| Game | Platform | Release Date | Review Date | Snippet | Score (5 Stars) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Strikers Charged Football | Wii | 2007-05-25 | 2007-06-07 | Mario Strikers Charged Football can almost stand up on its own in single player, but the multiplayer and online is what this game is all about. It’s simple to get to grips with yet it has a lot of depth to it. It also shows that you don’t need any fancy Wii waving about controls to make a great Wii game. | 4 |
| Scarface: The World Is Yours | Wii | 2007-06-12 | 2007-07-18 | So, overall, Scarface is a pretty darn good game. There’s plenty to do, and it’s a lot of fun too. There a few problems and a little lack of variation, but the game works very well on the Wii. If you’ve already completed the game on another console, don’t bother. There isn’t anything new here. For those who are fans of Scarface, as well as fans of the genre, it’s well worth a look. | 4 |
| Sonic Rush Adventure | DS | 2007-09-19 | 2007-09-17 | Overall, Sonic Rush Adventure takes everything from Sonic Rush, fixes some stuff then adds a ton of extra stuff, increasing the lifespan and replayability by quite a large amount. The new features are fun, and the missions are enjoyable and challenging. This is easily the best Sonic game since the Mega Drive days. | 4.5 |
| FIFA 08 | Wii | 2007-09-27 | 2007-10-16 | FIFA 08 on the Wii is a decent package but let down by lack of modes (such as the management features that the other versions have), poor controls and some annoying gameplay problems. If you give it time, you should adapt, but the controls need a lot of refining. But then, there’s always next year… | 4 |
| Dead Space | PC | 2008-10-13 | 2008-11-04 | The story is dark and mysterious, the setting is spooky, the enemies can give you a lot of jumps and the atmosphere is astonishing. Dead Space is a truly fantastic game and can even make some annoying things – like the linearity and fetch quests – seem like an important part of the experience. | 4.5 |
| Banjo-Kazooie | Xbox 360 | 2008-12-12 | 2008-12-06 | Banjo-Kazooie on the XBLA is an improved version of a classic platformer that is definitely worth the 1200 Microsoft Points | 5 |
| Fallout 3 | Xbox 360 | 2008-10-28 | 2009-01-22 | Fallout 3 is a game built on an epic scale. The world is massive, the gameplay is brilliant and it’s a wonderful experience. While the main story is a tad naff, there are tonnes of great “mini-stories” and other stuff to do in the game. It really does feel like a free world, full of great characters, interesting locations and weapons that make a gorgeous mess. | 5 |
| Sonic Unleashed | Xbox 360 | 2008-11-18 | 2009-01-22 | The Warehog sections are enjoyable, but you won’t go back to them after completing them; the Sonic levels are brilliant and great for re-playing; the Hub is confusing, but isn’t a problem if you’ve read this review; there’s a ton of extra stuff which is entirely optional (which quite a few reviews say is a bad thing for some bizarre reason). Sonic Unleashed is very enjoyable if you still like Sonic but, as said at the start, it isn’t going to sway any haters any time soon. | 5 |
| Real Football 2009 | DSi | 2008-11-04 | 2009-05-25 | So, Real Football 2009 is a very solid game. It’s fun to play and there are plenty of leagues and cups to play though. While it doesn’t have a vast amount of features, it’s still priced extraordinarily well (considering it was originally released as a full retail game) and, as it’s saved onto your console, it’s great for the odd blast of football. | 3.5 |
| Art Style: CODE | DSi | 2008-12-24 | 2009-05-26 | If you like maths-based puzzles then you’ll certainly love CODE. The main mode is frantic and the puzzle mode requires a lot of thought. It’s a game that is best played for a short time each day and it certainly worth 500 Nintendo points. | 4 |
| Art Style: AQUITE | DSi | 2008-12-24 | 2009-05-26 | AQUITE is reminiscent of the underwater music game Electroplankton and has some kind of surreal feeling about it. Underneath this is a solid, though not ground-breaking, puzzle game. It won’t last for ages but it is aquite nice experience while it lasts. | 3.5 |
| Left 4 Dead | Xbox 360 | 2008-11-18 | 2009-09-06 | Left 4 Dead is a brilliantly simple-yet-complex game that, while lakcing in content, has massive replay value. It’s suitably fun on the normal difficulty while expert is challenging and yet not frustrating. I would definitely recommend this game if the sequel (out in a few months) didn’t look like it’s going to improve upon the original in every way (except the characters, I’m not keen on them…yet). | 4 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | DS | 2009-10-13 | 2009-11-18 | Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games provides a nice shell for minigame-based missions with a bit of charm to it. It has some solid games mixed in with a few ones that could however also be instantly forgotten. It’s no classic, but definitely a step in the right direction. Multiplayer undoubtedly provides some great fun if you can get some friends/siblings with their own DS’s. | 3.5 |
| https://djcube.co.uk/review-prototype/ | Xbox 360 | 2009-06-09 | 2009-12-19 | And that really is all there is to Prototype. The graphics aren’t worth mentioning, but they do handle hundreds of enemies fairly well. It’s a good game with some great core gameplay, but is spoiled by unbalanced weapons and dull characters. There’s depth to the story that you can collect by absorbing certain people, but you don’t really learn anything interesting about it. | 3.5 |
| Planet 51 | DS | 2009-11-17 | 2009-12-24 | To all parents who may be reading this: stay well away from this game. There is nothing here that kids will like, and it will likely cause frustration due to the strict time limits, bad controls and wild navigation arrow. It’s not often that you can say this, but this game would likely be much more fun if they had made a bad Mario Kart clone instead. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Classic Collection | DS | 2010-03-02 | 2010-03-27 | While this classic games still look, sound and feel brilliant; the quality of the port brings it down. There are much better ports and compilations on other consoles so the only reason to purchase this collection is if you just NEED to own Sonic the Hedgehog on every device in creation. | 3 |
| Globulos Party | DSi | 2010-03-01 | 2010-05-03 | Globulos Party is a game made full of love, and is good simple fun. The GlobZ are charming and there are plenty of modes and events. At 500 Points it would be a good buy, but unfortunately it’s hard to completely recommend it when the GlobZ team have a flash version of the game running on their website. | 3.5 |
| Maestro! Green Groove | DSi | 2010-07-02 | 2010-07-25 | Once you’ve beaten the game, you can go back to previous levels to increase your score or head into free mode for a relaxing trip through the levels – you can even alter the tempo and select some different instruments. As this is ripped straight from a full retail games, the game is detailed, cute and colourful with interesting backgrounds that don’t get in the way of the gameplay. | 4 |
| Robox | Wii | 2010-11-01 | 2010-10-25 | Dreambox Games have some great, innovative and unique ideas. They can also create a charming character, lovely visuals, a wonderful environment and pleasing sound. It’s a colossal shame that the bolt that holds all the other pieces in place – the gameplay – is old and rusty. | 3 |
| Miffy’s World | Wii | 2010-10-15 | 2010-10-25 | It is entertaining enough to keep children between the ages of 3 and 5 for a few hours. With a price point of 1,000 Nintendo Points it’s hard to recommend, but it’s clear that this has been made with more care and effort than retail games such as Pepper Pig. | 3 |
| chick chick BOOM | Wii | 2010-10-29 | 2010-11-25 | chick chick BOOM combines simple appearances to a unique and frantically fun battle system. It’s easy to get going, but takes a lot of practice to master. It’s an absolute blast in multiplayer and has enough challenge to keep you occupied while you’re on your own. This is a brilliant first try from tons of bits. | 4 |
| The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest | Wii | 2010-09-14 | 2010-11-25 | Headstrong Games have gone beyond the call of duty to create a satisfying combat system, and a very entertaining way to experience LotR in a new way. | 4 |
| Doctor Who: Return to Earth | Wii | 2010-11-19 | 2010-11-25 | Parents will likely see this game and, due to the fact that Doctor Who is on the box, will buy this for their kids as a Christmas present. It certainly feels as though Asylum knows this, and have churned out any old rubbish as working hard on it won’t be much more profitable. Just think of all the kids that will be over the moon when they open this on Christmas day, only to have their hearts completely destroyed when they start plating it. | 1 |
| Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth | DS | 2010-11-19 | 2010-11-27 | While Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth never reaches impressive levels, it’s still perfectly enjoyable, especially for kids. It’s amazing that an acceptable game like this comes from the same development team as the atrocious Wii game. It’s just a shame that to make a good game, this adventure of the Doctor and his number one apprentice has to plagiarise one of our favourite DS games so much – and it comes nowhere near to matching the greatness of those games. | 3 |
| Worms Battle Islands | Wii | 2010-11-23 | 2011-01-11 | Even though Worms: Battle Islands is a very poor Worms game, the core gameplay, in multiplayer, still holds up today. A local multiplayer game of Worms: Battle Islands can have you laughing, screaming, crying and cheering all at the same time and I can easily recommend this if you can find it at the right price. If you are a Worms fan already then you can easily skip Battle Islands and go back to Armageddon – even on the N64 it had more customisation, more gameplay modes and better graphics than Battle Islands on the Wii. | 3 |
| Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet | Wii | 2010-11-16 | 2011-01-23 | The Infinity Gauntlet tries really hard to be a LEGO game but fails on the two most fundamental aspects: charm and fun. With quite an abundance of LEGO games available on the Wii, it brings us to the (rather obvious) conclusion that this game should only be bought for young gamers who are massive fans of the show. | 2.5 |
| Super Monkey Ball 3D | 3DS | 2011-03-03 | 2011-04-01 | Super Monkey Ball 3D is light on content and is full of easy level design. The controls and physics of the main game are spot-on but you don’t meet any challenge until the hidden last world. If anything, this world highlights how this game could have been brilliant, which makes it feel so much more disappointing. | 3 |
| Zoonies: Escape from Makatu | DSi | 2011-04-29 | 2011-05-25 | Zoonies gives us a simple premise and makes it a lot of fun, while still maintaining a decent challenge. While it only takes a few hours to blast through the game, it will take a lot of mastering to collect all the items and medals. | 4 |
| Murder in Venice | DS | 2011-05-16 | 2011-06-28 | Murder in Venice has an intriguing story but has immensely dull gameplay. If you’re willing to slog through all the gameplay then you end up with a decent graphic novel, but that is pretty much all there is to it. It’s a children’s activity book combined with a graphic novel intended for much older kids. | 2 |
| Star Fox 64 3D | 3DS | 2011-06-14 | 2011-09-17 | Star Fox 64 3D is a game that feels perfect for the 3DS. The short game with high replayability makes it the perfect game to pick up and play and the new options to save progress between levels or to play individual medals adds further to it’s pick up and play nature. It’s very easy to play and enjoy, but it would take a huge amount of practice to truly master the game on normal mode – and then there’s the expert mode on top of that. | 4.5 |
| 1950s Lawn Mower Kids | DSi | 2011-11-03 | 2011-11-16 | This would make a poor choice for a 99p iPhone game. They’re asking £4.50 for it. No satisfaction and no fun to be had from this game. | 2 |
| Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call | DS | 2011-10-17 | 2011-11-23 | So, while The Spectre’s Call doesn’t expand on the gameplay, it’s still a fantastic new story and setting for the Layton franchise. The music and voice acting are as great as ever and the lovely hand drawn graphics look great no matter if you’re playing on the DS or 3DS. The pre-rendered animated cutscenes still have their lovely art style and sadly, end way too soon, as always. If you like Layton, the choice to purchase this is a no-brainer. If you haven’t tried it before, then this is the perfect opportunity to jump on board. | 4.5 |
| Mario Kart 7 | 3DS | 2011-12-01 | 2011-12-16 | Mario Kart 7 feels like the coming together of Mario Kart. Nintendo have looked at the six other games and picked the best aspects and fined tuned it to create the ultimate Mario Kart, while also introducing great new elements that would make future games feel incomplete if they were excluded. It’s the best Mario Kart yet and any future 3DS racers now have some serious competition. | 4.5 |
| The Whitakers present Milton and Friends 3D | 3DS | 2012-02-17 | 2012-03-07 | Milton & Friends is a well-made game which lets you look after your own horse(s) while also letting you look after other horses in order to complete quests. There is plenty to do and provides reasons to carry on playing. After a while the minigames do get repetitive, but looking after different horses and taking part in competitions help mix things up a bit. | 3 |
| Paper Mario: Sticker Star | 3DS | 2012-11-11 | 2012-12-16 | These parts are far from common, though, and is just a small thorn in a beautiful origami rose. Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a new take on the Paper Mario franchise. While some fans of the first two games will scoff at the changes made, the new battle system is still very well made and the game is still funny and a joy to play. Many of the changes work well with this entry into the franchise being on a handheld console, and the six world and side-quests will keep you occupied for a very long time. | 4 |
| Spec-Ops: The Line | Xbox 360 | 2012-06-26 | 2013-05-04 | I seriously don’t have the skill to properly review this game without diminishing its impact greatly – I don’t think any review can properly do it. Spec Ops: The Line is something that needs to be played without reading much into it – it’s an experience, not a game. | 4.5 |
| Star Trek: The Video Game | Xbox 360 | 2013-05-23 | 2013-05-24 | As it stands, it’s a good, fun experience with some annoying issues. If you and a friend like games and Star Trek, you’ll likely have a blast playing it, but if you’re on your own or don’t like the subject matter, I can’t recommend it. | 3.5 |
| AiRace Speed | 3DS | 2013-09-19 | 2013-10-04 | AiRace Speed may be fairly simple, but the game provides a great sense of speed and the surprisingly varied levels prevent the game from getting boring. It’s a nice little game for a nice little price (€4.99/£4.99)- and it can be challenging without any frustration of thinking the game caused your death as the solid controls and clear visuals make knowing where you need to go easy. You just need fast reflexes to be able to do it while boosting. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Lost World | 3DS | 2013-10-18 | 2013-10-15 | Sonic Lost World has created a wonderful template for future handheld Sonic games, as the basic gameplay is smooth, accurate and exciting. Unfortunately, some of the items and levels are not up to scratch and can really detract from the experience (and that doesn’t include the Special Stages). Hopefully Sega can focus on what works for the sequel, but the problems prevent this version from being a must-have. | 3.5 |
| Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright | 3DS | 2014-03-28 | 2014-03-18 | Overall, Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright does feel more like Phoenix Wright in a Professor Layton adventure, as elements from his games, like Hint Coins and Picarats, carry on into the courtroom sections, and the story itself is very much like a scenario found in a Layton game. That doesn’t mean that Phoenix Wright won’t have much to do – the court cases are very long and is where the majority of surprises come from. It’s a wonderful tale with some amazing characters, and this is definitely one of the very finest crossovers to date. | 4.5 |
| Nintendo Pocket Football Club | 3DS | 2015-01-16 | 2014-04-25 | A simplistic but charming football management game. The training cards add a lot of depth to the management game and there are an endless amount of times to compete against, due to the design of the online mode. | 4 |
| Hyrule Warriors | Wii U | 2014-08-14 | 2014-09-17 | While it may seem simple at first, Hyrule Warriors has fun combat and requires you to think about the whole battlefield instead of mindlessly slashing through enemies. It may be a Dynasty Warriors game, but it still has a Zelda feel and the extra polish you would expect from a Nintendo game. | 4.5 |
| Super Smash Bros. for 3DS | 3DS | 2014-09-13 | 2014-09-25 | While Super Smash Bros. for 3DS does feel like a lightweight version of what’s to come on Wii U, it’s still a packed game with detailed graphics which get more out of the 3DS than any other game. The core gameplay is spot-on and the online is very well made. | 4.5 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes | 3DS | 2015-10-22 | 2015-10-21 | Tri Force Heroes is a wonderful package, it’s just a big shame that the package comes with lots of limitations. If you do find a good group of people to play with (either locally or online), this game is definitely a lot of fun while also being very challenging with a great feeling of reward when you get through a difficult stage. | 4 |
| A Way Out | PC | 2018-03-23 | 2020-07-13 | For how cheap a month of EA access is (and if you want to play with a friend online, only you need to own it – they can download a free version to join you), the game is definitely worth playing though. It definitely has flaws, but also feels unique and will keep you invested | 4 |
| Titanfall 2 | PC | 2016-10-28 | 2020-07-24 | The Titanfall 2 campaign feels unique and is definitely something that should be experienced. It’s entertaining from beginning to end and has some brilliant moments throughout. | 4.5 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | PC | 2018-10-02 | 2020-08-12 | Forza Horizon 4 is frustrating. There’s an amazing game hidden underneath a meaningless progression system (which makes completing events unsatifying), horrendous in-game advertising for DLC and creepy bots pretending to be your friends. | 3.5 |
| https://djcube.co.uk/games-of-the-generation-49-splatoon/ | Wii U | 2015-05-28 | 2020-10-30 | The brilliance of the game is in how all parts of its gameplay work together, as while you opponents ink hurts you, your own colour ink allows you to zoom through as a squid, or stay still to be hidden. | 4.5 |
| Rocket League | PC | 2015-07-07 | 2015-11-01 | The game is a lot of fun even if you’re awful at it. Luckily, the matchmaking system is usually pretty decent so in most games you won’t be destroyed by the people that can do all the fancy flying and flips. There’s a very high skill ceiling, but it still great just to pop on every so often for a bit of fun. | 3.5 |
| Mad Max | PS4 | 2015-09-01 | 2020-11-02 | Mad Max is still a game where you will feel oddly invested while playing. One highlight are the crazy dangerous sandstorms in the game, which look fantastic and feel dangerous without being frustrating. | 3.5 |
| Ring Fit Adventure | Switch | 2019-01-18 | 2020-11-03 | The device itself also feels extremely sturdy, like a real piece of gym equipment which is surprisingly difficult to push or pull, giving you a proper work out. | 3.5 |
| Prison Architect | PC | 2015-10-06 | 2020-11-04 | The balance of keeping inmates happy so they’re less inclined to try and escape vs making the prison more secure so it’s harder to escape is definitely an interesting choice. | 3.5 |
| Two Point Hospital | PC | 2018-08-30 | 2020-11-06 | The different levels encourage you to focus on different areas, but once you have three stars you are free to maintain your hospital how you wish (or you can just ignore the objectives and do what you want). | 3.5 |
| Thimbleweed Park | PC | 2017-03-30 | 2020-11-07 | The puzzles are challenging with some strange solutions, however the game manages to stay away from the realm of “moon logic” – solutions that just make zero sense | 3.5 |
| No Man’s Sky | PS4 | 2016-08-09 | 2020-11-08 | There’s a main story that utilises the procedurally generated objects, and is cleverly done so the game is never missing anything vital in your starting area (which is different in every area). It’s possible to encounter places discovered by other players, but even now it’s a rarity unless you visit featured locations and bases – of which you can build your own vast structures. | 3.5 |
| Yoshi’s Woolly World | Wii U | 2015-06-25 | 2020-11-09 | Levels have a pretty balanced difficulty curve, getting more difficult (but not extremely difficult) as the game progresses, with the bigger challenge being in finding all the collectables in each level. Some levels can be fast and frantic while others are slower paced and more about exploration and puzzle solving. | 3.5 |
| A Way Out | PS4 | 2018-03-23 | 2020-11-10 | Some highlights of the game are early on in the prison, where you have to set up your plan for escaping and have to work out how to get items past guards. These sections seem a bit more open and flexible to your approach. | 4 |
| Planet Zoo | PC | 2019-11-05 | 2020-11-11 | For a management sim, the rain and snow also look very impressive, with attention to detail regarding places that would be sheltered. The campaign mode is also well done, with lots of options for creating your own from scratch, to a sandbox mode with unlimited funds. | 3.5 |
| Super Mario Maker | Wii U | 2015-09-10 | 2020-11-12 | The Miiverse was also integrated into the game extremely well, letting people comment on levels, some of which even show up inside the levels themselves. The Amiibo outfits were also a ton of fun and there were lots of little secrets that added to the charm. | 4 |
| Fallout 4 | PC | 2015-11-10 | 2020-11-13 | Settlements are a large part of this game, allowing for you to build elaborate structures and providing food and security to attract new people. You can set up merchants here as well, along with caravan routes between the many (possibly too many) settlements you can start. | 4 |
| Watch_Dogs | PC | 2014-05-27 | 2020-11-14 | The profiler is great to use. The “crime predictor” is fun to have as a side thing, even if its a bit of the same thing repeatedly, it’s just nice to be able to save random people. Listening in on people’s texts, calls and video feeds is also a satisfying thing to do. | 4 |
| New Super Lucky’s Tale | PC | 2019-11-08 | 2020-11-15 | The variety does help mix things up. You’ll get some levels that focus one exploring the area, some A-to-B levels (3D and 2D), a few maze levels and some more objective-based levels. All of these, while feeling familiar from other games, are very well made and makes it a solid game. | 3.5 |
| Yooka-Laylee | PS4 | 2017-04-11 | 2020-11-16 | That said, the platforming is very challenging, with some good puzzles. Bosses are mostly fun – although the first was frustrating until the camera was fixed in a later update. Yooka’s kind words and Laylee’s rude sassiness are both charming to read, with the classic Banjo-style “grunt voices”. | 3.5 |
| Infamous: Second Son | PS4 | 2014-03-21 | 2020-11-17 | The neon ability is an absolute joy. It’s the closest you’ll get to great gameplay as a “speedster” type superhero (such as The Flash), running at great speeds and shooting light. It’s really satisfying just moving around Seattle with this power. | 4 |
| Mario Kart 8 | Wii U | 2014-05-29 | 2020-11-19 | The weapons are a good set, and this Mario Kart makes a great change to the items: if you hold an item behind you, it still counts as having an item. This means that you now have to think carefully if you want to drop an item before picking up an item box, as you may end up with something you can’t defend yourself with, which adds to the strategy of the game. | 4.5 |
| Stellaris | PC | 2016-05-09 | 2020-11-20 | There is a lot in the game that you can manage, but Stellaris manages to not feel overwhelming either. The mod support for the game is great, too – there’s a Star Trek mod that is brilliant, and adds in missions and small events that can happen, turning it into an amazing Star Trek game. | 3.5 |
| A Hat in Time | PC | 2017-10-05 | 2020-11-21 | The platforming feels very precise, with a simple but effective control system that reminds me of Super Mario 64 | 3.5 |
| The Jackbox Party Pack 3 | PC | 2016-10-18 | 2020-11-22 | The Jackbox games are amusing party games where they answer prompts/questions (or sometimes draw) on their phones in conjunction with what the screen tells them too (it’s aimed at playing locally, but you can stream and have others join in remotely. Three great game are in this pack: | 4 |
| Watch Dogs 2 | PC | 2016-11-15 | 2020-11-23 | There are a lot of fun side quests as well, including one where you have to hack into Ubisoft and leak a game trailer to the public (this was supposed to be an actual trailer, but the game was later cancelled). | 4 |
| Stardew Valley | PC | 2016-02-26 | 2020-11-24 | If that’s not enough, there’s a massive cave system to explore, filled with monsters and treasure. Don’t forget to take a sword with you. The game is also still getting updates, with a local multiplayer option being added soon – this game could be a great game for couples. | 4 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | PS4 | 2018-09-14 | 2020-11-25 | The combat in the newer Tomb Raider games are great, and the bow is still immensely satisfying to use along side a half-stealth approach. | 4 |
| Luigi’s Mansion 3 | Switch | 2019-10-31 | 2020-11-26 | At first the controls were very fiddly, but once you realise you can use the shoulder buttons instead of the face buttons, you’ll be able to move, aim and use one of the poltergust’s features at the same time. The difficulty of the game is also very fair, there’s a bit of challenge in just completing the main story, but there’s a lot more challenge if you want to find everything. | 4 |
| Detroit: Become Human | PS4 | 2018-05-25 | 2020-11-27 | All three stories are extremely interesting, with lots of emotional moments. although Connor’s detective parts are definitely the best due to having more moments where you have to think and solve issues. | 4 |
| DOOM | PC | 2016-05-13 | 2020-11-28 | Along with this, levels are an A-to-B affair, but with secret areas to find along the way. To make it feel modern, you can upgrade Doom Slayer and his weapons, but the brilliance is in just how fluid the movement is | 4 |
| Until Dawn | PS4 | 2015-08-25 | 2020-11-29 | While difficult, it’s possible for everyone to live (although for one person, living is sort of the bad outcome for them). It’s also possible for absolutely everyone to die – although you sort of have to be trying to make that happen. | 4 |
Days Gone | PS4 | 2019-04-26 | 2020-11-30 | The weather in this game is also amazing. The first time it snowed, I didn’t actually notice the ground becoming snow straight away because it just felt extremely natural. The rain looks amazing, too, with the ground getting wet and muddy areas turning into mud. It’s the most realistic weather I’ve seen in a game and it looks amazing due to how it makes the actual ground around you look so different. | 4 |
| Uncharted: The Lost Legacy | PS4 | 2017-08-22 | 2020-12-01 | This more open structure fits the uncharted style very well, and includes a large optional side mission to find some extra treasure. At the same time, this doesn’t fall into the repetitive nature of some open worlds as it’s only a portion of the game – with more traditional Uncharted sections both before and after. The mixture of styles works really well and makes Lost Legacy feel more like a full Uncharted experience than the “budget” title it was sold as. | 4 |
| Tell Me Why | PC | 2020-09-10 | 2020-12-02 | Throughout three chapters, you progress through their investigation, learn more about the people in town and go through a very personal story – something that seems quite rare in video games. The mystery is compelling and has a good pay-off at the end. | 4 |
| Dragon Age: Inquisition | PS4 | 2014-11-18 | 2020-12-03 | The combat in Inquisition is closer to that of an action game, with a more tactical “pause” system being available (admittedly I didn’t touch this as I’m not a huge fan of that style of combat). I found it engaging, even if most of my enjoyment was due to the story. Having a lot of choice in the character creator (after only being human in Dragon Age 2) was also pretty awesome. | 4 |
| Assassin’s Creed: Origins | PC | 2017-10-27 | 2020-12-04 | Combat was a lot of fun, and lets you focus on how you like to fight. While some people may like to charge in and smash stuff, I liked using a bow from the shadows to take out as many people as I could quietly. | 4 |
| Batman: Arkham Knight | PC | 2015-06-23 | 2020-12-05 | Moving around Arkham city feels great, using the grappling hook and gliding with the cape. One you level up some stuff, some journeys are faster than using the Batmobile (or BatTank). Combat feels extremely solid, and the sections of the game where you control both Batman and one of the support characters and swap between them are amazingly good fun. | 4.5 |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | PC | 2015-11-10 | 2020-12-06 | The bow is an absolute joy to use – to the point where I rarely touch other weapons in these games. It makes for very exciting combat and is easy to use both in stealth and when you have lots of enemies shooting at you. Puzzles in Rise of the Tomb Raider are also much improved from the first game, with them feeling more interactive and the side areas having much more of a personality to them. | 4.5 |
| Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End | PS4 | 2016-05-10 | 2020-12-07 | Gameplay is very solid, with the grappling hook adding some fast paced movement. There are some more open levels which are still a set path, you can kind of go to the sides a bit more. However, both these and the more traditional “linear” sections are extremely well made, and never feel like you’re following a specific determined path- the way forwards feels natural enough that it feels like you’re doing the exploration. | 5 |
| Titanfall 2 | PS4 | 2016-10-28 | 2020-12-08 | The levels are fun at the worst. Two levels are beyond outstanding – one played along an assembly line and one introducing an amazing mechanic which is best left for people to discover on their own. | 4 |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man | PS4 | 2018-09-07 | 2020-12-09 | The various special abilities are linked to the many different suits that you can unlock, all from various forms of Spider-man media like comics and films. Once unlocked, these abilities can be paired with any other suit, so you never have to use a suit you don’t like just for an ability. The cel-shaded suits also look phenomenal. | 4.5 |
| Mass Effect: Andromeda | PS4 | 2017-03-21 | 2020-12-10 | The crew all feels like a crew – even the ones that stay on the ship. Everyone talks to each other, they move into different rooms at certain points and there’s extra chat logs to inspect. You ship – the Tempest – can be explored with no loading screens and feels like a home. | 4.5 |
| Horizon: Zero Dawn | PS4 | 2017-02-28 | 2020-12-11 | Some of the larger robot creatures will seem daunting at first and you’ll definitely want to run away, but once you have better equipment and learn how all the different creatures act, you’ll be able to take on multiple at once. | 4.5 |
| God of War | PS4 | 2018-04-20 | 2020-12-12 | The camera also deserves a mention. It’s kind of a “one shot” style – throughout the entire game (of you don’t die), the camera makes zero “cuts”, it follows you throughout the game but moves on its own during cutscenes. It means the entire game is one long “flow” and all loading screens are “hidden” behind tunnels, with a “tree of life” hiding fast travel loading times. The music from Bear McCreary is also one of the greatest soundtracks in a video game. | 4.5 |
| Splatoon 2 | Switch | 2017-05-21 | 2020-12-13 | The first Splatoon was a great multiplayer game. Splatoon 2 with the Octo Expansion expands on that and delivers an amazing singleplayer experience alongside it. | 4.5 |
| Gravity Rush 2 | PS4 | 2017-01-28 | 2020-12-14 | The world in Gravity Rush is stunning, gorgeous floating cities (even the lower slums look great) in a sort of semi-comic style. Lots of nooks and crannies to explore as you hunt for gems to increase your powers. Not only are there multiple new vast locations, but the entirety of the map from the first game also makes an appearance. | 5 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Wii U | 2017-03-03 | 2020-12-15 | Breath of the Wild isn’t just an open world game – it’s a playground filled with amazing toys. | 5 |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Switch | 2017-10-27 | 2020-12-16 | Mario’s movements feel as fluid as ever, with his new hat, Cappy, providing even more ways to move and jump around. On top of this, Cappy also allows Mario to possess any non-hatted creature, all with unique abilities and ways to move. This makes the 880 moons in Odyssey all fun to collect (apart from two), with location hints available for tracking down the last few without needing a guide. | 5 |
| Control | PS4 | 2019-08-27 | 2020-12-17 | Add in lots of frantic action, some fun but strange characters, a nice visual style and Control is a magnificent experience. | 5 |
| Sonic Frontiers | Xbox Series | 2022-11-08 | 2022-11-30 | Overall, I absolutely loved Sonic Frontiers, and while the standard levels aren’t quite Sonic Generations, I do rate this as Sonic’s best 3D game. | 5 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 | PS4 | 2015-11-06 | 2021-04-02 | The story itself is nonsensical. They’re trying to do something “clever” but don’t deserve to be like that at all. The “real” story supposedly flashes inside massive reams of text for a split second on the loading screen, which is just absurd. And even then, people don’t quite fully know what the story even was. Really dull characters also don’t help. | 2 |
| Star Wars: Racer Revenge | PS2 | 2002-02-12 | 2021-04-02 | The sequel to Star Wars Episode 1: Racer that I never got to play because it wasn’t on a Nintendo platform. It’s….fine. It doesn’t feel as smooth or fast as E1 Racer, and the level design is kind of a bit confusing and all over the place | 2 |
| Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse | Switch | 2005-10-18 | 2021-04-02 | There were also other bugs encountered in the game, such as zombies that ignore your calls, or get stuck on scenery (or occasionally on nothing at all, just running on the spot), and some minor ones like enemies getting stuck in fall animations when they die. It’s a big shame as a fair few of the technical issues seem to be new to this port, and weren’t present in the original version of the game. | 3 |
| Darksiders | PS4 | 2010-01-05 | 2021-04-02 | One of the best elements was the Zelda-inspired dungeons, but they ended up making me really appreciate the level design in Zelda games, as navigation such large rooms and long corridors takes a lot of the fun out of it. When a puzzle takes far more time to walk between each puzzle element than it does to do an action on each part, it becomes more of a chore. | 2.5 |
| Superhot | PS4 | 2016-02-25 | 2021-04-02 | The problem is everything else. It’s all about “hacking” and you have to mash buttons to “type” (just repeatedly tap X) every now and then to get to the next level. It’s incredibly tedious and just attempts to be “edge”. The really loud SUPER HOT repeating constantly after every level actually led me to muting the game. | 2.5 |
| Bound | PS4 | 2016-08-16 | 2021-04-02 | There are multiple routes to take, you collect more “pieces” of an image if you take the hard route but don’t miss out on much if you decide to go easy. It’s more about the surreal experience than the challenge. There’s no attacking in this game, instead you dance around to protect yourself from being attacked by tiny paper airplanes. | 3 |
| Grim Fandango | PS4 | 1998-10-30 | 2021-04-02 | Unfortunately, it was made at a time where some people felt games wouldn’t sell if they weren’t 3D, so instead of clicking, you walk around to try and find each object. Thankfully, this version isn’t as bad as the original’s tank controls, but it still impacts the puzzles. | 3 |
| Final Fantasy VII Remake | PS4 | 2020-04-10 | 2021-04-02 | The rest of the game is mostly more tedious corridors, although walking around the Shinra Building is actually interesting. Then another bad bike scene and a final section that doesn’t really make much sense. | 3 |
| Dark Void | PS3 | 2010-01-19 | 2021-04-02 | Still, there’s a lot of great ideas. You have a jetpack which can hover or go into flight mode. The jetpack is fast but has powerful guns. The game doesn’t stop you from using the flight mode jetpack indoors, but you’re likely to kill yourself on a wall unless you’re extremely careful. The levels have a lot of verticality to them, as you can take cover under balconies and shoot enemies above you. | 3.5 |
| Concrete Genie | PS4 | 2019-10-08 | 2021-04-02 | The creatures can interact with the environment, so a lot of the puzzles involve getting these creatures to move around the walls to the sport they need to be. It’s a game that will put a smile on your face. | 3.5 |
| Jackbox Party Pack 7 | PC | 2020-10-15 | 2021-04-02 | Overall, a great pack and the first one without a dud. | 4 |
| Moving Out | PS4 | 2020-04-28 | 2021-04-02 | You also have to take care of fragile objects – if these smash they’ll respawn in their original palace so you’ll have to collect them again. The levels start off with a few houses, then some businesses, before getting a bit crazy. | 4 |
| Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | PS4 | 2019-11-15 | 2021-04-02 | Combat is extremely good fun, with lots of different ways to tackle enemies, and a focus on dodging or blocking at the right time. | 4.5 |
| Puppeteer | PS3 | 2013-09-05 | 2021-04-02 | Overall, this is a massively overlooked platformer that ended up being released a couple of months before the PS4. It’s a shame that a PS3 or PS Now are the only ways to play it, it really should have been re-released on PS4 at some point. | 4.5 |
| It Takes Two | PS4 | 2021-03-26 | 2021-04-02 | Throughout the adventure you’ll find “play” areas, where you can find some versus minigames or just stuff to mess around with. There are no hidden collectibles, just hidden toys that are simply fun to find and use. In one section there was an Etch-a-sketch, you could use it (one person using each dial) and it was only there just for enjoyment. | 5 |
| Remnant: From The Ashes | PS4 | 2019-08-20 | 2021-04-24 | After this introduction, you are sent on missions in dull procedurally-generated levels. You fight minions as well as “special infected”. This is heavily balanced towards co-op, where respawns take place, as special infected can pop out of nowhere (including behind you after you’ve cleared a room) and just take you out. | 2 |
| The Medium | PC | 2021-01-28 | 2021-04-24 | The story itself is fairly uninteresting, and the game uses stationary cameras, which would be fine if the controls didn’t feel so clunky and cause you to walk in the wrong direction. A lot of the obstacles are also caused purely because the main character decided to visit an abandoned building with no equipment. | 1.5 |
| flOw | PS4 | 2006-03-11 | 2021-06-02 | I just didn’t really get this, it seemed more like an interactive screensaver. It looks nice visually, but is fairly simple and the motion controls feel extremely wonky with no options for inverting or just using a stick. | 2.5 |
| Tokyo Jungle | PS3 | 2012-06-07 | 2021-06-02 | However, the game is also very frustrating. Sometimes the paths you need to take literally have no food to eat, or you can bump into a far stronger animal in a place with nowhere to run or hide. All herbivores play the same, and all predators stay the same so each animal does not alter the gameplay. There is also only one map, which is quite small so you’ll be wandering the same areas again and again, and the start of each time you play is pretty much identical. It’s worth a try for its unique ideas, but isn’t a great game. | 2.5 |
| Sound Shapes | PS4 | 2012-08-07 | 2021-06-02 | You play as a sticky ball who can travel up light coloured walls (but not darker ones), or can lose its stickiness and become a smooth ball that can travel faster. It’s simple mechanics, but utilised well and controls feel extremely tight. The levels are quite a spectacle. | 3 |
| Red Faction Guerrilla | PS4 | 2009-06-02 | 2021-06-02 | Another big problem is that people around you will join your fight and help you. This makes destroying stuff harder, unless you ignore the “morale” (which just grants you extra scrap) and ignore them. They just really get in the way. One hilarious moment was one mission with a really stupidly long drive to pick up a squad, and they all jumped out the vehicle before I got to the destination anyway. Also, the main character is really dull. | 3 |
| Call of the Sea | Xbox Series | 2020-12-08 | 2021-06-02 | The story behind it is intriguing, although the main twist is pretty obvious long, long before the main character realises it. It’s a pretty interesting game with some puzzles that are fun to solve. | 3 |
| Going Under | Xbox Series | 2020-09-24 | 2021-06-02 | Pretty much everything is a weapon – the computers, keyboards, pencils, staplers, along with more traditional weapons like crossbows and swords. They all feel satisfying to use and the more mundane items (pencils, styluses) are comically oversized. | 3.5 |
| Marvel’s Avengers | PS4 | 2020-09-04 | 2021-06-02 | There are lots of costumes that are either locked behind payment (you can earn enough credits for 8 costumes), many through competing challenges and quests. Most of the difficult/paid ones are more unique and odd costumes, while the other ones are the “main” costumes, and personally I think the best ones. | 3.5 |
| Maneater | PS4 | 2020-05-22 | 2021-06-02 | But overall, it was a fun experience and the crazy world they built for the game is rather entertaining, as it goes out of its way to explain that you’re eating elite rich people, that pollution is the cause for mutations and stuff like that, so you can feel good about eating all the nasty humans. | 3.5 |
| Halo Anniversary | Xbox Series | 2011-11-15 | 2021-06-02 | I played it in the only way Halo should be played: splitscreen. It was a lot of fun, and I understand more why people like Cortana | 4 |
| Good Job! | Switch | 2020-04-26 | 2021-06-02 | th someone else. You’re the son of a large business owner and have to climb the ranks of the company. The first task is to move a projector into a meeting room. How you do it doesn’t matter, you can carefully open doors and manoeuvre it around, or create a slingshot with an electrical cable and launch it through the walls. | 4 |
| ABZÛ | PS4 | 2016-08-02 | 2021-06-02 | It’s a very calm and chilling experience. There’s no speech, no text other than controls and the names of fish, but everything you do is intuitive. It’s not challenging or long, but it’s just an amazing spectacle from start to finish. | 3.5 |
| What Remains of Edith Finch? | Xbox Series | 2017-04-25 | 2021-06-02 | As you explore and find your way into each room (they’ve all been sealed shut by a paranoid family member), you learn the stories of each. Most of these are played out in short gameplay segments, with some unique styles and some creative ideas. The dialogue text showing up in the game world is something I love seeing in games. | 4 |
| Untitled Goose Game | Switch | 2019-09-20 | 2021-06-02 | A very fun game, especially in co-op. It’s quite short (although not as short as first appearances as there’s plenty of new tasks after the credits), but quite charming. Working out how to complete each task is fun and having two Geese opens up more opportunities (there’s no specific co-op stuff, though). Lovely art style and just really cute. | 4 |
| The Saboteur | Xbox 360 | 2009-12-03 | 2021-06-02 | One thing that is really nice is the black and white style (with a few choice colour highlights) that the game starts out with. As you spread hope, the colour comes back, and the contrast between grey/colour areas is really nice to see. | 4 |
| Rain on Your Parade | Xbox Series | 2021-04-15 | 2021-06-02 | Rain On Your Parade is just pure fun, it has the spark that some might call “Nintendo magic” and is just a joy all the way through. | 4 |
| Outer Wilds | Xbox Series | 2019-05-28 | 2021-06-02 | It’s a fascinating game that doesn’t tell you where to go, and different parts can be discovered in different orders, and some depend on you learning how the game works and trying different ideas. | 4 |
| Rush | PS4 | 2012-02-09 | 2021-06-02 | Most fighting will be against an enemy called the Nevi, black creatures with glowing orbs that you have to attack, they come in many shapes and forms with different attacks. Most attacking will be your homing kick, but it’s really satisfying to use. Gravity Rush is an extremely fun game. | 4.5 |
| The Witness | PS4 | 2016-01-26 | 2021-06-02 | Lots of colours have black dots on the path, however as the puzzles are in various forms of light, different colours and sometimes issues like in-game glare, the black dot will be on a very dark path and are almost impossible for me to see. Some puzzles also require working things out in relation to colour, with some poor colour choices that make it impossible for colourblind people. | 1 |
| The Falconeer | Xbox Series | 2020-11-10 | 2021-06-02 | The story is fairly light, you pick a character out of a bunch of options, but you have to do this for each chapter, as each chapter follows a different faction. It’s difficult to get invested when your generic chosen character gets replaced – and especially as chapters and with a mission where you face an unbeatable enemy and it doesn’t finish until you die. And because you only ever see people on the giant birds, there’s no sense of scale – it comes across as tiny people riding regular birds. | 2 |
| Totally Reliable Delivery Service | Xbox Series | 2020-04-01 | 2021-06-02 | There was some enjoyment from how bad and broken the game felt, but it was more laughing at the game and not the same kind of fun of other games in this genre. | 1.5 |
| Knack | PS4 | 2015-11-15 | 2021-06-02 | It’s kind of fascinating, because it’s an absolutely terrible game, but is technically well made. | 1.5 |
| Genesis Noir | Xbox Series | 2021-03-26 | 2021-06-02 | The visuals and music are magnificent, but the gameplay mostly amounts to “tap random buttons until the game proceeds”. | 2 |
| Rare Replay | Xbox One | 2015-08-04 | 2021-07-05 | From the moment it starts off with a musical number, it’s clear that Rare Replay is made with a lot of love. The menus have a wonderful style, with each game getting it’s own music for its own parts of the menu (including games which don’t have any music in game), all with their own styles with lots of animation happening | 5 |
| Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts | Xbox 360 | 2008-11-11 | 2021-07-05 | Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts gets overlooked because of what it’s not, but it’s definitely worth a look. | 5 |
| Jetpac | ZX Spectrum | 1983-05-00 | 2021-07-05 | Jetpac is a classic which is overlooked. I think it’s especially impressive that this was limited to home computer restraints, and not the beefier arcade cabinets at the time. | 3.5 |
| Lunar Jetman | ZX Spectrum | 1983-00-00 | 2021-07-05 | The complexity of Lunar Jetman makes the game far less fun than Jetpac, and is not something I’d want to play again. | 3 |
| Atic Atac | ZX Spectrum | 1983-00-00 | 2021-07-05 | That said, the core gameplay is good fun, and the visuals are surprisingly nice for its era. | 3 |
| ZX Spectrum | 1984-00-00 | 2021-07-05 | Sabre Wulf isn’t a bad game, but is still a fairly frustrating one. The snapshots are tailored well and show how fun some of the gameplay can be, but it feels more like blindly stumbling around rather than the working out and planning of Atic Atac. | 2 | |
| Underwurlde | ZX Spectrum | 1984-00-00 | 2021-07-05 | Underwurlde is a game filled with cheap deaths, terrible controls, platforming into areas blindly and all while trying to navigate an overly large maze. A truly terrible game. | 0.5 |
| Knight Lore | ZX Spectrum | 1984-11-00 | 2021-07-05 | Everything just makes Knight Lore a fairly tedious experience, although nowhere near as frustrating as Underwurlde. | 1.5 |
| Gunfright | ZX Spectrum | 1985-00-00 | 2021-07-05 | While that’s all there is to the game, it’s still a pretty fun game, with some really nice (at the time) graphics. As there is no depth, the isometric view doesn’t come with the same problems as Knight Lore, and it works well with the gameplay. | 2.5 |
| Slalom | NES | 1987-08-00 | 2021-07-05 | Slalom is a game which wasn’t a great game for its time, but has been turned into something that can be enjoyed due to the extra features of Rare Replay. | 3 |
| RC Pro-Am | NES | 1988-02-00 | 2021-07-06 | The game is fairly generous in that you only need to place 3rd (out of 4) to progress. Doing this is still difficult, and sometimes getting first place is an impossibility as the AI racers can outright cheat, zooming ahead while you’re at the highest possible speed in the game. | 3 |
| Cobra Triangle | NES | 1989-07-00 | 2021-07-06 | The campaign is split across 25 different challenges, of which there are multiple types. There’s a time trial race which has a load of enemy AI for you to blow up, an obstacle course where you have to avoid logs and whirlpools, a shooting gallery where you have to shoot targets as your boat drifts along, one where you protect swimmers, a few bosses and some others. | 3 |
| Snake Rattle and Roll | NES | 1990-07-00 | 2021-07-06 | With that said, Snake Rattle and Roll still feels like fun, even when you’re constantly failing (final boss excluded). It feels like it was designed with 2 players in mind, competing for points and laughing at each other’s failures, rather than actually completing the game. | 3 |
| Solar Jetman | NES | 1990-09-00 | 2021-07-07 | While there’s a lot to praise about Solar Jetman, it ultimately is a fairly slow and tedious game. The snapshots do create some nice bit-sized chunks for you. | 2 |
| Digger T. Rock | NES | 1990-12-00 | 2021-07-07 | With more levels and having the required resources in each level, this could be an extremely fun game. The snippets used in the snapshots were good fun, especially one where you have to make it from switch to door with no damage. | 2.5 |
| Battletoads | NES | 1992-06-00 | 2021-07-08 | Alongside this difficulty is just an odd sense of joy. There’s a lot of charm in the animation and style, with great music as well (including the best pause music ever). Battletoads really is a classic. | 3 |
| RC Pro-Am II | NES | 1992-12-00 | 2021-07-08 | The upgrade system has changed. Instead of collecting upgrades on the track, you collect money to spend on specific upgrades, or to buy power ups to start the next race with, such as rockets, shields or nitrus. These power ups can also be found on the tracks. | 3 |
| Battletoads (2020) | Xbox One | 2020-08-20 | 2021-07-08 | To reiterate my advice from before: play acts 1 and 2 as they’re great, then watch the cutscenes of the rest on YouTube as the rest of Battletoads 2020 is not fun at all. | 2 |
| Killer Instinct Gold | N64 | 1996-11-25 | 2021-07-08 | What I find really odd about Killer Instinct Gold is that there’s no basic Vs mode. You can launch an arcade against an opponent, but there’s no basic single match mode. On top of this, there’s also no stage menu, instead you need to both press button combos at the same time to force a certain stage. | 2 |
| Banjo-Kazooie | Xbox 360 | 1998-06-29 | 2021-07-09 | eplaying Banjo-Kazooie takes between 6 and 10 hours, although this will be a lot longer the first time. It’s a great length for annual revisits and is an extremely well-contained piece of media. | 5 |
| Blast Corps | N64 | 1997-03-21 | 2021-07-14 | Blast Corps is a great game, and the uniqueness of it means that it’s still great to play today. I think it’s quite amazing that nobody else has made a game about smashing stuff with vehicles (that I’m aware of anyway). | 4.5 |
| Jet Force Gemini | N64 | 1999-10-11 | 2021-07-14 | That said, this time around finding the Tribals didn’t seem too bad. Exiting an area and returning isn’t so bad, and you can prioritise the more dangerous ones first. You’ll learn which areas you’ll need to revisit as who and eventually find everything you need to fight the final boss. I did enjoy the fight, but I wish you could have chosen who to take on the final boss as. | 4.5 |
| Conker’s Bad Fur Day | N64 | 2001-03-05 | 2021-07-14 | It’s a big shame as everything else is so wonderfully done: the crazy plot, the fun designs and ideas, the charm of the swearing and violence from cute characters. Conker’s Bad Fur Day received no improvements for the Rare Replay version. There is a remake of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, which was criticised for censoring more than the N64 version, but I do wonder if it’s nicer to play. I’ll be finding that out soon. | 3 |
| GoldenEye 007 | Xbox 360 | 2008-00-00 | 2021-07-15 | The Xbox 360 version of GoldenEye takes the amazing original N64 game and spruces it up without altering too much. It makes it more playable alongside current games while keeping the spirit of the original very much intact. This version is great for people who want to relive their memories, or to people who haven’t played GoldenEye before. | 4.5 |
| Grabbed by the Ghoulies | Xbox One | 2003-10-21 | 2021-07-19 | I can see why Grabbed by the Ghoulies wasn’t a big seller, as it’s quite a unique game, but there is a lot to enjoy about the game. | 4 |
| Conker Live & Reloaded | Xbox | 2005-06-21 | 2021-07-19 | While it has a few problems, I think that if you want to try out Conker’s Bad Fur Day, pick Live & Reloaded as it’s much nicer to play. | 4 |
| Banjo-Tooie | Xbox 360 | 2009-04-29 | 2021-07-21 | The core gameplay in Banjo-Tooie is still a ton of fun, and it’s still a joy to play. My main issue with Banjo-Tooie is the amount of walking back and forth, combined with how long it takes to get anywhere due to the size of the levels. Despite this, it’s worth it to get through these sections to get to the fun gameplay in between. | 4 |
| Perfect Dark | Xbox 360 | 2010-03-17 | 2021-07-22 | Perfect Dark is a phenomenal game, surpassing GoldenEye in every way. The 360 version improves things further, and I feel it would still be a great experience for someone playing today. | 5 |
| Kameo: Elements of Power | Xbox 360 | 2005-11-22 | 2021-07-25 | While Kameo: Elements of Power has its problems – mainly not letting you experiment more with the Warriors – it’s still a great fantasy game, one that probably gets overlooked these days. It will never happen, but I would love to see a sequel with more refined…elements. | 3.5 |
| Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge | GBA | 2003-09-15 | 2021-07-25 | Grunty’s Revenge is a short game, taking between 4-5 hours, but for the most part it’s an incredibly fun experience that captures the feeling of the N64 Banjo games extremely well. | 4 |
| Perfect Dark Zero | Xbox 360 | 2005-11-22 | 2021-07-26 | Take the same plot, story, music, rename some things and give it the over the top action gameplay such a story deserves and you could have something immensely fun and entertaining. Instead, the style of Perfect Dark Zero are at odds with each other, making both seem worse than they actually are. Neither part is terrible, it’s just that they don’t fit togethe | 2 |
| Viva Pinata | Xbox 360 | 2006-10-09 | 2021-07-28 | Viva Pinata is incredibly charming, with lovely graphics and incredibly cute pinata designs. It can be a savage game and there can be some moments when all sorts of things can be going wrong at the same time, so while mostly relaxing, it does have moments of stress. | 3.5 |
| Twelve Minutes | Xbox Series | 2021-08-19 | 2021-08-20 | I love time loop games, and point and click adventures, but unfortunately this is missing the vital elements of both. | 0.5 |
| Psychonauts | Xbox | 2005-04-19 | 2021-08-23 | If you like platform games, I highly recommend giving Phyconauts a go. | 4 |
| Psychonauts 2 | Xbox Series | 2021-08-25 | 2021-09-02 | Psychonauts 2 is an absolutely wonderful game. It works extremely well as both a sequel to a 15 year old game and something brand new, with the whole adventure being a marvel from start to finish. | 4.5 |
| Sonic Colours Ultimate | Xbox Series | 2021-09-07 | 2021-09-07 | All these aspects of the original game remain true in Sonic Colours Ultimate, while it makes a few tweeks. The graphics are running in HD with some improvements, such as better textures, lighting and models with more polygons (so the loops look a lot smoother), and runs in 60fps (except for the Switch version). It’s all round a better looking and smoother version of Sonic Colours. | 5 |
| Hades | Xbox Series | 2020-09-17 | 2021-09-16 | I did really enjoy my time with Hades, even if it ultimately felt that the game itself decided it was time for me to beat it, and loved talking to all the characters. The core gameplay itself was fun, it’s just that the main elements of the structure of the game aren’t for me. | 2.5 |
| I Am Fish | Xbox Series | 2021-09-16 | 2021-09-18 | I Am Fish is a surprisingly fun game, the difficult controls make a lot of sense and there’s an immense amount of charm in the game, with some really fun and unique ideas you’ll encounter in each level. It does have some issues, such as checkpoints occasionally being really far apart, and seagulls being annoying (like real life, I guess), but I think it’s definitely worth checking out. | 4 |
| skateBIRD | Xbox Series | 2021-09-16 | 2021-09-18 | For skateBIRD to be an enjoyable experience, all it needed to be was a semi-decent Tony Hawk clone. Sadly, the gameplay itself is incredibly frustrating, inconsistent and, frankly, a complete mess. It’s something you would expect from an Early Access title, not the final release. | 2 |
| Superliminal | Xbox Series | 2019-11-12 | 2021-11-23 | There is an additional challenge mode. This lets you replay the puzzles from the game but with some restrictions, such as only picking up X amount of times or jumping X amount of times, but I find this just ruins the fun of messing about and it just amounts to remembering the final solution and just doing that. It would have been nice to have new puzzles to solve. | 3.5 |
| Last Stop | Xbox Series | 2021-07-22 | 2021-09-28 | That said, Last Stop is still worth a playthrough, for all the moments leading up to the ending, and especially the interactions between Jack, John and Molly. | 3 |
| Sable | Xbox Series | 2021-09-23 | 2021-09-28 | In its current state, I can’t recommend Sable at all. Hopefully the game will get patched enough to feel completed, but at the moment the bugs, as well as other annoyances, impact the gameplay far too much. | 2.5 |
| The Good Life | Xbox Series | 2021-10-15 | 2021-10-22 | The Good Life is a rather frustrating, slow and clunky game that just had an intriguing vibe to it that makes you want to see the story through to the end. | 2 |
| The Forgotten City | Xbox Series | 2021-06-28 | 2021-11-06 | The Forgotten City has a very interesting mystery, with lots of great revelations and discoveries throughout, and a conclusion I was very satisfied with. | 4 |
| Unpacking | Xbox Series | 2021-11-02 | 2021-11-06 | There’s not a lot to actually say about Unpacking, it’s a very relaxing and calm game that tells a simple story in a unique way. It’s short (around 3 hours), but definitely worth experiencing. | 3.5 |
| Kill it with Fire | Xbox Series | 2020-08-13 | 2021-11-06 | The game is short, which works for a game like this as it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It doesn’t do anything mind blowing, but is simply entertaining and amusing. | 3 |
| Backbone | Xbox Series | 2021-06-08 | 2021-11-06 | It’s a shame, because the early stuff is fantastic, and the visuals, music and songs throughout remain a treat for the senses. There are some segments that let you sit back and enjoy the spectacle, and the story definitely seemed like it was going somewhere…it just never did. | 2 |
| The Gardens Between | Xbox Series | 2018-09-20 | 2021-11-16 | While the game is short (about an hour long), and the levels don’t get too complicated, it’s filled with some really neat ideas and lots of creativity. | 3 |
| AI: The Somnium Files | Xbox Series | 2019-09-17 | 2021-11-16 | The mechanic becomes a really great way to keep the mystery flowing, while revealing information in different ways. This all then boils down to the “proper” ending. I found the mysteries to all make sense in the end, everything fit pretty nicely and was explained well. | 3.5 |
| Forza Horizon 5 | Xbox Series | 2021-11-05 | 2021-11-16 | Forza Horizon 5 has some amazing gameplay, but features a lot of annoyances that hinder it. | 2.5 |
| TimeSplitters 2 | Xbox | 2002-10-08 | 2021-12-13 | When it came out, TimeSplitters 2 was a brilliant game, but it was early on in that generation of consoles, and the genre changed significantly throughout. | 4.5 |
| TimeSplitters: Future Perfect | Xbox | 2005-03-22 | 2021-12-13 | As with TimeSplitters 2, there’s also a lot of challenges, multiplayer modes and mapmaker stuff to keep yourself busy with. | 5 |
| The Artful Escape | Xbox Series | 2021-09-09 | 2021-12-13 | There’s lots of creative stuff to see, and it is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. | 3 |
| Exo One | Xbox Series | 2021-11-18 | 2021-12-13 | The game features a “found footage” look and is extremely stylish, with some vast levels that look phenomenal, and some really fun ideas for planets. It’s not a long game, but is a really unique and interesting experience. | 3 |
| Ori and the Blind Forest | Xbox Series | 2015-03-11 | 2021-12-13 | There’s a really good game hidden here, it’s just that I literally can’t see it. | 2 |
| Deeeer Simulator | Xbox Series | 2021-11-25 | 2021-12-16 | that playing them resets the level), and kill some optional bosses, but none of it feels fun or compelling. The game itself is just slow and clunky, and most of the humour just seems like they got a kid to say some random words and threw it together. | 0.5 |
| Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Xbox Series | 2020-03-11 | 2021-12-16 | Combat is also much improved. Instead of just tapping A to have a wisp attack for you, you now have a range of abilities that you can attach to three button slots. You can mix and march as you prefer, and changing them is easy through a quick selection menu, letting you find a layout you like, but letting you quickly change if you require a certain ability. | 4.5 |
| Townscaper | Xbox Series | 2021-08-26 | 2021-12-16 | Townscaper works well as a 10-20 minute idle distraction where you just place blocks and see what happens, but for actually making a town of your own, it’s just a pain. | 1.5 |
| Anthem | Xbox Series | 2019-02-22 | 2021-12-16 | Anthem really is a shame. There’s some incredibly fun mechanics and a very interesting lore hidden behind some dull multiplayer looter shooter mechanics. Even in its current state, I think with a few changes and some offline support, it could be a decent singleplayer game. If it had been planned that way from the start, it could have been something great. | 3.5 |
| Mind Scanners | Xbox Series | 2021-05-20 | 2021-12-17 | Unfortunately, how you do this is where the game fails: each item you can use to treat someone requires you to play a basic minigame that doesn’t tell you what to do, so you have to try and learn it. Some are really obscure and require sticks and multiple buttons to use. | 2 |
| Evil Genius 2: World Domination | Xbox Series | 2021-03-30 | 2021-12-17 | It was a fun game, but I wasn’t compelled to play as any of the other three villains. | 3 |
| The Matrix Awakens Experience | Xbox Series | 2021-12-09 | 2021-12-17 | One thing in particular I liked was the traffic: I blocked off the highway and let traffic back up, which it did to an extremely impressive degree, where you would usually expect things to just not spawn any more. | 2.5 |
| American McGee’s Alice | Xbox 360 | 2000-12-05 | 2021-12-17 | The level design is also disorientating, not in a whimsical way, but in a “everything looks the same so I’m not sure if I’m going backwards” way. The graphics are just dark (not thematically dark, literally dark) and the different areas don’t feel like part of the same world. | 2.5 |
| Alice: Madness Returns | Xbox 360 | 2011-06-14 | 2021-12-23 | That said, the core gameplay is fun and the story is compelling and goes to far, far disturbing territory than I was expecting. It was a very interesting experience. | 3.5 |
| Lake | Xbox Series | 2021-09-01 | 2021-12-23 | There’s no time limit, you just drive around at your own pace and return to the post office when finished. It probably sounds boring, but it actually comes across as really relaxing, there’s a certain charm to the whole game: just like the “holiday” as a postal worker is to the main character, the game is just a nice change of pace for the person playing. | 3 |
| The Gunk | Xbox Series | 2021-12-16 | 2021-12-23 | The Gunk never gets difficult, and the development the characters go through is predictable, but with a short length and some enjoyable dialogue, The Gunk is a pleasant and charming ride. I’d love to see more of this, perhaps another adventure with these characters or just another short but sweet game. | 3 |
| A Plague Tale: Innocence | Xbox Series | 2019-05-14 | 2022-01-06 | There’s a lot to like about A Plague Tale, but also a lot of annoyances. Hopefully these can be sorted for the next game. | 4 |
| Sunset Overdrive | Xbox One | 2014-10-28 | 2022-01-06 | Sunset Overdrive never cares about being serious, it constantly breaks the fourth wall, even with background enemy dialogue. While this is a regular occurrence, it never gets to the point where it feels like too much, there’s still plenty of its own humour, with some interesting characters and moments. I found myself enjoying even the most basic side quests due to the fun traversal, combat and entertaining dialogue. | 4 |
| The Pedestrian | Xbox Series | 2020-01-29 | 2022-01-06 | If I had any complaints about The Pedestrian, it’s that the last level is short. The mechanic introduced there felt like it would have a lot of possibilities and I really wanted more puzzles using it. | 3.5 |
| Gorogoa | Xbox Series | 2017-12-14 | 2022-01-06 | It’s a very short game (about an hour or so), so for cheap (or Game Pass), it’s worth experiencing for how unique it is. | 3 |
| Nobody Saves the World | Xbox Series | 2022-01-18 | 2022-02-02 | Nobody Saves The World can feel tedious while grinding, but the different forms and the humour of the story and side missions help to alleviate it. It’s a really fun game with lots of ways to tailor the experience. | 3.5 |
| The Outer Worlds | Xbox Series | 2019-10-25 | 2022-03-07 | I personally loved The Outer Worlds, the quest stories were good and I really enjoyed the world that was created. The main story itself is a bit short, so a few more areas would have been nice. | 4 |
| Just Cause 4 | Xbox Series | 2018-12-04 | 2022-03-15 | The main bulk of the game is clearing enemy encampments, which do have objectives that repeat a lot. This lets your army take over the map. There are a few story missions, then the side missions. | 3 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | Xbox Series | 2021-10-26 | 2022-03-15 | Guardians of the Galaxy is a great example of how video games can be used to help a narrative, the characters have time to grow on you and it can focus on small or silly moments when it needs to. | 4 |
| Tunic | Xbox Series | 2022-03-16 | 2022-03-23 | even with infinite health on, the game was an incredibly satisfying experience due to the puzzle experience. These aren’t traditional Zelda-like puzzles: it’s about figuring out how the game works. Throughout the game, you will discover pages of the game’s manual. The manual is written in a runic language with a few bits of English – you have to try and interpret it. It’s a great feeling when you work something out that you can apply to things you have found earlier. | 3.5 |
| Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors | Xbox Series | 2017-03-24 | 2022-03-28 | The story has twists and turns, lots of conspiracy theories and a ton of theoretical science – some of it true, some of it not. The game has multiple endings, but you can access a flowchart to jump straight to divergent points to explore other paths. | 3.5 |
| Weird West | Xbox Series | 2022-03-31 | 2022-04-08 | The fourth chapter feels the most broken. There’s two routes through it, and the one I took ended up feeling like I wasn’t supposed to do it (even though that, logically, it seems the “correct” method). The game also bigs up the connection between all five characters and the end is just…underwhelming. One of the characters even comments on this – lampshading that the game’s big mystery just fizzles out does not make it any better. | 2 |
| Horizon: Forbidden West | PS4 | 2022-02-18 | 2022-05-04 | The game looks absolutely amazing, too. And I played this on a base PS4. Guerrilla have done a phenomenal job getting this running smoothly on such old hardware, especially looking as wonderful as it does. There are some issues – fast travel loading screens are much longer, plus you will occasionally hit a short loading screen as the game world catches up to you, but they’re worth it just for how great the game looks, and how life-like things like plants and trees are, both in looks and movement. | 4.5 |
| Lost in Random | Xbox Series | 2021-09-10 | 2022-05-04 | My main criticism is that walking to and fro each section can be a bit dull in terms of the gameplay, especially when you’re looking for something. I do think that there could have been some platforming/puzzling alongside the story sections. Lost in Random is still a really fun game, though. | 3.5 |
| Bugsnax | Xbox Series | 2020-11-12 | 2022-05-10 | Bugsnax is incredibly entertaining. If it were a Pokémon game, it would easily be my favourite Pokémon game. | 4 |
| Trek to Yomi | Xbox Series | 2021-05-05 | 2021-05-24 | Another issue is that, as nice as the style is, the odd camera angles and objects in front of the player can often make it difficult to see what is going on. | 2 |
| Paradise Killer | Xbox Series | 2020-09-04 | 2022-05-24 | The game doesn’t tell you if you were right and wrong, as you can have evidence to accuse multiple people. It’s all about you being happy that you’ve got the right answers. | 3.5 |
| Supraland | Xbox Series | 2019-04-05 | 2022-06-09 | Even with this, I immensely enjoyed this game and even carried on after the main story to get 100% completion because the exploration, movement and puzzles were so much fun. | 5 |
| Ryse: Son of Rome | Xbox One | 2013-11-22 | 2022-06-16 | I think this could have been a better game if it either remained serious the whole game or just embraced its insanity from the beginning. | 3 |
| Evoland 2 | Mobile | 2015-08-25 | 2022-09-05 | Playing on mobile, the controls can be annoying at times, plus it is not good at suspending (do something else on phone, it quits the game, and sometimes there can be a bit of time between checkpoints), but on PC these issues would be solved. | 3.5 |
| Two Point Campus | Xbox Series | 2022-08-09 | 2022-09-05 | The rest of the management is great, just this aspect in particular that I couldn’t get to grips with. | 2.5 |
| As Dusk Falls | Xbox Series | 2022-06-19 | 2022-09-05 | The characters are all very interesting, with a lot to discover about them, and the plot has some interesting turns. Some choices don’t affect much at all, but even some of those can result in different dialogue later on. You get shown a chart of everything at the end of each chapter and some can be quite different – unfortunately, exploring these after you have finished a playthrough is a bit of a faff, but it’s still worth the initial playthrough. | 3 |
| Stray | PS4 | 2022-07-19 | 2022-09-05 | Some parts have puzzles, and even combat and stealth, so it’s not just walking. It changes things up nicely. There’s one thing at the end which I thought was a bit of an oversight (but would be spoilers to say what), but I loved my time with it. | 4 |
| Immortals Fenyx Rising | Xbox Series | 2020-12-03 | 2022-09-20 | Accompanying this journey is something I didn’t expect: lots of really fun humour from the narrator Prometheus (who is constantly interrupted by Zeus). Everything about the game is just silly and fun, which really adds to its own charm. I really ended up loving Fenyx Rising a lot. | 4 |
| Tinykin | Xbox Series | 2022-08-30 | 2022-10-04 | Each level of the game is quite open to explore, but you’ll need Tinykin to progress and solve puzzles. There are four different types, including the default “strong” ones which move objects and ones that stack to help you reach higher places. The environment, and all the insect NPCs you talk to, are all incredibly charming. | 4 |
| Deathloop | Xbox Series | 2021-09-14 | 2022-10-04 | While I massively enjoyed it, I do think it held your hand a bit too much, giving you slightly too much help, especially with the final run. | 3.5 |
| 80 Days | Mobile | 2014-07-31 | 2022-11-28 | The second time, I went via the north pole and encountered loads of marvellous machines, and multiple hidden cities and societies. It was a lovely adventure and I had over two weeks to spare. | 3 |
| Return to Monkey Island | Switch | 2022-09-19 | 2022-11-28 | The one let down is the ending. It’s one of those where you can tell it’s going to be a let down, but it’s still a let down when you get to it. It’s not quite as bad as the Money Island 2 one, but is still a bit of a sour note to end on. | 4 |
| LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | Xbox Series | 2022-04-05 | 2022-12-19 | If the gameplay was fun, this section would be great, but ultimately, it’s a very boring experience and didn’t hold my attention for long once I’d beaten the main story. | 2.5 |
| Alan Wake II | Xbox Series | 2023-10-27 | 2024-01-04 | Alan Wake II is a phenomenal experience. It’s packed with details and is incredibly suspenseful the entire way though. I’m already eagerly awaiting the DLC, Control 2 and the next Alan Wake to find out more about this bizarre and wonderful universe. Alan Wake II is easily one of my favourite gaming experiences. | 5 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom | Switch | 2024-09-26 | 2025-01-08 | If I were to change some things about the game, it would be letting players categorise Echoes themselves, and add a few more accessories and clothing as side quest rewards. Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is an immensely cute and happy game. | 4.5 |
| Split Fiction | Xbox Series | 2025-03-06 | 2025-04-21 | Not that Split Fiction is a short game, each chapter is a few hours long and the side stories are a great distraction, but some of the ideas seem too good to just be used for a single section. It still helps the game feel incredibly fresh the entire time, though, and it’s easily become one of my all-time favourite games. If you can get someone to enjoy the journey alongside you (either locally or online), I immensely recommend it. I’m certainly looking forward to playing the game with the roles swapped around. | 5 |
| Flicky | Arcade | 1984-05-00 | 2021-01-01 | It’s a simple game, but surprisingly good fun. The jumping can be difficult in the tighter maze-like levels, especially as Flicky bounces off walls, but it’s all very charming – it reminds me of a game I used to play called QWAK. | 3 |
| Rad Mobile | Arcade | 1990-10-03 | 2021-05-01 | Rad Mobile is a timed checkpoint racing game with some impressive graphics for the time (particularly the 3D road), dangling from the top of the screen at all times is a swinging Sonic the Hedgehog. | 2.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Mega Drive | 1991-06-23 | 2021-01-05 | One small thing I’ve noticed in more recent playthroughs is that Sonic 1 is actually really good at introducing gimmicks in each level, as the first time you can encounter something it’s usually “safe”, with it getting dangerous once you know how it works. This means you don’t really die because you weren’t expecting a mechanic, because you’ve already been able to “test” it. I was also surprised about how subtle this is. It’s a really well designed game, and I just absolutely love it. | 5 |
| Sonic The Hedgehog | Master System | 1991-10-25 | 2021-01-01 | I thought it was an entertaining game, even if it’s nothing special. It’s an interesting look at an alternate take of the original Sonic, and I think it’s worth playing at least once. | 3 |
| Sonic Eraser | Mega Drive | 1991-00-00 | 2021-01-05 | Blocks of four shapes will fall from the top of the screen, you can’t rotate the block itself but can change the order of the shapes within the block. Once they fall down, any groups of two will vanish, and the game will speed up over time. I’m not a big fan of games like this, but found Sonic Eraser to be enjoyable. | 3 |
| Sonic Patrol Car | Arcade | 1991-00-00 | 2021-01-07 | It’s an extremely simple game, but for the audience, it’s much better than just sitting one one of those rides. | 2.5 |
| Sonic’s Edusoft | Master System | 1991-00-00 | 2021-01-05 | I think Sonic’s Edusoft is quite an interesting bit of Sonic’s history, it’s not a game I would choose to play, but it seems very well made for an educational game. | 3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Mega Drive | 1992-11-21 | 2021-01-05 | The first game is still my favourite, purely for nostalgia reasons, but Sonic 2 is a phenomenal game that still holds up today. | 4.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Master System | 1992-11-21 | 2021-01-05 | Sonic 2 (8-bit) is a fairly poor Sonic game, and not as fun to play as the first 8-bit sonic. | 1.5 |
| SegaSonic Bros | Arcade | 1992-00-00 | 2021-01-07 | It’s fascinating that a game can reach its final state but still be cancelled, so it’s a lost Sonic game that can actually be played. | 2 |
| SegaSonic Popcorn Shop | Arcade | 1993-04-13 | 2021-01-07 | It’s an interesting novelty. There’s not much actual “game” to it, but it’s still technically a game, and would have been a fun amusement in an arcade. | 2 |
| SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter | Arcade | 1993-04-25 | 2021-01-07 | When you finish, Sonic will rank your performance out of five. It’s a very basic game, but I can see it being a fun part of a simple ride for a child. | 2.5 |
| Sonic CD | Sega CD | 1993-09-23 | 2021-01-05 | Sonic CD is really not fun to play at all, and I was glad when it was over. | 2 |
| https://djcube.co.uk/segasonic-the-hedgehog/ | Arcade | 1993-09-00 | 2021-01-05 | The game also looks absolutely beautiful. The blocky design is incredibly detailed, and the levels all have a magnificent look to them. Every moment is a marvel to look at, with some stunning animation to look at as well. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Chaos | Master System | 1993-10-25 | 2021-01-16 | Sonic Chaos is a fairly safe Sonic game, it doesn’t doing anything bad, but is very unremarkable overall. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Spinball | Mega Drive | 1993-11-15 | 2021-01-17 | It’s an interesting concept and has some great music, but I think it could have done with feeling a bit more consistent in terms of controls. | 3 |
| Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine | Mega Drive | 1993-11-26 | 2021-01-17 | I could only make it to stage 3, partly due to colourblind issues (although I am bad at this style of game anyway). The beans are slightly different shapes, but it’s difficult to identify the shapes quick enough for the reaction speeds needed to compete against the AI. | 2 |
| Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine | Master System | 1993-12-00 | 2021-02-21 | Another addition to this version is the puzzle mode. It gives you 30 challenges with a set-up of beans and an objective, such as eliminate all beans of one type, getting large combos or just getting rid of all beans. It’s a really nice addition to the game, one that elevates it to be better than the Mega Drive version. | 3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Arcade | 1993-00-00 | 2021-01-13 | This is certainly an interesting version of the original Sonic, and is one of the few times where people will actually care about the score. | 3 |
| Sonic 3 & Knuckles | Mega Drive | 1994-10-18 | 2021-01-05 | Sonic 3 & Knuckles follows on from Sonic 2 and features more of the same great gameplay. One big new feature are the elemental shields that have their own abilities. | 4.5 |
| Sonic Drift | Game Gear | 1994-03-18 | 2021-01-05 | Dotted along the tracks are a few powerups, such as a spring jump and an invincibility that speeds you up and seems to last for almost an entire lap. | 2 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog’s Gameworld | Pico | 1994-08-00 | 2021-01-18 | For the intended audience, it’s a pretty fun minigame collection, and as it focuses on “dexterity”, feels like it’s much heavier on the “video game” side of things than “educational”. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Spinball | Master System | 1994-09-00 | 2021-02-21 | The bosses are also not part of the level itself, instead you warp to a separate area with the boss. Some bosses are similar, but the first and final bosses are completely different to the Mega Drive version. | 1.5 |
| Tails and the Music Maker | Pico | 1994-10-04 | 2021-01-05 | As an “edutainment” title, Tails and the Music Maker seems to be completely lacking on the “educational” side of things. The Pico seems like it’s aimed at slightly older children, whereas the functions of this game – at least the music-related ones – seem similar to most light up electronic keyboard toys that you can get for kids around the age of 1-2 | 2 |
| Blue Spheres | Mega Drive | 1994-10-18 | 2021-03-07 | There are an immense amount of levels – 134,217,728 (or 128,016,000 distinct layouts) so it’s pretty much a “play until you get bored” kind of game. It’s a lot of fun for a quick blast, though. | 3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble | Game Gear | 1994-11-11 | 2021-01-05 | There are a few fun set pieces, I did like the train boss, which was probably the most unique part of Triple Trouble, and the gameplay and graphics feel better than what you would expect from a Game Gear. | 3 |
| Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio | Mega Drive | 1994-11-00 | 2021-01-18 | Considering that this came out a few years after Mario Paint, this is extremely bare bones and doesn’t even feature any actual drawing. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Drift 2 | Game Gear | 1995-03-18 | 2021-01-19 | Sonic Drift 2 is a pretty good kart racing game, and somehow manages to look way better than a Game Gear game should do. | 3.5 |
| Knuckles’ Chaotix | Sega 32X | 1995-04-21 | 2021-01-20 | It’s a shame as when it works well, Knuckles Chaotix is a ton of fun. Unfortunately, these moments are surrounded by a lot of frustration. | 2.5 |
| Tails’ Skypatrol | Game Gear | 1995-04-28 | 2021-01-20 | If that doesn’t sound bad enough, then you’re in look. Tails has a limited flight meter. If this runs out, you die. So you have to make sure you collect sweets to fill this up while avoiding everything else. | 1 |
| Tails Adventure | Game Gear | 1995-09-22 | 2021-01-05 | It’s still a rather interesting game, and has some neat ideas, such as the remote control robot being used for some puzzles. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Labyrinth | Game Gear | 1995-10-00 | 2021-01-05 | With it being isometric, is means that the entire game is spent going diagonally, which D-pads weren’t designed to do constantly. | 1.5 |
| Sonic The Fighters | Arcade | 1996-05-00 | 2021-01-05 | There’s something very charming about the low poly models for this game, there’s a really nice polygonal style to them. The stages themselves also look really nice, especially the ice stage which takes place on a giant mirror – it’s rather beautiful. | 3 |
| Sonic’s Schoolhouse | PC | 1996-10-18 | 2021-01-23 | It’s fine for an educational title, but it really does feel like they took something else, threw in Sonic and put up some Sonic posters in the rooms. | 1.5 |
| Sonic 3D Blast | Mega Drive | 1996-11-08 | 2021-01-23 | I found the controls to be very responsive, and aiming my jumps was very easy. I ended up enjoying the game a lot, even if it is very different from most other Sonic games. I really think that this could have been an interesting new IP if they replaced Sonic, as the expectations from a Sonic platformer is a lot higher. | 3 |
| Sonic Blast | Game Gear | 1996-11-00 | 2021-01-23 | Due to the graphics, Sonic can’t move fast, so Sonic Blast instead focuses on more maze-like levels, making you guess at where you need to go next. This goes beyond frustrating in the Blue Marine level, which features currents and pipes to go through. | 0.5 |
| Sonic X-Treme | Saturn | 1996-00-00 | 2021-01-23 | Sonic X-Treme is an interesting part of Sonic’s history, and the development shows that they were trying some unique things with it. It’s hard to say if it could have worked, but perhaps a mixture of tube-like levels and stages where you have to find objects could have worked, even if it’s a bit of departure from the regular “A to B” style of Sonic. | 3 |
| Sonic 3D Blast | Saturn | 1997-02-14 | 2021-01-23 | There’s a lot more physics applied to slopes as well, which made those sections frustrating as Sonic will slide and jump off them at odd angles. The ice level is also much worse, due to Sonic slipping much more. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Jam | Saturn | 1997-06-20 | 2021-01-23 | It also features it’s own 3D Sonic level which houses all the bonus material: soundtracks, galleries, some videos and more. There are also some challenges within this level to complete. The movement is quite fluid, although the camera is pretty bad. | 4.5 |
| Le Mans 24 | Arcade | 1997-08-00 | 2023-03-10 | The game itself is a simple racing game. You need to complete laps in a simulated 24 hour period (it only lasts a few minutes). A timer counts down and you need to overtake racers to add to your time. If you make it to the end of the 24 hours, you’ll have a one on one race for one lap to add to your score. | 2.5 |
| Sonic R | PC | 1997-11-18 | 2021-01-23 | While Sonic R is an awful game, I think it’s worth just seeing it for yourself. There’s not much to see so you’ll get through the levels finally quickly. | 2 |
| Sonic’s Bonus Game | Browser | 1997-00-00 | 2021-01-17 | The earliest Sonic flash game. This was a flash version of the special stage from Sonic 3D Blast and was used for competitions on Sega’s website. It’s very choppy, with Sonic’s movement not felling in sync with your actions. The objective is to collect the most rings while dodging or jumping over obstacles. | 1 |
| Sonic Jam | Game.com | 1998-07-10 | 2021-01-23 | Sonic Jam on the GameCom is by far the worst Sonic game I’ve encountered so far, and I think it will likely be the worst overall. | 0.5 |
| Sonic Adventure | Xbox 360 | 1998-09-09 | 2021-01-23 | Everything else in Sonic’s adventure is just poor padding. You have a city to walk around to get to the stages, but it’s not really utilised, with no side missions to do with the characters, it’s just more of a fancy level select. | 3.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure | Neo Geo Pocket | 1999-12-07 | 2021-01-23 | The gameplay in this is also great, feeling close to the original Mega Drive games in terms of physics and speed. It’s a ton of fun to play and I think this one definitely deserves a re-release as it’s well worth playing, even if it is derivative of Sonic 2. | 4 |
| Sonic Shuffle | Dreamcast | 2000-11-14 | 2021-01-23 | With four players, Sonic Shuffle can be a really fun game with some really nice ideas that make it more than just a bad Mario Party clone, but the moment an AI is introduced, it ruins the fun. | 2 |
| Sonic Advance | GBA | 2001-02-05 | 2021-01-23 | Sonic Advance is a lot like the classic Mega Drive Sonic games, although Sonic himself is more like his modern design. It takes the original level design philosophy of Sonic – multiple routes, higher is quicker – and creates some expansive levels to be explored | 4 |
| Sonic Adventure 2 | Xbox 360 | 2001-06-19 | 2021-01-23 | Sonic Adventure 2 is a mostly great game, even if it does show its age a bit, but the Tails/Robotnik sections pull it down a bit. I think they could have added some alternate ways to play after you first complete it, such as playing through Sonic/Shadow levels only. | 4 |
| Sonic Tennis | Mobile | 2001-06-19 | 2021-01-23 | Get into position and hold the swing button to charge up your shot. Each opponent gets more difficult as you get through the game – Tails will get outs most of the time, while Knuckles is quite tough, especially for the game’s clunky controls. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Fishing | Mobile | 2002-01-28 | 2021-01-23 | Catching a fish will give you a points and add three seconds, although the game also likes giving you trash, which will give you zero points and zero added time. This game will annoy anyone in less than 20 seconds. | 0.5 |
| Sonic Racing Kart | Mobile | 2002-07-08 | 2021-01-23 | The big feature with this game originally was being able to download ghost data from others to compete against. Without that, this is just a casual drive. | 1 |
| Sonic Spinball | Browser | 2002-00-00 | 2021-01-23 | It plays very similar to the good old fashioned Windows Pinball rather than Sonic Spinball – in Spinball, you could adjust Sonic’s movement in mid air, while this just has a “tilt” button to try and adjust it slightly. Bounce Sonic around and try to get the highest score. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Advance 2 | GBA | 2003-03-12 | 2021-01-23 | Visually, Sonic Advance 2 is great. I just think it’s a step down from the first Advance in terms of gameplay. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Darts | Mobile | 2003-04-21 | 2021-01-23 | You move a curser over the point you want to aim at. The bar at the bottom will swing left/right and the bar on the right will swing up/down. This determines the accuracy, although you can be waiting ages for them to align in the way you want it to. | 0.5 |
| Sonic Pinball Party | GBA | 2003-06-15 | 2021-01-23 | By far the best mode of Sonic Pinball Party is the options. Here is a sound test with the music, which features renditions of Songs based on the classic games, Sonic Advance and some extra tracks like midi versions of Super Sonic Racing and Live & Learn, all using the GBA’s capabilities quite well. | 2 |
| SonicN | N-Gage | 2003-10-07 | 2021-01-23 | Take the awkward buttons on the original phone, plus having to open it up to change card and then have the big Sonic game be a toned down port of a Game Boy Advance game (when the GBA already had a sequel to it), and it’s clear as to why it failed. | 2 |
| Sonic Battle | GBA | 2003-12-04 | 2021-01-26 | The atmosphere of Sonic Battle is great, so it’s unfortunate that the gameplay can’t keep up with it. | 3 |
| Sonic Heroes | GameCube | 2003-12-30 | 2021-01-26 | It’s a big shame because without these issues, Sonic Heroes would be a lot of fun (even with the repetition). The buggy nature of the game just leads to many unfair deaths, made worse by the low amount of lives in the game and some checkpoints that are very far apart. | 1.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme | Xbox | 2003-00-00 | 2021-01-27 | From this demo and the final Tech Deck: Bare Knuckle Grind release, I think it’s quite clear why Sega passed on this pitch. I think a skateboarding game for Sonic could have worked well around the time this was in development, but it needed some interesting ideas to make it more than just a Tony Hawk knock off. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Hopping | Mobile | 2004-02-23 | 2021-01-27 | Surprisingly, it’s a really nice puzzle game that I enjoyed a lot, it’s a shame that there are only 30 puzzles in it as I would definitely enjoy more. | 4 |
| Sonic Advance 3 | GBA | 2004-06-07 | 2021-01-27 | Sonic Advance 3 is a very solid 2D Sonic game. The trilogy really does deserve to get re-released. | 4 |
| Sega Superstars | PS2 | 2004-10-22 | 2021-01-31 | Sega Superstars was an interesting novelty when it got released, but motion gaming has changed so much since this came out. At least this was Sonic’s only attempt at a camera-based control (it was, right? right?) | 2 |
| Sonic Heroes Puzzle | Browser | 2004-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | While it’s actually quite fun, it’s also fairly easy. I’m usually had quite bad at puzzle games, but had no problems keeping on top of the blocks in this one. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Mega Collection Plus Mini | Browser | 2004-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | This is a really interesting game despite this, as it gives us a glimpse into what a flash version of Sonic 1 might have looked like. | 1 |
| Sega Superstars Webgame | Browser | 2004-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | The game itself feels quite laggy, with Sonic not quite being able to keep up with the cursor movement, you also don’t have a long distance of visibility, with items only showing up when you’re close. | 2 |
| Sonic Jump | Mobile | 2005-02-21 | 2021-01-31 | This is a great little game, so it’s good that it got a remake. | 4 |
| Shadow the Hedgehog | GameCube | 2005-11-15 | 2021-01-31 | That said, I actually quite liked my time with Shadow the Hedgehog. It has a ton of problems, but there’s a cheesy charm to it that was just fun. | 3 |
| Sonic Rush | DS | 2005-11-15 | 2021-01-31 | Sonic Rush is more flawed than I originally remember, but there’s still a fun Sonic experience here. I think a modern port would do wonders for it, expanding the screen sideways (but keeping the vertical view as high) would make obstacles far less annoying, and possibly some improvements to the bosses. | 4 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog Part 1 | Mobile | 2005-12-05 | 2021-01-31 | I wouldn’t recommend playing this version at all, but for a java version of Sonic, it’s a little bit better than expected. | 1.5 |
| Sonic X | Leapster | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | For an educational game aimed at young kids, Sonic X seems like a good game. The maths problems increase as it goes on, and some of the platforming becomes a little bit more involved. The graphics are pretty nice, and the animation is surprisingly smooth. | 2.5 |
| Sonic X Snake | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | A flash game version of Snake, the classic mobile game where you eat bricks to get longer. In this version, you collect rings. It’s a very speedy version of Snake, so appropriate for Sonic. | 2 |
| Sonic XS | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | While this looks and plays like a flash game made by someone who has only had Sonic badly described to them, it’s an official game made to promote the show Sonic X. | 1.5 |
| Shadow XS | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | This one features a black Sonic (the title suggests Shadow, but it’s clearly Sonic) and the enemy aggressiveness has been turned up a lot. | 1.5 |
| Sonic X Bowling | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | Aiming is very strange. Hitting the side of the pins seems to get strikes, which doesn’t look right at all. | 1.5 |
| Sonic the Broad Jump | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | A very short flash minigame. Sonic starts running and you have to plan Sonic’s jump angle and power by aiming and holding down with the mouse. Once Sonic is in the air, you can perform more mid-air jumps, but only while ascending. Once Sonic lands, the length of the jump will be recorded. | 2 |
| Shadow the Hedgehog Flash | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | The platforming is pretty bad, with a bling jumps and a section of moving platforms which aren’t synched properly. | 2 |
| Shadow Shoot | Mobile | 2006-01-23 | 2021-01-31 | It’s fairly enjoyable, while still being clunky and, even though it’s short, does get repetitive by the end. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Riders | GameCube | 2006-02-21 | 2021-01-31 | Sonic Riders is really just a confusing mess. The main thing I liked about it was the starting grid. You can walk backwards for more of a run up, then run forward to get your speed as high up. There’s an electric fence across the starting line that will stun you if you run into it before the countdown timer finishes. It’s way more fun than tapping a button at the right moment. | 2.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Xbox 360 | 2006-11-14 | 2021-01-31 | . There are issues which spoil the flow of the game, but the core gameplay is really good when it works. Even with the issues in the original version, there is a lot to like in Sonic 06, but a lot of frustrations. In its worst stage, it is an immensely flawed game (with amazing music) and fairly bad, but isn’t even close to being one of the worst games ever like it’s reputation suggests. | 3 |
| https://djcube.co.uk/sonic-the-hedgehog-genesis-gba/ | GBA | 2006-11-14 | 2021-01-31 | had to put the game down in Spring Yard Zone because I just couldn’t stop laughing at the music. It starts off not too terrible, but after around 20 seconds it attempts to keep up with the original and just spits out an incoherent mess. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Rivals | PSP | 2006-11-21 | 2021-01-31 | Sonic Rivals has the potential being a solid Sonic 2D Platformer, with similarities to the classic Mega Drive games, but it just feels like you’re playing one where the game will randomly make you lose control, and decide that you have to replay a level again because it feels like it. | 2 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog Chaos Crush | Browser | 2006-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | If you hit the blocks containing icons of Sonic, Shadow or Silver, your next hit will trigger a special shot, such as Shadow’s which fires up and breaks all blocks in its path. | 2 |
| Sonic Rivals Dash | Browser | 2006-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | The game is functional, although the platforms are all completely straight. There are no annoying power ups or catch-up mechanics, so it’s less frustrating than the main Sonic Rivals game. | 2 |
| Sonic and the Secret Rings | Wii | 2007-02-20 | 2021-01-31 | I really like Sonic and the Secret Rings. Despite its flaws, there is a lot of charm to the game, with some really enjoyable levels. I would love a “Storybook Collection” remake with some more traditional controls as an option, as I think it really does deserve another chance. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Rush Adventure | DS | 2007-09-19 | 2021-01-31 | If that was all there was to say about Sonic Rush Adventure, it would be an outstanding game. Unfortunately, there was one Sonic Rush complaint which should have been ignored: its short length. In order to make Sonic Rush Adventure longer, there’s a lot of padding – I’m sure you spend more time doing the padding than playing the actual game. | 4 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games | Wii | 2007-11-06 | 2021-01-31 | This also feels like Sonic and Mario are just in a generic Olympic game. You can unlock a couple of “dream” events but the whole style just isn’t a celebration of either franchise. | 2 |
| Sonic Rivals 2 | PSP | 2007-11-13 | 2021-01-31 | There is a saving grace for this game. Once you’ve played though one story, you unlock a Free Play mode. This lets you play the levels on their own. This shows that this would have been a decent game without the racing elements, as the levels themselves are a lot of fun, with some interesting gimmicks. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Maze Craze | Browser | 2007-00-00 | 2021-01-31 | A tie in game to Sonic and the Secret Rings where you play as Sonic’s Shoes. Sonic has lost them and you need to navigate them through mazes to reunite them with Sonic. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity | Wii | 2008-01-08 | 2021-02-02 | While I did enjoy this more than the first Sonic Riders, it also feels a bit too “safe”, and is a less interesting game overall. It’s just another mascot racing game, while the first game tried to be unique. | 3 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games | DS | 2008-01-22 | 2021-02-02 | Compared to the Wii version, the DS version of the original Mario & Sonic was actually quite enjoyable. | 3 |
| Sega Superstars Tennis | Xbox 360 | 2008-03-18 | 2021-02-02 | I think it’s a shame that you have to play though some of the duller parts of Sega Superstars Tennis in order to get to the minigames, because the events you do unlock are a ton of fun. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Jump 2 | Mobile | 2008-05-00 | 2021-02-02 | As Sonic Jump was a good game, this is still good, but you won’t really tell that much difference from the first due to using the same levels and assets. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood | DS | 2008-06-06 | 2021-02-02 | I did enjoy Sonic Chronicles overall, due to the charming writing, although some aspects were a let down (the music is just…there, and is the most forgettable music in a Sonic game), the only thing I really disliked was that it was a turn based RPG. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Unleashed | Wii | 2008-11-18 | 2021-02-06 | With how enjoyable the Sonic portions of this were, it’s a shame that Dimps didn’t get a chance to make a full Sonic game based on the gameplay in this. | 4 |
| Sonic Unleashed | Xbox 360 | 2008-11-24 | 2021-02-06 | If the game properly directed you to the next level, and changed the Sun and Moon medals to unlocking extras, than Sonic Unleashed would be a brilliant game. Unfortunately, this incredibly dull padding sours the game quite a lot. | 3.5 |
| Sonic at the Olympic Games | Mobile | 2008-07-00 | 2021-02-06 | It’s nothing special, but manages to capture the spirit of Sonic over the main Wii game. I could see it as a decent minigame in a handheld Sonic game. | 1.5 |
| Sonic X Emerald Grab | Browser | 2008-00-00 | 2021-02-06 | A Sonic clone of Bejewelled (the most popular clone being Candy Crush). Swap two neighbouring icons to form a string of three to make them disappear and get points. If the falling tiles make another matching set, you get a lot of points. | 2 |
| Sonic X Ring Thing | Browser | 2008-00-00 | 2021-02-06 | It’s very, very basic. The icons also barely react to being clicked, so you get points, but there’s no clear visual response to it. | 0.5 |
| Sonic Speed Spotter | Browser | 2008-00-00 | 2021-02-06 | The differences got repetitive throughout the game, most of them had the inside of an ear missing, a different band of colour a character’s hair was gone in three images in a row and so on. There is also inconsistency over which things count as a single large change or lots of small ones. | 2 |
| Sonic and the Black Knight | Wii | 2009-03-10 | 2021-02-09 | Sonic and the Black Knight is a lot of fun and, other than a few annoying moments, is a very enjoyable experience. It also has an outstanding soundtrack, with Knight of the Wind being one of the best songs in the franchise. | 4 |
| Sonic Unleashed | Mobile | 2009-06-08 | 2021-02-09 | There are also two Werehog stages, which are slower paced platformers and some combat sections, which tell you the number of enemies left like Rush. You just bash a button for a basic attack. There are no werehog bosses in this version. | 2 |
| Sonic Unleashed | Mobile | 2009-06-08 | 2021-02-09 | It would have been nice to see something like this on the DS, with a bit more polish (and a few more levels), it could have been a good Sonic game. | 2.5 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | Wii | 2009-10-13 | 2021-02-09 | Overall, this is a much better party game than the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and the festival is even fun for a single player. | 3.5 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | DS | 2009-10-13 | 2021-02-09 | . If the game had been a list of missions on a menu, it would have been very enjoyable, but the aimless wandering between them takes up far more time than actually playing the game. | 2.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog Golf | Mobile | 2009-00-00 | 2021-02-09 | While it initially seems like a silly idea, it just works really well. It’s like one of those games that shouldn’t work, but just does. | 3 |
| Sonic Knight in Training | Browser | 2009-00-00 | 2021-02-09 | The controls are quite annoying. As the game is in an X shape, the directional buttons are slightly off – so pressing up faces Sonic up and left. It’s just a really bad flash game. | 0.5 |
| Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | Mobile | 2010-01-29 | 2021-02-09 | The game also has both wireless and pass-and-pay multiplayer, with Snowboard Cross having people race against the ghost of the previous players. | 2.5 |
| Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie | Xbox 360 | 2010-02-23 | 2021-02-09 | Sonic Racing is a very fun kart racing game. I’m not sure there’s much reason to play it instead of the sequel, but there is still enjoyment to get out of this. | 3.5 |
| Sonic & SEGA AllStars Racing | DS | 2010-02-23 | 2021-02-09 | It’s much harder to defend yourself from items, so you’ll be hit a lot. The best defensive weapon is a Mega Horn, which sends out a shockwave of sounds that hits opponents and destroys incoming weapons | 2.5 |
| Sonic the Sketchhog | Mobile | 2021-07-01 | 2021-02-09 | While it’s a very simple game, it’s just really, really charming. | 3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 | Xbox 360 | 2010-10-12 | 2021-02-09 | Sonic Blast 2 is a poor rehash of Sonic 1 & 2, with bad graphics and wonky physics. It’s a very poor Sonic game. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Free Riders | Xbox 360 | 2010-11-04 | 2021-02-16 | The game also repeatedly paused itself, I could never figure out not causing it – my only guess was Kinect not being able to detect me occasionally. It’s all round a frustrating experience, although me and my fiancée had a lot of fun laughing at the sheer absurdity of the controls and how bad they are. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Colours | Wii | 2010-11-12 | 2021-02-16 | To me, Sonic Colours is one of the stronger Sonic games. The core gameplay is fun to play and the Wisps add to the gameplay instead of trying to provide a completely different gameplay style. I much prefer being able to complete a game and having lots of optional content on top. | 5 |
| Sonic Colours | DS | 2010-11-12 | 2021-02-16 | Boosting is gained from wisps and damaging enemies, which I think is a downgrade from the trick system, but the various wisp abilities translate really well to 2D and compliment the level design really well. | 3.5 |
| Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing | Mobile | 2010-00-00 | 2021-02-16 | As you only need some slight assistance with turns, you can experience everything it has to offer while half asleep. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Speed Spotter 2 | Browser | 2010-00-00 | 2021-02-16 | The second spot the difference game based on Sonic X. This one is much more creative in its differences, with full objects being added or removed or changes made to background elements. | 2 |
| Sonic Cricket | Mobile | 2011-02-16 | 2021-02-16 | I actually enjoyed Sonic Cricket. It’s very bare bones, but it does its job pretty well. | 3 |
| Sonic Generations | PC | 2011-11-01 | 2021-02-16 | Sonic Generations is a great celebration with Sonic. It’s a big shame that Sega didn’t take what made it so good – the gameplay and level design – and create a new Sonic game with unique levels out of it. | 4.5 |
| Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games | Wii | 2011-11-15 | 2021-02-16 | This is better than the first Olympic Games, but a step down from the Winter one. Oh, and one additional thing (which isn’t really Sega’s fault) is that the game uses a lot of Olympics imagery. This usually isn’t a huge issue, but for London 2012, the imagery is absolutely hideous. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Generations | 3DS | 2011-12-01 | 2021-02-16 | But overall, it’s a great Sonic game, and a great counterpart to the main version. It’s not a cheaply made downgraded port, but a second Generations game. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Speed Spotter 3 | Browser | 2011-00-00 | 2021-02-16 | As for the game, it’s the same as the previous two, except the differences are much more obvious. | 2 |
| Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games | 3DS | 2012-02-10 | 2021-02-16 | This Mario & Sonic Olympic game is actually quite different to the previous ones. It doesn’t try to emulate the sports at all, instead simplifying them all into simple minigames, similar to the ones found in Mario Party. As a result, this game does feature a lot of sports, but none of them feel much like playing the actual spot. | 1.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 | Xbox 360 | 2012-05-15 | 2021-02-16 | If you skipped this because of Episode 1, it’s worth giving it a go. Sonic & Tails is a fun, albeit short, Sonic game. | 3.5 |
| Sonic x Vapor | Browser | 2012-00-00 | 2021-02-16 | There are a lot of adverts that Sonic runs past, and the amount of gaps increases the further along you get. It’s a decent auto runner. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Jump | Mobile | 2012-10-18 | 2021-02-16 | Sonic Jump is a very solid mobile Sonic games, with some lovely backgrounds that remind me of Rayman Origins. | 3.5 |
| Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed | PC | 2012-11-18 | 2021-02-16 | Other stand out tracks (although most are great) are the Skies of Arcadia, where there’s a massive battle happening with airships, which drastically alters the track as you race on it, the NiGHTS level which its surreal imagery and completely different segments each map, and the Burning Rangers (a game I know nothing about) level which takes place in a flooding underground base. They all have a great spectacle about them. | 5 |
| Sonic Dash | Mobile | 2013-03-07 | 2021-02-16 | Sonic Dash has fun gameplay, but it’s a score-based game which has a meaningless score. It’s nice enough to play every now and then, but you have little incentive to go further than you did last time. | 2 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Mobile | 2013-05-16 | 2021-02-16 | This version of Sonic 1 is a brilliant port. | 4.5 |
| Sonic Lost World | PC | 2013-10-29 | 2021-02-16 | I think Sonic Lost World is a great game, and it’s a shame we never got to see this formula evolve at all. | 4 |
| Sonic Lost World | 3DS | 2013-10-29 | 2021-02-16 | Sonic Lost World 3DS isn’t an awful game, it’s just somewhat forgettable. It tries to do some new things and I think with some refinements it could have done well. | 2.5 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games | Wii U | 2013-11-08 | 2021-02-20 | This is is one of the better Mario & Sonic Olympic games. | 3.5 |
| 3D Sonic the Hedgehog | 3DS | 2013-10-29 | 2021-02-20 | Unfortunately, the emulation itself isn’t very good. There’s a lot of slowdown (especially when you get hit) and a lot of sprites that flicker in and out of existence. The 3D is an interesting novelty for a quick 3D Blast, but there’s no reason to play this version for more than a few minutes. | 3 |
| Sonic Jump Fever | Mobile | 2014-07-10 | 2021-02-20 | Sonic Jump and Sonic Jump Fever are rather fascinating games as they portray the evolution of mobile games rather well. The first one is a game made up of pre-made levels, designed to give you an increased challenge as you progress, and add in new challenges and features along the way, while Sonic Jump Fever is just endless grinding to try and hook you in so you’ll waste money on it. | 1 |
| Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric | Wii U | 2014-11-11 | 2021-02-20 | Overall, Sonic Boom isn’t a bad game, just fairly average. I enjoyed my time with it, which is more than I was expecting based on its reputation. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal | 3DS | 2014-12-18 | 2021-02-20 | All this just makes the game slow, dull and frustrating. It’s a shame, because the core gameplay is solid. There are a couple of different types of levels: there are a couple of race levels which are amazing levels: it’s all about getting from A to B as fast as possible, there are multiple routes but generally the higher ones are quicker. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Runners | Mobile | 2015-02-26 | 2021-02-20 | The core of the game is fine, but there’s really nothing to do at all with it. | 2 |
| Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom | Mobile | 2015-07-01 | 2021-02-20 | As you level up, you will get score multipliers, random packages of rings (or spirits, which are temporary power ups) or you unlock characters. Except that you don’t unlock the character, just the option to buy them with a large amount of premium currency. | 1.5 |
| Sonic Boom: Link n Smash | Browser | 2015-00-00 | 2021-02-20 | Having five types of items instead of three makes it much better, although it’s still quite easy. Each character also builds up a special ability meter which lets you get rid of all of their kind of symbol. | 3 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games | 3DS | 2016-03-18 | 2021-02-20 | While the main story is quite bad, the events more than make up for it, especially golf. | 3 |
| Big Big’s Fishing Adventure 3 | Browser | 2016-04-01 | 2021-02-20 | Based on your choice, you’ll get to play a simple maze or a flappy bird clone. This follows more visual novel segments, where the wrong choice will get you a game over (although it lets you undo the choice). Pick the correct one and you’ll get to play a simple 2D fishing minigame to catch Froggy. | 2.5 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games | Wii U | 2016-06-24 | 2021-02-20 | This is a pretty poor game and just really annoying to play. | 2 |
| Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice | 3DS | 2016-09-27 | 2021-02-20 | Overall, Sonic Boom Fire & Ice isn’t a bad game, but it’s also not terribly exciting. It’s fine for a quick blast through, ignoring all the collectables. | 3 |
| Sonic Runners Adventure | Mobile | 2017-06-10 | 2021-02-20 | This is a really good Sonic mobile game. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Runners Adventures | Mobile | 2017-06-10 | 2021-02-20 | If you have access to a smartphone, there’s no reason to play this version at all. It’s just a scaled down version that doesn’t work as well. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Mania | PS4 | 2017-08-15 | 2021-02-20 | The second act of each returning zone, however, is essentially brand new, with new level gimmicks to focus on, some of them even look very different. These are all brilliant levels. Essentially, my main complaint with Sonic Mania is that I wish there was more: two separate games (one focusing on remix levels, one on new levels) would have been amazing to have. | 4 |
| Sonic Forces – Speed Battle | Mobile | 2017-09-20 | 2021-02-20 | I think it would be nice if the final patch of the game let you play against AI and choose the level you want to play, but ultimately, I think that the servers will just be shut down at some point and the game will be unplayable. | 1 |
| Sonic Forces | PS4 | 2017-11-07 | 2021-02-22 | Overall, I think Sonic Forces is just fine. It has some stunning looking levels, but also some bad aspects. It’s definitely not terrible, it’s just not great, either. | 2.5 |
| Sega Ages: Sonic the Hedgehog | Switch | 2018-09-20 | 2021-02-22 | I do think it is a shame that this is done on an emulated version, as the Retro Engine version of Sonic 1 was already out. It’s a shame we can’t have these features combined with the Retro Engine version. | 3.5 |
| Team Sonic Racing | PC | 2019-05-21 | 2021-02-22 | Team Sonic Racing is a very solid kart racer. It has some extremely interesting mechanics which are implemented really well, and the new tracks in it are incredibly good fun. It’s main issue is that the main mechanic only works if you have the right amount of people to play with, and even then the story mode can’t be played as a team. | 3.5 |
| Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 | Switch | 2019-11-01 | 2021-02-24 | The Tokyo 2020 Olympics is easily the best one in the series, there is a lot of love and detail, right down to lots of trivia about the Olympics. | 3.5 |
| Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 | Mobile | 2020-05-05 | 2021-02-24 | I was pleasantly surprised by Sonic at the Olympic Games. It’s a decent mobile game that doesn’t feel like it’s constantly asking for money, which makes it leaps and bounds above most mobile games. In terms of classic video game companies, there’s another whose mobile games are savagely greedy, so in terms of making a respectful mobile game, it seems that Sega does what Nintendon’t. | 3 |
| Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania | Xbox Series | 2021-10-05 | 2021-11-25 | This is a really great game. The levels can get ridiculously difficult, but it’s immensely satisfying when you finally beat one. | 4.5 |
| Sonic Speed Simulator | Roblox | 2022-03-30 | 2022-08-20 | This is a game with little to actually do other than run around in circles, and feels like it’s on the verge of falling apart at any moment. It feels like another game pretending to be a Sonic game. | 1.5 |
| https://djcube.co.uk/sonic-origins/ | Xbox Series | 2022-03-30 | 2022-08-20 | Another addition is a mission mode. Each game has a bunch of missions which take place on unique mini stages, these are a lot of fun to complete, and the short stints even make Sonic CD more enjoyable. There’s a lot of variety and lots of different ways to play. | 4.5 |
| New Blue Spheres | Xbox Series | 2022-03-30 | 2022-08-20 | I did have issues distinguishing the blue spheres and pink spheres due to my colourblindness, which made some levels annoying. That said, it’s still a very fun game. | 3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Happy Meal Game | Browser | 2022-00-00 | 2022-08-20 | Sonic runs forward on his own and when he approaches a junction, you press left or right to take that corner. The aim is to collect rings, emeralds and boosts. It feels very much like a modern version of the LCD Sonic games that McDonald’s used to give out in Happy Meals due to the simplicity of it. Even if you do absolutely nothing, you’ll still get a good score. | 2.5 |
| Sonic Speed Simulator Reborn | Roblox | 2023-02-11 | 2023-02-29 | While the Lost Valley and Emerald Hill levels are nice, this version of the game pretty much removes the only fun parts of the game | 1 |
| The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog | PC | 2023-04-01 | 2023-04-03 | While it’s short, its a lot of fun and completely free! | 3.5 |
| Speed Sphere Challenge | Browser | 2023-08-12 | 2025-01-08 | The isometric LEGO perspective is very nice, although the game itself is quite dull. | 2 |
| Sonic Superstars | Xbox Series | 2023-10-17 | 2024-01-04 | Sonic Superstars is an extremely solid 2D Sonic game and feels like a great modern take on that style of gameplay (as opposed to Mania keeping things more in the past). It’s a shame that the bosses spoil the fun, as if those were improved, Superstars would be among the best Sonic games. | 3.5 |
| Sonic Superstars Happy Meal Game | Browser | 2023-11-17 | 2024-01-08 | The game is short and easy, but for a Happy Meal game, it does what it sets out to do quite well. Similar to the old LCD games they had in old Sonic Happy Meals, it knows not to complicate things too much. It has a cute art style matching Sonic Superstars with some nice animation. | 2.5 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Happy Meal Game | Brower | 2024-12-07 | 2025-01-08 | The game is a simple maze game. You turn to face a direction and then roll until you hit a wall. The objective is to collect all the gems within so many moves, with the game giving you a very generous number. There are only three levels: London, Tokyo and the Eclipse Cannon. It’s simple, but it functions fine. | 2 |
| Shaken but Not Stirred | ZX Spectrum | 1982-00-00 | 2023-08-14 | Shaken but Not Stirred has some interesting ideas, and having different gameplay for different chapters does make sense for a Bond game. Unfortunately, this game is just annoying, partly due to things not working, others due to the complete randomness. Still, for the first James Bond video game (even unofficial), it’s not an atrocious first attempt. | 2 |
| James Bond 007 | Atari 2600 | 1983-00-00 | 2023-08-14 | While the game looks and plays like complete madness, the manual explains the objectives and all the random stuff happening surprisingly well. It doesn’t make the game good, but it at least shows effort into tying it into James Bond. | 1.5 |
| A View to a Kill: The Computer Game | Commodore 64 | 1985-00-00 | 2023-08-14 | Just like Shaken but Not Stirred, different gameplay types for different scenes does make a lot of sense. Once again, though, these sections are just not nice to play. And while the two pieces of music are great, you get tired of them long before the game is finished. | 1.5 |
| James Bond 007: A View to a Kill | PC | 1985-00-00 | 2023-08-14 | The game is extremely difficult. Not only do you need to figure out exactly what you need to do, but some events seem to happen at certain times, so if you took to many steps earlier on, you’ll completely fail. This is pretty typical for text adventure games, though, with lots of note-taking, trial and error and repeating. The quality of the writing, including all the failed attempts, make this a good text adventure. | 2.5 |
| James Bond 007: Goldfinger | PC | 1985-00-00 | 2023-08-14 | There’s not really a lot to say about this text adventure that isn’t a repeat of A View to a Kill. This is another difficult but well written text adventure game. This one does follow the film a bit closer than A View to a Kill did. | 2.5 |
| 007 Car Chase | Commodore 64 | 1985-00-00 | 2023-08-15 | If the game ran smoothly, it would be a fairly basic but enjoyable arcade driving game with an Atari feel to it, but for a game this simple running so badly on the Commodore 64, which was capable of a lot more, makes this rather abysmal. | 1 |
| The Living Daylights: The Computer Game | Commodore 64 | 1987-00-00 | 2023-08-15 | The Living Daylights is a decent game, hampered by the awkward controls. It doesn’t really do anything special, but it also isn’t horrible in any way. | 2 |
| Live and Let Die: The Computer Game | Amiga | 1988-00-00 | 2023-08-15 | The gameplay is fun but, due to the game never changing, wears off very quickly. This is fine for a quick blast but it’s also obvious that this was never designed to be a Bond game. If Domark had waited another year, they could have used a much better speedboart combat game called Cobra Triangle. | 2 |
| 007: Licence to Kill | Amiga | 1989-00-00 | 2023-08-15 | The game is good fun, but once you figure out what to do in each level, it’s incredibly short – around 12 minutes if you don’t rush. | 2.5 |
| The Spy Who Loved Me | Atari ST | 1990-00-00 | 2023-08-15 | The vehicles section might have been fun if enemies weren’t bullet sponges and dealt so much damage, while the others sections are just tedious. This is Domark’s last James Bond film tie-in, so they went out on a low note. | 2 |
| James Bond 007: The Stealth Affair | PC | 1990-00-00 | 2023-08-16 | The Stealth Affair has some nice moments, but frustrating gameplay. The dialogue is great in some parts, but other parts haven’t been altered from when the game was parodying Bond. The graphics and sound are very nice, along with the animation, so the presentation is pretty good all round. | 2 |
| James Bond 007 Action Pack | ZX Spectrum | 1990-00-00 | 2023-08-16 | This is quite an interesting pack, more so for the things surrounding the games rather than the games themselves. | 2 |
| James Bond Jr. | NES | 1991-00-00 | 2023-08-16 | The NES version of James Bond Jr. is very typical of licenced platformers on the NES. Everything seems to be made to frustrate the player, and enemies take so many hits that even defeating them isn’t fun. | 2 |
| James Bond Jr. | SNES | 1992-00-00 | 2023-08-17 | James Bond Jr. is an average platformer, but hampered by visibility and a few awful vehicle levels. It looks quite nice, with some good animation throughout, but for the most part is a fairly forgetful game. | 2.5 |
| James Bond 007: The Duel | Mega Drive | 1992-00-00 | 2023-08-17 | This is an incredibly short game padded out by hiding some of the paths to the hostages, making you walk and down each level – which aren’t particularly colossal either. The gameplay is fine, but feels a bit clunky. The graphics and music are the only particularly good parts of the game. | 2.5 |
| James Bond 007: The Duel | Master System | 1992-00-00 | 2023-08-17 | Despite the sound issues, this is a fun little game and and it’s surprising that it’s a better game than the main version. | 3 |
| The Ultimate James Bond: An Interactive Dossier | PC | 1996-00-00 | 2023-08-22 | The other major part was a trivia quiz. You had a set amount of “lives” and need to earn points to reach the next “level” featuring difficult questions. There’s a lot of question variety and it gives you a bit of extra information when it reveals the answer – a nice trivia game. | 2 |
| GoldenEye 007 | N64 | 1997-08-25 | 2023-08-17 | One last thing I do need to mention: Grant Kirkhope’s soundtrack for this game is phenomenal, with a ton of great tracks. While the graphics may have aged, GoldenEye still sounds amazing. | 4.5 |
| James Bond 007 | GB | 1998-00-00 | 2023-08-18 | James Bond on Game Boy is fairly short, but is far more than it ever needed to be. It’s very enjoyable and captures the spirit of a Bond adventure as a whole more than any other Bond game. I’d love to see a modern interpretation of this style of game for James Bond – there’s more to the character than just shooting everyone. | 3.5 |
| Tomorrow Never Dies | PS1 | 1999-00-00 | 2023-08-21 | There’s no fun unlockables, no difference other than enemy health and damage between difficulties and no multiplayer. It’s a very short, bare bones games and isn’t even a fun one. | 2.5 |
| The World Is Not Enough | N64 | 2000-00-00 | 2023-08-21 | While it doesn’t reach the heights of GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough is an extremely solid game and is a ton of fun. | 4.5 |
| The World Is Not Enough | PS1 | 2000-00-00 | 2023-08-21 | It’s amazing just how different these two games are, with the N64 version of the game being a much better game all around. The PlayStation version is stiff and disjointed. | 2.5 |
| 007 Racing | PS1 | 2000-00-00 | 2023-08-22 | A vehicle combat James Bond game isn’t a bad idea, even a racing game with classic Bond cars can be done well. This game, however, is just a complete mess that throws away everything unique about Bond’s cars. | 1.5 |
| The World Is Not Enough | GBC | 2001-00-00 | 2023-08-23 | The Game Boy Colour version of The World Is Not Enough is terrible. The game is difficult in the wrong ways, and most of the game is just padding in the form of walking back and forth through very basic mazes. | 1.5 |
| James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire | GameCube | 2001-00-00 | 2023-08-25 | Agent Under Fire has really fun gameplay. The main missions are enjoyable and the car missions are great. The turret missions are tedious and something about the game makes it feel like a parody of James Bond instead of an actual Bond game. It feels like a decent starting point to expand on. | 3.5 |
| James Bond 007: Nightfire | GameCube | 2002-00-00 | 2023-08-29 | Nightfire is a great Bond game. This story captures the films really well, with really fun combat, nice use of gadgets to find secret and alternative routes and very enjoyable driving missions. | 4.5 |
| James Bond 007: Nightfire | GameCube | 2002-00-00 | 2023-08-29 | The PC version of Nightfire is just strange, and comes across in many ways like a PS1 title. It does have one mission which would have been nice to see in the console version, and a few interesting ideas, but ultimately, it’s not fun to play. | 2 |
| 007 Ice Racer | Mobile | 2002-00-00 | 2023-08-01 | It plays quite smoothly, but there isn’t much to it. | 3 |
| 007 Ice Racer | Mobile | 2002-00-00 | 2023-08-01 | This is a very basic game, just move up and down and shoot. | 1.5 |
| James Bond 007: Nightfire | GBA | 2003-00-00 | 2023-08-29 | Apart form the annoying mission advancement requirement, this is a surprisingly good handheld port of the game. It’s fascinating that it uses elements from both versions of the game. | 3 |
| James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing | GBA | 2003-00-00 | 2023-08-30 | The game is around 2 and a half hours long if you’re taking your time. The game is more suited to the GBA than Nightfire, but is far less interesting as a result. | 2 |
| James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing | GameCube | 2004-00-00 | 2023-09-04 | Everything or Nothing is a very fun game, but does feel disjointed to how the missions are cut up into small chunks. I personally prefer Nightfire, but they’re both great games. Everything or Nothing is a great early example of a game trying to be more cinematic feel, and it pulled that off really well, making this game feel like an adaptation of a film that never existed. | 4 |
| James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing: Agent Attack | Browser | 2004-00-00 | 2023-09-04 | After you run out of time or health, you could submit the score. The game takes place during the game’s “Nanotech Facility” mission, which has the description “Descriptive text about mission, very brief but similar to Everything or Nothing game to be placed here”. | 1 |
| 007 Ice Race | Browser | 2004-00-00 | 2023-09-04 | Despite its simplicity, the game is buggy – the AI cars will often bounce off obstacles and quickly warp side to side, taking away most of hour health while being unavoidable. | 1 |
| GoldenEye: Rogue Agent | GameCube | 2004-00-00 | 2023-09-04 | For a game about you being a brutal, violent bad guy, it’s just a very generic shooting game with no blood or anything more violent than any other. You only ever fight other villains, and there are no innocent civilians in the game. The “dark and gritty” attempt at gameplay just doesn’t do either properly, and it at odds with the cheesy and silly story. This is a very poor game where the only enjoyment is how bad some parts are. | 2 |
| GoldenEye: Rogue Agent | DS | 2004-00-00 | 2023-09-04 | While this version of Rogue Agent doesn’t help it become a good game, it’s a good example of what the DS itself can do. | 2.5 |
| From Russia With Love | GameCube | 2005-00-00 | 2023-09-05 | While the From Russia With Love has flaws, it’s a very enjoyable game. This smooths out the problems Everything or Nothing has and is a lot of fun to play. The missions also flow a lot better, with missions having multiple parts to them before you go back to the menu, including proper endings each time. | 3.5 |
| SilverFin: Learn to Drive | Browser | 2005-00-00 | 2023-09-05 | For a very short flash game, it’s quite good fun. | 2.5 |
| From Russia With Love | PSP | 2006-00-00 | 2023-09-05 | From Russia With Love shows how the PSP can somewhat replicate a home console experience, but at the same time, this game is incredibly compromised that its also an example of why it shouldn’t be done. | 3 |
