Eliwood8

Supergiant Games actually just announced today that people can sign up to join the Hades II technical test, basically a pre-Early Access test just to see how the game runs on players' hardware. So there probably won't be any details tomorrow, and a final release date is still far away.

Ready to shake off the formula of turn-based strategy games? The DioField Chronicle has all the trappings of a Fire Emblem game or similar character-driven tactical game, yet battles play out in real time, forcing you to adapt to whatever challenges are thrown at you. At least, that seems to be the idea, but the final product lacks some of the rich strategy depth that makes victory so satisfying. In a setting where an aggressive empire is out to conquer a rival alliance of smaller nations, this game actually takes place on a separate island called DioField, where the kingdom of Alletain is rich in Jade, a powerful magical mineral. Naturally the war between the empire and the alliance spills onto DioField's shores, where you play as a group of mercenaries out to make a name for yourselves. Hidden motives and desires draw the characters into a messy conflict with the fate of the kingdom at stake. There's a good story somewhere in DioField Chronicle, but the game does a terrible job of telling it. For one thing, there are far too many long expositions that dump information on the player without letting any of the details sink in. These lore-dense cutscenes also seem to rob us of some much needed character development. The characters are woefully flat here, despite clearly having plenty of opportunity for political intrigue drama or interpersonal dynamics. The game actually hides quite a bit of detail in the in-game notes/appendix, which is easy to overlook but provides some pretty important info about the main characters. Ultimately the storytelling is a mess and is in dire need of some editing to actually make the narrative flow in an engaging way. The gameplay suffers from much the same problem: there's an intriguing battle system here, but the developers never push it into a fully engaging experience. This is a real-time strategy game, so you direct where you want your units to move to or which enemies to attack and then let their auto-attacks play out. Crucially though, you'll want to use each character's skills to deliver far more powerful attacks, status effects, or healing. Each skill has a cooldown so you need to be a little thoughtful about when to deploy them, especially since some skills have the ability to stun an enemy and interrupt their own skill attacks so you may want to hold onto them as a defensive measure. You'll also charge up your summoning orb as the battle progresses, which allows you to summon a particularly powerful ability to hurt enemies or heal allies. So all the pieces are here for a strategy game that requires you to stay on your toes and constantly monitor your team's status. The problem is, DioField Chronicle never pushes you to actually think strategically. Virtually every single encounter is far more easily won by sending all of your units to attack a single unit, defeat it, then move on to the next one. Splitting your units up is a liability rather than a benefit, and while enemies themselves are oftentimes grouped up, singling out targets one by one is still perfectly simple. Countering strengths/weaknesses is virtually nonexistent in this game as well. It doesn't help that almost every single mission has the same "defeat all enemies" objective, so you're just doing the same thing over and over. The only mild bit of strategy that you need to worry about is managing your cooldowns, and you'll probably fall into a simple loop of using the same ones over and over since each character only gets a few based on the weapon they have equipped. The map design feeds into this problem as well as most maps are incredibly basic and provide only one real way forward. The game desperately needs more incentive to actually experiment with tactics or challenge the player to actually think on their feet the way a real-time strategy game might. The controls also leave a bit to be desired since they seem to be clearly designed for a mouse and keyboard. It's not unplayable with a controller, but moving the cursor around the battlefield and selecting a unit has the awkward imprecision of a control stick mimicking a mouse. The battle graphics have a somewhat charming diorama vibe to them, as if these battles are playing out on a map display in a general's war room. The visuals outside of battles though feel like a generic JRPG and lack the personality to really set the game apart. The music is in the same boat with nothing necessarily bad about the soundtrack but nothing that stands out either. The voice acting has a lot of ups and downs as well, partly because of the flat script and partly because of some flat performances from certain characters. The game lasts around twenty hours but that might be more of a negative than a positive when the gameplay ends up feeling so repetitive. Although the core tactics of the game never feel like they evolve, you do have a few options in terms of which characters you deploy, which does add some variety for replay value. The DioField Chronicle has plenty of potential but fails to capitalize on a lot of it. Real-time battles with a small group of characters feels like it would require careful strategic consideration, but the game does a poor job of throwing engaging challenges at you and almost pushes you toward the most basic and repetitive strategy instead. The complex but convoluted story isn't likely to hold your attention for long either, leaving little for strategy fans to truly engage with here. Rating: 6 out of 10 Tactical Battles

Warfare tactics are once again cute, colorful, and groovy with Wargroove 2, a sequel to developer Chucklefish's 2019 game. All of the main characters and factions return with a new conflict brewing between them, plus a handful of new units allow for even more strategies and approaches. Overall it may not feel like there's too much that's new, but why fix what isn't broken? The story begins with a new faction, the Faahri, a mouse-like people who are investigating ancient ruins in the Greenwood. The forest's Floran faction naturally doesn't take kindly to that and things get hairy from there. The narrative is actually broken up into several smaller campaigns, each one focusing on a different faction and its respective commanders. The cool thing is that this gives you a wide view of the continent of Aurania, and diverse perspectives on how or why factions clash with one another. It also makes it easier to focus on commanders' personal stories. Throughout each mini-narrative, the game balances a ton of humor with solid character-building moments and lore development. However, the ending of the story fails to tie things together in a satisfying way. The final campaign feels rushed, incomplete, or possibly even left dangling for the sake of DLC or a sequel. It's a shame too since the overall conflict is definitely interesting, it's just that the story doesn't fully develop in an engaging way or conclude on a satisfying note. All of the core gameplay mechanics remain the same from the first Wargroove (and it's still heavily influenced by the Advance Wars series). This is a turn-based strategy game where you position your units on a grid-based battlefield and spend gold to recruit more units in order to defeat your opponent. The Wargroove games have a couple of unique catches though. For one, each unit has the ability to critically hit with specific parameters. For example, archers gain a critical hit boost if they don't move before attacking, while cavalry units get a boost for moving their full range before attacking. Each commander also has a unique Groove that charges up as you attack, capture villages, or take damage. Grooves are extremely powerful and can be a serious boon for your army. In Wargroove 2, you can charge the Groove to 200% capacity, granting an even more powerful effect. Using critical hits and Grooves intelligently is the key to winning battles. Additionally, Wargroove 2 introduces new commanders (with unique new Grooves) as well as a handful of new unit types, including thieves and long-range gunmen. These new features fit nicely with the original cast, adding yet more variety and strategies to the gameplay without feeling overpowered or overwhelming. Carefully advancing your army while building up your resources (and denying the enemy access to resources) is once again a satisfying and engaging test of strategic skills. The story mode does a great job of keeping maps and objectives varied. Although the classic format in a game like this is to defeat the enemy commander/seize their base to win, many campaign missions feature unique objectives such as surviving a certain number of turns or reaching a point on the map. Some use the classic fog of war to keep the enemy army hidden, and sometimes there are additional hazards that appear on the map. The gameplay never gets repetitive here, even with the short multi-campaign story format. Veteran strategy players might not find the campaign too difficult to conquer, but there are robust difficulty options that you can play around with. Most missions feature two bonus objectives which can dictate how you play—clear in X turns, don't let too many units die, etc. Even if the main objective is a little easy at times, completing all bonus objectives adds plenty of challenge and oftentimes will test your strategy skills. There's no penalty or bonus for completing these extra objectives, so it's a nice way of simply challenging yourself if you want. Wargroove 2 brings back the map creation and multiplayer (either local or online) side features from the first game. More importantly though, this game introduces a new roguelike mode called Conquest. You're given just a handful of units and a semi-randomly generated series of battles to complete. Your health doesn't recover between fights so playing defensively and taking advantage of all critical hits, Grooves, and terrain bonuses is paramount. When you defeat an enemy commander or other special unit, you'll earn Shards which can be spent on various upgrades or to unlock more commanders. As a roguelike, Conquest represents a ton of replay value for Wargroove 2. One run is very short, an hour or less, but you can unlock new routes to play. It's great to have this variety but Conquest can also be a bit difficult to get into. Its emphasis on defensive strategies means it plays very differently from the main campaign, and since it's so difficult to recover from a single mistake the whole mode can be a little off putting at first. The game's presentation is just as charming as its predecessor. The pixel art is lovely and all of the little touches in the animation add so much personality to what could otherwise be a pretty stuffy strategy game. It's also fun that each faction has such a unique art style for all of its units, though sometimes it does make it hard to tell what units the enemy has at a glance. The soundtrack does a great job of adding triumphant energy and excitement to the game as well, and short little voice lines add a bit more personality to each commander. Wargroove 2 doesn't do much to shake things up from its predecessor, but it does harmonize with the original game's groove nicely. Even just a handful of new commanders and units is enough to add some fresh variety and challenges to the strategy gameplay, and while Conquest mode is a bit daunting it also promises plenty of replay value for roguelike fans. Although the narrative's finale leaves something to be desired, the gameplay perfectly scratches an itch for strategy gamers. Rating: 9 out of 10 Grooves

- Sonic Superstars (Switch) Overall has the vibe of the Genesis Sonic games, but not impressed with this one. I think Sonic games just aren't for me. - Wargroove 2 (Switch) Liked the way the story is split up in different short faction campaigns, but the ending doesn't come together in a very satisfying way. The turn-based strategy gameplay is still a blast though. - Aztech: Forgotten Gods (Switch) Game is janky in a way that feels very early/mid 2000s era. Shame because the futuristic Aztec setting is pretty cool. - Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch) Very cute game. I don't mind that the gameplay mechanics are relatively simple, but the game is a bit short. Throw a few more costumes in there. - New Super Mario Bros. (DS) I was watching some video about Mario game animation and I just got a hankering to replay this. Might revisit 3D Land at some point too. Anyway, I feel like the game has a bit of a slow start and the power-ups are underwhelming, but there are some fun platforming challenges here, at least if you're going for all the star coins.

I didn't even know Shadows of the Damned was getting a remaster. It's definitely not at the top of my Suda 51 games list but still cool that it's getting a second life. And that's awesome that you met the man himself! Wow you weren't kidding with "unabashed parody" with that Transylvania Adventure game. Looks like a lot of fun though. Umbraclaw seems cool too, interesting way to vary the difficulty as you fail/get stuck.

Finally, Princess Peach gets another chance to step into the spotlight as the protagonist of her own adventure. Princess Peach: Showtime! allows her to shine as the leading lady of a variety of side-scrolling levels by donning different costumes that grant unique powers. While there may not be a ton of depth to the gameplay, it's still a lot of fun to sit back and enjoy the show. Princess Peach visits the Sparkle Theater to see a show, but when Madame Grape and her villainous Sour Bunch take over the building, it's up to the princess to set things right and rescue the Theets (little dudes that love theater, I guess?). Not surprisingly for a Mario universe game, the storytelling is extremely simple here but is nonetheless quite charming. The Theets are just adorable and seeing Peach jump into different roles, even in the context of a stage play, is a ton of fun to see. The gameplay is centered around these various roles that Peach takes on. With the aid of a star named Stella, Peach is able to step into costumes and gain new powers which allow her to fight back within the context of each play. For example, as the Swordfighter, she's able to hack and slash her way through opponents, or as the Ninja, she can hide and sneak her way through a level. The developers have been careful to keep things simple, though. Each transformation only has a couple of available actions—in fact, the majority of the game is simply played with the control stick plus the A and B buttons. As such, Showtime! is ideal for a young or novice player. Even though the game introduces numerous mechanics thanks to each costume, the limited actions ensure you're never overwhelmed with complex controls or gameplay concepts. That is, of course, a double-edged sword at times. Showtime! has a wide but relatively shallow gameplay scope, which is great for variety but perhaps lacks the depth that more skilled players crave. There is a bit of side content to help keep you engaged, such as finding all of the Sparkle Gems in each stage, though these rarely require deep thought or skill—these stages are all relatively short and straightforward, so even the hidden aspects of each stage aren't terribly well hidden. Still, if you're looking for a light, colorful adventure, Showtime! is not without its charms. In fact, although there are only ten different costumes that Peach transforms into, I was still impressed by the wide variety of roles she gets to take on. The more action-oriented ones do feel a bit similar, but then there are roles like the Detective who actually requires you to investigate an area and consider clues in the environment, or the Patissiere who more or less plays like a cute baking mini-game. Although I would've loved to have more depth to the gameplay mechanics, having such a variety of roles on constant rotation does keep the player engaged nicely. Showtime! definitely isn't a long game and can comfortably be finished in around seven or eight hours, but if you go for 100% completion you'll at least stretch out the experience a bit more. As mentioned, collecting every Sparkle Gem adds some game time, and once you finish the story there are a couple of incentives to go back and replay levels. Unfortunately that's exactly what it is though: replaying levels, unchanged except for one small feature, so trying for 100% would end up being pretty repetitive. Although the variety of gameplay mechanics is great the first time you play each level, replaying them does get pretty tiresome. The game's presentation, however, is nothing short of charming. The new Theet characters are just adorable and the whole scenery, from the theater itself to each play that Peach steps into, is a colorful delight. The levels are designed like they were stage play sets which allows for some fun little effects like many of the backgrounds appearing to be wood or cardboard—it has a vaguely Paper Mario feel to it, so if you're a fan of that you'll love the visuals here. And Peach herself obviously looks fabulous with every costume change she takes on. The soundtrack is a lot of fun as well and keeps things bubbly, bright, and light-hearted, whether Peach is dueling enemies with a sword or decorating a cake. Princess Peach: Showtime! is a charming way to let Peach take center stage in her own adventure. The varied but uncomplicated gameplay means that you're always bouncing to some new mechanic or concept, but they're never so complex that you get overwhelmed. Ultimately this does put the experience on the easy side, but if you're craving a light, breezy adventure or want to appeal to a new player, Showtime! is a fun time at the theater. Rating: 8 out of 10 Sparkle Gems

Sonic the Hedgehog returns to side-scrolling platforming with Sonic Superstars, a game clearly inspired by his classic 2D adventures with a more modern visual aesthetic. But while a lot of the pieces seem to be in place to make this game feel like a classic Sonic title, they don't quite come together in a totally satisfying whole. The story, at least, absolutely feels like an old-school Sonic game. Dr. Eggman is once again up to his shenanigans and is kidnapping various critters with the aid of Fang the Hunter and a new character named Trip. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy band together to stop him, all through dialogue-free cutscenes. It's simple but charming, and honestly less is probably more when it comes to the writing in Sonic games. Right off the bat you're thrown into a classic side-scrolling Sonic stage. Familiar hazards, obstacles and mechanics return, including the heavy sense of momentum that made Sonic stand out from Super Mario or other 90s platformers. Granted it's been a while since I played those Genesis games, but the physics in Sonic Superstars truly feel straight out of that era. Combine that sense of movement with the robotic enemies, loop-de-loops, and ample other hazards and you've got a solid foundation for a Sonic adventure. This game also ups the ante with a pretty great variety of level designs. Some feel a bit over-designed with too many ideas packed in, sure, but it's still nice to have numerous types of hazards thrown at you to keep each stage unique. However, there are plenty of other details that weigh down the experience. For one, the camera feels too tight on Sonic, which makes it hard to anticipate upcoming hazards. The classic games might have had a bit of this feeling as well but it's particularly claustrophobic here and leads to tons of cheap hits. Sonic Superstars also brings back the classic special stages from previous Sonic titles, but they are overused here. Obviously they are still optional (though collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds leads to some bonuses), but having so many special stage sequences in a single level makes it feel like it drags on. The levels already feel a bit too long here, and extending them further drains some of Sonic's familiar energy. The biggest issue in Sonic Superstars though is the absolute slog of fighting bosses. Boss fights are always a tricky proposition for Sonic anyway—how do you make a stationary fight feel engaging and rewarding for a character all about speed? In this game though, so many of the boss fights drag on tediously because you have such a small window to attack the boss before it goes into another sequence of attacks, most of which usually leave the boss completely invulnerable. Although there's some decent variety to the boss designs and their attacks, each fight ends up being a long, slow, repetitive battle that completely lacks the core charm of Sonic games. Sonic Superstars features a few new features that are also of mixed quality. First there are the Emerald Powers, special abilities that you unlock by collecting Chaos Emeralds. Each one grants a unique effect, such as launching a volley of attacks across the screen or allowing you to see hidden platforms. Although a nice idea, in practice these powers are underwhelming. Some are situational and therefore quite limited in use, while others just don't suit the usual Sonic platforming formula very well. The concept of adding some new tools for Sonic sounds good, but the execution was underwhelming. There are also a handful of extra modes in Sonic Superstars, including co-op multiplayer, time attack, battle mode, and online battle mode. The lack of split-screen hurts the co-op experience, but taken as a more wacky mode it definitely adds some chaos to the platforming. Time attack is pretty standard but battle mode is awfully underwhelming. You compete in a variety of short challenges—against other players or CPU opponents—but these mini-games just feel like half-baked concepts that lack strategy or depth. Even as a bonus feature, battle mode is pretty weak. The game's presentation has its ups and downs as well. The overall visual aesthetic is solidly Sonic, including some more imaginative stage backgrounds that are a lot of fun to see. The performance on the Switch is okay, barring some choppy loading screens and rocky online multiplayer. The soundtrack though, surprisingly, is pretty inconsistent. There are definitely some good tunes here, but just as many don't hit the level of catchy charm that the Genesis game soundtracks are known for. Sonic Superstars nails the fundamentals of side-scrolling Sonic, but still has a ways to go in mastering the fine-tuned level design that makes speeding around so fun or in adding modern features/powers that feel worthwhile. Most importantly, the absolute drag that is every boss fight in the game completely arrests the momentum of the Blue Blur's speedy but deep gameplay. Sonic Superstars will need quite a bit of polishing to actually reach superstar quality. Rating: 6 out of 10 Rings

- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Switch) To be honest, I was kind of surprised to see this game get so much praise online. I liked it, sure, but a good chunk just made me feel like I was playing any other Metroidvania that's come out in the past five years. - Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty (PS5) Once I remembered how to play the game I really enjoyed this DLC. Lots of good storylines/choices, even in the side quests; the kind of stuff that actually makes me want to roleplay a specific personality. Loved the emphasis on espionage in the main missions too. Makes me wish the whole game was at this level of quality. - Trine (Switch) Been a long time since I played the original. Elements of it do feel very rudimentary now but the bones are still solid. - Vernal Edge (Switch) The whole breaking enemies' stamina system just made combat way too repetitive. Platforming is okay but nothing all that special. - Sable (PS5) Loved the game's vibes, but even by the end of the game I just didn't dig the animation style. Still a neat game for being a purely exploration-focused adventure game though.

Considering the cult classic status of the Jet Set Radio games, it was about time another developer made a spiritual sequel in the stylish skating/graffiti-tagging subgenre. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes clear inspiration from JSR, down to the colorful and futuristic setting, but while it obviously relies upon what those games did before it, it still offers a fresh, funky experience, marred by some inconsistent performance on the Switch. The game opens with our nameless protagonist already being held in a police station, presumably for graffiting. One jailbreak later though you're escaping the station with a new ally, and from there the story takes a wild turn. Narrative really isn't Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's strong suit though. The plot manages to be too complicated while the writing is too flat, which leaves you with some confusing yet bland cutscenes. The setting, however, is a blast to live in. The neon-drenched streets of New Amsterdam is quite a playground to explore, and concepts like "cyberhead b-boys" just add a fun layer of sci-fi depth to the whole environment. Ultimately, your goal in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is to take control of the city's underground graffiti scene by spreading your tags and challenging other graffiti crews. With skates, skateboards, and bikes, you're able to explore, tag hard to reach walls, and build your score and reputation by pulling off stylish tricks. This core gameplay loop is lifted from Jet Set Radio, but it proves just as fun and compelling today as it did on the Dreamcast. Just like games like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater titles, it's a blast to nail a slick chain of tricks and prove your skills to the city's crews. The tagging system is nicely streamlined as well. You can gradually unlock new art pieces by progressing through the game or exploring, and rather than equipping a limited number or meticulously selecting each one to use you can spray different tags by moving your control stick in a different direction. It's fast, fluid, and offers a ton of variety, which is nice since there's a lot of great art in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. The tricks and movement system feels similarly streamlined, though the effect is a little less engaging. You don't have to learn complex moves here, you just press A, Y, or X to execute a trick, so on the one hand it's super easy to just pick up and dive right in, but on the other hand it does make the concept of doing tricks repetitive. The environment design also has its ups and downs. Overall there's a solid variety to the scenery which helps ensure the simple act of movement is always fun—as long as you're doing something stylish, at least. Skating across the ground is pretty slow, so you usually want to be grinding on rails or wall-riding, which also tends to lead to fresh tagging spots. The downside is that a couple of the levels have some wide open areas, which make for bland movement, and navigating the world as a whole is pretty tedious, i.e. the in-game map and moving from one area to the next is a little confusing and takes some long loading screens. Finally there's a combat system in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, which feels completely unnecessary. As you tag more of an area your wanted level will rise, causing the cops to chase you with ever more elaborate tools. There are also some boss fights to tackle. Fighting is way too loose and slippery though, as if the controls and camera movements are 100% not made for it. In fact, the camera is pretty messy even while you're just skating around, but it feels even worse during combat. The game also does a poor job of explaining that using your spray paint is the most important part of fighting. All that said, combat isn't actually hard since you'll regenerate health pretty quickly, so it's just this tedious annoyance that pops up occasionally. It's the same with the wanted system—the cops can't actually stop you very effectively, so they're just an obnoxious presence that buzzes around you. The game would have been better served eliminating this combat system entirely or at least making it matter more. I'll also note that, across the relatively short length of the game's story, I ran into semi-frequent crashes, especially during loading screens. Thankfully it never resulted in much loss of progress, but the game's shaky performance—and long load times—definitely put a damper on the experience. Without a doubt, the main appeal of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the presentation. The soundtrack is positively packed with jam after jam, all perfectly capturing the futuristic, techno vibe and flow of the setting and gameplay. It doesn't get much better than just grooving along to the music while you leap from grind rail to grind rail, tagging walls along the way. The visual style is another obvious lift from Jet Set Radio, but the colorful vibes work so well for the game that it's hard to complain. That said, the animation can leave something to be desired at times, notably during cutscenes when everyone stares at each other with blank expressions. The graffiti art itself though looks awesome and it's always fun to unlock a new one to use. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is skating on the shoulders of giants, but if it brings back the stylish groove of this extremely specific and niche subgenre, maybe that's not so bad. That said, this game also has its fair share of rough, unpolished edges that, although they don't spoil the vibes, definitely could have been refined to make the camera flow better, make combat either more engaging or removed entirely, and make the game run smoother. Rating: 7 out of 10 Tags

After a long dormant period, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown brings the franchise back with a return to its side-scrolling roots with plenty of modern upgrades. This new action-platformer blends precise combat with the sweeping acrobatics that the series is known for, all in a sprawling Metroidvania package. The result is perhaps overly ambitious but still an engaging time. If you've never played a Prince of Persia game, good news, you don't need any backstory to jump into The Lost Crown, which tells an entirely new story. You play as Sargon, one of the seven Immortals, a group of legendary warriors who fight on behalf of the Persian royal family. When Prince Ghassan is kidnapped though, you set out to rescue him by journeying to the mountain of Qaf where an ancient city is beset by a strange magical curse. The Lost Crown does a great job with worldbuilding, and although the optional lore is a bit daunting in length it's still nice to have as an option. However, the game struggles to keep the main narrative and characters interesting. Even with only a handful of primary characters it feels like almost none of them get enough screen time to establish depth, and some of the plot points and twists are plain confusing. Sargon himself is a decent protagonist but lacks the charm or nuance to make his character journey fully engaging. Tightening up the story a bit and establishing characters/motives more clearly would have given the dramatic cutscenes a lot more impact. Acrobatic platforming and parry-focused combat are the two pillars of The Lost Crown. Like most Metroidvanias though, you start off pretty weak, and the first couple of hours can be a bit of a slog. It's not necessarily bad, but jumping on ledges and swinging on poles doesn't feel like anything that hasn't been done before in side-scrolling platformers. However, once you've got a few traversal abilities under your belt, the game's acrobatics really start to shine. The controls are nice and smooth so you really get the feeling of deftly maneuvering through obstacles. You'll also encounter plenty of unique challenges that test your platforming skills, many of which are optional but are still worth attempting just for the fun of perfectly navigating the game's movement mechanics. Flying through the environment with double jumps, dashes and the other unique abilities that you unlock is a blast, it just takes a bit of time to get there. In fact, pacing as a whole might be The Lost Crown's biggest weakness. Aside from the long buildup, the game overstays its welcome with a long and rather repetitive second half. It doesn't help that the map is sprawling. On one hand, it's nice to have so much to see in the game, but on the other hand it means backtracking can be time-consuming and many rooms end up feeling big just for the sake of being big, i.e. there's nothing special about them, it just takes time to move through them. There are a lot of fun ideas in The Lost Crown but too much extraneous content weighs down the experience. The combat, meanwhile, takes a page from recent action games by emphasizing parrying (and dodging unparryable attacks). For a game with such fluid movement, I actually didn't love that the combat felt more slow and measured. Sure you can dive at enemies with all-out attacks, but they can so easily punish you for being over-eager that it feels like the game wants you to pull back at least a little and time your parries intelligently. Stopping to fight enemies when you've just been flying through the air arrests the momentum of the game. Additionally, fighting more than one enemy can be obnoxiously tedious since they can juggle you so easily. All that said, the combat is still pretty solid and gets a chance to shine during boss fights since those are generally a single large foe, and trading parries and strikes against one powerful enemy feels a lot more natural here. Additionally, the combat system is actually the best opportunity for replay value in The Lost Crown. The fundamental attacks don't change too much, but you can equip different amulets to boost your skills or grant slightly different abilities. You can also equip up to two Athra Surges, which are super-powered attacks that charge up as you attack and parry. None of these fundamentally change the way you fight but they add some nice variety to the combat system. As for graphics and audio, The Lost Crown clearly has some decent polish, yet for some reason holds back in areas. The visuals are solid and run smoothly, but like a lot of multiplatform games on the Switch there are some muddy details that probably don't pop up on other systems, and some of the cutscenes still feel stiff. Overall it's a solid visual design though, with a couple of standout moments such as the stylish shipwreck you'll explore late in the game. The music sounds good as well though the soundtrack has a hard time standing out—this isn't the kind of game where any tune is going to get stuck in your head after playing. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a smart blend of old and new for the series and a fun revival of the franchise. It doesn't have quite the fresh feeling that the original game presumably had in the 80s or the Sands of Time games had in the 00s, but it does have some sharp platforming sequences and engaging boss fights, once you get through a somewhat slow beginning of the game. Rating: 8 out of 10 Time Crystals

It's definitely weird to see a game that's 10 years older do so much more. I should really replay DK '94 some time, I remember having a blast with it.

Remakes and re-releases are common on any video game system, but the Switch in particular has become the home of a surprising number and a surprising variety. The latest is Mario vs. Donkey Kong, originally a 2004 GBA title that was a spiritual successor to the 1994 GB title Donkey Kong. With bite-sized puzzle platforming and shiny new visuals, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a fun blast from the past but may not wow modern players. The story begins with Donkey Kong lounging at home when he sees an ad for new Mini Mario toys. Suddenly obsessed, DK invades the toy factory to steal as many minis as he can, so Mario sets out to stop him and knock some sense into the ape. That's all you need to know—outside of a few short cutscenes this isn't exactly a story-driven game. Short platforming puzzles is the name of the game here. Each of the main levels is divided into two halves: first you grab a key to unlock a door, then you rescue the Mini Mario that DK stole. Mario has the sort of heavy, stilted movement reminiscent of the original Donkey Kong game, so you need to be precise with how you move. Mario's standard jump is pretty modest here, though you can also do a handstand double/triple jump for more distance. Operating colored switches is a huge part of the game as well—sometimes you need to plan ahead to make sure everything lines up perfectly to give you a path forward. Each world ends with a level where Mario guides the Mini Marios to the exit, kind of like Lemmings, and then there's a boss fight with DK to finish the world. The core puzzle design does a decent job of keeping things varied despite relatively few mechanics. In contrast to something like the recent Super Mario Wonder, which introduces so many different ideas, Mario vs. Donkey Kong keeps things pretty simple and relies upon just a handful of concepts rearranged in engaging ways. That said, this game isn't exactly the most challenging puzzle experience around. The puzzles in the main levels are rarely challenging, or the solution is simple enough that there's no punishment for failing and retrying a few times. Even collecting the optional present boxes in each level is a pretty easy task. At almost every turn, Mario vs. Donkey Kong plays things safe and doesn't try to push the boundaries of the system, genre, or player. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but any experienced players might be left wanting more from the puzzle design. The good news is that you do eventually unlock more challenging levels. What seems like the end of the game is really only half of the story, and an entire new set of worlds gets unlocked. You can also replay levels in time attack mode and, depending on how many gold medals you've collected, you can unlock extra challenging levels. These final extra stages actually do turn up the difficulty quite a bit and will be much more satisfying for an experienced Mario player, it's just a shame that there are only 16 of them. Funnily enough, there are some extra features in Mario vs. Donkey Kong that actually make things easier. Casual mode is even more forgiving than the standard classic mode and adds checkpoints and hit points. Co-op mode lets another player join the fun as a Toad, which does allow you to approach levels in a different way, which is a nice touch. These bonus modes and bonus challenges add up to make Mario vs. Donkey Kong a decent length, if you're willing to explore everything the game has to offer. The graphics and audio have also received an obvious overhaul from the game's pixely GBA roots. The new look looks great—sure there's still a nearly 20 year old sense of art direction lying underneath it all, meaning backgrounds and some stage elements look quite simple and straightforward, but that shiny Super Mario polish gives everything an appropriate toy-like vibe. The overhauled music is in the same boat: it's great to hear the jazzy soundtrack fully orchestrated, but many of the tunes remain a bit simple and not particularly memorable. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is an unexpected but charming revival that faithfully recreates the GBA original for modern audiences. Even with some bonus challenges though, it's hard to shake the feeling that this is a straightforward puzzle-platformer that avoids risky, complex challenges and instead satisfies itself with simple bite-sized levels. If that's what you're looking for though, or if you want to introduce a novice player to an easygoing puzzle-platformer, it's easy to pick up Mario vs. Donkey Kong for a short time. Rating: 7 out of 10 Mini Marios

Hah, yeah, did you also buy it because it was on sale for super cheap recently? It's old enough now that it's probably on sale all the time, actually. I've just been craving more Resident Evil since I promised to play the RE4 Remake with my brother, but we still didn't finish it over the Christmas break and won't see each other again until the summer. Now that the Gold Edition is out though I might just buy the game for myself…

- Horizon: Forbidden West - Burning Shores (PS5) I was pretty rusty jumping back into this game but I still really enjoyed this expansion. Mostly I just like having more of Horizon to play. - Hogwarts Legacy (Switch) Running around in the wizarding world is fun, and the varied tasks you can complete are engaging, even if many ultimately feel like typical sandbox game tasks just with a witchcraft theme. Combat is a bit bland though, especially with level scaling. - Resident Evil 3 (PS5) Although it's my least favorite of the recent RE games/remakes, it's still a solid little game, and Nemesis does what he's meant to do: makes you exhausted by his constant pursuit of you. - SteamWorld Build (Switch) Good but lacks the charm of the other SteamWorld games, and the city-building mechanics are a bit simple. Also way too many tutorial pop ups in the first playthrough. - Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch) I did play this back in the day, but it's been so long. Even though the game as a whole feels pretty quick & breezy, there are still some good puzzles to dig into.

I'm gonna have to skip this Smashdown as well.