March has been a busy month for us, but we managed to get in some game time before we headed to one of the biggest East Coast gaming events, which was PAX East 2026. We did some rhythm hacking in the cyberspace in GRIDbeat!, explored the desert landscapes of Mirage 7, took on waves of hellspawns in Grind Survivors, and more. Check out our thoughts on the latest game review rounds up in the Gamebox 2.0.
GRIDbeat! (Zach): Coming from the recently resurrected Acclaim and Ridiculous Games, GRIDbeat! is a rhythm-based dungeon crawler set in the world of cyberspace. You play as a hacker hired to steal valuable data from one of the world’s biggest corporations by a mysterious client. While you can get in fairly easily, getting out is another matter entirely. You have to navigate various servers and mainframes to try and get out with your data intact while uncovering corporate secrets and figuring out what your client is really up to.
If you have played games like Crypt of the Necrodancer, GRIDbeat! works similarly. You have a “dungeon,” or in this case, a digital maze, and you have to move with the beat of the song playing in the level. If you get out of sync or take damage from the various enemies and obstacles, you lose data, and if you lose it all, your connection to the server is terminated, and you’ll have to start over. Being a rhythm-based game, one of the most important elements is the music, and GRIDbeat!‘s soundtrack absolutely slaps, with incredibly awesome synthwave tracks that you will absolutely want to keep listening to outside of the game. The game also has an awesome cyber/neon look, and it feels like a throwback to classic arcade games like Tempest, movies like Tron, and maze-based gameplay like Pac-Man.
In a nod to games like Metroid, you start the first few levels with your cyberdeck fully upgraded with various hacking tools, like a slash move to open new pathways, but you suffer a setback and have to rebuild your skills throughout the rest of the game. You collect bits in each stage, and you can use them to unlock new abilities when you gather enough bits. The game does a great job of introducing the gameplay and concepts through the tutorial section and then keeps adding variety as you progress through the various servers. There are different nodes that you need to hack that require different mini-games to unlock, like pressing buttons on the beat or manipulating and unlocking sections of a ring. There are also bosses to fight and challenge levels, like outrunning a server’s formatting, that break up the standard levels with new mechanics.
GRIDbeat! is a fantastic rhythm-action game with an awesome visual style and an excellent soundtrack. It’s a game where you can get into a flow state and basically move by instinct as you get fully synced into the beat of the music. If you’re a fan of games like Crypt of the Necrodancer, this is a no-brainer, but even if you’re just a fan of synthwave and its awesome aesthetics, GRIDbeat! is worth checking out as well. It’s out now on Steam and Switch.
Grind Survivors (Chris): When Earth is reduced to an apocalyptic hellscape, armored demon hunters drop straight into the chaos in Grind Survivors. Developed by Pushka Studios and published by Assemble Entertainment, the game delivers a fresh spin on the Survivors-style formula of fast-paced twin-stick shooting, while being completely upfront about its grind-heavy, Survivors-like progression.
Players can choose from four distinct character classes, each built around a specific playstyle. There’s a long-range specialist focused on precision and distance, an omni-directional attacker capable of consistent all-around damage, a tactical class that leans into traps and strategic positioning, and a close-range berserker designed for aggressive, high-risk combat. However, only the long-range specialist is available, and the rest must unlock them through progression.
Grind Survivors trims away the presentation to give players a straightforward looter shooter title. The story acts like a set decoration and justifies the endless waves of hellspawn, pushing players to focus on pure gameplay. It’s not an issue for players that just want to jump into a session and see all the dazzling chaos their character can inflict. Like others in the genre, Grind Survivors leans heavily on roguelite mechanics to keep each run feeling fresh. Players enter battle with a small selection of perks and weapons, then expand their build through temporary upgrades earned by leveling up mid-run. Defeated enemies often drop exp points, which can later be spent on permanent upgrades such as skills, weapons, and rune markings. Skills increase defensive abilities, while weapons and rune markings mostly affect offensive abilities that need to be adjusted to customize a solid loadout. Each weapon has different stats and alignments, which can cause massive damage when properly geared towards a specific build. However, if you favor flexibility and letting the build adapt to what you find, there are ways to do so.
While it mostly aligns with modern trends, Grind Survivors adds some creative depth to its perk synergy system. When picking two or more perks that fit in a group, the perks create a passive ability that gives the player a bigger boost. This gives some slight strategic planning when picking up perks. A player could pick up complementary or contrasting perks to mix up their playstyle, or adjust for more difficult encounters of a level. The game gives a decent indicator of which perks will combine best to give these boosts, so there are few distractions to get back into the fast-action gameplay. Another flexible feature is the option to toggle auto-attacks on or off, which can significantly change how the game feels. With auto-attacks enabled, players can focus entirely on movement, positioning, and survival, which aligns closely with the more relaxed side of the Survivors formula. Turning it off, however, transforms the experience into something much closer to a traditional twin-stick shooter. Toggling off auto-attacks gives the player full control to actively aim while maneuvering through swarms, constantly deciding which direction to clear to carve out a safe path.
There are three main stages, or biomes, in the game. Each biome contains five challenge levels, for a total of 15 challenges. Levels must be completed in order, and surprisingly, it doesn’t require much replay of previously completed levels. Each biome and level contains a certain class rank of loot, so if players want to get stronger, they have to replay the current level to gain the best loot possible at that moment. Replaying completed difficulties is still allowed and does give rewards, but attempting a run at the current unlocked biome is the best tactic to grow stronger faster.
Players shouldn’t be surprised that there is a lot of grind in the game. That said, the game does show its limits over time. While the core loop is satisfying, the level design can feel repetitive, as players spend several hours in the same biomes while working through increasingly difficult challenges. Progress often comes down to recognizing where your build falls short and improving your stats or loadout to push further next time. Every level has a timer that keeps the run focused and prevents the grind from feeling endless, giving players a clear survival goal. Even so, the grind is still very much part of the experience. And if they master a biome completely, there is an endless option to really test their might against the creatures of the damn.
Grind Survivors may not offer the depth or variety some players expect from the genre, particularly in story or character complexity. However, its streamlined presentation, solid mechanics, and satisfying progression loop make it an easy game to sink hours into. For those willing to embrace its repetition and gradual rise in power, there’s a dependable, engaging arcade-style experience waiting beneath the surface. Grind Survivors was released on March 16 and is available for PC, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live.
Mirage 7 (Zach): Developed by Drakkar Dev and published by Blowfish Studios, Mirage 7 is a narrative-based action-adventure that blends sci-fi and fantasy. You play as Nadira, who is on a quest to save her sister Rasha. Looking to get an audience with a princess who is said to be able to grant wishes, Nadira is guided by a mysterious man known as The Vizier to recover a magical lute from a lost temple and then play a song as an offering to the princess. With her faithful lizard Jiji, Nadira sets out across the desert on her quest. While the main setting feels like Prince of Persia, the game starts with a sequence at a modern military base, and there are flashes of a woman who looks straight out of System Shock, making it seem like there’s something more sci-fi happening behind the scenes. You also find Resident Evil-style tablets and scrolls that fill in the backstory of some experiment that is being conducted. While the blend of genres is intriguing, the story isn’t told most compellingly, as the writing is weak and the voice acting isn’t particularly strong. The actress for Nadira is fine, but some of the side characters feel like members of the development team who were thrown into a recording booth instead of professional voice actors.
The main gameplay is mostly exploration and puzzle-solving, with some combat sprinkled throughout. The combat is easily the weakest aspect of the game, as it’s incredibly simplistic and feels more like a chore you have to get through to get to the more interesting bits. You only have a basic attack and a dodge roll, with no combos or blocking/parrying mechanics as you would expect from most modern action games. One of the main issues is that when you dodge roll, you usually end up some distance away from the enemy you are fighting, so you have to move back into position, and more often than not, they’ll attack again, forcing you to dodge roll again and repeat the process. The enemies also feel like they take way too many hits. You get a slingshot fairly early in the game that lets you attack from range, which mitigates some of the frustration, but combat overall is not fun.
The game fares much better when you are solving environmental puzzles. Nadira has an inventory system, and you can combine items to craft new items to solve puzzles and examine items to find clues on them. Most of the puzzles logically make sense, like crafting a grappling hook out of the ribs of skeletons and a rope, but some of them left me stumped until I figured out the steps the game wanted me to complete. Some of the solutions are fairly obvious, but you may miss a step or two between the start and the end. For instance, with the aforementioned slingshot, you find elastic tendons from a fallen bug enemy and a stick that looks like a sling, so naturally, you would think to combine them for a slingshot, but you have to carve the sling stick first with your dagger, then attach the tendons to make the slingshot. Your lizard, Jiji, can be used to highlight items in the environment and to zoom in on specific elements to progress certain objectives and puzzles. Jiji also gets some sections of his own, where you move him through sections that Nadira can’t reach, which adds some variety to the gameplay.
Mirage 7 has an interesting blend of genres and some solid environmental puzzles to solve, but the combat is incredibly frustrating, and some of the presentation, like the voice acting, is pretty rough. I don’t think I can fully recommend checking it out, but if it interests you, it’s out now on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Shards of Order (Preview) (Zach): Developed by Fardust and published by Awaken Realms, Shards of Order is an upcoming card-based RPG set in a dark and grim world. You start out as a Soldier who has no memory of who he is or where he came from. He finds himself in a world full of horrific monsters where death doesn’t seem to exist. Finding a few allies, the party explores the decaying world and discovers the ancient Shards of Order, which govern fundamental laws such as life and death and can have a massive effect on the world depending on how they are used.
While the current trend has been roguelikes, Shards of Order is more of a traditional RPG. You explore different regions by traveling to different nodes on the map, which may contain an event or an encounter with enemies. You’ll need to find certain objects, like keys, to unlock the path and progress, and there are massive and grotesque bosses to battle. You’ll also find loot to equip to your party, replacing armor and getting better weapons, and you also level up and use skill points to unlock new cards for each character’s decks. If you’re a fan of the aesthetic of FromSoftware, you’ll definitely appreciate the look and style of Shards of Order, as many of the enemies feel right out of something like Elden Ring or Demon’s Souls. The score does a great job of enhancing the grim, dark setting, and it ramps up during combat to heighten the intensity of the encounters.
Combat has an interesting twist compared to most card-battling RPGs and roguelikes. Each character has a unique deck with certain skills, and a lot of the strategy comes from deciding the order to play cards and setting up plays to deliver the maximum damage. You may have a card that inflicts some damage, but if you have added status effects to the enemy, it may cause even more damage. It requires you to really see what each card does and plan ahead to use everything to its maximum effect, and not waste a card that could have the potential for a big effect. There’s no mana or action points, and instead, each card has a timer icon that takes away that amount of time from the enemy’s timer. When it reaches 0, they’ll attack, so that’s another thing you need to plan for and take into consideration. If you have enough time, you can play every card in your hand, but you can also redraw at any time for a cost and get new cards. You can also reposition your party, which can help weaker characters avoid damage, and you are able to tell exactly what your enemy is going to do when their timer runs out, so you have plenty of information and options for each fight.
With a cool, grim aesthetic, solid RPG mechanics, and an interesting and highly strategic card-battling combat system, Shards of Order seems like it will be a cool entry in the card-battler genre when it releases. You can check out the demo on Steam right now to get a taste of what the store will look like when the full game releases.
UVS Games – Godzilla: Reign of Kaiju (Chris): When it comes to the King of the Monsters, no name towers higher than Godzilla. Still, every king needs challengers. UVS Games’ Godzilla: Reign of Kaiju booster set unleashes a massive wave of contenders into the UniVersus arena, featuring 15 playable characters pulled from across the franchise’s long, destructive history. These new booster sets add city-crushing power moves and dramatic abilities to enhance or switch up players’ decks to add the might of a Kaiju.
Kaijus are hulking creatures of incredible scale that don’t rely on speed or finesse. These new playable characters tend to lean on high-risk, high-reward, where you can focus on overwhelming opponents with raw force or building toward a devastating finisher to end the match. The set also offers fresh interpretations of returning characters like Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah, all of whom receive updated designs for new combinations.
Beyond standard PVP play, UVS Games is also expanding the experience with a dedicated Kaiju PVE mode. In this cooperative mode, 2 or more players take on a survival challenge where coordination is key to taking out boss monsters as a team. There are 3 boss fights in Kaiju PVE. The first scenario features Gigan, a beginner-level tier fight that eases players into the PVE format. Next comes Godzilla itself, raising the stakes with a tougher, more demanding fight. The King of the Monsters isn’t pulling punches, and players will need to think more strategically and understand their decks’ strengths and weaknesses. At the top of PVE is King Ghidorah. This encounter is built with constructed decks in mind, and possibly even decks tailored specifically to counter Ghidorah’s mechanics. It’s designed to be punishing, to encourage multiple attempts, and to reward teams that sync up their playstyles.
Godzilla: Reign of Kaiju is a strong thematic set that captures the epic monster battles that Toho has made famous for over 70 years and translates them into exciting gameplay. It’s a must-try for Godzilla fans and a solid pickup for UniVersus players looking to shake up their decks with some monstrous power.
