As the winter weather continues to be brutal for many of us, it’s a great time to stay inside, keep warm, and check out some games to pass the time. For this Gamebox, we comforted inner demons in The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest, got weird with Romeo is a Dead Man, led a pocket-sized adventure to solve puzzles in Hamstermind, and more. Check out our reviews below.
The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest (Chris): The developers at Elden Pixels seem to have a pointed message for anyone who thinks making games is all fun and fantasy. If the terror of releasing something no one plays is not enough to keep a creator awake at night, the internal voices and creeping doubts will gladly take over. That makes their partnership with the newly revived Acclaim feel especially fitting. Once known for bringing arcade and console hits into living rooms throughout the 90s, Acclaim’s new era is shifting its focus toward projects with something to say. With The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest, they are backing a game that pokes at the anxieties of development itself, even if it does so with a wink and a cheeky tone. This quirky Metroidvania platformer is a self-aware descent into the psyche, built on the tried-and-true side-scroller action-platform mechanics for a simple journey into ambition, mistrust, and the cost of pursuing creative dreams.
The game follows Olaf, an anxious, stressed-out game developer, as he visits his therapist, who uses hypnotherapy to analyze Olaf’s inner turmoil. While not the best method to address’ Olaf’s issues, it does send Olaf into his own headspace and transforms him into his alter ego, the honky tonk musician Fletcher Howie Jr. Awakening with no weapon, no clothes, and no clear way to escape this imaginative prison, Fletcher sets out on a quest to confront and defeat the fragments of Olaf’s psyche that have manifested as inner demons. Only by overcoming them can he hope to break free.
For most of the game, you’ll be exploring the labyrinth of connected rooms, filled with spikey traps and enemies that can’t wait to cause trouble for you. You get a sense of how Fletcher handles the bare essentials of Fletcher’s platformer abilities. There are too many fancy moves, like wall climbs or dashes, so it’s mostly on the player to get a sense of timing and patience. Later on in the game, you get the ability to slide and double jump, but for most situations, the basic jump is what you rely on. There are a lot of fun and wacky character designs that, if you believe, are based on real emotions and people the dev team has felt/met, which might make you wonder whether Sweden needs more or less therapy. Enemies, for the most part, follow a walking pattern and will occasionally send out an attack that can home in on Fletcher or just sail in a fixed position. Eventually, Fletcher acquires a handy pistol to help even the odds. This is not a typical run-and-gun weapon. You cannot simply mash the fire button and flood the screen with bullets. At the start, only one shot can exist at a time, meaning Fletcher cannot fire again until the previous bullet either hits its target or travels off-screen. That limitation is intentional. It forces the player to be deliberate with every trigger pull. Up close, combat feels tense because a missed shot leaves you momentarily vulnerable. From a distance to the enemy, each bullet has the weight of sniper-like precision. But upclose, Fletch can unleash a hail of rapid-fire shots. The shooting mechanic is slower and more methodical. Makes shooting, for the most part, feel like a careful test of timing and positioning in relation to the surroundings.
As Fletcher progresses in his quest, he gains more bullets, allowing him to fire additional shots rapidly. This comes in handy when tackling the boss battles, which feature some wonderfully tense combat. These fights also favor precision shooting. You’ll not only have to be quick to dodge projects, but you’ll also have to watch your shots and placement to get enough damage in before the boss gets a lucky hit on you. And you will get hit a lot if you aren’t paying attention. Fletcher can only take a maximum of two hits before he is sent back to a checkpoint. But respawning takes seconds, and checkpoints are spread out evenly, so dying isn’t an issue when it comes to adapting and overcoming the next challenging room layout or boss fight.
I was surprised by how quickly the game wraps up, often just as it introduces new abilities. It could have gone further into Olaf’s fractured psyche in a more sprawling, Psychonauts-style direction, but the shorter playtime works in its favor. Each section feels purposeful and fresh, never overstaying its welcome. There is a mix of different level designs and imaginative sections that I wanted to revisit, but the story marches forward at a good pace. The experience is compact and direct, focused on delivering tight platforming challenges and intense bullet-hell boss encounters without padding. While the campaign is brief, it is far from easy, especially for players unfamiliar with platformers that demand precision and patience.
The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest pairs classic platforming fundamentals with a story about confronting inner demons, turning therapy into a playable battleground. While it doesn’t push the narrative in any impactful way, the gameplay is solid, and Fletcher’s quest helps Olaf get to where he needs to be mentally at the moment. And that’s enough, considering gaming and therapy ain’t exactly a one-time fix. The game is very approachable for all gamers, but the mature subject matter and crude humor are just for responsible people. The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest was released on February 10th and is available on Steam and Nintendo eShop.
UVS Games – The King of Fighters XV: Challenger Series (Chris): The UniVersus card game welcomed two fresh Challenger Series decks inspired by The King of Fighters XV, bringing SNK’s long-running rivalry into tabletop form. These ready-to-play 60-card builds are designed to clash straight out of the box, spotlighting the central teams from the game’s storyline: Team Hero and Team Rival. Team Hero centers on Shun’ei, the current protagonist of the KOF saga, whose illusion-based powers are matched by his allies, the carefree Meitenkun and the electrifying Benimaru Nikaido. Across the battleground stands Team Rival, led by Shun’ei’s fiery counterpart, Isla. Joining her side are the mystic Dolores and the militant Heidern. Both Shun’ei and Isla draw strength from mysterious entities known as Amplified Specters, a force intertwined with the fabric of reality itself. Shun’ei and Isla’s rivalry is more than personal pride; it becomes a battle over who can truly control Amp power.
For those unfamiliar with the line, the Challenger Series offers a preconstructed 60-card deck built for immediate, competitive play. That accessibility makes it easy for newcomers to learn the foundations of the combat system while expanding new strategies for experienced players. The Team Hero and Team Rival decks each include three character cards, translating the mechanics and visuals of The King of Fighters XV into a card battle format that feels authentic to the famous fighting game. Smart setups, calculated risks, and explosive finishers mirror the pacing of a KOF match. While the tabletop version does not allow traditional tag-team mechanics, players can build between the six included SNK fighters to shift playstyles and explore new combinations. Each character leans into a distinct strength, so you will want to experiment to find your preferred style. As an added incentive, each release also includes a Collector’s booster pack containing foil or alternate-art versions of cards from the set.
If you already have an existing deck or are looking to mix up your moves, the UniVersus system allows builds to swap in other characters from other series to create fun mash-up theme decks for interesting and powerful combinations. Want to fuse aggressive attacks from Attack on Titan mixed with the defensive moves from Street Fighter 6? The rules support it. You can find an example list of different combinations and ideas on how to build a deck from the KOF XV Challenger series over on the UVS Games site. The Challenger series is a great value to get a starter experience without hunting down the perfect setup to play with friends or make new rivals at one of the many tournaments hosted across the nation and online.
Hamstermind (Zach): Dust off your fedora and delve into some ancient puzzles in Righteous Tree’s Hamstermind. You play as explorer and adventurer Hamster Jones and are tasked with exploring the ancient pyramid of Charaon and unlocking the secrets buried deep inside. The main gameplay consists of sliding and rotating puzzles. When you enter a new room, you’ll usually find a series of tiles on the floor, and your goal is to rotate them so you can collect the shining collectible for that room and progress. When you are inside the tile’s path, you can rotate the tile and figure out how to move and rotate to create the path needed to get the collectible, then make your way back out. Things start easy and gradually ramp up, adding elements like vines that prevent the tile from rotating or ancient statues that stop you from rotating if you are in their sight range. The game does a great job of introducing the main mechanic and then adding new twists and challenges to keep it interesting.
Along with the main puzzles in each new room, there are several other puzzle types to solve. There are ancient languages to try to decode and sliding puzzles to open the cages of collectible scarabs that you can use to unlock items and collectibles in the main hub area. There’s even a sort of programming-lite type puzzle where you need to place direction blocks to guide a mechanical bug around to hit nodes. The game has a charming, cartoony art style and fun characters, and it seems to be having fun playing in the Indiana Jones/adventure theme. Hamstermind does what most good puzzle games do: introduce a somewhat simple concept and then keep iterating on it with new mechanics and challenges. It has that “one more room” mentality that will probably keep you playing much longer than you expected. It’s out now on Steam.
Clue: Murder by Death (Chris): Lord Anderson has been found dead inside his manor, but something is amiss with the circumstances. Somewhere in the spacious estate hides the clues for the who, what, and why behind the Lord’s death. It’s up to a detective and a team of assistants to investigate the staff and guests of Lord Anderson, narrowing down the suspect list until the killer is caught. But you’ll have to work fast and think quickly to gather your proof before the police chief arrives and takes over the investigation. Can you find all the clues before the time runs out in Clue: Murder by Death?
Published by Dolores Entertainment and developed by Cocodrolo Games, Clue: Murder by Death is an isometric 3D adventure title inspired by the board game Clue and the works of Agatha Christie. This whodunit mystery title puts the player in the role of detective John Smith, with two assistants tied to the recently deceased Lord Anderson. John Smith has requested that no one enter or leave the manor, warning that someone hiding in plain sight is the killer. The player will lead the trio of sleuths through a maze-like manor, discovering connections among residents and staff and potential clues that lead to Lord Anderson’s murder.
Unlike the board game, you can freely move about the spaces without a dice roll. You swap between James Smith and two of ten potential assistants to explore as much of the manor as you can. However, only certain pathways can be accessed with key items, and depending on the assistant chosen at the start of the game, you can easily access direct routes or gain intel early. You’ll have to manually move to locations and be within grabbing distance of items in order to inspect and carry them with one of your characters. The other important mechanic you’ll soon find is the very limited carrying capacity of items each character in the sleuth trio will have you painfully monitor. James Smith can hold up to three items that can be swapped with other items, but certain assistance characters, like Lady Sophie, can only hold two items.
The chibi-style character designs and soft, cozy visuals may make this game feel like it’s aimed at a younger audience, but it doesn’t hold hands much after the tutorial. There are misdirections and false positive items that could lead you down a trail of answers, but those hot leads can go cold very quickly. While the game may feel like one giant fetch quest, you’ll have to make notes (in-game with a suspect board or mentally) to keep track of certain hints and suspicions if the evidence points in that direction. There is also no in-game item and character placement management, so you’ll have to remember when items were found and, hopefully, not forget where you saw them last if you happen to drop certain key items somewhere else. This is where swapping characters constantly comes in handy, but the switching system is very slow, and it takes some time to feel like you are fully utilizing your potential as the real-time 3-hour countdown ticks away.
The game features multiple endings, so the structure of who the murderer is, what weapon was used, and the motive will differ depending on a few factors. Just like the board game, if you think you uncovered enough evidence, you can make your accusation at any time to end the game and see if your reasoning lines up. However, you can’t easily make an accusation without exploring. Even if you happen to know from the start who the killer is from a repeated attempt with the same conditions, you will have to discover each piece of key evidence all over again. One saving grace is that once each room has been visited, it’s always revealed for future playthroughs, so it saves you time relearning your footing again. Each room’s layout doesn’t quite flow from one room to another, so you’ll be looking at the map frequently to figure out the quickest routes around the manor.
There are many fresh concepts introduced into the classic Clue structure, but it falls flat in bringing more interactivity to the game’s main gameplay loop. Controlling multiple characters at once is a fine idea, especially if certain characters have unique perks and change interactions slightly. But it gets muddled by unexpectedly long load times and frequent character switches, especially when they’re very far apart. I think this is due to an unoptimized physics engine that adds collisions to every object, which goes very underutilized. You mostly drop items and wedge them into annoying spots. The physical interactions seem like a fun addition if expanded and used in small physics-based puzzles. Also, the health system is underutilized. You can damage your characters by walking into hazards, but it doesn’t seem like your characters can die. There is no combat in the game, nor is there a chance for the killer to strike again that threatens any health meter.
Clue: Murder by Death is an ambitious title that feels underbaked. For a game that sought to enhance the single-player experience of Clue, it does a passable job of making it feel very engaging for a few hours, but it gets repetitive fast. I had high hopes for a dynamic mystery game that would keep me guessing, but I spent most of my time aimlessly doing trial-and-error item hunting. The limited timeline makes the experience a bit frantic at first and pushes you to really focus on narrowing your investigation. There’s a lot of exploration that will have you retrying a round a few times, optimizing your time, and grabbing all the necessary details as quickly as possible. However, the game lacks depth, as you have to repeat certain tasks over and over to progress, no matter which assistance you pick. That kind of focused requirements then makes certain segments act like a chore rather than following the trail of a keen murderer. While it may not appeal to the general gaming audience, cozy gamers and casual murder-mystery fans can still find some fun in the webs of secrets and lies at Anderson Manor. I actually think playing the game with others helps you keep track of the details better and keeps your group guessing where to look next. I do recommend the demo on Steam first to get a better sense of the gameplay and judge if you want to invest more time after. Clue: Murder By Death was released on February 13th and is available on Steam, Nintendo eShop, Xbox, and PSN.
Romeo is a Dead Man (Zach): Grasshopper Manufacture, led by mad genius Suda51, is back with a new character-action game, Romeo is a Dead Man. As with most GM games, the story of Romeo is a Dead Man is absolutely bonkers. You play as Romeo Stargazer, a rookie deputy sheriff turned multiversal warrior, when he’s attacked and almost killed by a “White Devil” creature. His grandfather, Benjamin Stargazer, creates a mechanical helmet and arm to keep him alive, and Romeo is recruited by the FBI’s “Space Time Police” to help them hunt down and kill variants of his girlfriend, Juliet, who may be responsible for singularities destroying parts of the multiverse. It’s all over the top and crazy, but it’s also what’s probably going to keep most players going, as you have to see what is going to happen next, or even what medium the story is going to be told in next. The game’s presentation is wildly creative, pulling in styles ranging from comic book panels to old-school anime and everything in between. While the main gameplay is a 3D character action game, similar to previous Grasshopper Manufacture games like No More Heroes or Let It Die, the main hub, the spaceship Last Resort, is played out in an old-school 16-bit RPG. The style and presentation are top-notch and exactly what fans of Suda51 are probably looking for.
The main gameplay features a mix of hack-and-slash action and ranged combat. Romeo has an arsenal of melee weapons and guns at his disposal, each of them with different stats like speed and power. The main sword he starts with, for example, is a pretty well-balanced weapon, but you can buy a massive and powerful but slow large sword, or smaller tonfaesque weapons that are extremely fast but don’t do a lot of damage. Same with the guns, where you can get a slow but powerful shotgun-style weapon or a super-fast but low-damage machine gun. You can switch between both types of weapons in combat, and it’s necessary as certain enemies have weak points that you can only hit with ranged weapons to defeat them quickly. As you defeat enemies, you build up a gauge that lets you unleash your “Bloody Summer” attack, which does a massive, flashy attack that does tons of damage and can help wipe out crowds of enemies. The main enemies you’ll face are undead zombies, who don’t pose too much of a threat, but the game quickly adds in new types of enemies that will attack from range or be massive damage sponges. I do feel like maybe some of the effort that went into the presentation and surrounding elements went into making the combat feel a bit smoother. It feels a bit stiff compared to other character-action games, and switching between weapons and items is clunkier than it should be. Once you start adding things like “Rotter” companions that you can deploy, that adds another element; it’s a bit of quantity over quality.
The other element I found overwhelming and kind of baffling, but that others will probably absolutely love, is all the accompanying mini-games and currencies related to your upgrades and abilities. When you are on board the Last Resort, you can talk to all the other members of the Space-Time Cops, many of whom have some way to buy items or upgrade your equipment. You can visit Romeo’s sister Luna and do a mini-game where you plant seeds to grow zombies and then combine the zombies into seeds for more powerful zombies that you can take as Rotters into the stages, or visit Romeo’s mom and cook and fry different foods to give you temporary boosts in the levels. You also get two different types of currency for weapons and upgrades that you can convert in a sort of pachinko machine, play an arcade-style maze game using currency as fuel to get upgrades, or shoot asteroids outside the ship to harvest currency.
For me, Romeo is a Dead Man has a bit too many systems to keep track of at once, at a frantic pace. It feels like you have to fully master what everything does and how to spend everything so you can be properly equipped and upgraded for the main gameplay levels. If you’re a Grasshopper Manufacture/Suda51 fan, you are probably going to love everything going on in Romeo is a Dead Man, and it has “future cult classic” written all over it. If you haven’t played a lot of their games but have played other modern character action games, you will probably find the combat lacking and the abundance of systems confusing and overwhelming. Presentation-wise, the game is top-notch, and just seeing what the hell it’s going to do next is worth checking it out, but overall, I’m very mixed on it. It’s out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X, so you can check it out and decide for yourself.
God of War: Sons of Sparta (Chris): Long before Kratos became the Ghost of Sparta, his legend was forged in blood, discipline, and brotherhood. God of War: Sons of Sparta explores the early years of the Spartan warrior, when a young Kratos was an unknown soldier earning his place among the ranks. Training beside his brother Deimos, the two endure trials that shape their loyalty to Sparta and their limits of duty. Developed by Santa Monica Studio in collaboration with Mega Cat Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sons of Sparta is a 2D action Metroidvania title that explores Kratos’ past as never before. Though Kratos and Deimos don’t have the powers of the gods, the brutality and rage still burn inside the young warriors.
The 2D perspective shifts the gameplay from its traditional arena combat brawler to a classic Metroidvania exploration. Kratos and Deimos are exploring the unforgiving land of Laconia, a region rife with mysteries, treasures, and dangers. Similar to previous titles, Kratos navigates regions, overcomes obstacles, and unlocks new pathways by using gained abilities and tools. Kratos has a basic platformer moveset that upgrades over time. There is a basic jump, wall bounce, and dodge that will also be used to roll under tight spaces. You’ll be using mostly the basic movesets to explore, find collectibles, and find blocked passways that will be marked on a map. The UI on the map and objects is well laid out, so you never feel totally lost when trying to retrace your steps.
As expected, the combat has been simplified to adjust for the 2D action. Attacking primary focuses on a variation of a spear attack that deals direct or stun damage. Normal attacks chip away at an enemy’s health, while a spartan spirit attack will deliver more stun damage. Once an enemy is fully stunned, Kratos can deliver a powerful one-hit attack to recover more health. In a recent addition to the series, players can customize Kratos’ spear with attachments across three categories: the tip, the grip, and the tail. Each attachment adds different stats to the weapon, but the tail adds a different attack to Krato’s combo finisher. This adds a minor change to Kratos’ fight style, pushing aggressive stances or maintaining some distance to be more agile in combat. It’s a nice, small touch that adds a bit more depth from mindlessly tapping attacks, but mostly comes in handy against higher-level foes that will punish you for making careless moves. There are additional magically enhanced pieces of equipment found later on that give Kratos ranged attacks, which come in handy for striking enemies and for some crowd control.
Leveling up Kratos still revolves around collecting Blood Orbs, earned from fallen enemies or discovered in hidden crates scattered across the map. These orbs power up weapon attachments, abilities, and unlock new exploration options. Enemies and crates don’t automatically respawn in areas, but do if either Kratos falls in combat and is revived at a checkpoint, or if you return to an area after some time. The game doesn’t push for grinding through orbs, as you will have to return to locations multiple times and earn enough orbs from casual battles. But it does help beef up stats if you are going to encounter particular tough fights.
While Sons of Sparta does not fully return to the combo-driven spectacle of the original Greek-era titles, it comfortably fits into the franchise’s larger mythology. The plot’s smaller scope works in its favor, giving the story room to breathe and placing greater emphasis on character. It’s great to have T.C. Carson reprise his role as Kratos, ensuring the portrayal is period-accurate. The narrative structure of Kratos recalls the events to his daughter, Calliope, which gives the game’s pacing a more deliberate, slower scale, the dialogue occasionally lighter, and moments of reflection soften the usual fury. Rather than a nonstop march of vengeance, this chapter feels like a father recounting hard-earned lessons.
It feels like a missed opportunity to have Deimos be an activate assit character, similar to Atreus in 2018 God of War. The story does pair the brothers well in the adventure, but for the most part, the experience is a very isolated single-player campaign when you could have made the brothers fight like a unit for most of the game. There is a bonus challenge mode that unlocks after completing the single-player campaign, The Pit of Agonies, which has co-op play. In this challenge mode, Kratos and Deimos take on nine levels of increasingly difficult waves of enemies as quickly as possible. It’s a small addition that adds replay value, but you’ll have to complete the hefty runtime in order to have the two Spartans tear through the underworld.
Sons of Sparta packs a surprising amount of satisfying gameplay into a smaller-scale adventure that still delivers several hours of entertaining action. As a Metroidvania, the developers did a solid job translating key elements of Kratos’ combat into the 2D plane. The different combinations of spear attachments and magical abilities offer interesting variety, even if most players will settle into a reliable formula for the majority of encounters. It may not deliver the limb-tearing excess longtime fans associate with the franchise’s most bombastic moments, yet that restraint ultimately serves the story it wants to tell. This is not a tale of gods falling or a vengeance-fueled warrior on a rampage; it is the story of a soldier still learning what honor, loyalty, and duty truly mean. For players willing to embrace a more intimate chapter of the myth, God of War: Sons of Sparta is a journey well worth taking. God of War: Sons of Sparta was released on the PlayStation Network on February 13th.
