BUG SMACKS

The theme this month was meant to be festive. And with that in mind, is a stretch but it’s a winter-adjacent excuse to play one of the best Metroidvania games evermesmerising charms – like some rare breed of benevolent spider that catches you in its web just to pay you compliments and give a back rub. The way pushes you further into its world, whether through power-ups or crumbling floors, is so compelling that 35 hours here will seem like a nice afternoon spent examining insects. And that’s the low end of the scale: glance at the Steam reviews and you’ll see them from people with 100+ hours in the game, all complaining that ten quid for this much game feels like burglary. That’s maybe a measure of how good this is – a game you’ll want to pay more for.