After spending around 42 hours on the main story and side content, I had mixed feelings. Way of the Sword has a lot going for it: the sword fighting is often spectacular, the characters are fun, and Musashi might be my favorite protagonist in the series. Even so, I wasn’t sure the game delivered the return I had hoped for. Primarily, because its strongest elements didn’t fully outweigh its weaker ones.

Unfortunately, I found it harder to love this game than I hoped, mostly because of some questionable choices with the difficulty, boss fights, and overall pacing. Those issues kept Way of the Sword from feeling like the comeback I wanted, even though its combat and characters do a lot right.

At its core, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a lot of fun to play.

The sword fighting is fast, smooth, and a lot of fun when everything comes together. Musashi defeats enemies with a cinematic flair, especially when he takes down several Genma in a row. At its best, the swordplay feels like a samurai version of John Wick.

It’s easy to pick up the combat system, but mastering it is another challenge entirely.

Blocking, parrying, and dodging aren’t just extra moves—they’re the heart of the system. If you just mash buttons, you’ll go down fast, and the enemies make it clear you need to balance aggression with patience.

I relied heavily on parrying during my playthrough, mainly because I couldn’t consistently pull off Reflex Dodges. At first, parrying is pretty forgiving, but later bosses become much faster and harder to predict, so you have to react quickly to avoid losing a lot of health.

Of course, you can upgrade Musashi’s sword, armor, and Oni Gauntlet by finding materials in the world or buying them with Red Souls. Even so, Way of the Sword never lets you just overpower enemies. Survival still depends on how well you can parry or dodge attacks, even with better gear.

A lingering issue is that the game doesn’t explain some mechanics well. For example, at first I didn’t know whether to press Square or Triangle at the right time during Blade Barrage. However, turning on the Action Prompts setting helped a lot by showing the correct button prompts during attacks. As a result, the system became much easier to follow.

I strongly recommend turning that option on.

Action Mode Is Brutal

Here’s another tip: don’t be misled by the difficulty names.

Story Mode is basically what I’d call Normal difficulty, while Action Mode feels more like Hard Mode.

I spent about 40 of my 42 hours playing in Action Mode before switching to Story Mode for a while, since two bosses became too frustrating to keep fighting at the higher difficulty.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword includes many features you’d expect from challenging action games inspired by the Souls series. The combat is tough, but you learn from each fight. The game punishes reckless attacks, and boss fights require you to recognize patterns. Healing means waiting for the right moment, and the game expects you to learn from your mistakes.

The difficulty itself isn’t my issue. What bothered me was that overcoming it in Way of the Sword doesn’t always feel satisfying.

Boss fights often became more annoying than rewarding. Most bosses have two stages, and the final boss has three. If you die in a later stage, you have to start over from the beginning. You might parry attacks successfully for 10 or 15 minutes, save your resources, and stick to your strategy, only for one mistake to ruin everything.

Healing adds to the stress because it isn’t instant. Musashi has to finish an eating animation before his health comes back. Against aggressive bosses, just finding a moment to heal can be tough. Plus, if you get caught by certain attacks, bosses can enter Blaze State, making an already tough fight even harder.

I usually knew why I died, but just understanding your mistake doesn’t make the frustration of having to repeat precise defensive moves any easier.

Many times when I beat a boss, I felt more relieved—or even lucky—than accomplished. That’s an important distinction.

In games that focus on punishing the player, beating a tough enemy should feel exciting. But whenever I defeated a boss in Way of the Sword, I usually just thought, “Well, I’m glad that’s over.”

Because bosses and sub-bosses show up so often, they stop feeling special. What should be dramatic encounters instead become another obstacle between you and the next part of the story.

Your Biggest Enemy Might Be the Camera

Not all the difficulty problems come from enemy design. The lock-on camera also needs improvement.

There are times when Way of the Sword often puts Musashi in tight combat spaces. Unfortunately, the camera tends to bump into objects or buildings that block your view of the enemy.

In a game where spotting incoming attacks means the difference between a successful parry and losing a lot of health, blocking the view of an enemy is a big problem. It becomes another thing for you to overcome when the deck is already stacked against you.

Enemy groups are especially frustrating for this reason. Regular enemies aren’t that smart on their own, but if enough aggressive Genma show up with some tougher enemies, things can get overwhelming fast.

Having a variety of enemies is a plus. Some require you to use ranged attacks, while others dodge and force you to play defensively until they find an opening.

Early on, these combinations make fights interesting. Later on, though, fights can get boring because the game throws too many enemies at you at once.

Musashi Steals the Show

Fortunately, the story gave me a strong motive to keep moving forward. Musashi starts as a cocky young man whose sharp tongue and stubbornness often get him into trouble.

The use of Toshiro Mifune’s likeness works really well for Musashi. There are lots of small details in how Musashi moves and acts that remind me of Mifune’s performances, like the way he sometimes scratches his face. Even a small movement during a fight can show Musashi’s confidence, which fits the character perfectly.

The Japanese voice actors also do a great job, giving the supporting characters a lot of personality.

The story is a large-scale dark fantasy samurai drama with horror elements, world-ending stakes, and some humor thanks to Musashi’s personality. His journey is about self-discovery and grappling with a power he never wanted, and he is the character I care about most.

Fortunately, people new to the series should not have any difficulty understanding the plot, since it isn’t necessary to know the earlier Onimusha games beyond a basic grasp of the Oni Gauntlet and the Genma.

The villains are entertainingly evil, even if they aren’t very complex. You end up hating them, but their motivations aren’t deep enough to make them feel like more than one-dimensional characters.

Beautiful—Most of the Time

Onimusha: Way of the Sword can look absolutely stunning at times.

The environments are beautifully detailed, the Genma designs are excellent, and the combat animations are spectacular. Musashi’s cinematic scenes especially do a great job showing his facial expressions and mannerisms.

However, there’s a clear difference between those cinematic scenes and the regular cutscenes. Sometimes the characters look a bit flat. The lighting, shadows, and textures feel more like those from the PS4 era, and at times the character models seem almost separate from the detailed environments around them.

The presentation is never damaged, though the difference is noticeable.

Was This the Onimusha Return That I Wanted?

Since I finished Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the question has been difficult to answer. There’s a very good game here.

The sword fighting is exciting, Musashi is great, and exploring is rewarding since searching every corner helps you find materials to upgrade your gear. The environments are beautiful, the Japanese voice acting is excellent, and the story delivers a satisfying ending.

I really wanted to say Capcom had another home run on its hands, but I can’t.

The sheer number of bosses and sub-bosses, repeated multi-phase battles, frustrating camera, tricky defensive timing, and steep difficulty in Action Mode eventually wore me down. Those choices are the main reason Onimusha: Way of the Sword didn’t fully land for me, even if I can see why others might appreciate them. Since I’ve never really enjoyed this style of action game, I often wondered if Onimusha needed to include so many of those design choices.

Longtime fans of the earlier games might find themselves asking the same thing.

On the other hand, players who love demanding action games might feel the opposite. Action Mode is a real challenge, and finishing the game actually unlocks a true Hard Mode for those who want even more punishment.

For everyone else, I really suggest trying Story Mode. Even though it’s called Story Mode, it’s not just an easy way to experience the story—it’s more like a standard Normal difficulty.

I’m glad the Onimusha series is finally back after more than twenty years of waiting. I just wish I had enjoyed playing through it as much as I enjoyed seeing the series return.

Rating: 3.5/5 atoms

The post Onimusha: Way of the Sword Review – A Long-Awaited Return That Cuts Both Ways appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Tōkon is easy to get the hang of. Moving around feels smooth, and attacks are split into light, medium, and heavy, plus standard and heavy special moves. Using these with different directions makes it much simpler to remember your character’s moves, instead of having to memorize the complex inputs you usually see in fighting games.

That same simplicity shows up in Tōkon’s team mechanics. Bringing in teammates with a press of a button feels natural. As a result, you’ll be launching opponents, swapping characters, and finishing with a big team attack with relative ease. When you compare it to Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Tōkon is less chaotic and makes cool combos much easier to pull off. But don’t mistake easy execution for an easy game.

Easy to Learn, Difficult to Survive

Someone who simply wants to pick up a controller and mash buttons can absolutely have fun with Tōkon. You’ll hit things. Cool Marvel stuff will happen. Characters will fly across the screen. For a while, you’ll probably feel pretty powerful.

Then someone counters you.

Defense is where Tōkon starts to separate casual players from those who really know the game. Timing matters a lot, and if you know when to counter, you can quickly turn defense into offense. Because combos aren’t that hard to do, a single well-timed defensive move can lead to a long and punishing combo.

This creates an interesting situation in Tōkon. Arc System Works made the controls easy for newcomers, but the game doesn’t really reward you if you stay at that beginner level. This becomes especially noticeable in Story Mode.

The game gets harder as you keep winning against the CPU, and there’s no way just to pick a difficulty and stick with it. If things get too tough, losing lets you lower the difficulty for another try, but once you win, you’re back to where you started. For players interested in learning the game’s systems, I understand the philosophy behind it. Tōkon wants you to improve.

If you bought the game just because you love Marvel and want to enjoy the story, this can get frustrating. You might end up stuck in a loop of losing, lowering the difficulty, winning, and repeating, unless you’re ready to spend time learning defense and your characters’ moves.

The same goes for online play. You might get by with button mashing at first, but anyone who knows Tōkon’s defensive mechanics will quickly beat you.

Thankfully, Tōkon gives you some exceptional tools for becoming that better player.

A Fighting Game That Actually Teaches You How to Fight

Tōkon features some of the best teaching tools I’ve encountered in a fighting game.

The tutorials teach you the basics through hands-on lessons, and each character has a guide that explains their main moves. There are also practical combo lessons that show how to turn certain attacks into real damage, plus a great free-form combo challenge mode.

Instead of just asking you to memorize a set button sequence, these challenges might have you use a specific move in a combo and hit a certain damage goal. It’s a small distinction that completely changes how you learn.

Rather than just copying someone else’s combo, you’re encouraged to try things out and learn how your character’s moves fit together. The exercises show you what to do after landing Spider-Man’s overhead, how to follow up when you don’t have Assemble Meter, or how to get the most damage when your resources are full.

Add in a great Training Mode, searchable replays, replay takeover, and helpful training presets, and Tōkon gives you just about everything you’d want for learning a fighting game. It doesn’t eliminate the steep learning curve, but it does make learning the game a lot more fun.

Four Heroes, One Fight

The team system also gives experienced players a lot to try out. Your first character is your team leader, and you start fights with just part of your four-person team. You unlock more teammates during the match by breaking the stage, causing wall splats, or even losing a round.

It’s a smart system because it stops matches from getting out of hand right away. Even if your opponent gets ahead early, unlocking more teammates gives you more ways to fight back. Once you unlock your third and fourth characters, things get a lot more interesting. You can start a combo with one fighter, switch to another to keep it going, and maybe finish with a big team attack.

Building your team adds another layer of strategy. Maybe your main character has trouble with Magneto’s zoning. You can set up your team so someone else can handle him better. Or if you like using Blade but have trouble breaking through defenses, you could start with a character who’s good at mix-ups, get your opening, and then tag in Blade to keep the combo going. The controls might be simple, but there’s a lot of depth underneath.

Marvel Through and Through

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls really shines in its roster. Arc System Works didn’t just drop Marvel characters into an anime fighting game. Their personalities actually shape how they play. Spider-Man swings around the stage with his webs and can trick opponents into anti-air attacks by hanging above them before jumping away. Magik uses portals to attack from odd angles. Storm controls the weather to move things, control space, and even pull enemies toward her.

Then there’s Deadpool.

Deadpool might be one of the most fun fighting-game characters I’ve played in years. His moves are basically a tribute to the whole genre. You’ll spot attacks and references from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, The King of Fighters, Tekken, Guilty Gear, and more.

Accidentally using his take on Scorpion’s famous “Get over here!” move always made me laugh, and spotting bits of Yoshimitsu and other fighting-game characters in his animations kept Deadpool fun to play, even when I was losing.

That focus on character is true for the whole roster and might be Tōkon’s best feature. These aren’t just Marvel skins on fighting-game templates. Spider-Man fights like Spider-Man. Wolverine is as aggressive as you’d expect. Storm controls the battlefield just like she should. Beating the CPU at Level 4 with Wolverine was when I knew he’d be my main. His aggressive style just fit how I like to play.

More Than Versus Mode

Surprisingly, Story Mode is another key highlight. The campaign has five episodes, each focused on a different Marvel team, with stories written by comic writer Kieron Gillen. Instead of just using regular cutscenes, most of the story plays out as a motion comic, and different manga and comic artists give each episode its own look.

As a big anime fan, I loved seeing artists like Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail) and Betten Court (My Hero Academia: Vigilantes) put their own spin on characters like Captain America and Spider-Man. The stories can be a bit formulaic, and I liked some episodes more than others, but the way they’re presented makes them worth checking out. They also give you a good reason to try every character on the roster.

Unfortunately, a lot of the anime scenes get reused between episodes, so after a few stories, you’ll probably end up skipping scenes you’ve already seen. Outside Story Mode, Survival gives you another big solo challenge: survive 100 battles that get harder as you go. Every five rounds, you pick stat bonuses to boost your fighter, and your progress saves at those points. It’s not as tough as most Survival Modes, but it’s still a fun way to play.

Then there’s Arcadia Rumble, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ quirky multiplayer side mode. Up to eight players can explore a big lobby with their custom avatars, collect stars, power up fighters, complete events, and battle each other. The mode switches between prep phases and classic 4v4 fights over five rounds.

It’s kind of like someone turned the City Trial mode from Kirby Air Riders into a Marvel fighting game. I don’t think I’ll spend tons of time in Arcadia Rumble, but I like what it brings to the game. Even better, it lets players of all skill levels compete without every match turning into a super technical 1v1 fight.

Final Verdict

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls does something you don’t see often. It makes fighting look simple, but it’s not actually easy.

The simple controls let casual players jump right in and pull off cool attacks, flashy combos, and big team moves. But underneath that, the game still demands good timing, defense, matchup knowledge, and smart team building. That’s what makes the game great, but it can also be frustrating at times.

If you’re here just for Marvel, you might find Story Mode’s changing difficulty tougher than expected. And online, you’ll quickly see that button mashing won’t replace learning the game’s defense.

But if you’re willing to learn the systems, you’ll find a really rewarding fighting game with great learning tools, tons of team-building options, and one of the best Marvel rosters I’ve seen.

And for longtime fighting-game fans, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls gives you plenty of depth without making you do crazy controller tricks just to pull off something cool. I’m not the fighting-game player I once was, but Tōkon might just inspire me to get better again.

Rating: 4/5 atoms

The post Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls PS5 Review — Easy to Pick Up, Ready to Fight Back appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Initial Thoughts

I used to love Gunpla when I was younger and have a few Gundams that I built a while back. That’s what caught my eye with this game. Again, this game isn’t necessarily about building the models themselves, but about selling them and making sure your model-selling business keeps you afloat and consistently profitable.

Open For Business

You’ll start your shop in an unknown location in Asia somewhere. I’ve personally been to Japan several times, and I do think the location is in Japan since it has the same streets and architecture. A quick look around the area will immediately make you think this if you’ve been there.

I named my location Osaka Supreme Kits (I know it sounds corny) and got to work. The game’s tutorial is direct and to the point. Since the shop you start with has basic shelving, a checkout counter, and business PC, you can immediately get to work.

The management app gives you the options for managing the shop and its licenses. It will give you access to types of models and paints you can buy from the wholesaler, the option to expand your shop, hiring employees, etc. You won’t be able to touch the other options until later in the game, though.

You’ll start by ordering the base model kits and the paints, then set the prices. Setting the prices is up to you, but the game does give you an initial market price that you can start from. Since I wanted my business to flourish, I just added 25 cents more to the market price so I could reel in some profit. You have to make money somehow, am I right?

Inventory Placement

Placing the store stock is very important in your shop. Make sure to keep the paints and models near each other, especially with their specified tags; for example, Basic or Military. It will make the customers more likely to buy your inventory and, in turn, make you money.

I placed the basic paints right next to the basic models, while also placing the military paints right next to the military models. Because I did this, my store has had a massive amount of foot traffic and constant customers every day. I’m not sure if this is just part of the initial first several days of the game, but I don’t seem to be losing customers no matter what.

Money Money Money

I personally work with point-of-sale software when I’m not writing for Nerd Reactor, so actually helping the customers pay for their items in-game was familiar to me. They will either pay with a credit card or cash. It’s that straightforward. However, you have to pay attention to inputting the correct amount on the credit card payment device or calculating cash. Make sure to know basic mathematics when counting change for the customer, because if you input the wrong amount for the credit card or cash, you’ll lose valuable XP to level up your store. Also, if you set the prices too high, you won’t get any customers, and you’ll see their dismay. Stay frosty as a seller!

Final Reaction

This game has a lot of potential as I lost myself managing everything within the store for a few hours. My only main qualm at the moment is that they need a higher variety of NPC models that buy from your store. I saw the same woman buy from my store about seven times in one day. I guess I shouldn’t complain if they still give me money. I’ll be waiting for the full release as I haven’t been disappointed yet!

The post ‘Model Kit Shop Simulator’ Early Access Impressions appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

I was able to play four hours of the game at a recent preview event, and it has many of the ingredients of a creepy Silent Hill game, including the eerie monsters, a quiet town transformed into a dark world, a protagonist willing to enter a nightmarish world, and strange puzzles.

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Motoi Okamoto is the Silent Hill series producer, and he wanted to make sure that gamers are getting something different for each new game, as fans can see with games like Silent Hill f and Silent Hill Townfall.

“The types of narratives being told in those games are becoming a little repetitive and a little too similar to one another,” Okamoto said in a roundtable interview we were a part of. “We don’t want players to get bored with the types of experiences we can provide. We wanted to try to change things up and provide some fresh new takes, which is why we started venturing towards new horizons; for example, going to Japan, and this time over to Scotland.”

Silent Hill: Short Message helped to push the world of Silent Hill globally.

“In Short Message, I think we introduced the concept of the Silent Hill phenomenon, where similar types of psychological experiences and phenomena take place, and not just within the titular town of Silent Hill,” Okamoto tells Nerd Reactor. “But we introduced that concept to show that similar types of experiences can take place across all parts of the world.”

The game is set in 1996, and gamers will notice it by seeing the types of PCs, phones, and TVs out there in the town of St. Amelia.

“There are other narrative reasons for the time period, but I think the world was kind of on a technology cusp around the mid-90s, where you know the internet was starting to become a thing. But you were too early to have Google Maps in your pocket, right? You don’t have this Magic Bullet for all the problems that might come up. With analog tech, you feel like you can’t quite rely on it. It feels a little bit uncertain.

“And I think that’s a great place to be for horror and a great place for Silent Hill as well. Static radios would not sound quite the same if it were digital radio. You would lose a lot of personality. I think by going to digital, it felt like the right place and time, but narratively, there’s plenty of relevance to the mid-90s in general.”

Silent Hill: Townfall will be released on September 24, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

The post Silent Hill: Townfall Producer Explains Why It’s Not Set in Silent Hill appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Creative Director Marcus Smith, Game Director Mike Daly, Senior Project Director Jess Reiner-Reed, and Narrative Director Walt Williams appeared alongside Marvel Games Executive Producer Eric Monacelli. Liam McIntyre (Logan) and Krizia Bajos (Jean Grey) were also there to discuss their characters and the relationship forming between them.

The biggest takeaway is that Insomniac is not simply dropping Wolverine into the familiar. There is no Xavier Institute. Mutants are scattered, frightened, and largely forced to survive in hiding.

Logan and Jean Grey’s uneasy reunion

The Story Trailer opens with an enraged Logan confronting Jean Grey, only for the situation to suddenly expose a far more vulnerable side of him. Whatever has happened between these two, Jean appears capable of seeing past the anger, sarcasm, and carefully constructed walls Logan uses to keep everyone at a distance.

Bajos described the two as sharing something close to a cosmic connection. It’s no secret to X-Men fans that Logan has carried feelings for Jean for decades. Although Jean hasn’t reciprocated feelings, Jean still cares deeply for Logan. Jean can see his wounds—presumably not just the ones his healing factor can close—and understands that there is more to him than the violent man standing in front of her.

In Marvel’s Wolverine, Jean has been moving from place to place and gradually discovering that other people like her exist. She wants to give those mutants something she never had: somewhere safe enough to stop running. Jean may be laying the earliest foundation for something that eventually becomes the X-Men, even if nobody in this world has thought of that name yet.

Then she meets Logan, a rugged stranger who does not exactly look like the community-building type, yet seems willing to put himself through hell to protect people he barely knows. 

The Hand enters Wolverine’s world

The Story Trailer also introduces the Hand as one of the game’s major enemy factions. For those unfamiliar with the comics, the Hand is an ancient, demon-worshipping order of assassins that serves a supernatural entity known as the Beast.

Although the organization is traditionally more closely associated with Daredevil and Elektra, their reach extends throughout the Marvel Universe. Of course, Wolverine has crossed blades with them many times—especially their leader.

Lady Deathstrike is leading the Hand

Insomniac’s largest change to the Hand may be the identity of its leader. Jess Reiner-Reed confirmed that Lady Deathstrike commands the organization in Marvel’s Wolverine and will be one of Logan’s most dangerous enemies.

Lady Deathstrike is one of Wolverine’s most personal recurring foes. Her father, Lord Dark Wind, developed the process that allowed adamantium to be bonded to bone. His stolen research eventually reached the Weapon X program, where it was used to coat Logan’s skeleton. Believing Wolverine’s body represented the theft and corruption of her father’s legacy, Yuriko transformed herself into a cyborg with long adamantium claws. She dedicated much of her life to hunting him.

She has worked with the Reavers and other anti-mutant forces in the comics, but she is not traditionally the Hand’s supreme leader. That is an Earth-1048 invention, and honestly, it makes a strange amount of sense. Deathstrike already has the design, discipline, Japanese background, and obsessive hatred required to stand at the center of an army of supernatural assassins.

The Hand also gives Insomniac a natural path to Japan. Japan is not just another stop on Wolverine’s worldwide journey. It’s a foundational part of his comic history. Some of his most important stories involve the Yashida family, his love for Mariko Yashida, his friendship with Yukio, his rivalry with Silver Samurai, and his struggle to live by a code of honor that does not always agree with his instincts. Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s original Wolverine miniseries from 1982 is the defining Wolverine storyline—presenting Logan as more than an animalistic berserker with claws.

Whether any of those characters appear remains unknown. Still, sending Logan to Japan while placing Lady Deathstrike and the Hand directly in his path feels very intentional.

Trask Industries is hunting mutants

The other major threat comes from Trask Industries and its billionaire owner, Bolivar Trask. Unlimited wealth combined with an uncompromising worldview can cause enormous damage, and Trask has both. He views mutants as an existential threat and is using his resources to remove them from the world.

In the comics, Bolivar Trask becomes the creator of the Sentinels. His fear of mutantkind leads him to build machines he believes will protect humanity, only for those machines to repeatedly decide that the easiest way to protect humans is to control or eliminate everyone who might produce mutants in the future.

The game has not abandoned that anti-mutant ideology, but Trask’s immediate weapon appears to be the Reavers rather than an army of Sentinels.

Insomniac describes the Reavers as a cybernetic militia operating as guns for hire. They capture mutants and deliver them to Trask. Similar to Lady Deathstrike and The Hand, the Reavers are established comic villains who don’t normally work for Trask. They began as cybernetic mercenaries and were later reorganized by Donald Pierce, a mutant-hating cyborg associated with the Hellfire Club.

Insomniac is effectively combining several different branches of anti-mutant hatred into one ecosystem. Trask supplies the money and ideology. The Reavers provide the technology and manpower. Deathstrike and the Hand bring something older, darker, and far more personal.

There are no X-Men—at least not yet

Eric Monacelli confirmed that the X-Men do not currently exist in this version of Earth-1048, the same universe used for Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man games. In this world, Logan is not a member of the X-Men. There is no Professor Xavier available to explain mutant politics, unlock a hidden memory, or point him toward the next mission. The people in this world are still figuring out what mutantkind is and whether it can survive long enough to form any kind of community.

Nathaniel Essex and Team X

The closest thing the game has to an organized mutant team is Team X.

In Insomniac’s continuity, Team X was created during the 1960s by Nathaniel Essex as a special-operations unit meant to combat the threat posed by Bolivar Trask. Logan left the group three years before the events of the game, apparently under ugly circumstances. Essex felt abandoned by his departure, and Logan’s return is not exactly being treated as a happy reunion.

Anyone who reads X-Men comics should recognize Nathaniel Essex as the real name of Mister Sinister. Sinister is an immortal geneticist with a sick obsession to the studying, manipulating, cloning, and improvement of mutant bloodlines. Sinister has a particularly disturbing fixation on Jean Grey and the Summers family, even creating Jean’s clone Madelyne Pryor as part of his experiments.

Making him the founder of a mutant team is new, but it fits his personality in the worst possible way. Essex rarely helps mutants out of compassion. He collects them, studies them, alters them, and treats their lives like pieces in an experiment only he understands.

The comic version of Team X is different as well. There, they’re a covert unit with a connection to the Weapon X and Weapon Plus programs. Its roster has included Wolverine, Sabretooth, Maverick, John Wraith, Mastodon, and Silver Fox. Their memories were repeatedly manipulated, leaving the team unsure which missions, relationships, and betrayals actually happened.

Insomniac appears to be borrowing that paranoia while changing who brought the team together and why. In Marvel’s Wolverine, the Team X roster is Wolverine, Sabertooth, Mystique, and Sunfire.

Insomniac wants players to feel like Wolverine

Mike Daly said Insomniac set out to create its version of the Wolverine players already understand: cynical, candid, emotionally guarded, and far more compassionate than he wants anyone to notice.

That meant treating his abilities as more than a list of combat mechanics.

Of course, claws naturally sit at the center of the action. However, his healing factor, heightened senses, berserker rage, and adamantium skeleton also influence how he moves through a fight. Logan can track enemies, detect incoming danger, absorb punishment, and push forward with a physical weight that separates him from Insomniac’s much lighter and more acrobatic Spider-Men. 

Adamantium does not simply make Logan difficult to kill; it makes him extraordinarily heavy. Every leap, tackle, and claw strike should feel like it is coming from someone carrying hundreds of pounds of nearly indestructible metal inside his body.

Then there are the missing memories.

Memory loss has followed Wolverine through most of his history. The Weapon X program subjected him to experiments, mental conditioning, and false memory implants until even Logan could no longer separate his real past from the lives other people manufactured for him.

The game is not an origin story, but players will peel back the layers of Logan’s history and discover what happened during his years with Team X. That gives Insomniac a fresh way to explore different periods of his life without reducing the entire plot to another retelling of his story.

Wolverine crosses over with MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls

The panel also revealed a collaboration between Marvel’s Wolverine and MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls.

Wolverine’s stylized Tōkon costume will be unlockable through normal progression in Marvel’s Wolverine beginning on launch day. In return, the Battle Reborn suit designed for Insomniac’s game will arrive in MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls as a free costume for all players on September 1.

A Wolverine prequel comic is available now

Insomniac also released an official digital prequel comic for Marvel’s Wolverine during SDCC.

Written by Narrative Director Walt Williams, with artwork by Luke Ross and a cover by Iban Coello, the comic takes place before the main game. It explores Logan’s difficult relationship with the other members of Team X during a mission to protect mutantkind.

Physical copies are being distributed at SDCC while supplies last, but the comic can also be read digitally through Marvel Unlimited.

Marvel’s Wolverine launches exclusively for PlayStation 5 on September 15th.

The post SDCC 2026: Marvel’s Wolverine is Angry, Haunted, and Ready to Fight appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The cream of the crop is the UGREEN x Honkai: Star Rail Limited Collectible Gift Box, which is now available in the United States on Amazon, the UGREEN Official Store, and TikTok Shop. It contains the Yao Guang-themed collection, and when you open it up, there’s a pop-up effect.

The list of products include the following:

• UGREEN x Honkai: Star Rail Limited Collectible Gift Box ($249.99)
• UGREEN MagFlow Air Magnetic Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition ($89.99)
• UGREEN Nexode Air Charger Honkai: Star Rail Edition ($49.99)
• UGREEN Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition ($59.99)
• UGREEN Nexode Retractable USB-C Cable Honkai: Star Rail Edition ($19.99)
• UGREEN FineTrack Mini 2 Honkai: Star Rail Edition ($21.99)

Now, if this does really well, we can hope to see a UGREEN and Zenless Zone Zero collaboration in the future.

The post Honkai: Star Rail Teams Up with UGREEN for Charging Accessories, Including Limited Collector’s Box appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

At first glance, D-topia has a cozy, relaxing vibe that makes you want to curl up on the couch and lose yourself for a few hours. The colorful art style, charming characters, and slower pace make it feel like a game you can unwind with after a long day. But beneath that cozy exterior, something much more intriguing is going on.

You’ll spend your time solving fun, engaging environmental puzzles while helping the residents of D-topia with their everyday problems. The puzzles not only look satisfying to complete but also feel like a natural part of the world and its characters, making each solution feel meaningful rather than just another obstacle to clear. Early previews have also hinted at unique mechanics that reveal hidden clues and objects, adding another layer to the exploration.

What really has me interested, though, is the mystery surrounding this so-called “perfect” world. On the surface, everything seems peaceful, but the more you look around, the more it feels like something isn’t quite right. There are subtle hints that this AI-managed paradise is hiding secrets, and I’m excited to see how deep that mystery goes. I always love games that slowly peel back the layers of their world instead of showing all their cards right away.

D-topia strikes a really interesting balance. It looks relaxing enough for fans of cozy games, while also offering enough mystery and puzzle-solving to keep players invested in uncovering what’s really happening beneath the surface.

If you’re looking for a game that lets you relax, solve clever puzzles, and slowly unravel an intriguing story, D-topia looks like it’s worth checking out.

The post D-topia Is More Than a Cozy Puzzle Game appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The first thing that stands out is the look. This is Marvel, but not quite the Marvel most people are used to. The game is not trying to copy the MCU or feel like another comic book adaptation. It takes familiar characters and locations, then pushes them through a very specific anime lens.

Still, the real question was always going to be the gameplay. Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a 4v4 fighter, but not exactly in the way I expected. Your team of four shares one life bar, so this isn’t like Marvel vs. Capcom. You can’t tag someone out, let them recover, and keep rotating through your roster. Here, your team feels more like one connected unit. Another interesting wrinkle is that only the first two characters are available right away. The other two have to be brought in through certain in-match conditions.

I can already see different kinds of players approaching this in completely creative ways. Some people are probably going to lean hard on one or two characters and treat the rest of the team almost like backup tools. Others will probably build around flexibility, picking characters who can cover a range of setups and matchups. It’s hard to say how deep that rabbit hole goes after only a short demo. However, the system already feels like it has room for players to experiment.

My biggest concern going in was whether the controls would be too complex. Arc System Works makes incredible fighting games, but they are not always the easiest things to pick up casually. Thankfully, Tōkon felt much easier to understand than I expected.

The inputs are familiar, with classic quarter-circle motions and shared special move commands across most of the roster. When you’re making a fighting game with characters as popular as Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Wolverine, you need people to feel like they can actually play it without needing a study guide open next to them (yes, Tekken, I’m talking to you). Tōkon seems to understand that.

There is also a simplified control option that lets players use specials and supers with a single button press. It was mapped to the right trigger in the build I played, and I can see how that would be a huge help for newer players.

As for the characters, I got to try a solid group, even though the full roster was not available. I spent time with Dr. Doom, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and a few others. I wanted Iron Man to be my favorite because, well, he’s my favorite character of all time. But Wolverine connected with me almost immediately.

He was fast, aggressive, and exactly the kind of character I like when I want to stay on top of my opponent. Once I got them pinned against the wall, Wolverine let me keep the pressure up. I was winning comfortably with him, while with other characters, I was either barely scraping by or getting myself into trouble. That probably says more about my playstyle than the game’s balance. However, Wolverine was still easily my early favorite.

My time with Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls was far too short to call it a sure thing. There is still a lot I want to know, especially about the single-player content and how online matches will feel once real players start tearing the game apart. Fighting games live and die by that stuff.

But as a first impression, this was extremely promising. It looks incredible, the controls feel more approachable than I expected, and the 4v4 structure gives it a different identity from the Marvel fighters people already know. It is easy enough to welcome casual players. Still, there seems to be enough depth here for competitive players to dig into as well.

For someone who loves Marvel but is only decent at fighting games on a good day, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls made a very strong first impression. If Arc System Works and PlayStation can nail the online experience and give players enough to do outside of versus matches, this could easily become one of my most-played fighters in 2026.

The post Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Hands-On Preview: Familiar Inputs, Wild Style, and a Fresh 4v4 Twist appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

You play as George, an older music lover finally chasing his dream of opening his own record shop. The core loop revolves around discovering songs and turning them into records you can actually sell. Each track drops you into a colorful representation of George’s imagination where you play through rhythm-based stages. When you finish a song, you put it on the shelf, then help customers find records that speak to whatever they’re looking for. Before long, I found myself caught in the cycle of collecting songs just to see who they’d connect with next.

The rhythm gameplay starts off approachable. Like most rhythm games, it mostly asks you to nail basic timing, but it doesn’t stay there. New mechanics gradually layer on top of each other, introducing directional inputs, trickier patterns, and more demanding sequences.

What really sells the experience isn’t the rhythm gameplay, though. It’s the people who walk through George’s front door. Every customer arrives carrying something—a memory, a regret, a crush, a loss. Thus, finding the right record becomes less about making a sale and more about understanding who they are.

There’s a surprisingly wide range of musical styles on display, which helps keep things fresh. Not every genre was something I’d normally seek out, but that almost became part of the appeal.

By the time my demo ended, I was gleefully surprised at how much I got into the game. I was entranced by the game’s rhythmic element. Then, I became happy helping the people I’d met and the stories tied to the records sitting on George’s shelves. That’s what makes Mr. Records stand out. It understands that music isn’t just something we listen to—it’s something we attach pieces of our lives to.

The post Mr. Records Hands-On Preview – A Record Store Adventure That Hits All the Right Notes appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Movement has a slight floatiness, but in a good way. Demi covers ground quickly, and that extra air time makes dodges, aerial attacks, and last-second adjustments feel surprisingly satisfying.

Combat is fairly straightforward. You have your basic combo attacks, charged attacks, aerial launches, ground slams, and a dodge mechanic that rewards good timing by powering up your Void abilities. There wasn’t much complexity in the demo I played, but it felt easy to pick up.

Not to mention, the adds are fairly easy to take down. Most of the mistakes I made came from mistiming dodges or attacks rather than the encounters themselves being particularly demanding. Once I got a feel for the rhythm, moving through combat became pretty effortless.

The final boss put up more of a fight initially, mostly because I needed a few attempts to understand what the game was asking of me. After the mechanics clicked, though, the encounter became much more manageable. If you’ve spent time with action-adventure games before, you’ll probably figure it out quickly.

The environmental puzzles don’t go out of their way to point you toward the solution, which I appreciated. A few had me wandering around for a minute, but the answers are usually hiding in plain sight. Paying attention to your surroundings goes a long way here.

Demi and the Fractured Dream launches February 2027 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 1 & 2.

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