Critical Arcade

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave blast off to the outer reaches of the galaxy and dive headlong into The Outer Worlds 2 — Obsidian’s long-awaited sequel that promises more satire, more chaos, and even more morally confusing decisions than before. Gone are the familiar worlds of Halcyon; this time, the duo find themselves in a brand-new star system, filled with fresh corporate colonies,...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave dive headfirst into the relentless chaos of Ninja Gaiden 4 — a game that doesn’t just test your reflexes, it punishes your mistakes. This time Ryu is out and Yakumo, a skilled ninja of the Raven Clan, takes the hot seat. Sounds like a Tuesday for a Super Ninja. Armed with his ever-growing arsenal, new Bloodraven powers, and enough wall-running stamina to...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick set aside their usual chaos and step into something far more serene — Journey, the meditative, wordless adventure from thatgamecompany. Gone are the guns, gadgets, and dialogue trees. Instead, they don flowing red robes, a magical scarf, and head off into the endless desert toward a distant, glowing mountain that seems to call to them from across time it...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick jack into the grid and find themselves in the glitchy, time-twisting world of Digimon Story: Time Stranger. What was supposed to be a casual dive into cyberspace quickly spirals into a full-blown temporal disaster when a mysterious program tears through the world, merging past, present, and future into one big, corrupted mess. Our intrepid hosts are drop...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick stumble out of the safety of daylight and into the suffocating terror of Amnesia: Rebirth, Frictional Games’ 2020 return to psychological horror. Set in the vast, sun-scorched deserts of Algeria, this isn’t your average vacation. Taking control of Tasi Trianon, the duo must piece together a shattered memory, survive ancient ruins, and avoid the monstrous...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick swap out shotguns and swords for watering cans and fertilizer as they take on the quirky, strategic chaos of Plants vs Zombies. Released in 2009, this tower defense classic turns your backyard into the frontline of the undead apocalypse, where survival depends less on firepower and more on creative landscaping. The duo must carefully balance planting sun...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick lock, load, and launch themselves back into the loot-splattered insanity of Borderlands 4. Once again, the galaxy is on the brink of chaos, and naturally, the only two people crazy enough to handle it are our lovable vault-hunting duo. With a whole new planet to explore, filled to the brim with outlaws, synthetic robot followers, and creatures that look...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick step into the desolate, war-torn world of Hell is Us. Set in a country ripped apart by years of civil strife and buried secrets, the game forces them to navigate a landscape where danger comes from both sides of the battlefield: hostile soldiers with guns and terrifying supernatural abominations with… well, whatever those fleshy nightmare appendages are...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave finally get their hands on Lost Soul Aside, the game that spent longer in development than Dave did in college. They step into the boots of Kaser, a moody anime protagonist with more hair gel than common sense, and his wise-cracking dragon symbiote, Arena, who never misses an opportunity to roast his host. Together, they’ll stylishly hack, slash, and com...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick lock and load as they stomp into the gritty, blood-soaked battlefields of Gears of War Reloaded. Humanity is on its last legs, cornered and desperate, after the ground splits open and unleashes the monstrous Locust Horde. Enter Marcus Fenix: soldier, survivor, and a man who probably only smiles when he’s chainsawing aliens in half. Alongside his brothers...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave stumble into the fractured, nightmarish depths of Signalis. Released in 2022, this indie survival horror blends the pixelated charm of the PS1 era with a surreal, haunting atmosphere straight out of a fever dream. Players take on the role of Elster, a Replika technician on a desperate search for her missing partner, wandering through abandoned mining fac...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave must grab their pocket knives, practice their Sicilian and pour themselves a glass on wine because they are taking on the role of Enzo Favara, an escapee of the Sicilian sulphur mines who trespasses onto the lands of Don Bernardo Torrisi the head of the local Mafia and a man who values trust above all else. Their lives become entwined with forbidden love...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick dust off their PS1 nostalgia goggles and dive headfirst into the wonderfully weird and rhythmically chaotic world of PaRappa the Rapper. Released in 1996, this cult classic rhythm game has players rapping their way through everything from martial arts lessons to cake-baking catastrophes—all in the name of love. Our hero, PaRappa, may be made of paper, bu...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave don their finest velvet cloaks, pack an unreasonable number of throwing axes, and descend into the shadowy halls of Dracula’s castle in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Released in 1997, this genre-defining Metroidvania dropped players into a haunting, labyrinthine fortress as Alucard—Dracula’s half-human, half-vampire son who’s way too cool to run an...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick slip into their cyber-sneakers, juice up their Boost Packs, and plunge headfirst into the gravity-defying, tag-spraying, rhythm-blasting world of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Set in the vibrant, cel-shaded sprawl of New Amsterdam, this spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio throws our duo into a chaotic turf war between graffiti crews, corrupt cops, and one seriou...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave reunite with their favorite melancholic porter in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Hideo Kojima’s latest delivery of mind-bending narrative, cinematic excess, and very, very complicated backpacks. The world is still broken, the skies are still crying, and now—somehow—the ocean is even weirder. Sam Porter Bridges is back, but this time he’s not just deliv...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick must strap on their badass welding masks, sign NDA papers, and grab the biggest squirt gun they can find because they are jumping into the shoes of the FBC's first responders. Tasked with keeping the endless paranormal threats under control and its never-ending deluge of spontaneous fires, overwhelming Post-it Notes, and aggressively growing pink stuff (...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick tap into their inner chakras and dive headfirst into the gorgeously animated, spirit-infused world of Indivisible. When teenage hothead Ajna finds her village burned to the ground and a mysterious power awakened within her, she does what any emotionally stable protagonist would do—she sets off on a globe-spanning quest for vengeance and self-discovery. A...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick descend into Elden Ring: Nightreign—FromSoftware’s latest reminder that joy is fleeting and bosses have no chill. Set in the hauntingly beautiful Limveld, the duo trades the sunny plains of the world they used to know for a realm now soaked in gloom, grief, and gravestones. As they chase down and destroy the nightmare-fuelled Nightlords (Except for Augur...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick find themselves waking up in the worst Airbnb in Tamriel—a damp prison cell with rats, bad lighting, and a suspicious lack of exit strategy. That’s right, it’s Oblivion Remastered, the shiny, modded, and lovingly overhauled return to Bethesda’s iconic 2006 open-world RPG. As Emperor Uriel Septim shows up in their cell to tell them they're the chosen ones...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick trade space marines for medieval mayhem as they dive headfirst into Doom: Dark Ages—the blood-soaked prequel we never knew we needed. Set centuries before the events of the modern Doom series, this brutal reimagining throws the Doom Slayer into a world of stone castles, haunted cathedrals, and hellspawn in chainmail. Armed with a fist forged in demonic f...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick grab their retro-futuristic cameras and slip on their skater shoes to explore the neon-lit, decaying world of Umurangi Generation—a first-person photography game where the apocalypse isn’t coming… It’s already here. Set in the last city standing after a slow-motion global collapse, they take on the role of a courier-slash-shutterbug tasked with documenti...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick pack their best magical brushes and step into the hauntingly beautiful, surreal nightmare that is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In a world where death comes not from war or plague, but from a woman with a paintbrush and a god complex, they join the 33rd Expedition—one of humanity’s last desperate hopes to break a deadly cycle. Every year, the Paintress aw...

This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick polish up their lightsabers and take on Star Wars: The New Droid Army, a Game Boy Advance title that boldly asks the question: “What if Anakin Skywalker had a bad day, bad intel, and a worse run animation?” Set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, this pocket-sized adventure drops Anakin onto Tatooine with a mission to investigate a new...

This week on Critical Arcade, Nick and Dave have to grab their notebooks, hold onto their rabbits' feet, and dive headfirst into the twisted, ever-changing corridors of Blue Prince. In this rougelike puzzle game, they play the role of Simon P. Jones, a young boy who is to inherit the estate of his great uncle Herbert S. Sinclair, but it comes with one catch: they must locate a hidden 46th room wit...