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The Star
35 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Pac-Man's new friend: A sword-wielding warrior
Although the summer can be a slow period for new video games, there were a few major releases in recent weeks. Our critic considered Donkey Kong Bananza a strong addition to the Nintendo Switch 2 library, praising the 'lavishly animated extravaganza.' Another critic thought the auteur Hideo Kojima was a bit heavy-handed in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach , which addresses the pitfalls of connection. Here are three other games you may have missed in July: Shadow Labyrinth When it comes to choosing a movie to watch on an airplane, I always opt for something that rests comfortably on the lower range of good. I steer clear from things I really want to see because I'm an uptight cinephile who would prefer to watch the best stuff in front of a nice setup without ambient distractions. I thought about those preferences while playing Shadow Labyrinth , a good but by no means great Metroidvania. In keeping with the genre, it offers the lulling comfort of crisscrossing a mazelike structure and acquiring power-ups that allow the player to unlock previously inaccessible areas. Shadow Labyrinth won't blow anyone away with its visuals, which come across as a mildly souped-up take on retro-style graphics, but it features a strong hook: Imagine if you took Pac-Man – the O.G. video game maze-runner – and thrust him into a sci-fi world where he assists a hooded sword-wielding warrior. Swordsman No. 8, the warrior in question, can transform into Puck, the name of the Pac-Man character in the game, to zoom over the brightly coloured rails that are a hallmark of the franchise. He can also merge with Puck into a large mecha creature that can be helpful when fighting the game's bosses, such as the fire-spewing chicken Duke Sirius. If you're looking to take a vacation from serious gaming, you could certainly do worse than this. – CHRISTOPHER BYRD Reviewed on the PlayStation 5 Pro. Also available on the PC, Switch, Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S. Everdeep Aurora Everdeep Aurora starts off with your character, a small round cat girl named Shell, fleeing an apocalyptic meteor shower for the safety of the caverns below. She is joined there by a colorful cast of allies, among them a giant blacksmithing ram and a guitar-playing frog who gives her an old drill to dig deep into the earth below. Journeying into the dark seems overwhelming at first. It's mysterious and opaque, and you can't explore very far down these 8-bit tunnels without running out of drill fuel and being forced to backtrack. As the game unfolds and Shell maps out more of the cave system, it becomes clear that the tenor of this experience is closer to joyful exploration than life-risking adventure. The deeper she digs the more the game brightens, introducing you to new puzzles, characters, exotic settlements and breadcrumbed tidbits of story. Shell may be diminutive and feline, complete with a button dedicated to meowing, but she is indefatigable. Seemingly intimidating enemies – a haughty woman who hoards her treasures, or an untrustworthy snake who uses dice games to swindle passersby – inevitably trip over their own avarice like the villains of childhood fables. Undisturbed by their antics, Shell continues on, uniting a sprawling world. – YUSSEF COLE Reviewed on the PC. Also available on the Switch. EA Sports College Football 26 I quickly noticed the bold, brassy fight songs – over 200 of them this year – in EA Sports College Football 26 . The game's soundtrack is so rife with spirited marches and bouncy versions of pop songs like Miley Cyrus' Flowers that I wanted to hit the gridiron immediately. Breathless commentators and an opening cinematic with rapid cuts and high-energy action added to my enthusiasm. But there were issues. Character models for stadium crowds and cheerleaders weren't state of the art. Fan reactions were repetitive. In the challenge mode where you can earn points for upgrades, a player was partially offscreen when I tried getting him to perform an end zone victory dance. Some of these issues were addressed in a patch, but afterward I still had an announcer say the game was close when I was ahead by 14 points. Nonetheless, there's so much here to mine that College Football 26 is a good offering to enjoy throughout the season. I particularly enjoy the Road to Glory mode, where you can create a player and help him shine as he moves through high school to college. Thrills abound even before the teams line up at midfield. It's stunning to witness Aurea, the soaring golden eagle, at the beginning of an Auburn game. During a tense fourth quarter, it felt real to see a rowdy crowd aggravating players during a key moment. – HAROLD GOLDBERG Reviewed on the PlayStation 5. Also available on the Xbox Series X|S. – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Five Steam deep cuts from last week, including Chinese horror and eldritch solitaire.
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Best of the best 2025 games: Upcoming releasesBest PC games: All-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest MMOs: Massive worldsBest RPGs: Grand adventures On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that's a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that's exactly what we've done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we've gathered the best PC games you can play right now and a running list of the 2025 games that are launching this year. Everdeep Aurora Steam page Release: July 10Developer: Nautilus Games People keep comparing this gorgeous platformer to games from the Game Boy Advance era, which isn't wrong, but it feels closer to something you might have found on an Amstrad Action cover mount back in the '80s, albeit with a higher pixel count. Set underground in the aftermath of an apocalypse, you play as Shell, who is—and this is important—a cat. Shell's mother is missing, so she needs to dig deeper and deeper into the unknown to find her. Naturally, things get more bizarre and dangerous the further she gets. This is ostensibly a platformer, though it has a lot of mining, making Steamworld Dig an obvious reference point. Dread Flats Steam pageRelease: July 11Developer: Ghostcase Everdeep Aurora may be cute, but the rest of this week's column is consistently morbid. Dread Flats is probably the worst offender: it's a first-person horror about exploring a "murder building". Set in 1990s China, it's definitely exploration-forward: you'll spend the majority of the game poking around in a big residential tower block that has seen better days (to be extremely euphemistic about it). The residents we meet are pretty effed up, as the trailer makes abundantly clear, so expect a lot of panicked running or, if you're smart, a fair bit of stealth. Last Report Steam page Release: July 12Developers: Moonpixel GamesAnother horror game, this time in the form of a point 'n' click adventure. You play as a night shift park ranger who notices some pretty unsettling stuff on the CCTV. Via exploration, conversations with fellow park rangers (all of whom are a bit suss themselves), and the monitoring of camera footage, the disturbing history of the park unfolds. It looks like a mix of Five Nights at Freddy's and Firewatch. Occlude Steam pageRelease: July 11Developer: Tributary Games It's an occult card game, basically, but with a "reality-bending" narrative and a cryptic, challenge-based approach to familiar rules. Judging by the Steam description, I think the less you know about Occlude the better, but it heavily emphasises secrets and mysteries. If Balatro is hauntological poker, I guess this is eldritch solitaire? I don't really play card games, but if you do, this seems like it's trying something new. Azrael's Tear Steam page Release: July 12Developer: Intelligent Games Ltd., Ken Haywood There are few things that excite me more than forgotten, vaguely cursed-looking '90s PC games, and Azrael's Tear is a perfect example. Originally released on CD-ROM in 1996, it's set in the distant future of 2012, and follows the protagonist's search for the Holy Grail in a mysterious underground sanctum that seems far more technologically advanced that it should be. I've never played this, but it has an approach to first-person exploration that feels akin to something like Ultima Underworld or System Shock, but with a heavier emphasis on puzzles and problem-solving.
