Lucas White
Game industry critic and reviewer
Writing For
ShackNews 
TheGamer 
Playstation Lifestyle 
Nintendo Wire Latest Reviews
Dressing Bubsy up like an executive on stage at a showcase will not save him.
Putting '64' in the title may be on the nose, but it's plenty accurate for what this game is.
Doinksoft's latest is an odd roguelike with lots of characters.
Nostalgia, game development, and meta storytelling collide in this RPG-themed deduction game.
There's a lot more going on here than 'Tony Hawk with a train.'
Minishoot’ Adventures, aside from the weird apostrophe in its title, is as straightforward as it gets. You can look at it once and immediately clock what it’s all about. But despite it being a mashup of familiar ideas, it stands out in a few ways. For one, it’s a particular blend of styles you don’t see every day. For two, it’s a pitch perfect execution of its concept. With mashups like this, all it can take is hitting the bulls-eye to make for a great experience. I breezed through this adventure, and had a blast the whole time. Sometimes, it’s that simple.
In the 90s, Virgin Interactive published a game called Screamer, a PC racing game from Italian developer Graffiti that was praised for how it combined a realistic control style with the exaggerated animations of an arcade game. Screamer became a short-lived series, and Graffiti rebranded as Milestone, going on to make all kinds of racing games over the years, from Hot Wheels Unleashed to Monster Energy Supercross. Now, Milestone is going back to where it started with a new Screamer, but approaching that classic IP from a totally new angle. This game is more in conversation with high-octone anime like Redline, Speed Racer, and Initial D and games like F-Zero or Star Wars: Episode I Racer than a normal racing sim, and even has splashes of things like Mobile Suit Gundam and Overwatch. Can a hardcore racing game developer produce an interactive anime? Is that a real thing that’s happening here? The answer to those questions is, somehow, yes. Screamer is dope.
I still remember how hyped I was when BlazBlue first came out, all the way back in 2009. I was at my peak interest in fighting games, Guilty Gear was on some kind of hiatus, and this was the next best thing with its own cool twists. Eventually, I fell off. It was hard to keep up with all the new versions, and as I got older I lost the ability to hang in those faster-paced “anime” fighters. The world and story also felt incomprehensible, which made venturing into spinoffs and things like visual novels feel like silly prospects. But when 2026 kicks off with a sidescrolling action-flavored roguelike that just looks like Ragna the Bloodedge fighting ninjas with his demonic blood powers, someone like me pays attention. And in that respect, BlazBlue Entropy Effect X delivers in spades.
The somewhat controversial Yakuza Kiwami series continues, with its most controversial entry yet. There’s a lot to unpack here, but needless to say the internet has been alight with discourse, with hardcore, longtime Yakuza/Like a Dragon fans clashing with more casual or newer fans over retcons, casting decisions, gameplay changes, and more. The icing on the cake, of course, being Yakuza 3 Remastered’s looming execution date. Is this remake actually a problematic mess, a tipping point for a once strong franchise teetering on the edge of chaos? Probably, yeah. It’s a whole thing. Let’s try to break it down.