Paper Mario has always been a hilarious spin-off to the beloved Mario franchise, though it did lose its way for a little bit. The Origami King brings the series that I love back from its papery grave and gave me so much more. Long story short, I’m a happy clam. Short story long? Well, read…
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Carrion is a new Metroidvania game from indie developer Phobia Game Studio. You are fast-moving, utterly vicious monster on the loose in a remote science facility. Carrion delights in taking the tropes of the genre — power creep, exploration and backtracking — and turning them on their ear in ways that are surprisingly effective. One…
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Upon its reveal, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom stood out in a sea of remakes and remasters. Here, among so many others, was one to look forward to, for the reason anyone looks forward to any remake: I have many fond memories of the original PS2/Xbox version. That said, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini…
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Deadly Premonition 2. It’s finally here. If you’ve played the original Deadly Premonition, you likely have fond memories of of a laughable game. Its larger-than-life characters, terrible voice acting, stiff gameplay and dull visuals made it perfect fodder for Twitch streamers looking for a game to make fun of. What they didn’t expect was that,…
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It finally happened — after decades of waiting, a brand new Pokemon Snap game is on the way. The announcement came during last night’s Pokemon Presents broadcast, which highlighted a number of brand new Pokemon games coming to the Nintendo Switch. Though it only ran for 10 minutes, the broadcast had a lot to cover….
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Borderlands remains one of the most important staples in recent gaming memory, as the granddaddy of looter shooters. Sure, many have learned, but none have quite mastered this unique blend of first-person gunplay, humour and exploration in the same way that Borderlands does. By now, most of us scavenged the land of Pandora, in search…
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2006’s DS classic Clubhouse Games was a huge hit, to absolutely no one’s surprise. The perfect marriage for handheld gaming, it stylishly bought together a comprehensive index of 42 classic card and board games which have been etched into history for a good reason. Everything from Chess and Blackjack to Ludo and Solitaire was included,…
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When Xenoblade Chronicles was originally released for the Nintendo Wii in 2010-12, it felt like a tectonic shift in the way we talked about JRPGs. Suddenly, people were talking about the niche genre’s shiny new, universally acclaimed story as the genre’s pinnacle, as if Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises never existed. The deep-world of…
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Crysis Remastered is coming. Confirmation came via a leak from its official site. At this time, the site has not gone live with the announcement. Here’s the blurb straight from the site: “Crysis Remastered brings new graphic features, high-quality textures, and the CRYENGINE’s native hardware – and API-agnostic ray tracing solution for PC, PlayStation, Xbox,…
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I’ve never played an Animal Crossing game before. This might make me a terrible Nintendo fan. My curiosity was piqued by Animal Crossing: New Horizons in the lead-up to its launch. It seemed to offer something calming and unchallenging in a global moment of hardship and complexity. Fans have now had over two weeks to…
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Let me preface this review with an admission: despite my love for Pokémon, I’ve never played any of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games before. Rescue Team DX is a remake that combines the DS titles Rescue Team Red and Rescue Team Blue into a single package. Since I’ve not played them, it allowed me to go into…
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Doom Eternal is a lot of fun. It’s a game that looks directly to the wildly popular Doom 2016 for its cues on just about everything. It introduces a suite of new mechanics that give combat greater depth. It asks you to face your enemies head-on and to never shy away from the challenge. Rip….
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Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl is another RPG developed by Level-5 (developers of the Layton series). Originally released in Japan in April of last year, Snack World is now available for the rest of the world to enjoy. Why “Gold”? Well, because this worldwide release features all the DLCs available from the Japanese version. You…
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Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath first released back in 2005 on the original Xbox. Released in what was then the late-January dead zone, Stranger’s Wrath was critically adored but sank commercially when Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords launched around a fortnight later. I was one of the few that bought Stranger’s…
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Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is yet another Wii U game making its way to the Nintendo Switch. When the original Tokyo Mirage Sessions made its debut on the Wii U, it didn’t exactly make much of a splash. Like so many titles to launch on the Wii U, it languished in relative obscurity. Now,…
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Nintendo has unveiled a special edition of its popular Switch console, inspired by the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Look at it. So simple. So beautiful. As charming and soothing as any Animal Crossing game. The redress starts with pastel blue and green coloured Joy-Cons with white wrist straps. The Switch unit itself features a…
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Nintendo has leaned heavily on nostalgia to make the Switch one of their most successful systems to date. There’s nothing wrong with that, and for the most part it has worked remarkably well. Ports and remakes have been leading the pack, tiding us over while new IP is few and far between. Yes, it can…
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Time to admit it: you need a gift guide. It’s a few days to Chrimbo and you’ve only just realised because you’ve been playing Death Stranding. You’ll be at the shopping centre this weekend to see Star Wars which presents an opportunity to do some last minute Christmas shopping. But what do you get the…
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Understandably, some fans were upset when it was announced that Pokémon Sword and Shield would severely limit which Pokémon could be caught across all eight generations. It was dubbed “dexit” (perhaps to keep with the UK theme), decried online (ad nauseam), and even led to a few grown adults crossing their arms, stomping their precious…
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The Layton series played a big part in my schooling years. Little ol’ me and my Nintendo DS, absolutely stoked to have this series in hand. If there was any gaming franchise that kept my mind alight, these were it, thanks to all its puzzles. There are now seven games in the Layton series. This…
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How on earth has been four years since the last Olympic Games? Mario and Sonic can’t believe it either apparently, reigniting their generations-long blood fued in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Previous titles in this series have been enjoyable, if forgettable, party games, a series of mini-games based on numerous Olympic…
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Ghostbusters: The Video Game launched in 2009 to great commercial and critical success, a rarity for a licensed game. It boasted an in-canon story following the events of Ghostbusters 2 and the entire original cast — Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and the late, great Harold Ramis — reprised their iconic roles. In today’s…
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the greatest role-playing games ever made. I knew that the first time I played it at a preview in January 2015 and it remains true now over four years after its release. CD Projekt Red’s masterpiece/labour of love operates at a scale that would make other genre…
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Rarely do you find a puzzle role-playing game where the abilities you use to succeed are as eccentric as its cast of characters. Rarer still is the opportunity to share that experience with another player. This is why the Trine series is so important to me. With Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince, developer Frozenbyte has…
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Those already familiar with Dragon Quest XI S would be nodding, big grin on their face, when I write that this is not only one of the best JRPGs to arrive in years, but the single best entry in a legendary series that has spanned decades. That in itself is quite the feat, seeing as…
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Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair gets a lot of things right, and chief among them: it proves that the character platformer genre, the long-dead moneymaker of the 16-bit era, can still engage and excite in 2019. The original Yooka-Laylee was considered by most to be a good if unremarkable 3D platformer. Created by many of the…
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I’ve heard it suggested that the Dark Souls series is a modern take on the Metroidvania genre, and I generally think that’s correct. There are many parallels, from exploration and frequent backtracking, specific save locations, the memorisation of enemy patterns, slow power creep and subtle environmental storytelling. Developers The Game Kitchen have taken this comparison…
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There’s no better herald of the end-of-year video game rush than the arrival of a new FIFA game, and arrive it does with FIFA 20. There is a specific audience for these games — bring up FIFA around a group of gamers and third of them will immediately lose interest, another third remain neutral, and the remaining third…
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It’s been a little over two years since Daemon X Machina was announced at Nintendo’s 2017 E3 Direct and, after suffering through a troubled beta earlier in the year, has finally launched on the Switch. The trailers paint a picture of an amazing mech brawler with a lot of potential. Coming off of Astral Chain,…
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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a remake of the 1993 Game Boy title of the same name. In many ways, Link’s Awakening is an ideal game to remake — because it appeared on a system that many players today would never have owned, and has never been considered a must-play entry in the series, it will…
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