Reviews

El Hijo is a joy to play. Despite the occasional wobble, it's a rewarding and remarkably serene stealth tale with plenty of heart.

This card game perfectly captures the wild and unpredictable nature of Pro Wrestling.

Aristeia is a fantastic game. Team selection and knowing how to use the characters to the best effect has a huge impact on the game and is incredibly rewarding when you get it right. Games are fast-paced and the rules are easy to learn and extremely straight-forward in terms of effect and action timing. The custom dice make working out results easy and the card decks add a random element to the game, but don't impact the game hugely, which keeps the tactical element balanced. The components are of solid quality and everything is quite compact and organized during play due to the Control Panels. The custom dice, straightforward rules, and hexes for movement make this a great entry game.

The Corridor has a corridor as advertised and a bonus button, too. Pressing the button makes weird fun happen in a perfectly concise experience.

Kings of War Armada is an awesome stream-lined system for fantasy ship combat. Damage is simplified to keep the game flowing, so those looking for very detailed ship damage to different sections won't find that here. But those looking for a great system, with a focus on easy play and tactical depth will find it. The movement and shooting systems work very well, and there's a good amount of list flexibility with the available upgrades. The 2 included fleets give a great insight into how both fleets play, and both feel thematically unique.

Per Aspera is a stunningly realistic "planet builder" in which you play as an AI tasked with terraforming Mars. Although its pace is sometimes slow, it is an extremely educational game with a surprisingly deep and touching story.

Too often these days, our games are so preoccupied with achievements, trophies, levels, and all kinds of complicated crafting and weaponry that we don’t normally just sit back and play a game—really play a game—and actually have fun without any kind of pressure at all. Phogs! allows you to go back and experience the fun of a game at its most basic—and that’s not always something even AAA games can pull off. 

Sam & Max Save the World Remastered is the perfect antidote to 2020. With updated visuals, great Switch porting, and terrific writing that still holds up over a decade later, only a few frustrating puzzle solutions stand in the way of practical perfection.

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a fun Souls-like, but it suffers from some odd world design decisions.

Telestrations: Upside Drawn puts a brand new spin on a classic party game formula.

Twin Mirror's concise narrative and innovative detective gameplay is heartfelt and earnest, though the small-scale, personal story is left open-ended.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Project Wingman is the most blatent flattery I've ever seen. It's good, but never really manages to be better than "A good Ace Combat fan game."

Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a vast and entertaining adventure with excellent gameplay. Unfortunately, the storyline and quest system are weak and the game feels rushed. It's a fun game but one that lives in Breath of the Wild's shadow.

Chronos: Before the Ashes is an interesting game, but not a consistent one. Its world is occasionally fascinating, some mechanics are quite interesting and its general theming adds a lot to the universe — that being said, it offers plenty of ideas it fails to deliver on and could do with a little more to make it really stand out

A refreshingly deep and customizable turn-based tactics game lets you reign supreme in a 1920s criminal empire.

Stargaze is a fantastically unique approach to space exploration, featuring inventive puzzles, unique worlds, and a charming personality.

Blood and Plunder is quite simply an incredible system. It captures historical detail while blending land and sea combat in a simple ruleset with no-nonsense stats and abilities. The rulebook is well laid out and the flow of learning is logical and straight-forward. The realism and historical accuracy mean that there's not a huge difference between troops types that players of fantasy or sci-fi wargames might expect, but this puts the emphasis on commander control of troops and maximizing any advantage you can get. The use of cards for initiative and activations works extremely well and creates a balanced turn. The buy-in for everything with ships can be pricey, but the upcoming 2-player starter set including 2 plastic ships for Raise the Black will change everything.

Maid of Sker is an adaptation of influential Welsh folklore and brings its own voice to the survival horror genre. That is once it gets over stage fright.

Splendor: Marvel takes a timeless classic and gives it an approachable facelift.

Merchants and Marauders: Broadsides won’t be for everyone, it’s direct PvP, it's very draw dependent, and anyone coming from Merchants and Marauders hoping to find the same open-world won’t find much similar except the setting. Broadsides is fun, it’s incredibly thematic and has some fantastic tense and epic moments if you can stick through the bad draws.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a pleasant, nostalgia-packed experience providing a plot recap which fans of the series probably need right about now

In Celebration of Violence provides a deeply rewarding but incredibly difficult and obtuse roguelike experience.

Oak & Iron is a very easy to learn and teach game, with straight-forward mechanics for movement and combat. This, combined with the ability to play straight out of the box with the miniatures make it a fantastic entry-level wargame or gateway game. The deeper level of tactics and strategy then make it an incredibly rewarding experience for veteran gamers. The 6 different ships and 5 factions playable out of the Core Box give it a huge amount of replayability, but also make it an incredible experience to expand from.

A disappointment in almost all areas besides combat and graphics, Godfall feels more like a next-generation showcase than anything else. A boatload of stats and unsubstantial loot are just some of Godfall's major problems.