ReCore

At the outset I thought this was going to easily be my next big favourite game. A beautiful and mysterious world - maybe a bit much desert for me, but also filled with weird tech buildings and machines. A compelling start to a mysterious fantasy sci-fi story set in the remnants of a dystopia. Smooth controls and solid graphics. And a really net double-jump plus horizontal burst element to the characters movement that felt flat out awesome while also increasing mobility for both exploration and battle.

There's a simple colour based combat system, in that you only really damage enemies if you're using the right colour of weapon. It's more gimmicky than unique or clever, and quickly gets just annoying. But, that's not too big a deal, and there are several other cool and genuinely unique aspects to the combat involving companions and a kind of robot-soul-hook-catching thingy.

But, it lost me immediately when it turned out it was heavily based on platform jumping. That fun double-jump boost mobility I initially joined ended up being the bane of the game, because it's all about whether you can time and space your jump combos perfectly as you bounce between scores of platforms. And every time you miss once, you fall all the way to the ground and have to repeat it all over again. Just plain boring.

Such a shame, and some will love it if they can get past that aspect. But definitely not for me.

This is a game that was maligned not because it is bad but because it does not live up to a high end AAA game in the realm of graphics and performance. If the definitive version of this game dropped as a Switch exclusive it would have gotten 9s and 10s from reviewers. It has all the elements of a highly reviewed Nintendo game: a great platformer, imaginative world, fun cast, and a lackluster story. Yes I said that, Breath of the Wild is one of the highest rated games of all time and it has a mostly empty world and a story told through a photo challenge. Nintendo games are beloved for their gameplay and fun factor not graphically fidelity and story. Recore is a game made by the makers of metroid prime and it has both solid gameplay and the fun factor, it just dropped on the wrong console.

No one expected a Nintendo game to drop as an Xbox exclusive and yet here we are. Honestly I love that this game exists it is so different for the Xbox ecosystem, I wish we had gotten a proper sequel, because the world really interested me.

My positives:

• fun story
• excellent world and world building
• hard and rewarding platforming
• super fun combat system that is deceptively deep and occasionally punishing
• great art style
• tons of cool party customization

My negatives

• a few unfair dungeons
• only being able to take two robots out at a time limits exploration in an attempt to create artificial replay ability. This mechanic sets the game back for me pretty far (from a 9 to a 8)
• item drop rng feels grindy.

Overall an amazing game that would have reviewed better on a Nintendo console not claiming media bias, just the consoles create different expectations, this would have become a classic on the switch or wii. Give it a try on gamepass!