games for fun

Lumines Remastered: Groove Is In The Heart

Seconds after I started up Challenge Mode in Lumines Remastered, Mondo Grosso’s “Shinin’” perked up and the energetic sounds of an acoustic guitar began to weave around a trance beat. I dropped my first block, and quickly cleared the first sparkling…

Ghost Of Tsushima Review – You Khan Do It

If a youthful obsession with Japanese samurai cinema and an audiobook version of Musashi have taught me anything, it’s that if you want to be a great swordfighter, having a connection to nature is important. Skill with a weapon isn’t purely driven…

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Review – Short On Heroics

Relentless absurdity and hyper-stylized action have been core tenets of the No More Heroes series. It never cared for making much sense and instead embraced its own ridiculousness with bold self-awareness, a staple of director Suda51. The slimmed-down hack-n-slash spinoff, Travis Strikes Again,…

Semblance Review

Bend to your will Semblance is a game that relies on your enjoyment of the satisfying feeling that comes with the act of reshaping objects and environments. The game’s world and its unnamed blobby protagonist are as malleable as playdough, and…

Whispers of a Machine Review – Hushed Greatness

In Whispers of a Machine, a retro-styled point-and-click adventure, interesting themes and mechanical elements relating to human augmentation are stapled onto a recognizable framework. Your character, murder investigator Vera Englund, has access to cybernetically augmented abilities thanks to some neat future-science,…

The Crew 2 Review – On The Road Again

After 30 hours, The Crew 2 has left me with a lot of wonderful memories. They aren’t filled with the kind of emergent stories you get from exploring an open world and its systems, nor are they moments that involve goofing around…

The Golf Club 2019 Review

The first two Golf Club games from HB Studios were capable and compelling golf sims, but they lacked the punch of the official PGA Tour license. Thanks to a new deal, HB Studios now has the license, and this–along with…

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 Review: Mega Museum

Be a hero and a Zero. Mega Man and Mega Man X are related, but only just. Whereas Mega Man is plucky and wholesome, Mega Man X is often melodramatic and grim. The two series are joined by some loose themes and for…

Nier: Automata Review

The post-apocalyptic world of Nier: Automata thrives on its mysteries. Its ruined Earth setting is a playground of mayhem where fashionable androids lay waste to less sophisticated looking robots. Its premise of a never-ending war is initially straightforward. But if you know…

Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon 2 Review – Twice In A Blue Moon

The first thing you should know about Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is that it features a playable corgi named Hachi who pilots an enchanted mecha-tank. The second thing you should know is that the classic Castlevania homage is in every…

Dauntless Review – Whole New World

Dauntless brims with energy. It’s in everything from the exuberant use of color to the larger-than-life Behemoths with cheeky nods to the developer’s Canadian roots. Monster Hunter: World’s high-realism design almost feels grimdark in comparison to the Shattered Isles’ Crayola color scheme of…

Mothergunship Review: Bullet-Hell Extravaganza

Guns, lots of guns. Mothergunship wastes little time in throwing you head-first into its fast-paced and over-the-top bullet-hell experience. As the spiritual successor to indie roguelike FPS Tower of Guns, this homage to ’90s action games balances a number of clever mechanics…