REVIEW: Monopoly: Star Wars™ Heroes vs. Villains (2026 Video Game) on PlayStation 5

Review by Jon Donnis

Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs Villains is one of those games that is likely to divide opinion before players even reach the first match. The reason is simple. Despite carrying the Monopoly name, this is not a traditional digital version of the famous board game. Anyone expecting classic Monopoly with a Star Wars coat of paint is likely to be surprised by just how different this experience actually is.

Instead of focusing on buying properties, collecting rent and driving opponents into bankruptcy, Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs Villains takes a team-based approach. Players join forces in competitive 2v2 and 3v3 matches, selecting characters from across the Star Wars universe and using their unique abilities to gain the upper hand. Battles, changing property ownership and dynamic events all play a major role, creating a game that feels very different from what the Monopoly name would normally suggest.

For Star Wars fans, there is plenty to enjoy. The presentation is excellent throughout. The graphics are fantastic, with characters and locations looking great, while the sound effects and voice overs feel accurate to the licence. The game does a good job of capturing the atmosphere of Star Wars, helping to make the matches feel more engaging.

The large number of unlockables also adds some extra motivation to keep playing. There is always something new to work towards, which helps give the game a sense of progression beyond simply winning matches. Another welcome feature is the ability to choose the length of games. This allows players to tailor the experience to the amount of time they have available, making it possible to enjoy shorter sessions rather than being locked into a lengthy gaming marathon.

Where Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs Villains performs best is when it is played with other people in the same room. Local multiplayer is clearly where the game shines. Having friends or family gathered around creates a far more entertaining experience than playing alone, and the team-based gameplay feels designed with this sort of setting in mind.

Unfortunately, the game becomes less impressive when there are no human players involved. Single-player matches against AI opponents are simply not much fun. A lot of time is spent waiting for computer-controlled players to take their turns, and while there are some options to skip parts of their actions, they only go so far. The result is a mode that often feels slow and lacks the energy that makes multiplayer enjoyable.

There are also some limitations that may disappoint certain players. The absence of a 1 vs 1 mode feels like a missed opportunity, especially for those who prefer direct competition. Online multiplayer is available, but PlayStation users will need an active PlayStation Plus subscription to access it, creating an additional barrier for anyone planning to play primarily online.

The menus are another weak point. Setting up games and selecting players can be more confusing than it should be. The layout is not always clear, and navigating through the options can feel unnecessarily awkward.

The biggest issue facing Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs Villains is expectation. Many players will approach the game expecting Monopoly with Star Wars characters and locations. That is not what they are getting here. This is a reimagined version of Monopoly that takes the basic idea and builds something very different around it. Players who specifically want a faithful Monopoly experience may well come away disappointed.

On the other hand, players looking for a fresh take on the formula, particularly those who enjoy Star Wars and regularly play with friends, may find a lot to like. The strong presentation, unlockable content and flexible game lengths all work in its favour, while the multiplayer-focused design delivers its best moments when real people are involved.

This is ultimately a difficult game to score because so much depends on what the player wants going in. Fans of classic Monopoly may struggle with the changes, while Star Wars fans looking for a social multiplayer experience are likely to have a better time. It is certainly not a game built around single-player content, and the requirement for PlayStation Plus for online play will not appeal to everyone.

Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs Villains succeeds more as a Star Wars party game than as a Monopoly game. If you understand that before you start, there is fun to be found. If you are hoping for traditional Monopoly, you may want to look elsewhere.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Out Now on PlayStation 5

https://amzn.to/3QT7Mzg

REVIEW: Gecko Gods (2026 Video Game) - on Nintendo Switch

By Jon Donnis

Gecko Gods is a straightforward puzzle adventure that puts players in control of a small gecko exploring a forgotten archipelago filled with ancient ruins, puzzles, hidden relics and collectables. Built around exploration and movement, the game offers a relaxing experience that encourages players to take their time, search every corner and uncover the many secrets hidden across its islands.

The biggest strength of Gecko Gods is simply how enjoyable it is to play. Controlling the gecko feels fun throughout the adventure, helped greatly by the freedom of movement. The ability to climb almost every surface allows exploration to feel natural and rewarding, whether scaling walls, traversing ceilings or searching for hidden areas. The game constantly encourages curiosity, and there is always the feeling that something interesting might be waiting just out of sight.

The scenery is another major highlight. Gecko Gods presents a vibrant and attractive world that is enjoyable to spend time in. Exploring the various islands, ruins and caves is consistently engaging, and the world itself feels interesting from start to finish. Sailing between islands on a small wooden boat helps break up the gameplay and provides access to new locations filled with secrets to discover.

Collectables play a significant role in the experience. Relics can be found hidden throughout secret areas across the islands, while insects can be collected by dashing into them and adding them to a growing collection. Players can also smash objects with a dash attack to earn currency, which can then be spent on cosmetic options. These additional activities give players plenty of reasons to thoroughly explore every location.

The puzzle design deserves praise as well. This is a solid little puzzle adventure that understands how to challenge players without becoming frustrating. The puzzles are just difficult enough to require some thought, but never so demanding that progress becomes irritating. As a result, solving them remains satisfying throughout the game's relatively short running time.

There are also some nice visual touches. As the gecko takes damage, its colour changes to reflect its condition. Take too much damage and its tail can even fall off. Thankfully, the tail regenerates over time, keeping the mechanic light-hearted and in keeping with the game's charming presentation.

While Gecko Gods gets a lot right, it does have a few issues. The biggest problem comes from the climbing system. Because the gecko can move across so many different surfaces, controls can sometimes become confusing. Depending on the surface being climbed and the angle of the third-person camera, movement can feel inverted, making certain sections more awkward than they should be.

Navigation can also become a challenge for the wrong reasons. Although the environments are vibrant and visually appealing, many of the structures and landscape features look quite similar. This makes it easy to get turned around while exploring and can occasionally make it difficult to remember where you have already been.

The game's length may also disappoint some players. The main story can be completed in around four to six hours, with full completion taking a little over seven hours. While the adventure remains enjoyable throughout, there is not a great deal of replayability once everything has been found and completed. At around £16.75 on Nintendo Switch, the price feels a little high for the amount of content available.

Gecko Gods is a fun, straightforward puzzle adventure with an adorable main character, enjoyable exploration, challenging but fair puzzles and nice clear graphics. Despite some occasional control frustrations, similar-looking environments and a lack of replayability once completed, it remains an entertaining experience that is easy to recommend to fans of relaxed exploration games.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

Out Now on Switch

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Gecko-Gods-2480777.html

REVIEW: Tilt It! Golf (2026 Video Game) - on PC Steam

Review by Jon Donnis

Tilt It! Golf from Untold Tales is a 2026 physics-based mini golf game on PC via Steam that attempts to shake up the genre by removing the traditional swing entirely. Instead of striking a ball, players tilt the entire course, guiding it through gravity, momentum and precision-based movement towards the hole. With 300 levels spread across 15 distinct biomes, each introducing small twists and increasing challenge, it is built around quick retries, instant restarts and chasing near-perfect runs across bite-sized stages.

On paper, there is plenty to enjoy. The core idea is fun in short bursts, with the physics system doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of entertainment. The game looks clean and appealing, and the sheer number of courses gives it a sense of scale that suits its replay-focused structure. With 300 holes and a steady rise in difficulty, there is a consistent stream of new obstacles, trick shots and hazard-based puzzles to work through. It is also clearly designed for accessibility and quick play sessions, with instant restarts making it easy to jump straight back in after a failed attempt without any friction.

Where it starts to struggle is the platform shift. This feels very much like a mobile-style experience brought over to PC, and that mismatch becomes hard to ignore. The tilt controls, which would likely feel intuitive on a phone, do not translate smoothly to keyboard input on a screen. 

Instead of feeling natural, it becomes awkward and slightly disconnected from the action. That disconnect is made worse by the visual motion, which in this case quickly triggered motion sickness after only a few minutes of play. What should be a relaxing, pick-up-and-play puzzle experience instead becomes difficult to sustain for long sessions on PC.

There is still an interesting idea buried in the design. The concept of tilting entire environments to guide a ball through carefully crafted obstacle courses has clear potential, and the structure of 300 levels across 15 biomes shows ambition in keeping players engaged over time. But on PC, the control scheme and sensory experience undermine what the game is trying to achieve. It is easy to imagine this working far better on a phone, where touch and tilt inputs would feel more natural and immediate.

Tilt It! Golf is ultimately a game caught between platforms. As a PC release, it feels compromised, not quite comfortable to play and, for some, difficult to tolerate for long. As a mobile experience, it is easier to picture it landing more successfully. On Steam, however, it struggles to justify extended play despite its content-rich design and low price. Score on PC: 5 out of 10.

Out Now

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4733610/Tilt_It_Golf/

REVIEW: Tale of Dark Lands (2026 Video Game) on PS5

Review by Jon Donnis

Tale of Dark Lands arrives on PS5 as a low poly fantasy action RPG that tries to channel the feel of a modern fairy tale wrapped in darker myth. You play a mercenary pulled from simple village work into something far more ominous, as an ancient force begins to spread across the land. It is a straightforward setup, built around progression, gear upgrades and a steady climb towards becoming a legendary figure.

There is an immediate charm to the visual presentation. The low poly style gives the world a soft, storybook quality that suits the fantasy setting surprisingly well. Villages, forests and dungeons carry a certain handmade feel, and when the lighting hits right it does manage to look appealing in a stripped back way. The character editor and equipment variety also add a small layer of personalisation, giving you room to shape your mercenary and experiment with different builds and gear combinations as you progress.

Where the game struggles is in almost everything tied to moment to moment play. Combat quickly settles into repetitive attack spamming, with very little need for timing, dodging or tactical thinking until the very late stages. Encounters begin to feel routine long before the credits roll. Navigation is another weak point, with an awkward structure that funnels you through portals and narrow paths rather than encouraging any real exploration. The story also never rises above functional fantasy filler, lacking tension or intrigue despite its darker premise. Controls feel loose, which only adds to the sense that the systems are not quite as refined as they should be, and the overall experience is short, running for only a few hours without much variation along the way.

In the end, Tale of Dark Lands is a game that looks more interesting than it plays. The visual style carries it for a while, but the shallow combat, weak storytelling and restrictive design hold it back from anything memorable. It is a brief experience that feels underdeveloped, and while it has moments of charm, they are not enough to sustain the journey. I would score Tale of Dark Lands a disappointing 4 out of 10.

Releases 2nd June on PlayStation

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10015595

REVIEW: The End of the Sun (2026 Video Game) - on Playstation 5

Review by Jon Donnis

The End of the Sun arrives with a quietly confident premise and, to its credit, it largely delivers on that sense of intrigue. Set within a Slavic fantasy world that leans heavily on folklore and ritual, the game casts you as the Ashter, a fire mage able to track echoes of the past. It is an unusual hook, and one that immediately sets it apart. From the moment you step into the abandoned village, with its lingering smoke and fractured sense of time, there is a strong feeling that something meaningful has happened here, even if the game takes its time explaining exactly what.

Visually, it is difficult to fault. The world has been crafted with clear care, and that effort shows in the detail of the buildings, objects, and natural surroundings. The use of photogrammetry gives everything a grounded, almost tactile quality. It does not feel like a generic fantasy setting. Instead, it feels rooted in something older, more specific. That authenticity feeds directly into the atmosphere, which remains one of the game’s strongest elements throughout.

The central gameplay loop is where The End of the Sun becomes most interesting. You move from bonfire to bonfire, bonding with each one to reveal hidden traces and fragments of past events. Follow the smoke, uncover clues, solve a puzzle, then shift through time to see the consequences. It is a simple structure on paper, yet it works surprisingly well in practice. There is a natural rhythm to it, and when everything clicks, it can be genuinely absorbing. Watching history subtly reshape itself as you intervene adds a layer of satisfaction that many puzzle games struggle to achieve.

The puzzles themselves are mostly well judged. They are not overly complex, but they demand attention and a willingness to observe your surroundings carefully. The real appeal comes from how they tie into the wider narrative. Solving a puzzle rarely feels isolated. Instead, it feeds into the broader mystery, revealing new perspectives on the same characters across different points in time. That sense of continuity, of seeing lives unfold across seasons and years, gives the game a quiet emotional weight.

Voice acting is another clear strength. Performances across the board feel natural and convincing, which helps ground the more fantastical elements of the story. Characters come across as real people shaped by their circumstances, rather than simple narrative devices. It adds a layer of immersion that is easy to overlook but difficult to replace.

That said, the experience is not without its frustrations. Technical issues do creep in, and they can be more than minor inconveniences. Encountering a situation where progress is blocked, with no clear way to reset or escape, breaks the flow entirely. It suggests a lack of final polish that is hard to ignore, especially in a game so reliant on careful progression through its systems.

Even outside of outright bugs, there are moments where the game’s structure works against it. It is easy to lose your bearings, leading to stretches of aimless wandering as you try to piece together your next move. While some level of uncertainty fits the investigative tone, it can tip into irritation when direction becomes too vague. The line between discovery and confusion is a fine one, and The End of the Sun does not always stay on the right side of it.

Despite these issues, there is something undeniably compelling at the heart of the experience. Its ideas feel fresh, its world feels lived in, and its approach to storytelling through time and interaction stands out. When it works, it draws you in completely. When it falters, it can push you away just as quickly.

The End of the Sun is a thoughtful and original adventure that does a lot right, even if it stumbles in key areas. It is well worth experiencing for its atmosphere and ideas alone, but patience is required. If you can push through the rough edges, there is a rewarding journey waiting underneath.

Score: 7 out of 10

Out Now on PlayStation

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10017998