HonestGamers articles

[Review] Marvel's Spider-Man (PlayStation 4)

Fri, 08 May 2026 12:46:16 PDT

When playing Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man one night, I was hit by the realization that, in one specific way, it was different from any other sandbox game I had personally played. Usually when playing a game of this sort, I become intimately familiar with my surroundings, often where I don't even really need the map to find my way around because I've traveled those roads enough to have buildings and other landmarks memorized to the degree that wandering the worlds of those games is as intuitive for me as it is to go from place to place in the area I've lived in for a few decades.

[Review] Arcade Archives: The Astyanax (Switch)

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:19:39 PDT

The Astyanax first hit Japanese arcades in 1989, where it was known as The Lord of King. Then it released on the NES, later that same year. A few months after that, the home port came to North America as Astyanax. Shortly thereafter, a young lad named Jason Venter purchased a copy from Sears because it was super cheap and looked kind of cool.

[Review] Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator (Sega 32X)

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:10:21 PDT

Star Trek\'s had it pretty rough in recent times. Vapid, over-produced films and spiralling, irrelevant series\' aplenty, its gradual freefall into impertinence has been equal parts heart-breaking and fascinating. I\'d continue my detriment by saying unkind things about the newest flailing episodic - Star Fleet Academy - but it would be a little dishonest of me. I\'ve not watched it. No one has, judging by the viewing figures and now it's been cancelled. By all accounts, it doesn\'t look to have been the best Star Trek product the franchise has to offer. Here comes the topical bit to justify all this word padding; it\'s probably not even the best Star Fleet Academy.

[Review] 6souls (PC)

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 16:10:13 PDT

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[Review] Code Vein (PlayStation 4)

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:50:39 PDT

The fun test of my mental acuity I'm performing this week is to write a review for a game I finished a month or so ago, but didn't have time to write about for various reasons I won't go into here because they're mostly work-related and, therefore, boring.

[Review] ActRaiser Renaissance (PC)

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:47:53 PDT

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[News] Game developer Yoshihisa Kishimoto passes away at 64

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:15:44 PDT

Yoshihisa Kishimoto passed away on April 2, 2026, according to reports from IGN and other outlets. Among other projects, he is known for his years of work on the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun (River City) franchises at Technōs.

[Review] The Adventures of Poppe (PC)

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:37:55 PDT

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[Review] Atlantis no Nazo (NES)

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 23:40:28 PST

Atlantis no Nazo is a platformer from 1986 that only recently saw a release outside of Japan. Read that line one more time, and it should tell you where you stand on checking it out. If you don\'t like vintage platformers, especially those from the transitional period of the mid \'80s, then skip it. If you dig old-school games, then it might be up your alley. It\'s a funny thing, really, because this game isn\'t a classic and features material that justifies both perspectives. It\'s full of the usual nonsensical and imaginative content that lovers of aged stuff adore, along with unfortunate instances of awkwardness and/or plainness.

[Review] A Hole New World (Switch)

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 18:04:48 PST

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[Review] Mass Effect: Andromeda (PC)

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:57:39 PST

Mass Effect Andromeda had all the hallmarks of a hilarious disaster upon release back in 2017. It was a buggy, disjointed, ugly mess of a game, a production hell behind the scenes, and an amphitheatre of pointing and laughing from its audience. Even before this, it faced a weird legacy challenge; the original trilogy was (and still is) widely adored, meaning it had very large shoes to fill. At the same time, Andromeda needed to rally against the exceptionally poor reception garnered by the lacklustre ending to Mass Effect 3 that had finished the series on a sour note. To combat this, EA gathered the celebrated creative team behind the previous three games and put them right to work. On new IP, Anthem. History has not judged this to have been a good idea. Instead, Andromeda was to be built by an entirely new team. On an entirely new engine. With the scope and direction being changed completely every time someone in a position of leadership was cycled away from the title. Which was shockingly often.

[Review] Power Strike II (Sega Master System)

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:43:37 PST

When it comes to shooters, I've long had a very soft spot for the games created by Compile. While I'm also a fan of those side-scrolling treks through hazardous and claustrophobic levels, there's just something to be said for Compile's efforts, which tend to be vertically-scrolling and possessing of fast action where you can pick between a wide variety of weapons, power them up big-time and take on hordes of enemies as the action gets more frenetic with each level you clear.

[Review] Crystal Ortha (Android)

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:47:42 PST

Over the years since I've started, ended and restarted the Kemco Khallenge, I've generally held the opinion that Exe-Create is the best of their teams � primarily due to how their games tend to be a step ahead of the rest as far as graphics and sound, while also having a better translation.

[Review] SaGa Frontier Remastered (PlayStation 4)

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 13:38:30 PST

A reasonable person could ask why I spent roughly 80 hours of my life playing SaGa Frontier Remastered when I didn't like how the original was executed. I could try to answer them, but they wouldn't understand. After all, I am not a reasonable person.

[Review] Sonic Frontiers (PlayStation 4)

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 08:46:14 PST

The saying “More than the sum of its parts” is used to describe something where the individual components comprising it might not be all that great, but the end product of that combination winds up exceeding expectations. This is something that leads to very pleasant surprises, as expectations get blown out of the water by how something that, in theory, shouldn't work winds up being excellent.

[Review] Slime Rancher (PC)

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:11:00 PST

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[Review] Knights of Grayfang (Android)

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 12:54:02 PST

After all these years, I think it's finally time I gave Kemco RPG-creator Exe-Create some praise for their creativity. Over the duration of their existence, this team has been able to come up with a huge variety of different premises for their games and have shown an amazing amount of competence in transforming these diverse settings and characters into what is essentially the exact same template. I don't know about you, but I think it takes a special sort of talent to put players in control of deities, futuristic police or vampires and have each of those wildly different beings wind up behaving in the exact same manner!

[Review] Lies of P: Overture (PlayStation 4)

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 12:50:53 PST

About the same time that Lies of P's expansion, Overture was released, Neowiz also provided a big update to the game in general, including the addition of multiple difficulty levels. Now, that's the sort of thing you don't typically see in a Souls-like, where it typically feels like the creators decided to craft something brutally difficult, give players a few tools to mitigate that challenge somewhat and then just sit back and watch the carnage unfold, occasionally releasing a patch in response to feedback.

[Review] Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PlayStation 4)

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 12:39:28 PST

Throughout the entire time I was going through Ys IX: Monstrum Nox a strong sense of deja vu permeated my experience simply because I'd previously played Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA. While there are differences between the two games, if you've played one, you'll recognize the majority of the other's mechanics and ways of handling things very quickly � with some stuff being handled a bit better and a lot of aspects feeling derivative or just not fitting neatly into the overall feel of things.

[Review] Dreamscape (PC)

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 04:18:30 PST

I had expectations going into Dreamscape. I know we\'re supposed to check those before starting a new piece of media, but I\'m only human and can\'t ignore the fact that I\'ve played my share of games from developer Aldorlea. Given my experiences with their titles, I\'ve come to expect their offerings to consists of loutish male protagonists and leading ladies with large breasts, plus a clumsy romantic subplot involving the two. I expected that setup enough that I put off playing this one for some time.