Bruce Wayne, you really are the most devious bat in Gooooothaaaam Citaaaaay. With so many references in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, I figured why not kick off this review with such a reference. Luckily, though, the game isn’t all about references. There’s a whole lot of excellence that makes the game a must-play.

It's absolutely wild that we live in a universe where a more than competent remake of Final Fantasy VII exists, but what's even wilder is that the universe of Final Fantasy VII was also completely remade in such a way that even those who enjoyed the originals can't tell you what'll happen next, and it's all the better for it. Now that it's also available on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X, more people get to experience it before its epic conclusion now in development.

Spinera is a combination of a slot machine game and Civilization. and scratches an itch Civ fans didn't know they still had. It starts quickly, isn't overwhelming at first, and ramps up gameplay in a measured way.

Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis: Next! brings the Nicktoons we know and love from Avatar: The Last Airbender's Aang to the titular CatDog duo. While some of the graphics can be impressive, it is quite obvious that this is a port of the mobile game. Don't expect anything as lavish or impressive as the Mario Tennis series with this one, despite its obvious inspiration.

Mina the Hollower is a game I've been anticipating ever since it was first premiered over four years ago. Even when Yacht Club Games went dark for a couple of years, I didn't give up hope. These were the guys behind Shovel Knight, after all, and that was basically the perfect game--a generation-defining title, I'd even say.

Kidbash: Super Legends is a fun time. With missions, weapon variants and upgrades, stat boosts, and other stuff planned for the full game, it's shaping up to be a scrappy little platformer for the '90s kid, made to be repeatable at its core.

Take a cool, vibrant anime art style, Tony Hawk Pro Skater style tricks, and the energy of Sonic Unleashed, and you have Denshattack, a game I would have dreamed of as a teenager.

As sports games grow ever closer to fully adopting a freemium model, people continue to long for the good old days of arcade sports. I'm a huge NFL fan who got into it by playing countless games of NFL Blitz, then NFL Street a few years after that, and I'm sure there are hardcore NBA fans out there who got their start on NBA Jam and NBA Street. We need those games back, and NBA The Run seems like we're almost there.

This summer, Square's H2-2D styles makes its first foray into real-time RPG gameplay with The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. A mouthful of an endearingly odd title Square's been known for over recent years, Elliot takes the HD-2D visual style and moves the action from turn-based to reactionary real-time combat. Myles recently had the opportunity to play about an hour of the game during a visit to Square Enix's offices in Los Angeles and came away excited for the gameplay, but slight...

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Square Enix offices in Los Angeles to play a couple hours of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, where I came away impressed and excited to finally explore the world of Philabieldia in full. You can read my full thoughts on my hands-on preview here, where I dive deeper into the game's mechanics, structure, and time travel elements.

Summer Game Fest is off to a great start with the main show, but the fun is only just beginning, as the annual Day of the Devs showcase has just aired, showcasing what's to come from developers all over the world. SmashPad's staff was so blown away by the games shown off at this year's showcase that we had to share some of our highlights! Michael Fertitta's Highlights Into the Unwell Ever since Cuphead came out, I've developed a growing appreciation for media that embraces classic visual and ani...

It's Summer Game Fest season, and the first big presentation is in the books! PlayStation came out firing with big exclusives bookending the presentation, along with some nice surprise reveals. We won't spoil anything here, so watch along with Chris and Danreb below! For full thoughts on the presentation, tune in to this Sunday's episode of the Day 0 Update.

This is a bit of an "inside baseball" piece on the recent panel SmashPad Executive Editor, Danreb Victorio, hosted for AAPI in Gaming. If you haven't seen it already, check it out above!

For the third straight year, we'll be back at Summer Game Fest Play Days, a three-day media-only event where we'll have access to a wide range of upcoming titles, so get ready for a whole bunch of hands-on previews and developer interviews over the next few weeks. It's gonna be a fun time!

Dragon Quest XII was announced on May 27th, 2026 during the Dragon Quest 40th anniversary stream. Wait, that’s not right. Dragon Quest XII was announced on May 27th 2021, during the Dragon Quest 35th anniversary stream. But today is May 27th, 2026 and Dragon Quest XII did get announced during the Dragon Quest 40th anniversary stream. Time really is a flat circle. During the 2021 stream, the only thing we were shown was the DQXII logo, which was pretty ominous, with the Roman numerals XII etched...