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As fast and as frantic as the combat can be with the changing blades and juggling multiple foes sadly Ultra Age doesn’t utilize its strengths in its boss fights. While Age will be able to use any blade to damage bosses, the game doesn’t lean on the excellent mechanic it spent the entire game building up. Instead boss fights are the run of the mill attack, dodge, attack, dodge fights that are common in the genre.

I really enjoyed my time with Tails of Iron, it had a very mature story to tell wrapped up in a charming yet dark world. The clever use of communication between the creatures while using ‘Geralt’ for narration duties is definitely one of my highlights from this game.

Even the story in Clid the Snail hit all the notes of comedy, tragedy and action on queue. But that combat… they absolutely NAILED the challenging part. It’s just a shame that it isn’t much fun and instead just feels like an exercise in futility at parts.

Madden 22 is also plagued by bugs. Players will freeze mid-animation in games, there are clipping issues, and crashes. Face of the Franchise also suffers from out-of-sync voiceovers and subtitles during cutscenes, and sometimes the voiceovers just disappear altogether.

I know Space Invaders is an important title and it still holds up extremely well, but I would have hoped Taito and Gotch Technology would put a little more effort into making a museum-quality collection like those from M2 rather than just some titles that padded out a release. At least Space Invaders Extreme is still great.

SkateBIRD has the skeleton of a great skateboarding game, but with the collision issues and the movement being as spotty as it is, it just brings down the entire experience. There were times in my play sessions I was having a blast pulling off combos and tricks and would come crashing down when I would hit a grind that didn’t work, or I would tap on the edge of a wall and fall off.

This version contains so much that it is an easy recommendation. The campaigns can be played in co-op with up to four friends. Deathmatch returns with up to eight players and is crossplay compatible. The mod support is also here allowing us to get even more content.

It’s a hard one to describe, but I fell in love with the relaxed feel of this game. Sure, the business side of the game wasn’t the deepest and really all you’re doing is going back and forth on a lawn mower, but I would be lying if I did have a good time with the game and to the point of writing this review, have put over 20 hours into it.

The hex design and the battlefields are all highlights. However, the things that can be done in-between those fights is where the majority of the player’s time will be spent. And it as much as I usually enjoy exploring RPG’s, there was no joy in navigating the overworld in King’s Bounty II due to the ridiculously slow movement speed.

Tales of Arise features a likeable cast of characters, compelling story and one of my new favorite combat engines, not just in the Tales series but in all the JRPGs I’ve played so far and if not for the pacing issues and the PC port’s technical issues, it could have set the bar for JRPGs to follow.