Trails through Daybreak is just special when it comes to its story, characters, and world. I’m not going to pretend like I suddenly like the older games less or anything because I love most of them, but Trails through Daybreak just feels like such a step up doing everything right without any ifs and buts. Usually, a Trails game recommendation from yours truly includes caveats like playing many other games to get the best experience, or even needing to have played prior games to not miss out on important plot points. We’ve had a few good entry points over the years like with Trails in the Sky (PC or PSP), Trails of Cold Steel (PS Vita, PS4, PC, and PS3), or even my recommendation on Switch which is the Crossbell duology. Right now, I can say that newcomers who want to play Trails and are completely new to it, can play Trails through Daybreak directly. Sure, having played earlier games gives me a better experience with context, returning characters, and seeing the world from this side, but I don’t have any hesitation in telling newcomers to play Trails through Daybreak directly. It is that damn good.

So what makes Trails through Daybreak’s story so special? It begins with Van Arkride who is a Spriggan. As a Spriggan, you take on the kinds of jobs the police don’t and will not bother doing. Set in Calvard (yes, finally!), Trails through Daybreak’s story begins with Van being approached by Agnes who needs help finding her late grandfather’s memento. As Van, you take on all kinds of quests that progress the story, or side quests that actually were interesting to do despite some still being obvious fetch quests with not even an attempt to hide things. Van is basically my favorite Trails protagonist already, and I feel like I might regret saying this in a year or so. I don’t care about that right now, but Trails through Daybreak’s Van is everything I wanted from this game in how he makes decisions, approaches different quests, important character moments, and more. Even the banter between the main cast is excellent.

As the story progresses with Van, you are joined by more from one of my favorite Falcom game casts ever, and I’m not exaggerating. You’d think Falcom might fumble and have some characters join with not enough screen time, but they thought things through here. Not only do characters like Judith and Risette have great designs, but they just elevate the whole plot throughout. Trails through Daybreak still is a Trails game, but it feels darker and more mature throughout, including in dealing with specific topics you don’t usually see in many Falcom games. Van and company definitely meet some interesting characters across the factions in the game.

With Trails through Daybreak, Falcom wasn’t just willing to change things up when it comes to the narrative and setting, but also give us a dramatically different combat system. When I see people excited for Atlus’ upcoming RPG Metaphor ReFantazio because of its combat system, I just remember how Trails through Daybreak did it first in 2021. If you’ve watched gameplay footage of Trails through Daybreak, you might think that you can either go with action (Field Battle) or turn-based (Command Battle) combat here. While you can make your way through most encounters with the former, some force you into Command Battles. I found myself enjoying the mix of both, and the system even lets you start off with one and switch to Command Battle with buffs or other stat changes. The action combat is pretty simple, but it helps that normal enemies don’t seem bloated when it comes to their HP.

Command battles feel like a step above what we had in Trails into Reverie here. When you initiate Command Battle, you can move within a blue circle and do normal attacks, change targets, perform Arts (using EP) that take time to activate, perform Crafts using CP, Shard Skills, use S-Crafts (with excellent cut-scenes), and much more. I feel like the Trails through Daybreak combat system has tons of potential even after how well-realized it is in this game. Being able to melt popcorn enemies around a more powerful foe using the action combat and then swapping to turn-based to take on the harder ones in a mob never gets old. I know I can try Trails through Daybreak II’s Japanese release to see how things changed, but I’m going to be patient for the localization and also see what happens in Kai no Kiseki (out this year in Japan).

In terms of gameplay structure, Trails through Daybreak is very much like a normal modern Trails game, but every aspect of the systems has been improved with the addition of an alignment system, much better sidequests, and generally a snappier experience. Not only does the game itself feel like the best Trails has ever been, but even subtle UI changes help make it feel modern.

Speaking of feeling modern, Trails through Daybreak is the first game on Falcom’s new (at the time) engine, and it shows. Obviously this isn’t cutting-edge, but Trails through Daybreak is a huge step up from the Cold Steel games and Reverie when it comes to visuals and even character models. Katsumi Enami’s character designs translate brilliantly to 3D models, and it was great seeing them return to the series after the excellent work in the Crossbell games. Outside character models and UI improvements, Trails through Daybreak looks gorgeous compared to earlier games. I already thought Trails of Cold Steel III was a step up from the first two games but Trails through Daybreak feels like we are finally a generation ahead. It also helps that the game scales really well making it retain its aesthetic even on the Switch.

If I had to pick one thing that didn’t hit as hard for me in Trails through Daybreak, it would be the music. As a huge fan of basically every Falcom game soundtrack, I felt like Trails through Daybreak was lacking as many great songs I wanted to listen to outside the game. While in-game, it was all good, but Falcom game soundtrack to me are always experiences outside the game as well. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard the Crossbell, Trails of Cold Steel series, or Ys soundtracks. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but I was hoping for more songs I’d want to listen to outside the game beyond just seven or eight right now. Voice acting has been consistently great, and I’m glad the volume level issue I ran into with a few prior English dubs in the series isn’t present here.

Trails through Daybreak PC port features

So far I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Trails through Daybreak, and the PC port is only going to get more praise because it is one of the best PC ports I’ve ever played. PH3 went above and beyond here. Not only are all the features I’ve come to enjoy in the developer’s PC releases included, but there are a few I never thought I’d see in a modern Falcom game, including a PC-exclusive one. Before that, let’s cover what makes Trails through Daybreak’s PC port so good. Aside from graphics options, Trails through Daybreak on PC gives you more control over the high speed mode (turbo mode) letting you set different speedup factors for field exploration, field battles, and command battles. I used this mode almost all the time and still have ended up with more than 70 hours on Steam Deck as of my current save which is in new game plus. The PC version also lets you skip startup logos to save time when you want to resume your save. Speaking of saving time, as with PH3’s other ports, you can also directly resume from latest save when launching the game through Steam to save even more time.

When it comes to display and graphics options, strap in because there is a lot to cover here. Trails through Daybreak lets you adjust display mode (windowed, borderless, fullscreen), select monitor, resolution (320×200 up to 4K on my monitor), select refresh rate, toggle v-sync, adjust frame rate limit (30 to 360fps), adjust FOV (25 to 65), change screen brightness, and enable HDR on supported displays. The HDR setting in Trails through Daybreak is the first time any Falcom game has official HDR support as far as I’m aware. You can adjust HDR peak brightness and HDR UI brightness here. It looks amazing on my Steam Deck OLED.

On the graphics side, Trails through Daybreak lets you select from one of many presets (performance (aimed at low end laptops or handhelds), console (matching the PS5 experience outside resolution and frame rate), default, high (aimed at gaming PCs), and ultra (high end gaming PCs)). You can toggle motion blur, depth of field, adjust three different draw distance settings (character, level of detail, and light draw distance), shadow resolution, shadow filtering, shadow caching, and local shadowing. On the rendering quality side, you can adjust resolution scale (50% to 200%),

One more thing to note is you can preview the game image behind you as you change specific settings. This is also something I want to highlight as most games don’t let you see realtime differences when you are tweaking graphics options. For anti-aliasing, Trails through Daybreak lets you use basic screen-space AA, FXAA with a high quality profile, 2x MSAA, 4x MSAA, and 8x MSAA. You can also use sparse grid supersampling and transparency supersampling here. Aside from that, more quality options include portrait supersampling and minimap anti-aliasiing which dramatically improve the UI specifically. You might think these are small things, but having played Trails through Daybreak across basically all platforms in the last few weeks, these two specific settings generally make the PC version look like a lot more care went into it when you look at dialog with portraits and the minimap. The latter specifically looks poor on consoles.

The final graphics settings let you adjust screen space reflection quality, volumetric lighting quality, a high-resolution cubemap setting, and use a new water shader option from PH3. This specific setting requires reloading the current map. It is quite a nice option to have here. The screenshot above is zoomed in from my Steam Deck with the modern shader at the bottom and the original option on top.

When it comes to PC-exclusive features, aside from the big boost to frame rate target and resolutions that are obvious upgrades, Trails through Daybreak has a show BGM option that you can have display the current track name and soundtrack position. You can set this to only have it display when a new song is encountered or display it at all times. This feature was in the Crossbell games and it is amazing to see it brought to Trails through Daybreak since the console versions don’t have it. Trails through Daybreak on PC also has full keyboard and mouse support as expected from PH3. I didn’t test this though as I played the PC version exclusively on Steam Deck. On the controller side, you can choose button prompts or have it auto detect. The button prompt options are mouse/keyboard, Xbox, DualShock, Steam Deck, Stadia (yes, I’m serious), and Nintendo Switch. I ended up sticking to DualShock button prompts here. The Trails through Daybreak controller options also let you tweak camera sensitivity, targeting cursor sensitivity, vibration intensity, and stick deadzone options.

As you can see, Trails through Daybreak is a fantastic PC conversion that I consider the gold standard. But how does all this work in practice when playing on Steam Deck? Well it is possible to play at a locked 60fps or even aim for 90fps thanks to how scalable the port is, but I settled on 45fps at 90hz for the best combination of graphics that exceed console while looking great on the Deck’s own screen and running well. I started off with the the default and console presets before tweaking some things like shadows to lower options. Most of the settings are on medium, but I opted to increase some things like minimap MSAA and specific draw distance options from the lower settings. Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is my favorite way to experience Falcom’s newest masterpiece by far. It also seems to offer over 4 hours of battery life with HDR using these settings.

Before getting into the platform differences and comparisons, I want to note that Trails through Daybreak has no save data bonus that I can see from prior games. I have every single Trails game available on all platforms installed with save data store locally, and there was no in-game bonus or detection of any of that. You can however transfer the PS4 and Switch demo data to the final game.

Trails through Daybreak PS4 version and improvements from launch

Trails through Daybreak’s launch version on PS4 in Japan was capped at 30fps and lacked some of the quality of life features we are used to with the series in the West. It was then patched to offer an uncapped frame rate (which was basically 60fps on PS5 through backward compatibility) and also the ability to skip S-Crafts. Right now, the PS4 version on PS5 runs at 60fps, but the visuals and load times are not as good as the native PS5 version. You can toggle the frame rate cap from the settings in the PS4 version.

Trails through Daybreak PS5 improvements and features

The PS5 version of Trails through Daybreak has no graphics options, but looks crips and runs at 60fps. It also supports PS5 Activity Cards to track progress of certain things and quickly get back into your save file from the dashboard by saving time that would be wasted watching company logos and splash screens. Basically Trails through Daybreak on PS5 is a very polished experience and I have no major complaints with it.

Note that the comparison image above has been zoomed in and cropped to show the differences even when this article is read on smaller displays.

Trails through Daybreak PS5 vs Switch

Trails through Daybreak on Switch is a native port from Falcom itself just like Nayuta was before. Barring those, all Trails games have been ported by external studios with the quality being very inconsistent outside the Crossbell games which are immaculate on Nintendo’s hybrid system. If you played recent modern Trails games on Switch like Cold Steel IV or Reverie, Daybreak’s port is much better, but it still falls short of even the PS4 version when comparing them on the same display. The load times are longer, resolution lower, frame rate target lower, and it just feels like it is only worth it to play exclusively in handheld.

Even early areas of the game suffer from some issues and can’t hit the 30fps target consistently. Despite that, I put in dozens of hours on Switch just to see how Falcom’s new engine feels on Nintendo’s hybrid system. With the compromises to make Trails through Daybreak run on Switch taken into account, it is still worth your time if you only play on Switch and will stick to it handheld. Just avoid playing it docked if you can since the visual cutbacks are a lot more prominent when playing docked.

Trails through Daybreak PC vs PS5

While the PS5 version looks crisp on my monitor, it has some minor shimmering and aliasing issues when moving around, especially in open areas. The PC version scales well above this if you have the necessary hardware. The PC version also supports much higher frame rates in addition to all the PC-exclusive features I covered above. Trails through Daybreak on PC is the definitive version of the game by far. On the console side though, the PS5 version is the way to go for its improved visuals and much faster load times compared to the PS4 version, let alone the Switch version that is only worth getting if you exclusively play on Switch in handheld mode.

Trails through Daybreak Switch vs Steam Deck

Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is a version I’d choose even over PS5 right now, so it is a big step above the Switch version in just about every way, especially if you have a Steam Deck OLED where you can experience HDR, better battery life, more responsive inputs, and more. If you have both platforms, I recommend getting Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck right now.

When I played Trails from Zero to Azure, I considered the duology as Falcom’s best Trails experience. Then I played Trails into Reverie and loved it so much, but I think Trails through Daybreak is the best Trails game. While I have no hesitation in saying Ys VIII is my favorite game in that series alongside Ys Oath in Felghana, I’m glad to now have Trails through Daybreak alongside the Crossbell duology as the best Trails experiences available today on modern platforms. Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is also my favorite way to experience Falcom’s newest masterpiece by far. Not only is it a fantastic Falcom game, but one of the best RPGs you can play in 2024, and knowing what released, you know I wouldn’t say that lightly. It joins Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and Balatro at the top of my Game of the Year list right now.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set in Baghdad, and you play as Basim Ibn Ishaq on his journey. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set before Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and it was originally planned to be an expansion to that before being changed into a full game in the series. It initially felt weird going back to the classic parkour, stealth, and well assassination focus compared to the full action RPG the recent games have, but I have no real complaints with Assassin’s Creed Mirage when it comes to the story and gameplay. It feels great to have a modern game with a classic series focus, and I hope we see more like this in the future in between the larger RPG entries in the series.

Having waited nearly two weeks since launch to see if any update releases to fix any teething or launch issues in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, I’m going to assume this is what players should expect for the near future when it comes to features and port quality. On launching the game, you need to download about 7.5GB in-game. I didn’t test playing with Ubisoft Connect as my aim was to play Assassin’s Creed Mirage across my PS5 and iPhone 15 Pro. I did try playing offline a few times and the game let me load my save. I can’t check if this works throughout though.

The Resident Evil ports and Death Stranding play great with a controller, but are quite a mess with touch controls. Assassin’s Creed Mirage on the other hand has seen the developers actually add a bespoke touch control option for playing on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad that makes it feel like a big and modern mobile game rather than a console game ported over with a ton of on-screen buttons. This is something I hope more developers do when bringing over console games to mobile. Just slapping a virtual button for every single input on a controller isn’t feasible anymore unless your game has only a few action buttons. Assassin’s Creed Mirage feels tailor made for iPhone 15 Pro when it comes to its controls at least, aside from a few tiny touch targets.

Customizing controls in Assassin’s Creed Mirage lets you move virtual buttons around across different control sets (swimming, base, etc), and also lets you increase or decrease button sizes. I like how the game has a red zone to indicate overlap issues as well when you are trying to tweak the layout to your liking. The issues I have with the UI in Assassin’s Creed Mirage have to do with a lot of the non gameplay sections. The touch targets in some menus are often too small. While the game is capped at 30fps as of this writing, there’s no need for the menus to feel sluggish as well. I hope this aspect can be improved over time.

I waited a few more days before publishing this review because I wanted to try it on my new Backbone One PlayStation Edition USB-C controller, and I’m glad I did. This feels like one of the first few games I’ve played where it not only properly detects the controller with PlayStation button prompts, but it also has Backbone One button prompts for the menu and other non gameplay buttons. The game plays perfectly with a Backbone as well.

Visually, I was mostly impressed with Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but the performance is where things fall apart. Playing with the high graphics preset results in a good image, but performance is unacceptable. I ended up tolerating the game’s performance in the medium settings, but combat really struggles. In addition to the unstable frame rate in these parts, frame pacing is also an issue with the 30fps cap not being perfect. Even if you play on the low graphics preset, there are drops from 30fps, albeit not as bad as in the medium or high presets. This is quite disappointing, and I hope patches can improve this at least on the low and medium presets. High will likely be best for newer iPads.

MrMacRight on YouTube has an excellent video covering how the game is across different iPads. I don’t currently have an iPad that can run Assassin’s Creed Mirage though. I do have the game on PS5, and I was curious to see how I’d feel playing it on that and iPhone with my save syncing across. The PS5 version runs and looks a lot better with 60fps gameplay and a much crisper image. I did enjoy Assassin’s Creed Mirage on my iPhone as a way to continue playing bits of the game though when I was away from home.

While I like the gameplay and story, I want to highlight the music. Assassin’s Creed games usually excel on this front, but I think the audio design in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is just superb. This is one to play with headphones for sure. The voice acting is a bit inconsistent in English, and I also wanted to check out some of the other dubs. You need to download more data in-game for this so keep that in mind especially if you want to play with Arabic voices.

This is more than a solid base for Ubisoft, and it is a few patches away from being superb. Having cross progression through Ubisoft Connect makes it even better though. While this isn’t a game I see myself coming back to later on unless it gets some notable DLC, I hope to see Ubisoft continue bringing cross progression support. I enjoyed using it in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Riders Republic, and Immortals Fenyx Rising on console already, but seeing it on mobile is a good sign for future Ubisoft ports.

One aspect I want to cover is the price point. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a free to try game with a $49.99 unlock for the full game, just like on other platforms. In addition to this, there are optional DLC packs like the Deluxe upgrade, weapons, and more. The reason I bring this up is to make sure everyone knows that these are the same DLC packs sold on consoles and not new ones for mobile despite the way things appear on the App Store page. I don’t like having this stuff in a full price premium game, but sadly that ship has sailed with Ubisoft’s releases. Just keep in mind that you only need the Assassin’s Creed Mirage full game unlock and nothing more to get the proper game experience.

I’m in two minds about Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone 15 Pro right now. It is a great game and Ubisoft put in a lot of work into making it feel good to play with touch controls, but the performance issues hold it back right now. Since Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available as a free to try game, I recommend giving it a shot, but make sure you play until you get to experience some combat so you can properly judge how it will run on your own device. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a great entry in the series, and it is worth your time even if you are a newer fan to experience a modern take on classic Assassin’s Creed. I can’t wait to eventually see how Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels on iPad after playing it on PS5.

I’m going to cover how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels for those who played the original and also for newcomers who likely are going to experience Shin Megami Tensei V for the first time through Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. This review will not have any story spoilers for the base game or the new Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance route. I will also be covering how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels on Nintendo Switch compared to the original, which platform you should buy it on if you’re new to the game, and more.

It feels weird writing about Shin Megami Tensei V as a new release but here we are. After more than four playthroughs of the original, I wanted to keep playing more, but I decided to wait for potential ports or a re-release. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t just a new enhanced port for current consoles and PC, but a dramatic improvement in just about every way over the original. After having beaten Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance twice and currently halfway through my third full playthrough, I can safely say that this is one of Atlus’ best games for replaying. I just love spending time in the world, so what exactly was changed or fixed in this new version?

Before getting into the story content, if you didn’t enjoy the open zones and general structure of Shin Megami Tensei V, that has not changed here. If you enjoyed everything the original had aside from its overall narrative (or lack thereof with many characters poorly developed or just tacked on), this Vengeance route is a huge improvement, but it also has many changes to the narrative. In a lot of ways, playing the original route in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels like an enhanced new version of a game with quality of life features and all the technical improvements. The new route in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels like a remixed take with new story content, new characters, lots of new voice acting, fantastic new music, new areas, changes to the original story, and its own different endings. Yes, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new route doesn’t have just a single ending.

When you start a new save in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, you get to choose which route you want to take soon after. Taking the girl’s hand results in you being on the Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance route, while not taking her hand results in you being on the original game’s route, but with the new features and quality of life improvements. If you play Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch, you get to carry over three demons into the compendium, some items, and additional items based on the endings you had in your save file. I laughed when three of my maxed out level 99 demons were carried over into Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch.

When it comes to the story, my issues with Shin Megami Tensei V weren’t that it wasn’t in your face throughout, or that I wanted more social elements. My issues were that some characters just showed up randomly during important moments when you don’t even remember they exist. One specific character seems to be super important, but I barely even remembered they existed until the ending of the game. The true ending in the original game also involved doing some missable quests that you wouldn’t even bother looking into unless you were going to complete every quest it had. I’ve done every quest the original game had on Switch with the DLC, and really thought they should have handled many aspects of the characters and story better.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new route fixes most of this. Not only are there more interactions, but you actually see the cast grow with you and the world changing. Everything feels like it is part of a cohesive story that isn’t full of holes anymore. The new character interactions, additional dialogue in older scenes, remixed bosses, changes to cut-scenes, and more all come together to make Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feel like the actual main game. I even enjoyed having Yoko in older story moments with new voiced dialogue and more context to specific situations. Barring Yoko, the major new story addition is the Qadistu. I won’t reveal too much about them, but they definitely served to improve Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s story a lot, and I enjoyed every interaction I had with them.

I can’t comment on every ending Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance has, but the ones I did get I liked. I did like the change to going for different paths here compared to the original. Knowledge from the original does help in a small way, but be prepared to have Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance surprise you both mechanically and narratively.

Before getting into the visual and performance improvements and other technical details, I want to highlight some of the gameplay changes in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. I can’t say for sure if this was only because of some of the new features, or because I knew every older map in and out, but I found Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance easier overall. Being able to save anywhere and using the sky view made exploration much less stressful here. Beyond that, the combat changes and additional negotiation options make Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feel more complete. The only thing I dislike is the change to the Estoma ability that uses Magatsuhi gauge here instead of MP. You can’t spam it like you could in the vanilla game, and I got annoyed at the amount of enemy encounters in one specific map here. The challenge mode is also a lovely addition because I enjoy taking on older bosses or enemies again. I didn’t finish it all because it feels like a lot of it is meant for min-maxing.

If you’re new to Shin Megami Tensei V in general, I think the new Vengeance route is basically better than the original in every way. I’m curious how people who play this route first and then play the original will feel about the story across both. If you already played Shin Megami Tensei V, playing the Vengeance route will feel amazing with the story additions, changes to existing aspects of the game, and all the new boss fights and music. Even if this release just included the Vengeance route and was only on Switch, I would’ve been satisfied. Thankfully, Atlus and Sega have brought Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance complete with the original route and prior DLC to all current and last generation platforms.

Visually, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is a huge upgrade over the vanilla game since I focused on playing it on Steam Deck. Aside from the massive image quality and frame rate improvements over Switch, the new areas in the game are gorgeous. You saw some of these in the “New Locations" trailer, but seeing them in game at a high resolution is really something. When it comes to character models and new demons, I think Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is one of Atlus’ strongest releases in years. It has an impeccable aesthetic that oozes the Shin Megami Tensei vibe I love from Atlus. This also carries over into its music.

I’ve never hid the fact that Shin Megami Tensei V has a sublime soundtrack. I listen to it regularly even years after it was originally released. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new music feels like a blend of Ryota Kozuka looking to deliver something that lives up to Shin Megami Tensei V, but also reaching back into his Shin Megami Tensei IV vibe. The new boss themes in particular are amazing. I can’t wait for the full new soundtrack to be released. Outside the music, the new voice acting in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is very good across the board. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance might be my favorite Atlus re-release yet, and I don’t say that lightly.

I’ve been playing it on Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and PS5. On Steam Deck, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance arrives Steam Deck Verified. This isn’t always a guarantee of something running well, but having done more than two full playthroughs specifically on Steam Deck, I’m very impressed by how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks and runs.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Steam Deck settings, graphics options, and features

If you play on a Steam Deck OLED, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance can hit 90fps (and even higher on both Steam Decks when played docked) in many areas of the game, but it isn’t locked 90fps. At the default preset by turning a few things up and shadows down, I only saw it drop below 60fps in a few specific situations, but it almost always runs well above. The menus are capped at 60fps though. On my Steam Deck OLED specifically in handheld mode, it regularly runs at above 80fps even while exploring. The major area I noticed frame drops below 60 was the Fairy Village. You go there quite early on. Even the new locations hold up really well including the more open areas.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on PC doesn’t have 16:10 support, but it has Steam Cloud support and full controller support. If you aren’t happy with the image quality at 800p, I recommend forcing 1080p for the internal display and playing at 30 or 45hz with some drops for the most crisp handheld experience. Speaking of handheld experience, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance even on its default PC settings at 800p on Steam Deck is a huge upgrade in visuals and performance over the docked Nintendo Switch version that rarely held a stable 30.

I also played Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on my 1440p 144hz display to see how it felt there. 1080p 60fps isn’t really possible on Steam Deck. I also tested 1440p and 4K and you can imagine how that went. I stuck to playing at 720p even docked to see how the game held up at frame rates above 90fps. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance can easily hit above 100fps on Steam Deck at 720p even in some open areas. It just isn’t consistent and you’re better off locking it at 60fps or playing with a 90fps target and fluctuations. VRR would’ve helped a lot on the Steam Deck OLED’s 90hz screen in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. You can play at a lower resolution of course, but I didn’t want to settle for under 720p here.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s PC port lets you choose button prompt options including an auto option, adjust keyboard controls, rebind controls for field and menus, and adjust a few graphics options. You can toggle ambient occlusion, motion blur, and anti-aliasing. The display options let you adjust screen mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), resolution (640×480 to 4K), toggle v-sync, and use a frame rate limit (30, 60, 90, 120, 144, unlimited). There are no additional options, and I was hoping to see draw distance and other features we see in Unreal Engine PC ports. Hopefully this can be added in a potential update.

Overall, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is an absolute joy to play, and it might be my favorite console to PC conversion that I’ve played on Steam Deck alongside Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for 2024. The load times are also very fast on Deck.

Shin Megami Tensei V Vs Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Nintendo Switch

Having beaten Shin Megami Tensei V on Switch multiple times years ago, I was curious to see how this new upgraded version of the game felt on the same platform. There are now a few more post processing options even on consoles like anti-aliasing which you can toggle on. It just can’t handle the game and drops from 30fps even indoors on Nintendo Switch both docked and handheld. I got used to it and put over 30 hours into the game on Switch OLED. If you played the original and enjoyed it on Switch, you will not have trouble playing this new version.

Comparing Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance to Shin Megami Tensei V has some visual changes. Even the FOV seems a bit different in the wide option the game has compared to the original. Beyond that, the new post-processing option toggles are not present in the original game either. I didn’t have enough time to test every location to compare because I was focusing on the Steam Deck version for this review, but it feels like Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t going to be much different in terms of performance compared to the original. If you are ok with that and want to play the new route on the same platform, this version is fine.

On the PS5 side, I can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by the glow up a game has seen moving from Switch to PS5/Xbox Series X. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks incredibly crisp, runs flawlessly, and loads instantly on PS5. It even has PS5 Activity Card support.

Having played it on Steam Deck (main platform), Switch, Switch Lite, PS4 on PS5, and the native PS5 version, you might be wondering how the Xbox version is. Well, I didn’t take a code on that platform because I pre-ordered it there already. If there’s a notable difference between Xbox and PS5, I’ll update this review in the future.

Should you get Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on PS5 or Switch?

At this stage, the only reason I’d recommend anyone play the Switch version is if they have no other platform to play it on and want to exclusively play in handheld mode. The downgrades compared to current platforms are just too big right now. Obviously this wasn’t an issue back at launch, but for those who have multiple platforms, keep in mind that every other version is better right now, and it absolutely shines on both Steam Deck and PS5. Hopefully Atlus can do an upgrade for the Nintendo Switch successor for those who buy Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch right now.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t just the definitive version of a game I loved years ago, but one of Atlus’ best RPGs in a long time. I always enjoy revisiting games I love every few years, but Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is just an incredible upgrade and release on its own. It is one of the best games you can play on Steam Deck in general, not just for this year.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room first. This is a very expensive game by App Store standards. Indeed, at $49.99 USD this is the exact same price that SaGa Emerald Beyond is selling for on other platforms. From one point of view, this makes perfect sense. It’s a new game, it came out on the same day on mobile that it did elsewhere, and it’s the same game content-wise. Why should it be cheaper? In a way, wanting games to be cheaper on mobile is simply feeding into the image of these platforms being inherently lesser somehow. Thinking of it that way, price parity almost seems like proper acknowledgement that mobile isn’t just a dump.

On the other hand, this is mobile gaming. We’ve seen games cease being updated before, and we’ve seen games pulled before. Heck, The Last Remnant, a SaGa game in all but name, vanished from the App Store ages ago with some vague promises from Square Enix that it would return when it was fixed. Perhaps as you read this sometime in the future, it has returned. But the possibility of games breaking and getting delisted is a more real concern on mobile than it is elsewhere, and one we have to consider. It stings a little when you lose a game you paid five or ten bucks for; losing one you paid fifty for, even temporarily, would be a real test of one’s patience.

Ultimately, you’re going to have to dig deep and answer that question yourself. I want to tell you not to worry, but I can’t. I’ve been covering this beat for over a decade now and I am not naive to its problems. Square Enix is better about this than some publishers, and that’s the only real reassurance I can give you. I won’t blame anyone for the price affecting their decision of whether to buy the game on mobile or not, and I’m sure Square Enix was prepared for such hesitation when it priced the game the way it did. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. The absolute state of things that I have to spend three paragraphs talking about prices in a game review.

I’m of the belief that the SaGa team might have been caught off-guard by the response to SaGa Scarlet Grace. This series is not typically well-received in the West, after all. Indeed, more often than not it is reviled by most of the media and the general audience. Over in Japan it tends to fare better, though it certainly has had its highs and lows with fans and critics there as well. But SaGa Scarlet Grace was different, wasn’t it? I daresay that people kind of… liked it? Look, I’m a SaGa Sicko. I always like these games (not Unlimited). But I’m usually only joined by my fellow SaGa Sickos, and that isn’t what happened with SaGa Scarlet Grace. A lot of people really enjoyed it, a fact made all the more impressive by how clearly modest its budget was.

I think that might be what brought us to SaGa Emerald Beyond, at least broadly speaking. This game feels like it was made on a similarly shoestring budget, but that’s not really too surprising. I think one of the reasons SaGa survives, beyond the series creator Akitoshi Kawazu’s senior position with Square Enix, is that even when it fails it doesn’t leave the publisher holding a big bill. And if a streamlined approach worked last time, why not this time? What’s more unexpected, given the history of the series, is how… safe?… this game is in its basic structure. Relatively speaking, of course.

If SaGa is known for anything, it’s that it’s very uncommon for any two games to be terribly similar to each other. Sure, there are persistent elements. Sparking new skills, the unusual character growth system that sprung out of Final Fantasy II, multiple playable characters, and so on. But those systems are usually fit into new frameworks, a double-edged sword if ever there was one. That’s not what happened here. SaGa Emerald Beyond isn’t exactly like Scarlet Grace, to be sure, and I’ll get into that shortly. But it presents itself an awful lot like it, and I’m not sure why but I feel a bit disappointed by that. It’s like asking your wild friend to surprise you at Baskin-Robbins and getting a scoop of French vanilla. Hey, it’s a good flavor. I love French vanilla. It’s just that I was just expecting Boogers & Caramel Melody or something.

Okay, so. Emerald Beyond. You’ve got your choice of characters, a sum of six in the end. You are going to get a very different experience based on who you pick. You are going to get a different experience based on whether you’ve finished the game with certain characters already. Playing the game again with the same character will often lead to different results. There’s one character whose true ending won’t even open up for you until you’ve fulfilled some very particular conditions (don’t choose Ameya for your first playthrough, trust me). If there is one way this game separates itself from prior games in the series, it’s in this wide variety of potential routes through the game. If you only do one playthrough of this game, you’ve missed most of it. If you only do three playthroughs of this game, you’ve missed most of it.

A single playthrough can be very short but rarely longer than fifteen hours, but you are assuredly meant to keep on playing it again and again with new characters and new paths. This is something some players will love and others will hate, but it certainly helps the developers get a lot of soup out of a rather small amount of ingredients. It runs rather thin storywise, but I doubt you’re coming to a SaGa game for the story no matter how much text this particular entry likes to throw about. You’ve easily got over a hundred hours of game ahead of you if you want to see the game all the way through to its intended conclusion, and that’s both the value for money you want to see but also a crushing commitment.

It’s fascinating from a design standpoint because on the surface this is a very linear game, penning you into small locations until you fully see them through rather than letting you run about. But it turns out to be very non-linear in a deeper sense, and the way it achieves this is completely bonkers. I respect that, because I’m a SaGa Sicko. Others might be less thrilled, particularly since these repeated playthroughs lead to a lot of recycling that can wear on one’s soul. The story that’s here is well-written and the localizers have again done a bang-up job, but there’s not enough substance in it as a whole to keep one sated on their fifth or sixth run. You really have to be in love with the mechanics to keep sticking it out, or really like connecting thin strands from the stories of different characters.

The battle system is the star of the show again. Structurally it’s a lot like the combat in Scarlet Grace, with a heavy focus on offense and making sure you set up your big moves (called Showstoppers here) while trying to interrupt the enemies in such a way that they can’t bust out their own on you. There’s no healing in battles here, so you really have to plan your moves carefully. Any damage taken is serious business, particularly in boss battles. On the whole, I’d say Emerald Beyond is a lot more lenient in difficulty than Scarlet Grace, but when it starts cooking (and it will) it demands good strategy and serious situational awareness. Of course, there is a bit of the ol’ RNG in here as usual as it pertains to picking up new moves via Sparking and stat increases, but your brain is going to be your most powerful weapon. You’re going to have to fall in deep, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for SaGa.

Man, I don’t know. I’m sitting here trying to think if Emerald Beyond is an RPG I would recommend to the average person or if it’s just something for SaGa Sickos and I’m torn. Personally speaking, I love this game. I don’t know if I love it quite as much as Scarlet Grace, but that’s one of my favorite RPGs of the past couple decades. Emerald Beyond not quite living up to that is not a knock on it. But I really do love this game. It’s so mysterious. There are so many surprises to find, and small details to pick up. You absolutely have to lose yourself to it in order to find its best qualities, and that is something that is right up my alley. The thing is, I don’t know if that’s up the average player’s alley. I found the repeat playthroughs in Bravely Default brilliant narratively and mechanically, but most people hated them. So I’m having trouble finding my compass here.

Here’s the thing: if you’re a SaGa Sicko, get in. I can’t say where you’ll end up ranking it in the series, but it’s not Unlimited and I think that’s probably enough for you. If you’re not, you have to ask yourself how into digging out opaque mechanics and non-obvious narrative elements you are. If you take SaGa Emerald Beyond at face value, you’re not going to get much out of this. A single playthrough is paltry and it’s just easy enough to wave you through. The story isn’t going to do much for you, either. Just like with the mechanics, you really have to work to get things out of the narrative here. And unlike with the mechanics, I’m not fully sure the effort is worth the reward. But those mechanics! That combat system! It’s all amazing stuff, the kind of meat an RPG fan dreams of when they’re having particularly lovely dreams at night. It’s SaGa, baby. No one else bakes these pies.

Alright, let me try to sort this out. If you’re a total SaGa beginner and don’t want a game to beat you up too much, you’re probably better off going with Minstrel Song. If you don’t mind getting beaten up, Scarlet Grace is still the high-water mark. I like its story better, and I like how it handles its outside-of-combat mechanics more. So I guess what I’m saying is that those who are new to SaGa probably shouldn’t go with Emerald Beyond as their first choice. But once you’ve cut your teeth on SaGa one way or the other, do make sure you play this one. I think it’s better than it’s getting credit for at the moment, and to be fair that is on the game for hiding too much and being too subtle on the whole. This is way up there in the series rankings for me, and that’s after carefully digesting it for a lot longer than optimal traffic dictates I should have.

It’s the most obvious thing in the world to say about a SaGa game at this point, but SaGa Emerald Beyond isn’t going to be for everyone. Setting aside my personal feelings, I can say that it’s probably opaque to a fault, and it’s trying to stretch itself a bit too thin for how much time it wants you to put in. It’s a fantastic little RPG puzzle box in the mechanical sense, and players who come to RPGs for strategic battles will get their fill here. I think even outside of that, there are a lot of neat non-obvious aspects to this game that are waiting to be found by the observant player. In the end Emerald Beyond is another SaGa game that is preaching to the choir, but it’s a choir worth joining if you think you’ve got the patience for it.

Having enjoyed and beaten Katana Zero multiple times before on Switch and PC, I was well aware of how difficult some stages are, and also how annoyed I was for specific bosses. In the translation to iOS, Katana Zero has lost nothing, and I’m quite surprised by that. It almost makes me want a port of Hotline Miami from Devolver, but I digress. As with my other port reviews, I’m going to also cover how the game on mobile compares to other platforms I’ve played said game on, and help you decide which one you should get.

Katana Zero is a stylish action-platformer with stunning pixel art, mesmerizing animations, and superb music. While most games in the genre have a story that gets the job done with a focus on gameplay, Katana Zero is the rare game that punches (slices?) well above its weight in every single category. It is very much a once in a generation experience, and I don’t say that lightly. After every few stage sections when you get used to a new mechanic or enemy type, Katana Zero throws something new at you. This could be with a brand-new stage type, boss fight, story moment, and more. Expect to take about 5 hours or so to see Katana Zero to its end, but it took me a lot more during my first run through it on Switch back in the day.

The core gameplay in Katana Zero involves platforming, attacking, dodging, jumping, stopping time, and more. You end up using a combination of all of this to make it through a stage section. You can keep playing through a specific section if you die until you manage to clear it. If you hadn’t caught on from the title screen and the opening, Katana Zero wears its synthwave and VHS vibe proudly. When you die, you get a VHS-like rewind effect. In fact clearing a section also has you ejecting a tape.

Speaking of the length, Katana Zero feels like it is built for speedrunning. It has a few settings that save your time, like being able to skip the VHS rewind animation on death and almost instantly restart. I recommend enabling this because it does get annoying when you make a mistake a few times in a row on a specific level and see the same animation play out.

Given the structure and difficulty, there is a lot of trial and error as you learn a specific level segment before moving to the next one. This may or may not be an annoyance for you. I expected it given the genre, but there are a few bits that annoy me to this day. When watching Katana Zero trailers or gameplay, you’d think this is a very fast-paced game, and you’re right, but there’s a lot more to it. While the opening levels feel pretty straightforward, there is a lot of depth and strategy at play in Katana Zero. Each level, enemy placement, point of interest, object, and more work together to make you feel like a puzzle solving samurai genius with one of the best soundtracks in gaming.

If you played Hotline Miami, the addictive one more chance style action is at play here. You will die often, but every death is a learning experience. This aspect might turn some players off, but outside of maybe a handful of deaths, I’ve never felt like my time was being wasted in any level of situation. I will say that some of the boss battles are frustrating, and that’s really my only complaint with the core game. It is a sublime experience, but I never really enjoyed some specific moments in my Switch or Steam playthroughs. Those aren’t fun when experienced on mobile either as you can expect.

On Switch and PC, Katana Zero plays perfectly with a controller. On iOS, you can of course use a controller, but I was more interested in seeing how the developers adapted the game for touch controls. On the controller side, I tested using a Backbone One on an iPhone 14 Plus and my 8BitDo Pro 2 on iPad Pro. It all works well. On my iPhone 15 Pro, I used touch controls, and found them to be very good outside one issue. The action buttons and interaction button can all be resized and moved around. The analog stick for movement has three settings, but none of them let you properly fix the joystick including the fixed setting. I have to imagine this is a bug or a mislabelled setting. If you aren’t used to playing platformers on touch controls, this will take you some time to get used to, but I think the team has done a fantastic job with the controls on iOS.

Katana Zero looks brilliant on iOS. It has some border artwork on iPhone 15 Pro during gameplay, and has black bars in menus and interfaces. On iPad Pro, there are just black bars around the 16:9 gameplay. It looks crisp though, and performance has been very good on my devices. Katana Zero is capped at 60fps on PC so I didn’t expect support for more on iOS. I did notice a variable frame rate in some parts on iPad Pro (2020), but performance was excellent on my iPhone 15 Pro.

If you’re new to Katana Zero and have a Netflix subscription, I’d definitely try it out on mobile before buying it on another platform. If you don’t have a Netflix subscription, I’d recommend getting Katana Zero on Switch or Steam Deck to play on the go with the latter being the best version with no performance issues at all.

I mentioned the soundtrack being great, but it really is one of the best game soundtracks in many years with it touching quite a few genres through its runtime. This is definitely one to own on vinyl. If you have no interest in the game and have somehow made it this far into a review of said game, at least listen to the soundtrack. You will not regret it.

While I’m not sure I’d say Katana Zero justifies subscribing to Netflix if you don’t have an active subscription, it is immediately one of the best games on the service, and a fantastic, and near-perfect, conversion of a magnificent game. If you have a Netflix subscription, drop everything else and play Katana Zero right now. It is that good. Replaying it has not made the wait for Katana Zero DLC easier.

Having now played Braid, Anniversary Edition on iPhone and iPad through Netflix, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck while trying the original game on my older Steam Deck, I see that a lot more has gone into this release than I expected, and I’m not even talking about the extras. In this Braid, Anniversary Edition review, I’m going to cover whether this is worth getting if you already played the original, and also why this is worth your time if you’re new to the game and comparing all versions as usual.

If you’ve not played Braid before, it is a puzzle-platformer with a gorgeous aesthetic, incredible music, and excellent mechanics intertwined into the various levels. These range from different ways of manipulating time that either directly let you control time, interact with the environment in interesting ways, or even have time controlled by your own movement. There’s a lot that changes across the levels, and even though I’ve played the game twice before, I enjoyed revisiting the old areas and seeing how well the extra content has been added into Braid, Anniversary Edition. In a lot of ways, Braid, Anniversary Edition feels like a deluxe 4K Blu-Ray remaster of an older movie you loved chock full of bonus content, interviews, and extras. I don’t think I’ve seen this much attention put into those areas of a re-issue of any game outside something from the masters of reissues at Digital Eclipse.

For newcomers to Braid, you can experience this without any of the extra content, and even toggle the older visuals if you’d like to play it like it was back in the day, but on modern platforms. If you already played it, you might first wonder what was “remastered" visually, but toggling the old and new graphics which you can do just about at any part of the game will show you how much attention has gone into translating the colorful painting aesthetic of Braid for modern platforms while making it feel just as you remembered the original in your head.

The comparison below shows the new graphics (left) with the old graphics (right) on my iPad Pro (2020):

For those who played Braid before, aside from the remastered visuals and improved soundtrack quality, the highlight is the commentary. I thought we might just get a commentary track playing while making our way through the game normally (which is included if you’d like), but I’m stunned at how much has been added on top of that for those who really want to go into the weeds of Braid. Not only do you get to check out different kinds of commentary with interview dialogue during parts of the game, but there’s a commentary world on its own that lets you experience design, programming, sound & music, and visuals as different categories of commentary. I’d say this commentary feature on its own is worth the asking price of Braid, Anniversary Edition for me, but there’s so much more than that in this release overall.

Before getting into the mobile port and platform-specific features and differences, if you’re wondering whether Braid, Anniversary Edition is worth buying or playing if you already have played it before, the answer is yes, if you care about the extra content or want to replay it. This is now the best version of Braid, and instead of just giving it a fresh coat of paint (I couldn’t resist) and porting it to more platforms, Thekla did so much more. My only real complaint with the release itself, is that there’s no physical version right now, and I will use this chance to grumble about no physical release of The Witness as well. If you already own Braid on Steam, Braid, Anniversary Edition is available at a 50% off discount for existing owners, and this is a no-brainer purchase if you like the game.

Braid, Anniversary Edition on mobile is available exclusively through Netflix. I tested it on my iPhone 15 Pro, iPad Pro (2020), and iPhone 14 Plus. On the iPhones, Braid, Anniversary Edition has fullscreen support which I didn’t expect. On iPad, there are black bars above and below the gameplay. Performance is solid across the board as well. The issues I ran into have to do with touch controls. If you play with a controller, which Braid, Anniversary Edition supports, these will not bother you, but I am disappointed to see no customization for the on-screen control button sizes. The touch targets for some controls are too small on the iPhone 15 Pro. I found them acceptable on iPhone 14 Plus though.

On Steam Deck, Braid, Anniversary Edition has black bars above and below the 16:9 aspect ratio gameplay. It targets your screen refresh rate (90fps on Steam Deck OLED, 60fps on Steam Deck LCD, and 144fps on my monitor) but seems to use v-sync (double buffered) where if the game cannot hit the target frame rate, it drops to half that for a few seconds. On the Steam Deck OLED, I noticed it sometimes went from 90fps to 45fps for a few seconds, but it always shot back up. There are no graphics or display options in Braid, Anniversary Edition on PC that I can see on Steam Deck.

On Nintendo Switch, Braid, Anniversary Edition looks gorgeous on the Switch’s OLED screen. I also tested it on my Switch Lite. The only difference here is load times are longer and the swapping between SD and HD graphics sometimes has a delay on Switch compared to mobile and Steam Deck. I have no qualms in recommending it on Switch if you’d prefer to get it there.

Being able to change from the older to newer graphics on the fly also highlighted how much better the soundtrack quality is in Braid, Anniversary Edition. Everything sounds clearer, and this perfectly complements the visual upgrade we see. Speaking of the visuals, not only is everything gorgeous on high resolution modern displays, but seeing assets redone and new animations hits home how much work went into this release.

As a value add to Netflix, Braid, Anniversary Edition is an amazing boost to its gaming catalog for newcomers to the puzzle-platformer, and another fantastic game on the service that likely wouldn’t have hit mobile alongside other platforms. Playing Braid, Anniversary Edition has been just as much fun as it was experiencing the Xbox 360 version years ago, and I hope it gets a physical release in the future. I also hope the mobile version sees some touch control improvements in potential patches though.

If you’ve not played Vampire Survivors since it launched, you’ve missed out on a lot through free updates and paid DLC releases. Read my co-op impressions of the Steam version here, 1.0 launch review here, Legacy of the Moonspell DLC review here, Tides of the Foscari DLC review here, and Emergency Meeting DLC review here. It was already a superb experience, but each update and DLC only enhanced things. So how does the Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC feel for a Contra fan, newcomer, and someone who just wants more Vampire Survivors? I’m going to try and cover all that in this review.

On paper, Vampire Survivors Operation Guns brings in 22 new weapons, 11 new characters, a new map, Contra music (including six new tracks), and more. You initially start by just getting access to the new stage (Neo Galuga), which is awesome not only for the Contra theme, but because of its layout in general. What initially starts out as just a nice themed stage ends up quite surprising. I don’t want to spoil things, but I recommend paying attention to the prompts on the map sooner than later when you notice something new. One more thing I love about the stage is how the Contra power-ups have been translated to Vampire Survivors. The team went all out, and this is easily my favorite release involving Contra since probably Contra Hard Corps that I recently got to enjoy on Nintendo Switch Online. I’m not counting the M2 anniversary release of course and I’ve not played Contra 4, but you get the picture.

So the stage looks and feels awesome, but what about the characters and weapons. As usual, you start out with nothing and need to unlock the first new character from the new stage. After you unlock Bill who is the first Vampire Survivors Operation Guns character, you can slowly work your way to getting the rest which have their own requirements usually relating to evolving weapons. Speaking of weapons, I can’t get over how awesome the animations are for the weapons, the particle effects, and interactions with elements of the stages. Vampire Survivors Operation Guns feels like a labor of love throughout, and if you love Contra Hard Corps and the original games, you will adore this DLC.

Whenever I review a DLC pack, I also like covering the current state of the game in question. While pushing for absolute chaos, Vampire Survivors Operation Guns on my Steam Deck OLED never dropped below the high 40s for its frame rate before the 30 minute timer ended. It usually hovered around the high 70s mark. I disabled damage numbers as I usually do when I play, but I did enable them just to see how much I could push the game for this review. I’m impressed with the current state of the game on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X. The Switch version is excellent, but the worst platform to play the game on right now.

If you’re wondering about the mobile version, I had the least progress in that version and the Switch release since I have put so much time into both Xbox and Steam Deck. This brings me to the cross save feature that’s currently in beta. I moved my Steam Deck (LCD) to the beta version of Vampire Survivors and created an account. This process is simple. Once created, I uploaded my progress from Steam Deck to the cloud. I have access to the account (beta) through the beta build on iOS that I used on my iPad. I got my Steam Deck save to my iPad and picked it up right there. I don’t have the Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC on iOS yet, but everything else worked fine in the sync. The only complaint I have is auto sync not being possible, but I understand the reasoning for that with how save data is handled in this game. You can read about the poncle account system here.

Coming back to Vampire Survivors Operation Guns, and it is time to cover the music. The new Vampire Survivors arrangements for Contra songs are incredible. I can’t wait for the soundtrack on Steam to get updated so I can transfer these to my phone. Just like with the visuals and weapons in Vampire Survivors Operation Guns, I think the team has gone above and beyond for the music. Other than arrangements, there are also Contra songs from Contra 4 and Contra Hard Corps.

At this point, Vampire Survivors DLC is a lot like Dead Cells DLC where it is hard to not recommend buying any of it. Vampire Survivors Operation Guns, like the Emergency Meeting DLC, is a must-have regardless of whether you are familiar with the source material or not. It enhances the game and made me play a lot of Contra Hard Corps on Nintendo Switch Online today. It is an essential purchase if you like Vampire Survivors given the value and quality.

Vampire Survivors Operation Guns Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5

Let’s talk the money stuff first, because that’s how the world works. As you can see, it’s free to download this game. It won’t hassle you with ads or anything. You get the first puzzle pack without paying a cent, which is a nice way to see if you’re into what it’s laying down or not. You get just over thirty puzzles to solve, with some nice tutorials that explain things to new players and will feel excruciatingly long if you already know what you’re doing. At the time of this review, there are two more puzzle packs available as IAP. Each one offers thirty-six additional puzzles to solve. I imagine if the demand is there, the developer will make more packs available. All up, you’re paying a couple of bucks for around a hundred puzzles. Not bad.

I do have one bone to pick with those puzzle packs, though. The puzzles contained in each follow the same general difficulty curve as the included pack, which means that several are wasted on extremely simple puzzles that you’ll solve in a matter of seconds. Presumably anyone buying these packs has already played the initial set, and I don’t see why we’d want to be going back to the basics again. So many of the puzzles are quick and simple that the whole thing ends up feeling a lot smaller than you’d ideally like. Perhaps future packs can be themed so that those who want easier or harder puzzles can get what they specifically want? Just spit-balling.

The puzzles run the gamut in terms of difficulty, and I’m generally satisfied with the challenge of the harder puzzles. Moving beyond that, the most important thing about a game like this is in how it controls. Like its 2D counterpart, 3D Picross plays best with a stylus, some buttons, and a resistive touch panel. There are always a few challenges when it comes to adapting this kind of game, even to an iPhone. One is in how to handle the swap between marking and breaking cubes. Another is in how to fit larger puzzles on the screen while leaving the cubes big enough to work with. PiKuBo approaches this tricky task with some interesting ideas.

By default, touching the screen will simply allow you to move the puzzle around. You can pinch and… de-pinch? Un-pinch? Do the opposite of pinching. That will allow you to zoom in and zoom out on the puzzle. There are some arrows on the side of the screen that allow you to move layer by layer through the puzzle, and that’s a pretty standard way to handle that. Now, if you want to paint or break the blocks, there are buttons for that. You might think you touch the one you want to use and just go to town. Well, kind of. When you tap the button for each action, it will stay active until you tap a cube. After that, there’s a short window where if you keep tapping, you’ll keep performing that action. Once it elapses, the action is de-selected. This mitigates accidents, and I think it’s a good idea even if it is a little annoying at times.

In general, I think it controls as well as it can. The screen real estate is certainly tight on bigger puzzles, and accidents will certainly happen from time to time, but those are issues with the original 3D Picross games as well. If you make a mistake, you’ll lose a heart. Run out of hearts, and you’ll have to start the puzzle over again. You can also lose by running out of time. When you complete the puzzle, you’ll be given a rating from one to three stars based on how you did. When you finish a set of puzzles it will be marked with a crown so that you know what you’ve already finished.

In terms of options, you get a selection of four different paint colors to use for the cubes. You can turn the music and sound effects off independently, turn off the cooldown on the paint/break buttons, use a left-handed mode, and reset your progress in case that’s a thing you want to do. There’s a quick save option here as well, in case you need to stop playing in the middle of a big puzzle to go make some pasta or something. And that’s about it. The graphics get the job done, and the music is nice, chill stuff for solving puzzles to.

PiKuBo is a great way to get your 3D Picross fix on mobile, with a good selection of free puzzles and additional puzzle packs available at highly reasonable prices. It’s all wrapped in a highly functional interface and topped off with some nice tunes. Since the first pack is free, you don’t even need to take my word for it. Give it a download and try it. My only real gripe is that the extra puzzle packs have some extremely elementary puzzles included that really shouldn’t be taking up space when we only have around a hundred to play with. Otherwise, this is a very nice puzzler for Picross lovers.

A reductive way of describing Loop Hero’s core gameplay loop (sorry) is a blend of an autobattler, deckbuilder, and roguelike. This combination makes it feel unlike anything else I’ve played before. You don’t actually control what your unnamed hero does, but influence things around them. When you first start playing Loop Hero, your hero starts walking around the path fighting whatever fodder enemies spawn in the hope of getting good drops in the form of cards or items (gear). You use these cards to influence things around you ranging from heals or stat boosts to all sorts of other things. Said cards let you summon specific establishments or terrain types and each has their own flavor ranging from summoning specific enemies to buffs and more. Positioning matters and with your own experience you will start understanding how to get better with this.

What initially begins on a small looped road where you start moving in a loop might end in a complex map where you’ve littered the environment with all sorts of things to give yourself buffs while summoning more powerful enemies to get better loot and slowly making progress to take on the boss. On paper it sounds like the gameplay in Loop Hero might be a bit too complicated for touch controls, but it actually works almost perfectly. The game ships with a few options to pause time after battles or while you’re making a decision and such, but it also has options to speed things up in and out of combat. I found my own balance here and Loop Hero started to feel more like a zen experience despite the carnage happening on screen.

As you continue looping on a specific run, you need to properly balance laying down cards to spawn more powerful enemies because you don’t want to be overwhelmed. You can retreat when safe as well and take some materials with you. These are used to build permanent upgrades or help you with your next run. The way Loop Hero is set up, I never found anything I did as a waste of time. I either learned something that helped me plan better for the next run or had actual in-game items available that helped me grow stronger. It all comes together very nicely, and this is all just for the first hero. There are three in total, and while I found the balance a bit off, I feel like I need to spend more time with the others to understand if that’s actually the case or it is more me not having as much experience with them.

While the gameplay initially seems like that Charlie meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it really comes together and makes you see the genius it has to offer. I really would love to see how the gameplay loop in Loop Hero changed during development and how the team managed perfecting it more or less as they have in the current version of the game.

So Loop Hero has superb gameplay with how it blends in different systems together, but I want to highlight just how gorgeous the pixel art aesthetic is. It feels immersive across the board and the aesthetic never lets up with how perfect it feels even in the small menu interaction animations. The card art, character portraits, small enemy animations, combat, and more all come together perfectly. The iOS version from Playdigious even has art to fill up the black bars that feels right at home with the game itself.

Loop Hero’s soundtrack from blinch is also notable with how catchy it is, and how it never gets old no matter how much you hear it. Every little sound effect outside the music is also exactly what it should be. Loop Hero’s audio design in general is consistently high quality.

On iOS, Loop Hero feels perfect and it runs flawlessly, but there are a few interface issues. These are mostly to do with some font sizes being a bit too small even with the larger size option enabled, and a few touch targets being too small. The game ships with a few options for tweaking the interface so you can tap to select and place cards or items versus dragging them, and this is a welcome option because I ended up swiping into multitasking on my phone sometimes when I meant to play a card in Loop Hero. The touch target issue isn’t a dealbreaker on my iPhone 15 Pro, but the current Loop Hero mobile conversion feels a lot better on my iPad Pro. It also has iCloud save support that has worked fine in my testing outside of one instance where I had to force quit the game and relaunch it to sync correctly.

In fact, the more I played Loop Hero on iPhone 15 Pro, the more I wished it had a portrait mode. The gameplay style perfectly suits portable play, and it would make me spend a lot more time with the game if that option was available. Maybe this is for the best, but jokes aside I really wish Loop Hero had portrait mode support on iPhone. Playdigious told me there is no plan for this now, but I hope they consider it for a potential future update.

If you prefer playing with a controller, you can use controllers with the iOS version. I played Loop Hero on iPhone 14 Plus with my Razer Kishi V2 and it worked perfectly. I also used my Xbox controller on iPad to test it and everything works as it should. The game seamlessly swaps between touch controls or showing controller prompts depending on your input just like the PC version does on Steam Deck when I use touch (mouse) or the Steam Deck’s own controls or Switch when I played with a combination of touch and button controls there. Check out the screenshot comparison below for how the UI differs with touch and a controller.

Speaking of Steam Deck, having played Loop Hero on Valve’s handheld and Nintendo Switch before, I enjoyed it the most on iPad. It isn’t a lesser experience on any platform really, and I recommend playing Loop Hero on all portable platforms. It just benefits so much from portable play with its one more expedition and loop nature.

Loop Hero is a free to try game on mobile and I urge you to download the game and see how you feel about the gameplay yourself. Some aspects might not hit as hard for all players, but the demo gives you enough of an idea of how the game plays and feels on mobile. I think Loop Hero is absolutely worth the asking price on Switch and Steam Deck so it costing a fraction of that on mobile makes it even easier to recommend.

Loop Hero feels like a game that was always intended for mobile, and the conversion from Playdigious is almost perfect. At a fraction of what it costs on other platforms, not only does Loop Hero feel right at home on mobile, but it is the best version of the game. It is going to be a mainstay on my iOS homescreens for a long time. I just hope portrait mode can be added eventually because it would make Loop Hero absolutely perfect on mobile.

When I first tried Slice & Dice, it felt polished and slowly started getting its hooks into me like Square Enix’s Dungeon Encounters, but I soon started seeing how much depth it had. Even if Slice & Dice shipped with a single mode and no modifiers, I’d be satisfied with the asking price. It is that good. Before getting into the modes and modifiers, Slice & Dice is a dice-based roguelike dungeon crawler where you have dice that decide your actions, limited rerolls, and enemies that have their own dice for actions. You can see enemy action paths and the UI is superb at how well it gives you all the information you need without looking too busy.

After each turn, you try to take out the enemies to move forward, upgrade heroes, equip items, and work towards completing a full run with 20 battles. As you progress through the game run after run, you will unlock more of what Slice & Dice has to offer. You already have access to a plethora of content from the start, but the variety in builds and modes is crazy for a game like this. I don’t want to oversell Slice & Dice, but it really is underpriced right now, as long as the gameplay clicks for you of course. That’s why there being a free to try version is good.

The hero upgrades and items combined with the variety in foes and modifiers makes this feel too big and complex. Thankfully the tutorial is great at introducing the basics and then letting you start learning by experience. The animations and interactions are simple, but they perfectly fit the gameplay and aesthetic. I know Slice & Dice on iOS had the benefit of launching a few years and many updates later, but it really feels like one of the most polished and addictive roguelikes on mobile ever.

Slice & Dice also has a few useful interactions that help speed things up during gameplay. I already thought it was a great way to kill some time with a round or two in a run, but I didn’t expect to get obsessed with it on my phone this much. Slice & Dice being playable in portrait on iPhone is dangerous for productivity. If you’ve ever wanted a roguelike that doesn’t waste your time, Slice & Dice is all you need.

In addition to the classic mode you start with and the difficulties available, you can unlock custom modes, the ability to replay the demo12 fights, an instant random fight with no runs/history, custom modifiers in a custom mode, and loads more. I can see myself playing Slice & Dice for years to come at this rate, and not even being remotely bored.

Slice & Dice supports both portrait and landscape gameplay across iPhone and iPad. On iPad, it has small black bars though. On iPhone and iPad, the UI adjusts when you change your device orientation on the fly. Given how many touch targets and UI elements there are in Slice & Dice, the team clearly put a lot of effort into this release, and I’m glad to see it. While it looks better in landscape, Slice & Dice is the perfect game to play in portrait mode on your iPhone.

Visually, Slice & Dice has a striking aesthetic that is simple yet detailed in its art. The animations are simple, but Slice & Dice looks and feels great across all devices I tried it on outside of the small bars on the iPad version that isn’t fullscreen. The icons and pixel art for characters and enemies is all well done. The soundtrack featuring six different artists is also customizable in the in-game jukebox with loop and music selection modes and the ability to remove a song you dislike.

When I spent an hour with the free portion of Slice & Dice on iPhone, I bought the full game on both iOS and Steam. I wanted to play the PC version on Steam Deck, and I kind of regret the purchase since Slice & Dice has no controller support. It works fine with touch controls on Steam Deck simulating a mouse, but I would’ve liked full controller support. On iOS, Slice & Dice plays perfectly with touch controls. Right now, the iOS version is my favorite for sure, especially on my iPhone.

Right now, my only real complaint with Slice & Dice is the lack of iCloud saves. I couldn’t get my progress syncing across my devices at all. There’s no in-game option or iCloud Drive mentioned so I assume this hasn’t been implemented yet. Hopefully it can be considered for potential future updates. Aside from that, I did get annoyed at some of the enemies that summon more enemies for a single battle. I never enjoy those mechanics in these games.

Just like Balatro on PC and consoles, Slice & Dice includes an option to bypass unlocks. The difference here is that achievements are not affected, and you can still earn them. I like it when games include these options, but the way Slice & Dice handles it is very nice. The warning straight up tells you that the locked items are more complex and not more powerful. You even see an alert that the game will be more complex after doing this, and that you can undo it. After playing and slowly unlocking new modes and difficulty, I can see why this option has an undo available. I find these options useful for those who play on multiple devices since progress does not carry over.

Since Slice & Dice is a free to start game, I absolutely recommend downloading it and seeing how you find it before getting the full unlock. You get access to a good sample of the game for free before you need to decide if it is worth buying, but the asking price is more than justified given how much you get. The full version of Slice & Dice costs $8.99 on Steam and the one time in app purchase unlock on mobile is priced the same.

Slice & Dice isn’t just one of my favorite games of 2024, but one of my favorite roguelikes in many years already. I’m looking forward to playing it daily on iPhone, and think anyone with a remote interest in roguelikes should download the game and try it for free immediately.

Winter isn’t just coming. It is here, and you need to banish it as you take on the Wildfrost with the help of Snowdell and its survivors in deep, strategic, and mechanics that subvert your expectations from the genre. Looking at screenshots from Wildfrost will lead you to believe it is similar to Slay the Spire or other games, but it plays very differently. I usually like learning by experience when I play a roguelike or deckbuilder, but given how much Wildfrost changes things up, I realized that wouldn’t work and I paid attention to the tutorial messages quietly after a minute into it. Wildfrost introduces many mechanics very quickly, and it does all of this while not following other games in the genre. Mechanics you’d expect, play out differently here or just don’t exist. Wildfrost feels like it has a lot of leeway for players, but you kind of need it with how hard the bosses hit you early on.

Wildfrost is a deckbuilder, and with it comes many card types, flavor text, and combat mechanics that you learn over time. After choosing a specific hero, you are thrown into the fray, and learn how positioning on the combat grid, counter (indicated below each card), interactions between cards after the countdown is over, and stats matter. The countdown mechanic is what dramatically changes how you will play because you now have to think multiple moves ahead rather than just one or two when you play cards. This can result in things feeling like a waste of time if you try to execute a specific set of actions but get destroyed by a new powerful enemy that appears after a wave, but there is always next time.

The first few runs felt relatively straightforward, but were a lot more challenging than I expected for the bosses. You will die a lot as you improve, but the progression in the game, also different to other roguelikes, makes every run feel different enough, and you end up working towards different goals because the game wants you to do different things to build up the town. Wildfrost also has a daily challenge mode, and I usually enjoy these more than the game after getting used to the mechanics. If you hate RNG, you might not enjoy Wildfrost, but I still think you should try the game for free before deciding.

Building the town lets you unlock facilities to help with future runs, spice things up, and basically keeps adding more ways to enjoy the game. I still remember Wildfrost being announced and released for $20 on Switch and Steam, and how some folks thought it was priced that “high" (it really wasn’t high) because of the visual polish and production values. Having played it, I think the asking price was too low already for how good it is and how much it includes, but the mobile asking price makes it an absolute no-brainer, if you click with the mechanics. This isn’t as big of a gamble though, since Wildfrost is a free to try game. If you end up playing it and enjoying what’s on offer here, you will enjoy the full game, but be prepared for a massive increase in challenge over what’s available for free.

On iOS, Wildfrost has full controller support in addition to sporting excellent touch controls. I usually play deckbuilders with touch controls only, but was curious to see how it felt with a controller. If you’re used to Wildfrost on other platforms, you will feel right at home with a controller here. I used my DualSense and 8BitDo controllers to play on iPad, and the game displays Xbox button prompts regardless. It automatically switches between touch and button prompts depending on your input. Wildfrost’s iOS port is so good with its visuals, performance, and interface, that it really makes Slay the Spire feel even worse on mobile at least. This is a superb and responsive conversion.

Visually, Wildfrost looks fantastic. I always loved the colorful aesthetic and animations when it was revealed, but they absolutely shine on modern iOS devices. Wildfrost has fullscreen support on my iPhone 15 Pro, but on iPad Pro 11" (2020), it has small bars on the top and bottom. I hope this can be adjusted in a future update. On the performance side, Wildfrost has three frame rate target options on iOS: 30, 60, and 120. I set it to 120 on both my devices. I was glad to see this available unlike in Slay the Spire.

I had access to the full version of Wildfrost on Steam Deck as well as iOS, and I found myself playing it a lot more on iPad than Steam Deck. It plays well on both, but I just enjoy these games on iPad a lot more. If you do want to play on your PC or monitor, the Steam version has unlimited frame rate support. I had the Switch demo installed, and the developers did a very good job with that version as well, but I don’t see myself bothering with it on Switch outside a potential physical release for collection. Right now, the iPad and iPhone versions are definitely my favorites.

While the visuals and animation work in Wildfrost is amazing, I want to highlight the audio design as well. The sounds and the score by Paul Zimmermann are perfect complements for the colorful aesthetic. The way the music changes over the course of a round and through the game is really great. You don’t usually see this much care put into the presentation of a deckbuilder. I’m also glad Wildfrost is getting a vinyl soundtrack.

Right now, my only real issue with Wildfrost is the steep difficulty curve. Don’t let the visuals fool you into thinking this is some calm and relaxing experience. It will challenge you, and keep things going non stop until your next run. I love the unique take on the usual mechanics we see in deckbuilders and roguelikes, but think the difficulty could be balanced better. Basically, regardless of my complaints with the difficulty curve, Wildfrost is fantastic.

I know Wildfrost will not be for everyone, and I’d have that caveat with my recommendation, but it is a “free to try" game on iOS, so there’s no real reason to not download it and give it a shot. I think it is more than worth its asking price on iOS, and it is immediately one of the best mobile releases of 2024 so far. While I am glad I finally played it, I’m annoyed I wasn’t obsessing over it last year when it debuted on Switch and Steam. I have rectified my mistake at least with this new port. Go download Wildfrost right now.

While I wanted to try out one of Haute42’s leverless controllers after liking the Board mini, I also wanted to use a 16 button controller to see how much of a difference it made for me in games like Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8. The Haute42 T16 let me tackle both of those in one go. While I’ve not found myself using every extra button, two of them have helped a lot, and even made me use the T16 for shmups in one situation. This Haute42 T16 will focus on the controller and how it works on the platforms we cover: iOS, Switch, and Steam Deck, but I will also have a bit about using it on the PS5 and Xbox Series X to be as thorough as I can based on my experience with the Haute42 T16. Let’s get into it then.

Haute42 T16 controller features, setup, and firmware

The Haute42 T16 is a leverless controller that has 16 main buttons, a small display to indicate inputs and mode (which can be customized), very low latency, and a turbo function in addition to the usual secondary buttons you’d expect in a controller. The buttons use Kailh low profile red switches, and each of the buttons are the same size (30mm). This is worth noting since some other leverless controllers use smaller buttons for everything but the jump button on the bottom.

The controller has a very interesting design because it is essentially a board sandwiched between acrylic layers. The layer on top is transparent which allows for adding your own artwork below it, while the one on the bottom has a frosted finish. The buttons support RGB lighting, and the Haute42 T16 controller also ships with a USB A extension port on the right in addition to the USB C port on top that you use to connect it to whatever platform you’re using. The extension port is what you’re going to use if you want to use the Haute42 T16 controller on a PS5 or Xbox Series X, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

The Haute42 T16 uses GP2040-CE and supports SOCD cleaning options. You can customize this and update the controller using an easy drag and drop process. Since this was my first Haute42 controller, I used this specific YouTube guide for help. The official Haute42 Discord server is also very useful for any customization or update related things. This is one of the easier controllers to update and customize as well. I’m also glad I wasn’t forced to do this on Windows like I was with the Razer Kitsune firmware updater.

Haute42 T16 controller compatibility –

What drew me to the Haute42 T16 controller outside the curiosity for its quality given the price, were its thinness and the 16 buttons. But what about compatibility? The Haute42 T16 officially supports Windows, Steam Deck, Android, PS3, PS4, Nintendo Switch, MiSTer, iPadOS, Linux, and Raspberry Pi as indicated on the official website. Not supporting the PS5 is definitely a negative if you want to use it in locals that run on PS5, or want to buy one for your own PS5.

When you plug your controller in, you need to press a specific button (indicated on the backside) to use it on Switch, PS4, Xinput, Dinput/PS3, or keyboard mode.

Haute42 T16 controller – what’s in the box

The Haute42 T16 ships with the controller itself, a USB cable, an instruction manual, and accessories (an extra switch, a switch puller, button caps, and anti slip pads). The controller is in a padded envelope, and all of this is packed in a cardboard box. As for using a case or storing your Haute42 T16, I recommend getting a laptop sleeve or finding a larger iPad sleeve that fits. I also recommend getting your own braided USB cable to use like this one.

Haute42 T16 controller performance – buttons and feel

Having used the Razer Kitsune which I love, I was curious to see how the Haute42 T16 buttons would feel. They feel excellent. I’m not sure which ones I like more, but I can safely say that the Haute42 T16 buttons feel excellent and work perfectly. I’ve had no trouble with the button size or responsiveness across any game. These buttons and switches are easy to swap out as well if you’d rather get your own buttons and switches here.

As for the Haute42 T16 itself, the edges are a bit sharp and it creaks sometimes. These are my only minor complaints with this. I expected a bit of creaking, but I hope a future revision can resolve this or make it less of an issue. I know the Haute42 T16 is more of a DIY controller than the rest, but these minor issues hold it back.

The buttons I dislike are the secondary ones. The buttons for start, back, home, and more on the top right are not comfortable to use. I had a similar issue with some of these in the Kitsune as well, but that is better overall for secondary buttons at least right now. The touchpad and an easy to click and spot button for the PlayStation input on a PS5 controller also help.

Haute42 T16 controller – why 16 buttons make a difference

A traditional leverless controller or Hitbox-style controller uses four buttons for movement (up, down, left, right) and eight action buttons as you can see in my Razer Kitsune review. The Haute42 T16 controller or other 16 button controllers from Haute42 opt for five movement buttons and 11 action buttons. For movement, the fifth button is above the three on the top left. This is for those who are used to WASD movement on a keyboard. I use the jump button here while playing shmups or platformers while I’ve been using the normal jump button on the bottom in fighting games.

As for the action buttons, you can map them to different things. As with most things relating to controllers or setups I’m not used to, I’ve been looking at YouTube and talking to friends who have more experience. In this case, I found a great video on how a 16 button layout helps with Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. I haven’t stuck to that beyond testing it out, but did manage to change a few things to fit my needs better since. At this point, the 16 buttons aren’t essential, but they definitely help in specific games and with convenience.

Haute42 T16 controller customization – artwork, keys, and more

The clear acrylic layer on top can be removed easily to insert your own art in the Haute42 T16. Beyond that, you can customize the buttons and switches in the Haute42 T16 as well without any trouble. You can even add artwork on the bottom to be viewed from the back, but I recommend leaving that be as you get used to what key press is required to switch modes.

Haute42 T16 controller problems

Outside the creaking and edges, my only complaint with the Haute42 T16 is the top acrylic layer scratches easily. It isn’t too noticeable, but I noticed quite a few small scuffs or scratches on mine after a week with it. These complaints are minor given what you’re getting at a sub $100 price point including shipping though, but are worth highlighting.

Haute 42 T16 controller on PS5 and Xbox Series X

Since the Haute42 T16 doesn’t work natively on PS5 and Xbox Series X, you need a dongle or adapter used in the passthrough port. I bought the Brook Wingman Converter FGC to test out different controllers in fighting games on PS5, but I know there are other options. My Brook converter for Xbox stopped working since Microsoft keeps updating the console to block it. I’ve stopped bothering with this on the Xbox side because of that. If you do plan on buying the Haute 42 T16 for PS5, factor in the cost of the dongle, and keep in mind that this will not work in every native PS5 game.

Haute42 T16 controller vs Razer Kitsune

It feels weird comparing a sub $100 controller with a $300 controller, but that’s exactly what I’ve been doing in my head while using both of them. The Haute42 T16 does much more than the Kitsune, but it doesn’t do everything as elegantly. It is also missing native PS5 functionality, a tournament lock, and isn’t as comfortable on the lap or table. It does however have more buttons, supports multiple platforms in addition to PC, and is much easier to customize and mod. They both are clearly tackling different sides of the market, and with the T16, I have a controller I can recommend to newcomers directly with its low asking price.

Comfort and things like that are subjective, and ideally everyone would be able to try out multiple controllers before buying one, but sadly that isn’t possible for many. The Kitsune is much more comfortable on my lap and when I play, and I appreciate the quieter buttons. I feel like Haute42 (AKA COSMOX now) will have resolved a few of my issues with the upcoming M Plus line shown here.

Right now, my ideal leverless controller would be a Razer Kitsune with 16 buttons like this one. It is going to be interesting to see what else we get in 2024 from note just Haute42, but also Razer.

Should you buy the Haute42 T16 controller in 2024?

For its price, it is hard to not recommend the Haute42 T16 if you enjoy playing fighting games and want to try out a great leverless controller on Switch, PC, Steam Deck, or PS4. For PS5, factor in the cost of the adapter. For iOS, I wouldn’t buy this specific controller just to play on iPad or iPhone. I used it with Streets of Rage 4 and games like that, but I wouldn’t buy the Haute 42 T16 outside of wanting a great controller for PC, Switch, or PlayStation right now.

When I first got the controller, I was almost ready to buy a second one just to have a backup because it is so good. It isn’t something I’d recommend to everyone, but if you are in the market for a fantastic leverless controller, the Haute42 T16 is definitely worth considering. Just factor in the creaking/scratching issue and the fact that you need to buy an additional dongle if you want to use this on PS5.

If you’d like to grab it, the Haute42 T16 controller is usually available for $83 (or so) on Amazon here. If you do end up buying it or already own one, I’d love to know what you think about it. Let us know in the comments below, and also if you’d like to see any specific controller reviewed.

If you buy the controllers or items listed and linked above through our links on Amazon, it helps TouchArcade in a small way.

Haute Board mini – the cheapest keyboard controller

So what makes the Haute Board mini worth covering? It is the cheapest keyboard style controller, and was very interesting to use in fighting games and shmups since I bought it. Instead of a d-pad or a stick like in traditional controllers for movement, the Haute Board mini has movement done via four keyboard keys that act as WASD on the keyboard. Aside from movement, the four main buttons act as A B X Y LB RB LT and RT. There are secondary buttons for home, back, start, left stick press, right stick press, and turbo as well.

Haute Board mini – what’s in the box

Well, the Haute Board mini doesn’t actually ship in a box, but a padded envelope. This includes the Haute Board mini, a USB cable (A to C), accessories (LEOBOG Graywood V4 switch, keycap puller, a switch puller, two 6mm button caps, six anti-slip pads), and a small instruction manual. Given the low asking price of the package, I didn’t expect a fantastic USB cable, but I recommend getting a good one like one of these.

Haute Board mini compatibility

The Haute Board mini works on Windows, Steam Deck, PS3, PS4, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS (in my testing), and more as has been detailed on the official website. I’ve been using it mainly on iPhone, iPad, Switch, and Steam Deck. I also tested it on PS5 with an adapter that I’ll get to in a bit.

Haute Board mini performance and feel

Despite its low asking price, the Haute Board mini feels very sturdy and the major input buttons all feel great. It has one USB C port for plugging into other devices and a USB A extension port. The Haute Board mini is a wired-only controller. When using it to play games like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, G-Darius HD, Dariusburst, and more, I had no trouble with inputs. I did take a few minutes to get used to the Haute Board mini when I initially got it though. I’ve also used it for some rhythm games with no trouble since.

Haute Board mini on iOS

I didn’t see any mention of iOS for the Haute Board mini when I bought it from Amazon, but I saw the official website listed iPadOS as compatible in keyboard mode. I can confirm it does work in PS4 mode (you can change mode when you plug it in by holding a specific button listed on the controller backside) in the few games I’ve been playing with controller support like Streets of Rage 4 and Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop.

Haute Board mini on Switch and Steam Deck

The Haute Board mini works flawlessly wired on both Switch and Steam Deck out of the box. There is nothing else required aside from plugging it in with the correct button held (indicated on the backside). On Switch, I use the Haute Board mini with retro games, shmups, and fighters. On Steam Deck, barring those, I also use it for some older platformers. Anything you control with an arcade stick will work fine here, as long as you are comfortable with the keys of course. Doing 360 and 720 motions on the Haute Board mini is difficult for me.

Haute Board mini on PS5 and Xbox

To get the Haute Board mini working on PS5, you need an extra dongle. I use the Brook Wingman FGC converter, but this only works for some fighting games and shmups. It will not work in many native PS5 games. The converter doesn’t work in Dragon Ball FighterZ’s PS5 version apparently as well. It does work in Tekken 8, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear Strive, and others though. On Xbox though, the Brook converter I had been using before doesn’t reliably work because Microsoft keeps pushing out updates to block it. I do not recommend getting this for use on your Xbox Series X.

Haute Board mini software and features

The Haute Board mini uses GP2040-CE and it is very easy to update, manage, and customize (software wise). The board itself doesn’t have

Haute Board mini – customization

It is easy to change the main buttons and switches on the Haute Board mini. If you’re up to it, you can even order a DIY kit from Haute42’s web store. Speaking of customization, I have two complaints with the Haute Board mini right now. The first is the secondary buttons are hard to press or differentiate while playing without looking down. You might get used to this, but I would’ve liked having one or two of them bigger than the others so I could press them easier. The second complaint is a minor one, but is customization related. Getting your own art on this is quite hard without a good quality sticker print. Haute42 has a template, but it isn’t as easy as working with art for their other controllers.

Haute Board mini – should you buy it

As my first keyboard button style arcade controller, the Haute Board mini has been amazing. Aside from the two issues I mentioned above, I have no hesitation in recommending this if you’re curious about the keyboard style controller options available. This is affordable and the compatibility is excellent. Just factor in the additional dongle purchase if you want to use this on PlayStation.

If you’d like to grab it, the Haute Board mini keyboard controller is available for $40 (or so) on Amazon here. A new Haute Board mini plus AKA the B16 is also available, but I’ll be covering that when the controller I bought recently arrives. If you do end up buying it or already own one, I’d love to know what you think about it. Let us know in the comments below, and also if you’d like to see any specific controller reviewed.

If you buy the controllers or items listed and linked above through our links on Amazon, it helps TouchArcade in a small way.

8BitDo M30 controller – what’s in the box

The model I have is the 8BitDo M30 Bluetooth version. This ships with the actual controller and a USB C to A cable. Mine also included an 8BitDo pin which I’ve put on my bag. The cable included is sufficient, but I’d really recommend getting one of these for use across your platforms if you don’t already have good cables.

8BitDo M30 controller compatibility

The 8BitDo M30 controller is advertised to officially support Switch, macOS, Android, Windows, Steam, and Raspberry Pi. I’ve used it on my Nintendo Switch OLED, Steam Deck (both LCD and OLED), iPad, and iPhone for daily use and for this review. When Nintendo announced those Nintendo Switch Online controllers for the various apps, I kept getting annoyed at the 6 button SEGA one being Japan-only and selling out quite fast. After getting the NeoGeo controller 8BitDo released for use on Steam Deck, I was looking at the Xbox lineup and found the M30 variant the company released. It then struck me that the M30 Bluetooth model exists and I ordered it. I’m glad I did because I love the controller and it might be my favorite fighting game and shmup controller outside of actual sticks and leverless controllers.

8BitDo M30 controller d-pad

Yes, I’m not exaggerating and this is mostly because the d-pad is that damn good on the 8BitDo M30 controller. If we look at the current consoles and the official controllers available, the Switch Joy-Cons are at the bottom tier for the d-pad (if you can even call it one) with the DualSense Edge (it improves over the regular DualSense d-pad) on the top. But that’s a big variance in price of course and the Xbox Series X controller has been very good, but none of them come close to how good the 8BitDo M30 controller d-pad feels for fighting games, arcade games, and shmups.

8BitDo M30 controller face buttons and in-hand feel

Aside from the d-pad, the in-hand feel of the controller will vary depending on your hand size and what controllers you’re used to playing with, but I like everything about it. The shoulder buttons, face buttons, and other buttons are all good and feel as they should to use. Aside from buttons, pairing the controller and the different modes are very easy to use or swap between. The back of the controller has a cheat sheet for the modes (switch, dinput, xinput, and macOS) and you basically hold one specific face button and the start button to turn the 8BitDo M30 controller on in a specific mode.

8BitDo M30 controller – battery life

The 8BitDo M30 controller has a 480mAh rechargeable battery. It is advertised as being able to deliver up to 18 hours on a full charge and it takes 1-2 hours to charge. I’ve not pushed it to 18 hours yet, but I’ve used it for more than 12 hours on a single charge multiple times. I do usually charge my controllers when not in use though. With this using USB C charging, I usually leave it plugged in after a few days of use. I don’t have any complaints with the battery life or charge time.

8BitDo M30 controller – Genesis Nintendo Switch Online, fighting games, shmups, and more

I originally thought I’d mostly use the 8BitDo M30 controller just on Nintendo Switch Online’s Genesis app and a few other games, but I found myself enjoying it more with just about every game. Playing shmups like G-Darius HD or even modern fighting games like Street Fighter 6 have felt great thanks to the excellent d-pad. Basically, you can safely enjoy the 8BitDo M30 controller across games that don’t require both analog sticks and can function with up to six or eight buttons and a d-pad.

I used the 8BitDo M30 controller over bluetooth on iOS, Switch, and Steam Deck and had no issues with inputs or connectivity. I also tried it wired and it works as it should. This is basically the perfect controller for games that don’t require the analog sticks for anything. So how does it play in modern fighting games? Well, I was surprised at how good it works. I know I shouldn’t be, but this is now my favorite fighting game controller outside of actual arcade sticks or leverless controllers.

On iOS, I used the 8BitDo M30 controller to play games like Streets of Rage 4, and it felt amazing. I’m considering buying the white variant of the controller specifically for use on iOS. When it comes to controllers for iOS, I don’t recommend buying this as your main controller though because there are too many games that require both analog sticks now with console game ports, but as a controller for older games and retro titles, this is unbeatable in its convenience and performance for its price.

The 8BitDo M30 controller has one issue though, and it may or may not be a big deal for you. The three buttons on top are smaller than the ones below. This is obviously to be as authentic as possible for the controller’s inspiration (the Mega Drive 6 button controller), but it isn’t ideal because of how the buttons sit in the concave area. This means the X button is at the edge nearly. It isn’t a dealbreaker and I got used to it, but having all six the same size would’ve been better. Outside this, I have no complaints. The 8BitDo M30 controller does more than what it advertises and I would recommend it even if it costs twice what it does right now. It is that good.

8bitdo M30 Bluetooth Review Score: 4.5/5

If you’d like to grab it, the 8BitDo M30 controller is available for $30 on Amazon in the Black and White variants. There’s also a 2.4G model that costs $5 less, but I haven’t used it yet. If you do end up buying it or already own one, I’d love to know what you think about it. Let us know in the comments below, and also if you’d like to see any specific controller reviewed.

If you buy the controllers or items listed and linked above through our links on Amazon, it helps TouchArcade in a small way.

If you’ve not played Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective before, just go download the iOS version or demo on any platform. Stop reading this and do it. I promise it will be worth it. If you’re still here, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a puzzle adventure game from Capcom directed and designed by Shu Takumi who is most known for the Ace Attorney franchise. As the name suggests, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has you playing as a ghost (Sissel) with special powers. As Sissel, you can swap between the real world and the ghost world as you “trick" and interact with certain objects to change specific outcomes and try to get to the bottom of your murder. After a short introduction that not only lays the foundation for the story and also gives you a tutorial, the real game begins. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is so good with its narrative that you most certainly will revisit the story after beating it with your new perspective.

I mentioned interacting with objects and the environment, and this is basically the gameplay in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. You solve puzzles with your ghost tricks, go through telephone lines to find more victims who you want to save, and more. The cast in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is more legendary than even the Ace Attorney ones, but I want to make a special mention for Missile and Lynne. More than a decade after it debuted on DS and iOS, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective remains timeless and is essential if you like adventure games.

When it comes to this specific remaster, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has higher resolution visuals, a smoother frame rate across the board, and a gallery. The gallery includes both artwork and music that are unlocked as you progress through the main game. On consoles and PC, there was a pre-order or early purchase bonus, and that seems to be included on mobile and available once you buy the full game unlock. This specific early purchase bonus is available on PC and consoles for $1.99 for those who missed the early purchase or pre-order period. It includes a few songs and borders. Speaking of borders, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on mobile has the same 16:9 aspect ratio with the game running within that at its older aspect ratio. This results in a mobile-specific border that has a subtle animated design and the various borders included.

One more highlight of the Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective remaster is the new 2023 arrangement option for the soundtrack. If you are a fan of the original and want that music, it is available as a toggle in-game. Said original soundtrack Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was always amazing, but I can’t get over how good the new version ended up being. For this remaster, everything sounds better. In fact, if you haven’t heard the original music since the DS days or since the original iOS version released, the new remaster soundtrack will probably sound like the good memories you have of the original. Yasumasa Kitagawa handled this remaster of Masakazu Sugimori’s original score, and it is incredible.

When it comes to platform differences, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on iOS and Android is based on the PC and console version from last year. In fact, it basically feels like that running in a new wrapper to take into account the different aspect ratios on mobile. It feels basically the same as playing on Switch or Steam Deck outside the aspect ratio/border differences and load times. Load times are great on iOS and faster than on Switch. Back when I played Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on Steam Deck, Xbox, and Switch last year, the Switch version on the OLED model was my favorite way to experience the game using touch controls. Now, I’d say the iOS version is better with the caveat about the borders.

While it isn’t needed given the superb touch controls, controller support on iOS is not present at all right now. I tested this with my Xbox, PS5, and 8BitDo controllers and none of them worked in-game. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has the same touch controls as the Switch version with no changes to button sizes or anything. The touch controls worked as they should, but some of the buttons could’ve been bigger or have better touch targets on smaller screens.

The biggest issue is the lack of cloud saves. Capcom’s description even mentions save data will be deleted if you delete the app. I found no way to sync my saves across devices and had to basically play the game again on my iPad after the time I put into it on iPhone. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve played the opening hours of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective by now across all platforms. If you do plan on getting the game on mobile, I would recommend sticking to one platform for your main playthrough.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is priced at $29.99 on PC and consoles. A lot of people scoffed at this price considering the first Ace Attorney Trilogy with three full games costs as much, but I’d say Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is more worth it. On iOS, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective lets you sample the first two chapters for free. You can then use the single in app purchase to basically buy the rest of the game. That purchase is discounted to $19.99 right now. I assume it will go up to $24.99 once the April 3rd early purchase period ends. This try before buying is a great system specifically for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective not only because all consoles and PC have a demo, but also because this lets existing owners of the old (now delisted) version download this and see if the visual upgrade and extra content offered is worth the asking price for an upgrade. Check out the image below to see how the game looks on my iPhone 15 Pro compared to the older version on the same device.

I hope Capcom adds better border options that actually use the full display on modern iOS devices, cloud save support, and controller support in potential future updates. Those are my only complaints with this release. Controller support isn’t really needed but since Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has controller and touch support on Switch, why remove a feature for iOS? iCloud save support would really be good since I usually like playing these games across both my iPhone and iPad. The borders are probably the most disappointing thing about this release. While the 16:9 display on consoles already had to deal with borders, Capcom adding extra borders on mobile instead of opting to use larger versions of the existing borders is confusing.

If you already own the prior game and finished it, I don’t think this release is worth buying just for the extra content. If you want to play Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the first time on mobile, this one is definitely worth your time and money. If you already own Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on another platform, there isn’t anything new here. If you, like me, love Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and want to just buy it to support the game on another platform, you probably already did that and didn’t need to read this review.

I love Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective far too much. I’ve bought every single version of it over the years including multiple copies of the DS game. It was always a 5/5 game with its superb story, characters, puzzles, and music, so it is unfortunate that this new version from Capcom is a bit lacking when it comes to how it handles modern mobile screen sizes and its lack of cloud saves. I’m glad we have a version of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on mobile that supports modern devices and operating systems, but Capcom should’ve done a bit better in some areas.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Remaster iOS review score: 4.5/5

For those who have somehow avoided Suika Game so far, here’s the run-down on what you can expect. It’s a puzzle game where you drop fruits from the top of the play area into a jar, one by one. If two fruits of the same kind touch each other, they’ll merge into the next bigger fruit type. Your goal is to try to create the biggest fruit type, the watermelon (‘suika‘ is the Japanese word for ‘watermelon’, so there’s your title). Doing so will earn you the most possible points, as two watermelons who merge will simply disappear. Watermelons are also the biggest fruit type, which means they occupy the most space in the jar.

The space in the jar is going to be one of your main concerns as you play. If any of the fruits pop out of the top of the jar, that’s the game. As you make matches, you’ll naturally have more large fruits in the jar, and if you aren’t careful it’s easy to end up with small fruits keeping the bigger ones from touching each other. You’ll almost certainly run out of space sooner or later, especially if you end up with a couple of watermelons you can’t get to touch each other. Your aim is to get as high a score as you can before something pops out the top.

And pop things will, at times. One of the interesting things about Suika Game is how the fruits can interact with each other. The physics in the game can be awfully bouncy at times, and sometimes fruits you think are properly settled will squeeze out or merge with other fruits, throwing everything into chaos. This will sometimes save you, but it can also bury you if an apple gets launched into the air all of a sudden. That lack of predictability is part of the secret sauce of Suika Game, and it works just as well here as it did in the Switch version of the game.

Just like in that version, there’s an online leaderboard that you’ll be ranked on. the game will also keep track of your best score for the day, week, and overall. This mobile version matches the presentation of the Switch game, with the fruits sharing their cute and charming appearance and the jaunty little earworm tune playing the whole time. You can play the game in portrait mode or landscape, so you can enjoy it however you like. There isn’t much more to it than that. This game has always been a bit on the spartan side, and the mobile version doesn’t change that aspect. There are no meta-goals to aim for, no stages to clear, no unlockables to seek out. Just keep shooting for a higher score. You know, like the good old days.

Suika Game is an easy game to get into with a relatively high ceiling for scoring, and it’s incredibly hard to put down. Its pick-up-and-play nature makes it perfectly suited for mobile, and I’m glad I don’t have to pull out my Switch anytime I want to play it now. While we had a browser-based version to play before, it lacked much of the charm of the original, and while there have been a ton of knock-offs, none of them have played quite right. It’s nice to have the real thing here on iOS, looking, sounding, and playing exactly as it should, with no ads or IAPs to mess with the enjoyment. Worth the price? You bet it is.

So what has changed? You know, not as much as you might think. We’ve got a whole new quest here, of course. Lots of new enemies to battle, lots of places to explore, lots of new loot to find, and plenty of interesting combinations of races, classes, and abilities to tinker around with. A big box of new toys, and new reasons to play with those toys. For many of us, that’s more than enough. Particularly given we don’t really see many games of this nature anymore. A single, reasonable, upfront price. No IAP. No ads. Pay your five bucks, enjoy your game. Ten years ago that was only a little uncommon. Today it feels as rare as hen’s teeth, especially for a mobile-exclusive release.

The story of the game, such as it is, is that you’ve crashed on some kind of weird island. You need to find four goobers to get off the island, and each of those goobers is located in a different location. You can’t just Uber over to them, either. Each of them is waiting at the end of a veritable dungeon’s worth of exploration and battling, and if that isn’t enough, they’re also protected by a bunch of dorks who won’t hand them over without a fight. Luckily, fighting is the one thing you’re really good at. Well, I hope you are, anyway. You’re going to be doing a lot of it.

Like in previous games, the exploration part of Adventure to Fate Lost Island is relatively trivial. There are secrets to find and objects to interact with, but the path to your goal is generally linear and merely requires you to move from bite-sized screen to bite-sized screen until you reach it. It’s not boring or anything, but you won’t need to worry about mapping things out or anything like that. Finding treasure is always a good time, and running into NPCs and objects like Weapon Forges keep things from getting too monotonous. Still, the meat of this game lies elsewhere and I think it’s well aware of that.

Battles! Turn-based battles! That’s what Adventure to Fate has always been about at its core, and that’s where all the magic happens. Broadly speaking, the appealing aspects of this series and this game come from three components. You’ll need to learn the ropes of all of them if you want to have a smoother ride through the game, though you can to an extent brute force your way through a good chunk of the game by grinding if you’re pig-headed about it. I strongly recommend not being pig-headed. The first Dragon Quest game is right over there if you’re looking for that kind of battle system. There are a lot of random encounters in this game, but there are also a lot of fixed ones and it’s those that will give you serious trouble if you try to power through. Anyway, those three bits you need to manage.

First, your character build. Each installment of the series has given the player different kinds of options to build their character with. Lost Island essentially gives you the kitchen sink experience. You get ten races, twelve classes, six crafting specialties, a couple dozen pets, plenty of gear slots and tons of cool gear to fill them with, and a massive number of skills that you’ll earn as you gain levels. It goes without saying when you have this many variables at play, balance goes out the window to an extent. But finding those broken builds is a big part of the fun, and there’s always something new to challenge yourself with if you’re seeking more thrills. You have lots of character slots you can make use of, and I recommend experimenting to see which ones fit your needs best.

Next, preparation. This has been a major part of Adventure to Fate right from the start, and it’s no less vital here. You can only use items and skills that you have equipped, and you’re generally tightly limited as to how many of each you can have available to you in combat. Items are mainly consumable, too. If you forget to refill your pockets after using what was in them before your next fight, you can easily get caught out. Bringing the right mix of skills to take on a tough battle can make a seemingly impossible situation more than manageable. You’ll also want to keep on eye on what gear you have equipped. Pure defense and attack might be the order of the day in most fights, but you’ll also want to take advantage of various special effects and resistances for certain encounters. You’ll also want to keep on top of your shopping, and of course manage your health and ability points as you make your way through each area.

Finally, execution. The battles in Adventure to Fate are turn-based affairs, with you and your pet on one side and up to three enemies on the other. You’ll have a limited amount of stamina points you can make use of on each turn to take actions with, and so will your pet. You take your turn, then the enemies take theirs. Continue until either they’re all dead or you are. And that does mean your character. Your pet can’t keep the fight going on its own. Do not let your health drop to zero or you’ll fall unconscious and wake up back at the start of the area. In a straight blow for blow fight, you will generally be at a disadvantage. You have to make a plan, use your skills as best as you can, and gain the upper hand with your strategy. Basic battles don’t drag on too long, but you’ll have to watch your ability points carefully when things go on longer.

Frankly, this game is incredibly deep in these respects. I’m probably making it sound like it’s complicated, but the reality is that it’s pretty easy to get started in this game. It doesn’t give you too many options at the start, allowing you to get used to the proverbial water before it starts gradually turning up the heat. The UI makes a lot of sense and is perfectly suited to mobile, too. Want something you can play one-handed in portrait mode? This game has you more than covered. Since it’s all about besting each battle, one by one, it’s easy to dip in and out of. Those linear dungeon designs mean that even if you have to take a long break between sessions, you won’t be lost. And the blessed game auto-saves constantly, so if you need to pop out at a moment’s notice you won’t lose much, if anything at all.

Presentation-wise, it’s all quite familiar. The Oryx sprites make a return, but they’re not only quite scarce these days but actually pretty nostalgic. The UI does its job and give you all the information you need while making it very easy to do what you want to do. The game also sports full VoiceOver support so that visually-impaired players can have just as much fun as everyone else. No, it’s not going to challenge Final Fantasy XVI in terms of its production values. But it gets across what it needs to, and there’s certainly a charm to its no-nonsense approach to the RPG genre.

If you’re an RPG fan who likes a good battle system or character customization systems, you’ll find a wealth of enjoyment in Adventure to Fate Lost Island. If you’re looking for an intricate story, hot graphics, or a fancy world to explore, this might not be your cup of tea. You could certainly levy the accusation at Lost Island that it perhaps doesn’t push its design in new directions enough when compared to its predecessor, but what might have felt like going to the well one too many times in 2018 instead comes across as rather refreshing in 2024. Easily worth the asking price, and a game that will do a nice job of filling the RPG lover’s time for hours upon end.

If you’re new to Hades, it is quite different to Supergiant Games’ most recent releases: Transistor and Pyre. Hades is an action roguelike that managed to meticulously blend in its excellent narrative, characters, and progression with a gameplay loop that has you begging for more. All of this is complemented by its stunning visuals and mind blowing music. You might think I’m exaggerating about the music, but this is easily Supergiant Games’ best audio work ever in a game, and a game that should be studied for years with how it handled its narrative, music, and voice acting.

The core gameplay of Hades is one of the best examples of “one more run" in modern times. It never gets old as you slowly progress through the levels, working your way further into the game, defeating new bosses, meeting more NPCs, getting permanent upgrades, and learning more about the world and narrative as you understand the ins and outs of survival in the dangerous levels.

When it comes to roguelikes, you can have the most varied enemies, bosses, and the best visuals, but what sets Hades apart from the rest of the genre even more, is its slick fast-paced gameplay while dungeon crawling. Weapons, upgrades, strategizing on the go for how to build your character for that run, and more all play a part in how far you will reach.

Most games in the genre have enough of a narrative or story to get the job done. Hades isn’t just any game though. Supergiant Games always goes above and beyond with everything, and we see that in how the narrative plays out, the character interactions, and the voice acting. Hades is a once in a generation gaming experience that’s now also on mobile.

I have zero complaints with the actual game on PC and modern consoles, and basically consider it perfect. It even has an accessibility mode that gives you a slight health boost on each death to make your progression easier through multiple runs. But how does it feel and look on mobile? I know the team has mentioned things like 60fps gameplay, customizable controls, controller support, and an uncompromised experience, but I needed to see it for myself.

Hades on iOS is mostly perfect. I say mostly because there are two things holding it back, but one of them will likely not matter to most players. Regardless of your iOS device, Hades is a 16:9 aspect ratio game, and while that isn’t a dealbreaker, I wish the team added some artwork on each side so it doesn’t have black bars. Barring that, I was surprised to see the customizable controls do not allow you to move buttons outside the 16:9 gameplay. I’d have loved to have the controls on each side so the actual gameplay has less clutter in the way. You can move the buttons within the 16:9 gameplay window and resize them with a floating or fixed stick for movement as well.

I knew Hades would be great with a controller, but I specifically focused on playing it with touch controls. As with many games I cover, I found myself enjoying it with touch on the iPhone, but preferring a physical controller wirelessly on iPad. I used my Xbox Series X wireless controller and the 8BitDo I use to test and both worked perfectly. The game displays Xbox button prompts for both. With touch controls, I was surprised at how good they felt on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 14 Plus. I recommend resizing the interaction button though because the default is a bit too small.

Visually, Hades looks stunning on iPhone 15 Pro and runs flawlessly. On my iPad Pro (2020), the visuals take a hit but the performance is good. I couldn’t test on an older iPad for this review. I know the team prioritized 60fps even on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but I was hoping to see a bit more frame rate options on modern iOS devices.

Hades does have cloud saves on Netflix and I tested this over 12 times back and forth while playing Hades on my iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPad Pro. I only had one issue where there was a save conflict popup that got resolved by selecting the correct data. The syncing worked flawlessly outside that. I am disappointed to not be able to bring my Steam and Switch saves over since I play with syncing on both of those. Hopefully this can be considered for the future.

The screenshot below shows how the controller mapping works for the game and also the God Mode that you can enable if you’re having a rough time. This isn’t just a cheat that makes the game easy, but one that lessens how punishing it is with each death. The God Mode icon is the second icon on the left side.

Since its debut on PC and Switch, Hades hit PS5 and Xbox consoles and I replayed it on both of them. I’ve never deleted the game from any platform, but the launch of the Steam Deck had me find my new favorite version of Hades. You see Hades on Switch wasn’t perfect, and it struggled to hit its 60fps target in many parts and didn’t look amazing docked. It was a good handheld experience, and a perfect companion to the PC version with cross save though. On Steam Deck, Hades was perfect and it even supported much higher frame rates when I used the Dock on my 144hz monitor. It is now best on Steam Deck OLED with that vibrant screen delivering gorgeous visuals at 90fps.

When it comes to Hades on PS5 and Xbox Series X, it has 4K 60fps support and a decent DualSense implementation. On Xbox it supported Quick Resume and had save syncing with the Windows version (non Steam) making it a good option for those who use that store. I ended up playing a lot more Hades on Xbox Series X with Quick Resume support though. None of them having cross save with Switch or Steam was disappointing.

Right now, my favorite version of Hades is on Steam Deck OLED followed by the iOS version on a newer iOS device. The best portable version is Steam Deck OLED with its higher resolution and flawless 90fps support. I’d definitely rate the iOS version above the Switch port with how good it looks and runs here. But in the end, Hades is basically an essential regardless of your platform. I hope this section helped people who own multiple platforms decide which version they should get.

As with other Netflix or Apple Arcade game reviews, the big caveat to the recommendation is that you need an active subscription to play the game in question. Just like with the GTA Trilogy, Hades is a killer app for Netflix, and one that is likely going to push people to subscribe to the service.

Hades on iOS is incredible. While it has two things I’d love to see fixed in updates, I have no hesitation in recommending it for anyone with a Netflix subscription. The wait for Hades on mobile has been long, but Supergiant Games delivered an excellent version of one of the best games in years with no compromises on iOS here.

If you’ve literally never heard of or played Warframe before, it is a free to play fast paced action looter shooter with a sci-fi setting. It excels in its gameplay, customization, lore, and art. Even when I played it on Nintendo Switch, the gameplay was superb despite the technical cutbacks. Since then, the game has gotten many content and feature updates, with the newest major update hitting as recently as a few months ago. With full cross progression and cross play now in the game, the time for releasing on mobile had finally arrived, and I don’t have too many complaints with the port right now, but there is work to be done.

When you launch Warframe on iOS, you are prompted to login with Apple. Warframe is an online-only game, and you are required to login each time you boot up the game. This is also the case on Steam where you need to enter your Warframe password. On console you don’t need to enter your password each time, thankfully. If you plan on linking your existing Warframe account to iOS to continue playing, I’d recommend making sure you’ve set up cross save by linking whatever console versions you play so everything goes well when you link your iOS account.

With that done, you will be prompted to either download the tutorial part or the full game. As of March 4th, Warframe uses up 14.36GB on my iPhone 15 Pro with everything installed. For reference, Warframe takes up 17GB on Switch and 36.34GB on Steam. This is still a lot smaller than other live service games that approach 100GB. Warframe is very well optimized across the board, and I actually waited for a few mobile updates to cover the port. That paid off because Warframe on iOS is in a much better place right now than it was at launch with various improvements and fixes already like a 60fps option.

If you’ve ever watched Warframe gameplay before, it is very fast. You’re probably wondering how that is even playable on a touchscreen, but I think the team at Digital Extremes has done a great job translating the controls over with some mobile-exclusive options. Like Dead Cells, Warframe has automated attacks by default. You can disable this, but Warframe feels great with this enabled on a touchscreen. When it comes to shooting, moving your crosshair onto an enemy will make your weapons fire automatically. This also applies to melee.

In addition to the automatic attack options, there’s a new sensor that hints at things happening around you. This is especially useful if you are playing without headphones or sound so you can keep track of things near you. The sensor is color coded for white being non hostile things and red being hostile.

Warframe on iOS has controller support. I tested this with my 8BitDo and DualSense controllers. Both worked fine on my iPad. On iPhone, I wanted to play with touch controls, and they needed a bit of work. You can adjust the scale and transparency for most buttons here. The touch targets for some interactions were a bit too small by default, so I tweaked them. Some of the menus you use outside gameplay need to be larger though. Even some of the toggle switches are tiny on the iPhone screen. I’m not sure if these feel better on the Max size phones, but on my iPhone 15 Pro, some menus are a bit too small.

If you use a controller you can have Warframe auto detect buttons or force a specific set of controller button prompts. This includes Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch options. One thing I’d like to see added is gyro support. There’s a vibration setting, but Warframe also has haptics on iPhone, which is always good to see.

On the visual side, the default configuration was a bit too conservative on my iPhone 15 Pro. A recent update finally added higher frame rate support. At launch, Warframe was capped at 30hz on every iOS device. You can now increase this to up to 60hz, and it makes a huge difference even if the 60hz target isn’t met perfectly. Keep in mind that your phone will heat up with this unless you turn some more settings down. In addition to frame rate, you can adjust field of view all the way up to 111, use any quality preset, or adjust settings manually. These include motion blur (which is a bit too strong), film grain, distortion, depth of field, effects, shadows, dynamic resolution (with resolution scale), and more.

One thing to note is the iPad version on my iPad Pro (2020) has a lot of menu elements that are blurry like button prompts. I hope this can be improved in updates. While the game itself can look very good even on this older iPad, the menus looking bad is surprising. I don’t have an M1 or later iPad to see if things are better there.

A lot has already improved with Warframe on iOS since launch, and things will likely only get better. Having spent time with it on iPhone 15 Pro, iPad Pro (2020), Switch, Switch Lite, Steam Deck, and Xbox before, I’d put Warframe on iOS a bit above the Switch version right now if you use touch controls, and well above it if you use a controller. I only really recommend playing the Switch version if you don’t have access to a newer iOS device and don’t have a controller to use on said iOS device. The best portable version is on Steam Deck from the platforms I own for sure with much better visuals and performance across the board compared to even iPhone 15 Pro I’ll be playing it through the year seeing how the iOS version and others evolve.

Warframe is a free to play game, and while I can’t say how things might be in a few months from now, the team has proven itself over the years to deliver a non pay to win experience. Warframe is always considered one of the best examples of free to play live service done right, and you can experience that on your phone fully right now. I know free games are more about whether they are worth your time or not, and Warframe justifies it. If you’d rather not play it on your phone, give it a shot because it is available on every current platform as well as on iOS.

In its current state, Warframe is an impressive port of an excellent game. While I was hoping it was better in some aspects, Warframe is worth trying out on iOS for sure. It remains one of the best examples of free to play done right, and the complete game with no major compromises is now playable on iOS with cross play and cross save support. I can’t wait to see how Digital Extremes enhances the mobile version through the year leading into the Android version.

Warframe iOS port review score: 4.5/5

While there’s no shortage of simulation RPG games these days, Potion Permit stood out with how it brought in elements I liked from Rune Factory (simulation) and Atelier (potion and crafting aspects) together. In Potion Permit, you play as a chemist trying to save folks in the town of Moonbury. You do this by playing a few mini-games or solving some puzzles to diagnose, gather ingredients, and brewing potions. In addition to this, you also grow relationships with many townsfolk, and I appreciate how visibly the behavior and dialogue changes as you get closer to people in Potion Permit. In fact, it has a refreshing take on dialogue and everyone just doesn’t act nice at all times.

Potion Permit is a very relaxing game, but it also has a bit of a grind in many parts. I expected this based on what a friend told me before so it wasn’t a big deal, but keep that in mind if you’re planning on jumping in. You will need to get into the routine of gathering, crafting, interacting, and more here. Great games in the genre manage to hide the tedium well. Potion Permit can sometimes fail at that. Despite this, I’ve been treating Potion Permit as a nice break of an experience between fighting games or long RPGs I’m currently playing like Owlcat’s Rogue Trader on Steam Deck.

One of Potion Permit’s strengths across the board is the visuals. I love the aesthetic, animations, and overall feel of the game. It definitely borrows from other games mechanically, but manages to translate it all including puzzles and mini-games very well to its art style. It also has fullscreen support on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro (2020). While I have some issues with this port, Playdigious did a lovely job making the game’s aesthetic and visuals absolutely shine on iOS.

Despite not playing it at launch, I listened to the Potion Permit soundtrack on and off. It has one of the better soundtracks from games in the genre, and also has pleasant audio design throughout in combat, interactions, and how it handles dialogue for the many characters. Check out the soundtrack on YouTube.

On iOS, Potion Permit ships with touch controls, controller support, cloud saves, and Game Center achievements. The iCloud save support works great in my testing. I ended up playing on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro (2020) on and off over the last week to see how different parts of the game scaled and how they ran across older and newer devices. I also tested on an iPhone 13 Mini for a bit in a new save file, and found the text even worse there. I’ll cover the text and interface issues in a bit.

When it comes to the controls, the controller support in Potion Permit is great. It has appropriate button prompts depending on the controller used, and swaps between touch and controller prompts on the fly. In my testing with the Razer Kishi and the 8BitDo over bluetooth, it displayed Xbox prompts for the former and PlayStation prompts for the latter. The touch controls are also well done for the most part, but some menus and touch targets should’ve been better. Having played Potion Permit on Steam Deck as well to see how it runs and looks there, Playdigious did a good job translating that interface for touchscreens. You can also enable a floating pad for movement and should. Check out the cropped image below showing the difference in interface when using a controller and touch controls for certain controls:

Potion Permit on iOS has a few issues right now. If you treat it as a console game ported to mobile and play it like one, most of those issues will not affect you though. Using a controller sorts out the small touch target issues in the interface, but the text size remains a bit too small even after increasing the size in the game’s settings. This text size is an issue even on bigger screens like the Steam Deck. One other oddity is how you can’t scroll through some menus and need to use the on-screen buttons to move the cursor. The lack of suspend or save anywhere on Potion Permit on iOS is also a problem for a game on mobile. I wish it had a good auto save system because I don’t want to have to get back to save each time I play.

When it comes to platform differences, Potion Permit is not best played on iOS at least right now. The best portable version is Steam Deck followed by mobile in the middle and Switch on the lower end. Having tested Potion Permit on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X, it really feels like a game designed to be played on a monitor with its text size and interface rather than a portable with a smaller screen. The Xbox Series X version also runs smoothly across the board just like the Steam Deck version. The Steam Deck has the same text size issues though. I hope a future update can add an option for higher frame rate targets on modern iOS devices at least if any of these text size fixes aren’t in the works.

Potion Permit is a great game that brings together interesting elements from franchises I love into its own charming package. The mobile version on iOS at least, should’ve been better though. Right now some interface elements don’t feel tailored to touchscreens, and the text size is too small almost across the board. I was also hoping to also see it target a higher frame rate on newer devices like the iPhone 15 Pro. Given this was done by the excellent Playdigious who have released some of the best mobile ports, I expected better. Right now Potion Permit isn’t best played on iOS, but this mobile version isn’t a bad way to play MassHive Media’s simulation RPG, especially at its low asking price compared to consoles.

I’m going to focus on the PC port of Persona 3 Reload and how it plays on Steam Deck in this review, but I will also cover the remake itself and how I find it compared to the originals and Atlus’ recent releases. If you’ve never played Persona 3 before, but have played Persona 4 or Persona 5, you’re in for a treat. In a lot of ways, Persona 3 felt like a bridge between modern and older Persona, and was a lot of folks’ first Persona game. I loved most of the cast, the story, the music, and just living in that world. I didn’t like a few characters in the story, the main dungeon of the game, some gameplay issues compared to newer releases, and the pacing. A lot of the issues have been addressed in Persona 3 Reload which aims to bring in Persona 5 Royal-like gameplay mechanics to the fray with modern visuals and added content, but this has resulted in some of the old game’s charm being lost. It isn’t a huge deal though, but I will get into what I didn’t end up liking in Persona 3 Reload.

The gameplay improvements are across the board essentially here. You see this right from exploration, social life, and interactions. In addition to all the freedom you get during day to day life, Tartarus itself has been dramatically improved. It feels towering and actually manages to make you feel like you’re in uncharted territory while climbing up rather than just hallways like in the original releases. When it comes to combat and dungeon exploration, there are new mechanics like special chests, powerful Theurgy attacks, a baton pass-like mechanic, and more. You can of course command party members, which is something I assumed would be included, but I saw some people worry they wouldn’t be in.

Speaking of combat, Persona 3 Reload has an interface that tries to blend in Persona 3’s themes and Persona 5’s aesthetic. This has resulted in an interface that looks gorgeous, but I can’t help but think some of the original game’s feel is lost here because of that. It isn’t a dealbreaker, but some of it feels a bit inconsistent in what it is trying to do. Outside combat, everything feels and looks great when it comes to navigation and menus.

Persona 3 Reload has quite a bit of DLC in the form of cosmetics, Personas, and music. During the review period, I had access to none of the DLC so can’t comment on any of it, but I am going to try and cover it like I did the Persona 5 Tactica DLC post-launch. I’ll also discuss some of the story moments when I cover the DLC, but will avoid doing it too close to launch for spoiler reasons.

As has been the case with recent Persona PC ports, Persona 3 Reload lets you select button prompt options from PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Switch controllers. You can also have it auto-detect based on your input method. It also supports keyboard and mouse button prompts. You can adjust mouse and gamepad stick sensitivity as well from the game system settings menu here. You can also adjust and rebind controls for normal gameplay, event/movie, field/dungeon, and battle across keyboard, mouse, and gamepad.

The Persona 3 Reload PC graphics settings let you adjust graphics quality presets (low, middle, high, and custom), rendering scale (50%-200%), shadow quality (low, middle, high), background brightness, frame rate limit (30, 60, 120), and toggle reflections on or off. The options are a bit bare-bones given this is an Unreal Engine PC port, but it is what it is.

On the display side, Persona 3 Reload does not support 16:10 gameplay. The Persona 3 Reload display settings let you toggle v-sync, adjust screen mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), resolution, and monitor selection. The resolution options are interesting because it lets you use 800×450 or 800p by default. If you force a higher resolution on Steam Deck, you can go from 320×200 to 4K and even 3840×2400. A recent Steam Deck update has made it so the performance HUD isn’t visible in screenshots, and I haven’t figured out a way to get it to display yet. That’s why the screenshots are without any performance metrics here.

When I began testing, I decided to leave Persona 3 Reload on its default settings because it has been Steam Deck Verified for months now. I noticed the game held 60fps very well at native resolution and the default preset in the opening hour outside the protagonist’s room. It was around 40fps here. Then, it started to drop a bit more in parts of Tartarus like near the teleporter where there are a lot of effects.

At this point I started turning things down to see what it would take for a locked 60fps in Tartarus. I turned shadows to low and render scale to 75%, and it could do 50-60, but it wasn’t a locked 60. 50% render scale was enough to get a locked 60fps even in the parts I had it drop into the high 30s. The teleporter still saw the frame rate drop lower though in addition to some interactions in the Velvet Room.

It is worth noting that so far, there are no major performance issues during battles. This is all during exploration in Tartarus which is massive compared to how it felt in the PS2 and PSP versions of Persona 3. I’d recommend aiming for 75% render scale and 40hz right now unless you’re ok with drops from 60. Also it is worth noting that playing at higher frame rates than 60fps has a menu bug in the current build I have where the menus are capped at 30fps with it sticking to that 30fps even for a few seconds of gameplay when you exit out of the menu. It then shoots back up to 60fps.

I also had access to the current console versions of Persona 3 Reload. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X target 60fps and look fantastic on my 1440p display. In its current state, I didn’t see PS5 Activity Card support, but the game’s listing mentions PS+ Game Help is supported. The DualSense features aren’t anything to write home about. On Xbox Series X, Persona 3 Reload supports Quick Resume. Despite the higher frame rate, I ended up liking Persona 3 Reload the most on Steam Deck because of how good it looks and feels on Deck even with the lesser performance.

I’d love for future patches to address some of the performance issues in Tartarus on Steam Deck so it can run at a locked 60fps, but barring that I’d love to see The Answer as actual paid DLC in the future. Barring that, I don’t really have any complaints for things that could be patched.

While I’ve praised a lot about Persona 3 Reload, the few things I dislike have to do with the changes to the English cast and the music. The music is mostly all incredible thanks to Lotus Juice, but some songs don’t hit as hard as the original soundtrack. Instead of giving us DLC for songs from the Persona 4 and Persona 5 games, I’d have preferred an original Persona 3 soundtrack option like we see in the Resident Evil remakes. The English voice cast is mostly incredible with some characters sounding better than the original cast, but some also don’t hit as hard based on the prior cast that I’ve loved for so long.

I’m obviously not going to pretend like this remake’s new visuals, content, and gameplay enhancements make up for the lack of the Persona 3 Portable’s female protagonist option and FES’ The Answer, but Atlus has done a fantastic job with most aspects of this remake bringing out a new gorgeous and modern take on Persona 3 for the current generation. Even if you played Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable like I did, Persona 3 Reload has enough to justify a replay. It also feels almost perfect on Steam Deck, my favorite way to play it now.

Persona 3 Reload Steam Deck Review Score: 4.5/5

As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Right off the bat, Goat Simulator 3 is a lot of fun as a fan of the earlier games. If you’ve never played a game in the series before, the sandbox and hilarity in Goat Simulator 3 make it a much nicer experience than prior games. You can still do whatever you want in the game, but there’s now some structure for those who prefer direction. What stood out right from the start is how Goat Simulator 3 feels like a massive bump in ambition compared to the first game and those spin-offs. I will go so far as to say that Goat Simulator 3 feels like it already has a few Goat Simulator games worth of content included here.

The game seems to not support iCloud progress sync, so I played it very differently across my iPhone and iPad purposely. I wanted to see how it felt if you just try and do what the game wants with its quests while also checking out how much fun there was to be had if you ignore everything and just treat it as a relaxing way to destroy as much as possible. It turns out Goat Simulator 3 is very good on both fronts. Right from the start you can do things like head-butting dynamite into a person, catching fire and setting fire to the environment, dragging a house with a tow truck, playing mini-games, looking for secret collectibles, exploring a very big area, grinding on power cables, and more. As you start trying to explore and do more in Goat Simulator 3, the tutorials start popping up ensuring you know what to keep doing. I found the tutorials quite good here.

While I love a lot of the freedom you get in Goat Simulator 3 and in how it still has some nudges to players to explore and do more in the game world, I was pleasantly surprised by how well it referenced other games and franchises. You see this right from the intro when you finally wake up. I won’t say more on that front, but the team did a really amazing job at bringing other game elements or even parts of levels into the world of Goat Simulator 3.

In addition to the ragdoll physics gameplay, you also have quite a few cosmetic options with gear to equip on different parts of the goat as you explore the huge sandbox location in San Angora as Pilgor once again. All of this with Ubisoft-style towers is even funnier together.

Goat Simulator 3 has touch controls and controller support. Both of them aren’t perfect because of camera sensitivity issues. When playing on the touchscreen, movement is too fast while it is too slow on my Xbox controller over bluetooth. I also used my 8BitDo controller on my iPad to test. I ran into a similar issue on both controllers where some actions were not possible with a controller. These range from some menus to some during gameplay. It feels like the controller support isn’t fully implemented because it does work well in parts, but falls short in others. I don’t have a Backbone One right right now to check how it feels with it on my iPhone though.

Goat Simulator 3 supports multiplayer on iOS but it is limited to up to two players in total. It does work online, and I tested it over cellular as well as wifi. It had no connection issues at all. I’m glad that the multiplayer at least works well. It is worth noting that the console versions support more players.

Speaking of the console versions, I played Goat Simulator 3 on mobile for a good amount of time before properly checking it out and comparing it with the Xbox Series X version. Goat Simulator 3 on Xbox Series X has a performance and quality mode. I used the former but also tested out the latter. It plays better than the iPhone 15 Pro version, but it isn’t perfect even on Xbox Series X with the draw distance and performance issues in parts. The iOS version has no graphics options on my devices. The load times on mobile are very good though.

When comparing the visuals, the foliage and draw distance are better on Xbox Series X by quite a bit. It also can target 60fps while the iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro (2020) versions don’t have higher frame rate options right now. The Xbox Series X is the most powerful console available today so it will no doubt run and look better there compared to iPhone 15 Pro, but it is worth seeing how developers scale down games for iOS. Check out the comparison image below for Xbox Series X (performance mode) versus the iPhone 15 Pro version:

The team has been responding to people saying it is looking into adding graphics options and quality of life features into Goat Simulator 3, and I hope those arrive in the coming months because this has the potential to be one of the better console to mobile conversions. I already like the game a lot, but wish the iOS version was better. Barring those things the team said it might look into, the controller support needs to be improved as well. There is no way to adjust camera sensitivity which is too high on touch controls and too low on a controller right now. In fact, I even ran into some issues with controllers (not counting the virtual controls being visible at all times), that required me to use touch controls for some actions. These need to be addressed.

On consoles, Goat Simulator 3 is priced at $29.99 usually. On mobile, it is $12.99 which is a very reasonable price given the game content, but it is a premium price for a mobile port that we usually see from the likes of Feral Interactive usually. The difference is a Feral Interactive mobile release doesn’t ship with so many issues. Once the control and visual issues potentially are addressed, it will be a lot easier to recommend Goat Simulator 3 even at full price.

The mobile version is the full game, but the visual issues even on iPhone 15 Pro are disappointing alongside the control issues. I was hoping some of this would be fixed soon after launch, but here we are. If you have access to an Xbox Series X, I’d recommend playing Goat Simulator 3 there with Xbox Game Pass or buying it on PC or PS5 over playing it mobile right now. I’m looking forward to playing it on Steam Deck when the game releases on Steam in a few weeks.

If you’ve never played Goat Simulator 3 but did enjoy the first main game and spin-offs in the series on mobile, this one is an easy recommendation with a few caveats. While it isn’t perfect even on Xbox Series X, it plays a lot nicer there compared to iOS. I hope we get updates to address the visual and control issues because Goat Simulator 3 feels right at home on a portable and suits the pick up and play nature of the platform while delivering the full game experience from the start.

If you’ve not played Art of Rally before, not only does it play great with a ton of content available from the get go, but it also is beautiful across the gameplay and menus. We often see great looking and elegant gameplay but a mediocre interface. Art of Rally makes sure to cover all bases, and also deliver an amazing soundtrack. It is basically a home run of a racing game that I hope more people play, but I wish it was delayed a bit more on iOS to be a better port.

We know that the Art of Rally Australia DLC is coming alongside the Android version, but even in its base game, it is content packed and over delivers in value for its low asking price on iOS. Right off the bat, you can jump into the lengthy career, go for a time attack with various customization options for that race, create and play a custom rally with various settings, take part in the online daily and weekly events with leaderboards, and go driving in the free roam mode. Despite being a rally racer with a lot of work put into the handling, feel, sounds, and more, Art of Rally has a lot of accessibility options to make it approachable by newcomers to racing games. These include difficulty settings for the stability, anti lock braking, transmission, counter-steer factor settings, and more.

The custom modes let you adjust the AI difficulty and even disable performance damage completely while you choose your own location and stages for your rally. These settings are also present in the campaign that begins in 1967 in group 2 covering how rally racing grew in popularity. As a game, Art of Rally is constantly a delight to experience across its visuals, gameplay, and sound design. I just wish its mobile debut was better. I really wonder what state it was in last month when it was supposed to release before it got delayed because of how it feels unoptimized even on iPhone 15 Pro given the visuals and performance.

When it comes to the controls, Art of Rally has controller support and touchscreen support, but neither are perfect. On the controller side, the game sometimes just doesn’t register inputs in a specific menu. As an example, going into options and then graphics with a controller works fine. Going into advanced settings will result in the d-pad or analog stick not working so you either need to use touch or press the back button. This happens in photo mode as well sometimes, and I even had the game display keyboard prompts like E and F12 for some reason in one photo mode menu on my iPad. I’d recommend checking out the camera settings and trying out different views and disabling the screen shake if you get motion sickness like I do with it enabled in some games.

On the touch side of things, the controls are acceptable but I didn’t see any way to adjust the size or position of any controls on either iPhone or iPad. The controls work well assuming you get used to the size and positions, but you can’t do anything else right now. This is as of the latest build on the App Store on January 24th. I also had some menus not respond when I tapped the continue button using touch controls. I had to back out a few times to get it to work. I hope this can be improved at least because I just assumed the touch controls at least would be fine.

On iOS, Art of Rally lets you adjust the frame rate target between 30 and 60 (120 might be coming later I’ve been told), overall quality setting (low, medium, high), vegetation cutout (when your car is obscured), and individually adjust advanced settings. These include bloom, blur, film grain, shadow resolution, shadow distance, draw distance for vegetation, and particle quality. You can also enable a dark mode for the menus which is very nice, like in the PC and console versions. Check out a comparison below of the game on iPhone 15 Pro (left) and Nintendo Switch (right):

On iPhone 15 Pro, the only way I could get the 60fps mode to run well is setting it to the low graphics preset. Anything above caused frame pacing and stutter at points. Playing at 30fps and high settings is more or less fine, but both modes have a lot of visual popin for foliage and other things in the environment. Adjusting this manually in the settings is still not enough as I constantly see trees popping into view close to the car on either side of the road. If this is how it runs and looks on iPhone 15 Pro, I can’t imagine how it is on older phones.

On iPad Pro (2020), it doesn’t feel like it is coming close to 60fps at either high or low settings. I feel like this is a bug or it isn’t optimized for my iPad at all. I know it is an old iPad now, but this is worth noting if you have a similar one. I assume it runs a lot better on the M1 and later iPads.

In terms of iOS features, it has Game Center achievement support, but I couldn’t get the iCloud syncing (if included) to work. I always want to put a disclaimer on the iCloud aspect because of how unreliable it can be in the first place. If it does have iCloud syncing, it has not worked for me across two devices (and two others I tested at home on another account).

When comparing Art of Rally on iOS (on my devices) to Switch and Steam Deck, the iOS version is a lot better than Switch even when playing that docked. I’m surprised at how poor the Switch port looks and runs. The Steam Deck Version is superb though, and my favorite version of the game by far. If you have access to a Steam Deck or play on PC, I definitely recommend getting Art of Rally there. While the iOS version is priced very reasonably, I don’t think it is worth buying unless you are ok with the visual and performance compromises needed even on the newest iPhone to get it running well, and it still has some control issues. I’ll be revisiting this when it gets updates, but I am disappointed in the technical aspects of Art of Rally on iOS right now.

In its current state, Art of Rally on iOS is sadly not a great port. This should have been the definitive portable version of a superb racer, but it is just in between the bad Switch version and the great Steam Deck version. Performance and visual issues aside, it doesn’t even have good touch controls. I got used to them, but I’d recommend this with a controller for now. Noodlecake is usually great, so this is a rare misstep from the team. I hope it does get fixed because Art of Rally is worth owning and playing at full price, but I can’t recommend on iOS without some caveats unfortunately despite the low asking price on mobile. Hopefully by the time the Android version and DLC release, it will be in a better state.

Since then, the team released Like a Dragon Gaiden (link to review), which I ended up loving as well despite its one annoying issue. At that point, I was more or less sold on Kiryu being back, but was cautiously optimistic for where the story in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (titled Like a Dragon 8 in Japan) would go. I’ve been playing it for a few weeks now, and after putting in nearly 105 hours into the game across PS5 and Steam Deck, I consider Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to be a masterpiece of an RPG, and one of my favorite games in a very long time. Note that the screenshots in this review are my own from both Steam Deck and PS5.

When I began the main story, it felt like a great opening, but I wasn’t ready for what was coming next. With each chapter I played, mini-game I discovered, side story I found, and more, I genuinely couldn’t believe what Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega pulled off here. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is one of Sega’s best games ever, but what surprised me is how it also felt like two complete Yakuza games put together and then some. If you played Yakuza 0, you experienced a dual protagonist system there. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a monstrous experience through its main story and all the optional content. Even after over a hundred hours into the game, I haven’t done remotely everything I wanted to in the game world.

Before getting into what I love about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I want to go over what I wanted fixed from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was the team’s first turn-based RPG, and one that felt like a brilliant first attempt from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. It did have some teething issues in its gameplay, and one massive surprise difficulty spike in the later half of the game. The team has addressed all of these issues in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth with huge combat improvements and enhancements, and the team even took care of the difficulty spike by actually giving you recommended gear and levels for specific story points throughout the story. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is basically the culmination of not only the newer games in the series, but also as chock full of quality content as Yakuza 0 was, while respecting the series’ legacy as a whole throughout. This is Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s magnum opus.

Having avoided watching most story-related trailers, I came into Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth relatively blind barring what I experienced in the demo included in Like a Dragon Gaiden last year. I was curious about how both protagonists would be handled, and I think the team did a fantastic job. After a strong opening few chapters, you start to see not only different perspectives of the story, but also some superb interactions between the new parties here. I wasn’t worried about how Ichiban’s side would be handled with the new characters introduced, but I was curious about how I’d find characters from Yakuza: Like a Dragon like Seonhee, Nanba, and Saeko in Kiryu’s party. In the last few years, there have been some strong JRPG main casts like Xenoblade 3 having one of the best, but Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has surpassed that quite a bit. This might be one of my favorite casts in gaming now.

In addition to the banter during exploration and combat, the characters are further fleshed out not only during the story, but also for their own backstories through the Drink Links system. After you’ve raised your bond level enough through interactions, gifting them something, eating with them, or fighting alongside them, you can experience a Drink Link at the bar. This lets you learn more about a party member and even help them out with their problems. Some of these may even involve actual in-game battles. I ended up completing Drink Links for every character but one in my first playthrough, and they were all worth it.

Without getting into any spoilers or even mentioning what I saw in some of the trailers, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s narrative and the payoff are consistently fantastic. I’m curious about how not only longtime fans, but also newer players react to some moments from the mid to late game. Out of the new playable and non playable characters, Chitose and Eric are well-written, while the new interactions we see between the likes of Seonhee and Nanba with Kiryu and Kiryu’s interactions with Ichiban give this the feel of two legendary experiences coming together for a grand conclusion.

Speaking of the conclusion, there’s a big build up to how I expected things to go in the story, but I realized I was only halfway into the game. It constantly surprised me, and even baited me into thinking how specific characters would act only to do the opposite. All of this is elevated by great cut-scene direction with a mix of in-engine and pre-rendered scenes. There is also quite a bit of voiced dialogue throughout which is a huge deal for a game as long as this one.

I can’t believe I’ve not even mentioned so far that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is set in Hawaii, the first time a game in the series focuses on a locale like this. Hawaii isn’t just some location added for a substory, but a huge, colorful, and dense location full of secrets, specialty coffee shops (a huge win in my book), powerful foes, and a ton of mini-games and NPCs. In fact some of the locations are so dense, I even noticed the frame rate drop in the PS5 version there. After knowing prior locations like the back of my hand, it felt great having a new location in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to discover and also look for secrets and collectibles across the hidden locales.

Outside the main story, there is a wealth (I couldn’t resist) of side content through different kinds of substories, mini-games, and a few that could be fleshed out into their own game. The Dondoko Island mini-game could be its own budget priced standalone release. It has that much effort put into it, and it almost pushes the game engine too much in its scope. Then there’s Sujimon which has its own raids, battles, training, boss fights, and even a very cool thing you unlock after completing it. Barring these two, Sicko Snap and the delivery mini-games were highlights. There are the usual arcade games and more that the Yakuza games include, but I ended up spending too much time on karaoke as usual.

Speaking of substories in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Kiryu has his own set of substories and memoirs essentially that you can collect. I won’t specifically spoil what these include, but longtime fans of the series and fans of Kiryu over the years will find a lot to love here. Some of the moments here surprised even me (in a good way) with how the developers tackled certain characters. I’ll leave it at that.

A lot of elements in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s story, gameplay, and optional content had me thinking whether it would end up being a “too much of a good thing" situation, but the team proved me wrong. I only thought maybe one or two hours out of the over hundred hours I put into Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth were not fun, and that’s because I tried pushing my luck in a dungeon or story moment where I went in without gearing up.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is structured a bit differently because of the two protagonists. There are some story chapters where you play mostly with only one party, and don’t see much of the other, but most end up letting you do a bit with both Ichiban and Kiryu. The story starts unfolding perfectly the more you play, and everything slowly makes sense with character motivations, and also with Ichiban’s character coming into its own. Kiryu’s character was always going to be amazing, but the real star of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is definitely Ichiban.

When I unlocked the job (combat class) system, or the ability to change jobs in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth I was almost spoiled for choice immediately. You start out with a few jobs unlocked, but can unlock more by visiting specific locations or completing certain mini-games. I didn’t spend too much time experimenting during my first playthrough because I was very happy with my party setup for both protagonists, but I’ve been having a blast with the new jobs in the post-game.

One worry I had was how the game would be balanced around multiple jobs with the robust job system, encounters, difficulty, and also equipment. Barring having to remember to equip your best gear when you are playing the other character, I had no real issues with how anything was handled difficulty wise. I even tried pushing things by going into a story scene multiple levels below the recommendation with lower quality gear. It was doable, but definitely a wake up call. I would take those game level recommendations seriously if I were you.

When it comes to the gear or equipment in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the game features crafting, equipment per job, character-exclusive equipment you can unlock later, and also an upgrade system to enhance your gear. The materials you use to craft or upgrade are found all over the game, but some will be much easier to obtain through mini-games, especially if you’re after the ultimate weapons for each character. Ichiban’s ultimate weapon helped me out a ton during the final area of the game as an example.

At this point, you’re probably wondering if these level recommendation messages are just a warning for difficulty spikes, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you keep running from enemies and skip battles, you will be lower level for sure, but the game has a few ways of letting you get up to speed or even grind to be overpowered if you’d like. This is where the dungeons come into the picture. Barring a few story locations that are smaller dungeon-style areas, you have access to two main dungeons in the game. These are optional (outside of a story moment that takes you into the early areas) locations where you can get amazing crafting materials, weapons, and a lot of experience. There are checkpoints that let you save as well, so it isn’t something you need to complete in one go. I usually used to stock up on healing and stamina restoring items before doing a dungeon run as a break from the story or a mini-game.

One new feature in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth that makes dungeons much less boring than the sewer in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, is the music player. You can play a few songs from the start, but unlock a plethora of Sega and Atlus songs through exploration and mini-games. I don’t want to spoil the surprise songs they’ve included but I didn’t expect Sega to even remember two of the games featured here. I’d also like to note that some dungeons also feature traps and hazards with the usual hidden collectibles, mimic chests, and special enemies that reward more experience. A lot of the additions and improvements in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth make it feel more like a JRPG while still maintaining everything I love about the Yakuza series.

Dungeons, exploration, bosses, and more all revolve around Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s combat system. This time, you can move around in a fixed radius to plan your attacks with the interface highlighting when you’re near an object you can pick up, given a proximity bonus, and even see the direction an enemy will be knocked into letting you strategize on the go. The game is still turn-based, but this level of movement and the interface prompts give you quite a bit of freedom to strategize in your directional attacks, area of effect skills (with their own highlights), and also in environmental interactions. Selecting skills usually has short quick time events like mashing Y/Square or perfectly timing your X/Triangle button press to get a damage increase. Guarding against attacks by timing a press of A/O lets you lessen the impact of attacks.

This movable area for the character you’re controlling now removes the randomness of the prior main entry. You also don’t need to worry about enemies blocking your path while you try and do a basic attack against an enemy further away. My only complaint with the combat system is in how the camera sometimes does not reposition quickly enough on an enemy attacking. This means you don’t get a chance to try and do a perfect guard in time. I’m not sure if this will be fixed for launch, but I hope it is addressed at some point.

One aspect that really elevates the whole combat experience is the new party members and also the party structure across the game. Having Seonhee playable is amazing, and I’m glad it happened, but finding your own synergies with the job system and parties to eventually get to a point where you wipe out high level enemies in a few turns before they can even act never gets old. I enjoyed Seonhee’s whip attack that uses a powerline to do area of effect damage, and followed that up with another area of effect attack doing fire damage basically melting enemy health bars.

The demo gave the impression that Kiryu can just use brawler style combat as his ultimate ability at any time, but keep in mind that you don’t just get access to it immediately, and you can’t just spam it and play with Kiryu as a brawler. This is a turn-based experience through and through, but Kiryu can get into brawler mode after a specific point in the game, only once his special bar fills up. The way you unlock it is also one of the best surprises in the game.

While you can fast travel to taxi points across the map once you’ve unlocked them by walking by, the real joy of the experience is running around and discovering a random powerful item in a briefcase just lying in the curb or picking up a useful item from the bin. You can of course use the new segway-like device to speed around town. I love that you can even customize the color and particle effects for this and it requires its own charges and upgrades. By about the middle of the game, I worried how I’d even keep track of all of this with the many upgrade and crafting systems included, but it all comes together really well. You just need to remember to upgrade your gear and buy healing items often.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s combat also features poundmates which are this game’s summons, and they are even more over the top than the prior game. I ended up unlocking so many optional ones through substories and mini-games that I forgot to use many of them by the end, and only remembered this during the final area of the game where I let loose and just enjoyed the spectacle of the poundmate animations for some encounters.

I mentioned Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s Dondoko Island mini-game already being very in-depth, but I was surprised at how much time I was willing to put into it. For mini-games like Sicko Snap, I stopped playing after doing it enough times to unlock the gear I wanted, but here I was just using Dondoko Island like I do karaoke in Yakuza games, as a way to take a break from the main story. It helps that Dondoko Island was great to earn money and something special at the end as well.

If you played Like a Dragon Gaiden, you’d know that Sega added VTuber Kson to the game as a hostess in the mini-game, and I was glad to see that. In Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, she’s a bartender, but the VTuber presence doesn’t stop there, and I found it very interesting how the developers and writers handled that aspect in the story. Who knew adding VTubers and more coffee shops would help this much? But jokes aside, I definitely enjoyed that aspect of the game.

Despite playing the game a lot daily for a while now, I still didn’t end up seeing everything it had to offer, and will be dipping into it slowly aiming for 100% completion over the coming weeks. It really is a monster of a game in just about every way, and I was surprised at how it never felt like it had padding. You even get a wealth of save points and items in the late game locations that throw enemies at you constantly.

Visually, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth looks mostly gorgeous. There are some elements that feel a bit unpolished, but it is a nice step above past games in its scope and visuals in Hawaii. The dynamic weather system is also very well done. Character models are fantastic, and the team definitely stepped up with the production for story scenes. Performance will vary in parts depending on what you’re playing on though.

I played Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth on both PS5 and Steam Deck for this review, but will focus on the Steam Deck portion for the technical details. On PS5, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth targets 60fps and I only noticed the frame rate drop considerably in one in-game location with a ton of NPCs and also in two late-game boss fights during attack cut-scene animations or during attack animations only.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is Steam Deck Verified already which is always a good sign, but Valve sometimes marks games that don’t run well as Verified. Thankfully, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is actually really good on Steam Deck, and you will likely already know what to expect if you played the demo or played Yakuza: Like a Dragon on the handheld. On Steam Deck, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth lets you adjust display mode (borderless, fullscreen, windowed), resolution (with 16:10 and 800p support), refresh rate, toggle v-sync, use graphics presets, adjust FOV, frame rate target (30, 60, 120, unlimited), and adjust advanced settings.

The Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth advanced graphics settings on Steam Deck let you adjust texture filtering mode, shadow quality (which I set to low as usual), geometry quality (Medium for me), realtime reflections, motion blur, SSAO, render scale, depth of field, reflection quality, and a few upscaling techniques. This includes AMD FSR 1.0, FSR 2, FSR 3, Intel XeSS, and also the game’s default anti-aliasing. I ended up using either FSR 2 or FSR 3 during my time with it on Steam Deck. While I obviously couldn’t test this on Steam Deck, if you were wondering about DLSS, Nvidia announced that it will be supporting it.

After testing the final game’s most recent build as of this writing, a locked 60fps isn’t really doable on Steam Deck without the game looking a bit too blurry for my liking. I’d recommend aiming for 40hz or 30fps if you’re ok with that with much better visuals. Turning shadows to low, leaving geometry on medium, and using motion blur if you like it, while playing around with render scale and FSR 3 are your best bet for a smooth experience right now. You could get much better performance by lowering the render scale below 100 to say 80, but I’m not a fan of how it looks. I’d rather stick to a 40hz target with some compromises given this is a turn-based game after all, or 30fps with better visuals. Keep in mind that while the opening of the game might seem to run at 60fps for you, Hawaii is more demanding in many parts with how dense the locations are with many NPCs walking around. Also be warned that one more crowded mall area and two boss fights seem to be quite a bit heavier than the rest of the game.

On the audio side, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has amazing music throughout its upbeat battle themes, catchy themes played during mini-games, excellent new and old karaoke songs, and memorable boss themes. Two of the later boss themes are amazing, and I can’t wait to see the reaction to them when my friends play Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth also happens to use a nice arrangement of some older songs from the series, but I won’t say where that happens. I know some previews have shown this, but look forward to some nice surprises in the game’s soundtrack.

While I expected Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to have excellent Japanese voice acting, I want to highlight Kazuhiro Nakaya, the Japanese voice of Ichiban Kasuga for his performance here. It is probably my favorite protagonist performance in any RPG alongside Ben Starr’s Clive in Final Fantasy XVI and Harry McEntire’s Noah in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Kazuhiro Nakaya delivered something beyond special here. Not to say the other cast members didn’t do a great job, but his delivery really stuck with me throughout even days after I hit certain story beats.

If you, like me, were considering getting Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth on PS5 or wondering what that version offers over the Steam Deck barring the visual and performance upgrades, the DualSense features are very nice. The developers added proper haptic feedback for many small things like ukulele strum attacks or for the segway while exploring. I expected some basic adaptive trigger support, but I’m very happy with the DualSense implementation here. It is a shame that this seemingly isn’t available on the PC version.

Barring some performance improvements in parts I had issues in, the only thing I’d like to see improved is the camera in some encounters. The game shouldn’t have enemies attack while the camera hasn’t adjusted yet. I also would like Sega to add an option to the PC port to force the display of specific controller button prompts rather than have it auto detect. The Persona ports let you select or force Nintendo and PlayStation prompts regardless of your input method. This is a minor issue, but since the PC port is so good in just about every other way, it would be a nice addition.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio at its peak. It feels fresh while still bringing together the best aspects of my favorite games from the studio. Not only does it manage to deliver a compelling story with twists and turns throughout the massively long main story run time, but the sheer quality of its optional content and mini-games puts some of the best entries in the series to shame. We finally have a modern Yakuza game that matches not only the quality, but also the quantity of Yakuza 0’s awesomeness. It gets my highest possible recommendation. I can’t wait to see what the studio does for the next game.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5

You can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here on our main page for all things Steam Deck. If you have any feedback for this or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

If you haven’t played Tekken in a while, Tekken 8 feels like a proper generational leap in its production and in the quality of the modes offered in the launch package. I’ll cover the visuals in a bit, but Tekken 8 has a lovely main story mode titled The Dark Awakenings, character-specific episodes that play out separately from the main story over five battles, a new Arcade Quest mode that serves as a fun single player mode and also an interactive tutorial in many ways, a normal arcade mode, versus mode, practice mode, and Tekken Ball (I was glad to see this return) when it comes to the offline modes included. This is a lot more than I expected, though I hope we see more added in updates and seasons.

Without getting into spoilers for the story mode, I liked almost all of it through the cut-scenes and battles. I was surprised at how varied some of the situations were in the story as well, but mostly impressed by how good it looked throughout. While playing this main story mode, you can quit and resume from any chapter as well. It does a good job of making you play as quite a few characters from the roster, but does focus on Jin and Kazuya as expected. As for the end of the story, I like that it managed to surprise me despite where I thought things were going. It is full of great voice acting, some amazing QTE moments, and superb music. I’ve now played the story mode on Steam Deck, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Barring replaying one part in the middle, I continue to love it. I can’t believe a Tekken game delivered in a big production cinematic story mode more than every other fighting game I’ve played in years.

If you do finish the story and I highly recommend playing it through till the end, make sure to check the character episode menu for something later. It definitely feels like the team put a lot of work into the offline and story modes here. I also like how the story battles aren’t just all 1v1 with some interesting changes and additions of cinematic QTEs in specific story moments. I won’t spoil the later moments but I couldn’t believe how well the team nailed the final fight in the story mode. I haven’t tried out all the individual character episodes, but loved the ones I did end up playing with Azucena being my favorite.

Out of the offline modes, I spent a lot of time in the practice mode which I found quite good. It includes various display options like damage info, startup frames, status, frame advantage, and more. You can also do combo challenges, view sample combos, punishment training (which was very good), and adjust the usual settings. One thing you will notice from the start in Tekken 8 is the ability to enable Special Style by pressing L1 or LB. This is the game’s equivalent of Street Fighter 6’s Modern controls which is a more accessible control option for newer players. It makes things quite a bit easier, but I need to spend more time with it compared to the regular controls to see how I feel about it with new characters. You can disable this as well if you don’t want to use it. It displays whether you’re using this control option online so your opponent is aware.

I haven’t played Tekken 4, 5, and 6 yet, so I can’t comment on how things have changed compared to those games, but I can say that Tekken 8 feels fresh yet familiar with its aggressive focus in gameplay. I never found myself annoyed with how the game felt or any technical aspects like I was in Tekken 7. I can see myself playing Tekken 8 quite a bit over the coming months, and I’m glad I waited to do a new feature covering the best fighting games on Steam Deck to see how Tekken 8 and Under Night 2 play. Getting comfortable with the stage interactions and the Heat System have been interesting to see as I’ve been slowly trying to learn better combos with Reina, Azucena, and King.

Over the 45 or so hours I’ve spent with Tekken 8 on Steam Deck (handheld and docked) pre-release (default Proton) and now (Proton Hotfix picked by Valve to fix the online), I’ve been playing against the CPU in arcade mode, trying different graphics options, playing the entire story mode, multiple character episodes, and many hours of online play, the only issue I’ve run into is the keyboard needs to be manually invoked for text entry. Barring that, it even supports 16:10 aspect ratio during gameplay with black bars for cut-scenes but fullscreen support most other places.

After the recent Proton Hotfix update from Valve, Tekken 8’s online modes work perfectly on Steam Deck. I played docked on the Steam Deck Docking Station with ethernet and also over Wi-Fi to test with friends in different countries. Gone are the disconnects I used to have, and I can safely recommend Tekken 8 even if you exclusively play on Steam Deck. Not only is it a great portable version of the game, but a great version of Tekken 8 in general.

Before the PC demo, I expected poor results from Tekken 8 on Steam Deck given it is an Unreal Engine 5 fighting game and we’ve had some games using the engine not perform well on Steam Deck. As a fighting game, Tekken 8 requires 60fps, and thankfully it is achievable quite easily on Steam Deck. The default preset when you play on Steam Deck is a bit too conservative with how it sets everything to low. The PC port of Tekken 8 lets you adjust screen mode (borderless, windowed, full screen), resolution (1152×720 being the lower bounds), toggle v-sync, toggle variable rate shading, adjust rendering quality preset, adjust render scale (I left this on 65 in the end), upscaling method (XeSS, NIS, FSR 1.0, FSR 2, Catmull-Rom Bicubic, TSR, TAUU), adjust anti-aliasing quality, shadow quality (I set this to low), texture quality, effect quality, post-processing quality, background quality, display the frame rate, and restore default settings.

Tekken 8’s visuals and performance on Steam Deck can vary. I initially didn’t spend too much time with TSR, but thanks to John from Digital Foundry doing a video and posting about how good TSR is, I ended up sticking with that through the end. I also replayed the story mode later chapters too see how it felt. This is marked improvement visually over other upscaling methods. With a mix of medium and low, you can get a great 60fps experience in the actual fights. The character select and some story fights can drop frames though, especially when loading in new locations. The story mode in particular uses a mix of pre-rendered cut-scenes, in-engine scenes, and transitions to actual battles. Some of these transitions don’t run at a smooth 60fps so keep that in mind. I was ok with a few drops in story mode to have everything else look as good as it could be on the handheld screen. It is a shockingly good experience, especially after how middling Mortal Kombat 1 was at launch.

In terms of other features I value on Steam Deck, Tekken 8 supports 16:10 resolutions and has Steam Cloud support. The 16:10 support or 800p needs to be manually selected if you play docked at another resolution and then play handheld at 800p. If you just play handheld, there isn’t an issue here, and it does 16:10 support well through gameplay and menus. Some cut-scenes are 16:9 though like the opening video (which plays perfectly with audio). I also tested playing with a bluetooth controller for the story mode and my Razer Kitsune wired at the same time to swap between them sometimes. The game detects all inputs correctly.

I also installed Tekken 8 on my Steam Deck SD card rather than internal since it is a massive install of nearly 87GB. Some transitions that I expected to be seamless in story mode have a bit of loading, but it isn’t remotely as terrible as things were in Tekken 7 on PS4 back in the day.

If you play docked, it obviously is nowhere near as nice as the game is on console. Having played Tekken 8 on PS5 and Xbox Series X, it is plain gorgeous on my 1440p monitor. I also appreciate how well implemented the DualSense haptic feedback is in Tekken 8. This is felt during supers, story mode cut-scenes, and special battles. The team did a fantastic job with it, and I enjoyed experiencing the story once again here. It even has haptics for raindrops in one particular battle. If you are curious how the game runs on your own console or PC, a free demo is available. It doesn’t have online and isn’t up to date for the PC build, but is worth trying to see how it can run on your platform of choice. On the Xbox Series X side of things, there isn’t anything of note barring Quick Resume. The game runs and plays great and I used my 8BitDo Xbox stick there.

Right now, the online modes let you choose connectivity options, view your opponent’s connection type, disconnection ratio, and more when you find an opponent, and you can also adjust connection quality and toggle cross platform restrictions when you get into matchmaking. The connection information also displays different levels of wired and wi-fi quality, delay frames, rollback frames, and also processing load for PC resources being used to know whether there’s slowdown because of your PC or your opponent’s PC. My one complaint is not being able to add friends on other platforms easily within Tekken 8. I’ve had to go to the same online hub as them to add them manually. For the same platform, you can just add each other through a tab in the menu.

One aspect I didn’t get to spend much time with pre-release was the replays in Tekken 8. Tekken 8 has some features we already saw in Tekken 7, but the implementation of replays with the ability to pause and try things out for 10 seconds is superb. You can use this to already view tips for what would’ve been better by going through each round in a replay, but the ability to take control and try out things is great to see. This coupled with the ability to use save state-like functions to improve combos makes Tekken 8 feel a lot more welcoming not only to newcomers but also veteran players looking to get the best experience with learning long combos. I don’t think any fighting game in the last few years has added the ability to take control during replays like this. The screenshot below is from the PS5 version:

Tekken 8’s soundtrack is superb. That will not be surprising to most given the series’ history, but I am glad to have enjoyed almost every theme I heard in-game with Twilight Party Cruise being my favorite song so far. There are other great tracks like Volcanic Bomb, Hangar Rules, and The Decisive Blow as well. One more notable thing is how the Jukebox feature is not restricted to just one platform in Tekken 8. Tekken 7 had it only on PS4 but Tekken 8 has it on Steam as well as Xbox. You can use this to make custom playlists or replace songs from the series’ library. I’ve not played Tekken Tag Tournament before so being able to hear its great music has been amazing here.

I hope the team adds a larger font size option for the menus in a patch soon. While it isn’t too bad when I play on my monitor on the desk, playing on TV or on the Steam Deck’s screen is painful with the tiny font size. Barring that, I hope the keyboard input on Steam Deck can be sorted because this feels like a fantastic modern fighter on the platform, and it doesn’t struggle like Mortal Kombat 1 did on Steam Deck at launch.

One more oddity is the fact that the game mentions support for DualSense controllers in one of the menus, but only seems to display Xbox button prompts regardless of how I connected the DualSense controller with and without Steam Input enabled. I’d love to have this added because the PS5 demo had good haptic feedback. The screenshot below is from the PS5 version:

Before finishing this review, I want to touch on how detailed the customization options are in Tekken 8. I’ve heard this isn’t as impressive as some earlier entries, but I’ve been blown away by how cool or goofy you can make characters look here. Dress them up in gold and add a bread slice around their faces to annoy your friends like I do. Beyond that, you are also incentivized to unlock more through specific battles and by earning currency through other modes.

Having now spent enough time online and offline with Tekken 8 across Steam Deck, PS5, and Xbox Series X, I can safely say that Bandai Namco Studios hit it out of the park with this one. It is a universal improvement over the last game and delivers a superb package right from day one. While it has a few things I’d like to see fixed in updates, Tekken 8 gets my highest possible recommendation right now. I can’t wait to play more. It feels great to not only enjoy playing a new Tekken game, but also have it actually push visuals once again. Tekken 8 has great gameplay, awesome music, superb visuals, a brilliant replay system, and one of the best story modes in a modern fighter.

Tekken 8 Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5

Updated on January 30th: Added review score and updated text after playing online modes over the last week.

You can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here on our main page for all things Steam Deck. If you have any feedback for this or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

If you’ve read any of previous reviews of ACA NEOGEO releases that ostensibly replace the decade-old Dotemu versions of the same games, a lot of this is going to be familiar. I will go through it anyway, because some of you might be new. Feel free to head on to the next paragraph if you deem it necessary. So, the Dotemu version of Metal Slug X. It was quite good for its time, but its time was when Iron Man 3 was ruling the movie screens and everyone was doing the Harlem Shake. Things have marched on, and despite receiving updates over the years those original mobile versions are in rough shape now. While you can still buy the Dotemu version and save a buck by doing so, you should not. The ACA NEOGEO version is superior in every meaningful way. There, that’s all settled.

Metal Slug X is a strange game in the context of its series. While Metal Slug 2 had been very well-received and was a big success, it was hard to deny its technical issues. It suffered from severe enough slowdown that even a generation of players who had been raised on NES slowdown found it jarring at times. Developer Nazca Corporation had started work immediately on Metal Slug 3 after finishing up the second game, intending to make it the biggest and best run-and-gun action game that SNK’s NEOGEO platform would ever see. Fair beans to Nazca – the developer did more or less pull that off.

Still, those intentions meant that the third numbered installment would take two full years to finish development, which was a very long time for a company that was in dire financial straits and needed every hit it could muster. Egads! SNK’s 1999 fiscal year was ruined! But what if… Nazca Corporation were to make some adjustments to Metal Slug 2, shift it over to the more advanced Metal Slug 3 engine, and disguise it as a new game? Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Delightfully devilish, Shin Nihon Kikaku.

I’m being a little cute here to force the reference, but there’s no getting around the fact that Metal Slug X is a meal slapped together from the leftovers of last night’s Metal Slug 2 dinner. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course. This is a safe space and I think we can all admit that hot turkey sandwiches are usually better than the roast turkey the night before. It happens. And that is what happened here, too. I feel bad for people who were buying the extremely pricy AES cartridges, as they basically got Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3‘d here, but they were probably rich anyway. Metal Slug X rules. It’s a better game than Metal Slug 2 in every single way, and it’s just different enough to justify picking up even if you already own the game it’s based on.

It’s better on a technical level, with considerably fewer instances of slowdown and substantially lower severity when it does occur. There are more enemies about, owing to the freedom the Metal Slug 3 engine offered. Aesthetically, while the stages themselves use the same themes and layouts, the time of day has been changed in most of them to make things feel fresher. The music has been arranged and altered in some stages, and the Metal Slug 3 announcer has been added. There are some new sound effects, and an improved credits sequence.

Over on the gameplay side, there are a lot of little changes that add up to a big difference. New bosses, new enemies, new vehicles, more P.O.W.s and power-ups to find, new weapons, improved versions of existing weapons, and new behaviors for various objects and gimmicks. It’s a more difficult game, but not egregiously so. Indeed, I think the difficulty is just right in this game, with the extra heat compared to Metal Slug 2 proving to be most welcome. The pacing is really good too. I love Metal Slug 3, and it’s certainly a towering achievement in its genre. But I can’t argue with anyone who says that the last stage drags out far too long. You won’t have that issue with Metal Slug X. It’s all killer, no filler.

My heart struggles to choose between this game and Metal Slug 3 when I’m asked which is my favorite game in this series. I can’t pick, but the point is that if you’re into this genre at all you might as well own both of them. Four dollars? Yeesh. I threw way more quarters than that into this game back in the day. I think its snappy nature also makes it more well-suited to mobile than Metal Slug 3. Now, this game does suffer from the same issues we’ve seen with all the other Metal Slug ports to mobile. If you’re not using an external controller, you’re stuck with using touch controls in a game that can be quite demanding in terms of precision. But you have unlimited credits, so it doesn’t particularly matter if you die a lot. You know, if you just want to have fun and tour the game. The other issue is that to play multiplayer, you’ll need enough controllers for everyone and a display you feel comfortable enough crowding around.

Otherwise, it’s smooth enough sailing. You get both the Japanese and international versions of the game, tons of options to mess around with, a handy save state feature so you can stop and pick up at any point, and the usual extra modes every Hamster game comes with. The timed Caravan mode is decent here, and the score attack mode is a good challenge. There are online leaderboards to compete on as well, which can add some replay value to the game if you need more. Everything is emulated well, but there’s no surprise there. NEOGEO has been a solved problem for Hamster for a very long time now.

If you have an external controller or don’t mind the idea of playing with touch controls, Metal Slug X is about as good a run-and-gun experience as you’re liable to get on mobile. It’s a tightly-paced, action-packed tour through some wild and wacky stages that will keep you on your toes the whole way through. One of the best games on the NEOGEO, and I’m glad we’ve got a fresh version of the game to enjoy for the next ten years.

Of all of the fighters SNK offered up on its new platform, Fatal Fury was the biggest success. It had a very different feel from its cousin Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in mechanical depth or interesting characters. It’s not hard to figure out why SNK fast-tracked a sequel for release in the following year, though it would have to make do without Nishiyama, who was already on to other responsibilities. Fortunately, Fatal Fury 2 would benefit from being able to borrow some ideas from Capcom’s ground-breaking title. The result was a fusion of the elements that made the first game so interesting and aspects that were quickly becoming codified within the genre.

The sequel addressed the biggest shortcoming the first game had when stacked against Street Fighter II by expanding the roster of playable fighters from three to eight. Among the new characters was a kunoichi named Mai Shiranui, whose bouncy personality and, er, other bouncy elements made her a big fan favorite almost immediately. Other major additions include the taekwondo master Kim Kaphwan and a new big bad named Wolfgang Krauser. It was another big success for SNK, but there were more lessons to learn from Capcom that would be picked up for the following year’s Fatal Fury game.

Capcom had hit it big with Street Fighter II, and it seemed hesitant to slap a new number on any follow-up. At the same time, there was money on the table and Capcom wasn’t about to leave it there. Thus, four iterative follow-ups were produced to keep the quarters flowing, each one taking what had already been built and adding a little extra on top. This was the approach SNK would take for 1993’s Fatal Fury Special ($3.99). This game uses Fatal Fury 2 as a basis and makes a number of improvements and additions. The boss characters from the previous game are now playable, and the three characters cut from the original game have been restored. The gameplay speed has been increased, and a new combo system has been implemented to bring things ever closer to the Street Fighter II standard.

There was also an interesting secret in Fatal Fury Special. The main character of one of SNK’s other popular fighters, Ryo Sakazaki of Art of Fighting, made a special guest appearance in the game. Should the player beat all fifteen opponents without losing a single round, they’ll face off against Ryo after felling Krauser. Defeating him added him to the playable roster, and it was this fun little trick that served as the seed for The King of Fighters ’94, a mega-crossover of SNK characters that kicked off SNK’s bread and butter series from then on. That was all in the future, of course. In the present, Fatal Fury Special was the most successful game yet in the Fatal Fury series.

In the here and now, I would argue there are better games in the Fatal Fury franchise, but Fatal Fury Special is certainly a great one. I’d certainly recommend it in a general sense. Of course, we have to deal with the usual Arcade Archives issues when it comes to fighting games. I’ll go through them again for the benefit of anyone who is new to these reviews, but if you’ve read one of these before you know what I’m going to say.

Using touch controls with any of SNK’s fighting games is always going to be a bit of a challenge. You can have some fun with it, but it’s less than ideal. If you have an external controller and don’t mind using it, then you have nothing to worry about. The game plays very well that way. Multiplayer is also limited to those who have the right set-up. You’ll need a couple of external controllers, plus a display you feel comfortable enough having you and a friend crowding around. No wi-fi multiplayer and certainly no online multiplayer.

As a result of these demands, I imagine most people who buy this game will be playing against the CPU with touch controls. It’s hardly the best way to enjoy a game like this, but I won’t say you can’t enjoy it. You can turn down the difficulty all the way if you like thanks to the robust set of options Hamster has included here, and you might get some extra enjoyment out of the usual Score Attack and timed Caravan modes. And hey, if you can beat Krauser with touch controls then you have my respect. That and a buck won’t even get you a can of Coke these days, but you’ll have it.

Anyway, that’s where we’ll park this one. Fatal Fury Special isn’t the very best fighting game we’ve seen in the ACA NEOGEO line so far, but it’s certainly in the upper tier. It unfortunately has to deal with all the usual problems that come with fighters in this line, but I didn’t exactly expect Hamster to solve that problem at this point. If you’ve found some entertainment in prior NEOGEO fighters adapted to mobile, you’ll likely get some here as well.

Before getting into the differences and platform-specific details, if you’ve never played Disney Dreamlight Valley in any form or even heard of it, think Animal Crossing meets Disney and Pixar. Yes, that’s reductive since Disney Dreamlight Valley has a ton of quality of life features over Nintendo’s massively popular series, but I’m sure more folks have played Animal Crossing than not by now. If you haven’t, Disney Dreamlight Valley is a life simulation and adventure game that lets you create your own avatar and then jump into the magical world. The core gameplay gives you quite a bit of freedom, and is very relaxing. You can fish, cook, harvest items, decorate your house, use magic, and so much more.

There are enough guides and articles on Disney Dreamlight Valley itself since the game hit early access last year. Instead of going into detail about them, I’m going to focus on whether Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition is worth your time as an Apple Arcade subscriber, whether it is the game that will push you to try out the subscription, how the Apple Arcade version compares to the premium release, and more. I’m approaching this as someone who isn’t a huge fan of Disney and Pixar, but I know enough about the characters included, and I also love Animal Crossing on 3DS. Animal Crossing New Horizons on the other hand disappointed me, so I was glad to see other life simulation genre games deliver on what I wanted, including Disney Dreamlight Valley.

You can play Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition offline, but since it supports cross platform play with other non Apple Arcade platforms, I recommend playing with online support. I was curious how it would feel to control with touchscreen controls, and Gameloft did a great job here. After a few minutes, I had no trouble playing it on my iPhone 15 Pro. When using a DualSense controller to test, it also showed PlayStation button prompts. I didn’t try it much on macOS yet with keyboard and mouse controls, but it felt fine.

Being on Apple Arcade, Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition comes with some huge advantages, but also a few caveats. The good news is there’s no extra purchase needed. This is the full Disney Dreamlight Valley experience with the paid expansion, A Rift in Time, which sells for $30 on other platforms all included for Apple Arcade subscribers. There is no premium shop or star path here, so that means some cosmetic items might not be available yet or at all. I’m not sure how this will be handled, but I imagine we might see some content released slowly through free updates like we do in other Apple Arcade games. Either way, Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition offers stupidly good value for newcomers. It also supports cross platform play.

The downside is that there is no cross progression outside the Apple Arcade ecosystem. Your progress is on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS, but you cannot bring your old progress or take this progress to other platforms. This might not be a big deal for some, but I’m worried that someone’s potentially hundreds of hours long save file might not carry over to something else if Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition ever leaves the service. Some developers have made it so progress is still usable on non Apple Arcade versions, but this is something to keep in mind before investing a lot of time into a fantastic game, when you might be better off getting it on another platform.

Speaking of another platform, how does Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition compare with Disney Dreamlight Valley on PS5, Xbox Series X, Steam Deck, and Nintendo Switch? Based on what I’ve played last year and this year, I’d say my favorite version of Disney Dreamlight Valley is the PC version on Steam Deck followed by Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition. I love playing life simulation games on a portable, and the Steam Deck version of the full game runs and looks excellent. The Switch version is not as good with much longer load times, worse performance, and menu lag. It looks fantastic on my high resolution display when I play the Xbox Series X version, but the cross save means I never lose progress there. I’ve been jumping between Xbox, Switch, and Steam Deck already.

Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition on iPhone 15 Pro has a few issues. I was surprised to see it not run at 60fps, and I hope this can be added in an update. The only other issue is the text size might be a bit too small for some people in a few menus, and some of the touch targets are too small on the phone screen. These need to be tweaked for touchscreens. It runs at full screen on both iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro (2020) thankfully, and progress syncs seamlessly between them and my MacBook Air.

The Apple Arcade version, like the main game, is a bit buggy though. This is in a much better place compared to the early access release, but still worth noting with some things seemingly being stuck in the ground, a character being out of bounds until I reloaded the game, and things like that. Nothing gamebreaking, but keep this in mind.

Disney Dreamlight Valley’s A Rift in Time expansion is pretty amazing so far. I haven’t played much of it on Apple Arcade, but have been checking it out on other platforms. If you enjoy the base game which you bought on other platforms, Disney Dreamlight Valley A Rift in Time is more of the good stuff with some notable upgrades. I would definitely grab the bundle with the expansion if I was looking to buy Disney Dreamlight Valley outside Apple Arcade. The new locations, characters, Royal Hourglass tool, and more just work so well together. I feel like the bar has been raised so much with this expansion that I don’t know if potential future ones will match.

Since Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition is basically an Apple Arcade Original release, it will get updates, and I hope the bugs and interface issues can be addressed soon. Beyond that, I’d love for high frame rate support on newer devices at least. I’d even opt for turning down some settings to play this at 60fps on iPhone 15 Pro. One other thing I want fixed is with character naming and how it is handled in this release compared to the game on other platforms. I’m not sure how it works exactly, but it seems like you get locked into a name or no name based on whether you agree to play online or not in the start.

If you have Apple Arcade, Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition is one of the best additions to the service in a long time despite a few issues. The game itself is great, and while I hope some aspects can be tweaked on iPhone and iPad, I have no hesitation in recommending you play it assuming you’re ok with the ecosystem lock in for progress. If you’d like some more flexibility on that front, I recommend buying it on Steam Deck or any other platform you prefer. In an ideal world, I’d be able to bring my progress over to Apple Arcade instead of having to start over, but this won’t be an issue for newcomers. If you’re new to it, Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition is excellent.

If you’ve never heard of River City Girls, it is actually a new entry in the Kunio-kun/River City franchise from Arc System Works, but one that has you playing as Misako and Kyoko instead of Kunio and Riki. It excelled for its style, music, voice acting, and most of the gameplay when I played it on Xbox a few years ago. The Switch version was plagued with some performance issues, but is in a better place right now. It did have co-op, and I always felt like the game was balanced around that rather than being accessible to solo players.

There’s quite a bit of freedom in River City Girls through its open-esque locations with shops, enemies, and more. As a beat ’em up, it isn’t as polished as something like Streets of Rage 4 if you’ve played that, but I still think fondly of how much I enjoyed River City Girls and still love its characters. Moving from location to location and eventually getting to memorable boss fights (some sadly aren’t fun), and upgrading and unlocking more for your characters. This is one area I wish the team went back to balance better. If you play solo like I did both originally and now, the game feels too tedious with enemies having what feels like inflated health pools. After unlocking and upgrading a bit, things become a lot more fun, but it is still challenging even on normal difficulty. I couldn’t test the online on the mobile version, but the game itself only supported local co-op. I hope if WayForward does bring River City Girls 2 to mobile, it includes the online multiplayer as well with cross platform matchmaking.

Now, River City Girls on iOS on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro (2020) has performance issues. It also looks excellent in most parts. The few issues I ran into have to do with how the aspect ratio of certain things has been handled causing cropping or elements hidden behind the home bar in parts. Some of the touch targets are also too small with tiny text in menus. These usually are the tabs you’d swap between in the menu using the shoulder buttons on the controller, but they need to be tweaked for iPhone and iPad. One more thing I’d like to see is proper cloud save support. I logged into my account on both iPhone and iPad and my progress did not sync across for the game.

Speaking of controls, River City Girls has controller support, and it works great. It does only show Xbox button prompts in my testing at least. When using touchscreen controls, you sadly cannot adjust the positions or size of these touchscreen buttons unless I missed something. They work well on iPad, but feel a bit cramped on the phone. I hope a future update can add options to adjust these like we’ve seen in the Hitman: Blood Money – Reprisal release.

Barring the few control and interface issues, River City Girls still has the flaws of the original game with regards to balance for solo play and some bosses not being as much fun. This version is updated though, so you don’t mistakenly end up changing location when you’re attacking enemies near a door or something. I did enjoy revisiting it a few years later though, and still prefer it to the sequel in many ways.

Whenever I review a game that’s only in a subscription service, it is worth looking at whether the game offers enough value to warrant subscribing to said service. River City Girls is priced at $29.99 on Nintendo Switch, and while it being “Free" for subscribers is fantastic, it isn’t enough to justify subscribing. Maybe when there are more games, but right now this is a good value add for existing subscribers. If you don’t have a Crunchyroll membership, details about subscription pricing are here on the official website. You need the Mega Fan tier ($9.99 per month) or the Ultimate Fan tier ($14.99 per month) to also access the games in the Crunchyroll Game Fault.

If you already have River City Girls on another platform, there isn’t anything of note with this release to warrant replaying it. If you don’t, and have a Crunchyroll subscription that includes the Game Vault, it is absolutely worth playing. I always liked River City Girls despite its flaws, and while I hope the iOS version gets patched to improve controls and its interface, it is a good port. River City Girls itself is gorgeous with an amazing soundtrack, and I still prefer it to the sequel.

The original GTA: Vice City is one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve played it on everything, and own almost every version of it including multiple regional variants like the PS2 Japanese release I got a few months ago. I adored it when I played it years ago, and loved revisiting it on iPhone through its 10th anniversary edition. I still get chills with that trailer. I love the game so much that I even bought that awful PS2 on PS4 version they released when Sony was trying to get developers to bring PS2 classics to PS4 with trophy support. So when the trilogy was announced to get a remake, I was excited but nervous.

The collection hit PC and consoles including Nintendo Switch back in 2021, and it wasn’t great. Read my review of the trilogy on Switch here. Since then, the games have improved, but many issues still remain. For the mobile release, I didn’t expect much, but this release surprised me. When I launched GTA: Vice City – Definitive on Netflix and finished the 1.27GB download in-game, I thought I was imagining things, but the actual game looked different. I played a bit more and wondered why it looked better than I remembered from my time with the Definitive version on Xbox and Switch. I booted up those versions and forgot the lighting was different there. Then I noticed GTA: Vice City – Definitive has a new Classic Lighting option which looks so much nicer. GTA: Vice City – Definitive now felt like GTA: Vice City. I was ecstatic to have the vibe back, but there were some issues I noticed.

Without looking into the game’s settings, I was surprised at how blurry it looked on iPhone 15 Pro. I checked the options and found a setting for the resolution. I turned it up to max, and it looked a lot nicer. For some reason, this doesn’t save and you need to turn it up manually each time you boot up the game. Barring that, the game seems capped to 30fps which is disappointing. I hope both of these can be fixed in future updates. The graphics tab is where you can enable or disable Classic Lighting. I recommend trying both options if you’re familiar with GTA: Vice City. Once you manually fix the resolution, GTA: Vice City – Definitive looks excellent with fullscreen support on all iOS devices I tested it on.

On the control side, GTA: Vice City – Definitive includes the new modern control options, and I tested it with both touch and controller. I used my DualSense controller, but the game seems to only have Xbox button prompts. The touchscreen controls work well, and the game is responsive enough. There are camera sensitivity options, movement options to play with modern or classic controls, and more here. I was glad to see a haptic feedback option here.

Since these are a huge part of the experience for me after I finish the story, I wanted to highlight how GTA: Vice City – Definitive includes cheat codes. You can either use a controller and input the controller cheats with button combinations, or go into accessibility and input the PC cheat codes. Both work.

Yes, I know I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the port and features, but GTA: Vice City itself is incredible. I don’t care what you use to play it, but it is one of the all-time greats, and right up there with GTA V and Red Dead Redemption II as Rockstar Games’ best. The story is amazing, dialogue memorable, radio stations despite cuts are still excellent, and it has gameplay that remains fun even today thanks to control enhancements.

I don’t own GTA: Vice City – Definitive on Steam to test on Steam Deck, but GTA: Vice City – Definitive on Netflix and iOS is massively better than the Switch version. Not only does the Classic Lighting option drastically help, but the game loads much quicker on iOS compared to Switch while looking a lot better. The Xbox Series X version runs at a higher resolution with 60fps support though, but I still don’t see myself going back to that until we get the mobile improvements. Speaking of improvements, I’ve been noticing little things like some models being better on mobile, animation improvements, and more.

The only real issues GTA: Vice City – Definitive has on mobile now are the frame rate cap, resolution not saving for some reason on iPhone 15 Pro or iPad Pro on the Netflix version, and the few issues I have with the game like the one super annoying mission that remains the only annoyance in GTA: Vice City itself. While this game (and the trilogy in general) deserved better, I think we are finally at the stage where the Definitive part of the name is actually applicable. This mobile version of GTA: Vice City – Definitive is great, and can be even better with a few updates. The screenshot below shows the Classic Lighting (right) versus the PC and console lighting (left):

While I’d say the original mobile release on modern iPhones and iPads is the best version of GTA: Vice City even now, GTA: Vice City – Definitive complements it nicely and is something I see myself dipping into for years to come, just like the original. GTA: Vice City – Definitive is worth buying, but I think this is the first actual killer app Netflix has to get people onboard its games initiative. Having the original GTA: Vice City would have been enough, but this release is actually better than the PC and console versions in almost every way. I don’t even think I’ll go back to those versions without the Classic Lighting option. The original game is a timeless classic, and my favorite GTA game, so I’m glad we now have a great version of the remake on mobile alongside the original which is still available.

Having already covered Resident Evil 4 Remake on Steam Deck and its DLC, I will not waste too much time discussing the game itself. After Capcom’s superb Resident Evil 2 Remake, many were disappointed in Resident Evil 3 Remake. Having never played the originals, I loved both of them, and my only complaint with Resident Evil 3 Remake is that it shouldn’t have been a full priced game. Resident Evil 4 is a legendary game that changed the industry, so remaking it was risky for Capcom. Thankfully, the developer and publisher pulled it off in spades delivering the best version of Resident Evil 4 by far. Resident Evil 4 Remake debuted on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, and PC. It had not been ported to anything else since, until this release on Apple platforms. I expected this port to be similar to Resident Evil Village on iPhone 15 Pro, but it is different in quite a few ways.

On first launching Resident Evil 4 Remake, you’re prompted to download about 12GB of data. If you don’t download this, the game closes. After this required download, you can sample the opening of the game for free. If you do end up buying the one time unlock for the full game or any DLC, there’s an additional download required. The final install size with everything downloaded and updated is about 31.3GB on iPhone 15 Pro. For comparison, the macOS version on my MacBook Air is about 65GB, the Steam Deck version is 69GB, and the PS5 version is about 78GB with all DLC installed. The screenshot below is with the DLC filter enabled.

On the graphics side, Resident Evil 4 Remake on iOS, does not let you adjust anything of note barring HDR and some post-processing like lens flare and distortion. The graphics options on iPhone 15 Pro like in Resident Evil Village are absent here. While I initially was disappointed, Capcom has optimized this better, but it still isn’t perfect in many ways. On the PC version, there’s a tab in between Display and Language to adjust graphics. This is absent on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad version. I was curious to see if setting things low and trying out different upscaling would let me try out different frame rate targets, but it seems like you can’t right now. Performance targets 30fps, and it has some inconsistent frame pacing. It isn’t unplayable though. Barring some hair, it looks very good on the phone’s screen with HDR enabled. I hope a future update allows uncapping the frame rate and adds some settings as an advanced option to see how much you can push the game.

When it comes to the controls, the same issues as with Resident Evil Village apply here. I noticed Resident Evil 4 Remake defaults to showing PlayStation button prompts with the touchscreen controls and when an external controller is used. This is like the PC version. You can change it to display Xbox button prompts in the settings. One disappointing aspect is Capcom didn’t work on adding a similar haptic feedback or responsive vibrations like in the PS5 version on the iPhone 15 Pro version when using the DualSense controller. There is vibration, but it falls short of how awesome the experience is on PS5.

A lot has been said online for Resident Evil 4 Remake costing “$60" on mobile. The horror. I’m going to give some context to the pros and cons of this price. Capcom so far, has not been great at maintaining its older premium games on mobile. Some games have been broken until years later when they get fixed. While it is likely these new Resident Evil ports will be supported for a bit at least given Apple’s heavy advertising, I will not forgive Capcom for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on iOS going away. So far, I can see hesitation in supporting these releases. Back to the actual price of the full game unlock and DLC, Capcom is matching the current console and PC including discounts by offering a launch price for mobile bringing it down to $29.99 for a limited time. Over the years, we’ve seen some games hit premium prices or match other platforms, and I’m confident in saying Resident Evil 4 Remake is easily worth the asking price given its port compared to something like Civilization VI.

Since Resident Evil 4 Remake is a universal purchase supporting iPadOS, iOS, and macOS, it includes the ability to upload and download your data from iCloud Drive in the server tab of the menu. This didn’t seem to be a seamless sync like we have in Apple Arcade games. Also, while I could upload without issues from iPhone 15 Pro, macOS uploading never worked regardless of the three networks I tried. The fact that this purchase includes all three versions, and the game quality being a lot better than Resident Evil Village makes this an easier game to recommend on Apple systems.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is a game you will likely replay. These remakes are great to replay, and it is one of the big reasons I try to keep both Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 4 Remake installed on my consoles. I just wish Capcom put in more effort into the touchscreen controls. A good recent example is Hitman: Blood Money which has an amazing conversion on mobile. Not only does it support controllers as you’d expect, but it also has superb touch controls and keyboard & mouse support. Resident Evil 4 Remake’s touch implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

In its current state, Resident Evil 4 Remake is an easy recommendation if you have a controller despite the visual cutbacks. The Backbone One or a DualSense controller for iPad and macOS are basically essential. Think of this like those Steam releases that have “controller required". Those don’t let you use keyboard and mouse, the default input options on PC, but force you to use a controller. Resident Evil 4 Remake on iOS does not force a controller with touchscreen controls available, but I would not recommend them right now. Capcom has done a fantastic job so far in bringing this masterpiece, and definitive version of Resident Evil 4, to Apple devices. I hope we see more RE Engine games arrive in the future, including Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake.

Just like Resident Evil Village, I recommend downloading Resident Evil 4 Remake for free if you have a supported device to see how you find it. I love this remake with its Separate Ways expansions, and it has been amazing re-experiencing it all on iPhone 15 Pro and also on iPad Pro despite the few performance issues. While the lack of graphics options is disappointing, this release feels a lot more optimized for the devices it supports than Resident Evil Village, and I hope to see more improvements over time in updates. I’m glad to see Capcom continue the tradition of bringing Resident Evil 4 Remake, like the original game, to as many platforms as possible.

Resident Evil 4 Remake iPhone 15 Pro Review Score: 4.5/5

Update: This review has been updated on January 5th, 2024 with the final score and thoughts after recently trying it on iPad M1 as well.

If you’ve read any of my recent reviews of games that follow in this pattern, you can skip ahead to the next paragraph. This is just my general recommendation that you avoid picking up Dotemu’s conversion of Metal Slug 2 that at the time of this writing remains on the store. Yes, it’s a dollar cheaper. But it’s only a dollar, and I think the differences here more than make up for that extra buck you spend. This new version is not only likely to have a far longer future, but also is designed for modern devices and their displays, which are things we cannot say for the older version. You get more options and extra features with the new version, and greater compatibility with external controllers. Spend that extra dollar, you deserve the treat.

Metal Slug was likely a pretty big surprise to SNK when it released back in 1996. Nazca Corporation, the developer behind the game, was a team formed by ex-Irem employees who had left the company to pursue their ambitions. This was a seasoned bunch, having worked together on games at Irem such as Air Duel, Undercover Cops, GunForce II, and perhaps most famously, In The Hunt. Nevertheless, its first efforts as Nazca Corporation proper went far beyond most expectations. A pair of NEOGEO titles, published by SNK themselves: NEO Turf Masters and Metal Slug. The former is one of the finest arcade-style golfing games ever made, and the latter? Well, it soon became a staple of every NEOGEO MVS around.

SNK made what was for this time in its history a rare wise business decision: it bought Nazca Corporation lock-stock. You don’t want to lose talent like that. Its first mission as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company was to follow up on the ultra-hot Metal Slug, a mission that it would more or less carry out for the rest of its unexpectedly short lifespan. But how can you top something as wild as Metal Slug without losing what brought people to the game in the first place?

Metal Slug 2 offers the same number of stages, with six in total. The game goes a bit more over the top with its themes than the first game, and there’s more variety in general. The playable roster has doubled with the additions of Fio and Eri. They play the same as the guys, but it’s nice to have the choice. There are a few new weapons, and one of the returning ones has been upgraded. The titular Metal Slug vehicles also see their selection expanded, with the SV-Camel, Slugnoid, and Slug Flyer showing up in set places during the game. The original SV-001 tank is here too, of course. There are some other fun extra bits in here too, like how your character can be turned into a mummy or how one of the prisoners will follow you around throwing fireballs after you save him.

All of this ambition comes at a cost, however. Metal Slug 2 is notorious for the severity of its slowdown when the action picks up. And pals, the action picks up often. It’s so bad that Nazca actually opted to revisit the game the following year, using the improvements of the engine of the then-in-development Metal Slug 3 to remove many of the technical issues plaguing the game. The team also added some new goodies in while they were at it, and that revised version became Metal Slug X. That is not this game, but I’m sure we’ll see it soon. This game is as it ever was, and that means you’re going to be running, jumping, and shooting through some molasses at times. History isn’t always pretty.

I think to a great degree Metal Slug X negates this game, but for the serious Metal Slug fan I think the differences can be interesting enough to make Metal Slug 2 worth keeping around. If you’re not into that kind of hair-splitting or aren’t planning to catch them all, you might just want to be patient and wait for Metal Slug X‘s ACA NEOGEO version. I imagine it will come in a matter of weeks, simply because Hamster and SNK don’t have too many other games to touch on at this point. From a gameplay perspective Metal Slug 2 loses to Metal Slug X in every way. On its own merits, it’s quite a lot of fun despite the issues. And hey, it’s not likely you’re going to have a second player on screen gumming things up even worse.

Yes, I have to bang my usual drums here. First up, playing this game with touch controls is not ideal. It can be done, and you’ve got unlimited credits to work with here so it doesn’t particularly matter if you keep on dying. But a challenging game like this really works best if you can use an external controller to play. If you have one, this is just as fun to blast your way through as it is on any other platform. You’ll probably have to go it alone, because multiplayer requires external controllers and a display you feel comfortable hunkering down around. Well, you could do a lot worse on iOS even with all this baggage in tow.

You get the usual ACA NEOGEO options here. Game settings, control mapping, virtual control adjustments, audio and video options, and so on. You can play the Japanese version with all the blood spurts or the Overseas version with all the sweat spurts, and you also get the usual Score Attack and timed Caravan modes. Those extra modes are pretty fun here, especially the Score Attack. This is a game you can get through on one credit if you practice enough, and it’s a good challenge to see how far you can go while accumulating the most points possible. You get your online leaderboards as well, allowing you to compare your feats with those of other players. The extras supplement the game well, even if the necessary sacrifices of the mobile format don’t.

Look, if you’re going to buy Metal Slug 2 on mobile, this ACA NEOGEO release is the one you want. And if you’re trying to collect all the Metal Slug games or even all of the Arcade Archives releases, don’t let me stop you. But even setting aside the usual issues with Metal Slug games on mobile, I have to recommend the average player simply wait for Metal Slug X to get a rerelease. It’s everything this game is and more, with the improvement of the egregious slowdown being no small favor. A good game, but one made largely redundant by another entry that will be here soon.

To get the usual talk out of the way, let’s address the old app. It’s still on the App Store and still technically works, after all. Heck, it was just updated a year ago to be compatible with iOS 14. That doesn’t mean it’s a great experience on modern devices, though. Dotemu’s The King of Fighters ’97 ($2.99) came out more than ten years ago, and for its time and place it was a great port of the game. It played as well as it could, the emulation was sound, it had support for the kinds of external controllers we had at the time, and offered local wireless multiplayer support. It wasn’t exactly rolling in options, but it was more than good enough. Time has taken its toll, however. The biggest issue these days is that the virtual buttons didn’t grow along with the displays of devices, and it’s even tougher than usual to play on tiny buttons. I can’t recommend the Dotemu version anymore, I don’t think SNK should be selling two versions at the same time, and I expect the publisher to deprecate it sooner or later. Get the new one.

Anyway, The King of Fighters ’97. It came out in 1997 on the NEOGEO, so the title of this app certainly checks out. It was the fourth game in the series that had by this point become SNK’s most reliable franchise, and brought the Orochi Saga story arc to its close. In terms of gameplay, it introduced a system where you could choose between two playing styles before picking your team. The Advanced Mode followed in the footsteps of The King of Fighters ’96, albeit with some tweaks, while the Extra Mode takes after The King of Fighters ’94 and ’95. This addition not only did a great job of tying all of the previous games together, but also gave players greater customization and variety in how they played the game.

In terms of character selection, six characters from the previous game were dropped. Kasumi Todoh, Mature, Vice, Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser, and Mr. Big all hit the benches for story reasons. Chizuru Kagura moves from the sub-boss position into the regular playable roster, while fan favorites Blue Mary and Ryuji Yamazaki from the Fatal Fury series join Billy Kane to form a new team. Yashiro Nanakase, Chris, and Shermie are fully new faces and end up serving an important story role. Otherwise, the roster carries over. Popular characters like Terry Bogard, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Mai Shiranui, and Athena Asamiya are all here along with many others. Plenty of great characters to learn to use, like any game in this series.

The usual ACA NEOGEO gripes with fighting games in particular apply here. First, it can be really cumbersome trying to make some of the commands work with the virtual controls. There are no assists here, unlike the Dotemu version, so if you don’t have an external controller of some kind you’re just going to have to make the best of it. It’s also very difficult to get multiplayer going, as you’ll need a couple of external controllers and a display you’re comfortable rubbing elbows around. In other words, you’re probably going to be spending most of your time playing alone. The story here is certainly worth going through though, and you have plenty of options to tweak to give yourself as much of an edge against the rude CPU as possible.

If you don’t mind the multiplayer being hard to get at and have an external controller, this is a great experience. Just like playing the Arcade Archives release on any other device, but with a few bucks more in your pocket. You get the usual extra modes here, and they’re alright to mess around with. You can also choose between the Japanese and Overseas versions of the game, which is good if you enjoy blood and bounce, as the kids say. In terms of options, you can adjust the difficulty, remap buttons, tweak video and sound settings, and customize the virtual pad to your liking. Online leaderboards are also here, as usual. I don’t typically think of fighters as games to compete on leaderboards with, but if you get into that kind of thing, it’s here.

The King of Fighters ’97 is a terrific fighting game and another of the many feathers in SNK’s hat in this genre. If you have an external controller and plan to play solo, it’s easily worth picking up. Those stuck with touch controls will want to carefully consider what they are really looking for out of this kind of thing, but I’m just repeating myself here from prior reviews. Hamster has done a really good job with this release, also as usual, and I think it’s only a better set of multiplayer options away from being the best possible mobile port it could be.

If you’ve already played Granblue Fantasy Versus, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising feels like a blend of an enhanced re-release and a sequel combined. In Guilty Gear terms, to me this feels like going from Xrd Sign to Xrd Rev 2 directly. There are visual upgrades, gameplay enhancements, new characters, story content, and a ton of modes offline and online. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising also includes the full story from the original game so this is the version to get if you’re new to the series.

On the single player side of things Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising includes an arcade mode, versus mode, training mode (with a lot of useful data options in the UI), story mode (including the original game’s story), replay mode, journal (gallery), and a figure studio letting you pose specific characters for screenshots in different situations. The arcade mode also has its own requirements to unlock another path which I will not spoil here.

Before playing the second open beta to test the online on PS5, I wasn’t sure how different Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising’s gameplay would feel. I’m glad the team added enough to make things fresh with the Brave Point system for the Raging Strike and Brave Counter mechanics, and how it makes you strategize on the fly with its risk system. This is all complemented by the meter changes and dash system as well. It really feels like Arc System Works managed to get everything they could to Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. After spending a week playing Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, I tried playing Granblue Fantasy Versus with a friend. It was quite a difference.

I’ve now tested the online in the final build on both PS5 and Steam Deck for a few days. Everything is holding up well, and the only issues I’ve had, are to do with some lobby instability against a handful of fights out of the many I’ve played so far. There are no Mortal Kombat 1-like high ping issues, or anything. The online feels great, and I’ve even tested against friends and randoms in different countries over a wired connection on Steam Deck. The Grand Bruise Legends mode is a lovely blend of Fall Guys-style gameplay with Granblue, and it has its own unlock system. Barring that, you can create a lobby or opt to do ranked/casual matches. You can also create your own room to invite friends and more. My one complaint is the lobbies have 30fps movement that doesn’t feel good at all. I hope this can be fixed for PS5 and PC.

Granblue Fantasy Versus was already a gorgeous game, but the developers have outdone themselves with Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. I adore how it looks and feels to play. The skill animations, character designs, cut-scenes, and stages look fantastic. It also runs really well on Steam Deck and PS5. Revisiting the original game alongside this one really shows how polished Rising feels. It isn’t a huge change, but has improvements in many areas.

I was also glad to see this release continue to offer an English dub option. I played both English and Japanese voiceover options equally in the original, and stuck to English so far. The new character voices are at par with the rest of the characters. This is definitely one of the better dubs in a Japanese fighting game. Barring the voices, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising continues to have amazing music. Despite a lot of older songs, I love the soundtrack. The one oddity that I kind of expected, is the Uma Musume partner characters like Gold Ship who I immediately unlocked when servers went live, do not have dubs. I was curious if Cygames would dub them, but right now, it seems like there is no dub for the Uma Musume partner characters. Also make sure you claim the rewards so you can unlock Gold Ship immediately like I did. She’s beyond amazing with her dialogue here.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising’s PC graphics options include resolution (864×486 to 1440p for my monitor), display mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), v-sync, graphics quality presets, resolution scaling (20-100), anti-aliasing quality, post-processing quality, texture quality, shadow quality, and VFX quality. These quality settings go: low, mid, high, and highest. You can also use the optimize display settings option for the game to auto detect for your PC or Steam Deck.

On Steam Deck, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising has no issues running and looks great in every mode I could test barring the pre-rendered cut-scenes in story mode. I tested these on default Proton, Proton Experimental (bleeding edge), and 3 versions of GE including 8-25 with no luck. GE gets them to display a static image at least, while the others show a color bar pattern. Barring that issue, it plays flawlessly, and I even used my Hori Fighting Stick Alpha and Razer Kitsune on it wired. On the visual side, if you play at 720p, everything at high will result in no performance issues. I forced 1080p and downsampled, and saw some dips in performance during special moves only. The actual gameplay had no issues in my testing, but I will be doing more testing on this front through the week. It feels like it was made taking into account handheld PCs, and I hope the cut-scenes can be fixed in updates or by Valve.

If you own a PS5 and Steam Deck, having played it on both, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is better on PS5 visually and has faster load times. Barring that, the experience holds up brilliantly on the small Steam Deck screen, and this setup is great for portable play with or without an arcade controller. I got the original Granblue Fantasy Versus on both PS4 and Steam, and would do the same here given the option. Since there’s a free version, I’d recommend trying it out on your PC and PS5 to see where you find it better. Since the game has crossplay, there’s no real disadvantage to the online population.

Having now seen the launch day DLC available, I’d recommend buying the Deluxe Edition if you want to buy the full game. Getting the standard edition now and then upgrading will cost a lot more. I know some publishers encourage you to buy more expensive editions rather than standard and then upgrading, but this price difference is much higher than I’ve seen with other fighting game publishers.

Having now tested the netcode and multiplayer modes on Steam Deck, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is chock full of amazing gameplay, characters, music, and a robust online experience. This feels like the complete package right from the get go, and is a great new option for any newcomer to fighting games with its low barrier of entry. If you aren’t sure if Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is for you, give the free version a shot. In its current state, I can see myself playing this for a long time on Steam Deck and PS5. Cygames and Arc System Worked nailed everything I had hoped for here, and delivered one of the best fighting game day one releases in years.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Steam Deck review score: 5/5

Update: This review has been updated to reflect the online experience on Steam Deck.

As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Lizardry developed 7 Days to End With You which was self-published on mobile, and I had my eye on that thanks to its aesthetic. When I got to know Lizardry was behind Refind Self: The Personality Test Game, I expected good art, and it delivered with its aesthetic and music. Adventure games live and die by their story, and I found the smart storytelling and structure here great, but the characters and introspection aspects really elevated it to something special.

Once you get past the name, Refind Self: The Personality Test Game begins with a grave. You control an android near the grave which happens to be of the doctor who created you. You now have the freedom to do anything or go anywhere more or less. As you make decisions including small ones like how long you sit on a bench all contribute to your personality which is being analyzed. Despite the name and structure, you’re playing this to discover the narrative and secrets more than finding your own personality.

Barring the decisions you make in dialogue or for how you want to spend the limited time you have, you get to see a glimpse of your personality and a part of the overall story. The limited time depends on the analysis happening with each decision you make while playing. A single playthrough will take about an hour or a bit more, but you can’t see everything Refind Self: The Personality Test Game has to offer without at least three playthroughs. Once it is all complete, you get to share your ID with others. It is interesting seeing how others responded to specific things in-game as well.

Despite the simple gameplay, I found myself enamored with the world here, and ended up loving the characters and mini-games quite a bit. Lizardry is definitely worth paying attention to for all future projects. I hope each game tries something different like this one did with its structure. The only aspect some might take issue with, is the length. I have no problem with the asking price of $3.99 for a three or four hour long experience, but keep that in mind before grabbing it if you were hoping for something longer.

While I like the pixel art and character designs a lot, I want to give a special mention to the soundtrack. It was another lovely surprise with how much it manages to accomplish in elevating the narrative moments and mini-games. I haven’t seen it up on streaming, but it is available on Steam here.

I’ve been playing Refind Self: The Personality Test Game on both iOS and Steam Deck. While it looks and runs fine on Steam Deck, it has no native controller support. To play it here, I’d recommend using the controller layout that lets you use the left stick to simulate WASD and then using the touch screen for click interactions. Without that, grab an external mouse if you want to play it. On iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro, there is no controller support, but I had no issues with Refind Self: The Personality Test Game barring some slight scrolling jitter in parts. It feels great on touch. It also looks great and loads quickly on my devices. If you have the option, play it on iOS or PC with a mouse over Steam Deck right now. Hopefully we get proper controller support in an update on both Steam Deck and iOS.

If you enjoy touching stories and adventure games with a focus on characters and introspection, you will love Refind Self: The Personality Test Game. I think many folks will skip it thinking it is one of those throwaway test-style games, but I ended up enjoying my time with it a lot across iOS and Steam Deck. I can’t wait to see what Lizardry does next, and look forward to seeing results from more people when they play Refind Self: The Personality Test Game.

So again I do want to clarify that Dotemu’s Metal Slug 1 ($2.99) was a perfectly fine version for its time. Things were very different in the mobile scene back in 2013 when that game was first released on mobile, especially with regards to screen sizes and aspect ratios. While the app saw occasional updates to maintain compatibility with various versions of iOS, some aspects didn’t get much in the way of reworking. One of the biggest problems with these older Dotemu NEOGEO ports is that the touch screen buttons are too small for modern displays, even at their largest setting in the options. That is also the case here, and it makes the old version very hard to play. You can use an external controller, but compatibility is a bit spotty. There are also a few minor emulation issues.

I’m repeating myself here from other recent reviews, but despite the slightly cheaper price I would caution strongly against buying the older version over the ACA NEOGEO one. I don’t even think SNK should still be selling that version now that this one exists. I doubt it will ever get the necessary updates to make it as playable as it used to be, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets retired in the near future. The ACA NEOGEO version isn’t exactly a treat to play with touch controls either, but it’s a lot more comfortable. It also offers many more options and modes, which I think makes it the one to pick all-around. Even if you’re using an external controller, you’ll find the ACA NEOGEO version runs and plays better.

As to the game itself, Metal Slug probably doesn’t need too much introduction if you’re interested enough in NEOGEO games to be reading this review. If SNK’s home/arcade console system is known for one thing, it’s The King of Fighters. But if it’s known for two things, the second one is Metal Slug. Developed by ex-Irem folks at Nazca Corporation, this run-and-gun action game is among the very finest the genre has to offer. It’s not hard to see why it spawned such a long-running and popular series. The graphics are incredibly detailed and lavishly animated, the gameplay is excellent, the pace of the game is zippy, the vehicles are exciting to use, the bosses are ridiculous, and it’s as much fun to play alone as it is with a friend. It’s also silly without pushing things too far, which is welcome in a genre that tends to tilt one way or the other when it comes to humor.

That said, the level of challenge and the fact that you need to pull off some wild moves make this ill-suited for touch controls, though in this ACA NEOGEO version you have access to an infinite number of credits to finish the game with. If you’re going to play the game seriously, you’ll probably want to make use of an external controller. It plays great that way, and it makes this version perhaps the best, most affordable official way to play Metal Slug. Throw in the usual extra modes, which work out quite well for this sort of game, and you have a really nice package here. Will the online leaderboards be populated? You can be part of the solution to that one, my friends.

The Dotemu version of the game had a handful of nice options, but this ACA NEOGEO version offers quite bit more to play around with. You can adjust the various difficulty options, tweak the controls to your liking, and tinker with the video and audio to a decent extent. You also get the usual save and load options, something the previous version was lacking. It’s nice to be able to stop and pick up a game like this anytime you want on mobile. Of course, the usual ACA NEOGEO issue is here in that you can’t play multiplayer very easily. You’ll need a couple of external controllers and must both play off the same device, so unless you have something bigger than your iPhone it’s going to be a bit of a cramped situation.

I think players going the touch screen route will want to carefully consider what they are looking for from ACA NEOGEO Metal Slug. If you don’t mind the fact that you will probably be playing sub-optimally, having trouble hitting angles and doing quick maneuvers, and dying a whole lot, then you can still have a good bit of fun here just touring the game with unlimited credits. It’s certainly no worse than any other virtual button-based run-and-gun game on iOS, and the quality of the original game shines through sufficiently for you to have a nice time with it. Sixteen quarters, people. You can own this game and keep it in your pocket for sixteen quarters. Tell that to the you of 1996. Their mind would be blown.

I’ve said a lot of this before about various other ACA NEOGEO releases, and this perhaps collects many of those points. Better than the previous version? Absolutely. Good game? Friend, it’s so great. Well-suited to mobile? Probably not, especially if you’re using touch controls. Worth picking up anyway? Yes, I think so. It’s feature-rich, gives you all the margin for error you could ask for, and is affordable to boot. A solid pick for fans of arcade classics.

Using questions to end an introductory paragraph is an old habit from my first gig back in the day. It doesn’t make much sense when you can see the score immediately. Well, you know already. If you want a decent 3D Sonic game on your iPhone or iPad, I’m happy to say that this delivers. It leans more into the Boost Sonic style rather than the Adventure style, but I’m sure most would have expected that anyway. There’s a time and a place for that eventual Adventure 3, but I don’t think it’s here and now. There’s a story here, some business about Eggman trying to pervert some mysterious power to use for his ambitions of world conquest, but nothing to get too excited about. You’ll get a lot of cut-scenes, but most of them are just basic stills with text boxes. Also, I can’t believe we have a whole Sonic game set in the world of dreams and NiGHTS isn’t anywhere about. Rude.

Anyhow, the broad structure is familiar. You’ve got four zones that are broken up into three acts, each of which is basically a level incorporating the same theme as the rest of the acts in that zone. In Sonic Dream Team, each of those acts is then broken down into a bunch of challenges, each of which will net you a Dream Orb. The first challenge in each act also has a number of collectibles and other things around for you to hunt for, which will in turn net you more Dream Orbs and other goodies. Dream Orbs are the key to opening up further acts and zones and progressing the story. And of course at the end of each zone, you’ll have a lovely little boss battle. Quick napkin math will tell you that we’ve got twelve acts in total, which seems like a fair amount but ends up feeling too few after you’ve blasted your way through.

Adding some replay value are the additional characters, split in the usual Sonic manner by their abilities. Sonic and Amy go fast, so fast they can zip along trails of rings in the sky. They’re also the default characters. Tails and Cream can fly, as they often do. Then we have Knuckles and Rouge, and they can climb up walls, as they often do. There are some paths that only particular characters can reach, and you might have some fun fully exploring each act to see what you can find. They’re not massive spaces, but there are some interesting things to see if you poke around enough. Some extra weekly Tails’ Challenges give you more reasons to return, though it starts to feel like wringing blood from a stone at a certain point with the small number of acts.

I actually like the level designs a lot. The spaces are clearly built to keep pushing you forward in fun ways, with little breather sections between the breakneck rails and tubes that let you slow down and explore a little. Each zone also offers up some distinct gameplay mechanics, and the difficulty from act to act ramps up nicely as the game gets you comfortable with those mechanics. There are some of the usual 3D Sonic issues, of course. Sometimes you just go flying off of sections to your (only slightly inconvenient) “death". Sometimes the path forward isn’t as clear as it could be. You don’t often need to adjust the camera, but on such occasions it can be a real pig.

This seems like as good a time as any to talk controls. If you have a controller, I recommend you use it. One of those nice Backbone controllers or a Kishi would be a lovely choice. If you do that, you’ll be playing it as you would expect, with movement on the left stick, camera control on the right, a button for jumping, and a button for dashing and boosting. Simple and easy to play. If you’re using touch controls, you’re given some virtual buttons and a virtual stick to mimic those actions. You can just drag the camera around, which is actually better than having on a stick, but trying to keep an eye on those buttons when you’re rolling around at the speed of sound can be bothersome. Still, I won’t say it plays badly with touch controls. It’s fine.

In terms of the presentation, it’s really well-done. The visuals are at a glance as good as the console 3D Sonic games, though the zones themselves are obviously a fair bit less ambitious in scope than most of them. The soundtrack is good, though I don’t think the best tunes in the franchise have much to fear from it. Ah, most of you will be playing with the mute switch on anyway. But if you do leave the sound on, I don’t think you’ll be displeased with what you hear. This game feels like a full-effort affair in virtually all regards, and that’s something I always like to see in a mobile game.

Really, the main way Sonic Dream Team drops the ball, apart from the frankly appalling lack of NiGHTS, is in just how breezy the game is. It only takes a few minutes to blow through one run of each act, and you can pretty much clean the plate on the whole affair in one evening. Nothing in the game is all that difficult, and I’d argue the bosses are almost laughably easy. It’s fine for a game to be short, of course. I like a lot of short games. But it feels like Sonic Dream Team is just starting to cook when it ends. There’s more to say here, I’m sure of it. Maybe the number of zones will be expanded in the promised future updates? It comes off like a warm-up for the real game, but the warm-up is all you get.

Sonic Dream Team gets a lot of things right, and I think anyone with an Apple Arcade subscription will have a really good time running through its various nooks and crannies. Even those who aren’t subscribed might want to pick up a month just to play through the game. The 3D Sonic pantheon definitely has far worse efforts than this. But that’s part of what makes it frustrating. It overcame a lot of the challenges 3D Sonic often struggles to get over, only to retire before the race is finished with a relatively short run-time. This could have been an amazing chapter in Sonic history, but instead it has to settle for being a good one.

As I said in my preview, I’ve come into Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal after loving the newer games, and it still holds up very well thanks to the wealth of quality of life features and improvements. What really surprised me is how much freedom is available to the player for approaching the different situations in Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal. This adds a ton of replay value, and while it isn’t as much of a sandbox experience as the complete Hitman World of Assassination package on PC and consoles, it is hard to find fault with the gameplay in Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal and in how polished and modern it feels on newer devices. I almost titled this review “Franchise Killer", but that would lead some to think the game is bad, rather than knowing it is a reference to the plot of the game. The mission structure perfectly suits portable play as well. In fact, the fast loading and save syncing makes this even better to play on the go. Boot it up for a quick mission or two while on the commute and I can’t imagine anything better.

A lot of my praise for Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal is due to the features from the newer games being seamlessly brought back to Hitman: Blood Money. The instinct mode and minimap are the stars here. If you are a longtime fan of the original game though, you can play without any of the modern conveniences and experience it as it was back on console over a decade ago. Feral Interactive’s mobile conversions are usually fantastic for bringing classics to modern portable platforms, but Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal rivals the developer’s release of Company of Heroes for iPad Pro with how impressive everything is.

Having looked at prior games and what I own on Steam, I then learned how much Hitman: Blood Money brought to the series. It was definitely a huge turning point for the franchise, and it makes me appreciate the superlative missions even more. A lot of them are very memorable, and while Sapienza from the new Hitman games remains my favorite sandbox, Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal is definitely close overall. There just is so much variety and freedom, and yes, the coin is also included to basically break the game if you’re good enough with it.

Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal feels so good with touch controls on iPhone that I almost didn’t feel like playing it with a controller at all. I hope someone at Capcom pays attention to Feral Interactive’s work to see how console games can be adapted for mobile rather than dumping every single controller button on the screen. That tangent aside, Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal plays surprisingly well with touch controls. I ended up sticking to touch controls on my iPhone 15 Pro, and using my DualSense controller on iPad. The iPad touch controls are very good, but I’ve found myself not enjoying touch on iPad unless it is a point and click experience or touch-focused game.

Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal also comes packed with tons of control options. I was hoping to test the keyboard and mouse support on my iPad Pro, but the external keyboard I ordered to use on iPad has not arrived yet. I will make sure to cover it once it does arrive and when I post about potential updates Feral Interactive releases for this game.

Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal is obviously not a huge visual overhaul like say the Demon’s Souls remake on PS5. Think of it more as an enhanced remaster making everything look and feel as crisp and smooth as possible on modern iOS devices. This has led to some lower quality textures or assets than you’d be used to. On the performance side, I’ve had no trouble with the game on iPad Pro (2020) and iPhone 15 Pro. I played in either Performance mode or Performance+ mode. I did test out the 120fps, but didn’t stick with it. I’ll leave that for MrMacRight on YouTube to do in his detailed performance videos which Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal likely will get soon.

Audio design in stealth games is very important, and I am pleased with how Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal sounds across the board. Yes, including the voice acting which I found hilarious because of how different the dialogue is in this compared to modern games in the series. While not directly related to sound and audio, Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal features great haptic feedback on iPhone 15 Pro. I love when games do this in iOS releases.

There isn’t much I dislike about Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal. Those hoping for a full visual remake will be disappointed, but Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal has always been an enhanced remaster with many gameplay improvements in my eyes. The only things I hope to see added in future updates are better texture filtering, improved shadows, and anti-aliasing. Barring those things, Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal excels above all prior versions of the game by a big margin.

Feral Interactive is known for going above and beyond in post-launch and paid DLC in games so this is more of a want than something I expect, but I’d love for the team to bring over Hitman: Contracts with the same care and attention Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal got. This could be either paid DLC for Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal or a standalone release. I’d also love for this version to come to macOS and Steam Deck. The PC version is not in a great place if you want to play on Steam Deck.

Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal is one of the easiest recommendations ever. I finally see why many consider it one of the best games ever, and while it is too soon to say if it is my favorite Hitman game, it is close. If you’re new to the franchise and want a great way to taste the world of Hitman on mobile, there isn’t anything close. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal on mobile and Hitman: World of Assassination on PC and console platforms are both the best entry points into the series, and both masterpieces. If you have a newer iPhone or iPad, don’t even think twice. Just go buy Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal.

I also want to make it clear that I’m not some authority on fight sticks and arcade controllers, and that this review is going to be a bit different. I want this to not only help you understand whether the Kitsune is for you, but also whether you should try leverless in general. I’m going to highlight how I learned to embrace leverless with the Kitsune, what worked for me, what I’d like to see improved in a successor, whether I recommend it as your first arcade controller, and more. My experience with fight sticks and controllers so far is 8BitDo’s arcade sticks, the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha for PS5, and using a gamepad. With the Razer Kitsune, I’m now a believer in leverless, and it is one superb piece of kit, but it isn’t perfect. Before getting into the Kitsune itself, you might not be aware of what a leverless controller is, and why some folks prefer it for modern games.

What is a leverless controller?

Most fight sticks or fighting game focused controllers have a stick (hence the name) on the left with eight buttons on the right. This aims to replicate the arcade layout for fighting games. The positions and other aspects of these inputs vary by controller, with arcade stick and controller customization being a huge part of the fun, at least for me. On the stick side, Sanwa seems to be the most popular brand. Sanwa also makes buttons, but I’ve seen some people prefer other brands like Seimitsu or Hori’s Hayabusa buttons. I love the Hayabusa buttons on my Hori Alpha for PS5, but that isn’t really relevant here.

A leverless controller doesn’t have a stick, and replaces it with four buttons, one for each direction. A stick usually has a square gate (inside to allow you to move across the same four directions), and a leverless controller lets you use individual buttons to allow for quicker responses for specific inputs like quarter or half circle motions. Instead of physically moving the stick from say left to right in a half circle motion, you can just tap three buttons on a leverless controller. The inputs can be thought of like the arrow keys on a keyboard.

Leverless controllers also can let you do things like holding left and right together, which is physically not possible with a stick, but this isn’t tournament legal, and has resulted in Razer disabling that. This is known as SOCD, and where the “cheat" aspect comes into the picture depending on the controller. The Razer Kitsune, disables this to be tournament legal.

One other aspect I want to discuss about leverless controllers before getting into the actual review of the Kitsune, is the button layout. It definitely looks weird in pictures if you haven’t tried it for yourself. This reminds me of the Steam Deck, which I thought wouldn’t be comfortable, but after getting one, I naturally started positioning correctly, but learning what all the buttons did, and not having to look down, was another problem I needed to solve.

Learning leverless with rhythm games, Ryu, and Zangief

I practiced moving from a DualSense and Xbox pad to a stick in Street Fighter 6 with Zangief, and it worked out well. To go leverless, I tried the same thing and was able to make some progress, but I wasn’t happy because I kept looking down at least once or twice in a fight. It then struck me. Why was I not using rhythm games, a genre I love and am good at, to learn the positions of the directions, face buttons, and more. I started playing Persona 4 Dancing All Night on PS5, and Hatsune Miku Project DIVA Mega Mix+ on Steam Deck with the Razer Kitsune in easier stages. This helped a ton. Once I knew the button placement and didn’t need to look down, the next step was training the fingers on my left hand for various motions.

To do this, I picked Ryu to start with the basics. Hadoukens (fireball) and Shoryukens (dragon punches) being mastered, led to me trying complicated motions, and then moving to Zangief, to start doing grappler moves. Zangief has a lot of 360 motions (full circle on the stick). This took a little bit since I needed to get my fingers used to doing this fast, but it paid off. I recommend spending a good amount of time in training or even redoing the game tutorials so you start getting comfortable with any new controller you buy, but I feel like it is more important when trying to transition to something completely different like the Kitsune.

Once I was comfortable, I started playing with friends online, and eventually moved to using the Kitsune in the Battle Hub in Street Fighter 6. Playing and losing initially was still worth the experience. I’m now confident enough in a leverless, to be looking at more options, and even consider things like the Odin V2 for one of the 8BitDo sticks I use.

Razer Kitsune’s form factor and buttons are both amazing, but they might not be for everyone

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about things other than the Kitsune, but it was needed. Whenever I did my research for fight sticks or arcade controllers, I always wanted to know why people prefer leverless or other arcade controllers, and how they learned to get comfortable with a brand-new or different input method. Right off the bat, the Razer Kitsune looks gorgeous in all its promotional material. What’s surprising is how much better it looks and how it feels in person. It feels and looks premium, and perfectly rests on my lap. The large aluminum top plate gives me enough space to rest my wrists while playing, and I never once got cramps during the time I spent with the controller.

I got used to the Sanwa buttons I installed on my 8BitDo sticks, and also the lovely Hayabusa buttons on my Hori fight stick. I love how the Razer Kitsune buttons feel. The layout and spacing both work well for my hands, but this is something that might not work for you. I’d recommend downloading Razer’s artwork template and printing it out to see how the spacing works (to some degree) for your hands. The actual buttons use Razer’s optical switches from its keyboards. These are easy to replace with many you can buy separately. A lot of folks seem to use Keychron switches, but I don’t think I will change them. It feels great and works well out of the box. I feel similar to the Hori Alpha which I only really modded for the removable stick through the Phreak Mod.

The USB-C cable locking mechanism which is a lovely touch. In fact, I feel like Razer went the extra mile with the Razer Kitsune to even include a high quality long braided cable with the controller. I just wish there was a place to store this easily without needing an external case. Maybe a pouch for the cable would’ve been good here.

Razer Kitsune device support

Officially, the Razer Kitsune supports PS5 and PC only. I’ve not actually used it on Windows since I don’t have a Windows device at home, but I did use it a ton on Steam Deck and PS5. On Steam Deck, it works flawlessly in PC mode, and the touchpad button on the top even works as a cursor. While it does not affect me at all, I think it is worth mentioning that the Razer Kitsune does not support the PS4. The Hori Alpha I use works on PS4, PS5, and PC, but the Razer Kitsune is only on PS5 and PC. Keep that in mind if you think some locals and tournaments you take part in are still running on PS4 systems, or you’d also like to use it on PS4.

Razer Kitsune’s other buttons range from being great to just fine

While the main buttons feel amazing and responsive, I feel like Razer should’ve made some of the other buttons a bit easier to press. The share and options button are probably the worst of the lot. I got used to how easy it was accessing the options button the Hori Alpha with it being a nice big arcade button on the top right. On the Razer Kitsune, it is a small button on the top left and too close to the share button. I hope a Razer Kitsune successor improves on this part because it is basically my only real complaint with the controller.

Razer Kitsune skins and decals – how easy is it to customize and mod?

When you buy the Razer Kitsune, you can either get the plain black one (that I have), the Street Fighter 6 Chun Li Edition, or the Street Fighter 6 Cammy Edition. You can also buy some other decals that Razer sells on its store. As of this writing, Razer doesn’t sell different colored buttons or another color Razer Kitsune like a white one. This isn’t as customizable on that front like the Hori Alpha I use, or even the 8BitDo sticks I have. Hopefully we see colors, replacement switches, and even new color top plates being sold in the future. Customization is a huge part of the experience for a lot of folks.

Going back to the Chun Li and Cammy editions, Razer sells Street Fighter 6 branded skins and plates for its mouse and also mousepads. I hope we see the Juri art version decal sold for the Razer Kitsune soon as well. We’ve seen some decals for games like Mortal Kombat 1 or the upcoming Project L at events and more as well. I’d love for more official decals to be sold with game specific branding as options. I’m likely going to commission a friend for art to use on mine, but would buy the Juri decal without thinking twice.

Razer Kitsune vs Hori Fighting Stick Alpha – which one to buy

This is a question I was asking myself when I got the Hori Alpha, and also while using the Razer Kitsune. Which one would I recommend? It is hard to say right now. The Hori Alpha is $200 while the Razer Kitsune is $300. I love both controllers a lot, and think I even prefer the buttons on both to Sanwa buttons. The Hori is more customizable and moddable for sure, but it lacks a removable cable. The Kitsune is more portable, sleeker, and built better.

If you have the option to try them both out before buying, I’d do that. If you value customization the most, the Hori wins. If you want a leverless for your PS5, I can’t think of a better official option right now barring the Victrix which costs more. If you want one for PC and Steam Deck, the cheaper alternatives might be a better starting point before you invest $300 into this.

Razer Kitsune – is it worth the price?

Looking at the cost of getting a leverless controller with PS5 support and not using a Brook converter will bring up the price to almost the same as the base model of the Razer Kitsune. This isn’t a justification for the price because Razer as a huge company is building at scale compared to the smaller boutique stores, but the important point to note is the distribution and warranty that Razer offers. For many folks, buying from smaller stores might not be feasible based on the country they live in or shipping prices, while the Kitsune is available more widely. When I bought the 8BitDo for Switch and PC, I thought it was a lot of money to spend on something I may not even use after a week. It ended up pushing me into the fightstick and arcade controller rabbit hole. That cost a third of the Kitsune, so this is definitely not an entry level price point, but more of a premium price.

The Razer Kitsune feels amazing, has held up perfectly in the time I’ve used it, and is very portable. I don’t have any of the other leverless controllers to compare with, but the Kitsune has made me believe in leverless for sure. It is that good. If I hadn’t gotten this one already, but had been able to try one for a few hours, I’d definitely order it. It exceeded all my expectations for its buttons, build quality, and how it feels to play on Steam Deck and PS5.

Will the Razer Kitsune make me completely ditch sticks for leverless?

It will not. I’ve found myself preferring the Hori Alpha or 8BitDo over the Kitsune for shoot ’em ups on PS5 and Switch so far. It might be a case of not getting used to a specific game on leverless since I’m only about a month into using leverless, but I think I will be playing leverless for many, but not all fighting games. I definitely have seen the light with this controller, and will be experimenting with the other smaller options, and even looking into getting a second one for Xbox if Razer ever does one for the platform. I think the Razer Kitsune also will be my goto controller for specific rhythm games on Steam Deck.

I’ve enjoyed slowly getting deep into customization, modding, and learning the various control options for fighting games, shoot ’em ups, and other arcade games ever since I got an 8BitDo stick. Having now gotten one stick per platform at this point with the Hori Alpha Street Fighter 6 Edition being my main PS5 stick, the 8BitDo on my Switch, and the newer 8BitDo Xbox edition for my Xbox Series X, the Kitsune has made me want a leverless option per platform as well.

Is the Razer Kitsune the best Steam Deck arcade controller?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve used the Razer Kitsune when playing on the Steam Deck itself, and also when connected to an external monitor. I played with it wired of course, across Mortal Kombat 1 (which has a huge performance boost in the newest SteamOS), Street Fighter 6, Skullgirls, The King of Fighters XV, Guilty Gear Strive, UNICLR, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I played both online and offline and the Razer Kitsune just works as it should. In the time I’ve spent with it (over a 100 hours across PS5 and Steam Deck), it has given me no trouble. The touchpad even functions as a mouse without me having to change any settings.

Based on what I have access to with four arcade controllers now, I think the Razer Kitsune is the best arcade controller for fighting games on Steam Deck, and it is one of my favorite controllers ever. I’m confident in saying that already. Note that I haven’t tried the Snackbox and other similar controllers that are even more compact, but I definitely will try and get my hands on them in the future. For now, I adore how the Razer Kitsune feels to play. The fact that it basically fits into the larger iPad sleeve I have at home also helps. It is sleek and gorgeous, but more importantly, it works flawlessly on both PS5 and Steam Deck.

If you do buy the Razer Kitsune models listed above through our links on Amazon, it helps TouchArcade in a small way.

Anyway, Gubbins. It’s a word game, that’s no lie. Letters are distributed to you in some manner or another, and you need to flex your vocabulary skills to try to make big, fancy words in exchange for big, fancy points. This was one of the more obvious kinds of games to put on mobile phones, so it’s not surprising word games came in early and strong. There are absolutely tons of these available, and a lot of them are very good. So how can a new entry stand out from the pack? The answer, I think, comes down to two things. You have to have a twist or gimmick that actually works, and you have to bring your A-game to the presentation. Anything less and people are just going to keep playing Spell Tower or what have you.

I’m going to do the less obvious thing and touch on the gameplay features first. You’ve got three modes to play, though if you opt to go free-to-play you can only choose one to play per day. The mechanics are similar between the three, with only a few different points. Classic mode is the normal game, and I’ll explain what that means soon. Pencil mode removes all but one of the Gubbins from the game, turning it a relatively pure word game. Daily mode gives you the same set-up as every other player on that day, with particular words laid out and certain rules in effect. There’s a reasonably-priced IAP if you want to unlock everything, by the way. I recommend doing it if you like the game. Studio Folly seem like decent folks, and the game is good.

Okay, you’ve selected your desired mode. You’ll now have a board in front of you with a little tray of letters, and you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s something awfully familiar about all of this. But some of the letters are stuck together with other letters, and there are letter tiles behind the letters. It’s like some sort of bizarre solitaire game! If you want to see what’s on those tiles, you’ll have to play the ones on top first. That’s just how it is. You can place them anywhere on the board, and you don’t have to worry about them crashing into other letters or anything. You can rotate them between vertical and horizontal alignments, which is nice.

Once you’ve made something resembling a proper word on the board, you just run your finger along to submit it. The tiles will will be cleared, you’ll get your points, and everyone goes home happy. Keep on playing those tiles until you reach the one at the bottom that says FIN, and when you’re satisfied that you’ve done all you can, play that tile to finish the game. It’s like every game is a fancy little French film. Classy as heck. Your score will be displayed along with all the nifty words you made, and you might even unlock some achievements. If you’re the sort that shares your score, this is where you can do it.

The tile stack is an important feature of this game. It’s not unusual for a game like this to keep which letters are coming next a surprise, but you can clearly see which tiles are blocking the next batch and are nudged towards using letters you might otherwise leave behind. It’s a good set-up that gets players to use new strategies. But it lacks that sizzle, doesn’t it? We’ve got tile stacks! No one is throwing down their wallets for that one. We need some extra gubbins in here. We need some… Gubbins.

In Gubbins, Gubbins are special tiles that will show up randomly as you’re playing through your stack. Some of them will help you, and some of them will hurt you. At first there will only be a few kinds of Gubbins, but as you play you’ll unlock more of them. One of the IAPs also adds more Gubbins to the game. Each Gubbin has its own specific effect, and you’ll generally be given a choice between two of them when they first appear in a game. Some will let you move letters around. Some will move letters around on their own. Some will add useful tiles to the board. Others will add largely unwanted junk tiles.

Bad Gubbins will play themselves once revealed, while it’s up to you to play the good Gubbins whenever you think it’s best to do so. It’s an interesting random element that gives the game a lot of its mechanical flavor, and it’s why I tend to prefer Classic mode to Pencil mode. You might feel differently of course, so it’s good we have the choice. The thing about the Gubbins though is that they also give the game a lot of its aesthetic flavor, and that’s how we move into talking about the presentation. That’s the kind of smooth transition you get from a twenty-five year veteran of the trade.

The presentation in Gubbins is really good. The music is chill, with some soft piano and trumpets making you feel like you’re relaxing in a cafe or something. And who knows? Maybe you are. Sound effects are serviceable and do what they need to. The look of the game is what really puts it over the top. It’s very cartoony, with lots of pop-up effects that punctuate the in-game action. The Gubbins themselves are all individually-designed creatures with their own little animations. When you play them, you’ll see short little flourishes, and some of them will just be hanging out on the edges of the board. The whole game feels alive with all these cute little animated elements, and I dig the creature design. That weird-looking fellow coming out at the end of each game has some impact, to be sure.

It’s hard to find much to object to in Gubbins, really. It doesn’t do anything dramatically different from other word games on a fundamental level, so if you don’t like that kind of thing I guess you won’t enjoy this? Otherwise, this is smooth sailing all the way. It has tons of charm thanks to its lively presentation, the extra twists give the gameplay a flavor of its own, and you can try it out for free, buy extra bits like more Gubbins a la carte, or pay one reasonable fee to get everything. I’ll happily take this game and all the gubbins and Gubbins that come with it.

Okay, now that I’ve got you in here, I’ll get right to the point. You’re connecting water and electricity to little cities. You have a grid with different colored generators, and you need to use your limited supply of wires and pipes to connect them to all of the same-colored cities on your grid. The generators can take connections from all four cardinal directions, while cities can only be connected from one side. As time passes, more cities and generators will be added to the grid, introducing new colors and adding more complicated things to work around. Of course, you’ll also be given additional tools here and there that will hopefully help you deal with such complications. If you leave a city without its needed utilities for too long, that’s a game over. You’ll get your final score, and that’s that. Care to try again?

The base game of Tiny Connections comes with one country to play in, the United States. It includes a few different maps, and you’ll unlock those as you reach certain score thresholds. Each map varies in its land to water ratio among other things, so you need slightly different strategies for each. By purchasing a $1.99 IAP you’ll gain access to seven more maps spread across four additional countries. To round out the IAP situation here, the game has ads that you can remove with a $1.99 IAP, and there’s also a $2.99 IAP that will give you the new maps and remove ads in one go. I suspect more stages will arrive as new IAP in the future, but for now you can get everything the game has to offer for a few bucks. Or, if you want, you can just play for free on the three American maps and deal with the ads. Your call.

If you’ve been around the block a few times, the basic idea is probably sounding a little familiar here. Yes, this is rather similar to Mini Metro. Like that game, you’re having to manage what starts as a simple network of hubs, nodes, and the pieces that go between them. It gradually becomes more and more complicated, and eventually you’re just not going to be able to sort the spaghetti before the whole thing blows up in your face. Beyond the setting, the main difference here is that you’re dealing with multiple utilities, almost like if Mini Metro and Mini Motorways were smashed together. It’s a bit more strict in some ways and more lax in others. There are also some different special tools to make use of which fit the theme.

But hey, Teeny Tiny Town wasn’t the most original of affairs and I still loved it. I think what is different here is that Mini Metro isn’t quite as old as Triple Town is, and with deep apologies to Spry Fox, the presentation of Mini Metro isn’t as easily improved upon as Triple Town. Tiny Connections has a really slick presentation, and its focus on stylized realism is certainly distinct from the direction Dinosaur Polo Club chose for its games, but I really can’t say it looks and sounds better. Kind of a lateral move at best, depending on one’s tastes.

I suppose that’s the best way to describe Tiny Connections on the whole. It’s a lateral move at best from the games that it follows on from, and depending on how well you like the theme you may like it more or less. For my money, I don’t think there have been a whole ton of well-done games of this style yet, so I’m willing to give Short Circuit Studio a pass for opting to hew fairly closely to the basic idea and simply aiming to do its own take as well as it could. So that’s where I’ll leave that.

Beyond the lack of novelty, I only have some minor bones to pick with the game. The way the UI works makes it awfully easy to misplace pieces, but you can easily fix things up in those cases so it isn’t a huge deal. It’s not always immediately clear where a new problem has cropped up, particularly as things get crowded on the map. I feel like new cities occasionally pop up in places that can’t be addressed with what you have on hand, and that always feels very frustrating since all you can do is watch and wait until it busts. Relatively rare, but it does happen. Don’t waste your tunnels, friends.

I think that’s where I’ll park this one. Tiny Connections is an enjoyable, well-built spin on games like Mini Metro and Mini Motorways. Its less abstract art style and unusual premise might appeal to some players despite its mechanical familiarity, and I think it’s safe to say that if you loved any of the aforementioned titles then you’ll certainly want to give this a look as well. Since you can sample a good portion of the game for free, it’s easy to do just that. If you like what you see, you can open up the rest of the game and send those ads to Pluto for a very reasonable price. Another strong effort from this developer.

Let’s get right to that, then. Despite being able to save yourself a buck by buying the old version, I give my strongest recommendation that you do not do that. Some of those old Dotemu apps are still somewhat working, but Samurai Shodown II is in very rough shape. Its external controller support is spotty, it crashes semi-regularly, the touch controls are in a sorry state due to being designed for far smaller displays, and there are some emulation glitches on top of that. Don’t buy the old version. Friends don’t let friends buy the old version. SNK really ought to remove it from the store at this point.

Alright, that’s settled. So let’s talk about Samurai Shodown II as a game, and this ACA NEOGEO version of it. When people are asked which Samurai Shodown game is their favorite, Samurai Shodown II tends to be the one that comes up most often. It has a great roster, the play mechanics are well-balanced, and it has a lot of depth without getting too caught up in gimmicky systems. In a sense, it is the original Samurai Shodown concept in its purest, most ideal form. After this installment, there were a lot of attempts to change things up that met with varying degrees of success. I have a fair bit of fondness for every game in this series, and I tend to lean towards SamSho V Special as the best one, but I think I would be most likely to recommend Samurai Shodown II to someone looking to break into the series.

Of course, we’ve got the usual issues when it comes to this mobile ACA NEOGEO version. Samurai Shodown II has a lot of very involved special moves with precise motions you’ll need to do with the stick and buttons. If you have an external controller, then that’s fine. Connect your controller and have a good time. If you’re stuck with the touch controls, however, this might be one of the most problematic NEOGEO fighters to play. It’s really hard to do the more advanced moves using the virtual stick, and unlike with the Dotemu version there are no crutches for using special moves built in. If you’re willing to spend a fair bit of time with it, you might be able to get to a point where this isn’t a huge problem, but it’s always going to be a second-class experience.

It would be less of an issue if it were easier to play against another human, because at least you would be equally disadvantaged. If you’ve read any of my ACA NEOGEO reviews before, you know the drum I am about to bang. The only way to play multiplayer in this game is to use multiple external controllers and huddle around one display. If you have the set-up for it, then it’s a fine experience. But I think that’s a big “if". Realistically, you’re going to be battling against the challenging CPU opponent, who has no problems using its own special moves against you. Even the Bluetooth local multiplayer as seen in the Dotemu version would be a big help. It’s not that there isn’t some fun to be had here, especially for the reasonable price, but unless you’ve got the right set-up you aren’t going to be able to enjoy this game the way it’s meant to be.

I’ve said all of this before in every ACA NEOGEO fighting game review I’ve done, and I assume most of you are used to it by now. I would go so far as to say you probably anticipated I would be talking about all of these points. If so, you might be the sort that has been able to get over these issues before and enjoy these fighters. You just want to know how this game in particular is. Well, it’s really good. Samurai Shodown II rules. Hamster’s emulation is fantastic. You get lots of options to tweak as you like, and if you turn the difficulty all the way down you can have some fun slicing up the CPU opponent without much pushback. There are the usual Score Attack and timed Caravan extra modes, and you can choose between the Japanese and overseas versions of the game. Online leaderboards are here if you’re looking for some competition, and I could see some people really getting into that end of things.

I think with all of these ACA NEOGEO releases, we have to weigh the benefits of the low price and ease of access against the cons of some features being restricted and the overall playability being a fair bit worse for those using touch controls. I’m personally of the mindset that even these fighters can be worth the few bucks you’ll spend just to have the occasional bout against the computer. It’s a bit of enjoyable stress release as long as you quit before you get to the frustrating boss fights. But I also think that unless you have just the right conditions, this is probably the worst way to play the game on modern platforms. Absolutely, unquestionably better than the version we already had on mobile, but if you have another means of playing Samurai Shodown II, you should take it.

That’s really where I’m at with Samurai Shodown II. I’m glad we have a better version of the game. That old app needed to be updated or trashed, and I think it would be wise if SNK did the latter. It was fine in its time, but ten years is absolute eons in mobile gaming. This ACA NEOGEO version is up to Hamster’s established level of quality, and that’s a great thing. As to the game itself, Samurai Shodown II is excellent, and perhaps one of the finest on the NEOGEO, but this isn’t an ideal way to enjoy it. That being said, if you can accept the various challenges that come with the usual ACA NEOGEO suite of options, then by all means grab your katana and get to work.

As someone who doesn’t really watch football, I’ve been playing almost every main release of Football Manager since 2014 or so. That might sound weird, but I never cared for the FIFA games at all, but still love Sports Interactive’s games. I ended up watching a few videos of Football Manager games from lollujo who has been one of the best resources for the series ever and have been enjoying most of the games since. Anyway, back to Football Manager 2024, it is now available on mobile exclusively through two subscription services. I didn’t play much of last year’s games barring launch week on Apple Arcade and completely skipped the main PC game. Football Manager 2024 has been even better for the most part. It feels like this is the year to come back to the game if you skipped the last few as well, and I mean that for most platforms. With next year’s game changing things up quite a bit, now was the time to check out all current versions of Football Manager 2024 and see how Sports Interactive dealt with different platform hardware restrictions and input options.

If you’re looking for a more-detailed review covering what has changed this year compared to last year’s game on different platforms, this is not that. I’m going to focus on how the current version of the game looks and feels on multiple platforms, while covering the individual versions at the end of this feature. There are a few notable features that are included in all versions of the game, with the new content and features being implemented slightly differently based on the platforms. The one feature that applies to all versions is J.League from Japan finally arriving in the game. This is also the first version of Football Manager to have Japanese language support in-game.

On launching Football Manager 2024 PC, Touch, or Console, you now have the option to play as Football Manager Original mode, Real World mode, or Your World mode. Original is if you want to play Football Manager 2024 like traditional entries. Real World is a new option if you want to get an up-to-date experience for players and clubs. This mode will have players start as they were at the start date of this Career with them moving to the new clubs like in real life on the same dates. Your World will have players, clubs, and more accurate to the start of the 23-24 season, but no real-life transfers happening after that date. This gives you more freedom than ever before for each career save.

Speaking of saves, on Apple Arcade, your older save loads normally in Football Manager 2024 Touch. On Football Manager 2024 Mobile through Netflix, older saves aren’t compatible sadly. They do load for console and PC though. Sports Interactive also said that they aim to have this working in Football Manager 2025 which is a good sign to ensure people are more invested time wise knowing things carry over with the ability to access the new features and not have to start over.

If you’ve been playing the games for many years or just want to know what is available on each platform version in Football Manager 2024, the official website has a handy comparison going into details of how much of a specific thing is included and what level of detail or speed is available for careers. Check that out here.

Having not really bothered with last year’s entry, the new features here and general polish across most platforms make Football Manager 2024 really feel like a game that has been years in the making. Whenever I play the WWE or NBA games each year, you can tell when big strides have been made in a specific year versus just adding on to prior releases in other years. I usually always recommend getting every second game in a yearly series if you aren’t someone who exclusively plays a specific game. With Football Manager most of the community is hardcore, and they play each game, but thanks to more platforms, entry points, subscriptions, and more this year, there has never been a better and easier time to sample one of SEGA’s best modern franchises.

If you’re completely new to the world of Football Manager, the games usually go in the following descending order when it comes to features and complexity: Football Manager, Football Manager Console, Football Manager Touch, and finally Football Manager Mobile. The differences, detailed above in the link, get closer usually each year on the Console and Touch side, with Mobile being the most-streamlined version with the least features. With Football Manager 2024, that holds true, but I’ve come away very impressed with the Football Manager 2024 Console version on PS5, and Football Manager 2024 Touch version on Apple Arcade this year.

Football Manager 2024 is a paid game on PC, but also available on Game Pass. Football Manager 2024 Console is available as a paid game on PS5 and Xbox, but also included in Xbox Game Pass. Football Manager 2024 Touch is a paid game on Switch, but available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS through Apple Arcade. Football Manager 2024 Mobile is exclusively available through Netflix Games on iOS and Android. There is no standalone paid version of it.

Balancing different careers across platforms has been interesting and difficult since launch, and despite having access to the Netflix Mobile version and PC version on Steam Deck pre-release, I wanted to wait for the public versions on all platforms before properly starting to compare and experience Football Manager 2024. For the rest of this feature, I’m going to go into individual platform impressions and short reviews with a score on portable versions.

Football Manager 2024 Console impressions

While I dipped my toes into Football Manager 2024 Console last year through Xbox Game Pass, I was more interested in the PS5 version this year to see if the game had any PS5-specific features. Having now played all versions of Football Manager 2024, Football Manager 2024 Console feels like an upgrade over Football Manager 2024 Touch, but not at par with Football Manager 2024 (PC) yet in its complexity and features. There is some silver lining though. Having tested Football Manager 2024 Console on my TV and my monitor on PS5, the interface is very good for a controller.

Visually, it looks great and the load times are super fast. In fact, Football Manager 2024 Console on PS5 seems to load faster than all other versions of the game I have access to including the PC version on an SSD. It unfortunately does not have any DualSense features, but does have PS5 Activity Card support. You can press into the left stick to bring up a virtual cursor option which is good to have for some menus. Speaking of controls, SEGA really needs to partner with Sony and Microsoft to officially sell the controllers they use for promotion here.

Football Manager 2024 Console on PS5 isn’t perfect, but I think the team has nailed the experience of bringing as much of Football Manager 2024 to console as possible while keeping things more complex yet accessible on a controller. This is a big step above Football Manager 2024 Touch for sure. I just dislike the fact that this is a full-priced game and there are multiple consumable microtransactions included. This might sound like the old man yelling at cloud meme, but it does feel bad seeing these purchases available when you have Football Manager 2024 Touch on a subscription without any added purchases.

Football Manager 2024 Touch Apple Arcade Review

This is the version I was most excited to check out. When it arrived as an update to Football Manager 2023 Touch, I started playing a new save and also loaded an old save to see if that works. I focused on playing this version with touch controls on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro, but also tried it with my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 14 Plus. Football Manager 2024 Touch on Apple Arcade played on my iPad Pro is my favorite version of Football Manager 2024 for sure. I cover the Nintendo Switch version of Football Manager 2024 Touch later on in this feature.

I didn’t have this one early, so came into Football Manager 2024 Touch on Apple Arcade and Switch after playing the PC version and Football Manager 2024 Console for a good amount of time. There are cutbacks compared to those versions, but I’m impressed with the state of Football Manager 2024 Touch on iPad Pro. Going over to the iPhone version, I was curious to see how the UI scaled since that was touted as one major improvement this year. While it is much better, Football Manager 2024 Touch still feels very much like a game perfect on iPad.

Football Manager 2024 Touch on Apple Arcade supports touch controls and controllers. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on an iPhone 14 Plus to test out the controller interface and stuck to touch controls on my iPad Pro. I also tried touch controls on my iPhone 15 Pro. The team has done a great job here with the interface and load times. On the visual and performance side, Football Manager 2024 Touch runs and looks great on modern devices with fast loading.

I’m curious to see how Sports Interactive and SEGA handle updates to this version because Football Manager 2023 Touch got updates adding things like a boost to bank balance, one-time only Dream Transfer item, and more. Since this is on Apple Arcade, there are no microtransactions either.

If you do have Apple Arcade, Football Manager 2024 Touch is worth your time. I’m impressed with the improvements to the iPhone version as well this year. The added features and the ability to Load your save from the old version (as this is an update over FM23 Touch) make Football Manager 2024 even better. Not only is Football Manager 2024 on modern iOS and iPadOS devices drastically better than the Switch version, but this is the version of the game I will spend the most time in for sure. Easily the best portable platform to play Football Manager 2024 on.

Football Manager 2024 Touch Apple Arcade Review Score: 4.5/5

Football Manager 2024 Touch Switch Review

Football Manager Touch on Switch has been my goto version of the game because I enjoyed dipping in and out of it as a break from other longer JRPGs or games I was covering. Football Manager 2024 Touch on Nintendo Switch retains everything the Apple Arcade version has, but it sees cutbacks to visuals, performance, and has much longer load times.

On the control side, you can use touch controls in handheld mode, but it isn’t as responsive as the Apple Arcade version. The match engine also doesn’t look close to how it does on my iPad Pro or iPhone 15 Pro as expected. As of this writing, there is no mention of paid DLC like the PS5 and Xbox versions of Football Manager 2024 Console either, and there is no mention of the in-game editor being added.

I’d only recommend Football Manager 2024 Touch on Switch if you want to own a version of the game and don’t want to be tied to a subscription. The downgrades in all areas are too much to recommend this over the Apple Arcade version if you have that option on a modern iOS or iPadOS device.

Football Manager 2024 Touch Switch Review Score: 3.5/5

Football Manager 2024 Mobile Review

Football Manager 2024 Mobile is the most curious of the bunch this year, because it takes a paid game that has microtransactions, and brings it to Netflix Games on iOS and Android. In fact, this new Netflix version of Football Manager 2024 even includes the in-game editor, something available as paid DLC in prior versions, and something not included in Football Manager 2024 Touch. As with other games only available on mobile through Netflix, I try and think of whether this one is worth subscribing to Netflix for. Football Manager 2024 Mobile is literally not available without Netflix. Football Manager 2024 Touch is on Switch as well.

Football Manager 2024 Mobile still uses the 2D match engine unlike the other versions of the game. It does, however have the fastest and most-streamlined game flow. When it comes to other downgrades, it supports about half the playable nations and a bit over half the playable leagues compared to Football Manager 2024 Touch. It does include Challenge mode, which is something I’m surprised isn’t on PC yet, but is in other versions.

I don’t think this is the game worth subscribing to Netflix for. A lot of other ports are good to play if you subscribe for a month or so, but Football Manager 2024 is a long term game. We don’t even know if Football Manager 2025 will be on Netflix or on mobile, so I can’t even speculate whether saves will carry over. Right now, this is a great value add for existing Netflix subscribers.

If you own an iOS or iPadOS device, I’d only recommend Football Manager 2024 Mobile if you do not have or will not subscribe to Apple Arcade. It is more streamlined and a great intro to Football Manager 2024, but isn’t representative of the full game like the other versions are. I hope Football Manager Mobile gets closer to Touch next year, or that we eventually get to a point where the same game is scaled differently across platforms. Football Manager 2024 Mobile is only worth your time if you already have a Netflix subscription. If you don’t, focus on playing the other versions of the game.

Football Manager 2024 Mobile Review Score: 3.5/5

Football Manager 2024 Steam Deck Review

Since Football Manager 2023 was Steam Deck Verified, I had high expectations of Football Manager 2024 on Steam Deck. It doesn’t have a rating from Valve yet, but I am impressed and disappointed with Football Manager 2024 on Steam Deck right now. It brings the full PC experience to a portable and handles things well, but the controls are not ideal. Even with the official layout right now, it doesn’t feel remotely as nice as the console or Touch versions of Football Manager 2024.

If you play Football Manager 2024 on PC or macOS and also own a Steam Deck, this is a great additional way to experience the full depth of Football Manager 2024, but I won’t recommend it as your only version of the game until the controls are improved. If you, like me, are used to using the trackpads and dealing with PC-specific games on Steam Deck like I do with Victoria 3, you will get used to the controls here. Sports Interactive is close to making the Steam Deck my favorite way to experience Football Manager, but until then, it remains a modern iPad.

Football Manager 2024 on Steam Deck is a very disappointing experience when it comes to controls. I was hoping the game would have proper controller support, but it does not feel great to play on Steam Deck without a mouse (or using the trackpads). The interface doesn’t scale down too well on the smaller screen either. Don’t get me wrong, Football Manager 2024 PC is a fantastic version of the game, and one of the best we’ve seen from the game in years, but I do not recommend playing it on Steam Deck without big control and interface caveats. It runs very well and the match engine looks great, but I hope future patches can bring in proper controller support and an interface that actually scales down better for the platform.

Football Manager 2024 Steam Deck Review Score: 4/5

Hopefully this new format helps you decide which version of Football Manager 2024 you should get or try if you have access to multiple game subscription services or platforms. I am glad I ended up playing the game on almost all platforms this year, because it showed me how Sports Interactive can scale its complexities, features, and visuals across devices. Next year sounds very exciting, but this year’s games are better than ever before, at least for Touch, Console, and PC. I just hope we see more optimization on Switch, improvements for Steam Deck, and Mobile seeing an overhaul for Football Manager 2025.

I’ll go into my usual rigmarole soon, but I want to deal with the elephant in the room first. The old version of Metal Slug 3 is still on the App Store and it’s a buck cheaper than this one. Why shouldn’t you buy it? Certainly, it has a couple of features that aren’t found in this new one, in particular support for multi-device multiplayer via Bluetooth. It’s a bit difficult to play the mobile ACA NEOGEO games with other players, and that does make a difference for a game like Metal Slug 3. There’s also the Mission Mode feature that allows you to jump to any level you’ve previously reached. It’s a handy feature in a game as long as this, especially given the branching paths that characterize this installment.

But friends, take heed: very old iOS games that haven’t been given regular care come with some serious drawbacks, and Metal Slug 3 is no exception. The biggest issue comes from the virtual controls. The buttons in the old version were the right size for the displays of the era, but eleven years later things have seriously changed. The virtual buttons are now absolutely tiny and barely useable. The stick in particular is a real pain. The old version sported compatibility with the iCade, which was about as much as you could have hoped for at the time. That’s… not so useful now, and its support for modern external controllers is a bit spotty. Metal Slug 3 with touch controls was always dicey, but the ravages of time have made that old version extremely awkward to play in the current year. I wouldn’t recommend it, even if the extra buck might get you a delicious Snickers bar. Well, probably half of one these days.

Okay, that’s out of the way now. Don’t buy that old version. SNK should pull it off the store, frankly. This new ACA NEOGEO version has all the usual features. You can tweak a bunch of options, use some properly-sized touch controls, play with an external controller, use save states, compete on the leaderboards in a few different modes, and use as many continues as your little heart desires. And your little heart will desire many, because this game is a coin-guzzling pig. I think my singular greatest gaming accomplishment was finishing this game with one credit back in 2006. It took me a year of near-daily practice. It just keeps going. Unlimited continues! You’ll want them.

This whole review feels like I’m backing out of a tricky parking spot. So, let’s talk Metal Slug 3. This is my favorite Metal Slug game. Some others prefer one of the first few games, and I can respect that. A few prefer one of the games after this, and I’m not sure how to feel about that. Enjoy, I guess? This was the last game in the series developed by the original team, and in a lot of ways it feels like the developers knew this was the grand finale. It’s a massive game, perhaps too large for some. The last stage is almost as long as some entire games. Most of the stages have branching paths, and often more than one. Each leads to a completely different area, often with unique backgrounds, enemies, and bosses. This is disgusting excess, and I absolutely love it.

The usual four heroes are here, and you can choose whoever you like. It doesn’t matter much. There are tons of different weapons, lots of vehicles to commandeer, and fun transformations in some of the stages and branches. Metal Slug 3 is constantly throwing new things at you, so the run-and-gun action stays exciting from start to finish. This game came out in the year 2000, when things were pretty grim for this genre and 2D games as a whole. Metal Slug 3 had to keep the fires burning, and it brought enough firewood for all. If you haven’t played it before and have any love for the genre at all, you really should.

But is this version the way you should play it? If you have an external controller, that’s an easy choice. Yes, this is a fantastic version. It runs the way it should, and the suite of options fills things out nicely. The only downside is that you can’t play multiplayer unless you have a couple of external controllers and don’t mind crowding around a single display. As a single-player experience, it’s as good as any other option. Connect your controller, drop the necessary four bucks, and have a lovely day going through it all.

If you don’t have an external controller, it’s harder to recommend. This is a very intensive game and it requires a lot of precise movement if you want to avoid dying several hundred times. I’m a fairly deft hand with touch controls, but even for me this is a bit tough to deal with. Can you still have sixteen quarters’ worth of enjoyment? Sure. You’ll die a ton, but you have as many credits as you need. It’s a hefty enough game that you’ll get your value out of it even if you’re just touring it by throwing dead bodies at the bosses. But if you want to play it seriously, I don’t think the touch controls are going to do it for most.

If you’ve never played Metal Slug 3 before, this isn’t a terrible way to dive into it. Throw in an external controller and you’ll have a grand time. It’s also easily worth the upgrade over the old, now sadly outdated Dotemu version. This is one of the crown jewels of the NEOGEO, and I’m glad we have a fresh version on mobile. It’s a poor fit for touch controls, but the game itself is so good that it’s worth putting up with it to see everything it has to offer. Not every SNK mobile game is worth the double-dip, but I think Metal Slug 3 is.

As I’ve already said, Dotemu’s Blazing Star ($0.99) was a fine version for its time and place. Playing NEOGEO games on your iPhone or iPad in 2012 was pretty cool, and they ran well enough. Most flaws were well-hidden by the small displays most players were rolling with. In the case of Blazing Star, it was a game a lot of people slept on back in the day. It felt for many like they had found a hidden treasure, and shooting games work better with touch devices than most classic genres. In case you didn’t like the touch controls, the game also featured iCade support that was expanded out to external controllers as those began to propagate. You were given limited continues, but the mission mode allowed you to start the game from any stage you had previously reached. A nice compromise.

With all that said, its last major update was a very long time ago. Dotemu and SNK have done minor updates to keep it running on new versions of iOS, but the app is showing its age badly in a lot of ways. The emulation isn’t working properly, for instance. The second stage is a flickery mess due to some graphical issues, and that’s not the only bit that isn’t working the way it ideally should. It probably goes without saying, but Hamster’s Blazing Star ($3.99) runs flawlessly, like all of the developer’s other ACA NEOGEO games. It also features the usual extras and options we’ve come to expect from the line, and in the case of this game things like the time Caravan Mode, Score Attack, and corresponding online leaderboards make a big difference in how replayable the game is. I think the touch controls work a little better in Dotemu’s version thanks to some mobile-specific settings, but in all other regards Hamster’s take is superior. Sometimes by a lot.

If you’re new to Blazing Star and trying to decide which version to buy, the low price on the Dotemu version might be tempting. A buck isn’t much to throw down. Neither is four bucks, but three extra dollars in your pocket isn’t nothing. Still, I strongly encourage you to choose the ACA NEOGEO version. It’s highly likely that it will be the version SNK maintains going forward, and those emulation issues are big enough that even if they were both kept around I would still send you towards the Hamster version. The additional options are a nice bonus, and you won’t have to worry about whether or not your external controller will work. You also get unlimited credits, so you can feed your way all the way through if you’re into doing that.

I’ll also say that those who already own and enjoyed the previous version of Blazing Star will want to pick this one at their nearest convenience. Again, I don’t want it to seem like I’m belittling the work done by Dotemu. But eleven years is a long, long time. That it took this long for a new version to outclass the old one speaks to its quality, but outclass it this does. What’s four more dollars to keep on enjoying such a great shoot-em-up? The added modes and options even allow you to appreciate the game from new angles. It’s worth it.

All that and I’ve barely talked about Blazing Star itself. The NEOGEO wasn’t exactly home to the finest array of shoot-em-ups, since the genre was in a bit of a weird place during much of its life. Still, it had a few excellent ones. Some would say that Blazing Star is the best of the bunch, and I would count myself in that group. Particularly if we narrow the focus to horizontally-scrolling shooters. It’s visually pleasing, the action is challenging but manageable, the power-up system is easy to understand, and the bosses are pretty wild. The voices can be a little too much at times, but it also lends the game a bit of quirky charm that certainly helps it stick in the memory. A very agreeable game, one that is fun to learn and even more satisfying to compete on leaderboards with.

Like other shoot-em-ups, it plays fairly well even if you’re relying on touch controls. If you want to play it closer to the way it was intended, you can’t go wrong with using an external controller of some type, but it’s a fine enough experience to whip out of your pocket for a few minutes while you’re waiting for whatever thing life is making you wait for. The save state support in this ACA NEOGEO release means you can always stop and pick up later, too. Really, short of tracking down a cabinet or AES console, this is as good a way as any other to play this fine shooter.

While Blazing Star is yet another double-dip for SNK on mobile, I firmly believe this is one that is easily worth taking them up on. Newcomers should splurge and throw the extra few bucks to pick this up over the old version, and those who own that one are advised to grab this for the many advantages it offers. This is a great game that plays very well on mobile, and it’s nice to see it looking all nice and shiny for the current year. Unless you hate shooters for some reason, I can’t recommend Blazing Star enough.

Unlike prior games in the series, Kingdom Eighties is a standalone singleplayer expansion that actually has a notable story. When Jared mentioned Stranger Things, he hit the nail on the head. In a lot of ways, Kingdom Eighties feels like a Stranger Things game, but it isn’t, and it is still excellent if you’re after a polished tower defense and building hybrid like the prior games in the series. If you never clicked with those, this isn’t going to change your mind, as it builds on the base (no pun intended) of prior games and plays very similarly.

In Kingdom Eighties, you basically move on a 2D plane, collect coins, explore, interact with NPCs, and build by investing said coins at specific locations or points of interest. You eventually unlock all sorts of wild things to help you against the greed in the different chapters and locations of the campaign. While I feel like these games are very much “learn from experience", the tutorial does a good job of getting you up to speed with the basics of the game flow.

The narrative or campaign in Kingdom Eighties has you playing a camp counselor recruiting people to build or defend as you face off against the Greed. As this is a Kingdom game, you cannot afford to lose your crown or it is game over. The story here isn’t just some dialogue like a visual novel, but there are actual retro-style animated cut-scenes. Depending on the difficulty you choose, expect to get through Kingdom Eighties in about 6 or 7 hours with the survival mode unlocking after the campaign.

Kingdom Eighties nails its aesthetic and music for the 80s setting, and I love both aspects of the game a lot. The only thing I’d have changed is maybe adding some music from The Midnight, but that’s more of a want than a need for me. I love the reflections in the water, the subtle animations while riding the bike, and the VHS effect on the cut-scenes. I’m all for developers pulling out of left field things like the 80s setting here in their games. This obviously isn’t meant to be the next full Kingdom game, but as a standalone expansion, it is so good.

The lack of co-op might be a dealbreaker for many given the focus it had in Kingdom Two Crowns. I know many folks who loved that aspect of Kingdom Two Crowns, and keep playing that even today. Kingdom Eighties isn’t going to replace that, but it does do things a bit differently with its story and setting. The lower asking price compared to the main games definitely helps as well.

On mobile, I played Kingdom Eighties on my iPhone 11, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPad Pro (2020). I tested progress syncing between the iPhone 11, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPad Pro with no issues. The game runs mostly fine, but I noticed some of the similar scrolling issues the Kingdom games have also present here to varying degrees depending on the device. Barring that, they have controller support or touchscreen controls that both are implemented well. On iPhone 15 Pro, performance was great, but that scrolling issue was still present to some degree, though not as bad as on Switch and older iOS devices.

Since I had access to the Switch version and bought Kingdom Eighties on Steam to play on Steam Deck as well, I was curious how it scaled. The Steam version is Steam Deck Verified, and it had the least amount of performance issues across the platforms I played it on barring iPhone 15 Pro. The Switch version while decent, has quite a bit of frame pacing issues in some parts, but it isn’t game breaking. I see no reason to recommend Kingdom Eighties on any platform other than iOS from the ones I own, since you get the full experience here at less than half the asking price of consoles and PC and with a conversion that runs much better than the Switch version. The Switch version also lacks touchscreen support.

Having now played Kingdom Eighties with its latest updates on iOS, Switch, and Steam Deck, it absolutely delivered in its promise of being a story-based expansion to the world of Kingdom. I was interested thanks to the setting, but the team nailed almost everything about this across its aesthetic, music, and story. The lack of co-op will no doubt be disappointing for some though, and I wish it ran without the few scrolling issues I encountered. Barring that, I have no issues recommending Kingdom Eighties at its current asking price. I hope the team builds on this setting for a future mainline game though.

Resident Evil Village has been available since 2021 on consoles and PC platforms, and I’ve played it on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Steam Deck. I ended up liking the game more than Resident Evil 7, but found it was a lot better with the DLC and updates that arrived post-launch. Capcom has pushed out one major update already fixing a crash on specific devices, and I also wanted to try out the public build of the game more. I bought the in-game unlock and all DLC available to make sure it works fine.

On launching Resident Evil Village, you are prompted to download about 7.92GB, and then can view the options like DLC and the full game unlock if you don’t want to just sample the game for free. In terms of DLC, the Winters’ Expansion, full game unlock, and the Extra Content Shop All Access Voucher are available. These are similar to the main PC and console version DLC. Before getting into a new game, I’d recommend going into the options and customizing the touch controls. While I’m not too pleased with how Resident Evil Village controls purely on touch, Capcom has done a good job with the customization options for the on-screen controls as shown in the screenshot below.

Beyond controls, I was surprised to find a full graphics options menu in Resident Evil Village on iPhone 15 Pro. This is like the PC version where it shows you how much graphics memory is being used as you adjust various settings. This menu also lets you enable Apple’s MetalFX upscaling, change the screen resolution, frame rate target (with support for frame rates above 60fps), and the other options found in the PC version of Resident Evil Village. I didn’t pay much attention to the pre-release coverage for Resident Evil Village on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad M1, but I am impressed with how it looks and runs after some tweaking so far on iPhone 15 Pro. It does however run better on iPad M1 than iPhone 15 Pro.

The load times and visuals are great after tweaking, and it even loads quicker than the Xbox Series X version. When comparing Resident Evil Village on iPhone 15 Pro with the Steam Deck version, the latter is definitely comfier unless you have a controller like the Backbone One or something for your iPhone 15 Pro. Load times are a lot better on iPhone 15 Pro though. I hope a future update for Resident Evil Village on Apple silicon eventually gets full DualSense feature support for triggers and haptic feedback like the PS5 version, because I love how Capcom uses that in its PS5 releases. Right now, it only displays Xbox button prompts which is disappointing.

After spending more time with Resident Evil Village post-launch, I remain convinced that the best version of the game is with the DLC included. This is sold as the Gold Edition on consoles and PC, and on iOS requires the base game and the Winters’ Expansion. This expansion adds in the third person mode, Shadows of Rose expansion which is as good as when I first played it on PS5. It feels wild that this is all running natively on an iPhone, but here we are. I didn’t spend too much time with it on iPad, but I was impressed with it using an external Xbox controller.

I hope Capcom can work on improving the touch controls for the game in future updates. Developers like Feral Interactive have been bringing console games to mobile with optimized touch interfaces while also providing great controller support. While they are the gold standard, this is a good first step for Capcom with its AAA games on iPhone and iPad.

In its current state, I absolutely recommend getting Resident Evil Village on iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max if you have a controller like the Backbone One USB-C edition or use an external bluetooth controller and play on iPad. The touchscreen interface even with its customization options is not good. Capcom has done a fantastic job so far in bringing this AAA survival horror experience to Apple platforms, and I hope we see more RE Engine games make their way in the future after Resident Evil 4 Remake releases next month. Resident Evil Village is a free download with an in app purchase to unlock the full game, so I definitely recommend downloading it if you have a supported device to see how good the conversion is. Right now, it is a great start for Capcom on modern iOS devices, but I hope we see more optimized ports in the future.

Check out the official website for Capcom’s new Apple silicon ports here. Resident Evil Village releases on October 30th for iOS and iPadOS with pre-orders available here.

Resident Evil Village iPhone 15 Pro Review Score: 4/5

Update: Added review score after testing the game on iPhone 15 Pro after its first major update and also impressions from the M1 iPad Pro version.

So what is subpar pool? It is a blend of pool, mini golf, procedurally generated levels, different kinds of balls, gorgeous visuals, superb sound design, and more. You start off with subpar pool feeling like a pleasing pool and golf hybrid, but slowly start to see the genius unfold. Not only is this one of the most well-designed games I’ve played in 2023, it might actually have surpassed rymdkapsel for me from grapefrukt, which I’m shocked to even think about.

After a few rounds, you start unlocking different modifiers through cards. These let you augment your runs to try and complete more challenges and progress. You can pick and choose cards based on what you’ve unlocked, but things can get difficult very quickly. There are multiple areas and ball types you can mix and match as well, but the humor and gorgeous visuals are constants. The different ball types in particular dramatically change how things go in a run. If you somehow fail to pocket every ball in a stage, the game hilariously starts moving into a scary or anxious state where your ball starts sweating and such. Any ball you miss pocketing becomes a black color ball that remains for the next table.

subpar pool’s game flow and structure combine to be very addictive, but the controls were a big surprise. You see, I initially was puzzled at the lack of the slingshot-style control for aiming the ball as we see in most golf or pool mini-games. It turns out, the level design, screen size on mobile, and general structure made it so that the slingshot control scheme wouldn’t work. Instead you have the ability to place the ball, drag to aim, and then double tap to shoot. The touch controls on both iOS and Switch feel great, but there is full controller support on mobile if you prefer that. I used my Kishi V2 and it played great, just like it does on Switch with Joy-Cons.

In terms of accessibility, you can reduce shaking, toggle haptics, enable a left handed mode, and even unlock everything. These are all available in the options menu at any time. You can also reset progress if you’d like. I’m not sure if this is by design, but I couldn’t get my progress to sync across iPhone and iPad. I verified this in a few other games where it did work, so I’m not sure if subpar pool doesn’t support iCloud saves, or that it was just bugged. I hope this can be resolved or clarified in the future.

Visually, I’m not sure how subpar pool managed to pull off a blend of cozy designs for the balls, subtle yet whimsical animations, and some superb patterns for the environments around the actual stages. This is all complemented by stunning typography and iconography throughout. subpar pool feels like a game Apple would’ve funded on Apple Arcade a few years ago. Thankfully, it is a premium purchase and available on Switch and Steam as well as mobile from day one.

While a lot of the music in subpar pool is very chilled out, I ended up liking all the tracks used a lot. I even left the game idling on Switch docked to listen to the music while writing this review. Barring the music, the sound effects are just lovely. The sounds accompanied by different animations and changes based on how close you are to a game over are also worth highlighting. The team thought of *everything* here.

subpar pool also excels in how it dangles unlocks and challenges making you feel like you’re always close to the next major part of the game. Getting a game over in subpar pool never feels bad. Working towards more unlocks remains fun, and each run feels different.

The only part of subpar pool that might not work for some folks, is in its structure with how you mix and match to try new runs. I adore the freedom to tweak my playstyle and runs here, but those who prefer a more guided experience might not like it. If you aren’t a fan of golf or pool mechanics at all, this might not be for you. I love all of that, so subpar pool is one of my favorite games of 2023, and I feel like I’ve said that a lot recently, but 2023 remains a crazy good year for game releases on all platforms.

Subpar Pool is out on iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, and Steam right now. I’ve played it on iPhone 11, iPhone 14 Plus, iPad Pro (2020 11"), Nintendo Switch docked, Nintendo Switch handheld, and Steam Deck. I like the game a lot, but it definitely shines on Switch in handheld and on iOS. Both offer touch and controller support, and run the game very well. If you aren’t sure where to buy it, I would get subpar pool on iOS above other platforms. The one more run style gameplay, amazing portrait and landscape support, lovely use of haptics, and gorgeous visuals on modern screens makes it really feel at home on iOS and iPadOS devices.

If you enjoy mini-golf, pool, and have liked grapefrukt games’ past releases, this should be the easiest purchase you make all year. Even if you’ve never played a game by the developer, subpar pool is the perfect entry point into an amazing catalog of lovely games. I would like some sort of an in-game glossary for specific terms though, because a few challenges seem a bit vague requiring trial and error.

I actually wrote the TouchArcade review for The King of Fighters ’98 (Dotemu version) nine years ago. I’m going to borrow a bit from myself to introduce the game before we start making comparisons. Shaun of 2014, take it away!

“The King of Fighters ’98 represents the first “Dream Match" installment of the series, where the story is set aside so that old and new characters can appear alongside each other, even if they’re dead or it doesn’t fit the plot. As such, with a few notable exceptions, this game has every character from King of Fighters ’94 through King of Fighters ’97, rounding out the roster to an impressive 38 characters. If that’s not enough for you, nine of the characters even have alternate versions that reflect an earlier incarnation. What makes that number of characters even more impressive is how well-balanced the game is. While some characters, like Iori or Kyo, definitely outshine others, such as Andy or Billy, the gap between the best and the worst is smaller than just about any other fighting game with such a large list of playables.

As usual for the series, you pick a team of three characters and fight it out against other teams of three. This installment was from the era where you couldn’t tag in and out freely, instead choosing the order in which your fighters will appear. If you finish off your opponent, your character’s health will get restored a little and the next fresh opponent will face you in the next round. Eliminate the whole opposing team and you win. KOF ’98 carries forward the Advanced and Extra modes from KOF ’97, offering different styles of building and using your super meter. Aside from the roster changes and balancing, the gameplay isn’t much different from the previous year’s version, but that’s pretty typical for a fighting game sequel. There’s no story, and the boss this time around is Omega Rugal, an SNK boss if there ever was one."

Alright, that seems adequate. Odds are good that if you’re reading this, you probably already have a decent idea of what The King of Fighters ’98 is. You might even own that previous version. So let’s get to the proper meat and see how Hamster’s KOF ’98 fares against Dotemu’s The King of Fighters ’98. First, I will say that the emulation quality is excellent on both. Once you’re in the game and playing, there’s very little to distinguish the two. The sound is a bit better on Hamster’s version to my ear, but only a bit. Dotemu’s version skips the attract mode and title screen, so Hamster’s version does offer a more authentic arcade experience. Both versions support external controllers, and that is the recommended way to play.

That will bring us to the first major difference: the touch controls. Dotemu’s version is customized to an extent, with context-specific touch buttons, an SP button for easy activation of special moves, and a choice between the standard four button layout or six buttons with some button combos. You can adjust the size and opacity of these controls, but since this is a fairly old app even the maximum size is a bit on the small side. You can’t move them around, either. Hamster’s version uses the same stock touch controls seen in its other Arcade Archives releases. There are no special buttons or combo buttons here, but you can move around the existing virtual buttons, chance their opacity and size, adjust the diagonal sensitivity, and even choose whether the input on the stick will be digital or analog. I’m not going to lie: Dotemu’s SP button makes it easier to bust out moves with touch controls, but Hamster wins in every other regard.

Indeed, broadly speaking, Hamster gets the win in options. Hamster’s version allows you to tweak a few specific gameplay settings where Dotemu’s just allows you change the difficulty level. Hamster allows you to fully remap controls; Dotemu’s does not. In terms of video settings, Hamster allows you to change the screen layout and orientation, turn the wallpaper on or off, whether you want to display “off-screen" graphics (things that the bezel of most displays would have hidden back in the day, and gives you a wild degree of customizability in terms of applying filters to the visuals. Dotemu lets you choose whether you want a smoothing filter on or off, and if you want scanlines. Hamster offers sound setting options; Dotemu does not. You can make a save state and resume later in Hamster’s version, but in Dotemu’s you have to start over every time. Hamster is the clear winner here.

The extras are where things get a little messier. Hamster offers its usual selection. You can pick between the Japanese and International versions in standard mode, and the standard Score Attack and timed Caravan modes are here. Each mode has its own online leaderboard to compete on. Multiplayer is available, but only on the same device using multiple external controllers. Over on Dotemu’s side, you have a standard single-player mode using the International version of the game, a training mode that gives you a CPU dummy to beat up on, and support for multiplayer via local wireless. That last feature is a welcome one, as I personally feel it’s easier to set up matches with another person that way. Neither one supports online multiplayer, unfortunately. I’d give Dotemu the edge here, though it’s not a dramatic win.

The last difference is the price. This new version costs a dollar more than Dotemu’s old one. It’s just a dollar, but it’s still a dollar. That will get you at least a couple of slices of bread these days. Looking at the overall picture, which version is best is going to depend on your situation. The small virtual controls on Dotemu’s version really hurt its value if you’re not playing with an external controller. The training mode and more convenient multiplayer are great extras, and the game runs just as well. Hamster’s standard Arcade Archives features certainly give you more to play around with, but things like the Caravan mode aren’t as well-suited to fighters as they are to, say, shoot-em-ups. Multiplayer is pretty awkward to get going here, too.

If you already own the Dotemu version of The King of Fighters ’98, this new version doesn’t make a very compelling case for itself. If you don’t have either of them and are trying to choose, it’s a hard call. This one costs more and has more options and extras, but the Dotemu one has a couple of nice features you won’t find in this Arcade Archives release. I’d probably recommend this new one simply because it has a lower chance of being deprecated, but I think it’s otherwise a hard call. KOF ’98 is a great game that, like other arcade fighters, isn’t necessarily the best fit for mobile. It was dicey to recommend once, and I’m not sure I can muster much enthusiasm for a second dip.

Baseball Stars 2 released a couple of years after Baseball Stars Professional, which was among the launch titles for the NEOGEO hardware. SNK had clearly learned a lot of lessons in those two years, some of them the hard way. Truth be told, some of the team members from Baseball Stars Professional had already shown some improvements with 1991’s Super Baseball 2020, so it wasn’t just a straight jump from the first Baseball Stars on NEOGEO to this second one. Some of the improvements come from being more comfortable with the hardware, knowing when and where to use things like scaling in service of the game rather than simply to try to wow people with graphical tricks. Some of it was down to some of the team members stepping up to bat for a baseball game for the third time in as many years. I also think the sheer pace at which SNK was churning out games, a necessary pace for a hardware manufacturer in its position, led to a lot of iterative progress in terms of quality.

I’m not saying that SNK in 1992 had everything on the ball, but it was a smarter company with a clearer focus and more experience in delivering punchy arcade hits that pleased the crowds. And indeed, I think that’s what Baseball Stars 2 is. There aren’t a ton of truly great arcade baseball games. Even companies like Midway or Konami couldn’t quite get a proper handle on it the way they did with other sports. SNK pulled it off with Baseball Stars 2. It’s a terrific arcade game, with great graphics and sound, snappy gameplay, and just the right amount of over-the-top silliness to make it feel like a spectacle.

It’s a ton of fun against another human player, but you can also have a rather decent time going up against the CPU. That’s a good thing, because as usual unless you have some extra controllers and a display to crowd around, you won’t be playing multiplayer here. That leaves you with a fifteen-game pennant race against the computer, plus the usual extra modes Hamster puts in the ACA NEOGEO releases, complete with leaderboards. The CPU is still a bit of a rude boy here, as this is still an SNK game. Rubber banding is in full effect, so woe be it to you if you get too far ahead in a game. Still, it’s more manageable here than it was in Professional because it’s a more level playing field.

Specifically, the fielding in this game is a lot better than it was in Professional. The scaling and zooming doesn’t obstruct your view in the same way, so it’s a lot easier to do what you need to. You can also choose automatic fielding if you don’t want to deal with that end of things, but I think the game is lot more enjoyable if you have full control of things. You can beat that silly computer! You have all the coins in the world to buy giant bats with! That fifteen game sprint to the championship offers a fairly meaty challenge for an arcade sports game, and the chase is worth the few bucks you’ll pay for Baseball Stars 2.

Just keep in mind that this is an arcade baseball game. You won’t get anything even remotely resembling sim elements here. No team management, no roster editing, nothing. You step up, you play baseball, you go home. Enjoy the extremely colorful and well-detailed graphics, marvel at all the funny animations, laugh at the repetitive yet charming commentary, and… I don’t know, goggle? Let’s say goggle at the crisp sound effects. I’ll give SNK this: even when the games didn’t play the best they could, they usually looked and sounded fantastic. That was harder and harder to pull off on the NEOGEO hardware as the years passed, but SNK knew how to make that hardware sing. Anyway, this is the best looking baseball game on NEOGEO. Yes, out of all three of them.

Baseball Stars 2 plays a bit better with a controller if you have access to one. The Backbone or Kishi will work a treat, but use your weapon of choice. It was originally designed around physical controls, after all. But the virtual buttons get the job done here quite well thanks to the nature of baseball. It almost helps a little with fielding since it’s less likely you’ll be tilting in any directions when the camera cuts away, ensuring you won’t be marching your little fielder in the wrong direction for a second. These kinds of pick and play sports games usually fare well with touch controls, so I suppose it isn’t a surprise they work well here.

I’ve already gone over the usual ACA NEOGEO bits, but as a quick recap. You can use an external controller. You can only play multiplayer via a single device using extra external controllers, and you both have to look off the same screen. No online or local wireless multiplayer. You can play the Japanese or international version of the game, and there is a score attack and timed Caravan mode available. Each of these modes has its own online leaderboard that will probably have about ten people on it. Good luck and godspeed. You have access to a number of options, including gameplay tweaks and graphical options. You can save your progress whenever and load it later, at least in the main modes. The emulation is top-notch, like having the arcade machine in the palm of your hand. You’re a real hot dog!

If you were waiting for the best NEOGEO baseball game to arrive in the ACA NEOGEO mobile line, congratulations! The wait is over, Baseball Stars 2 is here. This is a very fun arcade baseball game that still holds up really well and has survived the transition to mobile intact. There’s no easy access to multiplayer, and I’m always going to harp on that in these reviews, but otherwise it’s really hard to find much to complain about with this particular release.

In the case of a lot of mobile ports, I’m curious to see how console and PC games transition over with their controls, but Storyteller is a puzzle game about putting together stories with already amazing touch controls on Switch.that already had great touch controls in its original Switch version. I knew it would feel good to play on mobile, but the Netflix release on iOS and Android arrives with the major first content update included from the get go, making it a more interesting release. The Switch and Steam versions were updated alongside the Netflix release so if you already own Storyteller, you can just update your game and play the new content there. If you are interested in the Netflix version and if it is worth your time, this is the right place.

In a lot of ways, Storyteller reminds me of Scribblenauts with its mechanics. Your aim is to put together stories in this puzzle game by completing panels in a book with objects, scenes, and people available for a specific solution. Some puzzles included have alternate paths or challenges, but there isn’t much replay value beyond that. This is where Storyteller might let some people down. The new update, which is what the iOS version ships with, has seen additions to prior chapters, new content, an interesting new character added, and more. I didn’t think Storyteller was too short or incomplete, so this new version feels like an enhanced version. The narrator is a lovely addition (that you can turn off) that elevates the experience, and the changes to some levels are very good. A lot of care has gone into this update, and I’m glad to see the game finally go above its potential thanks to this new version.

Storyteller’s actual narrative and writing are both very good. There’s humor, sorrow, and just a lot of fun as you mess around with possible outcomes here. I spent a lot of time trying to play it wrong or do the opposite just to see how things played out. In my original review, I mentioned how an expansion or update down the road would help Storyteller’s a lot. That’s exactly what happened here. Not only is it easier to recommend to those buying it on Steam or Switch, the game itself on mobile in its debut is really great now.

On mobile, Storyteller has no controller support that I could see, but you don’t need it. If it is included, I’ll update this, but I couldn’t get my DualSense detected on iPad, and the Kishi V2 didn’t work in-game on my iPhone 11. Visually, it seems to use the low quality preset on my iPhone 11 and is crisper on iPad Pro. The Steam version runs without issues at the high quality preset on Steam Deck. The Switch version handheld is similar to iPad, but not as crisp. None of these versions look bad because the aesthetic scales well, but it is worth mentioning for comparison. Load times are fine, and the game is responsive throughout. If I had to pick, I’d go with Netflix followed by Switch in handheld for the best experience. The PC version on Steam Deck does not have touch support and this game very much is best with touch controls.

With the Netflix release, the only caveat for recommending Storyteller is that you need an active Netflix subscription to play it, and can’t buy it outright. That isn’t an issue for most people with a subscription, but it is worth keeping in mind. If you do want to own it, it is discounted right now on Steam for a few days more. As someone with Xbox Game Pass, Apple Arcade, Netflix, and PlayStation Plus, I know a lot of games release on subscription services with time being the limiter these days, but if you do have a Netflix subscription, this is worth downloading to try.

Storyteller remains a short (well not as short as before this update), but great experience that I recommend to anyone looking to experience something only possible through the medium of games. The puzzles or trial and error in some situations may not be for everyone, but this is a great addition to Netflix’s growing games catalog on mobile. If you do own Storyteller on Switch or Steam, this update elevates it quite a bit, and you need to revisit it.

Thunder Ray comes from us by way of Purple Tree Studio, and if nothing else I will say that they’ve made a game that looks and sounds brilliant. It’s stylish, distinctive, and the designs for your opponents are fantastic. As well they should be, as this game borrows its theme (intentionally or not) from a would-be Punch-Out!! sequel that ended up making its way out on the NES under the title Power Punch II. It saw an expy of Mike Tyson named Mark Tyler taking on alien opponents across the galaxy after finding the competition on Earth insufficient. Thunder Ray uses an almost identical concept, and let’s give it some points for clearing the first admittedly low bar: it’s far better than Power Punch II.

The basic set-up of Thunder Ray will be familiar to Punch-Out!! fans, especially those who played the original arcade games or Super Punch-Out!! on the Super NES. You’ve got your boxer in the foreground, back to the camera and facing his opponent. Said opponent looms large in front of him and us, allowing them to be extremely expressive. That serves two purposes. First, it gives each opponent a lot of personality. You can see their facial expressions and body language change easily, and each of the eight opponents is different from the others in these regards. Second, it makes it easier to spot their tells. As in Punch-Out!!, it’s generally better to play reactively rather than proactively. Each fighter has their own patterns, and if you can learn how to avoid or block their attacks, you’ll be in a great position to reply in kind with your fists.

Since these opponents are (mostly) aliens, they’re not afraid to cheat in some creative ways. It’s humorous and makes every fight different, while also adding some character to the opposing fighters. In a bit of a change from the source of its inspiration, you’re not really aiming for knock-outs or to try to wear them down over the course of multiple rounds. These fights all go to three knock-downs. If you get knocked down three times, you’re done. If you can get them down three times, that’s your win. You can’t be saved by the bell here, so fight carefully. When you land your final blow, your opponents will often explode into a disgusting gory mess, so don’t play this one in front of the tots.

You’ve got a few moves of your own. Your normal punches come in four types, with high and low punches for your left and right arms. You can also charge up for some stronger punches, and if your meter is full you can attempt a ridiculously powerful super attack. As you play through the game this attack will be upgraded, allowing you to fill up more meters for more misery. Apart from your strikes, you can dodge in either direction, duck under attacks, and block. You’ll have to learn the attacks of each opponent to know which way to respond to their various attacks. On the easiest difficulty there’s a lot of room for error, but the medium and hard difficulties aren’t very forgiving.

So how does this all work on mobile? Regrettably, virtual buttons. Four directional buttons laid out in a frankly asinine way that makes it really hard to hit the direction you want, and four punch buttons that are more sensibly arranged. When your super attack is ready to go, an extra button will appear. I found the game really hard to play this way, and changing to the other control type in the options didn’t help at all. If the directional buttons were just laid out in a normal way, it would have been a lot better. Those who have external controllers will find a better experience that way, which makes sense given this game was originally designed to be played on a controller.

But let’s suppose you have that controller, or perhaps you get along with the virtual directional buttons better than I did. How is Thunder Ray in that case? Here’s the thing about Punch-Out!!: it’s more of a rhythm game than a boxing game. Give it a think, and you’ll probably see what I mean. And in a rhythm game, response time is everything. It’s why Punch-Out!! is one of the benchmarks for latency, and why you don’t see ol’ Parappa and Lammy show up as classic rereleases too often. A little lag can destroy a rhythm game. Those stellar graphics I was praising Thunder Ray for earlier? They include some really dynamite animations for both Ray and his opponents. They look great. But they are so animated that they take a while to come out, and you can’t interrupt them until they’re finished.

This leads to a lot of situations where you can see what the opponent is going to do but Ray hasn’t finished the punch you just asked him to throw, so you have to eat the hit. It’s very frustrating, and it forces you to try to anticipate what your foe might do even before they throw out any tells. You simply can’t trust Ray to take the offensive, and you also can’t put faith in longer combos. Again, you can get away with a lot on the lowest Rookie difficulty. If you want to have the least frustrating time with Thunder Ray, that’s where you’ll want to play. But you’re not playing the real game that way, and you’ll be done with it in a flash. Eventually you have to move up the difficulty if you want to keep getting some fun out of this, and that’s where the lag from being unable to cancel animations lets you down.

I don’t mind that Thunder Ray is somewhat light on content. With how much goes into these fighters, there’s a reasonable amount here for an indie studio. But with that being the case, it’s vital that what is here is polished to a shine. I think in terms of presentation, it’s fair to say Thunder Ray manages that. But it feels like the gameplay had to settle for being second place on the priority list when it should have been first. When the animations aren’t getting in the way, this is a fun game to play. The punches have great weight to them, the opponents are interesting to look at and satisfying to learn, and the way the different difficulty levels ratchet things up is good.

Unfortunately, the animations get in the way often. You have to learn to work around them. You also have to learn to work around the touch controls if you’re not using an external device like the Backbone One. Frankly, that’s too many things to have to work around in a game like this. I think the developer could address both of these issues, of course. If we had a better layout for the virtual directional pad or the option to place the buttons as we prefer, that would be great. If we were able to interrupt animations, that would be even better. Thunder Ray could be excellent with a few fixes. At that point, only its brevity would be contentious, and I think it could weather that.

I can only review the game in front of me, though. And that game is one that gets a lot of things right and a few things wrong. The things it gets wrong happen to be some of the most important things for a game like this, however, and that spells bad news for Thunder Ray. There’s some fun to be had with this game, but a lot of frustration comes with it. Not that spicy frustration that comes from Mike laying you out for the hundredth time, either. No, it’s the frustration of playing a game that gets so close to being a contender instead of a bum. Here’s hoping some updates can turn this one around so it can become a comeback kid in the future.

So yes, The Top Hat Club. A fancy place. Too fancy for the likes of you and me. But our little protagonist has a dream, and that dream is to sidle up to that fancy bar and sip some fancy wine with some fancy gentlemen. The problem is that you can’t even set foot in the door without meeting the dress code, and that means you’ve got to have a top hat. It’s right in the name and everything. Fortunately, top hats seem to just be laying around. All you have to do is don the hat and head for the door. So long as you have the hat, they have to let you go inside… right?

Well, anyway. The goal in most of the game’s thirty-plus stages is to pick up the hat from wherever in the stage it’s located and then make your way to the door. It sounds easy, and sometimes it is. The trick is that if you hit your head or otherwise disturb the hat, it will fall off. And wouldn’t you know it, the stages often have obstacles that will knock that hat clean off your head if you don’t approach things carefully. So you need to make sure you’ve planned a route that will take you to the exit without dropping the hat. You really do have to plan too, as many of the stages include disappearing platforms or other temporary elements that make it so that you can only have one crack at it.

You have unlimited lives, of course. It would be gauche these days if you did not. Annoyingly, whenever you die, lose your hat, or fail the stage for any other reason, a Game Over menu will pop up. You’ll have to manually hit that restart option each time, which is a design choice that runs against the current grain in a way I don’t really care for. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but each stage also has five coins to try to collect. Getting to the exit in most of the stages is a relatively simple affair, but getting the coins requires a good eye for the route you should take and precise execution. You will probably fail a lot, and having to hammer that restart instead of instantly respawning gets agitating.

My other bones to pick with this game come from the controls. First of all, you have to use the touch controls. No controller support right now and I see no indications of it being planned. That isn’t the end of the world, but if you’re going to have a mobile platformer that uses touch controls with virtual buttons as the only means of input, you have to make dead certain those controls are spot-on. Regrettably, I found these ones to be a bit lacking. The game would sometimes miss inputs on the virtual buttons, and that proved to be lethal in some stages. The combination of this issue and the lack of an automatic restart had me crawling the walls at times.

I suppose it speaks to the quality of the game itself that I was willing to persevere through these issues no matter how furious I got. The level designs here are quite good, with a nice balance of puzzles and platforming challenges to keep you on your toes. It seeds in some new gimmicks along the way to freshen things up, and there are some unexpected twists in certain levels that force you to apply the skills you’ve learned in new ways. It’s not a terribly long game on the whole, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome by even a minute. Getting all the coins is a good game extender, and there are a few little secrets to round things out nicely. You get a good buck’s worth out of it, to be sure.

The Top Hat Club feels like it fell out of a different era of the App Store, for better or worse. Mostly better, but I sure do wish that “worse" wasn’t there. It’s a fun platformer with clever stage designs and a fair bit of charm, and while it won’t last a long time it will absorb your attention well until the end. Some touch control issues and minor UI scrapes kept it from knocking my socks off completely, but given the highly reasonable price and everything else it has going for it, I think I can recommend this to mobile platformer fans.

I rarely find a yearly sports game that justifies a full-priced purchase each year. NBA 2K24 is pretty similar in that regard, so you might be wondering why I am reviewing it? I wanted to see how it feels on Steam Deck since I never played these games on Valve’s handheld, and also wanted to see how that version compares to the Xbox Series X (and PS5 version. I also wanted to highlight who should buy it right now, and who should wait on a sale. In this NBA 2K24 Steam Deck review, I’m going to focus on the game on Valve’s handheld gaming system, but also cover the game and how I found it in the time I’ve played across platforms.

Since NBA 2K18, every game in the series has been Steam Deck Verified. Knowing that, I expected NBA 2K24 to work well, and it plays without issues on Steam Deck out of the box. I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten verified yet, and my only real complaint with this release barring it being based on the last-gen version (which I will get to), is the install size. NBA 2K24 currently occupies 146.33GB on Steam Deck. This is smaller than the 170 or so GB on Xbox Series X, but still massive. I wouldn’t even be able to fit this into the internal SSD on my 256GB Steam Deck because of shaders and other data installed on it.

I installed NBA 2K24 on my SD card, and it ran perfectly. I didn’t change any settings initially, but settled on tweaking most things to medium or high and I turned shadows down to see if I could make it look crisper on the Deck’s display by sacrificing shadows. You won’t need to bother with any of this, but the game scales very well. It even has shader preload options and 16:10 support for many parts. I don’t know if NBA 2K23 offered all this, but NBA 2K24 feels and looks great on Steam Deck. I also tried it with my DualSense controller.

When it comes to game modes outside the default play modes, the Mamba Moments challenge mode here is quite nice, but I’d have liked to see more of a focus on Kobe Bryant’s legendary career in this game. The content in this mode is very good, but I was hoping for more basically. One area where NBA 2K24 does feel like a step back, is its MyCareer mode. On PS5 and Xbox Series X, there’s a whole set of WNBA content that isn’t available on prior platforms including MyCareer content and more. Barring that, the missing feature I’m disappointed by the most is the Eras quick play options that replicate the TV viewing experience with filters on Xbox Series X. These optional filters add a lot to the experience and this seems to be absent on PC. Check out the screenshot from Xbox Series X below:

Comparing NBA 2K24 on Steam Deck (or PC) with the Xbox Series X version, outside of visuals, the big differences are with game modes, movement, and overall content. The highlight is definitely cross play, which is possible with the NBA 2K24 PS5 and Xbox Series X|S native versions. The others don’t have cross play which is a huge deal in a game like this. NBA 2K24 is the first time cross play has been added as well to an NBA 2K game as far as I’m aware. Other differences include the lack of ProPLAY on PC. ProPLAY uses NBA footage translated in-game. More information on that is here. Even the game menus feel just fine on PC while the Xbox Series X version is a lot nicer.

While menus aren’t a huge deal for the gameplay, it basically feels like a representation of the overall product available on both platforms. NBA 2K24 on PC is a very good basketball game that has issues and is lacking compared to the new consoles, but NBA 2K24 itself also has too much of a push towards virtual currency in its various modes. If you ignore all that and just want a game to play casually or with friends, NBA 2K24 on PC is great on Steam Deck, but that’s a big caveat.

Thinking about the possibilities of NBA 2K25 bringing the new features and visuals to PC also might end up being problematic on Steam Deck. If said potential version is based on new consoles, it might not run and look as well on Steam Deck. This is all speculation of course, but the potential of NBA 2K25 doing more on PC has me excited. If it is the same last-gen version though, I likely won’t be bothering playing it on Steam Deck and stick to just PS5 or Xbox Series X. Having not played an NBA 2K game on PC before, I enjoyed my time with NBA 2K24 on Steam Deck. This is definitely getting Steam Deck Verified soon with how good it looks and plays.

While NBA 2K24 does have online play, I wanted to see if it was playable via Steam’s Remote Play Together. I invited a friend who doesn’t own the game to play on my Steam Deck with me. It worked really well despite the distance between us. One thing to note is that I’d recommend sticking to 800p on Steam Deck because 1080p with high and medium seems to be a bit too much for Steam Deck to maintain a locked 60fps. If you want to play on a 1080p display through the dock or something, consider turning more effects down.

Right now, I’d only recommend NBA 2K24 on Steam Deck if you skipped the last year or two of games. If you haven’t played these games in a while, NBA 2K24 runs and looks great on Steam Deck, and is a fun basketball game to play. The push to virtual currency in specific game modes definitely holds this back, alongside the lack of new modes and features on PC. Hopefully NBA 2K25 on PC will see it finally get the full feature set. Right now, I’d recommend NBA 2K24 more on Xbox Series X (or PS5) than PC, but the PC version plays great on Steam Deck if you’re after a great portable experience.

NBA 2K24 Steam Deck review score: 3.5/5

Want more Steam Deck coverage? Check out our Steam Deck category for reviews, news, interviews, features, and more here. Want us to cover something specific on Steam Deck? Let us know in the comments.

If you’ve not followed it, Monster Hunter Now is a free to play game akin to Pokemon GO using Niantic’s AR technology, but it brings the world of Monster Hunter to the real world. Having now played it, Monster Hunter Now feels like it is trying to appeal to Monster Hunter World players more than classic Monster Hunter game fans with its monster selection, weapons, and more. If Capcom and Niantic’s aim with Monster Hunter Now is to bring the essence of Monster Hunter or the brand to more players, it will likely succeed, but how is Monster Hunter Now for a huge fan of the series and someone who plays the games daily? That’s what I’m going to address in this launch week review.

Monster Hunter Now begins with a pretty decent story by franchise standards. I was interested in Qualily’s (new character) dialogue and also learning the ropes of how Monster Hunter Now flows through the Palico who helps you out. You begin only with access to the Sword and Shield weapon, and eventually unlock more like the Great Sword (my favorite weapon in Monster Hunter) at Hunter Rank 14. You then unlock more of the weapon types at the next Hunter Rank. That’s basically the main progression alongside monsters becoming more difficult and the upgrade system.

So how does Monster Hunter Now translate the core gameplay loop of the console games to mobile with Niantic’s AR technology? In Monster Hunter Now, your location decides what is available to you. It encourages you to move around as you’d expect from a game like this, and does things quite nicely early on. You can tap around to collect resources like ore or bones, and have access to small monsters and large monsters. The opening chapters and tutorials force you into a pretty-fixed path to move ahead, and while a lot of this was boring for me, it will help newcomers learn the basics of combat, weapons, items, and more. There are daily quests that unlock early on called Special Quests to earn more Hunter Rank points as well. You also end up having to face “Urgent" monsters that are harder than the ones you’ve faced so far, just like in the console games.

Combat initially is just you tapping the screen to attack a monster and swiping to dodge when it glows red indicating it is planning an attack. I never cared for the Sword and Shield, so I tried getting through these bits quickly. Each weapon also has a separate skill that you can use by tapping and holding the screen. You soon unlock a special ability which charges up as you take down more monsters, and also unlock armor skills and weapon skills. As you hunt more monsters, you need to forge and upgrade armor with the game conveniently notifying you when your equipped gear can be upgraded. This upgrade system is similar to the main console games, but quite a bit simpler early on. Elemental damage and affinities seem to play a larger part here right from the start. You can also enable motion controls for aiming and targeting by tapping the symbol on the top right during battles.

Visually, Monster Hunter Now looks really good. The interface is nice, and the animations all feel faithful to Monster Hunter. Weapon designs, a good resolution even on older iPhone models like the 11, and a 60fps hunting option all add up to make for a pleasant and polished technical experience in Monster Hunter Now.

On the audio side, I’ve been impressed with the new arrangements of classic Monster Hunter tunes, and the remaining sounds from the games that have been perfectly implemented into Monster Hunter Now. This truly feels like the team understood how to make a game feel and sound like Monster Hunter, despite the simplistic nature. Niantic also added haptic feedback which is a nice touch in a game like this. I liked the HD Rumble while playing Monster Hunter Rise on Switch a lot, and it is nice to see some of that make its way here even as simple haptics.

What does Monster Hunter Now include at launch?

Monster Hunter Now only includes six weapon types at launch. You begin with Sword and Shield, then unlock Great Sword, and soon after unlock the other four including Light Bowgun, Bow, Hammer, and Longsword. In terms of monsters, Monster Hunter Now also has a lot of the Monster Hunter World monsters, but not all of them. I imagine major updates will start adding monsters from that game and hopefully from Monster Hunter Rise as well.

Multiplayer is available, and it also supports the adventure sync option for tracking location when the app is closed for paintballs and gathering by your Palico. I can’t even remember how Pokemon GO launched, but Monster Hunter Now feels like it has the potential to do great assuming Niantic supports it properly. Since the developers clearly used a lot from Monster Hunter World, I hope the support it gets post launch is also as good as that and Iceborne rather than Rise.

If you try playing Monster Hunter Now while in a car, it gives you a warning to click to confirm that you aren’t the driver, and then still doesn’t let you play if you move too fast. You need to wait a few seconds in place before it lets you interact with points of interest or hunt again.

In terms of monetization, I didn’t feel the need to spend so far, but we are still about a week into launch only. The in app purchases range from a one time starter pack with consumables and gems to a release celebration pass that gives you gems daily for a month. There are also direct purchases for an item box expansion and a few gem pack options. The big point of contention is in how health potions and first aid meds are handled here. You get the latter daily, but you will need to wait till you have enough health before you can hunt so you might think paying gets over the time barrier for that to replenish. The way I look at this game, if I ran out of health, I’d just wait till the next day and come back. I wouldn’t consider paying for health potions. This could change with updates or when I run into later monsters, but as of today, nothing has felt essential from the in app purchases.

In terms of what I’d like to see come in updates, I don’t really have a frame of reference to other Niantic games right now, but I want Niantic to add more of what makes you actually learn monster patterns, explore, and hopefully bring in large-scale raids sooner than later. Combat is fine for newcomers, but it can be repetitive for veteran players. It is going to be interesting to see the pace of new content and features for Monster Hunter Now.

I definitely recommend checking out Monster Hunter Now if you’ve enjoyed the recent entries in the series or are a newcomer looking to see what Monster Hunter is all about with the lowest barrier of entry. In its current state, it isn’t as deep as proper console and PC Monster Hunter games, but it does its job at giving you bite-sized hunting action on the go when you’re out and about with a lot of love put in for Monster Hunter. I hope the combat gets more depth through updates, but I’m pleased with the launch state of Monster Hunter Now and will be playing it regularly and checking out updates whenever new content is added.

Let’s start by talking about Face. Face was a Japanese developer and publisher that first popped up around 1988, and it was around for a relatively long time as those things go. None of its games were especially big hits, and only a few of them ever saw release outside of Japan. That said, there was a certain flavor to many of its efforts. Face made some very unusual games that had a lot of character to them, with Hany in the Sky on the PC-Engine (the Japanese Turbografx-16) being a great example of that. Its best game was probably Money Puzzle Exchanger, a charming variant on Data East’s Magical Drop that still has a cult following to this day. It was a company whose output always felt like it was one or two small changes away from being great, and in light of that it wasn’t terribly surprising when it shuttered its doors somewhere around the year 2000.

Zupapa! makes for a great excuse to talk about Face. It was first shown by Face at a Japanese arcade exhibition in early 1994, which would have likely seen it come out alongside some of the company’s other arcade games around that time. It disappeared after that, which was odd but not completely unprecedented for Face. It buried an entire Time Cruise game, after all. No, the really curious thing about Zupapa! isn’t its disappearance. It’s that it showed up again after the death of Face, published by SNK in 2001. Presumably when the company closed down, SNK decided to pick it up and use it to bolster the release schedule of the aging NEOGEO system. But this was during the brief span of time that Aruze owned the company, just before the bankruptcy of the original incarnation of SNK. Why was it picking up long-dead games? Was Zupapa! finished by Face, or did SNK have to bring it to the finish line? Questions we’ll probably never have the answers to, friends.

Still, knowing that Zupapa! was originally meant to arrive in 1994 does help us understand how such a modest game arrived so late in the console’s life. Zupapa! is a fixed-screen platformer, a genre that had its heyday in the mid-to-late 1980s with games like Bubble Bobble, Snow Bros., and Rod Land. They were fairly scarce after Street Fighter II made its impact in the arcades, but you still saw the occasional release here and there for a couple of years after. By 2001, it was practically as dead a sub-genre as the fixed-screen shoot-em-up. A very odd release in what was otherwise a sea of fighters and Metal Slug sequels on the platform. But hey, we’re looking back more than twenty years later. The whole library is vintage at this point. Still, that genre’s place in time relative to the NEOGEO itself means there aren’t too many games like Zupapa! on it, something that helps this game shine even brighter.

Zupapa! shares a lot of traits with the best games in this genre. The graphics are colorful, detailed, and well-animated. The levels have a lot of variety to them, and you’ve got a rather large number of them, with forty-five in total spread across nine worlds. The bosses are huge and really creative, and the different enemies are fun to deal with. The goal on each stage is to clear out all of the enemies, all while getting as many points as you can. You can’t take too long to do it, either. Beat them all and you’ll be whisked to the next stage. You can play with another person, but that’s obviously a bit of a pain in this mobile release. It’s too bad, because as fun as it is solo it’s even better with a friend.

Games like these always have some kind of gimmick for how you attack the enemies. Bubbles, snowballs, vacuums, slamming them back and forth into the ground with your rod, and so on. In Zupapa!, you have two ways to tackle your foes. First, you can punch them. It has limited reach, though you can get a power-up to extend it. Smack them and then touch them to finish them off. It’s reliable but it won’t earn you many points. No, if you want to get those big scores, you’ll have to engage with the game’s main gimmick.

There are little creatures named Zooks populating each stage. If you touch them, they’ll follow you around. You can throw them at enemies and they will start pounding on them, immobilizing them. Up to four can be attached to an enemy at once, though even one will stop the enemy in their tracks. Touch the enemy and not only will they be taken out, an explosion will trigger, taking out any other enemies it touches. Its size is based on how many Zooks were on them. Enemies that are defeated by an explosion will leave behind foods you can collect for points, and the more you take out at once the higher the point values of those foods. It’s in your interest to try to set things up for those big scores. I mean, unless you just want to play through the game and don’t care about scores. Even then, exploding a bunch of enemies in one go is sometimes easier than knocking them out individually.

Each stage layout presents its own challenge. Sometimes the Zooks are easy to get at, while other times you’ll have to go past the enemies to get them. Sometimes you have a lot of room to maneuver while other times you’ll have to squeeze in with the baddies to get at them. There are special gimmicks like springs and breakable walls, and some interesting hazards too. I’ve always found that the best games in this sub-genre have a strong focus on varied level designs, and Zupapa! carries itself quite well in this regard. None of the themes overstays its welcome, and you’re always facing something new. The bosses are genuine highlights, but make sure you grab a speed boost power-up before facing them if you can. This is an arcade game, after all. It wants your coins, not your forgiveness.

As you can probably tell, I like Zupapa! a lot. I’ve always been fond of this particular kind of arcade game, and if you’re like me then I think you’ll have a good time here as well. It’s a little trickier to play with touch controls than it is with a controller, but it only uses two buttons so it isn’t particularly egregious so long as you’re not completely turned off by virtual buttons. If you play with an external controller, then you really have no worries at all here. Sadly, you can only play multiplayer if you have enough controllers and a display you can share, but that’s nothing new for the ACA NEOGEO line. I’m going to save us the usual paragraph here and say you get all the usual options and extra modes here, and those Score Attack and timed Caravan modes work pretty well with this game. Hamster’s done a good job here.

Zupapa! is one of those games that is really hard to hate. It looks nice, plays well, and has plenty of game to offer for your buck. Provided you’re okay with the control options you have access to and aren’t repelled by fixed-screen platformers, I think this is one of the easier ACA NEOGEO games to recommend. It’s just good, simple fun, and that’s something that has always translated fairly well to mobile play.

I still remember the first time I saw Cyber-Lip, because it was also the first time I saw a NEOGEO MVS cabinet. It was 1990, I was eleven years old, and I was over at my friend’s house for the weekend as I tended to be in those days. He lived over on the other side of town, the side of the town that frankly didn’t have a whole lot around besides houses. I’ll tell you what it did have, though: R & S Video. Run by a couple named Rod and Sheila, this place was one of the coolest locations in my boring-butt hometown. That was down to Rod being an absolute man-child and Sheila putting up with him as long as the money came in. Rod was a barely functioning alcoholic, a complete burn-out, and one of the more unique fellows I’ve ever known. He’s not with us anymore, and hasn’t been for a very long time. He tried to drink himself to death and he ended up being successful. But he was a very important part of my life, so cheers to him wherever he may be.

R & S Video was in the main a video rental shop, back when such things were a license to print money. They sold snacks, they rented VHS tapes and NES games, and they even sold saucy magazines. One of the few locations for that in my town, I’ll hasten to add. Slowly but surely, however, Rod’s other interests seeped in. Music, especially metal. Stereo equipment. Import game machines; I first played the Super Famicom via R & S Video, renting it for $27 for one night. But best of all, arcade games. Up until R & S Video opened, there were very few choices for arcade games in my town. There was The Pool Hall, where good kids were not allowed. The bad kids who smoked went there, you see. You could also find a few machines here and there in laundromats, the shopping mall, and such.

But man, R & S. Rod knew what was cool and hot and he wanted it in his place. He always had a fine selection of the best games, and when you saw a cabinet in a game magazine with some effusive praise attached to it, you could be sure it would soon arrive at R & S. It’s where I first played Street Fighter II, busting out a Hadouken. It’s where I saw Sub-Zero first rip out a spine, the bass booming throughout the shop as parents shuddered at the screams. And it is where I first encountered the NEOGEO, its own sound system being no slouch. Four games in one cabinet, and being a good Contra-loving lad my eyes were drawn to one in particular: Cyber-Lip.

I have to admit that at the time, and for a while after until an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly corrected, I thought the game’s name was Cyber-Up. That’s how it looked in the logo on the title screen, and Lip? Why Lip? It turns out, the big bad is a giant mouth. Yeah, that’s a thing. But wow, it was so colorful and detailed. The characters talked! Look out below! Ha. When you shot enemies, they broke apart into pieces. The bosses were big! You could grab onto overhanging bars and shoot at enemies below you! When you died, your guy came back on some kind of wicked rocket sled! Wow, what a game! I’d feed my meager quarters into it when I had the chance to, not make much progress, and then think about it until the next time I got to play it. Cyber-Up! Lip! Whatever! Now this is the power of the NEOGEO!

Cyber-Lip isn’t very good. It’s a very plain run-and-gun action game that has a decent but not spectacular presentation. It’s a far stiffer game than any of the good Contra games, and it’s a lot less inspired. It feels like half of the game involves popping out of an elevator and going through a slight remix of the same gunky sewer. The boss patterns are bland, but when the game decides to kill you it probably will. Some of the power-ups are enjoyable to use, but some of them like the grenade will put you in mortal danger if you’re flying solo. It has its moments to be sure, but even comparing it to Contra III: The Alien Wars on the Super NES lays bare its numerous failings.

The team that made Cyber-Lip would soon get up to much more important things. The key members went on to make Fatal Fury, and that went over somewhat better. The director of the game, after a solid tenure at SNK, left and joined DIMPS, where he worked on things like The Rumble Fish. None of the people involved with this game had anything to do with Metal Slug, which is a natural comparison given it is the other Contra-style run-and-gun on the system. Sure, five years separate the two and perhaps it isn’t fair to put them against each other as a result. But one can’t help but look at Metal Slug and think that it does what Cyber-Lip wanted to do, only infinitely better. We can shoot diagonally. We have the technology. If you’re going to play a NEOGEO run-and-gun action game, Metal Slug has five games you should play through before you even think of touching Cyber-Lip.

But right here, right now, in this mobile ACA NEOGEO context, I think I can give Cyber-Lip a light recommendation. Its lack of diagonal shooting makes it a bit easier to play with touch controls, assuming you aren’t using an external controller. If you get bored you can always make a save state and come back later. You probably won’t be able to play with a second player, but you can still have a decent time on your own. And I think the ending alone might be worth the price of admission here. Sixteen quarters for that kind of bonkers closing, one that was never followed up on at all? That seems pretty fair to me.

Cyber-Lip was sometimes used on good ol’ Nick Arcade for one of the game challenges. Kids would have to try to get the best score they could within a certain amount of time. You know, it’s not a bad score attack game. As usual, ACA NEOGEO has modes and leaderboards to support that. There are online leaderboards for the main mode, and you’ve also got a Score Attack and timed Caravan mode in case you really want to live out your fantasy of being called down by Phil Moore. There are better genres for this kind of thing, but it works better here than it does in, say, fighting games.

The usual ACA NEOGEO stuff. You get all the usual options and extras, include gameplay settings, video and audio options, and control customizations. You can play with an external controller if you like, or you can use touch controls. They’re not perfect, but you’ve got endless coins. Multiplayer requires enough controllers for all and a display to huddle around. The emulation is spot-on, but Cyber-Lip never taxed the NEOGEO much to begin with anyway.

If you enjoy run-and-gun action games and have tapped out the Metal Slug series on mobile, I think Cyber-Lip is worth the asking price. It’s not a great game and if I had paid a couple hundred bucks for a NEOGEO cartridge back in the day I don’t think I would have been very impressed, but for four bucks on mobile it offers more than enough thrills and weird things to shoot to make it worth your while. Just keep in mind this was a very early game on the system, and that the designers really couldn’t think of any better way to link stages other than an elevator. Also, never pick up the grenades, unless you want to be a goner. Cyber-Lip: it’s great, it’s bad, it’s fine. Evolution, friends.

If you’ve not played Samurai Shodown, it plays quite differently compared to mainstream fighting games. Having seen the series history through the Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection, I’m glad this Samurai Shodown reboot stuck to its guns and didn’t try and change things up to lose its own character. The weapons, footsies, unique characters, striking aesthetic, and more come together brilliantly, but this Samurai Shodown game has always been lacking in its online and story mode. The core gameplay is great, and I was hoping to see at least that translated to mobile well alongside all the in-game content.

Samurai Shodown on mobile initially feels like the complete game with touch controls, but it has some cutbacks. The first one is visuals. I expected it to look and run better on modern iOS devices given my experience with it on consoles. Visuals aren’t as bad as the Switch version though, and Samurai Shodown on newer iOS devices doesn’t feel sluggish like the Switch version. I also feel like some characters will feel very different here given the on-screen buttons being the only way to play including specials. This just is a very weird decision in what should’ve been a slam dunk port with how much effort went into translating the visuals and everything else over.

The major issues are with the cuts to DLC. Not only are the DLC characters not included in the game right now, but the collaboration characters are completely cut out. As an example, Baiken from Guilty Gear or Warden from For Honor are completely absent here. Not having DLC right from the start isn’t the biggest problem, but the current character selection screen mentions some of the DLC characters arriving as late as July 2024. I get that you want people to remain subscribed to Netflix so you don’t want to release everything in one go, but this is a bit much.

If you’ve never played Samurai Shodown on other platforms or don’t even care about those versions, Samurai Shodown on Netflix isn’t a complete waste. The touch controls aren’t as good as traditional controls on a controller or stick, but the developers did a good job with them here. I just don’t understand why it didn’t include controller support as an option for those who prefer using traditional controls in a fighting game.

For the online, I tested against someone locally over wifi and with Shaun who is in Japan. The netcode held up alright, but it isn’t as good as playing something like Street Fighter 6 or Guilty Gear Strive. For casual matches, it is worth trying, and also has a decent custom lobby implementation. There are also leaderboards for some modes included in the Netflix version of Samurai Shodown.

When it comes to platform differences, the best versions of Samurai Shodown right now for me are the Xbox Series X version for playing on TV and the Steam Deck version for playing on the go. The Xbox Series X version supports 120hz which even the PC version doesn’t have. The PS4 version never got any PS5 enhancements so I stopped playing that version to move to the Xbox version for offline play. On the portable side, I would only recommend the Switch version if you have no other way to play Samurai Shodown and don’t care about online play.

So where does the Netflix version fit into this picture? It isn’t really the same experience with forced touch controls, but it does a better job than the Switch port for sure. I would absolutely recommend downloading it to see how you find the touch controls, but I really hope SNK can add controller support and improve the DLC situation. I don’t expect online to work too well considering the console and PC versions still don’t have decent online netcode. That is coming this month. But in the testing I did, it is serviceable. I played a few games against Shaun who is in Japan and it wasn’t unplayable like certain Switch fighting games we’ve played.

Samurai Shodown, even as the base game with touch controls only, is a great addition to Netflix’s gaming catalog, but it should’ve been better. The lack of controller support and baffling DLC release schedule hold it back in its current state. I’m going to keep it installed in the hope we get updates to address those issues, but right now Samurai Shodown is a great fighting game that deserved better for its mobile release. This is a competent and commendable conversion in many ways, but a very disappointing one in others. Hopefully we won’t need to wait too long to embrace controller support.

What I will say is that this is, without question, the best fighting game ADK made. It’s almost frustrating, seeing how far the developer had come from the likes of the first World Heroes. Where could it have gone from here? We’ll never know. All we have is Ninja Master’s. It’s a game that shows ADK had been doing its homework, but it’s also a game that struggles from the company it was in. This game arrived in 1996, and by then SNK had a lot of irons in the fighting game fire. Between King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, and Fatal Fury all flying high, it was at a point where the company’s new fighting game IPs were getting devoured by their own older siblings. Ninja Master’s is unfortunately no different.

The chief gimmick of this game, beyond the all-ninja cast, is that you can whip out a weapon at any time during the fight by pressing B + C at the same time. This changes the moves available to you along with various other factors, but not in such a way that your unarmed actions are rendered useless. Indeed, I would say that fighting unarmed is just as effective as using your weapon on the whole. It all comes down to how you like to play, and the situation. This blend of armed and unarmed fighting action makes it seem like ADK was trying to have its Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown it too. In addition to this mechanic, you have the usual SNK desperation moves, super moves, super desperation moves, and so on. You can also use your meter to put yourself in a hyper state that can be pretty helpful at times.

Ninja Master’s has another somewhat unique element among SNK fighting games, though one that wasn’t unusual at the time: dial-a-combos. If you’re not familiar with that term, it refers to a combo where you can just hit all the buttons in sequence without concern for timing and the whole combo will just roll out. Some people like them, some people don’t. Tekken uses them, and it certainly has no shortage of fans. Around the time this was being made, Killer Instinct would have been doing fairly good business and it is probably one of the more well-known dial-a-combo fighters. But you didn’t see a lot of SNK games use them, so seeing them here is interesting.

Otherwise, this is just another NEOGEO fighting game, and that’s not a bad thing. You have a solid cast of varied fighters, and they’re all detailed and well-animated. The backgrounds are terrific, with lots of interesting elements to catch your eye if you have a second to look around. The medieval Japanese setting and ninja focus tie everything together so that it doesn’t feel as scattershot in a thematic sense as some other SNK fighters. The bosses here are quite wild and toppling them is certainly a challenge, but the game gives you enough leeway early on so that you can enjoy batting the CPU around a bit without too much resistance. Which, as we all know, is pretty important for these mobile releases.

I think Ninja Master’s is a pretty good one-on-one fighter, and if it had been in any other camp than SNK’s (apart from Capcom), it would probably be among the very best of that publisher’s offerings in the genre. In the SNK line-up, it has to settle for the upper mid-tier. If you enjoy the theme, you can add some extra points to the bottom line. I like the weapon gimmick, though it probably isn’t used to its maximum effectiveness. Again I can only wonder what a sequel might have brought us when the first attempt was as solid as this is. If you’re tired of spinning the usual hits, give this one a play.

Of course, when we’re talking about these mobile versions, it’s not enough to simply consider the game itself. We also have to think about how well it adapts to mobile, because that’s a different question. As usual for ACA NEOGEO releases, the only multiplayer option requires external controllers and huddling around one display. Most are probably not going to be able to make much use of that, so you’ve got a fighter you can only play in single-player. This one isn’t too shabby in that regard because the CPU isn’t a total jerk until you get near the end, but there’s no doubt something is missing by not being able to play against another human player.

The other consideration comes in the controls. If you’re sporting an external controller like a Backbone One or Kishi, you have nothing to worry about. You’ll be playing it just like anyone on other platforms can. The touch control option is a bit mixed. Some of the special moves can be tricky to pull off, and the desperation attacks are a real pain. Interestingly, that dial-a-combo system is a boon here. At least for me, it’s easier to punch in those combos via touch controls than it is to deal with a standard combo system using such means. It’s no worse off than most other SNK fighters when it comes to special move commands, but in terms of whipping out combos on those virtual buttons, I think Ninja Master’s is more manageable.

We have now reached the part of the review where I talk about the usual features for ACA NEOGEO games on mobile. You can access a variety of gameplay, video, audio, and control options. The Japanese and International versions of the game are available for standard play, plus you get Score Attack and timed Caravan modes to play. There are online leaderboards for all of these ways to play, and they do extend the entertainment value of playing a fighting game alone somewhat. The emulation quality is great, and you would expect it to be given Hamster’s extensive experience in this area by now.

Ninja Master’s suffers from most of the usual problems with the fighting games in the ACA NEOGEO line. You’re highly likely to be playing solo unless you can meet some tough requirements, and fighting games on this platform don’t exactly shine when you’re stuck fighting the CPU. Still, the unique weapon system and dial-a-combo mechanic mean that there is at least something worth noting here, and I can’t argue that the theme and cast aren’t cool and well-implemented. If you’ve been able to enjoy any of the other fighters from SNK on mobile, you might want to give this one a shot. It’s not the best of the bunch, but it’s quite good.

What is Samba de Amigo? Well, it’s a rhythm game that was originally released in arcades in 1999 and on the Dreamcast in the year 2000. This puts it relatively early in the whole rhythm game boom, especially when looking at ones that used plastic instruments. SEGA is always a few years too early to the party, and it’s never a good thing for them. In this case, the plastic instruments were maracas, and they were a lot of fun. You had to hold them at one of three heights and shake along to the beat. Sometimes you would have to make poses, too. Great fun in the arcade and at home, especially if you have spectators there to laugh at you. The soundtrack leaned Latin, but had plenty of classic SEGA tunes and pop hits to round things out. It even had a cover of A-Ha’s Take On Me by ska band Reel Big Fish! Ska! It’s like punk, but with horns and happy!

While the game had a cult following, that was really all it was able to manage. Part of that came down to its home version being on the Dreamcast, part of that came from the cost of the maracas, and part of that was just rudeness. It’s a good game, people. It got a Wii port several years later, but the Wii remotes just couldn’t sub for the maracas. Also, it had Mambo Number 5 on the soundtrack. In 2008. That’s flying too close to the sun, SEGA. This port was developed by Gearbox, the makers of Duke Nukem Forever and Brothers in Arms DS. I get the impression it didn’t do very well, so Amigo went into the vault only to be allowed out to play in SEGA All-Star games.

The monkey has been freed, however. Not just one game, but two. Sort of. Since this is a review of Party-To-Go, I’m going to be focusing on it. I reviewed the Switch version of the other game, Party Central, in the SwitchArcade Round-Up if you want to read about that. In Party-To-Go, you’re given just two modes to play. First is the Rhythm Game mode, where you just pick a song to play and the difficulty you’d like to play it at, then have at it. The other mode is exclusive to this Apple Arcade game. Story Mode takes you through a weird tale of Amigo and the Legendary Maraca trying to bring music back to the Earth. It takes the form of a series of missions that you’ll have to complete. Finish one and you’ll get some story and unlock the next. You’ll also earn coins and levels the same you will in Rhythm Game mode, and can use them to unlock cosmetic items for Amigo.

I like this Story Mode a lot better than the StreamiGo mode in Party Central. There’s less song repetition, and it’s less vague about what you need to do to succeed. The story itself is pretty… banal, to be kind. It makes use of some decent FMV cutscenes now and then, but for the most part it seems to be going for the vibe of an instant message conversation. Which is fine, except the characters are usually face to face. It’s filled with the kind of dialogue you just want to skip through, peppered with the occasional really good line. Well, at least we now have irrefutable evidence the monkey is in a romantic relationship with the puberty-gifted fairy. It’s a fun mode to play through, and I suppose that’s the bottom line.

The soundtrack is mostly similar to Party Central, with a nice mix of classics and contemporary music across a variety of genres. Not many songs from the original return, and it doesn’t seem like the DLC songs from the other game are in the list here. But you do get a few exclusive songs including tracks from PSY and Lady Gaga, and that’s cool. The tunes are definitely more general in their appeal than the first game’s soundtrack, but that’s fine. It means most people should be able to find at least a few songs they know, and will be able to learn some new ones, too. Win-win.

Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go does not have maracas controllers. It does not attempt to replicate them, and even warns you not to shake or move your device. No, this game is entirely touch-based. The screen is divided into left and right and three different height levels. When the ball enters the circle, tap that side and height. When it tells you to pose, put your fingers in the right place. When it tells you to swing the maracas back and forth, slide your fingers back and forth. It’s certainly more accurate than the maracas or any motion controls would be, but it isn’t as fun. I also find some of the sliding motions and commands to be a bit unintuitive to pull off with touch controls. It feels like SEGA just tried to cram in everything Party Central does gameplay-wise into Party-To-Go, but not all of it works due to the differing input method.

Still, setting aside what it isn’t, Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go is a decent enough rhythm game with really strong production values for the most part. It’s not quite as good as Apple Arcade stablemate Taiko no Tatsujin, but the music is good, the gameplay mechanics are fairly easy to grasp, and between the Story Mode and unlockables you certainly have a lot to do. At times it feels like something cobbled together with bits of another game, which it probably has been, but it sometimes feels like it’s doing its own thing too. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there is controller support here. It works like the button controls in Party Central, mapping the positions to the sticks and buttons. I wouldn’t advise it.

I think the Story Mode and extra tunes in Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go make it worth trying out for fans of the series even if they’ve already grabbed Party Central, but there’s no question this game loses something the further it moves away from the grace of the maracas controllers. If you don’t care about that, and there’s a very good chance you don’t, the only thing you really need to worry about here is that the demands of the note charts seem more tuned for console play than touch. You’ll have to really twist your fingers at times. Otherwise, it’s a decent game for its genre with a solid list of tracks to tap along to. Nothing remarkable, but good enough.

At first, finity carefully holds your hand. It shows you how you can slide rows and columns to match three or more colored blocks vertically or horizontally and clear them. But it soon presents its chief gimmick, which is that each move you make counts down all the pieces in play. The longer they sit there unmatched, the more of a problem they’ll become. First you will only be able to slide them horizontally or vertically, effectively locking the movement of a column or row. Leave them too long and they just won’t be able to be moved at all. You can work around one or two of these kinds of blocks, but each one sends you closer to your demise.

You have some ways of dealing with them, of course. And I don’t just mean by clearing them out, though that is obviously ideal. First, if you match four of one color, the remaining blocks of that color will have their “age" rewound by one turn. This is very, very important. You won’t get far if you aren’t doing this as consistently as you’re able to, though setting up those matches also represents a tough strategic choice. How many turns will it cost you to set up that match? Is it worth the result? Locking two blocks to unlock one would be silly.

Your other means of dealing with these blocks is to use a power-up. In the Classic Mode, each match you make will fill up a bit of a meter. When it fills up, you’ll earn a random power-up. It might allow you to rewind the “age" of a block of your choice, or perhaps paint a block with a different color. These can get you out of a dire situation, but you’ll earn them slowly enough during a game that you shouldn’t even think about relying on them. In the game’s other mode, Tempo, you won’t have access to them at all. The last refuge of the damned, basically.

Just when you think you’re fine with all of this, split color blocks are introduced. They can only be matched by lining up colors on the side that matches that color. After you match them, a block of the remaining color will stay behind. If you have a locked split color block, it’s a major mess to deal with. Every move is critical, and you have to put some serious thought into each of them. Provided you’re playing the mode that gives you time to think, anyway.

Time to talk about those two modes. Classic Mode sees you trying to work your way through an increasingly difficult set of ranks. The general flow sees you making matches until you fill up a bar, which puts you into level-up mode. Here you’ll have to make matches to generate special blocks, then match those blocks to advance to the next level. Doing so will rewind the remaining blocks and send you immediately into the next level, should the rank have one to offer. Finish all the levels for that rank and you’ll earn a nice new skin to play in, unlock new gameplay features, and open up the next rank to play. The first few ranks go really easy on you, but by the time you hit the midway point you’ll either have learned the proper way to play or stall out full-stop. At present, Classic Mode gives you nine ranks to play through.

Next, we’ve got Tempo Mode. Here you’ll choose a tune and then play the game with a few different rules. No power-ups, as mentioned. There’s also a line moving down the screen, and if it reaches the bottom it will age some of your blocks. You have to think fast here. On your initial plays of each song, your aim is to fill up a percentage meter until it hits 100%. Doing so will clear the stage and unlock unlimited play for that tune. In unlimited play, you’re simply trying to get the highest score you can before you fully lock out. While you won’t have power-ups, making consistent matches will fill up three hearts in the middle of the field. If you get completely locked out, one of those hearts will bravely sacrifice itself to get you out of your mess. It takes a while to fill one up, so don’t be too careless. The music builds as you play in this mode, which is pretty cool.

Speaking of the presentation, it’s terrific. The colors are used well, the interface is nice and clean, and everything is where you would expect it to be. It’s all very easy on the eyes but colorful enough to keep your attention. The audio is excellent. Good music to shift piece to in Tempo Mode, and it seems like more songs will be added, so I’m looking forward to hearing those. In Classic Mode, the game leaves it to the sound effects to carry the load. They lend the game the pleasing clicks, clacks, and boops you want to hear in a game like this, and if you get into a groove the effects almost sound musical on their own. The game also makes good use of haptics and vibration, giving the game a bit of a tactile feel without being too in your face.

finity is a slick puzzle game that has some serious bite to it. More casual players might find themselves turned off by that challenge, but I think there’s a lot of merit in the approach the game takes. The Classic Mode gives you all the time in the world to think and sort things out, and hopefully that will train you to better tackle the Tempo Mode and its higher pressure. Despite the difficulty, the rules are easy enough to grasp and make for lively rounds that are different every time. It’s certainly worth checking if you’re an experienced puzzle game fan, and you might enjoy it even if you aren’t.

Have we settled on a name for this genre yet? Bullet heaven? Horde defense? HoloCure-like? Auto shooter? A stroll gone wrong? Well, whatever you want to call it, that’s what Pizza Hero is. Almost to a tee, really. You start out with one weak weapon, wander around procedurally generated areas battling enemies, level up, unlock new weapons and passive abilities, and try to survive as the enemy waves get more numerous and powerful. Level up enough times and it starts to feel like you’ve flipped the script and become the monster. Your goal in each area is to survive a set amount of time, an arduous task at first but one that becomes easier as you unlock permanent upgrades and new weapons.

So with that said, what sets Pizza Hero apart from the crowd? The most obvious thing is its theme. You’re playing as some kind of sentient slice of pizza, and all of your weapons are toppings. Passive abilities? They’re all spices and seasonings. The aforementioned pineapple laser beam is here, along with things like a basic mozzarella shot, explosive green peppers, and heat-seeking mushrooms. There are eighteen toppings in all, and you can discover some fun combinations that actually make sense if you know your pizzas. There are also eight different passive spices, which adds up to quite a bit of variety all told.

As with other games of this sort, your main source of upgrades comes from defeating enemies. They’ll leave behind items that give you experience if you can pick them up, and collecting enough of them will give you a level-up. You’ll be presented with three perks you can choose one of as your level-up bonus, and the usual strategies apply here. You have to choose between adding new weapons to your arsenal to expand your spread of attacks or upgrading existing ones to make them more powerful. You’ll also want to pick up the occasional spice for passive boosts. Sometimes you’ll find sauce cans that can contain experience, gold, or health. You’ll also earn experience by firing up any pizza ovens you come across.

One thing you don’t see in many other games of this kind is the dash/combat roll you’re given in Pizza Hero. A quick swipe will boost you out of the way of harm, but a cooldown timer ensures you can’t abuse it. You can get by without using this move if you really don’t feel like using it, but learning it assuredly has its benefits. Since you’re invincible during that little dash, it’s a great way to escape when you’re surrounded. At times, anyway. Sometimes it will just put you in a worse mess. Well, that’s why you have to learn when to use it and when to keep it in your pocket. It’s a neat extra element to the game, if nothing else.

The other interesting mechanic here is that you have a pet with you at all times. You’ll start with a trusty pup that will fetch items for you, but as you play you can rescue its friends and add to your options. Of course, rescuing them is one matter. Surviving long enough to open the portal to bring them home and fully unlock them is quite another. There are ten different pets in total, making for quite the menagerie of furry/feathered friends to lend you an assist. In mechanical terms, this adds even more variety to your builds.

You can also unlock more weapons to choose from at the start, using the typical method of finding it and leveling it up to a certain point. At first, you’re limited to three starting weapons and just one pet to choose from. That’s not a bad thing, as it allows the player to get comfortable with the game before things get more complicated. In a lot of ways, Pizza Hero feels like a more guided experience than some of its peers. Following the roads will always take you somewhere of interest, adding a bit of structure beyond simply surviving. Still, it would behoove the player to remember that surviving is the main point. You won’t unlock the additional maps if you can’t pull that off. There are four maps in total, but one is the tutorial stage. It’s fun when you only have a few minutes to play but most of the action is in those other three areas.

Outside of each individual playthrough, there are a few over-arching elements to take care of. There’s a full list of achievements to work through, each one offering you some valuable gold. That gold can also be found in the game, and you can use it to permanently upgrade ten different stats. Well, if you’ve played Vampire Survivors you know how this works. The upgrades give you a sense of progression beyond trying to unlock the different areas, weapons, and pets, and some of the achievements are fun to figure out. All in all, Pizza Hero gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

That brings us to the monetization. The game is free, after all. And we all know that nothing is truly free. The thing is, Pizza Hero is pretty close to it. You’ll get the occasional mandatory ad after a session, but fairly rarely. You can also watch an ad to continue once after being taken down, and you can watch ads to reroll the upgrades presented to you at a level up. It’s all incredibly inobtrusive, but if even the presence of those few ads bothers you, the developer is apparently looking into adding an IAP to remove them.

Pizza Hero doesn’t reinvent the cheese wheel by any means, but its specific seasonings add an extra flavor to the familiar Vampire Survivors dish. The fun theme, bevy of interesting upgrades, enjoyable list of achievements, and solid action make for a game well-worth playing even if you’ve gorged yourself on a large serving of other titles in the genre. Sometimes it’s just one secret ingredient and a bit of charm that can make a dish its own, and that’s what Pizza Hero offers.

In Luminaria, we follow the story of a little Bio-Drone who has stumbled across the planet Earth. This green, fertile planet once was host to a species known as humans, but something happened that seemingly drove them to extinction. The drone seeks out biological signatures of the departed and follows their memories of their last moments. It’s your job to guide the drone through this process. You get a few dozen stages spread across a few different mini-tales, with the last one bringing it all together and giving you some closure. While it isn’t the most original of tales, the plot did catch my interest as each little snippet was delivered. I don’t know that I loved the ending, but it was a decent bit of set dressing on the whole for a puzzle game.

So what is that puzzle game? It’s a little vague in some ways, but I’ll try to explain. You don’t control the drone. It just does laps around whatever shape or shadow it’s currently stuck to. By sliding your finger around the screen, you can move and stretch the shadows of the shapes on the screen. You need to manipulate the shadows and shapes to create a little square-shaped cul-de-sac in the right place, then make sure the drone goes into it. It’s pretty simple at first, and I was feeling early on that it was too simple, but as the game goes along it sprinkles in extra mechanics like having to match the drone’s color with the exit, blending lights to produce new colors, and so on. It’s a nice bit of progression that keeps you thinking, though the final mechanic irritated me a little. I’ll talk about that in a bit.

Beyond finding the exit, you can also find some hidden lights on each stage. They form a path, and if you can guide the drone along the path to scoop them up in one go, a word will flash on the screen. You need to do at least some of these to unlock the second and third episodes, though the game is fairly lenient with those restrictions as a whole. They mainly serve as an extra challenge to aim for if you want the game to last a little longer, which is a welcome addition. The words don’t really add much to the story, but some people might get more out of their presence than I did.

Luminaria is at its best when it’s asking you to use your reasoning skills to solve the puzzles in front of you. Which makes sense, as this is puzzle game, after all. How can I pick up the right color for my drone? How do I get from here to there? How do I block one lamp so that I don’t end up with a blended color? I enjoyed sorting these set-ups out and making my way to the properly-colored goal with the properly-colored drone. Most of the game is like this, thankfully.

Luminaria is at its worst when it wants you to react quickly over a series of moves. The bonus words can be vexing at times because the shadows move imprecisely and the drone sometimes just does what it wants when objects graze each other. But those aren’t mandatory for the most part, so you can just move on and come back later if you get frustrated. The final chapter introduces a new mechanic that requires you to haul your rear before things disappear. Its implementation in the final few puzzles is particularly annoying, demanding precision that the control sensitivity isn’t prepared to offer. That said, I’m not going to get too angry at a game for turning up the heat in its final stages. That’s how things go. Just be aware that it’s coming.

Presentation-wise, the game looks and sounds good. It’s pretty and soothing. Not designed to knock off your socks or anything like that. Just put you in the mood for some chill puzzle solving. Sure, you’re exploring a planet scouring the memories of a dead species, but it’s just your job. We’re far enough removed from it that we can relax and enjoy the puzzles, right? Right. And hey, who doesn’t like seeing shadows being cast? That’s just classic gamer soul food, there.

If you’re looking for something to play this weekend that doesn’t require a huge commitment of time or a lot of heavy thinking, Luminaria fits the bill nicely. I don’t know if it’s going to stick with me for very long now that I’ve finished it, but I certainly enjoyed my time with it. It irritated me at times and the story didn’t fully satisfy in the end, but overall it’s an interesting puzzler that will keep you busy on a lazy afternoon.

Some information up-front before we get into things. I’ve played a few merging puzzle games before, most notably Merge Dragons. It helped me get some premium currency in Avengers Academy, and I found it amusing for a while. Eventually I hit the hard paywalls and just stopped playing. Not the worst thing I played for a leg-up in my stupid Marvel game, but also not something I was going to go far out on a limb for. Merge Mansion‘s ads certainly enticed me, but I quickly realized I was more interested in the ads than the game. So that is where I am at with this kind of game, and I apologize for fans of the genre if I don’t quite do things service here.

Prince Edward is the young royal heir of a fictional kingdom, and he’s a narcissistic, lazy, obnoxious, spoiled little twit. For reasons I can’t possibly fathom, his parents decided it would be okay to leave the kingdom in his hands while they went on a trip. It doesn’t take long for things to go to heck, and in the wake of an argument with a mage the entire kingdom is destroyed. The job of putting things back in order thus falls to the person least qualified in the world to do it. He only cares about his own comfort and revenge, of course. But he isn’t going to be able to get what he wants without the help of others, and he’s not going to get that unless he starts being less of a royal pri…nce.

That’s the story, and it pretty much progresses as you would expect. Edward gets to know the citizens of his kingdom, sees how hard they work, actually does some hard work himself, and eventually learns to stop being such a little jerk. Not a terribly original tale by any means, and Edward being the center of everything means you’re going to have to put up with his antics for a good long while. The story is broken down into chapters, and as you complete the various goals of each chapter you’ll get a bit of story doled out.

I wish I could tell you the gameplay has some original elements to it, but that would be a fib and a half. Generally speaking, you’re looking to rebuild your kingdom. Building anything or upgrading anything requires money and materials, and you’ll acquire both of those by merging things on the merge board. Some buildings serve to produce generators, producing a new one as you exhaust the previous one in an utterly pointless mechanic that is clearly there for the game’s eventual move out of Apple Arcade and into the realm of free-to-play. Other generators can only be acquired by fulfilling requests, which only require things you can get via the basic generators.

Some of your buildings will generate coins, but you’ll get the bulk of your money by completing standard requests. Those will eventually run out, but will refresh very quickly. The timers feel almost pointless since they’re really short. The more you play, the more generators you’ll have to deal with, leading to a much more cluttered board. Luckily, you can sell anything off the board whenever you like to make some room. You can also use some of the ultimate merged forms as tools in the kingdom building portion. Well, if you’ve played a game like this before you probably know how all of this goes. The more you play the more expensive everything gets, requiring you to grind on that board for a really long time to get anything done.

That’s the one remaining bit of friction from what I’m sure is the original free-to-play design of this game. Everything else has been toned down, such as the timers and generator spawns, so you can pretty much just keep playing until you finish the game or get bored. The latter will likely strike before too long, because it really does start taking too much time to get anything done. There’s absolutely no strategy involved in the merging game since most of the generators are readily available and any space issues can easily be mitigated by selling off items on the board. The result is a game that is more like a boring storybook that requires you to write lines on the board between page turns.

If you want to play a merging game in Apple Arcade, I’d recommend My Little Pony: Mane Merge over this one. It’s more interesting mechanically, the story bits are better, the characters are less annoying, and the presentation is a lot nicer. Kingdoms: Merge & Build is technically more interesting than, like, counting spots on the ceiling or twiddling your thumbs, but just barely. It comes off very much like a free-to-play game that has made a couple of tweaks to fit the Apple Arcade rules, and those changes end up squeezing out what little mechanical engagement the game likely had to offer. The story and characters don’t help matters, either. Just a dud all around.

Your aim in Unpacking, as the name suggests, is unpacking and arranging various objects. You experience someone’s life through different stages with a narrative that slowly unfolds through objects, locations, and puzzles. Don’t expect a traditional story here though. Unpacking will take you about 3 or 4 hours to play depending on how good you are at positioning and placing objects. If you ever get stuck, you can enable an accessibility option to let you place objects anywhere. This removes the puzzle aspect of Unpacking, but is there as an option. It was fun seeing specific objects change over time, and also learning how you should arrange things, because I definitely have been organizing some items wrongly if Unpacking is to be believed.

These items are all in boxes, and Unpacking grows more complex giving you different rooms and more kinds of objects to place. As a zen experience, Unpacking nails everything, but I found myself confused for the specific placement for some objects. When you finish, these objects will glow telling you that they need to be placed somewhere else. This leads to trial and error, and is the only actual gameplay element of Unpacking that I didn’t like.

When I first played Unpacking, I used a combination of touch and button controls. I loved it on Switch, but it felt like a game that would shine on iPad. Fast forward to today, Unpacking is available on iOS and Android at half the price of the console and PC versions. The developers of the port have done a fantastic job, but there are a few issues right now on mobile, less so on iPad.

Unpacking supports full touch controls and controllers on iOS. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 11 and had a great time with Unpacking. Playing with touch controls isn’t an amazing experience on my iPhone 11 though. It is better on iPhone 14 Plus. On iPad, Unpacking feels right at home. The visuals are gorgeous on my iPad Pro, and it even supports controllers with correct button prompts. When I used my DualSense controller, it automatically swapped to showing me PlayStation button prompts. I have no complaints with the iPad version’s interface.

Unpacking on iOS has a lower frame rate than the console versions, but it isn’t a dealbreaker. I am disappointed to not see support for 120hz like the PC version has or even a locked 60fps option on modern iOS devices. When it comes to controls and the interface, mouse and touch are the best ways to play Unpacking. I would only use a controller with an analog stick to move the cursor as a last resort option or if you’re playing on your phone with a Backbone or Kishi controller.

The iPhone version even has a vibration option that uses haptics. They are very well implemented. Barring that, you can increase the touch target for icons to make it easier to play on iPhone. Unpacking isn’t a long game, but I would’ve still liked to have cloud saves using iCloud on iOS.

Having played Unpacking on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox before the iOS version, it is hard to find fault with the latter barring the lack of iCloud save support. The asking price being half of other platforms and such an excellent conversion definitely makes it an easier recommendation. I already loved the storytelling, relaxing gameplay, gorgeous visuals, and soundtrack in Unpacking, but it has found a new home on iOS and shines on the plattform. I hope the developers can add a higher frame rate option, but I have nothing bad to say about Unpacking barring that. If you held off on the PC and console versions, Unpacking is essential on iPad.

So, first of all, let’s talk about the roster. It mostly keeps the same characters, but it retires Carol the dodgeball girl and that one kid with the shield. In their place we get Rosa, a cool girl with a katana, and Kim, who wields a staff and has some mad Tae Kwon Do skills. He may or may not be related to the Kim we know and love from more famous SNK fighters. We also have a new final boss who is quite a bit cooler than the previous one. The rest of the bunch are essentially the same, but it’s impressive how swapping out a couple of the odder fighters for a pair of more grounded ones helps the roster feel more consistent overall. The backgrounds have also been reined in, with more thematically appropriate venues that actually feel like they’re from the same setting.

The mechanics have seen some heavy changes. The multi-plane fighting that served as the closest thing to a gimmick Savage Reign had has been tossed out entirely. It’s fully gone. The simple ranged weapon attack mapped to A + B is also gone, nixed in favor of more typical commands and special moves. One button uses your weapon, one button punches, and one button kicks. As to that fourth button, that’s where Kizuna Encounter gets interesting. You see, that fourth button allows you to tag in your partner character.

Let me hit you with a couple of release dates. Kizuna Encounter, released in arcades worldwide by SNK on September 20th, 1996. X-Men vs. Street Fighter, released in arcades in Japan by Capcom on September 25th, 1996. Both of these games introduced a feature that would become very popular in the genre in a hurry: tag team matches. Sure, the idea of having the player choose a team of fighters was well-established by this point, most famously in SNK’s King of Fighters series. But in those games, each character took their turn fighting. You couldn’t swap your characters on the fly mid-round. In Kizuna Encounter and X-Men vs. Street Fighter, you can. Check those dates. Kizuna did it first.

Kizuna Encounter also uses its tag system in a very interesting way. You can tag between your characters whenever you like, but you have to be in your tag zone. It’s basically the area where you begin each round. If you’re outside of that zone, you can’t tag in your partner. Further spice comes from the fact that if either of your fighters has their life bar diminished, the fight is over. No, the other character won’t jump in and continue the fight. So you have two full life bars to work with, but you have to juggle them to get the most out of them. On the other hand, if you can dominate your opponent and keep them away from their tag zone, you only have one life bar to whittle down. This… is a very intriguing hook. Wow, the sequel to Savage Reign has a solid hook!

I wonder if the developers understood at the time how ubiquitous this mechanic would become, albeit with a few tweaks? Probably not. But here we are, looking back almost thirty years later, and this game feels pretty darned good to play. That the tag zone element didn’t catch on serves to give this game a distinct flavor that helps it rise above a lot of its contemporaries. No, it doesn’t have Wolverine in it. I will admit that is a notable disadvantage versus the other tag-team fighter that came out that week. But when you compare it to Savage Reign, it’s frankly incredible how much of a glow-up Kizuna Encounter is.

As a cherry on top of all of this for mobile players, this is actually rather enjoyable to play in single player. The CPU isn’t too nasty, at least until you get to the last boss, so you can enjoy giving them a thrashing with the various characters when you have a spare minute or two. This is important because as usual you are probably not going to have the right set-up to enjoy this mobile version in multiplayer. You’ll need external controllers and some sort of means of displaying the game for both players. You know, unless you want to snuggle up around your iPhone screen. So yes, you’ll probably be flying solo and taking on the CPU opponents.

Time for the rest of the usual comments. As mentioned, you can use an external controller and it’s definitely the way to play. Hook up your Backbone or Kishi and you’ll be whipping out those special moves no problem. The touch controls are a bit harder to deal with, but Kizuna Encounter isn’t a game that relies heavily on fancy chains of moves or combos, so there are worse choices. The usual extra modes are here, along with all of the gameplay, video, and control options we’ve seen in the other ACA NEOGEO releases. The Score Attack and Caravan modes are an alright fit here, allowing you to jostle on the leaderboards if enough other players show up to the party.

With all the usual provisos about ACA NEOGEO mobile versions of fighting games in mind, I kind of dig Kizuna Encounter. I think you’re better off enjoying it on a platform where you can indulge in the multiplayer mode, but taking it for what it is, I can think of worse ways to blow a few bucks on a mobile game. It’s one of those NEOGEO games that I think a lot of people missed, and I would say that it holds up rather well for a game of its vintage thanks to that enjoyable tag team feature. If you don’t mind being essentially locked to single-player in a one-on-one fighter, give Kizuna Encounter a look.

The setting is the biggest change in Six Ages 2. Previous games saw you guiding a tribe in relatively prosperous times. Sure, there were plenty of dangers and risks, and it wasn’t unusual to fall afoul of the gods or spirits and get wiped out. But the smart leader could find a great bounty in the land and its offerings, leading their tribe to an unprecedented level of comfort and happiness. That won’t be the case here. The gods of Chaos have been uncorked, and many of the familiar gods from the previous game are straight-up dead. The land is ailing, the trade routes have crumbled, and everyone is filled with the tension and dread of an uncertain future.

We can’t choose the times we’re born into, and we can’t choose the setting of the game we’re playing. All we can do is play our hand as best we can, and that’s just what you’ll do in Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out. Despite the grimmer setting, this follow-up isn’t any more difficult than the previous games. The good outcomes are generally less good and the bad outcomes are quite a bit worse, but your ability to achieve either remains the same. It’s an interesting twist that helps this game stand out despite sharing almost everything mechanically with its predecessors. You really feel like you’re barely surviving in this harsh world, and just seeing the names of gods crossed out on the usual list has a heavy impact for those who have been following along with the series.

For those new to these games, this is a blend of two kinds of games. On the one hand, it is a simulation game. You are leading your tribe, managing your resources, making diplomatic choices, and dealing with attacks. You have to try to forge and maintain uneasy alliances with other tribes, keep your people well-fed, and avoid bringing down the wrath of as many gods as you can. It’s not quite as detailed as the likes of Civilization, but it holds a similar appeal. Not a whole lot has changed here when compared to the last game, but there is a sense of scarcity and you certainly don’t have as many gods to appeal to. It’s also a bit harder to adhere to the principles of your tribe, given the circumstances.

The other half of the game is a choice-based narrative adventure. Events will occur where you’ll have to make a decision. Your advisers will offer their input and you can choose which of them you want to listen to, if any. Sometimes there is a clear best answer, but it’s rarely that simple. Indeed, in this game you’re often faced with a choice between seemingly equally unpleasant outcomes. And sometimes you might think you made a good choice but it comes around later to bite you in the hindquarters. There are pleasant surprises too, though they’re not something you should count on. A lot of strange things can happen in the world of Glorantha, especially in the state it’s in, and a lot of the fun of the game is in seeing what happens in these events. The writing is really sharp, and it certainly has its own sense of humor at times.

Naturally, these scenes are all accompanied by some terrific artwork. Always a highlight of the series, and as good as it’s ever been here. It’s a little extra spice that helps bring this unusual world to life and helps sell some of the bizarre things that can occur. As with the other games in the series, there are hundreds of these events and they’re largely random in terms of when or if they will appear. This introduces an element of chaos into the game no matter how well you organize things on the simulation end, and ensures that the game can be almost endlessly replayed without covering the same ground.

One cool feature in this game is the ability to continue on your story from Ride Like the Wind. You don’t have to do this, and it’s easy enough to roll up a new tribe’s history just by jumping into Lights Going Out, but I love it when games allow this kind of thing. It makes the games feel even more connected despite the considerable amount of time between the two, and it increases your feeling of ownership over your own story. And for those dipping in for the first time, there’s a good tutorial here that will teach you the ropes, plus lots of tool tips as you play if you want them. I don’t think these are the easiest of games to get into due to their complexity and capricious nature, but it’s never been easier to do so.

It’s funny, but I think despite largely standing still in the mechanical sense, Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out might be positioned for the widest appreciation that series has seen yet. The world of gaming is now a lot more willing to accept random twists that disrupt your strategy, and I feel like the vibe is a lot friendlier towards games with strong narrative elements. The premise makes this feel more like a survival game, and those are pretty hot these days too.

If you enjoyed either of the previous games, Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out is a no-brainer. You’ll love it. Newcomers will have to climb over a bit of a wall to find the treasure that lay beyond, but that wall is easier to get over now than ever before. A real winner, and I’ll happily play it for however many years it takes for the next one to arrive.

Well, less common than spaceships or military craft, I guess. Fans of the genre will be more than a little familiar with the Touhou Project shooters, which opt for cute characters instead of deadly craft. Bullet Hell Heroes openly admits its inspiration from those games, and it’s not as though it’s alone in that. This game offers up a whopping twenty-five different heroes to use, each with their own shot and special move. Sure, there’s a shrine maiden in there, but you also get more typical RPG-style heroes to round things out. There’s a good variety here, and it’s fun trying to find the heroes that fit your play style best.

But a hero shouldn’t set out alone, right? In this game, you don’t just choose one hero for the quest. At first you can bring three with you, with additional slots available via IAPs. These effectively function as extra lives. If your first hero is shot down, the next one will jump in. Run out of heroes and you fail the quest. It’s up to you how you want to build your team, but there isn’t a whole lot of strategizing since the means of swapping characters is to kill the current one. It mostly comes down to whether you want to put your strongest character first or last. Well, that’s not nothing.

The controls work as you would expect if you’ve played any mobile shooters in the last decade or so. Drag your finger around to move your character, and tap a second finger down to use your character’s special move. You can only do that if you have sufficient MP, of course. Each hero starts off with a full MP bar and the amount consumed depends on the move. You can rebuild MP by grazing shots, nudging you towards that popular mechanic. If you’re bold, you can tee up your special moves at a surprisingly steady pace, and that’s always fun. Since your MP bar caps out, you can’t stockpile too many of these moves, which encourages you to use them instead of just trying to hoard them for the boss battles. Oh, I should also mention that if you have an external controller, the game offers support for that. Either method works fine.

There are more than twenty different quests to play, each one consisting of a short stage followed by a multi-stage boss battle. While the stages aren’t anything special, I do appreciate that the game isn’t just a series of boss fights. I like to have that little warm-up before the main event, so to speak. The boss battles are naturally the stars of the show, and each one of them is a blast to tackle. They all have their own patterns that can often surprise you, keeping you on your toes as you whittle down their life bars. You can play each of the quests at five different difficulty levels, though you’ll have to earn the right to play the two highest ones. There are also Boss Rush stages to challenge if you’re looking for more to do, adding up to a rather substantial amount of content all-up.

Since I’ve briefly mentioned the topic of unlocking, let’s talk about how everything works in that regard here. At the start of the game, you have access to three heroes. The rest of them are all locked, and the means of gaining access to them varies. Some require you to beat a specific number of quests at certain difficulty levels. Some are bought with the money you collect by playing stages and checking off the game’s achievements. Almost half of them are bought with real money via IAPs, selling for a couple of bucks each. If you’re unlocking the non-IAP characters legit, you’ve got a bit of a task ahead of you, but it’s one that gives the game a solid sense of purpose and a pleasing trickle of new things to try. I kind of like that set-up. That said, even once you have the heroes there are lots of ways to spend your in-game cash. Each hero can be upgraded in various ways, and it will take a lot of playing to max out everyone.

Alright, let’s talk about the monetization. Dirty business, but when a game is free to download and play there has to be some way to pay the developer’s air conditioning bills. First up, there are ads. Unskippable ones, and they’re fairly frequent. The game will compensate you for watching them, but they can be annoying. Drop four bucks and they’re gone forever, with an additional hero slot and a coin doubler thrown in for your pleasure. There’s an IAP you can buy for a couple of dollars for an extra hero slot, and it’s available to buy twice. You can pay a couple of bucks for a ton of coins, and that’s available to buy as many times as you like. Finally, there’s an IAP you can pick up for four bucks that unlocks every hero in the game. Don’t buy those individual hero unlocks, in other words.

If you want to fully unlock everything in Bullet Hell Heroes, you’re looking at spending a rather reasonable twelve American dollars. I think the quality of the game supports that price, and you can certainly get by with one or two IAPs if you feel like it. Heck, you can get by with none of them if you don’t mind ads and the idea of missing out on heroes. But I do want to talk about that IAP that unlocks all of the heroes, because I think it’s in a weird place. It really does unlock all of the heroes, including the ones you would normally get by completing certain objectives and spending coins. That takes some of the fun out of the meta progression, in my opinion, so I think you’re almost better off waiting until you’ve unlocked the non-IAP heroes before buying this one. There are a lot of wrong ways to spend your money with this game, and that isn’t something you want to worry about while trying to enjoy a game.

Sigh, two paragraphs on monetization. Well, hopefully that’s all properly explained now. I should stress that the game itself is well-made and a lot of fun. I like that the developer went to the trouble of making backgrounds and pixel art monsters, heroes, and so on to fill things out instead of just going with simple shapes. Not that I mind that kind of thing, but it’s cool to see some non-abstract visuals now and then. I liked experimenting with various “parties" of heroes, and some of the special moves are quite unique and interesting to find a use for. There is a lot of stuff packed in here, and it’s all of very good quality. I think any fan of bullet hell shooters will be more than happy with what Bullet Hell Heroes has to offer. Just make sure you shop responsibly when it comes to those IAPs.

I’m quietly a bit of a fan of Thomas Young. Somehow I didn’t really play any of his games until they came to the Switch, but once I had my first taste I knew I had a new developer to follow. The Super Fowlst games are tricky in all the right ways. The Dadish Quadrilogy (IT’S A WORD!) are rad, cute, and funny platformers that can get devilishly challenging, especially Daily Dadish. This fellow makes some cheerful little action games that can make you want to yank your hair out. I guess that’s his deal. But wait, what’s this? His next game isn’t an action game at all? It’s a word game?

In hindsight, we should have seen it coming. Those end of level gags in Dadish demonstrate that this fellow is something of a wordsmith. So here we are with Molecano. Good title. Simple, short, rolls off the tongue. Shows up well in a web search. Makes you want to ask what the deal is. What is the deal with that? A mole and a volcano, presumably? Why would they be bedfellows? I must find out. No, I am not trying to stretch things out because a word game doesn’t really have a ton to talk about. Maybe that’s what you’re doing, and you’re just projecting.

Projects! Let me tell you about a project. Molecano has over four hundred levels to play, and apparently more are on the way. I trust Thomas Young on that, he’s never been one for idle promises. But even if he never added anything else, four hundred stages is a whole lot of stuff to do. On each of those stages, you’re trying to get your cute mole (or whatever other character you’ve selected) to the foods scattered about. The problem is a classic one we all know too well: the floor is lava. You’ve got some letters down at the bottom of the screen, and they’ll work as well as anything for platforms. But this is a picky volcano, friends. It won’t allow platforms of nonsense. Those platforms have to be proper words. Spell them out, rotate as needed, and create some paths for our hungry hero.

You only use a set amount of words to solve each stage, though. You also have to connect your words, and Scrabble rules apply so you can’t overlap carelessly. Sometimes there are bits blocking longer words, and you have to use at least three letters on each word. You might have to first pick up keys sometimes to unlock other areas of the stage. The interesting hook here is that you really have to consider how long each word is because it’s not always a case where bigger is better. It really depends on the stage layout, where the foods and keys are, and how you want to reach all of that. That said, in the absence of any other factors, longer words are certainly more desirable. Those will earn you coins, and those coins can be exchanged to unlock new characters. Some will be familiar to fans of this developer’s previous works.

This is all wrapped in a very charming presentation, which is another hallmark of this developer. It’s cute, colorful, and you’d have to be a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon villain to hate how it looks and sounds. Even then, I think Skeletor goes for it. Shredder too. Mumm-Ra, probably not. He was always a bit of a curmudgeon. Cobra Commander yes, Serpentor who cares. Ridiculous usurper. The point is that this game’s mechanics aren’t particularly unique but the package they’re delivered in help the game stand out. Throw in the aforementioned bonkers amount of stages to clear, and it’s easy to see why this is worth the fantastic price of… free?

I just picked my monocle up off the floor and cleaned up the seltzer I spewed all over. Yes, Molecano is free. It will throw an ad at you now and then, and if you don’t like that you can pay a highly reasonable $5.99 to remove those ads forever. I think that’s a fair business proposition, so I’m not going to waste too many more column inches talking about it. Try the game out for free, and if you like it you can rest easy knowing it is certainly worth the six bucks to keep King Robert and Austin the Butler away.

I’ve always been a sucker for good word games, and Molecano is exactly that. You get a vibrant and frankly adorable presentation, an absurd number of stages to play, mechanics that are incredibly familiar but have that slight twist to make them feel fresh, and a monetization model that’s hard to argue with. If, like me, you enjoy flexing your vocabulary muscle (I think that’s called a brain, Shaun), then I strongly recommend helping this little mole get some chow post-haste. There, can I have my puns back?

While this review will focus on Remnant 2 on Steam Deck and the PC port, I wanted to also cover why I love Remnant 2 so far. It feels like a huge improvement over the first game and I hope more games take inspiration from its co-op setup. Playing with friends is super simple in Remnant 2, and it is something I hope other developers take inspiration from for their own co-op systems. Remnant 2 itself is a big upgrade visually, in its music, and variety. The post-launch updates are changing up things already, but I can safely recommend Remnant 2 if you enjoyed the first game or if you just want to try a polished blend of third-person shooters and soulslikes. It also keeps things fresh making multiple playthroughs fun with how much changes, and how much customization is available.

I’ve included a screenshot of the Remnant 2 Steam graphics options, but I set everything to low on Steam Deck and opted for Intel XeSS upscaling set to performance. AMD’s FSR in Remnant 2 is not good at all. With everything set to low, 720p (or lower while testing), and Intel XeSS, I could get the game to run at 30fps with some drops. This varies a lot based on the location you’re in. Dense areas aren’t terrible, but things become hard to see. Around launch day, these settings resulted in multiple drops into the low 20s or even below regardless of the location, so the current state is an improvement, albeit a small one. For a Steam Deck Verified game around launch, Remnant 2 needs more optimization. Given how it runs on consoles with a low internal resolution, I’m not surprised though.

While discussing Remnant 2 Steam Deck performance, I want to emphasize how much better the overall experience is right now versus day one. Not only does Steam Cloud work now, the game is actually playable online with friends. I couldn’t get online co-op to work at all until a recent patch. One thing to note about patches is that it takes a while to actually patch the game once said patch downloads. I wanted to see how Remnant 2 on Steam Deck would feel on the SD card, and I installed it to my Sandisk Extreme card. Patches still take an hour or so to install. Keep that in mind.

The more I played Remnant 2, the more I enjoyed it even on Steam Deck. This is a game I see myself replaying for a while thanks to the different builds possible even from the start. It did make me wonder about recommending Remnant 2 specifically to someone on Steam Deck and not something else. When I do Steam Deck reviews, I aim to try and help many potential buyers figure out if something is worth it or not on Steam Deck. In this case, I absolutely recommend Remnant 2 on Steam Deck with the big caveat about its visual cutbacks to get a decent frame rate. As an addition to your main PC where it likely runs better, Remnant 2 will be great to quickly dip in and out for sessions where you do a small area or just play with friends for a bit.

Remnant 2 on Steam Deck offers the ability to use gyro controls thanks to Steam Input. This is not available on either console as far as I’m aware, which is a big advantage for the game on Steam in general. It made going back to the Xbox Series X version harder since aiming is worse there without gyro. Steam Input continues to impress, and after some tweaking and getting used to the visual cutbacks, Remnant 2 feels right at home on Steam Deck. The ability to play on the go is also a bonus for the Steam Deck since there is no Switch port, and I don’t see Remnant 2 hitting the current Switch. It might be a good game for the next Switch though.

Over the last few months games like Sony’s The Last of Us Part I being a mess on PC and not great on Steam Deck even today made me question Valve’s Steam Deck Verified program. When Remnant 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 got Verified, you’d assume they run fine and don’t have issues. Remnant 2 right now runs a lot better than it did when it was branded Verified by Valve. I think it still shouldn’t be marked as Verified though. Valve should make developers implement a good default graphics preset for Steam Deck for something to be Verified.

A lot of this review talking about compromises reminds me of when I write about demanding games getting Switch ports. I feel like we are getting close to that stage for games that only release on current generation consoles with their own visual cutbacks to run at a good frame rate on those more powerful systems. Remnant 2 definitely got me to think about how certain upcoming games might be on Steam Deck.

Right now, I’d recommend Remnant 2 itself for sure. I love the gameplay, co-op, soundtrack, and improvements over the first game. I do not love the visual downgrade to get it running decently on Steam Deck though. Since it is Steam Deck Verified, Valve likely wants people to buy it to play on Steam Deck, but just be prepared for some tinkering to get it running at an acceptable frame rate. I featured Remnant 2 as one of the best new games to play on Steam Deck in 2023, and I’m expecting it to be on my end of year list as well. While I’ll stick to the Xbox Series X version for my main playthrough, I’m looking forward to checking out the DLC and playing more with friends on Steam Deck in the coming weeks. Hopefully Gunfire Games can optimize it further for Steam Deck soon.

Remnant 2 Steam Deck Score: 4/5

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I really need to work on my intro paragraphs. Well, nothing to be done about it now. Stone Story RPG has been around on PC via early access for a pretty long time now. Just as the game starts with a single stone and expands considerably from there, so too did this game grow over the years, finally achieving a state that its developer decided was worthy of being called a release version. That early access period means that the developer has received a lot of player feedback, and that presents an excellent opportunity to polish the heck out of an idea. Stone Story RPG is certainly that. Other than a few clumsy bits of the interface that might be a result of not being designed first as a touchscreen game, I don’t think I can find a single issue with the game that isn’t intentional.

The story starts with a stone. That stone is actually apparently the head of a person, a person we shall call hero. Or heroine. Or Dave. Whatever you like. That person collects more stones in the area around them, and finds the stones make for useful weapons against the creatures roaming about. Soon they find another resource, and that opens up things that can be crafted with resources. Weapons, armor, accessories, and chests can be found as well. The most important thing you’ll find are special stones which grant major new features and serve as the McGuffin you’re chasing for much of the adventure. Most are in the possession of large, angry, hungry things. Poke them or zap them as needed to pry those stones out of their grubby appendages.

As you play, the game gets a lot more complicated. Not terribly so, mind you. But you’ve got crafting systems, gear with elemental attributes, the ability to set up various load-outs, and more. You’ll discover new areas and run into puzzles you’ll have to solve using items. Naturally, lots of things to kill and goobers to collect. Before long you’ll have to make use of elemental weaknesses to have any serious chance of success, and you’ll find yourself flipping gear on the fly to collect resources and take advantage of weaknesses. Rather busy for an idle game, I’d say. And you absolutely need to keep your gear at its best. Whether by crafting, lucky drops, or picking things up from the shopkeeper, if you don’t have the right tools you’ll end up banging your head against the wall.

When things are going smoothly, Stone Story RPG is both highly compelling and a ton of fun. You’re discovering new things, new systems and mechanics are opening up, you’re knocking out quests, and you’re feeling clever for getting around various obstacles. I would say that the majority of the game’s several hours of runtime are very enjoyable. I’m going to start talking about the game’s issues soon, but I want to stress before going into them that you should not let them stop you from trying the game. It’s very good, and just watching it move is a bit of a magic trick. When it heats up and you’re juggling gear sets, barely defeating a boss thanks to your strategy, it’s tense in all the right ways. Go download it, it’s free. You have nothing but time to lose.

Okay, time to talk a little turkey. Stone Story RPG is a free game on mobile. It is not a free game on PC. There isn’t a single IAP that unlocks the game, either. A quick glance at the list of in-app purchases in the App Store shows things like bags of crystals that go up to fifty bucks, single weapons that cost ten bucks, and of course the obligatory DEALS that probably aren’t very good deals at all. This game would like you to pay something, which is fair. It isn’t asking for that thirty bucks flat that it wants over on Steam. How you feel about that is up to you. But the type of monetization used here forces me to really consider how it presents things.

For example, the game can be pretty grindy if you find yourself with inadequate gear or insufficient resources. Is that part of the natural design, or is it like that to nudge the player into making purchases or watching the daily incentivized ad? Is the boss difficult because conquering tough enemies is fun, or is it difficult because it wants you to buy the fancy weapon the shopkeeper is featuring? And gosh, those fancy weapons. The game really sells you on them, hard. They make your character look so much cooler, and they’re going to solve a lot of problems for you. Now, to the game’s credit, it doesn’t try to sell you anything for the first little while. And you genuinely don’t need to buy anything to beat the game’s main story, though you might have to do some grinding from time to time. But when a game is being this aggressive with its salesmanship, I just can’t help but feel a little put off.

I think Stone Story RPG is a game any fan of RPGs or mysterious adventures should give a bit of their time to. The presentation is very cool thanks to those ASCII graphics, and the soundtrack is almost as enchanting. It surprises in ways that some of my favorite games do, and it’s extremely clever in how it peels back its layers. You can play through the whole thing without paying a cent, and that’s a lot of quality entertainment for nothing. That being said, the way the game tries to sell its IAPs feels just a little… it feels like too strong of a word, but ‘repulsive’ is what immediately came to mind. Like having a slick dream and one of the characters pulls you aside to remind you that you’re asleep. There’s an illusion being woven here, and the game has to break it to try to sell you something, anything. A chip in a grand boulder of a game.

Peglin is a “pachinko roguelike" and it involves a lot of elements from both kinds of games. There are a lot of balls, pegs, luck, charming designs, catchy music, and more as you try to aim to get as much damage by hitting pegs as one of many orbs while trying to survive. These orbs and pegs have their own interactions, and there’s a lot of RNG or luck involved depending on how you aim and what’s on the board. This affects your attack to damage enemies. Your aim is to progress to the end of the area you’re in. Even selecting the next path on your map is done by launching yourself as an orb into one of many paths on the bottom of the screen.

These paths range from events to treasure chests and even mini bosses in addition to general battles. In addition to your starting orbs, you collect loads throughout your run while also gaining relics and more. Everything changes up how you will approach the next encounter because you could have something damaging enemies further away, something that gives you more critical attacks, or something that heals you. The first many runs will be a learning experience as you try and find your bearings in Peglin. This is another reason I recommend finishing the opening area which is free to try on mobile. That will tell you everything you need to know about whether Peglin is for you or not.

Peglin could do with more variety in its unlocks, but said variety isn’t as accessible early on. These kinds of games benefit from throwing unlocks at you to keep you invested, and Peglin’s structure and difficulty don’t help. Neither does the reliance on luck, but that isn’t something I knock it for. Peglin 1.0 would be a lot more accessible with some quality of life improvements and accessibility options for newcomers. In a lot of ways, Peglin reminds me of the early game of The Binding of Isaac where you see tons of weapons or modifiers, but struggle to make much progress making you feel like you are wasting your time. The difference is that the gameplay in Peglin hasn’t even remotely stopped being fun while I did tire of Isaac before its DLC at one point.

Having played Peglin on my iPhone (with touch and a Razer Kishi V2), iPad (with a controller and with touch), and Steam Deck, Peglin right now is great on all of them, but I’d try it out on every platform if I were you before investing time into them since there is no cross platform syncing. If you do play on Steam, you can play at a higher frame rate as well and sync to your Steam Deck if you have one through Steam Cloud. The Steam Deck version even supports 120fps while docked over DisplayPort, which is how I’ve been playing it when at home.

In its current state, Peglin on iOS has almost every feature I want. The major miss is the lack of iCloud save support. As with all my reviews mentioning iCloud save support missing, I need to specify that sometimes the developer does implement it, but iCloud itself isn’t too reliable. The only times it has worked flawlessly for me are with Apple Arcade games or Feral Interactive releases. Cross platform syncing seems to be out of the question though. Barring that, a feature I’d like, but one that isn’t essential, is the ability to play in portrait mode on iPhone. Peglin is the perfect portrait game, but I understand that it would require a lot of work for the interface and to make things readable.

On modern iOS devices, Peglin is a 16:9 game so there will be black bars depending on your device. It runs very smoothly on my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020). You can enable a battery saver option if you’d prefer to conserve power while running at a lower frame rate. Barring that, Peglin does have controller support on iOS. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone and DualSense controller on iPad without any issues. The button prompts changed immediately depending on my input.

Peglin has a few quality of life features like being able to speed up movement and gameplay, but I hope we eventually get one that lets you skip the animations and do things even quicker. The speed up option also wasn’t implemented fully at launch on iOS, but now it offers the same 3x option as the PC version.

One of the advantages to Peglin on mobile, is that it has a very generous free trial available. Peglin is a free to start game with a one time unlock in app purchase. If you aren’t sold on it, I urge you to try the game and see how you feel in the first area. If you do like it, the unlock price is about half of what the PC version costs making the mobile version an even better option with how the pick up and play nature of the game suits portable play. It also helps that the iOS version is superb, and only really is missing iCloud save syncing.

Having never played Peggle before, Peglin has been a ton of fun even with all the luck and RNG involved. It may not be for everyone, but even in its current state, I recommend trying Peglin on iOS. The free to start model means you can try it out for yourself and see how you like it. I was sold after a few runs, and have not grown tired of it even months after launch. I’ve even started playing it on Steam Deck as a break from other games like I do with Vampire Survivors there. I can’t wait to see where Peglin goes when it hits 1.0.

Early Access review score: 4.5/5*

Just a couple of years before the launch of this epic generation of handhelds, another major event went down. SEGA, having had its latest console’s clock thoroughly cleaned by the PlayStation 2 (a fate it would not suffer alone), decided to drop out of the hardware business and shift to being a third party. A pivotal time for the company, and one that would see a number of its key developers depart the company for various destinations. One such person was Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the producer of games like SEGA Rally Championship, Space Channel 5, and Rez. At the time a relatively young producer, he was fond of sick dance beats and raver culture, aspects that he had increasingly been incorporating in his projects.

When he left SEGA, he decided to start up his own independent company with a number of other former SEGA developers. Named Q Entertainment, its first order of business was to develop a puzzle game for each of the upcoming handhelds. Not the same one, either. Each handheld would get its own unique game from top to bottom. For the PlayStation Portable, Q Entertainment made Lumines, a rhythm-focused falling block puzzler that saw players rotating and placing pieces to match colors as the screen removed them based on the tempo of the constantly-changing music. The Nintendo DS received Meteos, a very unique puzzler designed by Masahiro Sakurai (Kirby and Smash Bros. creator) that used touch controls to manipulate falling blocks to make matches, which would send them rocketing into the sky and, if they had enough lift, clearing them.

Both fine games, and both did quite well. One did a lot better than the other, however, and to the victor go the spoils. Lumines received several sequels and a handful of ports, and can easily be bought on modern platforms today. As for Meteos? A somewhat ill-conceived sequel knocked it off the rails almost immediately, and it received only a couple more releases of any kind before effectively falling off the map from 2010 on. And look, I love Lumines. But I also love Meteos, and I’ve been hoping for it to make a comeback of any kind for a very, very long time. Preferably in a form closer to the original than that sequel.

Well, I don’t know if Meteos is ever coming back. And clearly, I’m not the only one who misses it. Developer Drew Smith has more initiative than I do, because he seems to have gotten tired of waiting and just went out and made his own Meteos. I’m not going to sugar-coat things too much here. Gravitas! wholesale borrows its mechanics from the original Meteos, almost to a tee. Each Phase sees you trying to send a set number of blocks off the top of the screen within a certain amount of time. You can slide pieces up and down each column (and not left and right), and matching three or more of the same pieces either vertically or horizontally will send all affiliated columns into the sky. How high? It depends on the gravity of the phase, whether the match was horizontal or vertical, and how many combos you have rolling.

Blocks will fall in one by one from the top, and sometimes you’ll get some power-ups in the mix. Send them off the top of the screen to activate them. There are also some garbage blocks, but they can be turned into normal pieces, often triggering a match when they change. Horizontal matches don’t get as much lift as vertical ones, and in theory this is your opportunity to make a combo by making further matches on the elevated pieces. This is a staple of Meteos, and it’s one of the ways where Gravitas! doesn’t quite hit the mark. It’s a real pain to make a match on those flying columns, and it ties into perhaps the biggest problem with the game on the whole: the fiddly controls on phones.

I’m not sure what the game can do about it, really. But I’m not here to fix issues, I just point them out. Anyway, the combination of the small blocks, relatively small display, and my chunky fingers means that it’s a little tricky to get the piece I want to go where I want it on iPhone. It often takes a few tries, and that can be fatal in the more difficult stages. It’s also what makes it hard for me to nail those floating combos. If I can’t move pieces accurately on a stable column, I have little hope of doing so on a moving one. Again, I don’t know how the developer could make this better, but I hope they can because I really like the game otherwise. Playing on the iPad is much more comfortable, and the game plays really well with the Pencil if you have it.

Like in Meteos, each Phase has a style of its own. The pieces look different, the background looks different, the music is different, and the gravity also changes. What impresses me here is that the overall look and feel is very “Q Entertainment"-core, if that makes sense. Sometimes more Lumines than Meteos, but always on point. It’s not quite as polished as something we would see from Mizuguchi and company, which is the main giveaway. But it looks and sounds really good, and some of the themed pieces are very amusing if a little hard to distinguish.

The main game consists of 20 Phases, and the difficulty curve is nice and smooth. Sweet at the beginning, very spicy by the end. You can also do a Quick Play, which lets you choose your favorite theme, how many blocks you need to clear and the amount of time you have to do it, and the difficulty level. A Marathon mode challenges you to keep playing as long as you can, with the difficulty rising as you go. Vs Match lets you play against another human player via local wireless or online (Hamster, take notes). That mode is very fun because the blocks you send off your screen end up cluttering theirs. Finally, your prize for beating all of the Phases of the main game is the Grav-Lab mode, which gives you the ability to play with whatever level of gravity you like. Neat.

Apart from the control issues and some minor roughness in the UI, I don’t have a lot of negative things to say about Gravitas!. I did have a crash here and there, which was disappointing, but the games are so quick that it isn’t really a huge loss on the rare occasions it happens. I’d love more Phases to play, but that’s just me wanting more of something I enjoyed a fair bit. If you’re playing on iPhone, it’s really going to come down to whether or not the developer can make those controls work better. As it is, I have to recommend it with the heavy caveat that you might have to deal with the frustration of frequent missed matches, and not being able to do much reliable comboing with the floating pieces due to the lack of accuracy is a bummer. Again, if you’re on iPad you’ll probably be fine.

Gravitas! is heavily inspired by Meteos, there’s no getting around that. But considering how much of Meteos was wrapped up in a very distinct style, it’s amazing just how close this game gets to evoking the same feelings as that classic. Given the low price of entry, anyone who misses Meteos would do well to pick this up on whatever device they own despite the control difficulties. General puzzle fans might want to give it a go too. It’s a couple of solid fixes away from a strong recommendation across the board, but I’m willing to invest in that hope.

This is a one-on-one fighter developed for SNK by System Vision and Saurus that features mythological characters and gods as the fighters. The likes of Susano, Son Goku, and Lucifer are included, making for a lively roster of eight playable characters and three bosses. So far, not a bad concept for a NEOGEO game. Fighting games were the system’s specialty, and using deities as fighters is an interesting hook. Sure, eight characters is a bit of a thin roster for this point in time, but not unheard of. The game even has a functioning aerial combo system, which would have been well ahead of its time when Ragnagard released in late 1996. So what’s wrong with it?

I have to take an important detour first. We need to talk about the 800-lb gorilla in the room around this point in time. Yes, that one. Donkey Kong. In late 1994, Rare pulled off the mother of all magic tricks and Nintendo reaped the rewards. With the next generation on the horizon and Nintendo’s next console still a couple of years off, it was vital to prove that the Super NES was still a viable choice in the face of things like the 3DO, SEGA Saturn, and Sony PlayStation. A fascination with polygons was already brewing in the mainstream, and while the Super NES couldn’t put together a whole lot in real-time, Rare realized it could make 3D models and render them as sprites. With some careful color choices (the Super NES typically could only display 256 colors from a palette of 32,768), Donkey Kong Country looked for all the world like a 3D game despite being no more of one than Super Mario World had been. It was a smash hit, and a lot of folks who were a lot less careful with their color choices decided to ape it.

So yes, Ragnagard is a pre-rendered CG game. The characters are pre-rendered, the backgrounds are pre-rendered, and this is 1996 so these aren’t the most detailed of models by any means. All of this art has been adapted pretty poorly to the hardware despite the hardware offering a palette significantly deeper than that of the Super NES, and it just looks bad. This might well be the worst-looking one-on-one fighter on the console. I will grant that it looks unique, and there is a certain nostalgia to this precise era that might tickle you the right way. But there’s a cost to all of this, or at least I think there is. Did the pre-rendered graphics lead to the rest of the problems or is it just happenstance?

Ragnagard just feels bad to play. The way things animate, the way moves play out, the lag on your actions, it’s all just very unpleasant. Basic moves in particular feel almost useless, with really dicey collision that I am choosing to blame on the character models and how they are boxed out. You pretty much have to play for the specials, charging up your elements to power up your character and eventually unleash some death moves. The ground game in particular is awkward, with the best feel happening when you’re taking advantage of the air dash to pull off some mid-air nonsense. Throw in a relatively unbalanced roster and you’re left with a game that even in its best context is best left as a curiosity.

But this isn’t its best context by any means. Like all of the fighters in the mobile ACA NEOGEO line-up, Ragnagard is hindered by two issues. Anyone using touch controls is going to have a hard time with some of the motions required for special moves or even just keeping on top of four virtual buttons in the heat of combat. You can use an external controller, of course. I found the game more than comfortable enough using my Backbone. But realistically, most players are going to be using the touch controls, and they’re not ideal here. The other problem is of course the inability to play multiplayer without having extra controllers and some kind of shared display. I will bang this drum every time, especially with multiplayer-focused titles like this. We need some kind of local wireless or online multiplayer option in this line.

You get the usual ACA NEOGEO features like the extra modes and a wide array of options. All are welcome here, even if they are just lipstick on a serious pig of a game. Throw that difficulty down to the lowest setting and smack around the CPU for as long as it will let you, or see if you can chip out a higher score than the other four people on the online leaderboards. Lament that you could have bought a few delicious Snickers bars instead of this.

With how affordable the ACA NEOGEO line of games is on mobile, it’s a decent way to try out the weirder, not-so-good titles in the console’s library. If you want to throw a few bucks at Ragnagard just to see how a good idea can go very wrong, I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world. At least you’re not spending a couple of hundred dollars on a cartridge. But I think you could make a good case for this being the worst one-on-one fighter SNK is likely to release in this line, and given how poorly even the best of fighters have fared under its restrictions, that leaves Ragnagard in a very bad position indeed.

I’m going to start with what I liked about the game. Yes, it’s one of those reviews. First of all, the presentation is really nice. I don’t know the show, but I can see a lot of care went into recreating locations and making stylized versions of various characters. Most of the chess sets look great, though the designs of some of them make it hard to tell pieces apart at a glance. I respect the attempt to gamify chess, likely as a means to keep people playing through the learning curve of the game itself. Lots of coins to earn for doing various things, and you can spend them on all sorts of things. I think for someone who genuinely knows next to nothing about chess, this is an agreeable way to learn at least the basics. There’s plenty to do here as well, following Beth’s Journey through chess puzzles and matches against various characters. You can even hop online and play against other humans.

Okay, on to the rest. If I had to sum things up, I find myself unsure of who this is exactly for. I think it has to be fans of the show, but as I haven’t seen the show I can’t say whether the fanservice hits the mark or not. But in terms of chess players, I think it’s in an awkward space. It includes a ton of accessibility features that make it easier to win a game, for example, but if you were to move over to another chess game without those assists, you’d be lost. The game isn’t teaching you, it’s telling you. Sometimes it’s telling you the wrong things, even. The chess puzzles, normally a good source of learning a variety of strategies, are surprisingly limited in their scope. If you’ve played chess puzzles before, you’re not going to be terribly challenged by any of these. You’re also not going to pick up many useful techniques through them. Sometimes it does drop some useful techniques in the main game, but since it never properly revisits them or explains the theory behind them, it feels a bit pointless.

On the other side of the coin, the AI and overall progression is probably going to irritate experts, even if they jump to the highest difficulty right away. The game also really wants to help you, and there’s nothing worse than a pushy helper when you already know what you want and need to do. Okay, so maybe you just head online and play against other humans, count on the human element to sort things out? Not a bad idea, but there’s a big problem right now with the game that is magnified when you play online.

This game has a crashing problem. I tried it on multiple devices just to make sure it wasn’t just my phone, but no. Every so often, not every time but often enough to lose your trust, the game will crash in the middle of a match. If you’re playing against the CPU, it isn’t the end of the world. You can pick up where you left off. But if you’re playing against someone online, you’re pretty much done. The game never crashed during chess puzzles; only during matches and only once you get a ways into them. But that is a pretty serious problem for a chess game, I feel. I’m going to assume this will be fixed and not completely spike the game’s score for it, but I’m not going to ignore it either.

I’m not going to drag this one out too far. If you have Netflix it doesn’t cost you anything to try the game, and if you’re a fan of the show and somehow aren’t that familiar with chess, I encourage you to give it a shot. Queen’s Gambit Chess will assuredly teach you how to play the game, so if that is what you’re looking for you’re all set. But it will only take you so far, choosing to show you what to do instead of teaching you what to do. Experienced chess players will probably find it a bit unsatisfying overall thanks to the low level of difficulty and excessive handholding. Throw in some fairly serious technical issues in the current version that deeply affects multiplayer and you’ve got a game that struggles to find its own winning move.

Roto Force not only has slick controls, excellent haptics, and amazing gameplay, but it also has memorable writing when you have to do things for your boss. The level biomes are varied as well, and Roto Force does a good job of introducing new mechanics, testing you, and giving you unlocks at a steady pace. Roto Force has you moving left or right, but also dashing across to any side of the level you’re in barring the one you’re on. You also have the ability to shoot (of course) and avoid enemies and hazards while you work your way through different levels, mini-bosses, and proper bosses. The checkpointing system is quite lenient, but Roto Force has you on your toes at all times with its fast-paced gameplay.

After a nice interactive tutorial, you start to see the real magic in Roto Force as you make your way through the various sets of stages in each level. It feels very carefully crafted to deliver a quality arcade twin stick shooter experience. Depending on your skill level and the accessibility options, Roto Force might feel a bit short, but I have no regrets recommending it at full price right now on iOS. If you watch the gameplay video above, it might look like a game that wouldn’t work on a touchscreen, but the developers of the mobile version have nailed the controls. I love how it feels with touch controls.

While I thought Roto Force looked excellent in its screenshots that absolutely don’t do the slick gameplay justice, it has a surprisingly well done interface not only in its controls for a touchscreen, but also the actual menus. Basically Roto Force screams polish and I was surprised to find the full game unlock price only $4.99. I expected it to be more expensive even on PC given the game quality.

I haven’t played Roto Force on Steam Deck yet, but it feels so perfect on iOS that I don’t think I’ll even bother getting it on PC. I had no performance issues on my iPhone 11 or iPad Pro, and the game looks excellent on both devices. The touch controls have options to tweak the experience to your liking, but you can also use a controller. I tested Roto Force with my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 11 and DualSense on iPad Pro. The game detects controllers immediately and works perfectly with them.

I mentioned accessibility and not only does Roto Force let you adjust the colors, but you can also disable screen shake like I did. You can also opt for a fixed camera perspective. When I first played Roto Force, I was afraid of getting motion sickness, but that wasn’t a problem after disabling the screen shake. The option to lock the camera is welcome as well. There’ also an accessibility assist menu under your profile that lets you adjust the game speed, damage multiplier, and toggle immortality if you’re having trouble with a stage or boss.

My only complaint with Roto Force on iOS right now is the lack of iCloud save syncing. I tested this on multiple devices across two iCloud accounts and had no success with syncing. I really wish more developers implemented this more reliably or at all.

Roto Force not only feels amazing on iOS regardless of if you use a controller or touch, but it also managed to surprise me with its writing and boss designs. I’m very impressed with the accessibility options and the haptic feedback included on iOS as well. This is one of the most-polished games I’ve played on iOS all year, and one I see myself jumping into regularly with its awesome gameplay and aesthetic. I urge you to try the game for free and see how you feel because this might be your next favorite pick up and play twin-stick shooter on mobile.

The first thing you’re presented with is a fairly limited character creator, after which you will find yourself on a plane with various Sanrio characters. You have the chance to talk to everyone, after which Kitty causes a mess, Badtz-maru drops a movie reference that everyone who has played this game has taken a screenshot of, and everyone is forced to parachute down to the island below. It once played host to a theme park, and you’re all there to… you know, I don’t remember? Visit it? Get it up and running again? The important thing is that it’s a pretty big area and not all of the passengers landed in the same place. Most of you luckily ended up in a central seaside area that is perfect for learning how to play the game. What luck!

The various characters will give you quests to complete. Some of them are fetch quests. Lots of them are, really. Completing them will of course give you some rewards, and might increase your friendship level with that character. Leveling up your friendships will give you access to more quests and more rewards, some of which are tools you can use to explore more of the world around you. You can actually explore a surprisingly large area from the start, but your inability to swim will keep you from going too far. Eventually you’ll get items that allow you explore more thoroughly, and the world opens up to a shockingly big degree. There are some overarching goals that you’ll stumble upon before long, plus tons of smaller ones that may or may not lead to something important. There is also an absolute bucket load of side activities to do like fishing and bug collecting. There are even little mini-races that award you with trophies of various levels based on your time.

You’ll also sometimes find yourself exploring underground, in buildings, and around other structures. There are honest-to-goodness puzzles in these places, often variations on switch problems but often something else entirely. It’s never excessively difficult, likely in deference to the idea that young kids might be playing, but some of them do require a bit of creative thought. Speaking of difficulty, there’s no real way to get hurt or die in the game. At most, you can end up falling off the screen or into the water before you have the right items, at which point you’ll just respawn at the last safe place your feet were touching.

It’s interesting because while there is a lot of Animal Crossing in this game, there’s also a lot more structure to send you off on linear threads if that’s what you want. Go solve the mysteries of the islands and track down the other characters. Get all of the tools so you can explore fully. Or just hang around and try to bake every single thing possible. Go fishing for a bit. Decorate houses with furniture that you buy, find, or craft. Invite guests and complete the quests they issue. Design some new threads for your character. Wear silly costumes. Take selfies with all of the hidden Gudetamas. See if you can improve your island’s Vibe score. It’s amazing how much this game checks off the life simulation boxes while also giving you more traditional gamey bits like exploration and puzzle-solving.

The controls are very simple, with a virtual stick for moving your character around and a few buttons on the other side for using your collected tools or talking to people. Pressing on the right side anywhere but the button spaces makes you jump, and you can press it again to float with your balloons. The platforming is a bit clunky at times and you can easily get stuck in places, but the game will always get you out of any messes you get into. Various menus allow you to change your tools or check your items, and a robust map and quest log ensure you’re never stranded about what to do. You can also easily see how much of each collection you’ve finished.

Simply put, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a game you can really get stuck into for hours. I ran down my battery practically without noticing the time go by on multiple occasions while playing the game for this review. I was expecting a simple Animal Crossing clone because that is really all it had to be. You don’t have to flex that hard when you’re using characters as familiar as Kitty and My Melody, after all. It’s just a game for little kids, right? But developer Sunblink went and made a game that I think just about anyone can enjoy, regardless of age or familiarity with games. I also appreciate how cleverly written it is. That is one of the secret strengths of Animal Crossing that so many of the games inspired by it don’t get right.

Apart from some weirdness with the platforming and clipping, the only real knock I have on this game is that the multiplayer didn’t work properly for me during the whole time I was playing the game. I bet it would be fun, but for now it just doesn’t seem to connect. I’ve been informed the developer is working on a fix, but right now it is what it is. Luckily the game is immensely enjoyable in single player, so it’s not going to hurt things too badly.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Hello Kitty Island Adventure is one of my favorite mobile games of this year so far. It’s so much more than I expected it to be, so much more than it needed to be, and I genuinely appreciate just how compelling it is from head to toe. I’ve been vocal amongst my peers about how Apple Arcade needs more reasons to subscribe these days. Well, here’s one extremely good reason. Butters was right the whole time.

While King of the Monsters and its sequel were essentially wrestling games, albeit between giant monsters, there was clearly room on the NEOGEO for a more familiar game in the genre. By 1993, SNK was making some of the hottest one-on-one fighters around, so it wouldn’t seem totally unreasonable that it could make a good wrestling game. The character designers did their job well enough, with ten colorful combatants that wouldn’t look out of place in a real federation at the time. Each of them has a fine assortment of moves, with plenty of strikes and some special moves to spice things up. The graphics and audio are really good, playing to the strengths of the platform very well. It even mixes things up and gives you some street fights from time to time.

In regular matches you can win by pin fall or submission, both of which require you to wear down your opponent’s life meter to have any chance of success. When you’re in other locations, the only option is to beat the opponent to the point that they don’t wake up for a ten-count. Yes, those ones aren’t three-count bouts. Well, it happens. You can choose to play in a few different modes, but most mobile players will only have one available to them. You as a single player will tackle the CPU opponents in a series of battles in order to win the championship. If you happen to have enough external controllers and feel like huddling around your mobile device, you can also do two players against a CPU tag team or battle against each other.

Let’s get to the problems now. The main issue here is the difficulty. This ACA NEOGEO release allows you to adjust the difficulty, but even on its easiest setting, the CPU is an absolute beast once you get a few matches in. It is incredibly aggressive, it will win the button-mashing grapples almost every single time, and if you even think about using strikes it will punish you during the wind-up. It’s not like it’s impossible to win the single-player mode. If you’re tenacious you can find your own cheap, semi-reliable ways of fighting back. But it isn’t fun to play the game like this. Not at all. The upshot is that you get a couple of decent bouts before the computer opponent starts lobbing you around like a beach ball. You’ve got about as much hope of fighting back as the ball does.

Indeed, the only real way to enjoy 3 Count Bout at all is to play one-on-one against another human. If you can swing that, it’s alright. Nothing to go running up and down the street shouting at the top of your voice about, but you can have an okay time. Alas, that’s a tricky thing to pull off in these mobile releases. I really wish there were some other options for playing multiplayer in these games so that I could show more kindness to games like this, but I can only work with what is put in front of me. All the other ACA NEOGEO extras, such as additional modes and options, don’t mean very much when the core single-player experience is as miserable as this.

Simply put, 3 Count Bout is an incredibly poor fit for the most common use case of these mobile releases. You won’t find much joy in its single-player mode due to how quickly and thoroughly the CPU player becomes punishing. The multiplayer options require extra controllers and a means of displaying the game for both players, which isn’t going to be something most can take advantage of. And even if you did, all you would end up with is a middling wrestling game with some nice visuals. Stick to King of the Monsters for your mobile grappling kicks.

A few months had gone by, and I did end up playing it more on Xbox. The way things work out, Devolver Digital announced a mobile version just as I was near the end. I’ve been replaying the game and trying out the different hint systems while seeing how the game differs if at all across platforms. For this Return to Monkey Island mobile port review, I’m going to cover why this is the gold standard for point and click adventure games in many ways, but also touch on the port quality for mobile, Switch, and how it plays on Steam Deck as usual.

Despite its name, Return to Monkey Island can be enjoyed as a standalone story. You will miss out on some references though. While there is an in-game scrapbook that I used as a refresher for the original games, don’t let the name or anyone tell you to skip this until you play games that aren’t as accessible outside of playing on PC. If you’ve already played a few games in the series, Return to Monkey Island will feel like going back to an old bar after many years, but remembering many things you loved about it. Familiar faces, voices, style of puzzles, and more await you in Return to Monkey Island, but this time there are plethora of accessibility and quality of life features that you can enjoy if you ever get stuck. You don’t need to worry about looking up a walkthrough here. Return to Monkey Island has it all included if you ever need some help, and the hint system is very smartly implemented.

Return to Monkey Island has Guybrush Threepwood back talking about an adventure going across many new and old locations. Not only are series’ creator Ron Gilbert and co-writer Dave Grossman back, but also composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian who worked on both The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge are back with Rex Crowle who worked on Tearaway which I adored on PS Vita. This feels very much like the band coming back for the most part, and while many revivals have taught me to be skeptical, I’m glad this team pulled it off. While we have had Special Edition versions of both The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge hit mobile in addition to Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island, none of them have felt this polished and great to play on mobile.

If you’ve never played a game in this series or are new to the genre, Return to Monkey Island has you tapping to move around, tapping and dragging to find points of interest, interacting with said points of interest, and going through a plethora of well-written and in many cases voiced dialogue to progress through the story and puzzles. There is a lot of backtracking in parts, so keep that in mind as you approach this adventure.

Return to Monkey Island has a few control options available on mobile. I played with touch controls on both iPhone and iPad which felt like the best way to play it. I also used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 11 and it worked great. On the iPad, I only tried my DualSense controller, but the game lets you choose between controller button prompts for PS5, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch. It defaults to Xbox, but you can change it. I don’t have a wireless keyboard handy to try out keyboard and mouse support, but using a mouse worked fine. It treats it like a touch input in Return to Monkey Island. I don’t have an Android device to test on, so whatever I’ve said so far applies to the iOS version on the mobile side.

I’m glad to have come around on the visuals in Return to Monkey Island. While I prefer the look of the original game, Return to Monkey Island feels like the correct step forward for bringing the franchise into the modern era. The aesthetic not only works well in motion, but it looks gorgeous on high resolution displays. Return to Monkey Island on iPhone doesn’t have fullscreen support and runs in 16:9 with black bars on my iPhone 11. The iPad version runs fullscreen on my 11" iPad Pro though and looks superb.

Barring the writing and visuals that are a huge part of the experience, audio is where Return to Monkey Island absolutely shines. The voice acting is superlative, and it is backed by an incredible soundtrack. It feels weird to think of it like one, but this is probably the closest we will come to a AAA point and click adventure game. While not the same genre, I think we should be talking about Return to Monkey Island alongside great games like Pentiment.

Having now played Return to Monkey Island on basically everything but PS5, it shines on a portable. The iOS versions have controller support as well as touch support as I mentioned above, but so do the Steam Deck and Switch versions. Given the game looks, runs, and plays brilliantly on all portables I tried it on, I recommend getting it wherever you enjoy playing games the most. There is no definitive portable version because they are all excellent. My favorite version is definitely the iPad version on my iPad Pro.

On the topic of accessibility, when you start a new game, you’re given the option of playing in casual or hard mode. The former is for those who want easier puzzles and to focus on the story while the latter aims to be a “full monkey" experience with more and harder puzzles. The hint book which you obtain in-game can be used in both difficulty options. If you did play prior games and have more time to spend on the game, I’d recommend the hard mode. I think 11 hours is about what you should expect if you don’t use casual mode and end up retrying some puzzles a few times. Return to Monkey Island ended up being a lot meatier than I expected.

Usually, I’d be hoping for a Switch physical release for a multi-platform game I enjoy a lot at this point, but Return to Monkey Island is already getting a physical release this week on PS5, Xbox, and Switch. I pre-ordered it the moment I finished writing this review. My only complaint about Return to Monkey Island on iOS right now is that it doesn’t seem to have functional cloud save support between iPhone and iPad. I tested this with the pre-release build so things might change at or soon after launch, but it didn’t work across two different iCloud accounts on four devices.

I hope Devolver Digital can work with Lucasfilm and Terrible Toybox again to bring some of the earlier games to modern platforms. They deserve to be played by as many people as possible, and Return to Monkey Island proves that the team handling the games knows what makes these special, and does enough to make them feel good for newcomers and veterans to the genre. The only reason you should avoid Return to Monkey Island is if you don’t enjoy point and click adventure games that can have some obtuse puzzles. This release does enough with accessibility and hints to negate that, but I’d only hesitate in recommending it to that group of people. If you do enjoy the games, just go buy Return to Monkey Island on iOS and enjoy your weekend with it. It rules.

Luck be a Landlord has you trying to defeat your landlord by earning more through slot machines to pay your ever-increasing rent. Despite the aesthetic and it involving slot machines, Luck be a Landlord is a premium game with no in app purchases. Initially, Luck be a Landlord felt like a decent time waster that I might get bored of in an hour or so, but the hooks were in after a few attempts at defeating the landlord. You see, each spin gives you things to add to your deck, or in this case slot machine. These change how much you earn, synergize with other items, and can turn the tide of a spin as you inch your way towards your rent target for that cycle. After every rent payment, your rent increases and you eventually need to keep track of many items or symbols so you know what to pick next to make the most of the situation.

There are so many combinations of items and symbols that I sometimes feel like I’m playing The Binding of Isaac. Luck be a Landlord also has loads of achievements though the developer couldn’t add as many on Game Center thanks to a limitation on Apple’s side. The in-game achievements match other platforms though. One quality of life feature I’m glad to see included from the start, is the ability to increase the speed or turn off animations and go for instant results in spins as you earn coins. This makes it even better to just pick up and play on iPhone when you have a few minutes spare.

On PC, Luck be a Landlord has support for mouse and controller inputs. On iOS, it only has touch controls. I wouldn’t use a controller for a game like this given the touch option, but it is worth keeping in mind for those who plan to play on iPad where I prefer using controllers in most games. The interface has been brought over very well to touch, but you will need to tap on a few things more often to understand mechanics in the early hours of playing. For accessibility, Luck be a Landlord lets you adjust font, maximum frame rate including 120fps on my iPad Pro, various colors including that of the main background, item text, symbol text, and more.

As I played more, I started discovering specific items and symbols that I found working better, but the randomness element is going to constantly make you think on your toes with each spin. This is a positive or negative depending on who you ask. As someone who enjoyed the randomness element in games like Hearthstone to the point where I only focused on those joke decks by the end of my time with it, I’ve enjoyed being screwed over by a bad spin in Luck be a Landlord as weird as that sounds. Since this involves slot machines, you need to expect and welcome that, but it still might not be a positive for some players. The other aspect some might be put off by is the sheer number of items and possibilities making the early hours feel a bit daunting to progress, but this learning by experience is what gets me deeper into games like Luck be a Landlord and Slay the Spire.

Visually, I like the Luck be a Landlord aesthetic a lot. It has great pixel art for various objects, animals, and more. Animations are also very nice and smooth on my devices. Given the amount of different characters and items in the slots, the pixel art is still quite varied and recognizable. The music from Vincent Colavita is surprisingly catchy as well.

If you’ve already played Luck be a Landlord on PC, and are wondering how the mobile port is, it is fantastic if you’re ok with portrait gameplay on iOS. Barring that, I saw nothing in the PC version that would make me want to play it there over my iPhone. You can play it on Steam Deck without issues if you prefer playing there over mobile, but the iPhone version is my favorite way to play Luck be a Landlord.

In its current state, the only thing holding Luck be a Landlord back on iOS is seemingly lack of cloud save support between devices and the lack of landscape support which the developer has already commented on. Everything else about Luck be a Landlord on iOS is fantastic. This is easily my favorite way to play it, and I hope the patch with landscape mode does end up releasing soon after the engine adds support for it on iOS.

Luck be a Landlord manages to perfectly blend slots with a deckbuilding roguelike. I never thought those two would work, but just like Peglin taught me recently, the developers that manage getting genres like these working together are the real ones to keep a watch over for future games. Luck be a Landlord is a game I’ll have on my iPhone homescreen for a long time. I just hope the update with landscape support arrives in the near future. I liked it enough to buy it at full price on Steam soon after playing the iOS version. It is that good.

In pretty much every culture there is the concept of the “one-hit wonder". Lou Bega. Dexys Midnight Runners. Los Del Rio. The Tokens. These are all musicians, but you can apply it to other art forms. It’s a term of light mockery, relegating such creators to the annals of trivia for the crime of only making one amazing thing. The absolute absurdity of it only became apparent to me as I got older. Stepping up to the plate of creation and sending that cultural ball flying out of the park even once is more than most of us will ever manage. So what if a person only pulls it off once? Wow, you only made Take On Me. Ridiculous.

It’s ridiculous precisely because making something great, even once, is hard. Like, stupid hard. You have to have a great idea, you have to do the work to bring the great idea to fruition, and you probably need more than your fair share of support and luck along the way. If you’re missing any of those things, there’s a very good chance the rest is going to fall apart on you. So yes, if someone makes one awesome thing, I absolutely tip my hat to them. Without all of those “one hit wonders", the world would be a lot less interesting. The App Store in particular would be in rough shape, because some of the best games in the history of iOS were one-offs. Either the developer moved on, or nothing else quite landed the same way.

So, Arnold Rauers. TiNYTOUCHTALES, if we want to use the official developer name. I know not whence Rauers came, in terms of game development. As TiNYTOUCHTALES, he hit the ground running with the phenomenal Card Crawl. Perfectly suited to mobile, and a game I can still fire up and have a really good time with. Simple enough for anyone to pick up in a game or two, but complex enough to keep you playing for years. Card Thief was another piece of brilliant work, and very much unlike Card Crawl in terms of design and rules. Miracle Merchant, perhaps his most approachable game of all, and once again completely different. Even the games that didn’t quite hit as well as those, ENYO and Maze Machina, show a remarkable amount of ingenuity in their design while carrying forward what I can only assume are the basic principles by which Rauers works. Hey, where did Gnomitaire go? Well, no matter.

It would not have been unusual for Rauers to have disappeared after Card Crawl, but he kept on making more mobile games and steadfastly refused to retread old ground. It has not ruined him, as far as I can tell. Certainly not in terms of the quality of his games. I have eight folders on my phone dedicated solely to the works of single publishers: Radiangames, Simogo, Butterscotch Shenanigans, Michael Brough, Quantum Sheep, SEGA, Square Enix, and TiNYTOUCHTALES. It is the most minor of honors, but it is the one I have to offer. I do not need to know anything about a new game from any of these parties before buying it. They have my utmost trust.

Geo Gods is probably not going to have the same pick-up as Card Crawl or Miracle Merchant, but I might end up being completely wrong. I hope I am. As upfront experiences go, this is certainly on the more complex end of Rauers’ works. It doesn’t take too long to learn how to play, but it does take some effort to learn how to play in a satisfying way. The basic idea here is that you are planting a garden of gods. I don’t know either, but let’s roll with it. You’ll do this by placing gods in each of the spaces on the game board, with the game ending when you’ve either filled up the board or run out of the Mana Gems you need to play your gods. Your aim is to rack up as high of a score as possible, with that score resulting from a wide array of complex interactions.

Bordering the board are Power Crystals, each attuned to a specific element. They’ll apply their elements to spaces on the board, with the result being that each hex space has one to four marks on it associated with them. Sigh. This is already getting hard to explain. Let’s go back to Mana Gems and the gods. Each turn you’ll be presented with three god cards drawn from three piles. You can pick one of the three to play, and where you can play them is determined by the Mana Gem that is up at the moment. It will have a number from one to four, and that will determine which spaces are open to play a god on. One is for one elemental mark, two is for two marks, and so on. Each of the gods has their own point value, and they’ll also have an ability of some kind. These abilities can be very beneficial or troublesome depending on how you use them, so you can’t just fire them out carelessly.

Playing gods will also count down the numbers on the Power Crystals. When they reach zero, that Crystal is unlocked and will give you an additional point bonus. Unlock them all in a game and you’ll get a huge boost. So you’ll want to have that sub-goal in the back of your mind as you play, keeping some degree of balance in the elements of the gods you throw out there so as to unlock each of the Power Crystals. But it’s just as important to focus on the gods you’re playing and how their abilities will interact with each other, because that is where the real gold is found points-wise. Each turn you’ll be given three fresh cards, but you can lock one of them if you feel like. You can also pass a turn, but you’ll reduce the value of the current Mana Gem the first time you do so and shatter it if you do it again. This of course puts you at risk of running out of Mana Gems before you’ve filled the board. You have to be careful with these moves, but they too interact with some god abilities.

Simply putting up one good score isn’t enough, either. You have to play six rounds of the game, after which your average score will be taken as your high score. With all of the variables at play, there are plenty of opportunities to find your way to new highs with smart strategy or a bit of dumb luck. You can also find your way to a low score if you lack both. Geo Gods is a game where you really need to think carefully about each card you play, where you play it, and what is around it. At the same time, there isn’t a whole lot of push back for playing badly. You’ll get a low score, but that’s the only real penalty. I think this might be the part of the game that isn’t as strong as some previous Rauer efforts, as the lack of clear and immediate feedback about how the player is doing might cause some players who are less motivated to become disinterested.

As Jared also mentioned in his write-up, however, Geo Gods is free to try out. You can more or less play the whole game as much as you want, allowing you to get a feel for whether or not it is for you. There is an IAP you can purchase, and it will unlock some extra cards and features. If you like the game, you’ll want to buy it. It’s a meager $4.99 in US dollars, which is more than fair for how much you can get from this game if it gets its claws into you. I guess I should also mention the presentation. It’s nice. Looks decent, and it’s quite functional. Rauers always handles this well, so it’s not very surprising he’s pulled it off again here.

Geo Gods is another clever game from a developer who is now holding a full hand of them. It takes a little more effort to come to grips with than some of the other TiNYTOUCHTALES games, and there is the usual strong random element at play that will occasionally mess with you, but such is life. The important thing is that this is a game that keeps on growing as you put more time into it, flourishing like the garden it depicts. It’s more than worth the investment to learn for all the entertainment it will offer you in the long run.

There isn’t a whole lot of juicy history behind this game. SNK scored a strong hit with the original King of the Monsters in early 1991, at a time when the company needed all the success it could get. So yes, of course we get a sequel. King of the Monsters 2 arrived in early 1992, and it made a few changes to the gameplay seen in the previous game. The original King of the Monsters was basically a wrestling game with an interesting theme. You would choose one of several monsters and then battle the rest of them, one at a time, in stages set in various Japanese cities. Then you do it again, and that’s the single-player game. Grab a friend for one on one fun and you’ve got a pretty enjoyable bit of arcade diversion.

One of the fun things about the original game was how the arenas were cities that were slowly destroyed over the course of the match. It really made you feel like you were a giant monster, and a person couldn’t help but want more of that. Well, how lucky we are! King of the Monsters 2 gives you some room to stretch your legs, such as they are. Each stage still culminates in a one-on-one battle, but before that match-up you’ll wander through short stages, swatting down airplanes or aliens, smashing bridges and buildings, and collecting power-ups. There are more power-ups this time around, and each of the monsters can level up a couple of times. They get access to more special moves when they do, along with stat and health buffs. It’s in your interest to smash everything and try to find those power-ups, but be careful not to grab the bad ones.

This is a good time to talk about the monsters. The playable roster has been significantly trimmed down this time. There are only three monsters to choose from. The Godzilla-like Geon is here in mutated form, the King Kong-like Woo has powered up into Cyber Woo, and the Ultraman-like Astro Guy is here in a slightly modified suit. These, apparently, are the only survivors of the original monster wars as chronicled in the first game. Yes, there’s a story. That’s half of it right there. The other half is that aliens have invaded so these three remaining kaiju are tasked with stopping it. Let them fight, and all that. Don’t worry about a potential lack of creative creature designs though, as you’ll get to see plenty of other monsters as you make your way through the game.

There are no pin falls this time. There’s still a lot of wrestling DNA in King of the Monsters 2, as you will regularly get involved in grapple fights with the boss creatures. But your goal this time is to whittle their life meter down to zero, at which point they’ll go kaboom. There are no electrical power lines serving as ropes to whip them into this time, and the game broadly feels more like a beat-em-up as a result. A beat-em-up whose stage-to-boss ratio of time spent is very different from most others, but a beat-em-up nonetheless. Some may lament this change, and I do think it’s swings and roundabouts if we’re talking about playing the games in normal conditions.

We’re not, though. This review is about the mobile version, and we have to take a few things into account. First, while players certainly can make use of an external controller, it’s more likely that they’ll be using touch controls. Next, while players technically can play in multiplayer via extra controllers and some sort of decent-sized display, it’s more likely that they’ll be playing alone. I personally find the first game’s more pure wrestling approach to be more fun in multiplayer. It’s less random, the whole tug-of-war of trying to pin the opponent is interesting, and there are more characters to choose from.

But King of the Monsters 2 is, I feel, considerably more satisfying than the first when it comes to single-player. The opponents are more varied in their forms and attacks since the game doesn’t need to consider how a human will control them. Traveling through the stages smashing things and swatting lesser enemies is enjoyable and helps set the stage. Chucking buildings can feel cheap in multiplayer matches, but as a single-player feature it’s awesome. The random power-ups (and power-downs) are more tolerable when they aren’t messing up an otherwise interesting battle between two human players. The locations are a lot more varied in setting, too. That’s important when you’re playing alone, because it helps ward off repetition. There’s a proper final boss here as well, and it’s a real SNK sonofagun.

What I’m trying to say here is that for the purposes of most mobile players, King of the Monsters 2 is a considerably better experience than the first. There’s even a good ending and bad ending, encouraging further replays. It feels less like you’re playing a multiplayer game against the CPU and more like you’re playing a normal game meant for one player to have a good time with first and foremost. Some of the controls can be a little trickier with the virtual buttons so there is still a benefit to using an external controller if you have one. Still, even with touch controls it is a hoot to fire the game up and smash your way through a few aliens and landmarks. You can save whenever you need to, so feel free to break the game down into as many sessions as you need. It’s a cheap game that likes to milk you for as many coins as it can, but you have all you need.

This game is also a good one for the usual extra modes Hamster includes in all of these releases. There are lots of opportunities for variable scoring here, and you can also go faster or slower through the stages to an extent. That means both Score Attack and the timed Caravan modes work very well, provided the leaderboards are active. Even trying to better your own scores adds some value to the game. All the other usual options are here, of course. Game settings, video and audio settings, and control settings are all here. The only thing missing is an option for online or wireless multiplayer, and no I am never letting that particular bone go.

I knew going into this what the result would be, more or less, but I can happily recommend King of the Monsters 2 in its mobile form to anyone looking for some arcade action. For what it is, it holds up really well. The graphics still look good, the game plays well, and there just aren’t a whole ton of good kaiju brawlers out there even now. The single-player mode is enjoyable to bash your way through, and with three characters and lots of variability, it stays surprisingly fresh on multiple playthroughs. All in all, a good addition to the ACA NEOGEO mobile line-up.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, is a standalone sequel to Oxenfree: Netflix Edition, but given both games are now included in Netflix Games, I’d still recommend playing the original first. Having context and expectations from the first game definitely shaped my experience in Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, and I ended up appreciating it a lot more. Even if you aren’t a fan of paying for a subscription to play games, the original Oxenfree is often dirt cheap on PC and consoles, and is absolutely worth checking out.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is set half a decade after the first game. The opening hour felt very weird in a good way as I played more as Riley, the protagonist of this game. It kind of felt like coming back to an old vacation home that somehow is creepier and bigger than before. That holds true for most of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Everything here is bigger than the original, and things feel more polished overall. The voice acting is superb, visuals amazing, and music everything I wanted. There are some downsides though, and they involve backtracking. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals‘s vibe is immaculate, and while the puzzles were simpler than I expected even coming from the first game, I loved seeing the characters over the course of the six or so hours I spent to see it through to the end. There is some replay value, but the slow-paced gameplay made replaying it a bit annoying.

I ended up liking Oxenfree II: Lost Signals more than the original in many ways thanks to its cast. Just like the studio, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals feels like a more mature story despite the supernatural and thriller elements. This also applies to the visuals and scope that feel bigger and better. The flashbacks, interactions with other NPCs, and narrative all come together very well. I mentioned the opening hour feeling weird in a good way, but the opening bits should’ve been paced better. The later parts of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals ended up carrying the narrative where I wanted. Night School definitely needs to do another game, and I’m glad to wait half a decade more to see how a potential Oxenthree would end up being. While I didn’t get on with Night School’s Afterparty, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals feels like a return to form for the studio.

Playing Oxenfree II: Lost Signals across multiple devices has also been interesting. It runs and looks amazing on Steam Deck and newer iOS devices. On Nintendo Switch and also on iPhone, some of the larger portions of the games with a zoomed-out camera can cause some visual issues, but this isn’t a problem on Steam Deck or iPad. On the visual side, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals looks excellent on Steam Deck and iOS, but is a bit blurry on Nintendo Switch. The performance on Switch is also not as nice as modern iOS devices or Steam Deck, but it gets the job done for the game. The load times are my main complaint with the Switch version right now.

On the controls side, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on iOS supports full touch or controllers. I played with my DualSense on iPad and touch controls on iPhone. Both worked as they should. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals even showed me PlayStation button prompts on my iPad when I used my DualSense controller. The Switch version also includes touchscreen support which is how I spent most of my time with it in handheld mode. On Steam Deck, you can use touch controls to simulate mouse input. Speaking of Steam Deck, despite not being Steam Deck Verified, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals runs perfectly. If you want the best portable experience and don’t want to play it through a subscription service, I’d recommend playing it on Steam Deck.

Barring the backtracking and some issues with the camera, my only problems with Oxenfree II: Lost Signals have to do with how I ran into a few bugs with the dialogue boxes or some tutorial tooltips glitching out and remaining on screen longer than they should. Everything else was polished and great. If you didn’t like Oxenfree, I don’t think Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will click with you, but it is worth trying out in Netflix for sure.

I did end up using the larger font option while playing. The default size feels built for playing on a monitor while the larger one worked better for portable play. Since I’ve now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPad Pro, iPhone, and Nintendo Switch, I’m going to replay it in a few months on PS5 to see if Night School did anything interesting with the DualSense controller there.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on mobile is my favorite way to play it. Not only did Night School do a great port that feels perfect on iPad, but it also looks and runs nicer than the Switch version. Having now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPhone, iPad Pro, and Nintendo Switch, Night School and Netflix exceeded my expectations, and I hope it gets a physical release so I can add it to my Nintendo Switch collection alongside the physical release of the first game. This is Netflix’s best original addition to its games subscription since Poinpy, and one of my favorite mobile games of 2023.

I’d like to sit here and pretend that everyone reading this is already familiar with Ridiculous Fishing, but time makes fools of us all, doesn’t it? So to kick things off, here’s a recap. It started as a Flash game released in 2010 by Vlambeer called Radical Fishing. The small developer planned to bring a spiffed-up version of the game to iOS as one of its first mobile game, but the sudden appearance of a clone that shall go unnamed caused a bit of a dust-up that saw the game get sidelined for a couple of years. It eventually hit in 2013, after the release of the also-excellent Super Crate Box. This new version, called Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption, was put together by Vlambeer (Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman) along with designer Zach Gage, artist Greg Wohlwent, and musician Eirik Sulke. It was a real dream team, and the results spoke for themselves. Great reviews, many awards, and near-universal praise were piled up for the game. Can’t beat the real thing, baby.

It only takes one play to see why. Ridiculous Fishing hits all the notes a mobile game should. It’s really intuitive to pick up and play, it looks and sounds great, and it’s perfect for filling a few minutes or a couple of hours as needed. Each play consists of three segments, each taking the form of a little mini-game. Casting your line with a tap starts the first, which sees you tilting your device to avoid any fish or other creatures to ensure your line reaches its maximum depth. When it hits that point or touches anything, the second segment starts. You’re tilting again here, but this time you’re trying to hit as much as you possibly can to snag it on your ascending line.

So far this isn’t very ridiculous, but once your line reaches the surface things get kind of wild. The catch flies into the air, and you now have to use your gun to shoot every last creature. Well, not all of them. Each creature you shoot will either add some money to your total or subtract some. Once all the creatures have either been shot or fall back into the water, your cash earnings are totaled. You can then go to the shop to buy some upgrades or cast your line again. There are different fishing areas, and you’ll unlock new ones by catching a set number of species in the previous one. You can only do that by reaching as far into the deep as possible, and there are some creatures that require certain conditions to appear.

Ridiculous Fishing EX, developed in association with KO_OP Mode, pretty much follows the same template. There are some new upgrades in the shop, new creatures to catch, a new end game mode (a terrific new addition for veteran players), a fully redone presentation, and more. I also love that the game’s Twitter expy has been swapped out for a TikTok expy named BikBok. With new creatures come new entries in the Fishopedia, and they are just as hilarious as ever. And don’t worry: it’s still a tale of redemption. Make sure you roll those credits, because there’s a nice reward for doing so. All in all, it’s a really faithful remake. While it has been fully spruced up, it hasn’t abandoned the style of the original game in doing so.

The gameplay is practically unchanged with the exception of what the new upgrades offer, and that’s great because it didn’t need any changes. There’s a satisfying progression built around the simple gameplay loop, and all of the segments of that loop are short and fun enough that they never really get old. Even after you’re used to the absurd premise, it’s fun trying to avoid the fish, then do the opposite, and then blast them away. Having to be careful about which fish you shoot to avoid money losses and where you should focus your shots means you can’t just blast away without thinking, so even at its most mindless Ridiculous Fishing EX needs you to pay a bit of attention.

Ultimately, while Ridiculous Fishing EX is a full-on remake, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It takes a game that very much worked in every way, buffs up the presentation, piles some extra content on top, and most importantly makes it work the way it should on modern devices. Those who played the original top to bottom will find some new things to enjoy, and those who are completely new to Ridiculous Fishing are in for quite a treat. I wish we had seen the universe where mobile gaming continued along these lines instead of where it ended up going, but for now I’ll just say I’m very happy to have this terrific, near-perfect game vital once more.

In this Bugsnax iOS review, I’m going to cover the game itself, the port quality, touch controls, controller support, comparisons with other consoles, and more. I’m very impressed with the port, but it needs a bit of work on the iPad version right now. Since launch it has already been updated once to improve thermals and also to adjust the default frame rate, but I’d recommend playing around with these settings if you do buy Bugsnax to find the best settings for your device.

In Bugsnax, you arrive on Snacktooth island looking for Elizabert Megafig. You interact with various colorful characters on the island while trying to discover the mysteries and solve puzzles that involve capturing Bugsnax. There are tons of species, and each one involves its own little puzzle. There are also secrets to discover with the tools available to you growing over the course of the main story. The world of Bugsnax feels very real, and it is quite cozy despite getting dark later on. Bugsnax on iOS, just like the Switch and Xbox versions, debuts with the Isle of Bigsnax DLC included. This was a free addition to the base game on PlayStation and PC platforms with a nice location full of larger Bugsnax species. The only thing I don’t like is how you can’t directly access this DLC if you already played the game through a previous release.

On iOS, Bugsnax lets you adjust the maximum FPS across targets of 30fps, 30-60fps, and 60fps. Devices with 120hz screens also have a 40fps option. This isn’t something you usually see on mobile, but is something I’ve been seeing on PS5 with 120hz and also been using on Steam Deck after adjusting the screen refresh rate. You can also adjust the field of view. Since launch, the game has gotten updated a few times with the newest update (as of Sunday) even allowing you to choose quality presets, resolution scale, and shadow quality. These are visible on my iPhone 11 but not on my iPad Pro (2020).

My iPhone 11 ended up running the game better than my iPad Pro (2020) model overall. Bugsnax runs superbly on iPhone 14 Plus as well. The performance and visuals are better than Nintendo Switch overall, especially the performance, but it doesn’t look as nice as the PS5 version on my iOS devices. I feel like it might be close if I had a newer iPad Pro model. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance and visuals in Bugsnax on iPhone, but it could’ve looked a bit better on iPad.

When Bugsnax was announced for iOS, I was curious how it would control on the touchscreen. It took me a little while to get used to it after playing Bugsnax multiple times with a controller, but the touch controls are great. I found them better on iPhone than iPad though. On iPad, I’d stick to using a controller like I do with most games that are ported to mobile from console and PC platforms. The touch targets and on-screen buttons are well thought out, and it almost feels like Bugsnax was always planned to hit mobile.

On the controller side, Bugsnax has full controller support. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone and my DualSense controller on my iPad Pro to play Bugsnax. The implementation of adaptive trigger support is great, and it immediately makes this my second favorite way to experience Bugsnax. The best way is still the PS5 because of how awesome the DualSense features are, but Bugsnax on iOS is the best portable version for sure. If you play with a controller, it is the same control experience as on other platforms.

Barring my issue with the game not letting older players directly access the new DLC content, there are some aspects of Bugsnax that might not work for people. If you aren’t too bothered by certain puzzles and solutions to problems being a bit too vague or out there, you will not have any issues in Bugsnax. Just be prepared for it to not look as nice as it does on PS5 if you have an older iPad model like I have.

Bugsnax is priced at $24.99 on PC and console platforms. Bugsnax on iOS is priced at $9.99 and it is a universal app covering iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. As a value proposition, Bugsnax on iOS is the best version for sure since you have access to playing it on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV while also getting touchscreen and controller options. It also helps that this port is very good. I’ve also been glad to see a developer of the mobile port be very responsive to feedback in our forum thread.

If you skipped Bugsnax before, this iOS version is superb. The developers went above and beyond with the port by even adding many DualSense features that work wirelessly in addition to delivering an excellent conversion when it comes to visuals and performance. This is easily the best portable version of Bugsnax, and the low asking price compared to other platforms makes it an even easier recommendation. It still has the same issues as the original game, but Bugsnax has never been more accessible, and this is one of the best mobile ports of 2023.

If you’ve not played McPixel or even heard of it before, it is basically a parody of a parody taking place with hilarious over-the-top situations that play out in point and click puzzles. McPixel 3, the sequel to McPixel, is big enough to be basically two games combined compared to the original. The real draw of McPixel 3 is seeing the various situations play out as you work your way towards more of the levels and see more of what Sos has to offer here. Over a decade after launching McPixel, McPixel 3 on iOS is a joy to play, and it is good enough to make you forget about the awful McPixel 2. If the humor doesn’t click with you though, this is going to be a waste of three bucks. McPixel 3 and its blend of crude or “out there" writing and solutions is definitely not for everyone. It is however for me, and I was super glad to see Sos manage to impress me nearly throughout when I first played McPixel 3.

McPixel 3‘s structure is a bit different though as you make your way through the levels and earn coins. Earning coins in a game always makes me feel like things will get grindy because you do use coins to unlock new stages, but things never get annoying. The few times I did have to go earn coins, it was a rewarding experience. It must have taken a ton of design work to make sure this aspect doesn’t become annoying for players. Nothing in McPixel 3 is a waste of time, and you’ve already wasted some time reading this review while wondering about McPixel 2 instead of buying the game haven’t you?

Expect to see everything McPixel 3 has to offer in under half a dozen hours. It isn’t a long game, but is beyond worth the asking price. While I already knew the solutions thanks to playing McPixel 3 before the mobile release, I still enjoyed my time with it on iPhone and iPad. It looks and runs perfectly, and I’d say it even feels better to play on iOS than any other platform. This is where I’ll get into the platform comparisons based on my time with McPixel 3 on Xbox Series X, iPhone, iPad Pro, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck.

On iOS, McPixel 3 does not have controller support. It doesn’t need it though. I did not enjoy playing it with a controller on Xbox and even used touch controls when I played McPixel 3 on Nintendo Switch. The touch controls are perfect. On the visual side, depending on your device, you can enable or disable cinema mode and also toggle scaling. It scales perfectly across every device I tried it on, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you on whatever you’d like to play it on, but just keep in mind that it doesn’t feel as nice with a controller as it does with touch controls.

Here’s the thing. I get why games like this are now released first on PC and console platforms. McPixel 3 is priced at just $2.99 on iOS and Android while it is $9.99 on other platforms. I don’t think it would’ve done well at full price even if it did hit mobile alongside other platforms. I’m ok with Devolver Digital bringing games to mobile after they’ve sold enough at full price on PC and console platforms. We are seeing that with Return to Monkey Island as well. Hopefully these late ports do well enough for Devolver to keep getting more games on iOS and Android. I hope we eventually get stuff like Cult of the Lamb as well even if it does require a controller to play.

Playing through McPixel 3 feels like grabbing an issue of MAD Magazine because I never knew what to expect when I went ahead in my initial playthrough. McPixel 3 on iOS is essential, but it will absolutely feel like poop if the humor doesn’t click with you. I loved McPixel and McPixel 3 is everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The wait for it on mobile has been long, but even in my third playthrough, McPixel 3 is just superb, and it will make you forget all about McPixel 2 which doesn’t exist so don’t worry.

As the title says, this game drops you in the role of a gladiator manager. It’s ancient Rome, the days where people would fight ferocious beasts or each other for the entertainment of the masses. You choose your nationality, each conveying a particular benefit, and head into the virtual lion’s den that is the world of gladiator management. You start with some funds and the basic necessities like a training ludus and a couple of slaves to work on your estate. Your first order of business is to head to the market and pick up your first gladiator. Grab him a weapon too, while you’re at it.

Broadly speaking, your goal in this game is to enter your gladiators into tournaments to win fortune and fame, increase your standing, and wipe out your rivals. The game is played week by week, with your actions mainly limited by the number of active gladiators you have on your roster and how much money you have left. You can buy slaves to perform various tasks on your estate, upgrade your facilities, attempt to sabotage your rivals in various ways, and enter your gladiators in whatever tournaments are available. The longer you play, the more your options open up. While it’s initially a very straightforward affair, you’ll soon find yourself having to deal with all manner of matters.

Since you’re just the gladiator manager and not the gladiator, all you can really do during the battles is watch things play out. Before each round, you’ll get some information about how fair of a match-up it is. If things look a little dire, you can always bribe the guards to “forget" to unlock the opponent’s chains, or accidentally leave the door open to the lion cage, and so on. If you’ve got money and influence, you can get away with an awful lot. Victories will grant you money and more influence, while your participating gladiators will gain fame. Lose, and at best you go home with a bruised ego. At worst, your gladiator could be injured or killed. And don’t forget: your rivals can cheat just the same way you can.

Between battles and during the passage of time, random events will pop up. You’ll have to make a choice, with some only available if your status is at a certain level. It’s often a matter of losing resources (money or slaves) or influence, but you’ll also have a chance to earn money, pick up new gladiators, or get more slaves. While these aren’t the most complicated of affairs, their presence reminds me a bit of The King of Dragon Pass. That’s a good thing. When I first fired this game up, I was expecting at best something along the lines of Monster Rancher, but as the strategic layers continued to be revealed I found myself more and more impressed at just how much there was here.

The game does its best to at least get you off on the right foot. It will present you with objectives when you start a new game, and if you follow them you’ll more or less find your feet before long. Completing them can even reward you with gems, which are the only way the game monetizes. Gems can be used to buy a variety of things, including new weapons, tournaments, events, and more. If you manage to finish every achievement in the game, you’ll get enough free gems to buy just about everything on offer. If you want to finish out picking up those remaining things or simply want to get the jump on acquiring things, you can buy gem packs for $3.99 and $7.99. You get a whole lot of game here without dropping a single cent, so you could almost see a gem pack purchase as a tip to the developer if you’re inclined to.

Anyway, that’s how it is. Back to the game. Gladiator Manager is a game of momentum. When you’re winning, it’s a lot easier to keep on winning. You can afford all those upgrades to your compound, opening your options and keeping your gladiators happy, healthy, and well-trained. You can pay for more slaves to increase your income or guard your gladiators. You can afford those bribes during tournaments and weather those random events more easily. Your influence will also keep going up, allowing you to exert your power in other ways. But you’re not invincible. All it takes is one bout of bad luck and the whole operation might shift gears into reverse.

Yes, when you start losing it quickly becomes a downward spiral. Not only will you earn less and see your influence wane, but your gladiators will get injured and their loyalty will decrease. You’ll have less money to fix things, and random events can force you to send injured gladiators into combat, making things worse. You might eventually end up with no gladiators due to death or abandonment, and if you have no money to hire a new one you’ll simply have to drag one of your slaves up to join the active roster. Eventually you’ll run out of funds, then influence, and that’s pretty much it. Head back to the title screen and try again.

But you know what? Even losing is kind of fun in Gladiator Manager. One of the ways it really calls The King of Dragon Pass to mind is in how each playthrough feels like a unique story. There are just enough variables and random happenings in the game that it takes a very long time for any two playthroughs to feel the same. That’s a good thing, because you’ll probably have at least one or two skunky runs while you’re still learning how things work. The amusing series of events that can lead to your end makes it easy to forgive the game and fire up another run right away.

With all that said, there are some rough edges here. The UI has some sloppy bits, and sometimes text will spill out of the boxes. While the game does a decent job of teaching you the basics, some of the more advanced features aren’t as well-explained. There are bugs now and then, with things not activating properly or the flow of events playing out in a weird way. I will say that the developer seems very attentive and has been updating the game very frequently, so I expect the game to keep on improving as time passes. This review is mainly where things are at this very specific point in time. I can’t give bonus points for potential futures, so keep that in mind if you’re reading it after a month or two of updates.

Ultimately, I think Gladiator Manager is pretty neat. It doesn’t cost you anything to download the game and see a great deal of what it has to offer, and if you have any love of management sims or strategy games I think trying it out is a very cheap gamble with a potentially high pay-off. It’s not as simple as it initially seems, and learning how all of its various bits work and how to put them to work for you manages to tickle the ol’ brain muscle just the right way. Give it a shot, but be careful about trusting that Flamma fellow. He’s a rude boy.

Stakes Winner 2 was a relatively swift sequel, as these things go. The first game was an immediate hit in Japan when it hit in late 1995, and SNK wasn’t going to rest on its laurels. Developer Saurus was tapped to make another game in the series, and it wouldn’t be the last time it would have to take on this task. It would, however, be the last time Saurus would do so on the NEOGEO hardware. Given the quick development cycle of just one year, you can probably imagine that the game doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. In a lot of ways, it feels very similar to the first game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to keep in mind.

That means the racing action is going to be familiar if you followed my advice and played the first game. You’ll have to manage your stamina as you make your way around each track. grab useful items, and try not to run into any of the other horses while doing so. There’s a new Burst move you can use once per race in the final sprint and it can be the difference between victory and defeat. Each horse now has a stat for this ability, so you’ll want to consider that when picking between the now dozen-strong roster. Jockeys now have some special moves of their own, busted out with fighting game-style commands, and this adds yet another layer of strategy to each race. The races are faster and even more fun than before, and while I will once again bang my drum that this game is super-fun with another player, it’s good enough to enjoy even if you’re riding solo.

Those new jockey moves come courtesy of the Jockey Training selection between races, a new feature added to the game. Pay a big chunk of money, get a slick move. You can also pick these moves up if you manage to beat a Rival when they challenge you. As before, you can also train your horse in a minigame between races to get some permanent upgrades to their stats, an essential part of keeping pace with the pack as you go deeper and deeper into the career mode. You’ll also find yet another new addition between races in the form of a special shop. You can spend your hard-earned money here to buy items you can use in the next race. So here again we see the basic foundation of the first game left intact but with new things built on to add some complexity and strategy to the proceedings.

One more cool thing is that you can now choose between two… what are they called? Derbies? Well, you can pick between Europe or America this time, which means you’ve got two completely different modes to clear in story mode, each with their own tracks. Given that you will likely be playing this mobile version of the game in single-player, that kind of extra content is extremely meaningful. All the new ways to spend money add another consideration to your gameplay choices, because your final winnings is your score. If you spent more along the way, your score will be lower. To push your score higher, you have to rely less on the various helpers the game offers. In this ACA NEOGEO version, it’s even more important since you’ll be posting that score to the leaderboards to compete with other players.

Look, I’ll wear it proudly: I love Stakes Winner and I love its sequel even more. I didn’t think I would, but after giving them a fair shake I think these are some of my favorite non-fighters on the NEOGEO. The second game is one of the deeper single-player experiences available on the platform, as far as I’m concerned. I know this kind of game is odd for Western tastes, but if you’re patient with it and take it on its own terms, I think you’ll love it too. As a game, Stakes Winner 2 is excellent.

How is it as a mobile experience, though? Well, as mentioned you aren’t going to get to play the fun multiplayer mode unless you have external controllers and a desire to huddle around your mobile device. I think it’s wonderful even as a single-player experience, so it can survive that loss. As for the controls, I do have to admit that pulling off the special moves is a bit trickier than I’d like on the virtual stick. It’s a bit better to play on an external controller if you have one, but I’d say it’s still mostly fine on touch controls. Just be aware this is a more complex game than the first one and that means the controls have more to deal with.

The extra ACA NEOGEO modes are here, and the Score Attack mode is a great challenge. The Caravan mode doesn’t do much for me on this game, but you can’t win them all. The usual options are available, so you can tweak game settings, controls, and so on as you like. Hamster’s emulation is as on-point as ever, so the game looks, sounds, and plays just the way it should. I’d like to do my usual whinge about not having internet or wireless multiplayer, but I acknowledge that some of these games are so niche that I should be happy we’re getting them at all.

If you liked Stakes Winner, you’ll love Stakes Winner 2. While the core of the game remains the same and the overall presentation hasn’t changed a great deal, the additions to the single-player mode significantly enhance the overall experience. It’s a zippier game, a more strategic game, and just a better experience on the whole. There aren’t many games like this out there, especially in English, and I think those who are willing to take the gamble on something unusual will find themselves rewarded for their courage.

SNK wasn’t exactly known for racing games, and I don’t think the NEOGEO ended up changing that perception much. I’m not sure if it was because the hardware was ill-equipped to keep pace with the powerful units SEGA and NAMCO were pushing into the arcade space, or if SNK just felt like they couldn’t really keep up with the competition in a design sense, but we ended up seeing just six racers on the console/arcade hybrid. That’s counting two horse racing games, too. Thrash Rally was the first racer on the system where players controlled cars, and the only top-down one.

The choice to do a top-down racer at this point in time was an interesting one. While this particular branch of the racing genre was still fairly successful on consoles, the more spectacle-heavy arcade scene had long since ditched them in favor of behind-the-back vanishing horizon games. Indeed, we were only a year away from the complete and utter game changer that was SEGA’s Virtua Racing. Even with a bit of scaling thrown in for spice, Thrash Rally looked a bit unimpressive for an arcade game of its vintage.

I guess this kind of gets to the elephant in the corner of the NEOGEO room. As a home console, the NEOGEO was considerably more powerful than anything else you could find at the time. It wasn’t even close. But as arcade hardware went? It was fine, but one of its big selling points for arcade operators was in how affordable it was. It was reasonably priced, generalized hardware that was built to handle a wide variety of experiences. It couldn’t and wouldn’t compete on a power level with more specialized, expensive hardware kits. It had its strengths, of course. When it played to them, the games could have a fair bit of razzle-dazzle. But there was only so much it could do, and each passing year dated the hardware further. The long life of the system must be credited to SNK and its various developers’ art, music, and game design talent. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.

A lot of the games in the early years of the system were trying to puff up its power. The later years came off like SNK was trying to show it could still hang with the competition. But I think if we look at the gooey, delicious middle years, we can find a comfortable groove for its software where it isn’t trying to put up any pretenses and is just enjoying itself. Thrash Rally was an early runner in that field, to me. It looks good for a top-down racer, for whatever that is worth, but it succeeds on its gameplay merits more than anything. I would go so far as to say that it’s a more enjoyable racer than its spiritual follow-up, despite that game having a considerably more gorgeous look.

Thrash Rally is a rally racer where you use your choice of several vehicles and challenge one of two different rally championships. While there aren’t any official licenses in play, everything is very nudge-nudge-wink-wink. That’s particularly the case if you play the Japanese version of the game, where the cars have names like the Toyot GT-Four, Parsche 911, and the Lancian Deleta. The two rally championships are themselves loosely based on the real-life 1992 World Rally Championship and Paris-Cape Town Dakar Rally. You can pick from six cars for the former, which consists of five separate races taking you from Monte Carlo to the United Kingdom. The latter gives you an additional three vehicles to choose from, and it’s just one long race from France to Cape Town.

The game leans more on the arcade side of things to say the least, but you do have to take the terrain into account and learn when to brake and when to gun it. Your choice of car is very important, as each of them have their own parameters that will affect how you have to race. I like the not-Porsche, but I recommend trying them all to see which one fits you best. Unlike a real rally race, there are other drivers on the track with you and you are indeed racing against them. Well, some of them. Some of them are just there to populate the track and get in the way a little. Collision is very loose here, in favor of the player. You’ll often just blaze right through cars in your path, leaving a wreck behind you. You’ll want to aim to get first in every race, but as long as you don’t run out of time you can keep going.

Yes, this is pretty normal as arcade racers go in that you’re up against a clock, an opponent far more nefarious than any competing car. You have to reach each checkpoint before the clock runs out. If at any point you fail to do this, you’re out. You can insert a credit to continue, at least. It’s a solid challenge, especially while you’re getting a feel for the cars and tracks. You can modify the difficulty as usual via the options menu, so you can scale it up or down as needed. Perhaps more useful is the presence of online leaderboards, which allows you to compete with other players’ times. You also get the usual Caravan and Score Attack modes, which are particularly challenging in this game.

You can play the game with an external controller if you have one, but the multiplayer option isn’t available here at all due to it requiring the rarely-used link cable. Touch controls work reasonably well for this game, as it only uses two buttons. Accelerate, brake. Use the virtual stick to steer. Almost as easy as it gets, and it’s more than doable via touch controls. It’s always nice when one of these games plays nicely with touch, and I find myself more encouraged to recommend those that do.

Thrash Rally might not have the graphical sizzle of other racers on the console, but in terms of sheer playability it may well be near the top of the small pack. It fits mobile very well, and whether you’re playing with an external controller or touch controls there is plenty of fun to be had here. It’s kind of funny how top-down racers are probably more acceptable in today’s market than they probably were back in 1991. Well, whatever. If you like top-down racers, pick this one up. You’re not likely to regret it.

While I assume some of the people reading this are familiar with the basic mechanics at play here via other games like Merge Dragons, Merge Magic, Merge Mansion, Merge Nina Tucker, and so on, I’ll go ahead and explain things for those who aren’t. You’ve got a map divided into squares. The number of squares you get depends on the map you’ve picked, but the squares are finite. Each turn you’re given an object of some kind to place. If you place three or more of the same object in adjacent square (cardinally, no diagonals allowed), they’ll merge into a single higher level object. Those higher level objects can be merged into even nicer things, and so on. Of course, the more of these high level objects you have on your field, the longer it takes to make matches for them, and you only have so much space to work with. If you run out of empty squares, that’s the game.

It’s a reliable template, because it allows for a lot of errors early on but becomes increasingly strategic the longer a game goes on. Players who just want to mess around don’t feel cheated, but the skill ceiling is extremely high. When you make a mistake, it’s usually clear what you could have done differently. This makes you want to try again, vowing not to make the same mistake twice. You will make the same mistake twice, thrice, and more, but the feeling is what is important here. The only real problem with this set-up is that a lot of players will eventually hit a plateau that they can’t quite break out of unless they get some lucky pulls with the piece distributions.

This is where I think Teeny Tiny Town breaks away from the pack. Not in the cleverest ways, but in ways that work. And that is what matters, isn’t it? There are a few mechanisms in place here to help you break through those plateaus and keep enjoying the game. First, you have a hold box. Two, if you buy the IAP. That allows you to take the current piece in play and shove it into storage for use at your leisure, skipping to the next piece. This is something Tetris and other falling block puzzlers incorporated somewhere along the line to help mitigate the effects of a particularly unlucky distribution of pieces and give the player at least the smallest bit of agency. I haven’t really seen it in this kind of game before, and I think it’s a terrific addition.

Next, you’ve got something a bit more usual but still welcome. There are a pair of useful power-ups that you can deploy in emergencies. First is the Swap, which allows you to… I mean, you can swap two pieces on the map. I probably don’t need to explain that. And I suppose I don’t need to explain the Bulldoze, which just outright removes a piece. I just did explain it, though. These power-ups are extremely limited, and are typically only offered to you when you reach one of the goals the game lays out for you. It generally takes longer and longer to achieve those goals as you play, so you really can’t rely on these items in any real sense. They’re your last resort, but again work to help you out of corners you’ve backed yourself into. Of course, if you want them, you have to forego taking the gold instead.

Gold! I like this one. As you build houses, create treasures, and achieve goals, you get gold. Like in the real world, you can’t take it with you. Use it or lose it. And what can you use it on? Well, at any point you are free to pop into the shop where you can exchange those coins for a piece of your choice. The exact selection depends on how long you’ve been playing this particular round, and the prices go up on pieces the more frequently you buy them. Broadly speaking you will be able to make use of this option a lot more often than the power-up items, and they can really help you get out of the smaller binds you’ll find yourself in. At the same time, if you abuse them you’ll quickly find yourself broke and pantsless. Again.

Playing the game and completing goals will earn you an extra currency, and I can’t remember the name of it so let’s call them crystals. Or blueberries. I don’t know. But this currency can be used for two purposes. First, you can use it to unlock new maps. The game includes several maps, with each one adding new twists to the challenge. You can just pay cash money to unlock all of them along with some other perks, and I recommend you do that because the game feels built around plunking down those few bucks. You don’t need to, of course. The game is amusing enough even if you don’t. Maybe you like the grind. But the other thing you can use blueberry crystals for is to buy some starting perks, which is the last piece in the luck mitigation puzzle. If you’ve bought the unlock IAP, it’s really all you can use this currency for. You might as well make use of it.

Now, even with all of these mechanisms you will eventually fail. It’s how the game works, after all. But I think they work well to make the game feel more strategic and less about getting some blessings from the RNG gods. That’s a good thing, because this isn’t one of those games that is trying to shake you down endlessly for money. It needs to engage the player in a different way, and it certainly does. At first I was playing it like a usual merging game and tried to avoid reaching for the assists. I couldn’t precisely understand why Jared was so infatuated with it. But I let myself start playing the game the way it wants to be played, and that’s when it really started to shine. Here was the difference. More choices. More options to bail myself out when I act like the careless idiot I often am. Longer, richer gaming sessions. Quite nice.

You know what else is quite nice? How this game looks and sounds. It wants you to relax, and it does everything it can to build that mood. The visuals are pleasing to the eye, and it’s exciting to see what new things will be created from the various merges. The sound effects and ambient audio are lovely. I’ve been talking about Teeny Tiny Town in a bit of a clinical way, because that is just what struck me as I sat down to write this review, but it’s really a nice piece of art too. I’m not trying to ignore the aesthetics by any means. They’re well-done. Your eyes and ears will be happy.

Let’s talk about how the monetization works, because that’s a talk we always have to have about mobile games. It’s free! Wow, free is nice. But it’s not really free. You’ll have a limited number of turns unless you pay a buck-thirty. You’ll only have one hold slot, unless you pay another buck-thirty. And if you don’t want to grind out the blueberry crystals for the rest of the maps, that’s another buck-thirty. Or you can pay three bucks and you get everything properly unlocked. That’s what you want to do. The three bucks thing. It’s three lousy bucks. You won’t regret it.

Bringing things to a close, Teeny Tiny Town is not a wildly innovative game in the broad strokes, but the fact that it builds on the familiar is part of what makes it work so well. You probably already know how it works, and that knowledge base is exactly what makes it so freeing when you see what it’s doing differently from the usual game of this sort. This is a very smartly designed game, and I really appreciate that. It also doesn’t hurt that it has a keen art style and some genuinely chill audio. A winning package all around, and if you have even the smallest love for puzzle games, I think it’s a must-play.

Congratulations! You’re the captain of your very own spiffy new tiny pirate ship. It’s not very roomy, but at least you don’t have to worry about mutinies. Since you’ve got a ship, there’s really nothing else to do but to head out onto the high seas and get to looting and pillaging. A brief yet slightly boggling tutorial will walk you through everything you can do. Swipe your finger to steer, tap the screen once to fire your cannons, and double-tap to make your ship dash. Developer, your little wordless tap animation can also be read as a swipe. It’s okay to just use words to explain how to play. The tutorial culminates in a battle with a Kraken, and no matter what you do your cool powerful ship is going to go under.

Congratulations! You’re the captain of a second, much weaker tiny pirate ship. You’re going to have to scrape up the cash if you want to get a fully decked-out ride to go take revenge on that stupid Kraken. The only way to get your hands on that loot is to take it from others. Wander around the map attacking the ships that appear, making sure to grab any crates or barrels they leave behind. There are different kinds of ships that can appear, some of whom are more than capable of hitting back, and you’ll have to deal with other non-ship hazards as well. Your starting cannon requires you to get right up in the faces of your foes, and your starting hull can only take a single hit. If you can last long enough, the Kraken might appear. Dodge its tentacles and you can take home a little bonus for your efforts. Good luck!

You’ll probably end up sinking another ship, of course. Luckily, you don’t lose this one. You can even use your ill-gotten loot to upgrade it, if you want. There are also better ships you can buy if you have enough money, each one specializing in a certain thing. Ships can be upgraded along three parameters. Armour gives you extra hit points, Sprint gives you a better boost, and Cannons increases the range of your shots. There are also several Perks you can pick up. This all costs more and more as you upgrade, so it’s quite the grind to get a nice maxed out ship.

The bigger grind comes from the new maps, though. You’ll need a ton of loot to open up the other maps, so expect to spend a fair bit of time on map one before progressing to the second and so on. You won’t be getting your revenge on that Kraken for a good long while. I understand that to an extent the grind is the game, especially given my love of role-playing games. But a long, direct grind is something you can really only get away with by carefully setting up the rest of the design, and I’m not sure Tiny Pirate Ship pulls that off perfectly.

So, first of all, I’m not super-thrilled with the controls in this game. There are times where you are going to want to be firing your cannons rapidly, but if you aren’t extremely careful you’ll end up boosting instead. Unexpectedly boosting in the middle of combat is generally not a good thing, and will result in taking a hit quite often. I’d love for these two actions to be more distinct in terms of how you activate them, perhaps making one of them on a virtual button. I think the developer was trying to avoid such things, but preserving the purity of the UI loses its nobility when it comes at the cost of the gameplay quality.

I’m also not overly satisfied with how the game’s difficulty seems to work. In addition to being a grinder, there’s also a score attack element to the game. Your highest loot haul is recorded, and there are leaderboards where you can compare with other players. Ideally then you would want to survive for as long as possible, allowing you to get a higher score. But the thing is, outside of the Kraken’s appearances, it never really feels like it’s getting any harder. It ends up feeling more like a battle of attrition, and the longer you play any given session the more boring it gets. I’m not really sure how this problem could be fixed, but endless games really do need escalation to stay interesting and I don’t get that feeling with Tiny Pirate Ship.

All that having been said, I did have fun with Tiny Pirate Ship and will likely fire it up for a round here and there in the future. That’s really how it plays best. It’s more of a toy you pull out for a few minutes, like spinning your ring on a table or something. Treat the grind as something that will eventually solve itself. Ignore the leaderboards. Just load it up, blast some ships, grab some loot, and put it away after a couple of rounds. That doesn’t fix the control issue, but that problem loses some of its punch when you’re not so fixated on surviving those long haul sessions. It’s worth the few bucks it’s asking if you’re looking for a little action game to enjoy.

Saurus was founded in 1993 and spent most of its brief life as a subsidiary of SNK. It was founded by employees of SNK’s Tokyo branch after it was shuttered, and more or less took its place all the way down to occupying its same office space. While it handled a lot of different tasks for SNK, including crafting NEOGEO Pocket ports of some of the NEOGEO’s biggest hits, Saurus is probably best known for its Shock Troopers series of run-and-gun action games. Well, outside of Japan anyway. Inside Japan, it’s probably more known for creating the Stakes Winner series of horse racing games. It’s possible you might remember them from Prehistoric Isle 2 as well.

Saurus’s first game on the NEOGEO console was Stakes Winner, and it was a solid success. One of the members of Saurus, Kenji Ishimoto, had been the planner on another earlier sports success on the system while part of SNK Tokyo: Super Sidekicks. Perhaps that experience led to him wanting to take a swing at a similar sport. Pleasure Goal is is meant to be a futsal game, even if some of the details don’t line up. The broad strokes fit. You’ve got five players on each side, and the field is a lot smaller than the usual soccer pitch. Close enough. Heck, the game’s Japanese title is simply Futsal. I rest my case.

Whatever you want to call it, this is a more compact take on soccer, and I think that’s actually a pretty good idea for an arcade sports game. Less space to maneuver means more players crashing into each other and shorter trips to the goal, which means more shots on goal. Look, I’m Canadian. The closer a thing gets to hockey, the better I think it is. Setting that aside, a more immediate and action-packed version of a popular sport should be a sure-fire win. I shall call it… “arcade-style soccer". Trademark it, Jared.

Pleasure Goal, unfortunately, was not a win. It’s not an especially poor game. The graphics are nice. The controls are responsive enough. Easy to pick up and finesse is but a button away if you know what you’re doing. The music is a short loop that will drive you bonkers before you even finish a single match, but such is life. You get a decent amount of time for your coin, even if you lose. There are lots of teams to pick from, which is nice. But despite getting a lot of the boxes checked, it just never quite comes together the way you would hope.

There are only two modes here, the Saurus Cup (for one player) and Vs. (this one is for two). I’d imagine most mobile players will be sticking to the first of those two, which sees you pick a team and try to work your way through the tournament brackets until you take home the cup. The CPU is… fine. Not too rough, though it gets a little wild once you get a few matches in. That’s about what you would expect, though. Imagine buying a $200 cartridge for your NEOGEO and rolling the CPU in one night. You’d then pull it out in front of your friends and bravely try to present it as being better than NHL ’94 on the Genesis, even though you know the truth. A tragedy in two acts.

So what about it doesn’t work, apart from it being a bit thin on things to do? Personally, I just didn’t find it very satisfying to play. The more compact play area makes it hard to set up interesting plays, and the way the goalkeeper reacts means the best tactic is often just to rush the goal with whoever gets the ball. Passing isn’t completely pointless, but it’s pretty near to it. The button assigned to tricks takes a lot of getting used to if you want to have any proper control over what happens, but in the end those fancy moves aren’t going to produce any better results than good ol’ goal charge.

Pleasure Goal works better with another human player, which is a revelation that I doubt is shocking anyone in the crowd. Except that one guy two rows from the back, but he was shocked when Mysterio turned out to be a bad guy in Far From Home. There’s no helping him. Anyway, with another human player you can enjoy the chaos a little better, and there’s more of a point to trying to show off with the tricky moves. The music is still maddening no matter what you do, though. But of course, the problem here is the usual one with these mobile ACA NEOGEO releases: you probably aren’t going to be able to pull off multiplayer.

The game supports external controllers, and that is what you’ll need to play with someone else. I’d probably advise using one anyway, as this game makes fairly extensive use of three of the four NEOGEO buttons during gameplay and it’s easy to mess things up with the virtual buttons. It’s not unplayable without a controller by any means, but using one will certainly make for a better experience overall. At any rate, you’re probably playing alone, which means you’re just challenging the Saurus Cup with various teams until you get tired of it all. Is that worth four bucks? It might be! Personally, I don’t know that I would have fed four bucks’ worth of quarters into this game. That’s sixteen whole credits, and I would probably have switched over to Metal Slug by my third coin.

Like I said earlier though, it’s not a horrible game. If you have an inclination towards arcade sports games, futsal, or just love that whole NEOGEO core experience, I think you’ll get a good enough time out of poking at this for a bit. I’ve played far worse sports games. I think that the more general audience and retro game fans who don’t have a “catch ’em all" mentality with the ACA NEOGEO line will be less enthused. It’s a very average game that adapts to mobile in a very middling sort of way, neither heaven nor hell but caught in that bland in-between. It’s incredibly forgettable, and its mobile incarnation carries on that tradition with grace.

ACA NEOGEO review boilerplate time! External controller support, check! Variety of options for gameplay, video, controls, and so on, check! Japanese and International versions included, check! Score Attack and Caravan Modes, check! Online leaderboards, check! Great emulation, check! I’ll stop the bit here to comment on those extra modes, because like with most sports games they really don’t work out well here. The five minutes on the clock in Caravan Mode is just about enough for a single game, which doesn’t leave a huge spread for potential points. Score Attack fares a bit better but it’s still not exactly a thrilling chase. These modes sometimes save these games, but here they’re just serving as checkmarks in some imaginary boxes. They’re here because all ACA NEOGEO games have them.

To sum it up, Pleasure Goal is okay. It is average. You can have some fun with it, but you’ll likely forget all about it by next Tuesday. As a mobile port, it is also sitting right in the middle of the line. It’s not ruined by touch controls and a lack of multiplayer, but it’s certainly worse for the wear. I think those who really enjoy arcade sports games will get a few days of light fun out of it, but there’s a reason its name doesn’t typically come up when people are talking about their favorite NEOGEO games.

I didn’t really drill in on it very much in the Zoo Park Story review because I couldn’t be too sure based on one game, but I feel safe saying this now: Kairosoft games have gotten more complicated, and I’m not sure if they’ve done so in a good way or not. While the overall structure and look of Kairosoft’s simulation games is almost the same as it was over a decade ago, they’re much more cluttered at a granular level. I think I understand the intention. People were getting a little tired of the old formula (formulae, I should probably say – Kairosoft has a few different archetypes it likes to work with), so the developer kept adding more things for players to engage with.

I’m sure if I had come at it little by little over the course of many games, it wouldn’t be as striking. But I didn’t, so all the different currencies, ranks, dialogue boxes, and sub-systems are a lot to take in sometimes. The UI also feels a little busy as a result of having to keep track of all of this. It feels like I have to dive into the menus for ten different things at any given moment, and again I am not sure if it’s a good thing or not. I can at least say it is not as chill of a game to play as, say, Hot Springs Story. You have to keep a lot of plates spinning. Well, I mean, not really. It’s a Kairosoft game. You can’t really lose unless you’re trying to, and even then it’s pretty hard. But if you want to top those rankings and play optimally, there’s a lot to take care of.

All that said, this is still a familiar affair. I’ve always been fond of this particular branch of the Kairosoft sim. You’re building a town, trying to attract residents, tourists, and new businesses. Placing certain buildings next to others can create special synergies, and increase the value of all involved. More value means more money coming in, which means you have more to spend on improvements to your town. Over time you’re able to expand the space you have to work with, and you can actually get a reasonably bustling little place going after a while. Maybe you can even reach the top rankings, if you play your cards right. There are three different starting maps to choose from, and I think replaying the game on each of them offers a reasonable amount of variety.

Part of the game involves developing your citizens, who will come to the town and maybe decide to stay if you have an empty lot and they like what they see. They each have their own stats, and will develop their own interests. They might even befriend each other. As you open businesses, they’ll get jobs there. Some might work out of town if they need more money than the local opportunities provide. As they go about their lives they’ll make you money but also generate some of the other currencies. You’ll need a healthy supply of all of those to fully build out your town. Oh, and they can enter contests too. They might get a rank up if they win. You can drop consumable items of them to improve their stats if you feel like doing things in a less natural way.

Items can also be applied to the various buildings and structures you lay about the town. Those places aren’t available immediately, of course. You’ll have to research for some of them, which costs money. Others will require negotiation, which involves a town person and spending a lot of your different currencies. Successfully woo a business and you’ll get the opportunity to build locations in your town and even buy stock in the company. You can also research other things, like new citizens or special programs. You should always be researching something if you have the means to do so.

Basically, it goes like this. Attract new citizens. Develop your town by placing buildings and other structures. Develop the citizens through those buildings and the items they provide. Use the citizens to bring in new businesses and pass new programs. Place more buildings and structures. Upgrade your citizens enough to win contests, which will rank them up, allowing them to pull in more businesses and such. Oh, and don’t forget to buy stock and grow vegetables and run job interviews and…

I don’t know, it’s all so complicated that it’s actually a bit hard to explain everything properly in a review format. Complicated but not complex. I’d like to say that if you play it, things will all go smoothly, but it can sometimes be just as overwhelming in-game. Luckily, it’s a Kairosoft game so you can sort of take your time doing things, knowing that it’s not going to punish you too harshly for not doing everything just right. And once you get in the groove, it’s certainly quite pleasing to see things growing. The visuals look cute as usual, even if it’s all fairly old hat by this point. I like how all the little buildings look in particular. I will say I’m getting a bit tired of the circa-Windows XP UI, but I suppose if it isn’t broken, why fix it?

Wow, this review seems more negative than I really feel about the game. The reality of it is, despite all of the additional cruft here compared to earlier Kairosoft games, this is still the developer doing its usual shtick. It’s hard to believe that with so many games under its belt, Kairosoft has changed so little. Extra bits bolted and stapled on, but certainly not in an elegant way. This is Oh! Edo Towns with a few new accessories. And yet, I had a really good time playing through it. I think this actually is a case where an extended break has allowed me to enjoy the same old thing. It didn’t work for me with Zoo Park Story, but it seems to have done the trick here.

If, like me, you’ve been off the Kairosoft wagon for a while, you might enjoy the familiar yet expanded take on the developer’s usual town builder formula found in Dream Town Island. If you’ve been on the wagon all along, you probably already bought this and finished it. And, as usual, if you’ve never played a Kairosoft game before, your first one will be amazing. Maybe that will be this one. It’s a bit busy for its own good and I think the design isn’t nearly as tight thanks to all of the added systems, but it’s certainly engaging and pleasant to dig into.

I don’t think we’re alone in that, though. The screenshots look like any other game of this sort. The description’s English is a bit spotty. The price is quite low. Even when you start playing, it’s not immediately obvious that there’s anything especially cool about it. I’ll be direct here and say the game is absolutely terrible at teaching the player how to play. You just go in and start playing it like it’s a normal duck, matching swords and coins and watching the enemy health go down. But there are mysterious elements in the UI, and unless someone tells you what everything is about you might well play several stages without knowing even about the game’s main hook.

You see, Bright Reappear has one especially compelling mechanic. One that actually gives the genre a good hard shake. You’ll see some little dots in the window with your character and their foe. These are action points. You can make one match per dot on each turn. By default you’ll usually have one dot, so you make one match. But depending on your chosen character and other circumstances, you might have more. Tap the pieces you want to move corresponding to how many dots you have, then move them all with one mighty swipe. They have to move in the same direction, but other than that you can do whatever you like. Building up a bunch of action points and then letting it rain on the enemy is very satisfying. If you’re careful, you can also use these multiple matches to set up big combos. They’re also useful for managing the status ailments that enemies toss at your tiles.

They toss a lot of them, too. There are tons of ways they can mess with your field of tiles, and even defeating an enemy won’t remove the mess they’ve made. You’ll either have to clear them yourself or finish off the boss of the stage. It is really easy for things to get way out of hand, so making careful use of your action points is a must. Matching multiples of pieces works like most other games of this sort, creating pieces that will clear out rows or columns, explode the immediate area around them, or even take out every matching piece on the board. You’ll want to save as many of the big ones as you can for the boss of each level.

The tiles come in four types. The attack tiles look like your chosen character’s weapon and deal damage when you make a match. Green potion tiles restore some of your health when you match them. Coin tiles give you coins, naturally. I’ll explain about those soon, but they work like you would expect. Finally, there are books. Matching them will give you experience points, filling a little bar that sits under your health bar. When it tops off, your health will be refilled and your stats will go up. A well-timed level-up can be the key to getting past some bosses that are giving you trouble, so even managing your experience points gain is part of the strategy.

Leveling up isn’t the only way to improve your character, though. I suppose this is as good a time as any to go into the more RPG-focused bits of the game. First up, you can choose from six different heroes, though only four are initially available. This of course changes your appearance and your starting stats, but the main thing this decision affects is your suite of special moves and abilities. For example, the Thief can hide in the shadows so long as he doesn’t attack, allowing you to rack up matches of the other three tiles practically unscathed. He is absolutely broken. The Archer gets an extra action point every second turn, which is also quite useful. Don’t stress too much about it, you can change whenever and start leveling up a new class if you don’t like your current one, and then switch back later if you prefer.

When you level up you’ll earn points that can be assigned to your three stats. By default the game will do this automatically, but you can override it and do it yourself if you like. I advise doing so. Beyond your stats, you can also equip gear. You’ll find that gear when enemies drop it, but there’s also a shop back at your base that will sell a selection of goodies if you have the gold. There is also a blacksmith there who will upgrade your existing gear if you have the gems to fuse to them and the necessary coins. This can fail, but I’m not sure if it’s a bug or a feature. That is not the only part of the game I can say that for, but I suppose more on that later. Anyway, better gear helps. And you’re going to need it.

Bright Reappear doesn’t have a difficulty curve so much as a difficulty mountain range. A very craggy one, at that. Expect to hit certain bosses that can feel almost impossible, depending on your character and build. The levels of the game are broken up into worlds, with five levels per. The final boss of each world is usually a real nasty piece of work. Thieves keep winning, is all I will say. Otherwise I recommend redistributing your stats and trying to get a level up at the right moment. Tenacity will eventually see you through, even if only by pure luck, but it can take a really long time with some of them. I think it was the fourth world where I was just about ready to throw my device out the window. Well, the first time. It gets a lot worse from there.

Anyway, it’s a neat game. Very fun. The action point gimmick is fantastic, and I find myself trying to come up with really wild chains that simply wouldn’t be possible in other games. It’s hard as an old boot, but that’s fine. I’m in no hurry. The dialogue is goofy because of some iffy localization, but it’s not like other games in the genre don’t suffer from a similar issue. The game looks alright. It could use more music, but I suppose there’s only so much you’re going to commission or compose when most people are going to have the mute switch on. The biggest problem in Bright Reappear, in my opinion, comes from the bugs.

There are times where elements of the UI won’t disappear when they are supposed to. Sometimes fusions will fail and as I mentioned I am not sure if that is intended or not. Once while I was playing the game glitched out and my shop for the Archer turned into the one for the Dwarf, with Chinese language descriptions instead of English ones. I restarted the game and it corrected itself. Sometimes you can still keep playing after your character dies. Just a lot of weird little glitches and bugs all around. Nothing fully show-stopping as far as I’ve found, and I’m very far into the game, but they all add up to make the experience feel a lot less polished than you might hope.

Still, none of that really keeps Bright Reappear down. The action point system adds a whole new dimension to a genre that frankly has gotten a bit stale of late, and I’m happy to be having to use my brain in a new way for a puzzle RPG again. If you enjoy match-3 RPGs and can forgive a healthy sack full of rough edges, I strongly encourage you to check out Bright Reappear. It’s good stuff.

Right off the hop I’ll say that despite some obvious effort going into the game’s story, I found myself getting tired of it pretty quickly. Three friends get sucked into a book, and they’ll have to battle their way through an RPG style adventure to get out. There’s dialogue between events to help flesh out the story or just crack some jokes, and while it’s decently written I just found it all to be fairly banal. At the same time, I’m not really expecting much in the story department in a game like this. It would have been nice, though.

The game is broken down into quests, which themselves involve a series of events. An event might be a battle, but it could also be a brief story scene, NPC encounter, escape sequence, and so on. Most (but not all) of these events will involve playing a word game of some sort. I’ll give the game credit here for finding a lot of interesting ways to mix up the gameplay. The standard battles are like playing Scrabble (complete with matching letter point values) on a small board. As you play, more gimmicks come into play even in these matches. There are double score squares, coins to pick up, bombs to defuse, and so on. Each word you play will deal proportional damage to the enemies, and you can match elemental types to deal extra damage. The enemies will hit back after every word you play, and you need to kill them before they kill you. Experience collected, levels gained, treasure looted, moving on. Boss battles work the same way, but they’re a bit harder.

Sometimes you do something different, though. Like sometimes you need to put down words within a set number of turns to extend the line horizontally a specific amount. Maybe you need to place words to reveal shadowed squares on the board, again with a turn limit. Sometimes the board will be divided into two different colors and you need to score a certain number of points in the areas of one specific color. You might be given a jumble of letters and have to drop single tiles to try to make as many words as possible. These word minigames are a nice diversion from the main gameplay mechanics while still using your vocabulary skills.

As you win battles, you’ll level up and even get some new equipment. Eventually you’ll be able to class change, which is something Shaun likes. If you’re feeling underleveled you can go back and re-fight earlier battles. They’ll get harder each time you win, so there is only so much grinding you’ll likely be able to do. It might make the difference, though. Individual levels don’t tip the scale too much, though. Indeed, sheer luck in which letters you’re given is probably more important than a level or two. Better equipment also helps, but nothing matches up with being able to make a word with Q or Z right out of the gate.

Not too shabby on the whole, and it’s one of those games where you can just dip in and play for a bit and then dip out as needed. I do have some problems with the game, though. The biggest problem for me is in how the actual process of playing letters works. They’re in a tray near the bottom of the screen and it is actually surprisingly tough to grab them without closing out to the home menu if you’re not careful. Similarly, it can be a bit fussy about placing them on the board. You have to drop them just so for them to stick. Luckily, placing them in the wrong space doesn’t cause any issues. You confirm once your word is in place and anything you do up until then is your business. I’d like it if the letter tiles were a bit bigger in the tray or if the tray itself was moved up a bit.

I’m not sure which dictionary the game is using for its words, but there were cases where it wouldn’t accept words I know were valid. It was rare, but it happened now and then. I’m also of two minds about the size of the board. On the one hand I can appreciate that its size forces you to play smarter, since it can be easy to clutter things up into a mess with one bad play. On the other hand, its relatively small size limits your freedom in making words to the point that you end up using a lot of smaller ones to get through without messing up the board. I have similarly split feelings about the difficulty curve. As I said, a level doesn’t really tip the scales much. If a player gets stuck, what little grinding the game allows likely won’t help much. They’ll have to just keep trying until they get lucky, and that’s not very enjoyable.

That said, even with all my little gripes, I can’t say I didn’t have fun with Tomes and Quests. I won’t say you can’t screw up a word game, because you certainly can. But there is a certain joy to flexing the old spelling bee muscles and getting a virtual pat on the head for being a smart boy like it’s elementary school again. This game builds its bones around that pleasing feeling, and while some of it could probably be done a little better, there are some things here I really appreciate. The various minigames were interesting and gave a little extra challenge. I kind of enjoyed the way the quests were set up, like little mini-episodes in a long campaign.

While Tomes and Quests isn’t up to my long-time favorite RPG/word game hybrid Letter Quest, it’s a decent spin on the concept that could be a lot better with some usability fixes and slight balance tweaking. If you love word games the way I do, you’ll likely get your money’s worth out of it. That said, it’s not quite up to the level where I’m going to shove it in everyone’s face, which is a thing I totally do sometimes. Oh, I should have used a ‘spell’ pun somewhere. Wait, my word count is up? I guess that’s it then.

Before Street Fighter II arrived and laid down the clear template that most 2D fighters would follow for the next few decades and counting, there was a lot of experimentation in the one-on-one fighting genre. Some were similar to Street Fighter II, treading in the footsteps of the likes of Yie Ar Kung Fu and Karate Champ. Single-plane action, usually with at least a couple of attack buttons and jumping mapped to up on the stick. But there were other ideas for how things could go, and one such was the arena fighter. In these games, you could move in and out of the screen in a manner similar to beat-em-ups like Renegade and Double Dragon. If there was jumping at all, it would typically be mapped to a button of its own. Games like Violence Fight and Pit Fighter used this style to varying degrees of success, and it wasn’t an incredibly unusual template to work from at the time. After all, scrolling beat-em-ups were all the rage. Maybe there was something to this third dimension of movement thing?

The thing is, by the time Aggressors of Dark Kombat arrived in 1994, this type of fighting game had become exceedingly rare. Well, outside of wrestling games, anyway. 3D fighting games would soon bring this kind of movement back into vogue, but we weren’t quite there yet. The closest to this mechanic being in play in a popular fighter was Fatal Fury‘s use of multiple planes. But the NEOGEO had plenty of conventional fighters at this stage, so why not try something different? That’s what ADK did with Aggressors of Dark Kombat, and I can’t exactly say it was wrong to try. Aggressors of Dark Kombat has a lot of issues, but it’s certainly distinct and it’s honestly not entirely un-fun.

There are eight different fighters to choose from here, mostly fitting the theme of street combat. You’ve got a button for punches, a button for kicks, and a button to jump. Fights take place in arenas that aren’t much longer than the usual fighting game stage, but allow the fighters to move in and out of the screen a fair bit. There are also sometimes weapons laying around that you can make use of, along with some destructible stage elements. Spectators might even toss a weapon in now and then, because people are like that. Players have access to a speedy dash by tapping or double-tapping the stick in the desired direction. Along with your standard array of attacks and special moves, you can also grapple your opponent by getting close and hitting both attack buttons at once and pushing any direction, like in a wrestling game. Matches consist of just a single round, but the fighters have multiple meters of health to work through.

As with many fighting games of the era, you have a meter at the bottom of the screen that fills up as you fight. This is known as the Crazy Meter, and when it fills up you can use your character’s Crazy Attack. If you land this attack on your opponent, you win. It doesn’t matter how much health they have left. Match over. This is where the aggression or intensity comes in, I suppose. This is a game that really does favor the aggressor, because if you can get your meter topped off first and catch your opponent off-guard, you win. Mastering grappling is also a key to victory, but even more important is learning how to escape from grapples. And this is where the first problem comes in with this game in its mobile form.

At some point, all SNK fighters become extremely frustrating to play in single-player. SNK bosses are a trope in the fighting game community for a reason. That usually kicks in with the final boss, though. You get to have your fun up to that point, and after that you really need to make no mistakes if you want an ending. Aggressors of Dark Kombat starts getting annoying a lot earlier. After you’ve gotten a few rounds in, the CPU opponent starts making use of those ever-so-handy grapples. The timing for countering grapples is very tight, and until you get it down pat you are going to hit a complete wall when this happens. Even once you do, it’s not terribly fun. This isn’t the greatest of fighters even when you’re playing against another human, but if you’re stuck with the CPU it’s really nasty.

That’s going to be the reality for most mobile players, though. Unless you have the extra external controllers and set-up for multiple players on a single device, all you’ve got is single-player. It’s really hard to recommend this game with that in mind. I’ll also note that those playing with virtual controls are going to have a real job ahead of them since the game relies heavily on things like light taps, heavy pushes, and dexterous use of the stick. Between the tricky touch controls and rude computer opponents, you’re going to be in for an unpleasant time. Those with an external controller can step around the control issues but still have to deal with the jerk CPU. Even flicking the difficulty settings down doesn’t help a ton. You just have to stick with it until you become an absolute pro Aggressors of Dark Kombat player. Something for the resume, at least.

Ah, it’s time for the boilerplate ACA NEOGEO talk. You get the usual array of modes here. The international and Japanese versions are available, with the Japanese one giving you some blood here and there for extra INTENSITY. There’s a Score Attack and Caravan mode with their own online leaderboards, though the game isn’t really well-suited to such things. As mentioned, you can use an external controller to play if you want. Hamster has loaded the game up with the typical options for video, controls, and so on. The emulation is spot-on. It’s hard to fault the effort here, it’s just that the game itself isn’t a great fit for the challenges of the mobile format. I really do wish some form of online multiplayer could be sorted though. Even local device-to-device wireless play would be welcome.

Aggressors of Dark Kombat is not a great fighting game, but it is a really interesting one. I recommend checking it out if you want to play something unusual in the genre, but I can’t really recommend this mobile release being the place to do so. It really screams for multiplayer, and the touch controls just aren’t up to the unique demands of the game’s quirky systems. The price is certainly more than fair, so if you want to take a silly punt on it I won’t tell you not to. But I think for most people, the cheap CPU opponents and awkward virtual controls are enough for me to advise giving this one a pass.

I’ll cut to the chase. Jet Dragon is a horse racing simulator, more or less. You might look at the screenshots and think you’re in for some thrilling aerial races, but let me assure you that the racing in this game is patterned after the usual horse racing games that were really popular in Japan back in the day. Your main job while racing is to tap the screen to make your dragon boost. This uses some of their stamina, and if you’re out of stamina you won’t be able to boost anymore until you replenish it by passing through rings along the course. Frankly, you’ve either got the stats to win or you don’t, but knowing when to boost and when to chill is also of some importance. You can also use abilities if your dragon has them and you’ve got the stamina, though again they’re a matter of knowing when to use them to maximize their value.

So yes, mainly about those stats. Your dragon and rider have levels and stats, and you’re going to have to increase those stats if you want to compete. Participating in races will help them level up, but you can also do training and make use of facilities to increase some stats. Training raises fatigue and consumes your money, so there’s a limit to how much you can do at a time. Time, money, fatigue. I’m not explaining things well, am I? I have a feeling the Monster Rancher fans out there are picking up on it, but I suppose I should come at this from a different angle for the rest of you.

Alright, so Jet Dragon. It’s about dragon racing, but your job is mainly managing a dragon racing team. You start with basic facilities, one rider, and one dragon. By the time you’re out of the tutorial you’ll have another rider and dragon. The game generally follows a calendar of events, and you can choose how you want to spend each week on it. Upkeep costs money, and so does entering races. That means you have to actually get off your duff and win some races or else you’ll end up living in a cardboard box or something, and a dragon is definitely not going to fit in there. As you win races, you’ll gain sponsors and fans, bringing in more resources and unlocking other features. The story, such as it is, will also unfurl.

Outside of the racing, the main challenge comes from managing your finances. Of course it would be great to train a bunch between every race, but that costs money. Upgrading your facilities is of great benefit in the long term, but it costs money now. Expanding your team is awesome, but it also costs more money. Money, money, money is all you need. And the only real way you’ll earn it is by racing, because even sponsors aren’t going to throw their money at you for leaning on a fence post. Every new feature that opens up presents a new way to spend money, so you have to keep it coming in.

As mentioned earlier, your racing performance is largely dependent on your stats. Your actual input during race could best be seen as intervention at key moments. You won’t be doing any steering, just deciding when you want to expend stamina on boosting or using your abilities. Training will raise those stats, to a point. But the effectiveness of training depends on the mood of the dragon and/or rider, and also on how tired they are. A refreshed, perky dragon has a higher chance of seeing better gains from the training sessions, and since they cost money you’ll want to get the most out of them.

Still, even leveling up and training can only take a dragon so far. They will eventually hit their limits, and at that point you’ll want to look into breeding. Breeding your dragons is a nice way of getting a new steed that has higher potential and better abilities, and it’s a key tool in your box for keeping those wins rolling in. Indeed, it’s the only way you’ll be able to stay competitive because Jet Dragon really doesn’t pull its punches when it’s time to race. If you haven’t been doing things right on the management side, it won’t take long before you’re eating dragon dust.

There’s a lot of depth here waiting to be discovered, and Grezzo has clearly done its homework again when it comes to making a game with upfront charms and a surprising amount of complexity hiding behind the veneer. It’s very well-made for what it is, and if you’ve ever enjoyed a horse racing sim or Monster Rancher game, I think you’ll find a lot to like in Jet Dragon. The striking visuals certainly help with the initial attraction. One happy side effect of not needing to be quite so hands-on during races is that you can enjoy the sights of each track. It’s not going to knock you out of your seat or anything, but riding a dragon through pretty locations is a no-lose proposition as far as I’m concerned.

Jet Dragon isn’t going to be for everyone, but those with an open mind and a love of simulation games will likely be pleasantly surprised with what they find here. Those looking for a slick dragon racing game with dragon drifting and such are going to be less pleased, since that aspect of the game aims more at the strategic than the action-packed. If you’re looking for something different that has a lot of meat on its bones and you have an Apple Arcade subscription, I recommend giving this a look.

Quite well. I don’t like leaving questions like that hanging too long. So yes, the answer is that it has jumped over without much hassle at all. You’re given a choice of a couple of control methods, and I found myself preferring the swipe controls for how natural and smooth they felt to use. But you can also use virtual controls if that is your druthers. The game looks great on the screen of my iPhone, so real estate isn’t an issue. You can play the game in portrait or landscape mode as you like, and it plays fine both ways. It runs well, but I’m sure no one was terribly worried about that. My only beef is that the game could use some kind of autosave in cases where you need to immediately step away mid-run. Phones are different from dedicated devices, after all. But I suppose that is less a problem in porting and more an issue in not considering some use cases. Something to keep in mind anyway.

Okay, so what exactly is this game? When you think of Shovel Knight, you might think of the outstanding side-scrolling action game that comfortably sits in the upper ranks of the genre. You might also think of the Apple Arcade game where it’s still kind of action-like but with a lot more roguelite sprinkled in. Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon isn’t either of those things. The heroic Shovel Knight (and perhaps some other folks he knows) has been sucked into a puzzle dimension, which sounds awfully like something they just made up right now. He has to get out, and rescue his friends while he’s at it. How will he do that? Well, when all you have is a shovel, every problem looks like a scoop of dirt. He digs, friends. He digs.

This is a matching puzzle game at its core, but it’s a pretty unusual one. You aren’t controlling the blocks to spin them around or place them. Instead you’re controllingShovel Knight. He zips around the play field and if you nudge him up against anything laying in it, he’ll whack it with his shovel. If it’s dirt, he’ll remove it lickity-split. If it’s stone, it might take a few whacks. If it’s a key, he’ll pick it up. A door or chest, he’ll use any keys he’s holding to open them. A potion? Sounds like a tasty way to recover some health. And if it’s an enemy, he’ll smack it and get smacked in return. If multiples of the same type of thing are touching each other, Shovel Knight’s action will be applied to all of them. This of course is the key to surviving enemy encounters, as only one of them can bite you back.

There’s a bit of roguelite in here as well, though you get to decide how much of it you want. The game allows you to choose between two modes. The first is more like the usual falling block matching puzzler, having you fail only if the play field overflows with pieces. A death will cost you some time while you respawn, so it isn’t ideal, but it’s not the end of your run by any means. The second mode is stricter. If you die, it’s back to the camp immediately. However you go out, you’ll head back with some gems that you potentially use to buy some permanent upgrades in the form of relics.

Relics are probably the biggest lean into the roguelite end of things in this game. Once you’ve unlocked them, they have a chance of appearing during gameplay in the various chests. They’ll give you all kinds of little perks, and some were definitely more useful than others for me. I imagine it depends on your play style, though. Ultimately I can’t say I found any of them to be real game changers, so you’re not relying on luck or putting together a careful build here as you might in other roguelite/likes. You’ll still probably want them, mind you. Unlocking all of the relics is a fairly short matter because of how readily the gems flow, and other things like costumes and such are also not too hard to scrounge up the change for. You’ll probably run out of things to spend gems on way before the game ends, which upsets the risk/reward balance of the game a little.

See, one of the incentives to keep you moving is your gem combo meter. It fills up as you clear things, and drains when you aren’t. As it levels up, your gem multiplier increases. Once the gems lose their usefulness, a lot of the reason for moving your booty vanishes. Sure, the pieces keep coming in, but if you’re not moving they don’t move very quickly either. You can’t sit around forever, but you don’t have to keep up the breakneck pace you may have become accustomed to while you’re still buying unlocks. Still, I suppose there are back-ups for most things here. The pieces do keep coming in. Clearing groups of pieces is its own reward even if you don’t care about the gems. I think I just spent a paragraph on a small gripe. Oh well.

I guess this is my way of saying that I think Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is better as a puzzle game than as a roguelite game. Rushing around the field trying to remove pieces while balancing enemy removal against restoring health is a lot of fun, especially as the enemies start to bring in their own gimmicks to mess with you. Getting to the exit in each stage is often only done by the skin of your teeth, and that makes for some pleasing tension. Once you start unlocking and using other characters, their own gimmicks help change things up too. And then there are the boss battles, which live up to the high standards of the series despite being in a completely different genre. It feels like you’re constantly having to deal with new situations thanks to how all of these variables can interact, yet there’s a fundamental set of skills you’ll develop that will serve you well all the way through.

You get a bunch of modes to enjoy here. The main adventure mode is probably where you’ll spend most of your time initially, working your way through the campaign and unlocking goodies. There’s also a versus mode where you can play against the CPU or another player on the same device, which works a lot better with an external controller or two but doesn’t actually require them. You can also challenge daily and weekly missions, which give you one chance to rack up as high a score as you can to see where you can land on the leaderboards. I would have loved an online option for the versus mode, but otherwise it’s hard to complain here. I should also mention that the game offers a bevy of options for you to tweak, covering just about every aspect of the game from the usual audio/video options to extremely granular difficulty controls.

Speaking of the audio and video, it’s as you would expect from a Shovel Knight game. The music is absolutely incredible, remixing some familiar tunes and throwing in some new ones that fit in just fine. The graphics are the same sort of detailed pixel art seen in other Shovel Knight games, and equally packed with charm. I think it’s great that the different Shovel Knight games each have their own style but somehow still maintain a consistent feel. You’ll definitely want to have the sound on for this game if you can swing it.

While I feel like some of the roguelite elements don’t mesh as well as they should and the game’s economy is a bit wonky, don’t let those relatively minor nitpicks stop you from playing Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. It’s a terrific puzzle game that is distinctive, challenging, and packed to the gills with interesting things to entice you and test you. The game has made the transition to mobile so well that you’d almost think it was meant for the platform to begin with. A true must-play for puzzle game fans, so long as you don’t mind having to have a Netflix subscription to access it.

Laya’s Horizon fascinates me on a conceptual level. In the broad sense, this is very much a focused experience. One could almost call it one-note, if one was being unkind. You leap off of a perch and use your cape to glide downward, eventually either reaching a landing point or crashing. Along the way you’ll check off goals from a list that constantly offers up new tasks as old ones are cleared, unlocking goodies as you go. Imagine this as a 2D game and you could almost see it as a game from that exciting early era of smartphone gaming, where quality pick-up-and-play experiences fell out of every tree one deigned to shake. It feels like a pure mobile experience, and I mean that in a good way.

But Laya’s Horizon isn’t a 2D game, is it? You aren’t flying on tiny wings over flat peaks and valleys in this one. No, you’ve got a massive sprawling 3D world in front of you. Shuffle around, pick a direction, and take a leap. With a bit of careful flying, you can go pretty much anywhere you see. You’re still ultimately bound by gravity, so you’ll have to touch ground eventually. As such, I won’t call this a true open world game, but it’s sure open enough. The accessible world feels big even at the start, and it only seems to grow the more you play. You’ll unlock new peaks to start from, new capes, and new trinkets, all of which allow you to tailor your experience to suit your skills or the task you’re aiming at.

There are a couple of things you can aim at, apart from simply enjoying the pleasures of flying. Various characters with tasks for you to complete or events to participate in are strewn around the world for you to encounter, and most of them will offer up a series of challenges that ultimately reward you with a prize of some kind. There are also research tasks given to you outside of any of those NPCs. Completing a set will level you up, a process which also gives you rewards. These tasks start off almost tutorial-esque, but eventually feel like dares to show off your mastery of the map and your flying skills.

The flying is at the core of the game, and it embraces touch controls perfectly. You can slow or speed up your descent by sliding up or down with both of your thumbs, make a light turn by sliding one of your thumbs, make a sharp turn by sliding your thumbs in opposite directions, and use a turbo boost by sliding both thumbs inward. I’m looking at that sentence and I think I’ve made the controls out to be more confusing than they are. They certainly take some getting used to, but the stakes are low enough that you have more than enough space to do your baby bird thing. I find the way the game plays perfectly straddles ease of use with depth, and the joy of mastering your gliding skills sits at the forefront of the overall experience. Oh, and there is partial controller support if that’s your preference.

With this being a game from Snowman, however, the quality goes beyond the solid mechanics. The world of Laya’s Horizon is marvelous in its design, with plenty of charm to burn. You can always spot several points of interest no matter where you are, and the whole thing just looks beautiful. I really appreciate the color choices in particular. The writing has a lot of character, and it helps bring the NPCs to life in a big way despite most of them having relatively small parts. The audio is similarly endearing, stirring and serene as it needs to be, truly selling the feel of soaring through the air without all that noisy, windy reality.

Indeed, I can’t find many things to complain about with Laya’s Horizon as a game. It looks and sounds great. It plays well and gives you plenty to do if you’re looking to do something, while also allowing you to enjoy doing nothing in particular if that’s your present preference. It will entertain you for minutes or hours as you like. The only consideration is that it is tied to having a Netflix subscription, which unfortunately means its existence is potentially volatile. If you have a Netflix subscription, make sure you give it a try.

Hey, I’ve been doing this for twenty-five years now. Coming up with fresh openers is tough. I suppose I could have just gone with an old reliable template that almost everyone can enjoy and apply the topic of the day as needed. I didn’t do that, but you know who did? Alpha Denshi and SNK, back in 1992. They barely even hid it. Just stapled Ninja onto Capcom’s Commando and took an early lunch. Okay, that’s kind of rude. The top-down run-and-gun had been a very popular genre throughout the late 1980s on the back of hits like the aforementioned Commando and SNK’s very own Ikari Warriors. One might even suggest that the very existence of the NEOGEO was built on the backs of such titles. With that in mind, we can surely excuse any indiscretions in terms of creativity with the broad structure of this game.

If Ikari Warriors followed in the wake of Commando, I think it’s safe to say that Ninja Commando treads in the footsteps of Commando‘s follow-up Mercs. Your characters have wider move sets and a more interesting array of attacks, the play area is often wider than the screen, and you’ve got a life bar instead of having to suffer one-hit kills. The story premise here is certainly its own thing, if nothing else. The villainous Spider and his Mars Corporation have developed a time machine and plan to use it to attack the past and control the future. Man, this isn’t even the first SNK game that uses that villain plan. As these things go, the only ones who can stop Spider’s machinations are a trio of ninjas: Joe Tiger, Ryu Eagle, and Rayar Dragon. They chase their foe through seven periods of history, arguably causing more damage to the timeline than Spider and his goons. Hey Joe, I don’t think you’re supposed to murder Nobunaga Oda before his time!

This goofy plot is part of what makes Ninja Commando so fun. Oh, I probably haven’t mentioned that yet. Ninja Commando is a lot of fun. You get to choose your favorite ninja, each with their own weapons and moves, and either go it alone or with a friend on a big stupid adventure through history. There is a big caveman who grabs his fellow cavemen and throws them at you! Yes, you have to fight mummies. World War II? They wouldn’t be Ninja Commandos if they didn’t stop in there, would they? The game has its tongue firmly in its cheek but not so much as to be obnoxious about it, and some of the dialogue really has to be seen to be believed. The pixel art is really strong, and I think it must have been a lot of work to make these areas so distinctive and populate them with period-appropriate enemies of all kinds. It has a lot of personality.

As for the gameplay, it has a few tricks up its sleeve but mostly sticks with what worked in the past. Your characters have their own basic shots that you can only fire ahead of you. They’ll power up the faster you hit the button, oddly enough. You can do a somersault or flip to get out of the way of attacks, and it can be useful if you get the hang of its movement and the game’s collision boxes. You can also fire in multiple directions when flipping, making it one of the few ways to attack enemies beside or behind you. The third button uses your smart bomb-style attack, which can be useful in a pinch. Likely inspired by the fighting game craze going on around it, Ninja Commando also equips each of the three characters with some command based special moves. They are extremely powerful so it’s not a bad idea to get the hang of them, even if it can be a bit tricky using touch controls.

A brilliant segue into the bits where I talk about how it plays on mobile. Of course, you can use an external controller and get the standard console (arcade?) experience, but I’m happy to report that even if you’re limited to the touch controls you’ll still have a relatively good go of it here. The special moves can be a pain to pull off and trying to maintain maximum power on your shot can be troublesome, but by and large the game plays nicely with the on-screen buttons and stick. You won’t be able to bring a buddy without external controllers, but hey, real commandos fight alone. It’s Rambo, not Rambo and Friends. Except for the animated series. But we don’t talk about that! The point is, this is actually a really nice mobile experience.

All the usual Hamster ACA NEOGEO stuff is in play. Two versions of the game, plus the Caravan and Score Attack modes. Those extra modes are quite enjoyable with this game, and the online leaderboards add to the excitement. The options are familiar, extensive, and as welcome as ever, and the emulation is spot-on. By now most of the people reading this probably know what to expect from these ACA NEOGEO releases in terms of extra features and overall presentation, but I have to put it here for those reading this review first. Hi, new reader! Please stay a while! Stay forever!

If you’re looking for a straightforward but fun top-down run-and-gun game, you’ll be well-served by Ninja Commando. It’s not as fancy as the Shock Troopers games but its wild premise and strong execution make it a decent highlight from the NEOGEO’s earlier years. It plays really well on mobile even if you don’t have an external controller handy, and is actually quite good for filling out little pockets of spare time during your day-to-day. A solid addition to the ACA NEOGEO mobile line, and one I can easily recommend.