I remember seeing this lanky ass derp boi in my childhood years. The original MediEvil's cover art terrified me, and he continued to haunt me as I owned some sort of demo disk with the game on it. Sir Daniel Fortesque horrified me, which is a little strange since him and his world were inspired by the art of Tim Burton and I fuckin LOVED Nightmare Before Christmas. Time-skip to high school (during my Xbox years) and I buy a PS Vita with Christmas money literally just so I can play Playstation Allstars Battle Royale. Sir Dan becomes my main and I slay some mofos with the skeletal doof, friends included. I also buy MediEvil Resurrected to get my first taste of what his games are. Love it.

Now here we are. Sir Daniel is back, refurbished in HD and ready to fight. MediEvil, much like the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, is recreated from the ground up. Although while Crash and Spyro had the big bucks funding their return, Daniel's back with a much smaller budget. One that only gets you 1 game remade instead of 3, but hey I'll take what I can get. MediEvil's back with its Tim Burton flair, Danny Elfman inspired music, goofy voice acting, and british humor. It takes the story and characters of the original PS1 version but uses the sleaker game mechanics of the PSP version, Allowing for easier movement and attacks.

While I loved playing it, my main problem with the game were framerate drops. Any time there's multiple enemies or you wanna use a flashy move the game will stutter. It gets annoying after a while. I've heard reviewers complain about glitches but I never ran into those at all. I hope this made enough money because I would really like them to remake MediEvil 2, and maybe even begin work on a brand new third entry based off original plans and concepts for it.

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated is a nostalgia blast and it's clear to see why it's come back. It's easily one of the most entertaining and well-constructed games to come from a kids show. Usually games based off animated series come off as cheaply made cash-grabs made specifically to get a little extra out of parents' wallets, but somehow SS:BfBB seemed to have just the right amount of care put into it. The remake is no different.

Sure it has it's edges. A glitch here, a wonky camera there, but nothing about this new version feels any less cohesive than the original. Visually I think the colors are a bit too bright now, like they finished the game and some dude said "But what if it were BRIGHTER," and cranked up the saturation. Most things I'd complain otherwise are unchanged from what my complaints of the original would be: I'm not a fan of some music tracks, I'm sad they don't have the original Mr. Krabs or Mermaid Man, and you get tired of your playable characters saying the same lines 50,000 times.

If you're a fan of the original, or you're just looking for a new platformer to sink your teeth into, Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated is a lax but enjoyable adventure.

I don't think i played this all too much, but I was there for the time Dwayne Johnson "hosted" a game. I think it was to promote Jumanji or something. Anyway the start time comes around and the quiz doesn't show up. My dorm-mates and I are sitting around (I was in college at the time) wondering what is going on. I can only assume Dwayne was late to the studio, probably stuck in that good ole New York traffic. So like 45 minutes pass and the stream finally comes on. The host is there, Dwayne is there. Dwayne talks about how excited he is for this. Then, if I remember correctly, he just fuckin' leaves. He was only there for the intro and the the host took back over for the quiz part. You're telling me I just waited 45 extra minutes for Dwayne to go "wow this is cool"?

I don't like many phone games, or maybe it's more accurate to say many phone games can't hold my attention and after a week they sit in my phone taking up my memory and collecting digital cobwebs. I've been playing Marvel Snap at least a few rounds every single day since I got it 2 months ago.

It's so quick and fun. Matches take maybe around 5 minutes, so you're not stuck in the game for long. Commercial break? Marvel Snap. Waiting on your local taco place (Cali Burrito) to gather your order? Marvel Snap. Gotta go number 2? You can play Marvel Snap, Stinky!

Am I good at the game? Probably not. Can't really seem to get past rank 30-40. Part of that is definitely a skill issue but it's also just not having the top notch cards unlocked yet. I don't care much though. I already knew this was one of my first card-based video games. The Hearthstone veterans gonna make sure I stay in my place till I figure things out.

I had hopes for Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. I thought that because the show is already over this wouldn't be a rushed tie-in game, and after throughly enjoying Adult Swim and Double Fine's game Headlander I believed Adult Swim Games was a decent company that knew what to look for to make games better than your average show or movie based video games. One of the ads for this game was the Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky talking about how this game was so much better than the previous Samurai Jack game and it made me excited, but sadly to me this game is clunky and difficult to get through. Either this game was rushed or the developers need more practice at the craft. Or maybe I couldn't understand the game. I checked twitter. A lot of people are loving it.

The latest Samurai Jack game is a combo-breaker hack-n-slash, where you play as the titular Samurai Jack in a brand "new" adventure where just before Jack achieves his goal of traveling back to his present and defeating a less powerful Aku, Aku traps Jack in a timeless pocket dimension where he must face some of the greatest foes Jack has already faced. It's a very forced-in new plot but honestly it still fits the world of Jack. It's a weird fuckin' world.

SJ:BTT really just feels like a show recap, and a kinda bad one at that cuz half of the game is really just focused on the final season of Samurai Jack. I see twitter people praising the animation but honestly I think it's bad. Sure the character models themselves are on point, but you quickly realize that all the animation was done through motion capture suits and it starts to give me some real Sonic '06 vibes. The environments are large, open, and very bland. People say it's faithful to Genndy Tartakovsky's art, but that man LOVES lush environmental shots with pinpoint detail, especially in the last season.

The gameplay of SJ:BTT is meh. Now I could be wrong here. I'm not good at hack-n-slash games that need complex combos to get through enemies. I was definitely button mashing. I started on normal difficulty and eventually had to switch to easy mode, because for the life of me I can't figure out how to play this right. Eventually I unlocked a warhammer and then just relied on that to get me through the rest of the game. I heard the skill tree leads to better movement and easier mechanics, but if your hiding necessary moves to make the game fun in your upgrades I'm calling it bad game design.

Overall I think Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is just a very middling experience. I appreciate all the voice actors coming back for their characters and Genndy giving his blessing, but the game that's been released feels like it could've been so much better. It feels like a game that came out 2 generations too late.

In 2020 after my dreams of playing Cyberpunk 2077 were dashed by the glitches, I went to the PS Store in search of one more game to play before the new year. On a whim I bought The Pathless completely unaware that this game was from Creative Director Matt Nava, the mind behind beautiful games like Journey and Abzu. If I had known this I would've bought this game straight away. Once I picked it up I couldn't stop playing it. I was surprised at how much I thoroughly enjoyed my time with The Pathless.

The Pathless is an open world game where you explore a mysterious land, on a mission from a voice in the sky, and fight giant monsters who reside within the land. If that sounds familiar it's because it's the same framework as hit game Shadow of the Colossus, but instead of climbing on the monsters you chase them with sick parkour moves and a bow until they tire out. These monsters are gods who've become corrupted by The Godslayer, a man who wants to destroy the world and recreate it in his vision. Y'know... like Thanos.

In this open world game you have no map. You see the theme of this game is about making your own path. Nobody will travel the world the same way you do as you strive to bring light back to this dark land. However, I do think the game itself sometimes battles against its own theme. I may be running around the way I see fit but the island is very much split into sections, and you have to defeat each monster before you can traverse onto the next which means you don't have free range on this open world. You're given a section of the land and once you complete this section's main objective a new section opens up. It's more of a nitpick I guess but that's why it doesn't have much effect on my opinion of the game.

Now you may be thinking "Oh god, no map. I'm gonna get so lost looking for everything." No worries mate, because you're given a mask that has the "Sight of Truth." When using this sight, puzzles and important areas of the land glow so you can more easily find them. The Sight also keeps track of everywhere you've traversed, highlighting wherever your feet have touched the ground. However your feet are only going to be touching the ground half of the time because you have a companion Eagle with the strength to hold onto you as she glides.

This birdie's a stronk-boi because she's the reincarnation of The Mother Eagle God, here to help you revive her children. At first this power seems like it only helps a little but as you power up you'll fly like an eagle, to the sea, fly like an eagle let your spirit set you free (sorry I had to). As monsters attack you they will harm your feathered friend, and you must heal her by giving her well earned skritches. That's right, you can pet the eagle, and it's an important mechanic.

The simplistic yet stylized flair of Journey and Abzu is back at it again with a beautiful forest environment that is stunning to take in, along with another breathtaking score from Austin Wintory. Wintory and Nava go together like peanut butter and jelly, man. I luv em. They mix together seamlessly to always give you a great experience.

In essence this game is Shadow of the Colossus meets Journey, so it makes sense that 2 fantastic games would make a wonderful combination.

Kentucky Route Zero is... difficult. It feels like an experiment on how much patience a person has. There's something here that may truly be great but my GOD is it long, strenuous, and BORING. By "The Barfly" sequence I tapped out. It's just a modern take on The Grapes of Wrath but with a David Lynch influence. You can pack that down into a 2 hour indie and I'd be happy, but no no no this game's gonna make sure you get it by droning on and on and on. I honestly don't know how this game has such great reviews and accolades because as much as I enjoy the aesthetic and wanted to like this game, the week it took for me to beat this game felt like a whole month.

Anyone who gets a Playstation 5 and pays for PS+ automatically gets the PS+ Collection, an assortment of all the well received PS4 exclusive games with some extras on the side. Because of this I’ll say everyone who gets a PS5 should play The Last Guardian from beginning to end at least once in their lives. If you’re getting it for free, you might as well experience a beautiful and emotional journey created by the masters who’ve brought you Shadow of the Colossus.

The Last Guardian is about a boy who wakes up in an unknown location called The Nest, covered in strange markings from head to toe, next to a wounded giant creature chained to the ground. This creature is called a trico, and once the boy frees Trico they must work together to escape The Nest. You will have to avoid possessed suits of armor guarding the corridors, but very soon you learn The Nest has some sort of purpose, and both you and Trico are here for a reason.

A lot of things about this game are amazing. A magnificently told heartwarming story. A score that is so good it could make my eyes water just from listening to it. Lore and mystery that intrigues you to go further and figure out what the heck is going on. Everything about The Last Guardian should lead to a 10/10 game… except for one aspect. Sadly, it’s one of the most important aspects of a video game.

The Last Guardian is a beautiful tale, but sadly it’s gameplay mechanics fall just short of reaching its true potential. It is the quintessential example of a flawed masterpiece (a term coined by crisp in the GG discord). You see as you progress through the game, you are essentially taming and bonding with a wild animal. Trico is not your friend. You and him just have a similar goal of escaping The Nest, and Trico’s wings are broken so he can’t just fly away. He does not trust you and he will choose to listen to you only if he sees fit, but along this journey you form a kinship. Through this bond Trico begins to understand you and will follow your directions accordingly. At least, that’s what should happen.

The game gets to a point where even though Trico’s your bro from another mo, commanding Trico is still a series of trial and error. Something feels different though. Trico responds to your calls, but he keeps doing the wrong thing. It was at this point I realized that while Trico now SHOULD understand me, the mechanics weren’t crafted precisely enough that he COULD understand me. The beast was tamed, he just thought I was pointing in a completely different direction. It became a long trek of me mashing the point button until Trico looked at where I wanted to go with his pure-boi dummy face and I could see the cogs in his brain finally aligning with mine. Also when I first played this game upon release I had realized that trying to command Trico while standing on his head somehow made command comprehension even worse. This replay I wasn’t sure if it was fixed so I just didn’t risk it.

This is why it’s hard to recommend The Last Guardian to someone who would have to buy it on PS4. It’s essentially a perfect game aside from a single flaw, but that single flaw could quite honestly cause someone to rage quit. I love this game for what it is, and I’ve got that supreme music score on my Spotify now, but I cannot tell you to play this game. You need to decide if you’re willing to take the plunge.

Maybe you were a kid like me who grew up with very little Nintendo products. I switched between Playstation and Xbox consoles through the generations, and only used Nintendo handhelds. Everyone was always talking about Zelda and Mario and ANIMAL CROSSING, and I’d just be like “I got Mariokart DS, it’s pretty fun.” The first and only Pokemon game I’ve played to completion is Pokemon Diamond. When you hear about all these games that everyone says are great, you search for alternatives. Luckily Microsoft and Rare were working on something to please my childhood needs.

Normally people are weary of the combination of Microsoft Studios and Rare Entertainment, but in my opinion Viva Piñata is the diamond in the rough to come from this duo. For those who don’t know, in Viva Piñata you live on an island inhabited by piñatas and grow a garden decent-looking enough that the candy-filled creatures want to set up camp in your patch of grass. Viva Piñata is MY Animal Crossing.

Viva Piñata has a heavy emphasis on experimentation and self discovery, as most of these piñatas are not hidden behind a level up wall, but instead are waiting for you to set your garden up a certain way. Every plant you grow will probably have a new piñata sniffing it out, and more aquatic piñatas are waiting for you to dig a lot of ponds. Some will show up once you’ve tamed another species just to show them up, and some “sour” piñatas are cranky and need you to heal them. Feeding piñatas certain foods will transform them with new color schemes, and some flat out transform into entirely new species!

Trouble in Paradise is the 2nd main game of the franchise. Most mechanics have stayed the same, but new features have been added. For the most part these features to me feel slapped on or rushed. Apart from your main garden, you can now visit The Pinarctic and The Dessert Desert. Instead of building a livable space in these areas, your goal is to set traps for the piñata in these places so you can bring them back to your mainland. This is an interesting addition, but I soon became bored with them because there’s very few piñata that actually utilize these spaces. It’s weird to say, because the number of piñata species have increased by over 50%, but it feels like not enough new breeds have been added. The species-count has increased from 50 to 80. Only 11 of these new species are split between The Pinarctic and Dessert Desert, 14 if you unlock the 3 species hidden behind food experimentation with breeds you already have. All of these 11 species are hidden behind simple level walls with no need of experimentation to unlock them.

Trouble in Paradise comes with a “Just For Fun” mode where your money is unlimited and all villainous obstacles are removed, allowing for newcomers to practice gardening and veterans to make the garden they truly desire without the setbacks. This mode is really fun, but I feel they took things away from the main game to set them apart more. In the first Viva Piñata, you’d originally unlock a yard decoration that would ward off all Ruffians (antagonistic characters who come in a wreck your shit unless you pay them money). The decoration is still purchasable, but it has no effect. The only way to ward off Ruffians, or more precisely their leader Professor Pester, is by having either a Dragonache or Limeoceros living in your garden; two of the fattest piñata in the game. It becomes apparent how annoying the population restrictions are, and you begin wishing for a more lenient restriction system and a larger garden space. I’d rather the decoration just have a larger price tag and be unlocked at like level 60. I’ll still feel a sense of accomplishment for getting it, and I don’t need to keep this dumb rhino that tramples my smaller animals and makes them depressed.

Your piñatas can now be entered into contests for sport. I’ve only played this a few times cuz it’s really just a bunch of quick minigames that add nothing to the rest of the game. No emphasis is put on playing them whatsoever so i feel no interest in attempting them. TiP also comes with online multiplayer modes, but I cannot give any input on the quality of that cuz I have no friends currently playing a 12-year-old game about gardening. They’re all too busy playing the gardening game that just came out this year on their Switches.

Older mechanics have been tweaked but possibly to a detriment. Your shovel can be used to dig a pond, but in the first game your X button was bound to digging the pond while your Y was bound to filling in ponds. In TiP however, both of these are bound to the X button. If your cursor is above ground you dig, if it’s above water you fill. It keeps you from creating that even deepness you could originally have in your ponds which satisfied the OCD part of my brain. The Y button is now set to a sort of larger dig/fill where you mark the boundary of what you want to mess with, but I really can’t figure out how to get this finicky mechanic to do what i want it to.

When “romancing,” or breeding, piñatas you have to complete a maze-like minigame before they can properly mate. In the sequel they seem to increase the difficulty of these minigames and it sort of reduces my interest to achieve the Master Romancer award through the normal way. You just need 7 of the same species in the garden, and I’d rather just pay Gretchen the Hunter to acquire them for me, at least for the harder mazes.

When you look at the core of Trouble in Paradise it’s very similar to the original, but these additives and retouches feel a little sloppy. It’s almost like Microsoft gave Rare a checklist of what they wanted added to the game (online capabilities, utilization of the Xbox camera) and once those were completed Rare shoved in what they originally wanted to add before the deadline, but none of it feels fully fleshed. The same piñata species that were buggy in the first game are still buggy now. For sure the game is still fun and super addictive with its steady flow of new content, but these jagged edges to the game keep it from being as truly great as its predecessor.