Throughout this console generation, ever since the launch of the Series X/S and PlayStation 5, I was completely convinced that most games shipped with little more than an unlock code on them, or at best, were so buggy when they shipped that they required a day one patch to be reasonably playable.

Then, just a few days prior to Sony’s fateful announcement, I discovered the website DoesItPlay.org, and it changed my entire perspective.

YES, IT DOES PLAY

DoesItPlay is a website that tests and tracks physical video game media, and it claims to have tested thousands of games across almost all modern platforms. It has a simple two-part system to tell you whether a game requires a download to be playable and/or whether it requires an internet connection to work, and any nuances to either designation (like, maybe it doesn’t “require” a download but has major glitches without downloading a day one patch.)

For me, physical games are truly worth owning if they don’t require any download to be playable (without major missing features or bugs that render them unplayable) and don’t require any internet connection to run, the idea being they could be played long after the PlayStation / Xbox / Nintendo digital storefronts eventually shut down.

But how many games in this current generation ship without needing a day one patch, or an internet connection to be playable? Well, it’s a heck of a lot more than I thought it was.

According to DoesItPlay.org, 66%, or about 524 of the 795 physical games they’ve tested on PS5, are completely playable straight out of the box with no download required, and 93% are playable with no internet connection at all. That’s WAY more than I ever thought possible in the year of our lord 2026.

THE OFFLINE TEST

At first I honestly had a hard time believing it, so I decided to test a few games for myself. I bought physical copies of two games they listed as completely playable with no download and no internet required: Dead Space 2023 and Elden Ring: Nightreign (I know what you’re probably thinking: Nightreign?!? But isn’t that multiplayer at its core? Well yes it is, but you can play it offline as well.)

In order to make sure the games ran fine with no downloads or updates, I disconnected the WiFi connection from my PS5 before I began, then I put in the disc for Dead Space (the 2023 remake). The console read the disc and installed the necessary contents to the hard drive, then I booted it up. To my surprise it ran perfectly fine. Nothing seemed missing and nothing was buggy. I played it for several hours just to see how it performed, and it seemed totally fine, just as DoesItPlay had indicated.

If you want to see gameplay from this offline Dead Space test, check out this video I created for EGN:

The bigger test was going to be Nightreign. I could hardly believe a game built around multiplayer would even be playable offline. Just like Dead Space, I inserted the disc and the PS5 read it and installed the necessary files to the hard drive; then I booted it up. To my surprise everything loaded and played just fine. I watched the intro, choose my character and jumped into the tutorial level. Everything played fine with no discernible bugs, glitches or issues. Then after the tutorial finished I jumped into an actual match. Now, playing offline of course you have to go it alone, and in Nightreign that’s practically impossible given the difficulty of the enemies, but hey, everything worked.

Frankly, I was stunned.

HOW HAD I BEEN SO WRONG?

After contemplating it a bit, I believe I identified the source of my confusion: the install and boot up process for most new physical games make it look like downloads are required. Now, to be fair, games like Call of Duty, which are over 100gb in size, do require a download to be playable, and they also require online connectivity, but that’s somewhat expected.

However, almost every game, big or small, has a mandatory download at initial boot up these days, but not all of them are required to actually play the game if you’re offline. Some are day one patches to fix major bugs, others are missing content that needs to be downloaded, but others are just little tweaks that aren’t completely necessary; to the gamer it’s almost impossible to know the difference, as they all appear the same from the way it looks on the PS5 dashboard.

Now, I don’t want to make it sound like I think there was some great conspiracy to convince gamers that physical games were unplayable without downloads, but the way the process was presented, it very much appeared like that to me. I also ran into several games where that was very much the case, and without a resource like DoesItPlay.org, it’s honestly really hard to determine for yourself without trying to install each game and play it yourself (which is beyond impractical.)

As a result of what I experienced, and thought I was seeing, I was completely 100% convinced that physical games were essentially nothing more than unlock codes that enabled you to download and play the game, but given my recent experience with Dead Space and Nightreign, I know that isn’t the case.

SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Well… given Sony recently announced they will stop producing physical games beginning in January 2028, it seems my newfound realization has a short lifespan, but I can choose to buy the games I love that I want to ensure I can play well into the future, and using a resource like DoesItPlay.org honestly makes the process very easy.

For example, I was in a store the other day and saw they had the Resident Evil 2 remake for PS5 for a really good price, but I wasn’t sure if it would be playable. I just looked it up on DoesItPlay and found out that yes, it can be installed and played directly off the disc with no major issues, and it doesn’t require any internet connection to play; so I bought it.

Then, I was on the internet the other day and saw a great deal on Hogwarts Legacy for PS5, so I looked it up and found out (sadly) it does require a major download to be playable. As stated on DoesItPlay: “The game forces you to download a large update (roughly 40 GB) after the tutorial. You can’t progress without it.” So I decided not to buy the physical version of that game.

So that’s how I’m going to approach it going forward. I don’t have a perfect answer, or a perfect plan of my own, but I’ll just keep an eye out for physical copies of games I want to ensure I can play well into the future, and I’ll double check their long-term playability on DoesItPlay before I buy them.

Does that mean I’m going to just drop $59.99 for a physical copy of Elden Ring when I already own multiple digital copies? Probably not. But if I saw it drop to half of that, I would probably pick it up (after checking it on DoesItPlay.org).

That balance of preservation vs value feels like a good plan for how I like to collect and play games. Most of all I’m glad I finally know the truth about physical games in this current generation, and now I can plan my future game purchases accordingly.

SUBSCRIBER BONUS:

< BONUS CONTENT FOR SUBSCRIBERS>

The night is dark, and the hunt is endless. Prince Akran, the last of the Wolf Knights, wields Bathoryn and the fury of the full moon to reclaim a dying land.

Will he rise, or will darkness claim all?

GAME FACTS

• TITLE: Slain 2 - The Beast Within

• RELEASE DATE: TBD 2026

• MSRP: TBD

• DEVELOPER: Steel Mantis

• PUBLISHER: Silver Lining Interactive

• COMING TO: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and Steam(PC)

• DEMO AVAILABLE ON: Steam

• DEMO PLAYED ON: Steam

Slain 2 is the direct sequel to Steel Mantis’ 2016 game: Slain - Back from Hell, but it only continues the story of the sword Bathoryn; your character and setting are different from the first game.

STEEL MANTIS SERIES

Slain 2 is obviously a follow-up to the first in the series, however its far from the only game in Steel Mantis’ heavy-metal arsenal.

Slain: Back from Hell (2016)

You control the fate of Bathoryn, a doomed hero in a Gothic world, who seeks to liberate six cursed realms from six deadly overlords. He must battle his way through this blighted land, packed with gruesome pixel art foes before ascending (or sometimes descending) into a stronghold, all the while defeating fiendish traps and vile monsters alike. At the heart of every domain Bathoryn will confront a mighty foe - defeat it and his quest continues to its ultimate destiny. Fail, and you’ll die gruesomely – mauled by werewolves, disintegrated by floating monstrosities, squashed by great weights or torn apart by hidden blades. And you will fail…

Valfaris (2019)

Set in a far corner of space, Valfaris is a heavy metal infused 2D action-platformer and the next game from the team behind Unity Awards finalist, Slain: Back From Hell. Brutal combat. Deadly enemies. Stunning pixel art. Savage soundtrack. Get ready to rip the galaxy a new wormhole.

Valfaris: Mecha Therion (2023)

Therion returns as the hunt for Lord Vroll continues. Pilot an advanced machine of death and destruction in this explosive 2.5D side-scrolling shoot ‘em up, and sequel to the critically acclaimed Valfaris. Strap in and unleash mecha hell!

DEMO IMPRESSIONS

Even though it’s incredibly hard, I always liked the first Slain. I own it on multiple platforms, and it’s on sale fairly regularly if you’re interested in picking it up yourself. I follow one of Steel Mantis’ developers, Andrew Gilmour (@MrAwolf) on X(Twitter) for a while now, and when he first shared news of Slain 2 I was very excited.

Andrew regularly shares the pixel art and animations being developed for the game, so between that and what I knew from the first game, I was hoping the sequel would be something truly impressive.

So far it’s more than living up to my expectations.

Steel Mantis really knows how to create killer-looking pixel art that perfectly captures the dark, brooding, heavy-metal mood of the game. This is arguably the most impressive feature of both Slain 1 and 2. The heavy metal soundtrack is also great, and perfectly compliments the action (although with the blood-looking rain coming down - it would be great to get a cover or interpretation of Slayer’s Raining Blood in there somehow).

Also, the ability to transform into a werewolf and tear through enemies is pretty badass, although I do kind of wish the attack animations for the werewolf looked more impactful.

I like the new attack combos and decapitation mechanic. While the light attack might look a little too “light” the fact you can follow it into a sword swing that decapitates your foes is really cool.

There is also quite a bit of platforming / rope-climbing that your character can use to get vertical and explore various sections of the stages. There are also hostages to rescue which is a nice touch and adds to the reason for exploration.

If the demo is any indication of the final quality of the game, I think we’re going to be in for quite a treat.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

I love everything about the vibe of Slain 2. The 2D pixel-art visuals are outstanding, the setting is badass, and the music is pure metal madness. So what’s the catch? It’s HARD. Like old school hard. Like “your controller might not make it through this” hard, and for me it gets a bit too frustrating to recommend for the average gamer. Now if you like your music metal and your gameplay forged in the fires of hell, this is absolutely the game for you, but for people who like to take it a bit easier, this may be too rage inducing to be fun for long. In any case you should give the free demo a try and see if the game is for you. It’s worth experiencing in any case, and who knows, maybe you’ll find it’s particular brand of hard core heavy metal gameplay is just what the doctor ordered.

You can play the demo for yourself on Steam.

DEMO GAMEPLAY

You can watch my gameplay of the demo in the video below:

SUBSCRIBER BONUS:

GAME FACTS

• TITLE: The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest

• RELEASE DATE: TBD 2026

• MSRP: TBD

• DEVELOPER: Programancer, Retroware

• PUBLISHER: Retroware

• COMING TO: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and Steam(PC)

• DEMO AVAILABLE ON: Steam

• DEMO PLAYED ON: Steam

Even though the game is clearly based on well known beloved classics, there are a lot of modern enhancements and quality of life improvements. Unlike the linear nature of the games that inspired Simon Quest, in both the overworld and in mansions, there are plenty of alternate pathways (and choices) you can make. It may first appear that every mansion has a linear route, but you’ll find there are other paths you can take to clear them! For those adventurous enough to seek an unorthodox journey in the overworld, you can even try taking on later mansions early. In fact, doing so might even yield you a different ending.

CLASSICVANIA CONNECTION

It’s probably quite obvious, but Simon Quest is most heavily influenced by Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest from the NES era, released in 1988.

If you aren’t familiar with its history, back in the day Castlevania II was a pretty drastic departure from the first Castlevania. Sure, it still had the whip, side-scrolling, light platforming and monster slaying, but while the first game was very linear, Simon’s Quest was open world, allowing the player to move between different areas, towns and mansions fairly openly. Of course there were items required to unlock some of the areas, and some rather obscure puzzles to solve to access other areas, but once you gained access to an area you could move between them freely.

Some gamers prefer the first Castlevania, but I always found it to be too difficult and too linear. I much preferred Castlevania II, with its day/night cycle, town segments and light-RPG elements.

DEMO IMPRESSIONS

I had been following Programancer (the developer) on X for quite some time, so I knew this game had been in development for a while. When I heard the demo was finally available on Steam, I jumped on it.

The demo did not disappoint. Not only is the premise hilarious (that someone defeated Dracula before Simon Quest could, and now he plans to resurrect the Dark Lord just so he can slay him), but the visuals and controls are simply perfect. Programancer is no newbie when it comes to developing games, and his prowess is on full display here. The pixel art graphics reminded me of the original games, but more detailed and refined than anything the simple NES hardware could support. The controls are also WAY better than the original Castlevania games. You have newer features like a slide kick, and the overall feeling of controlling Simon Quest is just silky smooth and perfect. Seriously, it makes me wish Konami would go back and remaster the old games in this style.

The demo isn’t very long but it effectively gives you a glimpse of what the full game should be like.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

Overall, The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest is way better than it has any right to be. Much more than just a parody of a classic game, it’s an expertly crafted love letter to Castlevania-style gaming. It simultaneously riffs on the classic games, and improves them in practically every way you can imagine. Between the funny premise, to the excellent pixel art, to the tight controls, Programancer is creating something truly special here.

I can’t wait for this one.

You can play the demo for yourself on Steam.

DEMO GAMEPLAY

You can watch my gameplay of the demo in the video below:

SUBSCRIBER BONUS:

Set in a post-apocalyptic Japan, humanity’s only hope lies with Emma, an outcast shunned from society for her affliction, and Koo, the blighted dog. Together, they embark on this expansive adventure in this one-person, one-dog action RPG.

Experience a journey where you feel moments of loneliness, and also the reliability and comfort of your companion. Savor a world of impermanence, where forests suddenly burst forth amidst the wasteland. As Emma and Koo travel through this beautiful yet harsh world, their bond and abilities blossom.

Customize your playstyle with unique skill trees, gear, and spirit stones to survive this beautiful yet brutal world. Define your own playstyle through your preferred loadout, including ranged, stealthy, and aggressive combat.

In this world ravaged by blight...what will you find at the end of your journey?

GAME FACTS

• Release Date: 8/3/2026

• MSRP: $59.99

• Publisher: Factions

• Developer: GAME FREAK inc

• Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC/Steam

• Played on: Xbox Series S

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GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE

Beast of Reincarnation from Game Freak is finally available across Xbox, PlayStation and PC (sorry Switch owners), and was a day one release on Gamepass (which is where I played it).

When I first saw the trailers for Beast of Reincarnation I was absolutely awe-struck. It looked souls-like, beautiful and mysterious, and to be fair… it is all of those things, but… it’s also janky and unpolished, like some of Game Freak’s other games (I’m still salty over Pokémon Scarlet.)

I’ll get into the details of my experience, but to sum it up, Beast of Reincarnation is an underdeveloped experience that sometimes feels like “Temu Stellar Blade” and other times displays a level of beauty and creativity that reaches beyond its limits.

It has obviously borrowed A LOT of elements from ShiftUp’s magnum opus, but none of them are done nearly as well. To name just a few:

1. The main characters’ names and looks are similar. In Stellar Blade you play as Eve, and in BoR (I can’t keep typing out the whole name) you play as Emma. Both are human-looking, but not quite human in reality, and they are less emotional and more subdued as a result. Both Eve and Emma are attractive Asian-inspired/looking females with long dark ponytails (although Eve is a bit more, um “developed” than Emma is).

2. Both games have similar base combat systems with sword-based combat, perfect parry and perfect dodge systems, augmented by special powers that recharge by said parries and dodges.

3. Both games use “camps” that you find throughout the landscape that you have to activate, then you can use to level up your character.

4. Both have similar music, which is hauntingly beautiful and features a solo vocalist over instrumentals

The number of similarities were frankly quite stunning (and even more than I listed). I played A TON of Stellar Blade and it’s one of my favorite games on PS5. Trust me when I tell you the similarities are much more than mere coincidence, but the worst thing is that BoR delivers a worse version of everything it borrowed from SB (I’m done typing that one out too).

If being “Temu Stellar Blade” was all BoR had going for it, I would have stopped playing it almost immediately, but it’s so much more.

For one thing, the story and aesthetic of the blight-infected world are very different from SB, in a good way. I love everything about SB, but I also love the story being told in BoR, even though it could have used more polish (to be fair, I only know how the English-language version is; I can’t comment on the quality of the writing or voice acting in Japanese.)

The way Emma absorbs powers from defeated bosses is very cool, plus she has Koo, her trusty canine-looking companion, who really does make a big difference. Koo is there for every fight and you use him during battle in an active-time-battle like system, kind of like an RPG, and Koo also absorbs powers from the bosses you defeat. You also level up Koo’s strength and health like you do Emma’s but completely separately, which adds another element of strategy. Plus, Emma has a bunch of cool swords with elemental damage that are visually different between each other; really, the swords are badass.

Then there are the growing, harvesting, cooking mechanics that are different and add an additional element of strategy. While you don’t have to cook yourself, you do have to find the raw ingredients out in the world, plus recipes, and then tell Kagura (your petite sidekick) what meal to cook for you next; each dish gives you a different buff for your next section.

Beyond the various game mechanics, I also liked the “bloodied” visual effect where both Emma and Koo accumulate more and more blood on themselves the more they battle. You can have Emma and Koo shower back at your mobile walker base to clean the blood off. I actually found myself doing this quite often, as it bothered me to see Koo all bloody.

I also loved how you can interact with Koo back at base to build your rapport with him. Any game that lets you “pet the dog” is a winner in my book. Similar to Koo, you can also build up your rapport with Kagura which affects the meals she cooks for you.

The other major difference between BoR and SB is Emma’s hair mechanic. There are two main abilities you can use at anytime. One is a boost that can raise you up into the air by using her hair, and the other extends Emma’s hair in front of her like a bridge. You can actually rise quite high in the air using Emma’s hair and this lets you get on top of buildings and other structures fairly easily.; you can use the bridge hair ability to move towards a building you want to climb, then at the end you can use the hair raise ability to boost yourself even higher. For all of my complaints about the game mechanics, the hair abilities are very cool, and are one of the biggest differences between BoR and SB.

As for the bosses, the “Nushi”, you tend to fight each one in two phases. The first phase let’s you get familiar with their basic pattern, and once they transform into their second phase, they generally gain one or two additional abilities you need to learn how to dodge or parry, in addition to the moves from their first phase. You also end up fighting most of the bosses more than once (with the exception of the large bird boss - which I found to be the most annoying boss by far.)

The story is generally good, and I like the various twists and turns that come up, but the writing and voice acting could definitely be better and more polished. It’s fine the way it is, however, it seems like it could have benefited from a little more development.

REVIEW SCORE: 7/10

Overall, Beast of Reincarnation is a beautifully flawed experience that could have used a bit more polish and refinement, but is a stunning journey nonetheless. While it pains me to not be able to give it a higher score, it just has way too many janky and/or unpolished elements, and the amount of “inspiration” it takes from Stellar Blade borders on egregious. I’m glad I was able to play through it on Gamepass, and I’m happy to have experienced its characters, story and world, but I’m especially glad I didn’t have to pay $59.99 to do so. If the game interests you, even with its flaws, you should give it a try.

GAMEPLAY

You can watch some of my beginning gameplay on Series S in the video below. Ironically I started the game with Japanese voice overs and English subtitles, but I soon switched it to the English voice overs.

SUBSCRIBER BONUS

An embroidered dark medieval folk tale. While life in a seemingly ordinary village is all about simple chores and idle gossip, sinister secrets hide below.

GAME FACTS

• TITLE: Scarlet Deer Inn

• RELEASE DATE: 7/21/2026

• MSRP: $19.99

• DEVELOPER: Attu Games

• PUBLISHER: Attu Games, Aurakenn Games

• PLATFORMS: PC, Steam Deck (current); Switch and Xbox (future)

• PLAYED ON: PC

You play as Elise, a mother of two. She is just an average person trying to survive daily life and small town drama is a quaint medieval village, but not all is as it first appears.

Elise has recently taken over the day-to-day management of the Scarlet Deer Inn, following the death of her husband. She is raising two small children, Kuba and Bara, who are generally good kids that spend their days interacting with the guests at the Inn.

The game starts out normal enough, with Elise interacting with patrons at the Inn and visiting with local townspeople. She has to help her elderly neighbor Dorota deliver some items to people in the village, and in the process of doing so, you see a bit of the daily drama between the people who live there. Nothing out of the ordinary for life in a small village.

It isn’t until Elise searches deeper within the village that things take a turn for the worse. Elise stumbles upon a horrifying scene, and learns one of the villagers is not who people thought. Furthermore, it seems local children have been disappearing, and Elise’s own children go missing in the process.

Elise has to find and rescue her children, but she discovers that the true source of the madness may be something beyond this world.

BEHIND THE GAME

Scarlet Deer Inn was developed by Attu Games, a husband (Lukáš Navrátil) and wife (Eva Navrátilová) team from Znojmo, Czech Republic. Eva ((@EvaBalikova) runs their social media and was the primary writer on the game as well as handling all of the embroidery for the character artwork.

Lukas primarily handled programming, backgrounds / environment art, and digital animation. Both Eva and Lukas collaborated on the music, using “traditional instruments”, plus bringing in a few other collaborators as needed.

Prior to Scarlet Deer Inn, Lukas released a game titled Toby: The Secret Mine which was a Limbo-looking game that received mixed reactions on Steam.

As far as inspirations, Eva has listed Studio Ghibli as a major influence for the art direction and overall beauty, and when asked on X (Twitter) what their story inspirations were, she said: “The lore is a mix of Brothers Grimm and Slavic fairy tales, combined with Hot Fuzz and Night in the Woods.”

MY IMPRESSIONS

The very first thing that struck me about Scarlet Deer Inn, is just how beautiful everything is. The animation style does invoke a Studio Ghibli-like vibe, and you can tell a lot of attention to love went into crafting each background and environment. Similarly, the character animations look outstanding, and each one was created by hand embroidering each animation frame, then scanning them into a computer for the final rendering. While I’m not convinced the visual style couldn’t have been done completely digitally, overall it looks very impressive nonetheless.

The music is also 100% top-notch, and the devs did an outstanding job making it feel like it completely fits the tone and action at all times. While I’m not sure I’m excited enough to buy the soundtrack, it perfects serves its purpose in the game.

The gameplay is generally simple but tight and well designed. Most of the village scenes play out like a side-scrolling walking simulator, with Elise fetching items and speaking with her fellow villagers. The underground sequences are where the majority of the action is, and consist of light platforming and puzzle solving. There is a mechanic involving dark and light, which has been somewhat controversial online (probably the only element that has a little negative chatter), where you have to keep a light source around you, otherwise you take damage and eventually pass out. The light source either comes from torches or lamps in the environment, or from a handheld torch that Elise needs to keep refreshing at each standing torch lamp she comes across, as it burns out over time (and relatively quickly). There are also a few chase segments where either Elise is chasing something to stay in the light or Elise is running from something that could kill her.

The real reason to keep moving forward and playing the game is the story, and while it may not win any awards, it was well written and interesting enough that it kept me playing until the very end. There are a few twists that keep things engaging, and I was 100% invested in seeing Elise rescue her kids and put a stop to the evil. The dialogue with the villagers was also well written and made me feel like a part of their little village.

The game is relatively short, and I rolled credits in about 3 1/2 hours total. For what it is, though, I’m glad the game wasn’t any longer. It was just long enough, and had just enough action and stress, that I felt accomplished once I had defeated the final boss. With an MSRP of $19.99 it feels like it sits at the upper limit of value vs price, to justify picking it up right away; you can certainly find similarly priced indie games that deliver deeper, and many more hours of, gameplay ([cough] Silksong).

SCORE: 8/10

Scarlet Deer Inn is a really lovely indie game that combines beautiful hand-crafted visuals and music with an interesting story, and just enough action to keep things interesting all the way to the end. While the price might be at the upper end of what I would consider a good value, the total experience is worth having, and this is one game where the level of craftsmanship and love that went into it seem to more than justify its price. I’m very glad I picked it up and played it to the end, and I hope you’ll consider doing the same.

SAMPLE GAMEPLAY

You can watch my beginning gameplay in the video below:

SUBSCRIBER BONUS:

Faeland is a handcrafted 2D action-adventure RPG that wears its 8-bit and 16-bit inspirations on its sleeve. Stepping into the boots of Sam, a skilled hunter, you are thrust into a sprawling, vibrant world that emphasizes freedom and discovery. Unlike linear platformers, Faeland focuses on a non-linear journey where exploration is key—you’ll scour hidden areas for gear, acquire “Skill Scrolls” to expand your repertoire, and carefully manage your equipment. From your choice of tunic to the specific weapon in your hand, every piece of gear impacts your combat speed, attack animations, and defensive capabilities. The game aims to capture the “magic” of weekend-long gaming sessions from the past, wrapped in a modern, fluid pixel-art style.

GAME FACTS

• GAME: Faeland

• RELEASES: TBD

• MSRP: TBD

• DEVELOPER: Talegames LLC

• PUBLISHER: Talegames LLC

• PLATFORMS: Xbox and PC

• DEMO PLAYED ON: Series S

CLASSIC CONNECTIONS

Faeland is inspired by the great action adventure side scrollers of the 16-bit era. On Steam the developers describe the game’s aesthetic as “enhanced 16-bit” taking cues from the pixel art of the Super Nintendo-era games and using the power of modern consoles to further enhance it. Elements of the gameplay seem inspired by Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and the town exploration and interaction seems to come from games like Wonder Boy and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. Visually I think it looks inspired by classic Super Nintendo games like Super Castlevania IV and Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, but the pixel art and animation seem even more refined.

GAMEPLAY IMPRESSIONS

Even though Faeland has been available on Steam Early Access for a few years, the demo only recently came to Xbox. Once you start and select your save slot the game presents a character creator. Given the screenshots I saw showed a blonde female warrior that’s what I ended up creating (and because my brain wasn’t ready for this I just named her “Faye”; so creative, right?). You can choose from either a male or female form, five different skin tones, twelve different hairstyles (roughly six traditionally male and six traditionally female - but there’s no gender restriction), and thirteen different hair colors. I ended up choosing blonde, but that’s just because my expectation was already set to play as a blonde female, so that’s what I chose. I’ll probably go back and pick a purple haired male next time, just for fun.

Then the game begins with a series of cinema scenes (using well-crated pixel art) telling the story of how the land was created by the Fae and they also created humans but of course it all goes wrong at some point. Humans who dabbled in dark magic were twisted into monsters and drama ensued. The narrative seems well thought out and written. I didn’t even skip any of it. LOL.

After the story scenes end you are shown the interior of a temple, crated in really great-looking pixel art. Seriously this game is beautiful in a similar level to a game like Blasphemous, but with more of a Legend of Zelda-vibe than Bloodborne. There are some scary monsters walking through it, all very well drawn, and then you wake up in your house.

The animation showing your character getting out of bed and stretching is very impressive. You can tell the devs spent a lot of time on it. You collect your clothes, knife and bow, then find out you’re out of food and need to go hunting.

I ended up going to the left (I always like to see how developers design a game by trying to immediately go to the left) and entered a great looking forest. You are presented with some mushroom monsters to use your knife on, plus a crow to teach you how you can attack upwards. It’s all really good.

After you run through the forest and find a deer to kill for food, you go back to your house, cook it and eat it. Then you go to sleep. During the night your house is invaded by monsters and you barely escape with your life. You jump through the window and run into the night, with the monsters giving chase.

Upon trying to cross a log spanning a deep pit, the monsters destroy the log and you fall. Luckily you are not killed though and you wake up the next morning, without any clothes (except your default underwear) or weapons. This begins the second half of the demo.

You then do some typical cave exploration, item finding and monster killing, but it’s all very well done.

There is a boss for you to defeat, and shortly after that the demo ends, but it’s a really good time overall.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

The developers at Talegames seem to really be cooking up something special with Faeland. Despite some challenges during its early access launch on Steam, Faeland appears to be a very polished 2D action platformer with a TON of attention to detail baked into it. The pixel art is beautiful and well detailed, the ability to customize your hero is crazy for a 2D pixel art game, and all the animations I saw in the demo were very well crafted. The controls are tight, gameplay is fun, the story is interesting (your standard fantasy-ish narrative, but really good nonetheless), and the music is beautiful. Hopefully the full release will continue the high standards set by the demo.

Really excited for this one’s full release.

GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE

You can watch my gameplay from the Faeland demo on Xbox Series S in the video below:

A pixel-art sci-fi adventure set in the midst of a rebellion against a totalitarian regime, LUNARK is a modern take on the 2D cinematic platformer genre of the ‘90s. Run, jump, hang, climb, roll, and shoot your way through gorgeous and mysterious locations!

GAME FACTS

• TITLE: Lunark

• RELEASE DATE: 4/5/2023

• MSRP: $19.99

• DEVELOPER: Canari Games

• PUBLISHER: Wayforward

• PLATFORMS: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC

• PLAYED ON: PlayStation 5

As Leo, a courier with unique abilities and a mysterious past, you’ll run, jump, hang, climb, roll, and shoot through gorgeously animated pixel-art environments ranging from a dystopian megalopolis to eerie caves to an alien forest.

You must overcome traps, solve puzzles, earn upgrades, and battle enemy droids, and when you’re not fighting for survival, you’ll meet a cast of colorful characters who will put Leo’s allegiances to the test.

Uncover the dark origin of humanity’s new home and the truth about yourself in an epic sci-fi adventure!

CLASSIC CONNECTIONS

Lunark is very heavily inspired by the seminal 1992 classic, Flashback: The Quest for Identity, developed by Delphine Software and published by U.S. Gold.

Flashback, in turn, was a spiritual successor to 1991’s Out of this World, also developed by Delphine Software and published by U.S. Gold (or as it was known outside of North America: “Another World”).

Much like in Lunark, in Flashback you control your character in a 2D environment with very deliberate smoothly animated moves, with rotoscoped-looking realistic animations. In Flashback you had a complicated control scheme to navigate in order to run, jump, climb and fight your way to freedom. While Lunark is very obviously inspired by Flashback, luckily its developers didn’t stick too closely to the Flashback control scheme, making Lunark much easier to control and more enjoyable to play overall.

GAMEPLAY IMPRESSIONS

As I reflected on my time playing Lunark, I feel like gameplay and controls will either make or break the game experience for modern gamers.

On the one hand, if you were a fan of Flashback back in the day and had little to no issue with its controls, you will find Lunark is a much improved but similar experience. Personally, I always liked the idea of Flashback’s control scheme, but found it difficult to execute in practice. Lunark, on the other hand, employs similar controls but executes them in a way that is much easier to understand and execute (at least to me).

On the other hand, if you’ve never played Flashback, or you didn’t like the way it controlled, Lunark may have a bit of a learning curve for you, which you may or may not click with.

In terms of replayability, Lunark does offer a variety of items to find, and if you wanted to get 100% of all secrets and power-ups you might need at least two playthroughs, otherwise its about a 4.5-5 hour game, with limited reasons for replay.

Lunark’s overly chunky graphics may also be a little hit or miss for gamers.

I’m a hardcore retro gamer through and through, but even for me, the chunky pixel-art in the game seemed a bit too lo-fi for my taste. Personally, I wish the graphic detail was closer to a game like Flashback, but I got used to look of the graphics quickly, and the smooth animations and well-designed environments more than made up for it.

The story is the stereotypical kind of typical dystopian future with a totalitarian government, robots and AIs, but overall I liked it and it kept me interested.

Thankfully the writing is well done and the text is just detailed enough to help support the narrative, but not overly detailed to the point where you’ll want to skip ahead.

I honestly found the writing length to be perfect and I wish more modern games with text-based dialog would do something similar.

The music and sound design is one area where Lunark really shines. I absolutely love the music in Lunark and it not only perfectly calls back to the style of Flashback (in a very good way) but it really stands on its own to support the action and be very enjoyable. While I don’t think I’ll be looking to purchase the OST, it is perfect in the game itself.

From an innovative standpoint, Lunark heavily relies on its inspiration, but executes it in an absolutely flawless way. While it may seem simple enough to emulate a classic experience, Lunark improved the Flashback-style control scheme to the point where its actually playable, while I still can’t control Flashback well to this day. Kudos to the devs for that!

At an MSRP of $19.99 and a length of about 4.5-5 hours, for me Lunark teeters right on the edge of delivering sufficient enough value for its price. When I finally got around to buying Lunark, I was able to get it on sale at a significant discount ($3.99 versus its full $19.99 price), and I’m sure that helped make my experience more enjoyable over all. If I had paid full price I might have expected more from the experience (for example, Hollow Knight Silksong retailed for $19.99 at release and could be seen as a more robust experience).

SCORE: 8/10

Lunark is a really well made tribute to the cinematic platforming games of the 90s, like Flashback and Out of This World. While its graphics are a little blockier than I typically like my pixel-art, it still looks fantastic, and plays even better than the games that inspired it. If you liked games like Flashback back in the day, you definitely need to give Lunark a try. If you never played the games that inspired it, it’s still worth giving it a go, although you may find the controls to be a bit odd and want to wait for a sale before jumping in.

SAMPLE GAMEPLAY

You can watch my beginning gameplay on PS5 in the video below:

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