Castlevania: Belmont's Curse (Multi) Review

Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope your last day of October was appropriately spooky and/or scary. If not, let's make it a little more macabre with the return of a franchise that hasn't seen a new 2D mainline entry in quite a while. It's Castlevania, and it's time to review the latest game in the series: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!

Every Rose has her thorns. And by "thorns", I mean, "curse". 
And by "every Rose", I mean, "Just Rose Belmont." 

What a wonderful night to have a curse. Maybe not for Rose Belmont, but for everybody else, it's been a long time coming. In fact, it's been almost TWO decades since the last original 2D Castlevania game saw a release. Now, the team behind the fantastic indie darling Dead Cell's equally fantastic Return to Castlevania DLC sets their sights on bringing the 2D line of Castlevania back from the dead with a brand-new entry, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. Overall, it is indeed a wonderful night to have a curse.

Nearly a quarter-century after Trevor Belmont's original victory over Dracula, he and his daughter, Rose, set sail to Paris, which is suddenly under siege by demonic and devilish forces. Everything points to the Lord of Darkness' return, but Rose, with cursed arm in tow, and her father, set out to discover the truth behind the nightmare that has fallen onto Paris.

If it looks like Dracula, feels like Dracula, it might be Dracula!

Rose Belmont was born with her affliction, her red arm that feeds on her dark emotions--a lingering after effect of Dracula's curse. Fortunately, her cursed arm wasn't the only thing she was left with from her mother. She additionally was given a deck of magical tarot cards to utilize. She starts with but one, offering Arcane magic in the form of a fireball, but as she vanquishes bosses throughout this Metroidvania adventure, more cards get added to her deck. Thus, more magic spells can be learned, too--from boomerang-like crosses that can be thrown, to iron fists that smash down on foes, and bloody trails of spikes that slowly take away health from their affected targets. 

Rose definitely doesn't mind being "cross" with her foes.

Each tarot card has its own collection of clues which hint at where to find the locations of the entity, or to put it in simpler terms, the boss, housing the power in the tarot card. Each card is essentially a boss to battle, to overcome, and to thus, take their power for Rose to use. The magic spells from each card have something called Works of Mercy, which are little optionally objectives to complete for each card. For performing and completing tasks like defeating five foes at once with a given spell or vanquishing enemies in certain ways, you unlock ways to power up Rose's spells. For example, The Fallen's previously mentioned boomerang crosses can be upgraded to have Rose conjure up and toss two at a time.

Yes, it can be difficult to time your parries, but when you do, it feels oh-so good!

These cards bestow Rose with new spells, but sometimes they also deliver unto Rose new abilities to access new areas in true Metroidvania fashion. Yes, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is a Metroidvania--true and blue. Well, perhaps true and red would be more appropriate by virtue of the bloody battles and arduous platforming sections that await Rose. 

Rose first gets the ability early on to latch onto various hooks with an Arcane Whip. Yellow hooks allow her to swing from them while purple ones are hooks that Rose pulls herself to immediately. I found that in the midst of platforming and especially sections where you basically are focused on myriad things in the moment-to-moment gameplay, that holding the analog stick to aim for these hooks didn't always guarantee Rose's Arcane Whip would connect with them. In sections where failing means you have to redo a significantly challenging platforming segment, this got old and quite frustrating fast. This is especially so since it happened much more often than I would have preferred. Perhaps some user error or controller issue were to blame, but still, it was mighty aggravating at times.

Aside from the other times awesome Arcane Whip, which does allow some awesome acrobatics, mobility, and movement options, Rose also can summon a shield. This serves a twofold purpose--to parry enemy attacks, as well as materialize nearby specific walls and floors from solid to incomplete, the latter allowing her to pass through them. No doubt you can guess that certain platforming segments required switching between having the shield off and on for moving along these materialized floors/walls on the fly. Other abilities include a ground pound that can smash through specific ground tiles with enough force, a midair dash, and yes, the always desirable double jump. 

I see Dracula is giving Rose the red carpet welcome.

Rose will need these abilities and more, as Belmont's Curse's game world is absolutely massive--maybe too much so. Upon making it through the first four major areas of the game, from Parisian streets to the ancient catacombs underneath, I was greeted by Dracula's infamous castle. It was as if the game had only started from there. Everything prior was prelude, essentially, which blew my mind. 

What further blew my mind was how much optional content and side quests there are to discover. Now, to be fair, most of these quests are hardly optional for the true ending of the game, but otherwise, you won't necessarily just stumble upon the answers. Belmont's Curse features plentiful collectible clues that shouldn't be skipped, as they reveal all sorts of solutions to otherwise obtuse environmental puzzles. In fact, one of the aspects that would have helped greatly in the game--fast travel between save points--is incredibly well hidden overall. Until you uncover it, lots of admittedly boring backtracking is in store for you.

And now Dracula is giving Rose the spinning saw blades of doom welcome. Old reliable.

Backtracking and Metroidvanias go together like the Belmont family and vampire killing, but some games in this sub-genre do it better than others. The fact that fast traveling between save points is something so hidden out of the way was frustrating, as otherwise the only option for traveling quickly between zones is a ferryman at very much select locations. As you can only travel between his different doors, and there is only one per massive zone within the game, the backtracking through well-trodden ground for missed secrets and rooms was quite tedious quite quickly.

That notwithstanding, there's something positive to be said about the multitude of secrets and just how well the game world feels all so cohesive and well put together. The map menu is a nice aid in plotting your course, as you'd hope for any Metroidvania worth its weight. You can put up to fifty pins per zone of different types to mark locations of items or treasure chests you couldn't yet access but want to keep in the back of your mind. Areas that turn gold on the map are ones that everything has been discovered in, while areas that remain purple have not. Unfortunately, I don't think the latter is an aspect that a tutorial ever covers. It's something I had to notice for myself.

Any closer and Rose would be bald right now!

All the same, hidden routes abound in Belmont's Curse and its game world, offering attack and defense up items, health and mana-increasing fragments, as well as treasure chests containing relics and weapons. Up to three of the former can be equipped simultaneously, bringing positive and sometimes negative passive effects at the same time. 

Meanwhile, Rose isn't limited to her father's weapon lineage of whips, though those are certainly available. In total, there are seven unique weapon types: from whips and long swords, to spears and gauntlets. Each type has four weapons of progressively stronger attack power in their respective categories. Some weapons are great for getting up, close, and personal with foes, while others are meant for more distant fighting. Either way, it was fun to try out each to find one that I preferred to use overall, as each had different weight, heft, feel, and timing to them. 

With 28 total weapons across seven distinct categories, find your favorite!

Whichever weapon you decide to equip Rose with, just be ready for a challenge. Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is one hell of a hard game. Whether that's dealing with ordinary enemies or contending with the dastardly difficult bosses, you'll find Rose face-planting a ton in defeat. Fortunately, death is not like what you'd find in a Souls-like. There is no serious punishment, and you even keep progress. It's merely returning to the last point you saved at or a zone entrance. 

Furthermore and even more fortunately, you can tune your Castlevania experience to your liking with a super helpful suite of gameplay options in the form of Custom Mode. Rather than opt to have players select between easy, normal, hard, etc., you can fine-tune the difficulty of the game as you see fit at any time by raising or lowering different sliders. This includes how much damage you deal, how much damage you take, how much experience you earn, how many health-restoring potions you start with each time you save, if you can even die (for those who'd like as little friction as possible), and so forth. None of these options cancel out achievements or trophies, which makes for a more pleasant and far less frustrating experience. 

Castlevania and clock towers, two friends together again.

Plus, these options still require you to be able to dabble in some precision, daredevil platforming, and even those can be rather challenging all on their own--especially if you're planning to strive for 100% completion. Sure, ideally, the game would have its difficulty better dialed in so that these options wouldn't be necessary even for a seasoned player like myself. (No, that's no brag, either.) At least, they wouldn't be necessary in an "if I didn't have some of these available, I'd pull the rest of what is left of my hair out" sort of way. 

Belmont's Curse is a stunner of a game visually. The most impressive aspect aesthetically being the drop-dead gorgeous backgrounds and vistas that dazzle and delight as candy for the eyes. Yes, sometimes it can be a bit garish, and when the camera zooms out just enough, it can be difficult to ascertain where Rose is (resulting in taking damage, or worse, death), but overall, the environmental design is a true work of art, much like all the paintings and decor situated in the Main Hall's walls of Dracula's Castle. While I wish the enemy variety was as high as past Castlevania games, what's here are well animated and look superb. 

Musically, Belmont's Curse is nowhere near the level of the more classic, retro entries in the franchise. That's not to say it's bad. It's simply different. And what's here to listen to is rather nice and pleasant. Though, a highlight, of course, HAS to be the game's rendition of Vampire Killer building upon itself the deeper into Dracula's Castle and its Main Hall that you go.

Konami's long-lasting, long-running series featuring a motley crew of vampire hunters continues on and boldly enters a new era with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. The movement feels great, for the most part (aiming the Arcane Whip notwithstanding), the challenge level is certainly present and accounted for (I'm thankful for the inclusion of Custom Mode, as will many potential players), the boss battles are some of the series's best, and the art is absolutely astonishing all-around. While not all aspects of Belmont's Curse carry that well-established Castlevania flavor, what is here works and works relatively well. It's certainly neither a monster nor doesn't belong in your gaming world. Just be prepared to cry some Bloody Tears at the difficulty at times.

[SPC Says: B-] 

This game was played via the PlayStation 5 version. Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is also available on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series consoles, and PC. 

Garfield: Escape from Monday (Multi) Review

Our next review, Garfield: Escape from Monday, is perfect for this Tuesday. Why? Because we've officially escaped Monday! Now, let's hope Garfield can do the same. In the meantime, let's check out his latest adventure with the SPC review.

 Just Another Case of the Mondays

My history with Garfield is fairly limited in the grand scheme of things. Sure, I knew of his existence in the Sunday funnies within the newspaper, but what really got me going for Garfield as a kid was the morning cartoon: Garfield and Friends. The show ran for seven seasons and ended up being a large part of my childhood. Garfield on the big screen being voiced by Bill Murray aside, that is the limit of my Garfield knowledge.

In games, Garfield hasn't had too much mindshare. He's been in some kart racers, which I don't know if their popularity is genuine or a meme, and he's had an appearance as a playable fighter in a Nickelodeon Smash Bros. clone. Now, Garfield is hitting the world of 3D platforming with Garfield: Escape from Monday, which ends up being a serving of competent platforming cuisine and little else.

Garfield: Escape from Monday sees the lasagna-loving feline entering into a dream, where he is tormented by the whims of Chef Monday. It's your goal to help Garfield escape his nightmarish dream. Thankfully, he's not alone in his adventure. His owner John Arbuckle, Arlene the Cat, among others nudge Garfield along the way, in between Garfield's myriad sarcastic gripes and quips. 

That's right, Garfield. Bam! ...Wait, wrong chef with a cooking show.

Garfield's adventure takes place along three unique worlds, each with a large assortment of relatively linear levels to explore. Generally, the objective is to move from point A to point B with little in the way of sandbox-style levels. In fact, just a duo of levels throughout the 40+ in Escape from Monday feature an open-ended, expansive design. The others are point-to-point affairs. 

Levels feature all sorts of tricks, traps, and enemies to overcome. Garfield has three hits to his health. If he takes a third hit, he's incapacitated and players are sent back to the last checkpoint. Escape from Monday is very generous with its checkpoints and health system, which is terrific for the demographic the game aims for: younger players. Each time you collect a piece of food, which levels are absolutely doused in, Garfield regains a piece of health. Even if you take damage from a foe, it's as simple as defeating it, as the enemy then will drop health-restoring food.

Garfield leaps into action.

Of course, food isn't just for healing. Depending on the world, Garfield's collected cuisine changes types. For instance, in the Sweet Kingdom, Garfield gobbles up colorful pastel macaroons, while in the Barbecue Desert, Garfield chows down on pizza, hot dogs, and other tasty treats. The food gathered and gobbled up by Garfield fills up a meter: specifically, the Yum-o-Meter. If you can fill this up into the red zone on a given level, you'll receive a bonus of three Lasagna, the main collectible in Escape from Monday.

Lasagna is also housed in out-of-the-way, hidden, or hard-to-reach areas in levels. There can be as little as two to optionally uncover in levels, but there can also be up to six. Even scouring stages with a sharp eye and intricately covering my tracks as Garfield, I occasionally missed a Lasagna here and there, requiring a second or sometimes even third playthrough of a level. 

You better not stay there, Garfield, or you'll get that point "hammered" home to you.

Fortunately, the game properly orders which Lasagna you've already collected. What I mean by this is that if you're missing a Lasagna in a level, the game will show you if it's the first/second/third/etc. Lasagna in the level by its placement within the pause menu. Thus, you're never guessing how deep in a level a Lasagna is because if the second slot is empty, you'll be able to surmise it's somewhere between the first and third Lasagna in the level.

Each of the three worlds in Garfield: Escape from Monday houses its own costume for Garfield to don. Perfect for the Halloween weekend coming up, no? Unlike the actual holiday, though, when Garfield wears a costume, he isn't planning on going door-to-door for candy. Although he might prefer that, now that I think about it more... Anyway, instead, Garfield takes on a new ability. 

Gobble, gobble food as you gobble, gobble as a turkey, Garfield.

For example, the first world features a turkey costume, granting Garfield the ability to flap his wings up to three times in the air to cross large chasms. Meanwhile, Sweet Kingdom takes Garfield and says "surf's up", giving him a board to surf along the waters (or in the world's case, syrup, juice, and chocolate). This ended up being my favorite of the three costumes due to its maneuverability and mobility options. Finally, the last world features a cowboy costume, allowing Garfield to lasso specific Eggplant enemies to ride them like a bull through a China shop, causing destruction in his wake, as well as latch onto and pull himself to different platforms. 

Surf's up and ride the waves, grind these rails, and have a bodacious time, dude!

Aside from the main levels that are mandatory to complete in Escape from Monday, Garfield's latest game has side stages that are optional to tackle. These are generally far shorter stages than the decidedly lengthy main levels that tend to wear out their welcome--at least in this player's opinion. The side levels essentially have their own gimmicks, from levels exclusively played in a 2D perspective, to levels that incorporate a given costume's various quirks. 

Some levels feature a 2.5D perspective, such as this one called Flappy Cat.

Also optional to Garfield: Escape from Monday, but something to increase the otherwise short playtime of the game, is that of time attacks. These, as you might expect, are races through the main and side levels of the game, giving you a set time to have to beat. Frustratingly, these time attacks still feature the cutscenes and myriad gameplay interruptions that the main game possesses. 

Worse off is that some of these are not able to be skipped. There's something truly annoying about having to repeat a time attack attempt and sit through the same "unskippable" scenes, especially when some can last upwards of twenty seconds or more. Further, much like with Microids other published platformer of the fall season, Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia, players cannot simply restart a given stage from the pause menu. Instead, they must back out to the world map to re-enter the level and try again.

Our otherwise lazy protagonist has plenty of moves to help him speed through stages, but also beat his daily serving of vegetables, the enemies found all throughout Chef Monday's manufactured nightmare for Garfield. He can jump, he can roll to move fast through levels, he can swipe foes (though his reach is relatively small, which resulted in a lot more unintentional damage to Garfield than I would have preferred), he can bounce on their heads, and the previously mentioned costumes add to his arsenal of moves. Garfield: Escape from Monday has a pleasant platforming feel to it, which is no doubt important for a game in a genre which good-feeling movement is paramount.

Mash those marshmallows, beat those baddies, and eradicate those enemies!

There's no question that Escape from Monday is a game on a budget. Even still, little things like platforms appearing out of thin air rather than organically rising out of the juice below--to give an example--are things I couldn't quite give leniency to, as it just felt visually cheap. Myriad moments of pop-in, where objects and enemies in the environment literally popped in from nowhere in the distance also distracted and detracted from the presentation as well. 

What Garfield: Escape from Monday's visuals do succeed at is crafting a colorful, vivid cartoon world that looks quite good for its budget. The black outlines around characters really nails the cartoon, comic-like aesthetic, and the worlds are visually interesting, comprised of environments made up of food. The music is serviceable, and the voice acting works at the very least.

While Garfield: Escape from Monday is hardly a bad game, it's also not a great one, either. My experience with this particular 3D platformer was one where I was going through the motions. Perhaps that's a bigger sin for a game that it's dull and boring rather than being interesting and playing badly. Escape from Monday plays well enough, but it's just a game that doesn't really do anything truly special. I'm sure it will be just fine for younger players--after all, I'm not really the demographic in mind here, despite platformers being my favorite genre, by far--but there's also just SO much out there that's better, too. I think of Garfield: Escape from Monday like eating a whole cake: It's tasty on the way down, sure, but it's also empty calories that could be better spent elsewhere--that is, you could do much better playing something else.

[SPC Says: C]

This game was played via the PlayStation 5 version. Garfield: Escape from Monday is also available on the Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, Xbox Series consoles, and PC. 

Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip (PSP) Retro Review (2026)

This week I'm planning to back-load, as it were, my roster of reviews for October. We'll see how that goes, but to kick things off, we have a retro review. I previously touched on this tennis title in 2010 with an older review back when the game originally released. Now, I return to it with a brand-new review. Do I still enjoy the Hot Shots crew taking to the court for a second time with this PSP outing? Let's find out with my second review of Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip.

For the Love of the Game

When the Hot Shots crew isn't playing golf for everybody, they're serving up some intense rallies in tennis. Of course, the Hot Shots Tennis sub-series isn't as prolific or well-known as Hot Shots Golf, as it's only had two titles to date with none going to happen for the foreseeable future. Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip on the PlayStation Portable from 2010 is the most recent entry, and looking at my current calendar, it seems "recent" is a bit of misnomer. Either way, what a wonderful installment to [hopefully temporarily] conclude the franchise on, as Get a Grip took to the court with both loads of style and lots of substance, making it one of my favorite tennis titles to this day.

Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip features what I believe to be one of the most comprehensive and enjoyable single-player campaigns for a tennis title. It sees you joining the Love Tennis Club as two characters: Emily and Hugo, as you jet-set around the world to various locations to revive other characters' joy of tennis. Some folks are going through the motions with tennis, while others simply don't care for the sport anymore. It's your duty to help them get back their tennis spirit.

Emily is about to show Troy here some tough love by beating his butt at tennis.

Each of the ten chapters in Get a Grip's story mode takes place at a unique global destination with a specific client in mind, whether that be small beginnings at a tennis club where a student struggles to enjoy the game, or a college campus humorously known as Jocksford University, where a popular cheerleader seeks something more out of her tennis. Each locale has its own court and series of opponents to take on while venturing through and exploring the rather linear locations.

Be sure to examine all corners of these areas, not just for opponents to battle but treasures to discover, too!

There are over 75 different opponents in total in Get a Grip's story mode, spread across the ten chapters. Battling the required opponents in a given chapter leads the way to facing that chapter's character in hopes of reviving their love of tennis, as well as having them join your team as a playable character.

The story mode's numerous battles reward you with not only money to purchase new cosmetics (that also serve as stat boosters when equipped) in the in-game shop, but also a piece of equipment that the faced character wears. Different matches feature different rules: such as being two, four, or six games, forgoing the traditional deuce rules (players need not win a game by two points in this case), offering a one-serve rule, and even making it so players can only hit the ball with the X button. 

You can see what shot type via button press you and your opponent(s) performed, like Hugo's X serve here.

Each match against an opponent rates you up to 100 points. If you completely dominate a match--as in never relinquishing a point whatsoever in any game of the match--you get a complete, epic victory. Losing a game means you lose your opportunity for an epic victory, and thus bonus experience points earned for your character. Fortunately, you can replay opponents as much as you'd like. However, getting 100 points against each and every opponent in Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip is possible, but it's certainly a daunting task. 

This is not only because certain singles matches against specific opponents are just tricky in general, but also because sometimes you'll also deal with doubles matches as opposed to typical singles ones. Here, you'll be partnered with a CPU player of your choosing. Now, don't get me wrong, your CPU doubles partner is hardly incompetent, but they, like a human player, will occasionally make mistakes, and seemingly at random. Occasionally you'll find yourself losing a point or two due to one of these CPU player mistakes, through no fault of your own.

Don't let Hugo down, Emily! We're going for a win this game! 
(Writer's note: The CPU-controlled Emily totally let Hugo down.)

Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip's gameplay blurs the line between arcade-y and simulation. It's somewhere in between. It's not necessarily as accessible as say, Mario Tennis, particularly the more recent entries, but it's also nothing like a Tennis Elbow or Virtua Tennis, either. 

A significant amount of Get a Grip's gameplay is about timing, whether that's with your serve or returning the ball. Early on I found myself routinely hitting the ball into the net, or even more obvious to my fault, hitting the ball out of bounds. That's because Get a Grip requires you to not just time hitting your shots, but also focusing on your character and the ball's position as well. Hitting a ball when it's low or when you're on the move will lower your accuracy, meaning that it's more likely to hit the net or be hit astray. If you're attempting to hit the ball with your character's non-dominant hand via backswing, the maximum power of the hit will decrease. 

Thus, it's important to always move to where the ball is going, plant your feet firmly in place to hit the ball while not moving, ideally, use your dominant hand when possible when hitting, and use the correct shot type. 

Lunging for the ball like this is possible, but so is setting up your opponent for a smash ace by doing so!

There are three different shots you can hit in Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip, from slices and spin shots, executed with the X and Circle buttons, the latter is a slower hit shot, but it offers more control than the faster X button shot. There's also the Triangle button, which delivers a lob that is great for opponents who storm the front of the net, though it's not always foolproof. 

I won't lie and say that I ever perfected playing Get a Grip. Far too many times I'd be playing well only to fall into the trap of foolishly hitting the ball too low and it frustratingly jettisoned into the net, giving my opponent a point. Now, it's seldom anything but user error when that happens, but combine these moments with difficult CPU opponents as the story mode wears on. Needless to say, later tennis matches can be utterly aggravating when you're dealing with opponents that can mercilessly outplay you while you're making idiotic plays of your own.

Deuces are currently wild in this doubles match, so let's hope for an ace when we serve next!

That said, I never wanted to give up while playing. In fact, every loss only strengthened my resolve to do and play better next time. Did that always work out that way, where I did play better? Absolutely not, but at least my resolve was there. If I felt the game proved too taxing, I could also always lose three story mode matches when a row, thus unlocking easy mode. Which to be fair, can still be a bit of a challenge in later matches. 

As I stated earlier, each of the ten locales in Get a Grip's story mode features its own court, and with the three courts already available from the start of the game, to the three "unlockable through other means" courts in the game, there are 16 total courts. These aren't just different locales to play tennis matches on, either. While there aren't any gimmicky courts like you'd fine in Mario Tennis titles, there are distinctive properties to some of the courts that keep them fresh and unique, other than the environments around them. Some courts feature pebbles on the courts that can influence how a ball bounces upon hitting them, while others feature aerial hazards like Dubno Tower's helicopter blade that hovers over the court. Hitting this is the same as hitting the ball out of play, so mind those lobs!

Hot Shots Golf: Get a Grip is filmed before a live studio audience... at least on this court.

What truly amazed me about each and every court in Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip is something that other tennis games of this type don't even think about: the interactivity with the environment. All of the courts in Get a Grip feature interactive elements from hitting the ball and seeing it bounce into the background. This can be as simple as scaring off a dog who was just trying to take a nap in its doghouse, toppling over a piece of the environment like a standing surfboard at the Laguna Beach court, or worse yet, knocking off a tightrope walker (seemingly murdering him in cold blood with an ill-timed tennis ball strike) from the top of the aforementioned Dubno Tower court. I'm sure the ground broke his multiple-story fall...

There are over a dozen characters to join your tennis club and roster of playable tennis stars. In true Hot Shots fashion, a PlayStation all-star joins the roster in this installment of the series as well. In this case, it's one of Killzone's Helghast soldiers. Each character can be equipped with one of hundreds of cosmetics for their head, body, and up to two accessory slots. You can mix and match to your heart's desire, and many of these piece of cosmetic equipment boost stats, such as control, impact, and stamina (oh, the dreaded stamina!). Like other Hot Shots games, using characters routinely, whether you win or lose a match, awards them with experience points that raises their loyalty level. This can be raised up to nine levels, with each level rewarding the character with different upgrades, like new locker slots to try out other costume combos, unlocking the ability to use flat serves, utilizing air shots, and much more. 

The fear of every Helghast: a peppy cheerleader.

Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip is a great looking tennis title that plays at a smooth frame-rate, and feels and looks marvelous in motion. It's superb in how colorful it is to look at. Plus, the previously described interactive nature of the courts and also how well the characters emote and animate only heightens how full of personality Get a Grip is. The sound, too, delivers, offering delightful voice acting and music that I couldn't help bopping my head to while playing. Heck, I enjoy listening to it outside of the tennis fun, but I'm a bit of a game music nerd, to be fair!

In the end, Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip certainly serves up a heavy and hefty amount of fun. It certainly balances the line between arcade experience and simulation really well, but that's not without lowering the level of accessibility for every type of player out there. Those accustomed to tennis in Wii Sports or even Mario Tennis might find a bit of a learning curve if they're transitioning to this particular tennis title. Either way, the rallies are heated, the amount of content is immense, and the level of enjoyable tennis gameplay is off the charts, all making for a tennis game that is one of my favorites to date. So, if you have the chance, you're more than welcome to join the Love Tennis Club, too. I saved a spot for you!

[SPC Says: A-] 

Game Boy Classics - October 2026 - Games Update

It seems to be a Game Boy kind of month for Nintendo Switch Online, as last week saw the addition of three Game Boy Advance titles to the NSO subscription lineup of retro games, and now this week we see three more, though this time on the base tier Game Boy lineup. 

Mole Mania is a game produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, while Avenging Spirit and Revenge of the 'Gator come from Jaleco and Nintendo respectively (the latter developed by HAL Laboratory of Kirby series fame). Whether you want to dig, get spirited away, or play some pinball, there's something for seemingly everyone here with this drop of games. They all arrive on NSO on October 27th.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort (NS2) Launch Trailer

Reviews are out for Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and overall, critics are enjoying the sports package that Nintendo has put out. The full game launches in two days on October 22nd, and ahead of the release date, a launch trailer is here, showing off all 12 sports that players can look forward to participating in. Will you be taking a trip to Wuhu Island by picking up a copy of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort?