Jack Zustiak

Inspiration can strike at any time and the result can take many forms. Berserk Boy demonstrates those principles literally. This is a 2D platformer that wears its inspirations on its sleeve: Mega Man, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and a touch of Sonic the Hedgehog for good measure. That’s alright – everything

Platformers are perhaps the purest genre of video games. It’s just you, the challenge the developers have set before you, and an assortment of tools to overcome it. Sure, there may be baddies to bash along the way sometimes, but for the most part any “combat” is really just

Momodora: Moonlit Farwell is the video game equivalent of a mild Spring day. Entering its world feels both warm and familiar. Everything looks beautiful. Much like a gentle breeze, it pushes you forward at an even pace while later offering just enough resistance to keep things interesting. I enjoy Spring

Ultros undoubtedly stands out. With its radical visual style and a horde of unusual subsystems, you won’t be confusing it with the mountain of other games “like Metroid” available these days. Those distinctive flairs are Ultros’s greatest strengths and its greatest weaknesses. Ultros cleverly reinterprets a familiar game

Fighting games often struggle with things that are fundamental to justifying their existence. They need to balance simplicity to gain new players while adding complexities to keep the hardcore audience invested. Sequels and revisions need to change things up, yet not so much that it alienates fans of the last

King of the Iron Melting Pot – Jack Zustiak (PS5) Ninjas, bears, robots, devils, and occasionally, run-of-the-mill humans – sooner or later, everyone and everything finds itself within the melting pot known as a Tekken. Tekken contains every crazy idea you can think of, and its fighting mechanics reflect that. Each character

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown hails from a long lineage of elegance. Although the details of its form shifts among the sands of time, Prince of Persia consistently holds the shape of a prince deftly and elegantly navigating gauntlets of hazards. As the latest successor to the crown, The

Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet tried to reinvent the series, and succeeded in some ways with its open world structure, but largely felt like more of the same in a worse package. The franchise lost its sense of adventure and whimsy somewhere along the way, and we were left with