ZTGD

Croc 2 was underappreciated in its time due to the competition. I highly recommend checking this out if you enjoy platform games or just miss the ridiculous trend of mascots in every single game. Everything about the Croc games brings a smile to my face, and I hope we continue to see more remasters of forgotten classics on modern consoles. Now, about those Gameboy versions of Croc and of course, the hero we need in 2026, Buck Bumble.

Resident Evil 4 continues to be a high watermark in the pantheon of horror video games, and this remake even managed to turn me, a staunch supporter of the original not even needing a remake in the first place. I’ve enjoyed this game so much that if I can find the time, I’m hoping to give the other remakes and maybe even the all-new games a genuine shot someday. If you’ve got a Switch 2 and have ever possessed even a passing interest in this kind of game, give it a go. It may have more cheesy one-liners and over the top voice acting than the FDA’s recommended dosage, but it all comes together beautifully. It’s brilliant-looking, controls like a dream, and more importantly than anything else, is incredibly fun to play, especially during the Halloween season.

Forever Ago feels like it was made for fans of Mixtape, someone who likes their video games surface level at best with minimal interaction. This felt more like a walking simulator with cutscenes as I moved from location to location and revisited places important to Alfred. The lack of any real gameplay mechanics bummed me out as a fan of adventure titles like Wolf Among Us, Walking Dead and the like. The developer clearly has something to say about loss, love and the roads not taken but the narrative could have hit harder if it wasn’t so predictable in its approach.

While the issues with the PC port soured the overall experience a bit, there’s no denying that STEINS;GATE REBOOT is a stellar iteration of one of the best Visual Novels ever created.

As for the package itself, it is fine. It has leaderboards and some visual options, but not much else. I would have loved for them to include the Xbox 360 soundtracks and of course the other game in this package. It would also have been a great time to give some history to these games and promotional materials, but this is a pretty cut and dry collection of two games. Sadly, as I mentioned it doesn’t even appear on the console family in which it spawned, and that is disappointing. This is a collection for the hardest of the hardcore, and if that is you, you are in for a treat.

This was my first time playing this game series and honestly, it wasn’t awful. I enjoyed the challenge of having to work together to find a solution. Even though I felt like I was frustrating my partner at times, haha. The great thing about co-op games like It Takes Two and Split/Fiction was how areas and gameplay changed up. Here it’s always just going to be solving puzzles to progress, flipping a switch, moving a block etc. Some variety I think would have been great but seeing as this is the sixth game in the series; I am sure the real fans know what they are in for and will probably enjoy this entry. We Were Here Tomorrow is a challenging puzzle game that has a mystery buried beneath it and figuring that mystery out is where the real joy is. As long as you have patient friends that is.

Its no real surprise that I walked away enjoying Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, I mean I am a huge fan of the franchise. But while I think this sequel upped the ante with its new character, bigger enemy variety and cool weapons. I feel like it missed a step by never letting off the gas. There was nothing that changed the pace of the game, it was all fast action; which got repetitive after a handful of levels. Even with that issue though I would still recommend this game to any fans of retro shooters or the 40K universe as a whole.

Everything looks very nice and runs really well. There is a lot to do in Lou’s Lagoon but it unfortunately begins to feel a bit too samey to really break through into that next tier of cozy games. The basic loop of finding material, upgrading some items, finding more materials, upgrading more items, is nice enough at first but becomes rote as time goes on. Sure, there is the mystery of what happened to Uncle Lou but with no stakes tied to the player character, it really doesn’t push the game narratively. You can spend hours just exploring, which has its merits for sure, without ever really doing much. The inventory management can be a real slog at times with all of the different materials available. Ultimately Lou’s Lagoon is a nice little adventure with an interesting world to explore and decent writing that gets in its own way with the lack of focus and overwhelming number of items.

Overall, this collection is more than worth the price of admission if you have nostalgia for these games. I am not sure how well they have aged, and if I had never played them if I would appreciate them the same way, but as a package, it does its job well. I love these retro collections and when Digital Eclipse is involved, I know they are always of the highest quality.

Blades & Battles isn’t a complete disaster, there is some fun to be had with its easy combat, fantasy setting and local co-op. Fans of Golden Axe, and other classic games in the genre will feel right at home. Unfortunately, the game never manages to turn all those familiar ingredients into something exciting. Combat quickly becomes repetitive and the short campaign leaves little to return to. At its best, Blades & Battles feels like a serviceable imitation of games that have done this sort of thing better.