PS5 Game Reviews
Mini Review Breakers Collection (PS5) - Cult 90s Fighter Finally Finds a Bigger Audience
Breaker the ice
If you owned a PS1, there’s a good chance you were playing Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, or Tekken 2 in 1996. You probably weren’t playing Breakers, a cult fighting game from Visco Corporation which first launched in Japanese arcades at the very end of that year, and was later ported to the NeoGeo AES...
Review Firefighting Simulator: The Squad (PS5) - Scorching Sim Shines in Online Co-Op
Hot stuff
You fight a lot of things in video games: zombies, terrorists, and those oddly enthusiastic blue slime things from the Dragon Quest franchise. Fires, however, are not a particularly common foe. Sure, there was Konami’s Firefighter F.D.18 on the PS2 and even Burning Rangers on the SEGA Saturn, but it’s not as common theme as you’d...
Mini Review Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS5) - A Marginal Upgrade on Backwards Compatibility
At least it’s a free upgrade
Republished on Wednesday, 28th December, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. The latest in a long line of free next-gen upgrades, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order plays things pretty straight. The native PS5...
Mini Review Togges (PS5) - Cute, Colourful Platformer with a Curious Twist
Serious blockage
Togges (rhymes with bogies) is an imaginative puzzle platformer with a novel approach to movement. The titular creatures are cutesy cubes you can spawn in from certain points in each of the game's sizeable hub worlds. Essentially playing as a Roomba, you can move fairly freely, but you'll need to lead a connected trail of Togges to...
Mini Review Neon White (PS5) - First-Person Platformer Is Super Slick
Stairway to heaven
Neon White is an unusual hybrid that works so well in practice, but looks bananas written down. It's a first-person platformer in which guns are also traversal abilities, and it becomes an engaging visual novel in the downtime. The resulting game is slick, stylish, and modern, with its real strength being the compulsion to beat...
Blood and shine
It's been over seven years since the original release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and as far as we're concerned, it's still unmatched in the modern role-playing space. If anything, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition is a poignant reminder that many of the bars CD Projekt Red set in 2015 have yet to be topped. Geralt's...
Mini Review The Rumble Fish 2 (PS5) - Cult Arcade Fighter in Barebones Port
Beatrice flogger
One of the industry’s more positive movements right now is the preservation of cult classics on the PS Store. While there’s still a long way to go, we’re gradually beginning to see publishers dig deep into their catalogues, and resurrect releases from yesteryear for a whole new audience to enjoy. The Rumble Fish 2 is a...
Review Marvel's Midnight Suns (PS5) - Heroic Social Strategy Experiment Is Almost Super
A kind of Magik
In an era of samey mainstream games, Marvel’s Midnight Suns sticks out like a Spider-Man cosplay in a white collar working place. While this heroic effort from iconic XCOM developer Firaxis pulls liberally from a spectrum of different sources – the likes of Slay the Spire, Metal Gear Acid, and even Fire Emblem: Three Houses all...
Mini Review Samurai Maiden (PS5) - Rough Combat Cuts Fun Anime Adventure Short
Girls just want to have fun
It’s the 15th century and one of Japan’s leading figures, Oda Nobunaga, tasks a 21st century school girl and a trio of ninjas to slay the Demon Lord. With the power of friendship and kisses, off you go to save the world. Emphasis on kisses, by the way, because if the title didn't give it away, Samurai Maiden is that...
Mini Review Paper Cut Mansion (PS5) - A Slow-Paced and Repetitive Rogue-Lite
Fit for the Shredder
Paper Cut Mansion is a procedurally generated rogue-lite horror, set within a mansion made entirely of cardboard. You take on the role of police detective Toby, in search of clues to explain the strange goings on and how he came to be in this paper-craft property. You will explore the mansion floor by floor, with the aim being...
Review Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5) - A Fantastic Remaster of a Fun But Flawed RPG
That's Fair enough
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a PSP exclusive spinoff from 2007 that's often remembered fondly through the tinted goggles of nostalgia. In truth, the original Crisis Core was a messy game when it first released, and it's only gotten worse with age. Much like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the animated film that flanked...
Mini Review Sable (PS5) - Beautiful Coming of Age Adventure
Sable is not so stable
After a year of exclusivity over on Xbox and PC, Sable — a coming of age exploration game — has finally made its way over to PS5. The important question, as always, is has the wait been worth it? And the answer is yes, but only if you’re willing to overlook its technical issues. On a desert planet called Midden, when a...
Review Need for Speed Unbound (PS5) - This Stylish Arcade Racer Has Substance to Match
Street artist
It feels great to have a properly good arcade racing game on PlayStation again. They don't come around too often these days, with petrol heads generally favouring more realistic driving experiences. Despite this trend, Need for Speed drops by every couple of years to provide some high-speed thrills and glorious power slides. The series...
Review The Callisto Protocol (PS5) - Just Like Dead Space, for Better and Worse
Moon's infected
For years now, The Callisto Protocol has invited comparisons to the 2008 survival horror classic Dead Space. From the camera perspective and a lot of the combat through to the atmosphere and setting, it all screams silent protagonist Isaac Clarke and his great stomping boot. Wanting to emulate that tense undertaking 14 years later is...
Review Soccer Story (PS5) - Ballsy Footie Adventure Misses the Target
Bale out
Football-themed role-playing games aren’t anywhere near as rare as you may think. Captain Tsubasa, inspired of course by the manga, has been a mainstay of the Japanese video game landscape dating all the way back to the NES – and more recently Level 5’s strategy-style Inazuma Eleven has found worldwide appeal. Soccer Story takes a...
Mini Review Norco (PS5) - A Peculiar Prosaic Paradigm
Norc by Norcwest
While on the surface, Norco might seem a fairly traditional point-and-click adventure title, this would do a gross disservice to what the game actually has to offer. A grungy, dystopian, post-capitalist mining town, Norco, Louisiana is a bleakly beautiful setting for a brilliant story. Offering a unique cross-pollination of...
Mini Review Gungrave G.O.R.E. (PS5) - It's Definitely a New Gungrave
2022? More like 2002
If you asked us to guess which PS2 game would get a sequel in the year 2022, there's no chance we'd have said Gungrave. The original launched back in 2002 and was the brainchild of mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow, best known for writing the critically acclaimed Trigun. The original Gungrave was a stylish, albeit incredibly basic,...
Mini Review Inertial Drift: Twilight Rivals Edition (PS5) - More Style, More Substance in PS5 Port
Eurobeat the clock
We enjoyed Inertial Drift when it originally released back in 2020 for the PS4, and we're happy to declare that it can still be a deliciously addictive arcade racer here in 2022. Inertial Drift: Twilight Rivals Edition is an enhanced PS5 port (or DLC pack, if you're still on PS4), which throws in fresh content like more tracks,...
Mini Review Arkanoid: Eternal Battle (PS5) - Retro Revival Can't Overcome Sticker Shock
Breakout
Taito’s Arkanoid may not have been the original brick breaker – that accolade, of course, rests with Atari’s Breakout – but it’s probably the best. With the addition of weapons and power-ups, as well as 3D enemies recompiled as sprites, it took a primitive concept and completely reinvented it. Now, over 35 years removed from its...
Review Evil West (PS5) - Dumb Vampire Slaying Fun Certainly Doesn't Suck
Full-blooded
While there has been something of a resurgence in 'AA' titles over recent years, games like Evil West still don't come around all that often. Schlocky, violent, and just dumb fun, it's a linear action game with a heavy focus on an ever-expanding combat system. It's also got big early 2000s vibes, with characters that have cartoonishly...
Review The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (PS5) - One for the Fans Lacks Ambition
I want to play a game
With four instalments under its belt, The Dark Pictures Anthology from Supermassive Games feels like a roller coaster. Following an underwhelming start in Man of Medan, the horror series was getting better and better with Little Hope and House of Ashes. It appears, however, the latter may have been the peak o
Review Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (PS5) - Long Live the King
A storm of steel
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is an intricate feudal relationship simulator set in a dynamic sandbox world dominated by six medieval kingdoms roughly analogous to cultures from our own. It features massive-scale battles, deep character customisation, action-based melee and ranged combat (on horseback or afoot), a living,...
Review Goat Simulator 3 (PS5) - Bigger, Madder Sequel Is Udderly Ridiculous
Bleat-'em-up
Goat Simulator 3 knows exactly who it's for. If you found the wonky physics and toilet humour of the original Goat Simulator about as amusing as the bubonic plague, the odds are incredibly low that you'll find anything of value in this follow-up. Even the name is a daft joke; this is in fact the second instalment. Your Google searches...
Mini Review Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS5) - Falcom's Fantastic Action RPG Is Still a Joy
Adventure, at a price
Considered by many to be one of, if not the best game in Falcom's long-running action RPG franchise, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is still a joy to play six whole years after its PS Vita debut. Series protagonist and lifelong adventurer Adol Christin gets shipwrecked on an uncharted island, and has little choice but to gather his...
Review Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration (PS5) - A Warts and All Celebration of an Industry Icon
Insert coin
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration may very well set the standard for retro compilations moving forwards, and not necessarily because of the content it includes. In truth, a significant number of the 100 or so releases included here are borderline impenetrable – appreciated inclusions, yes, but pretty much unplayable. It’s the way...
Review Tactics Ogre: Reborn (PS5) - A Tale That Grew in the Telling
Sing to me of a time long past
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a return to the golden age of isometric strategy RPGs, which, paradoxically, it helped to create. Building upon the rock solid foundations of 1995 Super Nintendo release Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and the 2011 PSP remake of the same name, Reborn, in turn, makes everything old new...
Mini Review Save Room (PS5) - RE4 Delight Turned Full Game
What're ya sorting?
Considering just how beloved the inventory management of Resident Evil 4 was, it's insane to think it's taken this long for someone to spin it out into a full game. 17 years later, Save Room is a completely faithful recreation of the enjoyable Tetris-like mechanic that works as a neat distraction for an hour or two. This is the...
Mini Review Return to Monkey Island (PS5) - Original Creators Return to Beloved Point and Click
Rubber chicken with pulley optional
We find the mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood sitting on a park bench, a bit older but not necessarily wiser. He is relaying the tale of a quest from The Secret of Monkey Island to a familiar youngster. The story that plays out is essentially the greatest hits of his first two adventures, with a sprinkling of...
Mini Review The Entropy Centre (PS5) - Portal-Esque Adventure Rewinds Time
If I could turn back time
Waking up in a strange facility, protagonist Aria Adams finds herself a Handheld Entropy Device (HED): a gun-like entity which can bend time, and houses a sassy virtual companion named Astra. If that sounds vaguely familiar, then you should already know what to expect. It’s hard to ignore the influence of Portal in The...
Review Sonic Frontiers (PS5) - Bold New Gamble for the Series Pays Off
I must proceed at a high velocity
After 23 years of 3D Sonic adventures, we all know how we feel about them; some love them, some demand they be launched into the sun. Regardless of your opinion on the 3D games, it was clear that, after the disaster that was Sonic Forces — a game many consider one of his worst ever — something drastic had to...