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One Line to Venus. The bridge of the Aphid was quiet. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it. A room full of people, but the only sounds to be heard were the low hum of the engine and the occasional click of the keyboard by our navigator. After months of maneuvering, the momentum in the race for Senate control had turned against us. Captain Valence, the darling of the Jovian system, had us on the back foot. While we scraped for influence, Valence had tightened his hold on Jupiter. He was practically royalty there, and his gravity was pulling the rest of the system into his orbit. Staring at the tactical pad in front of me, I could see my reflection. God, I look tired. Product:   Zenith Designer: Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel Publisher:   PlayPunk, Gém Klub Kft., Luma Imports Price: $39.99 Age: 12+ Valence’s gravitas on Jupiter forced me to rethink our approach. Rather than gain control over a single planet, we’ve worked to spread ourselves out across all of the contested planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter — making in-roads with local populations and leaders. It hasn’t necessarily been easy, either. Doing so has stretched our resources thin. Valence knew it, too. He hadn’t just sat on his throne — he’d been surgical, calculated in his deployment of agents, running disruptive efforts against us and hindering our channels of communication and commerce across the system. Now, the Aphid  was running on fumes, with our reserves low on credits, and even lower on zenithium. If we didn't refuel soon, we wouldn't just lose the election — we’d be drifting dead in the void. It all came down to this, a single line thrown out to the councilors of Venus. We only needed one to bite. I looked over the crew and saw that they were tired, too. My mind turned to the nights the animod Khan and I spent down on Mercury, the days drifting on earth with Sam, and all of our collective efforts on Mars; it would all be for naught if we couldn’t secure Venus before Valence finalized his dealings on Jupiter.  Before I got lost too deeply into my own thoughts, a voice rang out. “Captain Einin, receiving communication from agents Hiroshi and Ilda on the surface!” “Patch them through, Lieutenant.” I stood up, instinctively straightening my uniform. I’d read once that posture carries through the voice — that if you want to command respect, you have to act like the other person is in the room. But it wasn't just for Hiroshi. It was also for the crew. They had sacrificed time with their families, sleep, and sanity. They needed to see a Captain, a real leader. I could only pray the call had good news. "Captain," the static crackled, followed by a breathless voice. "Agent Hiroshi reporting. We… we’ve secured an audience with Councilor Aevis at the capital." I held my breath. "And?" "She’s pledged, Captain." Hiroshi’s professional tone cracked, letting a laugh slip through.  "She’s backing you at the next session. She also wanted to convey that she appreciates the… 'mutual support.'" A wry smile began to crawl across my face. Waves of relief washed over everyone in the room. We were still in it. With Venus secured, the math worked. We held the inner system. Even without Jupiter, I had the votes to seize the majority. Provided Valence doesn’t get to it before us. “Great work, Hiroshi,” I said, trying to keep my demeanor calm and professional, “secure transport back to the Aphid  for agent Ilda and yourself. We’re breaking orbit within the hour. Out.” The communication was now closed, but another call remained to be made. “Lieutenant, put out an open message to all members of the senate.” "Ready, Captain. What’s the message?" I took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm the nerves that sent shivers through me. “I am calling for a session to be held so we may vote on the next Senate Majority Leader.” The silence that followed felt like an eternity. A silence that threatened to swallow me whole should it not be broken. The crew watched the main screen, waiting for the central AI to acknowledge the claim. “CONFIRMED. SESSION WILL BE HELD ON 11/15/2487 AT 12:00 UNIVERSAL TIME.” The bridge stayed silent for one heartbeat more, and then erupted. Cheers, whistles, and laughter filled the air. I looked around at them — my navigator wiping his eyes, my comms officer giggling into her headset. Calmly, I adjusted my cuffs, looking toward the viewport and the distant stars. My thoughts drifted to the empty bunks, the agents we lost to get here. The tech we bled to build. I looked down at our navigator. "Well then. Let’s make our way to the Curia." As the engines of the Aphid  roared to life, propelled by the last of our reserves and a renewed hope, I made a vow to those we left behind. For them, I’m going to do some good. Verdict In Zenith , players  will struggle to gain Influence on 5 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. A strategy game with engine building elements, Zenith  will see players manage resources, calculate where to best place their pieces, and ponder how best to interfere with their opponent’s plans. Each game takes 25-35 minutes but will keep you engaged the entire way though thanks to high player interactivity and a large number of moving parts. It also sports great board presence and immaculate artwork. It’s a great time, all around.   Disclosure: We received a free copy of this title from the publisher.

UNBEATABLE has its fair share of problems. Performance woes (such as hitching) that hinder the gameplay experience during songs and poorly implemented scene transitions are chief among them. However, if you stick all the way through it, you might just come out a bit better for it. In some ways, this game feels like a personal attack. Some of the more difficult tracks are not my style, the story is meandering and unfocused, and it frequently forces me to confront my own real-world failings.  Publisher: Playstack Developer: D-CELL GAMES Platform: Played on PC and Steam Deck Availability: Released December 12, 2025 on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch. It sounds hyperbolic — and maybe it is — but I’m writing this in the moment. In the glow immediately after finishing the game so I don’t lose my thoughts on the here and now. I want to put how I feel down rather than how I think because there will always be more time to think about UNBEATABLE, but I’ll never get to feel these first feelings again.  And I’m feeling distinctly mixed. Down. Unsure. And that’s less about the quality  of the game and more about its qualities . UNBEATABLE is a rollercoaster ride — there’s no doubt about that. The game oscillates between highs and lows, taking long, hard looks at nothing before shunting you into the coolest set-pieces a rhythm game has ever conceived, only to then jump into seemingly unrelated story beats. You’re never really on solid ground. I’m never there, either.  I see myself in Beat, the main character. She’s a bit listless and unfocused. Always jumping to the next thing, but never taking the time to resolve the issues or work of the moment — something the story shares with us. But Beat has other problems, too. She’s not good at talking about her feelings. She’s not good at people. She’s got some regrets, and they’re my regrets also. I suppose our biggest failing is how reticent we are to own up to our mistakes. Are they mistakes? Sometimes it feels like we do it on purpose. The artwork of UNBEATABLE is gorgeous and the variety of gameplay mechanics keeps things interesting. There are some specific moments in the story that prodded me in ways I was not expecting. Events from Beat’s story that are so reminiscent of my own that it hurt me to see them play out. But ultimately I don’t really think UNBEATABLE is Beat’s story at all. It's Quaver’s. And Clef’s. And it’s about everybody else around Beat who supports her, who gives her grace, who listens, plays with her, and loves her. It’s about the people who do that for us.  Through every mistake in my life I’ve been fortunate enough to have people there to pick me up. I know  that, of course, but I suppose there are moments where my head is up my own ass just enough to think I can go it alone. But I’ve never been alone. Not really, anyway.  The totality of the messaging in UNBEATBLE does come out a bit saccharine. Themes about love, support, and forgiveness are pervasive. Yet, at least for the moment, I can’t help but feel that sweetness myself. The feeling that, if I simply accept the love and care thrown my way, we really can band together and become unbeatable.

At the start of 2025, I started a podcast called Little Victories, with the sole purpose of interviewing game developers about their experiences working on games. Initially galvanized by an interview I had in 2024 with Roosa Jokiaho, who worked as a Cinematic Artist on Forspoken, this conversation led me to reach a logical but equally important conclusion. Every one of us likes to be listened to, to be engaged in deep conversation about what we have learned from our work, and to share it with others to positively impact them. Taking the plunge, I sent a direct message to Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou, creator of Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, who I had briefly interacted with on social media and eventually became my first guest. As soon as he accepted, I knew the ball was rolling. There is always a nerve-racking feeling to create a tangible, real idea from a nebulous concept in our minds, but also a feeling of excitement that accompanies it. Looking back, it feels like everything that I had been working towards as a gaming journalist was finally taking on a purpose. After commissioning a graphic identity from a close friend of mine and having a talented piano player musicalize the introduction to the tune of The Legend of Zelda when opening a chest, the stage was set. Set in a friendly, conversational tone, every interview revolves around a set of questions that I was intrigued by playing these developers’ brilliant games: the elevating music, subdued narrative beats, big gameplay elements. What took me by surprise was the life lessons that sprouted from these chats. I wanted to take the time to ponder the seven lessons that I have learned while chatting with all of these brilliant developers who took the time to answer my questions diligently and reflect upon their work. Work Smarter, Not Harder Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou is a veteran of the gaming industry, having formerly worked at Sony Cambridge with the likes of Killzone and Ghosthunter. In 2017, Alex jumped ship from Sony and created his own independent studio, Polygon Treehouse.  A multitalented creative director, Alex created Roki in 2020 and subsequently Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island in late 2024. In my interview with him talking about the intricacies of Mythwrecked, there were abundant morsels of wisdom. It all essentially boiled down to working smarter, not harder. Mythwrecked is an isometric collect-a-thon set on an uncharted island in the Greek peninsula. As Alex, a British backpacker, you are tasked with helping the Greek gods — who have seemingly lost their memories — to regain them and remember who they are. Embodying a brilliant message to not overwork oneself, there are many forward-thinking design choices that make this lesson shine. As Alex mentions in our interview , the representation of the Greek gods at the time they were created was all about personifying the preoccupations people had at the time: Poseidon is worried about climate change, Ares is a trigger-happy manchild, and Hermes is riddled with anxiety. In life and in game development, sometimes we overcomplicate how we go about things without even thinking of the simple route. While I am sure this laissez-faire approach does not work in everyone’s case, Alex’s conversation is full of incredible reminders to take the clever route when starting a new project. Not everything needs to be as complex as we first envision it in our minds. Hey, he's trying. Image Credits: Whitethorn Games Be More Vulnerable Harold Halibut is a video game about a janitor by the name of Harold who does not quite fit into the world he was born into. Living in an underwater spaceship stranded on a far-off planet, where everyone appears to be happy with their place in life, our protagonist seems anything but. In Harold Halibut, seasoned narrative designer and writer Danny Wadeson deftly pours his heart out via a series of uniquely transcendental conversations. Society is a harsh place, but through this charming sci-fi adventure, we are reminded of how important it is to be vulnerable. Finding a friend in Weeoo, an alien fish who becomes friends with Harold, they embark on the ride of a lifetime. Uniting two lifeforms to help their predicament with a honed sense of humor and wit, the literally handcrafted set pieces evoke a holistic sense of wonder that hammers home the lesson that I am glad to have learned that day. Harold Halibut was the first game that I ever reviewed and gave a 10 out of 10 thanks to its multidisciplinary showcase of creatives to deliver one of the most heartfelt stories in the modern era of gaming.  There are moments in our day-to-day lives that we can become arrogant, maybe even aggressive, to the people who we frequent. Whether it is attributed to unresolved personal issues, constant friction at work, or simply having a bad day, staying in touch with our emotions is of utmost importance. Being more vulnerable is not just to talk openly about what we feel but to take responsibility when actions we have committed have hurt others. Finding our place in the world is not selfish, but so is making sure our emotional journey uplifts others. After all, no one lives in a vacuum. Celebrate Diversity Life Is Strange: Double Exposure finally brings back Max Caulfield, a beloved protagonist since she was first introduced in the iconic first entry in the series. Along the way, many other new characters during her tenure as an Artist in Residence at Caledon University cozy up to our now older Max. Some of them are on the LGBTQ+ spectrum and are quite realistically represented, with no one feeling like a token character for the developers at Deck Nine Games to take a victory lap. In my conversation with Staff Writer Aysha U. Farah, she attributes this to a basic reason: they hired gay and trans writers. While the Life Is Strange franchise has always celebrated diversity, such as with Max and Chloe alluding to having a lesbian relationship by the end of Life Is Strange  if the player so chooses to do so, Double Exposure elevates that status. Bisexual, gay, and trans characters are all in Max’s sphere, allowing for her to explore her sexuality and satisfy her curiosity. Max engages in thoughtful conversations with people from all kinds of backgrounds, and these diversified topics let the player learn more about other people’s ways of living respectfully. Diversity makes us stronger not only because it makes us learn about the many walks of life out there, but also because we learn about others’ struggles to find their identity in the process. Being comfortable in one’s own skin is something that we should all strive for, and for the rest of us to support each other in the process. Image Credits: Square Enix Find Inspiration It is easy to fall into a slump considering how repetitive our lives can become. This is where art comes into play to save us from ourselves. Promise Mascot Agency is a wacky take on an ex-yakuza's exile from the Japanese mafia, with the only way to be accepted back into the fold being by rebuilding the eponymous mascot agency back to its feet. Wrangling real-life mascots akin to Chiitan, this ridiculous premise that balances political issues with personal stakes is an endlessly funny and cathartic experience. Carrying it all in the background is the soundtrack by Alpha Chrome Yayo and Ryo Koike, two abundantly talented composers that mix Tokyo City Pop and older Japanese arrangements to spectacular success.  In a sincere conversation with Alpha Chrome Yayo, I was able to ask how he was capable of creating these songs and staying constantly inspired, especially while working on such a comprehensive album. In his friendly answer, he goes on to express how you need to keep moving not to get stuck in a rut. Sometimes literally, at others figuratively. Finding inspiration is a key element to create, be it by listening to a new song, playing an obscure indie game, or watching a long-forgotten movie.  There are gray days that we cannot wait to be over. While not as drastic as changing jobs or moving across the country, giving new media a try can thoroughly change your perspective. Inspiration might prove elusive, but it’s at least a step in the right direction. Image credits: Kaizen Game Works Smell the Roses As I write this at the end of the year, I am still grappling with the fact that 2025 is over, and time waits for no one. What did I accomplish? Was it enough? Will I ever stop burning the roof of my mouth with a hot slice of pizza? These questions plague my thoughts often, but there was one video game that was a breath of fresh air: Wanderstop. Arguably carrying one of the most important, yet simple, messages of our times: take the time to smell the roses.  Wanderstop, described as a video game “about change and tea,” tells the story of Alta, a renowned warrior in a fictional fantasy land who has pushed herself over the edge. Unable to wield her sword due to physical and mental exhaustion, she finds a tea shop called Wanderstop after collapsing in her search for answers. With the help of Boro, the gentle giant that manages said shop, she learns to brew tea, reminisce about her life, and slow down, as much as it pains her to do nothing . Talking with Jenny Windom , the Communications Director of Ivy Road Games, she confesses that while it was reaffirming to see so many people connecting with Wanderstop, it also revealed an ugly truth: that a lot of us are suffering from burnout and need a break. So this is what I tell you, dear reader: take that day off, learn to say no to new tasks before you are done with the ones you are working on, and focus more on your loved ones. They will thank you. We all deserve a break, now and then. Believe in Your Work Quartet is a retro turn-based JRPG that tells the story of eight characters in a troubled world engulfed in war. You have probably heard this premise before, but trust me when I say it has not been presented like this. Made by the studio Something Classic, Quartet shines thanks to its commitment to authenticity in its grounded narrative and creatively composed soundtrack. Evoking the highs of Final Fantasy VI and similar to Octopath Traveler in its character approach, you would think that this video game, seven years in the making, was always as confident as the final product. But as my conversation with composer Tyler Mire proved, finding Quartet’s  voice was not easy — until it was. Character sprites, arcs, and personalities took time to develop. From their origin stories to how they would interact with each other, their backgrounds ended up informing the player and the world around them. This makes Quartet a highly enjoyable adventure not only due to the stakes raised with every new development, but also because of how different personalities clash and gel as they go along. Tyler mentions Quartet found its essence by iteration and extended conversations with its tight-knit development team. Ultimately, what they found would connect with players — and it did — was believing in their creation and delivering a special adventure worthy of being among the greats. Image Credits: Something Classic Games LLC Ask for Help The subtitle speaks for itself. Asking for help is not easy. It never is. This is heart-wrenchingly portrayed in LUTO, a first-person horror game. Dealing with topics of generational trauma, depression, and suicide, LUTO, or grief in Spanish, is a story that, while harkening back to Kojima’s P.T., creates its own story with a distinct audiovisual background. Protagonist Sam is reliving his everyday life, unable to break the loop when it seems he was simply packing to leave the house. Creative Director Borja Corvo confided in me the ins and outs of the development process, hoping players would be moved by the narrative to ask for help if they ever felt similarly to what was shown on screen. The power of storytelling is not only to make you empathize with the character’s plight but also to hopefully spur you into action when needed. As LUTO progresses, you can see that the protagonist must defy the voice in his head to be free from the shackles of his mind. And just like him, sometimes we must ask for help to break away from toxic patterns that have followed us during our lifetime. Image Credits: Broken Bird Games Learning from each one of these video game developers — who I am sure took more than a little courage to dedicate their lives to such creative endeavors — was a delight. If you are reading this, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. To the ones who reached the end of this piece, I invite you to share any life lesson that a game this year, or any year, has left a mark on you. Because after all, being moved by a work of art is nothing short of a little victory. The concept of Little Victories is not simply to banally celebrate every win without acknowledging the effort that was put behind it, but to actually recognize that every day, without fail, we wake up and we choose life. A gesture of kindness, sharing a meal with a loved one, a long-winded conversation where you lost track of time — there are many examples I can think of that should be celebrated. Life is difficult as it is, so we must not make it harder by being obstinate. There is nothing wrong with celebrating a small win. I, in fact, encourage it. And, as the lessons that I learned by chatting with each of these luminaries can attest to show, they are worthy of praise. Thanks for reading.

Let it die. I’ve never been a particularly nostalgic person, at least not for artistic mediums and media types. While I’ve been prone to longing for, or at the very least appreciating, specific design philosophies that have largely gone the way of the dodo, I don’t have any specific desire to house or make use of old technology. The classic systems and technology I grew up on, such as SNES and VHS players, don’t hold any power over me insofar as I largely see them as simple delivery systems for the actual art — video games and film, respectively. Katanalevy’s Dead Format  explicitly hearkens back to the time of VHS, taking place in the 1990’s. The player character is searching for their missing brother, rummaging through his apartment to find a new format and series of films (referred to as “Video Ghastlies”) which must then be played in order to open doors to the worlds shown in said films for the player to explore. While the titular “dead format” works as the mechanism for the delivering these worlds, I find that the reverence and nostalgia is targeted less toward the technology, and more for the types of art they were able to produce.  Publisher: Oro Interactive Developer: Katanalevy Platform: Played on PC Availability: Released December 10, 2025 on Windows PC. Older formats were, in many ways, much more constricting. Artists are ultimately bound by the current tech when creating a film or video game, such as films being exclusively black and white before the color technology was invented. But those bounds also served as guidelines. Rather than the whole universe of creativity being open to the director or creator, the films would necessarily have to work within that technological context; low resolutions, 4:3 aspect ratio, and even limited color all serve to influence the ways in which people made their works. It would change the way in which shots were framed, lit, or even played.  These creative choices are where Dead Format  lays its flowers. It pays very little reverence to the actual technology itself — something that I find is all too frequently done by modern retro enthusiasts — and instead focuses on the art itself. The video vignettes that you find throughout the short runtime are all reminiscent of the period they are emulating, using similar shot styles and visual effects one might find in a real work from the period. There’s a care taken in the fake movies that I truly respect, with the fake films even going so far as to use period appropriate color palettes, costuming, and contrasting. An underrated element to this is just how much adding something like tracking lines and CRT blurriness serves to solidify the eerie atmosphere of those “video ghastlies.” Dead Format is phenomenally atmospheric. Once a video has been placed in the player and viewed, the apartment door will unlock and allow the player to walk through the world depicted in the video. Similar to the videos, the levels are also appropriately representative of the film styles they emulate. The first level, a silent film setting, is rendered in black and white, the 80’s horror flick has high contrast and has a bit of a noisy or fuzzy image.  This is such a great concept in my mind, and it is executed excellently overall from a visual perspective, but falls flat on the gameplay front on the back half of the game, especially. At some point, an entity that can kill you in only a few hits begins to stalk you through your travels. It's a very similar concept to the excellent Alien: Isolation: there’s an unkillable monster hunting you, so you must hide and outmaneuver them to complete your objectives. While the tension is welcome in some respects, I find you spend too much time simply sitting and hiding. There’s an element of stealth you can rely on, where if you’re quiet enough you may be able to avoid the stalker in a few instances, but the primary method of avoidance are these little alcoves where your character is invincible and undetectable. As a product of the way the game’s save system works, you really don’t want to die, lest you be set back a long way. This leads to most of the final hours being spent sitting and waiting for the monster to pass so you can walk down the hallway, or enter the next room. The video vignettes that you find throughout the short runtime are all reminiscent of the period they are emulating, using similar shot styles and visual effects one might find in a real work from the period. The back half of the game is frankly joyless because of this. Because there are so few ways to mitigate or avoid these scenarios, and because there are specific set areas the stalker appears at, there’s no real tension in the way that there is in a game like Alien: Isolation . There’s no second guessing or panic — once she appears, you know you must return to the alcove and wait. This does detract from your opportunity to appreciate the settings as well. While they are few in number, these levels are clearly crafted with care and love, but it’s hard to appreciate any of that when staring at the bottom of a table. It ’s hard to overstate just how much this singular (but pervasive) aspect brings the rest of the game down. I do understand what they were going for by introducing a stalking element to Dead Format , but the implementation of it steers into ‘boring’ territory. Verdict Dead Format  is host to excellent ideas. The “haunted VHS” concept of opening up new worlds to explore sounds genuinely exciting in theory. To add to this, Katanalevy has a masterful grasp on the aesthetics of the past, using the constraints of VHS and film to create a genuinely unsettling atmosphere, but the poorly implemented stalker mechanic drags the experience down. Image Credits: Oro Interactive Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Got any sheep? The first escape room I ever found myself in remains one of my core memories. My wife and I had just started dating, and I was hoping to introduce her to some good friends of mine. I knew that she was a fan of the setting that the local escape room was based upon, and as I was interested and willing to try out some new experiences, I figured it would be a great way to get all of us interacting. What I found was not just a great way to commingle, but a fully immersive investigative experience. One in which each person was invested in working together to not only solve the obtuse riddles of the room, but also to assist one another and lift each other person up in the process. I suppose that’s the beauty of an escape room. Each person is able to work to their strengths, solving puzzles in an open format by cooperating with one another. The tangible aspect of it is no doubt a huge part of that — each turn of a key or new door opened creates a real sense of success. In this respect, EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  does an excellent job of simulating a more curated escape room experience. Product:   EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan Designer: Inka Brand, Markus Brand Publisher:  Thames & KOSMOS Price: $ 19.95 Age: 10+ As stated earlier, escape rooms excel at creating an immersive atmosphere to the action you find yourself in. That is a tall task for a such a small box to emulate, but EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan attempts to do so by providing you narrative hooks in writing and giving clues and elements that are representative of the simulated setting, such as resource tokens and tiles that are drawn straight from CATAN . This isn’t as effective as being in a room wholly dedicated to your immersion, but if you let yourself roleplay, you may find it works well enough to remain engaging. In order to avoid spoilers, I am not going to discuss the specifics of the puzzles or contents of the box, but the puzzles here did surprise me in terms of their difficulty. The clues provided are  adequate for solving each task, and the actual act and experience of doing so goes extremely smoothly. There aren't any elements of unwanted or undue friction. Instead, what you get is a series of tests meant to challenge the group and inspire everyone to work together, crafting a delightful and rewarding scenario that always sparks joy when you find success.  There is a bit of a caveat here in the sense that the game is explicitly marketed as a beginner EXIT  title, with the age rating starting at 10 years old. I frankly would not expect a group of ten-year-olds to be able to complete an EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan scenario, though that doesn’t mean no 10 year old would be able to participate. That said, the game works its setting into the process wonderfully. Resources are gained whenever you solve a puzzle, generating a number equal to the number token placed on the resource board tiles, evoking the mechanics of the CATAN game itself. Then, resources are traded to gain new clues for further puzzle solving. It creates this great flow of mechanics where something is always being gained and lost as the game progresses. ...the game works its setting into the process wonderfully. Resources are gained whenever you solve a puzzle, generating a number equal to the number token placed on the resource board tiles, evoking the mechanics of the CATAN game itself. One aspect that EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  does have over traditional Escape rooms is the inherent destructibility of the materials. While in a normal escape room you would take care not to damage the objects in a room out of fear and respect for the owners, here it is key to success. Parts are destroyed in the reveal process or as part of a puzzle solution, markings are made on the objects themselves and so on. It allows for solutions or processes that a normal escape room wouldn’t allow for. When all 10 puzzles are finally solved, the game is won. Interestingly, though this was done with an entirely separate group, I couldn’t help but remember the elation and excitement I felt at my first escape room experience. There’s something so affecting about getting a group together to collaborate and conquer something of this nature. EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  elicits that same feeling when done properly, and that’s a thing of beauty. Verdict EXIT: The Game – Adventures on Catan  is an excellent take on the escape room format for home play. Utilizing the setting of CATAN  to great effect, this game is full of difficult but rewarding puzzles that will keep the group engaged the entire time. Image Credits: KOSMOS Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

No need to hold the door open. Up or Down?  is a game of highs and lows. It features stunning art and pedigree design from Kramer and Kiesling, yet the gameplay feels surprisingly on-rails. A simple card game that functions as a hand-builder where the basic aim is to make lines of ascending or descending cards to formulate hands that score based upon length of the hand and color of the cards therein. The specific version I received was the one I got at GenCon 2025, but I’ve been struggling to put into words why this game hasn’t particularly landed for me, despite being a recurring game played at friendly occasions. Product:  Up or Down? Designers: Michael Kiesling, Wolfgang Kramer Publisher:   ABACUSSPIELE, Capstone Games, HOT Games Price: $ 10 Age: 8+ Let’s start with some gameplay mechanics. The baseline gameplay flow is quite simple. First, you start by dealing three cards to each player and arranging six revealed cards from the deck into a circle, ordered low to high, around the remaining deck of cards (exact number varies based upon number of players). The remaining deck is then into two central draw piles inside the ring: one face up and one face down. From here, players take turns placing a card from their hand into the appropriate space in the circle, taking an adjacent card to the one just placed. That card is then added to one of your columns of cards, of which you can have three, in either ascending or descending order. When all cards have been drawn from the deck, players calculate score totals based upon the number of cards in their discard pile (1 point each), and the makeup of their columns of cards. For the card columns, score is calculated by multiplying the total number of cards in the line of cards by the count of the single most common color in that line. The player with the highest total wins. I am aware the column is ordered incorrectly per the rules. Fundamentally, there’s not much going on in this game. There’s really only one strategy you can use — start with the highest or lowest numbered card you can get and go from there, targeting similar colors as much as possible. The strategy aspect is extremely limiting, as there is no true way to interact with other players at the table, and your fortunes are primarily decided by lady luck rather than any particular masterstroke of genius on your end. This makes the entire experience a bit detached, with you and your cohorts playing simultaneous solitaire rather than engaging in a collaborative or competitive experience. All collections are open to view by the table, so I suppose there is the idea that you could work to deny other players cards that would assist them. This would really only serve to play spoiler for one or two other players, leaving you with a weak collection overall and setting up another player for the win. Despite these mechanical shortfalls, I find it works well as a friendly, party-style card game. Without any difficult decisions to make and boasting a very clear turn structure, even beginner level board game players can jump in easily, and paying close attention is rarely necessary. On top of this, the version we obtained is beautiful. The card stock is really solid and feels great in your hands, plus the art is stunning, despite the mundane subject matter.  Verdict Ultimately, Up or Down?   lands at strictly party fare for me. It’s easy to get into, and feels good in your hands, but its distinct lack of true strategic elements or player-to-player interactivity prevents it from being a true staple.  Image Credits: Taylor Rioux Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

As I gaze upon the artwork of Hollow Knight: Silksong , I can’t help but marvel at the beauty and craftsmanship of it. Unique and interesting creatures, gorgeous backgrounds, and fluid animations all create this atmosphere of a downtrodden, exploited world. But for me, there is more to a game than how it looks. Art is in the experience. How the act of playing the game makes you think and feel, how it relates to the world beyond. Through play and engagement, some meaning can be conferred. Publisher:   Team Cherry Developer:   Team Cherry Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released September 4, 2025  on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. For Hollow Knight: Silksong ’s part, it has without question elicited emotions within me. Fear, excitement, elation, joy — these are some of the emotions one would expect when playing a game like Hollow Knight: Silksong . Yet no such feeling has arisen; instead, I have almost exclusively felt boredom. Every run back to a boss, every platforming challenge, and every repeated trek through a zone became tiresome. If you take a path not meant to be seen at a specific point in time, you simply come to a dead-end with no way to intuit or understand what is missing or must be done — you are only rebuffed and cursed to wander elsewhere. And so the journey continues as you meander through new and equally complex and hazardous zones until a new tool or ability allows you to go back to your prior dead ends for continued exploration.  This is typical for the genre of course, and does present itself as an accumulation of effort or accomplishment to be celebrated. The journey through the world is perilous, perhaps even more so than fighting any single boss Hollow Knight: Silksong throws at you. Yet there is very little fanfare when you do beat a boss, opening the way to the next zone. Seldom did I feel elated or joyful when my foe burst into silk. Instead, I mostly felt relief that the segment was done with, and hoped that the next area would be less aimless. I was never granted such relief. As the game progresses, zones get more intricate and the backtracking becomes even more frequent, and moments in-game start to blur. There never really feels to be a moment to reflect on events as you are playing, save the minor reprieve of a wayward bench.  Beyond the backtracking, the ways in which the systems interact often leads to minor frustrations. Losing to a boss or field enemy means not only the possibility of losing your rosaries, but the loss of any other resources spent, such as shell shards to repair your tools. Shell shards are replenishable, but it is not a quick process to do so. Hollow Knight: Silksong gives you a plethora of tools to make use of that alter the gameplay flow in interesting or inventive ways. Tools that lay traps or give you ranged options, tools that make your attacks stronger or let them inflict status upon an enemy — the tools are abundant and useful. Yet the resource related friction here means you have to be very careful with their use, and disincentivizes experimentation and play in a game that is ripe with opportunity to do so. In a best case scenario, you consistently have enough shell shards to use your tools on the bosses and mini-bosses without having to grind out shards for repair, but to do so means you must never use them outside of those arenas, relying only on a single basic attack and a small selection of silk skills to carry you through dozens of hours of already monotonous gameplay. Over time, those minor frustrations coalesce into major grievances with how my time is being spent, products of a severe lack of balance in the experience of playing the game. Hollow Knight: Silksong is an astonishingly beautiful game in motion and all other aspects. There’s a sort of religiosity required to play this game to completion. Opposed to the elaborate pomp and ceremony associated with many religious practices today, playing Hollow Knight: Silksong  is more akin to self-flagellation. To inflict upon oneself pain and suffering over and over in order to bring oneself closer to God. Here, it is to suffer the repetition and failures and boredom of the act of playing so that one may say that the task has been completed and that some insight has been gained or purpose gleaned from the endeavor. In this respect, I seem to have fallen to the role of the sinner. I feel as if I have been unwillingly flogged, gaining no such wisdom for the trouble, and instead punished for some unknowable crime. Rather than gaining an appreciation of the game through the effort, I have inherited an aversion. The likening to religiosity is no mistake. Many NPCs throughout Hollow Knight: Silksong  are pious to the point of absurdity, making their way through lava caverns and poison swamps to ascend to the holy Citadel, only to be further pressed upon by those in the position to do so. Shopkeepers strewn about to extort their faith, enemies looking for their next victim, and a god whose silk controls their very thoughts — the world they live in is unkind. And yet they continue to pray.  Perhaps this is where my lived experience comes into play more than any other facet of the interpretation of Hollow Knight: Silksong . I already have an intense aversion to religiosity, and playing something that evokes such imagery and feeling through both its story and gameplay necessarily gives rise to memories of Sundays spent sleeping in pews, of being forced to do something or be somewhere I did not want to be.  It is true that I was not “forced” to play Hollow Knight: Silksong . There was no gun to my head, my feet were not held to a fire, and eternal damnation was not on the table if I didn’t finish it. But I did feel obligated, in some respect. The start of the game didn’t feel particularly offensive to me in any way. With exacting and immaculate level design, varied approaches to combat and exploration being viable, and tight controls, Hollow Knight: Silksong  is a true feat of engineering. Everything just works. And in those early hours, when everything felt new, each new dead-end felt a little more intriguing. Easy enough to put a pin on it and come back later, I would think. As the game rolled on, and those pins and alleyways began to pile up, I just got tired of it. There was nothing keeping me here save the desire to say I had done so. That didn’t feel healthy, so I put it down just a few days after release, close enough to the end that I could just finish it at any time. ...playing Hollow Knight: Silksong is more akin to self-flagellation. To inflict upon oneself pain and suffering over and over in order to bring oneself closer to God. Yet the months passed and still Hollow Knight: Silksong would continue to pop into my thoughts. Generally not in a positive sense, but it was there all the same. I felt a tinge of shame that I had not brought myself to complete it. I felt apart from the overarching conversation surrounding the game. I felt like I didn’t have a voice because technically  I had not beaten it, despite being there at the end. In order to relieve myself of that shame, I had to pick up Hollow Knight: Silksong  once more, though I did throw out any ideas of completing act 3. This was in itself an absurd adherence to traditional norms and customs surrounding video game participation (especially in the critical space). The irony of this is not lost on me. I was hoping — praying — that completing the game would grant me more insight, bestow upon me some truth that I had missed. That by going through its entirety, the time I spent doing so would be deemed worthy. It didn’t take long to roll credits on Hollow Knight: Silksong  this time around. Just a short walk and a few attempts is all I needed. No meaning had been gleaned, no value for the time and effort had become apparent — I felt just as bored as I had all those months ago. That is where my pilgrimage ended. It’s hard to say that my faith in the game was broken as I was never one praying at the altar for it, but I am a bit let down by it all. Verdict Hollow Knight: Silksong is undoubtedly a beautiful game. Gorgeous artwork in the character sprites and the backgrounds breathes life into the world, music both haunting and melancholic permeates the air. More than any other positive aspect, Hollow Knight: Silksong  seems to be a feat of technical prowess, a true masterwork of engineering where all the pieces work exactly as intended. Despite this, it remains one of the most tedious and boring games I have played in a very long time. It is a true shame those perfectly functioning systems don’t work together better to create a more rewarding experience. Image Credits: Team Cherry

Timeless cool I saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day  at far too young an age. I’m pretty sure we taped it from what was probably its first Australian TV airing back when I was about six years old and I instantly became obsessed. I begged my mum to get me a real leather jacket that we miraculously found in kids-size at a second-hand shop, which she did, and for probably about a year I would never want to leave the house without wearing both it and the pair of officially licensed Terminator 2  sunglasses I ended up getting also. For the past few months I’ve actually been living back down in that same house I grew up and first saw Terminator 2  in, and earlier this week I actually rediscovered those very sunglasses.  Yeah, they're real. I guess I’ve been in a bit of a rose-tinted nostalgia hole lately; somewhat mythologizing my past while ignoring the actual reality of it, which happens to be exactly where Terminator 2D: NO FATE  positions itself, funnily enough. Publisher: Reef Entertainment Developer: Bitmap Bureau Platform: Played on PC and Steam Deck Availability: Released December 12, 2025 on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch. The games marketing copy posits that ‘the guiding principle of its development was to make the kind of game that could’ve come out alongside the movie’, which of course entirely ignores the fact that there was a glut of official T2  video games  released back then. Given that the central conceit of the Terminator  franchise is revisiting the past in order to deliver a brighter today, I can’t help but admire the hell out of how holistically the developers and publisher have presented this throughline. Terminator 2D: NO FATE plays like a highlights package of every memorable side-scrolling action game of the early 90s. Each level features a timer that ticks down towards a game over, and every object you smash and every enemy you defeat adds points to your score. A full run from start to finish will only take you around 40 minutes, but it encourages you to push for higher scores, quicker times, and to try higher difficulties. After finishing the game once you unlock the ability to make narrative choices in a couple of instances on subsequent runs which unlocks some branching levels that give different endings.  From the very idea of making the game itself, permeating all the way through its design, and then out the other end to the way it’s being marketed, Terminator 2D: NO FATE delightfully toys with the notion of changing history and our collective senses of rose-tinted nostalgia. What’s most impressive about Terminator 2D: NO FATE  though is how cleverly every one of its iconic scenes have been translated into different game design frameworks from the era and how smoothly they all weave together. The future war segments glimpsed in the film's opening have you playing as adult John Connor in a straight riff on Contra , complete with cartoonish gun power pickups. Sarah Connor’s assaults on Cyberdyne facilities meanwhile are more platforming focused in the style of Acclaim’s many licensed productions of the day. The motorbike and truck chase through the Los Angeles river hilariously becomes a direct riff on the infamous jetbike levels from Battletoads , though far less infuriating and mercifully shorter. Terminator 2D: NO FATE delightfully toys with the notion of changing history and our collective senses of rose-tinted nostalgia. Best of all though is how the ‘I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle’ scene has been adapted. You’re given control of the titular Terminator itself as it arrives through the time portal to 1995. Unarmed and completely nude, you melee brawl your way into and through the biker bar in a style reminiscent of Golden Axe.  As a bunch of dudes with pocket knives and pool cues can’t reasonably harm a hulking death-robot, any hits incurred instead knock 5 seconds off the countdown timer. I laughed with delight as the Dwight Yoakam song from the film scene played upon entering the bar, too, then absolutely cackled with glee when I smashed the jukebox found in the level and the music switched to George Thorogood’s ‘Bad to the Bone’. Not chiptune interpreted covers either, the actual licensed songs. The fact that each sticks out so much from the rest of Terminator 2D: NO FATE ’s   wonderfully authentic early 90s video game score made the gag land all the better. The level culminates with a boss fight against the shotgun-wielding “I can’t let you take the man’s wheels, son” bartender, and beginning-to-end it’s one of my favorite game sequences of the year hands-down. Terminator 2D: NO FATE lends its own twists to the events of the classic film. Every inch of Terminator 2D: NO FATE  is drenched in this degree of love and reverence both for its source material as well as for arcade and console games of the early 90s, and every bit of this is communicated wonderfully through play. The fact that they clearly couldn't get Schwarzenegger’s likeness rights is a small shame, but the game just presents so splendidly & feels so damn good to play from start to finish that it doesn't matter. Every subsequent run I took through it was inspired by my enthusiasm to relish in the pleasure of it all once again as much as it was to unlock anything new or chase higher scores. All that said, though, $30USD feels steep for a game of its scale as beautiful and brilliant as I feel the game is. I’m also swinging back and forth on feeling outraged at the $60USD price tag for the physical edition and laughing at how authentic to the game's entire concept making that choice for a retail release is. Verdict Terminator 2D: NO FATE is a masterclass in film-to-video game adaptation. It also feels like something a frighteningly clever machine would devise in order to push every single one of my ‘childhood delight’ buttons. It’s easily one of my favorite games of the year and I’d argue one of the best licensed games ever on top of that. Maybe just keep your eyes peeled for any discount on it. Image Credits: Jam Walker, Reef Entertainment, and Bitmap Bureau. Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is an incremental idle clicker title that simultaneously functions as a roguelite and deck-building game all at once. If all of that sounds like it is a bit beyond you, don’t worry, it plays much more simply than it sounds. Publisher:   Oro Interactive, Drillhounds Developer:   Mash Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released December 11, 2025 on PC (Steam). The premise is simple, both mechanically and “narratively”. You, the player, are trapped in some casino-esque domain by a joker and tasked with earning one billion dollars. To start, you only have a single card in hand, and you earn a small amount of money when you flip it over, which is based on the type of hand you draw. These hands are your standard poker hands, high card, pair, straight, and so on. If you know poker, you’ll know what to look for and build towards, but it’s not a death sentence if you don’t; the game literally plays itself. Once you earn some cash, you can then spend it in an upgrade tree that allows you to increase your handsize, payouts, card auto-flip rate, and more.  While this is billed as an idle game, the first run is quite hands on. You’ll need to manage your upgrades deliberately in order to make earning that first billion an easy affair. Realistically, you could upgrade a little and then set and forget it while you accumulate cash, but part of the appeal is seeing all of the crazy flashes of light and coins jingling across the screen — which requires high levels of upgrades and forward progression in the story. The easiest way to do this is to play until you hit a wall in a run, where the cash you are earning is outpaced by the scaling of the upgrade requirements. At that point, you just end the run, buy your permanent upgrades, and go again. You’ll also be awarded with higher payouts as a bonus. There are no fail states in a run, either — you play as long and as leisurely as you deem worthy of your time. It is deeply satisfying to see all of the effects go off during play. And, boy, was I surprised at just how satisfying all of that is. I’ve never really bothered with an idle clicker game before, and if you had described this game to me. I probably wouldn’t have jumped in headfirst. However, it is immensely satisfying to see those numbers skyrocket and all of the visual effects pop off in tandem. Every time I thought I was going to be done I stuck around for ‘just one more hand.’ A gambler’s mindset if I’ve ever heard it. And it does satisfy a compulsive urge in that sense — rewarding engagement and interaction with quick and affirmative feedback.  This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  never veers into complicated territory, even as all of the bits and bobs are unlocked. There are systems like merging cards, card removal, incremental upgrades and so on that make manual engagement interesting, but in terms of deck-building it doesn't get much more simple than thinning out a 52 card poker deck to generate good hands. On top of this, full achievement completion (and by extension story completion) can be attained within a few short hours, but it is fun to work toward setting up a fully completed board where all of your decks are pumping out the maximum earnings on every flip, just so you can watch those numbers soar. I think that simplicity is part of the appeal, though — at least from an Idler perspective. Unfortunately, beyond the satisfaction of flashing lights and ever increasing numbers, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  doesn’t have much going for it. The story is maybe 10-15 lines of dialogue in total, the music is an abhorrent remix of “Entry of the Gladiators”, and once you’ve played beyond a few hours, there’s nothing more to see or do that you haven’t already done.  Despite those elements being underserved, I don’t feel like they are strictly necessary. At the very least, I don’t get the sense that anyone has ever picked up an idle clicker for the plot. Instead, what you get is exactly as advertised: a hyper flashy and ultimately satisfying deckbuilder idle game. If you’re in the market for something like that, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is a worthy detour. Verdict Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is flashy, fun, and addictive. While it is ultimately an extremely simple and short game, it is at the very least a nice way to spend a few hours if you just want to tickle the parts of your brain that like seeing numbers climb. Image Credits: Mash, Oro Interactive, and Drillhounds Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

One of the first presents I remember ever receiving was a set of stickers and a book I could store them in. I spent days organizing my stickers on the pages in a way that made sense to my tiny brain: sorted by animal, by color, by shape, whatever fit my mood. It brought about a level of satisfaction that tickled my brain just right. Little Corners  tickles my brain in the exact, same way. Publisher:   SECRET SAUCE, Gamersky Games Developer:   Meteor Pixel Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released November 13, 2025 on PC. At its core, Little Corners  is a simple concept: a cozy decoration game centered around using stickers to fill in the space of charming little rooms, decorating them however you see fit. It's the digital equivalent of that childhood sticker book, but with far more creative freedom and far less worry of accidentally ripping a sticker. The game features 8 different rooms to decorate, each with its own distinct aesthetic, ranging from a dungeon reclaimed by nature to a witchy cabin in the woods. Little Corners  has thousands of stickers available in total. There are large furniture pieces like doors and fireplaces to the tiniest details like patches of moss, burning flames, and adorable little critters such as cats, dogs, and frogs. There’s even the concept of “hidden” stickers which are unlocked when you place certain stickers on the page.  The gameplay loop is really straightforward: pick up a sticker and place it in the room. Using your mouse scroll wheel, you can adjust the layer the sticker lands on, allowing you to create depth and overlap elements naturally. It's intuitive and relaxing, perfect for unwinding after a long day. Beyond the room decoration itself, there are customization options to adjust the background of the game interface and the workpad, giving you control over your creative environment. All in all, Little Corners  is a small game made with love, celebrating the simple pleasures of creativity and organization. You don’t have to worry about getting a high score, or decorating your room within a set time. It’s simply about building a space that feels right to you. Image Credits: Meteor Pixel, SECRET SAUCE, and Gamersky Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.

Love is in the Air. When we first moved into our house, it wasn’t perfect. The deck needed some work, we had to replace the sink and install a new filter, and the walls had small blemishes and areas of peeling paint. It wasn’t perfect, but it was home. As a stay at home dad, my days were mostly spent finding new and interesting ways to keep my then 2-year-old toddler entertained. One thing that was apparent was just how much he loved to draw and paint. Pages and pages of paper with eccentric and wild scribblings filled our floors and covered our furniture. But every time I’d step away for a moment, I’d come back to find those uncontrolled doodles found their way onto our walls. While the markers and paints were all “washable”, the specters of their existence remained — faint pigment that could never truly be erased. It was here that my wife and I had a decision to make. Do we try to stop the behavior, continuously cleaning the marker in perpetuity, or do we find a way to make it work for him and us? I won’t try and extol the virtues of letting your child draw on the walls. I’m not certain the message we sent in those early days works for everyone, but as our walls were already imperfect, I found little reason to hold their appearance in high esteem in the first place. After all, we were just going to paint over it anyway. So we drew upon those walls together. What started as small scribbles turned to shapes and spirals, which then became smiley faces and stick figure bodies. These days, our walls are also home to treasure maps and shaky letters that spell out a mixture of real words and nonsense, invented language. The walls of our home have become a living document to his growth and our lives here together. Publisher:   Red Art Games Developer:  Square Enix, Bullets Platform:  Played on Nintendo Switch Availability: Released December 9, 2025 on PS4/5 and Nintendo Switch. In many ways, the past relationship between Square Enix and their development teams felt much like that of my son and I. These teams were given the freedom to experiment, to draw on the walls, to find new, creative, and inventive ways to tell the stories the way they wanted. It didn’t always work, of course. Plenty of titles underperformed expectations, or didn’t capture players in a way that would lead to everlasting fealty. But what it did do was let these teams grow, find their voice, and make art .  Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International  is one such game. It’s experimental and obtuse in ways that most games (especially Square Enix games) simply aren’t  anymore. While most RPGs are linear stories told over the course of sequential, increasingly dire events, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-  takes a more open approach to its structure. To begin, you’ll choose one of eight playable characters to begin your journey, with each character having their own unique introductory quests to work through before the world opens up. And boy does it open. Quests and quest givers aren’t explicitly marked on the map, and what you’re “supposed” to do is never really intimated to the player. Instead, you’re meant to find your own way, talking to people, picking up quests and party members, and making choices in the sequence of your own making. For someone who has never played a SaGa game, this structure was both surprising and a bit daunting. As you fight, a little dial advances in the menu that essentially denotes how much time you’re taking in-game to complete your quests. Quest availability is dependent upon this ranking, with many quests only available within a certain range, or after having completed other quests beforehand. Quests are entirely missable, characters who could join your party may never become available, and items or equipment that you want may never show up — all of this is dependent upon your own actions and path through the world of Mardias. Eventually, all paths lead to the final face-off against the game’s antagonist, but how you get there, and who you get there with, is unique to each person.  Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- is an absurdly vibrant game. That freeform and underexplained structure extends beyond just the quests. The battle mechanics and strategies one might employ are very lightly explained, at best, with many only making themselves known in tutorial form after you’ve performed them or discovered them in the course of a fight. And the combat is fascinatingly deep and complex. There are a large number of varying classes, each with different strengths and weaknesses that really only reveal themselves as a product of your character's stat progression or ability availability. These abilities are learned by random happenstance in fights, and depend on what weapon or ability you are using, and which mode your weapon is in. Weapons do different damage depending upon what row you character is in, abilities take different amounts of BP depending upon class, and so on. There’s too much going on to adequately explain here, but the point is that it is impossibly open and complex, yet they do not tell you much of anything about it at all. You learn it by doing.  And I love it. Every aspect of Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-  is left for the player to engage with naturally and discover. This structure doesn’t really lend itself well to telling involved or completely fleshed-out storylines — something the developers seemed to have understood, as they did not really attempt to. That isn’t to say the game is devoid of a story or meaning. Rather, the journey is what you make of it. I can’t help but reminisce about days of playing tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. In tabletop games, even when there is a story or throughline to follow, the adventure is always more about what you and your party create together. By working in tandem and interacting with one another, and through collaboration with your DM, you craft your own, singular saga. In a similar sense, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-  is a collaborative tale, a tapestry woven together through the collective efforts of the players and the developers. This is contrasted heavily by Square’s more paint-by-numbers modern approach to games. They have shifted to an almost exclusive adherence to traditional narrative structures and safe bets. Everything in a game is pointing you to your next objective, or giving you tips on how you can complete a task. There is value in telling a straightforward story, and many Square titles over the last few years have turned out quite good under those constraints. As a remaster of an older title, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-  is not completely free of those chains, either. New additions like an adjustable game speed toggle and a more robust New Game+ smooth out, or otherwise alleviate, issues players had with the original entry. Every aspect of Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- is left for the player to engage with naturally and discover. But through playing Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- , I’ve come to miss how often they’d take big swings like this, even if they never panned out. Where they’d set the developers loose and let them play with player expectations, to make a game that does little to hold your hand and instead gives you a pat on the back. To play Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-  is to sit down with the developers of the game, to take their work of art blemishes and all, and draw upon the walls together. Verdict Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International  is a breathtaking RPG that offers a freedom seldom found in modern Square Enix titles. Its free-form structure and less-than-clear gameplay mechanics will inevitably lead to some confusion, but through playing it you will create a journey that is uniquely yours. Image Credits: Red Art Games and Square Enix Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Shrooms! Tower Defence is the debut game of solo developer Terra Mater Games. Their background in biology shines through as real mushrooms are vivified to protect their habitat from loggers. A simple tower defense game providing a unique challenge from an inability to control mushroom (tower) locations, making every mushroom selection critical to properly defend your trees from destruction. Each mushroom has several skills to choose from for further specialization, on top of a selection of buffs and debuffs to pick from at the start of each match. This in-depth control of gameplay and difficulty helps this game stand out from others in the genre. After completing 50 waves, players also have the option to continue in endless mode for further challenge. I would recommend this to anyone interested in tower defense looking to shake it up a little. Publisher:   Terra Mater Games Developer:   Terra Mater Games Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released November 27, 2025 on Steam Pros Infinite ways to create challenges for yourself. Simple and quick to learn gameplay. Cons No saves for individual games. Repetitive music. Basic art style. Shrooms! Tower Defence is quite simplistic in terms of visuals and mechanics, but there's enough here to make it worth playing. Verdict Image Credits: Terra Mater Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.