💥 TRENDING: Id/BaylifeD - Full Archive

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is sensational. It rivals being one of the best retro collections ever, in fact, packing in not only one the best fighting games ever made, but also one of the best side-scrolling beat ’em ups of all time. Undeniably, each and every game included here is a classic in its own right, arcade perfect ROMs with thoughtful enhancements, an incredible treaure trove of artwork and bonuses, and seamless online rollback netcode. It’s an exhaustive, definitive celebration that delivers whether you’re a Marvel fan, a Capcom devotee, or both. What more can I say other than it’s Marvel-ous.

Doom: The Dark Ages is an incredibly baffling step backwards. It trades the unrelenting chaos, master-class design and Mick's 8 string shredding for something slower, expressionless, and fundamentally just less fun.

The Dark ages has brought more story here than ever and yet, it somehow says nothing. Levels bleed into one another with zero cohesion, and it's narrative beats land with all the weight of a feather. Never did I feel connected to the story, nor did I care. Regrettably, my nostalgia and youthful memories dragged me through this, driven purely by my passion for what the four letters D, O, O, and M have always meant to me, not because I was having an experience equal to its predecessors.

The combat arenas are tedious, swarming, and badly paced. Weapon switching is sluggish, the loadout flexibility has been stripped back, and half the arsenal feels like dead weight. The decision to centre the combat around shields and melee comes at the cost of flow, freedom, and ferocity. All things that for me, defined what modern Doom is. And then the music, once the heartbeat of Doom, is forgettable at best, misplaced at worst. What was historically a defining character in itself, feels phoned in. There’s no bite. No identity. No fury.

While technically stunning and a true modern marvel, a consistent thread across id Software’s legacy, the game’s visual fidelity and engine performance are where the praise ends. The soul of the rebooted franchise, once brimming with kinetic energy, weapon mastery, and tongue-in-cheek defiance, has been shackled in service of a misguided medieval theme that places too much stock in a cumbersome shield and neutered melee system. In doing so, it dilutes the very essence of what Doom is supposed to be.