Latest Reviews
Mini Review Ten Dates (PS4) - A Much Improved Rom-Com Sequel
Seven out of ten dates
Has humanity ever had a worse idea than speed dating? Once you forget all the obviously terrible stuff like biological weapons and motion controls, speed dating must be right up there. Five minutes of pish banter with a person who isn't laughing at any of your killer jokes before you half-heartedly ask for contact information...
Review Wanted: Dead (PS5) - A Fascinating Mess of an Action Game
Dead, but not buried
Jeez, where do we even begin with Wanted: Dead? It feels like an action game from another age, harkening back to the many lower budget, madcap brawlers that found cult acclaim on the PS2 and PS3. It's also an extremely janky release, absolutely packed with dodgy character models, borderline unreadable combat animations, and...
Mini Review PowerWash Simulator (PS5) - Surprisingly Appealing, Deeply Satisfying
Good, clean fun
By now, you'll have made your mind up about PowerWash Simulator. It's been doing the rounds for a couple of years, winning hearts with its simple, inexplicably compelling gameplay. Yes, it's about blasting water at filthy buildings and objects. Yes, broadly it's quite repetitive and slow. Yes, you could get a power washer and hose...
Review Hogwarts Legacy (PS5) - A Harry Potter Dream Come True
Yer finally a wizard
For so many bookworms of the late 1990s to mid 2000s, Hogwarts Legacy is something of a dream game. After a long line of bang-average licensed titles, developer Avalanche Software is finally letting Potterheads realise their ambitions of attending Hogwarts, taking classes, and exploring the castle without restraint. It's a...
Mini Review World War Z: Aftermath (PS5) - Performance Issues Can't Stop XL Zombie Fun
More zombies, less frame rate
World War Z: Aftermath, the manic zombie shooter, has finally made its way to PS5 alongside its long-awaited XL version of Horde Mode. This movie tie-in has become a real sleeper-hit after it launched to middling reviews back in 2019. But several updates later, and we have a solid third-person co-op experience that has...
Review Deliver Us Mars (PS5) - A Thrilling Sci-Fi Adventure to Save Humanity
Welcome to the red planet
Deliver Us Mars takes place ten years after the events of Deliver Us the Moon and this time, as the game's title suggests, you'll be journeying to our neighbouring planet. You play as a young astronaut, Kathy Johanson, who is part of a team tasked with travelling to Mars to retrieve some vital technology in the hopes of...
Mini Review Fashion Police Squad (PS5) - Fun Boomer Shooter with Style to Boot
Drip and tear
We often wonder if the minds behind the original DOOM knew what the game they were creating would lead to. It's one of the most iconic games ever, but 30 years later we're swapping out demons for a scarier threat... bad fashion sense. Fashion Police Squad takes the classic "boomer shooter" formula and splices it with a ton of...
Review Mafia: Definitive Edition - This Is How You Do a Remake
Scarf ace
Republished on Wednesday, 1st February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. After the complete and utter disaster that was Mafia II: Definitive Edition, the only way was up for its prequel. Mafia: Definitive E
Review OlliOlli World (PS5) - Fantastic Skateboarding Game Is a World Apart from Predecessors
Perfect landing
Republished on Wednesday, 1st February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. For a certain type of player, OlliOlli World is just pure fun. Let's not beat about the bush here: this side-scrolling skateboarding game is simply...
Review Evil Dead: The Game (PS5) - This Cult Camp Horror Shows Its Groovy Side
"Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun"
Republished on Wednesday, 1st February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. That groaning you heard when Evil Dead: The Game was revealed wasn't actually the raspy wails of approaching Deadites...
Review SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (PS4) - Old School Platformer Is One for the Fans
You're ready, kids
Aficionados of Nickelodeon's iconic square-panted hero will largely agree Battle for Bikini Bottom is the best SpongeBob game. Nearly two decades later, developer Purple Lamp Studios brought it back with a full remake, and it was clear fans were hungry for something fresh. The team's response is SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic...
Review Forspoken (PS5) - Messy Action RPG Is Massively Hit and Miss
It's a kind of tragic
Forspoken is one of the most hit-and-miss games we've played in a long time. For everything it does well, it fumbles something else, resulting in a fantasy adventure that's full of ups and downs. It's a game that feels a bit confused in terms of what it actually wants to be, chasing a AAA-style 'cinematic' story one minute and...
Review Dead Space (PS5) - Faithful Remake Brings Back a Classic
USG Ishi-phwoara
Remakes can be somewhat of a touchy subject nowadays. While many are welcomed with open arms, others can have their very existence called into question. There isn't too much of a middle ground between the two extremes, so EA must have been elated to see Dead Space fans jumping for joy when it announced the 2008 survival horror...
Mini Review Season: A Letter to the Future (PS5) - Fascinating Exploration Amid a Cataclysm
Dear John
Season: A Letter to the Future is really interesting. You play as someone leaving their cosy mountain village, tasked with recording the history of a nearby valley before the changing of the season. A new season doesn't mean what it does in the real world, though. It's a major, seemingly cataclysmic event, capable of wiping the memories of...
Mini Review A Space for the Unbound (PS5) - A Powerfully Engaging Story-Driven Adventure
Follow your dreams
A Space for the Unbound is an endearing story-driven adventure game set in Indonesia in the late 90s. It explores mature themes like depression, anxiety, and suicide through a relationship between two high school sweethearts, a boy called Atma and a girl called Raya. These aren't just any normal students, however, since they're...
Review Persona 4 Golden (PS4) - An Utterly Engrossing RPG, and That's the Truth
A golden oldie
Persona 4 Golden was one of the PS Vita's defining games. An expanded version of the PS2's Persona 4, which first released in 2008, Golden is widely regarded as one of the best JRPGs out there — and it's still easy to see why. Many would argue that Atlus' series truly came into its own with Persona 4. It took the blueprint behind...
Review Persona 3 Portable (PS4) - Brooding JRPG Is Still Superb
Oh baby baby baby baby
In its potent mix of dungeon crawling and daily life management, Persona 3 established the formula that Atlus' series is now so well known for. Originally a PS2 title from 2006, the role-playing game was re-released not once, but twice. Its first reincarnation was Persona 3 FES in 2007 — an expanded version with gameplay...
Review Monster Hunter Rise (PS5) - A Fantastic Port of the Series' Best Outing
Tigrexcellent
Nine days after this review goes live, it’ll be five years since Capcom’s Monster Hunter series finally conquered the Western market in the form of Monster Hunter: World. Even for those of us who have been playing since the days of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, World felt like a breath of fresh air as the series finally hit the big...
Mini Review Ridge Racer 2 (PSP) - A Greatest Hits Album for Arcade Racing Royalty
Now that's what I call drifting
The original release of PSP's Ridge Racer 2 could be criticised for being almost exactly the same game as its predecessor, only with a few more tracks and modes. However, that doesn't really matter today, especially now it's one of the rare Ridge Racer titles playable on modern consoles. With its one blemish now moot,...
Mini Review Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (PS5) - Accessible Action RPG Plays Best on PS5
Learn to fly
Whether you're an existing fan or completely new to the world of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot remains a relatively accessible retelling of Akira Toriyama's timeless series. Taking the form of an action RPG spread across large, fully explorable maps, this is a mostly accurate adaptation of the source material, hitting all of the...
Shadow dancer
There are no shortage of 16-bit throwbacks on the PS Store, but some stand head and shoulders above the rest. The forgettably named Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is one such release: a white-knuckle mix of Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master on SEGA Genesis and Mega Man X on the Super Nintendo, complete with a Mode 7-inspired...
Review One Piece Odyssey (PS5) - Anime Dragon Quest Is Oh So Good
Odyssey, ya see!
If you ignore the One Piece: Pirate Warriors sub-series for a second, the last title fans of Luffy and his eccentric crew had to look forward to was One Piece: World Seeker. A disaster of an open world game, it felt unfinished with horrible gameplay and visuals — enough to make any enthusiast sceptical of future projects. However,...
Review Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4) - One of the Best Anime Fighters Ever
Super Saiyan Godly
Republished on Wednesday, 11th January, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. Ever since Dragon Ball FighterZ was revealed, it feels like the hype train has never stopped rolling – and for good reason. A Dragon Ball...
The storm is here
Republished on Wednesday, 11th January, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. If you're the kind of player who spent hours upon hours coming up with absurdly cool combos in Devil May Cry 5, then this expanded re-release is...
Review Back 4 Blood (PS5) - Raising a Co-Op Classic from the Dead
Right 4 Dead
Republished on Wednesday, 11th January, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. This isn’t Left 4 Dead 3. But it is Left 4 Dead 3. But it’s Back 4 Blood. Four survivors blast through a co-op campaign split into various acts,...
Mini Review Breakers Collection (PS5) - Cult 90s Fighter Finally Finds a Bigger Audience
Breaker the ice
If you owned a PS1, there’s a good chance you were playing Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, or Tekken 2 in 1996. You probably weren’t playing Breakers, a cult fighting game from Visco Corporation which first launched in Japanese arcades at the very end of that year, and was later ported to the NeoGeo AES...
Review Firefighting Simulator: The Squad (PS5) - Scorching Sim Shines in Online Co-Op
Hot stuff
You fight a lot of things in video games: zombies, terrorists, and those oddly enthusiastic blue slime things from the Dragon Quest franchise. Fires, however, are not a particularly common foe. Sure, there was Konami’s Firefighter F.D.18 on the PS2 and even Burning Rangers on the SEGA Saturn, but it’s not as common theme as you’d...
Mini Review Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS5) - A Marginal Upgrade on Backwards Compatibility
At least it’s a free upgrade
Republished on Wednesday, 28th December, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. The latest in a long line of free next-gen upgrades, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order plays things pretty straight. The native PS5...
Review Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) - One of the Best Star Wars Games Ever
I find your lack of faith disturbing
Republished on Wednesday, 28th December, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. It's been almost impossible to avoid Star Wars for the past five years. Ever since its welcome return to the big screen with...
Review Fallout 76 - A Shockingly Bad Attempt at Multiplayer Survival
Nuclear hazard
Republished on Wednesday, 28th December, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2023's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. Fallout 76 will be remembered as a defining moment for Bethesda Game Studios, and not in a good way. This entirely multiplayer take on the Fallout...
