of gaming culture that is mostly forgotten by the mainstream. This is not “Retro Gaming” as marketed to us for the last 20 years, but a type of design that fully embodies the specific, timeless, vibrant virtues of the ’80s and ’90s in new and exciting forms. Reborn is for sickos, by sickos. For those that have love in their heart for arcade culture, and for muscular, uncompromising, full-blooded action built on a system of beautifully-tuned mechanics, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn will be one of the best things they can buy this year.

8.5 out of 10

— Ben Schwartz

Disclosures: This game is developed by Tengo Project and published by Natsume Atari. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, Switch, and XBO/X/S. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 7 hours were devoted to the game, and it was not completed (yet!). 0 hours were spent in the two-player mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood. The official rating states: “This is an action platformer in which players assume the role of ninjas attempting to stop a demon invasion. Players traverse side-scrolling levels to defeat human and fantastical enemies (e.g., robots, monkeys, ninjas) in melee-style combat. Players use swords, chains, guns, and cannonballs to attack and kill enemies. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, colorful light effects, and brief blood-splatter effects.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no dialogue in the game itself, but the attract mode does have subtitles for the Japanese text crawl. They cannot be altered or resized but the text doesn’t appear in the game proper at all. All enemy attacks are telegraphed visually, none appear to rely on sound cues alone. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Shadow Of The Ninja: Reborn Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Star Wars: Bounty Hunter finally has a PC port, 22 years later!

LOW The live system is still included, despite like a dozen other, more questionable changes?!

WTF When an emulator is better at remastering a game than a professional studio.

Disney might treat the original Star Wars Expanded Universe like a junk drawer these days, but boy howdy do they love to reach in for remasters every now and then. Having already handled most of the usual suspects (though I’m still waiting for a proper console port of Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight!), we’ve seen some solid remasters and re-releases. Sadly, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2024) is not one of the good ones.

For those too young to know about this mid-’00s actioner, Bounty Hunter is the origin story of a hardened Mandalorian named Jango Fett. The story is set parallel to the events of The Phantom Menace and he’s struggling to make ends meet before being hired by Sith Lords to kill a target. This sets Fett on a collision course with Montross, a disgraced Mandalorian who betrayed their mutual mentor and effectively doomed their whole society. So yeah, pretty typical space Western fare with some mystical Jedi nonsense on the fringes.

What’s great for Star Wars fans here is the attention to detail. The story incorporates lore from the comics, even including a relevant issue for free as an unlockable for beating the game. Jango’s actor from Attack of the Clones reprises his role to great effect, and other stellar actors like Clancy Brown and Lucille Bliss bolster the cast. The events of the tale lead right up to Jango’s recruitment as the template of the clone army of the Galactic Republic. It’s not the most profound adventure, but that’s not the point — it’s here to be a charming tie-in story for those who wanted more out of Attack of the Clones’ revelations about the Fett family.

So, about the game itself.

The original Star Wars Bounty Hunter was a linear third-person action-adventure with 3D platforming and more shootouts than a Mandalorian can shake a blaster at. While the option to manually aim is there, it’s best to rely on its lock-on system to aim both pistols while diving into the fray. In terms of movement, Fett traverses the environment by climbing and boosting across gaps horizontally and vertically with his jetpack. That said — and it can’t be overstated — the parkour and traversal elements do not hold the player’s hand, and seeing Fett fall to his death sometimes is pretty much inevitable. Initial levels are more forgiving about this, but past the halfway mark, the player will encounter some areas that are sure to test one’s patience.

Fett’s health also doesn’t regenerate, so players must rely on enemies dropping healing bacta tanks, or finding extra health packs hidden around levels. While his pistols never run dry, much of Fett’s arsenal has limited uses, requiring tactful planning. This isn’t a modern titles where the slightest player error is compensated for — try something dumb, and odds are good Fett will end up dead. Also, if players are intending to 100% the campaign, they have to take the time to manually scan every NPC in line of sight (with an otherwise useless-scanner gadget) to see if they might be an optional bounty to collect – a tricky feat in combat-laden latter stages.

Despite all of the areas that might grate on a player, it offers a unique blend of action-adventure gameplay that’s still novel. The closest spiritual successor I can think of would be WET from back in 2009, which also had cinematic flair and a dual-pistol wielding protagonist. Considering that there aren’t many games occupying the same space, the prospect of a new version with “improvements” was exciting — yet after playing, I’m not sure what Aspyr thinks “improvement” means.

Take, for instance, how equipment-swapping no longer pauses play, so in every instance of needing a specific weapon or gadget, I have to hurriedly cycle through everything with the Q&E keys or my mouse wheel while under fire — not ideal when Fett will have a dozen-ish items to shuffle through in the late game.

More egregious is how the aiming and shooting are… changed. Understand, Bounty Hunter is meant to be played with lock-on targeting. Everything is built around this. Manual aiming is exclusively used for sniping, long distance shots, and manually guiding Fett’s rockets into some poor fool’s face. But now? The emphasis is now on manually aiming all the damn time.

Those who haven’t played Bounty Hunter might wonder why this is such a big deal. Surely it can’t be that different! No, it actually pretty much snaps the combat balance like Darth Vader manhandling the neck of an Imperial officer.

When playing in lock-on, Fett can dodge roll, leap and do cool moves to avoid getting shot. When manually aiming, players can expect to taking far more damage, and it was already tough to begin with. Adding insult to injury, the lock-on system did not get the same dev time that manual did, as it kept freaking out on me, zipping 180 degrees back and forth to find a target when enemies were standing right in front of me.

Bizarrely, the anachronistic ‘lives’ system is still here, though ripping it out could’ve been a truly beneficial gameplay change. The player gets five lives with no way to earn more, and in 2024 there’s no excuse for keeping it while Aspyr was making alterations to other systems. No one would’ve blinked an eye if it mysteriously vanished.

Despite all of this, I could still stomach the frustrations if Bounty Hunter wasn’t more prone to breaking than the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive. I encountered so many weird animation and camera bugs that any chance of immersion was soundly shattered. it’s all quite rough, from NPCs T-posing in cutscenes to seeing how absurdly easy it is to ghost the camera through the environment. 

Not helping matters, the new lighting and rendering techniques are often distracting while they introduce new graphical glitches, with weird Z-fighting (two textures conflicting to be rendered in the same space) that stuck out every now and then. When navigating vents, sometimes the collision detection would jam the camera inside Jango’s body, making it impossible to tell whether I was moving forward or back. At one point, manually aiming my gun broke Jango’s neck mid-animation, and the list goes on…

There was a chance for something great, here. Bounty Hunter is one of those titles that’s been absolutely deserving of a once-over to really make it shine. The stages are incredibly varied, the mixture of blazing guns and bombastic jet-powered parkour is oddly rare in Star Wars gaming, and it boasts a great pulpy story.

Should people play Star Wars: Bounty Hunter? Definitely. It’s an acquired taste, but I still enjoy its high points. But should anyone play it via this remastered edition? Goodness, no. Considering how long fans have waited for this title to get a next-gen boost, there’s no excuse to release it in this state. 

Final Score: 4 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Aspyr and published by Lucasfilm Games. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, XBO/X/S and Switch. This copy was provided via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Six hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign, and it was not completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Violence. It’s a Star Wars game, so nothing will get too intense but there are drug use references, and Fett is portrayed in a distinctly antihero manner given how casually he’ll kill anyone in his way. The player can even open fire on civilians! Honestly, it’s a bit weird how light the ESRB went. This is definitely something for teenagers and up, not the little ones.

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game features subtitles and otherwise relies almost entirely on visual prompts for how to proceed. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable, not even keyboard and mouse. The cheat console also requires navigating it like the player has a controller, which may be briefly discomforting to players used to being able to type directly with their keyboard.

The post Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2024) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Easy-to-understand combat makes it accessible to nearly everyone.

LOW Muddy graphics in prerendered cutscenes.

WTF The best Jade Cocoon game I’ve played since Jade Cocoon

Monster Hunter Stories originally launched on the Nintendo 3DS, and it was one of the most gorgeous games on the platform. Unfortunately, it had the bad luck of landing in late 2017 when Switch hype was at its peak and interest in the 3DS was waning. Thankfully, this gem has been given a second chance at on modern platforms with a remaster.

While the traditional Monster Hunter games focus on an action loop of felling increasingly-giant beasts for parts and prestige, Stories takes a decidedly different approach. This is a turn-based RPG where players fight alongside monsters (dubbed “Monsties” — a portmanteau of monster and bestie) which are hatched from eggs found in monster dens around the world.

The driving force behind the protagonist’s quest is to become a Rider — a person that forms symbiotic relationships with monsters. However, their quest becomes more than personal ambition when a miasma known as the Black Blight threatens the world. The blight can corrupt monsters, drive them mad, and cause them to attack settlements. The player must use their skills as a rider alongside a stable of Monsties to drive the blight back before it’s too late.

Each player can customize their character to their liking with a number of weapons like greatswords, hunting horns, and so on, as well as unique and interesting armor sets, each with their own flair. In addition to this, the player can fight alongside the Monstie of their choice, which can be switched at nearly any time.

Combat consists of figuring out enemies’ weaknesses, as well as crafting creative strategies to fight the likes of classic Monster Hunter fare like Nargacugas and Kut-Kus. By working together with a Monstie, and switching them as needed, I was able to dish out massive damage, provide buffs, or heal.

What makes Stories really work is how simple the combat system is. There are only three types of standard attacks to choose from — power, speed, and technical. There are a handful of elemental attacks, but most combat situations revolved around this trio of attack types. This means players have fewer concerns to juggle in battle. However, not every monster was predictable, so I still had to stay on my toes!

Working in tandem with a monster buddy also fills up the Kinship gauge, which can be used for skills or Riding. The latter allowed me to jump onto my Monstie so we could attack together, while my character avoided damage temporarily. By reading opponents correctly, my Monsties and I could unlock powerful abilities that can deal lots of damage or have a special effect on the battlefield, such as knocking opponents down for a turn.

Altogether, I was able to use these systems to craft great strategies that allowed me to win battles in style without having to worry about too much, but combat was still deep enough for me to feel engaged and try out new approaches in each fight.

In addition to this, the monster raising mechanic is nice. When I found monster eggs in the wild, I could take them to a hatchery and add new Monsties to my team. Better yet, after reaching a certain point in the campaign, I could add new traits and buffs to Monsties via the Rite of Channeling — this allows for unneeded Monsties to be sacrificed and their skills to be transferred to another, allowing for a level of customization which I greatly appreciated.

Another wonderful addition is the inclusion of nearly all the DLC (Nintendo-specific DLC was not included) from the 3DS version by default, including formerly Japan-only content such as numerous costumes and a number of sidequests to undertake when the player has some experience under their belt. Also included was a museum mode that features concept art, access to the entire soundtrack, and developers’ insight on certain monster and location designs, which I felt was a nice addition to this remaster.

While this updated version of Monster Hunter Stories is generally excellent, there are a couple of downsides — all of it with regard to the visuals. Although the graphics were updated to look wonderful on modern platforms, there weren’t enough changes to the maps. Everything looks a bit lo-fi and too similar to the 3DS visuals. Some visual flourishes, such as some extra vegetation, would have been nice adds to bring a little more life into the world itself.

There are also some texture issues with pre-rendered cutscenes — they often look muddy, as if they were imported directly from the 3DS. This is a shame, as the in-engine scenes look nice and sharp. The contrast between the two styles of presentation make these muddy movies stick out pretty badly.

Despite these minor graphical issues, Monster Hunter Stories remains an incredibly charming game. It’s easy to understand but fairly deep, and the combat system offers plenty of freedom in tackling the series’ classic roster of creatures in engaging and novel ways. For newcomers to Monster Hunter interested in learning about the lore or looking for a point of entry that’s not as intense as the mainline series combat, this is the ticket.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Capcom U.S.A., Inc. It is currently available on PS4/5, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher, and reviewed on PS5. Approximately 9 hours was devoted to the game, and it was not completed. There is a multiplayer mode where players can do online network battles, but was not played since an active PlayStation Plus membership is required.

Parents: This game has an ESRB rating of E10+ rating for Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, and Mild Language. The ESRB summary states: “This is an adventure role-playing game in which players assume the role of a monster rider on a quest to save a village from an evil force. From a third-person perspective, players explore a fantasy world, complete quests, interact with characters, and battle humans and fantastical creatures (e.g., dragons, dinosaurs, giant insects). Players can select various weapon attacks (e.g., sword slashes, club attacks) and monster attacks (e.g., speed attacks, flame breath) from a menu to defeat enemies in turn-based combat. Battles are accompanied by explosions, colorful light effects, and impact sounds. During the course of the game, players can encounter a creature that uses a Foul Gas move to emit a brown flatulence attack; one scene depicts a character eating dumplings, alluded to be made of feces (“Are those…balls of Steamed Moss?”; “[Y]ou mean Hot Spring Dumplings are actually…”; “Ewwwww!”). The phrase “helluva” appears in the game.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game offers subtitles. Subtitles cannot be resized. This game is not accessible. While almost all dialogue can be seen in the cutscene dialogue boxes, a few spoken lines do occasionally get cut from the text box. In-game cutscenes also lacked a text box, which could make some dialogue lines difficult to see.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are remappable.

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HIGH Faithful to the originals. Switching between graphic modes is incredible.

LOW Remastered graphics have some issues. No archive of Tomb Raider history??

WTF Lara can explode via incorrect cheat code inputs in Tomb Raider II and III

I’m a huge fan of the original Tomb Raider games from the late ’90s. Ever since the first from 1996, I’ve been hooked — as have many others. However, the three earliest entries have become harder and harder to play as time went on. They have to be modded on PC to run properly, they haven’t been on a Sony box since the PS3, and they’ve never been on Nintendo or Microsoft platforms. However, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered rectifies all this, bringing Lara Croft’s classic adventures to a new, wider audience.

For the uninitiated, the Tomb Raider games are action-adventures with an emphasis on platforming and puzzle-solving. Lara’s adventures take her to various parts of the world to discover mystical artifacts, dangerous creatures (and people), and a multitude of secrets. Each level is fairly open, with Lara looking for keys and levers to help her progress to the next area.

One of the best parts of this collection is how complete it is. Each of the three titles have their expansions included, which were initially PC-exclusive. However, now everyone can experience these expert levels!

Another wonderful addition is the ability to toggle between the new, remastered graphics and the original visuals at any time, without any loading — even including main and inventory menus, loading screens, and cutscenes!

Visually, the remastered version is gorgeous. Every object has been lovingly re-rendered, with visual flair thrown on top, such as new flora or art on objects, or some changes to level geometry to allow light into the levels, such as new openings in the ceilings in the first level. Lara’s home, in particular, has been given a bunch of new assets modeled after the originals – paintings are now ultra-detailed and objects look more realistic than ever. As well as this, every area has extra flourishes, such as new skyboxes, foliage, or weather effects.

All three games play at a stable frame rate in both modes, and there seems to have been a desire to keep the experience as authentic to the original versions as possible, though the original graphical mode is locked to 30 FPS. It’s so faithful to the older games, in fact, that I tested out the original cheat codes, corner bugs, sequence breaks, and speedrunning tricks, and they all worked! This included a sequence break in the Venice level of Tomb Raider II, where I was able to jump onto a window that skips a bit of backtracking through the level. As well as this, corner bugs still allow Lara to reach some higher areas by positioning her at a 45-degree angle and then jumping until she glitches into a higher spot (there’s even an achievement for doing this in one level).

There are a couple of small changes, however.

There’s also a nice quality-of-life change — a handy “!” notification will appear when next to an interactable object or an item. This helped to take some of the guesswork out of where I could use a switch or pick up a medi-pack. In a nice gesture, this option can be toggled off for veterans who prefer a more classic experience. Additionally, there are now subtitles for both the tutorial areas and cutscenes, as well as a new photo mode, so I could pose Lara in specific areas, or with creatures and characters.

In TR1, the order of the expansion levels in Unfinished Business has been changed, so that the Atlantis levels are first. Furthermore, the midair turn, which allows Lara to spin 180 degrees while jumping (introduced in TR2), was added into Lara’s TR1 move set. For TR3, save crystals no longer heal or are used to save. In all games, health bars have been added to boss characters.

While this is all great news for TR-curious folks, there are some issues with this collection to be aware of.

The FMVs have AI upscaling in remastered mode that makes them look muddy. The remastered graphics don’t always layer properly, or in some cases add things that shouldn’t be there. For example, in one level, there’s a hole Lara can swim to for a secret that is now obscured by Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” for some reason in the remastered version. Visual oddities like this weren’t common, but they could hide secret areas and dangers from players in some instances.

There was also inconsistent lighting in comparison to the original, which could detract from the atmosphere, such as many sections of the first Tomb Raider game that are darker than the original (and flares are unavailable in this game). As well as this, keys and pickups are now 3D objects, which can make them difficult to spot, as they can blend in with the environment. The remastered mode also had slightly worse camera placements in some spots. This made it difficult to see where I was going sometimes, particularly in tight spaces, as the camera will be very pulled in.

Difficulty is also something that should be discussed. While the added modern features may help new players get through, TR3 is still aggravatingly difficult, and contains some of the hardest levels in the series, due to the number of traps and environmental hazards Lara will face. Many of the traps can catch anyone off-guard, even in the first level, such as a few spike pits on a hill Lara will roll down to progress in the level. As such, I highly recommend playing the games in order, due to the difficulty increasing significantly in each game.

Finally, I wish the developers had added an archival section about Lara’s exploits and history, similar to the way many other collections do. As one of the most recognizable videogame characters ever created, Lara Croft has a rich history, both in and out of games, and it would be great to see it on display in a collection like this. However, there’s nothing of the sort here, and it feels like a glaring omission.

Despite those issues, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered remains an excellent collection of Lara’s first adventures that allows fans, both new and old, to dive into Lara’s earliest days and see where she got her start. Here’s hoping that The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and Angel of Darkness will be part of a second collection!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics and published by Aspyr. It is currently available on PS4/5, XBO/X/S, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 24 hours were devoted to the trilogy, and they were not completed. There is no multiplayer mode.

Parents: This game has an ESRB rating of M for Blood, Intense Violence and Suggestive Themes”. There is not a more detailed description on the ESRB website as of this publishing, but the game features areas where Lara can be impaled by spikes, crushed, drowned, killed by various enemies, and set on fire. Characters and enemies show blood when injured, and dead bodies remain on screen. Tomb Raider III’s South Pacific levels feature a group of indigenous people that practice cannibalism, and whose depiction evokes negative stereotypes.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game offers subtitles. Subtitles cannot be resized. This game is not fully accessible. There are some audio cues for entering secret areas (a musical cue and/or Lara saying “aha”) that can be missed by those hard of hearing. However, there is a tracker (the compass in the inventory menu) for all the levels’ secrets, item pick-ups, and kills.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers mostly remappable controls, for gamepad as well as mouse and keyboard. Hot keys for weapons and quick save/load cannot be remapped.

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