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Articles by AJ Small
The Relic: First Guardian Review
The Relic: First Guardian is the first game by Project Cloud Games. The blurb they sent Xbox Tavern said that it is an ambitious team of 12 that have been working on this game for 6 years. My favourite part was the bit where they called it “…a genre smash of action-heavy RPG gameplay with fast-paced combat and punishing bosses”. Like, is that a real thing? What is the difference between gameplay and combat? What are you trying to say, and did anyone proof read this?
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam Review
A lot of conversations I have when reviewing online games is talking about comparisons – most commonly I talk about the ‘World of Warcraft problem’ – how do you compare a new game in the genre to other games in the same live service space that have been running for years? Do you compare the game to where their competitors are now, and thus have been through a lot of patches, content updates, and player feedback?
Onimusha: Way of the Sword Review
I remember the first time I played the Onimusha on the PS2. It was a boozy house party, where someone had just picked up the Sony console with a couple of games. We played Tekken Tag Tournament for a bit but it was the Samurai game that held my attention. The game managed to feel new while also having some sensibilities left over from the 16bit and PSX era. Instead of combos there were more strict moments to the strikes, and bosses were puzzles instead of excuses for flashy attacks.
RoadOut Review - Xbox Tavern
On paper RoadOut is the dream game of my teens – a 2D open world game set in a neon-coloured Mad Max setting. There is a combination of driving and shooting, and exploring grid-based dungeons and fighting enemies on foot. It is a neat idea, that is made even more compelling by the fact that there is a faction dynamic – completing (or failing) missions for different factions will increase and decrease standings with the warring elements of this post-apocalypse.
Pro Jank Footy Review
I’ve never really understood Aussie Rules football. The last time I encountered it was on Eurosport (a channel that specialised in obscure sports from around the world) during the 80s. The adverts for the sport were very much ‘not your mum’s Rugby Union, this is Aussie Rules!’ in terms of tenor and I remember watching mulleted men butting into each other and generally looking annoyed as they jumped to catch a ball while the advert went AUSSIE RULES FOOTY.
Truck-Kun is Supporting Me from Another World?! Review
Life is tough for Carissa at the beginning of Truck-Kun is Supporting me from Another World?! (from now on referred to as TKSAW?!). She has sacrificed everything she could to get a purchase on the corporate ladder – no more anime, long nights, cutting off her personal life. Then, as her efforts have come to fruition, she gets hit by a truck and hurled into a fantasy world. The only way for her to get out of this fantasy world is to level up and beat a Skeleton King.
Sodaman Review (PC)
There is an animatic on the second planet where the titular hero of Sodaman helps out an alien lady by ‘deciphering’ some ancient stones (this is done by shooting them). As the lady departs he tells her they should explore the stars together some time and then calls her something like ‘Sweetheart’. The alien, who seems to have been a serious entity up until this point, replies coquettishly.
Echo Generation 2 Review
The first Echo Generation was a nice little distraction that came out a few years ago. The art style made it look like the world and characters were built out of Lego bricks that helped give the story’s Goonies-meets-Costume-Quest posturing some real flare. The real problem was that the light RPG system didn’t give me much to dig into.
Microsoft Teases Upcoming Layoffs – Look Out For The Trailer! – Xbox Tavern
Asha Sharma’s placement as the XBOX CEO has started with the ex-Metaverse, ex-AI leader trying to play the hits. Nothing could be clearer after the XBOX Games Showcase, she has heard everyone loud and clear – lets get back to what XBOX does best: back tracking in public while lining up to be really, really awful in the most thoughtless way possible in the background.
ZPF Review - Xbox Tavern
Booting up ZPF, the new game made by Mega Cat Studios, and I immediately had flashbacks to playing games as a kid. The sound design and even some of the graphical hiccups when things got busy reminded me completely of the how games like Zero Wing and Thunder Force used to play back in the nineties. As I fought my way through each stage of the campaign, I was impressed by how they had replicated the sound chip from the ageing SEGA console.
Aphelion Review - Xbox Tavern
Don’t Nod have been very unfortunate since they moved from Life is Strange. Vampyr and Banishers were both excellent narratives that felt interwoven with the mechanics, with choices impacting how you played and vice-versa. Jusant was my game of the year in 2023. Yet, despite releasing a string of well-made, well-written games, the developers have been hit with layoffs and financial insecurity. When I first saw the trailers for Aphelion it filled me with a great deal of hope.
Kiborg Descent DLC Review
I quite liked Kiborg, a game released on Xbox last year. For more details on the main game you can find my review here. For those who want a quick refresher, it is a third-person brawler/roguelite in which the protagonist will use their fists, melee weapons and guns to smash their way up a tower.
Basketball Classics Review
Acclaim were famous for – mainly – other people’s work, porting Midway games and bringing over games that were popular in Japan. Having said that, I still have a wistful nostalgia for the logo as it reminds me of hours and hours of NBA Jam and Alien 3 on my Mega Drive. The 2000s were not kind to the publisher and they went bankrupt, only to re-emerge 20 years later with a couple of games, one of which was Basketball Classics that taps into my nostalgia for digital basketball games.
Crimson Capes Review (PC)
Crimson Capes is the new game by developers Poor Locke, an impressive nod to the past that seeks to build something new. The player takes on the role of the Milon, Left Hand of the king of a fantasy land. Milon’s responsibilty (and those in his cadre) is to rout out a conspiracy of magic wielders that have aimed to take out the monarch.
You Were Never Really Here – GEN AI and the Bloody Swathe
A few days ago a co-worker messaged me and asked about a company we were working with. Confused, I replied that I didn’t know them. He then said that he had pulled that information from a meeting summary made by AI. I had stopped reading those as they were full of fabrication; on review, the notes had credited me with work I had not done, declared a release date on a product that was pure fabrication, as well as made up a company that did not exist.
Styx: Blades of Greed (PC) Review
I am a diehard fan of the Styx series – while other stealth games withered and died, or evolved into amalgamations of RPG and stealth, Styx has remained a stalwart in old-school stealth design. From its origins in the game Of Orcs and Men, through to the two prequels, Styx has made sure that the principle is ‘if you are seen, you are dead’.
REANIMAL Review - Xbox Tavern
Little Nightmares was an interesting, if flawed 2.5D platformer. It was a creepy trip through a distorted world, the atmosphere and environment were immaculate, and it made a lot of sense that it sold well and generated two sequels. My biggest complaint of those was that it was often hard to judge the jumping sections because of the perspective, and the controls were often unforgiving leading to a lot of deaths that felt like an engine problem rather than a player one.
Torii Review
Over the last couple of decades games have proven that they can tell personal stories in small formats. A lot of the games have smartly used simple mechanics to tell deeper stories. This was popularised by Jenova Chen’s series of games that culminated in Journey – a game successful enough to have had a raft of imitators, and Torii is definitely one of them.
Cairn Review - Xbox Tavern
A few years ago, I wrote about Jusant. At the time, I detailed how it intersected with the history of climbing and how the mechanics represented the experience of fighting with a puzzle wall. I called it the gold standard of climbing games. I am not rolling back that statement after playing Cairn, but where I think the two games differ is that Cairn seems preoccupied with an aspect of the activity of going up big rocks that I tend to not write about, and only discuss in person.
Vambrace: Dungeon Monarch Review
Reviewing this game makes me feel bad. When I played its spiritual predecessor, Vambrace: Cold Soul, I remember thinking it was a pretty but generic rip off of Darkest Dungeon with not enough to really distinguish itself in that field. Well, a monkey paw curled one finger, and I got Vambrace: Dungeon Monarch as a follow up.
Kentum Review
Being in the present sucks, but it seems like things only get worse in the future. Especially if you are Kent, the protagonist of Kentum who wakes up after his spaceship crashes. To make matters worse, Kent realises that he didn’t survive and is just a clone of his former self, and that he is several thousand years late for work. Now owing his employer a lot of money, Kent is tasked with rebuilding the human race with only his helper bot as a companion.
AJ’S TOP TEN GAMES OF 2025
It has been a weird year for games, and a weird year for my relationship with gaming. There is a separate piece in me at some point about boycotts, ethical consumption under capitalism and billionaires owning mega yachts. What I will say is that, for the first time in a long time, my playing of games has come with a big old fat caveat. My enjoyment of them has rubbed up against my sense of justice.
Captured Review - Xbox Tavern
The Hideo Kojima-helmed PT has a lot to answer for. That’s right, the man that coined the term ‘Transfarring’ put together a demo where the player followed a looping corridor that changed each time and grew ever more disquieting. It was an unnerving masterpiece, all the more surprising in its inception as it was made by a guy that put women in bikinis and said it was so they could breathe through their skin. As a result it has spawned a lot of imitators int he years since.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Review
At the core of the Virtua Fighter series is simplicity. Years after games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat had set the stage for 2D fighting games, VF emerged as the pre-eminent 3D fighter. Instead of a more elaborate 6 or 5 button setup, VF had three: Block, Kick, Punch. I’ve played every iteration of the franchise (even the ill-fated third in the series), but I first played VF5 when it came to X360 back in the late 2000s.
Last Mind Standing Review
Note: This review was written before the most recent update and some of the points I had problems with are supposed to be addressed (there is a cut scene at the beginning and some balancing has been done) Every now and then I get the privilege to play a game by a small developer that comes to me through organic means.
Fast & Furious Arcade Edition Review
I remember sitting down with my brand new Mega Drive, when I was young enough that English Summers were doused in warmer rain instead of the molten hell they are now. As I slotted in an Altered Beast cartridge, I could feel this nervous excitement. I was no longer in the world of NES where every game was a blocky approximation of what I had seen in smoky bars on stand-up machines. This was a console capable of doing proper ports. I had sweaty palms.
Metal Eden Review
A few months ago, I got to play the demo of Metal Eden and I was reasonably enthusiastic by what I had seen. This was a slick cyberpunk First-Person Shooter with some traversal mechanics. The full release seemed to get delayed, I suspect this was because of the other run-and-gun shooter coming out around that time. It is here now and I am happy to be writing this review. The player takes control of Aska in a gleaming metal city full of cyborg enemies.
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Review
A friend and I recently booted up the newest racing game in the Sonic Kart series – Sonic Racing CrossWorlds. A prompt appeared onscreen to ask if we wanted to do the tutorial. He skipped it and said ‘How hard can it be? It’s a racing game’. 4 races later I was placed 5th, and he was in 3rd… I am an unapologetic fan of SEGA. If anyone wonders why they keep making Sonic games, or why they put out a Golden Axe: Beast Rider – that’s my fault.
Heading Out Review
Some games can get really far on pure flare. As soon as I started Heading Out by Serious Sim and Crunching Koalas then donned the hoodie of the titular character, I knew this was going to win me over. As soon as she revs her muscle car, the interface goes into overdrive. Most of the game is in black and white and in third-person perspective (well, more third-car perspective) as the “Jackalope” races across the US.
Echoes of the End Review
Echoes of the End has a development story that is compelling. It is a small team from Iceland, a country that is mostly known for Eve Online in the gaming sphere. The team is punching way above their weight with a presentation on their game that is fantastic. This is the kind of thing that I normally latch on to, it feeds into my desire to see indie teams thrive.
Robots at Midnight Review
I think Soulslike as a genre is more or less done. With a few exceptions the combat that comes from lesser developers means that every game becomes a chore. The latest example is Robots at Midnight (with a title like a Sci-Fi William Faulkner) made by Finish Line Games. I’ll start off with the story. The player takes control of Zoe; she is on a failing ship where the robots are revolting. She searches and fails to rescue her father as the ship crashes into the planet Yob.
Greedland Review
Greedland is a labour of love, a one-man project that has taken several years to complete. It appears to take inspiration from Vampire Survivors and an old classic from the indie PC scene: Crimsonland. This equates to tight controls, and about a million enemies onscreen at any given time. The story for all the massacre is straightforward; an invasion of an alien planet is in full force. The player controls a cyborg that is tasked with establishing a foothold on the planet and taking its resources.
ISLANDERS: New Shores Review
The first ISLANDERS showed up at a random time when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to play. It turned out what I wanted was a relaxing city builder that made me stay up late at night watching numbers go up, meters fill, and tiny little towns grow on abstract islands. The concept was simple, the player places different kinds of buildings and based on what is within its range of influence it accrues positive and negative points.
Ruffy and the Riverside Review
On the face of it Ruffy and the Riverside by Zockrates Laboratories is an excellent little title with a lot to recommend it, I think this is going to be very special little game for a lot of people, but there is a caveat that if you encounter the one issue I did, this game is almost unplayable. What immediately sticks out about RatR is its visual style. A fully realised 3D world, platformer in the vein of the classic N64 and Gamecube titles but all the characters are hand drawn 2D characters.
I am Your Beast Review
Strange Scaffold have quickly become a name next to Raw Fury and No More Robots in that I try and play all their releases. The curation and design decisions in their titles means that even when it isn’t quite my cup of tea there is always a spark there, something that keeps me playing. Both the games I reviewed for Xbox Tavern had great ideas, and great writing.
MindsEye Review - Xbox Tavern
For a long time, I have argued the value of Nicolas Cage in films. I think it is tired to hate him, and a bit lame to even just enjoy his work ‘ironically’. Someone said (and I am paraphrasing) that to have Cage in your film is to hold up a mirror to your own abilities as a director, if he is bad in your film it is because your vision for what you wanted him to do was bad. It is a nice thought.
Vinebound: Tangled Together Review
Vampire Survivors was a huge splash when it came out. It was the first time in a long time that a distinct subgenre had come out. People are still debating on what that genre is called (bullethell auto shooter? Survival roguelike shooter?) but it resulted in a lot of imitators that I am going to call Survivors-like because I don’t have an original thought in my head. Having played a lot of these, the formula is pretty straight forward.
Elden Ring: Nightreign Review
Update 2025/06/05 : So, the game has been out now for a couple of weeks, the multiplayer is relatively busy (I only have to wait between 5-10 minutes to get into a game) and I have tackled the first boss about 20-30 times. I stand by my critiques below – that this is a game that is at war with itself with conflicting game design that makes it not fun to play.
Knock on the Coffin Lid – Complete Edition Review - Xbox Tavern
Knock on the Coffin Lid is one hell of a title to give your roguelite deckbuilder – not sure it is a great name but it is certainly a memorable one. Originally released last year in August, Xbox players are now experiencing the complete edition this month. Although it has all the standards of a good deckbuilder (more on that later), KotCL distinguishes itself by pushing its story to the forefront. It is set in a realm of Humans, Elves, Orcs, among others, that has been beset by a demon plague.
Kiborg Review - Xbox Tavern
Kiborg showed up on the Xbox store with an over-the-top trailer and informative demo. Thick-moustached Morgan is a big, beefy man that is all about punching monsters in sprays of gore and disconnected limbs. The demo promised that it wouldn’t just be meaty punches and kicks but also chunky guns. This kind of potential always gets me going as I hope for another game that comes close to nailing the Dead to Rights: Retribution satisfaction of uppercutting one person and then shot-gunning another.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Review
SNK’s whole history is a fascinating story – built by ex-Streetfighter developers, they wanted to build a rival to Capcom’s own hit. That was when Fatal Fury was born. Big, bright, and bold, each of the games had a colour palette that distinguished it. This was largely thanks to artist Shinkiro who created a house style. Then a lot of things happened including bankruptcy and investment from a Saudi company.
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate Review
I did a little digging ahead of this review to find out the back story for this game. PBBG is a scrolling beat ‘em up spin off of a fighting game about anime girls. The original developers 5pb have a long history of releasing games about anime girls. The big names I know are Corpse Party and Steins;gate. What impresses me the most is their passion for revisiting their franchises. The persistence with which they have revived Phantom Breaker, in all of its apparitions, is heartening.
Techno Banter Review
Berlin is a wonderful city, amazing public transport, small town vibes with all of the amenities of a metropolis. The people there are undeniably German, no other nationality could pull off their dress sense. I was in a random bar at two in the afternoon and a guy walked in dressed in a skintight sailor outfit and hat, just living his life and hanging out. The most shocking thing was he made it work, if he did the same thing in London he would be chased out with laughs; Berlin, it was effortless.
Split Fiction Review
Hazelight Studios has had an interesting path. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons had a huge impact on me after one of the final moments in the game in which a button press made me feel something. However, after overselling A Way Out on its versatility in storytelling, the response was mixed. My personal feelings were that it was a mixed bag that shined in its small moments.
From the Ashes of Empires - GDC, AI, and Unions
I flew into San Francisco over the last week to visit Game Developer Conference. A yearly conference that can be considered to be representation of the games industry at large. San Francisco itself exists in the shadow of the tech industry now, and coming out of Harvey Milk Terminal 1, I got into a taxi that hurtled into the city. Littering the roads are blockchain billboards. AI advertisements were also plentiful, with each one selling itself as being another AI service but better.
Sorry We’re Closed Review
Recently there has been a spate of nostalgic games inspired by the PlayStation aesthetic. I found almost every single one of them to be a complete eyesore. Awful lack of anti aliasing, low poly models and often deliberately clumsy controls. I’ve declared, full-throatedly, that anyone that likes these modern, deliberately bad looking games is deluded.
SYNDUALITY: Echo of Ada Review
I am a sucker for mechs, you put a mech in your game, then I am definitely going to look at it with interest. SYNDUALITY has mechs, it has customisable mechs, with big guns. “What’s not to love?” I hear my imaginary audience ask, an audience that knows I like all those things, and that also likes all these things so that the semi-rhetorical question makes contextual sense. Well. SYNDUALITY starts off pretty good. Society has fallen apart because of rain.
Eternal Strands Review
About 8 hours into Yellow Brick Games’s debut I came to what I consider the quintessential experience. I’d taken the protagonist Brynn into a marshland overrun by permafrost. This was a deliberate tactic because my target was the patrolling epic creature of that biome – the Ashpeak Drake. The Drake was a fire breather and with its surrounding area being frozen, its main weapon was going to be suppressed.
AJ's Official Predecessor tier list Pt 2
If you missed Part One, check it out here. This ended up being a bigger endeavour than I thought it would be. How do you write about 40 individual characters from a game that no one really plays, but you have a deep obsession with? Predecessor is a hero shooter/MOBA that was released on the Xbox store last year. It is remake of Paragon a beloved hero shooter/MOBA that didn’t find enough of an audience and was then cancelled.
AJ's Official Predecessor tier list Pt 1
Predecessor has taken up an alarming amount of my time at the end of 2024 – with it making it into my top three most played games. Itis a hero shooter/MOBA that was released on the Xbox store last year. Itself a remake of Paragon, a beloved hero shooter/MOBA that didn’t find enough of an audience and was then cancelled. Played in 3rd person perspective, Predecessor is pretty standard.
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