Tag: Review

  • Review: Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch 1/2)

    Review: Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch 1/2)

    After Aspyr and Crystal Dynamic’s conservative but smart remasters of the CORE-era Tomb Raider games, I had hoped that a remastered Tomb Raider: Legends, Anniversary, and Underworld Trilogy was the next logical step. Instead, we got the shadow drop of a Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition port for the Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. If you’re after a one sentence summary: it’s a solid, feature-complete portable option; however, it’s hard not to notice visual compromises that make it feel like a Switch 1-focussed project that left Aspyr with few options beyond boosting the resolution and framerate for the Switch 2.

    Starting with the quality of the game rather than the port, it’s hard to believe this reboot released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 all the way back in 2013, before receiving a spruced up Definitive Edition for Xbox One and PS4 the following year. It still looks good and feels modern – reinforcing my belief the cinematic, open-world, third-person, action-adventure genre has become too dominant and increasingly stagnant in the “AAA” space. When it was released, Tomb Raider (2013) felt like an impressive and polished hybrid of classic Uncharted-style set-pieces and shooting, merged with the fledgling open-world, action-RPG template.

    It’s more open-zone in practice, with the plot taking you through each region on the island. The path occasionally loops back through evolving central regions, and all zones are connected by set-pieces or obvious transitions designed to mask loading screens. There are parts that feel more like Crystal Dynamic’s first reboot trilogy – in which you spend the bulk of your time running, jumping, puzzling, and driving rare animals closer to extinction – but there’s a gradual shift towards wild set-pieces and firefights, coupled with a steady flow of XP and points to invest in a limited skill-tree, and no shortage of collectible weapon parts and scrap to improve your arsenal. It was an early indication of the trend that would see RPG and survival-crafting elements shoehorned into every other genre – but it felt fresh at the time.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch Shotgun Upgrades

    Although many of those designs have been commonplace, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on Switch is still worth playing for the first time if you missed it (or worth replaying if you wanted a portable option). Both newcomers and returning players might find the compact world, brisk pacing, and 12- to 15-hour runtime less daunting compared to the AAA bloat we’ve come to expect in 2025. It also serves as a decent introduction to the character of Lara Croft by proving an entertaining albeit dubiously written origin story. Lara goes from terrified victim, to retching after her first kill in self-defence, to killing hundreds of cult-like castaways in often brutal ways (including gratuitous executions you can unlock in a skill-tree for bonus XP).

    It’s a classic example of narrative dissonance in a video game – think gameplay systems and storytelling that don’t feel coherent – but Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is still a wild ride and good fun if you don’t overthink it. A young Lara and a diverse crew of Hollywood-style archetypes (most only fleshed out later in flashback cutscenes) are shipwrecked in the Dragon’s Triangle while on the hunt for the civilisation of an ancient Japanese Empress who was said to control the weather. A gruelling opening sets the tone, with Lara escaping from a pursuer through a series of gameplay tutorials and classic stick-wriggling, button-mashing, quick-time event (QTEs). As a precursor of what’s to come, failing any of these early QTEs reward you with a gruesome death scene before setting you back to try it again.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch Bunker Firefight

    That over-reliance on QTEs and questionably gratuitous violence feels like baggage from the era but, thankfully, most of the game plays out as a mix of slick third-person platforming, light puzzling, wild set-pieces, and scrappy shooting that sees Lara automatically ducking behind anything waist-high. There are white markers to guide you while platforming; Lara gravitates towards ledges and ropes when jumping; puzzles rarely let you think for more than a minute before giving a hint; you can sneak up on enemies and dispatch them stealthily; there’s a “hunters sense” scanning ability you’ll find yourself spamming to highlight enemies and items, and the map slowly fills with dozens of markers as you explore. Thankfully, that familiarity is less of a problem for Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition in 2025 as only those foolish enough to systematically hunt for every collectible will find it overstays its welcome.

    Returning to the port itself, it’s worth touching on the visuals and technical performance not because they’re terrible or the game is unplayable – the cutbacks are simply unexpected. The Switch 1 has had many great Xbox One/PS4-era conversions, but Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition loses a considerable amount of vegetation density and shadows that can change the entire feel of many forested areas by leaving them far brighter. That said, if you’ve not played the other versions recently, it’s not a deal breaker. More annoying is the visible pop-in when running through an area and framerate drops from the mid-game Shantytown area onwards on Switch 1 that can impact the responsiveness of the controls. The Switch 2 receives no noticeable visual upgrades, but it does have a higher base resolution and reasonably solid 60fps framerate. It ultimately feels underwhelming and clearly underutilises the improved hardware.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch Plane Crash Set-piece

    All that said, it’s still a solid portable option for console hardware that has seen far greater uptake than handheld PCs that still have OS and interface issues, compatibility problems, and a lack of developer-created optimised settings for older games. Despite my preference for the older games and criticisms of this port, I played through the bulk of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on the original Switch, content to forgive any technical flaws as the tight gameplay loop hooked for another 15 or so hours. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition may not feel as mechanically fresh in 2025 – having laid many of the foundations for so many modern cinematic, third-person, action-adventures – but it’s compact design and brevity (and budget pricing) offers a breath of fresh air for those daunted by modern AAA games.

    Pros:

    • Tomb Raider (2013) remains a solid reboot that still plays great
    • Completionists will find collectible-hunting sessions a good fit for handheld play  
    • It still looks good on Nintendo Switch displays (and decent enough when docked)
    • The Switch 2 version benefits from boosted resolution and a 60fps framerate…

    Cons:

    • …but the reduced visual settings compared to other platforms are obvious
    • An unstable 30fps framerate can make the controls feel sluggish on the Switch 1 at times

    Score: 7/10

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/PS5.

  • Review: Kaku: Ancient Seal (Xbox Series)

    Review: Kaku: Ancient Seal (Xbox Series)

    While Kaku: Ancient Seals bills itself as an open-world, action-adventure RPG, in reality – and spiritually – it feels a lot closer to the PS2- and PS3-era of large zone, action-platformers, like Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. Just with a sprinkling of modern ARPG mechanics. Make no mistake, that’s no slight against Kaku and developer BINGOBELL’s aspirations, as Kaku certainly goes big in just about every way it possibly can.

    Set during some primeval era, Kaku throws you into the shoes of young Kaku himself. A quest to capture a flying piggy leads him to a bigger quest to save the world. Kaku is the anointed one and the future of the world – now split into four continents by way of a catastrophe – needs some serious saving. Kaku has to use his newly acquired godly powers and return elemental balance to the world.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Story

    And Kaku’s quest isn’t just big, it’s massive. Because Kaku’s world is massive. There are four continents for you to run across to set things right in, populated by primeval creatures of all sorts, like savage tribes and elemental Lords that need to be taken down to right the elemental imbalance. All of which is rounded out by side-quests to take on, both brain teasing and environmental puzzles to solve, platforming challenges and puzzles, and lots and lots of combat.

    If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Like many open-world games, Kaku perhaps throws a little too much at you to do, a lot of which becomes repetitive by the time you’ve reached the second continent and the play-style and story-flow is established. So while I did eventually wear myself out on finding shrine keys and collecting all the various items you need for upgrades and crafting, the exploration and platforming still managed to keep me hooked. And a lot of that is down to the games world design.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Visuals

    Each continent is home to a different biome, from wet marshlands to dry-as-bone deserts and freezing glaciers, providing a nice variety of gorgeous locales to explore. Because each area is so large, Kaku is dotted with teleportation pillars for you to unlock via a fun puzzle game that has you sliding blocks to certain positions within a set number of moves.

    Although you can approach any continent at any time (even jumping between them during missions), Kaku’s environments are less open-world and more open-zone, as each continent is broken up into different regions and temples that you load into. This is a good idea as it helps to make each area more navigable, while providing greater variation and themes. Invisible walls do, unfortunately, pop up when you reach the edge of the games map, which both looks and feels awkward.

    The platforming, which is one of the games highlights for me, is very traditional, with the ability to double-jump and air dash to navigate the pitfalls around you. We’re talking moving platforms, spiked and fire platforms, and switches you need to hit while riding platforms that are moving or falling apart. In short, it’s fairly traditional stuff for 3D platformers but it is done well.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Traps

    Combat is where you start to see more modern mechanics with enemies that have massive health and stun bars. Kaku has a light attack, an arm guard attack that damages the stun bar, and a wide range of combat skills to unlock, These range from more melee attacks, ranged attacks, and what is, essentially, a super mode that heals you while giving you access to godly weapons and damage output for short durations.

    The said, combat is easily the weakest aspect for me. The enemies being bullet sponges are just one of the many combat issues that eventually had me kiting enemies from a distance when I could, or just avoiding them completely when I could. A lot of that comes down to Kaku’s combat speed and animations that feel too slow coming out of or transitioning between attacks. When you combine Kaku’s slow move-set with enemy attacks that briefly stun you and many enemy attacks, especially projectiles, that are really fast, all too often you get stuck in stun-lock loops and pummelled in mobs. Enemies also do pretty hefty damage, even when you start to upgrade Kaku’s stats.

    I also found a fair amount of cheap enemy placement in environments that require lots of platforming with deadly drops beneath you. Large enemies on small ledges with little room to manoeuvre is just a giant no.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Traps Boss Fight

    Boss fights tend to go big with giant enemies that have multiple health bars and attack patterns you need to pay attention to. While they’re generally more fun to engage than common mobs, they’re still plagued by the same combat issues which can be aggravating when you’ve taken a boss down to it’s last health bar, only to be stun-locked and knocked off a platform to your instant death, and have to restart the entire fight.

    One thing you’re going to have to do is upgrade to keep Kaku alive. If you don’t, you’ll quickly watch your health disappear in a flash while dishing out single points of damage to groups of enemies.

    There are a fair amount of crafting materials to gather: from shards that drop from enemies you use to upgrade your base abilities, to various ores and plants for healing and inventory expansion. There’s a very light crafting system for cooking beneficial foods and creating elemental ammo for your slingshot. Armour and weapons can’t be crafted or upgraded; instead, they’re dropped from bosses or picked up from chests and have buffs associated with them The most you can do is socket them with ruins that add incremental perks like ten percent more health.

    What you really want to do is rapidly upgrade Kaku’s inventory limit, how much food he can carry, his health, stamina, attack, and defence – everything really. Attack, defence, and item limits are easily upgraded in a sort of spirit realm, where you channel crafting items into unlocking higher tiers of damage and defence. Kaku’s skill tree has a variety of useful attacks and you can also only upgrade them here (at launch, the skill tree video is bugged though as it plays the same video for each of Kaku’s skills instead of showing the correct one per skill).

    Following in Breath of The Wilds footsteps, there are small puzzle-platforming temples in the spirit realm you need to complete to upgrade health and stamina. These formed some of my favourite moments in Kaku, as they required you to use the bulk of your platforming skills in bite-sized moments that didn’t outstay their welcome.

    That said, upgrading doesn’t make the combat and it’s surprising difficulty, any better but it does make fights shorter. Even when I’d upgraded Kaku’s damage output to its fourth tier, I still preferred to avoid fighting unless I had no other choice.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Xbox Series X

    Returning to the positives, Kaku is a mostly gorgeous game. While I don’t think the cut-scenes do a great job of showcasing this, the scenery when you’re exploring Kaku’s world are, oftentimes, quite stunning. There’s a wonderfully massive sense of scale captured by the environment design that always made it a  pleasure for me to see what was around the next bend.

    While Kaku has some issues and kid-friendly visuals that belie its high combat difficulty (and the occasional frustrating platforming moment), BINGOBELLS adventure still manages to feel like a fun return to action-platformers of old. If you can overlook the frustrating combat system that could do with some fine-tuning, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in its primeval world.

    Pros:

    • A massive multi-zoned world to explore
    • Beautiful environments that create an epic sense of scale
    • Fun platforming, puzzling, and exploration gameplay

    Cons:

    • The combat feels overly difficult and mechanics need fine-tuning
    • Some poor/cheap enemy placement
    • Repetitive area side-quests and tasks for upgrades

    Score: 7/10

    Kaku: Ancient Seals was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5/Pro.

  • Review: Castle of Heart: Retold (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Castle of Heart: Retold (Nintendo Switch)

    With the original Castle of Heart, released back in 2018 as a Switch exclusive, developer 7Levels decided that they wanted to bring back really old-school action-platforming to the market. One that gave us the difficulty of yesteryear wrapped in a shiny new hardware package. Castle of Heart managed to earn a reputation for being quite difficult, but not always for the right reasons.

    Seven years on, 7Levels have half remastered, half remade Castle of Heart with a significant number of improvements, both visually and behind the scenes, to make this the definitive version. And they haven’t skimped on the difficulty in the process.

    Castle of Heart’s story is one we’ve heard countless times in the fantasy genre. An evil wizard gains too much power through shady, otherworldly dealings and begins to subjugate the world. One priestess dares to stand against him, earning the wizard’s wrath. And, when a brave knight stands up to the wizard to protect the priestess, the wizard abducts the priestess and turns everyone else into stone. But, don’t you know it, thanks to the priestess’ tear, the knight is only partly transformed. Grabbing his sword, he goes on a mission to rescue the priestess, slay the wizard, and, hopefully, undo the curse before it does him in fully.

    As the brave knight, you have twenty visually distinct levels to survive, along with a handful of bosses to slay on the way to saving your love and yourself. While the knight is mobile, the curse is still active, slowly turning him to stone as you fight your way to salvation. Health pick-ups from the environment and defeated enemies will restore a portion of your health, but you’re always on a strict time limit, watching it whittle away as you charge across each stage. And charge you will have to, if you want to make it to the end before crumbling into stone.

    As the knight, you can dual-wield weapons for extra damage, block attacks, dodge roll out of the way, and jump high enough to put most superheroes to shame. All of these skills you’ll need to chain together on a regular basis. You’ll want to dual wield, whether that’s with swords or crossbows, to deal extra damage because every little bit of health you save makes the difference between life and death.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Stone Mechanic

    With your health always depleting, losing too much of it causes your arm to shatter and eventually the rest of your body follows suite. Getting through enemy encounters and environmental traps as quickly as possible is therefore paramount to your survival. The stages are littered with health pickups and enemies drop slivers of health on death, while hitting a checkpoint restores you fully before the next section. However, between the damage dealt by enemies – which increases in later stages – and how long it may take to get through an encounter, you always feel like you’re on the back-foot. Even with gems hidden throughout each stage that increases your total health, it always feels like you’re one step away from crumbling to dust. The sense of urgency is very real.

    That said, enemy encounters have been retooled. Unblockable attacks now have a visual prompt, and early enemies don’t take as many swings to put down. You can get caught between them though, which makes for some troublesome times but, thankfully, your dodge roll also knocks down enemies to create some valuable breathing room. Enemy placement can be a bit of a pain and feel unfair at times, such as projectile enemies at the lip of a jump you need to reach or flying enemies just going about their business near a rope you need to swing on.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Platforming

    Stages are very linear, but the developers build upon each environmental design after they’ve been introduced in early levels. Before long, you’ll be swinging across large gaps to land on collapsing platforms, jumping over spikes, and leaping into a group of enemies. These are some of the best moments in the game and require you to be absolutely on point to make it through. There’s no room for even a tiny misstep in these sequences.

    That said, instant death haunts you on just about every step of your journey. Mistime a swing or jump too late from those floorboards, it’s curtains and right back to the last checkpoint. To mitigate the number of instant deaths in the game, the developers have liberally placed checkpoints around the stages and give you infinite lives. There’s no game over screen here, just another chance to get it right. While that is appreciated, it doesn’t mitigate how unforgiving certain instant death platforming sequences feel, such as having to make it to the top of a flooding mine before the water catches you were even a split-second delay in your response time determines whether or not you succeed.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Set-pieces

    Castle of Heart: Retold has been rebuilt with better textures and materials, improved meshes and geometry, and significant lighting improvements. It is, quite simply, gorgeous with much of the game falling into the screenshot worthy status. The 3D world with a 2.5D perspective making for a stunning spectacle, with multiple layers of scenery adding tons of depth to each location. Animations have been improved as well, for both our hero knight and the various enemies you’ll encounter, making the game feel closer to a remake than a remaster at times.

    While it seems that the bulk of the original’s issues have been addressed – such as combat difficulty, control issues, visual quality, and a complete script rewrite – Castle of Heart: Retold still has some issues that keep it from old-school greatness.

    While enemies may be visually distinct, with each area introducing new ones that fit the biome, attack patterns are repeated. Later encounters less about learning and exploiting new move-sets, and more about dealing with more incoming damage. This may make it easier to use the same tricks to defeat them, but between the escalating damage and your life draining away, I found it made more sense to just jump over enemies and rush past those that I could.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Updated Visuals

    Another issue that increases the difficulty is a common problem that most multi-layered 2D games suffer from: foreground elements obstructing the action. That happens in quite a bit in Castle of Heart: Retold, especially in the sliding sequences. Yes, it makes the game look beautiful, but when that tree trunk or rock in the foreground hides the edge of a cliff or drop from a roof at any point in a long platforming sequence, it can feel infuriating.

    On the whole, Castle of Heart: Retold is a great remake/remaster of an existing game that focuses on fixing the original releases problems, while bringing back old-school action-platformer difficulty. With a beautiful visual upgrade and plenty of tense set-pieces, it will suit those in the mood for significant challenge from their platformers.

    Pros:

    • A gorgeous visual remake
    • Some nicely constructed platforming sequences
    • The turning-to-stone premise keeps you on the edge of your seat

    Cons:

    • Some sequences can be very frustrating, especially when the environment can obscure your view
    • Later enemies just feel like reskins with the same move-set

    Score: 7/10

    Castle of Heart: Retold was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Console Review: Frostpunk 2 (Xbox Series)

    Console Review: Frostpunk 2 (Xbox Series)

    Although I enjoyed my first experience with the Frostpunk IP on console, I had a feeling the port of Frostpunk 2 would prove more challenging. Despite sharing many core mechanics, Frostpunk 2 is far more menu-driven, with a focus on tweaking supply lines and juggling resource allocation across multiple Frostland sites, rather than restrictive city-building in one location. The result is an engrossing sequel with far greater scope and complexity, but it doesn’t always gel with a controller.

    That said, Frostpunk 2 is still a great sequel so long as you’re not after more of the same. The campaign and sandbox-style missions begin with the familiar task of building up a settlement around a generator and exploiting local resources, but it takes less time to establish a logistics hub and dispatch Frostland teams to explore a sprawling over-world map. There are technology paths that focus on fortifying and sustaining a single mega-city by tapping into unlimited resource deposits, but the branching campaign chapters will still force you to explore the Frostlands to either settle or loot distant locations.

    Frostpunk 2 Console Whiteout Storm

    Frostpunk 2 feels considerably more epic in scope thanks to new mechanics and an accelerated timeframe. The in-game clock hurtles forward through days and weeks, so it plays out over years and decades, rather than the days and months of the original. The city-building elements – which now involve sprawling districts, hubs, and key buildings – feels less exacting. In contrast, menu-driven systems that control the flow of heat and workers across your city are vital, and so too are Frostland supply lines let you balance the flow of colonists, food, fuel, and goods between settlements and outposts.

    Some may find the reduced focus on city-building disappointing, but there are new and expanded mechanics to keep you engaged. The most obvious is the new council and enhanced interplay of factions within your city. It starts with a simple vote to keep your player on as a steward (which can trigger an early game-over screen) but you’ll soon find yourself using these council sessions to vote on introducing new laws. These govern everything from education and social support, to policing and healthcare – all of which come with pros, cons, and faction preferences. If you play your cards right, there is even a path to entrench yourself as an autocratic leader who rules by edict.

    Frostpunk 2 Console Council Votes

    Factions can organically support your decisions, negotiate over future policy and research goals, or force you into a vote if you’ve ignored their requests for too long. If a faction gains dominance, they can start claiming housing districts, offer more support if you’re aligned with them, develop potentially problematic rituals, and even rebel against you – damaging structures and your economy. There is plenty of leniency on the lower difficulties, but a combination of social unrest, fanatics, sabotage, and the elements can conspire to destroy your settlement if problems are left to fester.

    It is a complex and sometimes overwhelming interplay of systems, but it is incredibly satisfying to keep your city thriving on the edge of disaster – especially when you are reaping the rewards of an earlier narrative decision or newly researched technology. Gameplay can feel dry as you simply define development zones, flip between information overlays, and shift sliders, but the audiovisual elements are immersive. The city announcer, citizen comments, and short narrative vignettes convey the impact of your choices. Machines clear the ice, basic foundations grow into bustling districts, and well-lit paths and heat pipes connect them. Better still, you can zoom right out into the Frostlands view, zoom back into secondary settlements, or pan across the over-world map to track approaching Whiteout storms that still threaten your settlements from time to time and cut off distant outposts.

    Frostpunk 2 Console Overlays

    Unfortunately, all that complexity means playing Frostpunk 2 on console (or on PC using a gamepad) will have you fighting the controls just often enough to be frustrating. Selecting the wrong structure in a radial menu or placing a district in the wrong spot is annoying but manageable. Struggling to navigate the screen overlay icons or struggling to shift sliders in sensible increments is far more impactful as the game goes on. When you throw in other annoyances – like repeatedly zooming into a settlement while trying to connect Frostland supply lines, or tutorial pop-ups that won’t close – Frostpunk 2 can begin to grate. I just hope 11 bit Studios is still working on refining the control scheme as the rest of the package is an excellent choice for fans of the city-builders and management games with a survival twist.

    Pros:

    • It’s easier to establish interconnected cities and settlements
    • Managing political factions is almost as stressful as managing resources and the elements
    • The choice-driven campaign changes up how later chapters play out
    • Generator cities, settlements, and the Frostlands all look and sound more beautiful than ever

    Cons:

    • The gamepad control scheme feels smartly designed but is awkward and sometimes frustrating in practice
    • It can feel like a pure management game at times as you navigate menus, overlays, and maps

    Score: 7/10

    Frostpunk 2 was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.

  • Retrospective Review: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition

    Retrospective Review: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition

    If 1995’s Command & Conquer built upon early real-time strategy attempts to perfect the foundations of the genre, so too did 2004’s Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War for the nascent squad-based RTS genre. Strategy games in which your ability to micromanage fewer squads and control territory is often more important than fortifying bases, tech-ing up, and overwhelming your opponent with a mass of units (which is not to say that can’t be done). Losing territory could swiftly strip you of resources and access to high-tier units, while losing entire squads and powerful leader units could turn the tide against you as you scramble to reinforce from scratch. Two decades on, even with real-time strategy reduced to a more niche market, the legacy of Relic’s Dawn of War is still visible in game design.

    Returning to it by way of the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition, I forgot how much it feels like a game of two halves – each half catering to a very different audience. If you share my fondness for fortifying every square inch of a map as you expand, upgrading every unit as far as possible, and using tactical retreats to preserve squads for a final push, the campaigns and lower difficulty AI skirmishes – either solo or coop – have you well catered for. If you prefer reactive, high-intensity, high-mobility battles to claim and hold territory, the PvP modes have you covered and, to a lesser extent, the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm campaigns on higher AI difficulties.

    If this remaster is your introduction to Dawn of War, it is one of those “easy to grasp, hard to master” games. The original campaign and Winter Assault expansion serve as lengthy, glorified tutorials that introduce basic mechanics and strategies, while providing all the narrative context and world-building you could ask for. You might think Space Marines killing aliens and demons in the God Emperor’s name has limited potential, but the Dawn of War campaign gets right what so many modern Warhammer 40,000 games gets wrong: the cast show some self-awareness of the absurd universe they inhabit, it focuses on the distinctly human flaws under a Space Marine’s superhuman physiology, and that humanity makes it easy to root for the protagonists. The Winter Assault campaigns lean more into the absurdity and hypocrisy of the universe, whereas the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansions only offer narrated flavour text to link together skirmishes.

    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Definitive Edition Terminator Squads

    Of course, the minute-to-minute gameplay is the draw of any RTS, and the Dawn of War – Definitive Edition offers up everything from exhilarating chaos to plodding grind, with no shortage of frustration that’ll have you cursing unit pathfinding and their lack of self-preservation. Befitting the squad-based focus, base-building is relatively simple with three resources to manage – requisition, power, whether you control a holy relic or not – and there are typically three tiers of global upgrades. Controlling units is standard RTS fare but in addition to global upgrades, you can personalise squad weapon loadouts; attach support units, define movement and engagement rules; use light and heavy cover to enhance infantry effectiveness; and exploit morale damage, negative cover, high ground, and line-of-sight to give your forces the edge.

    Irrespective of which of the nine factions you play as through the campaigns, skirmishes, or PvP modes, the basics are the same – even if the base-building and upgrade pathways may differ slightly. Control points need to be captured and fortified to generate requisition; generators or scattered plasma sources provide power; and rare holy relics must be captured and held to produce the most powerful units. Capturing points quickly requires spreading your infantry across the map; construction requires shepherding your weak builder units around; your defensive options are limited to one or two turret variants; and turtling is useless outside of scripted campaign missions that limit what enemy forces you face. There are units that can serve as base defence, but entrenched units and turrets are easily outranged. At best, defences can stall an enemy force while you move your army to intercept.

    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Definitive Edition Imperial Guard

    In PvP matches, AI skirmishes, and much of the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansions – which offer turn-by-turn conquest maps to dominate – battles take place across broadly symmetrical maps and play out as dynamic cycles of attack and retreat, favouring those who can juggle expansion and micromanaging their army. Capturing and defending control points is beneficial (and essential for some victory conditions), but your limited defensive options mean a combined army can always steamroll a primary base if not intercepted. It makes for a stressful but thrilling back-and-forth. Even a player that has dominated territory could suddenly lose their key unit producing buildings or holy relic and find themselves with an abundance of resources they can spend on only basic squads.

    In contrast, the original campaign and the Winter Assault expansion are for those who prefer a scripted and more predictable experience. There are a few exceptions that impose time limits, but most missions allow you to slowly spread across a handcrafted map towards your objective. The methodical pacing and lower stakes might frustrate some, as even on the higher campaign difficulties the AI plays by the same rules. They may get free reinforcements at times, but as you claim control points and fortify chokepoints, they lose their ability to counterattack, and your growing force will inevitably steamroll the objective. There’s something about this predictable formula that I always enjoy, but after completing the original campaign and the Winter Assault expansion, I could understand why they wanted to change up the formula with Dark Crusade and Soulstorm.

    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Definitive Edition Dark Crusade Conquest Map

    I’ve got this far without discussing the remastered elements of the Definitive Edition as it does a great job of presenting the game as you mis-remember it. Having a combined launcher, fully customisable controls, a pulled back camera, and proper widescreen support that doesn’t stretch HUD elements are simple but significant improvements. There are apparently pathfinding tweaks but these did little to alleviate the frustration of units shuffling around one anther instead of engaging enemies. There’s no hiding the limited geometric complexity, but the remastered 4K textures are a notable improvement that serve both the gameplay and rudimentary in-game cinematics well. It also ran at a mostly consistent 1440/60 at max settings on my 5-year-old gaming laptop with an underpowered i7 CPU and 8GB RTX3070 mobile GPU.

    Ultimately, I think the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition is a solid remaster – even if it’s not a particularly ambitious one. The core gameplay is still strong, even if the campaigns and PvP components can feel a world apart in how they play. Whether you’ve enjoyed structured RTS campaigns or chaotic PvP. there’s something for everyone. It should satisfy returning players looking for a nostalgia hit, and any fan of modern RTS games with a focus on managing fewer, more specialised units. If you’re someone that has spent last decade or two playing and modding the original, you might find the remastering effort too limited to justify the price – but there is the prospect of a revived and more robust multiplayer scene.

    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition was reviewed on PC using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher.

  • Impressions: The Rogue Prince of Persia (PS5/Xbox Series)

    Impressions: The Rogue Prince of Persia (PS5/Xbox Series)

    Arriving on consoles a year after launching into early access on PC, the full release of The Rogue Prince of Persia is a fun but limited rogue-lite. It layers classic Prince of Persia aesthetics and themes atop the fast and fluid gameplay of Dead Cells, and then tries, with reasonable success, to offer narrative context by way of an expanding storyline that fits the time-travelling, repetition-driven gameplay loop.

    If you are going in with no knowledge of the original trilogy, or no nostalgic expectations, it feels like a good companion game to the recent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown that adopted a 2D Metroidvania framework. However, after a half-dozen hours, nearing the end of the second act, I was already growing tired of retreading familiar layouts and early bosses just to progress another story beat.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia Console Story

    That said, The Rogue Prince of Persia nails the opening hours. The traversal and combat feel responsive, look slick, and is always accompanied by an excellent soundtrack that blends Persian themes with a thumping beat. Evil Empire’s prior game, Dead Cells, was always fast but, befitting a Prince of Persia protagonist, this game is all about seamlessly flowing between stylish platforming and bouts of acrobatic combat.

    The side-on 2D perspective and clutter-free backdrops keep the action simple and readable, even while hurtling through platforming sections, avoiding deadly traps and spike pits, and prioritising enemies among clustered mobs. Despite the lack of third dimension, a wall run, vault, and dash – tied to the left and right triggers – add impressive complexity and the freedom of movement you would expect from the IP.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia Console Branching Paths

    In addition to scrambling up geometry within the gameplay plane, you can wall-run up, down, or across background walls. This allows you to string together lengthy sequences of wall-runs, jumps, dashes, and pole hops to keep off the ground with ease. Mastering this movement takes time – especially as the laws governing conservation of momentum don’t exist in this universe – but the move-set is essential for surviving the toughest platforming sections and avoiding the elaborate attack patterns of both common foes and bosses.

    Combat finds a good balance between simple and complex. Every weapon has a distinct attack speed, basic combo, and charged attack; secondary weapons typically provide ranged attacks that consume energy generated by melee strikes; while aerial slams, dashes, and vaults keep you out of harm’s way. The Rogue Prince of Persia is one of those games a skilled speedrunner could likely complete in a single run with only starter weapons.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia Console Combat

    That said, befitting its rogue-like structure, there are a myriad of secondary systems tied to narrative and character progression to incentivise pushing forward each time you fall. More importantly – and especially if you’re returning to the game for the first time since the early access launch – story beats are more common, and the progression systems provide more permanent buffs.

    Retreading early levels gets faster and more stylish thanks to conventional XP-based levelling and a ‘Souls-like, dropped-on-death resource. As you level, skill points can be assigned and freely reassigned across a half-dozen skill trees, buffing survivability, movement, energy gain, and resource farming. Several unlock a stackable “second chance” ability that I’d consider vital to getting through later runs.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia Console Upgrades

    Collecting the souls of corrupted Hun warriors is a risk-reward system. You can stash them at an alter found at the start of each level – or smash it for more souls and push on to the next. Back at the oasis hub, you can infuse these souls into unlocking new weapons or medallions (which provide passive abilities tied to your movement or combat abilities) that can appear in a run. It is a solid, addictive, one-more-run structure undone by a lack of diversity in environmental design, a limited number bosses, and set-pieces repeated too often.

    The evolving story is a highlight. The new prince falls to a Hun warlord in the opening scene, revealing a dark magic aiding the horde and the prince’s secret – a medallion that revives him at the last place he slept should he die. It’s a familiar setup for the IP and adds context for the rogue-lite gameplay loop. To keep the player engaged, each run offers a few branching paths between convergence points – usually a boss – with NPC encounters that sometimes change based on the prince’s knowledge, and a mind map that tracks clues hinting at where to explore next.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia Console General Berude Boss

    There’s fun banter and exposition between the prince, NPCs, and members of his family he saves, but the pace can slow dramatically at points. I found myself avoiding most combat and ignoring NPCs unless a quest demands you talk to them for a key item. Each act introduces new locations along your path to the palace but, to complete a quest, you need to complete several interactions along a fixed route and repeat all of them if you fall before the end.

    Another issue is that despite the aesthetic changes between environments and procedurally generated layouts, you only need to clear them a handful of times to recognise repeating locations, overused scripted events, and the fact they ultimately play out much the same way regardless. As soon as you become stuck on a late-run boss or the pace of levelling falls off, the repetitive design becomes more obvious and less satisfying.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia Console General Baater Boss

    All that said, The Rogue Prince of Persia is an indie project, at a lower price point, and (currently) available on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. With that in mind, it’s a fun and well-designed spin-off that could have done with a little more variety and less stringent quest flags. If you enjoyed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s 2D gameplay or loved Dead Cells and want to scratch a similar itch (albeit with a more platforming-focussed twist) The Rogue Prince of Persia will prove well worth your time.

    This article originally appeared on Nexushub.

    The Rogue Prince of Persia was played on PS5 using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher, and on Xbox Series S/X using Xbox Game Pass. It is also available on PC.

  • Editorial: Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is another awkward console port that I’m still glad exists

    Editorial: Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is another awkward console port that I’m still glad exists

    Like the Beamdog “enhanced” ports before it, Aspyr’s Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition feels aimed at one of two audiences. The first are nostalgic gamers looking to relive their cherished memories, albeit at the potential cost of ruining them. The second group are likely younger gamers curious about the evolution of CRPGs, from the Infinity Engine classics – with their great writing, gorgeous 2D backdrops, and sprite work – into fully 3D worlds with more voice work, detailed character models, and flashy combat animations that felt increasingly at odds with dice-roll outcomes.

    Tellingly, Neverwinter Nights 2 was the only CRPG in the current enhanced roster that I never finished at launch (and that’s including Aspyr’s Switch-exclusive “remasters” of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2), and it took me a while to gather my thoughts. Regardless of my opinion, I want to start by praising the preservation value of these enhanced ports – especially on modern consoles, where backward-compatible libraries are becoming as important a feature as on PC. JRPGs emerged on the early consoles and have been extensively ported, remastered, or remade, whereas western-developed CRPGs only gained widespread popularity on consoles during the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation, after the release of real-time, action-oriented titles like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Mass Effect.

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Console Controls

    An obvious issue was that CRPGs were designed exclusively for PC at first, with many featuring real-time-with-pause combat built around mouse and keyboard inputs. Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition offers updated controls and a tweaked UI, a claustrophobic over-the-shoulder camera toggle, and solid performance on all consoles (including the Nintendo Switch 1), but these changes can only achieve so much. It remains awkward to play with a gamepad, and that adds a layer of frustration atop a game with no shortage of frustrating elements. That said, the native gamepad support offers greater accessibility and handheld potential for PC players.

    As for the game itself, Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is a slow-burn RPG – even when compared to its sluggish 2002 predecessor that offered an official campaign and expansions that could feel like custom modules built on a budget with limited assets, rather than an epic, hand-crafted campaigns (though, to be fair, the Infinity Engine games also padded out their worlds with repeating outdoor tile-sets and copy-paste interiors, but I found the unique locations and set-pieces more memorable than in the later 3D games).

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Console Story Decisions

    For the 2006 sequel, Obsidian used the Electron Toolset – an evolution of the Aurora Toolset – to create a more diverse RPG, but still one clearly built from an asset library. It reintroduced a world map; ditched the formulaic hub-with-four-adjacent-regions design; restored full party management mechanics; and massively improved companion interactions with the player, NPCs, and each other. Unfortunately, at least where the main quests are concerned, the role-playing complexity and player freedom feels limited compared to the Infinity Engine titles. I appreciated the frequent cuts to what the villains are up to in the background, but the overarching quest is linear, significant choices feel artificially binary, and it retreads many familiar themes between a handful of memorable twists.

    Throughout the lengthy prologue and your formative hours in and around the titular city of Neverwinter, you’ll tick off a checklist of CRPG tropes. You’re the adopted child of a former-adventurer father who won’t talk about a past battle and the fate of your mother; the opening village fare has you and your tutorial companions participate in tests of melee, ranged, and magical skill before tragedy inevitably strikes; the opening hours before reaching the city of Neverwinter are a microcosm of mid- to late-game scenarios; and every conflict you can resolve without violence – through a mix of logical replies or attribute-checks – represents a potential ally against an overarching threat later.

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Console Companions

    There are a dozen companions – some you can romance – that cover an eclectic mix of archetypes. They have their own questlines and character growth that the player can influence – all of which pays off during the final battle. Examples include an angsty rogue looking for guidance; a brawling dwarf with a curious moral code and desire to become a monk; an aloof Elven druid who finds herself dependent on others in civilised lands she’d rather avoid; an overconfident, trash-talking sorceress that trouble follows; and an unhinged Gnomish bard with a fondness for lengthy conversations. Unlike the first Neverwinter Nights, they all play a more active role outside of their personal quests. They can calm or antagonise NPCs and will often debate with the player or among themselves when you’re trying to resolve a quest.

    That constant party interaction and frequent dialogue choices are highlights as the gameplay is, at least well into the second act, poorly paced and unbalanced. The frequency of levelling drops off quickly and too much time is spent simply running back and forth between quest givers. You’ll need to stop to loot, purchase, compare, and equip gear to stay ahead of the escalating and uneven difficulty curve, and it’s essential for players using a gamepad to frequently update the hot-bar, set up AI behaviours, and memorise the best buff and de-buff spells for auto-casting. Without a “story mode” difficulty, sudden spikes – such as early battles against mobs of backstabbing rogues – can kill pacing when most quests involve combat.

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Console Inventory

    If modern turn-based or action-RPGs are about incremental progress – the thrill of watching numbers go up – Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is a reminder that most early CRPGs were about exceeding thresholds. Your attributes and gear modify dice rolls that influence total damage output and defence, sure, but only if you exceed thresholds. If you’re not fielding a mixed party, constantly using skills and magic, and resting between every battle to recharge them, you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time watching your party do little as they fail to exceed an enemy’s armour class, spell or damage resistance, and saving throws. There’s no denying the D&D 3.5 ruleset provided a lot of flexibility for character builds and party synergies, but those here for the story, character, and interactions will find it ends up dominating the experience.

    Going back to this type of RPG in 2025 is jarring, even as someone who played them throughout the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Despite the semi-linear progression – with new areas and quests opening up as the plot demands – the difficulty curve feels erratic. You can go from steamrolling a mage before they get a spell off, to watching your entire party wiped by a single bandit in plate armour, which forces you to be incredibly cautious and save-scum by default. It’s far from ideal, but if you are just after a taste of the Neverwinter Nights 2 experience, jumping into the standalone Storm of Zehir and Mysteries of Westgate expansions might be the better choice.

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Console Difficulty Spikes

    Despite ending on a negative note – which feels weird having readily sunk another 30 hours into it before writing this up – I am glad it exists, if only to preserve another RPG from a time when player choice, frequent attribute checks, and variable quest outcomes were the focus; not production values and hours of self-indulgent cutscenes that run on so long they trigger my console’s power-saving screen-dimming feature. Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition reminded me that the original marked the end of an era for CRPGs, soon to be replaced by more hands-on, gamepad-friendly, action-RPGs that would go on to permeate every other genre.

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition was played on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 1/2.

  • Review: Caput Mortum (PC)

    Review: Caput Mortum (PC)

    WildArts Games’ Caput Mortum – apparently a variation of Latin for “Dead Head” – feels as indebted to 2010’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent as it does to its stated inspiration, 1994’s King’s Field. It’s a stylish, indie, first-person dungeon-delve that takes you into the ruined depths of a tower, in 16th century France, once dedicated to alchemy most foul. It combines diverse puzzle and monster encounters with retro-inspired aesthetics (and a retro control scheme for those who want it) to craft a well-paced descent into madness.

    Caput Mortum keeps direct storytelling to a minimum, with scattered notes and environmental details revealing the nature of the alchemists’ work, their barbarous attempts at creating life, and the tragic repercussions. Aside from the protagonist’s willingness to push ever deeper into the tower, they remain a mystery. A simple witness to events until the final moments – albeit with an alternate ending on offer for those willing to play through it a second time and piece together a secret code.

    A minimalist approach works for a game that is maybe 3-4 hours long for a first playthrough. Discovering the fate of the alchemists, their creations, and the nature of the voice calling out to the protagonist kept me pushing forward and exploring every corner of the tower for notes and hints of past events. It helps that despite the late ‘90s-style early-3D environments, each level of the tower feels visually distinct and atmospheric, packed with incidental details, new threats, and tension inducing-audio. The ambient audio keeps you on edge, audio cues let you know when you’re close to being spotted, and the soundtrack features simple but unsettling loops that had me thinking of Monolith’s F.E.A.R.

    Caput Mortum Retro Visuals

    Gameplay is all about deliberate movement and manipulating a single hand that interacts with the world, carries around puzzle items or keys, and wields a small selection of weapons that double up as tools. The basic controls and gameplay systems are easy to grasp, while clear guidance – either in the form of actual notes or visual cues – meant I rarely felt lost while solving puzzles, defeating basic enemies, and avoiding those I could not.

    If you’re after an authentically frustrating retro experience, the default controls offer a keyboard-only setup or gamepad layout that forces you to adjust your viewpoint by using keys or bumpers and triggers. These archaic controls ramp up the tension as simply aligning your view to track an enemy or strike at a weak point is artificially difficult. It felt like a novel throwback for the opening levels of the tower, but I would recommend just picking the modern gamepad or keyboard-and-mouse setup as the combat – which is never more complex than baiting an attack animation before striking back – is the least interesting gameplay mechanic.

    Caput Mortum Combat

    Instead, exploration and puzzling, sometimes while avoiding unique threats, are the highlights of Caput Mortum. Every level below the tower presents you with a new puzzle blocking your path, often requiring multiple steps, and slowly increasing in complexity the deeper you go. Small levels with a simple two-part key hunt give way to clue hunts, pattern-based puzzles, and alchemical formulas needed to create compounds and explosives. An early encounter with a curious homunculus has you using the hand controls to match gestures to avoid attacks, while a later encounter has you navigating dark drainage tunnels by flaming torch, pursued by a charred and deranged stalker.

    Caput Mortum’s brisk pacing also benefits the gameplay loop. Each level introduces a new puzzle variant or threat, and no stalker-style sequence lasts long enough to frustrate you. There are some anachronistic elements that don’t hold up – like having to swap between a free hand and weapon, or anytime extensive hand gestures are required reveal clues and solve puzzles – but as puzzle and encounter designs are rarely repeated, these issues never stuck in my mind. It’s also worth noting that while game warns you that it only saves once you enter a new level of the tower, there were autosaves after solving major puzzles and before entering dangerous areas.

    Caput Mortum Environments

    Wrapping up, Caput Mortum is both exactly what it markets itself as, and it serves an example of what indie games excel at: providing a compact but no less satisfying experience that provide the same thrills as their AA or AAA peers – just without the bloated playtimes that have come to blight that sector of industry. I played through and enjoyed it over two sessions; I’ve started a second run to unlock the alternate ending; and, when I’m done, I’ll have that increasingly rare sensation of finality that so much of the video game industry seems desperate to avoid giving me.

    Pros:

    • A compelling decent into madness told through notes and environmental storytelling
    • Simple but satisfying puzzle and encounter designs that rarely repeat
    • Retro-inspired presentation that generates an unsettling atmosphere
    • The brisk runtime benefits both the narrative and gameplay loop

    Cons:

    • Some puzzles require more elaborate hand gestures that are tedious when using a controller

    Score: 9/10

    Caput Mortum was reviewed on PC using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher.

  • Review: Turbo Kid (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Turbo Kid (Nintendo Switch)

    Once upon an apocalypse, in a 1997 wasteland, there was a kid, his friend, and a bad guy trying to control everything. With his BMX and Turbo Glove, the “Kid” had no choice but to take on the bad guy in a no-holds-barred, gory brawl. But, when the dust had settled and the damage was too great, the Kid rode away into the Wasteland sunset to explore what was left of the world.

    That, boiled down to its essence, is the synopsis of Turbo Kid, a low-budget SF/Superhero movie that, most likely, many have never heard of nor seen. That makes reviewing a videogame based upon said movie a rather amazing thing in of itself. Not only because it’s based on a movie that came out in 2015 and promptly disappeared into the cult market, but because movie tie-ins have a checkered past. The chances of a good adaptation are, as we’ve sadly come to accept, pretty thin on the ground if not backed by massive studios.

    Turbo Kid Story

    We throw around the expression “labour of love” around a lot when it comes to entertainment and this is one of those times where it shows throughout the experience. Developers Outermind Inc., have joined forces with the original movie team to create an experience that channels the essence of the movie, while expanding upon it in significant ways.

    The world feels bigger and more detailed, with a history behind it that shines through in what you’re told, along with the many visual clues showcasing this new version of post-apocalyptic 1997. There’s a new cast of odd characters, even weirder situations, and a more fleshed out take on the world revealed through impressive visual storytelling.

    The game doesn’t set out to recreate the movie in playable form, instead it continues where the movie left off with the Kid riding out into the Wasteland. He doesn’t get very far though before he’s ambushed and robbed of his weapons and bike. Thus begins a new journey to get his stuff back that eventually dovetails into a new threat for the struggling survivors of this world.

    Turbo Kid Character Selection

    The Kids journey is canon, though there are two playable characters you can choose from: the Kid or his friend Apple. Apple’s journey is a non-canon one and, even if you haven’t watched the movie, it’s not hard to guess why.

    There’s a lot of story on offer here, either to give context to what’s happening or merely to add some humour to the proceedings – usually through the sidequests which are fun to do because of how they play out versus the rewards. There’s a giant mutant rat looking for sweet, sweet turtle meat; a mysterious voice educated on bygone cult movies; and a sad tale of a robot looking for meaning, amongst others.

    Turbo Kid Platforming

    While the story alone is worth the price of admission, we’re lucky that it’s been paired with some truly addictive gameplay.

    Turbo Kid is as Metroidvania as it gets, following the common gameplay designs to a tee. There’s the expansive world to explore, replete with blocked off passageways and doors that can only be opened with new abilities; a variety of enemies that make exploration challenging; hidden pathways to find; and bosses to fight for the aforementioned abilities.

    While that is as traditional as it gets, Outermind have managed to implement whatever digital magic it is that makes a genre you’ve played a thousand before times feel just as exciting and fun as your very first go around. Turbo Kid managed to grab me right from the get go and never let go.

    Turbo Kid Environmental Hazards

    As expected, the Kid’s BMX plays a huge part in traversing the landscape once you’ve reacquired it. Thanks to the magic of technology, you can teleport it to you anytime, anywhere. Once you have it in your arsenal, it becomes even more apparent just how much like a BMX track the world has been designed to emulate. The labyrinthine layout makes great use of half-pipes and jumps to get you around and reach those hard-to-get to areas. You can pull off tricks on your bike and engage in races for various upgrades, such as spiked tires that help you scale walls and ceilings. And it plays just as much a part in the multiple-stage boss fights as your Turbo Glove does.

    While the bulk of your upgrades will be familiar – such as Air Dashes and charged shots – the game lets you customise passive abilities through a chip system which gives you extra abilities or enhances standard ones, such as letting your BMX’s spike wheel ability last longer. You can only equip three chips at a time though.

    One control aspect that took me a bit of time to come to grips with is needing to hold down a button to crouch. Holding down a shoulder button for precision aiming was fine, but having to hold one to crouch went against years of ingrained muscle memory of just pressing down on a D-pad or analog stick to crouch in a 2D game.

    Turbo Kid Silver Ghost Boss

    Visually Turbo Kid is a gorgeous pixel art game featuring wonderful animations for both the characters and background elements. As I’ve stated before, the visual design does a ton of heavy lifting in breathing life into the world while telling you it’s backstory.

    From the enemies that heft weighty spiked shields around to those ambiguous, drill-headed characters in the background drilling through garbage, Turbo Kid is gorgeous to look at. The art style reminded me of that classic 1991 2D adventure game Another World, though a more direct inspiration can be found in that other phenomenal 2D action platformer from 2021, Narita Boy. And it’s all rounded out with a pretty good soundtrack to boot.

    If I have any issues with Turbo Kid, it would be that boss fights, while inventive, can feel a little bullet spongy. It’s the one area in the game that did frustrate me occasionally, but on the whole, Turbo Kid is a case of the stars aligning to buck the trend of poor movie tie-in adaptations. It’s addictive, impressive, and a whole heap of fun that kept me hooked from the opening to the finale. Turbo Kid isn’t just amazing, it’s bloody brilliant and one of the best games I’ve played this year.

    Pros:

    • Fun and addictive gameplay
    • Fleshed-out world
    • Gorgeous visuals and animations
    • Labrynthine maps
    • Great soundtrack

    Cons:

    • You need to hold a shoulder button to crouch
    • Bosses can feel like bullet sponges

    Score: 9/10

    Turbo Kid was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Review: Dead of Darkness (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Dead of Darkness (Nintendo Switch)

    Dead of Darkness is the kind of title that screams pure pulp horror. The kind of title you’d expect to see plastered on the cover of an ‘80’s direct-to-VHS horror. You know the kind, on the shelf in the dark corner of the store that you’d rent for the weekend, watch on repeat with your best mate, and then talk about for years even if wasn’t any good. Yeah, it’s that kind of pulpy, badass title.

    But instead of a movie, it’s strapped on to a 2D survival-horror title. The sort that we might call a love-letter to the greats of genres past. Dead of Darkness takes us back to that time when survival-horror ruled the roost and you couldn’t take two steps outside your front door without been accosted by any number of games trying to cash in on the genre’s success. The game is bathed in the tropes of old school survival-horror, from the story to the various gameplay mechanics. It’s like a mash-up between Resident Evil and Alone in The Dark, with a bit of cosmic folk horror thrown in for good measure.

    Dead of Darkness Cutscenes

    Like any good pulp horror story, Dead of Darkness provides us with a colourful cast of characters and a significantly ominous location. A damaged ex-cop turned drunken private eye? Check. A mysterious, isolated island chock-full of secrets? Check. A strange family that aren’t all that they seem to be? Check. Armies of monstrous abominations stalking the darkness? Double-check to infinity and beyond!

    Set in 1985, Dead of Darkness throws you into the shoes of a reluctant P.I. When a letter arrives asking him to come to Velvet Island for answers surrounding his daughter’s death, Miles Windham doesn’t hesitate to grab the next ferry out. But things on the island are about to go from bad to worse when a scream shatters the dead of night.

    Dead of Darkness Combat

    Instead of throwing us into a classic whodunit, Dead of Darkness propels us headfirst into a creature feature as monstrous forms roam the island and mansion hallways, tearing apart anyone foolish enough to get too close. The shambling horrors are only the beginning though and, as the night crawls on, nastier creatures come looking for a snack too. Does the island harbour the truth Miles needs? Will he even survive to find it?

    The only way you’re going to know that is to run through Velvet Islands death trap locations. And, thankfully, the games story is it’s single, strongest element pushing you forward. This twisty, turny tale is powered by some great voice acting as well, though be warned, like Still Wakes the Deep, there’s surprisingly adult language chucked your way at times. And while the usual Resident Evil-like ne’er-do-well corporation conspiracies do make an appearance, the bulk of the narrative – also fleshed out through plenty of letters – is a really good tale and well worth the time to explore.

    Dead of Darkness Boss Fights

    Gameplay is traditional survival-horror to the tee, just in a top-down, isometric 2D world. There are plenty of items to collect, locked doors needing specific keys, there are puzzles to solve, and not enough ammo to go round. Some of the best moments are built around puzzle solving, which lets you combine clues with items to do so. While there’s nothing in here that will cause the old brainpan to overheat, they’re nice filler to the rest of the gameplay, which is as traditional as can be – though not always for the best.

    Item management, along with an unhealthy amount of back-and-forth between locations, will be taking up most of your playtime as you struggle to manage what you need for a specific task versus what you need to keep yourself from keeling over. One nice addition to the map system is that any room you haven’t cleared or collected everything in, remains coloured red on your map, along with doors that need specific colour-coded keys. This way, you’re never lost as to where you still have to explore or complete an objective.

    Dead of Darkness Visuals

    The problem, of course, is that inventory space is limited to a measly eight slots. You can chuck items into the storage crate in every save room, which synchronises its contents across all crates, but it doesn’t stop you from having to run around picking up and dropping off items all of the time. Your weapon selection may be limited, but you’re going to have juggle that along with ammo and health pickups, which left me with only two open slots most of the time. And, because monsters can respawn or get swopped out for different ones in areas you’ve already cleared, you don’t want to be left short of ammo.

    Ammo is certainly in short supply. Not so much because there isn’t enough to pick up, but more because enemy damage seems to be randomised. When your regular flesh-eating zombie things can take between three to five pistol shots to go down, those seventy rounds of ammo you’ve picked up disappear pretty quickly. The shotgun, thankfully, packs a nice, meaty and disgusting punch, especially on the more common grunts that it turns into misty gibbets with ease. Weapons can be upgraded, but that random element means that I didn’t notice as much difference in stopping power as I would have liked. There are multiple difficulty settings to choose from but, honestly, I only noticed about a one bullet difference between normal and easy most of the time.

    Dead of Darkness Storytelling

    The amount of back and forth does damage the games pacing as well. During a second playthrough, after a consistent and unavoidable crash was patched, I found the pacing more enjoyable as I already knew where to go and what to do, thus cutting the tiring backtracking. This did wonders for improving the pacing. While I admire the developers desire to make a truly retro experience, certain elements were best left in the past.

    One of the other aspects I enjoyed, even if it meant sacrificing an item slot, was the sanity meter. Every successful monster attack doesn’t only damage your health but your sanity. There are items to help restore it, but the game does throw in some cool insanity effects when it starts to get low, like creepy voices and the game seeming to “crash”. Beware though, if your sanity drains completely, you can die.

    Dead of Darkness Shotgun

    Combat may divide players. As with classic games, you can’t move while shooting or reloading, so you have to use the environment to your advantage during combat and boss fights revolve around observing attack patterns. In general, combat just feels very basic. It’s effective but doesn’t get the blood pumping. And while there’s guts and gore galore, Dead of Darkness isn’t very scary at all, even with some insta-death sections that I could have done without. This may be a buzzkill for some, but the general overall enjoyment of the game goes a long way to making up for a lot of its flaws.

    Another potential issue for some will be the pixel art that, although nice to look at, is far less detailed than what we’ve come to expect from many indie games lately. It does a bit of disservice to the monster designs and animations but, like the combat, the visuals are serviceable.

    Overall, Retrofiction Games’ Dead of Darkness is an ambitious title in the 2D survival-horror genre. While the combat may be passable and the pacing could be better, it’s buoyed by a great story, good voice acting, and fun puzzles that mostly manage to capture the best parts of survival-horrors past.

    Pros:

    • Great story
    • Fun puzzles
    • Good voice acting

    Cons:

    • Pacing hampered by too much back and forth
    • Combat is just okay
    • Insta-death sections were painful

    Score: 7/10

    Dead of Darkness was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 2.