Games

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (XBOX 360) / The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (PS5) Review

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Taking a break from the Japanese-created, turn-based or strategy RPGs for a week it’s time to head west and look at the game that convinced me to buy an XBOX 360 back in the day as well as its visual remaster that I enjoyed dipping into last summer. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a first-person (at least for me it is, third-person is available!) free-roaming RPG that encourages you to go exploring rather than strictly following the main quest, and as with most Bethesda RPGs, that exploration is the heart and the joy of the game. Let’s take a look!

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Namco X Capcom (PS2) Review

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I’ve been wanting to play this for literally decades, sometime after I found the intro movie on the early days of YouTube, but I waited and waited until it became increasingly obvious the game was never going to be localised. Then its two sequels, the Project X Zone games, came out! … on the 3DS, which I didn’t own until just a couple of years ago (and so admittedly I watched a commentary-less play through of both soon after they were released…) Basically I’ve wanted to actually play this trilogy forever and now I have the means to play the X Zone games I also found out about the rough but nonetheless complete fan translation of Namco X Capcom, so I can actually play the whole trilogy! So let’s take a look at Namco X Capcom and see what happened when the Super Robot Wars team made essentially a SRW game but with a tonne of non-mech franchises from two of the biggest gaming companies in the world…

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Mega Man Battle Network (GBA) Review

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As a fan of both Mega Man and RPGs the Mega Man Battle Network series has always interested me from afar, but the combination of being on a handheld, which as mentioned before on this site just was never my thing, and seeing cards involved just put me off. So when the full Battle Network series of games got a big compilation release a year or two ago just as I was in my RPG renaissance the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. So it’s time to dip my toe in the Battle Network series and see if I want to return to the waters down the line…

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Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA) Review

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Fire Emblem, or “Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade” to give it its actual title, was the first of the series to see a release in Western territories and I remember being interested thanks to Roy being my most-played character in Smash Melee, but as I often did at that time I assumed I’d be crap at tactical RPGs and the idea of permanently losing party members really didn’t appeal due to that assumption. Fast forward a decade or two and this game ended up on the Switch Online app and with renewed self-confidence and interest in JRPGs of all kinds I decided to give it a go, and you know what? I really enjoyed myself. I’ll admit I used save states at the start of each map for quicker restarts should I lose someone I don’t want to, which isn’t in the spirit of things, but beyond that I played legit and eventually got the hang of it and had fun. Want to know more? Read on!

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Final Fantasy I: Pixel Remaster (PS4) Review

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Kicking off this mini-marathon of “RPGs I’ve played recently” is one of the pioneers of the genre: Final Fantasy I. It’s a game I’ve always wanted to play through and tried several times but the old school grind without a story to motivate me led to me dropping it. Fast Forward to today (or, well, a while ago) and I finally brought the Pixel Remaster bundle of FF I – VI knowing that you can put an XP multiplier on in order to speed up a lot of the grind without necessarily “cheating” the game and wouldn’t you know it? I finally completed it. Now, I won’t go around saying I completed it legit, but it was pretty close, so what was it like as an experience in the mid 2020s?

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Resident Evil: Requiem (PS5) Review

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Despite enjoying all the trailers and just generally looking forward to any new Resident Evil game I was still surprised by how great Requiem is. While I enjoyed 7 and 8 they were first person and almost entirely with their own little cast so RE9 here celebrating 30 years (blimey…) by calling back to a lot of past storylines and play styles including the option to drop first person entirely really made this feel like the first “proper” new Resident Evil game in a long time (not counting remakes, obviously) So although my overall opinion is pretty obvious even at this point, let’s dive deeper!

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Mario Kart World (Switch 2) Review

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Mario Kart World is an odd one as despite being a life-long fan of the series since the first SNES version (as evidenced by having reviewed every version on this very blog!) a lot of the hype surrounding this release didn’t appeal to me, and sure enough when I got my Switch 2 with this included I played Hades II and even Soul Calibur II via the NSO GameCube app more than this. It’s not bad, the open world map is very cleverly designed and the graphics and soundtrack are top notch, it’s just… not very Mario Kart-y. Does that make it bad though?

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Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (PS5) Review

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Shinobi: Art of Vengeance was a game I was looking forward to but didn’t actually pay a lot of attention to until it suddenly released. Given it was an old Mega Drive era SEGA franchise in the hands of the same people who made Streets of Rage 4 I wasn’t worried though, and sure enough I loved my time with this game. Let’s take a deeper look.

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Sonic X Shadow Generations (PS5) Review

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When I posted my review of the third Sonic live action film I mentioned that halfway through Sonic Heroes was when I gave up on Sonic games (apart from Mania) and that got a few people mortified that I hadn’t played Sonic Generations, so when the recent re-release came up on sale I thought “why not?” and brought it. After playing through both campaigns I can say that while I had fun at various points nothing about the experience made me think I’ve “missed out” if this game is heralded as the best of the latter 3D era. The experience was still more good than bad though, so let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 Games of 2025

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Last year I’d played so few that-year-released games that I had to put compilations and remakes all over the list, this year I’m happy to say there are no compilations and while entry #10 is two-thirds remaster it does have one-third entirely new game as well, so this is a much better look at games I’ve played in 2025 actually FROM 2025. I’m pretty sure Dynasty Warriors: Origins and Donkey Kong Bananza would’ve made it as well, but the former didn’t immediately appeal (due to going against what I like from DW games) and just hasn’t dropped in price all year and the other is a consequence on me only getting a Switch 2 for Christmas and only have so much free time! With that all said, let’s take a look!

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