Game8's Reviews
Death Relives is the kind of game that makes you question your life choices because of the slow drain of wasted time. Its ambition is buried under poor execution, lifeless AI integration, and half-formed mechanics. Even its better ideas, like the puzzles, are let down by clunky design. There’s simply nothing here worth your time, money, or patience.
As the self-proclaimed torchbearer of one of the industry’s cult classics, Code Violet fails to meet the standards or even do a decent job of representing the action horror survival genre. Its weak gunplay, baffling art direction, rough animations, and even more confusing plot serve as a reminder that maybe some things should be left untouched.
Mindseye was supposed to be an ambitious entry from IO Interactive. What was delivered is a bug-filled, unoptimized, and less-than-desirable mess instead. Almost to no one’s surprise, MindsEye needed a lot more time to polish its core aspects and mechanics.
A clever control scheme and flashes of competitive brilliance can’t hide the fact that the rest of Drag x Drive is running on fumes. The basketball matches are fun, but they’re weighed down by awkward hardware ergonomics, lopsided AI, and a hub world that is just devoid of anything fun. There’s a potential here for something great, and I wish Nintendo explores this some more in the future. But right now, it plays too much like a really polished tech demo.
Sugardew Island is another entry into the ever-popular farming simulator genre that aims to deliver a cozy, no pressure gameplay experience. However, the experience quickly turns from cozy to frustrating given the game's bugs and glitches, unintuitive control scheme, and limiting energy bar.
There’s some charm here in Calamity Angels: Special Delivery, and I can’t deny that I liked spending time with the cast, but its gameplay keeps getting in its own way. The game has a fun concept and a strong personality, yet the random combat and repetitive delivery loop make it harder to enjoy than it should be. It’s not terrible, but it never rises above being a mildly entertaining JRPG that feels stuck so down below its potential.
Tokyo Scramble feels like a title scrambled together just to get a release up on the Nintendo Switch 2. Despite having some good ideas here and there, it’s overall very unpolished, messy, and full of wrinkles that shouldn’t have even left the QA stage.
Captain Blood is a curious relic, a patchwork resurrection of an era long past, one that struggles to find relevance in the present. Its brute-force combat and nostalgic appeal might offer fleeting moments of blood-soaked joy, but the weight of its technical flaws and repetitive design quickly quashes any sense of lasting engagement. It’s a game that wants to be remembered for its swagger, but instead, it’s a reminder of how games like this were left behind for good reason.
Unknown 9: Awakening suffers from a clear disconnect between its mechanics, genre, story, and ambition as a AA to AAA title. On one hand, it hints at being a semi-decent action-adventure game with its visuals and okay world-building—forgettable, but at least functional. On the other hand, the combat feels flat, the stealth is clunky, the experience is rife with bugs, and the story is hard to follow, making it difficult to appreciate from any angle. Altogether, this results in a subpar experience that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone anytime soon.
Tetris Forever is less a coin flip and more a litmus test: are you a Tetris fan? If yes, you’ll likely find plenty to appreciate; if not, this collection is unlikely to change your mind or stimulate it. The extra features and historical overview add some flair, but they ultimately don’t elevate the experience beyond a niche appeal. For longtime fans, it’s a loving tribute—but for anyone else, it’s just a bunch of old games and a museum exhibit.
Death End re;Quest: Code Z has some strong ideas on paper and a few redeeming qualities—namely, its voice acting and character art—but when the story is a mess and the game is almost unplayable, even longtime fans are going to have a hard time justifying sticking with it.
Destiny 2’s decline has been a long time coming, and The Edge of Fate only speeds it along. A dull epilogue paired with frustrating mechanics does little to justify its existence. The real improvements came from the free updates, not the expansion itself, not that it saves that much, anyway.
Long-time fans of HUNTER x HUNTER have waited for a video game adaptation that does the franchise justice. Sadly, it seems they’ll have to wait a little longer, as this one is plagued by numerous modern fighting game pitfalls and its unjustifiable price.
Polaris was marketed as an extraction shooter with fully destructible environments, and while that promise holds true, it, unfortunately, extends to the overall gameplay experience as well. While there are moments of fun to be had, the game suffers from game-breaking bugs, unpolished mechanics, and a lack of key features that prevent it from reaching its full potential. The foundation has promise, but Polaris needs significant improvements before it can deliver on its ambitious vision.
It's hard to believe that Concord has been in development for nearly a decade because, by the time I played it, I was left wondering where all that time and effort went. The game’s visuals and audio do show signs of careful curation and actual effort, but the gameplay and character design feel unworthy of such a lengthy development period. Add to that an incredibly anti-consumer monetization scheme, and you’re left with a game that didn’t just fail to hit the ground running—it hit the ground and died. It’s almost tragic to see eight years of work culminate in such a visually appealing, yet lifeless, game.
Like a low-budget ’80s horror flick, I Hate This Place is all flash and no bang. Though it nails the vibe with its visuals and sound, rough voice acting aside, the gameplay is too shallow to hold up. After the early thrills fade, it’s mostly cheap jump scares without the depth to stay engaging.
Aside from decent audiovisuals, finding words beyond “average” to describe this game is almost as tough as 1cc’ing Perfect Cherry Blossom’s Phantasm stage—and trust me, I’ve done that. It’s no longer a roguelike or even a roguelite anymore, either. In many ways, it’s a direct downgrade from its predecessors, which were much better games with a lot more heart.
Shadow Labyrinth is built on a compelling concept—reimagining Pac-Man within a Metroidvania framework—but ultimately struggles to bring that vision to life. Although there are flashes of creativity and thoughtful design, they’re frequently undermined by clunky platforming, uninspired visuals, imprecise combat hitboxes, and a convoluted narrative that fails to captivate. What might have been a bold and refreshing reinvention instead becomes an uneven experience weighed down by its own ambition.
Super Mario Party Jamboree is still the same friendship-ending game you may or may not have loved a couple of months back, and Jamboree TV sprinkles in a few bright ideas. Frenzy Rules and mouse-control minigames are very fun. The problem is that everything else feels like a tech showcase in search of a reason to exist, and the awkward separation from the base game doesn’t help its case. What’s worse, there isn’t even a new game board! When the highlight of a $20 add-on is a handful of quick novelties and minigames that force you to buy a peripheral, it’s hard to imagine this being worth picking over other party games.
Despite its flaws, DreadOut: Remastered Collection provides an engaging experience for fans of supernatural horror. The blend of folklore, innovative mechanics, and atmospheric storytelling makes it a standout title in the indie horror genre. However, its rough edges, such as unpolished combat and repetitive exploration, hold it back from greatness. With its unique narrative and clever mechanics, this collection manages to offer an enjoyable, albeit imperfect, horror experience.