Sure, it’s on the unfairly punishing side, and both the controls and the weapons could have done with more work, but this is a worthy rewind to the time of the Dreamcast. Pick up Rainbow Cotton on the Xbox and save yourself that £300.
We like Queen. Sometimes you just need to strut about the living room, imagining you’re on Live Aid. But what sadist invites friends over to try to match Freddie’s falsetto across thirty flipping songs? I wouldn’t force that on my friends, let alone my own eardrums. Let’s give Let’s Sing Queen the benefit of the doubt though, as it launches today on Xbox One, Switch and PS4.
When it comes to World War II, games have tended towards the sniper headshots, zombies and mechanical Hitlers, rather than the personal, boots on the ground stories. 2020 seems to be bucking that trend, however, as we have had Through the Darkest of Times, which sensitively approached Berlin during the Third Reich, and now we have WARSAW: Console Edition. It takes place in the closing months of WWII, on the streets of the Polish capital.
KEMCO’s JRPG juggernaut just keeps ploughing onward, and today sees the arrival of their latest, Dragon Lapis on Microsoft Xbox One and PC via Windows.
In the run up to the Xbox Series X, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Phil Spencer would kick off the boots, put his good slippers on and have a well-deserved rest. But no! The Xbox One is absolutely pumping the hits out. The ‘Holiday Season’ is ramping up, and the big hitters are in the process of arriving. FIFA, Watch Dogs: Legion, a Star Wars game - they’re all here, vying for the Christmas Number One spot (which will be FIFA, unless 2020 pulls another fast one). It is also October, which means Halloween. Expect a few games on the list to shamble about in your peripheral vision, readying a jump-scare. But it’s not all blockbusters and spinechillers: there’s a few stylish indies there too.
If you have history with playing choose-your-own-adventure books, turn to paragraph 2. If you don’t, turn to paragraph 3. For anyone who’s enjoyed a childhood of playing Fighting Fantasy books, filling out character sheets with a pencil and a couple of dice, Swordbreaker: The Game on Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC might well be the perfect nostalgia trip. It’s a fantasy novel punctuated with choices, played out as a video game - enter the castle through a window or go through the front door. Every choice is down to you.
Gather round, varmints and cutthroats, as Bartlow’s Machine of Wonder has been unearthed from the dawn of the Electric Age. Untether your coin bag and drop a dime inside! Bartlow’s Dread Machine is rootin’ and tootin’ onto Xbox One and PC via Steam today.
We don’t pretend to know a thing about shadow puppetry at TheXboxHub, but watching the trailer for Projection: First Light makes us astonished that it hasn’t been the subject of a game before. At least, not one we’ve encountered (hey, before you say it down the back, games like Limbo and Toby: The Secret Mine don’t count - they’re more interested in shadows than shadow puppetry).
Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure on Xbox One takes the rotten core of a blockbreaker game and straps on a cracking story, great music, boss battles and some new approaches. But that rotten core still stinks, and you’ll get a whiff every now and again, as the infuriation and the tedium seep through. If you’re a Sacred Symbols fan, or you’ve still got love for games like Arkanoid, it may be just enough to warrant a purchase.
I’m of the opinion that you should score a game for the audience it’s made for, and Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia on Xbox One is a pre-teen game that delivers on what its audience wants. It’s a brisk romp through all of the best characters and locations in the game, with barely a hiccup along the way. What it sacrifices in complexity or any kind of innovation, it gains in player-friendliness and an adventure that - for the kids in this house, anyway - will make them want to hack, slash and jump all the way to the end.
There’s a rule written somewhere that you should watch whatever Guillermo Del Toro produces, because it’s going to be solid gold. Any doubts that wouldn’t translate to an animated kids series were punted somewhere into Pan’s Labyrinth, as Trollhunters has been a huge success for Dreamworks, Netflix and the many people who have watched all three Chapters (read: seasons) of it. Now comes the inevitable, and the game tie-in with Dreamworks Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia arriving on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam and PlayStation 4 today.
Don’t take it personally, Sentinels of Freedom, but I am getting HEAVY Freedom Force vibes from you. It’s a good thing! Many of us would be behind a return to Patriot City. And if Sentinels of Freedom is anywhere near the madcap joys of that game, then we’re ready to pull on the lycra and hit the streets. Sentinels of Freedom is out now, and is performing a superhero landing onto Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC via Steam.
Xbox One isn’t exactly overrun with Pokemon games or substitutes - thanks for that, Nintendo - so we’re going to grab at any that come our way. Nexomon: Extinction, after all, could be a mainline Pokemon game, if you squint a bit and turn your head.
The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom on Xbox One acts like a strong trailer for hidden object gaming: it’s easy to pick up, the puzzles are a pleasure to interact with, and Artifex Mundi have mastered the systems that surround it. But it’s only a trailer: too short, too unsatisfying and narratively incoherent to get your teeth into.
Who would have thought that cooking and house removals would make killer party games? Team17 clearly did, as they made hits in the form of Overcooked! and Moving Out. Now their sights are set on what it’s like to take on an internship with Going Under.
Rivenaar’s Grove is an extremely simple yet mildly enjoyable puzzler. It provides a way to kill an hour or two, and isn’t remotely taxing on the old grey matter.
Songs of Silence is an excellent entry into the 4X and strategy genre, even more so when you consider that titles in this niche are relatively thin on the ground on consoles.
