Xbox One Game Reviews
Review TrackMania Turbo (Xbox One)
Mania is right
If there's one game that's been flying under the radar since it was announced, it's Trackmania Turbo. Everyone was aware that the series – which had a sizeable fanbase on PC - would be challenging to take across to consoles, mainly due to the fact that even though it ships with a healthy supply of tracks, Trackmania is known as...
Review Cel Damage HD (Xbox One)
Racing back in time
Back in 2001, Cel Damage was released for the original Xbox. Offering a cartoony, cel shaded take on the then popular vehicular combat genre, it was an immediate hit and many people still have a soft spot for it today. Fast forward to 2016, and Frontline Games have produced an HD remake of the game, but has time been kind, or...
Review Blast 'Em Bunnies (Xbox One)
Blast 'em into the sun
When it comes to game concepts, the one supplied by Blast 'Em Bunnies couldn't be much simpler. You play a bunny, manning (bunnying?) a rotating gun turret. Other rabbits of various types – grenadiers, paratroopers, burrowers, walkers, etc. - are trying to get to you so that they can knock you out and take your stuff. You...
Review Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbox One)
A little goes a long way
Ori and the Blind Forest released back in March of last year, and by now, you're likely well aware of the indisputable fact that it's a phenomenal game. We awarded it a 9 out of 10 in our review and called it "one of the best games available for the Xbox One," a statement we stand by 100%. With the Definitive Edition...
Review Tom Clancy's The Division (Xbox One)
Ubi squad lootin'
The Division doesn't make the best first impression. When the game begins, you're dropped into a section of New York City that's devoid of substance. There are few missions that show up on the map, and running through the lifeless streets from A to B is a chore. There are no unscripted moments, no random events to engage in, and...
Take That, Jeremy, You Bounder!
Ironcast is an odd beast. After a successful Kickstarter campaign by its developers Dreadbit, the game was released on PC back in May 2015. The conversion to console is now here, and we can see what all the fuss has been about. At its heart, Ironcast is a simple colour-matching puzzle game, but the strategy and...
Henk, not Hank
Action Henk is a massive star that can do anything he turns his hand to. Well, you'd believe that to be the case if you took a look around the room in which he lives. He was kickflipping in Action Henk's Pro Skater 2, replaced Bruce Willis in Die Henk, and seemingly was a part of every other franchise that folks of a certain age will...
Review The Flame in the Flood (Xbox One)
The girl Scout's guide to survival
The Great Outdoors isn't just the name of a classic movie starring the late John Candy and Dan Aykroyd. Believe it or not, it's an actual place that exists beyond our TV screens and our many other technological distractions. Beyond the prefab homes and fast-food joints cluttering our field of view lies a...
Review Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders (Xbox One)
The clues are there...
If you know your crime novels, you are probably familiar with super detective Hercule Poirot – one of British crime queen Agatha Christie's main protagonists and best-known private eyes. During her lifetime, Christie published no less than 66 novels starring the dapper Belgian. Despite Christie repeatedly claiming that she...
Review Rocket League (Xbox One)
Blast off
When it comes to surprise success stories, there are none more surprising in recent memory than Psyonix's Rocket League. 2008's downloadable PlayStation 3 title Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars which, while decent fun, was generally forgotten about or passed over by most, was hardly the most likely title to spawn a game that...
Review Bike Mayhem 2 (Xbox One)
Bike Meh-em
Less open minded gamers will groan at the sight of mobile ports, but they absolutely have a place on consoles. Games such as Pumped BMX+ have shown that the best mobile games can shine on Xbox One, as long as they're brought over with care. Sadly, not every developer ports their games with the care that Curve Digital does, and that leads...
Review D/Generation HD (Xbox One)
Jetpack couriers need a trade union...
D/Generation HD is a reworking of a fondly remembered action/adventure/puzzle game that was first released back in 1991, on PC, Amiga and ST. According to developers West Coast Software Ltd, the game has been recreated from the original source code and still contains all the original features, but has had a...
Review Dying Light: The Following (Xbox One)
Parks and Recreation and Zombies
Dying Light: The Following is a strange proposition that's available in a whole bunch of ways. It's an expansion pack that also alters the main game in a few areas, which can be purchased standalone if you own the original Dying Light without the season pass, will be delivered free if you DO own the season pass, and...
In space, it takes two to tandem
From Portal to Q.U.B.E, when physics-based puzzle games are done well, they stay in your memory and earn a valued spot in your games collection. TACs Games Factotum 90 is a likely contender to this club, taking a unique premise and making you feel like a genius while keeping the gameplay simple and engaging. Set...
Review This War of Mine: The Little Ones (Xbox One)
War is hell
Inspired by the 1992 – 1996 Seige of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, This War of Mine is a bleak and desolate game. The entire thing is rendered pretty much entirely in a monochrome pencil drawing style, with only the minimum level of highlighting in place to show off things that you can select. It sounds bland, but that's far from...
Review Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia (Xbox One)
A Hard Day's Nyet
When Ubisoft debuted their alternative take on the Assassin's Creed world with Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China back in 2015, announcing that it was the first of a three-part trilogy, there was hope in our hearts. Hope that starting from the promising base that the first title provided, the development team would listen to...
Review LEGO Marvel's Avengers (Xbox One)
Assemble Avengers!
Traveller's Tales have been ambitious with this, the latest in the chain of LEGO games which stretch back into the mists of time. Promising as it does to include content from Avengers Assemble, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3 and Thor:The Dark World,...
Review Amazing Princess Sarah (Xbox One)
Busting out all over
That Amazing Princess Sarah is quite entertaining, is proof positive that you can't judge a book by its cover. The key art featuring the painfully-proportioned Sarah gazing out of the screen suggests that the game will be nothing but a teenage boy's fantasy presented in videogame form. In fact, some will pass over it altogether...
Review G Prime Into The Rain (Xbox One)
Jesus Still Rocks
Few games are as baffling upfront as Soma Games' G Prime Into The Rain. Before anything is explained to the player, they are staring at eight different contracts to sign, with zero context regarding what any of them do. There's text that can be read that gives some background on the situation, but since the game has clearly been...
Review Gemini: Heroes Reborn (Xbox One)
Save money, save the world.
Gemini: Heroes Reborn comes at an odd time, Heroes Reborn is bringing the curtain down on its 13 episode run and is seemingly cancelled, as NBC move to make it clear it was only ever intended as an event series. It also arrives on the back of developers Phosphor's failed Kickstarter for a game called Awakening that showed...
Review A Boy and His Blob (Xbox One)
Hug it out
When A Boy and His Blob landed on the Nintendo Wii back in 2009, it was met with great acclaim. Fans of the NES original, titled A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, were overjoyed to receive a faithful reimagining of a cult classic, one that smoothed out and expanded upon the ideas of its predecessor while featuring a charming,...
Keep Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' On!
Sparkle 2 is a follow up to last year's Sparkle Unleashed, both developed by 10tons Games of course, and it's fair to say that they to have been working on a policy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." This year's offering could be termed an evolution of the original game, rather than a revolution (pun definitely...
Review Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink (Xbox One)
Short stories
If there's one type of game that's massively oversaturated on mobile, PC, and handheld, it's the "hidden object" game. The reason for this is simply that those types of games are incredibly easy to make and suitable for the absolute most casual of gamers. Artifex Mundi are leading the charge to console in the hidden object genre and...
Under arresting
When it comes to top-down twin-stick shooters, the Xbox One is not exactly running short of options. We've got the outstanding Geometry Wars 3 heading up the pack, with a host of alternatives in the shape of We Are Doomed, Polychromatic, Crimsonland, Ultratron, and Sixty Second Shooter Prime all available if you fancy a change. With
Review Level 22: Gary's Misadventures (Xbox One)
Office head
It isn't often that a videogame features a plot about trying to save the main character's humdrum office job, but the premise of Level 22: Gary's Misadventures indeed revolves around that very goal. After a raucous birthday party the night before, hugely bespectacled Gary is late for work and given that this is far from his first...
Review Rebel Galaxy (Xbox One)
Warping into the sunset
From the moment the game is launched it's easy to see that Rebel Galaxy pays homage to the likes of Elite and Freelancer on PC. You are placed in the shoes of the typical everyman who suddenly receives a message from an estranged aunt. Cryptically, she requests that you make every possible haste to travel to the edges of...
Not Another Space Shooter
Space shooters have been around since time began. Well, at least since video games began, at least. There are plenty of them still on the market, flooding consoles, PC and mobile devices with their simplistic styles and gameplay ranging from the easy to the super challenging. Indie Developers INFramez Technology's Hyper...
We'll avoid the obvious tagline
Oxenfree is an unsettling game. The word "unsettling" can be used to imply many things though, so we can't just leave the review there. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean that we'll come up with a more fitting descriptor by the time we reach the conclusion. In order to bolster our attempt though, we'd best provide an...
Review The Banner Saga (Xbox One)
Juno it makes sense
When Stoic first pitched the concept of The Banner Saga to potential Kickstarter backers in 2012, it was clear that they had potentially struck gold from the get-go. With a $100,000 target, the company managed to raise over seven times that much to bring their tactical RPG to life. Now, just a day or two over two years since the...
Review Resident Evil 0 (Xbox One)
A worthy resurrection
It's hard to talk about Resident Evil 0 without mentioning the Resident Evil remake that graced gamers back in 2002 on Gamecube and again in last year's excellent HD port. It's entirely possible for some to dismiss RE 0 as the inferior game when weighing pros and cons. For instance, the new playable characters aren't as...
