DualShockers
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It's honestly tough scoring Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park. The base game, Mario Wonder, is still excellent, but it's a three-year-old title at this point. You can also pick up the Nintendo Switch version for cheaper and not feel like you're missing out on any content. Despite my issues with Bellabel Park, it doesn't make Mario Wonder a bad game. If anything, it just makes the newest version one worth picking up only if you're looking to play with your kids or younger siblings. They'll undoubtedly love what's in store for them. If you're like me, though, and were hoping for something along the lines of Donkey Kong Bananza, Odyssey, and the original Wonder content, you'll be disappointed.
In many ways, it's a step backwards and makes the franchise's most defining feature feel like a throwaway. It also just feels so bad to play, and if you were even a casual fan of Legacy of Kain back in the day, there's not much here I can really recommend outside of hearing Michael Bell and Simon Templeman again.
MARVEL MaXimum Collection brings together some heavy hitters from the 1990s in terms of comic book video games. Featuring six titles across thirteen total versions, this superheroic collection is a wave of nostalgia that is well worth the price of admission if you've ever been a fan of Marvel Comics. The games are a blast, and it also features some excellent bonus content. Online appears to be rather dead, unfortunately, so keep that in mind before you jump in.
As adorable as the game is, the narrative doesn't hit the highs of the Pixar films it seems to be inspired by, and it ends pretty abruptly on a cliffhanger. That, combined with some occasional checkpointing headaches are really the only blemishes on an otherwise completely lovely experience. Play this game. We don't get ones like this often.
There are small design hiccups here and there in terms of a few levels that don't feel fair, a couple less memorable bosses, and the added depth sometimes playing tricks on your brain. At the end of the day, however, Super Meat Boy 3D is a blast, and I'm looking forward to shaving off tenths of seconds from my record times on each and every level.
This isn’t about surpassing the original; it’s about making peace with its past. And somehow, against all the stacked odds, Deck Nine manages to pull that off in a redeeming fashion. If you’ve been on this journey since the beginning, it feels like closure, the kind that quietly sticks with you long after the credits roll as you're waving goodbye.
I'm excited to play through Midnight's seasons and experience everything the game offers heading into The Last Titan, but I also hope that Blizzard lets the dev team fully cook. It feels like they didn't with Midnight, and it's a shame.
The games themselves have aged rather poorly, with somewhat basic combat and a game world that is determined to tell you what to do at every turn. So long as you don't mind dealing with some oddball design choices and long-winded stories, you could get a lot of enjoyment out of this unique, albeit flawed, Mega Man card game.
If you are an enthusiast of this style, it is worth giving it a go for the gameplay, since the narrative is unremarkable. However, if you don't care much for action platformers or still have others in the genre to cross off your backlog, then Ariana and the Elder Codex might stay on the sidelines for a while.
The biggest issue the game will face is appealing to the less hardcore players and getting them to stick around, but with Bungie continuing to iterate on the game, things will likely work out just fine for this unbelievably fun extraction shooter.
Between the unique twin-stick handling, the risk-reward chaos of the Echo System, and a story that leans hard into its over-the-top anime inspirations, it manages to carve out an identity that feels both fresh and nostalgic. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t need to be because when everything clicks during racing, Screamer is an absolute thrill to play. For anyone craving an arcade racer with personality and depth with a riveting storyline, this is one worth taking for a spin at full throttle.
MLB The Show 26 is still one of the best sports games in town, but it's starting to show its flaws. Despite all the advancements and positive additions, it's getting harder to ignore some of its issues. For the first time in recent years, I'm not sure if MLB The Show is worth the money. For all the good the game does, I can't keep ignoring all of the mounting issues.
It's simply one of the biggest games I have ever played, with an astonishing amount of high-quality content, an absurd amount of complex puzzles, and a world so gigantic that I still haven't come close to seeing everything after 100 hours of playtime. While the story isn't the best and some bosses seem downright unfair, those flaws do little to diminish Crimson Desert, an absolute marvel and one of the best open-world games on the market.
Unfortunately, the whole experience is letdown by a variety of glitches, fundamental design flaws with the combat, confusing levels, and several jarring story transitions that make it seem as if 1348 Ex Voto was shoved out the door before it was ready.
We were sold a cute, fun, and charming Pokémon spin-off that could hold our cozy gaming hearts over until something like Tomodachi Life or the next Animal Crossing releases. What we got was a game that questions whether or not we'd be willing to put Pokémon Pokopia down when those games come out.
In its best moments, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is an unbelievably good time. Even in its worst moments, it's still a pretty solid zombie shooter with some great set pieces. That being said, any problems with the game can and probably will be fixed in time. The janky bots and frustrating solo player experience definitely make things a little rough around the edges, but underneath that is a fantastic game that will absolutely exceed your expectations if you give it a chance.
Still, if you were a die-hard fan of the original Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, you'll enjoy what Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have created here.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a huge step in the right direction for the franchise. The story is easily the best in the franchise, and while the gameplay still has problems (like the insistence on using AI-controlled party members), it's much better than its predecessor, and made me far more engaged with the combat and Monstie growth mechanics. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is way better than Monster Hunter Wilds, and hopefully reflects a brighter future for the series.
Unfortunately, it's difficult to recommend it to series veterans, as there's nothing here beyond the performance upgrades as far as new content goes. The performance upgrades are pretty good, and come in at a fair price of five bucks, but unless you've got another 50 hours to kill, you'll be doing just as well replaying it on the original Switch.
CM Punk's Showcase is an excellent presentation, and MyRISE is another successful story. Overall, WWE 2K26 is still another solid entry in the WWE 2K franchise, but I can't help but wonder where it could have landed. It reminds me of the recent LA Knight spot from this year's Men's Elimination Chamber match. He's got the crowd in the palm of his hand, he's ready for a big move off the rope...and he slips. He's still over with the crowd, and I think that's how things will ultimately land with WWE 2K26, but I have more reservations this year than I did last year.