DeVuego

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound brings the series back to its roots with incredible style. The core gameplay feels fantastic, with satisfying, fast-paced combat and platforming that'll put your skills to the test. With a wealth of challenges to meet and things to find, there's a real richness to each level that gives it plenty of replay value. The wonderful art style is the icing on the cake, and aside from one or two small nitpicks, fans should be very pleased with this throwback adventure.

Blades of Fire is a well-made and lengthy action adventure romp that will test your combat skills, provided you can see it through. Taking inspiration from some of gaming's greatest hits, it never quite manages to reach those lofty heights itself, let down by a generic setting and lacklustre art direction. Still, it offers some interesting concepts, with combat and crafting mechanics that remain satisfying throughout.

These negatives are outweighed by the sheer beauty of the title thanks to the incredible use of colour, as well as a relaxing, whimsical soundtrack and sound design. Taken as a whole, Naiad is a title with incredible art and sound as well as something to say, even if the gameplay isn’t always firing on that same level.

These gameplay moments and the parts where every aspect of the experience comes together to work in harmony aren't quite common enough. We wish some mechanics stuck around for longer, but it does keep the experience fresh and consistently exciting, making Neva another hit from the small Barcelona-based studio.

Lords of the Fallen is an exciting kind of Souls-like. Whereas many others aim to perfect the formula, Lords of the Fallen’s goal is to innovate. It certainly has its own array of problems, like lacking audio, repetitive enemy types, and combat that could be tightened up a little. However, when the game sinks its claws into you with its thrilling dual world mechanic, you won’t be able to get enough of it.

We did run into one or two bugs, like the camera being in the wrong place and a hard crash, so it's not the smoothest experience. Despite that, there's a lot to like about this unusual little adventure. If you're looking for a unique point-and-click game with surreal visuals, an eerie atmosphere, and some interesting puzzles, this is worth a shot — but we're intrigued to see how it evolves in a sequel.

Tenebris Pictura doesn’t ever establish itself as a game you feel you must see all the way through. The world and puzzles may intrigue you, but the combat made us continually want to walk away from the game.

Blasphemous 2 takes the foundations of its well-received predecessor and builds upon it in all the right ways. Tweaking combat to make it faster, smoother, and more accurate, removing insta-death scenarios to make platforming more manageable, and packing the game full to the brim with secrets and collectibles. The great attention to detail in the presentation and high level of polish make Blasphemous 2 a delightfully memorable experience that players will look back on fondly for years to come.

The combat in Gylt is a weak link. Luckily, a robust stealth system makes it easy to avoid fighting altogether. And it’s worth it because, easy though it may be, combat is tedious. You have to shine your flashlight on weak spots to kill enemies, but between the aim assist and the fact baddies don’t often present their weak spots well, you're better off skipping combat when you have the chance. You won’t be stressed for resources if you destroy every enemy you encounter, but your time will be better spent elsewhere, like tracking down the engaging collectibles that greatly expand upon the world.

Ultimately, the issues that arise aren’t enough to quash the immense level of fun or the mastery of design on display. Red Matter 2 is a PSVR2 must-play.

With lofty ambitions and some great elements, After Us lets itself down in as many ways as it triumphs. Gorgeous art direction and an admirable anti-pollution message aren't enough to make up for tedious combat, performance issues, and open-ended level design that plays things a little too loose. If you're itching for an experience like this, there are better options out there, at the very least until After Us' performance issues are addressed. There's the core of an incredible experience here, but it's just not ready yet.

The Mageseeker is an enjoyable, expressive action RPG that stops just shy of outstaying its welcome.

Disney Speedstorm is a fun game that we're glad to see has quite a bit of quality to it. There are some reservations about how well the free-to-play monetisation will work as we move forward, but looking just at the game itself, it's not a bad time. There is room for this title to become very popular, especially if the right additions are made. At the very least, this can become a fun game for friends. If you're a Disney fan, it's a good way to mash together some of your favorite old movies and battle it out on the racetrack.

Temtem may look like a copycat on its surface, but its deviations from the Pokémon formula pay off considerably. With unique battling elements and an engaging MMO structure, Temtem evolves as its own experience and offers a vast, challenging adventure that even those without a Nintendo console can enjoy.

From a presentation standpoint, the game has a lot of charm with its low-poly models and bright colours, and it runs perfectly at all times. The music and effects are also fairly old-school, but can be irritatingly repetitive. Overall, the game just feels quite flat; its central idea is good but levels don't really build on it, and some cutesy visuals can only take it so far.

Ultimately, although there’s a distinct feeling of déjà vu when playing Aeterna Noctis thanks to its unmistakable similarities to Hollow Knight, it thankfully manages to nail the most important elements in a Metroidvania: exploration and combat.

It does take a little while for the game to really warm up; the opening hours aim to establish quite a lot quite quickly, but once you're past all that, there's a pretty solid adventure to enjoy. Some aspects may leave a funny aftertaste; loading interrupts the game between areas, which makes getting around feel a bit clunky. The presentation is a little rough too, with several fiddly menus and blocky characters that don't quite hit the mark. However, the witty writing and crazy story, paired with simple but effective gameplay, makes for an enjoyable adventure for your inner foodie.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is a game that seems like it exists purely to house its storefront, offering predatory microtransactions which would be overly pricy in a free-to-play game. In a paid title - even a budget one - they're offensive. The only silver lining here is that the game is rubbish anyway, so feel free to skip it without feeling like you're missing out.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is a great looking remake of a terrible game. Level design is dated, bosses are completely luck based and all the hitboxes just feel off. There is a reason that Sonic took over as SEGA’s mascot because no remake can change the fact that Alex Kidd’s first adventure is incredibly frustrating and poorly designed.

Aesthetically, the game looks really pretty and is totally evocative of its 1930s setting. The game is plagued with hammy dialogue that makes it feel totally campy and like an old B-movie, but not altogether terrible when coupled with the Lovecraftian influence it draws on. Call of the Sea is a mostly fun puzzle game that falls short on the mystery it tries to have you unveil. While it looks aesthetically pleasing and ticks a lot of boxes for its period setting, the story is lacklustre and predictable.

Aesthetically, the game looks really pretty and is totally evocative of its 1930s setting. The game is plagued with hammy dialogue that makes it feel totally campy and like an old B-movie, but not altogether terrible when coupled with the Lovecraftian influence it draws on. Call of the Sea is a mostly fun puzzle game that falls short on the mystery it tries to have you unveil. While it looks aesthetically pleasing and ticks a lot of boxes for its period setting, the story is lacklustre and predictable.

If it isn't already clear, Narita Boy is a great indie adventure. It's got satisfyingly slick gameplay, and the visuals are a delight. But perhaps the true star of the show is the stellar electronic soundtrack. Whether it's twinkling ambient tunes or booming synth chords, the music is superb.

While the gameplay is solid, we came away more impressed with the art direction and sound design than expected. The lightly stylised, cel-shaded look works for 1971, with the organic environments looking especially nice. The sheer variety of locations is impressive, too, including an oil rig, airbase, canyon, and nomadic village. Meanwhile, the exploration music is absolutely beautiful, though the combat soundtrack gets a bit repetitive

Managing your boost and knowing when to put your foot down becomes a key component to success, but there are moments where you’ll be dinged from the back and taken out entirely, which can be frustrating. You can tweak the settings to alter the difficulty, and there’s local multiplayer to keep you engaged. But this is a novelty at best, and once you’ve squashed a few cardboard cars, you won’t be coming back.

Dawn of Fear is not what you would typically consider a good video game and it most definitely does not perform like one. However, when it works, there hasn’t been anything else quite like it for the best part of two decades. Dawn of Fear is the best and worst tribute to Resident Evil at the same time, and we can't think of anything more intriguing than that.

By making a point of keeping things simple, Arise: A Simple Story excels in all the right places. Basic 3D platforming is elevated by the introduction of time manipulation, transforming the beauty of its locations into an interactable piece of art. And when its visual design is already this stunning, it makes for an experience that delights every sense imaginable.

It's a shame, then, there are some issues. The presentation is unimpressive, with character models particularly poor and terribly animated. The abundance of loading screens interrupts things far too frequently, and some of the writing and voice acting leaves a lot to be desired. Minigames pepper the experience but miss more than they hit, and the occasional issue with movement tracking can be a pain. At the end of the day, this is a neat experiment that fans of the film will enjoy, but overall it fails to measure up to the source material.

Agatha herself is a wonderfully complicated character; we see things from her innocent and skewed perspective, for good or ill. The puzzling is relatively simplistic -- there's nothing here to match the nonsensical item combinations of the genre's luminaries. But this is a game more about story and tone than pixel hunting, and the result is a decent, bizarre experience.

Etherborn is well worth checking out if brain teasing is your thing. As it toys with gravity and shifts surfaces to the forefront while you traverse them, mechanics come and go to keep the experience fresh at all times. This environmental puzzler doesn’t last particularly long, but it’s sure to provide an afternoon’s worth of challenge and enjoyment.

The vision of reconciling nuances of more recent 3D action-adventure titles with well-loved elements from adored classics is undeniably a heartwarming one. There’s great enjoyment to be had in playing through this nostalgic nod to the past, but the lacking presence of a challenge truly robs Effie of its oomph. Simplistic puzzles and brainless brawling almost completely eliminate any real sense of gratification or accomplishment. This is most certainly a game better suited for those who don’t appreciate being staggered by more intense difficulties, or a younger gamer seeking a vibrant, spellbinding world to frolic in.

Melbits World is a nice attempt at creating a fun, simple puzzle game suited to PlayLink's smartphone functionality. Its visual style is very easy on the eye, while the basic, communication-based gameplay means it's bound to be a good family game. The PlayLink initiative may not have been as popular as Sony may have hoped, but Melbot Studios' title shows that there's plenty left to explore when it comes to smartphone controlled gaming.

Moonlighter is a delightful mix of action RPG, rogue-lite dungeon crawling, and shopkeeping sim with an ingenious gameplay loop that'll have you hooked. The way the game's contrasting parts blend into one another means you're always making progress, and it feels great. Exploring the dungeons is challenging and fun, and managing the shop is addictive, thanks to an intelligent economy system. There are some rough edges, such as complex menu screens and one or two minor bugs, but when this game gets its hooks in, you won't care. Shopping around for your new favourite indie? Look no further.

CoolPaintrVR is a fine alternative to Tilt Brush for PlayStation VR, although the limitations of Sony’s technology mean that it never really hits the same highs. We would have appreciated a larger palette of objects and effects, but budding artists should find more than enough to make a masterpiece with here.

Immortal Redneck is an exciting roguelike FPS with enjoyable procedurally generated dungeons that encourage fast-paced gunplay. Although it can be repetitive at points, it has a fair but challenging difficulty curve and a wide variety of enemies, weapons, and abilities that keep things interesting. If you’re looking for something to really get wrapped up in, then Immortal Redneck is well worth your time. 

Crossing Souls is an interesting title. Absolutely in love with the pop culture of the 1980s, the title wears this love on its sleeve, and the charm of that is undeniable. Unfortunately, while the writing, art, music, and references are great, the gameplay peters out rather quickly. After a strong first couple of hours, full of interesting and layered puzzles, the last half of the title quickly devolves into no more than a collection of platforming and melee combat scenarios with little else to keep you going. The end result is game that’s fun and entertaining despite its gameplay, not because of it.

It’s the unique way in which individual stories overlap that makes The Invisible Hours such a great game. You’ll need to replay this story multiple times over in order to uncover all of its secrets, and with each run you’ll come to appreciate its choreography more and more. Existing inside a living, breathing world with famous historical figures like Thomas Edison is what virtual reality was made for, and the fact that the fiction is able to deliver shocks with such frequency is testament to the quality of the story-telling on display.

Tequila Works’ long-awaited title takes you on a heartfelt adventure through large, open areas full of personality and imaginative puzzles. Comparisons to the likes of Journey or ICO were inevitable, and while it can imitate a little too closely, it has just enough fresh ideas to set it apart. Its clean and colourful presentation is backed up by a truly excellent soundtrack, and the story conjures up some wonderful moments along its fairly brief duration. Those looking for a fun, cohesive, and original puzzle platformer could do far worse than investing some time in RiME.

The Sexy Brutale is a very different type of game to anything on the PS4 currently, taking up a Groundhog Day-style in gameplay that is excellently executed. The game is perfectly presented with outstanding audio and visuals that are able to switch the tone of the story from being joyfully upbeat to a very dark within a matter of moments. The story does a great job of keeping you fixated on looking for answers from beginning to end and its conclusion will leave you more than satisfied with your time spent solving its interestingly intricate puzzles.

While Spheroids is relatively fun in its early stages and does the basics well, it ruins itself by adding in too much complexity too quickly without thought. The levels are formulaic, frustrating, and suffer from quite a few glitches and bugs, while the story is almost non-existent, the cutscenes awkward, and the ending abrupt.

The patient, cunning mindset Aragami puts you in with its strictly stealth gameplay is something we long for with more titles. With simple yet smart level design and mechanics, it proves to be a focused title with heart and soul that has learned much from its old masters. But the game does lack polish in its performance and appearance, and the AI can be irritating at times. Fortunately, the release's story, visuals, and sound design ultimately help lift it out of the darkness.

Phineas and Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz is an honourable platforming experience in which Disney's involvement is more than noticeable. Characters and environments are true to their inspiration, while actual interactions with them are brief and stale. A questionable camera sours gameplay and many of the mechanics suffer a clunky and unresponsive feel as a result. Even fans of the adventurous duo are going to find fault, and for once, Dr. Doofenshmirtz isn't to blame.

Kromaia Ω is a frantic and fun 3D shoot-'em-up, with a focus on arcade action and presented in a vibrant, though sometimes hard to read, aesthetic. With only four levels in which to unleash bullet hell, the game can get repetitive fairly quickly, but each area is massive, with secrets and puzzles sprinkled in to help keep things interesting. A unique, enjoyable game that could have done with just a dash more substance to go with all that style.

Think of the most frustrating gaming moments you had as a child. Add them all together, and you still probably can't even come close to Yasai Ninja. This is a game to be avoided at all costs. With no redeeming factors, and a whole catalogue of problems, Yasai Ninja is more painful to play than forcing down sprouts at Christmas, with about as much reward. A good ninja shouldn't be seen or heard, and the same can be said about this game.

There's no school like old-school, and Ziggurat serves as a reminder that there's still fun to be had in 2015 with what's essentially an 'arena' shooter. Whether the shooting is good enough to stand on its own without the rest of the package is up for debate, however the smartly implemented Roguelite trappings, as well as the well pitched difficulty, help to cast a spell that'll have you heading back into Ziggurat time and time again.

Baboon! makes a poor first impression, but it's far more impressive than it initially seems. The core concept of platforming with the aid of bombs is frequently revised with enhancements and new challenges, and it's a delight to see what new feature is next on the list. However, its extreme difficulty will put people off, so many will miss what makes the game special. This is a clever and likeable release, then – but one that you'll need to work at to etch out its underlying enjoyment.

Nihilumbra is not the biggest game, but sometimes great things come in small packages. The puzzles are not especially difficult, but there's a nice plot and some decent presentation here which will push you through to its conclusion. If you're looking for something a little different for your Vita, then make sure that you don't a-void this one.

With its basic controls and guilt-free deaths, The Muppets Movie Adventures is a competent place for your child to start their gaming adventure. Everyone else, though, will find this title’s lack of depth and, worse, lack of fan service a bit of a letdown.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 falls short of the high bar set by its predecessor, with niggly control issues, a somewhat empty open world, and frustrating stealth sections sucking a bit of life out of the experience. Fortunately, fans of the original release will undoubtedly enjoy the exciting combat and stellar graphical design on offer here, making this an experience that may still be worth drinking dry.

Unresponsive controls, dull combat, and obnoxious humour that even the most immature gamer would find difficult to smile at makes Zombeer a complete creative disaster. Packed full of clichés and outdated design choices, this depressing digital download feels like the reanimated corpse of a failed nineties shooter that doesn’t even hold a candle to even the most mediocre of modern military affairs.

Reality Fighters is the very definition of a launch title: a new concept borne out of a boardroom's desire to showcase PS Vita's potential. While the game’s underlying technology is impressive, there’s just not enough content to keep you coming back. If you’re a casual fan of fighters and you’re looking for something silly to show off your PS Vita then Reality Fighters is a fun fleeting distraction, but don’t expect anything deeper from the title.

In all, Zack Zero's a compelling platformer despite what its cringe-worthy art-style and occasionally low-budget production values would lead you to believe. The suit switching mechanic is a great inclusion, and it's utilised strongly throughout the game's campaign. Great pacing, satisfying combat and some decent puzzles elevate Zack Zero to a surprisingly enjoyable status, even if it's not exactly brimming with fresh ideas of its own.