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I take a lot of pride in being an Irish citizen. It’s the birthplace of my father, and it carries a lot of historical weight that deeply resonates with me. That’s why I took time to play as many of the demos as I could during the Games from Ireland Steam sale — it gives me a way to connect with my heritage through the artform that I love most. Thankfully, the Games from Ireland Steam sale can still be accessed, where you can find many of these titles at discounted prices, or you can even try the demos out for yourself! If you would rather just hear it from us at JetsonPlaysGames, I’ve got you covered. Here are the five best demos I played through the event, and two additional honorable mentions. Tax-Force Tax-Force  is a 2D platforming, roguelite, beat-em-up where you hunt down tax-evading billionaires and rebuild society. It has an exceptionally well-done, hand-drawn style that is reminiscent of comic books from the 90s, which pairs well with the stylish action of the close-range combat. The story of the game seems to revolve around repaying the planet’s Solar Shield debt, preventing planetwide destruction. To do this, you go through a level to bring a tax evader to justice, and then negotiate repayments that balance societal benefit with debt repayment. The goal is to ensure that the debt is fully paid off by the 7th cycle — how much you care about the people of the city seems to be left up to the player. There are some characters to interact with that each has their own story to tell and things they need, which all works into what seems to be a scathing critique of capitalism and greed. I'm extremely interested in seeing the full game, and can't wait to try it in earnest. An Aisling An Aisling is an adventure game with a more personal narrative. Kids are dissappearing on the island of Rashinmore, and you are working to find out why it is happening. An Aisling  has this interesting, painterly, shifting sort of art style that gives it some charm.  What intrigued me most is actually the variety of little games you can play within An Aisling . You can brush your teeth, play fetch with a dog, clean up debris, and much much more, all through these bespoke little mini-games with unique perspectives and mechanics. In that sense, it reminds us a bit of and Roger  and Consume Me  — two of the best games I played last year. An Aisling is out on Steam as of November 11, 2024. PizzaBoy PizzaBoy  has a silly premise — you’re a pizza delivery boy who must safely deliver pizzas to various monsters. To do this, you’ll navigate dangerous levels full of monsters, pitfalls, and secrets — all while trying to protect that pizza from harm. The platforming is smooth and snappy, and the level design is wonderfully done (at least from what I can see in the demo). I really get the sense that PizzaBoy  is going to be one of the standout platformers for the year once it releases. Trading Card Inspector This one is a sort of job simulator game where you work at a card shop and evaluate the value of cards, trying to pick out the fakes so they don’t tank your profitability. If Papers, Please! -like were a true genre, this would fall squarely within it. The demo doesn't show much in terms of story, but I found the card evaluation aspect both engaging and satisfying to do, so I’m hopeful that it will deliver on some of the narrative designs it is aiming for. You can find the store page here . Spill the Beans Spill the Beans  is a whodunnit visual novel where you are the perpetrator of a crime and are looking to pin the blame on someone else. You’ll manage relationships, interrogate potential victims, and cast blame — all so that you can escape with the coffee recipe. I adore the art style, and the characters are an eclectic mix of supernatural entities that make each conversation a joy to navigate.  There are 15 different endings, all dictated by your actions and the relationships between the characters in the story, lending the game to repeated playthroughs. The demo had us hooked right from the start, and I'm a bit saddened that it ends so early, but that just means I’ll have to play the full game on release . Games from Ireland Honorable Mentions Really Fast Rat You play as a rat. They’re really fast . Think Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog,  but as a little rat guy. [ ECHOSTASIS] [ECHOSTASIS]  has already been out for a while , but I hadn’t seen much about it until the Steam event. The visuals are amazing, and the ways in which you interact with the game to move the story along are so inventive. Just a great concept. While these were my favorites, many other demos from the event showed a lot of promise. It's worth keeping your eye out for the games showcased during the event!

An updated release of one of 2024's best games is on the horizon. What can we learn through the beta? The closed beta for Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok  is up and running, and is going until 7 a.m., Mar 13–6:59 a.m., Mar 16, 2026 (UTC). As an expanded and updated version of 2024’s Granblue Fantasy: Relink , I was excited to jump into the latest test version and get a sense of what sort of changes it might hold. First and foremost is Endless Ragnarok ’s inclusion on the Nintendo Switch 2 platform. The original Relink  was only available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Steam, so being able to play on Nintendo’s newest console is a huge boon for availability and the online component. The multiplayer in Endless Ragnarok  features a crossplay system that allows players on any platform to play with friends and matched players across all available consoles. This means that new Nintendo Switch 2 players can still join a party with players who bought the original Relink  on PC or PlayStation platforms, provided they also have the upgraded version. The beta includes the new playable character, Beatrix. What's in the Beta The full version of Endless Ragnarok  will feature multiple new playable characters, but the closed beta disappointingly only includes one (Beatrix) as an option for questing. If all of the playable characters are as fun as Beatrix, though, we’re in for a great time. She has a pretty unique kit that allows her to switch between offense, defense, and support roles on the fly, while featuring the staple moves you might expect from melee characters in Relink  — namely, a ranged option, a counter, and a gap closer. In terms of available content, the closed beta is, quite frankly, very barebones. It contains only three playable quests, all of which are early game fights from Relink , and contains none of the additional modes or difficulties, nor does it include the advertised summon mechanics. It is fundamentally the same beta Relink  had prior to its release in 2024, with the exception of the new character and crossplay added. That said, don’t let that deter you, especially if you’re a new player. Relink remains one of the best action-RPGs of the last several years, with a huge selection of unique characters and gameplay styles. While the beta may not feature new content, we can see just how impactful changes like crossplay can be in smoothing out one of Relink ’s biggest issues. The original relink would often take quite a long time to find a match, with players mostly focusing on the hardest endgame content and being relegated to whichever platform they owned the game on. Now, finding a match is quick and painless. What to expect at full release Given the slight nature of the beta, not much can be said of the major additions to the game. Endless Ragnarok  will feature a tier of monsters to battle and a new difficulty (Apocalyptic Ragnalia and Chaos, respectively), new bosses to fight, and new gameplay mechanics. One notable addition to the gameplay is the summon system, which allows players to call forth monsters they have faced within the story to help in battle. Finally, the main game will also contain a mode called “Conflux Solo”, which serves as a sort of roguelike system where you traverse through a randomized dungeon that gets progressively harder as you explore. While dungeon-delving, players will choose boons to help empower them, earning rewards for gear improvement all the while. Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok will be out on July 9, 2026 for the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4 & 5 and PC (Steam). An upgrade pack for existing Relink  players will also be available at release.

I am not going to be licking anyone's fingers *This is an expanded review for the video game I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator , published on 03/11/2026 . If you would like to see the original mini-review, you can check that out here . I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator is a free-to-play comedy dating sim, made by Psyop, centered around forming a romantic relationship with famed KFC mascot Colonel Sanders (I do feel it is important to distinguish between the man you founded the company and whatever KFC has done with his bastardized likeness). Saying such a thing out loud does make me laugh, as it is a bit absurd, isn't it? Visual novels are no strangers to goofy premises; popular titles such as Hatoful Boyfriend , a game where you date birds, and Monster Prom , where you woo various supernatural entities such as a vampire or gorgon, are reminders that even the most ludicrous of ideas can be endearing when done well. But I Love You, Colonel Sanders! is less a visual novel and more a marketing stunt. Developer:   Psyop Publisher:   KFC Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released on September 24, 2019 for Windows PC and Mac. When looking at this game, context matters quite a bit. During the late 2010s, KFC was on a bizarre kick of putting the Colonel in everything from VR games  to romance novels . These, too, are fundamentally ads, and KFC is no stranger to featuring odd imagery or dialogue in their marketing — past  or present . I would even say they’re masters of marketing, their brand becoming synonymous with the obtuse and wild swings they take in that department. In this sense, releasing a visual novel with anime/manga stylings does not seem too far afield of their normal marketing efforts. Despite KFC taking the piss out of many different mediums and genres, the attempt at a visual novel in I Love You, Colonel Sanders! feels especially dismissive of the art it imitates. As I have played more visual novels over the last few years, I’ve come to appreciate them more thoroughly. I’ve come to understand more intimately what they do well, what the genre's expectations and trappings are, and how the best ones succeed. Maybe that’s why this one feels so thoroughly offensive to my sensibilities — it’s kicking down an already underappreciated method of storytelling. While most visual novels — even the more silly ones — showcase a level of sincerity in their subjects, often touching on themes of trauma, abuse, or real-life pressures, I Love You, Colonel Sanders! cares little for anything aside from showcasing its product line. The game offers only vague gestures toward character archetypes rather than real characters, and the player has the unenviable task of navigating the haphazard dialogue to attempt to build a relationship with the titular character — a relationship that never even fully materializes. Some of this is forgivable under the expectation that this game is not serious. It is plainly a comedy game, so why would they need to offer any material of substance? Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of humour, as well. Absolutely none of the jokes land, with the biggest laughs coming from the first reading of the title. Psyop has appropriated a genre that it does not know to sell a different product, all at the expense of the people who make and play games in the visual novel style. While the genre remains most popular in Japan, it has been more widely adopted worldwide by indie developers and people who generally fall outside the representation in major studio games — namely POC and the LGBTQ+ community. Visual Novels, perhaps more than any other genre of video game, serve as the platform upon which these marginalized people share their experiences, their trauma, and their truth. Aside from this, I Love You, Colonel Sanders! also apes the style of Japanese creatives, but does so poorly — an ugly pastiche of the art and cultures that make the space special. With its combined invocation of Japanese aesthetics and its total lack of sincerity, the game truly is an affront to the medium of video games and the visual novel genre, in general. I just can’t shake the feeling that this horrific, corporate, shambling product is fully content to wear the skin of the other without ever fully stopping to consider why it has done so, or whether it was a good idea to do so at all. Verdict I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator is a free-to-play comedy dating sim that does not contain any good jokes or any romance. With only vague gestures at character archetypes rather than real characters, this thing is an affront not only to dating sims but to video games in general. I Love You, Colonel Sanders! Mini-Review I Love You, Colonel Sanders! is a free-to-play comedy dating sim centered around the premise of forming a romantic relationship with famed KFC mascot Colonel Sanders. Unfortunately, they forgot to put in anything funny or romantic. The game contains only vague gestures at character archetypes rather than real characters, and the player has the unenviable task of navigating the haphazard dialogue to attempt a relationship with the titular character. The game has boldly chosen to go with a sort of pass/fail choice system, where you either flirt with the colonel or have to reload. This thing is an affront not only to dating sims, but video games in general. Pros It's Free Cons Shallow gameplay, with limited decision-making. Shockingly boring and unfunny. Uninspired character design. Developer:   Psyop Publisher:   KFC Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released on September 24, 2019 for Windows PC and Mac.

Who, or what, are we without our work? In our modern capitalist societies, this question has become harder to answer for many. Capitalism, in its relentless pursuit of efficiency and growth, often demands more than just physical exertion; it requires the systematic commodification of the human spirit. Beyond even the toils of working in an office or the field, many are encouraged to monetize their own passions and hobbies. It is no longer enough to simply do something because you love it — it must be marketed and sold. This is no fault of those who pursue such avenues, but rather the natural progression of capitalism itself. Rising costs of living have long outpaced wages, and so we all do what we must to survive. Compelled to strip away their intrinsic passions to make do, people more and more frequently find themselves ensnared in cycles of modern indentured servitude by the invisible tethers of systemic debt, spiraling costs of living, and the psychological exhaustion of a life spent chasing a stability that may never come into focus. The system transforms the self from a sovereign entity into a resource to be mined, leaving the individual trapped in a loop where they must surrender who they are simply to sustain their livelihood. Publisher:   Searching Interactive Developer:   Nicholas McDonnell, Mitchell Pasmans Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released March 10, 2026 for PC (Steam). Crabmeat , the minimalist horror title by Nicholas McDonnell and Mitchell Pasmans takes place in such a world, though I am reticent to draw much of a distinction between this world and our own. You’re a prisoner forced to work on a crabbing vessel as punishment for overdrawing your bank account and failing to pay the overdraft fee within 48 hours. Poverty here is a crime, and so you have been sentenced to labor, very much like the debt and prison systems of the United States in the real world and their slave labor rings. You must meet your quota of 500kg of King Crab per week, or you will be killed via toxin capsule in your neck. You will also die if you try to leave the area. In either case of death, your debt is passed on to your next of kin.  The basic loop of the game is really simple: drive the ship to designated areas for catching some crabs, bait and set your traps, harvest King Crab only , and move on to the next area. All of this must be done in the allotted time, which is shown on a digital display in several places throughout the ship, including at the navigation panel. There are also some other complications along the way.  First and foremost is the ever-present threat of big, evil crabs that come aboard your vessel and try to destroy your equipment or try to harm you personally. These guys are pretty easy to deal with — just a few swings of your axe, and you’ll be able to move on to repairing any damaged areas. Alone, they’re not much of a problem, as any damage to your person can be healed through the use of bandages, but in groups, they’re dangerous. It’s better to kite and face just one at a time where possible, or break out the shotgun in a real emergency. There’s also the threat of ramming your ship into debris, ice, or bait stations, which can cause serious hull integrity issues and force you to focus on repairs.  While not necessarily a problem to solve, there are several points of interest marked on the map with a “?”. These locations contain some sort of clue or item that helps you uncover more of the information needed to fully understand this world and the events that are transpiring around you. It’s a pretty slow burn, with each point revealing very little, but through progression, the picture becomes clearer. I wish I could speak to how it all comes together in the end, but I was never able to fully complete the game before my progress was eliminated due to a save bug. Image credits: Searching Interactive Normally, the game saves every two minutes, overwriting the previous save so that there is only a single save slot to draw from. However, on one of my return trips, I ended my session for the night to pick back up and finish the game the following morning. Unfortunately, my save file was nowhere to be found upon booting back up, meaning I had lost the hours of playtime and progress that I had. Would finishing the game have changed how I felt about what I had already played? Could those final clues contextualize the tedium of crab fishing in a way that alters my experience in a meaningful way? It seems unlikely that this is the case, but it is an important caveat here. Though the existence of such a bug is also, in its own way, a part of Crabmeat ’s story as well. It’s messy, it’s unpolished, and there are bound to be issues on any given run, but there were pockets of time where I was enjoying playing it.  I mostly like piloting the boat — it’s just fun to work on the ship. Using circular motions with the mouse to turn the steering wheel, pushing and pulling levers to engage the throttle, etc. — these tactile, diagetic actions are oddly relaxing; patterns of labor that become hypnotic amidst the creaks and groans of the ship. In fact, I liked these manual tasks quite a bit more than the other aspects of the game, as they were the most mechanically interesting and, thankfully, kept me away from having to engage with the crab battles and movement processes, which I despised. To engage in any task, you perform it step by step, rather than a single button doing the entire action for you. For example, to place a crab trap down at a designated location, you’ll have to move the crane in the right position, pick up the crab trap, move the crane arm again, and set the trap — pressing the appropriate buttons on the control panel to make these happen.  Using circular motions with the mouse to turn the steering wheel, pushing and pulling levers to engage the throttle, etc. — these tactile, diagetic actions are oddly relaxing; patterns of labor that become hypnotic amidst the creaks and groans of the ship. Unfortunately, too much time is spent standing around waiting for your crab traps to fill up. I understand that this delay is intentional, as it drains your time and provides additional pressure on the player, but it really feels like a waste to just stand motionless on the ship with nothing to do. That is, until the aforementioned evil crabs come aboard. Ultimately, rather than feeling scary or tense, the crab boarding is simply an annoyance. It doesn’t provide any true threat most of the time, and it consistently distracts from the other things that I do like about playing Crabmeat .  My largest complaint is movement controls. Rather than your typical WASD keyboard movement, Crabmeat utilizes a point-and-click approach to navigating the 3D space. Using your mouse to look around is equally annoying, as rather than simply dragging your mouse to the screen edge, you must click an arrow on the screen edge to make your character turn. All of this is quite clunky in practice and makes trying to move to specific areas around the ship imprecise. The normal walk speed is also a bit slow, and while there is technically a “run” function (initiated by double-clicking a space), its activation does not seem consistent. There were many moments where I tried to click rapidly to have my character pick up the pace, only to be met with my regular stride.  Ultimately, while the seafaring aspect of Crabmeat  has its own meditative qualities, I find it fails to live up to its inspirations and aspirations. The open nature of the sea and sky takes away from any sense of claustrophobia found in similar minimalist titles like Iron Lung , and without any real pressures or threats to be found (outside of a few notable exceptions), I mostly found myself hoping for a future where interesting things might happen — a hope that was so rarely realized.  I am always down to explore the ills of capitalism — to speak about the ways in which those systems and structures grind us down into nothing for a machine that cares not if we live or die — but having a message is not really the same thing as being meaningful. Perhaps the fault is my own. I, too, have been ground down by those very pressures, forced to work the days and nights away at the expense of my health and happiness. Seeing these realities vaguely gestured at just doesn't do enough to move me.

The Spirit Lift , a roguelike deckbulder by prettysmart games that came out earlier this year, has been updated to include an ascending difficulty setting called "Lift Levels". Similar to the Ascension Levels or Covenant Levels of many other games in the genre, Lift Levels serve as difficulty modifiers to alter the experience of a run. Each new lift level even comes with its own achievement! The game's default difficulty was one of the criticisms we had in our review , and this update addresses that and more, as the update also includes "13+ Mode", an infinitely scaling difficulty mode that gets harder each time you win. The Spirit Lift was warmly received upon its release, with players making note of the nostalgic aesthetic and card choices as major factors in their enjoyment. While not the most mechanically complex game around, The Spirit Lift is notable for its marriage of dungeon-crawling and deckbuilding mechanics, with a current user rating 94%. The Lift Level update is out now.

The Spirit Lift is set in a haunted hotel in the 1990s and follows a group of newly graduated teens as they attempt to make their way to the top. Packaged in a high-school thriller casing, it   combines dungeon-crawling mechanics (similar to titles like Etrian Odyssey) with roguelite deckbuilding trappings, delivering an interesting take on the deckbuilding genre, as the dungeon-crawling aspects necessitate a shift in your typical approach.  To start, the player chooses three teens to take into the party. The base number of available characters is three, but more are unlocked as you play. Each character has their own starting cards and gear that gives each of them a unique playstyle and identity, often reinforcing the type of person they are. The jock, Tobias, has cards for a baseball bat and a basketball, for instance. After choosing your team, you’ll make your way into the manor proper. Developer:  prettysmart games Publisher:  prettysmartgames Platform:  Played PC Availability:  Released January 27, 2026  on PC (Steam). As you explore each of the 13 hotel floors, you may find yourself fighting enemies to earn gold coins and cards, upgrading cards upon leveling up, or taking part in randomized events. The events are a particular delight, as they often contain the game’s most interesting decisions. Do you risk some health for a chance to gain experience? Perhaps you’d rather search for evidence that provides some interesting narrative information over obtaining some gold. Beyond the choice dynamic, the events offer a glimpse into the oddities of the hotel. Why is there a bathtub of acid? Where did all of these party favors come from? Who is that wolf guy? There’s always something new to encounter on every floor. In many roguelite deckbuilders, such as Slay the Spire or GWENT: Rogue Mage , your navigation decisions are typically based upon an assessment of what the chosen path looks like; what enemies are there, whether there are any shops, and so on. While your primary decision-making relies on risk vs. reward calculations, you can devise a plan and choose an optimized route for what you intend to do.  Risk assessment is similarly important here in The Spirit Lift , but without a clear choice in pathways or enemy selection, it becomes more vital to do those calculations on the fly. You can’t really plan for specific encounters, events, or rewards before finding your elevator up to the next floor — you simply deal with the trials as they come to you. Thankfully, the options available to the player are plentiful. Cards are your method of engaging in combat and represent mundane items that the characters have on hand. These cards are broken down into four types: Weapons, Tools, Aid, and Trauma. Weapons are your standard attacks, doing direct damage to an enemy. Tools provide passive bonuses that last throughout a fight, such as lowering the cost of specific card types or giving enemies a debuff when certain actions are performed. Aid cards are the most versatile type of all, having the ability to heal or add buffs to the player, inflict the enemy with various status effects, or even draw additional cards. Finally, Trauma cards are special cards that harm the player in some way when the card’s conditions are met. Some may have adverse effects when drawn, or even confer bonuses to enemies when left in your hand unplayed. These trauma cards are also unique in that they can’t be removed in the shop — they must be played a requisite number of times before disappearing. Gear pieces are an additional boon for the player, offering permanent boons without the use of cards. Each starting character has a gear piece tied to them, and you can only hold 8 pieces of gear at a time during a run — at least until you upgrade this through the spirit shop. I have found gear to be the single most important element of success in each run. Getting powerful pieces of gear and then planning your deck around that is absurdly more powerful than the inverse, and getting that extra gear slot (or more) from the spirit shop makes things even easier. However, the spirit shop is more than just a place to increase relic capacity. Available only from the main menu, it serves as the metaprogression hub, a place to spend earned “Spirit Points” to upgrade the baseline health, gold, gear, etc. of your starting party. These upgrades are completely linear. Spending points can only improve your chances of victory, as there are no drawbacks to any choice that I have unlocked. When you reach the end of a run, you’ll face one of four random bosses. When you defeat the boss, it becomes available within a pool of boss options for manual selection at the start of each run. This is nice if you’d like to fight a specific enemy for any reason, but doing so negates the chance of encountering a new boss that you could have faced. Winning this final fight also ends the run and grants the player some spirit points based on their performance. Scouring the hotel halls for clues about the ongoing events, your characters will also sometimes speak to each other. These exchanges are quite short, but do offer some insight into the interpersonal dynamics or personality quirks of each teen. However, each character is strictly one-note, and those interactions are limited in number, offering very little insight into the overarching narrative or the characters’ interpretation of ongoing events. Really, there’s a dearth of narrative elements overall, but the game is still largely buoyed by its excellent card battles, regardless. There are even a few benefits to choosing the same character across multiple runs. First, you’ll unlock alternative starting cards and gear to choose from, and second, you may come across events that grant “keys” to a character’s story, opening up a little more of their world for you to see. Nearly everything about The Spirit Lift  is perfectly competent, with the exception of one nagging element: the UI. The UI itself during this navigation is certainly functional, but does not feel particularly cohesive. The experience meter is reminiscent of gauges you’d see on a car, such as for a gas meter or odometer, and the party menu includes simple portraits that show audio levels (like you’d see on a car radio or other audio device) when characters speak. However, the other on-screen elements don’t in any way evoke a similar car aesthetic. Gear is depicted in small, black and white images housed within tiny, square boxes and little else; information, such as the number of cards in your deck or your available funds, is communicated through numbers stationed next to simplistic-but-fully-colored iconography — neither of which shows a connection to the meters in the other elements of the UI, or to each other.  Inspecting the UI outside of navigation leads to a bit more confusion, as well. Menus have many recognizable elements, such as your run history records being shown through a CRT screen, scanlines and all, or fast forward and rewind buttons replacing elements normally reserved for “confirm” and “back” or equivalent selections, but fail to coalesce into something resembling a whole.  Taken individually, many visual elements of The Spirit Lift  are interesting. The color palette heavily features striking hues of green, red, and purple that make objects, rooms, and enemies pop when they are meant to be the focus; the dark, cramped corridors lend themselves to an eerie atmosphere, and so on. But the lack of consistency and cohesiveness between these elements leads to a confused image on screen. The character portraits are quite detailed, but enemy sprites are flat (dimensionally and aesthetically), and objects in the environment are three-dimensional, low-poly items. I struggle to wrap my head around the design decisions that lead to this artistic muddying, but it is ultimately a minor gripe. ...there’s a dearth of narrative elements overall, but the game is still largely buoyed by its excellent card battles, regardless. That said, The Spirit Lift  has some significant bright spots. Having a large cast of playable characters leaves room for experimentation and strategizing in how you build out your deck and approach each fight. Leaning into each teen’s strengths is key to success, so forcing one particular card type or strategy is not advised in every situation. Each run is also quite short, with any excursion taking no longer than half an hour to fully complete. In terms of difficulty, this is probably on the lighter side of games within its genre. After six full runs through, I have yet to die a single time. I’ve never been close, really. I wonder how much of my success is owed to having played a large number of roguelite deckbuilders in the past, or just what the intended difficulty is meant to be, but the large number of upgrades and abundant gear choices in every ascent attempt never leave me wanting for power. * Editor's note: A score was erroneously added to the review in a revision. This review is meant to be unscored. Sorry! Verdict Overall, I am quite fond of The Spirit Lift . Its mix of horror elements, deckbuilding, and dungeon-crawling is immediately enticing, and the card battles are fun, albeit a bit safe. While I do have some issues with the UI and would prefer more difficulty options, the game is a solid recommendation for roguelite deckbuilder enjoyers, especially if they’re looking for a more casual offering. Image Credits: prettysmart games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

March 6, 2026 — Today marks the full release of the Magic: The Gathering Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards for tabletop. This latest Universes Beyond release sees the turtles Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello make their debut within the confines of the M:TG game. This collaboration includes a full standard-legal set release, commander decks, and even a Secret Lair drop. The full product listing can be found here , but we'd like to take the opportunity to lay out some of the things we're most excited to see at our local game store and online. Play Booster Packs and Boxes These include the standard-legal cards that make up the bulk of the release. Commander Decks If you're looking to get into the commander format, these preconstructed offerings are a great place to start — especially if you're a big fan of the TMNT specifically. Secret Lair Drops Secret Lairs are among some of my favorite versions of existing cards. They always bring a uniquely stunning style to the cards they represent, and this drop is no different. With multiple offerings available, you can select specific card sets to purchase, or get one of the larger bundles if you're looking to grab them all. Magic: The Gathering | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also available on MTG Arena as of March 3, 2026.

Sports games are so rarely my purview. While I am a massive fan of basketball (professional and collegiate), most other sports are not on my radar in any way. That hasn't stopped me from picking up sports games in the past, though. Despite my distaste for hockey and the people I have known to play it, NHL 95  was a favorite of mine on the SNES and, like many, I played Madden games regularly on the PS2. While the sim aspects of the EA sports games could capture my attention for a time, I don't have many memories of actually playing the games with friends. Those are mostly reserved for more arcadey sports games, like Super Mario Strikers  or NBA Jam . Super Battle Golf  is a simplified take on golf, much in the same vein as the Mario sports games or titles like Hot Shot’s Golf , but mixed with a free-for-all battle arena structure to liven things up   — though even those comparisons may set simulation expectations that will not be met by Super Battle Golf . Truthfully, the golfing here is of secondary (or even tertiary) concern, with the spotlight being shone on the “battle” aspect of the gameplay and socialization portion of the experience.  Publisher:   Oro Interactive Developer: Brimstone Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released February 19, 2026 for PC (Steam). The basic concept of the game is simple: Play through nine holes of golf with up to eight people in real time, all while navigating in-course hazards and weaponry wielded by your opponents. The scoring is a bit less simple. Points are awarded based upon not just stroke count, but also what order you finish the hole in, and also how many times you land an attack on your foes. Incentivizing impeding your opponents can make for hilarious shenanigans, but it does make the golf take a backseat. Still, even just a few rounds of rocket launchers and landmines can be a good time with friends — should you actually get to play, that is. Unfortunately, the long recovery times and penalties incurred by players being hit or falling behind far outweigh the benefits of reaching a hole first. If, for instance, even just two players decide to stop you from advancing your ball, it would not be possible to continue play without their allowing you to do so.  Falling behind puts you in the position of being at the mercy of the players ahead of you, who can throw mines, block your ball, set traps, or camp at chokepoints needed to advance. The only way to circumvent this is to get the necessary items yourself to fight back, but it’s a losing game. Should even a small number of opponents wish it, you will face timing out of a round over and over without hope of recourse. This does mean that large groups are more advantageous, as players are less likely to be able to coordinate such attacks while still advancing their own ball, though the ability to farm points from this interference does still allow for the possibility. That balancing act being so skewed in favor of battles is both a gift and a curse. It means that very little attention has been given to the golfing aspect by the developers. It also means that little thought needs to be given to the golfing by players. So long as the ball gets in the hole at some point before time runs out, you’re just better off focusing on other aspects of the game. Perhaps the most surprising strength of Super Battle Golf  lies in its performance on PC. The large amount of independent multiplayer games I end up playing as part of this job has, in many ways, desensitized me to the types of performance or technical issues commonly found in low-to-modest budget titles. Framerate issues like stuttering or fluctuations, bugs that impede play, and connectivity issues — each of these is a common grievance when playing titles similar to Super Battle Golf . And none of them can be found here. My time with the game was extremely smooth. No matter how many people I was playing with, we never had any dropped connections, latency issues, graphical bugs, or any other technical issue that would otherwise impede our play or distract from our enjoyment of the game itself. I think that sort of polish deserves real praise. It’s not really possible to quantify the amount of time you’ll be able to play Super Battle Golf  before you “finish” it. With no set story or single-player objectives, it will all come down to how much fun you can have in an open environment with your friends. That said, there are a decent number of courses (27) to work your way through, so even playing through each a single time would lead to several hours of raucous fun. The current offerings of battle items are extremely limited, however, so even those new courses start to blend together in the grand scheme of things. Without any interesting stage gimmicks or varied item interactions, long-term enjoyment beyond hangouts with friends will come to rest on the enjoyment of the core mechanics. Unfortunately, the minimalist approach to the actual golfing in Super Battle Golf  does not lend itself well to deep examination. The dearth of golfing mechanics makes solo play extremely uninteresting as there are no other players to compete against or traps to avoid. Without any path to mastery, individual play quickly devolves into boredom The skill floor and ceiling being so close together isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, though. Much like the Nintendo sports games it emulates, the simplicity of control and format means that all age groups and skill levels are able to jump into any individual game and compete. In fact, the ways in which players mostly improve are through optimizing routes and utilizing positioning to take advantage of opponent ball placement and item spawn tendencies. In a similar vein to Mario Kart titles, the further back you are, the better your items will (generally) be. This can be advantageous in the current hole or even saved for the next course, as items carry over between rounds. Without any interesting stage gimmicks or varied item interactions, long-term enjoyment beyond hangouts with friends will come to rest on the enjoyment of the core mechanics. The lack of depth is certainly one of my own major pain points. The randomness of group play, combined with the limited item pool (and its own power variances), lends itself to a chaotic environment, but offers little in the way of a controllable competitive field. I don't get the sense that Super Battle Golf is trying to be a realistic golf sim, and to hold it to that standard would feel nearly as absurd as the game itself. That said, even a way to reliably hook your shots or a few extra item varieties could liven up long-term play considerably. Verdict Super Battle Golf succeeds in being a good time among friends by forcing players to interact with each other, but doesn’t nearly every multiplayer game achieve the same purpose? Is Super Battle Golf fun, or do I just like my friends? It can sometimes be hard to discern the difference. The game could frankly use some adjustments to item variety, and would be well-served by implementing additional complexity to the golf mechanic. Perhaps most importantly, it needs some form of rebalancing so that preventing other players from playing is not the driving force of competitive victory. That said, Super Battle Golf  is at least good for a few laughs for short bursts of time. Image Credits: Oro Interactive Disclosure: We received a free copy of this game from the publisher.

Marathon  — the latest title from the storied developer Bungie — began its open beta on Feb 26, with hundreds of thousands  playing the game across PC and PS5. Despite its imminent release on March 5, 2026, nary a peep has been made as of late about the art theft controversies Bungie has found itself in over the years.  While Bungie is not the only game-maker  to skate by relatively untouched by such accusations, this moment specifically feels odd to me.  Bungie’s Marathon -related art theft was first brought to light  in 2025 by artist Fern “Antireal” Hook on Twitter, calling out former Bungie employee  and then Marathon art director Joseph Cross by name. After this, Bungie issued an apology and confirmed  that the assets were stolen. As part of the fallout from this incident, as well as other development concerns , Bungie delayed the release of the game indefinitely (later updated to March 5, 2026). An image of the accusation and associated images by Antireal. Eventually, Bungie did clear things up with the artist they stole from, reaching an undisclosed agreement  with Antireal for the theft. While I am happy that Antireal was able to get what they believe to be adequate restitution for the offense, it feels imperative to remind people that this is not Bungie’s first plagiarism rodeo, as the developer has been credibly accused of — and even admitted to — similar offenses for assets related to its other title, Destiny 2 . In 2021, Twitter user Relay314 pointed out  that Bungie stole their fan art and used it as part of a trailer. Bungie community manager Cozmo apologized  for the incident, claimed it was accidental, and properly credited the artist for the work — only after being called out for the theft, of course. In June 2023, Bungie once again stole  an artist's work, making slight alterations and passing it off as their own in a cutscene in Destiny 2. The team behind Destiny 2  once again apologized, issuing the following statement :"We've discovered that an external vendor that helped to create this cutscene mistakenly used this art as a reference, assuming it was official Bungie art. We have reached out to the artist to apologize for the mix-up and to credit and compensate them for their awesome work." This would not be the last Destiny-related accusation, either. On September 11, 2024, Twitter user and artist @Tofu_Rabbit noted  that Bungie directly lifted from a commission they did back in 2015. Bungie was once again forced to come to terms  with the artist for the theft, but was once again only willing to do so after being called out on Twitter. In that same thread, Reid Southern (@Rahil) also stated  their work was “ripped off”, though Bungie has thus far been silent on this one. Sift through these accusations and subsequent apologies, and a throughline quickly reveals itself — the plagiarism was someone else’s fault, and it was an accident. This line doesn't quite make sense to me, given the frequency and blatancy of the theft. One reference element accidentally making it into your product unchanged is bad enough, but the continued inclusion of lifted assets and lightly altered pieces finding their way into finished products speaks to more than just contractor negligence — it’s a pattern that shows a complete lack of care and respect from Bungie. Despite these frequent offenses, Bungie has largely been let off the hook. As long as the Destiny expansions are good and the new game is fun, many are quick to forgive the shady business. I made a Bluesky post  asking if people simply forgot about the plagiarism, and was quickly reminded by multiple people that, no, people did not forget — they just don't care. A few examples of the plagiarism accusations against Bungie. And while it is true that, in most of these known cases, Bungie has reached an agreement with the offended artists ex post facto, that is not the same thing as the plagiarism never having taken place at all. Hand-waving Bungie’s malice as having been “resolved” does not engender confidence in the company’s ability to produce works of art that are original, well-considered, or otherwise not stolen. It has led me to wonder — would these same people be so forgiving if this theft were done by an AI or smaller creator/creative team? Would those who are currently playing and praising Bungie for Marathon ’s art extend those same courtesies to nobodies who had been caught, time after time, of stealing the work of others in the making of their own? If a writer stole a work, made hundreds of millions on that stolen work, and then paid out a pittance to the original writer or merely mentioned them in the credits, would this be enough to repair the thief's reputation? I am inclined to think not. For all the (rightful) railing against the theft of creative works by Generative AI (and its now frequent commercial implementations), so little of that same energy is put toward the large conglomerates that do the same thing. Writers and other creatives are among the most vocal of all groups when it comes to advocacy against the use and inclusion of plagiarized AI works, but so many of my games writer peers can be found playing the Marathon  beta, praising its art specifically. Is that not hypocritical? Or does the personalized nature of said theft make it less meaningful? If a writer stole a work, made hundreds of millions on that stolen work, and then paid out a pittance to the original writer or merely mentioned them in the credits, would this be enough to repair the thief's reputation? I am inclined to think not. It has been said ad nauseam that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. It’s a nice little slogan that allows us to excuse our excesses, collapsing any distinctions one might make between ethical quandaries into a single bucket of “all bad.” But if it is true that all products are the direct result of worker exploitation, then doesn't that also mean the lines we draw are even more important? Surely we can come to understand the difference between a company like Constellis, a military contractor whose list of offenses includes murdering civilians, and another company like Arizona Beverages USA, whose most notable offense is falsely labeling their products as “all-natural”.  Yes, I am willing to concede that labor conditions both within the United States and abroad mean that most people are not fairly compensated for their work, and that most are significantly harmed by the economic systems and institutions that surround us all. What I am not willing to concede is that such a truth means we should not fight against such exploitation, or that all exploitative acts are equal. Throwing my hands up to say it's all bad and subsequently forgiving all injuries is a type of defeatist, loser-baby attitude that I will not personally abide. That said, Bungie is not Constellis, nor is it Shell or any other major company with a laundry list of horrific offenses. It is simply a company that continues to steal work from other artists to elevate its own products. I’m not even telling you that you must stop playing Bungie games (especially when your work relies upon it), or to stop appreciating the artistry behind the things they do  create — we all have our own lines in the sand. But don't tell me  not to care, and don’t imply that the plagiarism never happened just because Bungie was held to some account for it.

The waters of Mars are not welcoming. Mars is not a particularly appealing frontier, in my mind. Our current understanding of it (at least beyond the surface) is quite limited, and while our rapidly evolving knowledge can give us insight into its composition and history, little can be said of the benefits of colonizing or otherwise taking a trip to live on the red planet. This certainly hasn’t stopped some of the dumbest people on Earth from dreaming of doing so, however. Vile magnates like Elon Musk openly dream of starting colonies, floating ideas of practicing eugenics  and forcing those on the planet to engage in lifelong servitude so that their toilet thoughts can be fully realized. Of course, rarely are the human costs  of such an equation fully considered before such promises are made. Mars: War Logs  exists in world that I can only imagine as the optimal endpoint for such a colonization. The planet is controlled by factions of evil, corporate dictatorships (known as guilds), led and policed by drugged-up technocrats (technomancers). Slavery is big here, though they don’t outright name it — instead, people are thrown into prison work camps to do the dirty work needed by the guildfellows who have imprisoned them. From the buildings that stand on Mars to the very clothes people wear, everything is grimy, dusty, and run-down. When I say this is the “optimal” endpoint for such a dream, it is not to say that things are good — only that they technically function, at least for the time being. Publisher:   Focus Entertainment Developer:   Spiders Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released April 26, 2013, on Steam; Released July 26 on Xbox 360 and August 13, 2013 on PS3. A bleak colonial frontier is a great setting, but Mars’ implementation is clumsy. The narrative is defined by a strange, moralizing literalism; we see the world through a character named “Innocence,” who is surrounded by a choir of "virtues" like “Tenacity” and “Charity” — though such characters may or may not actually live up to those named ideals. After a whirlwind of background lore about the water wars, the story attempts to establish its "mature" credentials by immediately putting Innocence in the path of a prison-camp predator who threatens him with rape. After being saved by the main character Roy (who does so by just standing ominously about 15 feet away from the would-be assaulter), we are given our first dialogue choice that amounts to little more than a choice between nice answer, neutral answer, and evil answer. This strict “morality” of available options is poorly handled here in the moment and throughout the entirety of the game. I suppose in that sense, it is quite like the Mass Effect games that Mars  so clearly wishes to emulate. Every response can be broken down into which of these three paths you want to take, and doing so shapes the reputation of your character to other characters within the game. However, unlike the Mass Effect games, there is little difference in practice between being a mean guy or a nice fella. In gameplay, your reputation is shifted by those dialogue choices and by in-game actions. If you finish off your enemies and harvest their blood for serum after having defeated them, you get dinged as having done a bad thing. Obviously, there is no consideration for the fact that the cops keep showing up to kill you and will continue to do so even if you let them live. It does come up with each of your companions at least once, but generally manifests as a single throwaway line in larger sets of dialogue. This morality system feels incomplete — lacking, even — against the backdrop of the world being built around us. Surely there is more to this world than good and bad? One would assume context would be important, but each decision lies on this ternary.  Mars certainly is coarse. Nearly every other design decision feels similarly incomplete. You have interactive party members, but they are small in number and only have a few lines of conversation each. There is a crafting system, but the available recipes are exceedingly limited, with players really only able to craft a handful of items despite being given a veritable mountain of materials. The narrative is wholly disjointed, moving from point to point between acts in some of the most jarring transitions I’ve experienced in a video game. Each zone is full of people standing about, but only has 1-4 people you can actually speak to. It’s a grab-bag of all the typical 2010s RPG trappings, but none of the depth. Yet that haphazard implementation of gameplay systems pales in comparison to the writing. I suppose some of this is exacerbated by the fact that the voice work is atrocious, but much of the dialogue is quite painful to sit through. The biggest victim of this specific element is women. For some strange reason, every single woman you speak to in the game offers to have sex with the main character, Roy, implies an offer of sex, or can be “romanced” within three lines of dialogue. It is not a bad thing to allow characters to form relationships or have agency and preferences. It is a bad thing that every single speaking female character in the entire game specifically and explicitly desires to bed the player character. It reads like a teenage headcannon, one that only sees these women as prizes to be won or tossed aside.  Due diligence would have required that I get an exact number or percentage of dialogue between Roy and his companions that is romance or sex related, but I think that asking me to spend much more time with Mars  is a bit cruel. I would estimate that about half of all dialogue with women companions is about romance or sex, with a much smaller percentage for NPCs, who generally only have one or two lines about the proposition. Still, given the extremely limited dialogue available with each character, this ratio turns into a defining aspect of each entity. Which slab of meat looks most appealing to you, sir? The biggest victim of this specific element is women. For some strange reason, every single woman you speak to in the game offers to have sex with the main character, Roy, implies an offer of sex, or can be “romanced” within three lines of dialogue. If there is a highlight to Mars  (and I use highlight loosely, here), it would be the combat. It is a very active system, with players frantically rolling around to avoid insanely powerful enemies while taking chipshots with your weapons or technomancy. The “fun” of the roly-poly battles is further elevated by the frantic and incoherent meanderings of the camera. One moment, you are staring down a group of enemies, ready to dodge your way into advantageous positions, and the next, the camera has seemingly lost all sense of time and space, staring exactly into the opposite direction you need. Lock-on is of little help here, and even changing targets can be difficult to land on the enemy you want. Ultimately, Mars: War Logs is a fitting monument to the very colonization dreams it depicts. It is a collection of high-concept ideas that, when stripped of proper execution, collapse into a muddied mess. Half-baked napkin thoughts do not make a good space mission plan, nor do they make a decent video game. Inevitably, problems will arise. Whether it’s a life-support failure in a vacuum or a T-posing glitch in a digital work camp, something will go wrong in the use of technology. Is there a plan to address these concerns? Was there ever a real plan at all? All of this is to say: taking a trip to Mars (or Mars ) won’t do you any good, and will serve only to inflate the egos of the fools who put you there. I'm pretty sure they did not pay for this likeness. Verdict Don’t go to Mars. That would be a very stupid thing to do, voluntarily. Image Credits: Focus Entertainment

Why Kill the Past when you can just change it? There is a certain structured chaos to Romeo Is a Dead Man , the newest game from creator Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture — the development studio best known for titles like the Kill the Past and No More Heroes series. Grasshopper’s latest surreal third-person action game sticks with and smoothes out combat from the studio’s previous titles, while keeping the developer’s staple abstract storytelling. Publisher:   GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC. Developer:   GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC. Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released February 11, 2026, on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The main story has depth, although it can sometimes feel unintelligible. Despite this, Romeo’s motivations are easily understood and followed throughout. After almost being killed by a demon, Grandpa shows up and saves Romeo’s life by turning his mangled body into Dead Man. Somehow dying in the process of facilitating this transformation, Grandpa is now an animated patch on the back of Romeo’s jacket. Always animating without ever being too annoying or distracting, Grandpa helps guide Romeo to find Juliet, who might be at the center of some space-time anomalies. Oh, did I mention that after being saved by the Space Time FBI, Romeo is now drafted into their ranks to hunt down the disruptions and therefore correct the corresponding anomalies? Third-person action, although being the only method of combat, surprisingly takes up only half of the game. The other half being within a digital realm that vaguely mirrors the real-world zone in which the combat takes place. Combat feels responsive with multiple melee and ranged weapon choices available to pick from. Choosing to deviate from the default katana to a heavy two-handed sword, gauntlets, or a two-part spear does affect fights and how to approach hoards of smaller enemies. Having a light and strong attack option simplifies combat, requiring a stronger awareness of positioning and patience over a more complex system.  Stronger attacks can have purposefully longer uninterruptible animations, encouraging the optimization of combos mixing lighter and stronger attacks to stay mobile and evasive, or opt for heavy, immobile high-damage options during a stun or opening. Almost all larger enemies have weak points that are only breakable with ranged weapons, necessitating the use of one of four ranged weapons: a pistol, shotgun, machine gun, or rocket launcher. Having a diverse set of eight weapons that can be swapped at any time— even during combat — is great and can make encounters feel fresh again. Although a lack of findable upgrade materials forces committing to two or three weapons to avoid becoming underpowered and needing to grind for materials to buy more upgrades. Romeo has an eclectic variety of styles to showcase. Breaking up the combat, Subspace is a digital area used to find portals that lead to new, previously unreachable areas in the real world. No combat happens here, making early instances feel like an interesting break to open doors and solve puzzles in a more laid-back area. Later on, Subspace fills with uninteresting and frustrating tedium. All areas look the same, made with simple colored cubes that make it difficult to discern your position. Later, more complex levels become hard to reliably traverse, leading to accidentally retreading areas and often trying to remember which path has not been checked. Additionally, levels that have many portals make remembering which line up with what area in the real world much more difficult. With subspace increasing in size and complexity, the last level consists of slogging through an hour or more in subspace, mixed with short bursts of combat in between real-world portals. Upgrading and customizing a build in the home base — visitable between and during missions — is a standout departure from other games in the best way. Quicktime minigames to cook buff-producing katsu curry, a retro game to upgrade stats, and growing your own allies from seeds are fun changes of pace that feel unique and fit the overall grab-bag style this game has to offer. While having several currencies that can be used multiple ways was initially confusing, stat increases are easily noticeable in gameplay and keep the upgrade loop rewarding. Overall, style is the main standout of Romeo Is a Dead Man  from beginning to end. Using avant-garde approaches to cutscenes, whether it's told in the game’s normal 3d style, 8-bit, comic panels, or hand-drawn animation, nothing feels cheap or phoned in, and that includes the soundtrack. These changes in style feel intentional and always keep scenes interesting. Unfortunately, this artful shift in tone and style makes the much less unique designs of combat and puzzle areas feel generic in comparison. While not perfect, this unique approach to storytelling and systems is a statement that deviating from standard practice can make a large impression without completely leaving convention behind. Verdict Romeo Is a Dead Man  is a stylized, third-person action joyride with fun, albeit repetitive, combat. Boss fights are diverse, with a great soundtrack and interesting designs. Cutscenes and upgrading both diverge from standard practice in the best way, oozing with style to stand apart from other offerings. Pacing suffers with the diverse approach to mechanics and forcing frequent puzzle sections later into the game; however, the main story’s relatively shorter twenty-hour playtime with refreshingly little padding keeps the overall experience short and sweet. Image Credits: Grasshopper Manufacture Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

In Ys X: Proud Nordics , Adol can increase affinity with companions that have joined the crew along the journey. While this can be done through Companion Quests and special events, another way is to give your comrades a gift. Each companion only has a single gift to obtain, so once you have it, there's no need to search for additional items for that character. For all Gifts and their corresponding locations within Proud Nordics , please see below. Ys X: Proud Nordics Gift Locations Grenn Rune Sword : Available from the Baudin & Co merchant ship starting in Chapter 3. The ship can be found near Termina Island. Cruz Dvergr’s Hammer : It can be found within a chest on Breezy Isle, which is first accessible in chapter 4. Dogi Foreign Gauntlet: On the open sea (Sea Chart), head North of Kalon Island to find a ship housing the Gregorio's Curios shop. You'll need to buy the Hidden Treasure Chart B from him. Then, head over to Ozmid Expanse where you can salvage the gift item. Rosalind Green Turban Ear Clips : As part of the main story in Chapter 5, you'll land on Falun Island, where this gift can be found near the exit to Ilmer Village (on the east side of the map). Rafe Oku-Thor Amulet : Recapture Flumen Straight - Abandoned Mine. The A rank reward for completion is this gift for Rafe. Karja Peculiar Harr Woodcarving : Found on Raufos Island in Chapter 5. This is found within the fort, near a Rosmarion. Mirabel Pink Pearl Ring : Found in the Ruined Capital of Ribe during Chapter 6 in the southwestern part of the island. You'll need to use Mana Ride to reach the chest. Ezer White Lion Crest : Anika's Goods merchant ship can be found North of Eversummer Isle in Chapter 6. This shop sells the gift item for Ezer. Hopefully, this guide will help you finish up your journal, raise your companion's affinity, and unlock those achievements!