I’ll be frank here: I think pinball gets a bad rap. I’ve seen a bunch of reviews of this game on Backloggd where people talk about how much they love this game but only give it a 3.5/5, and I don’t really get it. I think there’s a bit of a stigma behind pinball where it’s considered too shallow or simplistic to compete with other genres, and I simply don’t think that’s true at all. Pinball, when it’s done right, can be an exhilarating game of timing and precision.

Having said that, I think a lot of pinball video games aren’t very good compared to the real thing. The problem is simple - pinball is really hard! It’s no secret that arcade machines are difficult on purpose to drain all the spare change in your pockets. But any time a pinball video game tweaks the physics to make the game easier, it just doesn’t feel right to me. It’s kind of like when some console FPSes have such generous auto-aim that you can be looking in another direction and aiming down sights will still lock you on to the closest enemy’s head.

I think Pokemon Pinball rectifies this problem with a surprisingly effective compromise - keep the physics similar to real pinball but provide generous “Ball Saver” periods during catch and evolution events so novice and intermediate players still have a chance. It’s still reasonably difficult without feeling horribly unforgiving like physical pinball is a lot of the time. And the progression is compelling! The better you do, the rarer Pokémon you can catch, and, well…we all know you gotta catch em all.

So basically what I’m saying is that Pokémon Pinball is more than just a very good pinball game, it’s a very good video game, period.

There’s always a few questions that everyone asks other people to get to know them. What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite film? It’s no surprise that in the age of the MCU, another question has become commonplace: “What’s your favorite superhero?”

When I was younger I used to go back and forth on this question, but these days, it’s no debate: It’s Peter Parker, Spider-Man, with Miles Morales as a close second. And the reason for that is simple: At the end of the day, both Peter and Miles are just regular dudes who want to help other people less fortunate than them in any way they can. And naturally, they can’t help everyone, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try.

Spider-Man 2 works for me because it truly understands that being Spider-Man means helping others and not giving up if things don’t go the way you expect them to. It’s not only a story about Peter and Miles helping the people closest to them, but it also explores how Peter and Miles’ friendship brings out the best in themselves. And, hot damn, if that’s not Spider-Man in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

Gameplay wise, Insomniac thankfully didn’t fix anything that wasn’t broken and added more cool stuff on top of the existing cool stuff. I wasn’t sure what to think of the web wings at first, but once you get the hang of them they complement the web swinging (which is as fun as ever) surprisingly well. Traversal is extremely important to making an open world game compelling to me, and the combination of swinging and gliding makes NYC a joy to explore.

The combat still feels intuitive while having more depth; I’m absolutely dogshit at parries in every single video game, but the parries in this game have a generous timing window while adding a bit more complexity to the “dodge, hit, repeat” mechanics. And Peter’s new symbiote abilities feel appropriately powerful and brutal. While I don’t quite agree with the developers that SM2 is as much a Miles Morales story as it is a Peter Parker story (I’d say it’s 60/40 in favor of Peter), I appreciate that Miles doesn’t just feel like a Peter reskin and has his own personal issues to sort through while Peter is dealing with the symbiote.

My only real complaint with the game is the same problem I had with the first one: The pacing. The first act is a lot of exposition, with several missions that are mostly walking and talking, and then the other two acts feel like it rushes from one big moment to another until the very end. I really wish they would space out the action-heavy missions between the story heavy ones more often. I will say Acts 2 and 3 feeling rushed is mitigated somewhat by the side content, which I highly recommend - some of the side missions in this game are incredible and the game would be lesser without them. I also have to give credit to Insomniac for The Flame side missions, where they managed to turn a villain I’ve never liked into a compelling threat.

Overall, I’m just glad this game reaffirms that Insomniac truly gets Spider-Man, and why Peter’s character has survived so many decades. It’s simple, but true; helping others helps yourself.

I revisited this game for the first time in at least 15 years when I got my Analogue Pocket and I swear this is the most underrated Panel De Pon/Puzzle League installment.

The fact that IntSys managed to make a Puzzle League game on the Game Boy Color that feels nearly identical gameplay-wise compared to the console games is a colossal achievement (especially compared to Game Boy Tetris Attack). Nothing about the moment-to-moment gameplay feels compromised at all. And I love how vibrant the game is - the Analogue Pocket really makes this game's visuals shine through.

The only real change from the console versions is that you don't actually see your opponent's field in Challenge mode but it plays functionally the same - fend off the opponent's garbage attacks long enough to defeat them. I'm not someone who ever really looked at my opponent's playing field in Puzzle League anyway, so this never really bothered me.

My only real complaint with this game is that some of the character unlocks feel downright unreasonable. I'm supposed to get 100,000 on Garbage mode to unlock Magby??? How???? I can only get to level 50 or so in Garbage and even then my score is like 25000 or something.

Anyway, game's good. Revisiting this game honestly makes me glad I bought an Analogue Pocket.

I have a real love/hate relationship with Mortal Kombat. I enjoyed both MKX and MK11 enough to put 80 hours into each of them, and yet my memories of them often involve why I got frustrated with both of them instead of why I had fun with them.

I tried to go into MK1 with an open mind, but I think I've settled on the conclusion that this game isn't for me. And that's fine. And it doesn't mean the game is bad, either! It’s certainly a gorgeous game, with a far more varied color palette than X or 11 ever had. And I’m glad the fatalities lean more into over-the-top absurdity this time rather than realistic depictions of torture, as the former was always the main appeal of Fatalities for me anyway. But I just can’t click with MK1’s combat system in the way others have.

If you've been following Fighting Game Community circles lately, you'll find that the topic du jour lately has been "player expression," or the idea that players should have freedom to play how they want instead of being limited to a single linear gameplan. But it feels like the common opinion these days is that longer combos means more opportunities for player expression, and….I don't exactly agree.

The argument in favor of MK1 is that longer combos compared to MK11 means more opportunities for improvisation, and yet if you play any ranked MK1, you'll find many players using the same assists (get ready to see Cyrax and Sareena a lot!!!!) with the same optimal combos. I think way too many people immediately blamed short combos for MK11's frustrating competitive play when I think the far bigger problems were the stale meta due to short-sighted balance changes and the inevitable mess that came from NRS changing their minds on allowing Custom Variations midway through the game's life cycle.

This doesn't mean I hate MK1's combo system, though. I admit that trying out combo strings in training and figuring out the best way to tie them together provides the same satisfaction one gets when building Legos into a cool starship. It's fun to see how a series of smaller combos along with kameo assists can come together into 40% damage. But being expected to do these kinds of combos in every match feels exhausting to me - I’d much rather focus on spacing and mindgames, but these combos are so important to the game that they take precedence. And while the mechanics are clearly borrowing a lot from “tag fighters” like Marvel vs Capcom, the slower pace of the matches means the chaotic, kinetic energy that makes a game like MvC3 so exciting isn’t really here.

Even people who dislike MK as a fighting game can admit that the games have always had a solid feature set, and while MK1 is no different, I feel like it’s less of a selling point now that its competition is finally catching up on the single player side. Outside of the story, there’s the usual ladders and the new Invasions mode, which is basically World of Light from Smash Bros. I’m sure some people will love the grindy nature of Invasions but I personally find it feels like busywork. But that’s a minor quibble, as anyone who has played a recent MK knows the main single player mode is the story.

The story mode has been the crown jewel of MK for a while, and 1's is no different. I genuinely enjoyed seeing the new spin on classic MK characters and lore; I'm glad Baraka and Reptile actually have solid backstories now instead of just being Shao Khan's lackeys (Reiko didn't get so lucky, unfortunately; sorry, Reiko fans!), and there's some really fun character moments like Johnny and Kenshi's hilarious bromance. My only real complaint is that the last few chapters feel like they came from another game; the story just kind of stops in service of an (admittedly entertaining) over the top fanservice climax. I hope the next story, whether it's dlc or in the next installment, is a little more cohesive and focuses more on having a satisfying beginning, middle and end instead of just a series of cool moments.

At the end of the day, I really can't say MK1 is bad. It's solidly made, looks great, and has plenty of winks and nods for longtime fans. It's just not what I want out of Mortal Kombat, and that's okay.

What a pleasant and cute surprise. I got this game on a whim as something to play on my Steam Deck and I kind of fell in love with the light-hearted charm and whimsy of it.

There have been a few games that have tried to make a game styled like Breath of the Wild but with less combat, and I think this is my favorite of the ones I've played. The traversal just feels fun, and I never got tired of exploring. I also came away impressed by the surprisingly heartfelt story about getting older and how easy it is to forget to just have fun once in a while.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in a short but sweet game that doesn't overstay its welcome.

I've struggled with what to write about this game for a while because I have mixed opinions on remakes. On one hand, I'd rather there be more original ideas in gaming than recycled versions of old ones. However, if every remake was as good as the Resident Evil 4 remake, I don't think I'd have a issue playing any of them.

A lot of people argue RE4 didn't have to be remade, and I do think the original still stands on its own. Having said that, I think RE4 absolutely benefits from a more modern control scheme, and the developers were clearly very careful to not drastically change the parts of RE4 everyone loved (the village) and instead tweaked the parts of the game that were generally less liked (the castle and the island). Re4make does an excellent job of reminding you why the original RE4 was so good while sanding down the parts that haven't aged as well, and I don't think there's a better way to remake a game like this.

When I was 15, I remember playing RE4 at my parents house on a tiny CRT TV. I got to the boss fight against Mendez (aka The Village Chief), and once I saw the entire farmhouse engulfed in flames, I remember being amazed that a game could look this good. Flash foward to this year - I'm 33, playing RE4make at my own place in 4K, and during the Mendez fight I'm just as amazed at the setpiece as I was when I played the original over 15 years ago. The fact that Capcom was able to replicate the same feelings I had with the original but with modern visuals and presentation is an enormous accomplishment that shouldn't be understated.

When I tell people I'm a Sonic fan, the first question is, unsurprisingly, "Why?" That's not an easy question to answer, but a big reason I've always loved Sonic is the characters. I've loved this cast, for better or worse, before I even had a way to play the games; I voraciously read the Archie Sonic comics as a SNES/N64 kid.

I can't say that I've always agreed with Sega's depiction of Sonic's cast, though. For a long time, it felt like Sonic Team was at odds with the fandom's interpretation of their characters. For example: fans love the dynamic of Shadow, Rouge and Omega, aka Team Dark, depicting them as a dysfunctional odd trio. Despite this, Sonic Team claimed Team Dark were never friends and would never hang out. Fans loved Tails' plucky resourcefulness, yet he spends like an hour in Sonic Forces crying in a corner wondering where Sonic is. For years, it felt like Sega couldn't figure out what to do with Amy Rose except make her a creepy stalker obsessed with marriage and having kids.

All of this is to say that The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a mystery visual novel released on April Fools by the Sonic social media team, is full of the kind of character moments and interactions I've wanted Sonic games to have for years. It's very clear this game was written by fans for fans, and all of the characterizations are on-point. Amy is emotional and passionate, so of course she'd get a bit too invested in a murder mystery game; Tails is a little naive but kind and strong willed, immediately befriending the protagonist; And Shadow, despite constantly keeping up appearances as a gruff loner, still cares about his friends when no one is looking. A+, no notes.

As for the game itself, it's a very charming little adventure clearly inspired by the Phoenix Wright series. The gameplay is mostly just a vehicle to get to the dialogue, but it never feels obtrusive. Even the little endless runner minigame that happens during climactic moments is surprisingly competent and helped with the pacing even if there isn't much to it. And it's cool that the player character (canonically nonbinary!) has their own personality and eccentricities, including their steadfast belief that there's always a secret in the garbage can. They're the perfect little weirdo to fit right into a cast of lovable weirdos.

While Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is explicitly not a Sonic Team game, the fact that Sega greenlit it as an official Sonic product is a genuinely heartening development. Between this and the character writing in Sonic Frontiers, it feels like Sega finally understands why people love these characters so much, and it's made me considerably more optimistic about whatever happens next. We're one step closer to that comic about Rouge being angry at Shadow for making Kraft Dinner wrong becoming canon.

Okay, so: Remember those old mazes you could get as a kid where you'd have to navigate a metal stick through a metal maze and if you hit the sides you got a little shock? And how it was weirdly addicting despite being way too hard for little kids? I had one of those that literally came with a headband that had bells attached to it so if you messed up it would set the bells off and make your whole head rattle. I have no idea how it made it past product testing because it probably gave some poor kids actual head trauma. If anyone reading this knows what I'm talking about let me know because I've been trying to find this thing online for ages and I can't remember the name of it.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because Kurukuru Kururin is basically one of those games but with a little more depth and a very charming visual presentation. You're still a stick trying to avoid hitting the edges, but the gimmick is that the stick rotates either clockwise or counterclockwise - you can also hit springs spread out throughout the level to change the rotation. It has a little bit of a learning cuvre, but once you get the hang of timing the stick movement to coincide with juuuust the right angle to make it through a curved path, it's pretty dang satisfying.

Also, the visuals and aesthetic in this game add a lot to it. Your character is a cute little bird in a silly little airship and you're going around saving your lost siblings. The music is catchy and the pastel visuals are easy on the eyes.

However, a massive caveat for anyone playing this game: it gets fucking hard. I went into this thinking "well, the art style is clearly kid-friendly, I have to imagine they leave the actually hard stuff for the postgame, right?" Folks, I was wrong. The last two worlds in the main campaign got so stressful that I nearly stopped playing (and honestly, that's the only reason I'm giving this 3.5 instead of 4). By the end of the game I was still glad I played it but you'd have to pay me to get perfects in every stage to unlock the postgame content.

Kurukuru Kururin is a game of contrasts: It is simultaneously a pleasant romp through colorful worlds and a hell game designed by Satan from which no one can escape. If nothing else, I would say give it a shot on the GBA NSO if you enjoy a puzzle game that's easy to pick up but hard to master.

Hi Fi Rush feels like the first season of a really solid action anime. The writing isn't always amazing, and you can tell where they had to skimp on budget, but the parts that are good are really, really good and keep you wanting more.

To get this out of the way: I love character action games, and I also love rhythm games. Unfortunately I'm pretty bad at both of them. Thankfully, Hi Fi Rush goes to great lengths to ease the player into the rhythm and combat mechanics so that it never feels overwhelming, and the difficulty on Normal felt pretty reasonable while also rewarding constant use of parries and tag assists. Honestly, character action games are all about getting into a rhythm to begin with, so once you get into a fight, following the beat feels shockingly natural.

I feel too many people underestimate the strength of an amazing soundtrack in a high energy action game, so I'm glad Tango decided to put that element at the forefront. While I will admit I don't fully share game director John Johanas' love of 2000s-era pop rock, it absolutely fits the fantastic cel-shaded pop-art aesthetic and the upbeat vibes of Chai's adventure.

The writing is a bit hit or miss for me. I get that they were trying to do the Scott Pilgrim thing where the main character goes from a cocky asshole to a considerate friend over the course of the story, but the game isn't really long enough to give that arc justice and the amount of trust the team puts in Chai by the end doesn't really feel earned. The humor is also very much in the Airplane! style of "throwing seven million jokes at the wall and seeing what sticks," which means a few gags got a chuckle out of me while a lot of them felt like they leaned a bit too hard into making meta jokes about the absurd nature of video games. Yes, I know hitting a big button to open a door doesn't really make sense, but also pointing that out isn't really funny to me?

Along those lines, the game's writing isn't subtle about the game being limited by budget, including an extended gag referencing another game that very famously had the same problem. While I think the team at Tango did a great job with the resources they had, I can't help but think how much could be expanded in a sequel. I would absolutely love to be able to fully control Peppermint, Macaron and [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] to get a different spin on the rhythm combat. A bit more stage variety would be appreciated too - the outdoor sections are neat but a lot of the game's indoor factories feel pretty samey.

I realize a lot of people are already declaring HFR GOTY material, and while I wouldn't go that far, I can't deny that I'm impressed with Tango's first attempt at a character action game, and I really hope they build on the solid foundation they already have for a potentially incredible sequel.

The biggest surprise out of everything, beyond even the surprise announcement and release, is that I've now realized I actually really like That One Joy Formidable Song. You win this round, Johanas.

Gorgeous visuals and art direction completely ruined by bizarre pacing and god-awful dialogue that is weirdly sexist on top of being incredibly grating.

There's so many scripted sequences without player control that it feels like the game is trying to force me to remark on how pretty it is. Yes, it's pretty. Now please stop removing player control every two minutes because something exploded or my character fell down a hole.

This is a game trying so hard to be Bioshock that it forgot to have any semblance of its own identity. What a disappointment.

Dead Space 1 and 2 were formative games for me. I tend to liken them to the video game equivalent of Alien and Aliens: The first game is slower paced and creepy while DS2 is more actiony but still incredibly tense. Unfortunately, that gives Dead Space 3 the desgination of being the Alien3 of the franchise - a mess of legitimately good ideas ruined by executive mandates. The intro of Dead Space 3 bummed me out so much I didn't even play the rest (yes, I've heard the ship graveyard section is good, still not interested). So when EA announced they were remaking Dead Space, I had one thought: "Please, for the love of God, don't fuck this up."

And I have good news: They didn't fuck it up!

Dead Space splits the diffrence between complete reimaginings like Resident Evil 2 2019 and 1:1 recreations like The Last of Us Part 1. I would say the split comes to about 70% old content versus 30% new, which totally works for me. The biggest moments in the game remain largely unchanged, but a lot of content around the margins has been adjusted to create a more cohesive experience.

Speaking of cohesiveness, the biggest change is that the Ishimura is now one interconnected ship you can navigate freely instead of a series of linear levels. Personally, I think this is the best change they could have made: the Ishimura is as much of a character in the game as Isaac Clarke, and now it truly feels like a real ship that you can explore at your leisure. The dev team at EA Motive also added side quests to help encourage more backtracking and exploration: none of these feel necessary but they're a nice bonus that help flesh out the story as a treat for those who seek them out.

I wrote in my Callisto Protocol review that my biggest issue with that game was the weapon balance, since melee was way better than anything else. In contrast, I was impressed at how the Dead Space remake rebalances the weapons so that they all feel useful in some way. In the original, it was a running joke among players that the Plasma Cutter might as well be the only weapon since it was so strong and practical. In the remake, it's still good but takes way more ammo to kill enemies unless you're extremely precise. As a result I found myself running out of Plasma Cutter ammo and using weapons I mostly ignored in the original, like the contact beam or the force gun. You're encouraged to use every part of the buffalo in a way that feels natural.

Believe it or not, I don't really have any issues with Isaac talking this time; it makes sense from a consistency standpoint since he talks in the other two, and the devs have said in interviews that they purposefully didn't make Isaac talk more than he had to in order to keep the core gameplay immersive (a smart move). I also think making Hammond and Daniels more sympathetic is understandable in order to strengthen the impact of the later story twists.

However, there's one story change I don't like, and this might just be a personal nitpick since I haven't seen anyone else mention it: In Dead Space 2008, the Unitology aspects of the plot don't become prominent until the second half, when it becomes clear that the huge Unitologist presence on the ship was far bigger than initially presumed. In comparison, DS 2023 front-loads the Unitology elements of the plot and tells the player from the very beginning why Isaac doesn't like them (something that isn't revealed in 2008 until New Game +). I don't think it's entirely a bad thing, and I get that Unitology is synonomous with Dead Space now so it's not exactly a secret anymore, but I really liked how the initial game treated Unitology as an actual cult, quietly working behind the scenes and slowly taking over before anyone else realized it. The later Dead Space media kinda leaned into Unitologists as cartoon villains and I kind of hope Motive fights back against that impulse assuming they remake the other two.

My other complaint is that I actually wish they changed the last couple chapters more than they did. They were always my least favorite part of the original and it just feels like they throw out a ton of enemy encounters to pad out the run time.

Having said that, this is still a fantastic remake of an already fantastic game. Highly recommended for both fans of the original and people who missed out the first time.

I am generally not someone who replays games. Just beating a single player game is often a struggle for someone like me who has a short attention span so usually when I hit the end credits I just exit the game for good and move on with my life.

And yet, I keep feeling the urge to go back to Pizza Tower despite having beaten it, knowing full well that getting S ranks in every level would take me hours upon hours of memorizing stage layouts and mechanics. It's a testament to how compelling the overall package is - this game has some of the most precise controls I've ever experienced in a platformer, on top of a "gross but gorgeous" 90s animation aesthetic and an incredible soundtrack that was clearly inspired by Sonic CD (hell yeah).

This is a game designed to be replayed over and over again. It's a game that you can imagine saying "Really? That's it? C'mon, you can do better than that!" any time you finish a level with a rank of B or lower. It's a game where 25% of people who own the game on Steam have successfully beaten the first boss without taking any damage. It's a game that has a rank higher than S that is ridiculously difficult to achieve but constantly taunts the player simply through awareness of its existence.

Pizza Tower is, and I mean this endearingly, a game for sickos.

I'm pretty well known as a big Kirby fan - I've had some variant of Kirby as my online profile icon for over 15 years at this point - but the last Kirby game, Star Allies, left me feeling a little deflated. Part of me was wondering if I was just getting tired of the formula.

But then Forgotten Land comes along, and I'm suddenly reminded of how often Kirby as a franchise reinvents itself to stay relevant. It's a big reason why I've always liked the games, and Forgotten land strikes that perfect balance of feeling new and ambitious while still fundamentally feeling like a Kirby game.

There's been a lot of debate over time whether Kirby could lend itself well to a 3D format, and I think the decision they went with this one - linear levels with a world map similar to Mario 3D World - was the right choice. The levels are still designed like 2D Kirby levels, there's just...more stuff in them. And in this case, more is good!

The post-urban landscape has fantastic art design, and the "Mouthful Mode" abilities add fun puzzles to the mix instead of just being a gimmick. I appreciate the pro-environment tone to the story and the final boss is cool as hell.

My only real complaints with the game are that it drags a bit in the post-game content (I'm not really a huge fan of combining each world into giant levels) and I don't like how you're not told of all of the sub-objectives until you beat the level once.

Overall, a really great return-to-form for Kirby, and I'm excited to see what they do next.

I feel like the Callisto Protocol should be the easiest game in the world to write about and yet I'm struggling to figure out how I feel about it. I've never played a game more at odds with itself in absolutely fascinating ways.

To be honest, I was unsure about this game even before the very polarized reviews - I adore Dead Space 1 and 2, but I feel like any "spiritual successor" game is walking a very fine line where sometimes you get a good one like Bloodstained but more often than not you end up with clunkers like Mighty No. 9 or the original Yooka Laylee. Still, I was curious, so I asked for it as a Christmas gift. I should probably note this game is about 11 hours long and it took me a month to get through it - take from this what you will.

I think the most important (and most confusing) aspect of Callisto Protocol is the one thing it does completely differently from Dead Space - the melee combat. You ever played Punch-Out!!? Well, it's Punch-Out!! You dodge a strike, then dodge in the opposite direction, and then wail on the opponent as much as possible. It's totally fine. I would go as far as to say it was pretty satisfying once I got the hang of it and was able to duck, weave and smash my way through a wave of enemies without getting hit.

But that's also kind of the problem. A big reason why encounters in games like RE4 and Dead Space always feel so tense is because you never, ever want enemies to be close to you. But in Callisto Protocol, getting close and using melee on a zombie is often the best possible option, which means there's really no tension when a monster shows up. And
the game seems so hesitant to give you guns that you don't get most of your arsenal until the last quarter or so.

It seems the designers realized how good the melee is, but their solution is imperfect. Midway through, the game flips the script and introduces enemies that sprout tentacles after you melee them enough, at which point you must shoot them with a gun or risk them "evolving" into a considerably stronger enemy. While this is clearly designed to force you to use guns, you can still melee an enemy until they sprout tentacles and then it only takes a bullet or two to kill them. It adds a little more tension, but doesn't fix the melee being overpowered. Also, the camera will auto-target the last enemy that hit you, so if you get side swiped by a second enemy while trying to shoot the tentacles off the first one...well, you're just kinda boned. I can't help but think it would have made more sense just to make some enemies melee-only and other enemies guns-only.

This trend of the game's mechanics being at odds with difficulty balance is constant throughout the game. At one point, there are areas swarming with blind enemies that react to sound. But, if you crouch walk the entire time, they never react. Ever. You can literally crouch walk right in front of a blind enemy and nothing happens. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during this game's development, because I have to imagine this section was originally way too difficult and they probably kept toning it down and didn't realize they went too far. I truly wonder if they had time to playtest the final version of the game or if they just had to skip a final polish pass to make the holiday deadline.

Despite all this, I can't say I hated Callisto Protocol. The game is certainly visually impressive, especially in the (unfortunately brief) outdoor sections. The melee is fun even if it feels like it's in the wrong game. Outside of few very frustrating isolated sections (including the absolutely dog-shit final boss), I didn't have a terrible time playing it.

And yet, I can't stop thinking about all of the mistakes made here, most of which feel very preventable. I'm playing Dead Space 2023 now, and I'm struck by how much more balanced the combat in that game feels. By adding melee, Striking Distance Studios tried to fix something that wasn't broken and instead introduced a whole host of problems that weren't there before.

Throughout development, the main pitch of The Callisto Protocol was that this was designer Glen Scholfield's true original vision for Dead Space with no compromise. Having played it, I'm more confident than ever in my opinion that sometimes the "original vision" isn't the best one, and that collaboration and compromise can often result in a better product.

Also, let's be honest: the mutant zombies in this game just aren't anywhere near as scary as Necromorphs.

What a bizarre game. If I could give it a 7.5/10 I would, but I ultimately enjoyed my time with it so I'm going to round up.

I should probably be clear from the start that I'm a Sonic fan, and I've been a Sonic fan since I was a kid. I think the series has had an incredibly bumpy trajectory and I really wasn't sure what to make of this game based on pre-release footage. The funny thing is that I've put 20 hours into it and I'm still not sure what to make of it.

I could write a whole laundry list of the game's notable issues: The texture pop in is atrocious. There's a lot of repetitive collecting to pad out the game time and encourage you to explore the whole open world. The cyberspace levels, while fine, are mostly just slightly-reworked versions of stages from previous Sonic games.

And yet, despite all that, I kept wanting to play more of it. And I think it really comes down to one thing - Sonic as a character is perfect for an open world setting. I never got bored of zipping and zooming around the (surprisingly big) open world maps, and enjoyed the frequent bite-sized platforming challenges. I think traversal is really the key to my enjoyment of an open world game, and Frontiers absolutely nails it.

While the actual story of the game was pretty forgettable in my opinion, I'm glad they got IDW comics writer Ian Flynn to work on this game because the character moments between Sonic and his friends are incredibly charming and have definitely been missing from the games for a long time now. I love seeing Sonic and Knuckles as friends who constantly try to one-up each other for fun, or Sonic acting as an older brother to Tails and telling him that he's never seen him as a burden.

The combat is...fine, I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. The boss fights deliver on the kind of over-the-top spectacle you want from a Super Sonic boss fight and I'm glad they didn't skimp on them.

If you're not already a Sonic fan, I doubt this game is going to make you a convert. But hey, if going really really fast in an open world sounds cool to you, I'd recommend getting this on sale. The game absolutely has issues but the core gameplay loop totally works and I'm genuinely excited to see what a sequel to Frontiers will look like.