Bandai Namco Game Reviews
Review Code Vein 2 (PS5) - Repetitive Vampiric Soulslike May Still Sate Your Bloodlust
Mostly mediocre
Code Vein 2 is the latest in a long line of action RPGs chasing the lofty heights of FromSoftware's immortal Dark Souls series, and like so many others before it, falls well short of the mark. Bland visually and uninspiring narratively, Bandai Namco's latest soulslike foray (previously publishing the aforementioned Souls series,...
Mini Review Once Upon a Katamari (PS5) - An Eccentric, Joyful Time Capsule
All hail the Prince
Once Upon a Katamari brings back Bandai Namco's cult classic franchise with an all-new game that feels ripped straight from its PS2 prime. By and large, this is the same Katamari Damacy madness we all fell in love with 20 years ago — roll a ball around each stage, gathering up myriad objects to make it as big as you can. With...
Hey Jude
Having been shackled to the PS3 ever since its release all the way back in 2011, it's great to see Tales of Xillia make a deserved comeback through Tales of Xillia Remastered. Part of Bandai Namco's ongoing mission to re-release just about every Tales title on as many platforms as possible, Xillia Remastered is a predictably solid...
Mini Review Tekken 3 (PS1) - PlayStation's Definitive Fighter Is Still King
Enter the Tekken
Tekken was already a big deal before Tekken 3 came along, but the third instalment rocketed Bandai Namco's series to truly awesome heights. It was both a revolutionary 3D fighting game and a commercial juggernaut, helping define an entire console generation. But perhaps the most impressive thing about Tekken 3 is that, over three...
Review Little Nightmares III (PS5) - Faithful Sequel Keeps It Creepy, But Plays It Safe
Better off Alone
Playing through Little Nightmares III feels like slipping back into a familiar dream, one longtime fans will recognise the moment it begins. Supermassive Games hasn’t tried to reinvent the series in any wild way, opting instead to mirror the grotesque horror and endearing puzzles that have defined Little Nightmares from the...
Review Digimon Story Time Stranger (PS5) - Monster Taming RPG Squanders So Much Potential
De-digivolution
The core of Digimon Story Time Stranger is fantastic. As is the case with the Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth games, the underlying system of discovering, raising, and evolving your Digimon is where this long-awaited RPG excels. However, all too often, Time Stranger stands in its own way, sidelining its brilliantly addictive gameplay...
Mini Review Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac (PS5) - Fine Remake Won't Set the World on Fire
The Pac is back... again
While best known for his arcade roots, Pac-Man's PlayStation history is arguably best defined by the Pac-Man World trilogy. Following the 2022 remake of the original Pac-Man World, the question on many fans’ minds was whether Pac-Man World 2 would be getting the same treatment. Three years later, Now Production and Bandai...
Review Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (PS5) - First Non-Clap Hanz Entry Is a Subpar Effort
Bogey
Everybody's Golf is one of those franchises many people associate with PlayStation, as it's been a fairly consistent presence on each console since the very start. Unfortunately, developer Clap Hanz is no longer partnered with Sony to deliver these consistently fun golf games, and duty has fallen to HYDE for Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots, the...
Review Shadow Labyrinth (PS5) - Pac-Man Meets Metroid in Strange Offshoot That Almost Works
Maze runner
Pac-Man has always been at home within mazes full of enemies trying to kill you, so the move to a Metroidvania doesn't feel like that big of a leap. Having said that, Shadow Labyrinth takes Bandai Namco's 45-year-old mascot in a wild new direction, placing him in a dark, sci-fi world that the casual onlooker may not realise is related to...
Mini Review Patapon 1+2 Replay (PS5) - The Best Versions of Two PSP Classics in One Package
Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon
The PS4 remasters of Patapon and Patapon 2 did a sufficient job of reintroducing people to the quirky PSP rhythm titles where you direct tribes of warriors to the beat, but they definitely had their share of problems. Input lag and muddy textures put a dampener on the initial attempt. Bandai Namco has taken a mulligan here,...
Review Elden Ring Nightreign (PS5) - A Ruthless Roguelike Reinvention of the Lands Between
FromSoftware goes all-in on multiplayer
Elden Ring Nightreign is a vastly different kind of FromSoftware experience. It’s taking the hallmark, tough-as-nails combat and applying it to a three-player co-op title that takes inspiration from battle royales and roguelikes. But with these core changes, does that FromSoftware magic remain? This may not...
Review Bleach: Rebirth of Souls (PS5) - A Perfect Example of Style Over Substance
Rebirth of trolls
Bleach, one of the keystone manga and anime franchises of the early 2000s alongside Naruto and One Piece, has finally been given another chance at carving out some kind of legacy in the video game space. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a one-on-one fighting game that's easy to pick up and... well, truth be told, it's fairly easy to...
Mini Review Tales of Graces f Remastered (PS5) - Classic Tales Game Is Better Than Ever
Aging gracefully
In this modern era of games getting rereleased, it’s crazy to think it’s been over 12 years since Tales of Graces f was released on western shores. Thankfully you no longer need to dust off your ancient PS3 to play, as Bandai Namco has spruced up this classic RPG for modern consoles with Tales of Graces f Remastered. As you’d...
Proceed directly to jail
Freedom Wars Remastered is the triumphant return of the fan-favourite, fascistic Monster Hunter-style action game, originally published by Sony for the PS Vita in 2014. As the PS Vita (sadly) never achieved the breakout success it deserved, we always felt this forward-thinking title didn't get a fair shake. With "volunteers"...
Review Unknown 9: Awakening (PS5) - Brand New IP Shows Plenty of Promise
Step into the Unknown
Unknown 9: Awakening is the debut game from studio Reflector Entertainment but not the first entry into the Unknown universe; so far there are novels, comics, and even a dramatised podcast. Thankfully, Awakening is a standalone experience and so you don’t need to delve into any of the other cross-media releases to understand...
Zero hour
Close to two decades after its release, beloved PS2 arena fighter Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has been handed a sequel in all but name. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a throwback of epic proportions — the kind of all-out, franchise-encompassing brawler that's been sorely missed beyond the Naruto Ninja Storm series. Zero's biggest...
Mini Review Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5) - An Impressively Addictive Return to Form
Break it back down
How do you follow up on the disaster that was 2018's New Gundam Breaker? Well, in the case of Gundam Breaker 4, you simply return to the basics, and remind yourself of what made the series so much fun in the first place. This sequel goes out of its way to keep things focused: you grind out missions, collect parts, beef up your...
Slime to grind
Aside from being a total pain in the arse to type, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Isekai Chronicles is an action RPG based on the popular anime of the same name. The adaptation offers a brief introduction to the source material, before plopping you into one of the property's later story arcs. Those unfamiliar with the...
Mini Review Spy x Anya: Operation Memories (PS5) - A Cute But Repetitive Slice of Life
Elegant?
Mercifully, Spy x Family was never going to work as a cut-and-paste anime arena brawler. Tatsuya Endo’s laugh-out-loud slice-of-life manga sensation is effectively a comedy, and while it does have its fair share of spy action, you were never going to see expressive infant Anya flying across a 3D environment performing Kamehamehas –...
Review Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PS5) - Familiar FromSoftware Brilliance
Into the Shadow Realm
In the past couple of years, developers have attempted to reclaim the term "expansion". Arguing there's a difference between traditional DLC and fully-fledged add-ons, the likes of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores have been used as poster childs for the movement. Whether there really is...
Mini Review Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 (PS5) - An Insane Amount of Stuff in an Ageing Game
Not quite super
Still being updated and still being played by plenty of people, Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 is a prime example of Dragon Ball's seemingly eternal appeal. The fighting-RPG is almost eight years old, and has just been handed yet another shot in the arm through this native PS5 port. It's even getting a brand new, four-part DLC saga over the...
Review Sand Land (PS5) - Open World Adaptation Is a Demonic Delight
Tanks for the memories
Originally published all the way back in 2000 as a standalone manga, it's strange, but not unwelcome, to see Sand Land be revived as both an anime series and a video game almost a quarter of a century later. Authored by the late and legendary Akira Toriyama, Sand Land is an incredibly charming story about a post-apocalyptic...
Mini Review Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS5) - Anime Fighter Is Still Godlike, Despite Dodgy Online
Your wish is granted
When Dragon Ball FighterZ first released in 2018 for PS4, it was hailed as one of the greatest anime fighting games ever made — and rightfully so. Crafted by the genre experts at Arc System Works, FighterZ was and still is a masterclass in how to adapt an existing franchise. The team-based brawler is both highly accessible on...
Review Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash (PS5) - Cursed Trash Solely Exists to Grab Your Cash
Salmon woe
As arguably the biggest anime and manga franchise on the planet right now, all publisher Bandai Namco had to do was put together a serviceable adaptation of Gege Aktusami’s modern-day sensation and reap the rewards. Regrettably, the dismal Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is the worst kind of tie-in: a vapid cash grab clearly developed on a...
Review Tekken 8 (PS5) - Next-Gen Tekken Is a Modern Fighting Game Masterclass
Heat haze hype
Tekken 8 has been a long time coming. Its predecessor, the unprecedentedly popular Tekken 7, launched what feels like an age ago; the original arcade release happened all the way back in 2015, before a much-updated version came to consoles in 2017. However, its shockingly long life cycle — perpetuated by an incredibly strong...
Connect more
With its gigantic character roster, original story mode, and fairly expansive 'History' mode, Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections just about manages to justify its existence — even though, at its core, this is pretty much a repackaging of previous Storm titles. Featuring every playable character from past games alongside...
Review Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn (PS5) - Solid Expansion Treads Very Familiar Territory
Arise again
Right off the bat, the biggest problem with Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn is trying to remember how to actually play Tales of Arise. The (largely fantastic, in our opinion) action RPG launched what feels like an eternity ago back in September 2021, and now, over two years later, we're getting a full-on post-game expansion. But the DLC...
Review Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon (PS5) - Great Mecha Action at Times Feels Stunted
Earth to Raven
Swapping swords and spells for mechs and missiles probably wasn't the first thing a FromSoftware accountant suggested following the absurd success of Elden Ring, but then the Japanese developer doesn't do things by the books. Having sold more than 20 million copies of the open world masterpiece, the studio has returned to a series it...
Review Park Beyond (PS5) - Shallow Park Builder Besieged by Technical Issues
Beyond a joke
At its heart, Park Beyond evokes memories of the Theme Park games from a couple of decades ago, and it's perhaps due to our nostalgia for those titles that we enjoyed our time with this as much as we did. There's something to be said for the simplified theme park builder, in which you don't need to worry about navigating a dozen...
Review We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie (PS5) - A Great Version of the Series' Highlight
Is it too on the nose to say We Love Katamari?
After the immense success of Katamari Damacy, The King of All Cosmos deems fit to send his miniature son back to the planet earth to grant the requests of fans of the original game. This bizarre fourth-wall destroying plot serves to kick off a suitably bizarre game: We Love Katamari. Following on from...
